110                                                                               T*HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R


                            TheSfandardBearer
            Semi-Monthly, except Monthly in  July  and August                                                                                               E D I T O R I A L S   -
                                                  Pubiished  b y   .
       *            The Reformed Free Publishing Association
                                     1101  Hazen Street,  5. E.                                                                                           A Hymn And A Latch
                               EDITOR  - Rev. H. Hoeksema

  Contributing   editors-Revs.   J.  Blankesqoor,  A.  Cammenga,
   P. De Boer, J. D. de Jong, H. De Wolf,  ,L.  Doezema,                                                                                        Recently  The  Banner  editoria!ly put up a defense
  M. Gritters,  C. Hanko, B. Kok, G. Lubbers, G. M. Ophoff,                                                                                 of the &formed  truth that sa?vation  is hy qrace: Only,
  A. Petter, M. Schipper, J. Vanden  Breggen, H. Veldman,                                                                                   over  against  what the editor  evidently  coilsiders  msni-
  R. Veldman, L. Vermeer, P. Vis, G. Vos, Mr. S. De Vries.                                                                                  festations   o f   Allllinian   tecdencies   i : :   tht  Christian
  Communications relative to contents should be addressed                                                                                   Reformed Churches. The  first editorial  on  this  yues-
  to REV. H. HOEKSEMA, 1139 Franklin St.,  S.  E., Grand                                                                                    tion was written' in connection with and as  a  criti-
  Iiapids, Michigan.                                                                                                                        cism of :!he hymn: "Let  Jesus   corn?  into  your   haarL"
  Communications   relative  to  subscription   should  be  ad-                                                                             The editor finds that this  hymn expresses a "thor-
  dressed   to MR. It. SCHAAFSMA, 1101  Hslen  St., S. E.,                                                                                  oughly Arminian sentiment."             For "where does the
  Grand Rapids, Mich.  AI1 Announcements and Obituaries                                                                                     Bible teach that we can let Jesus into our hearts?
  must  be sent  to the above  address and will not be placed                                                                               The phrase  impIies   that Jesus wants to come in but is
  unless the regular fee of $1.00 accompani'es  the notice.                                                                                 unable  $0  130 so as  long as we are unwilling to give
                                   Subscription   $2.60  per  year                                                                          him  entrance."      And this implication, according to the
            E n t e r e d   ad  s e c o n d   clnea  m a i l   a t   Grand   &pi&.   M i c h i g a n                                        editor, is  b=ed  on a number of  assumpticms  that are
                                                                                                                                            contrary to the Word of God. The  firsit of these is
                                                                                                                                            tharS the decision, whether a man shall be saved or not,
                                                                                                                                            rests with  him, not with Christ. The second is that
                                                                                                                                            man is  no;: so depraved that he cannot open the  ld.oor
                                                                                                                                            of his heart. And the third is that it is Christ's
                                                  CONTENTS                                                                                  intention to save  all sinners.        The Bible never pre-
                                                                                                                                            seats the Saviour as standing  at the door of a man's
MEDITATIE                                                                                                                Page               hear!, waiting to be admitted,  nolt  even in Rev.  ;3  20,
  VEILIG VERNACHTEN  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 of which  pass.age  by the way, the editor  offers a very
            Rev.  H; Hoeksema                                                                                                               unique1 explanation.        All this is about the "hymn?'
EDIT(3RIALS   -                                                                                                                             to  which I refer in the superscription above  &his edi-
                                                                                                                                            torial.
  A HYMN AND A LATCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140        The second  article, written more  .thanA a month
            Rev.  H.  Hoeksema                                                                                                              after the first, ideals with the "latch." The  edi&or
THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE                                                                                                                        received  .letters  that criticized his attempt to defend
                                                                                                                                            the Reformed view of salvation by grace only. A
  EXPOSITION   OF  THE  HEIDELBERG   CATECHISM......142                                                                                     "lay mission worker" even sent him a copy of a tract
            Rev. H. Hoeksema                                8                                                                               published by the  Faith,  P,rayer  awl Tract  League,
                                                                                                                                            entitled :
DEBATE :                                                                                                                                                  "Just  Outside, the  Door." The  tract tells the
                                                                                                                                            old &ory about the artist who painted the picure  of
  AFFIRMATIVE - REBUTTAL Rev. B. Kok . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146                                                            Jesus knocking at the cdoor of man's heart, and who,
  NEGATIVE - REBUTTAL Rev. G.M. Ophoff  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145                                                         being criticized for not having painted a Iatch on the
  JOH.  JANSEN'S                          VIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..-..........  f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 door, remarked that the latch was on the inside.
            Rev. G. IM. Ophoff                                                                                                              Well, as one might well imagine, the  Itract finally
  THE ANALO,GY  OF SCRIPTURE . . ..I................................... 153                                                                 offers such cheap and sentimental, but also wicked
            W.  Hofman                                                                                                                      nonsense as this: "My friend, is Jesus just outside of
                                                                                                                                            the door of your heart?  Yes, He is standing there,
  WHY -4N EDUCATED CLERGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156                       if  YOU have not  openo3  the door, and let Him in. Can
            Rev. M. Gritters                                                                                                                YOU  see Him standing there at your heart's door,
  THE  KING  JAMES.7   VERSION  AND  THE  AMERICAN                                                                                          knocking?  cow  long have you been  causifng  Him to
  REVISED: A COMPARISON  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 stand there?              HOW long must He stand there before
                                                                                                                                            you let Him in ?
            RQV.  J.  -4.  Heys                                                                                                                                     Must He stand  alld knock all in
                                                                                                                                            v,a.in?\ The latch of your  heart's. door is on the
 -                            -                                                                                                             inside!" And to this the editor of Thr Bmnsr  replies


                                         T*HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              141

  that "this is Arminianism pure  ac'd  simp!e. The latch           sincerely offered to all on the condition of faith and
   of our heart's  t2oor is not on the inside but on  the           repentance. " Again he writes: "We do not deny that
  outside. .  .:lnd if it is true t:hat the latch  .to the door     Christ pleads with Gimers.  Nor do we deny that his
  of eve.ry  sinner's heart is on the outside, the picture          pleadings are sincere, esrnest, and icsistent,  and that
  of  Chr& standing at the door vainly seeking entrance             those pleas often fall on deaf ears."
  is  ZI. thoroughly false  representsMon of the offer of              Now, if those that insist on singing and speakiilg
  salvation."                                                       of Christ's  standing at the door of the heart, knock-
      Thus far t.he story of the hymn and the latch.                ing, have the power of discernment and distinction,
      Now, we sincerely rejoice to notice that the editor           they will reply to the editor of The Bmner: but ~\:ou
  of The Bmmer does not want to go all the way along                are teaching the same doctrine as we do ! And they
  with "Arminianism pure and simple,"  ant' to  read                will be qui.te  right in replying ithus. Or what does it
  articles  of this nature in the official organ of the Chris-      mean that Christ  sincere5 offers salvation to all that
  tian Reformed Churches. And we wish that these                    hear the gospel? And what does it mean that He sin-
  churches,, and Especially also the editor  of The %%ner           cerely, earnestly, and  i:nsi&ently  pleads  with sinners,
  would  return  altogether from the errors they adopted            and that, too, with those that reject Him, so that His
   in 1924, antd forsake the slippery path of Arminian              plea falls on  (deaf  ears?  ma;t  does Christ sincerely
  and Pelagian  [doctrine which they chose at the synod             offer? Salvation, the  diittor  replies. Very well, but
  of Kalamazoo. If they would receive sticient  grace               does not sal~tion ihclufcte regeneration, the illdwelling
  (to confess that they erred when they adopted the Three           of Christ, the coming OF Christ into,our  hearts? Ac-
   Points, and when on their basis they expelled from               cording to then editor of The Banner, therfore,  Christ
   their midst brethren who had always championed, and              sincerely offers to the sinner, even to him that is never
  still  Ido champion the cause of Reformed truth, 2s their         regenerated and called, to come into his heart. But
  oppone&s  themselves are forced to admit, our heants              what else is  jthis than to stand at the door of the
   would, indeed, rejoice.                                          sinner's heart  anld knock, and to ask him to open the
      However, it is not in the heart of the editor of              door? Is not the question quite  in  orcder:  why does
   The Banner  to  repu;&ate  the doctrine of the Three             the editor of The Banner  make so much noise about a
   Poinr:s. And because of this, he is not a:ble to defend          hymn and 2 latch, while he himself teaches the same
   his cause, the cause which he intended to defend in              doatrine that is expressed in the hymn and represent-
, his articles: that salvation is purely by sovereign               ed by the latch? May only Christian Reformed synods
   grace.    Oae feels this all through the articles.  His          and ministers teach Arminian doctrine,  and must  iay-
   position is weak. One even receives the impression               men be bluffed into silence when they follow the ex-
   that he himself was conscious of his weak  posi+ion              ampIe of their leaders ?
   when he wrote ,t+e a,rticles.    The tone is after all too          The Christ presented by that paintking which the
   apologetic.    The thought of the Three Points was               editor of Th.e BanneT  criticizes is weak and helpless,
   evidently constantly before him whire he wrote. The              to be sure. For the latch is on the inside, and He can-
   result is, that while he cond.emns Arminianism as un-            not open the door to come into the heart of the sin-
   scriptural, i.e.  as it is expressed by  .the hymn he  criti-    ner. But He is at least plainly sincere. His plea is
   cizes,  and by the painting of the door with the latch           evidently in earnest: He is willing td come in, if o,uJy
   on Itie inside, he virtually admits by way of apology            the sinner will open the ed.oor.  But what to think of
   that the Arminian viewpoint is correct nevertheless.             $he Christ the editor of The  Banner presents, Who
   And that is deplorable.                                          stands, pleading to come in, at a; door whose latch is
      Let me point to a few instances that may prove                oil the outside, and that cannot be opened from the
   this con+ention.                                                 inside at all? If any man would  :thus stand pleading
      The editor  writes: "A third mistaken assumption              with one within, at a Idoor  with the key on the outsiae,
   is that it is Christ's intention to save every sinner to         would you not s3y to him: man, why don't you prove
   whom the plea comes I~O believe and be saved. The your sincerity by simply [turning that key, and open-
   thought is that Christ pai,d for :the sins of ala, wants         ing  ,the door? The Christ of  The  Bmnor  is not sin-
   to save all, and stands at the door of every  h,eart, but        cere. His actions, belie His words.
   th& whether he will be admitited depends' entirely on               Yes, indeed, the defense put up by the editor of
   whether the sinner makes  UC his mind to receive him."           The  B%m.ner  is very weak, because it teaches the very
   And this the editor rightly condemns as  Armin&,                 same error it purposes to combat, and It denies the
   But, according to him, the "truth is that, It.hough the          very faith it woul~ct  champion.
   blessings of the gospel are sincerely offered  tq all who           Or what must one think of a sentence like this:
   hear the gospel, Christ died only for his  people in             "But though Christ pleads with sinners to reper&  of
   the sense that for them only did he aatnally pay the             their sins and believe on him, he 02~s not pleccd  with
   price of sin."      And a little further: "salvation  is         them to. da u;h& He cc&ne is abbe to .d~: namely to


142                                    T,HE'  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

open th&r  hearts to his regenerating Spirit?" (Italics         no hope  Ithat the tide of Arminianism, and of  mod-
are the editor's, not mine.)      Must this statement be        zrnism ubtimately,  that is flooding the churches, can
.ascribed  to mere csselescness and lack of clear think-        be stemmed. The  elditor  of  The  Banaer  is trying to
ing on the part of the  ediltor?  I  :think  not. I am in-      fill a hole in the d&e with dirt obtained by digging
clined t:o think that the attempt on the ,ecditor's  part to    ?.;r,oth& hole in the same dike. *
fight Arminianism  ami champion  ihe cause of Re-                                                                        H. I-I.
formed truth was frustrated throughout by his own
Arminianism and that the  spectre  of the Three  Pdints
constantly confused his mind as he wasi writing his
articles.     Plainly, in  (the above sentence the editor
tezhes that the sinner is able of himself to repent and
believe. For;. to `put `it in the form of a syllogism:
1. Christ $e$& with sin.n& .to repent and tb b&%de.
2. Christ never ijleads  wit'h'them  t? do wh&t  they'can-      ..'._' The, Triple Knowledge
not do.      3. They  are+,  the&ore, able  to  repent  and
believe.     But this, too, `is "Arminianism  pure' `and
simple."                                                        An' Exposition. Of The Heidelberg
       Does it do any good to finish such z sentence by
saying  that, Christ alone  is able to open the hearts to                  ~                  Catechism         . . .
his regenerating Spirit? Is not that  iti flat  eontra-                           ,'
diction with the rest of the sentence? Or is, perhaps,                                         PART TWO
the  e@or  consistkntly  drminian here? Taking the                                      OF MAN'S REDEXPTION
sentence by itself, and proceeding oil the :assumption                                        Loxd's  Day X.
that the editor knew what he was `writing,  one comes                           - .
to the.following  conclus,ions  as to his views : 1. Christ                                   Chapter  2;
pleads with the sinrier to r&pent  ani3 to believe. 2. This
the sinner ,is able to do. 3. If he does repent  and be-                   The Scope Of God's Providence.
lieve, Christ- opens  hk heart and  regener8tes  him.             This, then, that God, the Creator of th.o universe,
       And this  j+ouPd be quite  in. accord with  .another     is on-&present, not only in HiS `power, but also in His
statement that ~oCcur!s  in &hese articles `by :the' editor     essence'; %h&t  Bs the transcetident  One He is immanent
of The Banner; namely, "that salvation  is  scncerely in  all  *things,  and that; too,  & the  living.  an!3, ever
offered to all on condition of faith and. repentance."'         active  God; Who continues- to  s$&ak  the Word that
A truly. Reformed r&h' would never make a sitsteme~nt           on@ cre&ively  proceeds ogt, of His mouth, and Who
like this, for he  knobs  that there are no  conditions         thus uphtil,ds all things by the Word of His power, is
to salvation by  grack whatsoever.  Evea faith and              the basic.idea  6'f $he providence of God.                     i
repentance are gifts. of grace, part of h:.he salvation            From moment :to moment, therefore, God is the
of which .the editor of The Banner declares that it is          Lo&, `and  retiins  s:tricEly and absqlutely  sovereign
"offer&i  to all  dn condition of faith and repentance."        with relation to the world He created, not only `because
       I am sincerely)sorry  that I have to write all this.     He created *2;11 things, but also- because they are in His
Some hzd assured me that the editor of The Banner               hand,  an,d they  exist only by His will. This is to be
was. opposing Arminianism and championirng  the cause           understood in the most absolute and unlimited sense
of Reformed truth. And  is this  1' heartily rejoiced,          ,of the word. The sun:' znd moon, anlcl stars, the sea
before  I had myself read the articles, for nothing lthere      and the dry land, the mountaiz6  and the hil!s, forest
is that I could desire more fervently than to see the           and  phin, trees' and flow&s, corn and  whe&:,  rain
Christian Reform& Churches return from their evil               and stinshine, gold  amd  silvgr ; the bread we eat, and
way of false  #doctrine chosen in 1924. But  BS I  read         th.e water `we drink;'  afid the air we breathe; `the
the  ar(t.icles  I became more snd more  disappoii&u.           light and -the eye, the sound and tie ear; our power
For they are characterized throughout by the same               of mind and will, the' strength ito Bzbor and%ill,-all
duplicity as the Three Points, will confute the mix~ds          things sexist and continue to exist;' each ,in th& own
,and hearts of the Christian  Reformnd   rezding  pub-          sphere  a& according to their own nature, only by the
lic, aact. result in a more hearty singing on &heir part        will and word of God "in whom we live, and move,
of the hymn "I.&t  Jesus come into your heart," and a           and'have our being." God is the Lord. Without Him
deeper admiration for the painting of the door. with            nothing could  have had being at all ;  :a& without His
lthe latch on the outside. As long as 6he Three Points          will nothing would continue to exist ev& for a mo-
are the pattern of R'eformed teaching, on the pulpit;           ment.                    "
in the catechism room, or through the  press*   there is           And this providence of God implies, *too, that He is


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           I.43

 absolute Ruler of the universe, and that He governs                The doctrine of God's providence teaches us that
 all things according to His  de=rce  and eternal pur- God controls and directs all these movements, and ac-
  pose.     This signifies, in the first place, that  in the     tions of the creature.    As the Catechism expresses
 world He created, the Lord maintains and executes               it: He "governs heaven and earth,  ancl all creatures,"
 His own ordinances, and strictly and sovereignly con-           and that "as it were by his hanld." God is the Lord.
 trols and,  dire& the movement of every. creature.              He remains absolutely sovereign in relation to  :Ihe
 The universe is not a dead,  mactive  thing, or com-            world. When we contemplate the manifold movements
 bination of *motionless beings: it is a living, organic         and activities of the various creatures, we  snotice that
 whole. It is the creation and reflection of the living          they are not all of the same kind. Some are'involun-
 Word of God, of God of Whom it may be said that                 .tary  and automatic: their organic functions Itie un-
  He is  actus  pwriwimzcs,  i.e.  acti,vity  in the absolute    conscious, ,determined  by what we are accustomed to
 s.ense of the word. And so, everything lives and moves          call "law" ; others are deliberate and voluntary, de-
 in all the rich and  womderful  creation of God. The            termined by the inner instincts and choice of the
 planets move ssound  the sun in the firmament, even             creatures themselves. And again, the former may be
 as they rotate around their own axes, and so the                distinguished into two classes: those that occur regu-
 sun rises every morning to drive away the night., and           larly, so that their movements may be predicated1 ac-
 sets every evening at its appointed time ; the moon             curately both as to time an2 space; ,an.cl those that take
 gli#des through the silent night, flooding it with its          place without such  regulari.ty  of recurrence. The sun
 mellow, silvery  ligh&  ; and the planets, comets, and          rises and sets each day of the year exactly at the
 stars roam with  incr&ible speed through the. immen-            appointed moment, so that the length of each day
 sity of space, each keeping to their appointed course.          for a certain part of the globe can be predicted with
 Light it is said, moves with a rapidity of one hun-             absolute certainty ; but :t,he weathermen often fails
 dred and eighty six  thousan,d miles a second; and              even when he prepares his forecast one day ahead.
 though  with far less speed, sound also travels: the            And who is able to predict "rain and drought, fruit-
 reverberation of  thunder,  the howling of the wind,            ful and barren years?"        Again, the deliberate or
 the whisper of the zephyr, the song of the lark, the            voluntary movements and acts of the  crealture may be
 cry of the young raven, the roar of the lion, the spoken        distinguished into those that are the result of the
 word, the prayer  +hat leaves your  lips,-all  these,           limited instinct of  (the animals, and those that are the
 and thousands upon fhousands of other sounds that               expression of intelligent will; the acts of men and
 constantly fill the universe, have wings, and fly into          angels. A$ these acts and movements are under the
 space. The color of the lily and of the  rose,  as well         government and direction of the Sovereign of heaven
 as their fragrance, the lingering glow of t.he s&king           and earth, and Ithere is nothing that moves or stirs
 sun in the western sky, the silvery path struck by              apart from or against His will.
 the moon across the lake, the reflection of your face              This means that we may  .not distinguish, either
 in the mirror, the beautiful span of  the rainbow in            deliberately or thoughtlessly, between events that are
 the heavens,-they  `all live and move according to              "providenit.ial," and others that have nothing to do
 their own nature and laws. The clouds gather, the               with the providence of God,  or between the "natural"
flash of lightning zigzags through the  idarknesa,  the          and the "supernatural." All things are providential,
 rain descends, rivers and brooks restlessly meander             and all things are alike natural  anA supernatural.
 Ito their destination, tides rise and fall, the seed falls      The un,believing  man of science takes delight in the
  into the earth and dies to rise again, the seasons fol-        discovery  of laws, and in speaking of &em  as if they
 low one another in regular succession, your heart               were something apart from God, forces inherent in
 beats and the blood courses through your  veins,-               the universe by virtue of which the world runs. by
 everything is constantly in motion. And then  hhere             itself. For the Christian a "law of nature" is nothing
  is the movement of the living creature,  of animals            but God's regular and orderly mode of operation.
 and men, of holy angels and wicked demons: the worm             There are laws of gravity and  gravit&ion,  laws of
crawls alcmg in its path, the s.parrow  takes off on its         contraction  and expansion, of attraction and repul-
 wings, the wild beast roams through the forest, man             sion, principles of chemistry and physics, but they are
 thinks and plans, desires and chooses, speaks and acts,         all governed constantly, and that, too, "as ilt were by
 the angels sing  and attend to the Word of their Lord,          his hand," by the living God. Even those "laws"
 and the devils believe and tremble! In all  the wide            that can be expressed in exact mathematical formulas
 creation there is nothing motionless.or  dead. And even         reveal but the orderly way in which ,God works-and
 if we could penetrate with our perception into the              rules the universe. God works harmoniously and in
 existence of a grain of sand, we would. detect life  *and       or&rIy  fashion.    The universe is no chaos.  .kt is
 movement similar to that. of the stars i.n .the firma-          exactly. because of this fact that man .can .be a -"co-
 .mqltt!                                   > `.    ~*_.  r  .    worker" with God, .and that he cm order  his own life


 144                                     T*HE   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

 and activity according to God's ordinances and times.            the ground, apparently without purpose; millions upon
 How impossible this would, be, if  God's.`mode  of work-         millions of fishes small  anld great  s~veep  through
 ing were arbitrary! How .impossible it woulicl  be.for           rivers and lakes and oceans; the eagle soars into the
 man Ito order his life, if the sun would rise at three           sky,  anid; the hawk glides in circles above its prey  ;
 o'clock in the morning,sne  day, and at noon the .next ;         the lion roams through the forest; and all the millions
 or if he could not depend on the regular recurrence              upon millions of living creatures move about on land
 of the seasons ; or if. a stone thrown in the air would          and in the sea., in meadows and forests, on mountains,
`come down at a certain velocity  t'oday, at a different          in deserts, or in the sky, swarming and creeping, fly-
 speed to-morrow, and.  woul,d  remain suspended aloft            ing and running, leaping and jumping; t,hey  sing and
 at other  times! However, God is a God of order, and             chirp, they cry `and roar, they seek th.eir food, and  re-
 His orderly way of operation  dn the universe man dis- joice,-all directed  co&ctively and  individualIly,-  by
 covers in order ,that he.may arrange his own life and "the hand uf the,.*vereign  of heaven and earth. Not
 work accordingly. ",Doth,&he  plowman plow all day to            one of, them is. ever forgotten.
                                                                                 :.                   "These wait all upon
 sow?  doth he open an@ break the clods  of.t!le  ground?         thee ; that thou mayest give them their meat in due
                                                                                "  .
 When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not            season That thou givest them they gather: thou
 cast abroad the. fitches,  and scatter the cummin, and           openes;t  thine hand, they are filled with  good!. Thou
 cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley hide& thy face, they are troubled: thou take.&  away
 and the rie in their. plac,e? Fo? his God doth'instrwct          their breath, they die, and return to their dust. `Ihou
 hkto discretion, Accrue  doth teccch him. For the fitches        send&  .forth  thy spirit, they are created:  and thou
 are not. threshed with a threshing instrument, neither           renewest the face of the earth." Ps.  104:%7-30.
 is a cartwheel turned about upon the cummin; but the                And with equal force this is applicable to all the
Ifitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin              acts of  God's moral, rational creatures, men and angels.
 with a rod. Bread corn is bruised ; because he will not          God is the Lord even in relation to the thoughts and
ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his          intents, the desires. and aspirations, the imaginations
 cart, nor bruise it withy his ,horsemen, This also corn- and. determinations of the heart of man, and in rela-
 &h forth  from  the  Lo,rqT  of  hosts, which  is  wondevvfuI    tion. to a:11 his acts. Here, at least, the Pelagian in-
 in counsel, nnd excellent in  working."  Isa. 28 91-28. sists, there is a limit to the sovereignty of the Most
But the fact that God works in a regular and onderlp              High. Man is a free, moral, rational creature. He
 fashion may not tempt us, so .to speak of "laws" as if           has an intelligent will. He makes his own determina-
these operated by themselves, independently from the tions, and that, too, by free choice, either for good
 living God.    When  lighrtning  strikes your house or .or evil. Hence, his :&terminations of will are beyond
barn, it is His hand that directs  [it, and when, the sun         .the control of God. He is a free agent. And he alone
rises and sets a,t appointed times,, it- is again His ha&         is responsible for his acts.     It is quite impossible,
tthat moves the solar system.. When a, tornado sud-               therefore, that the thoughts of his heart and his deeds,
denly tears across a stretch of country, along a very             which he performs as the result of his free determina-
arbitrary and  unpredsctable path, destroying every-              tions, can be predetermined, or  .that they can be con-
 thing in its way, it is the Sovereign of heaven and              trolled and governed by  Godi  The freedom of God's
earth that guides the tornado "as it were by his hand";           moral and rational creatures constitutes a limit to
and when a stone falls to the ground according to an              God's sovereignty. Others less radical, but hesitant
 exact mathematical formula, it is by His hand that               to confe~ss  God's absolute sovereignty over the acts of
the stone is pulled down.                                         men and angels, and .fearful lest the latter's respon-
    But this is true also of the movement and acts of             sibility is denied, rather  &scribe  God's relation to
the .living creatures, that move by an impulse from #these acts by the word  permC.&on.  Especially with
..within. The sparrow. that takes to its wings is direct- *application to the evil acts of men, they prefer to say
ed in its. course by the hand of the Lord of all : "Are           that  ,God permits them. Or the term cooperation is
not  .two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them           used to define God's relation to the moral acts of God's
 shall not fall  to the ground without your Father,"              rational creatures. .We. make a threefold distinction
M,att. 10 229.. Sw:arms  .of beetles fly, docvn to settle on      in the concept of God's providience,  and speak of His
your bean  crop,, and they devour the plants in a                 preservation, cooperation, and government.  In re-
single night, but the course of every one of them is              spect to the.a&s  ,of His moral creatures, it is said that
determi~ned~ by the same  sover&n  Lord; He  dive&s               God cooperates with  t,hem  and in them.
their course "as it. were by his hand." Millions of                  Now, it is undoubtedly true that man is a moral
invisible germs creep ..and multiply into your lungs,             being, and: that as such he may be said to be a free
dragging you down into the grave; mos.quitoes,earry               Lagetit in a certain sense. He is endowed with  intelli-
the malaria germ into your. blood, prostr.ating  yoke:. on :genee  and will. Accordingly; he acti;:with  conscious
your bed with a burning fever ;the ~warm.er:zwls:.$onp            choice and determination from within.  He is a  per-
                                                                                                          -


    ,_.                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEkRER                                                       135

son, the subject of his own actions, and responsible            deed, for this cause have  I raised thee up, for to  shew
for them. Even in his lowest state, he retains some             in thee my power; and that my name may be declared
knowledge of God, and acts in relation  <to Him. The            in all the earth." Ex. 9 :16. Nore dare it be said that
work of the law is inscribed  i:n his heart, and his con-       Pharaoh was first hard,ening  his own hear& and that
science either excuses or accuses him. And God will             Gad/s hardening  of the  king's  .&art  was merely an
surely bring him into judgment, that he may receive             act of retribution, as is frequently alleged, for before
accor%ng  to his work. But all this does not  all;er  the       Moses even reaches Egypt the Lord informs him that
%truth that God remains sovereign also with respect to          He will harden Pharaoh's heart, so that he will not let
man's moral acts. He controls them, governs them,               the people go. Ex.  4:21.  The haughty ruler of  t`he
and through them fulfills His ,owln will, and realizes          world-power' boasts of his own strength, and intends
His own counsel. One dare not say that God permits              to `accomplish his own evil purpose: to destroy Jeru-
the acts of His moral creatures, either good or evil,           salem and the people of God; and he is  not at  all  .
for `that would postuIate  an agent capable elf operat-         conscious of the fact that God uses him to cut off
ing in independence from Him, and imply a denial of             "nations  snot a few; yet, he is only  .t*he  axe that boasts
His absolute sovereignty over men  anldi angels. Nor            against the hand that heweth therewith, and'the saw
does the term cooperation precisely denote the rela-            tihat magnifies itself against the hand that draws it.
tion  bet$ween  God's sovereignty and man's acts as a           Isa.  10:5@.   Th@re is no doubt about it; that Judas,
moral age@, for this suggests a relation of equality.           and  the, Sanhedrin, and all the powers that rose
Reformed theologians are wont to define the relation            ,agzinst  the Lord Jesus t,o slay Him,, acted as moral
by the terms primary cause, and  s~concla.r3(   c.auses.        agents, when `they fulfilled their evil way upon the
And this distinat.ion has a good (dieal in its favor. It        Saviour, yet they crucified Him through the &term-
avoids <the danger of destroying man's moral nature,            inate counsel of God. Acts  2:23.  And so the  Church
and of presenting God as the Author of man's moral              confesses, when Peter and John  ret,urn  to them, being
actiocna,; and yet, it leaves man utterly dependent upon        <released  by the rulers  o;f the Jews: "Lord, thou art
Go131  Certain it is that the relation between God's            God, which hast made heaven and `earth, and the  eez
providence and man's moral acts is such that on God's           and all that in them is; Who  by the mouth of thy
part it is one of absolute sovereignty, on man's part           servant Daviid, ha& said, why did the heathen rage,
it is one of dependence. His freedom is never sover-            and the people imagine vain things? Thel kings of the
eign.  I$ is a creaturely freedom, and, therefore, de-          earth  stdod up and  #the rulers were gathered together
pendent.    God  is immanent,  t,oo,.  in the hearts and        against the Lord and against his Christ.           For of  x
minds, the thoughts  ;nd inclinations, the desires and          trut$h against thy holy child  J,esus, whom thou  has,t
determinations of men, as the living Lord, governing            anointed, both  Herod,  and  Pontius  Pilate, with the
them according to His will, so  ithat,  even though man         Gentiles, and the people  Ff Israel, were -gathered, to-
remains  t,h.e conscious  and willing  auth,or of  h,is  o%-    g&her, For to do whatsoever thy hand and ,thy counsel
acts, it is God that brings them about, andi thus ac-           8d:etermined  before to be done.  " Acts  4:24-28.  I n -
complishes His eternal purpose.                                 deed, "the kings heart is in the hand of the Lord as
   This is the clear teaching af Scripture. The sons            rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will."
of Jacob  certa~inly acted as moral agents, following  the.     Prov: 21 :l. In the light of alI these passages, <there
inclinakion  of their own evil hearts, and seeking to           can be no question about the Stiriptural.  teaching oln
accomplish their own  purpos,e, when they sold their            this point: Gold is the Lord, and He sovereignly guv-
brother Joseph to the  Midianites  ; yet God so con-            `ems  a$nd  control;s to His own purpose all the purposes
trolled and sovereignly governed their every  intenkion,        and acts of men and angels, `both good and evil. He
that His purpose was accomplished, as Joseph later              sits enthroned on high in the heavens, and accomplish-
explains : "But as for you, ye thought evil against me ;        es whatsoever He pleases. And there is no power in
but God meant it unto go&, to bring ,to pass, as it is          heaven or on earth that can `even for a moment take
this day, to save much  peo&e   nlive," Gen. 50  :20.           the reins out of His hand, or  thwar;t  His sovereign
The sons of Eli certainly did wickedly, and "the sin            purpose.                                           H. H.
of the young men was very great before the Lord,"
I Sam. 2 :1'7 ; and deIiberately  they refused to hearken                                ".
unto the voice of their father; "notwithstanding they
hearkenedi  not unto the voice of their father, because                         I
the Lord  ~~oucd  slay  them."  God so governed  theil
sinful way, that in the way of their sin they should                        0 Thou Jehovah, God of hosts,
be slain according to His purpose. I Sam. 2 :25. Sov-                       V&at mighty one Thy likeness boasts?
ereignly God hardens Pharaoh's heart, and the Word                          In a11 Thy works  and <vast design&
of God must even be proclaimed to him: "And in very                 `,      .Thjr faithfulness  fo%vt%  shines.  "


146                                   T H E   STcANDAR-D   B E A R E R

                        Debate:                               -reuise  or to change them? Not at all, for under norma
                                                              circumstances he is perfectly agreed with them. 01
                                                              to use another illustration. A Consistory is perfectly
AFFIRMATIVE REBUTTAL                                          agreed with article 63 of the Church Order which
   (Resolved: that a Local Consistory has the Right to        reads ,"The Lord's Supp,er  shall be administered at
            Act Contrary to the Church Order)                 least every two or three months." But suppose that a
                                                              grave emergency arises in the congregation, so that the
       In answering my opponent I first of all wish to        consistory feels that it is impossible to rightly cele-
state .very  emphatically that the statement made by          brate the Lord's Supper  und&er  the circumstances, and
him, that the origin and immediate cause of this debate       acting  contrary  to this article of the Church Order, it
wss an action taken by the Consistory of Hudsonville.         decides  [not to celebrate the Lord's Supper at the
land the fact that he brings up this action in this de-       allotted time. Now does, the fact that the local  con-
bate is very unethical. In this debate I am not, and          sistory acted contrary to this article necessarily imply
neither do I  ha,ve the right to  speak for my consistory.    a change or  reG.sion? One more illustration. Imagine
The truth Is that the sole origin a.nd the immediate          that  Classis, because of the lateness of the hour, or for
cause of this debate is that the Editor of the Standard some other reason, decides to suspend the `rondvraag'
B.earer  has assigned unto my opponent and I the ab-          and thus act contrary to Article 41 of the Church
stract question, "Resolved that a local ccmsistory has        Order, does this. necessarily imply a change or re-
the right to act contrary to the Church Order." I also        vision of this article?
wish to inform our readers that we were both limited             Besides, it would be sheer folly' to debate on the
by the editor to five typewritten pages, which is equiv-      question whether or not a  local  consistory,  or even
alent to about four columns of the Standard Bearer.           Classis,  or a Particular Synod, has the right to cha.nge
But lo, instead of .four,  my opponent used up more           or revise the Church Order. Assuming this to be the
than eleven columns, or almost three times the space          real issue in our debate it has led my opponent to
allotted him. By .taking such undue advantage he has the most foolish arguments and illustrations, even as
really forfeited all right of expecting an answer from we find under VII on page 129. There his imagina-
me.                                                           tion carries him so far, that to uphold the affirma-
       Further 1 wish to state that my opponent has taken     tive would even imply that a local  cons&tory  could
upon himself, the liberty to change the subject of our        even eliminate articles from  th.e Church Order. Such
debate, so that according to him it now reads "Re-            foolish arguments are not even worthy of an answer.
solved that a iocal consistory has the right to revise        By thus  present~ing  the issue he has succeeded in
or change the Church Order". By doilng  this' he has          throwing up a smoke-screen for the less observing
made it very easy for himself to maintain the negative,       reader, and making it very easy for him&f to main-
and at the same time made my task an impossible one.          tain, the negative, while at the same time making it
That my opponent thus  reconstruas.  the subject as-          an impossible issue for the affirmative.
signed to us us evident from his  Definition of Terms.           What then is the sole issue in this debate? It is
p. 128, as also. from the last sentence of his, so-called     this whether or not the circumstances can ever be
introduction, which reads as follows: "Not doing so           thus that a local colusistory  is justified in taking an
(keeping ourselves strictly to the issues my opponent         action which  is contrary- to Church Order. Must a
enumerated, B.  K.) we sidestep the main question             local consistory always abide by the Church Order,
which is whether or no a loocal con&tory  has the right no matter what the circumstances may be. Is it' true
to act contrary to the Church Order, i.e. the private         t.hat the Church Order is necessarily as binding upon
*right  to rs~l&e {or change) 2s articles". (I underscore     the conscience as are the Holy Scriptures? This my
13. K.). The reason that my opponent, so reconstrues          opponent maintains, and I deny. He writes as follows :
our assigned subject is because he argues that to act         I`. . .it follows. that,' in acting contrary to the Church
conbury  to necessarily implies to change or  revtie.         Order, they before theiF consciousness, act contrary
This I deny, and I also deny that we may so reconstrue        to the Scriptures, and commit a sin just as great."
the subject of our debate. Let me illustrate. A citizen       He then proceeds to put this to a test, when he con-
may very well be in full agreement with our present           tinues as follows : "The  v,ery  first article of the Church
spee& law of 35 miIes per hour. But suppose his child         Order reads, `For the maintenance of good order in the
meets with an accident,, and he is advised to rush the        Church it is necessary that there should be: offices,
child to a distant hospital  as quickly as possible, and      assemblies, supervision of doctrine, sacraments and
doing so he greatly .exceeds the speed limit, he will         ceremonies, and Christ.ianv discipline.'      Let anyone
perhaps even run some rod lights, and give no heed to         contradict if he can, this article without being ac-
stop signs. Now the fact that he acts contrary to these       cused and denounced by his heart of contradicting
rules.  does that necessarily imply that he  waats  ,to       t,he Scriptures," I: agree with. my opponent that one


                                     T.HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               137

cannot contradict this article without also contradict-        saith the Lord." Then it is not the Church Order,
ing the Scriptures, because -this article contains pro-        but the Word of God that binds the conscience."
visions which are directly taken from the Word of                 My  opponent is of the opinion that there is a
God. But does it follow that this is also true of all          certain -spirit amongst us that scoffs at the Church
the articles of the Church Order? Indeed not. Let us           Order. I' writes "Isn't it about time that we refrain
put this to a test. Article  23 of the Church Order            from  scoffing  at the Church  Onder. Isn't it about
prescribes that the elders shall visit the families. of        time that we stop saying, "Well brethren its only
the congregation both before  anid after the celebration       the Church Order."  Methinks it is. Such talk is
of the Lord's Supper. Would my opponent maintain               positively dangerous." If there is such a spirit among
that not to do this, and thus act contrary to this             us, I am not aware of it. Of such a spirit I would
article, is just as `great a sin as to contradict God's        not merely say that it is dangerous, but that  ii  is
Word? Article 37 prescribes that in large congrega- positively wicked ! But on the ,other hand it is ex-
tions the consistory shall'as a rule meet once a week,         tremely dangerous to hold the Roman Catholic position
would my opponent dare to maintain, that if a con-             that any departure from an ecclessiastical  decree, is
sistory of a large congregation deems it sufficient to         necessarily per se wrong. We may snot bi,nd the con-
meet once or twice a month would feel in their con-            science with the Church Order, for this prerogative
science that they acted contrary to God's Word? Is             belongs to God and to  `Hb Word alone. This is the
it just as great a  sin for  Classis to  suspen.d  the rule    great principle of the Reformation, and is part of that
of Article 41 in a given instance, and thus act con-           liberty wit.h which Christ has set us free.
trary to this Article, as it would be to contradict the           Our position is clearly stated by'voetius, Rutgers
Word of God? ,Article 6'7 prescribes that the Church-          and Jansen, as well as by the following quotation from
es shall observe, in addition to the Sunday, also Christ-      the "Church Order Commentary" `written by Monsma
mas, Good Friday, Easter, bcension  Day, Pentecost,            and Van  Dellen. "The Churches and Classis  are there-
the Day of Prayer, the National Thanksgiving Day,              fore in duty bound to observe the rulings of the Church
an,3 Old and New Years Day." Is it my opponents                Ond:er.  The Church Order is not a book of iron-clad
"unwavering faith" that  t.his article was actually            laws, ,it is not a set of legal Iaws which must be ap-
taken directly from the Word of God, and that if a             plied no matter what the result might be. These
local consistory, because of some circumstances would          rules have been adopted to  b&Ed  the churches, not to
not have services, let% say on Christmas, or on Old            break them. Discretion  and  consideration  must  ai-
Year's Day, and thus act contrary to the Church                ways,  be used. But the Church Order does consist of
Order, that that would be a sin, "a sin just .as great         rules of good order to which all have agree3  and which
as to act contrary to the Scriptures?" If for example          all must keep, "until it be otherwise ordained by the
a minister gives a more detailed explanation of the            General Synod." If in any particular situation the
catechism so that he completes the catechism in two            observance of the Church Order is a physical impos-
of three years, instead: of in one year as prescribed  i,n     sibility or would clearly create harm and disor&r,  a
Article 68, .would  he be "accused and denounced by            consistory or  Classis is free to suspend the rule for
his heart of contradicting the Script.ures,"  as my op-        that instant, if at least the article in question ,does not  '
ponent would have us believe? Article  70 prescribes           concern a definite principle of  Holy Writ.  But even
that consistories shall attend to it "that  t.he matri-        so it would be well in most instances to gain classical
monial state be confirmed in the presence eof Christ's         or  synodical  approval for such exceptional procedure."
Church."    Does every local  co&story  that does not          (I underscore. B.K.) My opponent states my posi-
attend to this, an,d thus act contrary to Church Order,        tion exactly when he states, "But his stand is that a
"commit a sin just as great" as acting contrary to             r.esolution  of this character (that a local  con&tory
Scripture? Thus we have put the contention of our              may "never act contrary to Church Order) is strictly
opponent to the test, and I am  sur.e he himself is now        out of order, that it should not be made, that in mak-
ready to admit that every act contrary to Church               ing it the Classis oversteps its bounds by interfering
Order, is not necessarily an act against the Scriptures.       ,w-ith what he considers to be the private and inalien-
`My opponent does not sufficiently distmguish  between         able right of a local consistory." This  & exactly my
(jus divinas) divine laws, and (jus humanas)  human            position, upon two conditions : (1) Unless Classis  can
laws. As I stated in my last article, "Indeed a Church         show that the local consistory in acting contrary to the
Order must be based upon the Word of God, and con-             Church Order violated a principle of God's Word  ;
tains many prescrirbed ordinances which do bind the            (2) Or that the `cirucumstances  were not such that the
conscience,, .not however b,ecause  they are found in the      con&.tory  was justified in taking the action which
Church Order, but because they are provisions taken            was contrary to the Church Order.
directly from the Word of God. Even then it may not                I have come to the end of my allotted space of
be said "Thus saith the Church Order," but "Thus               five typewritten pages. 1 hope my opponent  does  not


148                                       T,HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

again take undue advantage of me, by taking more                VIII. Is the req,uirement  of the negative proposition
than his allotted space. This is my last word o:n the           hierarchical?
subject in the Standard Bearer.                                     Before I begin my  rebuttarl,  I have need of mak-
                                                   B.  R.       ing just one remark. My  opponeat  tells us that (to
                                                                quote his own words), "the question in this debate is
                                                                not at all whether or not a local consistory may nrhi-
                         -                                      trarily  a;nd  aoithout  good  TeaSon act contrary to the
                                                                mutually accepted Church Order," that, "if this `were
                                                                the question in our discussion it would be nonsense."
NEGATIVE REBUTTAL                                               (I certainly agree  wi,th  him here). According to my
                                                                opponent "the question in this debate is  w.hether  a
       The final paragraph of my introduction reads:            locad consistory is so bound by the Church Order,
"Now  .L believe that I have discovered all the issues in       that it may never, 
this disputation.      If my opponent knows of others,                                 under any circumstainces,  make any
                                                                de&ion, or take any actions  w,hich  are  contrary 
let him advance them and I will be only too glad to                                                                      to
                                                                the Church Order."
consider them. If he knows of no others, he and I                                         My opponent goes on to say:
                                                                "We of the affirmative maintain that it is very well
must. keep ourselves strictly to  t.hese  issues. Not do-
ing so, we sidestep the main issue which is whether or          possible that in a particular situation the observance
`no a local consistory has the right to act contrary to         of the Church Order would be a  plhysical impossibility,
the Church Order, i.e., the private right to revise its         or would clearly create hardship or disorder in the
                                                                congregation, and that in such circumstances the  con-
articles."
    The argumentation of my opponent does pr,esent              sistory would be perfectly free to suspend the rule for
issues which do not appear isa "The statement of the            that instant, if at least the article in question does
issues" of my introduction. Some of these  issues-              not concern a definite prescribed principle in Holy
the ones advanced by my opponent- I purposely elim-             Writ. The opposition must prove that under any  and
inated  m:  admi:tted material.         I did so in order to    all circum&ances  it isi always per se wrong for a local
place my opponent and myself close to the heart of              consisto-ry  .to act contrary to the Church Order." (My
the question whi,ch  is whether a .local cons&tory  has         opponent semms to be forgetting here that , as-it is he
the right to depart from the church order. However,             who argues on the side of the affirmative, the burden
as the  eliminat,ion  of what I termed "admitted mater-         of proof lies with him. "He `who affirms must prove").
ial" was my doing and thus not also of my opponent                 Thus my opponent wants to argue o'n the side of
(he had no opportunity as 1 did not beforehand come             .the positive propo.stion:  Resolved that a local consis-
to him with my "statement of issues'") I am obliged             tory has the right to act contrary to the Church Or-
and am also very -willing to carefully consider all the         der  olzly  when and if it has true need and a very
issues which he advances in his argumentation, also             good reason. But my opponent sho.uld!  realize that not
those which I eliminated.                                       he  but logic is master here. Now logic spurns this
    Examining the argumentation of my opponent, I limitation,  so that, in proving the proposition as he
discover in it VIII issum., They are :                          formula+es it, my opponent, despite what he can do
                                                                about it, will be proving that a local  co&story  has
        I. Do the authorities on the Presbyterian or Re-        the right to act contrary to the Church Order for a
f,ormed  system of Church government reason on the              good reason or a bad reason or no reason at all. I
side of the ai%rmative  proposition, i.e., does my op-          shall make this plain right here. Consider +hat im-
ponent have these authorities on his side?                      plicit in the right to  disregard  the Church Order
    II. Are the articles of the Church Order binding            for a good reason is also the right to pass judzgment
upon the conscienece?                                           on the reason. Therefore the synod could do nothing
                                                                about it, if a local co&story disregarded the Church
  III. May the Church Order be changed?                         Order for a very bad  reason,  if it maintained that
       IV. Is it well possible that in a particular situa-      a,ccording to its conviction, the reason  was.  goad.   It
tion the  observahce  of the  Churah Order would clearly means that the contention *to the effect that a local
create harm and disorder in the congregation?                   consistory has the right to go contrary to the Church
                                                                Order  when  it  has  goo.d  s'ee~o1z  is equivalent to the
        V. Is the Church Order binding?                         proposition that a local consistory has the right to do
       VI. is the requirement of the negative proposi-          exactly as it pleases  rso far as the Church Order is
tion incompatible with  Christ.ian  liberty?                    concerned. So, we may just as well keep ourselves to
                                                                the propositions as originally formulated, although I
 VII. Does the requirement of the negative proposi-             have no objections at all in proving the proposition
tion place the Church~,Order  on a par with the Bible?
                                   "                            thaqt a local consistory has not the right to act con-


                                    T*HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            113

trary to the Church Order ever.  In fact, this is             c) als or verschil olver  de afwijking rees, dan was de
exactly the meaning of the negative proposition. This 1diienaa.r  aan de kerkeraad, de kerkeraad aan de classes,
is precisely what I am laboring to prove.                     de classe;aan  de provinciale  en deze weer aan de gene-
    So then, my opponent gains nothing by adding to           rale synode gehoorzaamheid schuldig. Zoo  bleef er
the positive propostion, "only  if it has real need or        ruimte, maar binnen zekere grenzen  ; en regelmaat
yoo*d reason." My opponent himself brings this out            zonder formalisme.`, The view here encountered is
rather effectively. He writes : "Such folly (the folly        this :    Only  synod.  may change  the `written text  of
of a consistory  arbitrarily  and  tithout good  reason       the Church Order. In the two years that intervene
acting contrary to the Church Order) would lead to            between  .the meetings of the general synod, a local
chaos. Imagine what would happen, if in a congested           eonsistory,  may depart from the Church Order and
city as Chicago, a driver of an automobile would  arbi-       thus change it in practice and as always ready to obey
trarily an& without good reason whatever, disregard           the  classis in the event the latter disapproves the'
the traffic rules, stop signs, traffic signals, and one       departure. Thus the view contained in this excerpt
way drives?" The thought of what w40uld happen, I             (from the  Kerkenordening  of Jansen) is this, "A
agree, is too horrible to contemplate. But wouldn't           classis has the right to  act  contrary  LQ the Church
the resultant havoc be just as grea,t  should that driver     Order  in subjection to  Classis  writh' the privilege of
disregard every  traffic rule COY a very good reason?         appealing its  &se to synod  amd, if need be, to the
M&hi@ it would. If some one sets fire to my house,            genera2 synod.`, But is this! the question in our dis-
the building burns, doesn't it, whether it was done           pute? Does this statement form the positive propo-
for a most excellent reason of for no good reason at          sition on the side of which my oppon&t  argues? Let
all. So, too, if our  consistories  departed from the         me show that it is not. The contention to the effect
Church Order, each from a different article, the result       that a local consistory has the righ,t  to act contrary
would be chaos,  ithough the reasons were good. It is         to the Church Order in submission to chassis and synod
plain that my opponent gains nothing by limiting the          is equivalent in meaning to the negative proposition
po&ive  proposition. Actually it is not limited by his        that  funda~tally  and. `in  the final instance a local
`addition.    It means thalt the evidence  I advanced to      can&story  has not the  aright to act contrary to the
proye the negative proposition loses none of its cogency      Church Order. But my opponent argues on the side
and force as indirect evidence of the falsity of the          of the positive proposition that a loal consistory does
positive proposition as limited by that addition. My          have this right and may exercise it independent of the
opponent therefore must still break it all down, if he        classis.  And I will now show that I have every right
will win in this debate.      Re can't  Gspose  of it by to maintain that this is also his view and that he ac-
snnply   slaying  tha:t i*t `does not apply  ,tu the positive tually means to prove it.
proposit,ion  as he formulates it. It still applies in            1. My opponent and his con&tory  acted contrary
all its force. Now my rebuttal. I first strive to break to the Church Order in a manner explained in my
down the evidence my opponent advances in proof of introduction.               Did! they, thereupon, indicate in any
the positive proposition.                                     way that they were purposing to have  classis pass
    1. My opponent reasons:  ,4 local  consistory has the judgment on their action? They did*not.  Fact is that
right to act co,ntrarq  to the Church Order, for              they even refrained from consulting with the consis-
                                                              tory of the sister church with whom the person ad-
         a. The authorities  on the Reformed System of mitted by them to *t.he Lord's supper had affiliated.
Chu.rch government reaso;n orz the side of the positive       2. If my opponent is not arguing and did not intend to
proposition and thus I have these authorities on my argtie   on the side of the positive proposition that was
Ride.                                                         given him, should he not. have notified me before
    Is my opponent correct in this his contention? Let hand? This he failed to do. Through his silence he
us see. He quotes Joh.  Janzen to the following effect:       actually agreed to strive to prove the positive propo-
"Hier uit blijkt voldoende, dat de onderhouding der           sition that `was given him. 3. In all his disputes with
kerkenordening  niet zoo streng werd voorgeschreven, the  classis he at no time indicated by anything he
dat. er geene vrijheid van beweging overbleef.  We1           said that what he contended for is that a local con-
ging  die vrijheid niet zoo ver,  da,t ze `in  ongeregeld-    sistory has the right to go contrary to the Church
heid en  bandeloosheid  oversloeg. Want de afwijking          Order  ain  submi.ssion   to  classis.  4. How  does the
zelve  was  aan een  drietal regelen  gebonden:~  a) er       positive`nroposition, as restated  by my opponent  read
moest  reden voor afwijking zijn, de goede  or& en            It; reads: "Resolved that ,a local consistory has the
atichting  der gemeente moest er beter door  worden           right to act contrary to the Church Order  when  it
bevorderd. b) Er  mocht ondertusschen niet in de              has true need for this an.d a goo.d  reason.)' Thus it
kerkenordening zelf verandered  worden;  want dat             does not read: "Resolved that a local' consistory has
mo&t alleen door eon generale synode  geschieden; en the right to act contrary to the Church Order in suh-


 150                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   .BEARER

m&&n to  clas~is  and  synod." My opponent affirms              ed and adopted by all the churches on their broadest
even with great emphasis that he would strive to prove          ecclesiastical meeting) are binding upon the con-
that a local consistory hm the right in questio;i or@1          science, for God's Word demands of us that we keep
when there is true need and a good reason. In the               our sacred pledges.
paragraph in which he restates the positive proposi-               And just what was promised? Exactly this: to
tion  absolut,ely nothing is said about a local consistory      show  nil diligence  ia observing the  articles of the
having the right in question Gn submission to classis           Church Order, until it be otherwise ordained by the
and synod. This is conclusive. So I shall have to ask           synod. Is this promise so binding that it may never
my oppoaent  to keep himself to the positive proposi-           be broken? Absolutely. Do the churches make this
tion as he himself restated it. Let us keep ourselves           promise on the condition that any one of their num-
to the  question  in this dispute. If we don't we at            ber may break it whenever this is  ,d.eemed  necessary?
lxast won't. know any more whe4her  ,we're coming or            Abnolutely  not. What good is a'mutual promise tha2
going or where to go or  wheth,er  we go at all; nor            a local consistory may break whenever it deems this
will our readers know. In fine,  I am satisfied that            expedient or #necessary, thus whenever it  chases?
I have made very clear that my opponent does not have           such a promise is absolutely worthless.  It is mockery
the so-ca+!led  authorities he quoted on his side. Fact         to make a mutual promise *on such a coiidition. and
is that he has them against him.         (But let no one        it is an insult to sanctified intelligence to say that
co,lclude  from this that I am agreed with Joh.  Jan-           it was or should be made on this condition.
sen's view. Fact is  .thatS  I am opposed also to his              My opponent classifies  the articles! of the Church
view. But this is another question). Just what is the           Order as follows: Articles whose  con~tent  is derived
difXerence  between the view of Rev. Kok and that of            directly or indirec,tly  from the Word of God ; 2) art-
Joh. Jansen? Precisely this : according to Rev. Kok the         icles whose content, though neither directly or indirect-
consistory has the right to act contrary to the Church          ly derived from God's Word, are not contrary to it.
Order independent of the  classis.  According to Joh.           The stand of my opponent is that a local consistory
Jansen, the consistory has ,this right only in submis-          may depart only from the latter. Now I accept this
sioa to classis, which is equivalelnt  to s!aying  that fun-    classification of his, but add that itt forms just one
damentally and in the  fina analysis it does not have           more reason why a local consistory has not the right
this right.                                                     to act contrary to the Church Order. For, certainly,
   (This argument, under issue I is cont. on p- 159)            it cannot possibly be the right and the task of a local
  II. My opponent ,argues:  A  local con&to~r&!  has the        consistory to classify the articles of the  Church Order
right to act contmry  to the Church Order, for it is not        to determine to which of  these  articles exception may
binding-upon the .eonsciezce,  for its artictes  are but a      be taken. Yet such would needs be its right, had it
collection of ecclesiastical rules, human  ~regulations,        the right to depart from the Church Order, for the
and  t,hus  r,ot the very  ~infallible Word of God, which       latter right includes the former.
alone may bind the conscience of man.
        I maintain:. This reasoning of my opponent is              III. My opponent reasons: A local co,n.sistory  has
false. The Church Order does indeed bind the con-               the right to act contrary to the Church Order, fo,r A)
science, though not the very Word of God, for a) Its            it may be changedjt may not be said with ,respect  to
articles are not a mere collection of "human regula-            its articles tha& they must be observed, for a) a,rticle
tions," for in their aggregate they set forth the very          86 of the Church Order declares, "These articles, re-
and only system of Church government contained in               lating to the lawful order of the Church Order, have
and legitimatized by God's Word.           The&fore  they       been so drafted and adopted by common consent, that
bind the conscience of every  Iocal consistory that             they, if the profit of the church demands otherwise
shares this conviction. IA local consistory, of a con-          may and ought to be altered, augmented or diminish-
trary conviction, is in  du,ty  bound to withdraw from          ed." Breaking down this eviden,ce consists in some-
the denomination of churches organized on the basis             thing more than simply quoting the rest of art.  86
of these  article and to select for itself a church polity      (which reads) : "However, no particular congregation,
other than the one set forth by our Church Order.               classis (or synod) shall be at liberty to  `do so, but they
B) The  loca! consistory solemnly  pledgee (as has al-          zhall show all diligence in observing th,em,  until it be
ready been made plain) to show all diligence in ob-             otherwise ordained by the general synod." We will
serving not some but all  t.he articles of the Church           have to do some defining of terms here. I have al-
Order (also in  practive certainly) until it be  ot:herwise     ready called attention to Joh. Jensen's distinction
ordained by sy,nod.  Therefore on account of the sac-           between "changing the  ,written   letter  of the Church
 red pledge but not, certainly, because they are the            Order" and "departing from its articles," thus chang-
very infallible Word of God, the articles of the Church         ing them  in the m&-J anid in practice  alone. Jansen's
 Order,  without a single exception (the  articles  apgrav-     view is that consistories have not the right to change


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               151

 the written letter of the Church Order but that they          my opponent to prove the falsity of the negative pl'opo-
 do have the right to change the Church Order in prac-         sition:  Resolved that a local  coauis:o~y   IW not the
 tice. This is also my opponent's view, as it appears in       right to act contrary to the Church Order.
 precisely those  exerpts  of Jansen's  Iierkenordering
 which he inserted in his argumentation. Hence, my               V. My opponent argues : this negative proposition is
opponent reasons thus :                                        false, f0.r the Ch.urch Order is r,ot binding. I maintain
    A local consistory has the right to act contrary           that it is binding, for the churches sole,mnly promise
to the Church Order, i.e. to change its articles in the        to show all diligence in observing its articles uniil it
mind  and in  pr&tice,  for a) the written letter of           be otherwise ordained by the general synod. That a
these articles may be changed, for a) art. 86 expressly        local  consisttory  does promise, I have already con-
declares that the written letter of its articles may be        clusively proved.     r need not repeat myself. But I
. changed.                                                     want to add that art. 86 allows no exceptions to this.
                                                               promise.
    I maintain: From the fact that according to art.                       Notice its language. No  particul.ar  con;
86 the written  Zetfer  of the Church Order may be             gregation, no  classis. .  .but  they  shall show  nil dili-,
                                                               gence in observing them, until it be otherwise ordain-
changed,  it cannot possibly follow that a local  con-
sistory may depart from its articles, i.e. change them         ed by ,the general synod. To get a.way  from the abzo-
                                                               Iuteness of this language, one must simply p&i with
in ,the mind and in practice, for, whereas articles 86
explicitly declares that the letter of the Church Order        words. And to say that the promise not to change the
may be changed only by  `the broadest  ezclesisstical          letter of the church order does not include the prom&
assembly, it must needs follow that the corttention  to        `not to change the Church Order in practice is simply
the effect that a local consistory may change the              preposterous.     Assuredly, a local consistory  hes  got
Church Order in practice and in the mind,  be+zause            the right to act comrary  to the Church Order ever, I
art. 86 declares that its letter may be changed, is            say ever. Art. 86 does not even read: "may not alter
equivalent to saying that a local consistory may change        .the  letter,  mark you, letter, of the Church Order,"
the Church Order in practice because art.  86 declares         but simply, "may not altsr." The ,distinction  between
.that no  con&tory  but only synod may  ch.%nge  the           altering the Church Order as to the written letter and
letter of it. Such a reasoning certainly is sheer non-         altering it in practice is thoroughly nonsensical.
sense. Yet it is the reasoning of my opponent. Does             VI. My opponent argues.  The  *negative'propasition
it not follow from the fact that just because art. 36          is false, for its  reqwiretnent   is  incomptihle  with the
declares that a. local consistory shall refrain from           swipturnl idea of Christian liberty.
changing the letter of the Ghurch Order, a local con-             I maintain that 2this reasoning of my opponent is
sistory must also refrain from changing it in prac-            false. For according to Scripture a man is truly free
tice? Is not the one included in the other. Assured-           if a) in obeying the rule he does so willingly under
ly yes.                                                        the impulse of true faith. b) if the rule that is obeyed
                                                               is.truIy  good. As to a local consistory, voluntarily and
 IV. My opponent argues: A local consizto~ry  has the          as constrained by the love of Christ, it takes upon it
right to act contrary to  the Church Order,  fosr it  ~9       the yoke of the Church Order and as constrained by
very  ufell possible that  i+n a  pcwticular  situation the    this same love it promises never to depart from any
ohswvance  of the  Church Order  would  be  a  physic&         of  iIts articles except in collaboration with  all the
impossibility, or xould  clearly weate harm o'r disorder       churches on their broadest assembly (the synod). b)
in  the congregation.                                          The rules of the Church Order are good, even though
   .I  maimain. a) The evidence here presented has             it cannot be said of all of them that their conbent  is
no weight, for a) my opponent names no examples.               derived directly from the Scriptures. Hence, in obey-
He should have, for the statement is of such a charac-         ing them, the churches are superbly free, in the true.
ter that it cannot be accepted on its face value. B)           Christian sense. B) If the promise to refrain from
Though wh.ait he here says were very true, yet it would        departing from the Church Order except in collabora-
not follow therefrom that a  local cons&tory has the           tion with all the churches on  <their  broadest assembly
right to act contrary to the Church Order, for a) my           (synod),  is destructive of Christian liberty, the like
opponent himself admits that also the  synod' has this         promise made with  respect to the Three Forms of
right.                                                         Unit&y  (the thirty seven articles, the Canons of Dord,
                                                               and the Catechism) is likewise destructive of Chris-
    Herewith I have dealt with the evidence my  on-            tian liberty.    Ts my opponent maintaining that OUT
ponellt advanced in proof of the positive proposition.         local consistories are bound in the unscriptural sense
I am satisfied that it is broken down completely,, so          because they have not the right to ever preach eon-
that the positive proposition remains unproved.                trary to these creeds? If he is consistent he should.
   I must now  ,&al with. the evidence advanced by


152                                     T,HE  .STANDARD  ` B E A R E R

collection of  goad; rules. Even my opponent is agreed
to this. How he extols the Church Order. He writes:                           Joh. Jansen's View
"A Church Order is very essential to the welfare of a
Church denomination. . .In fact congregational and                I shall now argue on the  negative  side of the
denominational life would be impossible without such          positive proposition: Resolved that a local consistory
rules and regulations."                                       has the right to act contrary to the Church Order iu
    These, certainly, are true words. Yet my opponent submission to Classis and Synod. I want to prove also
insists that a local consistory shall hame the right to       this proposition false.
break these rules', whenever it deems this necessary.            IAccording   .to Joh. Jansen, though  &&amatally
                                                              and in the final atialys&,  a local conaistory does rtot
VII. My opponent argues: The negative proposition             have the right to act contrary to the Church Order,
is false, for it requirement that a local cons&dory  has      it does have this right tentatively, for the time being,,
not the right to act contrary to the Church Order ever,       until  classis meets, better said, until the synod meets,
pLac,es  the mrtides of the Church Order on a par `with       (which is every one or two years), for it can be ex-
Scripture.                                                    pected .that a local cons&tory, having departed from
    I  m.aint,ain:  This reasoning of my opponent is          the Church Order, will, if rebuffed by classis,  appeal
false, for A) this requirement does not repose upon           its case to synod. But how does Joh Jansen succeed
:the dogma that the articles of the Church Order are          in  ,circumventing  art. 86 of the Church Order? By
infallible (we have no such dogma) but it proceeds,           distinguishing between changing the Church Order as
does this requirement, from the mutual, voluntary,            to its wriitten  letter and changing it in practice, and,
promise, on the part of all the churches, to show all         secondly, by  affirming  that the article (86) forbids the
diligence in observing them until it be otherwise or-         former but not the latter. Now I have very serious
dained by  ,the broadest ecclesiastical assembly (synod).     objections also to this (view of Jansen.
B) If the  rqquirement  of the negative proposition               Firstly.    As has already been pointed out, this
places the Church Order on a par with the Scriptures,         distinction between changing the Church Order as to
then also the requirement of our Formula of Sub-              its written letter and departing from it in practice,
scription places our creeds on a par with the Holy            is simply intollerable. The  ,distinction,  of course, is
Scriptures. Yet, certainly, my opponent, would not            not present in art. 86. The article reads : They (the
maintain the latter. But if he is consistent, he must.        articles of the Church Order) have been so drafted -
                                                              that they may and ought to be altered, if the profit
VIII. My opponent argues. The negative proposition            of the churches so requine, but no particular congre-
is false,  for its requirement that a  l&xl con&story has     gat,ion  shall be at liberty to do so."
not the (righ.t  to act contrary to the Church  Order &y          The distinction in question is simply a handy ex-
hierarc,hical.                                                pedient for circumventing art. 86, but it is an expedient
    I maintain : This reasoning of my opponent is             as dangerous and it is handy. And this brings me
fake, for A) this requirement is not imposed upon             to my second  objeotion   .t.o  Jansen's view. According
the consistories by a human power superior to them,           to this view, between the meetings of synod, the local
(hierarchy) but it is a requirement that proceeds from        consistories and classes, in a word, everyone, office-
the mutual, voluntaryl  promise of all the churches to        bearers and laymen alike may do exactly as they choose,
show all diligence in observing the articles of the           so far as the Church Order is concerned, Once in a
.Church  Order until it be otherwise ordained by  the         year or in tie years, synod meets to restore order in
broadest ecclesiastical assembly (synod). B) If the           rthe churches, if it can. After the adjournment  .of
requirement of the negative proposition is hierarchy-         synod, a local cvnsistory again goes to altering, aug-
Cal, then also the requirement of the Formula of Sub-         menting, or diminishing the articles of the Church
scription.        Yet,  certain.ly,  my opponent would no:    Order, in practice of course, exactly as it sees  filt. It
maintain the latter. But if he is consistent, he must.        means that, in reality, the Church Order is a dead
    In fine, whereas my opponent failed to prove the          letter.
positive proposition and whereas he failed Ito prove the          Finally, according to art. 86, the  classis  has no
negative proposition false both directly and indirectly       more right to change the Church Order than does the
through breaking down the evidence that I advanced            local consistory.
to prove it true, it follows  that we have arrived  at'the        Thus all that a  classis can say to a local consistory
definite and unavoidable conclusion that a local con-         that has departed from the Church Order is, "you have
sistory has not the right to act contrary to  &he Church      broken your sacred pledge. Return  !"
Order, But, let the readers judge.                                The  classis then has not  <the right  aLId duty  tc
                                                              ascertain whether circumstances justified the depart-
                                               G.M.O.         ure or whether the article negated, is, as to content,


                                       T%HE  STANDPRD   B E A R E R                                                       ,153
                                          ._
 of such a character, as to forbid the temporary. nega-          to classis forthwith. But we deem a d&u&ion  and a
 tion, and, on the basis of its findings approve or tdis-        careful consideration of the issues. involved to be de-
approive'  the departure. Doing so the  classis by im-           sirable in most cases. Matters concerning changes in
 plication declares tha't it has the right to change the         the Church Order may also be brought  dlirectly. to
 Church  Or&r tentatively and in practice and likewise           Synod by individual consistories."
 ,a local &zsistory.' And if Classiz,  on the basis of its          This is the right way. It is the  only lawful way
 findings, approves the departure, it actually changes           on account of the pledge.             We may deal with the
 the  Church Order in practice `tentatively, of course.          Church Order no differently than we my  wi:h our
    So then, though a local consistory  were able  to            Three  Form.::  of Unity.
 show that the  ,departure  was fully justified by  c&urn-                                                        G. M. 0.
`stances and  -was perfectly allowable  E:`:o far as the
 article that was negated is .concerned,  the classis ,w-ould
`still be...in duty bounds  to .censure  the doing and advise
 a return to the Church Order, and this on account
 of the sacred pledge to refrain from private revision
 of the Church Order at all times. There is indeed a
 principle involved here.  It,  is this. May a  belie,ver              The Analogy Of Scripture
-break his sacred pledges, or is he in :daty  bound before
 God to do as he vowed. Certainly the latter.
    Not even  synod has the right to investigate whether            The Bible has been received by, the church of
 circumstances  just.ified the departure from the Church         Christ from the first ages  `3s the Word of God; the
 or whether the article negated forms a rule to which            great fountain of truth.             As  su:h it has been the
 no exceptions may be taken ever in that its content             object of wider, deeper, more earnest, and more assidu-
 is either directly or indirectly derived from God's             ous m&%tation  and study than any other book what-
 Wond~,  so that in negating the article a local  consis-        ever; yea, even more than all other  books combined.
 tory is pitted against God's Word-not even synod                Thousands upon thousands of works have been written,
 has the right and duty to investigate or allow itself           to unfold its truths and apply them to the hearts of
 to be informed whether such is the .case and then on men. The amount of Biblical  hterature  during the
 the basis of its findings either approve or disapprove          four centuries since the Reformation is prodigious.
 the departure. For doing so, the  s,ynod declares by            The labor of a lifetime would aot suffices  for .a bare
 implication that a local consistory and a, classis has          perusal, much less for a careful study of all its mani-
 the right to tentatively change the Ghurch Order in             fold varieties, in criticism, history, doctrine, ethics
 practice. Thus, all that even the synod (the broadest           and  practical  applications to the religious life. It has
 assembly) may say to such a consistory is, "You have            been translated into more than two hundred languages,
 sinned ; for you have broken your sacred promise.               and circulated in many millio.ns of copies; and hence
 Undo your action.       Return to the Church  0,rder."          has arisen a still further amount of critical labor and
 And in so admonishing, the synod does not declare               learned industry altogether unique in the history- of
 that the Church Order is the infallible Word of God,            the world.
 but that a local consistory  i!s in duty bound before              This immense accumuEs.tion  of Biblical literature,
 God to keep its sacred promise. A. sinful corrupt whatever its source may be, may supply a skeptical
 promise must be broken but `a. sacred -promise never. spirit with large quantities of material for casting
    But someone may  ask, what  is.a local consistory to         doubt' and suspicion on the Divine message. Man
do, if it discovers  that an article of the Church Order         touches nothing  tha,t  he does not defile. The gift of
 ought to  bie changed for the profit of the churches?           revelation to a fallen world implies that men are prone
 Rev. I. Van  Wellen,  who understands our Church to go astray, and lose themselves in the thick mists-of
 Ordler, but who oc,ce upon a time tried 3'0 hard to free        religious error. The world was full of Gentile idolatry
 himself `from the binding power of one of its al-$&s,           when the Gospel appeared. Its presence brought light
-the reverend points out the way in his "Commentary              into the thick darkness; but it did not seal up the
 On Church Order" (I. Van Dellen. Martin Monsma) .               sources of ,dslusion in the human heart. The course
 He writes: "When a change in the Church Order is                of Divine truth, in every age, has been a constant war-
 deemed necessary, the ma,tter ought to be discussed             fare, and not a triumphal progress. In that way the
 in our Church Papers, and at  Elders conferences,               interpnetation  of the Bible has had Ia eheckered course.
 Men's societies, etc. Then the matter should be brought Much precious truth has been unfolded ; but no slight
 to classes. If the  &sses.  agrees that the matter is amount of human error, in various and divergent
worthy of Synod's  .considerition,  the  classy  shouId          forms, has mingled  wit:h these expositions. The stream,
                                                                                              ,...
&erture synod:  Mat&i  may;  of course, be brought however pure its source, has become turbid ,in its pro-


                                                                         -


      15-J:                                 T,HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                       -
      gress, and stained by the soil from the river-bed! in        organic whole form the contents of this analogy.
      which it had to flow.                                            The importance of maintaining that principle as
         It is easy to dwell on the human side of the litera-      the fundamental approach to the Bible, as the Word
      ture of the Bible until `the real excellency of the Word     of God, becomes evident to every  Chrisitian student of
      of God is quite .obscured  from view. The trifling of        the Bible when he realizes how often it is denied r)r
      mere verbal critics and grammarians, the strifes of          forgotten in the exposition of Scripture. There are
      interpreters, the dreams of mystics, the subtilities of      fundamentally two errors which are more or less
      schoolmen,  `tie confusing influence of the mental pro-      prevalent. Rationalism, on the one hand, undermines
      cess  in ten thousands of mix& of different ages, coun-      the authority of Gad's Word; either by rejecting it
      tries and modes of thought more often than not indi-         as an external revelation or by acceptin'g  it :and mak-
      cates a departure from the fundamental principle of          ing human reason the sole arbiter of its meaning.
      approach to the Bible as the Word of God and in no           Traditionalism, on the other, makes the Scripture only
      sense the word of man. It is not a mixture of the            a  &andard parallel with the living tradition of the
      Divine and human, but it is purely Divine; from be-          Church.     Both, though in opposite ways, take from
      ginning to end a Divine book. We do not deny thereby         the Bible its dignity, deny the analogy of Scripture
      tie secondary authors, but affirm that they were or-         and sever it from its connection with the Holy Spirit
      ganically and completely insipred to write for God,          as the supreme instrument of His operation in things
      His. Word.        That Word is the product of the One        spiritual forever.
      Divine Min:d of Him who in His eternal council con-             Extreme rationalism finds its expression in the
      ceived of the whole of Scripture as a living organism.       so-called Historical School of Higher Criticism. To
      In that same council He determined all, the authors          them the S&ptures are simply an historical record,
      of  .Holy Scripture with regard to their personality,        anti at times even less; mere mythology, perhaps,
     `character, tale!nts,  educati&,  mode of thinking, style     registering the  grad,ual development of the world's
      of writing, personal experience and historical circum-       religious instinct. Evolution governs all things in the
      stances so `as to fit authors each in his own place,         Spiritual as well as the physical domain.; and the Old
      in the organism of Scripture. The Holy Spirit  pre;          and New Testaments only mark the stages through
      -pared `these authors and inspired, moved, illuminated       which the  spiritnal  faculties of earlier races had pass-
      and guided them to write infallibly the Divine Word          ed. The ever developing reason of man must make
     I with its one purpose  - the Glory of God, and one           their  doctrinc+has in ail ages  maide it-the starting
     great message in the organic whole - the revelation           point for further evolutions ; the end of which is not
     ,,of God in Christ, His Son.                                  yet. This theory forever  vacilating between Theism
         The Scripture, therefore, is one. It has one Divine       and Atheism, ha no place save among the enemies of
     author'; one purpose ; one message!. As such it is truly      the Christian faith, for it denies the Word as Divine
      inspired, bearing everywher:e  the impress of its Divine     Revelation in which unity and harmony prevail and
      Author. It is pure, for God is pure, and Holy, for God       is soon lost in maze of human reason which it exalts
     is Holy. It is marked by unity, for "known unto God           to sit as Judge over the Word of God.
a     are all His: works from the beginning." It is consist-           Traditionalism, which finds its zenith in the  heir-
      ent and complete, for "the Spirit searcheth all things,      archy of Rome, accepts the two elements: Scripture
      yea, even the deep things of God." It is an harmoni-         and the oral tradition of the church. This necessarily
      ous  whole fur its  Authors  is the Spirit to whom all       requires as its final judge an infallible regulative
      things  tare revealed and whose messages are of no           authority in the church itself and once again loses the
     `private interpretation, but a consistent re-velation  of     principle of the one Divine Word sufficient unto all
      good things to come.                                         salvation.       `.
               In that unity, however, there is diversity.  Its       To a greater or lesser degree all heresy is guilty
      thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and twenty-           of the same practice of refusing to acknowledge the
     seven in the New are the work of some forty different         Analogy of Scripture as it seeks to maintam  itself on
      writers. The whole is collected into one volume whose        the basis of only a portion of the whole ; which part is
      composition is spread over the long  interval  of fif-       again warped to suit its purpose.           Dr. Bavinck ex-
      teen humlred years. It is not, however, the variety          presses this thought most succinctly in his great
      of a mechanical instrument that pervades the Bible,          work on Reformed Dogmatics when he affirm: "It
      but the diversity of a living organism growing ou.t of       is a distinguishing mark of many sects, that they
      a common principle - the revelation of God in Christ.        proceed from a small part of Scripture and for the
     1 This unity of thought, purpose and message in the           rest leave it severely  alone."1         We, who maintain
     ~diversified  ,organic whole is referred to as the Analogy the historic Reformed position in respect to the Sov-
     of Scripture. The subordination, correlation, and co-         1. Dr. H.  Havinck: "Gtxefvrmoerde   Rogmatkk  ;"  Vd.  1,  Par.
     opemtiw   of all parts  ta the  pmxzd   effect  of the 22, I%& 587


                                                     TH:E'   STANDkRD'.tiEARER                                                                I'jLj

       ereignty of God  over  all His creatures, are well aware           that of the Bible in its entirety a idogma must be built ;
       of this denial of the Analogy of Scripture among our               it must evo!ve  organically out of principles which are
      erring brethren of the Christian Reformed Church.                   everywhere present in Scripture."3 And finally, the
       Upon the dictum of the highest ecclessiastical  author:            noted Dutch theologian, Dr. A. Kuyper affirms: "If
       ity of .that body and upon the basis of a few apparent             hermeneutics (which is the science of interpreta-
       proof-texts, they attempt to maintain and defend th:e              tion) deposits rules for exegesis that proceed from the
       theory of a common grace. When confronted with                     presupposition that each book stands aphoristically
       the current teaching of the unity of Scripture,  t,hey             by itself and that therefore we can only apply the
       assume the  unreasona,ble  .and naive position of a dual-          analogy of Scripture to the writings of the same
       ism in that revealed unity. Under the cloak. of. a                 author,. for example those of Paul and John, then she
       pious humility, they must anecessarily  maintain that              would abondon thereby, in principle, the unity of
       the Bible contradicts itself, and receive as truth the             Scib$ture,  consider that unity something contingent
       speech of the Church as: the final authority.                      `even when it is not  contradict&  by the results of
            It'is essential, therefore, for those who would main-         exegesis and deny in fact that one and the same High-
       tain `the integrity of the Scriptures to understand the            er Consciousness speaks through all these Scriptures
       importance of the Analogy  of. Scripture.  .That   t.he            together to the Church of Christ."4
       Scripture is centrally the Revelation'of Go& in Christ                 There  mu& be, therefore, the perpetual reference
       must always be remembered. It is an arganic whole,                 to the universal harmony of Scriptural truth as given
       from which it follows that it may not be treated as a              by the one inspiring Spirit.. This analogy of Scrip-
       mere collection of writings without  relaition  to-. one           ture must govern the interpretation of the Divine
       another and perhaps in mutual conflict. The, writings              Word as  bei,ng  a gradual development of one harmon-
       of the prophets, the apostles and evangelists are to-              ious Truth. That Analogy is not and cannot be based
       gether the vehicle' for the one Word of God, the reve-             upon a few- proof texts, but must be the result of
       lation of Jesus. Christ is everywhere and yet Christ               exegesis of extensive passages throughout Scripture
       is nowhere. He is in the Gospels but not apart from                so that we may come to the perfect `and complete reve-
      " the Old Testament prophets, or exclusive of the Reve-  ,j lation_of  God in Christ. Dogmatics  and exegesis must
      .lation  of  23t.. John. Only all together do `we get the           `not and may not dominate our interpretation of Scrip-
      -complete ,Christ..  We must, therefore, ever seek the ture, but must be dominated by Scripture. Scripture
      ,`unity in the diversified whole- and only by applying              must interpret itself or remain uninterpreted.
       the analogy of the whole `shail we determine what is                   Following this principle, we walk in the footsteps
       the particular Word of God at any certain place. Only              of the earliest defen.ders  of the Sovereignty of God.
       then do we realize that there is development, but no               Both Augustine and `Calvin, when confronted by the
       discrepancy. There are partial contrasts, adding life heretics who presented the apparent contradiction  _ of
       to the whole by the diversity of the parts, but no  con-           %d's Word with itself, took refuge in the Analogy
      .,tra;d:iction.  There is a manifest  .and undeniable har-  of Scripture.                 When faced, for example, with such
      `,`mony  of thought, tone and doctrine which  animates              passages as 1 Timothy 2: 3 and 4: YThis is good. and
      ,,  and. pervades, the whole.                                       acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour ; who would
           As a principle for use by  the, sincere  student  of           have all men to be saved, and come to knowledge. of
       `Scripture,, t.he Analogy is indispensable and' has al-            the truth," which according to their opponents plainly
      $ays been regarded as snch.'  From the' earliest Church             teach that God wills t-hat all men shall be saved .and
       Fathers down through the ages the Christian theolo-                is merciful to all- men, they replied that it .cannot  .be
       gian has recognized this principle as  funrdamentai.               interpreted by itself. They replied, according to the
II     We limit ourselves  to'but three quotations to  substan-           analogy of Scripture, `that God is in the heavens and
      tiate this fact. The first is by Thomas Hartwell  Horne             loeth all His good pleasure. Hence, this passage will
      in his "Introduction to the Critical Study and Know-                lave_  to be  interpretedr  in such wise that it agrees
       ledge of the Holy Scriptures." He writes thus: "The  * ,vith the other, viz. I will be gracious to whom I' will
       sense of any prophecy is not to be determined-by. an !' ie `gracious, and show mercy to whom  I  ,wilI's(how
      abstract' consideration of the passage itself, but by               i.ercy.5
       taking it in conjunction with other portions of Scrip-  ( By the same` proper use of the Analogy of, Scz
       ture relating to the subject, `comparing things spiri:-            ture, the Church today may defend itself through the
       ual with spiritual ;' a rule, which though it .be espec- `. unity of the Divine Word and Revelation against all
       ially applicable to the prophetic writing, is also  .of
       general importance in the exposition of the Sacred                 3.  "Gereformeerde   Dogmatiek,"   Vol.  I;  Par,  22,  page 586
       Volume."2   In the same manner Dr. Bavinck  declar-                4:  Enqwlopaedie   der  Heilige   Go,&geleerdheld,"   Vol.  III,  Chap.
       ed: "Not on the basis of "5 few separate texts, but on             II,,  Par.  11,  page  106
                                                                          5.  g;;  H.  Hoeksema: "God's  Goodness   .hvays  ParticuI?r,"
       2.  Vol.  II;   Pa&  116,  Chap.  III,  $ec,   VXII, page  $6"'    Chap. IV, pages 61*63,                                      ,`I


 156                                              TiHE   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

heresy and unfold its organic beauty. And thus, as                              tion is an absolute requirement. Gold is beautiful
someone has said: "by due attention to these prin-                              but it requires mining, God's message is beautiful but
ciples, and with humble supplication to the throne of                           it requires study. A man one time said, the Bible was
grace for a blessing on his labours,  the diligent search-                      not  Iwritten  for lazy people.
er after Scripture truth may confidently hope for
success. The design of every portion of Holy Writ,                              F-irst Speaker: W&e  aeed ministers such as.Am&,  the
its harmony with the rest, and the Divine perfection                            prophet, he said, "I was no prophet, neither was I a
of the whole, will more and more fully be displayed                             prophet's son, but I was a  herdman.  . .and the Lord
and thus will he be led, with increasing veneration                             took me as I followed the flock." Amos did not go to
and gratitude, to adore Hi,m, to whom every sacred                              school a few years, instead, the Lord prepared Him
book bears witness, and every divine dispensation led                           in His o.wn way. Amos could say, all I know is what
the way ; even Him who is the Alpha and Omega, the                              the Lord taught me.
fir& and the last, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,                            i&mmd Speaker : Every godly minister is taught of
today and forever."6                                                            the Lord, acconding  to Isa. (and John 6 ~45). ,But you
                                                                                forget two things.' First of all you forget that the
6.  Quoted   in  `I!.  H.  Hone: "An  Introduction   to  the  Critical
.Study   and  Knowledge  of  the  1801~   Scriptures,"  Vol.  II,  Part  II,    O.T. days of shadows and types are terminated, the
Chap.   III,  Sec.  VIII,  page   562                                           days of special revelation and inspiration have passed.
                                                    W. Hofman                   To wait for their return is to tempt God. God still
                                                                                teaches His ministers but He does this through the
                                                                                means, preparation and: education under godly teach-
                                                                                ers, ministers and professors.. But you also forget
                                                                                that Moses ha!d preparatory training, so did Samuel
                                                                                and Joshua, and don't forget the Apostle Paul. Long
          Why An Educated Clergy                                                ago the churches realized that preparatory training
                                                                                was necessary in order that a minister might risghtly
                                                                                divide the Word:, defend and preach it with all the
        That is: why is it fnecessary  that a minister of the                   talent at his command. Therefore Jp 1618-1619 they
Gospel acquire an education and be a graduate from a                            penned these words: "The Churches  lshall exert them-
seminary?                                                                       selves as far as necessary, that there be  stu(dents  sup-
        Perhaps if we put it in conversational form, let- ported by them to be trained for the ministry of the
ting the first  s,peaker each time present the objec-                           Word." And, again, "The con&stories  shall see to it
tions to an educated: clergy, and the second speaker                            that there are good Christian,  schools."    (D.K.O. Arts
represent the view of the undersigned in answer                                 19, 21 resp.).
thereto, we could make the matter clear.                                        First Spea.ker  :    A minister is called to preach the
Fimt  Speaker: I believe that if God singles out some-                          simple Gospel. If he have the gift of reading he can
one to preach the Gospel, He puts the message into                              read it for himself for the Bible is so simple that a
their hearts.. For we read in Mark 13 :11 "Take <no                             child  Citn understand it. Coming from schools our
thought what ye shall speak, neither do ye pre-medi-                            ministers  often preach big words, latest ideas, modern
 tate, but whatsoever shall  be,given  you in that hour,                        views alnd they treat us to indigestible pieces of philos-
 that speak ye." Then they speak that which they                                ophy. Besides, we read in I John 2:27,  "ye need not
heard from God and not something which they memor-                              that any man teach you."
 ized at the feet of some professor.                                            Second  Speaker: Your interpretation of I John 2  ~27
Secwd Speaker :             In Mark 13 : 11 Jesus i,s not pre-                  proves exactly that the Gospel is not so simple and
scribing what preparation is or is not necessary to the                         if our ministers would all read the whole Bible as
ministry, but is assuring His persecuted followers that                         wrong as you read that text would deceive the church
 He will not forsake them -in the hour of trial for He                          of God by our lack of learning and failure of know-
 will give them His Spirit and they shall testify. Be-                          ing how to read the simple Won& It is not a simple
sides that, however, God does not put messages into                             things to read the Word of God, much less to preach
 our hearts.  .God  has put His whole message in the                            it. The  mini&ers  must do both.
 Scriptures and if we will have  His message in our                                 Here I would like to emphasize three things. First
 hearts we must get it, not out of the air, but out of                          the the  lpreac;hing  of the Gospel is so immense and so
 His word. Then Paul says, "Study to show thyself sacredly holy a work that the preparation for it can-
approved unto Gad? and, again, "Meditate upon these snot be too thorough and careful. Even the barber
 things, give thyself wholly to them." In the effort to has to take a preparatory course. You would not
 do this more efficiently and  whole-heartedly  an educa- want your horse treated by any but a certified vet-


                                     WTE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               157

 erinsrian. Is God then so careless of His Holy Word          of God, to collect from that Word of God her standards
 that He will have it administered by men unskilled           of faith, to study theology according to these words."
 therein? Consider that the Gospel is the Word of the         A seminary which commits itself faithfully to this
 eternal God, the power of God unto salvation, a Key          high calling, will, by the grace of God send forth from
, of' the Kingdom. How serious to mis-read: and mis-          her halls men who know the truth and love it, and who
 interpret it. I know, the most skilled and highly  tli-      with head; and heart shall defend and preach it.
 eated are continually capable of error, and everyone of
 us makes errors, but if these errors are due simply          First Speaker  : But it is much better that a minister
 to negligent preparation and faulty t.raining  the mat-      know the needs of the silnner  than that he know all
 ter is that much worse.                                      the languages and creeds.
    Secondly, the minister must be able to interpret          Second Speaker  :    Certainly no one can be a true
 Sdripture  with the Scripture. And then, as Terry says       minister of the Gospel except he know himelf as a
 in his Biblical Hermeneutics, "A thorough acquaint-          sinner and know the needs of sinners in general. That
 ance with the genius and grammatical structure of            is the principle of all sound ,wisdom.    But since our
 the original languages of the Bible, is essentially the      knowledge of sin comes from the Word of Gad, what
 basis of all sound interpretation." A little later he        could be better for the minister t,han that. he be able
 says, "A translation, however faithful, is an iaterpre-      to read and interpret that Word skillfully? The ~more
 tation,  and cannot safely be made a substitute for          he does that, the more he and the congregati0.n  will
 oringinal and independent investiga,tion"  (P. 69). We       begin to know the true heights of grace and fathom'
 see thus that acquaintance with Hebrew and Greek is          more fully the  dept&  of sin.    There are men who
 essential and whoever has seen an Hebrew Bible will          have visited the  ;depths  of sin; walked therein for
 admit that it might take a few years of study before         years, were then converted and later became ministers.
 you will read it.                                            But it is to nobody's honor, least of all to God's, that
    Finally, the minister's work is not merely to talk        he spent the first part of his life in sin. Our  pre-
 about an isolated text for a while and probably later        seminary course follow> the covenant way of gradual
 draw some valuable lessons from it, as is the habit of       development in sin-consciousness and grace-conscious-
 many. But he is called to preach the Whole Counsel           ness. The minister does not, lose these by acquiring
 of God. To preach the text, in the  te-xt to preach          an education, rather he is l&rengthened  in them and
 Christ, in Christ to preach God, and in that to preach       then becomes "apt to teach" others in them later.
 the way of salvation so earnestly and convincingly                                                        M. G.
 that even the devils will say, "These men are the
 servants of the No&  High God, which show. unto us
 the way of salvation." Acts  16:17. The preparation                               - *-----'                  <.,-
 for this mighty work cannot therefore be too thorough.
 First  Swaker :      I believe so much education spoils             The King James Version
 them.    They learn creeds and doctrines and their
 preaching is cold. I believe "Hij moet eerst `s  door-                             And The
 breken, dan kan hij wat vertellen." Then it comes            American Revised:, A Comparison
 from the heart, not merely from the head.
 Second  Speaker : I grant that there are  man; so-called        ,The subject assigned to the undersigned is far
 preiseminary  courses which fill ministers with science,     more interesting than the title might suggest. As a
 falsely so called. But the fault lies not in  education      rule an article ,which contains comparitssns  of two or
 and instruction but in the insructors  themselves who        more things ldn>es not make pleasant reading. Yet a
 evidently were not educated of God. I know, many             comparison of the two versions of our English Bible
 schools and universities have become ashamed of the          is both interesting and profitable. It is interesting
 doctrines of the Fathers. But the true idea of educa-        because  of- the history back of these two versions but
 tion along this line has been preserved for us in The        also and above all because it deals-with different ver-
 Ordination and Installation of Professors of Theology.       sions of the Word of God.  :As Reformed people we
  (Which you may read for yourself in the rear of our         are interested in pure doctrine and are zealous to
 Psalters). Let me quote Paul, he writes to Timothy:          know the real meaning of Scripture. Therefore we
 "And the things which thou hast heard from many              are also eager to know which version, the King James'
 witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men,. who        or the American Revised  gives  us more purely the
 shall be able to teach others." The form packs this          English equivalent of the original Hebrew and Greek.
 all' together as follows : "It follows therefore that the       A comparison of these two versions must begin
 Church has the dibvine mission to proclaim the Word          with a comparison of' their origin. "What," you say,


                                                                                                                          . .
158                                  T H E   ST;AN+.A:RD.   B E A R E R

 "is there not one Word of God, one origin of both            the Hebrew or. the Greek. Many Latin translations
versions  ?" Indeed there is. Nevertheless these two          were made of them later. But it was not until the
versions are not translations of the same document..          year 1382 that the entire Bible was translated into the
Let. me explain this briefly.                                 E,nglish  language. This was  the work of John  Wy-
       You realize of course %hat the original document       cliffe. ,, In 1526 an English version of the New Testa-
 written by Moses, the prophets, and even those of the ment  appeared,a.s  the work of Wm. Tyndale. Then in
.Apostles  in  rthe New Dispensation, are no longer in        the 17th Century the King of l$ngland,  James VI ap-
 e-xistence.    Through much use they have long ago           pointed fifty-four men to translate the Old and New
 perished or become lost. However copies were made            Testament into. the English language, Since King
 of these original writings by the Church. The churches James had appointed and authorized these men, the
which received epistles from Paul for example, would          version was called the King James' or Authorized
 read them, make copies of them  and send the original        Version. This version of the Bible was accepted and
to a neighboring church. This church would follow             cher.ished by all English speaking peoples and is still
the same procedure. Thus we read in Co!. 4 :16, "And          highly prized today, so  .well  was it translated by these
 when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be        fifty-four men.
 read also in the church of the Laodiceans: and that ye          This King James' Version  ;vas completed in the.
likewise read the epistle from the Laodiceans". The           year 1611. That same .year a very old copy of the
original soon became soiled, cracked and unreadable.          original was found by the famous German scholar
 But by God's providence there were many copies of            Dr. Tischendorf in, a convent at the. foot o.f Mt. Sinai.
 these epistles in circulation.                               The translators of the King James' version had no
       These copies that had been made from the original      access to this. copy, t.heir work being completed before
in turn were re-copied by some others: You can readily        this copy was brought to light. The style of this copy
,understand  that discrepancies and variations soon           shows plainly that it was a very old one. It was call-
 crept. in. in copying there is always the danger of          ed the  Sinaitic  Manuscript. In 1628. another very old
o.mjtting  a word, misspelling or even repetition. Espec-     copy of the original was presented to King Charles I
 ia$y was this danger present with making copies from of Englalnd. It had formerly been kept in the Library
 the original, for at that time the Greek was written         at Alexandria. It therefore acquired the name Alex-
 entirely in capital letters, and the words were con-         andrian Manuscript. Needless to say the translatcrs
 nected oil to each other. In John 1 :l you would find        of the King James Version had no access to this  copy
 this in the Greek ; only of course in Greek letters and      either. There `was also in the Vatican at Rome an-
wording : INTHEBEGINNINGWASTHEWORD. Be-                       other very old copy called the Vatican Manuscript
 si,des  th& many of the copyists were not any too sin-       which the Roman Catholic Church prizes highly and
 cere and honest in their work and often (doubting that       which the translators of the King James Version were
 the copyist before them had copied his manuscript            unable to consult.    In time copies were printed of
 correctly, ,these  copyists would change the, ,words  to     both the Sinaitic  and Vatican Manuscripts and kept in
 make a' difficult passage easier to read .&id under-         the British Library at London.
 stand. You have a striking example of this in James             In 1870 it was decided in England to make a new
 1:19. The King James' Version following one of these         version of the Bible in the English ,language  making
 copies has, "Wherefore, my beloved. brethren". The           use of these very old copies which they now could con-
 American Revised Version following another copy              sult and the `many other copies  which were not quite
* r.eads, "Ye know this,...my  beloved brethren". The dif-    as old and which were the sources used by the trans-
 ference is due to the-changing of the first letter of the    lators of the King James' Version. In June 1870
 word in the Greek even as the meaning of our Eng-            ninety-nine men began this  ,work.  Of these  ninety-
 lish word is changed ientirely by substituting a "b"         nine men, thirty four were scholars from America.
 for the "1". Then the word "look" becomes "book".            The work was finished in the year 1880 and was call-
 Thus also in the Greek "wherefore" becomes  "ye              ed the Revised Version of the Bible.
 "know".                                                         After the work was completed, the thirty-four
       In other instances a copyist would forget where he     American revisers decided not to idisband but to con-
 left off *the previous Qay and would begin at the            tinue working having disagreed with the English re-
 wrong place omitting sentences and phrases. In many visers on certain points. They. changed the wording
 other ways variations appeared  in  the  ,copies  that       and punctuation ,together  w.ith other changes to make
 could be, found.                                             it more suitable,, for American' reading, removing
  Now it stands to reason that the older the copy is          such obsolete Eaglish words.. as  magnifical,   neesings,
 the more reliable it is apt to be, for each copying          and the like which<the English $,ranslators preferred.
 carries the danger of more variations and errors.            The work of this American Committee is called the
       These copies for the greater share were either in      American Revised Version of the Bible.  ,,..         :,,


                                         T*HE   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                169

        Let me. give you a few more differences between             King James' and the American Revised Versions to
     the King James' and the American Revised versions.             compare them as you read at the table or study your
     In contrast to the King James Version the American             lesson for  society.  But if the choice must be made
     Revised Version has- all the poetic passages such as the between the two the undersigned would choose and re-
     Psalms and  Proverbs  written  in poetic style. The            commend the King James' Version.
     American Revised  Versio.n  has simplified the punc-              Another criticism might be added to substantiate
     tuation and .altered  the paragraphs very often short-         the view of the undersigned. No less an  aut.hority
     ening them.                                                    than Dr. Hastings who is known for the Bible dic-
        A few very  ,noticeable  differences between these          tionary  ,he wrote has this to say of the American
     two versions is that the American Revised Version              Revised Version, "The principles of classical Greek
     throughout the Old Testament uses the name Jehovah             were applied too rigidly to a Greek that was no:
     where it is so used in the Hebrew while the King               classicah"                                     J.A.H.
     James' Version translates it Lord. Similarly the
     American Revised Version consistently speaks of the
     Holy Spirit where the King James' Version always
     calls the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy
     Ghost. The American Revised Version also is more
     correct  when it makes a distinction in the New Testa-                                 DEBATE
     ment between Hades and Hell. Hades is the place of                            (Contiaued from page 150')
     the dead, the grave, while Hell is the place of eternal
     torment. The King James' Version makes no dis-                    Let us examine the other  excerph from the works
     tinction between the two using the word <hell regard-          of the authorities quoted by my opponent. Hodge is
     less of the fact that the original uses two separate           quoted  ,to the  effect.that  "there are certain things pre-
     words. The American Revised Version likewise uses              scribed, to which every church ought to conform,
'    the word sheol in the  OId Testament which means the           and many thinlgs  as to which she is at Iiberty to act
     place of the :dead, literally a cavity or hollo,w place, in    as she deems best ,to God's glory."        So far Hodge.
     the place of the word hell which appears in the King           This sentence, certainly, contains not a shred of evi-
     James' Version. In the King James Version a Greek              dence in proof of the affirmative proposition. The
     word was often translated differently in two separate          "certain things prescribed to which every church
     places.    You find for, example in Hebrews  lo:23 in          ought to conform, are  of course, the articles of the
     the King James' Version, "Let us hold fast the pro-            Church Order,`" and, says Hodge, "every church ought
     fession of our faith." The American Revised Version            to conform to them. This is exactly the requirement
     is correct when it translates, "Let us hold fast the           of the negative proposition. We can also agree with
     profession of our hope." The King James' Version               Hcxd%e  when he says that there are many things as
     has in Philippians 3:20, "For our conversation is in           to which the (local) church is at liberty to act as
     heaven." Again the American Revised Version is the             she deems best, but, certainly, they cannot be the
     correct one when `it reads, "For our citizenship is in         things prescribed, the rules that all the churches
     heaven." These are only a few of  the, many places in          eon jointly adopted. The Church  Or,der  itself takes
     which the American Revised Version presents the                cognizance of the fact that "there are many  .thingq
     original words correctIy.                                      as to which the local church is at liberty to act as she
        Perhaps you are ready to say, "I think I had better         deems best. .A few examples. Art. 4 reads :. "The Ial=
     see to it that I invest in an American Revised Version         ful calling of those who have not bOeen  previously ,,iu
     of the Bible." Do not be too hasty. There is at least office, consists: First, in the election by the corn&story
     one serious weakness, if we may so call it, in the             and the Deacons, after preceding prayers," and. now
     American Revised Version which to the mind of the              take notice of the phrase that follows, "with due ob-
     undersigned far outweighs any of the improvements              servance of the regulations established by the  consis-
     that might have been made. The American  Revis.ed              tory for this purpose.""     This  ,same phrase is  con:
     Version has omitted many passages of scripture which           tained in articles 5, 22, 37. We also, assuredly, agree
     should be included. In the American Revised Version            with Hodge when he writes (my opponent quotes
     you do not find the complete Lord's Prayer, to men-            Hodge also here) : "We must indeed be able to pro-
     tion only one example. The beautiful close, "For thine duce a `Thus saith the Lord' for everything, whether
     is the kingdom, and the power, nd the glory forever.           a truth, or a duty, or mode of  ecclessiastical  organiza-
     Amen" is not found except as a footnote. Many other            tion or action, which we make obligatory on the con-
     passages are omitted. Matthew lB:ll, Acts 8 :37 and            science of other  men.". What Hod.ge of course means
     .I. John 5:7 are a few of these passages.                      is that we must be able to produce a "Thussai:tk  the
        It would  indeeda be  profit.able to have both the          Lord:" for everything which we make obligatory dig


                                     --_.___-   --  --  _l_il-.
                                     T$iR     ST'ANDARD'   B`R=ARRR   -.

rectlq n& per $6 on the conscience of men. This is pl'e-      tainly is not their dotitrine,  but this ; that these hu-
cisely what he must have meant. For Hodge was a man           man ordinances are not per se, as such, binding on the
of Reformed-persuasions. He was thus no Bolachevist.          conscience.    But these human ordinances nre bind-
So construed, this teaching of  Hold,ge agrees perfectly      ing on the conscience. To deny this (and my  ob-
with what Joh. J,ansen  teaches in the following excerpt      poncnt   dozs  deny it) is to be pitted against the
(quoted by my opponent) ; "Allereerst  ontkennen wij          plain teachings of Holy Writ. "Submit yourself to
dan, dat de kerkenordening eene conscientie bindende          every ordinance `of man for the Lord's sake," m?rk
kracht zou hebben, zooals de Roomschen beweren. Zij,          you, for the Lord's Bake,  whSch is certainly equivalen:
tech zeggen, dat  alle menschelijke  wetten, zoowel           to saying, for conscience sake (I Pet.  2:14). The
kerkelijke als politieke, met gaddelijke  wetten op een       apostle continues ; "Whether it be to the king as su-
lijn staan, en daarom de conscientie  binden. De Gere-        preme or unto  ,govenors.  .  ." And why must these
formeerden  onderxheiden  echter  met Voetius tusschen        human. ordinances be obeyed? . Not because they are
fgoddelijke en menschelijke wetten. De goddelijke wet-        binding on the conscience  pe,r  6e but because they  arc
ten zijn  o%r&k;t  en per  se van  conscientie-birudende      imposed upon us by powers ordained of God,  90 that,
kracht, omdat God de Heere der conscientie is, de             to be pitted against these ordinances, is in the final
Eenige  We&-ever,  die het  geweten-   binden  kan (i.e.      instance to be pitted against Go.d. The teaching of my
per se of course, G.M.O.) . . . .en de1 geloovigen mogen      opponent is thoroughly revolutionary. It is heretical
geen dienstknechten van menschen wordien.  Zelfs die          through and through. If practiced, it would lead to'the
artikelen eener kerkenordening, welke  rechtsreeks  aan       reiection  of all the divinely ordained powers both in
de  Schrift  ontleend zijn, hebben alleen conscientie-        church  and state in so far as they stand before us
bindende kracht (per se, of course, G.M.O.), omdat            in their human ordinances. If Hodge and Jansen and
God  zelf ze voorgeschreven heeft, en niet omdat ze in        the others could know that my opponent quotes them
de kerkenordeniag staan; dus  niet  in qualiteit van          in support of his revolutionary opinions, they would
kerkelijke, maar goddelijke bepalingen."                      turn over in their graves.
   With this teaching we are certainly in hearty agree-                                                               G. M. 0.
ment. But let us see just what this teaching is. We                                                                      .
have need here of the distinction; 1)  eclessiastical  and
political laws, ordinances or rules whose content is
directly or indirectly taken from Gold's Word.  `i)
Eclessiastical and political laws, ordinances or rules,                                       IN  MEMORIAM
the content of which, though not directly or indirectly                                                          -
derived  .from God's Word,  is  nevertheless  not con-            After a few days illness, the Lord  remove-d  from our
trary to God's Word. The latter are merely-human              midst  otir  beloved  Wif,e and Mother
ordinances. We find many such human ordinances                                MRS.   BERTHA  SCHAAFSMA
on the statute .books  of the civil magistrate. For es-
ample. That motorists, when .driving on the streets           at the age of 54 years.
of Grand Rapids shall not exceed 25 miles per hour,               In our grief we are comforted in the assurance that she
is such a human ordinance. Likewise the mandate of            has gained the hope eternal.
a parent that that son of his-a lad of sixteen years                                                 Mr. Sybrant  G. Schaafsma
old-will be home at eleven o'clock when he goes out                                                  Mr. and Mrs. Gerrit Schaafsma
for an evening.. Likewise article  50  of- the Church                                                Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Schaafsm
Order  wchich  reads; "The general synod shall  prdinar-                                             Sybrant J. &haafsma
ily meet once every two years unless there be urgent                                                                  2 grandchildren.
need to shorten  .the time."                                  Grand papids,  Mich.
   What now is the teaching of Hodge and Jansen and           December 4, 1943.
Vo.etius?  Prcisely  this. Only those laws whose  .con-
tent is directly or indirectly dirived from God's Word
are binding on the conscience  per se as  su.ch.      The
reason js that in these laws we have to do with the
very Word of God.       But do these authorities also                                         Editor's Note.
teach that those human ordinances of which it cannot
be said that their content is derived from God's Word             We have a couple of questions and an "Ingeionden,"
but of which'it-can certainly be said that their con-         to which we have as yet not been able to give the re-
tent is not contrary.-to God's WordLI  ask, is it also        quired  attention.  Please, have a little patience.  In
the teaching of these authorities that these human or-        due time the material will appear, the Lord willing.
dinances,.arenot  binding on the conscience? Such cer-                                 -.                                 H. 81
                                                                                      ..,(


VOLUME XX                                           JANUARY 15, 1944                                         NUMBER?

                                                                  incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,
                                                                  of the final victory over all his enemies, over sin,
                                                                  death, the devil, all the powers of darkness. And trust-
                                                                  ing in that Word, he keeps it, purifying himself even
                                                                  as He is pure, an'3 walking in the light even in the
                                                                  midst of the world that lies in darkness. And thus,
                                                                  confiding in, and keeping the Word of God, he be-
                                                                  comes God's representative, he is of the party of the
                Let thy mercies come also, unto me, 0 Lord,       living God, and that, too, in opposition to the ,worZd
              even thy  salvatiola, according to thy  ,word.      and all the powers of darkness. . . .
 f*           So  shad1  I  hmue wherewith to  cmswer him            And he bears witness.
              that reproach.eth me : for I trust in thy wmd..        .As God's representative through Jesus Christ the
                                            Ps.  119:-$1,  42.    Lord, he may never be silent.
       The  apologia.!                                               Always he must be able to bear testimony of the
       The believer in this world is conscious of the need        living God.             .
of an apology.                                                       No power in' heaven or on earth or in the pit may
       Not, indeed, in the modern sense of t,he word, as          silence him! In tribulation, or distress, or persecu-
if he felt the need of  a$ologi&g, of making an ex-               tion, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword;
cuse, of assuming a miserably weak defensive posi-                over against  ,death and life, angels, principalities,
tion over against the world that lieth in darkness.               powers, things present and things to come, height
       Or why should the light apologize to the darkness,         and depth,-always he must have something to say !
righteousness to unrighteousness, holiness to corrup-               For he trusts in the Word of Jehovah.
tion, the truth to the lie, life to death, Christ to Belial?         And the glory of the name of the Lord is insengr-
Is not the darkness  reproved  of the light? Is not               ably connected with his testimony.
unrighteousness condemned by righteousness? Must                     God is not ashamed to be called his God, no matter
not corruption blush with shame before holiness?                  what may be his position or plight in the world; and
Does not the lie cower in the darkness before the clear           he may not b,e ashamed to call Jehovah his God!
light of the truth? Does not life have the victory over              So shall I have wherewith `to answer !
death? And is not Christ God's Anointed, the sole                    (The believer's apologia!
Heir of all things? Why then should the believer as-
sume an apologetic attitude over against the scoffing
unbeliever?                                                          The answer to all reproach!
       His is the offensive.                                         For 90 the psalmist expresses his desire here: so
       He fights the good fight, conscious of the victory.        shall I answer him that reproacheth me.
       Yet, he must have an a.nswer.                                 And this reproach on the part of the enemy is
       Always he mu& be ready to give an  apologia  to            not only very real, but usually it appears to be well
every man that asks him for a reason of the hope that             founded.
is in him.                                                           The world and the powers of darkness are oslen-
       For he trusts in the Word of Jehovah ! And that            sibly right, they appear to have abundant reasons to
Word of the Lord to him is a promise of salvation, of             fill those that trust in the Word  of Jehovah with re-
eternal righteousness and glory, of an inheritance                proach. And there seems to be no answer.


                                                                                                              .-_
162                                    T'HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

       It was so, yes, indeed, it was so above all with           Or does not that cross spell utter defeat of the
Christ                                                         cause this Son of man had represented  ? Is it not the
       He was the Representative of the living God  II; the    lie to all He had ever claimed? Is not that crucified
world peer ezcellence. And He is the faithful Witness.         One the embodiment of all that is contemptible? And
For the Lord God had given Him the tongue of the               is it not true, is it not clearly evident, that `He is
learned, not of the philosopher of this world, but of          indeed forsaken of God  a:?d men, and that all Eis
him that is  .taught of  Gold, that He might speak a           confidence in God. had been vain? Or does `He ;lot
word to him that is weary. Jehovah opened His ear,             Himself corroborate the claim of the-enemy, when He
so that `He might receive the Word of God. And in              cries out: `,`My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
that Word did He put His trust. Of it He bore testi-           me?". . . .
many.       And He was not rebellious, neither did He             Yet, even then, He had an answer to them that
turn away back. Isa. 50:4,  5.                                 reproached Him !
       And for this the world hated Him !                         He gave His back. to the smiters, and His cheeks
       For that world loved the darkness rather than the to them that plucked off the hair; He hid not His face
light. And realizing that the darkness was reproved            from shame and spitting!
and condemned by the light, they hated Him that                   And He witnessed, and gave the answer to them
bore this testimony with a deep  aad lasting and cruel         that reproached  .Him  : "the Lord God will help me ;
hatred.                                                        therefore I shall not be confounded: therefore have
       And how they filled Him with reproach !                 I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not
                                                               be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me; who will
       For sharper and crueler weapon than reproach            contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine
the enemy has none.        Of a more effective means TV        adversary? let him come near unto me. Behold the
maintain their own position in the world, and to ex-           Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn
pose the cause of the Son of God as false and wortn-              ?"  Isa.  50:7-g. He did make the good confession,
less they know not. For to reproach one is to present          E;ore the high priest and before Pontius'Pilate,  and,
him as a worthless fellow, an outcast, one that can pre-       finally on the cross:' "Henceforth ye shall see the
sent no credentials why he should be in the world at all,      Son of man, sitting at the right hand of God and com-
one that has a thousand reasons to be  thor?,ughly             ing with the clouds of heaven :" the victory is Mine !
ashamed of himself, and of the cause he represents,            God will surely justify Me ! Yes, indeed, I am a Ring,
a liar, and imposter, one that  is so contemptible that he     although My kingdom is not of this world! Today
is worthy of being forsaken utterly by God and meh!            thou shalt be with Me in paradise! It is finished!
       And so they reproached Him!                             Father, into thy hands do I commend My spirit!. . . .
       Him more than any man!                                     The answer to ;hem that approached Him!
       They called Him a <deceiver, one that is in the            The apologia!
service of Beelzebub, the prince of devils, a liar and           And all that are of Him, and in Him, must thus
blasphemer, a dangerous fellow that forbade to pay             suffer reproach.
tribute, an insurrectionist that aimed at usurping                How  coubd it be different? Did they not hate Him?
Caesar's throne, a destroyer of the temple. And they           How, then, could it be otherwise than that they shall
proceeded to expose Him as such, and to prove their            also hate those that are of Him? The servant is not
contentions, to make Him a spectacle, one that was             greater than his Master: let it be sufficient for the
cursed by God and men.          They derided Him, they         servant that he is like his Master! Like Him in suf-
bound Him, they smote Him and buffeted Him, they               fering, that he may also be like Him in glory.
spit upon Him in their contempt, they condemned Him               How could it be otherwise?
to death, they scourged Him, presented Him as the                 Is not that same Christ, Whom they hated with
mock-king, pressed the thorny crown upon His brow,             such a-cruel hatred, in the believers? And does He
and finally made Him an outcast, hanging .Him  on the          not become manifest in them? Does. He not dwell in
accursed tree. And even there, while He was help-              them by His Spirit, live in them, speak in and through
lessly stretched upon the cruel cross, they could not          them, give them His Word?  IAnd do they, too, not
refrain from casting their cruel mockery in His teeth,         trust in His Word? And trusting in His Word, do
to emphasize His folly, His contemptibleness, His ut-          they not keep His commandments, and become wit-
ter worthlessness, the falsity of His claims, the vanity       nesses of Him in word and in deed, so that `they let
of His trust. in God, His being completely forsaken of         their light, the light of God in Christ, shine in the
God and men !                                                  world and before men? And do they, then, not be-
       Cruel, deeply cutting reproach !                        come witnesses of the truth, and of righoeousness,  ip
       All the more cruel and cutting because the powers the midst of a world that lieth in darkness, and that
of darkness appeared to be right!                              loves that darkness rather than the light?  And. do


                                                    -
I'
I -- . --..                                TqHE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        ' 163
      -
      they not condemn  the unfruitful works of darkness,           the deepest and thickest darkness and confusion of
      :Vnlkmg  in the midst of this present worid as strangers hell, He would reveal to Him the way out, and show
      and pilgrims, looking for the city that hath founda-          Him the pathway of life. And so, as He made the
      tions, whose build.er and artificer  is God?. . . .           good confession, and gave answer to those that re-
           And so the world hates them.                             proached Him, He had His eye, not on the things that
           And the more they work out their own saIvation.          are seen, and that are temporal, but on the things that
      and walk as children of light, the more that hatred of        are not seen, and that are eternal. Be had regard for
      the world shall surely become manifest..                      the things that lie just beyond, but then completely
           And they need an answer!                                 beyond, the scope of our earthly vision: the resur-
           For the enemy reproaches them, even as they              rection from th,e dead !
      reproached Him.                                                   Thus it is with the psalmist.
           The mockers scoff that their doctrine is old fash-           He realizes that, if he is to have wherewithal to
      ioned, that their notions are but foolish imaginations,       answer him that reproaches him, his eye of faith must
      that they are narrow minded, fools that really have no        be directed, away from the things that are seen, unto
      place in the world ; and they make their place narrow,        the things that are not seen, to the salvation of God,'
      deny them a position, take away their name. . . .             to the resurrection!
         And so, they often appear to be the most miserable            cAnd so `he prays,: "Let thy mercies come also unto
      of all men !                                                  me, 0 Lord, even thy salvation, according to thy word."
           And presently they die Iike other men, and all their_        Mercies and Salvation !
      glorying, and their cause, and their hope appears to              Are they not the same? Thy mercies, even thy
      perish with them in the grave!                                salvation !
           For God's name's sake, for Chri&`s glory's sake,             For, indeed, the realized mercy of Jehovah is the
      they need an answer  ko them that reproach them!              salvation of His people. The Lord is merciful! He
           God is still for us! Who shall be aginst us?             is merciful, to be sure, in Himself, apart from any
           It is  Gold that justifies us: who is he that shall      relation to the creature, to His people in Christ Jesus.
      condemn us?                                                   For He is Most Blessed, the infinitely, and perfectly
           Nothing  caz ever  separafe  us from His love!           blessed God. And He knows Himself, and loves Him-
           The ctpoloyict!                                          self as the Blessed One for ever and ever. He wills
                                                                    to be blessed ! But He is also merciful to the people
                                                                    of His eternal choice, whom He has predestinated to
           The answer of l~ope !                                    be conformed to the image of His Son. And in His
           For not in the things that are seen can the answer       eternal and abundant mercy He ordained them to be-
      be found to those that reproach the people of God.            come partakers of His own life and blessedness, in
           For the things that are seen are temporal.  And          His eternal tabernacle, in the new Kingdom, the new
      the things temporal are limited on every side by death.       heavens and the new earth, in which righteousness
      Death is the last thing that is seen, both for the chil-      shall dwell.
      dren of light, and for the children of darkness. And              That salvation is realized now!
      it is the last justification of the reproach of the world.        For already they are justified, already they have
           The thing that is seen of the Christ of God is His       the forgiveness of sins, and the adoption of .children,
      cross.    And, even though it is true that  alreedy at        and already they are begotten again unto a lively
      the cross God justified His Servant, that cross itself        hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
      cannot be the answer to those that reproached Him.            the dead, according to His abundant mercy !
      Even the Son of God sinks away into the darkness of              But the final manifestation of this salvation still
      death and reproach at the accursed tree, and apparent-        waits for the coming again of their Lord from heaven.
      ly the enemies have the victory over Him.                         For that final salvation, his perfect and public
           If it is only in and for this life that we are hoping    justification, also over against him that reproaches
      in Christ, we are of all men most miserable! I                him, the poet, the Christian, longs. In that salvation
         But  the. answer is the resurrection !                     lies the answer, the apologia, he must have.
         He arose !                                                     And so he prays : let it come to me !
         And His resurrection is God's answer to all the                Yes indeed, let it come in its final realization, in
      reproach of men that was heaped upon His head. It             the day of Christ: come Lord Jesus!
 /    is the realization of His hope and confidence that               But also: let it come to me now, so that I may lay
 I    God would surely help Him, justify Hism, give Him the         hold of it in hope !
      final and eternal victory over all His enemies. He               Then I will have the answer!
      knew that God would not leave His soul in hell, neither          The victory is mine !
      suffer His Holy One to see corruption, that through                                                        H .   H .


                                                                                                                                                                                                                           * *  -q
 164                                                                                                        TlHE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                 The Sfcrndard Bearer                                                                                                 .
        Semi-Monthly,   except   MonthIy   in  July   and   August                                                                                                                       EDITORIALS
                                                               Published   by

                     The   Reformed  Free  Publishing   Associatien
                                              1101  Hazen  Street,  6.  E.                                                                                                               As To The Day
                                      EDITOR  -  Rev.  .H.  Hoeksema

  Centributing editors-Revs. J. Blankespoor,  A. Cammenga,                                                                                                                  One of our readers sent me a mimeographed pam-
  P. De Boer, J. D. de Jong,  H.  De Wolf, L.  Doezema,                                                                                                                  phlet  ins which the question is discussed whether 
  M. Gritters, C. Hanko, B. Kok, G. Lubbers, G. M. Ophoff,                                                                                                                                                                      0~1'
  A. Petter, M.  Schipper, J.  Vanden   Breggen,  H. Veldman,                                                                                                            Lord actually was crucified on  Friday,  and was raised
  R. Veldman, L. Vermeer, P. Vis, G. Vos, Mr. S. De Vries.                                                                                                               u&out sunrise Sunday morning. The pamphlet was
                                                                                                                                                                         accompanied  by the request on the part of the reader
  Communications relative to contents should be addressed.
  to REV. H. HOEKSEMA, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand                                                                                                                   to express our opinion on its co_ntents,  and on the que&
  Rapids, Michigan.                                                                                                                                                      tion itself.
                                                                                                                                                                            The author of the pamphlet was not mentioned,
  Communications relative to subscription should be ad-
  dressed to MR. R. SCHAAFSMA,  1181  Hazen  St., S. E.,                                                                                                                 although throughout there is familiar note in it that
  Grand Rapids,  Mich. All Announcements and Obituaries                                                                                                                  makes one rather sure as to its origin. However, see-
  must be sent to the above address and will not be placed                                                                                                              _ ing that the document as J. received it was not signed,
  unless the regular fee of $1.00 accompanies the notice.                                                                                                                my discussion can be quite impersonal.
                                           Subscription $2.50 per year                                                                                                      The author comes to the conclusion that Jesus  v,-as
        E n t e r e d   II  s e c o n d   &as  mail  a t   G r a n d   R a p i d s .   M i c h i g a n                                                                   crucified, not on Friday, but on Wednesday, was
                                                                                                                                                                         buried in the late afternoon of that day, and arose in
                                                                                                                                                                         that late afternoon of the following day Saturday.
                                                                                                                                                                         And thus he obtains the result that our Lord was in
                                                                      -                                                                                                  the grave exactly three days and three nights.
                                                              CONTENTS                                                                                                      I would like to make the following remarks in con-
                                                                                                                                                                         nection with this pamphlet.
MEDITATION                                                                                                                                             Page                  1. First of all, I do not like, to express it mildly,
  THE ANSWER OF HOPE . . . . . . . . . . . _.-_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I62                                    the tone of coilceit that runs through the wliole dis-
         Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                cussion. By this I do not mean that the author is
                                                                                                                                                                         entirely sure of his contentions,  an,d believes them to
EDITORIALS   -                                                                                                                                                           be true. That is his business, providing, of course,
  AS TO THE DAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  154     he can produce  good grounds for his contentions. But
  CAST DOWN INTO HELL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  *..* . . . . . . . . 165                                   I `do refer to the fact that he tries to present the ques-
         Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                tion as to the day of Jesus' death and resurrection
THE  TRIPLE   KNOWLEDGE                                                                                                                                                  as if it concerned the very cornerstone of the Chris-
                                                                                                                                                                         tian faith; and relegates practically all that differ
  EXPOSITION OF THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM......166                                                                                                                        with him on this question,  an'd that believe that Jesus
         Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                was crucified on Friday, i.e. virtually the whole Chris-
  INGEZONDEN . . . . ..** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 tian Church of the past, to the category of higher
        J. H. Van  Putten                                                                                                                                                critics and infidels. Listen to this:
                                                                                                                                                                             "Think what this means! Jesus staked His claim
  COMMUNAL RESPONSI,BILITY  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..I............  1'71                                                              of being your Saviour and mine upon remaining ex-
        Rev. H. De Wolf                                                                                                                                                  actIy  THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS in the
  "DE ONMOGELIJKHEID" VAN HEB. 6:4 . . ..*................... 173                                                                                                        tomb. If He remained just three days and three nights
        Rev. H.  Veldman                                                                                                                                                 inside the earth, He would PROVE Himself the Sav-
  BIRTH CONTROL AND THE SEVENTH COM . . . . . . . ..I....... 173                                                                                                         ic?ur-if He failed in this sign, He must be  iejected
                                                                                                                                                                         as an impostor !" p. 1:
        Rev. A. Petter                                                                                                                                                       "No wonder Satan has caused unbelievers to scoff
  SHILOH ~ . . . . .._....._...............  I . . . . . . . . . . . ..=............................................ 1.77                                                at the story of Jonah and the whale! No wonder the
        Rev. G. M. Ophoff                                                                                                                                                Devil has set up a tradition that DENIES Jesus is
  -% FINAL WORD FROM THE DISPUTANTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180                                                                                          the Messiah.     (The author -here refers to the "tradi-
        Rev.  R. Kok,  - Rev. G. M. Ophoff                                                                              .                                                tion" that Jesus died on Friday, H.H.). THE DILEM-
                                                                                                                                                                         MA OF THE HIGHER CRITICS.
                                                                                                                                                                             "This one and only supernatural proof ever given


                                     T*HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             `165

by  Jes-us for His Messiahship has greatly bothered           which, however, is not as new as he seems to think.
the commentators  apd the higher critics. Their at-           But we refuse to accept his contention that he has
tempts to  expiain   .away  this sole proof `for Christ's     discovered a very important truth, and that the "Good-
divinity are ludicrous in the extreme. For explain            Friday tradition" must be explained as having its
them away they must, or their Good-Friday tradi-              origin in "superstition, apostacy, and counterfeit doc-
tion collapses." p. 1.                                        trines."    When the author does not hesitate so to
   Now, just think what the author tries to make his          condemn the whole Church of the past, and exalt hini-
readers swallow. First of all, instead of the fact of         self above her, and that, too, on the basis of so minor
the death and actual resurrection of the Lord, he             a question as the exact time of Jesus' being in the
presents the exact time of Jesus' being in the grave as       grave, I think it is about time for a little honest in-
the cornerstone of the Christian faith ! If Jesus did         trospection and self-examination on his part.
not stay in the grave exactly seventy-two hours, to the           Besides, I am of the opinion that he is in error
very minute, his death and resurrection meant nothing:        about the time of Jesus' death, and that the "Good-
He did not prove to be the Christ! What nonsense!             Friday tradition" is based on pretty strong Sariptural
As if all Scripture does not emphasize the very op-           ground.
posite, so that not the exact  time, but the  ~remwrection       But about this next time, the Lord willing.
itself  is the heart of the gospel ! And, secondly, he                                                      H. H.
presents the "Good-Friday tradition" as an invention
of the Devil, an$d of the higher critics the purpose of
which is to deny that Jesus is the Christ! Now, the
simple fact is, that although there has always been
a difference of opinion as to whether our Lord was
crucified on the 14th or on the 15th of Nisan, the                        Cast Down Into  Well
Church from its earliest days was unanimous in its
belief that the crucifixion took place on Friday, and             I' also received the following communication:
that they based this faith on Scripture. Really, the
author here classifies the whole Church of the pa&               "Esteemed Editor  :-
with the higher critics, and with those that deny that            "The Men's Society of Holland, Mich. in their study
Jesus is the Christ! And the pIain fact is, of course,        of the second epistle of Peter have had some difficulty
that while the Church has always held that the Lord           in coming to a clear explanation of II Peter 3 :4, es-
died on Friday, it always believed in the risen Lord.         pecially when Peter speaks of the angels being `cast
   The author of this pamphlet makes the impression           ,down  into hell.'
upon me of one that desperately tries to be original              "Trusting that you will favor us with an explana-
and to find some new and astounding doctrines. He             tion in The StnndarcE Bearer, we remain,
likes to pose as an independent student of the Bible.                                 Your brethren in Christ,
Hence, instead of teaching the established truth, he               Protestant Ref. Men's Society of Holland, Mich.
searches for things that people have. never heard be- .                             Henry Windemulder,  Sec'y."
fore, and makes  mounta&  out of molehills, while
failing to see the real mountains. Just listen how he             The text reads as follows:
blows himself up about this very minor question:                  "For if God spared not the angels that sinned,
  "The PLAIN TRUTH CONCERNING the cruci-                      but cast them down to hell, aml delivered them into
fixion and resurrection  of Christ is fast sweeping the       chains of  darkness,+0  be reserved unto judgment."
world. Thousands are  ,coming  to see it. This truth              The Revised Versian is somewhat different:
has been published in the Sunday School Times. The                "For if God spared not the angels when they sin-
Oxford University  Press, in their Companion Bible,           ned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them
publish a table proving this newly-revealed truth of          to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment."
the Bible.                                                        The difference in readings is not at all essential.
   "We praise God that though the truths of His               The' Authorized Version has: "and delivered them
Wo;d become trampled upon and LOST through the                into chains of darkness."      The  difference  is due to
dark ages of superstition,  apostacy,  and  counterfeit       two slightly different readings in the original manu-
doctrines, that the  ORIGINAL  TRUTH has been care-           scripts ; it is the difference between the two Greek
fully preserved in the BIBLE ITSELF. We can,study             words: seirais and se+&. The former means chains,
to show ourselva approved unto God, and seek out,             or with chains, or unto chains; the latter may be a
and FIND these long hidden truths in the Bible."              form of  sirois, meaning pits, or it may denote the
    Now, we would be the last to deprive the author of        [same things as seirais, meaning chains.        For. this
his somewhat puerile joy over his new discovery,              reason Ke regard the reading of the Authorized Ver-


                                                                                                                   e
166                                   `T,HE  STANIJARD   B E A R E R

sion as the more correct and reliable one, although ,punishment  of the false prophets and of the fallen
whatever reading you choose, the meaning remains               angels as already present, but as something certainly
essentially the same.                                          impending in the future. And also of these fallen
       The text,  as! we will not fail to notice, forms no     angels in Tartarus, kept in chains of darkness,  I.e.
complete sentence. It is a condition without a con-            in a most miserable state, he writes that they are
clusion, a protasis without an apodosis. The apostle           reserved  -u&o judgment.
is writing about the judgment of the false prophets               In conclusion, then, I would answer Holland's ques-
"whose judgments now for long time lingereth not,              tion as follows. That the angels are cast into Tartarus
and their damnation slumbereth not." And of the                does not mean that they are aIready  in hell as their
certainty of this judgment of God upon the wicked,             final place of punishment. Unto that final judgment
he furnishes us with three examples: that of the fallen        they are still reserved. But it does mean that they
angels, that. of the first world that perished in the          have been  ca& from their high estate of glory in
flood, and that of Sodom and Gomorrha. All three               heav.en  into a most miserable state of *darkness  frolm
are in the  .form of an uncompleted conditional sen-           .which they can never escape. In that state they may
tence. But the  conclusion,  at least as to the meaning,       still do their evil work in the world, and even take
is to be found in verse 9: "The Lord knoweth  how to           possessian of men's souls, as wm so abundantly the
deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve           case during Jesus' sojourn on earth, and thus they
the unjust unto the day of ju,dgment to be punished."          may fill their measure of iniquity.      But in the day
       As to the text itself, we may literally translate it    of judgment they shall receive their final and public
as follows : "For if God spared not the angels that            sentence, and be cast into Gehenna .together  with all
sinned, but casting them down into  Tartarus  delivered        the wicked.
them up unto chains of darkness to be reserved unto                                                           H. H.
judgment." Some prefer to translate : cast them <down
into hell or Tartarus  with chains of darkness. But
this translation is undoubtedly wrong. The chains of                                    -
darkness I understand as chains that consist of dark-
ness, i.e. of misery and wrath and corruption  an,d                                                                     .-
death.       The fallen angels, therefore, that are cast
down into Tartarus, are fettered in misery and death              The Triple Knowldge
and suffering. From these they can nevermore escape.
       But why does the apostle here use the word tar-
&-oosas,  casting into Tartarus? The expression does
not occur elsewhere in the whole Bible, either in the           An Exposition  Qf  The Heidelberg
New Testament or in the Septuagint. Hence, we can                                  Catedism
make no comparative study of the word. Nor does
the pagan meaning of the word help us here. Tartarus                                 PART TWO
was regarded by the ancient Greeks as the miserable,                           OF MAN'S REDEMPTION
dark, and doleful dwelling place of the wicked after
this life. And although the word as it is used here is                              Lord's Day X.
undoubtedly related to its usage among the ansient                                     Chapter 3
Greeks, its meaning is not the same, for the apostle
is not speaking of the abode of the wicked dead, but                          The Goal Of Providence.
of the present abode of the fallen angels. It is not              Th-us far WC spoke of God's providential govern-
the same as  H;ades,  a word that is also translated hell,     ment 0~11y  with respect to the world as it exists and
in Scripture, but usually, though not always, refers           moves. He controls  and directs every movement nd
in general to the state of the dead before the resur-          all the  aotivity  of.t.he creature, anorganic and organic,
rection.      Nor is it equivalent to the word  Geheri%a.      brute and rational, good and evil. But God's govern-
which always denotes the place of final and ever-              ment of the world also implies that He directs the
lasting punishment.        It is, most. probably,  exactiy     course of  its, history and development, from its be-
because the apostle does not mean to refer to Hades,           ginning to its end, and that according to His eternal
which is the state of dead men, nor to Gehenna, as the         good pleasure, and unto the end He has in mind and
place of final punishment, but to the present, and tem- -determined upon before the foundation of the world.
porary state and condition of the fallen angels that           When a big ocean liner leaves the harbor and plows
he chooses the word  tarturoosas  casting down into            through the waves of the Atlantic, there is within the
Tartarus. This is also in harmony with the entire              ship a veritable world of activit-y.  and movement, of
.context,     For the apostle is not speaking of the final     men  and machines,  of passengers and crew, all under


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           167

     the direction of the captain; but with all its life and       reflect whence we started, and consider the aboriginal
     activity aboard, the ship  al,so makes progress from the      state of the savage whence we ascended step by sl-ep
     point of its departure toward its destination, and this,      the steep.and  difficult road of advancement and im-
     too, is under the government of its chief officer. The        provement, of culture and civilization, of social  ancl
     same is true of God's providence with relation to the         political as well as moral reform, we  ha,ve good reason
     world.    Creation is teeming with life and activity,         to congratulate ourselves, and to be filled with hope
     and all its movement is directed as by the very hand, for the future that the end shall be attained, the world
     of God ; but it  aIso makes history. Like the ocean           of social and political prosperity and peace, from
     liner, the world God finished on the sixth day of crea-       which  all hatred and strife shall be banished, an:! in
     tion week was destined to make progress, to pass              which suffering, perhaps. even death, shall be over-
     through a certain course of development.          It was      come, and ail men shall enjoy the more abundant life.
     designed to cross the ocean of time, and to advance           He that believes the Word of God cannot for a mo-
     from its beginning in creation to the destination Go,d        ment agree with this philosophy of evolutionism. For
     determined for it in His eternal good pleasure. It            it ignores the fact of the fall of man, and all its con-
     proceeds through the ages from the  alph of creation          sequences.    The meaning of history is certainly not
     to the  orrtega of its consummation. And when we              that of gradual progress toward the highest possible
     speak of God's  prolvidential  government we also mean        perfection of the present world. The goal and direc-
     that it is He Who directs this entire course of  th.e         tion of God's providential government is not that of
     world throughout the ages of history. He is the Cap-          evolutionistic philosophy. And the .Christian cannot
     tain aboard this ocean liner of the universe, and so          possibly cooperate toward the attainment of its ideal.
     governs its course, that it. advances along a straight           The same holds true for modern post-millenialism.
     path, without ever deviating from it, toward its final        We are not thinking now of this conception as opposed
     destination.                                                  to that of pre-millennarianism, still less must we be
        It is an important question, the answer to which           understood as declaring ourselves in favor of the
     determines for us the meailing  of history, as well as        latter. We are not at present concerned with the
     the proper "world and life view" of  ,the believer in         unbiblical  teachings of post-millennarianism concern-
     regard to the present world and his own position and          ing the second comin,g of Christ, the final judgment
     calling in it, what may be the end, ,the destination of       and the resurrection of the body.       It is rather the
     our universe according to God's eternal purpose. Whal         post-millennarian  view of God's providence, of His
     is the meaning of this present age? What is the pat- government of the present world, with relation to the
     tern of all things? Whither are we drifting, and what kingdom of God, and, therefore, its conception of the
     is the proper evaluation of all the labor and toil of         meaning of. history, that concerns us here. For, ac-
     the creature, particularly of man ? Is there really           cording to it, this relation of God's providential govern-
     such a thing as progress, and is man, with all his            ment to the coming of the kingdom of God is such
     strife and effort, with his toil and suffering, his cul-      that, if they are not identical, the former at least
     ture and civilization, his war and bloodshed and de-          supplies the basis and forms for the latter: in the
     struction, really acomplishin 2 something, attaining to       development of the present. world and of human cul-
     a certain goal? If ao, what is the goal toward which ture and civilization the kingdom of God is gradually
     he is advancing? What is the final purpose of ail             coming, until the kingdoms of this worId shall have
     things in our present world, and what may `be the             become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ.
     proper position of the. Christian and his calling with        "God has not confined himself to distinctiveIy  religious
     respect to this world?                                        and Christian agencies in building his  ,kingdom in
         And here we may at once discart  as false the an-         the world. `The earth is" Jehovah's and the fulness
     swer of evolutionistic philosophy to the quest,ion  re-       thereof; the wor1.d  and they that dwell therein' (3.
     garding the direction in which the world is moving, and       24  :l), and therefore all facts and forces are at his
     the end that is to be attained. Its answer is that. the       disposal in his works of providence and grace. Our
     world is constantly moving in the direction of the high-      whole expanding, progressive civilization, therefore,
     est possible perfection by way of gradual  deveIopmeni.       may be viewed as a means of extending his kingdom.
)    It is evident to all, even to the unbelieving philosopher,    Though this civilization is not the kingdom itself,
     that the present world, such as it is, with all its suf-      yet more and more as it is progressively Christianized
     fering and death, with all its hatred and strife, with        will it be merged into the kingdom, and the two may
     all its corruption and crimes, with its war and blood-        finally become practically identical when `the king-
     shed, cannot be the final, the ideal, certainly is not        dom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord,
     the perfect world.     There is something, there is a         and of his Christ' (Rev.  11:l.S).  Civil government,
     ,good deal that is wrong. But we are making progress from this point of view, is an instrument of God for
     in the  idirection  of the perfect world. And when we         protecting and extending his kingdom  (Ram.   X3:1),


168                                   T*HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

Commerce is a powerful means of knitting the world              the picture Scripture everywhere gives us of the
into unity  ynd brokherhood.   (All  trains and ships are       trend of development we must expect of this world,
shuttles weaving the world into one web. Great in- as well as of its end. Iniquity will abound, the means
ventions readily lend th,emselves  to this ser%vice.     The    and forces of this world ~31 be pressed into the ser-
first book printed on the printing press was  t.he Bible,       vice of ungodliness, the faithful will be few, and will
and the press has been a powerful gospelizer ever               have no standing room in the world. 2; It closes its
since. Every inventor practically lays his machine at           eyes to the fact that all creation is under the curse,
the feet of Jesus Christ as the wise men laid their             and that the creature is in the bondage of  corrup:ion,
gold and frankincense  arld myrrh at the feet of the            and subject to vanity.      There  is in this world no
infant Jesus. Steam and electricity are turning the             material for a perfected kingdom of God. 3. It denies
wh.:els  and flashing the currents of the world for him,        the. antithesis, according to which God works out His
railways are speeding their trains across  the contin-          counsel in this world along the lines of election and
ents and steamships are plowing the seas for him,               reprobation.    4. It forgets that all the forces and
the airships spreads its wings for him, the  sewing             institutions of t.his world are also, and especially, used
machine sews for him, the typewriter writes its mes-            by the forces of evil for the realization of the king-
sages, telephone and telegraph have enmeshed the                dom of anti,christ,  and is in grave danger of looking
globe in a network of wires that is the great nervous           upon  the latter as the kingdom of God. 5. It seeks
system of humanity and flashes everywhere its truth             the kingdom of God in out.ward forms and institutions,
and grace, and wireless telegraphy shoots his mes-              rather than in the power of grace and regeneration,
sages through the ether around the earth.               Even and forgets that in this world the *scope of the kingdom
swords and guns and all our mighty modern engines               is limited to the sphere in which the Spirit of Christ
of destruction, as we have already seen, may fight for          dwells. 6. And to this we may add that it closes its
his kingdom and help to bring in its universal peace.           eyes to reality and actual experience,  for with all its
Our developing science and art are contributions to             boast.ed  culture and civilization the world is charac-
his kingdom. All truth is religious and comes from              terized by corruption, apostacy,  hatred, war and de-
God, as all our light shoots from the sun. The king-            struction more than ever before.
dom of God is, enthroned in the intelligence of the                A peculiar view is offered by those who present
mind as well as in the loyalty of the heart and-we are          God's providential government of this world as a
to love the Lord our God  ,with  all our  mind.  This           matter of common grace.        According to this view,
means that we are to be open and hospitable to all              the goal of God's government of the present world is
truth from whatever source it comes and use it in               the realization of His original creation ordinance,
unveiling God's glory and furthering his kingdom.               through man as His covenant-friend and co-worker,
So, all true art is religious, for it discloses the beauty      and to the glory o,f His name. Man's calling was to
of God. God is beautiful, and so he has built a beauti-         "cultivate" the earth and its fulness, to employ all his
ful world and is building a beautiful kingdom. There            powers and gifts  and talents as the servant of God to
should `be no unfriendliness betwee2  our science and           explore and  develoij and bring to light the hidden
our theology,` and between our art and our worship.             wonders  an.d forces of the universe, and thus to bring
The beauty of the Lord our God should be upon us in             the world to its highest. possible perfection. This was
all that we think with our minds and do with our                the original creation  ordinance  of God. But Satan,
hands. The growing social sense of the work&  level-            intending to deprive God of the giory of His name,
ing artificial and unjust distinctions  a;?d  pl*ivileges,      makes an attempt to frustrat.e  this plan of God, and
letting all men out to liberty and brotherhood, and             to ruin the present war!?, by tempting man, causing
earnestIy  endeavoring to  b$ld a social order that will        him to fall into sin and death, and making him an
give the means of a worthy and beautiful life to every          enemy of Cod. In this attempt he is apparently  suc-
human being, is a long step towards the kingdom of              cessfcl, for t+.e friend of God, who was king of crea-
God on earth, a highway along which the redeemed                tion,  he&s  the word of the devil, rejects the Word
shall come to Zion with songs  a;nd everlast.ing  joy upon      of God, an< calls into sin and death. And Satan would
their heads." (I)                                               have been completely successful had God not interven-
   This beautiful post-millennarian idealism, then,             ed by His common grace. Adam and  E,ve would have
fin& the meaning of history in the gradual develop-             perished right t.here and then in Paradise, would prob-
ment of all things in the direction of the kingdom of           ably  have been cast into hell at  oace,  the beautiful
God on earth, God's government of this world is  such           creation of God would have turned into a chaos, and
that it leads directly to the goal of the perfected king-       God's original ordinance of creation would never have
dom of God. But the following objections must be been realized. But God immediately intervened by
raised against this view: .l.. It is quite. contrary  .to       His common grace,       He restrained the process of
(1). The Caning of the LOW& James H. Bnowden,  pp. .112-m.      sin,  of death, and  of the curse. The  ~wult  is, not


                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           169

only that man did not die on the day he ate of the          state.    Even though the spiritual-ethical relation of
forbidden tree, but also that creation was preserved        man to God was radically changed, so that, instead of
against sinking info a chaotic state. Moreover, man being the friend of God, he became his enemy and the
did not become as totally and absolutely depraved as        ally of Satan, there is no reason why God should not
he undoubtedly would have become, if this common            sustain and preserve him, together with ail the world
grace of God had not intervened. And this operation         and its powers, in essentially the same relationship as
of  restraining grace continues throughout the history      before the fall. 3. Satan certainly intended to deprive
of this present world. On its basis and by virtue of        God of His glory through the temptation of man, but
its power, God could enter into a covenant with all         not by reducing the  worl,d  to chaos, but rather by sub-
men, outside of Christ, the sign of which He gave in        jecting man and all the earthly creation to him:e!f,
the rainbow that spans the heavens. And in this cove-       and causing man to develop all the powers of creation
nant  mail is God's partner and co-worker over against      in the servi-e  of sin and iniquity. And this is, indeed,
Satan, for the purpose of realizing the original crea-      the purpose of fallen man, and the spiritual character
tion ordinance of the Most High and frustrating the         of the kingdom he is establishing, and of the cultural
attempt of the devil to rob God of His glory. #Thus         structure he is building. 4. Sin is not a process  of
man is able, apart from Christ and regeneration, to         corruption in the human nature &at can be checked
accomplish much good in the present world, to cul-          in its course, so that, man is only half depraved: it is
tivate the earth and all its powers, press them into        the total corruption of the whole nat.ure,  the subver-
his service in science and art, in industry and com-        sion of the image of God, the radisal  change from light
merce, and build the proud structure of culture and         to darkness, from righteousness to unrighteousness,
civilization through the  common grace of God. At the       from life to death.     This corruption t.he first man,
same time God  ,carries out His purpose of salvation in     and all men in him, suffered the day he ate of the for-
Christ, gathers His Church, and establishes His king-       bidden tree, .according  to the testimony of all Scrip-
dom in the world that is thus preserved and developed       ture. 5. Death and the curse are not powers that oper-
through this power of common grace, and the latter          ate in themselves, apart from God, so that God must
is therefore subservient to the former. The fruits of       restrain them in their course of operation, as is the
co,mmon graae shall even be carried into the New            dualistic presentation of the theory of common grace.
Jerusalem. However, toward the end God will with-           They are inflicted by God Himself. 6. E~ven if there
draw the restraining influence of common grace, the         were an original creation ordinance, i.e. a purpose
world will rush  head!n::g  into corruption and destruc-    of God to bring the present world to its highest pos-
tion, and the man of din, whom Christ will consume by       sible perfection, God Himself has rendered this for
the brightness of His coming, will appear. The origin-      ever impossible by laying the curse upon the whole
al ordinance of creation having been realized, the          creation, so that the creature is  i::  lxmriape  of  >`or-
world will be destroyed to make room for the new            ruption and subject to vanity, and man moves  tvithin
heavens and the new earth, in which  ri,ghteousness         the  Iimits  of his death  cell from which he can never
ahall dwell for ever. The meaning of history, and the       escape except through Christ.       It is true that with
goal of God's providential government with respect          the limited natural light and power left to him he
to the present world, according to this view, is the        still cultivates the earth and performs many wonder-
realization of the original creation ordinance of God.      ful things, but it is all subject to vanity: to  bui1d.a
   Many objections may be raised against this thor-         perfect world he neither has the power nor the mater-
oughly dualistic conception of history, but for our         ials after the fall. 7. Even in as far as  falleiz man
present purpose the folIowing may suffice. 1. There         cultivates the earth and builds his house of culture,
is no original ordinance of creakion  which Satan at-       of science and art, of industry and commerce, he is
tempted to frustrate. God's eternal purpose with all        not a co-worker with God, nor is t.he house he is try-
things is never any other than that which is actually       ing to build to the glory of God. The contrary is true.
attained. When He created the world His purpose             He employs God's powers and talents and means and
surely cannot have been, and was not, that the earth        al! the riches of God's world in the .service of sin and
and its fulness should be brought to its highest pos-       satan, to oppose God and His Christ, and to glorify
sible. perfection and development under the first man       himself. [And so he bncreases his guilt daiiy, and also
Adam, and without sin. He had in mind the higher            very really works out his own destruction.          8. Nor
realization of His glory and of His eternal coI;enant       does the Bible teach us that God restrains the power
in and through the second -4dam.  And this purpose          and manifestation of sin in the course of the organic
He realizes even through the temptation of the devil        development of the human race by a certain gracious
and the fall, death and the curse, through the  wonies      operation of His Spirit. The very contrary is true.
of His grace. 2. Sin is ethical, and could not passibly     "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
have resulted in the reduction of the world to a chaotic    a,il ungodliness and enrighteousness of men, who hold


170                                    T H E   STANDAdD  BE,ARER

the truth in unrighteousness," Rom. 1:18. And in his           Gen., Lev.,  Deut., als ook Matt. 19  :10-12  ; I  Co"
wrath He gives them over, so that they become "vain            ?`:I-15; I Cor. 6:16,  etc. Dan strijd het een met het
in their imaginations," and their foolish heart is dark-       andere, indien wij staande houden,  dat  hertrouwm   in
ened, Rom.  1:21. "Wherefore God also gave them up             alIe gevallen ongeoorloofd is.  Aan dit  vraagstuk   zit
to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts,"         dan ook veel vast. Tndien wij vasthouden, dat her-
vs. 24; and unto "vile affections," vs. 26 ; and "unto         trouwen altijd ongeoorloofd is, dan is de zaak  ..uit
a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not             natuurlijk oogpunt beschouwd beslist. Maar  kIopt  dit
convenient," vs. 28. And so they become "filled with           met de rechtvaardigheid der atucht en het welzijn der
all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetous-        kerk? Laat mij dit eenigszms  verduidelijken. '
ness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, de-             1. Alhoewel Lev. 20 :10  heden  ten dage niet  ge-
ccrt, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God,  despite-         handhaafd wordt door de overheid, is het daarom een
fuI, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedi-      feit,  clat de kerk, die geestelijk oordeelt in de hand-
ent to parents, without understanding, covenant break-         having der tucht, dan ook zoo oordeelen moet? Indien
ers, without natural affection,  impIacable, unmerciful :      wel; dan kom ik terdege in'  strijd met de  tucht  der
who knowing the judgment of God, that they which               kerk, hiet alleen  in deze zaak, maar ook in vele andere
commit such things are worthy of death, not only do            zaken. Ik kan het dan ook niet anders zien, dan dat
the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."             een kerkeraad we1 rekening moet houden met Lev.
vss. 29-32. The goal of God's providential government,         20:10,  en Deut. 22:22. Het komt mij voor, dat  wan-
and the meaning of history, cannot be the realization          neer een der echtgenooten overspel bedrijft, dat het
of a supposed original creation ordinance, with the            doodvonnis hier dan door God is  uitgesproken  ; en dat
natural man as co-worker t,o God's glory through His           de uitzondering in Matt. 19:l "anders  dan om hoere-
common grace.                                    H. H.         rij  " de onschuldige vrijspreekt. Dit staat met zoovele
                                                               woorden  niet in den tekst, maar met het oog op de
                                                               Schrift  en  d,e censuur der kerk kan ik niet tot een
                                                               ander oordeel komen. Want, die overspel begaat staat
                                                               direkt  oilder den ban der kerk volgens. de Heilige
                                                               Schrift. Technisch beschouwd verbreekt iemand, die
                     Ingezonden                                overspel begaat den heiligen band des huwelijks. De
                                                               schuldige heeft de onschuldige verlaten, en gaat  over-
Geachte Redakteur :                                            spel bedrijven met een andere, en verloochent  daardoor
                                                               het Ben-wezen  des vleesches met de onschuldige.
       In het  lezen  der anderscheidene stukken over over-       Men moet mij we1 verstaan, dat ik vasthoud, dat
spel. "Die Verlatene Dan," etc., die ik met belang-            alleen overspel of hoererij de grond is in Matt.  19:9,
stelling gevoigd heb, moet ik tech erkennen, dat het           die de onschuldige  vrijstelt om weer te trouwen. In
mij niet duicielijker is geworden. Ik kan Ds. H. II.           I Cor. 6 :16 wordt de zoodanige een vleesch met degene
niet volgen in zijne uitlegging van die onderscheidene         met wie overspel  wordt  bedreven. Ik versta hier ook,
*teksten.    Wet. kan waar zijn, dat als hij daar later        dat wij hier voor een kwestie komen te staan, die maar
eens over schrijft, de zaak mij dan we1 duidelijk zal          niet met een paar woorden is op te  lossen,   n.1..  clan
worden.  Daar  wacht   i,k dan ook op; en daar hebben          komt het een vleesch zijn met een ander in de  handen
wij als kerk behoefte aan. Er bIijven  zoovele vragen          van den mensch terecht. Maar men moet ook voor de
onbeantwoord, indien wij vasthouden, dat hertrouwen            aandacht houden, dat er vele zaken zijn, die wij niet
in ieder geval volkomen is uitgesloten. Dan zullen wij         kunnen oplossen, en ik geloof, dat dit een van die
ook moeten  vasthouden :                                       dingen is.  R-V., als wij  vaststellen,  dat  alle huwelijk
       1. Dat elk huwelijk in wereld of kerk een huwelijk      van God ingesteld is, wat moeten  wij dan met I Car.
is, dat van God is vastgesteld.  Hetgeen  God  samen-          7:15? Hier schijnt het, dat echtscheiding geoorloofd
gevoegd heeft, dat scheide  de mensch niet.                    is. En de kantteekening in den Statenbijbel zegt bij
       2. Dat, alhoewel de schuldige partij de  macht heeft    de woordan (vs. 25) "dienstbaar  gesteld" dat de broe-
om de onschuldige partij  bloat te stellen  aan de zonde       der of zuster word:  in xoodanige gevallen niet dienst-
van overspel, de kerk hier  geheel  en al machteloos           baar gemaakt," dat is: niet gehouden van hunne zijde
staat om in dezen de tucht uit te oefenen: (a) Tot uit-        om deil band des huwelijks verder te houden, en onge-
werping van den schuldige  wel; (b)  MYaar tot  be-            trouwd te blijven." En dan verwijst ze ens naar vs.
szherming van den rechtvaardige niet.                          11. Met deze verwijzing van den Statenbijbel komt
       Er blijven vele vragen onbeantwoord.  Ik  kom  ill      de vraag op: waren dezen dan niet een vl,eesch  naar
strijd met het  doorloopende  bevel der tucht, als  oak        Matt.  19:6? Het gaat in I Cor.  7:15  over geloovige
met de onderscheidene teksten der  Heilige  Schrift, die       en ongeloovige personen.
spreken over  bet huwelijk en  ov.erspel, teksten  uit            Nu met den ban der kerk. Indien iemand overspel


     -I-     F     .    .~     .-    .     -_      -_     TSE   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         171

 bedrijft en niet wederkeert, meet de kerk dan niet oor-
 deelen,  dat zoo iemand niet tot de kerk behoort,, en hem                                  communal Respond bill" ty
 afsnij,den? Maar mag zoo iemand heerschappij voeren
 over het lichaam en den staat van de onschuldige, in-                              The word communal refers to a commune and any-
dien deze de gave der onthouding  niet heeft? Ik geloof thing that pertains to it. A  comrrmne is  ,defined as:
 het niet. Ik kan niet anders zien, dan dat  `degene die +he common people, a self-governing body, a municipal
 doorgaans  hoererij bedrijft, en niet tot bekeering                            corporation. The word communal has, in the narrow
 komt, als een heiden en tollenaar beschouwd moet  wor-                         sense of the word, a legal connotation and therefore
 den, maar ook dat de onschuldige  vrijh.eid zal  moeten                        has regard to all that which concerns the government
 worden  gelaten om weer te trouwen, zoodat de recht-                           of a legally  constit.uted  body or corporation.      The
 vaardige niet genoodzaakt wordt om overspel te be-                             word  responsibility is a very common term with which
 drijven.                                                                       we are all acquainted and may be defined as : the state
     Plaatsruimte  laat mij niet toe om meer te schrijven.                      of being accountable or answerable.  CommunaI  re-
 Ik moet daarom maar eindigen.                                                  sponsibility therefore refers to the responsibility of,
                                                   Broedergroetend,             any commune, body, corporation, etc. It implies that
                                                         H. A. Van Putten.      a body or corporation is held accountable for its ac-
                                                                                tions and it concerns this giving of an account and'
                                                                                this answering for its actions.
 Note van den redakteur :                                                          In the light of the above, it stands to reason that
     Ja, er zullen we1 allerlei problemen opkomen, en                           the term communal  responsibility has a very  broad^
 misschien  ook  we1 overblijven. En gaarne schrijf ik                          application and numerous implications. This respon-:
 over deze zaak meer in den breede. Maar voor alle                              sibility may also be regarded from more than  one
 dingen  zit ik nog altijd met "die verlatene" van Matt.                        point of view, as for example, the responsibility of the
 19:9. En voor ik broeder Van  Putten  antwoord geef                            commune as a whole in respect. to God, in  respect'to
 op zijne verschillende bezwaren, zou ik van hem een                            the law, in respect to each individual member, in r-e-
 duidelijk  antwoord   moeten  hebben op mijn  vraag:                           spect to those who are not members of it, etc. It may
 "en die verlatene dan?"                                                        also be regarded from the point of view of the  respon-
     Ik kan  .mij  niet eens voorstellen, dat mijne  ver-                       sibihty  of the individual, as a member of it., in respect
 klaring van dien tekst zoo duister is. Maar ik wil                             to God, his fellow-members, etc. Moreover it may
 haar gaarne nog eens herhaien.                                                 apply to the  responsibiiity  of various communes, such
     De tekst is als volgt. "Maar  ik zeg u, dat zoo wie                        as, the commune of mankind in general, of the family,
 zijne vrouw verlaat, anders dan om hoererij, en eene the state, the nation, as well as any corporation that is
 andere trouwt, die doet overspel, en die de verletene                          formed among men.        In order to treat the subject
 trouwt, doet ook overspel." En mijne verklaring is                             exhaustively, therefore, one  wou1.d  be compelled to
 als volgt :                                                                    call attention to all of these, since all communes do
     1. Een man verlaat zijne vrouw `anders dan om                              not  fall in the same  categogy.  This, however, is not
 hoererij."             Dit laatste wil natuurlijk zeggen: die                  necessary for a general understanding of our subject.
 vrouw heeft geen hoererij bedreven, en is dus  on- We shall therefore limit ourselves to the more general
 schuldig. Had de vrouw hoererij bedreven, dan mocht                            implications which are involved. We trust `that the
 hij haar verlaten.                                                             reader will then be able to make the particular appli-
     2. Die  mantrouwt een ander, bedrijft dus overspel,                        cations from the various aspects that are to be &on-
 en leeft met die andere vrouw in hoererij.                                     sidered.
     3. Nu hebben we dus eene onschuldige vrouw,                                   At the basis of every commune or corporation lies
 wier man hoererij bedrijft.                                                    the fact of solidarity, which may be defined as: com-
    4. Mag nu die onschuldige vrouw, wier man in                                munity of interests and responsibilities. And  solid-
 overspel Ieeft, hertrouwen?                             Neen, zegt de Heere    arit,y  implies representation since the many who join
 Jezus : %ie de  verlatene trouwt, die doet  oak  over-                         together or are joined  ?ogether  for one common inter-
 spel." Dus is het zoo klaar als de zon aan den hemel,                          est, appoint one or have  o:pe  appoint,ed  with authority
 dat Matt. 19 :9 ons dit  leert.:  Eene onschuldige  en door                    to represent the whoie commune and azt for it and
 h&w man verlatene vrouw,  Pvier man in overspel leeft                          in the name of it. Now every commune or corporation
 en met een art.der getrouwd iscs, mag niet weer trouwen-                       is a soIidarity. It is formed for the purpose of seeking
     Wil broeder Van  Putten mij nu allereerst eens                             or serving a common interest and for which, therefore,
 duidelijk  maken, waarin mijne verklaring mank  .gaat?                         one is authorized to act. for many. `Hence, in dealing
 En indien ze niet mank gaat, hoe kan hij dan schrijven                         with a commune, one does not deal with its many
 "dat de onschuldige vrijheid zal  moeten  worden   ge-                         individual members but with its legally constituted
 laten  om weer te trouwen" ?                                          H.H.     head and representative. And yet, when dealing with


 172                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   +

such a representative one is not dealing with an indi-            Scripture, however, does not limit communal re-
vidual but with a body, not with one but with many,           sponsibility to the commune of mankind in Adam. One
because the one speaks and acts for the many whom he          finds it also applied, for example, to the family com-
represents.      Hence, every representative transaction      mune. The Lord ,states in the second commandment
of this authorized one,  inlvolves all the individuals        that He is a jealous God, "visiting the iniquity of the
whom he represents and has effect upon the whole              fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth
union which they form. From this must follow  ihat            generation of them that hate me". Moreover the curse
the representative of any corporation is responsible          that was pronounced upon Canaan was visited upon
for that corporation and also that the corporation is         his children  ; because Esau sold his birthright, his
held responsible for the transactions of its head. More-      descendants were excluded from the Covenant,; be-
over  ,every individual member, because he is a member,       cause of the sin of Moab and Ammon in resisting the
is hel,d responsible for every action that involves the       children of  Israei, their children were shut out for-
whole corporation. Thus you have communal responei-           ever `from  the congregation of the Lord; the- sword
bility.                                                       shall never depart from David's house ; the iniquity
    Now the broadest commune is undoubtedly that of           of Eli's house should never be purged; the leprosy of
all mankind as represented in our first head, Adam.           Naaman shall cleave unto Gehazi and unto his seed
The Reformed Church has always  hel,d that God holds          forever; not only the three rebels in the wilderness are
all men responsible for the sin of Adam in Paradise.          swallowed up, but also their wives and children and
This is also clearly taught in Scripture, in  ,Rom.  5:       all that they had ; these are but a few examples to
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world,         show that Scripture applies communal responsibility
and death by sin ; and so death passed upon all men,          not only to the organism of all mankind but to families,
for that all have sinned", vs. 12; "or if through the generations and nations as well. Besides, it must be,
~offence  of one many be ,dead. . . .", vs. 15  ; "For the    evident that this principl,e  is equally  bin,ding  with a
judgment was by one to condemnation", $vs.  16 ; "There- view  at.0  the imputation of the righteousness of Christ
fore as by the offence  of one judgment came upon all as it is in respect to the imputation of Adam's guilt.
men to condemnation", vs. 18; "For as by one man's            For even as in God's sight the whole human race is a
disobedience many were made sinners," vs. 19. There           commune in Adam, so also there is a commune of the
can be no doubt but what Scripture teaches here that          elect in Jesus Christ. And as Adam was our repre-
the guilt of Adam's sin is imputed to all his children.       sentative head and his guilt becomes ours, so also
Allthough  we di,d not commit the act, we are #never-         Christ is the Head and Representative of all those
theless in God's sight as thought we did because God          whom the Father hath given Him and His righteous-
imputes the guilt. of Adam's sin to us and so Scripture       ness becomes their righteousness. For just as we act-
can say, "for that all have sinned". Now the reason           ually had no part in the sin of Adam and yet are ac-
for this lies partly in the fact that God regards the         counted guilty because of it, so also we had no actual
whole race as a solidarity or a commune of which              part in the satisfaction of God's  justi,ce  by Christ, and
Adam was the head and representative. There is of             yet are accounted righteous because of it. "There is
course more that enters in here in respect  to the im-        therefore now no condemnation to them which are in
putation of Adam's guilit, to all mankind, since Adam         Christ Jesus. . . ." Rom. 8  :l. "For as by one man's
was also the first father and root of the whole human         disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedi-
race. However, with a view to the case in hand, we            ence of one shall many be made righteous." Rom.
need consider only the fact that Adam was our repre-          5:19.
sentative. Adam acted in a representative capacity;              This same principle of communal responsibility
he was not a mere in~dividual  and therefore responsible      holds also in practical life. When, for example, the
only for himself so that the result of his sin affected       president of the United States declares war, it means
only himself but he was the legal representative of the that the whole nation is at war and every citizen of our
whole human race and in that capaci"cy  he acted. The         nation is regarded as an enemy by those with whom
judicial obligation to satisfy God's justice is therefore that war is waged. It malkes no difference what your '
not limited simply to Adam but falls to the account of        own personal feeling in the matter may be, whether
all men.       Hence, not only Adam but all men must          you agree or disagree wit-h such a declaration, the
suffer the evil consequence of Adam's sin. In Adam            fact is that you are nevertheless, as a citizen of the
all men are worthy of everlasting punishment. We              nation, regarded as an enemy by the other side. You
may say therefore that the imputation of Adam's guilt         are regarded as a responsible party even though you
to us, the obligation on our part to satisfy the justice      had nothing to do with the matter. And that is not
of  God and consequently our condemnation and worthi-         only true of the enemy with which the nation is at
ness to suffer eternal punishment is all the result of        war but that is also true of the nation itself; it also
communal responsibility.                                      regards you as a responsible party and therefore places


                                    T*HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           17::

you under obligation. Hence also, the whole nation
must bear the effects and those effects are felt by          We Onmogelijkheid" van Heb. 6:4.
many future generations.
   Finally, the princip1.e  of communal responsibility          De uitdrukking, het onderwerp  ens in dit artikel
in practical life is binding for all forms of unions and     aangewezen, treffen we  aan in een welbekend gedeelte
corporations that are formed by and among mankind.           der `Heilige Schrift. We lezen in Heb. 6 :4-6: "Want
One finds it, for example, in the church as institute        het is onmogelijk, degenen, die eens verlicht g.eweest
which is represented by its offices. The official trans-     zijn, en de hemelsche gaven gesmaakt hebben, en des
actions and declarations of a church are binding for         Heiligen Geestes deelachtig  geword,en  zijn, en  ge-
all that are members of it. If, therefore, a church is       smaakt hebben het goede woord Gods, en de krachten
in error the members of that church cannot say that          der toekomende eeuw, en afvallig  worden,  die zeg ik,
although their church may have officially declared a         wederom te vernieuwen tot bekeering,  als welke  zich-
heresy to be the truth, they do not agree and therefore      zelven den zoon van God wederom kruisigen en  open-
need not cc,ncern  themselves about the matter. The          lijk te schande maken."
fact is that as long as they remain members of that          - Reeds driemalen is er over dit gedeelte der Schrift
church they are guilty of propagatihg that heresy.           geschreven in onzen  Standard Bearer. Altoos  concen-
And if that church becomes guilty of persecuting those       treerde  zich de discussie om de vraag of deze tekst in
who resist it because of its error, it makes no differ-      Heb. 6  als bewijs moest  worden  beschouwd voor de
ence how friendly a certain member of that church            leer van een zekere algemeene genad.e  Gods voor hen
may be to those who are being persecuted by it, as long      waarvan we lezen dat ze zulke rijke gaven van God
as he remains a member of that church he is  co-             hebben ontvangen. De hoofdvraag in dit artikel is,
responsible with all its members and the guilt of  t.hat     echter, ietwat anders. We lezen, immers, in verzen
sin will be laid to his charge. And this is true not only 4 en 6 dat het onmogelijk is voor "die" om tot bekee-
with a view to our memb.ership  in a church institute        ring vernieuwd te worden.  Dezen, dus,'  kunnen niet
but also of membership in any organization. Without          bekeerd  worden. Hoe hebben  `we deze "onmogelijk-
going into the problem of membership in worldly              heid" te verstaan?
unions, it is evident, in the light of this truth of com-     . Echter,  het kan niet overbodig worden  geacht om m
munal responsibility, that every member of such a            het kort een antwoord te geven op de vraag: "Op wie
union is responsible for its actions. It does not change     wordt deze onmogelijkheid  toegepast?"
the matter at all when one contends that he has noth-           Ten eerste mogen we van de veronderstelling  uit-
ing to do with the union but merely holds a member-          gaan dat dit gedeelte van Gods Woord geen afval der
ship card for the sake of obtaining employment. No           heiligen leert. Hierop.  thans in te gaan is onnoodig.
matter how poor a member he may be and how little            Afgedacht van d.e doorloopende gedachte van Gods
he may concern  himself with the organization to which       Woord aangaande d.e zekerheid van de zaligheid der
he belongs, that membership card is "enough to indict        uitverkorenen, de verzen  7 en 8  zijn een duidelijk  be-
him. He belongs to a commune and as a member of              wijs dat ook in Heb. 6 eene afval der heiligen niet  ge-
it he cannot escape its communal responsibility.             leerd wordt. Immers,  bet onwedergeboren hart wordt
   We realize that our subject raises many questions         vergeleken met de aarde die doornen en distelen voort-
/upon  which we have not touched. However, as we             brengt in dat hart, dus, is het goede zaad niet aanwezig
stated in the beginning, it was not our purpose to treat     en is de regen daarom niet in staat om uit die aarde
the  mat.ter exhaustively but rather to call attention to    vruchten voort te brengen.
some general principles involved. An.d if we have               Ten tweede leert Heb.. 6 :4-6 ons dat de natuurlijke
succeeded in doing that, our writing will not have been      mensch in nauw verband met de waarheid kan komen.
in vain.                                                     Hij kan verlicht geweest zijn, de hemelsche gaven  ge-
                                             H. D. W.        smaakt hebben, des. Heiligen Geestes deelachtig ge-
                                                             worden  zijn, het go&e woord.Gods  gesmaakt hebben,
                                                             en de krachten der toekomende eeuw. We behoeven  oak
                                                             hierop niet in te gaan wat de behandeling van ons on-
                                                             derwerp betreft. We hebben hier eene schildering van
EEN VRIENDELIJK  VERZ,OEK  :-Bij  dezen   ver-               den natuurlijken mensch, die, opgevoed  in de sfeer van
zoek ik onze kerken om zoo spoedig mogelijk een beetje       Gods verbond en in het  licht van het evangelie, verlicht
nieuws op te zenden. Een beetje meer m*edewerking  is        is geweest, niet alleen  inzooverre dat hij met natuur-
we1 aan te bevelen.                                          lijk verstand de waarheid van het Woord Gods  mocht
                          Mr. S. De Vries                    verstaan, maar zelfs dat hij aangetrokken werd tot of
                          700 Alexander St.,  S. E.  _       door het goede Wowrd Gods. Zelfs  mocht.  hij  een
                         Grand Bapida, Michigan.             a&em  genegenheid.   af  lust  kennen   ww  d a t  Woord


                                    THfi:   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              175

hadden  ontvangen en op hun verlicht zijn geweest heb-         zonde  en de hope des eeuwigen levens. Hij heeft  besef
ben we alreeds gewezen. Ze kruisigen wederom den               van de beteekenis van  ,het kruis, stemt toe dat de  Ge-
Zoon van God. Met bpzet spreekt de  apostel  hier van          kruisigde niemand anders is dan de Zoon van God, God
den Zoon vilrll  God. De bedoeling is dat ze in volle  be-     Zelce. Maar hij keert  zich tegen het volle  licht. Hij
wustzijn den Gekruisigde verwerpen. Ze verstaan het            kiest. niet alleen voor de zotnde (dit doen we tech allen
kruis niet slechts ten volle maar, hetzelve ten voile  ver-    van natuur), maar hij verwerpt bewustelijk het voile
staande,  verwerpen ze hetzelve. Ze zondigen  met en           1i:ht. Zijn geestelijk bewustzijn is dus van  dien  aard
tegen het voile licht. Dat de geestelijke toestand  van        dat geen element der waarheid op hem .eenigen posi-
deze afvalligen de reden is waarom hunne vernieuwing           tieven  indruk  kan  maken.  Zijn hart is gesloten  voor
tot bekeering onmogelijk is is duidelijk uit den tekst         het verbond Gods on de zaligheid des Heeren in den
zelve.    Dat God ze niet bekeeren kan is dan ook niet         volstrekten zin des ,woords. God heeft hem, naar Zijn
van wege Zijn eeuwig welbehagen, Zijnen raad. Op-              vrijmachtig welbehagen, aldus verhard ,dat bet thans
zichzelf genomen is dit we1 waar. De verwerping is             onmogelijk is om hem tot bekeering  te vernieuwen.
zeker de eeuwige Goddelijke vrijmachtige grondslag                                                            H. V.
en oorzaak van den zondaar, beide uit oogpunt van
zijne zonde en zijn eeuwige verdoemenis. Maar dit is
hier in Heb. 6 niet  bet oogpunt. Leert d.e tekst ons
dat bet onmogelijk is voor hen die eens verlicht ge-
weest zijn, de hemelsche gaven gesmaakt hebben,  des                       Birth Control and
`Heiligen  Gee&es  deelachtig geworden zijn, het goede
woord Gods gesmaakt hebben, en de  krachtan  der toe-              The Seventh Commandment
komende eeuw, om vernieuwd te worden  ,t.ot bekeering,
dan is het kennelijk de bedoeling van deze  Schrift  dat          By way of introduction I should like to forestall
ze niet kunnen bekeerd worden  juist  van wege deze            any expectation that this essay will give a clear cut
verlichting, dit nauw contact met  dse waarheid. En al         solution of the problems involved and a  vest-pocke:
de middelen die deze natuurlijke mensch mocht  on+-            rule of conduct.
vangen  in de sfeer van Gods verbond hebben slezhts                In the first place the question is a very difficult
ten vrucht om zijn goddeloos natuurlijk hart tot  open-        one and no less a man than Dr. K. Schilder has said:
baring te  doen  komen, Dit wordt immers bevestigd             To my mind there may be cases where limitation of
door de verzen 7 en  B-, de regen vallende op een land         the number of children is desirable, yea even demand-
dat geen zaad heeft heeft slechts ten vrucht om  door-         ed. In such a case there are measures  ,to be used
nen en distelen voort te brengen. Maar de verschrikke-         which  I do not need to name specifically, because l'
lijke toestand  van deze afv,alligen  wordt hier voorge-       as theologian find these measures indicated for us in
steld als de reden aangevenge waarom ze niet tot be-           our accepted Form for Marriage, and as far as other
keering kunnen vernieuwd  worden.                              lawful means are concerned, I am very well conscious
    Het is  onzes  inziens dan ook de gedachte van Heb.        of the fact that it would be folly for any theologian
6 :4-6 dat deze afvalligen onmogelijk tot bekeering kun-       or physician to presume by his own  lEt.tle self (op
nen vernieuwd  worden  omdat ze beslist niet  ontvanke-        zijn` eentje) to prescribe the formula for the com-
lijk zijn voor de invloeden en prediking van het  evan-        mands and prohibitions of the Divine law in this
gelie.  We1 is het werk der zaligheid het werk Gods            sphere.
alleen. ,Onmogelijk   kan de mensch van zichzelven Gade            I consider these to be words of wisdom, and surely
behagen en zich keeren van de zonde tot den levenden           the history of all like questions should warn us against
God. Dit neemt, echter,  het feit niet wleg  dat het werk      hasty "and onesided conclusions. I may refer  St.0 the
des Heeren geschiedt in den mensch  als een redelijk-          well-known extreme in the question of intoxicating
zedjelijk `wezen. En het feit dat de mensch zoo verhard        drink. <On the one hand are the total abstainers who
kan worden  dat hij niet Ianger ontvankelijk is voor be-       simply condemn all use of intoxicants as sin ; on the
keering wordt  inderdaad door d,e historie bevestigd.          other hand cGhere  is the <danger  of becoming so familiar
Of, om deze zaak te beschouwen  uit oogpunt van den            with this "good creature of God" that it rules over
alleen  souvereinen God, het is de leering der Schrift         US  in drunkenness. To some extent the question of
dat de Almachtige een mensch  aldus verharden kan              tobacco use has produced similar extremes. The one
dat zijne bekeering onmogelijk is.  Immers, Heb. 6             in false holiness abstains altogether; the other be-
handelt juist over zoo'n verharden zondaar. Hij heeft          comes bold and uses it to the detriment of health and
het  volIe  licht gezien en gekend. ;Hij verstaat de waar-     economic welfare. Likewise the  questio;l  of  sword-
heid en heeft gesmaakt, in verstandelijken zin, de heer-       power reveals the poles of extreme pacifism  aed. ruth-
lijkheid van een Christen te zijs, vm de vergeving der less militarism,


                                                                                                                      ."
176                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

    After  ,this introduction the reader will understand    blessing whereby the multiplication of the race is
that I feel free to leave some things in the form of        brought about. For that `it is not in the first place
unanswered yuestions, and leave ultimate conclusions addressed to the responsible will' may appear from the
to those more qualified to jud.ge. Following our pre-       fact that it is also spoken to the irrational creature
scribed subject, it appears best to approach the ques-      (vs. 21). Thus the purpose of God is not realized by
tion from the view-point of the Seventh Command-            the response of the rational will but by an increased
ment,, and to define other terms as we need them.           power and urge in the biological constitution.  ,And
    The Seventh Commandment, which concerns  Zself          this applies to both the union of the two souls and
with adultery does not seem  imnmdiately to stand           minds and  Iives which are united into a higher mani-
in relation to our subject, and yet upon some reflec-       festation, and to the multiplication of  ,the race thereby.
tlon it will be seen to be very basic to the entire con-    And although these powers and urges may not be
sideration. We may say that the commandment in a            utterly brought under the dominion of sin, yet they
few short words gives a complete norm for the entire        are thereby not effaced but continue their biologicai,
marital sphere. But in order to see this we must            and psychological functionings.
understand that it is a recapitulation or summation            It is only under the new dominion of sanctification
of that which God ordained and established with and         of grace that they are again consciously directed and
in the creation of man. This commandment goes back          guided to that beauty which is a reflection of the
to the beginning and there we find that God ordained        heavenly things. And then the question arises whe-
by His creative power and commanded by His reveal-          ther there is any, place for the deliberate regulation
ing word all that is implied in the institution of mar-     of the expansion into family life.
riage .                                                        And then it may immediately strike us that there
    This  in&it&ion  is expressed in two main passages      are several factors which under God's providence  ami
in Genesis. The first in the order of development is        guidance work  ,toward this regulation. There is in
Gen.  2:18-24  according to which God made a help           the first place the fact that people do not and are
meet for f;he man and they are to be one flesh, and the     not expected to propagate children merely because
second is Gen. 1:28 And God blessed them, and God           they reach the necessary biological maturity. We do
said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replen-        not expect people of 14 or 15 years  o1.d to feel  irn-
ish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion. . . .       mediately addressed by this command of Gen. 1:%8.
    In the first passage we have undoubtedly the es-        On the contrary we may expect many other factors to
sence of  .marriage  expressed. Its essence lies in the     bring the proper maturity in all other respects, in
union of two different bodily-spiritual beings for <the     that of mentality, in that of the ability to provide for
purpose of reciprocal exchange, reception and reflec-       the offspring, and the necessary wisdom to rear them
tion of their different  inclinations,  thoughts and af-    for their place in life. Not the mere multiplication,
fections, unto manifestation of a new, higher and           but the manifestation of a becoming family life ap-
richer  manifestakion of ethical life. This union is        pears to be the purpose.
not a matter of addition but of a new production. As           Further there appears very definitely a regulat-
e.g., when God joins soil-rain-sun, but a product, a        ing factor  iOn the fact that a period of  nursing  or
fruitage, something new, that is a beautiful plant or       lactation generally postpones the birth of a new child
flower. The mutual development in this intimate af-         considerably. By this Divine ordering and delay any
fection and love is a picture of that utter new thing       supposiition  that the primary purpose is the mere and
of beauty and love that results when God joinsHim-          unlimited multiplication of offspring seems  defiaitelJ
self to a people in Christ and is forever delighted in      precluded.
the fruits of love they reveal from that new u&n.              These two considerations, then, ,woul'd  seem to im-
       Now although the idea of marriege is essentially     ply definitely that there is some kind of a balance
complete in this union yet closely related to it is the     sought between th'e number of offspring on the one
power and urge of procreation which is at the same          hand and their proper full development in order that
time &e most beautiful image of the love and fellow-        the idea of a family in unity and happiness and love
ship  of the Father-house with its many beloved chil-       may be acheived.
dren.                                                           Over against this however we may never forget
       Therefore it is against the back-ground of the       several other considerations.
being and purpose of marriage that we must view the             Firstly, it is evident that although, procreation is
question of birth control.                                  not essential to the essence of marriage, nor its only
       To begin with now, it has been truly observed no     purpose, yet without children marriage does not at-
`doubt  that the text concerning procreation  (Gen.l:28)    tain its full richness as is also evident from the fact
is not in the first place a command,, but a word of         that most childless marriages reveal a lack of balance


    "                               TgHE  STANDA.RD   B E A R E R                                                      177

and a certain futility of being and most Christian           we are under the dominion of sin and the battle to re-
couples consider childlessness as a  cross given them of store our lives unto the holy and blessed ordinances
the Lord to bear wit.h patience.                             of God is indeed a battle t,hat requires of us all that
   And secondly the multiplication of the human race         we have and are and that no effort or sacrifice is too
is indeed the will of God and also the Christian de-         great to even approximate' that blessed goal.
sires to be instrumental thereto if so be the guidance                                                        A. P.
of God for his personal life. And not only so that the
people of God in this world have the blessed privilege
of bringing forth by natural generation and covenant
formation the innumerable host of the redeemed, but
also that the whole earth may be  peop1e.d  ,to the meas-
ure of God's determinate decree in order that the day                                 Shiloh
of harvest may come and the sickle thrust in to cut
athe wheat and the tares.                                                   (The Distribution of the Land)
   From this it would appear that any birth regula-
tion or control must always be motivated by the de-             The united inheritance of Manasseh and Ephraim
sire to bring to manifestation the natural image of the      includes a fruitful country lying in the midst of West-
glorious spiritual communion of Christ and of the            ern Palestine. It  exteLlds from the Jordan, and the
father and son relation in the blessed family of God.        eastern slopes of mount Ephraim across to the shore
   Especially here where the relationships are so  all-      of the Mediterranean. Of this entire district Ephraim
pervading so influential for all of life, can we see how     received the southern portion, the half tribe of Manas-
sin has destroyed and caused the good creature to be seh the northern. Ephraim only, and he for a narrow
subjected to vanity and miss its mark. But by grace space, touched the Jordan. The border between Eph-
there may be at least a beginning of bringing also this      raim and Manasseh is not clear nor the northern bor-
sphere under the dominion of righteousness and again         der of Manasseh.
consciously directing it ,to the purpose for which God          The sacred narrator makes mention of the fact
has created it.                                              that there was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh-
                                                             a lot west of the Jordan, too--be being the first born
   The fruit of this will be on the one hand mutual          of Joseph.      Though Ephraim was ordained to take
understanding and deliberation for the avoidance of          rank before Manasseh, `to the latter remained the
abnormahties  and tragedies, where by children are           privilege of the double portion. The two sons ranked
born into a family world where there is no fi,t recep-       with their uncles as founders of tribes ia perpetual
tion for them because of sickness and poverty and mal-       acknowledgment of the service rendered by Joseph to
adjustment, or their birth may bring danger of death         the family.
or permanent injury to the mother. On the other hand            As has been stated in Num. XXVI, so here.  Ze-
it will cause the Christian to see that children are the     lophehad, the son of Hepher, had no sons but only
natural God-ordained development and completion of           daughters.      Zelophehad himself had died in the wil-
`the married state, that they are a heritage from the        derness, but the daughters  declare it an injustice that
Lord and that they must be welcomed as the comple-           their father's name should perish, and that, too, when
tion of that which is the image of the heavenly family he had not been of those t.hat rose up against the Lord
of God. Thus the Christian will desire children for          in the company of Korah. Moses brings their  cabse
God's sake.                                                  before the Lord by whom it was maintained in the
   Finally, now, a word is required about the method         following language, "The daughters of Zelophehnd
or manner of this control. Above we saw that the             speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession
complete realization of marriage is reached in the           of an inheritance of their father to pass unto them."
family of children. And because of this some theol-          By this the  nam,e of Zelophehad was preserved, which.
ogians have maintained that no control is permissible could not have been the case witthout the possession
even though an eventual child-birth would mean the           of an  iestate  to which the name of the original pro-
loss of the mother's life. 0,thers  have maintained that prietor attached. Because, therefore, the daughters,
only that is to be condemned which is contrary to na-        as heirs, obtained their possession among the male
ture such as use of preventive medication or devices,        descendants of Manasseh, the inheritance in  Westeru
and retain as a last resort the demand of continence         Palestine was divided into ten parts, while the land of
by ,the help of God and the power of His grace.              Gilead went to the. remaining Manassites.
   To this final stage the question may then be justly          The portion of the country allotted to the children
reduced. And although the loss of life is a tremendous       of Joseph had not been well cleared of its original
alternative, yet we may never forget that by nature          inhabitants. This is plain from what is said in Chap.


178                                    T*HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

XVI :10, "They drove not out the Canaanites that                    Though the whole land was subdued, there remain-
dwelt in Gezer." Hence, the children of Joseph came             ed seven tribes which had not yet received their in-
complaining before their fellow-tribesman Joshua.               heri tance.      They were slow to entertain the thought
"Why," they ask,  "ha&  thou given me but one lot               of a fixed settlement and received, it could be expect-
an,d one portion, as a possession, when I am a great            ed, little encouragement to such a  ,course  from the
people, in so far as Jehovah hath blessed me hither-            other tribes. Thus. they continued in the common
to." Joshua, by no means disposed to grant special              camp in the district allotted to the children of Joseph
favors to his own tribe, demands of them to use their           even when Ephraim gathered around the tabernacIe
strength, to go up into the forest, to ,clear  it out, and      anld was moving onward to a permanent settlement.
establish for themselves new abodes among the  Peri-            The listlessness of these tribes was provoking to Jos-
zites and the Rephaim. But they show little inclina-            hua, for he knew that God's plan was quite different,
tion to this course, and at the  sam'e time intimate that that each tribe was to have a terrieory of its own, and
hey cannot spread themselves further in the plain               that measures ought to be taken at once to  settIe the
because "the Canaanites that dwell in the  lan'd of             bounderies of the seven remaining tribes. He said
Bethshean and her towns, and they who are of the                unto the children of Israel, "How long are' ye slack
the valley have chariots of iron, both they who are of          to go to possess the land, which the Lord God of your
valley of Jezreel."     Joshua still remains firm. In           fathers  bath given you? Give out from among you
both his replies he betrays a touch of irony, as if he          three men from each tribe: and I will send them and
would say : Yes it is true thou art a numerous people,          they shall rise, and go through the land, and describe
and  hast great strength, and oughtest therefore to have        it according to the inheritance of them ; and they shall
more than one ,share. But seek to procure this second           come again to me. And they shall divide it into seven
portion thyself. Cut down the forest! Behold  thoti             parts." Judah and Joseph were not to be disturbed
wilt drive out the Canaanites; it is precisely thy task         in the settlements that had already been given them.
to  con.quer those that have iron chariots and  a,e             "Judah shall abide in their coast on the south, and
mighty; no other tribe can do it.                               the house of Joseph shall abide in their coast on the
   There now occurs an event of importance. The                 north.`"       Special note was taken of the cities, for
land having been subdued and the leading tribes hav-            when the spies returned and gave back their report
ing received their allotments, "the  whoIe  congregation        they described "the land by the cities into seven parts
of the children of Israel assembled together at  Slriloh        in a book."
and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there."              The remaining land is now divided. "And Joshua
No reason is given why Shiloh was selected  a? the              cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord: and there
religious center of the nation, but that it was chosen          Joshua divided the land unto the children of Israel-
by Divine direction we can hardly doubt. We should              unto the seven remaining tribes-according to their
have thought  t,hat  th.e  preferen,ce  would  be  given  to    divisions.
Bethel, a city of primeval sanctity in Israel and lying            The territory of Benjamin lay between t.he sons of
somewhat south but still sufficiently central. Betiiei,         Judah on the south, and the sons of Joseph on the
however, though its ruler had been at. the very first north. For the most part it consisted of deep ravines
once defeated by Joshua, was not permanently oc-                running from `west to east. Many of its cities were
cupied by Ephraim till after Joshua's death. Then               perched high in the mountains, as is evident from the
the house of Joseph went upagainst Bethel and the               commonness of the names Gibeon,  Gibeah, Geba, all
Lord was with them. Shown the entrance into the                 of which signify "hill." Several of the cities of Ben-
city by a man whom they saw coming out of it, they jamin were famous. We mention Bethel ;. Gibeon,  the
smote the place with the edge of the sword, but .let            capitol of the Gibeonit.es ; Ramah,  aft.erwards  the dwell-
go the man and all his family, Judges  I:23-26.       From      ing place of Samuel; Mispah, one of the three places
the days of Joshua, all through the period of the Jud-          where he judged Israel.
ges, and on to the last days of Eli the high priest,                The second lot came forth to Simeon. There  id
Shiloh continued to be the abode of the tabernacle,             little to be said of Simeon. His portion was taken out
and the religious center of Israel, while Shechem be-           of the allotment to Judah,  wihch  was larger than the
came the supreme seat of civil power. Yet Schechem trib,e required. "And their inheritance was within
had from the earliest times been accounted of such              the inheritance of the `children of Judah." The his-
sanctity that it could not but rank among the Levitical         tory of this tribe as a whole can be written in the
cities and the cities of refuge. It was bounded on the          words of Jacob's prophecy, "I will divide them in
north and south by the two mountains, Ebal and  Geri-           Jacob and scatter them in Israel."
zim,  which early acquired a certain sanctity. On the               The bounderies of Zebulun are given with much
former stood an altar as a memorial of the giving of            precision; but most of the names are unknown so
the law,                                                        that the delineation cannot be followed. Zebulun was


                                       T,HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           179

  wholly an inland tribe, as no mention is made either of         In His holy tabernacle near the altars that stood
  t!he sea or the lake of Galilee as a boundary.               in its  sancturaries,  the Lord  - the King of peace
     Issachar touched in the north on Zebulun and              and rest, the Shiloh - dwelt and exercised His rule.
  Naphtali; in the west on Ashur and Manasseh,; in the         On the arrival in Canaan, this sacred tent was finally
  south likewise on Manasseh in part; in the east on the       pitched at Shiloh.  (And whereas this structure housed
  Jordan. Issachar received an interesting and import-         the throne (the ark of the covenant) and the altars of
  ant site.    Its most beautiful section of country was       God, it follows that the placing of it at Shiloh signified
  the fertile plain of Jezreel.                                that at this spot Jehovah now took up His resi'dence,
     The fifth lot fell to the tribe of  Asher,  which re-     and by His presence the very center and seat of His
  ceived the territory on the slope of the Galilean moun-      gracious government over a people with whom He
  tains toward the Mediterranean. It was a very beau-          mow, after the holy warfare  had been warred, took up
  tiful and fertile region.    Naphtali was  ad.jacent  to     His abode in a land converted by His might into a
  Ashur, and had the Jordan and the lakes of Merom and         region of rest and peace. The city of Shiloh, in dis-
  Galilee for its eastern boundary.                            tinction from all  ot.her places  (Gilgal, Nob, and
     Dan was the tribe whose lot was drawn last. He            Gibeon)  where the sacred tent was placed, actuaI1y  ap-
  was shut in between Judah on the one hand and the            pears in the sacred record as a  plaoe  so favored. it
  Philistines on the other. The best part of his inher-        was at Shiloh where the host of the Lord was encamped
  itance was no doubt in their hand. Soon therefore a `while Joshua divided the land unto the children of
  colony of Danites went out in search of further pos-         Israel. To Joshua and to the host at Shiloh, yea to the
  sessions. Having dispossessed some Sidonians at Laish,       Lord Himself, the spies who had passed through the
  in the extreme north, they gave their name to that city.     land (of Canaan) and described it returned. Here
     The  .division  of the country `was not completed but     at Shiloh the lots were cazt before the Lord in token
  Joshua himself was still unprovided for. With rare           that the rest now entered into was Jehovah's.
  self-denial, he waited until every one else had received        Jehovah's rest it was. For the battle had been His.
  his portion. When his turn did come, his request was         Israel had gained the  ascendency  because the wicked
  a modest one. "Thy gave him the city that he asked,          tribes  infest.ing  Ganan had been delivered into its
  even Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim.           hand by the Lord. The victory gained had been His
  And he built the city and dwelt therein."                    gracious gift and the promised inheritance the spoil
     `Under Moses the camp of Israel was divided into          taken in a war He through the sword of Joshua had
  four divisions in the Order of East, South, West, and        waged. The prize gained therefore belonged exclusively
  North, with the tabernacle in the center. The four           to the `Lord. In consequence thereof it was He Who
  leading tribes were Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan.         through the instrumenta!ity  of His servant, Joshua dis-
  To the East was Judah in association with Issachar           tributed all the land which He sware to give unto their
  and Zebulun.     To Reuben in the south was joined           fathers; the land among the tribes. "The Lord gave
  Simeon and Gad. On the West Mannasseh and Ben-               unto Israel and they possessed it and  dw,elt therein."
  jamin were encamped und$er the' leadership `of Eph-             And in this land the Lord with His people came to
  raim.    To the north was Dan' in association with           rest. He gave them rest round about "according to all
  Ashur and Naphtali. Essentially this same order and          that He sware unto their fathers: and there stood not
  relative fdignity  of the tribes was maintained in the       a man of all their enemies before them: the Lord de-
  division of the land among them. I!n this order, .the        livered all their enemies into th.eir hand. There failed
  Israelitish nation, as  settled  in Canaan, stands before    not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken
  us as the type of the church-the church in. glory            unto the house of Israel; all came to pass." Joshua
  -the true house of God, the  heavemy  and imperish-          21:43-35.
  able commonwealth of Israel, in which each of his               Canaan was the Shiloh land, a country of rest and
  numbered servants has his allotted place where he            of a peace that consisted in God reigning in the midst
  securely dwells-the city of God, the new Jerusalem.          of His enemies by Himself and through His people  -
     The assembling of the people of Israel at Shiloh          a peace therefore that was at once a &ate of mind to
  and the subsequent completion of the division of the         be defined as a blessed inward quietude springing from
  land, was the first fulfillment of the prophecy of the       the nation's consciousness that it. was reconciled to
  dying respecting Judah, "The scepter shall not depart        God through the blood of the  oRering,  that God there-
  from  .Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet,          fore was on its side with His hand on the neck of the
  until Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the gathering         adversary.
  of the people be."                                              It, is plain that with the coming of the Lord to Ca-
     Canaan was the Shiloh land and Jehovah the rest           naan and in-particular to the city of Shiloh  - that seat
e and peace (such is the signification of the word             of blessed reign of peace - Jacob's prophecy went into
  Shiloh) of His people.                                       initial fulfillment. What in the first instance had risen


 160                                  TeHEmST-KNDARU   EEARER

before the eye of this prophet when on his dying bed         in his ~&st+article or enlarged it.; There is sufficient
he jubilantly exclaimed, "The scepter will not depart        objective evidence at hand to prove these rumors thor-
from Judah until Shiloh comes," was the prospect of          oughly false. Besides, anyone who compares his first
Jehovah entering His rest and tabernacling with his          article with my first  article.  will easily and readily
 (Jacob's) seed in Canaan the Shiloh land.                   perceive that these rumors  mu& be false. My op-
                                             G.M.O.          ponent--would be glad to have anyone in doubt about
                                                             this approach him on the matter.
                                                                 I, the undersigned, G.M. Ophoff have this.  to say.
                                                             1.. I am grateful to th.e brother for these `corrections
                                                             and remarks.
                                                                 2. I now realize that I should have limited myself
                                                             to  t,he. space originally assigned to us, and also  ,that it
                                                             would have been better had I not involved the con-
    I, the undersigned,  1s. Kok, have this to say.          sistory  of Hudsonville. My mistake is, that I made
  1) Rev. Ophoff has taken exception to my statement .of our debate a controversy, while the purpose of the
in the Standard Bearer of January 1, which reads as          editor, in assigning to us the question in dispute, was
Follows : "I also wish to inform our readers that we         not controversy but formal debate.
were both limited by the editor  t.o five  typewri;ten                                                         B. Kok.
pages which is equivalent to about four columns of                                                             G.M. Ophoff.
the Standard Bearer. But lo, instead of four, my op-
ponent used up more than eleven columns, or about
three times the space allotted him. By taking such                                   -
undue advantage he has really forfeited all right of
expecting an answer from me." The brother main-                                           NOTICE
tains that five columns of this space was taken up by
an "Introduction t.o the Debate," in which, according            Many requests have come to the board of the
to him, he does not debate, but merely states the is-        R.F.P.A. to publish church news, such as Trio's calls
sues. This I could' not see, but I am willing to let         extended, and accepted or declined.  Su,ch notices will
the readers judge. If in this statement I have wrong-        be gladly placed in the Standard Bearer until the
ed the brother I gladly retract.                             Church News weekly is again published (which wiil
    2) The final paragraph of my rebuttal (The Stan-         not be until after the war). We will do this only under
dard Bearer for  dan 1) reads :  "I  have come to the        one condit.ion,  it must be officially, ,that is, the clerk
en~d of my allotted  spwe of five  typeuktten pages,  I      of any consistory upon request of that body must mail
hope my opponent  doe8 not  again  take  zcntlue  advaz-     that notice or news direct to our editor, Rev. H. Hoek-
tage of me, by taking more  thnn his  a.llotted.  space."    sema, 1139 Franklin St., Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Reconsidering, I realize that the statement: "I ha,ue        Consist.ories  please take notice of this.
come to the end of my allotted space of fiwe typewm't-                                         Board of the R.F.P.A.
ten pages," is incomplete. The sentence should read:
"I have come to the end of my  originally  allotted
space." `For the fact is that not for my first article,
to be sure (the one appearing in The Standard Bearer                               ANNIVERSARY
for Dec. 15))  but for my rebuttal, the editor, in view
of the fact that my opponent had written more than h,e           It has pleased the Lord that my parents,
should have, allowed me as much space as I thought                            P E T E R   VANDER  GUGTEN
I would need, thus  rn0r.e space than was originally                                        and
assigned to us. The reason I filled none of this extra                 _ GERTRUDE  VANDER  GUGTEN
space is that I had told my opponent that I  .was in-
tending to limit myself to the space that was original-      might celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary this
ly ours, and that my opponent said that he would try         Christmas, Dec. 26, 1943.
to do likewise.                                                  I am very thankful that the Lord has given me Christian
   3) There is abroad a rumor to the effect that my          parents who have taught me in His ways.
opponent  too'k  unfair advantage of me in this respect          Together, we thank the Lord that `He has spared us through
that he wrote his first article after  he. had read my       all these years and pray that  He may guide and direct our
first article. Another rumor has it that G$& he had paths in the years to come.
his first article written, he read my first art.icle  and                                  Dau.ghter,
that, in  wnsequwx   thereof, he made certain changes                                               Gertrude Janet.       -_


