                                                                                                                              Y


V O L U M E   X X I                            OGTOBER  1, 1944                                                        NUMBER ,1

                                                                  `now clearly discerns that it was good for him to be

                                                                  a f f l i c t e d .

                                                                       Lord, thou hast dealt well with thy servant!


                                                                                         -


                                                                      According unto thy word ! _ '

                                                                       0, but indeed, that is the Word of the Lord <through-

                                                                  out, that He always deals well with His servants!
             Thou hast cl&&~  well with thy servant, .b
          Lokl, acco+$&t  unto thy- word. Teach me                - Particularly it is l&s. Word, `that even when He
                                                                  casts us in the crucible of trial and tribulation, through
          g o o d  `judg?@lz$  and.  know@dge : for I huv,e       that very. suffering of this present time He .deals  well
          believed thy,~om&znd~m&n.+  `I
                                                                  with His servants:
                                            Ps. llY:65; 66.            It is this `which the psalmist here `confesses.

   Lord-,  Thou hast dealt well! ~                                     In the first part of the text. he speaks of exper-
   This ackowledgement,  and that, too, as a matter               ience.     He is looking back. The immediate past brought
of experience, dominates this entire. section of the              him suffering.              He has been sorely tried. ' ~-But th,e
psalm.                                                            afflictiolil, for the moment, is. passed. And now it I's
   Enemies there were, ,haters of ,God  and of His                all over,  he may ,and does, indeed, testify f&m cx-
Word, that "forged a lie against"' the psalmist, hated            perience that  the ~Lcrd  dealt well with .him.  ,He  can
him, persecuted Ihim, and spoke all manner of evil                see it now. Perhaps, this fact was not always so
against him falsely.                                              clear to him whiie he was in the midst of his suffer-
                                                                  ing. jQ,ut in retrospect he discerns it clearly. And
   And the inspired_ psalmist; as the servaat  of .the
                                                                  now ie compares this. experience with the Word of
Lord, had been in-distress,, affli,cted,  no doubt, because
of and by the, hatred of the enemi.es  of Jehovah.          Of    God, *and.  he- acknowledges that the two are quite in  1
                                                                  harmony,_  that the Word of the Lord is faithful -and 
this affliction he speaks twice'in this section.'                                                                                        _
                                                                  true
   However, in the midst of affliction and persecution                     : .Lord,  thou. ?nast.  dealt well with thy servant, ac-
                                                                  cording unto thy word 
by the enemy, the psalmist7had  not become ,unfaithful,                                               ! .'
                                                                      .Thi,s  implies$  that the Word of. God assures His
had3 not departed from the ways of the precepts- of _the          servants in this world,, that .the ~Lord  will always deal
Lord, but had loved and kept His testimonies. ;'                  well with them. ' ~' i                       -.
   And -through it all, he had come to acknowledge by
                                                                  .~ ' And, indeed, it does !f '
experience, that the Lord is faithful, thatHis  promises
                                                                   ;Whe.n `the -psalmist .-speaks here of -the Word of
are sure, .that His -Word is true,._and  that always Je-          G.od,;he  refers not to any special and particular reve-
hovah deals well with' His servants.        Even when suf-        lation which he had received, but to, the entire- reve:
fering and tribulation is .our `lot, even when `the ene-          lation  of God in Christ, as it had always been  addres:
mies rise up against us to destroy our soul; Ithe  Lord           sed  to all'the,  servants of Jehovah.in  the midst of this
is good, and He cjuses  all things  to' work t.ogether  for
                                                       .          present world; as it gradually increased and grew in
our salvation.                                                    riches and- clarity, as the poet po.ssessed  that Word of

   Such had been the experience of the psalmist.                  God in the. testimonies of the Lord which he knew and
   bxjlsing  bask upon Q: @~ktion of the                          loved; as it was centrally and completely 
                                                  _ past;. he                                                            fuifilpd il?
                               _a'

                                      I)


                       --. .-
2                                     T H E   S T A N Q A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                                          .

the fulness of time in Jesus Christ  ohr Lord;, in His            t@ibulation~the  Lord dealt well with him.

incarnation and sojourn among us, in His Word  .and               "      Abundantly evident this becomes in the rest of the
                                                                                                        ,
work, in His de&h  an,d  res.urr&tion,  and exaltation            sectiog.

at the right hand of God, and in the pouring forth of                    Does he not clearly express that he. regards the

the. Spirit; of the exalted (Christ,  the `Lord o? all ; as it    affliction itself as a good? Before he was a@cted  he

dire,cts the eyes of our hope to the final goal, His              went $stray,  but now he .had kept the Word of God.

&ming again with power and glory, to reveal His                   It was good for him' to be afflicted, that he might

ilory,  and to establish His eternal kingdom in  which            learn $he statutes of the .Lord.

the tabernacle of, {God  will be with men.                               The well-dealing of ;the Lord, of w.hich the psalm-
     The gospel                               i
                  !                                               ist speaks, does not have reference to all, therefore
     The gospel of the promise!                                   to any natural, earthly, material, temporal good, but

     And that Word throughout, emphatically and in                to the spiritual heavenly, eternal blessings of  the king-

Various  ways, assures the servant of. the L&d,  that He          `dam and covenant of `cod,  as they will ultimately be

will `always do we.11 with him,  w,ill never leave or             realized in all their.fulness  in the final glory of ~Gocl's

forsake him, will be a shelter to him in the time of              heavenly house, the.heavenly  perfection of His eternal'

storm, a strong tower into which  he may always rtin              covenant of friendship.

and be safe, that He will Sustain and `keep him, that                    And thus is the promise of the Word of God'

not a hair will fall from his head against the Lord's             t.hroughout.

will, that He will bring it to pass., and  that  He will               Not that His people will be excused from, will be

cadse  all things to work together for,  his good, even           spared the suff&ings  of this present time; is the  polo-

also and `emphat.ically  the apparently evil things of            mise of God to them. On  ithe contrary, not only do

this present time ; and tha,t absolutely nothing,  on they lie in the midst of death with all the  world;  ar.d
ear$h or in heaven or in hell, can possibly. separate             must they, therefore, endure with the world t*he sM'er-

him from the love of God which  is in Christ Jesus our            ings of this present time in general  ; but they must
Lord.                                                             also expect that special tribulation which is the ful-

     Such  is. the Word bf God.                                   fillment of the sufferings of Christ. "In the world

     It i's a .light~in  darkness.                                ye shall have tribulation !"

     It is .a strong assurance of salvation in' the niidst               And ahead still. looms the great iribulafion  that

of. the sufierings  of this present time.          ,              shall ieave  no room in the world for the faithful. . . .
     A mighty  consolation in the time of trouble  !              But be df good cheer!
     The,_.faithfulness  of this `Word the poet had ex-                  The Lord .deals  well with His servants!

perienced. And lof it he sings: Thou hast  ,,dealt  well                 Sulch is His ,Word!

with  thy Servant, 0 Lord, accordinag unto $hy word !                    And that Word is the revelation of His eternal

     Let us not misunderstand. this `confession, .and             counsel  concerning our salvation.

give' it. an erroneous application.      The,  psalmist does             1,~ that  counsel He has so willed ,and arranged iI1
not have in mind any temporal or material good the                things, even all the sufferingb  of this present time,
Lord had b&owed  `on hini. When he acknowl,edges                  even all the. powers of ,darkness  that rave and rage
her'e  that the Lord had dealt well with him, he does             furiously against the Church,  that they must all work
precisely not mean that.  his pathway thr,ough.  this             together for the final salvation of them that love Him,
present life had been bright and rosy hitherto, and               who are i:he  called according to His purpose.
that he had been spared suffering and affliction.  The                   That counsel He reveals afid  realizes in time, so
very contrary is true.       I-Iis way had not been charac-       that all things are made subservient to-the purpose of
terized by material prosperity. Emphatically he speaks            our final glory.

of. his affliction.    But in 1 and through that affliction              An&  always it is true:  The Lord deals well with
the Lord had dealt well with Bim. Nor does this,                  H i s   s e r v a n t s .

well-dealing of the Lord re$er  to the fa& that the af-                  A&ding  to His Word!
fliction which the psalmist experienced belongs to

the past, and the L0r.d had deliverdd  him out ,of 311

his troub!es,  80 that for the present, at Jeast, his wag

was one of .joy  and prosperity.       On the contrary, he               T h y   s e r v a n t !

regards his afflic$ion,  the sufferings he had ,enduTcd,                 Serious qualificatidn  ,indeed!

as the Lord's dealing with him.        Even though it waere              Not  with all, not with +he reprobate wicked, that

true, that the enemies of the Lord had inflicted this             depart fr,om His ways  and love iniquity, does the

suffeiing upoil him, he now realizes' that  through  thrl         Lord deal well.

eneniies  it was the Lord that was dealing with him.                    The contrary is true.       Even their prosperity is de-

and SQ, the afflic$ion  it&$f was a good.@ him.         19 the    signed .by Him to serve 3s slippery placea  ~a the which:


                                        T    H    E     .-STANDARD.,BEA,RER  ---.                                                             3

  they hasten to their destruction.- Even when they                   spect.     He was afflicted, but the affliction is now past.

  are made to grow as ,the grass, it is that they may be              And he reaped and is enjoying the-  fruit of tribula-

 `destroyed for ever.                                                 tion. _ It has become a matter of his experience that it
     He loveth the righteous!                                         was good, for .him to be afflicted.                   He received the
     His servants !                                                   fruit of righte,ousness.                   He was sanctified through
     They are. those that' l,ove Him, that,  stand in cove-           suffering. Before he was afflicted he wandered, but
  l:?ant relation to Him, that know Him and keep His                  `now he keeps the Word of his God. `He is able to see
  commandments; and in this world represent the cause                 the salutary effect of affliction as it was sanctified unto
  of .the  Son of `God.     Them, and them exclusively, He            his heart ,by the grace of God.                    And 30, speaking in
doeth good, and with them He deals; well even in all                  the Past tense, he rejoices in the Lord and: conf,esses:
  the experiences and vicissitudes, all the sufferings and            Thou' hast ,de,alt  well with `thy servant, 0. Lord, ac-
  afflictions of this. present time.                                  cording unto thy word!

     Not, indeed, as if they had ought  to .boast.                          How. blessed, however, even in the midst of tribula-
     For they are not servants of Jehovah of them-                    tion to `glory!
  selves.    On`the co\.ltrary,  they were children of wrath,    I          0, it is not easyi it is impossible for the flesh (ahd
  even as also the others, And if  ,God'li  well-dealing              how mighty is often the flesh in us !) to rejoice in
  with them depended at all upon anything they are or                 the well-.doing  of the Lord, even when the way grows
  accomplish, they could expect nothing else than eter-               dark, and all things appear to be against us! When
  nal wrath and darkness and damnation. `But they are                 we suffer, `not only the sufferings of this present time
  servants because Go,d or,dained  them as such in His                in general, but also  the tribualtion that comes upon  t.he
  eternal good pleasure.     That is why He coul:d  deal well         servants ,of the Lord:-  exactly because they are His
  with them when ithey were yet enemies, and give                     serv$nts  ; when it seems as if God's cause in the  world
  His only begotten Son, that they might not perish,                  must suffer defeat, and the wicked prosper; ah, then,
  but have life, and become His  servant.s indeed. . . . .            we are so easily inclined to cry out in doubt and fear  :
     And always He dealt well with them.                              "Is there knowledge in- the.Most  High?"
     He `forgave all their iniquity, Bnd cleansed them                      The more faithful we are as servants of the Lord,
  from all their guilt, clothing them with His own
                                                                      the more we suffer affliction 
  righteousness in IChrist Jesus their Lord.                                                                        !
                                                                            How can it be, then, that the Lord deals well with
     He quickened them together with Christ, called
                                                                 .His servants?. 
  them out of darkness into His  marvellous  light.                                             . . .    '
     He changes them from servants of sin and the                           Then, too, how often we,  t.oo,  seek the, "good" in
  devil into His ow.n  by the wonder of His grace.                    the things of this present time, the things that are
     He preserves them by His power through the faith                 seen, rather than in the spiritual things of the  king:
  He gives unto them,                                                 dom of IGod ! For  we are eart.hly,  and our desire is
             ..-
     And He makes them more than conquerors even in                   after earthly things.              And. the flesh. darkens our  un-
  the midst of their encmias.                                         d.erstanding,  so that we do not clearly discern the
     His servants they are, yes, but solely; through His              good. . . .
  sovereign gratce !                                                        We rglory  also in tribulation; yes, but with fear
     That no flesh should -glory in His presence!                     `and trembling. . . .
                                                                            And well may, if our faith is to have the victory

                                                                      in the midst of the suffering  a*nd  tribulation of this

                                                                      present time, the prayer of the psalmist be constantly
     Blessed asknowl'eclgement !                       `. :           in our heart and on our lips: "teach me good judg-
   For not a mere doctrinal statement is found in                     ment and knowledge, for I have' believed thy com-

  these`words,  but. a glad and joyful and thankful  ac-              mandments."             Judgment, that is, clear and distinct
 .knowledgement  of Jehovah's faithfulness & it was                   spiritual discernment of the' real, eternal, spiritual

  experienced by the psalmist.                                        good, that we may be sober, and evaluate all things

     And blessed are they, indeed, that may thus ac-                  in the light of the. eternal ; and knowledge, true spirit-
  knowledge and'taste the goodness of the Lord  !                     ual, experiental knowledge of that eternal and spiritual
     More blessed still'are  they, that may be so taught              good,-that is what we need daily, to be able to re-

  and upheld by the grace of their God, that even while               joice in the well-dealing of the Lord in the midst of

  they are in the mi.dst  of affliction they may joyfully             trouble. *
  confess : "Lord, thou art dealin-g well with thy $.ervant,,               Then, and then only, faith can have the victory,
  according unto thy Word!"                                           and we may glory even i.n tribulation!

     That is the victory of faith!            " _                           B l e s s e d   g l o r y i n g !                            `
     The psalmist here is after al! speaking in retro-                                                                          H .   H .
                                                                       .


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                                                      EDITOR  -`Rev. H. <Hokksexna

            `Contributing editors-Revs. J. Blankespoor, A; Cammenga,                                                                                                                                                       In the Missionary Monthly Dr. Beets commente'on
            P. De Boer, J. D. de Jong, H. De Wolf, L.  Doezema,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    the latest news item concerning Dr. Schilder and his 
     M. Gritters;.C.  Hanko, B. Kok, `G. Lubbers, G. M. Ophoff,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    .
            A. Petter, M. &kipper,  J. Vanden Byeggen,  H. Veldman,                                                                                                                                                 s u s p e n s i o n   a s   f o l l o w s :
            R. Veldman, L. Vermeer, ~4'. Vis, G. Vos, W. Hbfman,                                                                                                                                                                Gr,eat  names have adorned that Theological
          J. Heys, Mr. S. De Vries.                                                                  -                                                                                                                       School of, the Seceder  ,Church. Van Velzen,
     Communications relative to contents should -be addressed                                                                                                                                                               .Brummelkamp, and in later years the famous
.    : to REV. H. HOEKSEMA, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand`
            Rapids, Michigan.                                                                                                                              r -.                                                           _ Dr. H,erman  B a v i n c k .   M o r e   r e c e n t l y   w e
                                                                                                                                                                                                                             think of the beloved Profs. Bouwman 
     _ :Communicaiions  relative to subscription should be ad-                                                                                                                                                                                                                        "and
            dressed to MR. R.  S,OHAAFSMA,  1101  Hazen St., S. E.,                                                                                                                                                          Greydanus and Honig. When Prof. Honig  /
     `.&and  Rapids, Mi&.  All Announcemenks  and Obituaries                                                                                                                                                                 was retired `a young and able preacher was
            niiust  be sent tb the above address and will not be, placed                                                                                                                                                     chosen to. succeed him: I&as  Sehilder. An
            &less  the reg&r fee of $1.00 accompanies the notice.                                                                                                                                                            a b l e   m a n .  Highly gifted. Clever. He re-
     . .
                                                            S u b s c r i p t i o n  $2.6Cther  y e a r                                                                                                                      ceived part of. his higher training in Ger-

            `Entered as second class mail at Grand Rapids, Michigan                                                                                                                                                         .many. Relations between him and the breth-
                .                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             .
                                                                                                                                                                                                                             ren of the Free University must. have been

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             strained somewhat s.0 that the way did not

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             seem o'pen,  or feasible, to .obtain  his Doctor's
                     1                                           /                                -
                                                                                                                                                                                                                             degree at Amsterdam, the site of the Free
                                                                                       CONTENTS
                                            . .                                                                                                                                                                              U n i v e r s i t y .
     MRDITATI~N-  _ ; :                                                                                                                                                                                                         At the last General Synod which we at-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                             tended, in 1939, at Sneek,  ..we-received the
            _ THOU HAST  DEALT WELL                                                                                                                        .
                                                                                                          . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . e.......  . . ...' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . .     i
                           .,.                                                                                                                                                                                               impression, right `or wrong, that .Dr. Schil-,
             ~ Rev:   H .  Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                                          ders' relationship to different brethren of the
     EDITORIALS :-                                                                                                                                                                                                        . . . cloth, was not quite affa,ble.  W'hile he was

             CONDEMNED WITHOUT A HEARING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4                                                                                                                   here in America some years ago, some of us
                                  ~                                                                                                                                                                                          received the impression that he was rather
            Rev. H. Hoelkseina                                                                                      '
                                              1                                                                                                                                                                              too friendly with some who did not agree
             ABIMELE,CH:S                                     FALL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  :...........,.................................... 6                                                                    with ,,certain doctrinal deliverances of his
              - Rev. G. M. Ophoff _ I                                                                                                               _                                                                        own denomination about which  there had

             CONTRIBUTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -                               10             been considerable dispute in the Christian
               G. TenElshof-                                                  `.                                                                                                                                             Reformed Church:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                In recent years Prof. Schilder had been in-
             SPOKE~~ B Y JEREMY THE PROPHET . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . :....- . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
                          Rev. H. Di? Wolf                                                                                                                                    . .                                           terned by the invading Germans. Evidently
            " .                                                                                                                                                                                                             on aocount of our brother's_patriotism. And
            .HISTORY  OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN THIS  CEN-
            `TURY (II)                                                                                                                                                                                                      we praised him for his loyalty to his country.
                                                   . . . . . ' . . . ...*.... t................................  < ,.................................... 13
              llev.   M .   G r i t t e r s                                                                                                                                   '!.                                            But now, we infer from certain Dutch pa-
     ', .'.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 per&, that .do&inal  digerences  between Dr:
             po&  GOPS  ARM vERLOST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                                                       15
                          Rev. G. Vos'                                                                                                                                                                                      Schilder and others, differences particularly
                                                                             .
     .                                                                                                                                     ,. .,                                                                            about. certain `deliverances of  IGeneral  Synods
            FOREKNOWLEDGE, AND PREDESTINATION . . . . . . . . . ..a...... 16                                                                                                                                                of his denomination, have led to his  aztipen-
                          Rev. C. Hanko
                                                                                  '                                                                                                                                         aion. I ., .
     - PLENARY AND VERBAL INSPIRATION. OF HOLY                                                                                                                                                                                 If that means suspension (schorsing)  , in
            WRIT . . . . . .  . . . . . . . i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..a..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*............................ 18                                           the eec.lesi.astical  sense, we shall heartily de;
                Rev. ,H. Veld#man
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           pllo;re  such.        And, ascribe `it to a certain lean-
            PROOFS FOR TIIE EXISTENCE                                                                                          OF GOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22                                    ing of our brother to @isagree with his fel-
                          D. Vander Wal                                                                   - _ _.,                                                                                                           low believers or as the  .expression  perhaps

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          should  `be, 
     - .-.                             .----- __va._.".W .- _ . . h"i . . . _ ,.-                                                                         .          _-.._._,  ., .-. -_                                                    his -inability fo do te&mwsr'k,  ,If


     it means that, as a result of his  .loyalty  to              Utrecht, 1905. And these are, .indeed,  doctrinal. de-

     his country, the invader has again interfered,               liverances of his own. (Dr. Schilder's) .d.enomination,`:

     in his Ifunct~oning  as profasor-we  adinire                 .but 5 is not tr,he  that the dispute in the Christian Re,

     his bravery.                                                 forme<  Church before 1924 concerned these, except

      But we few the suspension involves chwch                    very indirectly .and by remote impli&ion.  _
     disciplipe.  If that is the case, let us here                    These are .t.he "grounds."

     in America pray for the `peace in. the  Dutch                    And on these "impressions" Dr. `Beets draws ihe

     Jerusalem. It is suffering aplenty in recent                 following, rather contradictory conclusions :
    years.     For that matter,- if we are well*  in-                 1. He infers that Dr. Schild.er  is suspended on ac-

     formed, t&h, the Theological School at Kam-                  count of doctrinal differences.        '
     pen, and the Free University in Amsterdam,                       2. He is not ,sure  that the "suspensibn"  refers.  to

     have been closed by athe invader. . .And Dr.                 an act of ecclesiastical dis'cipline:  the' Nazis may bave
     Kuyper's "standard," a ,daily,  has shrunk to                interfered once more with -his work.

     be a weekly-and that a  very small one, at                       3. If it does refer to  eccle$astical  suspensidi,  it

     times.    The Lord b& merciful ,t.o  the churches            must be due to Dr.  S<hilder's  tendency to disagree

     of the Netherlands, as well as to those every          1     with others, hi.s    "inability to do teamw.ork."  Cf.,
     where who are loyal to His Word.                             however, 1, whidh mentions `doctrinal differences.

                                                                      4. If it is a matter of  pat.riotism,  Dr. Beets com-
   Now, in all seriousness, I would like to ask Dr.               mends him for it, and praises his bravery.
Beets .-whether  `he considers it an act of `Christian
br&herliness  to condemn a .man "without a hearing,                                                                         : . . .
on the basis of impressions and suspicions?              In my
                                                                      What shall -tie &ay about all this? 
opinion' this cannot even be considered `!fair" accord-                                                       j
                                                                      I certainly do riot praise Dr. Beets for casting  sl6rs
ing. to the' standard of what Dr. Beets would call
"common grace," let alone that of Chri.stian  love.               on the good name of Dr. Schilder, and for condemning
                                                                  him without  giving  him the opportunity ofi a'hearing.
   Front what brother Beets writes it is evident that                                                                                   .
                                                                      But let us d&cuss  t~he  matter somewhat in detail.
he knqws  :no more about the matter than we do.            He
                                                                      To begin ,with ihe last mentioned matter, if: it is
,is not acquainted  wit.h the facts in the case.         He is
                                                                  a matter of patriotism because qf which Dr. Schilder
not even sure wh+her the "suspension" .in question
                                                                  is persecuted by the 
refers to an ecclesiastical act of discipline.    His sburce                               `. Nazis, I cannot cotiend  liim;
                                                                  Also in this respect I-must  disagree wit.h  Dr. B.eets.
of information was eiirdefitly  the same  as ours.
                                                                  I believe, that the Bale plainly teaches us that the
   Yet, he evidently means to  leaije the impression that
                                                                  individual Christian must be in subjection to the
the suspension of Dr. Schilder must have beea just,
                                                                  powers that be, even though they  attained  to.  pow&*
and that he must have made himself worthy of it.
                                                                  by usurpation. The passage in Rom. 13, that  refers
   And consider the "grounds" on which  Dr. Beets
                                                                  to this matter was written at the time when Rome had
attempts to justify his act of 1eavin.g  this impression.
                                                                  usurped the world-power.       As long as <he house of
   It The rel&ion  between Dr. Schilxder  and the breth-          Orange is dethroned, and the German  gove?ntient
ren of the Free UZversity must have been' stra.ined               rules in the  Netherlands,  it is the duty of the indi-
somewhat" `already in and, before `29 when Dr. Schil-             vidual Christian to be in subjection to the.latter.
der went to Germany to study for his doctor's  d,e-                                                                       _, But
                                                                  r1 do not believe that Dr. ,Schilder's  opposition to Nai-
gree. Ali impression; .                                           ism was n matter of patriotism, but of principle. One
   2. In 1939 Dr. Beets       "received the impression,           that has read his "Geen Duimbreed"  cannot but agree
right or `wrong," that the, relationship between Dr.              with this. It was opposition, not to the German gov-
Schilder and. "different brethren of the cloth" was               ernment in the Net,herlands,  but. to the pririciples
not quite affable. A.nothes  impress&`&             ,             of Nazism.                                                    :
   3. "Some ,of us received the impression" that,.                    An,d as to the grounds which Dr. Beets suggests
while Dr. Schildyer  was ih our country  a few years              for the conclusion *hat-the  suspension of .Dr.  Schilder
ago, he was "rather too friendly with some, who did               was justified, I wish to remark:                 -, .f
not agree with certain doctrinal differences of his                   1. The fact that Dr. Schilder's relationship to so&e
own denomination, about. which there had been con-                of the brethren in the ministry was not very affable
siderable disputg  in $he Christian Reformed Church."             must certainly ,be discarded as a ground  for stispen-
A third impressidn.                                               sion.    I happen  to know that his relatibnship  `to many
   This statement is aml$guous,  and as it stands                 others was very "affable." And personally I have
there is not true.    The writer probably. expressed the          learned to know him as a very loveable  Icharacter..  It             i'
matter in this way to make it fit the case.       The refer-      is true that she  was not very "affable" to a man like
ence i,s,. we. surmise, to-,the  doctrinal concltisions of        Dr. Hepp:  But this is true of. many in the Nether-


6                                       TBE ST':A_NDARD  BE.ARER
                    .._.

lands. And those that read the pamphlets on "Drei-                 Dr. Schilder thought that h,e would effect a union

gende Deformatie," may find a reason ,for this in the              between the' Christia.n  Reformed and Protestant Re-
sickly note `of conceit and super!iority  that character-          formed Churches.        That, I think, was to his credit,
                                                      . . 
izes these.                                                   *    though he was mistaken.        But the meeting was plan-
      2. The suggestion that Dr. Schilder did <not  agree          ned, not by us, .nor  at our request, but by some. ,Chris-
with the conclusions ,of `Ut.recht  is too far fetched.            tian Reformed brethren, who invited me to consent to
I know that Dr. B,eets does not state this in so many              and to be.present.  at such a conference, which I did.
words, but he suggests .it,  nevertheless. Putting this            But I let it `be known very specifically to those  ,that

suggested ground ,of suspension plainly would give it              invited me, that I' would attend only on condition
this form : "because Dr. Schilder was rat.her  friendly that the principles that separat.ed us be discussed.
with some in this country, whose dissention was very               -And to. this they agreed. And. who  d,iscusse.d  prin-
remotely concerned with the conclusions of Utrecht,                ciples at that meeting?     I did, and our men that were

the f,ormer's  suspension must have been justified."               present did, and no one else did or was willing to

A little silly, is it `not? Besides, how about others?             ,enter  upon a thorough discussion.

I .t.hink it would not be` difficult to find many direct                   Dr. Beets knows all this.

statements in the writings of` Dr. Hepp and, others                 What impression, do you think, did all this leave

that are in conflict with the conclusions of Utredht.              upon Dr. Schilder?

     ... 3. As to the "impression" which !`some  of' us" re-           When about midnight of .;that  same day when the

ceived that Dr. Schilder was rather too friendly  wit.h            conference was held he left my .housej  he said to me,

the .Prot&ant  Reformed people and -leaders, whose                 flatly and somewhat slangily, `with reference to that
fault, if fault it was, was that?      I am not a. little sur-     meeting and to t.he attitude of the ,Christian  Reformed

prised that Dr. Beets even dares t.o touch upon this               leaders there : "Ik. heb de smoor in."
subject.. Let us consider this matter inQts  proper                    Rather friendly with us ?        In the light of the facts,
light. How did the Christian Reformed`  : Jerusalem                I am astou~nded that Dr. Beets even dares to mention
receive this minister and professor in good standing               this. ._
of a sister Church?          yi'                                       Personally, I am not in a position to express. a

      The professors. of' the Theological School and some          motivated opinio,n about the suspension of Dr.  Schil-

ministers of the Christ.ian  ,Reformed  Churches .had              der.

written him a letter, .when  he was still in the ,Nether-              But neither. is Dr. Beets.
lands, asking him to come. I have this from Dr.                        And I love the brother too much to let the "impres-

Schildes  himself.                                                 sions", suspicions and suggestions ,of the Missiormry
      The Btwmey  wrote editorials against him, asking             Monthli  pass unchallenged.                        H. H.
the Christian Reformed peoplse  not to invite him to

speak.

      When he came to ,Grand Rapids, his lecture engage-

ments were cancelled as a result of the agitation

a g a i n s t   h i m .

      The pr,ofessons  of the Theological School turned a
cold shoulder to him. When h.e spoke in my church9                         Appearing on a rock, above the rabble that crown-
after he had been in Grand Rapids four days, he did                ed Abimelech king,. Jotham,  like a impersonation of

not know that professors Berkhof and Volbeda  had                  conscience, speaks his parable.          The thrust. of <this
been given reserved seats right in front of him. Ex-               remarkable production already has been given in my
cept for a single_luncheon,  which was ,not even at-               analysis of the vile strategy that. Abimelech employed
tended by all the professors, they never even sought               in achieving ,his  purpose. Let us now ,examine  with
any contact with him.        W,hat  wond,er,  then, that they      care  the argument of this significant discourse.  Jo-
drove `him to us, who certainly did not give him the'              tham lays before the Schemites the facts, when he says
impression that we agreed with him or he with us,                  $0 them `(verses 17, 18);  "For my father fought for
but welcomed..him  heartily and treated him friendly.              you, and adventured his life far, and delivered you out
I `can assure Dr. Beets, on the basis of Dr. S,chil.-              of the hand of Midian:  and ye are risen up against
.der's own testimony, that the latter was deeply griev-            my father's hopse this day, and have slain his  ,sons,
-e;d when he` left Grand Rapids .because  of the cold-             three score and ten persons, upon one'stone, and have
blooded -and  unbrotherly treatment accorded him in                made -Abimelecli,-  the son of his maidservant, king
Chri&ian  Reformed Jerusalem.                                      over the men of Shechem, because he is yourbrother."
      Friendly To us ?     How about the meeting in the            The Shebhemitee  then have made Abimelech king.
Pantlind,  at which Dr. Beets himself presided? Surely,            He had given them to understand that the  seven&
this  ,meeting  w-as not planned, o.r held at my, request?         sons were scheming to establish themselves as lords


r





       over their brethren.     To avoid being shackled to s&en-       "He is t)ur'brother,"  is plainly indicative of their hope-

       ty` such tyrants, :they had better make  him, king.     Cer-    less attempt to silence the accusing  voice`of  conscience,
       tainly, one king is all.  they needed. The Shecheniites         through `convincing themselves, if they coul,d,  that
       were agreed. So they followed Abimelech and slew                their contemplated crimes were really- no crimes at all

       the seventy. The latter was done as a matter of  ix-            but good works done by just men in the interest of
       pediency, for the good of the land.     At least, so Abime-     their commonwealth.        "The heart of man is deceitful
       lech must have insisted.         For the B.eventy,  tiding      more than anything. `Who will` know it?"

     themselves outdone by Abimel,ech;  would not sit still.               It ia. well to not.ice  that Jotham  was c?reful  not td

       It was best therefore that they be put .out  of the way         accuse them directly but contented himself.  mere&

       !quickly.'  This had been done. But the Shechemites             with laying. `before them the bare facts. He says to

       could also have seleoted  one out of the seventy to rule        them not, "Now therefore ye have mot done truly and
       over them and put to death Abimelech,  if they thought          rightly, but wickedly," but he says'  "lf,`? mark you,

       him dangerous. Arid he was a dangerous man, a  worth-           "if ye- have ,done t.ruly  and rightly, in that ye have

       ,less person.    Yet Jdespite  the fact of his being what he    m&de  Abimelech kin,g,"  and, "if ye have. dealt truly
       was-an upstart, a man, who,  inorder  to attain his             and  sincerely  with  Jerub6aal  Andy with his house this

       end, had disowned his .de&ase.d  father an&  deliverer          day, but if not, let fire come out  from Abimelech. . . ."
       of Israel, openly repudia&d  Jehovah and gone over              Jotham  is aware that the men are too wicked  ,and

       to the side .of Baal, and a man who, as they  well knew         hand to receive admonition and rebuke, that, should

       before,  they made him king, was p1afitiin.g  to mur:der        he accuse them dire&y, they, in their hatefulness

       seventy_ righteous men-his own brothers-in order                and stubborness,  woul,d  insist that they had done, no

       to entrench himself in power-despite all this, they             wrong tind, stopping t.he&  ears, would refuse to hear

       made the m+n king and turned against Gideon's house             him out. Jotham  knew, that, should he accus'e  them

       --the seventy.      S&h was their doing in  spilte  of what.    directly, all that he would  accomplish is to start  ad

       Gideon had been in his lifetime-a godfearing man--              `argument.. And he wants no argument. There is

       and in spite of what he  hadtdone  for them as their            nothing t9 argue about.         They knew that they had
       judge-delivered them from the hand of Mid&-and                  done wickedly ; and in their hearts -they  were accusing
       in spite of what these  brethren were---peaceable  and          themselves and one another.        His manner `of approach
       righteous men,  innocent of the vile ambition ascribed          -there?ore  ivas well chos,en.  1.t cut short all argument

       to them.    And what ,did they give  as a reason of their       ,and could occa&on  lno opposition. It was only calcu-

       idoing?     The fact that Abimelech was their brother,          lated to place them direct.ly  before ihe bar o,f their own

       bone of their bone an,d  flesh of-their flesh.    As if that    consci,ence  to be severely condemned at that bar. So,
       really had any weight with them ! As if that was the instead of outright upbraiding and rebuking them, he
     , true reason of their choice!     As if they actually cared      lays bkfore them the  facts. Let them-  now judge. If
       at all to whom Abimelech was related by blood, so long          they have dealt truly an,d sincerely with Jerubbaal

       as he was .the  kind of a man he was-a devot&  `of              and with his .house  tl$s day, then let them rejoice in

       Baal, a thoroughly go,dless  and unprincipled person-           Abimelech, an,d let him also rej,oice  in them. But if

       an!d was therefore ready $0 serve their diabolical              not; let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the

       purpose-the purpose of ridding themselves of Je-                .men of Shechem, and the house of Milo; and let fire

       hovah-and cooperate with them in exterminating                  come out from the men: of Shechem  and from the house

       the  hated house of Gideon and. restoring the worship           of Milo, and devour Abimelecli.  And their hearts re.

       of Baal, whose altars and aHrines  ,Gideon had de-              plied, must .have  replied, for God is and maintains hi.m-

     1 stroyed! Abimelech was just the kind of a man for               self in the hearts and minds of wicked men, "We have
       which they had been looking, the very man' they cohld           done wickedly +nd therefore are ,to be devovred  by

       use. They needed him as much as he  ,w&nted  them.              the cu?se  of God."     They could  silence godly men, rais .
       That was the real reason they had crowned him. king             ing their voice in protest 0: their doing.     But the voice
       and not that he was related to them by blood. But               of conscience they could not silence but only opposP.

     *when asked to jtistify  and rationalize their atrocious          sear, as with a hot iron, through spedking  lies in

       crimes, they would  not  so much tis. touch upon  their         hypocracy..  And this they did. For instead of repent'-

       real motives bLit  say,  "He is our brother." ,They             ing, they continued to rejoice in Abimelech and he in

       were  thoroughly profligate men not only but  past-             them. But their coriscience persisted to affirm what

       masters in the art of simulatioli. Fadt  is that ~their         Jotham  had t.old them, namely, that they were cursed

       aims were that wicked that they recoiled from allow-            of God and that sooner or l&9"  the curse would  work

       ing them to stand out clearly before their minds.      They     itself out in the fire coming out froni Abimelech. and
       wantsed  to be ignorant of the vile implications of their       :devouring  them and in the fire coming out from them

       doings an,d therefo.re  avoided even making mentioli  of        and dlevouring  him.     It must not be supposed that they
       them to themselves and td one another. Their sayin.g,           wanted it so. They desired no trouble with him  noI


                                                 `.       )
                                                       .i.
                                               T H'E`:`S::ra.+ y D AR B                    33.E AR E.R
    8




    he with them. Why should they?             Doubtless they per-               indeed the working out of the curse of God in punish-
    suaded themselves and one another that their was n.o                         ment of sin.. IIf `God has no su,ch  will, it would be
    reason why they couldn't make a tiuccess  of their                           senseless for Him to curse  and even oto threaten wicked
    union.       But Abimelech wel! realized  that his- 2oyall:y                 fiieti  wit?l punishment.
    tdepended  upon their. favor and must bend to every                             Thus .the  covenant between Abimelech and th.2
    whim of theirs, if it would avoid a fall. Ail-d they                         Shechemites could not la&t.  For it was conceived iu
    knew that he wduld use every means. necessary to                             sin and the making of it was i.ns.pired  by hatred of
    maintain his authority, when popular favor deserted                          and opposition to Go,d.      And God is not mocked. Hence
    him. As they were men steeped in crime and sin?                              the experience which here presents itself is a type of
    each knew that the other could not be  `trusted, so                          all covenants between the wicked.       For every such al-
  that from the beginning Abinielech  eyed t-he Shechem-                         liance is, as to its essential character, a sinful  con-
    ites. with suspicion and they were afraid of him. Yet                        ispiracy  against God and the right.       This is true of
    on'the surface they were fr<ends  and it seemed that                         every alliance between the worldly states and of every
    the alliance would  endure. But' the-era of good feel.-                      treaty mad&      They cannot endure as over t:hem  hovers
 ing was not of long duration.. It could not be, f6r                             the curse of ,God from the moment of their incep-
    God had cursed. We now quote the.aa&ed  narrator,                            tion. Thi"s is one of the great lessons of history.
    "Wlien  Abimelech had reigned three years over Is-                               With the sending of the evil spirit,  the  men of
    rael, Then God sent an evil spirit b'etween  Abitielech                      Shechem began to plot against Abimelech, in the lan-
    and the men of She,chem;  and the men `of Shechem                            guage of the narrative, they dealt treacherously with
    dealt. treacherously with  Abimelech : tha't the cruelty                     him. They were now resolved to rid thems,eives  of
    done t:o `the three score and ten soris of Jerubbaal                         him. Some interpreters conjecture that, through  h;a
    tiight  come, and their blood be laid upon Abimelech                         tyrannies, his reign had become insufferakle.       But the
    thei,r  brother, which slew them ; and upon the men                          narrative plainly indicates that this conjecture is
    of Shechlem;  which. aided him in the killing of his                         wrong.      It will be shown in the sequence +hat,  on their
b r e t h r e n . " .                                                : ;;-gf     standpoint, they had no complaint against him.. But
          It is doubtful that by i;he evil spirit Which  doA                     how then is the sudden uprising to be explained?        The

    sent between Ab'irrielech  and the Shechemites is to bs                      Lord sent  an evil spirit among thein.  Therefore his

    undensltood  merely an evil frame of inind'and  heart.                       downfall was remarkable for its suddenness, so plain-

    Th& text lends no support to this interpretation, as it                      ly the result of divine vengeance, which  i,t would not

    asserts th$t  the evil spirit was sent by God. This.                         have been,' had Abimelech made himself insufferable

    language would seem to indicate that what is meant                           through atrocious misrule. Men could then still say

    is' an evil per3onal  spirit from the realm of. darkee+s.                    th@ the catastrophe that overtook him was brought

    God sent this 3pirit  to fire the imagination bf' the                        on by himsielf. Ycet  the operation of the evil spirit

    two parties by seducing  speech whispered, so to say,                        the hearts of the Shechemites must' not. be imagine:!

    in their- souls, arouse in them `all their  latent  $atre-i                  to have been mechanical. Wicked men can have no

    and ,distrust,  `and inspire them, thiotigh  the lusts .that                 true regard for one another. In their hearts, the

    burned in their `bosoms, to take. action against each                        Shechemites must have despised Abimelech all along.

    othe?.  This inte@reCation  of the text `is favored by,                      But now, with the evil spirit from God playing upon

    all that the Scriptures teach about the character an3                        their wicked minds and hearts, a consuming hatred of
    doings of satan and  his angels, alid about the great                        him burns in their  bosom and embodies its,elf  in ac-
    infltience  that they have with' wicked men.                    Aceord-      tion. Their minds are suddenly made up. Abimelecll

    ing to Holy Writ., the, hearts of such men are the                           must go.       They have had enough of the man. As
    ,devil's  playground.' What deserves the emphasis here                       king he was their creatibn.      Theirs was also the right
    is' that ~the  evil Spirit  was sent by Go&               The iri?plica.-    to disposae qf him at will. So they reasoned. It was

    tion is that also these spirits are under His  .suiremo                      truly a government of the people, for the people, and

    control, that `He sends them  as He Wills. to do His                         by athe people, there in Shechem, democracy in its
    biddi.ng.       `How he can use them without involving                       heyday.

    Himself in` th'eir.  guilt and destroying their  responsi"-                     They set lier,s.  in wait for him in all the mountain

    bility' and as ke@ing  Himself unspotted from their                          passes in the hope of seizing him on his journey be-

    bontagion;  are matters that defy our powers of pene-                        tween'. Shechem and some neighboring village. They

    tration.      To retui"n to athe  case ab han&,  what it teaches             must q have cont6mplated  doing their king to death.
    i_s that the dislcord  that now' arose between  ,th,e two                    But Abimelech, being forewarned, failed to make his  -'

   `panties  is a&l"ibable  to the sovereign and efficacious                     appearance.      In the meantime, the  conspirators fell

    will of ,God,  that-  is, to t.he divine will <that  has the                 to robbing "all #that came along that way by them."

    pawer to produce tl-ie  effect that' God, in His sovereign                   Some interpreters maintain, on the ground of the

    good pl'easure, .d,ecreed,  that thus~ this discord .waa                     statement, "And -the mn of Shechem dealt treacherous-


                                                                                                                                              1
                                           T.]H'E  STANDAfSlD  BEA,RE& : -- -.' --`--.                                              1 .$I

     ly with Abimelech," that the robberies were ,.regai$e;l            presenje:  :, And if the manner in which` he  addpesserl
     as carried on by the Shechemites, but in sutih a r&n-              him&if to the task of crushing the revolt  against
     ner  as ,to"make'  them appear to be ordered or instigat-          him bespeaks cruelty, it also brings  him into relief as
     ed by Abimelech. This is not unlikely. But it is also              .,a',most  able' soldier, as. a man full of natural daring
     likely that in these robberies; taken collectively,  be            and courage. Plainly his downfall cannot be ascribe,]
     have to do. with a case of sheer banditry.         The Shech-      to a lack of natural military sagacity, -to ignorance of
     emites $vere  wicked anid lawless men,  exceedingly. Had           the arts of effective warfare, but only to the hand of
     they previously mu&eped  sevenky  innocent men they                God, suddenly reaching down from heaven, snatching
     now went to plundering -uns@pecting  wayfarers ou:                 him from ,his throne, and casting him headlong into
     of sheer lust of the loot, while waiting for their man             hell., : ., . . O
     in th,e mountain passes.                                                 But we must now examine that boasting speech  of
         The scene now changes. According to  Ley. 19:24,               Gaal, in particular, the following statements contained
     the yield of the fourth year fru,it planting ha,d to be            in it.      "Who is dbimelech, and ,who  is Shechem, that
     brought .as "praise-off,erings"  to Jehovah.       The men of      we should serve him?          Is he not the son of Jerubbaal?
     Shech& brought, the prescribed offerings, but went                 . . . Serve the men of Hamor,  the father of She-
     with them into the houele of Baa1 and there placed                 .chem.  . . ." The antithesis is plainly.between  Abime-
     Jehovah"s  gifts on B&al's  altars. So did they prosti-            lech and Shechem on the one hand, and the men of
     tute the service, or,dere$  by Jehovah, to. their devil-           Hamor,  the father of Shechem,  on the other. ,Gaal's
     god.     All this we learn from the 27th verse that' reads,        coulisel  is that the latter be served, and his promise
     "And <they  .went  into the fields, and gathered theLr             `is to the effect that he will remove  for.them  the form-
     vineyards, and trode their gra.pes,  and made merry,               er. But there is this question. Who is Shechem and

     and `went into the house of their god, and did eat.                who are the meti  of Hatior the father q:f Shechem?
     and ,drink-and  cursed Abimelech." The wine made                   Plainly, Shechem is Abimelech. The reason that Gaal
     these men rash and ihoughtless  and  loosened their                refers to him by these two names is that he is of the
     tongue. The things that hitherto they had dared to                 family or t&be' of the pagan Shechemites on the. side
     mention only in secret, they now divulge. They fill                of his mother.        Thus as the son of Jerubbaal, he was
     the air with maledictions against Abimelech. Among                 to Gaal Abimelec.h-the nam#e  given him by his father;

     them was also found a certain free-bo.oting  adventur,er,          .but,  as he had as his mother a  woman  of the family of

     Gaal by name, who recently had come t"o Shechen;                   Shechem, Gqal surizamed"  him Shech~m.             ,Gaal's argu-

     with his followers, plainly with the purpose of get-               ment is plain. Abimelech had been -made king on the

     ting himself elected -as party leader  of the large fac-           ground that., on his mother's side, he was a descendent

     ,tion  opposed to Abimelech. `Doubtless he had already             of Shechem, and ,was.  ,thus Shechem.          But he was sti!ll _
     gone far i-n making them see that. he was their man.               too much of Israel, being, as he was,. the son of Jerub-

     But it seems that t&y  were still undecided. . For he              baal, tht;he antagonist'of  Baal.     By.what right then does
     seized upon that occa@on  of boisterous merrymaking                he,, Abimelech command their homage ! The reaction
     to pursuade  them that, with him at ,the head of their             of `the pagan Shechemites and the apostate Israelites

     commonwealth, they had nothing to fear from Abime-                 must be. made complete. As yet :this has not been

     iech.     He deemed the qccasion  opportune, for the               done.       But let  it be done now this day by the  depositioil.

     Shechemites were in a reckless mood. So he orated                  of that son elf an Israelite and epemy of their god, and
     to t&m  ii1 the' following boastful language. "Who is              bi the elevati,on  to the throne of one whose pedigre?

     Abimelech, and who is Shechem,  *that we should-serve              is pure, of one whose father  as well as whose n&her is

     him?      1;s~ he not the son .of Jerubbaal?, and Zebu1 his        of the stock oT Hamor.          Then only will they be ~~011s
     officer? Serve the men of  Hamor  the father of She-               in, the service of the men of Hamor  and of Hamor'

     them : for why should tie serve him? And would to .god., -He, Gaal, -answers these  requirements.-He, there-
     God `this people were under: my-hand.! then would I                .fore  is their man.
     remove Abimelech."        Then he addressed Abimelech,                   The statement was just made _&ha&  on th&r  position,
     whom he im&gined  as st,anding  be:fore`  him but. who             the Shechemites really had no complaint. to make
     actually was miles  removed from that scene, "Increase             against Abimelech.           Assuredly, the view, accordi;ng
     thine army and come out!"             .' ._                        to whilch he, by l-$ tyrannies,. had made himself in-
         The man Gaal was plainly a fool.           Yet in this fool    sufferable is contradicted by the fact that nothing  i?
     the wiae-heated rabble now put their conffdence.  ! They           said of this in the narrative and secondly by the  fact
     would do anything to free themselves of Abimelech,                 thzt,  in urging Abiqelech's  deposition, Gaal presents

     take any risk,. however great.      For the thing was of           .no other reason for the taking of this step but-that  he,
     the Lord. As t:o Abimelech, he was a -thoroughly                   though a Shechemite  on the side of his mother,  wa?
     godless hersonage.     But he was  not a gonentitjr.  Doubt;       a `son ,qf .Jerubbaal.       Not a word `does  he +ay about

     less;  his name iwdica&ca  that be yvss  3 man a% impsing          &i~@&,`s  tyrq&+s$,  This certainly would have to




L


    10                        -.
           '                                    TH.E ST,ANTJARD  BEARE-R

    be considered strange, if it were true that  Abimelech?               mountains that thou seest."  But ,the body of troops

    brief reign had been characterized by 211  manner of                  advanced, and-prebently  their identity could no longe!

   .abuses.     It seems that GasI was actuallSr  at a loss how           be mistaken.      And Gaal was sorely afraid  ; for he was
    to rationalize Abiinelech's d'eposition.  He cati think               21 b?aggCd and a coward.        Zebu1 now derided the Can.

    of but one reason.      And the one peason  that corn& to             Said he to him, "W&re  is n'ow thy mouth, wherewith

    his .mind is extremkly  flimsy;         It was altogether with-       th.ou  said&,  W.ho  is ,Abimelech,  that we should servn

  out strength.          F.or that Abimelech was `the  son- of            him?      Is not this thle people that thou hast despised?

    Jerubbaal,  could, on their position, be no real objection.           Go out, I pray now, and fight with  them."             There is

    For the r@ac had broken with Gideon and his- God and                  nothing left' for Gaal but to risk his fortunes in com-

    had goile  over to the side of Baal. `And his murder*                 bat.     But he is ,far from being a match for Abimelech  ;
    of the seventy .formed  conclusive proof that he had                  and is completely routed, he and his men.             Gaal fled

    done so wholeheartedly. Why then bring up the mat-                    through  the open gate of the city,  but.  the road, tip to

   . ter of his parentage?  What differen'ce  could it make               the threshold .of the gate, was cove;red.with  the w0un.d'
    to them who his father was, SO long  as their devil-god               `ed and the slain.        IGaal's  authority was gone ; an;:1
    was also the god he worshipped?  It is safe to con-                   Zebu1 now expelled him and his followers from the city.

    cldde therefoye  that, from a worldly point &f view,                  Abimelech, instead of prosecuting the attack, retreated

    Abimelech htid given them a good reign.              Tlie man had     to a neighboring city. Imagining that he would take

    too much worldly wisdom to dc anything at all that                    no further action, the people went out of the city to

    would lose him the favor-of the populace by who& con-                 till their fielids.    It was told Abimelech and he rose up

   `sent. he ruled.       He had .bee&,  tihat  in our moderri.           against them and smote them.            Thereupon he took

    language is: called a benevolent dictator,  or .perhaps               the city. Slaying 3s inhaitahts, he razed it- to the

    not even a dictator, but a  worlidly-wise  Euler  who had             ground and sowed it with salt.       He thereupon sets fire

    made it a point to interfere very  1ittl.e with the privatn           to the temple of El berith (not to be identified with

    affairs of his subjects.        And yet, -tyy  as he did to retain    .the temple of Baa1 berith) and all the lords of upper*

    their favor; things suddenly  wetit  wrong,  and, fo his              Shechem, who had taken refuge in the  ho1.d of this

   `amazement, he-found that'they -were plotting. against                 ternpEe,  perish. in the flames.    Then Abimelech went to

 - h& very- life. Why, this isudden  change? God ha,d                     the neighboring Thebez and took it.         Here he m&t  his
    cursed. And the curse  of the. :&mighty  will work                    doom.       There was a stroi?g tower within the city
    itself out! For God is not mocked.             .                      wehither fled.all  they of the city and gat them  up. on its
        The sdene changes.          In.that  crowd that hung there,       top. Here his skull tias broken: by a piece of mill-
    as spellbound, on .the lips of the wine-heat&d orator,                stone cast upon him by a `woman. But while in the
    was predent'  one Zebu1 .by name, the overseer of the                 throes &f death, Abimeiech  thinks, only of his own
    city `under Abimelech.: He was not one of the party                   honor. ..Calling to his armourbearer, he said to him,
  `that feasted, for he chose to remain'4aithful  to hi3                  "Slay me that men say  n-ot 6f me, A woman slew
    load. Y:et  he listened quietly and with appar,ent  ap-               him."      So did the curse of God. find the Shechemites
    brobation  to.the  speech of Gas!,  but inw.ardly  his anger          and thereupon after .God had done with him, Abime-
    burn,ed.    For Gaal in- his, drunken audacity had re-                lech.,  the scourge of the Almighty.                G. M, 0.

    fer?cd  to him as Abimelech's tool and had disclosed

   the i.dea- that he, too, must be. overthrown.           Zebu1 Con-                            ---
   veyed to Abimelech a" full report of what went on in

   Shechem.       "Gaal  the son _of  E$ed  and his brethren                                     Corkibution
   be c&rie  $0 Shechem, and; behold, they forti!y  the city

a g a i n s t  <thee," was his message to his lord. He also               Esteemed Editor:
   counsels Abimelech how tq proceed against the re-

bellious  c i t y .    The counsel was adloited ; "and Abime-                 Allow me please. a little space for a reply to your
   lech  r&e up, and all the peoIjle  that were with him,                 article elititled  f`A:s  to `Touchy Topics.' "    But first let

  by riight  and they laid wait against Shechem in four                   me thank y& for your generosity iti allowing my

  "cbmpatiies."  Acting upon the advice of Zebul, he placed'              material to be published `in its- entirety even though I

   himself' in ambush, so as not to  ble prematurely ob.                  apparently came in the back door after the guests had

   `sel-ved. As it nbw had become his  busine;s:s  to watch               been advised as to who and what was to be found.  ii1

   over the city, Gaal, in company with Zebul, whom he                    the chambers of the  Standard Bearer. I shall make

   did' not in the least -suspect,  betook  himself to .the               no. conjectures for thisimanner  of .dealing  nor shall I

   `gate of the city.     Looking out.  in the'clistance,  he saw         allow myself to be disturbed by the conjectures and

   troop's descending from the- niountains.             Zebu1  thobght    insinuations .of  others.

   it t&o  so& to divulge the truth and therefore d1eceive-l                 !In the first plade.yoh  seemingly do not understand

   afid'mocked  him by saying?  "I, is the shadpw  of the                 why this matter  is 4' touchy  subject a;nd .that is ver7
                                                                             I .`1


                                             THE Wl!AN~A~D .BE-ARER . _                                                                       u..
                                                                               i
      understandable in view of the fact that as.a clergyman                in. ithe. theological school or- needy churches fund,             Is
      you are p&haps not so rudely approached nor peTson-              it pe$aps because the rate of interest isn't as high
      ally harrassed  nor embarrased  by it.he  bond drives                 or is it a poor.  risk?
      with which we are all acquainted.Q  You have never                             Neither is it clear from the minut?s  that this was
      been_ persoinally  "bawled out" by a foreman for your                 a Mission fund. Allow m'e to quote a paat  of that.
      refusal to pa.rt.icipate  nor called into a high execu-               minute.: "-- -our `ireasurer  has a good balance in
      tive's ,offi,ce  for the same reason. Perhaps you have                nearly all of his accounts. Due.`to  this fact, - re-
      never .contacted  these super-patriots who if they know               commended to invest $lO,O.OO  of this money in govern-
      you do not make-regular "`investments in freedom"                ment . bonds."'              Could a mere i-nortal  eve% conclude
     : practically "blow up" in your face. I am sorry for                   from such a minute that :this  was. oply Mission fund
      iour sake, ,as well as for o,thers,  that I. did not clarify          mon,ey  which was invested? 11 had already tried `to
      or.explain  my reasons for the ti't.le  which you seem to             obtain a better explanation but such was: not forthcom-

      feel is not the prqper  one for this material.       I assure         ing until I read yours. '
     you that it is not due to any personal "touchiness" on                          One .more remark. You state in your first  para-
      this matter as those with whom I. have  discuss.ed  it           .graph  that  it', was decided to invest  this mo.ney  "foi'
                                                                 I
      may well testify.,                                               ,the  time being in government war bonds,`!                    Does this
          I also realize that this. material cowls?  have been              mean for ten years  or do -you also  fe:e1;that..ithere  are
      stated in a .simple,  matter of fad busi.ness  like way          no moral obligations implied .when an,&nve.stment'  o.f
      but I bellieve  that each contributor is entitled to his              this nature is.made?
.     own method of presenting his material.  It zould  even           ~             Thanking you kindly for the sdace iiain  allotted
      have been done poetically had I been so inclined.                     me and trusting, that I shall from `some source o?
          In the second place, you seemingly regard as of                   other receive a full- answer to .the questions which ,I
                                                                            have raised, I remain, ;
     -, little: importance how moneys or funds are .invested.
     Aye there no ethical implications whatsoever? Is .it                                                            Fraternally yours,
       simply  % .cdld  financial. !t.ransaction?    If you were: a                                                   G e o r g e  TenElshof

      .Christian  who had surplus m,oney and an individual                    %xcept a few tiore `i&inuatiotis  and a little tiore
       sought to b&row it for the purpose, let us say to make               sarcasm, there is nothing new in the above cdntribu-
       it very clear, of purchasing and operating a brothel,                tion in add.ition  to what rt.he brother wro&  before.            Tci
       w_ould  you loan it to him and With a shrug of the                   the tone of ;the article .I have no `desire to reply.              It
       shoulder say "I am not responsible !" But, you may              is true that Mi-.,  TenEllshof is entitled to his own
       say, this is. tihe government.     True. Butt. you do, not           mehtod. So am I. As to the contents, iI refer to my
       owe it as you `owe  taxes `and other statutory  &`sess-              former reply. .If anyone feels; however, that he cali
       ments.    Do` you not by thi:s.  manner of investment ac-            enlighten- the brother niore  fully, he is welcome.
       quiesce to .the disposal thereof by. your  purely volun-                                                                       Ed.,:: ' '
       tary a&? Do we not -as a denomination now have a                                 _( .
       $lO,,OOO  stake in the war of the world with all that                . . I
       that implies? Is it not true that where your treasure
                                                                                          `-                   i
       is, there is your hearit  also?

           In the !t.hird  place you speak of the impossibility of.

       juggling fu.nds.    Add in this instance you are,cdrrect.

       Synod tiay not do this of its own  accord.~>;  But would
                                                                                                "The?n  was fulfilLed  that which was spok@  by
       it not be0 at all possible  to gain  the consent of [the
                                                                                            $eremy  the .prophet,  saying, And they took  the
       dpnors for expenditure of at least a part. of this fund
                                                                                            thirty pieces of silver, the price ,of hinj  that.wss
       for things that are more urgent? If I had budgeted
                                                                                            valued, whom they of the `children of  L&ei  .did
       my personal funds and set aside $100.00 iri the middle
                                                                                            value." Matt. 27:9.                     . .
      of the summer for next winter's coal and if my child

       should ne,ed an operation and my medical .fund was                            .The  above heading will perhaps. evqke  but little in-

       not sufficient, it would require but elementa-ry  logic              terest to those who.  are not acquainted wit.h the prob-
       as to where I woild ,get  at least $100.00 for  the.hos-             leni  which &he.  text presentis..       Nor will the reading .of
       pita1 bill. I certainly would not reason thus that I                 the text and the context arouse much curiosity. The

       do not. need :the coal now but I, need more medical                  con&&  relaies'how.  Judas returned to the temple and

       funds so I will raise my assessment. for that fund and               cast the. thirty pieces of "silver,  his, tra$c$s reward;
                                                                                                         `.
       invest the surplus from the. other.. .Can't. or Mayn't          -at the feet of the  chief priests and elders.                And these _
       church fun'ds. be adjusted. just a+ logically provided the           lather,  corisidering  it unlawful to put the money in the
       consent of the legal claimants to a fund is obtaine.d?               treasury  of the hemple  .because  it ,was  ihe price .of
      Or why couldn't the surplus  :of this fund. be "invested"             blood, decided to buy a field. to be used as a  cemetery                 ..


%2 *                                        T.HE

for strangers. And then we read in the verse follow-                  In ithe light of the above the.  question naturally
ing the tex,t quoted above, "And gave them for the                arises, how must it be explained that. Matthew iilter-
potter%  field, as the Lord had appointed' me."            Al-    prets the purchase of Aceldama as the fulfillment of
though this is still a part. of the quotation which we            that "which was 0 spoken by Jeremy the prophet?"
have in the text (Mat&  27:9), it is &dent  that this             If he had said, "Zechariah the prophet," we would
was liter&y  fulfilled by the chief priests, for we read          have,no  difllculty since from all ,appearances  he seems
in- the verses 7 .and 8 of the- same chapter, -"And  `they        to have had ithe passage of Zechariah in mind and
 (the chief priests) took counsel, and bought with them           simply quoted it in his own words since he was in-
$he  potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore              terest.ed  not so much in the words as. in the idea ex-
that field was called, The field of blood, `unto this day."       pressed by Zechariah. However, Matthew speaks not
Th.e  gwobbem.  . . . .                                           of Zechariah but of Jeremiah and therefore the prob-
                                                                  lem, how this 1s `to be explained, presents itself.
     AcelcLamla.  . . . . . .the field of blood!
                                                                  Vctrious  Expbnwu%w~s  Offered.. 
     We' all know .:t.he story. we have read it many                                                   . . .
times. Yet, even so, we have perhaps never realized                   As is i.0 -be expected, Bible expositors give many
that there was a problem of any kind  her.e.          If, how-    and various solutions to this  pro.blem. It will nol; be

ever, we have taken the time and pains to look up this            possible. in this article, nor is it necessary to present
which (`was @p&en.  by Jeremy the prophet," we `will              and refute all the explanations that have been offered.
also be aware .of- the problem that exists here.          The     We call attention therefore ito only a few of the more
fact is th.at one looks in vain for  :t.he above quotation        commonly accepted ones.
in the -writing  of Jeremiah.           In Jeremiah. 18:2 we       Perhaps the mo&  simple of all the explanations is

rei,$ of .the  "potter's house" and in chapter  19'of  "the       that Matthew had in mind a certain prophecy of Jere-
valley. of the son of.  Hinnom."        We are told that this     miah which was never written or, if written, was losl-.
vall,ey,  ,whi,ch was near` Jerusalem, is to be identified        This, of course, is no solution at  ,all. It amounts to
with the pot.ter's  fiel,d  which was purchased with the          simply an easy way to avoid the difficulty. It is  at
traitor's thirty pieces of silver. Apart  from%  this we          most an assumption for which there is no basis ex-
find n0thin.g in. the prophecy of Jeremiah that seems             cept that. one cannot find this quotation i.n the pro-

to bear any relation at all to the above mentioned                phe,cy  of Jeremiah.
quotation. 1'                                                         According to others we have here a slip of the

     Now, what is remarkable is. that we do find a                memory on :t.he. part of Matthew.             He really i&ended
passage, that is somewhat similar to this quotation,              to write Zechariah instead,of  ,Jeremiah  or simply for-
in the prophecy,of  Zecharieh. A comparison between               got that the quotation was Ithat  of Zechariah.        But also
Matt. 27:9,  10 and Zechariah 11:.12,  13 will show that          this is no solution. Moreover,  it'is a view to which
if the former is, a quo.tation.  of the latter, it is  by,no      we can never subscribe if we hold to the Divine and
means literal.         Yet, the' similarity, is. so great that    plenary inspiration of the Scriptures..              It is very
one                                                               well possible that -Matt.hew.  may have made a mis-
        ' ,can hardly escape the' conclusion that Matthew
must certainly have had the prophecy of Zechariah in              take but it is not  possible that the Holy Spirit should
mi,nd  when he interpreted the purchase of Aceldama               be mistaken.                                  `L
as :the fulfillment .of prophecy.       The passage in Zech-         Upon the same ground we must also reject the
ariah, to which we have re,ference  and .which  we men-           view which holds that .the Jews` may have deleted
tioned above, reads                                               this passage .from  the book of Jeremiah. Besides one
                           : "And. I said unto them, If ye
think good, give me my price; and if  .not;  f,orbear.            naturally wonders when this could have  beei? `done and
So they.weighed  for, my price thirty -pieces of silver.          why it should have been done with this particulal_'
And the Lord said. unto me,  Cast it unto the potter: a           passage.
goodly price that I .was  priced at of them. And I                   Finally there is's popular view that contends that
took the thir,ty  pieces of silver, and cast them to the          this apparent enigma is :the  result of a t.ranscriber's
potter in the house of the Lord."          I think we may, in     error.      Accor.din,g  to this view Matthew did write
this connection, safely dismiss the contention on .the            "Zechariah.l'     However, instead of writing the' full
part of some that "unto the potter" in the above quo-             name, he :wrote  the Greek abbreviation of it, which is
tation of Zechariah .is incorrect and. that it should read.       "iriou."     Now, in the course of rewriting someone
"into. &he treasury."       We do so upon the basis, that if      wrote "Iriou" which happens t,o be the abridged form
Matthew had this passage in mind, which. we have                  of "Jeremiah."      Thus :t.hrough  the simple <change  of
every reason to believe, then  he. also must have been            a Z to an I, what was originally `Zechariah became
mistaken when .he spoke of. "the pott.er"  .instead  of           Jeremiah. -One  feels immediately that this is also
`<the  treasury," as is-the contention of those who. hold.        merely an attempt to ,get  rid,  of the dilemma.        Besides
t h i s - v i e w .                                               there is no basis at .a11  for this. contention.


                                                  T B E     .S T A N'D  A-a X.3 -* B E h B E'B

 Correct View:.                                                   -                 ,How&er,  thle question &ill remains, why does
                            . ,
                                                                                 Matt~+y  ape,ak of the prophezy  of Jeremy? What
      Since al. the above views and all 
                  i                                        similar-:bi&&,;       plac&.d;des  the prophecy of Jeremiah: have in the pic-
 which z&tempt  to explain Matthew's reference to  Jere-                         ture ?
miah as an error,  aie either untenable or fail to give                              The connection must undoubtedly be found in "the
 a satisfactory solution to the problem, there seems to                          potter's field:' of which both Zechariah -and Jeremiah
, *be but one alternative and that is to explain Mat-                            speak. Accorditig  .to Zechariah, the money was "cast
 thew's statement as it stands. Then we must hold                                to the potter."        According .to Jeremiah 18 and 19,. 
 first of, all that Matthew wrqte exactly what he in.-                                                                                             ,
                                                                                 the prophet went to the .potte?`s  house and then to
 tended  to write and that he  `.actually  regarded the                          the "yalley  of the son of Hinnom." Here in this val-
 purchase' of Aceldama  as the fulgillment  of :t.hhe  pro-                      ley ,he prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem. As-
 phecy of Jeremiah.                   In the second,place  we must hold          suming now that the potter's field was. located in this
 that Matthew-had iq mind the words of-Zechariah  and                            valley, we find that Israel buys the `very spot. where
 purposely quotes in a free  way..this  prophecy of Zech-                        Jeremiah had many years before predicted its down-
 ariah when he declares that. the purchase  `of the pot-                         fall.
 ter's field by the chief priests is. Ithe  fulfillment qf that                      Now :t.he point to be,  noticed here is t.hat  it was
 which .was  sp0ke.n  by Jeremiah.                                               by means of the price with which Israel had sold the
      In this connection we may quote A&ed.  Edersheim,                          Christ that it buys this field. Through its sale, of
 ?a well known writer of sacred.h&tory.                    He says, "And         the Messiah, Israel sealed its doom. And it completes
 `the pott.er's  field'-the very spot on which Jeremiah                          the transa&ibn  when, by the price of the sale, it  buys
 had been Divinely directed to prophe'sy  against Jeru-                          !t.he field where its doom was foretold. Yes, Is&e1
 salem and against Israel; hoy was it now all .fulfilled                         b,uz~s  its aemetery  b?;!  selling the Prince of Life!. Arid
 in !the light of, the completed sin and  apostacy  of the                       for Israel,  spir_itunFly,  thire is mt.hing  Jeft but a bury-
 people, as prophetically-described by Zechariah !- This                         ing grw.mcZ.  How clearly then also the prophecy of
 To&et  of Jeremiah, now that ,they  had. valued and. sold                       Israel's doom, as spoken by Jere'miah,  is fulfilled
 at thirty shekel Israel's Messiah-Shepherd-truly ,X                             through the fulfillment d'f the prophecy of Zechariah..
 Tophet,. and <become  a field of blood! Surely, `:not  an                           And thus we can under&and that Matthew, al-
 accidental coincidence this, that it shou1.d be the place                       thouih he quotes the prophecy of Zechariah, `can truly
 of Jeremy's announcement of judgment: not accident-                             say, "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by
 al,`but veritably a fulfillment -of his prophecy! And                           J e r e m y   t h e   p r o p h e t ! "      H. D. W.
 LS.O  St. Ma&hew, t.arguming this prophecy in form as

 in its spirit, and in true Jewish manner stri*nging  to

 it the prophetic description furnished by ,Zechariah,
 sgts  the event before us as the fulfillment of Jeremy's                          History ,of ~Christian  Education in
 prophecy."            Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus                                  e
 The Messiah, Vol. II, p. 576.                                         '

  _ Acc0rd.in.g. to this interpretation, Matthew. sees in
 the purchase of the potter's field  t.he fulfillment of                             When the me,n of De Afscheiding came to this

 bqth the prophecy of Zechariah .and that of Jeremiah.                           country in the middle of the nineteenth century they
      It is ,not *difficult  to see that we have here the  ful-                  confessed that one of the reasons for their coming
 fill.ment.  of Zechariah's prophecy. This is espekially                         tias "That we may enjoy that great privilege of see-
 plain when we understand what took' -Ijlace  at that                            ing our children instructed in Christian schools,  a
 time. Zechariah ,goes  to the princes of Israel and                             privilege that we lack here, since in the public  schools,
 says,      "If you think it` is right, pay me what  I'ni                        a general moral instruction is given which may offend
 worth and if not, forbear." -And the  princ&  of Is-                            neiltzher  Jew nor Romanist, while. free schools are
 rael pay him Ithirty  pieces of silver, the price of .a                         barred."      (Pamplet;  Landverhuizing, Brummelkamp
 common slave.                     That was Israel's valuation. of the           en Van Raalte).

 servant of the Lord and therefore of the Lord, Him-                                 So there ,came  to this country at least a. nucleus

 self, as is clear from what the Lord says to Zechariah;                         of men who clearly saw that  ,Christian'Instruction  was
 How clearly then was this prophecy fulfilled when                               necessary.         They had written ,it as their conviction
 Israel pays thirty pieces of silver to get ri.d of it.s                         that. "Christian parents  ca.nnot  answer for*it that. the,+

 Prince !- The Lord had ,tes:t,ed  Israel and Israel in                          have,  not the opportunity to have their children in- _,
 the blindness of its sinful heart  had  valuited.  the in-                      strutted  according to ,their convictions, yes, every
 valuable One and found `Him  worth thirty pieces of                             heart trembles'when they take the baptis.ma1  vow  bei
 silver! Truly a fulfillment of the prophecy of-Z$ch~                            cause they sw?ar  fabeiy"  (`Gedenkboek,  VijEtigjarig
 a     r     i         a     h        .                                          Jubi%eum,   P .  6).                           `.
                                                                            -


 14                                       `iHE STA~ND.ARD  B E A R E R


       From which historical facts it seems to be evident        history  that during those fifty years two things hap-

that the men who landed on our  shor.es in and around            pened :
1850 felt the necesity  `of positive Christian i&&c-                First of al,1  on April' 7, 1894 (where seveil  mem-
tion and based the necessi.t.y  for this .al:s.o  u&n  .:t.he    `hers,  w&e  present, al&s) there was a discumion  of the

promise they had'given at Baptism that they would                burning ques.tion,  "Why is it that Christian instruc-

edu,ca,te  their children religiously.                           tion in this country does not make any progress?"

       ,.But  now  one finds a very strange thing, and that      And at t,hat time lt!here  were th_ree  answers given.       I
is, that alt.hough  these people `purportedly came to            shall quote just on,e  at this time, and that was as

these: shores to fiind Christian in&ruction,  yet bne ha.3       follows : I quote again, "The ministers do not show
to search the pages of history with a spit-light to              enough interest" (Yearbook, 1925-1926, P. 92). In

find mention of any such schools existing. A care-               many cases there was even active opposition. These

ful st.udy  of history from about,  1840 to about 1890           ministers, in turn, often refl,ect@d  the'sentiment  of the

shows that .very,  very little came of. any actual cliris-       :consistories.  It is. a matter of  hist'ory,  e.g. that in

tian school movement It is true that in and about                1883 a certain Mr. Tuininga asked the church of

1849 iYe find -a report reading as follows: "Schools             *Grand I+ven to use the basement for the purpose of

were .erecte'd  but few in number." And Dr. Wyckoff              gis+ng  covenant education. It was denied him. We read

also reported that "the colony is paying as much ,at-            further that &tempts  were made to interest the con-~

tention  as possible to schools and Christian  education         sistories of"the  1st and 2nd Christian Reformed church-

. . . .they  have a Dutch school and ah English `one in          es there, but theee atteniptts  met with the same failure.
the City and at Zeeland a' Dutch School!' (Yearbook,             There were also ministers who were exceptions to

Chr. Sch. 1925-1926, P Si-82). Nevertheless in the               these rultes,  rt.here were some who championed the

year `1875 came this report, "Outside of Grand Rapids            cause with might an;d inain  and we often read  of

there are thre'e  places, where Christian instruction  is        ministers who dared the wrath  of their consistories,

given,: I ip Muskegon, Grand Haven an!d. Kalamazoo."             even to such lengths that  con&tory  members laid
A. good' twenty five years. h&d passed and yet the               down t&.&r  offices and families left the church. In

matter of `Christian  instruction`seeti.  to have been           J?attersoti,  for instance, the niinister, Rev. Van  Vlaan-

woefully neglected. A Christian  school made its ap-             deren had an elder say to him, "If you mention it

pearance, in Grand Rapids in 1855-1856,  in..1875  Wil-          again I will walk Gut."      And the Rev. answered him

liams St, school' appeared. There were also churches             thus, "You are not brave enough to  :d.6  that." Later,

her,e and .there  where the pasltors  gathered the chil-         as a consequence'of  this, we read that practically the

dren in the church ,building  or in private houses' and          entire consist:ory  resigned.

gave them instrnction.                                               From these, thin.gs  it is evident that it took rnvch

       In De Wachter (1870) we hear the sigh, "How               fighting of the #good fight to establish Christian schools.
t.errible  and discouraging is the copdition  in America         A great many people in those days simply did not

       . .we- feel'painfully  the serious want and unjus;ti-     realize the necessPt.y  of Christian education, and nei-
&able.  neglect of our,`children"  (Yearbook, 1925-1926,         ther di:d  they want to pay the expense of             schools
                                                                                                                &ch
P. 86). Ali attempt was -made at a school in  Pella in           of their own. -
1861.  but in 1867 it. had ceased .to exist, (The Chris-             But one cannot leave it there.      We ask, how could
tiafi $leformed  Church, Beets, P. 139). And from                it ever be-that people did not realize the need of chris-
1849 ,on, for several years a school tias maintained by          tiati  schools?    History bears. me out when I, say #that
Peter De J%ng.        But after all it remains a -fact that      many people at that time (as today  a&so).  thought
the chris.tian  school did not take hold in. America un-         that the public schoolb  in this. country weren't so
stil- about. a half ceptury  after the men of de Afscheid-       bad. Weren't they neutral? And couldn't the exist-
ing land,ed  here. hit seeins the Pioneers had either  for-      ing public schools. be "christianized?"  .People  were
gott,en  thei,r  high ideal or were conteilt with- some-         slow to :d,etect  what  Mr. Hodge had said about the

thing less than positive christian education in the              instruction in -.the  public schools being anti-religious.

ehristian school. The Pion,eers  for instance settled in         Many people argued that a Christian home and a chris-
Holland 1847-1850 yet., the first. officially established        tian church was enough.          At public gat.herings  you
Christian school is 19.02; in Pella they arrived in 1847         might hear a speaker say "Let us do everything in
yet.  the ,school  dates at that place from 1.911. We            our pokier  to make the public schools Christian."          In

could.,go  on to show that  almost' one half cent$ry             De Wachter of Feb. 5, 1896 you may read an article
went. by_ without aa established Christian school, barr-         saying, ."Let  .us at least make an attempt ,to  save the

ing then #the  few exceptions which `we mentione'd  above.       public school before estblishing a separate school."         .
       Now, .what  happened. during that near-half-cen-              But there were everywher,e.men  who by the spoken

jturp?  This article:must.  be historical rather than an         and' the* written word fought o?, insisting that "a

interpretatipn  of tendencies, but it &s-  a.. matter of         christianized  public school would never satisfy? and


                                                ` T H %   S T A N D A R D  BEAR.ER                                                                    15


      that a "public s'chool.  caanot be made christian"  IMr.                         immers  : die bidt ontvangt! Doch Hier zit  het hem :
      Bennink) .                                                                       alle bidden is geen bidden'. Wanneer- het object van
              Graldnally  we see the christiai school g&ing                            uw:gebed  de .levenlde  God is, bidt ge oprecht.           Niemand

      foothold.       Slowly  . on churches, pastors and ctiiisis-                     kan' d.zottc'  gebeden van onzen  tijd bidden voor het               a
      tories awoke to their high callin&.                      -_                      aangezicht van Hem die waarlijk God is!               _
              And thus the flourishiang  era of th'e christian schotil                     Doch -Asaf  bidt! Daarom `kan hij temi.dden  van

      period began. We .find schools in Chicago sinc 1884,                            zijn benauwd ropen zeggen: "e:i Hij ,zal  het oor tot

      Patterson, N.J. since 1892. In Wisconsiq,  Sheboygan,                            mij neigen 1" `. :
      1898, Holland Michigan 1902. From there it travel-                                   "Ten dage mijnen benauwdheid zocht ik den Heere.;

      led toward the regions beyond the Mississippi.                   Sioux           mijne hand was des nachts uitgestrekt en liet niet af;

      Centeeb  being one of the first,  1903, O'range  City 1994,'                     mijne ziel weigerde getroost te worden."
                                                                      <-
      Huil, 1909, Rock Valley  1911.                                                       Zalig, welgelukzalig, is .de menscl  -die God, zoekt!

              Tqday  i;t, numbers  about one huedsed  schools in                       Versta  -mij wel, alleen die me:jsch  is zalig clie delz

      about,  ,eighteen  states and Canada.            It has grown into               .wcLren  Gocl zoekt. Velen zoeken een afgod. En vinden

      a mighty plant.        We are in danger of becom,i&  popu-                       duisternissen en grootere  benz:?wdheden.  Doch. hoe

      lar.      It is a mighty plant, but-thefe  are signs of root-                    <zal ik w&n' dat ik vat heb aan den waren God?                Het

      disease, some branches bear qo fruit and some bear                               antwoord ligt voor de hand. Alleen die God is waard

      bitter fruit of world-confor&ty. Except  we abide in                             gezocht. te worden, die Zich ,openbaarde  in Zijn Woor,d.

      the fundamentals of covenant,  antithesis, and heavenly                          Alle idee van God die niet in de Heilige Schrift vervat

      mind.edness  we make sad history today.                                          is, is .afgod  ,en leidt te:1  vrderve.

                                                              M. G.                        En zulke zoeken houdt aan. Den ganschen  nacht

                                                                                       hield Asaf aan. Figuurlijk uitgedrukt;gewaagt  Asaf

                                                                                       van een staan `met uitgestrekte arm voor Zijn aan-'

                                                                                       gezicht. En als men dan aankwam. dyagen  met veel

                                                                                       en velerlei om Anaf in zijn smart. te t.roosten,  zoo

                                                                                       wees hij al zulk pogen va% de hand.           Zijn zi'el weigerde

                                                                                       om zoo  g$roo& te worden.
                                  (Psalm 77)
                                                                                           Wat de oorzaak van Asaf's leed is weten we niet.
              Het is Asaf'  gegeven veel te `zingen  aangaande de                      Evenwel schijnt het in verband gestaan te hebben met
      benauwdheid en de verlossing. Daarom hebben `zijn                                iijn zonde. Want dan maken we misbaar voor  Gocls
      psalmen een.Messiaans:che'klank.  Ook hier beluisteren                           aangezicht. Asaf getu.igt  ervan. Hij zegt: Darht ik
      we een dieper ,zuchten en schre<uwen  dan van een                                .aan God zoo  maakte ik misbaar; peinsde hij op God
      gew0on  mensch.          Het is de kreet van Messias die                         zoo werd zijn ziel-in het binnenste van hem overs:elpt.
.     eeuwen van te voren zijn lijden deed  +ooruitlijden  door                           Dat zit zoo:  .God  bracht Asaf's zondte  in het licht
     de Profeten.                                                           '          vaTi Zijn aangezicht, Zijn openbaring, Zijn wet.  Zoo
              "Mijne stem is -tot God en ik roep, mijne stem is                        kunt ge verstaan dat God- Asaf's oogen  wakende hield
      tot God, en Hij zal het oor tot .mij neigen !"                 Ziedaar           en dat hij in stomheid verslagen was. Verslagenheid
      de aanhef.                                                                 .,    der ziel is de vrucht van twee dingen: onze zonde. en
              Allereerst .&en wij hier het aanwenden van de beste                      de liefde Gods. Als we beseffen dat we  tegeri  Hem

      medicijn tegen  benauwdheid: MJIet  nadruk wordt het                             dien we lifefhebben  gezondigd hebben, dan breekt ons

      ons gezegd, dat Asaf in moeite zich tot  God,  wendde.                           he!t hart en wordt de geest  verslagea.         Dan is.de.mond

      Het staat er tweemaal in het eerste vers. In moeite                              stom. Denkt' b.v. aan Rom. 3 :19. Als God straks de

      is God de eenigste medicijn.               `.                                    zonde. in `t eeuwig.licht  van Zijn oordeel openbaart,
        : Voorts toont het gebruik van het werkwoord "roe-                             dan wordt alle mond ,gez-topt  en dan is de gansche
     pen", ,dat  zijn  benauwdheid groot geweest is. Het                               wereld voor- God v&rdoemelijk.              (In het. hart, w-ant

      werkwoord roepen>  heeft de idee van een luid geluid,                            objectief is .dat nu ook alzoo  voor God.)           Welnu, die
      ge1ij.k  aan den donder.      E-Iet  is een schreeuwen geweest.                  stomheid  ei1 het bewusbzijn  van onae .doemwaardig-

      . Eindelijk zit er groot geloof in dit roepen. Ter-                              heid is ons deel nu al reeds. En dat is genade. Wij
      wijl Asaf. roept, weet hij .dat  God zal hooren.                Het.  is         hebben onzen oordeelsdag ,elken  dag.

      hier zoo geheel anders dan .in het ropen  van de heide-                           ' En dan breekt .ons  hart en w,qrden  wij. verslagen.
      nen tot hun afgod ;` of ook geheel anders dan het tegen-                         Omdat :de liefde Gods in ons hart is uitgestort.

      woordige bidden van .de ,valeche  kerk. Dat. de vraag                               Asaf is voorts aan `t mijmexen~  gegaan over het

      zoo vaak gedaan wordt : worden alle onze gebeden ver-                            verleden. Hij zag daar zijn snarenspel; Dat snaren-
      h'oord?  toont dat er .iets  fun~damente'e1.s  ontbreekt aan                     spel vertegenwoordigt in een wobrd  de- verlossing

      onze beschou_wing  van het gebed.         Zekerlijk, alle~bidden                 waaraan hij deel had, .de ervaringen van goedertieren-

      wordt verhoort! Raar gaat  niets  &f! Jezuq  qegde  het                          h&d,  de toezeggingen? de genabe  efi Gods  wonderc:




                                          THE STANDA.ilD  Rl3ARE.Ii                                                           17'


    the Lamb of God to take away -the sin of the world.             The-.$&in  of salvation is eternally bound fast in God,

            !In his Pentecostal address Peter speaks of Christ      F,or  whom'. Be .foreknaw  He also predestinated. . . .
    as having been delivered into  wicked hands to be cru-          and whom He predestinated He a,lso  called, and whom

    cified and slain "by the determinate counsel and fore-          He called He also justified, and'whom He justified He

    knowledge of God."        Acts 2:23.  Never could- wicked       also glorified. (verses 29 and 30). The viewpoint is

    hands have taken Him had  these  hands not been de-             not of what takes place in time, but of. what is estab-

    termined by God accor,ding  to His eternal forekncrw-           lished .already  in the counsel -of God's will.      The elect.

   .ledge.-  ,G.od determined the time,, the ,place,  the occa-     are not only foreknown and predestinated., but they

    sion, the circumstances and the persons for carrying            ;are  also called and justified and glorified in God's

    out the at.rocious  act of crucifying the Lord of glory.        eternal decree. Not.hing  can change that established

    By that very act He would make atonement for sin.               fact. It rests'on  eternal foreknowledge, which is thlc

    *God  willed to save His people, whom He ioreknew  as           divine motive why God predestinated them to be con-

    His own, by the death cif His Son on the cross.                 formed to the image of His Son, that He might be the

            In this connection it is interesting to note that       firstborn among m'any brethren. No wonder, the;:,
    when Scripture_statas  that God knows.His people, this          that ali things must. necessarily work together for

    divine knowledge of His own is roote.d  in foreknow-            good for those who love. God.

1,ecige.         God says of Abraham, Gen. 18 :19, "For I              In speaking of God's foreknowledge.we  may never

    know him that he will command his children and his              forget `that God is God, the wholly Other, also in His

    household af:ter him, and they shall keep athe `way of          eternal foreknowledge. Man knows as  mlan,  but God

    the' L.orcl  to do justice aed  judgment, that the Lord         knows as God.         Man may make certain observations of

    may ,bring  .upbn Abraham that which He hath spoken             existing circumstances and thereupon make some un-

    of him."      This can only mean that God knew Abraham          canny predictions.        The weatherman, for example, :may

    with an eternal know.led.ge.        He foreknew'  him in        be quite correct in determining the weather and tem-
    sovereign, unchanga,ble  love: And that is true of all          perature' more than twenty four. hours in  ,advanee.

    His people. He has chosen them on'the basis of His              The news commentator may shock the world with his  "
    eternal foreknowledge. By grace Be redeems them                 predictions baseid  on evbnts  that have already trans-

    on the cross, makes them His people through the in-             pired: But in either.case  this foreknowledge is only a

    dwelling S&it in their-hearts and blesses. them with            conclusion based on certain established facts.        And the

    all spiritual blessings I% fit them to His service. <God        prediction has but a limited degree of certainty and ac-

    forms them as His own according to His eternal good             curacy.    But GoldTs  foreknowledge is original in God,

    pleasure. :                                                     sovereignly independent from any outside circumstan-
            Bat Scripture also speaks of pred,estination.  In       ces or conditions.

the first chapter of Ephesians Paul states, "Having                    God's foreknowledge is even the determining cause

    predestinated us unto the adoption through Jesus                for that ,which is. IGod does not see in advance that

    Christ unto Himself according to the good pleasurf!             a certain series of curcumstances  must have a certain

    of His will." Verse 5. And in the eleventh verse,               definite result, but Gbd wills the circumstances and
   ."Being  predesitinated  acc0rdin.g  at.0  the purpose of Him    the conditions in His eternal foreknowledge. ,But  God

    Who worketh all things after the counsel of His will."          is the originator, ,the  creative cause of all that Be

    Both passages refer to the divine purpose of God's              foreknows.         H.e  wills it, determines it, and it happens

    predestination. God predestinated His people unto a             accordingiy.  He foreknows it .because  He wills it so.

    very definite.Tpur.pose,  a ,definite  and exalted glory,       As an artist conceives of a beautiful painting in his

    ,which is realized in their adoption  untb  Himself in          own mind and gives expression to it dnly as his brush

    Christ Jesus.                                                   sweeps over the canvas, so God in He. eternal fore-

            A very significant. passage for r%rr purpose is         knowledge conceives of all .things  which He calls into

    Rom. 8 :29, "For whom Be did.foreknow-He  also did              being in time.

    predestinate to be. conformed to the image of His                  In that w,ay  Go,d also foreknows, His people in

    Son, `that He might be the firstborn among many                 Christ Jesus. He does not forekno'w His people be-

    brethren."       This passage is _ particularly significant     cause of foreseen faith and works and perseverence,

    because both forenowledga aed  predestination are               as athe .Arminian  likes to present it. .Election  based

   mentioned together. The more so, because they are                on such  .a knowledge is no election, is not worthy of

    mentioned in ,their relation to -one another.          The      the sovereignly independent God. - Such a presentation
   apostle is giving assurance of the fact "that all things         of God's foreknowledge is a flat denial of God Himself.

    wdrk  together for gdod to them that love God, who              Not God, but man then determines who shall be saved

    are the ealle,d  ace&ding  to His purpose."        He does      to enter into God's glory.
   this by showing that the salvation of the called ones             On the Contrary, God foreknows His  ,people  in

   is an established fact with God Himself from eternity.           Christ Jesus with an et,ernally  sovereign, in,de.pandent,

                                                                                  ,


                                                                                                                                         - .y
           18                                       THE ST,AWDARD.BEARER

           determinative, crea'tive  knowle,dge.  God foreknew              bre'thren.    Many sons must carry and radiate the
               Christ, Who `is the  Son, the express image of His           glqry of. the Fisstiborn.  of the Father.     His glory must
           likeness and the effulgence of His glory. God willed             be reflected by thousands upon `thousands who are sons
           that Christ should be the Servant par exceliaiiee,  in           `chi?&gli  Him and are made 1ike'Him.         So that even as
           Whom all the fulness of divine blessediiess  should .dwell       He refilects  the glory of the Father, the Triune God,
           forever. In Christ God foreknows His people, chosen              -so God Himself may. be glorified forever in Christ,
           unto Himself ,with a fore,knowledge  of love. God knows          and in all those who  belong to Christ. The glorified
          them co,lle&ively  as the assembly of the  el,ect,  the'          . saints shall share the likeness and life of Christ, to
           bo'dy of IChrist.     But. He also knows them individually,      be like unto G&d; as sons in His house,  .to dwell with
           -each one b;jr name according to his person and nature.          Him, to experience and tell His praises forever.
           according to his place and position in the household               - Foreknowledge and predestination, though each
           bf faith.     He coeceived  of them as sq many bret,hren         distinct in itself, are most ie5mately  r&ted.  The
           in Christ. Jesus,. and engraved them in the palms of             former is the divine mo5ve  for the latter; that to God
           His hands. He loves them for His own Name's sake                 may be the praise and giory eternally..               F
           in Covenant friendship, delighting in them as His                                                                    C. H.
           masterpiece, which perfeotly shotvs forth the glorious

           praises of His name forever.

                 That is God's foreknowledge.       In' distinction from
     s     that, predestination is bhe eternal act of God whereby               Pleaiary  and !Verbal Inspiration
           He sovereignly ,d&ermines'  aA1 things to serve  ,I'l.is.
           supreme purpose, the most excellent glory of His                                     Of Holy-Writ
           Name. This predestination is God's @an of the ages.

           Not. as an arch&et  ,makes  a blue-print of the. struc-              Insj?iration  is that act of God, whereby He move.d

           ture he intends to build, which is but a iifeless  slip          holy men $0 that they infallibly, unerringly wrote the

           of paper and becomes us@lesF  as soon as the struc-              W&d of God. This refers, of course, to the original

           ture is complete.      God's predestination is the almighty,     manuscripts.     We believe that these Divine Scriptures,

.          liviirig  thought of the eternally ,counselling  God, com-       in ,t.heir  entirety, are the direct product of the living
           ing into full expression when God's counsel is realized.         #God and of the power of, His grace. Although men-

           As a r,esult  of this divine decree He commands and it           tion, then, can be made of the `Divine and human

           stands forth.        All ratiqmal  -and irrational creatures,    "factors" with respect to the composition of tpe  Bible,

           tien and angels, good and evil, things in heaven and             i&&se "human factors," although referring to the holy

           things on earth belong  to that living counsel of the            men who wrote the Scriptures, must  never  be re-

           Most High.       T;he  time and place of our birth and'          garde,d,  as anything else than the Divinely willed  snd
           death, our .daily existence an'd our place in life form          prepared instruments whereby the-living God revealed

          . a part of that decree.        Ev'en t.he good works of the      unto us and bestowed upon us His own Word.
           believers have been prepared beforehand- that they                   We can distinguish between "plenary" and "ver-

           may walk in them' during this present time. Eph. 2 : 10.         .bal" inspiration, although they are very closely re-
           Tbgether  all things serve the purpose ,which God,  has          lated.    "Verbal" inspiration signifies, naturally, tha-t
          ,e$,tablished  `from  eternity in that.coujnsel  of His will.     the holy writers were verbally inspired. The very

                 Especially `God's people form an integral part of          words and letters which thejr wrote were written with

          #that .predestination.       "For whom He did forekn.ow  He       infallible accuracy, as directly under the influence of

           also did pfedestinate  to be conformed `to the image of           the Spirit of God, This is `clearly proved by a pas-

           His Son that Be might be the Firstborn among many                sage such, as Gal. 3  :16. There we read : "Now to

           brethren."     God's foreknowledge is the divine motive          Abraham and his seed  were  the promis&.s  made. He

          for His predestination. God willed Chlist  to be the              sa&h  not, And $0 seeds, as of many; but as of one,

           F%rs$bo~n,  ftir whi.ch reason He gave Him many bre-             And to thy seed, which is Christ."           In this text the

           thren, IGod chose these breLhren,  ordained them u&o             apostle Pa~ll bases an argument u]?6n a single letter,
           eternal life. .. Election is fir&t  of all personal. Every       distinguishing betvireen  the.  plural ' "seeds" and the
           one of the elect is personally chosen, known of God.             singular "seed."             "

           Etaoh  one has his name wzlitten  in the book of life              Plenary, inspiration is clos'ely,  related to the above-

           from before the foundation of the world. But ele&                inenltioned  idea of verbal inspiration.     The iYbrd  "pleri-

           tion also includes that God has .ord+ned  them to be-            ary" signifies "full, complete." When associated with

           come+ partaker8  of a definite, and exalted'  glory, the         inspiration it conveys`the thought that every \+ord,

           end unto which they were chosen.. That end is the                in its. order, is infallible, that 6hlk  entire Bible is. con+

           adoption to sons, the cdnformation  into the image of            pletely the inspired Word of God. `Verbal  inipira-
           [(&d's  Son, Go that He is the Firstborn among many              tion, when applied to ,fhe  enti,re  Bible, is necessarily

                                  n

          ,


                                      .                                                                   _
                                           T H E  ST4NDAR.D  B E A R E R                                                   19.


   plenary inspiration.     It is possible, however, to di-       Gods' own Word.        And man's .word ,darrjes  no author-

   vorce the two, to conceive of certain parts of Scripture       ity. We thereby lose -the Scriptures as an infallible

  -as being verbally inspired without necessarily confess-        norlzl ,for our lif,e  and walk.

   ing that the entire Bible is Divinely inspired. This               Pxlenary.'  inspiration is necessary, in the second

  error has `been committed in ,t.he  ,past.  We believe,         place, `because the denial of it would imply that the

  however, that inspiration is also plenary, that all of          Scriptures are characterized by all the shortcomings

  Holy Writ is .directly  the product of the living God.          and corruptions of man.        If the Bible is not the Word

  Verbal inspiration must therefore be applied to the             of God it is, of course, the work of man.          There is

  entire Word of God.       This truth is based upon a pas-       no other alternative. If only parts of Scripture are

  sage such as 2 Tim. 3 116. .There  we read: "All Scrip-         verbally inspired ,the  other parts of Holy Writ must

  : ture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable        necessarily be the product of the mind of man.          The
 n for doctrjine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc-       implications of this reasoning are far-reaching indeed.
  tion in righteousness."      It is true that this text is       Presuppose, that the living God had left the writing

  more difficult than may appear at the ,first  gla;lce.          of His Word of truth to man.         What guarantee have

  However, ,we may safely assert that the translation             we then, that men would not write those Scriptures,

  ,which we have quoteId  is a correct renditio'n of the          that will of God in,harmony  with their own tastes and

  text.    Space hardily  allows me to enter  in`%o a detailed    :d,islikes?    First of all, man is by nature a liar and the

  discussion of this passage. We would, in  #this  connec-        truth is not in him.      He loves the darkness and hates

  tion, refer the inquiring reader, if ,he can read the           the light. ;He  loves iniquity and unrighteousness and

  Holland, to page 540 of Volume 8, where the editor              hates all goodness and righteousness.        What assurance

  of our Stan!d!ard Bearer explains this passa>ge  in de-         have we that man would not write. the. Word of God

  tail.    Suffice it at this time to say that all Scripture,     according to his own inclinations and desires? It is

  the ent.ire  Bible is given us. by inspiration of God,          sur,ely  hardly conceivable that man, as the author, of

  Plenary inspiration has the support of Holy Writ.               the norm for our life and conduct, would ascribe all

      It is not the purpose of this artic1.e  to dwell at         the glory and honour unto the living God.        How, then,

  length on the idea of inspiration.        This has been done    could the living `Lord entrust the writing of His Word

  in our paper not so long ago. I would rather view               to carnal and. sinful man? Moreover, in the second

  the words "plenary" and "verbal" in their relat.ion             place. and in close connection with this, man, although

  to one another and emphasize that they are insepar-             renewed in principle by' the grace of the living God,

  aule, that verbal inspiration can be maintained only on         is but.in  principle holy.    He has but a small beginning

  the basis that all Scripture  his inspired, and that, na-       of obedience.      He is and remains, as long as he is in

. , turally, plenary inspiration rests on. the supposition        .thiti  earthly tabernacle, a child of God only in prin-
  that the Bible is verbally God's own book. The'idea             ciple. And the Scriptures clearly emphasize that the

  has been advanced that the Bible contains the Word              heart is subtle, more subtle than any other thing.

  of God, that the, Word of God is in the. Bible.  All            The flesh is in conflict with the Spirit, also in the

  Scripture, then, was not Divinely` inspired. Certain            child of God. This is certainly a fact to be reckoned

  parts may be God's own Word, but this could not be              with. Ain:d although it is' true that he in principle

  said of the entire Word of. God.         We maintain, on the    understands the things which are of the Spirit of

  other hand, that God Himself is the Author of the               God and also rejoices in those things, yet he does

  entire Bible and that He did not leave a solitary part          the things he would not and does not the things which

  of .it to `the imagination of man.                              he would perform.        And this is true especially as far

      Plenary inspiration is necessary because the <de-.          as his attitude toward the Word of God is concerned.

  nial of it must lead the Church of God:  into a hopeless        The history of the Church of God throughout the

  subjectivism.     Presuppose that only parts of ,the  Word      ages testifies loudly to this effect. Is it not an un-

  of God are inspired, but that other parts of the same           deniable fact ,that,  in the course of the history of the

  Scriptures are of man.        What .will be the result?         Church, the attempt has repeatedly beenmade  to dis-

  Who, then, will determine what is and what is not the           tort the Word of God so as to be able to maintain

  Wor.d of God? Which parts of Holy Writ can then                 one's own, evil and sinful inclinations.. Is it not true

  s.erve  as a rule for our life and conduct? To which~           that man, to maintain,. his own worldly-mindedness,

  parts of the Scriptures can we submit as  speaking.to           has deliberately dist,orted  the Word of God? Are

  us with Divine authority? We would therefore drift              not our Reformed confessions also a testimony against

  into' a hopeless subjectivism.    Moreover, if man must         the winds of heresy Iwhich have never failed to blow

  determine what is and what is not the Word of God,              upon the ocean of time?       Did:  not vain man continual-

  the result will be that the Bible'will .necessarily  be         ly attack t!he Divine Sonship  of our Lord, God% abso-

  unclothed of all Divine ,autliority.  We cannot be cer-         lute sovereignty and .man's utter depravity, the par-

  tain that any particular passage of the Scriptures is           ticular character of the passion of the Christ, and the


   20                                      THE S,T-ANNARD  BE--AREI=%
                                                  _                                                                          .-
   efficacy of Divine grace? .Is it not true,I'also  of our-         its promises are Yea and  Amen, and that it is a sure

   selves, whereby we persistently would  seek ourselves,            guide which leads us unerriilgly  into the glory whit?

  and that this struggle *demands much prayer and faith              the-Lord  holds before us in the Scriptures and which?

   to uphold the testimony of Holy W&t?--  Y.e&;l$lti  w.e           `&I&-shaB.bestaw  .upon all .those  who love His appearing.
   not have ;t.he  testimony within our hearts that the                                                                   H. V.

   inspiration of the Scriptures is also plenary? Let us,

   when analyzing the question whe%er  the Scriptures                                                   -
   are wholly the Word of the Lord, examine our own

   hearts.     Who, then, would dare deny that there is

   continuous ,conflict  within us agaihst  the Scriptures?

   Our own heart therefore lsudly testifies tha', the Word

   of God is not as we would have it be,, and' that conse-

   quently the Scriptures. could not have been written                   When speaking o'f the authorship bf any one of the
   by man. How differently the Bible would  have been                books of the.  Bible, we must always .bear  in Find thet
  written if ,t.he  Lord-had left it in  our hands !-    Surely,     we- can speak. of- a twofold authorship of each book.
   plenary inspiration is necessary because qf our own               Scripit.tirB  is the word of God and in no sense is it;
                                                         .-
   evil "passions and desires-other-wise we woulad never             the word of-man;.  yet it pleased God to have His Word
  have had a Word-of God.  .                                         recorded for us through ,the  instrumentality of ,men
  Thirdly, plenary inspiration is necessary: because                 in the way of organic inspiration. Therefore wee can
  the Word .of God is a revelation of the things which               speak of a primary and a secondary authorship.                The
  never  could have .&tered  into the hearts and minds of            primary authorship of every book of the Bible must
  m&m ,Not  only does the Word of God speak of `things               be. ascribkd to God, but the secondary authomhip  is
   which are spiritually repulsive to our own heart and              to be ascribed ,to some man whom God chose, prepared,.
  ;,flesh,  but. it ,+lso.  reveals things to us which could im-     inspired, illumined and moved to record His Word in
 (,`.possibly,  arise in the imagination of man.       Scripture     human language.            These human authbrs numbler  forty
K'" speaks of heavenly things, directs us to the culmina-            or more:- The exact number cannot with certainty  b?
  tion of God?s  eternal coupsel  in the new, heavens and            stated.     In the book of-Psalms you have more than one
   upon the new earth. Even as the natural man does                  author. It. is deibated  whether Paul is the author t3
  not- undkwtand  the spiritual things of the Spirit, so             the Epistle to the Hebrews or some other Apostle or
   also the  earthy man, with his earthy ,knowIedge  and             Evangelist. Similarly it must be .determined  whether
  wisdom, cannot reach unto the thin& which are heav-                the Gospei according to John, <the Epistles of John
   enly and eternal. We can .only  conceive of .earthy               and the -Revtilation  of John ar,e written by the same  , .
  things.      This accounts for the fact that  Scripture's.         man.       There is not agreement either on the authorship
   description of the heavenly Jerusalem is, clothed  in             of this. book of Revelation,  and,  it is interesting to
  tin .earihy-  language adapted to our earthy existence.            consider the  arguments for and against the common
  If we, therefore, are to have revelation, if we are to be          conception that' the Apostle Johgn is the author.
  have knoMed(egel  of the heavenly things, `if we are !:o be            If `we -were to. ask  the qutestion,  "To whom  must
   comforted. in the mtdst  of this earthy vale of tears             the authorship of the book of Revelation be ascribed?"
   with respect to the heavenly glories. which await us,             we would have to answer in the light of :the above
   only He, Who is in heaven and descended from hea;en,              that the primary authorship is to be ascribed to God
   can reveal these things unto us. This, too, is an un-             whil:e  the secondary authorship is to be attributed  tir
   dleniable  tact. How- could .Gbd  leave. the writing of           a certain John.            However we feel. that tihen  we are
  heavenly  matters, then, .to men who.  could impossibly            assigned !t.he`  topic, ."Tbe Authorship Of The Book Of

   conceive. of them?                                                Revelation,"     our essay  is meant to be bne on the
         For these reasons we must  maint.$in.  the pleliary         hu-man or secondary authorship of the bdok of Reve-
   as tiell,as verbal tiharacte;.of  Divine inspiration. Every       lation.     TheEe  is and can be no Idispute  about the pri-

   %ofd$`of  the Scriptures, also in its.order,  is the direct       mary authorship unless it would be presented by the
   pro&i3 of Divine "inspiration; Only `thus. can the                unbeliever who denies that the Bible either whole. 01
   authbrity`  of Holy .Writ be established. And thiB is             -ii-l part is ithe  Word of God. _ In verse o'n,e we read very
   indispensable .as'far  as our comfort and spiritugl  life         plainly that it is the "Revelation of Jesus Christ which

   are- `cohcerned.  A word of man `is meaningless a;nd              God  gave untnt0  Him."         There is no argutient  possible
   without authority. The Bible, however, is  the.Word               then that this -is not `,the  Word of, God.       If our essay

   of- Gb'd.  And this does' not -merely iniply that it is           were meant to serve the purpose of yeftiting  ,$.he  stand

   an &uthoritati.ie  rule : for our life so +hat we mdst be         that this book is sot the Word of God, w,e Ifeel  that we
   subject `to it.    It also  ineans that God will mainttiin        would not be assigned to write about the authorship

   Hi&. own Word; thzit  `the Bible is .faithful  and true, that,    of .just  on'e  book of the Bible and ,that. a different
                                                                                           .
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                                         T.HE- STANfA'$D  ]BEAR%R                                                                    21
                                                                         .                                                .

  title wou1.d  be chosen and so worded to kldicate that         preached the Word df `God and testified of Je&s
we must show that the book of Revelation is the Word             Christ. Rather, it is conteml@d,  does this mean that
  of .God.    ,On the ot.hler  hand the secondary authors~hip    ~God. breught' John tci this Isle that he might  receivd

  of this  book of Revelation is.and has  been de!bated  -f$     these- $isio& and the tkstimony pf Jesus Christ ins

  quite some t&6.      We will therefore present to you ii?      order ,to recoid  it for `the ,Church:      He. was not bail-

  this essay the arguments for and against the view              ished  because he bestified of Christ but God sent  hirri

 that this book was ,written  by ,the Apostle John.              thiere in order that he might testify  of- Him.        He was

      The author,ship  of the book of Revel&ion has been         not ,exiled  `because he preached. the Woad of God b$lt

  ascribed to no- less th,an three men'  named Jolifi : namc-    God sent him  there in ord#er  that he might become th.6
  ly, the Apostle John, John Mark and a certain elder            secoedary  guthor  of this portion of the Word of ,Gtid.

  named John. Those who hold to the view that the                Such is :t.he interpretation of this verse accor.cling  tci
                                                                                                                               L
  author of this book is a~ certain elder named John             this view.                     I
deny also that the epistles of John were wri'tten  by             You `feel at once that till four of these tirguments

 the .Apos'&  John aed  maintain that both th,e  epistles        `are very weak and that-  not one `of them proves that

 and the book .of Rtevelation  were written by this elder        the &po&le  John is sot the auth6r of this book.                   Al,-

  named John. They base, ,their  contention on the fact          thought these arguments may cause one to hesitate %

 that in neither of these boo&  doe& the .author  claim to       moment and consi,der  the matter, not one of the&

 she the Apostle John. In the  Epistles he merely idlenti-       arguments'is strong e,nough  to cause  us to conclud&

  fies  himself  as "The elder," and in the book of Revela-      that the,author  coul,d  not possibly be the Apostl$e  John.

 tion merely "John."                                                 Thesk four gfounds in the! fir&  plate  certainly  do

     BesXes  being attributed ,to one of these ,thr!ee  men      not prove that the author is John Mark. Neither  cl6

  called John there was also a sect that attributed the.         they prove that a certain elder by the name of John

  authorship of this book to Cerinthus.      We diEmiss  this    wrote it.        They are attempts to discredit >&he-  Apostle

 view immediately for in pthe fourth verse <the  author          as' the author but in `no wz$ do they bring anythin.g

  plainly-identifies himself as John.                            positive.                                                            ,-
      That the `Apostle John was the author  was first             That John  merely c&s hi&self' "J.&n" is not  an

  d,enied  by Dionysius of Alexandria. Before his time           argument against ascribing the ,authorship  sb the

 the authorship was ascribed to the  Apostl'e'.  It `was         Ap&tle.       Rather is' it quite `a s$rong argument fop

,Luther  who .in later years expressed  his conviotion           maintainifig  that it. is the Apostle. C,onsEder  oncd

  that the Apostle was not the author  an,d who diffused         that t.he auithor.wFites  to the seven churches which

 this stand thr.ough  his influence.                             are in Asia.          The author knows that these sevell
     -1. The first argument that is raised against the           churches will know who he- is.            Now whom would

Apostle- being the author is that ,the author merely             you suggest ad the one' most apt to be knowIn_  by
  calls .himself  Johp' and in verse nine of chapter one         these churches? Wou1.d  you not tliink  of the Apostle

 presents himself as their brother and companion. Still          before you wou1.d think of John Mark or some elder  ii]

  more conclusive they maintaia  &s the fact that hi 1s          Jerusalem. If there were anothel"  John which ,these

  callled the- "servant" of Christ` in the first verse of        churches knew. ;SQ  well, in .fact so much better than

  chapter  one.                                                  the Apostle John, would we not expect to hear just  3

      2. The second argument raised is .that the author          little about him somewhere else in the New'  Testanierit?
  of this book' sees in ,the twenty-first chapter tweive         This &;rtainly  does not prove <that  it cannot be `the
                                                                                                                         \'
  founldations  to the new Jei-usalem  and in them the           Apostl&

  names of the twelve apost!les  of the Lamb.      Were the          T)le  same thing is true of the expressions he us&
  author df ;t.his  book the Apostle John, th,en  he w6uld       tb identify `himself.       To be brief ,let  it be stated that

  see his .own name anId himself among the four and               th.e Apostle would  be .very  correct to state that he

twenty el,dlens  before God's $hrone.  This would be             is a `fbrother and companion" with  the church. Like-

  impossible it is maintained for John was yet alive and         wise wo&d  the Apostle himself be the last one to

  ofi this earth.                                                denf that he is a "servant'! of' Christ. It may also be
      3. Thirdly it is stated that the styl'e of writing dis-    point.ed  ouit that Pa,ul  declares of himself in the.Epistie

  played in this book is very different from that in b&h         to the Remans  that,he  is a "iservant  of ' J,esus  Christ."
  the G6spel  &copdinig  to John and the Epistles of             ,Neither  is it true that Paul always designates himself

  John.                                                          as. an apostle.       In neither his Epistle to the Philip-
      4. A futirth argument is that when John. statei-,  in      pians, his first  and second Epistles to the  Thessalon-

  chaljter  one.  ve&+e  nine that he was on the Isle of         ians nor his Epistle  to Phil'emon  does he `mention his

  Pathos "for ,the Word of God, and for the  tesit.imony         apostl,eship.      In Philippians one he again calls himself

  of' Jesus Christ;" this does not mle.an that he was ban- a "servant of' Jesus Christ."
 jshedto  `this Isle-as a form of gerqeg.&igq  .kecauae he          `Another fact-to xemember  1 that there ia no need


                                                                                                                -.
22.                                       T`HE .STANDARD   B E A R E R


for `John to make  mention of his apoStl,e&ip  ii? this'

book. What he writes, he explains in-verse one of

chapiter  one, is. the Revelation of Jesus Christ _%vhidh

`He gave to His iservant  John.       He is apt  writing an                It niigh_t be well to state at the outset of this paper

Epistle to rebuke or warn the church as Paul does                       that the thoughts and ideas conveyed. subsequently have
in his Epistl,es.  Wheg  one does this, he finds need of                been borrowed from and in many phrases quoted liter-

making m,ention of his apostleship that his word may                    ally from far superior minds than the author's, and
be respected as being sent by God.          Now `when  John             are not interpretation from original sources as `much

records what Jesus. revealed unto him, this is not ne-                  as from: other commentator's views of the  philoso-
cessary. In facet.  what John declares $1 verse one of-                 pher's ideas. Any personal opinions will be expressly

chapter one cotimands-far more respect tb his @rit-                     stated and will in the main be found in the conclusion

ing .than could ever be accomplished by calling  at-                    of this paper.     Hoiwever,  as `this paper is meant merely
tention -to his aptistleship.                                           to serve as an iiltroduction  2;o the disc&ion for this

       That the style of writing is different is to be ex-              evening's su,bject,  and as the subject matter at times
pected since it is not an episi%e  or zm account of Jesus               went far beyond the author's comprehension and logi-

works while in the flesh but a record of the visions he                 cal powers,  the few personal ideas that are given, are
has `seen and of the words h6 has heard.                  Even those    done so more with the thought in mind to provoke
who present this al?gument  that the style differs froth                `discussion and to Bguratively, `stick my neck out,'
the Gospel aceor,ding  to John -and from that of  *the                  than to attempt B definite, conclusive, and correct view
Epistles `of John admit that the Idifference  df style is               point relative to the subject.
not calelusive  `evidenoe  that it was not written by the                  -This in$rodtiction,  will then, first of all, list the
Apostle.                .'                                              different rational. proofs usually given for the exist-

  j Ne$hek  .does the f&t that the Apostle would be                     ence of God.      Secondly, it will treat each proof or argu-
seeing his. own nam,e in the foundation of the .new                     ment separately, calli;lg  aftenti6n  to the argumenta-
Jerusalem make it impossibleXor  him to be the author                   tion of some of its leading  p?oponents  as well as the
of, this book.    What John sees is a vision and- there  arp            argumentation used in the refutation of their  iriews  by
many other' things which have  not yet taken place                      other philosophers. And thirdly, it will attempt  tn
which have .not yet taken place which John was pri-                     point out the value of these  formal arguments an,d pro-
vileged to see in- a vision.                                            pose a doctrinally as well as rationally sound conclu-
       The attempt to read verse  `nine of chapter one i'n              sion from the surface that has been scratched  of: the
such a way that Johns  is on the Isle of Patmos  to be                  subject assigned.
able to write this testimony of Jesus is but an  attempk.                  To my mind the subject given me, does not interest
to refute, the tradition that John the, Apostle was pn                  itself in the first place with Scriptural evidence ad-
the Isle tif Patmos as a form of ,persecntion  meted out                duced to- prove the existence of Gpd, for Scripture
to him by Domitian. :It does riot prove this tradi-                     assumes that. God exists, and nowhere in Scripture
tion to be false and .is a .forced  transletion  of verse               can we find a syllogisticstatement to prove the real-
nine  fof it does -not takie  into accoutnt  the fact tha.!:            ity of God.     But the subject is interested. mainly with
John states plainly that he was a. "companion in tribu-                 the rational or formal arguments advanced by philos-
lation" with  hhe church of that day which was suffer-                  ophers throughout the ages, with which they attempt-
ing under the persecution of Domitian; Even if one                      ed to prove, apart from faith as the believer possesses
wants to rea,d  the passage to mean that he was there                   it, that there is a God-that very really exists.        By'God
in ord,er  to write this testifiony of Jesus Christ, it                 we mean the eternal, self-existent, and absdluteljT  per-
does ao,t  .deny  that God caused Domitian to inflict                   fect free personal Spirit, distinct from  aind  sovereign
this form of persekution  upon John that he .might  re-                 over the world He ha's created.               This definition, I
ceive ~atid w.fite this testimcsn  y of. Christ.                        Ibelieve,  the majority of philosophers mentioned in
       ..In.ohr  mind  it is firmly established that the Apos-          the introduction h,ad in mind w-hen they i.nclu.ded  in
tle Jdhn is the author of this book and. we see no reason               their system of philosophy proofs for or against the
for. thinking otherwise.                            J. A. H.            exisltence  of God.

                                                                            To list then tF_e arguments usually advzil&?L  in the

                                                                        proof of God's existelzce.  There are some four or

                                                                        five, beginning with  what is usually called the Onto-

                        CLASSIS   E A S T                               logical Argument, or Being Argument.<"  This  argu-
                                                    ,I                  ment. simply.,aad  briefl-y  stated might be said to infer

will meet in regular session D.V. We'dnesdBy,  October                  it.he  existence of God,' from the idea of God that is in

4, at 9 A.M. at Full,er  Ave;                                           the human mind:              In other words; if there were no

                                  D, Jonker, stated clerk.              God, no one  would have thought of -Gdd. The s~concl


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                                           T H E  STAND_ARD  B-EARER                                                                   2%


argument to be considered i;s. the Cosmological Argu,                    derstands  `what is expressed by the words:  t,he ccbsw
  merit,.  or the evidence for God's existence.  as Fir&                 lz&,$y  greatest.  But the greatest cannot be in the
  Cause. The World or Universe argument it is so;@e-                     int&lle&(al~ne,  for then it would be possible to  co&
  times called. The point is that everything must have                   ceive  somethihg  &ill gr'eater,  which should exi&  not
  a, cause.       The universe must have a cause, and there-             bnly in the intellect but  also in.external  reality. Hknce,
  fore, there `must be some Being outsi,de  of ,the  universe            the ireatest  must exist' at the same time in the intel-
  lwho  caused it.         It. explains where the world came             lect and in the sphere of objectitie  reality.      God,. there- "
  `from, if we believe in the existence of Gold.             Thirdly,    fore, is not simply conceived by us; He also really ex-
  the Teleologjcal  Argument, or the evidence afforded by                ists."    `(end of `quo&).
  the presence pf vrder'and  adaptation of the universe.                     From Dr. Stob's-.notes  we get the following syllo-
  The argument runs like this : the order; .the harmony,                 gistic statement of Anselm's ontological  argument :
  and the apparent purpose in the universe suggests a11                      "All men have, or can have, the jdea  of God.
 ' intelligeht Creator.       The universe seems to be headed                The idea of God is the idea of  sometliing  ,tliail
  in a certain direction, or that somebody .is guiding                   which a greater cafiiloL  be conceived.
  the, univense.       F r o m  this. we co~i~clude  th$ existence          -Btit  that than which a greater  cannot be conceived
  of God.        The fotirth  argument is the Moral Argument.            cannot exist in the mind alone.           (If it did, a gl*eaterj
   The moral order in the vniverse  points to a moral be-                namely, one which existed in reality as well, could .be

  ing as ruler of the upiverse.,  Everybody has conscience,              conceived).
  or a sense of right and `wrong.         Wher.e  do they get  it?           Hence, since God (as something thaa which a

  From a moral Beillg  as Guider of the universe. Last-                  greater cannot be conceived). exists in the uridelstal1cL

  ly, the Historical ATgument  is sometimes.used to prove                ing, He, tiust exist also in reality, since that is D
  God's existence.          The argument is that every race              superior  existence."     (end of quote).

  believes in some God.             (Consensus gentium) . All                Thus we see that according to Anselm, .man  has
  men everywhere live on the belief of  the .existence  of               the i;dea of a perfect be'ing.    Perfection involves amoa:g
  ,God.  , -                                                             other qualiities  that. of- existence.    (Otherwide we co~ild
       There is perhaps sufficient material for discus-                  think `of a more perfect ,,being,  one who did possess

  sion in the fir;st four named argumenbs,  so that we                   existence).    Therefore, God exists.

  will not atte?pt  $0 introduce. a discussion on the last                   This argumentation we can readily see involves
  one.                                                  2                no `sense  perception or fact based on experience, birt  '
       The- Ontological, or -B&pg  argument distinguishes                is entirely- a-priori. For  this reason, Thomas.Arquinas
itself from. the other arguinents  in that+ it is based                  can find no place in his system of thought' for  t5e
  upon a priori kno_wla~.ge,  whereas the, Cosmblogica!.                 ontological argument of Anselm. `For; acco14$ng  to

  Teleological, and Moral argumbnts  logically ,ascend                   Thomas,_ our `rai:tidnal  knowledge must always begiri

  from facts  of experience to causes or principles.. An                 with sensation.       Says he, and I quote  U&erweg,

  a-priori -argument  is one whiCh -proceeds  fl"om the                  `(.God'Is  being is not immediately certain `for  tis, be-

  necessary' i;deas  of reaspn  t0 the `consequences neces-              cause we do not know what God is.              G&`s existence,

sarily deduced from tliem,  .or the truths necessarily                   so far as bur  knowledge is concerned, is sotiethimg

  involved in them.           This distinction is important to           to be proved, and the grounds for this proof are to be

  bear in mind  for it @lays an important role in the                    sbught in that which is more- knowable to us. . . .
  refvtations  to the ontological argument advanced by                   The system of fai;th which presupposes the existence

' .both'Thomas   A q u i n a s   a n d  Kant.                            of God, proceeds from the consideration of God  to
       -Although St. Augustine concludes to th'e existence               the consideration of the created world i but% ,philos=
  Jf God from, the undeniable existence  atid possession                 ophy we must advance fron?'  the knowledge of crea-

  by man df some truth,. it is @Anselm  that we find the                 ture to the `knowledge of Go'dd:.  . . .7X'-a. cerkaili  sense,

  first philosophic attempt to ljrove  the existence o`f                 man has naiturally  `the Knowledge  ' of Gbd. .He has '
  God.         Ii fact,  the fame of Anselm.is  connected chiefly        it -in, so far as God is for him the happiness for which

  with his ontological &rg.ument-  as' he gives .it in his               $e naturally seeks: for seekiilg  implies a `kind of _
  work, `:Proslogium."         A summarized statement of his             knowledge.      But for certain and clear knowledge,

  argument `as `recor.ded,  by Ueberweg, is as follows : T               proof is necessary?' (end of quote).
q u o t e ,     "The  ontological argument is. an attempt to                 Thus we see that the ontological  `arguirient of Sk

  prove'  the existence+ o$ Gqd, a-s following from the                  Antielm  has no validity for Thomas Aquinas.

  very idea we have of Him. By  t&e  word, [God,.  we                       However, -in Descarte  we ha%  a revival, slightly

  ,un:derstand,  by definition, the gregtest  object or being            modi'.fied;  of: the ontological argument of St. Anselm.

  that can be conceived.,, This conception elrists  in t.he              According to Descarte,  the vei;y  conception of an iif-

   intellect of all such as have the idea. of God,  and in               finite and absolutely. pel;fect  Being logiC.ally  implies

  the.intellect  of the atheist as well, for the-atheist un-             the existence sf ;such a Being. For a bei&  that di:!


                                          .`.. _--i                                                                                                       1
                                                       I                                                                                                                  _

                              "                                     ---_                                                                    -- ~~-  i-
                                                    S--O  `-.TH-E  `S.TAN~DARD--~BEAri'ER
              y_ .
                                                            _,                                                                                                       .
              n o t  exi,&  `c&ld*";?`bt be infini:te  .&la'  petfect,:  si&e <t                  his a cdnscious,  -thinking,  . substance.  He can in his
              -would-lack one  essential ,quali:y_  6f infinit&le~aad  per-                       niiricl forrri a,`bl&r  and distinct- idea of his body and

              fe@ionj  viz:,  existence. Existestie  is. as `definitely. im-                      i:s attributes; &well.as  of kis soul and its attributes.

              `plied' in ,the  existencd  of Go:d' as the.  consequence that                      In his logic.. he clearly and:-distinctly  cl&fines these

              its .thiee  interioi-  angles  are.$@al  to t-w,0  right angles                     attributes and,- comes to the coti'clnsion  of'. his owp

              follo&s  from-  the ,definitior,  i-of .a triangle.           D@s.carte             e$stence..  ,.,:.--                                                                          :
              ,saysi_an,d  I quite  from @an@, "Modern QaBsic$l Phi-                              `I      Now  Des&&e  says that, we can form `a clear and
              losop.hers,"         "By the- na&e  God, I ~lderstar$..  a .sub-                    -distinct -idea of God; also;                                     If-, tie have  this idka %f

              stance, infinite, -eternal,  tina immutable,. indepei$eilc,                    God s~ich  th$ ,Fe yn clearly define  Him:and  sharply
              all-knowing, all-powerful,;.aild  by w&h I myself -and                         dis?Yi:inguish  Him  .from:\other  beings,`. Desca&e  says .that

              everything that exists;-. if any sukh  there  be, were                              proves tF@ B%$stence  of-  God: because we' must ass~unt?
              created.,      But these prop&&s. a&~",~&  great `and.  ex-                                    j&t- %s the `.LeB exists, and I- exl&,  so anything
                                                                                                  +ait.~
              cellent, &hat the more `attentively .I cdtiside?  them the                          of tihi& I have  a-clear and distinct idea &&t  exist.

              .less I feel persuaded that the idea 1. have:df  ' tli&n                                 From this' `di&ys@on  of. D&carte's  ohtological ar-
              owes its origins  to `myself alone.                 And thus it is ab-              gume$ we realize that two diffepent  `formulations of

              soltitely  necessary to conclude; from. all that  I .have                           syllogism ?re .possi-ble.                               And, this Dr. Stob very nicely

              b6fol;e  said, that God exists: for though the idea,  of                            conipiles inihi&notes  on De'scarte.  They follow, and I

              substance be iti niy mind  owihg to t&s,  that .I myself                            quote: :
              am a `siibstancej  I should not, however, have the idea                                   " ` F i r s t  Forn@a$ion,:                                                                  r
                                                                                                                                                                          ' 1
              bf an infinite stibstance,  seein.g that I am a finite be-                                 That of whi'ch  I have a coisciousness  as clear-as

              ing, unless it were given me.`ba  some substan,ce  in                               my, consciousn&ti  of *myself, must exist.                                                 I am as
                                                                            *.
              rgality  infinite.                                                                  clearly -cons{io& of ,God,  as of `myself. Hence, God
                                                                            :     !                                                                                                                                    .
                "And I. m&t not imagine  that I do .not  a$prehend                                exists.                                                                              ;/                 L.
              the infinite by a-`true %dea,  but .only  by the negdtion                                  .Sec&d  Formulation: -                                                                           : .
                                                                                                                                                                                                                /I
              of t'he  finltme, in the same .wQ that I cotiprehend  re-.                                 The idea of Gild  is the ideaqf an all-perfect Being;

              pose and .darkness  by the negation  of motion and light;                           Tc, a perfect Bein,g,  the attyibute  of exis&nce  neces-

              $ince o!l the contrary. I clearly perceive that there is                            sarily belongs: : Hence,-  God of necessity exists.."                                             ( e n d
              &oye_r&aiity  in the. infinite ,substance  than, in- i&e `fi-                       bf qudte). I .                                          . .
              nit4 .-and therefor?  that in ,some  way'-1  possess ,the                                  <Commenting upon  f;he- arguments or pr_dofs ad-
      . . - .p;erception of ,God before that of myself; %or how vanced by these famous--.philosophers;  it seems to me
              c'@d  I know that I doubt,`desire,  -or that something:                             that tie- niust &~clu~d& that Descarte's.  &rguments-  for

              is- wanting `to ,me, and that- I ati not wholly perfect,                            God folloW  log&ally enough froni his premises. Tf

              if I .possessed  no idea of a being that is ~more perfect                           clearaess  and distinctness of ideas is a sufficient proof

              than. %y&lf, by comparison of which I- `know  the                                   of the exisQ&e bf. corrtispohding  objects  in -any case

              deficitincies of -my .nature?"  (&?l  of .quote)  .                                 .at fall, .t,he idea-of God'is assuredly `such a. e+e.                                            -If a

                 If -yesare  given- the reality of self we can logically                          finite tiii&l  ..could not of itself coliceive  the infinite,

              infer Zhe reality of God,, and from  that th: reality .oP                           atid yet as a ltiatter  of fact dbes conceive it, God must
              Pa&e an.d other cells.                Of `course, thes`e  .Bre infer-               actually exist in order: to make. any  such idea  possible.,
                                               -
              enc.es,  and they  are not as the  serf is for Descart'e,                           If f,or examplk'  we see a certain picture in  Beacoll

              directly fiecessarily-  implied as the precon,dition  of, the                       I&hts;  -we afe compelled' to assume  the existence of
              posdi:bility  of thinking. Dr. Jellema in his- clbssroom                            ti .cut  with the same ch&cteristics`as the picture.                                                    If

         I    notes states :. "We .have  here a contrast bet%@en  two                             tfi< positive`:,ide?.  of ari in:finilte  Being has been imprint-

              kinds of logic, .viz. $he tranceaden+al  ldgic  of Kant  is                         ed upon the `infinite'mind, an infinite  ,Being  must ex-

              implicit in Deca@Y$  proof.  off self:'              The pro6f  `of God        isf fo' have  firoduced   t h e   i d e a ;
              and nature*  is -by in6ans  of traditional &ductive  `lqgic.                              `.. ,                     :  ( T o   b e   c o n t i n u e d . )
              God is not for. Descarte;:a  pre6indition  ,of  thinking.                                                                                                        D.. Vander  Wal

              (Here is .where Descarte  dif7ers from,  Augustine).
.J                                                                                                -ape; read at a m&i?@  bf the stud&t  philosophy  club of the
              ,Abstiact-  reasoning was Eo.r Descarte  the C%terion                               .Prote&kt  R&o&d  Skninary.
              for certainty. If we accept the  criterioil  we dan be                                                              ^
              sure-of:                                                                                                  :                                                       . :
                            1) Our own existence,. and 2) the existence                                                                       .:
              of Gold.      God's reality is inferred from.  our bwn self-                                                   \
              existence."          (en,d of quote).                                                                                    _
                                                                                             -
                                                                  : `. .'                                         .(                                           "
                  I$Jow  in this paper we cannot delve'+into  -the pro-                           _               A ffloriotis banner Thou hast @en
              cebses of thought empioyed by _De;scartie  to prove,  the                                            "`l%%ose wh'o fear   T h y   n a m e ,                                                        ,
              existence of self.          But it ~-must  be dtated  t.hat lie con-                               A. banne?  to display abroad

              cludes td the existence  of welf from the, fed that he                                                         And thus, Thy truth prw$kn

                                      _- .'                                            _-


