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

                                  The Sfarndard Bearer
                Semi-Monthly, except Monthly in July and August                                                                                                                     E D I T O R I A L S
                                                    Pnblished   B y
                         The Eteformed  Free Publishing Association
                               Box 124, Sta. C., Grand kapids,  Mich                                                                                                                   As To `Conditions
                                      EDITOR : - Rev. H. Hoeksema.
     Contributing Editors: - Rev. G. M. Ophoff, Rev.  G; Vos, Rev.                                                                                                         Before I proceeds  with my discussion of condition,
     R. Veldman, Rev. H.  Veldmap, Rev.  II. De Wolf, Rev. B. Kok,                                                                                                     I want to call the attention of our readers to something
     Rev.  J. D. De  Jong,  Rev. A. Petter, Rev. C. Hanko, Rev. L.                                                                                                     I wrote almost twenty years ago, and in which I a(ppar-
\    Vermeer, Rev. G. Lubbers, Rev. M. Gritters, Rev.  ,J. A. Heys,                                                                                                    ently  teach conditions myself. I refer the-reader to
     Rev. W.  Hofman.                                                                                                                                                  Volume VI, page 90, ff., of the  Standard  Bearer. This
       Communications relative to contents should be addressed to                                                                                                      passage occurs in a series of articles which have been
     REV. H. HOEKSEMA,  1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids,                                                                                                        published in pamphlet form under the title, Calvin,
     bGchigan.
       Communications relative to subscription should be addressed                                                                                                     Berkhof, and H. J. K&pep.
     to Mr. J. BOUWMAN, 832 Reynard  St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,                                                                                                           I call attention to this passage for the following
     Mch. Announcements and Obituaries must be  maiIed  to the                                                                                                         reasons.
     above address and will be published at a fee of $1.00 for each                                                                                                        1. In that particular article I certainly speak of
     notice.                                                                                                                                                           conditions and conditional. And I am surprised that
     Renewals  *.-Unless a  definite  request for discontinuance is re-
     ceived, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes his subscription                                                                                                 the Rev. Petter did not call attention to this passage
     to continue without the formality of a renewal order.                                                                                                             long .ago. In fact, I have been waiting for him to do
     Entered as Second Class Mail at Grand Rapids, Michigan.                                                                                                           so, in order that then I might answer him and explain
                                                                                                                                                                       myself. Seeing, however, that he. evidently overlooked
                                  (Subscription Price $2.50 per year)                                                                                                  it, I  will' for the sake of the truth call the attention of
                                                                                                                                                                       the readers to this passage myself.*
                    I                                                                                                                                                     2. In the light of the present controversy that is
                                                                                                                                                                       disturbing our churches about conditions, I certainly
                                                                                                                                                                       would not use this same terminology today, as I did in
                                                                                                                                                                       the passage referred to above. The reader must re-
                                                                                                                                                                       member that twenty years ago there was not a cloud
                                                                                                                                                                       of conditional theology in the Protestant Reformed
                                                      C O N T E N T S                                                                                                  sky. Hence, I wrote, following Calvin, rather freely,
     M E D I T A T I O N -                                                                                                                                             without having in mind the present controversy. And
            De Heere Is Opgenomen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..-..*........-.................... 361                                                            perhaps I wrote rather carelessly. I never believed in
                   Rev. G. Vos                                                                                                                                         conditions. In my preaching and writing I never
     EDITORIALS-                                                                                                                                                       taught conditions. And, I can show very plainly from
            As To Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . ..." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364     the very same articles in which the-above-mentioned
                   Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                    passage occurs that I condemn the idea of a conditional
     THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE-                                                                                                                                             promise. Nevertheless in the passage referred to my
            An Exposition of the Heidelberg Catechism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368                                                                          pen must have slipped, so that I used the term condition
                   Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                    and  cond1Xona1.  And therefore, I ask the reader to
     OUR DOCTRINE-                                                                                                                                                     consider my use of the term an error.
            The Counsel Of God. (11) . . . . . . . ..*.................... * . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . ...371                                                     3. In using the term I followed the exegesis which
                   Rev. H. Veldman                                                                                                                                     Calvin offers of Ezekiel  X4:23,  and that, too, over
            Reply To Rev. Petter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                                                    375
                                                                                                                  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...*.-...      against Berkhof in his pamphlet on the Three Points.-
                   Rev. G. M. Ophoff                                                                                                                                   Berkhof explained the passages in Ezekiel as follows:
     SION'S  ZANGEN-                                                                                                                                                   "These passages teach us as clearly as words are able,
            De Lof Des Naams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..-.......................................  378                                                 that God has no pleasure in the death of-the wicked
                   Rev. G. Vos                                                                                                                                         (notice that he does not say : the elect wicked, but :
     FROM HOLY WRIT-                                                                                                                                                   the wicked, entirely in general, H.H.) ; and the tender
            Exposition of Ephesians 2:4-10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . l.......... . . . . . . . . . . . 380                                                 calling to which we listen in them, witnesses of His
                   Rev. Geo. C. Lubbers                                                                                                                                great love for sinners and of His desire to save the
                                                                                                                                                                       ungodly." Now it is in opposition to this teaching of
     IN HIS FEAR-
            Called To His Praise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ;: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . ..-... 382                      Prof. Berkhof that I quoted Calvin as follows :
                   Rev.  5. A.  Heys                                                                                                                                      "All this Pighius loudly denies, adducing that  pas-
                                                                                                                                                                       * But see the P. S. atthe end of this article.


                                     THE   STANDARD   BEARER                                                          365

 sage of the apostle (I Tim. 2 :4) : `Who will have all as the message is general and comes to all, it is con-
men to be saved;' and referring to Ezekiel 18:23, he ditional.
argues thus, `That God willeth not, the death of a sin-          "The offer is eterna1 life.
ner may be taken upon His own oath, where He says               "The condition, limiting this offer is ; turn from
by that prophet: As I live, saith the Lord, I have no        your wicked ways.
 pleasure in the death of the wicked that dieth, `but           "This condition makes the contents of the general
rather that he should return from his ways and live.'        message particular. Just as we have emphasized in
Now we reply, that as the language of the prophet the past, a contention our opponents have tried to
here is an exhortation to repentance, it is not at all       laugh to scorn, there is a general proclamation of a
marvellous in him to declare that God willeth all men conditional and particular gospel. He promises to all
to be saved. For the mutual relation between threats that believe peace and  eternd life.
and promises shows that such forms of speaking are              "Thus is the plain exposition of Calvin on this
conditio?luz.    In this same manner God declared. to        passage. He teaches  all that hear  conditional doctrine :
the Ninevites, and to the kings of Gerar and Egypt,          if ye turn, ye shall live.
that He would do that which in reality He did not in-           "And because it is conditional, it is also particular.
tend to do, for their repentance ,averted  the punish- And God in reality promises eternal life only to the
ment which He had threatened to inflict upon them.           elect. For it is quite certain, according to Calvin, that
Whence it is evident that the punishment was an-             men do not turn from their wicked ways on their own
nounced on condition of their remaining obstinate and accord, nor by any instinct of nature. It is equally
impenitent. And yet, the denunciation of the punish- certain that none turn from their wickedness but the
ment was positive, `as if it had been an irrevocable         elect. And, therefore, the contents of this externally
decree. But after God had terrified them with the general message is particular and applies only to the
apprehension of His wrath, and had fully humbled elect of God."
them as not being utterly desperate, He encouraged            , The controversy, therefore, at the time when I
them with the hope of pardon, that they might feel wrote this article was quite different from the present
that there was yet left open a space for remedy. Just controversy on conditions in our churches.                 Over
so it is with the conditional promises of God, which         against  Berkhof  I quoted Calvin in defense of the
invite all men to salvation. *They do not positively proposition that in the preaching of the gospel we
prove that which God has decreed in His counsel, but have the general proclamation of a particular promise.
decloGre  only that which ,God  is rectdy  to CZO to all those And although I am sorry that at the time I followed
who are brought to faith and repentance."                    Calvin in his terminology, the. truth of what I' wrote
   And again: *`Wherefore, God is as much said to at the time still stands for the simple reason that I
have pleasure in, and to will, this eternal life, as to      used the term conditional in the sense of particular.
have pleasure in the repentance ; and He has pleasure           How far the idea of a conditional promise and of
in the repentance, because  He invites all men to it by faith as a condition was from my mind when I wrote
His Word. Now all this is in perfect harmony with the above passage is evident from what I wrote in the
His secret and eternal counsel, by which He decreed same series of articles. On pp. 115, _ 116 of the same
to convert none but His own elect. None but God's            Standurd Bearer  I refer to another quotation from
elect, therefore, ever turn from their wickedness. And       Calvin as follows:
yet, the adorable God is not, on these accounts, to be          "It is quite certain that men do not turn from their
considered variable or capable of change, because as         evil ways to the Lord of their own accord, nor by any
a Lawgiver He enlightens all men with the external           instinct of nature. Equally certain it is that the gift
doctrine of  conditional  life. In this primary sense He of conversion is not common to all men ; because this
calls or invites  ct.82  men  to eternal life: But in the    is that one of the two covenants which God promises
latter case, He brings to eternal life those whom He that He will not make  wi,th  any but His own children
willed according to His eternal purpose,  regenerating and His own elect people, concerning whom He has
by His Spirit, as an eternal Father His own children recorded' this promise that `He will *write his law gn
only." Now it is in this connection that I wrote:            their hearts' (Jer. 31:33). Now a man must be utter-
   "This language is plain to all that will understand.      ly beside himself to assert that this promise is made
   "In unmistakeable language the reformer denies,           to all men generally and indiscriminately. God says
that there is, in the passage from Ezekiel a general         expressly by Paul who refers to the prophet Jeremiah,
offer of salvation to elect and reprobate promiscuously,     `For this is the covenant that I will make  with them.
a manifest desire to save them all, a revelation of a Not according  <to the covenant that I made with their
certain general or common grace.                             fathers: but I will put my laws into their mind; and
   "He affirms here, what we have  always  taught,           write them in their hearts.' (Heb. 8  :9, 10). Surely,
as we have written often in the past, that, in as far        to apply this promise to those who were worthy of


3.X                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

 this new covenant or to such as had prepared them-              tion, the mortification of the old man and the quicken-
 selves by their own merits or endeavors to receive it,          ing of the new man ; of the grace of perseverance, SO
 must be worse than the grossest ignorance and folly;            that no one can pluck us out of Christ's hand. I say,
 and the more so as the Lord is speaking by the prophet          do not all these blessings of grace belong to the prom-
 to those who had before stony hearts. All this is               ise of the gospel? Surely, the gospel of our `Lord Jesus
 plainly stated and fully explained by the prophet               Christ does not come with a mere message that He  will
 Ezekiel (chap. 36 :26) ."                                       save us (of what avail would it be for us, poor, dead,
       On this quotation from Calvin 1 make the following        miserable sinners?) but with the very positive glad
 comments in the same article.                                   tiding, that He did save us and does save us even unto
       "Now this passage is extremely interesting for our the end."
 present purpose, for more than one reason.                         And that I did not even in those articles teach the
       "In the first place,. because it raises the question :    idea that faith is a condition and that the promise of
 what do Berkhof and Kuiper mean, when they claim                God is conditional is plain from the following quota-
. that in the promise of the gospel, as presented in the tion :
 external calling, God earnestly reveals His willingness            "Neither is Calvin's language too strong. The folly
 to save all men ?                                               of maintaining that God promises a new heart to
       "What is ,the contents'of  their gospel, which they       everybody, is easily discovered.     For why, pray, if
 say is for all?                                                 #God offers the blessing of a new heart to all, if the
       "Kuiper proclaimed loudly: the gospel I preach            promises of grace are actually for all men indiscrimin-
 is a gospel for sinners,  for  all sinners!                     ately, why does He not fulfill His promise? Surely,
       "The question cannot be repressed: what gospel            a new heart is entirely the work `of God. Man can do
 does he preach? Does he mean by the gospel merely               nothing towards receiving it. He cannot make him-
 the proclamation that Christ has died for sinners and           self worthy of it. He cannot get himself into a state
 arose again, and that now they are invited earnestly of receptivity for it. He cannot even make himself
 by God to come to Him, to believe and repent? Does              will to receive it. He is incapable to induce himself
 he, in the preaching of the gospel, merely present to           even to pray for it. This is true of all men by nature,
 his hearers the work which Christ did objectively ac-           of all indiscriminately. A new heart is God's work,
 complish for us? Even if he should speak thus, he is            His gift only, absolutely. Man cannot work for it if
 presenting to his hearers only a half truth, which is           God does not bestow the blessing on him  ; neither can
 more dangerous often than a plain lie. For it is not            any man resist the operation of God whereby He re-
 the  eritire truth, it is not the truth fully and correctly     news the heart, if it pleases the Almighty to give him
 stated, if Kuiper should say, that Christ died for sin-         a new heart of flesh instead of the stony heart. Now,
 ners. He certainly will at all times have to say, that          please, if the promise of the gospel concerning this
 He died and arose only for the elect sinner and for             new heart (not is preached to all that hear, this is
 none  ' other.                                                  self-evident) is given by God to all men without dis-
       "Even so it is quite unintelligible, how, Kuiper can      tinction, why does He not fulfill His promise?
 say, that the gospel he preaches is for aEZ sinners. For
 mark, that he did ,not say that he was preaching the               Because  scme do not will to receive it? That is
 gospel to all sinners that heard him, but that the very         Arminianism. And even then a man must be utterly
 gospel he preached is a gospel for all sinners.                 beside himself to speak thus, for no one is willing to
       "And, surely, in this Berkhof agrees with him.            receive a new heart before he possesses it.
       "But let us turn our attention to the question               "More mysteries, perhaps? I fear me, that Kuiper
 brought before us by the quotation from Calvin.                 will answer thus. But we can say with Calvin: Nay,
       "Does not the gospel contain much more than the           but more nonsense ! A man must be utterly., beside
 preaching of what the Lord did for us?                          himself to assert that this promise of the gospel con-
       "And does it not also imply the preaching of the          cerning a new heart is made by God to all men gener-
 riches of His grace, whereby He applies this salvation          ally and indiscriminately !
 to all His elect? Does this grace of the Lord Jesus                "But again : if God promises this blessing, `which
 Christ not belong to the promise of the gospel ? I am           He alone can bestow and bestows  unconditionally,  to
 now thinking of the grace of regeneration, whereby              all men, and does not fulfill the promise, where is
 we become partakers of the life of the risen Lord .in           God's truth? Is the promise of God brought to nought?
 principle ; of the grace of effectual calling, whereby          Has His Word become of none effect?  *God forbid!
 we are translated from darkness into light; of the              Nay, but the promise was never made to all by Him,
 grace of faith, whereby we know that we are justified but only to the elect. And Kuiper has no right and no
 before God and have peace with Him through our Lord ,zalling to present it differently."
 Jesus Christ ; of the grace of conversion and sanctifica-           In conclusion? therefore, I want to state briefly that

                                                                                                                               .


                                            T H E   STAND.A'RD   B E A R E R   '                                        867

although in the light of our present controversy con-         fact that, in the same articles, he emphasizes that God
cerning faith as a condition and concerning a con-            fulfills ,His ..promise.  unZ@ditio,nally.",
ditional promise I am sorry that I was tempted to                 You see; brother `if-you
                                                                                     A.- -   Kadtiitten`in
                                                                                           --..-: _____ _      this strain
follow Calvin in the use of the term  conditiorz  and         you would .have. servedZtliXc;iuse  of the truth, instead
cond~tionu.2, yet essentially I maintain in these articles    of leaving the';.`?mpr&on  &at you_ are rather elated
nothing else than the simple truth that the preaching         to find a flaw in what  I* wrote-twenty years ago. You
of the gospel is a proclamation of a particular promise,      may also consider, b%her,"`thh$t  `I `had to write much
and that that promise is only for the elect.                  more than you ever  will `writ&in your whole life, that
                                       0            H. H.     often, in my very busy life, I had to'ivrite hurriedly,
                                                              and that, considering all this, it certainly is no wonder
                                                              that occasionally you can find a flaw in what I wrote.
:!:    P. S. to the Rev. A. Petter:                           In other words, you might.have assumed a more char-
                                                              itable attitude, even in regard to the error I made.
       Dear brother :                                            3. Nevertheless, brother, I once more sincerely
       I. I sincerely thank you for calling my attention      thank you for calling the attention of our readers to
and the attention of all our readers to the error in          this error in terminology, something which I already
terminology (for it was no more than that) which I            did myself, in the above editorial which was written
made almost twenty years ago. For an error it surely before the last  Concord& reached me. An error, even
was. I should never have used the term condition, nor         in terminology, is always dangerous, and should be
was there any need for it in the connection in which I        rectified. I once more apologize for having used this
wrote at the time.        Therefore, for the sake of the      term, which is Arminian and is clearly condemned in
truth which is more dear to me than any. personal             all our confessions. And if now, brother, you will
interest, and for the sake of the churches which I love,      make the same humble apology for having taught, not
I humbly apologize for letting that thoroughly un-            only the term, but the actual erro!r of conditions, we
reformed term slip out  of-my  pen. This humble apol- can probably show a united front once more, and no
ogy, together with my retraction and utter repudiation        longer create division in our churches. Otherwise I
of the term, will make it impossible for you, of course,      will continue to oppose you, not for any personal
ever to refer to the ,matter  again.                          reasons, but for the sake of the truth and for the well-
       2. But, brother, 1 cannot thank neither praise you     being of our  Protestam  Reformed Churches. Through
for the superficial way in which you quote me, with-          your writing Concord& has placed itself in antithetical
out any regard to the context. You almost make the            position to the  Standard.  Bearer. You have attacked
impression upon me that you gloat over my error, and          our covenant conception all along the line. You spoke
that your purpose was to launch an attack upon me             of "the covenant of works", of "parties" in the cove-
rather than get at the truth of the matter concerning nant, and of "faith as a condition". You, therefore,
conditions. If you had not written so superficially,          not I, have started this controversy. That is, of course,
and had made but a little study of the matter, you            your privilege. But 1 love our Protestant Reformed
.would have informed your readers as follows:                 truth, and will try to expound and defend it as long
       "a. The Rev. Hoeksema wrote this passage almost        as it pleases the Lord to leave me in this tabernacle.
twenty years ago when the question of conditions was          It is now up to you. My slate is clean.
not an issue among us. The question, at that time,                                                             H. H.
was whether the preaching of the gospel is grace for
all that hear. This must be borne in mind when you                                   "4:  *  *  tb
consider his error in terminology.
       "b. He inadvertently quoted and followed Calvin                    YOUNG MEN, ATTENTION.'
who used the term rather freely.
       "c. The Rev. Hoeksema did not use the term, twen-         Young men, who desire to attend our Seminary in
ty years ago, with reference to the present controversy       September to prepare themselves for the Ministry of
(faith as a condition, conditional promise, etc.), but        the Word of God, are requested to be present at the
clearly in the sense of part&&r. He merely meant to           next meeting of the Theological School Committee
emphasize that the preaching of the gospel is the pro-        to be held in the basement of the Fuller Ave. Church,
clamation of 8 particular promise. This is so true May 19. They should come with a statement of health
that you can eliminate the term condition without             from a reputed physician and a testimonial from their
changing the contents of the articles at  alI.                consist&y as to their membership and walk of life.
       "d. That the Rev. Hoeksema, even twenty years ago,                         The Theological School  Comm.
must have nothing of conditions is evident from the                                  per, Rev. J. Blankespoor, Sec'y.


   368                                       THE  STANDARD   BEARER

                                                                 6235, 48. He is the living bread which, if any man
      THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE                                       eat, he shall live forever. John  6:5l. And He pre-
                                                                 sents Himself as the water of life, and calls the thirsty
   An Exposition Of The Heidelberg to Rim that they may drink. John 7237. ,He is the
                                                                 resurrection and the life ; and he that believeth in Bim
                          Catechism                              shall never die. John 1125, 26. And He is the way,
                                                                 the truth, and the life. John 14  :6. Christ is the true
                           PART  TWO                             vine ; and "as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
                 O f   M a n ' s   R e d e m p t i o n           except it abide in thC vine ; no more can ye, except
                     LORD'S DAY XXVIII.                          ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches:
                                                                 He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same  bring-
                                  4.                             eth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do noth-
                        Bone Of His Bone.                        ing." John  15:4,  5. Hence, we read: "And of his
                                                                 fulness have all we received, and grace for grace."
          The question therefore is: `what does the Heidel- Hence, it is plain from Scripture that all the blessings
   berg Catechism means when it instructs us "that he            of salvation are literally in Jesus Christ  our Lord.
   feeds and nourishes my soul to everlasting life, with         He, therefore, must nourish our soul. And that with
   his crucified body and shed blood," and that to eat           which He nourishes our soul to everlasting life is, in
   the crucified body and drink the shed blood of Christ         otie word, grace.
   means "to become more `and more united with his                  What is the meaning of that term grace which so
   sacred body, by the Holy Ghost, who dwells both in            frequently occurs in Holy Writ?
   Christ and in us; so that we, though Christ is in              The word grace has a variety of meaning in Scrip-
heaven and we on earth, are notwithstanding `flesh               ture. In' the Old Testament there occurs the word
   of his flesh, and bone of his bone ;' and that `we live,      CE?Z~, which has the meaning of "bending, inclining,
   and are governed forever by one Spirit, as members            attraction, beauty, charm, favor". The word for grace
   of the same body are by one soul"?                            in the New Testament is in the original  clzaris; and it
          In order to understand this we must remember           too has a great variety of meaning. It signifies "pleas-
   that all our salvation is literally in Christ our Lord.       antness, favor, forfeited favor, operation of grace and
   We are saved by, grace, not only in the sense that            benefits of grace," and finally, "thankfulness". In the
   Christ merited all the blessings of salvation for us          epistles of Paul the word is often used in contrast with
   by His death and perfect obedience, but also in the           merit and work. A comparison of many Scriptural
   sense that it is the power of grace that delivers us          passages where the word grace appears teaches us the
   from all the power of sin and death and makes us              following: in the first place, God is in the absolute
   actual partakers of righteousness and eternal life.           sense the gracious One. He is gracious in Himself,
   Also this grace operates upon us from the God of our          irrespective of any relation to the creature. Grace is
   salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is            a virtue of God. He is in  ,Himself gracious, for He
   not only the Mediator of our redemption ; He is also          is the absolute and infinite Good and glorious <God, the
   the Mediator of our deliverance. From Him we re-              implication of all perfection. Therefore He is also the
   ceive all the spiritual blessings of salvation. And in        charming, the attractive, the gracious God. At His
   order to receive them we must be united with Christ,          right hand there are pleasures forevermore. And as
   incorporated into Him, become one plant with Him.             the triune God He beholds and knows Himself perfect-
   All the spiritual blessings of salvation we need to           ly: He is attracted to Himself, loves Himself, has
   become and remain children of God, redeemed and               pleasure in Himself. In this sense of the word God is
   delivered and sanctified and glorified, are in Him.           absolutely gracious. But God also has pleasure in the
   Thus the apostle expresses it in 1 Cor. 130: "But of          creature. That creature, especially man, who is form-
   him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto           ed after the image of God, and in the highest sense of
   us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and         the word His church in Christ, He has conceived eter-
   redemption." It is in Him that  "we have redemption nally and willed as beautiful. Therefore He has also
   through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Col.        pleasure in the creature for His name's sake, and it
   1:14.  And in the second chapter of the same epistle          finds grace in His eyes. He lavishes upon this creature
   we read: "In whom are all the treasures of wisdom the evidence of His favor and draws it unto Himself
   and knowledge." Indeed, "it pleased the Father that           with cords of love into His eternal covenant of friend-
    in him should all fulness dwell." Cal. 1.:19. And.again :    ship. When that creature lies in guilt and sin, so that
   "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead           in itself it cannot be the object of God's pleasure and
   bodily." Col. 2 :9. Christ is the bread of life ; and if      favor, but on the contrary, of His wrath and aversion,
   any man come unto him, he shall never hunger. John            and- if that creature then in Christ .is from eternity


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           369

  beheld, elected, foreordained by God's sovereign grace,      the current of life and light flows into your soul. He
  to become conformed to the image of the Son, justified,      is the one and only storage tank in the entire kingdom
  and glorified, found precious in His eyes, and engraved      of God, the sole reservoir, out of whom flows contin-
  in both the palms of ,God's hands, God shows grace           ually all the water of life to quench the thirst of all the
 to that creature in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore,         citizens of that kingdom. He is God's spiritual reser-
  when that eternal grace goes out to the creature, it is      voir of salvation for all His people. From Him flows
 first of all forfeited favor, and it stands wholly in con-    into the souls of all the elect grace for grace and all
 trast with work and merit. By that grace all our              the spiritual blessings of salvation unto eternal life.
 transgressions are blotted out, and we are justified in
 the blood of the cross. In that grace we have the                 It is evident, therefore, that in order to receive
 adoption unto children and the right to eternal life.         grace and salvation from Christ we must be spiritually
 But this is not all. For secondly, that grace is also a united with Him. If your home is not properly wired
 power and operation within us, whereby we are re-             and connected with the central electric plant in your
 deemed from the oppression and power and dominion             city, you turn the switch in your living-room quite in
 of sin and become conformed unto the image of His             vain: you will have no light. If from the gas tanks
 Son. By the power of that grace we become pleasing            in your town pipes do not conduct the gas into your
 to  aGod,  formed according to the very image which He        home, it is of no avail that you put a beautiful gas
 has engraved of us in the palms of His hands. And it stove in your kitchen or gas furnace in your basement :
 is especially of that grace we are thinking when the          you will have no heat. And in vain you turn the faucet
 Catechism instructs us that Christ feeds our soul unto        to draw water, if your home is not connected at all
 everlasting life. For, as we have said, all the power         with that central reservoir in your town. The same
 of grace is in Him alone. And out of His fulness we           is true of our relation to Christ: if our soul is not
 have received even grace for grace. Christ is our all.        spirituahy  connected with Him, Who is our life, light,
 And all the spiritual blessings of salvation which we         righteousness, wisdom, knowledge, sanctification, and
 need to translate us from death into life, from dark-         redemption, we shall never have light, righteousness,
 ness into light, from corruption into righteousness,          and peace. It will remain dark and miserable in our
 and to raise us from lowest hell to highest heaven are        soul.    We must therefore be literally joined with
 in Him. For He did not only die that He might be our          Christ, united with Him: we must be in Him, even as
 righteousness in the juridical sense. He also arose,          He must be in us, in order that He may become our
 and He also was exalted at the right hand of God and          righteousness, holiness, and eternal life, and we may
 received the Spirit without measure, in order that as         draw out of Him all the blessings of grace.
 the quickening Spirit He might set us free and be-               Such is the underlying truth which the Catechism
 stow upon us the grace of eternal  Iife.                      teaches us when it tells us that we must be united with
     It stands to reason that in order to receive all these    His sacred body and become flesh of His flesh and
 blessings of salvation out of Him we must be united bone of His bone. And this truth is cIearly taught in
 with Him, or, as the Heidelberg Catechism has it, must        all of Scripture. It is the meaning of the figure of the
 be united with His sacred body.                               vine and the branches that must be in the vine in order
                                                               to bear fruit. Christ is the vine, and believers are the
     We might, perhaps, employ a few simple and home-          branches. The branches are nothing except for their
 ly illustrations to elucidate the meaning of all this.        organic union yith the vine. Even as it is the vine
~ You all know that in our towns and villages we receive       that bears fruit in and through the branches, so be-
 the water in our homes from a central reservoir, or           lievers can bear fruit only because Christ lives and
 tank, or water-tower, into which it is pumped from            bears fruit in them. The same truth is taught us by
 some natural source in the first place. Or, to use an- the figure of the church as the body of Christ. Christ
 other illustration, you are acquainted with the fact          is the head ; the church is His body. And it is only
 that the electric current that brings light into your         from and by the head that the body lives. And what
 home is generated in some central power plant in the          is true `of the body as a whole is equally true of the
 city in which you live, and that the gas you use to cook believers individually as members of that body. They
 your food or heat your home reaches you from huge             have no life in themselves. Only in virtue of their
 storage tanks. From the one reservoir all the homes           organic union with the body do they live. For this
 in your city are supplied with drinking water. That           reason the Bible speaks of believers as being in Christ.
 one plant generates all the electricity used in your          For of God they are in Christ Jesus, Who is made unto
 town and illuminates all your homes. From the one them wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and
 central gas plant flows the gas that supplies the entire      redemption. I Cor.  1230. And "if any man be in
 town. Now we might say that Christ is the spiritual           Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed
 power plant in the entire new Jerusalem from whom             away ; behold, all things are become new. II Cor. 5 :17.
                                                                                                        *


370                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   E E A R E R

The saints are called "the faithful in Christ Jesus".        nor utter the weakest prayer beseeching Him to come
Eph.  .I  :l. And they were sometimes darkness, but          into his heart. But thanks be to God, this is not the
now they are light in the Lord. Eph. 4 23. And so we truth. Salvation is not of man, nor of thhe will of
are admonished to abide in Him that we may bear              man. Nor does our union with Christ depend on man's
much fruit. John 15 :4 ; I John 2 28. Hen&e,  a spirit-      consent : "No man can come unto me, except the Father
ual union must be, established between Christ and our        which hath sent me draw Him." John  6:44. And
soul before we can receive any fruit of Christ's death       again : "Therefore said I unto you, that no man can
and resurrection. This union is absolutely first. Un-        come unto me, except it were given unto him of my
less that living connection is established between           Father." John  6:65.     According to the Heidelberg
Christ and our inmost heart, we are outside of Him.          Catechism we are united with Christ's sacred body by
And outside of Christ there is only guilt `and damna-        the Holy Ghost who dwells both in Christ and in us.
tion, corruption and death, darkness and desolation.         The Father draws us with cords of love to Christ,, and
Before there can be the faintest spark of new life in us,    that, too, through Christ Himself, Who is exalted and
before there can appear even the faintest glimmer of         draws all unto Him. And when we are so drawn and
light in our soul, before the simplest prayer can be         so united with Christ and He by His Spirit lives in us,
uttered from our lips, before even the slightest longing we respond, we hunger and thirst, we long and pray,
can arise in our soul for God and His Christ, that           we come and embrace Him, we eat the bread of life
union must be accomplished. It is an absolute pre-           and are satisfied, we drink the water of life and thirst
requisite for the reception of all salvation. For Christ nevermore, we draw from Him Who is the fulness of
is our all. And our salvation  is. in Him. And we            all the blessings of salvation even grace for grace.
cannot begin to,draw our life and `light, our knowledge         For,-and this is the other aspect of our becoming
and wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification from        united with the sacred body pf Christ more and more,
Him until our inmost heart is joined in spiritual unity      -we are united with Christ through faith. And that,
with Him Who is the revelation of the God of our .too, is not of ourselves, but is the gift of God. Through
salvation.                                                   faith Christ indeed feeds and nourishes our souls unto
       And how is this union accomplished? The answer        everlasting life. But through the activity of that same
of Scripture is: it is not accomplished by us but ab-        faith we eat and drink Him. Also in nourishing our
solutely and unconditionally by God in Christ Jesus          souls unto eternal life God in Christ does not treat  US
our Lord. For salvation is not of us, but of God alone.      as stocks and blocks, but as rational, moral creatures.
This must be emphasized over against all Arminian-           We are not so nourished unto everlasting life that we
ism, which teaches that ultimately man takes the initia- do not taste the wonder of the grace of God. It some-
tive to come to Christ.     According to it Christ, is       times happens in our hospitals when a man is incap-
absolutely powerless to save the sinner unless he is         able of taking nourishment by  .eating and drinking
first of all willing to open his heart and to come  ,unto    that food is injected into his veins through needles.
Him. The Arminian indeed admits that Christ is our In that case a man is nourished entirely without any
salvation and the soul must be united with Christ in         action on his part. He does not eat and drink; he
order to receive salvation. But if this union is to be       does not even taste his food. He is wholly passive.
accomplished, the sinner must come to Christ. The            But this is not the way in which Christ nourishes our
Saviour is willing to receive him, to come into his          soul unto everlasting life. On the contrary, He nour-
heart, to join that sinner unto Himself; but the sinner      ishes us through  ,faith.  And the activity of saving
must first come. He must accept Christ, or, he must          faith is such, that the sinner draws all the blessings
at least be willing to receive Him. But this is utterly of salvation out of Christ, eats His flesh and drinks
absurd and impossible. If it were true, no man could         His blood. Faith is that altogether mysterious and
ever be saved. For according to Scripture the natural        wonderful spiritual power whereby the soul strikes its
man is in the flesh. and the mind of the flesh is death.     roots into Christ to cling to Him, appropriate Him,
It is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of    and draw out of Him all the glorious blessings of sal-
God, neither indeed can be. He is dead in sin and            vation that are in Him, the forgiveness of sins, eternal
misery. He can neither perform nor will that which           righteousness, and life. The difference between a be-
is good. He loves iniquity and is a slave of sin. He         liever and an unbeliever is not unlike that between a
loves darkness rather than light. He cannot see the          living young tree and a dead fence post. You can
kingdom of  <God. Slow then can such a man ever open         plant that fence post deep into the ground,. but you do
his heart to Christ? How can he ever hunger and              not expect that it will show signs of life, develop
thirst after the bread and the water of life? I repeat:      branches, and bear fruit. On the contrary, it will rot
if this were the truth, no sinner could ever be saved.       in the soil in which it is planted. But plant a young
For before the sinner is united with Christ, he can          sapling in the same soil, and it will strike roots into
neither come to Him nor long for Him nor seek Him            the ground, draw nourishment from it, grow, and


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER                                             371

bear fruit. The same is true of a living, saving faith
in relation to Christ. Bring the unbelieving, dead sin-
ner into contact with Christ as He is revealed in the                  OUR DOCTRINE
Holy Scriptures, and there will be no saving reaction.
On the contrary, there is a reaction of unbelief unto
damnation. But if the believer is led to Christ through             The Counsel Of God. (11)
the preaching of the Word, he will take hold of Him,              Supralapsarianism  and hf mlapsarianism.
cling to Him, strike the roots of his entire soul into
Him, and draw out of Him all the spiritual nourish-             We were calling attention in our preceding article
ment necessary unto eternal life. What the roots are         to the fact that the infralapsarian, in support of his
for the young tree saving faith is for the believer in       view of the truth, will call attention also to the fact
Christ. By faith the believer is rooted in Him. And          that the Scriptures give us this infralapsarian concep-
since Christ is revealed to us in the Scriptures, true       tion of salvation. And we had concluded that article
faith always turns to them, has its delight in the Word      by calling attention to the word "election". Besides
of God, is called into activity through the Word preach-     the word "election", we are also told that Christ came
ed, and constantly grows according as it increases in        in the "fulness of time". This expression occurs in
the knowledge and understanding of all that God has          Gal. 4 :4 : "But when the fulness of the time was come,
revealed to us in His Word. Ry faith the sinner knows        God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under
the Lord Jesus Christ, not merely in the sense that he       the law". The "common grace" theorists would have
knows all about  E-Inn, but as the fulness of his own        us believe that the "fulness of time" refers to that
emptiness, as the, righteousness of his own unright-         moment of time in history when the world had been
eousness, as the light of his own darkness, as the life prepared for the coming of the Christ. We are told
of his own death, as the bread of life for which he          that the pagan, heathen world was groping for the
hungers, as the ,water  of life for which he thirsts, as     light; It is true, to be sure, that they still bowed the
the way, the truth, and the life by which he longs to        knee before idols of various kinds; but even this  wor-
come  to'the Father. He recognizes Him as his own            shipping of gods of wood and stone must be viewed as
Saviour and Redeemer, longs for Him, eats and drinks         a seeking by the heathens of the living God. Do we
Him unto righteousness and life. The believer knows          not read that an altar was dedicated, in the city of
Christ with the .knowledge  of love and delight.             Athens, to the unknown God, and does this not imply
                                                             that they sought this unknown God? Hence, the hea-
    These, then, are the two aspects of that wonder of       thens are pictured as seeking for the truth, that this
grace whereby we become more and more united to              seeking for the truth is evidenced by such so-called
the sacred body of Christ, become flesh of His flesh,        noble personages as Pilate, Aristotle, Socrates, Cicero,
and bone of His bone. On the one hand, Christ im- etc., so that the heathens were striving, yearning for
parts Himself to us by the Spirit of grace ; on the other    the higher light and were ready to receive the gospel
hand, by the activity of saving faith we eat and drink       when Christ finally arrived. Besides, had the world
.Him unto life eternal.                                      not made gigantic strides in development and culture?
    All this is of course effected by the preaching  of The beautiful  *Greek  language had been developed.
the Word as a means of grace.                                Law had been developed by Rome to an amazing de-
                                                             gree. And tremendous had been the construction of
    But this same wonder of grace is obsignated in the roads and highways. Hence, by "common grace" the
supper of the Lord. For that supper, on the one hand,
signifies and seals that Christ "feeds and nourishes my      world had actually been prepared for the gospel. Grop-
                                                             ing`for the light, it had progressed so far as to stand
soul to everlasting life, with His crucified body and        upon the point of receiving the gospel of salvation.
shed blood, as assuredly as I receive from the hands of      However, the fallacy of this error must be apparent
the minister, and taste with my mouth the bread and          to all. How contrary is this theory to all fact! Why
cup of the Lord, as certain signs of the body and blood      is it then, that the world did not receive Him?
of Christ." And on the other hand it signifies that we                                                            He
                                                             came unto His own and they received Him not. And
eat and drink the crucified body and shed blood of neither did the heathen world 
Christ, so that we "become more and more united to                                            accept this Saviour of
                                                             men. It is true that the Greek language had  been
his sacred body, by the Holy Ghost, who dwells both          developed, that Rome had attained unto an amazing
in Christ and in us."                                        efficiency in the knowledge of law, and that roads and
    And thus it stimulates our faith, whereby we draw highways had been developed. But this, we under-
all our salvation out of Christ, Who died for us and         stand, had not been developed by the world because
rose again.  f                                               they were groping for the light. On the contrary the
                                              H. H.          Lord simply used these developments by a wicked


 372                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R ' E R

world for the realization and advance of His own in God's eternal counsel He simply hid these things
Church and Kingdom. Pontius Pilate, knowing Roman from the ungodly, left them in their spiritual ignor-
law and confronted by the innocent Christ, simply ance. And in John 15 : 19 we read : "If ye were of the
revealed by his sentencing of Jesus that he loved the world, the world would love his own ; but because
darkness rather than the light-his knowledge of law ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out
simply served to reveal the darkness of his heart.         of the world, therefore the world hateth  you." This
    The expression, "fulness of time", refers to some- passage speaks for itself, does it not? Here we read
thing else. Christ came  .at that moment in history        literally that the Lord has chosen them out of the
when the spiritual bankruptcy of the world and of the world, Is this not Infralapsarianism? This  ,is ex-
church was fully apparent. He came at that moment actly what they teach, namely, that the Lord elected
when it had been fully revealed that all the blood of      His own out of a fallen, sinful, human race.
oxen and of goats could not  reedem a single soul. He         Besides, do not the Scriptures continually address
came at that moment when carnal Israel was ready to the people of God from the aspect of their sinful and
crucify the promised Messiah. He came at that mom- hopeless condition and their need of redeeming and
ent when the world was constituted an empire so that saving grace? Well-known is the word of the Saviour
' His death could be the condemnation of  the  wm-ld. in Matt. 11:28 : "Come unto Me, all ye that labor, and
 And, secondly, in connection with that world, two are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." This is also
things must be true. Firstly, it `must have attained evident in a passage such as Rom. 9 :15 : "For He saith
unto a very high plane of development. The glimmer- to Moses I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,
ings of natural light must shine' very brightly. The and I will have compassion on whom I will have com-
crucifixion of the Christ must not be ascribed, in-any passion." The text speaks of mercy and of compas-
sense of the word, to ignorance, to lack of understand- sion, and these virtues of the Lord presuppose misery.
ing. And, secondly, that world, notwithstanding all And is it not true that the same underlying idea of our
its natural light, must have descended to the depths misery and death lies at the basis of a text as Eph.
of shame and debauchery and misery. In its forsak-         1~4-6 : "According as He hath chosen us in Him before
ing of the living God it must have become  perfectly the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
plain that the natural man can only expect misery and and without blame before Him in love: Having pre-
shame, even to such an extent that mankind commits destinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
things which are unheard of even in the animal world.      Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of
The "fulness of time" is therefore that moment in His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, where-
history when the entire church and heathen world,          in He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." And in
had attained unto complete and utter bankruptcy.           1 Peter 1:1-Z  we read : "Peter, an apostle of Jesus
Jesus comes when the darkness of sin is most com-          Christ, to the strangers scattered' throughout Pontus,
plete and intense. But, is this not the infralapsarian     Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect accord-
presentation of salvation ?    Christ comes  after  the ing to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through
development of sin and darkness and death.                 sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprink-
    Finally, there are certain passages of Holy Writ       ling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you,
to which I would briefly call attention in support of and peace, be multiplied." These passages, and they
this infralapsarian presentation. We read in' Matt.        can certainly be multiplied, clearly proceed from the
11:25-26  : "At that time Jesus answered and said, I point of procedure that the people of God lie in the
thank Thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, be- midst of misery and death. Also the last passage of
cause Thou hast hid these t,hings from the wise and        1 Peter  1:1-Z  is addressed to the elect as strangers and
prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, in need of grace and peace.
Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight." Notice           However, the infralapsarians do not merely claim
in connection with this passage the following. We support for their .conception from the Confessions and
read, do we not, that the Father did "hide these things    the Scriptures, but they also have objections which
from the wise and prudent." Is this not  Infralap-         they lodge against the supralapsarian conception. In
sarianism? Does it not teach that the Lord simply left the first place, they declare that it is absurd to speak
the wicked in their common misery into which they of "election" as an election of "to be created and to
had plunged themselves.7 And do we not read in this fall" human beings. Such creatures, they say, do not
text that the Lord simply hid these things from the exist.         How can one speak of the election of such
wise and prudent, hence, simply did not reveal these people? And, secondly, they point to the fact that
things unto them? Moreover, does not the text also Christ is, according to the Scriptures, the Mediator
teach that "even so, Father: for so it seemed good in and he Head of the elect. But this implies, they say,
Thy sight." Hence, it was the Father's good pleasure that we need Him that we are lost in ourselves and
to hide these things from the wicked. Consequently,        saved only through our Lord Jesus Christ. To be


                                    THE  STANbARb   BEARER                                                         ,^.
                                                                                                                   373

elected in Christ Jesus certainly must imply that God        assert that the supralapsarian conception, although
knew us as by nature lost in sin and as saved only           not incorporated in our Confessions, has never been
through and in Christ.                                       condemned. And this must not be overlooked. For it
                                                             surely signifies that, although our Fathers, who com-
                     Our Appraisal.                          posed, e.g., the Canons of Dordrecht, never had the
                                                             courage to declare that the supralapsarian conception
    To refute the arguments against the supralapsarian       was contrary to Holy Writ. Supralapsarianism, there-
conception, we would say, in the first place, that the       fore, has never been officially condemned. And  Go-
infralapsarian does not avoid, by means of his con-          marus, a leading' exponent of the supralapsarian view,
ception, the charge that God is the Author of sin. It        challenged the Synod of Dordrecht to debate with him
is true that this constitutes one of his chiefest objec- this infralapsarian-supralapsarian issue. We may,
tions against the supralapsarian conception. Yet, he therefore, conclude that Supralapsarianism is not anti-
himself does not succeed in evading this charge. Fact confessional.
is, the Lord could surely have prevented the fall, could
He not? We read in Mark 3:4: "And He saith unto                  That the Scriptures are historically infralapsarian
them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or means little. It is `true that the natural is first and
to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their then the spiritual, as also the apostle declares in 1 Cor.
peace." This same incident, besides being recorded in        15. But does this necessarily mean that the natural
the gospel of Luke, is also related in Matthew 12:9-14.      is also first in the counsel of God?, How could, in
And in the gospel according to Matthew Jesus tells of time, the spiritual precede the natural, the heavenly
the man whose sheep had fallen into the pit on the sab- the earthly? The earthly and the sin and corruption
bath day and who had rescued it on the day of the            and death of mankind is the foundation upon which
Lord. In this connection the Saviour asks the wicked the Lord builds His Church, the ruins upon which the
leaders of the Jews whether it is lawful to do good on       Lord erects His eternal and heavenly Kingdom. Is it
the sabbath days or to do evil, to save life or to kill.     then, strange that, historically, the foundation is laid
This, to be sure, refers primarily to these wicked Jews before the building is erected? Does not an earthy
who had congregated in the synagogue that sabbath            builder always proceed in this fashion? He always
day with murder in their hearts against the Christ           lays the foundation first and then proceeds to build
and who had therefore come together to kill Jesus.           upon that foundation the edifice. However, this does
However, this word of the Saviour is also illustrated        not mean that that foundation also occupies the "num-
in the example of the man who rescues his sheep out          ber one spot" in his plans. On the contrary, what is
of the pit on the day of the Lord. And notice that           first in his plans appears last in the execution, realiza-
Christ asks whether it is lawful to do good or to do         tion of that plan. The building is conceived first and
evil, to save or to kill. In other words, one does good then the foundation which must support that building.
or evil, saves or kills. Not to do good means to do evil,    But, when the builder proceeds to carry out his plan, he
and not to save means to kill. Shall we also apply this first lays the foundation and what is first in his plan
to the infralapsarian conception that the Lord merely appears last in its execution. Besides, how else could
leaves the wicked in their common misery into which          the Saviour, as Saviour, be revealed unto us except as
they had plunged themselves? Could the Lord not              upon the background of our sin and death? He is
have prevented the sin and fall of man? Must we as-          Jesus, is He not? And Jesus means: Saviour. Jesus,
sume responsibility for the burning to death of a vic-       as SAVIOUR, could, therefore, never be revealed unto
tim in a burning house when we could have delivered          us except through the fall  ana' sin of the human race.
him out of the raging inferno? Does it satisfy us to         But does this necessarily imply that this order also
say that the Lord simply saw the human race as fallen,       occurred thus in the eternal thoughts of the everlast-
permitted the sin and fall of man, whereas He could          ing God? Not `at all.
have prevented that tremendous catastrophy? It must             Besides, what must one conclude from the argu-
be perfectly clear that we fail to escape the charge         ment that the very names of the Saviour: Jesus
that the Lord is the Author of sin when we merely            and Christ, suggest the infralapsarian conception of
ascribe a certain permissiveness to the Lord, declare        things? Zt is said that Jesus is the Mediator and Head
merely that He permitted the fall of man, and at the         of the elect, that this implies that we need Him and
same time be compelled to admit that Jehovah could           are therefore of ourselves hopelessly lost in sin and
have prevented that calamity.                                guilt, and that, consequently, this eternal  Headship  of
   The argument which the infralapsarian draws from the Saviour implies that the Lord knew and elected us
the fact that our Confessions are infralapsarian is          as fallen. Rut, if this be true, then we must also say
surely weak. It is true that our Confessions bear this       that, strictly speaking, Christ is dependent upon the
infralapsarian character. However, we may surely             coming of sin, the new heavens are dependent upon


374                                 T H E   STANDARD   BEARER

the collapse of the old, the coming of the Second Adam head everlastingly ; yet, into all eternity sin will be a
is contingent upon the failure of the first Adam. Is matter of the past, and the elect will serve the living
Christ, then, a mere after-thought in the counsel of God in heavenly perfection. In this same connection,
the Lord? Would such a conception not be an impugn- it is not absurd to say that God has elected a "to be
ing, an attack upon the sovereignty of the living God ?      created and to fall" mankind. In other words, God has
But, do we not read in our Confessions that Jesus is         simply willed and sovereignly loved a people in Christ,
our chief Prophet, our only High Priest, and our             and it has pleased Him for the sake of the greatest
eternal King? And to me this means, that, also from          glory of His Name to lead that people, through sin
before the foundation of the world, in the' eternal          and death and faith in Christ Jesus, into everlasting
thoughts of the everlasting `God, Zion never had an-         and heavenly glory. The Lord, in love to that people,
other Chief Prophet, Only High Priest, and Eternal           eternally and sovereignly willed to save them in the
King. In the light of the truth that God is the living way of sin and death, because that would result in the
God, that the whole universe, in comparison with Him,        greatest glory of ,God's Name, and the greatest glory
is less than a particle of dust on the balances and a of the Name of God would surely also constitute the
drop of water on the bucket, we cannot ascribe to the        greatest possible salvation for the elect people of the
theory that He would be dependent upon anything,             Lord.
that Christ is a mere remedy for sin because the first          This is the supralapsarian conception of the coun-
Adam failed, that the new heavens and the new earth          sel of *God. The Lord's glorification, of Himself in
owe their existence in the counsel of God to the col-        Christ Jesus in Whom all the fulness of the Godhead
lapse of the old, or that the phenomenon of sin and          would dwelI bodily is the supreme purpose of Jehovah.'
death must be viewed as something which the sover-           And the Lord willed, sovereignly, that that revelation
eign L.ord permitted to happen. We will have more of Himself in Christ Jesus, and through Christ Jesus
to say about this very shortly. However, in connec-          in all the elect, should be served or realized along the
tion with the argument of the infralapsarian that the        lines of election and reprobation, and in the way of
eternal  Headship  of Christ presupposes a fallen man- sin and death and grace. The supralapsarian does not
kind, we should constantly bear in mind that there is        begin with a fallen mankind. He does not proceed
no temporal order in God's decrees. In aGod's counsel        with the sin and death of the human race. He does
everything is eternal.    Nothing precedes anything.         not acknowledge any Divine permission of things. He
Whether one is a infralapsarian or a supralapsarian,         simply proceeds from the principle that the Lord is
the natural and the spiritual, the earthly and the           God alone and does  all things according to His sover-
heavenly, sin and grace, the fall of man (permitted by       eign good pleasure. He views his God as the supreme
God according to the infralapsarian and sovereignly          Lord not only of life but also of death, not only of the
willed by the Lord according to the supralapsarian)          light but also of darkness, not only of the godly but
and the salvation in Christ;-in the counsel of the also of the ungodly, not only of the angels but also
Lord everything is eternal. But, although there is no        of the devil and all his host.     He excludes nothing
temporal order in the decrees of the living God, this        from the sovereign counsel of the Almighty, and b+
does not necessarily mean that there is no logical order lieves that, also everlastingly, "out of Him and through
in the eternal thoughts of the Lord. Because all things      Him and unto Him are all things" and that thereforz
are eternal all things are not necessarily of equal im-      all glory belongs unto the living God, now and for-
portance and significance. That Christ is the eternal        ever.  Ile cannot conceive of anything in the entire
Head of the elect, and, as the eternal Head of the elect,    universe as simply coming into being: he regards his
must assume their guilt and stand in their guilty rela-      God as the supreme  Pokemate  of potentates, as sitting
tion to the law is true and according to the Scriptures.     upon the throne of the entire creation  ; he believes that
That, therefore, this eternal  Headship  of the Christ is    nothing happens by chance, but that all things OWN
the ground of our justification, that is, that because
He is our eternal Head, and therefore can assume our their existence and development to Him Who alone sit-
guilt and blot out all our sin and merit for us ever-        teth upon the throne. .A11 things are means to an end,
lasting life, His eternal Headship  is the eternal ground    God's end, and Jehovah performs all His good pleasure;
of our justification because it explains why He can          and all things in this world are and exist exactly be-
suffer and die for OuT sins and trespasses is `surely        cause of this good pleasure of the Lord. And he also
the teaching of the Word of God. But, this does not          believes that this is indeed the Scriptural  presentatio?
necessarily mean that therefore this eternal  Headship
of Christ must  alsa presuppose a fallen mankind, that of the truth, and that the Lord has thus revealed Him-
this  Headship  of the Saviour is inconceivable without      self in His holy and infallible Word. But to this we
the reality of sin. Fact is, Christ will be our Head         will call attention in our following article.
into all eternity ; He will be the fulness of the God-                                                 H. Veldman,


                                                                                                                         *
                                      THE  STANDARD   BEARER                                                     875

                                                            tion and particular atonement. And some Reformed
            Reply ;To Rev. Petter                           (he means us) agree with them. But when they at-
                                                            tempt to evade the difficulties confronting them, their
                                                            ways part. The Remonstrants deny election and the
    "As to Conditions" is the title of Rev. Petter's        particular atonement of Christ as taught in the Re-
article in. the  Concordin  for April 27. The writing formed churches. And the Reformed to whom we
contains also this statement; "We may recall here in        here have reference (the professor again means us, the
parenthesis that Rev. Ophoff (Standard Beaner,  Vol. 2,     Protestant Reformed) deny the general calling through
pp. 46, 17) defends the conditionality of the promise       the Gospel. They hold the view that the general call-
in Canons  11:5" The reference is to Vol. 2.                ing through the Gospel implies that man in his own
    What Rev. Petter says here is not true. First, I do strength must convert himself and believe in the Lord
not in that volume and on the pages indicated defend        Jesus Christ. We can't see but that they proceed,
the conditionality of the promise.  $econd, I do not        either consciously or unconsciously from the basic
defend the conditionality of the promise in Canons          Pelagian promise that the measure of responsibility
11 :%-mark you, in Canons 11:5. It would be utterly         is determined by man's ability, and that  ,God does not
impossible for me or anyone else to do such a thing.        demand of man anything that he cannot do ; and in
The reason is quite simple. Canons  11:5  reads, "`More-    this case they themselves drift into Arminian waters.
over, the promise of the Gospel is, that whosoever  be-     Further, they (the Protestant Reformed) opine that
lieveth in Christ crucified, shall not perish, but have     the general promise that "whoever believeth in Christ
everlasting life. This promise, together with the com-      crucified, shall not perish, but have everlasting life,"
mand to repent and believe, ought to be declared and        implies, that Christ atoned for all head for head. But
published to all nations, and to all persons promiscu-      to maintain that reasoning they again will have to
ously and without distinction, to whom  ,God out of His     proceed from the Pelagian and Arminian idea that it
. good pleasure sends the Gospel."                          depends upon the free will of man whether or not he
    Let us take notice. The term "condition" does not       will convert himself and believe. The ob.jection falls
even occur in this article. This being true, how can        away, if we only hold fast that faith and conversion
Rev. Petter be telling his readers that I defended the      are gifts of God." So far Prof. Berkhof. This whole
conditionality of the promise in Canons  11:5. E don't Jquote is contained in that article from my pen to
understand.                                                 which Rev. Petter refers his readers. And I was
    But Rev. Petter will reply that, though the term        quoting from some issue of the "Reformed Herald",
does not occur, the idea is plainly present. But that is    a short-lived Christian Reformed magazine of that
not true. Attend to what the article declares. It is        day.
this, "Moreover, the promise of the Gospel is, that            We should take careful notice of what Prof. Berk-
whosoever believeth in Christ Crmi*fied, shall not per- hof was openly saying about us, Protestant Reformed,
ish but have everlasting  life:       Take notice of the    in those days, and, I presume, is still saying about us.
statement in italics. It is complete by itself. What        Vainly imagining with the Arminians and Remon-
does it affirm? Precisely this : that without exception     strants that God cannot rightfully demand of his
everyone who believes shall be saved. To make this          rational-moral creatures what they cannot perform,
proclamation read, "God will save men on the condition      we concluded that the teaching to the effect that God
that they believe," is to destroy the Gospel, the glad      commands the sinner to repent and believe must needs
tidings, contained in it. Just because this Scripture       imply that man originates his own faith. But sover-
-for a Scripture it is-is unconditional, it is unfail- eign election implies that faith is God's gift in man.
ing. Such being its character, it is a word that God's      Eut faith cannot be a gift of God in man and at once
believing people can build on. The promise as here          be out of man. So there is conflict here. If the con-
set forth is conditional only if ,w(;'  make it so.         flict is to be removed, either election or the calling to
    Second, I do not defend in that article the con-        repentance-God's putting man by the command under
ditionality of the promise either in Canons  11:5 or the obligation to repent-must be declared non-existent.
apart from Canon  11:5. What I defend in that article       The Arminians repudiate election and hold fast the
 (read it by all means and be convinced) is something       calling, and thereby take the stand that man originates
quite different . I defend Rev. H. Hoeksema, H.  Dan-       his own faith. According to the professor, `we in our
hof and G. M. Ophoff and the rest of the Protestant         desire to make straight paths for our thinking, re-
Reformed against Prof. L. Berkhof, who at the time          pudiate the calling and hold fast sovereign election.
was telling the public by the printed word that we          Mark you well, according to the professor, we re-
denied the general calling. Here is what he wrote           pudiate the calling, deny that God by His command
 (I translate) : "The Arminians aver that the general       places man under the necessity of repenting and be-
offer of grace excludes the Reformed teaching of elec-      lieving, deny, in a word, human accountability in order


      876                                    THE     STANDARD   BEARER

     to free ourselves from the logical conflicts in which          ing God an Arminian. For, mark you, it is God who
      our distortions of the truth involve us. With the says (John 3 :16) that whosoever believeth. . . .shall
      Arminians, we maintain, according to the professor,           have everlasting life. It means that, according to the
      that the idea of God's commanding man to repent must          professor, our contention was and is, that, in saying
      needs imply that man believes in his own strength.            to His people, "whosoever believeth. . .  .shall have
      So, as faith is not of man but is God's gift in man,          everlasting life," God by implication is telling us that
      there can be no such thing as God's commanding man            man must originate his own faith.
      to repent. That, according to the professor, used to             On what now does the professor base these astound-
      be our teaching. And I suppose he will tell you that it ing accusations? On statements occurring in our own
      still is our teaching. It was on. the ground of such          publications? Not at all. The professor passed these
      preposterous charges that we were deposed. And yet            by one and all to base his charges on a report of Rev.
      we go to wondering what it could have been that               Hoeksema's  lecture on the Three Points appearing in
      brought us into being as a communion of Protestant            the "Holland City News". Yet, we can have no objec-
     Reformed Churches, and what may be the difference              tion to that report. For it is true at least that part of
      between the Protestant Reformed and the Christian             it quoted by the professor (and contained in my article
      Reformed.                                                     referred to by Rev. Petter). It reads, "That the con-
             What then were we telling men and are still telling    tents of the `Gospel are always particular, never gen-
      men. Not certainly that there is no such thing as             eral. `Whosoever believeth shall not perish, but have
      God's commanding men to repent and believe ; not cer-         everlasting life.' The promise is for believers. Thus
      tainly that ,God's putting men under such an obligation       we can understand: b. Canons III, IV, 8: Surely the
      by His command, must needs imply that man must                external calling is unfeigned. There is nothing de-
      originate his own faith, and that therefore there can         ceiving in the Gospel. But remember it is always
     I be no such thing as God's commanding man to repent.          particular. Those that believe have the promise. No
      This is what we were telling men, and still tell men,         one else.' So Rev. Hoeksema had spoken. The report
      namely, that in the light of the Scriptures there can         is true.
      be no such thing as a well-meaning offer of grace unto           The professor's comment reads as translated,
      all indiscriminately. Was Prof. Berkhof aware of              "Though this is but a press-report, it nevertheless cor-
      this? He certainly was as appears from that quote." rectly reproduces the thought of the speaker, so it
      The statement occurs in that quote: "And the Re-              seems to me." ILet us consider that the professor
      formed to which we have reference (he means us)               quoted these lines not with approval but with strong
      deny the general offer-mark you, general  offer-              disapproval. It was precisely on these lines that the
      through the Gospel." But what does the professor do?          professor based all his accusations . It means that the
      In the next line he identifies this "well-meaning offer       thought conveyed by this quote is unpleasant to him.
      of salvation" with the outward calling-with God's             This speaks volumes. It tells us why we were expelled
      commanding man to repent and believ+and ip this               from the communion of Christian Reformed churches.
      way makes it possible for himself to accuse us before         The doctrine that the contents of the ,Gospel  are al-
      his readers of denying the outward calling.                   ways `particular; that the Gospel promise is for believ-
             But this is not all. According to the professor        ers  onIy had become distasteful to the brethren. And
      what we also were telhng men is that the promise of           not only these doctrines but of necessity all the related
      the Gospel "that whosoever believeth in Christ cruci-         doctrines as well, such as total depravity and sover-
      fied shall not perish, but have everlasting life," implies    eign election and reprobation etc . Are not the Three
      that Christ atoned for all head for head. Such, to our        Points in their totality and as including the grounds
      mind, being the implication of that promise, we re-           on which they were made to repose a flat denial of
      pudiate it; we deny that whosoever believeth shall be         these doctrines? And were we not deposed because
      saved, eliminate from the Scriptures John 3 : 16 : "For we refused to subscribe these points? Yet we are
      God so loved the world. . . ." That used to be our sin,       wondering what could have brought us into being as a
      and, 1 suppose, is still our sin. That is what we used communion of Protestant Reformed churches, and what
\     to be telling men, and, I  spppose, are still telling men, may be the difference between the Protestant Re-
      our people, assembled about our Gospel.                       formed and the Christian Reformed, as if their .is no
             But there is this question: How is our resentment      difference? It is true, they still have those other doc-
      to the promise that whosoever believeth has life ever- trines on the books-the doctrines of total depravity,
      lasting, to be accounted for? The professor has the           sovereign election and reprobation, etc. But it doesn't
      explanation. Also here we proceed from the Pelagian           mean a thing as long as they hold fast those Three
      and Arminian tenet that it depends upon the free will         Points, and as long as they persist in justifying them-
      of man whether or not he will convert himself and             selves in the wrong that they did to us.
      believe. But this is equivalent to accusing us of brand-          The professor (Berkhof) accuses us of repudiating


                                   THE     STANDARD   BEARER                                                         377

the promise that whosoever believeth hath life ever-        Every person, we insisted, to whom God sends the
lasting. Yet that very report on which he bases his         Gospel must be told that believers will surely be saved.
monstrous charges should have prevented him. For            Every person, we insisted, must be told also that he
it tells him that Rev. Hoeksema in his lecture in           must believe and that believing he will be saved.
Holland rose to the defence of that very promise.              It was for the purpose of presenting these things
The statement occurs, does it not, "That the contents       to the professor anew that we wrote that article. The
of the Gospel are always particular, never general.         whole article from beginning to end bears out the truth
Whosoever believeth shall not perish, but have ever- of this statement; it clearly reveals, does that article,
lasting life.' What kind- of a heretic would a man          that it was certainly not my purpose to defend the con-
have to be to repudiate that promise? It's the' very        ditional promise in Canons 11:5. Nor am I guilty of
Gospel of God taken literally from the Scriptures.          such a thing anywhere in that article. Rev. Petter
Did the professor forget that the Synod of 1924 pro-        should not have told the readers of the  Concordia the
nounced the Revs. Hoeksema and Danhof fundament-            contrary.    It is not true.  Defending  a conditional
ally Reformed? The professor was present, better promise was a thing fartherest from my mind.
said, exceedingly active on that Synod as the father of         Yet the expression "conditionary promise" does
the Three Points.                                           occur five times in that article in as many sentences.
   There were still other accusations lodged against I put to the professor the question : "We reject the con-
us by'the professor and this in connection with Canons ditionary promise to the effect that all who believe are'
11:5. Allow me to quote this article in its entirety,       saved ? And again in this sentence  : "Berkhof first
"Moreover, the promise of the <Gospel is, that whoso- gives his readers to understand that we deny that the
ever believeth in Christ crucified, shall not perish, but conditional promise to the effect, that all who believe
have everlasting life. This promtie,  together with the     will be saved, should be declared unto all without dis-
commund  to repent and believe, ought to be declared        tinction". And once more: ,"We maintain most em-
,and published to all nations, and to all persons pro-      phatically, that the conditional promise should be  de-
,mis&ously  and without d&%&ion, to whom God out            clared unto all without distinction."
of his good pleasure sends the Gospel."                         But in the light of all that I have reproduced from
    The professor was telling men that we denied also       that article, it ought to be as plain as the sun in the
the thought conveyed by the section of the article          heavens that what I meant by conditional promise is
italicized ; that we held the position that the promise,    the particular promise or Gospel.
together with the command to repent and believe ought         But there is this question: Why did I use the term
not to be declared and published to all nations and to      at all? To what was my using the term due? Here  *
`all persons promiscuously and without distinction, to      is my answer. It was due to plain ignorance of the
whom God out of His good pleasure sends the gospel.         evil meaning that the term has in all such sentences as :
The professor's way of voicing this charge was his          (God  saves His people on the conditioo*t   that they believe.
saying that in preaching the gospel we directed our         I had never made a study of the term as an element in
discourse to the elect only and had no word for the         the type of semences  of which I just gave a sample.
reprobated. Over and over did we explain to the pro-        As Rev. Petter himself very competently explains in
fessor in the Standard Bearer that he was guilty of         one of his articles, it is the duty of the believers to
misrepresenting us and of distorting our views-guilty       search  (God's Word and understand and assimilate
of ascribing to us views that were as hateful to us and     its contents in order that they may be fully armed  -
to anyone. It was also to defend the Protestant Re-         spiritually in the spiritual contest to which they are
formed against this attack of the professor that I wrote    called. Rev. Petter goes on to explain that to get His            .
that article to which Rev. Petter refers. Hence, in         people to address themselves to that task, the Lord
that article we came also upon this statement, "We do       uses false doctrine as a spur. So it is indeed. Twenty
declare unto all persons without distinction that the       five years ago fhat spur was lacking. That spur was
promise of the Gospel is that whosoever believeth hath      not supplied until about three and a half years ago.
eternal life. We do declare that all must believe and       That,sp& was the doctrine of the Liberated. regarding
repent. We do declare that all are unfeignedly called."     promise and baptism, as I during the past three and
   We were also positive in our rebuttals, carefully        a half years encountered it on the pages of various
explaining what we preach and teach, on this point.         bookletsand  pamphlets on the subject and of Liberated
The Gospel, we explained to the professor, is always        authorship that came into my possession. Through
particular, its message being that whosoever believeth      my study of the content of those booklets I became
shall have eternal life ; that, in other words, God will thoroughly conversant with the covenant theology of
save believers, the contrite of heart, the elect. This      the Liberated, and my eyes opened to the sad fact that
particular Gospel, we explained further, must certainly     it is not reformed.
be proclaimed unto all persons without distinction.             As I stated in another article, liberated covenant-


       378                                     THl3  STANbARD   BEARER

       theology receives adequate expression in four  propo-
       sitions.                                                                 SION'S ZANGEN
          1. The promises of God are given in the same sense
                to all the baptized-elect and non-elect alike.
          2. And are sealed unto all by the sacrament of                           De Lof Des Naams
                b a p t i s m .
          8. By virtue thereof the fruits of the suffering and                      (Psalm 113 ; Tweede Deel)
                death of Christ are the legal possession of  all-
                elect and non-elect alike. All have a right to be        We gaan verder met onze overdenking en luisteren
                saved and-in fact are saved objectively in Christ.    naar den zanger  :' "De Naam des Heeren zij geprezen
                                                                      van nu  aan tot in eeuwigheid."
          4. The promise comes to the baptized not other-                Hier hebt ge een kenmerk van genade.
                wise than in a conditional form, "I will save
                thee on the condition that thou believest."              Als ge dit. vers na kunt zeggen van ganscher harte,
                                                                      dan zijt ge een kind van God en dan moet ge naar den
              The whole thought-structure reposes on the idea hemel. Wat zeg ik? Dan hebt ge nu al den hemel in
       set forth in that forth proposition. It forms the found- de ziel! Denkt ge, dat het er anders naar toe gaat
       ation of the structure.        Remove it, and the whole        in den  hemel?   Wat~ben  ik blij, dat we een  beschrij-
       structure collapses. It means that in this theology            ving hebben van het doen  en laten der hemelingen!
       the term condition is in place and comes fully to its          0 neen, niet tot in alle bijzonderheden, maar genoeg
       own as to its proper meaning-the meaning that it has           om te  weten wat de drijfveer en de openbaring is van
       through its uses loquendi.                                     menschen en engelen in die plaats van geluk en blijd-
              And so I have need of asking: why should we as          schap.
       leaders be trying to win *our people for the idea that            Het is opvallend hoe vaak we hooren, dat men het
       God saves men on the condition that they believe? In hallelujah zingt. in den hemel. Men wordt het nooit
       other words, why should we be eulogizing "conditions"          zat om  ,God  te prijzen en te loven.
       to our people, telling them such things as that condi-
       tions are necessary and desirable theoIogically  ; that           Wat is de  lof des Heeren?
       this necessity lies in the fact that so God's glory is            Het is dit: ge zegt het Hem aan hoe goed en hoe
       proclaimed; that the Lord had ordained that man                lieflijk Hij is in alle Zijne deugden.  Ge laat Hem
       should so come to the enjoyment of salvation and in            weten hoe ge over Hem denkt, dat Hij U vervult met
       no other way; that ascription of praise to God as the          blijdschap  vanwege  Zijn aangezicht, hetwelk in gunst
       fountain of all that is good for the creature is exactly tot ons is gericht.
       brought out in the conditional nature of the promises             En dat nu moet gedaan van nu aan. En tot in der
       of God's covenant; that the very nature of the goods           eeuwigheid toe. Ziet ge wel, dat dit voortdurend is,
       of the covenant require this conditional manner of re-         en dat men het hemelleven hier aanvangt?
       ceiving and enjoyment; and that the Bible is full of              Van nu  aan. Ja, maar ik ben druk ! Dat maakt
       conditions. Why tell our people such things-things             geen verschil. Ik moet slapen. Dat maakt geen  ver-
       that are not true? Why try to win our people for the schil.  Slaapt dan door het geloof in en  loof God in
       idea that God saves men on the mndition that they              den slaap. Uw slaap moet zoet zijn, en dat kan alleen
     - believe? Don't we, as leaders, realize that, should            als ge door het geloof slaapt. Jk mag er gaarne aan
       our attempt prove successful, we shall have laid in our        denken  hoe we de kleintjes laten knielen en ons na-
.      circles, laid in the minds and hearts of our people, the       zeggen: `k Leg mij neder om te  slapen: Goede God
       foundation of a heresy, and that, with the foundation          die altijd waakt ! Wil mij in Uw gunst bewaren als
       laid, the rest will follow without fail-the rest. And          het kwade mij genaakt. . . .
       by that I mean, rearing on that foundation the kind of             Dat is hemelwerk leeren.
       superstructure for which it calls. And then we will be           : Van nu  aan.
       just another communion of Arminian churches. And
       then, of course, we will still have on the books and per-          Onverpoosd, voortdurend, in  verband  met  allen en
       haps keep on the books for a long time all the right doc-      alles, God loven en prijzen.
       trine. But it won't mean a thing except that for a while           0, ik weet het wel, ge behoeft het mij niet euvel te
       at least we will be saying one thing out of the one cor- duiden om zoo te spreken: ik weet heel goed, dat wij
       ner of our mouth and the contrary thing out of the             dat nooit doen kunnen.
        other corner of our mouth. But God doesn't like double            Maar, eerst, zoo zouden we het gaarne willen. Het
        talk, does he? No more than he likes a double-hearted         willen is dan ook daadwerkelijk bij ons. En dat komt
       man.                                                           omdat ge wederomgeboren zij t.
                                                 G. M. Ophoff.            En, ook zoo, dat er altijd een klein beginsel is  dat


                                    THE  STANDARD   BEAR.ER                                                            379

het ook doet. Er is een beginsel in U, dat zoo lieflijk         Heerlijkheid is uitstraling van al hetgeen lieflijk
is, dat ge den naam verdient van reinen van hart. Dat        is en welluidt. Heerlijkheid is radiatie van deugd.
zeide Jezus.                                                    En in dit  vers wordt bezongen de hoogheid van
   En, eindelijk, de zucht en het verlangen, zoo vaak        Gods deugden.
vertolkt door het klagen van David: Och, dat nu al              Een andere psalm spreekt over het geweldige van
wat in mij is Hem prees ! zal eindelijk geschonken wor-      Gods deugden;  Het gaat hier over de ontzaglijkheid dier
den  aan allen  die God liefhebben,  die naar Zijn voor-     deugden. Zij zijn hoog verheven boven alle heidenen.
nemen daartoe geroepen zijn.                                 Die  denken,  dat zij zeer belangrijk zijn. Ze snoeven
   En dan verder : tot in der eeuwigheid.                    en ze  roemen  er op los, maar meer dan een ademtocht
   Ja, wat zal  ik daarvan zeggen?                           is het niet. Jesaja  zegt, dat alle menschen  tezamen
   Ik weet niet eens wat de eeuwigheid is. Het is zoo        een niet en een ijdelheid zijn.  Maar God heeft de
geheel anders dan de tijd. 0, we kunnen het we1 iet-         wereld geschapen. Hij is het die daar zit in het hooge
wat aanvoelen, maar zuiver en klaar zien  doen  we het       en het verhevene en Zijn naam is de Heilige.
met. We dragen  altijd idee&  van den tijd in de idee           Niets en niemand benadert Hem. Dat is de  ge-
van de eeuwigheid. Alle woorden die voor de  idee van dachte hier.
de eeuwigheid gebruikt  worden   passen   tech niet.            En dat wordt nog versterkt door het tweede lid
   Ilk zal er daarom niet veel van zeggen. Alleen dit :      van den tekst. Hij is boven de hemelen.
ik veriang naar dat onveranderlijke HEDEN  van God.             De hemelen zijn schoon  en hoog verheven. Maar
Dat voortdurende zingen  en jubelen in den hemel  trekt zelfs die hemelen zijn niets vergeleken bij God. Hij
mij  aan. Het zien en staren op het groote Mysterie          woont in `t ontoegankelijk licht!
is overweldigend. Ik kan er ietwat inkomen van wat                                                        G. Vos.
het zeggen wil om verzadigd te worden  met Zijn beeld.
`En hoe meer verzadigd  daarmede, .hoe meer we ,zullen
uitbreken in het gezang dat door Johannes is gehoord
en ons verteld.
   "Van den opgang der zon af tot haren ondergang
zij de naam des Heeren geloofd."
   Wel, dat zal nog wat moeten wachten. Temninste,                                 Contribution
indien deze tekst beduidt, dat alle menschen in die
uitgestrektheid met bewustheid den Naam zouden  lo-                                                   April 24, 1950
ven. Want verreweg het grootste  getal  der menschen         Esteemed Editor :
doen het niet. Verreweg het grootste gedeelte van
de oppervlakte der aarde is nog in  totale duisternis           If you will permit me a question, I would like to
aangaande den lof des Heeren.                                know what is meant in re your comments upon Dr.
                                                             ,Schilder's remarks in the Reformatie. It may be that
   Tenzij de tekst doelt op het onbewuste loven van          due to my lack of a complete understanding of the
God van alle andere dingen.  Want in China, b.v., te-        Holland language, I have missed the point in my own
midden van de  vie+honderd  millioen  onwedergebore-         translation. As I understand it, you make this distinc-
nen,  loven de dieren en de elementen de deugden des         tion: You say that Dr. Schilder understood you to say
Heeren.                                                      of  him---" That is Reformed". Whereas you say that
  Misschien, dat de geheele psalm slaat op het  be-          you stated-"He is Reformed". I do not grasp the
wuste loven van God.                                         difference. To me it is, to use a simple illustration,
   Maar  er zijn ook nog andere mogelijkheden. En            like hearing a man curse. Whereupon, I say "He is a
die zijn, dat de dichter  de plicht  om God te loven be-     blasphemer". No, someone objects, he is not a blas-
zingt, of dat hij uiting geeft  aan den drang zijner         phemer, but that is blasphemy. I ask, can we make
ziel die hoopt  en verlangt naar de vervulling van een that distinction, viz., "That is not Reformed", but "He
zeer vromen wensch  : dat `God overal  geloofd wierd !       is Reformed".
   Ik ben geneigd om te besluiten, dat de plicht om                                         Respectfully,
God te loven bezongen wordt. En zelfs meer dan                                                    George Ten Elshof.
plicht. Het is zoo duidelijk voor den  dichter,  dat God
overal  en ten allen  tijde geloofd moet worden,  dat hij    Rqlly:           *
eenvoudig zegt : het zij zoo !                                  Perhaps not in the abstract. Rut I wrote in a very
   "De Heere is hoog boven alle heidenen, boven de           concrete connection. And in  ,the article I made suf-
hemelen is Zijne heerlijkheid."                              ficiently plain why I prefer to be correctly quoted.
   Ziet  ge wel, dat het gaat om Zijn deugden'!.                                                             H,  H.


380                                     THE  STANDARD   BEARER

                                                                  But just what is this faith that is so very great,
          - FROM HOLY WRIT                                     wonderful, that it is called the gift; that it is called the
                                                               gift of  IGod?
                                                                  In trying to understand just what the apostle
  , Exposition of Ephesians 2:~10                              means with the term "faith" in the sentence: by grace
                                                               are ye saved through faith, we must bear in mind that
                            VI.                                it is not safe to let our dogmatic construction rule the
                                                               exegesis `of the text. In this case the dogmatical con-
       In our last article we  ,quoted  Dr. A. Kuyper Sr.      struction of soteriology (applied salvation). We may
We noticed, that he most emphatically takes the posi-          not first of all try to make the text fit a given dogmatic
tion that it is both grammatically and exegetically cor- construction. That does not mean to say that we must
rect to explain the phrase "and that is not out of you,        ignore sound dogmatics. But it does mean that we try
it is the gift of God" as referring to "faith" in the to read the text in the light of the meaning of the con-
former clause and not to the entire sentence. Paul text and the entire broader context of the whole book
here, accordingly, singles out faith through which we in which it is found, as well as in the light of the entire
are saved as being the gift of God.                            Scripture.
       We also promised that he would give the late Dr.           The dictum is and must remain: Dogmatics may
S. Greydanus a hearing. Let us attend to the explana- not govern exegesis.
tion from his pen, quoted from his Korte Verklaring               Attempting to adhere to this sound rule in exegesis,
on Ephesians. We translate it as follows:                      we notice the following in the text concerning the
       "Opinions differ as to whether these words belong term "faith".
with faith or with the entire sentence, for by (the)               In the first place we notice, that the term faith is
grace are ye saved through faith. The argument,                here taken very general. It is really employed as
that the word in the Greek text translated "faith" is          general as possible. There is not such addition. as
feminine in gender, and that, therefore, the neuter faith of Jesus Christ.                 (Compare Rom. 3 :22 ; Gal.
pronoun cannot refer to this has no force, since we            2 :16., 20). Not the faith of the operation of  Cod, that
more often meet with this usage and construction in            is, the being what God had wrought. See Col. 2:12.
good Greek authors. Yet, it is not easy to make a de- The matter is left as general as possible. It is simply
cision in this matter. However, since the apostle has by faith. Nothing more. It should also be noticed
repeatedly stated in the former verses that salvation          concerning this point of the generalness of the term
is purely out of grace (compare 2 :4, 5, 7)) it really is      faith that the article is lacking. Paul does not even
no longer necessary to emphatically repeat, as if it           say:  the  faith. He merely says : faith. He speaks
were a newly added element: And that is not of you,            as general as possible. There is only one faith, to be
it is the gift of God. But the "faith" or rather "by           sure, and that is the faith in Christ. Well, this is the
faith" is a new concept in verse  8a, which had not yet faith here meant. But then it is meant in its full
been mentioned in the verses 1-7. It is, therefore,, general scope. It is the faith as the substance of
most natural to assume, that the apostle will now things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It
state of this just mentioned element of salvation  (heil-      is the faith by which the saints of old obtained a good
goed) that this is not out of the believers, but it is the report, because by this faith they lived and died hap-
gift of God. To this must be added, that the saying:           pily and blessedly. (Heb. 11).
gift (that which is given) being prefaced with the                 To this must be added, that the term "faith" is
definite article in the Greek, brings to mind some defi- here most  definitely contrasted with the term "works".
nite gift, which is given to us,. and that it does not Also here with the term "works" no article is employ-
merely suggest a general disposition or arrangement.           ed. It is evident, that the term "works" as contrasted
(algemeene beschikking of regeling)  ."                        with the term "faith" refers not to the works, which
       Thus far Dr. Greydanus.                                 the believer performs by `faith as taught in verse 10,
       In the above excerpt the professor weighs the           but that it refers to the works of, law. These works of
grammatical and exegetical evidence in the text very law were-the terms under which the Old Covenant was
carefully in favor of the interpretation which refers          ratified. These are the works which cannot justify
"that" to the concept "faith".                                 a man before God. It is impossible that a man be
       We, too, believe that the apostle here singles out      justified by works of law which he performs. For this
"faith" and states of this that it most definitely is the      contrast of faith and works we refer the reader to
gift of God. In the text as we received it in the Greek        Gal. 2 :16, where we read: "Yet knowing that a man.
the emphasis falls on God. It is the gift of God. It is        is not justified by the works of the law but through
in no sense out of man.            It is, therefore, wholly    faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus,
gift.                                                          that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not


                                     THE  STANDARD   BEARER                                                          381

by the works of the law: because by works of the law          understood in its point of comparison. The only point
shall no flesh be justified." Hence, all works of the         of comparison is this, that even as the branch cannot
law, of whatever nature they might be. There are but live without the Vine so aIso we cannot live without re-
two sources from which one may live. It is either             ceiving our all out of Christ. All the spiritual blessings
works and then live out of self, or it is out of grace        in heavenly places are in Him for us by faith. And
and then by  means of faith  (the term "through" in we cannot receive these by faith unless we receive
Greek is din). The contrast in the text, therefore,           faith as a gift, not only in its first being wrought in
not only gives the line of limitation but also that of        our hearts, but also in its  const&ntly  being given  to us
the widest scope of faith. It is the whole of faith as        in the renewing of our strength by the Holy Spirit
distinguished from "works".                                   of God. We must not only be ingrafted into Christ
    Then, too, we learn from the text, that the term          once in regeneration, but we must be preserved in
faith must not be separated from the rest of the phrase       this grace of God also. And that latter too is God's
*`by the grace are ye saved through faith". We must gift to us. This is taught us in the figure of the Vine
not for one moment forget that Paul wrote the con-            and the branches as to its positive side, that is, as the
nection too between "faith' `and the "grace by which figure relates to the good and fruitful branches. And
ye are saved". We must, therefore, not simply begin           of these we are speaking, of these Paul is speaking in
to dogmatize concerning the term faith. Rather we the text.
must try to see the relationship between the gift of             But there is always something in the reality of the
salvation generally and the gift of "faith" in particular     life of  -the believer which the figure of the vine as
as taught in the text. If we are saved by grace, and if vine in nature cannot teach. What is this element
grace is indeed grace, so that nothing is out of us in        that the figure of the vine does not teach us? It is
all of Salvation, then faith, too, is a part of this great the spiritual element, the ethical question of love. In
work of salvation. Faith can, therefore, not be a part a vine in nature the branch does not consciously re-
that man must perform in his own strength of free-            ceive from the fulness of the vine. There is no ethical
will ! When we thus leave the text stand in its unity         seeking in love, nor is there a matter here of hatred.         _
of thought then we not only destroy all Arminianism           Here is the merely biological function. But in the
and Pelagianism, but we also do not fall into the error       believer there is the free-choice, conscious seeking,
of a pure abstraction. Rather do we thus leave faith knowing and trusting, and that, too, by virtue of the
as it is a living reality in the life of the called and       love of God shed forth in our hearts.
believing saints.                                                But to return to the matter of leaving faith stand
    Now it is true, that the text singles out faith as the    in that proper context where Paul places it in the text.
gift of God. But faith is such a gift as faith, that is       Writes he: "for by the grace are ye saved through
as a new knowledge and confidence which is energized          faith." We stated that we must not lose sight of the
by the love of God shed forth into our hearts by the          connection between faith the salvation as it is here
Holy Spirit. Oh, it is true that there are certain terms spoken of.
that should be employed to designate what faith is.              What is this salvation? The apostle says : By grace
There is the term "ingrafting". Thus it is employed           are ye.saved.  And that through faith. When we look
in the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day VII, where            at the text we are of the conviction that faith must
we read: Are all men then, as they perished in Adam,          here be understood not only in the sense of the first
saved in Christ? No ; only those who are ingrafted            impartation of new life, but in the actual, constant
into him, and receive all his benefits by a true faith.       and conscious sense as it is wrought through the Holy
This term of ingrafting is very helpful to help us Spirit in our hearts. It is faith as we accept the bene-
understand the reality of the constant and abiding            fits of Christ with a believing heart. (See Heidelberg
relationshp of the believers to Christ. The tie is not        Catechism, Questions 20, 60). It is faith as we look
made by the believer but by Christ. He comes to make          in humble trust unto God in Christ, trust alone in Him,
His abode in our hearts. Even as the twig being know Him more and more with a saving knowledge of
* ingrafted into the tree begins to receive the life of       love, and, therefore, count all of our own righteousness
the tree and thus is made to conform to the tree, so          to be so much loss and refuse for the excellency of the
also we being ingrafted into Christ receive our all out knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.
of him by faith. And so it is true that we may speak             And such knowledge of faith is represented as a
of faith as the tie that binds us to Christ; but we           constant activity ; a receiving from the fulness of
should bear in mind that this does not  e,xhaust the          Christ our Lord, yea, grace for grace. We believe this
meaning of the term faith, as it manifests itself in the      is corroborated by the following in the text: First of
full-orbed life of the Christian in the world.                all this follows from the fact that the  being saved
    The Bible, too, speaks of the vine and the branches.      spoken  of  here in the text is a  being  saroed completely
But this is figure of speech which must not be mis-           up to the present moment. The Greek is the perfect


382                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D `   B E A R E R

passive tense in paraphrastic form. This tense does
not merely refer to past time, or to a degree of action
finished in the past, but it refers. to action completed                       I N   H I S   F E A R
up to the present moment. And that action is com-
pleted up to the present moment by  faith.  And in
faith. we have all by simply trusting in the mercies                           Called To His Praise
of God in Christ which are new every morning. And
in this faith we hope for His tender and loving-kind- The Militant Prophet (continued).
ness in the morning and we tell of His faithfulness                 "You must not be so conceited as to think that only
every night. (On this point of the tense in this verb            those in your churches are going to heaven. If I stay
compare the Standard Bear)er  of March 1, 1950, p. 264,          in my own church, I'll get to heaven just as well as
article by G. L.)                                                you will." Such speech the militant prophet often
       Secondly this is underscored by the fact that Paul        hears when he fights for the truth, as he is called of
is writing to the living Church called out of darkness           God to do for the praise of His name.
into God's marvellous light. The church at Ephestis
had heard the Word of truth, the Gospel of our Salva-               But such speech reveals several things  ,about  that
tion, and had been sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the            individual who utters it; It reveals, first of all, that
day of Christ. Paul had heard of her faith in the                the one so speaking is not able to deny the truth of
Lord *Jesus and of her love to all of the Saints. And your words. He really sees the inconsistency of his
it is because of this fact that he prayerfully instructs         own stand. He realizes that your arguments hold and
the church that she may be filled with faith-knowledge he cannot overthrow them. Therefore he does not
and faith-activity.  (1:15-19).  And in our text Paul            want to continue along that way and strikes out in a
is simply writing the church to show her how she is              new direction in order still to have something to say.
made the heritage of God by faith, and, therefore, all           And if possible he will by this method strive to put
boasting is  constantly  excluded. For this is a constant you in a corner. Such speech is surely an admission
salvation of grace (preservation and persevering) and of defeat on the point being discussed.                 Further it
hence we daily have a new evidence of grace and we               means that he does not want to see the truth, and al-
also constantly have new and renewed reason to break though he says that he will get to heaven as wel: as
forth into thanksgiving in a new walk and of obedience you, he wants to insist that in heaven his view will
in the fruit of our lips.                                        be maintained, even though he is not able to defend
                         (to be continued)                       it here upon this earth. It means likewise that he
                                             Geo. C. Lubbers.    does not realize very deeply his calling to praise God
                                                                 and has a very superficial and incorrect conception
                                                                 of heaven.
                           *  ;:: 8 *                               If, as God Himself declared through the mouth of
                                                                 Isaiah, "This people have I formed for myself; they
                          ANNIVERSARY                            shall show forth my praise," (Isaiah 43  :21) then
                                                                 heaven surely is the place where this is realized in
  On May  17th,   1950, the Lord willing, our beloved parents    perfection. Then heaven exists for the glory of God
                  Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Korhorn'                    and not in the first instance for the glory of man.
                                                                 Indeed, life in heaven will be indescribably glorious.
will celebrate their 45th wedding. anniversary.                  The language of Revelation 21 and 22 is such that we
  We thank our Heavenly Father that He has spared for us,        are dazzled by the beauty of what is prepared for us.
our Christian parents, these many  years.                        But we must not forget that it will be so wonderful
  It is our prayer that the Lord may continue to bless them      and glorious just exactly because God willed eternally
and grant them His peace in their remaining years.               to glorify HIMSELF in that way of making a people
                         Their grateful children :               to show forth His praises. The deepest reason for our '
                                                                 salvation is  not'God's  great love and mercy according
                                  Mr. and Mrs. M. Veenstra       to which He desires to deliver us for our pains and
                                   Mr. and Mrs. G. Korhorn       death in order to make us blessed forever. Such a
                                   Mr. and Mrs. B. Korhorn       view sureIy puts the glory of God on the shelf, so to
                                   Mr. and Mrs. J. Kuiper        speak. At the very least it puts man's glory above
                                   Mr. and Mrs. H. Velthouse     and before God's glory. But, rather, the deepest thing
                                   Mr. and Mrs. R. Bloem         in God's counsel, that which determines everything
                                     and  28 grandchildren.      else in His decree (or rather that whereby He deter-
                  . .
Grand Rapids, Mmhrgan                                            mined all the rest in His decree) is His sovereign de-


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D  BEARER?--'                                         383
tree to glorify Himself.       Our glory is the means         taught to utter so much as one word for ourselves,
whereby He realizes that glory. And His glory is the          we are taught to pray for the hallowing of God's
c?%d that our glorification must reach. That is plainly       Name, the coming of His Kingdom and the execution
taught in the text just quoted. God forms us to be His        of His will. Here again GOD is FIRST, and then
people in order that we may show forth His praises.           we may pray for daily bread, the forgiveness of sin
It is further taught in the Law of God when He de-            and deliverance from temptation in order that we may
clares there that He is a "jealous" God. For He is            be instrumental in the hallowing of that name, in the
God alone, and He has therefore the sovereign right           coming of His kingdom and in executing His will.
to "be jealous. He may not allow us to have another
,God besides Himself, and `He may not allow any                  Does the lie hallow His Name? Is the coming of
creaure  to have any glory unto itself.       He decrees      His kingdom furthered by the promotion and  defence
glory for the creature that He Himself may thereby            of the lie? Is Bis will done where men are taught a
be glorified. And, of course, since He is the Creator         false conception of God and His righteousness and
and we are tbe creatures of His hands, our glory can          love? You see the prophet of God will have to fight..
never be anything more than a reflection of His glory.        No, he does not have to fight you, and that he must
Finally, this same idea that we are glorified for the         not do, but he must militate against your false doc-
glory of God is expressed by the Apostle Paul from a          trines and  .wrong teachings. He will have to heed
somewhat different viewpoint in his first epistle to          ,God's word and that word tells us to contend for the
the Corinthians, chapter fifteen, when  her declares in       faith once delivered unto the saints.
connection with the return of Christ in glory that               Dare we, may we overlook the fact that .the devil
this all takes place in order that "God may be all            is still seeking to make man believe the lie? Nay,
in all".                                                      even that is not correctly stated. The devil does not
    Bearing all this in mind we can return to our open-       labor to make us believe the lie, he strives to keep us
ing remarks. Many outside our churches shall go to            from believing the truth. By nature we do believe
heaven? Of course, who would dare to deny that!               the lie. Every man born into this world is full of the
But on the other hand, who dares to say that we are           lie, and the devil does not need to station one of his
a separate denomination and have our own unique               henchmen next to every child born into this world in
doctrine because we think that we are the only ones           order to teach him the lie from infancy. He is born
that are going to heaven? Yea, we know better than            with a mind entirely devoid of the truth. But once
to maintain that every single member of our denomina-         God has operated in us by His Spirit, regenerating
tion shall enter heaven's Glory. We have had to ex-           us and giving us the truth in our hearts by His Word
communicate, and we do not excuse the sinful walk             and Spirit, the devil strives to keep that child .from
of our members and say, well, all our people are going believing it. If one method does not work, if he can-
to heaven. But if a man outside our churches is going         not attain his end by the philosophies of the world,
to heaven or whether a man inside our churches is             he will stir up men in the church to spread false doc-
going to heaven, surely that man will believe the truth,      trines. That is why we are told in Revelation 3  :11
and he will never get there by way of the lie. By way         to hold fast that which we have and in II Thessalonians
of the lie we plunged into death, and the lie can never       2 :15 to stand fast and hold the traditions which we
be a ladder whereon we climb into heaven.  T'here             have been taught. That all calls for a militant pro-
must, therefore, be militant prophets to fight for that       phet.    We must strive for the truth. A Roman
truth, to preserve it for generations yet to be born.         Catholic once said to the undersigned, "Why are you
For if directly or indirectly we deny any one of the          Protestants always writing and preaching against us?
cardinal truths of Scripture and prefer our lie to the        We do not do these things to you." What the speaker
truth, we simply will not enter the portals of heaven         of these words forgot was that the pages of history
regardless to what denomination we belong."                   are full of records where the Roman Catholic Church
                                                              did far more than write and speak against the children
   And even apart from this all, that man who must            of God. - It is an undeniable fact of history that the
change the subject and tell you that people in his            Roman Catholic Church shed blood like water to
church are going to heaven too, surely does not realize       maintain itself in its doctrine which strives to rob
that for the  glor?/ of God he must strive for the truth,     God of His glory. But even more than that, had there
promote it, maintain it, defend it, speak it, and be will-    not been militant prophets as Luther and Calvin where
ing to cast aside his philosophy that cannot be de-           would your faith in the Christ of the Scriptures be?
fended by the Scripture. THE question always is and           And not only the great Reformers were called to
must be HOW IS GOD GLORIFIED? Need we take                    God's praise, not only they were called therefore to  '
you back to that beautiful prayer that Christ taught          preserve, maintain, defend and fight for that teaching
His disciples to show this to you? Before we are              which renders to God the praise and glory due unto


Him, but you, reader, every one of God's children must                             ATTENTION
defend, sustain further the truth FOR THE GLORY
OF GOD and not for the praise of man, nor, even             Synodical  Delegates : - If you have made no arrange-
because you want to go to heaven. Listen, if you do ments for lodging during your stay here at Hull, Iowa,
not want to fight for the truth because that is to God's please inform our pastor, Rev. J. D. de Jong, Box 208,
glory, you do not want to go to the heaven God has          Hull, Iowa.
,prepared.    You want a heaven that exists for you,                       By order of Consistory of calling church.
and you want God to exist for you. God has prepared
a heaven that exists for His glory and has made and                                  *  *  *  *
redeemed His people for Himself.         We exist for
Him!
   Therefore, in conclusion, we must say a few words               NORMAL COURSE FOR TEACHERS
about all this increase in the clamor for undenomina-          The Synod of 1949 has instructed the Theological
tionalism. In the first place, of course, that is im-       School Committee to execute its decision to have a
possible and pure nonsense as the facts bear out. "No       normal training course for teachers in Protestant Re-
creed but *Christ" is their creed. But go there and in- formed Schools. Such a course has now become a
sist then on having your infant baptized. You will          possibility: It will be a six-weeks course, to be given
soon find that they have a very definite creed which        in Grand Rapids, beginning on the week of July 9,
states: "No infant baptism". But do you not see that        1950. There will be three evening .classes per week,
if we conntinue  in that way, if we unite on the things with two hours per evening. An enrollment fee of
wherein we can agree and resolve to cease to agitate        $5.00 will be charged to cover costs of supplies, inci-
on those things upon which we cannot agree, pretty' dentals, etc. Anyone interested in  this course will
soon we can extend a call to the antichrist to be our       kindly contact the secretary of the Theological School
pastor and teacher? You may be sure that he will be         Committee  before  May 17.
willing to preach for you. And why bar the Roman                                   The Theological School Comm.
Catholic then from membership in your undenomina-
tional church? He will agree with you. on many                                     per, Rev. J. Blankespoor, Sec'y
things. Strange, is it not, that when we cry of  un-                                1513 Godfrey Ave., S. W.
denominationalism there are some groups we like to                                 Grand Rapids, Michigan.
leave out of our circle. We do after all form a de-
nomination. But why then be a militant prophet to
fight Roman Catholicism, Seventh. Day Adventism,                                      -I:--
Christian Scientism,  Modernism and their cousins and
nephews, and say to others that differences of opinion                         WE  FOILLOW  THEE
on some things can be overlooked' and union can be
made on the things wherein we agree?                               With enemies on  ev'ry side,
    Nay.  `we may not allow  any essential point of doc-           We lean on thee, the Crucified ;
trine to be denied to any degree. For in the degree it             Forsaking all on earth beside
is denied: God's glory is denied. So, prophets of the                      We follow thee.
Living God, contend for the faith once delivered; hold
fast to that which thou  hast and be assured that it is            0 Master, point thou out the way,
pleasing in God's sight. Men may ridicule you. You                 Nor suffer thou our steps to stray;
may be called a "critic" or "old fashioned". Men may               Then in that path that leads today
tell you that in the Church of God there should be                          We follow thee.
peace. And truly there should. But let  no man de-
ceive you into thinking that this means that you must              Thou hast passed on before our face ;
not fight for the truth. There can be no peace with                Thy footsteps on the way we trace;
the lie ! Remember that God-let men say what they                  0, keep us, aid us by thy grace:
will-said that there would be constant enmity be-                           We follow thee.
tween the seed of the woman and of the serpent. And
when the serpent brings the lie into the church, the               Whom have. we in the heaven above,
prophet of God must be a militant prophet for the                  Whom on this earth, save thee, to love?
glory of God's name.                                                Still in thy light we onward move;
                                       J. A. Heys.                          We follow thee.


VOLUME XXVI                              June 1, 1950  - Grand Rapids, Michigan                                 NUMBER  1.7
                                                                          How different is this with the real church of God!
      MEDITATI'ON                                                         They understand for they are a spiritual people.
                                                                       They are born from above and have the firstfruit of
                                                                       that Spirit in their hearts. They are akin to that
              `Pentecostal Blessings                                   Spirit.
                                                                          Let us meditate awhile on the first coming of that
                                                                       Holy Spirit of Christ.
               "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,             Pentecost is for this dispensation the height of
              they were all with one accord in one pIace.  And sud-    Divine Revelation.                                          I
           denly there came a sound from heaven as of a rnsh-             Pentecost is the return of the beloved Lord. He
           ing mighty  tid, and it filled all the house where
           they were sitting. And there appeared unto them             fulfilled in its outpouring the promise that was given :
           cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each        And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of
           of them. And they were all  fiIled with the Holy            the world !
           *Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as
           the Spirit gave them utterance."
                                                   -Acts 2 :l-4.
   The glorious feast of Pentecost reveals the abject                     Pentecost !
poverty of the world.                                                     Also the Old Testament knew it. It was the day
   There is a show of f,easting by the world when the                  when the harvest of the grain was reaped. After
Church of God celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.                    Easter they began to count. Easter, when the Lamb
And also the Cross gathers the Christianized ( ?) world                had been slaughtered and when the first sheave of the
in its gloomy shadows. There is even some celebration                  crop was moved before the face of God. And they
of Easter when they doff their new clothes and speak                   would count until the feast of the seven weeks had
of the rebirth of nature. But they let Jesus ascend                    come.
to heaven in a dark silence and they know nothing of                      And so we read that Pentecost, the day of Pente-
Pentecost.                                                             cost was fully come. It means that the day of the
    It is so severely spiritual !                                      Old Testament was fulfilled. And after its Old Testa-
    If we are strangers to the Babe in the manger,                     ment fulfillment, the New Testament Pentecost did
we certainly are strangers to His return in the Holy                   come. And that is our New Testament day of feast-
Spirit.                                                                ing, the fulfillment of the old.
   There is nothing tangible in Pentecost. At Jesus'                      And on that day the church of the New Testament
birth there is the manger and the wondering mother.                    had assembled. They had received an injunction from
When Jesus gave up the ghost He hung on a cross,                       the mouth of Jesus just before His ascension. They
and all external Christendom has talked and sung of                    should not depart from Jerusalem, but they should
that cross. But on Pentecost they see nothing but the                  wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith `He,
fiery tongues and they hear the mystery of that rush-                  ye have heard of Me!
ing mighty wind. It is all so mysterious and strange.                     They had waited.
They can make nothing of it. And when they hear                           No, there was `nothing that would have induced
those fisherfolk speak in strange tongues, even as the                 them to remain in Jerusalem. Jerusalem had crucified
Spirit gave them utterance, they turn away and say:                    the Lord of glory. And they abided in their rejection
They are drunken !                                                     of the Redeemer of Israel. Time and again we read
   Natural man knows not the things of the Spirit.                     that they were behind locked doors for the fear of


886                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A ' R E R
-...-
the Jews. They realized their mor:al  danger in the           would be spread abroad in the hearts of His children
wicked city of Jerusalem. But Jesus had forbidden `as never before. And so there is that tender sudden-
them to leave. The fulfillment of the oft-repeated            ness and that loving rush, even in the sound as of a
promise to the fathers would have to come in Jeru-            mighty wind.
salem, and so they had waited.                                   Neither is the Lord miserly when He comes to give
   The whole church is assembled in one place.  That          Himself through the Lord Jesus Christ unto His
is emphasized.         They are with one accord in one        church. Note that this mysterious and joyful sound as
place.                                                        of a rushing mighty wind filled all the house where
   It is so long ago, and yet we can somewhat imagine         the church was gathered.
the sweet unity that bound these hundred and twenty              God gives and He gives plentifully. Even in the
souls together. They all loved the Lord. Oh, how              Old Testament we see glimpses of that overflowing
glad they had been when finally they had all seen the         grace. My cup is overflowing. And Joel sings of the
Lord, and had all believed, His wondrous resurrection.        veritable flood of .the Holy Spirit that would come in
There was plenty to talk about! They must have re- "those days".
hearsed and rehearsed again the various appearances              You see it also in nature.
of the Lord and what He had said at these appear-                Attend unto this wonderful fact: the Lord knows
ances.                                                        that His earthly creation needs the light of the sun.
   The love of God and of His Christ bound them               Well, He made a sun, and the scientists have figured
together, and that unity in the love of God would             out how much of the oceans of light of the sun are
shine the more  bright,ly  after the promise of the Holy      wasted ( ?) . They have computed  ,the amount of light
Spirit had been realized.                                     that shines past the earth and that shines in other
   They are together with one accord in one place.            directions than toward the earth at all times. And the
   And they wait.                                             computed sums are staggering. You see, God is not
    They wait for the New Testament Pentecost!                niggardly when He blesses. He overloads us with His
                                                              blessings.
                                                                 It is in the very nature of the eternal.
    And suddenly !                                               When you go to a party to which you have looked
    Also note this : from heaven !                            forward with great eagerness, you are usually dis-
    And : a rushing mighty wind !                             appointed for the time comes altogether too fast when
       There is something wonderful about that sudden- you must bid one another adieu. But God's party will
ness and that rushing act of Triune God.                      last unto all eternity and the rivers of God's pleasures
   *God is in a hurry !                                       are full of water.
       Again the fulness of time had come.  Th,ere  are        . Pentecost is therefore the outpour&y  of the Holy
many such fulnesses in the counsel of God. This was           Spirit of grace.
the fulness of time when God would send out His own              Pentecost is beautifully plenteous!
love into the hearts of His beloved children. God had
waited  (?) 4000 years for this moment. And when
it finally came ,God  is in a great hurry to share His           But what do we see there?
love with men, with men of His goodpleasure.                     There appeared upon them cloven tongues as of
       Do not read over that word: suddenly. You would fire and it sat upon each of them.               '
miss one of the most wonderful characteristics of the             And what de we hear?
day of Pentecost.                                              These common fisherfolk begin to talk, and they
       There is something indescribably beautiful in the      speak strange languages.
sudden rush of a mother when she spies her lost child,            And I am certain that no mistakes were made in
the child that had been in mortal danger. When the grammar or pronounciation.
child is seen by the loving eye of mother, she rushes             Pentecost is also  ,God's grammar school.
suddenly forward to grasp the darling to her bosom                Mighty wonders of God.
and envelops it in the embrace of sweetest love. There            Let us look carefully on these several signs. They
is no love like the love of a mother. That is, on this        have a story to tell. A story of the love of ,God and
earth.                                                        its marvellous work unto the children of men.
       But hold on!                                               First, there is the sound of that rushing mighty
       There is a love that far transcends the love of all    wind.
mothers, muultiplied a million times. It is the love              No, it was no wind. Nothing stirred on that day.
of God.                                                       I think that it belongs to the wonder, as people must
       The fulness of time had come when the love of God      have observed later, that Jerusalem enjoyed a great


                                       THE  STANDARD   BEARE.R.                                                                387

 calm in nature when this mysterious sound came down                   And so the fire of God's love purges the church.
 from heaven.                                                   It burns out all impurities and it heals.. Did you ever
     That wind! It is the Divine  math,  the sign of            hear of the effect of cauterizing?
 the Holy ,Ghost  of `God.                                             Second, it sanctifies.
     How fitting when God employs the natural and                      We speak of the fire of enthusiasm. And rightly
 the earthy to reveal and teach the spiritual and the           so.
 heavenly.                                                             God's Holy Spirit of Christ sanctifies the Church.
     The wind, among us mortals, is the mysterious,             He sets us on fire with Divine and heavenly enthusi:,
 that which is heard but not seen  ; it is the irresistible     asm. And it is because of this heavenly visit of fire
 and the fitting symbol of almighty power. Ask this             that the  saint.s loved not their *lives unto death. They
 of the people that dwell in the middle West. They will         had something in them that was more precious than
 tell you of the sudden cyclones and whirlwinds that            the natural love a man has for his life on earth.
 come down from heaven upon them. And how the
 results' of careful and long drawn-out  labour is de-                 But fire also destroys, it burns and consumes.            I
stroyed in a moment.                                                   Pentecost is loveable, glorious, heavenly. It sings
     And so is the Holy Ghost which Jesus Christ re-            of sweet strains of the music that is heavenly. But
 ceived at His glorification in heaven, and which He            it also howls and roars of the wrath of God when by
 is now pouring out upon His church.                            the Spirit of His mouth He will consume the wicked
                                                                from off the face of the earth.
     That Spirit is the mysterious power which brings
 the Kingdom of heaven to fruition, which labors upon
 it and brings it to its final completion.                             And, finally, there is that miracle of the tongues.
     Christ spoke of that mysterious Wind to  Nico-
 demus.  -                                                             It comes last, and that is fitting.
     It is the power of God whereby the church is                      You have all heard of the confusion of the speech
 drawn from the depth of death and hell and damna-              of man. It is the story of Babel. We have heard of
 tion unto the loving arms of God.                              it in our first catechism classes.
     It is through that Holy  `Ghost that we are born                  Well, this Babel is now healed.        .
 again.                                                                Attend to the speakers of the first day of Pente-
     The Holy Ghost is the Almighty Person, God                 cost.
 out of God, who brings you all the, blessings of `God's               They all speak in strange tongues. And their
 eternal covenant.                                              speech is about the wonderful works of God.              '
     That mysterious power dwells in your heart never                  Babel is healed. For the whole multitude hears
 to forsake you again.                                          but one sermon: the praises of  ,God Almighty.
     He takes the Bible and whispers that Bible in your                0 Pentecost, thou art wonderful to us that live
 heart, and comforts you in deepest night.                      in this day.
     And, oh, He is in a hurry to acquaint you with                    The Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus dwells in us, in the
 all the goodness and all the love of God.                      entire church of Jesus Christ.
     A mysterious, a loving, a rushing power is the                    It envelops the entire church, not one is missed.
 love of God.                                                    (Did you note that the controversy of "false" breth-
                                                                ren does not even come up?)
                                                                       They are all filled with the Holy #Ghost. They are
     And then that column of fire !                             all purged by that Spirit and they are all sanctified
     I conceive of it as an appearance of a great column        by that Spirit.
 of fire, above the heads of the 120 disciples, and dart-              And the whole church unites in the praises of God.
 ing downward were those cloven tongues, each point-            His wonderful works are proclaimed throughout the
 ing to an individual member of that first New Testa-           earth.
 ment Church.                                                          Do you think that it is any different now?
     And what does it mean?                                            Oh no, God knows them who are His.
     First, fire purges, cleanses. It does that in the                  A controversy as to who has the promise and who
  natural.    I remember the day when the physician             has not? Let us reduce it to this .question  : Who'has
 would give his needles and other instruments a baptism         the Holy Spirit of Pentecost?
  of actual fire in order to destroy all bacterial life that            "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
 might inhabit his tools and endanger the incision he           he is none of His !"
 was about to make.                                                                                                G.  Vos.

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

                                 The Standcyrd  Bearer
              Semi-Monthly, except Mkthly  in July and August                                                                                                               E D I T O R I A L S
                                                  PublirJhed..Bp
                        The Reformed Free  Publishing Association
                              Box 124, Sta. C., Grand Rapids, Mich.                                                                                                             As To Conditions
                                     EDITOR : - Rev. H. Hoeksema.
  Contributing Editors:  - Rev. G. M. Ophoff, Rev. G. Vos, Rev.                                                                                                     Once more we meet with the term  condittin  in the
  R.  V&man,  Rev. H.  Veldmrui,  Rev. H. De Wolf, Rev. B. Kok,                                                                                                  Canons of Dordrecht, and again the word is put in the
  Rev. J. D. De  Jong,  Rev. A. Petter, Rev. C. Hanko, Rev. L.                                                                                                   mouth of the Remonstrants. It is found in Chapter V,
  Vermeer,  Rev. G. Lubbers, Rev. M. Gritters, Rev. J. A.  Heys,
  Rev. W.  Hofman.                                                                                                                                               Rejection of Errors, 1  i "The true doctrine having been
    Communications relative to contents should be addressed to                                                                                                   explained, the Synod rejects the errors of those:
  REV. H. HOEKSEMA, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids,                                                                                                         "Who teach: That the perseverance of the true
  Michigan.                                                                                                                                                      believers is not a fruit of election, or a gift of God,
    Communications relative to subscription should be addressed                                                                                                  gained by `the death of Christ, but a condition of the
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                                 (Subscription Price $2.50 per year)                                                                                             his own <Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
                                                                                                                                                                 he not also with him freely give us all  things?  Who
                                                                                                                                                                 shall lay anything to the charge of  (God's  elect? It is
                                                                                                                                                                 God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is
                                                                                                                                                                 Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised
                                                                                                                                                                 from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who
                                                                                                                                                                 also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate
                                                                                                                                                                 us from the love of Christ?' Rom. 8 :32-35."
                                                                                                                                                                    The question here, therefore, is whether the grace
                                                    C O N T E N T S                                                                                              of perseverance is conditional or unconditional. We
  MEDITATION-                                                                                                                                                    know that in Art. 5 of the well-known Remonstrance
             Pentecostal Blessings . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . 385       that was composed in  ,Gouda,  1610, the Arminians
                   R e v .   G .   V o s                                                                                                                         made that grace of God unto the perseverance of the
  EDITORIALS-                                                                                                                                                    saints conditional and contingent upon the free-will of
         As  -To Conditions I.................................................................. 388                                                              man. They did not say so  in so' many words, but
         For Our Synod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*....................... 390                nevertheless plainly suggested it `in the following art-
                   Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                              icle : "Those who are grafted into Christ by a true
 OUR  DOCTRINE-                                                                                                                                                  faith, and therefore partake of his vivifying Spirit,
         The Counsel Of God. (12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . L-.394                              have abundance of means by which they may fight
                   Rev. H.  Veldman                                                                                                                              against Satan, sin, the world, and their own flesh,
 THE DAY OF  SHADOWS-                                                                                                                                            and obtain the victory, always, however, by the aid of
         David And Hanun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*.....................................397                                         the grace of the Holy Spirit; Jesus Christ assists them
         Christ Sees His Seed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . * .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..." .,........401                    by His Spirit in all temptations, and stretches out his
                  Rev. G. M. Ophoff                                                                                                                              hand; and provided they are ready for the contest,
 S I O N ' S   Z A N G E N -                                                                                                                                     and seek his aid, and are not wanting to their duty,
         De Lof Des Naams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..I...........  . ...403 he strengthens them to such a degree that they cannot
                   Rev. G. Vos                                                                                                                                   be seduced or snatched from the hands of Christ by
 FROM HOLY WRIT-                                                                                                                                                 any fraud of Satan or violence, according to that say-
         Exposition of Ephesians 2:4-10 . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 405                                     ing, John 10:28; `No one shall pluck them out of my
                   Rev. Geo. C. Lubbers                                                                                                                          hand.' But whether these very persons cannot, by
 `IN HIS  FEAR-                                                                                                                                                  their own negligence, desert the commencement of
         We Go To Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .407    their being in Christ,  ,and embrace again the present
                   Rev. M. Gritters                                                                                                                              world, fall back from the holy doctrine once committed
                                                                                                                                                                 to them, make shipwreck of their conscience, and fall


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R ' E R                                          389

from grace ; this must be more fully examined and            in order to be saved and to persevere in the midst of
weighed by the Holy Scriptures before men can teach the world is considered Arminianism. Yet this is not
it with full tranquility of mind and confidence." That       the case. The grace of preservation never works this
already in this article itself the grace of perseverance way. God's part of the covenant, although He per-
is made contingent upon the will and the efforts of          forms it alone and unconditionally, never excludes
man is plain, for instance, from the words "provided         man's part, for the simple reason that the grace of
they are ready for the contest, and seek his aid, and        God always works in and through man as a rational,
are not wanting to their duty, he strengthens them moral agent.
to such a degree that they cannot be seduced or                  On the other hand, the question may be asked
snatched from  th,e hands of Christ by any fraud of whether in preservation and perseverance man is ever
Satan or violence." And besides, at the close of this        first. That, of course, is fundamentally the concep-
article they plainly suggest that before they can accept tion of all  Arminians and Pelagians and also of all
the Reformed truth of the perseverance of the saints,        kinds of Synergists, that speak of a cooperation be-
it must be made plain to them from Holy Scripture.           tween God and man so that each does his share in the
The final result was that the followers of Arminius          work of salvation. They present the work of preserva-
so modified this article that it asserted the possibility    tion as wholly or in part contingent upon man's perse-
of falling away from grace. And in the article of            verance. The believer cannot persevere without the
the Canons which we quoted above it is plainly stated        grace of *God, they admit; but ,God  will give that grace
that according to the Arminians perseverance is not          only on condition that man really wants it, asks for it,
a fruit of election, but a condition of the new cove-        and earnestly strives to persevere. *God helps those
nant, so perseverance is another. condition in order to that help themselves. Hence, the will of man and his
remain in the covenant of God.                               earnest effort unto perseverance is the prerequisite, .
   Now in order to understand the question that here or condition, unto God's act  Qf preservation. In that
concerns us, we do well to distinguish between two           case there is no real perseverance of  *the saints. A
aspects of what is usually simply called perseverance,       chain depends for its strength on its weakest link.
the aspects, namely, of preservation and perseverance.       And if, say, some forty-nine links of a chain consist
   The first aspect refers to the divine factor, the         of a strong steel, while the fiftieth link is a silk thread,
second to the human factor in the perseverance of the        the chain is useless. And if the preservation of God,
saints. The first may be called that act of God where-       no matter how strong it is in itself, is contingent upon
by through His almighty power and  efficient grace He the weak will of man, there is no perseverance of the
keeps the elect in the midst of the world, `in the midst     saints whatever.
of all temptations of Satan, the world, and their own           Hence, our Reformed fathers repudiated both of
sinful flesh, in such a way that they can never per-         these  views. They must have nothing of the  stock-
manently and ultimately fall away from grace and fail        and-block theory, nor must they have anything of the
to obtain the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and      Arminian error of man's perseverance as a condition
,that never fadeth away. The second aspect is the            unto  ,God's preservation.
ac$ of man, that is, of the regenerated child of God,           They proceeded, as always, from unconditional elec-
of the believer, whereby he fights against sin and the       tion, from that to unconditional preservation, and, on
devil and the world, keeps his garments clean, and has       the basis of this, to perseverance as a fruit of preserva-
the ultimate victory.                                        tion. Thus it is evidently in the article which we
   Th.e all-important question is, of course: what is        quoted above, and thus it is in all the articles on the
the relation between these two aspects, between the          perseverance of the saints as taught in the Canons of
act of  ,God in preservation and the act of the believer     Dordrecht.
in perseverance ?                                               According to election God gives them the grace of
   Is it such, that in the power of God the believer is      preservation unconditionally and efficaciously. They
utterly passive? Does God preserve him as a  ,&ock           are preserved in the power of God, according to I Pet.
and block unto the final salvation? Does the act of          1:4. He works within them to will and to do, accord-
preservation mean that God simply holds his hand,            ing to Phil. 2 : 13. This work of God is absolutely first
and that therefore he is perfectly safe? May the pre-        and unconditional. There can never be any conditions
servation of believers unto salvation be compared to         which man must fulfill as prerequisites for the work
a man that buys a ticket in a Pullman car and simply         of God. Nevertheless, this power of God is not like a
goes to sleep until the angels wake him up at the            strong fortress in which man can afford to wait
station called heaven? Some &em  to think that this          effortless and feel perfectly safe. On the contrary,
conception of preservation and perseverance is very          the believer is preserved in the power of ,God,  but also
Reformed indeed. God, they say, must do it all, and          through faith. And that means that this power of
any conception as if man himself must put forth effort CGod unto preservation works in and through him as


                                      I     '

     390                                         THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

     a rational, moral creature,  so that he fights the good       neer de Kerken, die de  aloude Kerkorde van Dordrecht,
     fight of faith even unto the end, that no one may take        hetzij gewijzigd hetzij ongewijzigd, nog altijd volgen,
     his crown. The grace of preservation is God's part            bij  alle onvermijdelijk verschil  voor wat betreft de
     in the covenant. But the grace of perseverance is             bijzondere bepalingen, er naar streven ten opzichte
     man's part,  ,which  always is the fruit of God's part.       van de voornaamste richtlijnen van kerkinrichting en
            But these two parts are never so related that man's    kerkregeering zooveel mogelijk de eenheid blijvend te
     part is a condition which he must fulfill in order that       bewaren.
     God may fulfill His part.                                       Deputaten  zullen  het op prijs stellen eventuele  sug-
            The grace of God is always unconditional.              gesties, die aan de bedoelde zaak ten goede zouden
                                                         H. H.     kunnen komen, van U te mogen vernemen. In geval
                                                                   van een gunstig antwoord verwachten zij, dat  IJ even-
                                                                   eens deputaten zult benoemen en instrueren. Zulks
                                                                   zou het nader overleg  over deze gewichtige kwestie
                        For Our Synod                              vergemakkelijken. .
                                                                      Het correspondentie-adres van deputaten is :
                                                                                                  Prof. Dr. D. Nauta,
            Just two days. ago, May 18, I received the follow-                                    Vondelstraat 182
     ing correspondence from the Synod of the Reformed                                            Amsterdam-W.
     Churches in the Netherlands . (not those maintaining
     Art. 31).                                                       j U in Uw arbeid te leiding d,es Geestes toebiddende,
            Because it is addressed directly to our Synod, and;    bijl : afschrift besluit
I    therefore, this assembly shall have to take some action,            afschr. rapport
     I hasten to publish it in The s'tandurd  Bearer, in order     Amsterdam, 10  Mei  1950.
     that we, and especially the delegates to Synod, may
     become acquainted with its contents.                                                 Namens Deputaten :
            I had no time to translate it. So here it follows                                     (L. ten Kate), Secretaris.
     in the Dutch language:                                                                       (D. Nauta) , Voorzi tter,

                         A. THE LETTER.                                          B. DECISION OF SYNOD.
     Deputaten van De Generale Synode                              Besluit van de Generale Synode `s-Gravengage 1949
     van de Gereformeerde Kerken in                                       1,nzake  Herziening Kerkorde (art. 341).
     Nederland voor de Herziening Kerkorde.                        De Synode,  ovepwegende,
                           Aan de Synode van de                    a. dat  verschihende   artikelen der kerkenorde aanlei-
                           Prot. Reformed Church of America,          ding hebben gegeven en ook metterdaad kunnen
                           adres :                                    geven tot misverstand en verschil van mening ;
                           Rev. H. Hoeksema
                           1139 Franklin St., S. E.                b. dat door de kerken allerlei arbeid van  zending,  van
                           Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A.             evangelisatie en van andere aard is ter hand ge-
                                                                      nomen, die in overeenstemming moet geacht worden
     Weleerwaarde en Eerwaarde Heren  en Breeders,                    met de haar door Gods Woord toevertrouwde, taak,
            In opdracht van de Generale Synode van de  Gerefor-       en waarvan tech in de kerkenorde vrijwel in `t ge-
     meerde Kerken in Nederland, gehouden te `s-Graven-               heel niet gerept wordt ;
     hage  (1949)) richten zich haar Deputaten voor de  her-       Besluit :
     ziening van de  K.erkorde  tot U met het volgende:
            De genoemde Synode heeft besloten de  generaIe         1. de  gen,erale herziening van de kerkenorde ter hand
     herziening van de Kerkorde ter hand te nemen. De                te nemen en  .daartoe  de noodige soorbereidende
     tekst van het besluit evenals het rapport van de  com-           maatregelen te treffen ;
     missie, dat aan dit besluit  ten grondslag ligt, vindt U      2. vijf deputaten  aan te wijzen  aan wie opgedragen
     als bijlagen  aan dit schrijven toegevoegd.                      wordt :
            Het is op grond daarvan, dat Deputaten U  ver-            a.  zich in verbinding te stellen met andere kerken,
     zoeken Uw oordeel te willen uitspreken over een derge-           di,e de Dordtsche Kerkenorde, hetzij gewijzigd,  het-
     Iijke herziening van de Kerkorde en  ,te willen mede-            zij ongewijzigd, onderhouden, in `t bijzonder die ker-
     delen, of U bereid zijt over deze aangelegenheid met             ken met welke onze kerken in correspondentie staan
     hen in nader overleg  te treden.                                 om haar oordeel te vernemen  over een generale her-
            Er is steilig een groot belang  mede gediend, `wan-       ziening van de kerkenorde,  speciaal  ook over de

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

                                                               and would be realized by Him according to His deter-
                                                               minate counsel and foreknowledge. And so we could
                                                               go on. A Divine permission, a passive permitting of
                                                               things, is a monstrosity, an impossibility, a denial of
            The Counsel Of G0i.L (12)                          the truth that the Lord is God and He alone.
                                                                  Secondly, the Infralapsarian conception of God's
          S~upralapsarianism  and In.f rabapsarianism.         counsel must presuppose a certain foreknowledge on
                                                               the part of God. This lies in the nature of the case.
     In  t&is article we were to call attention to the         He begins, in the counsel of fhe Lord, wi'ih a fallen
  Scriptural proof for the supralapsarian presentation         hu&an  race. But how did it happen that that human
  of the truth. Let us have this supralapsarian concep- race fell? Not to teach that the fall and sin of man
  tion clearly in our minds. Infralapsarianism believes        is the result of the sovereign will of Jehovah `implies
  that the Lord elected and reprobated out of a fallen         that the Lord must have foreknown that calamity.
  human race, and that the latter is that Divine decree        And, foreknowing the fall of the human race, the Lord
  whereby He sovereignly decided to leave men in their         proceeded accordingly, elected some out of that fallen
  common misery into which they had wilfully plunged           human race unto glory and leaving others in their
  themselves. Supralapbarianism,  however, declares that       common misery into which they had filfully plunged
  the Lord elected and reprobated a "to be created and         themselves. This, we say, must be the inevitable teach-
  to fall" human race. The supralapsarian  dMinitely           ing of Infralapsarianism.  But, then one teaches a
  views the fall and sin as Divine means which the Lord        certain foreknowledge of God. And this the  infra-
  sovereignly willed unto the greatest glory `of His           lapsarian rejects as well as the suprasapsarian, i.e., a
  Name. He simply' places the Lord at the helm of all          conception of Divine foreknowledge.         Nevertheless,
  things, declares that Jehovah is at the controls, al-        upon the infralapsarian standpoint, one must conclude
  ways and with respect to everything.                         that such a foreknowledge of the Lord exists.
     The decisive question is, of course: Does Scripture          Thirdly, we would briefly call attention in this
  teach the supralapsarian conception, bearing in mind         connection to Matt. 11:2&X, where we read : "At that
  that any order in the counsel of God must be con-            time Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee,  0 Father,
  ceived of not in the temporal sense but logically. And       Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these
  the answer is emphatically : It does !                       things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
     However, before we turn to the Scriptures for this        them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed
  confirmation of the supralapsarian conception, I would       good in Thy sight." Reading the text hastily, one
  make a few more remarks in connection with the               might conclude that this passage is a strong proof for
  Infralapsarian view. Firstly, a Divine permission of         the infralapsarian conception. We read, do we not,
 things is surely impossible. For the Lord to  per&it          that the Lord has  hidden  (not revealed) these things
  something to happen, to leave men in their common            from the wise and prudent, and that such was also
  misery, to pass them by, to ,ignore  them, is certainly      the good' pleasure of the Lord. But let us notice the
  impossible. The expression: Divine permission, is a          following. We aIso read in this text that the Father
  contradiction in terms. There is no such thing, and          has revealed them unto babes. These babes, we under-
  such a thing is simply impossible. The Lord is never         stand, the opposite of the wise and prudent, refer to
  passive. Calvin and Augustine saw this very clearly.         the people of God who have become babes, .the  -:ieary
  That a Divine permission is impossible is simply be-         and heavy-laden of. verse 28, those who in their own
  cause the  (Lord is God. And as the living God He. is        consciousness have become small, babes.         But does
, omnipresent. And the omnipresence of the Lord also           this mean that these babes first existed and that the
  implies that he is imminent, in all things, that He is       Lord then revealed the things of the  Kinkdgrn  of
  directly in touch with every living thing and also every     Heaven unto them? This, however, would be the
  part of each living thng. God, we understand, is al-         arminian doctrine of foreknowledge, of an action on
  mais active, constantly executing His counsel, carry-, the part of the living God which was determined by
  ing out His will. The Bcriptures  are full of this truth.    ihe fact that we first become spiritual babes. And,
  The entire  passion history of our Lord Jesus Christ         this is impossible. Also the infralapsarian knows that
  had been outlined in detail in the Old Testament, and        such a presentation of the truth. can never be main-
  this constituted for the Saviour a program which He          tained. Is it not clear, then, that thii act of the Father,
  must follow and fulfil. And the reason why such a revea&ng these things unto them, must have had some-
  program could have been given in the Old Testament           thing to do with their becoming babes? The relation
  is simply because the entire passion history (includ-        here is that of cause and effect. God revealed these
  ing the part of wicked men, we understand) had been          things unto them and they, as a result of this Divine
  sovereignly willed by the Lord in His eternal counsel        action, became babes; and He continued to reveal these


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        395

     things unto them with the result that they continued          acts, the wilful crucifixion, murder of the Christ is
      to be babes, and  that  they, as babes, received this ascribed unto the determinate counsel and foreknow-
     revelation and could only as babes receive this Divine        ledge of the Lord. He was delivered, we read, by the
     revelation. But, if this be true, then the same inter-        determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.. Hence,
'    pretation of the tru:h must also be applied to the fore-      the Lord's counsel actually caused man's wilful mur-
     going part in the text: Thou hast hidden these "things der of the Christ. But, we must also understand that
     from the wise and the prudent. This "hiding" action           "ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified
     of the Lord surely implies more than a mere negative          and. slain." Notice that they have "taken" Him. This,
     action on the part of the living God. When the Lord we understand, implies a wilful, conscious act on the
     "hides" things from the wise and prudent this does            part of these wicked men. Notice also that He was
     not merely signify that He fails to reveal these things crucified and slain by wicke& hands. This also implies
      unto them. The Lord's "hiding" of these things is            a conscious act on their part. The text emphasizes
     surely a positive action, an action by the Lord whereby that they were prompted by wickedness,  ha:red, when
     He blinds and darkens the hearts and minds of men,            they laid hands on the Christ and nailed Him to the
     so that they indeed are hardened, become ever more accursed  tr.ee.  And, yet, this  acts of wickedness, for
     wise and prudent in their knowledge and conceit. Do           which they are held responsible, was controiied, com-
     not the Scriptures abundantly teach us that such a pletely, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
     hardening, blinding action by the Lord occurs in the          of the Lord.
     hearts and minds of those whom He has not known                  Throughout the Scriptures this Divine control of
     from before the foundation of the world? The same             all the acts of men is emphasized and clearly set forth.
     causal relation exists between this "hiding" action by        We have already called attention to the words of
     the Lord upon the wise and prudent as between the             Joseph in which he declares that the wicked act of his
     revealing action by God upon the spiritual babes. And         brothers, selling him into Egypt, was an act of the
     all this happens because "so it seemed good in the            Lord, and also to the cursing of Shimei which is attri-
     sight of the Father", The infralapsarian may, there- buted by David to the sovereign God. In Prov. 16:1.
     fore, find iittle consolation in  Matt.  11:25, 26.           and 4 we read: "The preparations of the heart in
         We began ,this article, however, with the remark man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord.
     that the decisive question is whether the Scriptures          The Lord hath made all things for Himself : yea, even
     support the supralapsarian conception of the counsel          the wicked for the day of evil." And in Prov.  21:l
      of God. We may now proceed. In the first place,              we read : "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord,
      we call attention to the fact that the Scriptures ascribe    as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever
     all things, also the acts of all moral-rational creatures.    He will." In Isaiah  45:7 we read the astonishing
      to the sovereign God. To be sure, we must maintain           word : "I form the light, and create darkness : I make
      the responsibility of man. However, we must neyer            peace,  and*create  evil: I the Lord do all these things."
     maintain man% responsibility at the  c,ost  of the Lord's And who is not  acquaint,&  with Rom.  9? There we
      sovereignty. The Lord never drives a man to do sin.          read in verses  17, 20, 21: "`For the Scripture  saith
      Man always sins as a morally free agent, is always           unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I
      the subject, author of his own acts, sins because he         raised thee up, that I might shew My power in thee,
      delights therein. But, this must never be presented          and that My Name might be declared throughout all
      at the cost of the Lord's sovereignty, as though the         the earth . . . Nay but, 0 man, who art thou that
      Lord is ever dependent upon the actions of men. The          repliest against God ? Shall the thing formed say to
      Lord's counsel shall stand, and He shall accomplish all      Him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
     ` His good pleasure, also through the moral-rational          Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same
      acts of His moral-rational creatures. The :Lord sover-       lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another
      eignly realizes His counsel, also as including sin, but      unto dishonour  ?" Let us understand this clearly. In
      always through man's moral-rational nature, so that the first place, the Lord raised up Pharaoh. This does
      Jehovah is ever in sovereign control, but man remains        not merely imply that the Lord set Pharaoh upon his
      the responsible author of his own sin, not because he        throne. But the text signifies that the Lord raised
      sovereignly determines his course of action but only         him up as that wicked Pharaoh. From his conception
      because he sins as a morally free agent, sins wilfully       and birth on the Lord raised him up. Re caused him
      and consciously and will therefore be held responsible to be born, exactly as the wicked Pharaoh, and hard-
      for all his actions. This is beautifully set forth in        ened him in all his dealing with His servant, Moses.
      Acts 2 :23 : "Him, being delivered by the determinate This the Lord clearly reveals to Moses when He com-
      counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, ,and        mands His servant to go to Pharaoh and accompanies
      by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Notice,           His command with the statement that He will harden
      in this text, that this most abominable of all wicked        His heart so that he will not let His people go. Here


                                       THE      STANDARD  BEARER

  w,e have a direct action of the sovereign Lord. upon happen. But this is surely  .the supralapsarian con-
  the monarch of Egypt. And the same truth is em- ception of the counsel of the Lord. This cannot mean
  phasized in the figure of the clay and the potter. The anything else than that, also in the counsel of God,
  "clay" of Romans 931 does not refer to fallen man- the Lord raised up Pharaoh, formed the vessels of dis-
  kind. If this were the interpretation of verse  20-21      honour, made even the wicked for the day of evil. But,
  the wicked would not object as they do in the words:       if this be true, then it is impossible to begin in the
  "Why liast Thou made me thus?" and: Why doth He            counsel of God with a fallen human race. Then the
  yet find fault? If the Lord hates Esau because he          human race is fallen exactly according to Jehovah's
  was evil, rejects Pharaoh because of his prickedness,      sovereign will. Known unto God are all His works
  and makes vessels of dishonour of those already wicked from the beginning of the world.
  and perverse, `why, then, should anyone find fault with       Thirdly, the Lamb that was slam and now glorified
the Lord? None would accuse the Lord of unright- and the heavenly renewal of all things are presented
  eousness, would he, if Jehovah merely hates those by the Scriptures as first in the counsel of God. This
  who hate Him, and rejects those who reject Him. Be- is clearly set forth, e.g., in Eph. 1:9-10 : "Having made
  sides, what sense does it make, then, to say that the known unto us the mystery of His will, according to
  Lord formed  these vessels of dishonour? They were         Bis good pleasure which He hath purposed in Him-
  already fallen and corrupt. But, then, the Lord did        self: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times
  not form them as such. However, the emphasis falls He might gather together in one all things in Christ
  in Romans 9 upon the sovereignty of the Lord. And          Jesus, which are in heaven, and which are on earth ;
  may I say at this time that the wicked is thoroughly       even in Him". Here we are told that Christ must
  hypocritical when he replies as he does against the        gather together in one all things that are in heaven
  Lord. If it were true that the {Lord might not sover-      and that are on the earth. The text refers to that
  eignly make vessels unto dishonour, then it would also     glorious realization of eternal salvation when all
  be true that none might be a potter in that sense of things, in heaven and on earth, shall be united in one,
  the word. However, the wicked would not object if          under Jesus Christ our Lord. And this, mind you, is
  only the Lord were the clay and he the potter. The presented by the apostle as the mystery of His will,
  wicked objects as he does because, .in hatred of the       according to the Lord's good pleasure which He hath
  sovereign Lord, he refuses to ascribe sovereignty to purposed in Himself. In other words, the Lord, in
  the Almighty. Hence, the Scriptures clearly ascribe His eternal counsel, willed this renewal of all things
  all the acts of men, everything to the living ,God.        in Christ Jesus. Hence, it was never the purpose of
     Secondly, the Scriptures not only emphasize that the Lord to realize the heavenly'renewal  of all things
  all  the. acts of men, their condition and their acts,     through Adam. Adam's place in the counsel of God,
                                                                               .
  are to be ascribed to the living God, but they also de-    and also in time,  is merely to prepare the way for
  clare that this occurs according to the sovereign coun- lhe.Christ  Who realizes God's eternal covenant through
  sel of the Lord. This is important. The infralap-          the way of sin and grace. First in the counsel of
  sarian hesitates to set forth the sovereign dealing of ,God is, therefore, the gathering of all things in  Christ
  the Lord, also in time. But, we wish to emphasize in Jesus. And, in that counsel, all things must sovereign-
  the second place, that what happens in time is also        ly serve that purpose of the Lord, also the sin and
  known unto the Lord. This is clearly set forth in the fall of the human race. And in Colossians  1:17 we
  Scriptures. Acts 15 : 18 informs us that "Known unto       are told concerning the Christ that "He is before all
  God are all His works from the beginning of the            things, and by Him all things consist.`" The apostle
  world." This must be understood. The Lord knows is speaking in this context of the Christ, the glorified
  eternally all things exactly as they occur. This does      Head of the Church. And of Him we read that  H.e
  not imply that the Lord entertains a certain foreknow-     is before all things, that he, therefore, occupies the
  ledge of them, that He saw before hand that they first position, and that all things must consequently
  would occur. Besides, how would this be possible if        serve Kim. He is before all things, to be sure, in the
  the Lord merely  foreknew  the things? How could eternal counsel of the Lord. It pleased the Father
  the Lord foreknow all things unless He had eternal that in Him should all fulnesa dwell, that He would
  and sovereign control of them? Also the infralap- be the revelation of the living. God, and that the
  sarian will admit that such a foreknowledge on the         Church would be the eternal reflection of His glory
  part of <God is inconceivable. This foreknowledge of and so the reflection of the glory of the alone adorable
  the Lord is a sovereign foreknowledge, an eternal and God. And because the Lord loved His people and
  creatve  foreknowledge, a foreknowledge of the things would grant them the greatest possible salvation, He
  in the sense that He willed the existence of all things willed to glorify Himself in the highest possible man-
  before they actually occurred in time. In other words, ner, for the greatest glory of God's Name would
  the Lord sovereignly willed the things exactly as they surely constitute the greatest possible salvation for


                                   THE  STANDARD   BEARER                                                       397

the elect. Hence, in the eternal counsel of the Al-         the Lord alone Who does all things according to His
mighty sin does not appear as an accident, as some-         sovereign will.    And then the Church of  ,God  can
thing which merely happened to be, but indeed as            be sure of victory, look forward to the crown of
willed by the sovereign Judge of all the earth. This        glory, yea,  understr?nd  that we are more than victors,
is the Scriptural presentation of the truth. And then       that nothing can separate us from the love of God,
we can fully understand the majestic words of the           and that the world with all its sin and death and
apostle that "out of Him and through Him and unto           affliction is ours and must prepare us for the ever-
Him are all things : to Whom be glory for ever. Amen,"      lasting glory which the Lord has sovereignly prepared
in Romans 11:36.                                            for those who love Him, who love Him only because
                 A Wonderful Comf oh.                       they are loved by Him.
                                                                                                    H. Veldman.
   This supralapsarian conception of the counsel of
God is supremely comforting for the Church of the
living God. Then nothing is an accident. Never is
the devil successful. He merely serves the fulfillment
of the sovereign counsel of the Lord. Christ, then, is
not a Divine  r,emedy Who  "is thrown into the breach",
and accomplished that which Adam failed to do. And                THE DAY OFSHADOWS
then the Lord does not merely try to save what He can,
to bring as much order out of chaos as He.possibly  can,
but all things occur according` to His determinate                        David and Ham-m
counsel and sovereign knowledge. The phenomenon
of sin and death is not the devil's work but the way           David's war with `Hadadezer, the son of Rehob,
of the Lord in which He sovereignly willed to glorify       king of Zobah, and with the Syrians, is twice narrated.
His Name in the highest possible manner. Then the           First at 2 Samuel 8 :3-8. Second at 2 Samuel 10 :16-19.
Lord is always supreme, everything must serve us,              The account of 2 Samuel 8':3-8 reads, "And David         ,
and all things must work together for our good. Sure-       smote also Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of
ly, the eternal end of all things must constitute the       Zobah as he went to recover his border at the river
supreme purpose and goal of the everlasting God.            Euphrates. And David took from him a thousand
   Moreover, these things must be preached and pro-         chariots, and seven hundred horsemen, and twenty
claimed in the Church of the living God. We need            thousand footmen: and David houghed the chariot
not and we must not hesitate to proclaim all the coun-      horses, but reserved of them a hundred chariots. And
sel of the Lord. Paul did not hesitate. He declares         when the Syrians of Damascus came to succor Hadad-
to the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20 :26-27: "Where-         ezer king of Zobah, David slew of the Syrians two
fore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from     and twenty thousand men. Then David put garrisons
the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to de-         in Syria of Damascus: and the Syrians became serv-
clare unto you all the counsel of God." The Church          ants to David, and brought gifts.       And the Lord
of  `God must be instructed in the truth, in all the        preserved David whithersoever he went. And David
truth, must continually be given a glimpse into the         took the shields of gold that were on the servants of
amazing and unfathomable and sovereign love of the          Hadadezer, and brought them to Jerusalem. And
Lord by which He loved us and in which love He sover-       from  Betah and Berothai, cities of Hadadezer, king
eignly willed all things to work together unto our          David took exceeding much brass."
eternal and heavenly salvation. Indeed, the hidden             The account at 2 Samuel  X0  :16-19 reads, "And
things are for the Lord our God (the things of the          Hadadezer sent, and brought out the Syrians that were
future, not as yet revealed unto us), but the revealed      beyond the river (Euphrates) ; and they came to
things  are' for us and for our children, according to      Helam ; and Shobach the captain of the host of Hadad-
Deut. 29.:29. And Eph. 1, Col. 1, and Rom. 9, etc. etc.,    ezer went before them. And'when it was told David,
also belong to these revealed things of the Lord.           he gathered all Israel together, and passed over Jordan,
   Finally, our discussion of the counsel of `God has       and came to Helam. And the Syrians set themselves
certainly emphasized the truth that that counsel is         in array against  .David,  and fought with him. And
strictly unconditional. "My counsel shall stand and I       the Syrians fled'before Israel; and David slew the men
will accomplish all My good pleasure." If -this counsel     of seven hundred chariots of the Syrians, and forty
is unconditional then everything is unconditional. Fact     thousand horsemen, and smote Shobach the captain of
is, the Lord accomplishes His own counsel,  all His         *their hosts, who died there. And when all the kings
counsel.    And,  Sle accomplishes it, He alone. This       that were servants of Hadadezer saw that they were
rules out every conditional possibility, for then it is     smitten before Israel, they made peace with Israel


398                                  T H E   STANDARD  BEARER

and served them. So the Syrians feared to help the siege it; and when the Lord thy God shall deliver it
children of Ammon anymore."                                  into thy hands, thou shalt smite every man thereof
       As was stated, both these  accoun!s bear on the       with the edge of the sword. But the women and the
same war; As the circumstances related in the first          little ones and the cattle and all that is in the city,
accound have already been treated under the caption          even all the spoil therein, shalt thou take unto thy-
"David's wars" ; let us here take notice of the details      self; and thou shalt eat the spoil of  thin,e enemies,
contained in the  second  account that are not found in      which the Lord thy God hath given thee. Thus shalt
the first.          '                                        thou do unto all the cities of these nations" who dwell
       Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, it will be recalled,     in that vast region beyond.
was the powerful king of Zobah, the capital of Syria,           Let us understand this mandate of the Lord to
and  ' situate east of Israel's transjordanic territory      Israel, definitely to David. It was not the Lord's
and beyond the northern border thereof.         As was will certainly that Israel without a cause initiate war
stated, the dominion of this king included a great part against the heathen in that region beyond, and with-
of the desert between Palestine and the Euphrates            out any offence  having been given depopulate every
and accordingly the southern part of Syria.          His city that refused to confess David as lord. The na-
jurisdiction extended even beyond the Euphrates far          tions in that region, not being under the ban of God
into Mesopotamia, as also from this region he called         ilike the Canaanites, had first to offend; they had
to his help (verse 19). Shobach was his field-marshal,       first to show by their hostile attitude. and  .warlike
but also general-in-chief of the whole Syrian army in preparations that they were bent on Israel's destruc-
this war (verse 18). At verse 1'7 Halem is designated        tion. And so they did in every instance. And so they
as the place across the Jordan whither David brought         had been doing throughout the ages of the judges, also
his army and fought the Syrians. Here the whole              the Moabites and the Ammonites and now,the Syrians
Israelitish and Syrian armies stood apposed to one           -Hadadezer and all the king's tributary to him as
another in battle. David  ,took command in person,           instigated, as we shall see, by the Ammonites. David's
not from any dissatisfaction with Jqab, but because,' wars were thrust upon him by the heathen. He had to
being the Lord's anointed king, it was his calling to        take up arms against them in defense of God's people.
lead Israel's army in  ,God's warfare with the heathen.      They wanted war with him, not he with them. Yet,
Notice was also taken of David's victory. The Syrians even so, when he came nigh unto a city in that region
in part took to flight, and in part were cut to pieces by    to fight against it, because it had offended, he first
the Israelites. Shobach was mortally wounded. The            proclaimed peace unto it; and if it made answer of
completeness of the victory is farther brought out by        peace, it was spared, only now to serve David. Many
the mentioning first (verse 18) of the large number          of these cities did so, they made answer of peace, as
of slain: seven hundred chariot-soldiers and forty           the surrender to David of the kings formerly tributary
thousand horesmen. With this the statements in chap-         to Hadadezer testifies. But the city that refused to
ter  8:4 and 1 Chronicles  18:4,  5 do not agree. The        make answer of peace was destroyed as to its male
numbers may have been corrupted by the copyist.              population.
The defeat was overwhelming, as is seen from the                So God had commanded. And the command is as
statement (verse 19) that all the kings tributary to         valid  ,today in this dispensation of the Gospel as it
Hadadezer sued for peace. They were accepted of              ever was. Said not Christ to His disciples, "And as
David and became his servants, willingly placed them-        ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at
selves under his jurisdiction and thereby saving them-       hand . . . . And into whatsoever city or town ye shall
selves from Israel's sword, though worthy to be slain        enter, enquire who in it is worthy ; and there abide
because of their initial and inexcusable hostility to        till ye go thence. And when ye come into a house
David and to David's God.                                    salute it: And if the house be worthy, let your peace
       As we saw, so the cities that made Israel answer      come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace
of peace had to be dealt with-the cities in that vast        return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you,
region beyond the borders of Israel's proper home-           nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house
land.                                                        or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say
       Deuteronomy 20 :10-X, "When thou camest nigh          unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of
unto a city (in that vast region beyond) to fight            Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than
against it, then proclaim peace unto it., And it shall       for that city." (Matt. 10 :7ff).
be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto               There were many cities that made answer of peace
thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found    to David. There seems to have been no city in that
therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall       vast region that made no answer of peace to Solomon
serve thee. And if they will make no peace with thee,        during the golden years of his reign. He reigned over
but will make war against thee, then thou shalt be-          all the kingdoms from the Euphrates unto the land of


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         899     ~
 the  Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt; they             that made him answer of peace and was willing to
 brought presents and served Solomon all the days of              come under his jurisdiction. And every war that he
 his life. And all the kings of the earth sought his              fought was provoked by the heathen. He did not love
 presence, to hear his wisdom, that God had put into              war for war's sake. He was not constrained as a war-
 his heart.          And  they  brought every man his  pre-       rior by lust of power but by the love of Christ and
sent.                                                             His people. He did no violence. God was his expecta-
    Such was the glory of Solomon and the peace of                tion. He belonged to the meek who inherit the earth.
 his kingdom  ; it was the glory of Christ and the peace             As was stated, it was the Ammonites who had
 of the kingdom of Christ in type-a peace and glory               hired the Syrians against David. The war with Am-
 of which David, speaking by the Spirit of prophecy,              mon is only mentioned in  8  :l%. In chapter  10 it is
 had already shown in his prayer for Solomon.                     described in its full course, together with the Syrian
                                                                  wars occasioned by it. The king of the children of
         "In his days shall the righteous flourish; and
         abundance of peace so long as the moon                   Ammon died. In verse 2 his name is given as Nahash.
                                                        endur-    Though possible, it is neither certain nor very prob-
         eth.                                                     able that this  Nashash  is he of  1 Samuel  1.1  :l. The
         He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and         deceased king had shown kindness to David. What
         from the river unto the ends of the earth.
         They that dwell  in. the wilderness shall bow            kindness is unknown. At all events his relation with
                                                                  David had been friendly. David accordingly sent an
         before him ; and his enemies shall lik the dust.
         The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring       embassy of condolence to Ii'anun the son of Nahash.
         presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer        The Ammonite princes counsel the king to adopt a
         gifts.                                                   hostile policy .that would be a challenge to war. They
         `Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all          say to  Hanun their lord: Is David in thine eyes an
         nations shall serve him.                                 honorer of thy father? The (question implies a nega-
         `For he shall deliv,er the needy when he crieth ;        tion. It contains a reproach against the king, that he
         the poor also, and him that hath no helper.              would allow himself to be deceived by David's con-
         He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save        duct. They express to him the suspicion, that David
         the souls of the needy.                                  sent this consolatory embassy merely for the purpose
         He shall redeem their souls from deceit and              of spying out and then destroying the city, of  the
         violence: and precious shall their blood be in his       country, that is Rabbah. The king subjected them t!~
         sight.                                                   the indignity of cutting off the half, that is, one side
         And he shall live, and to him shall be given the         of their beards. That was the grossest insult' that
         gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for             could be offered an oriental. Besides, he cut off their
         him continually ; and daily shall he be praised.         garments in the middle, even to their buttocks. Hear-
         There shall be an handful of corn in the earth           ing of the double insult offered his messengers, David
         upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof         directs them not to return, but to stay in Jericho until
         shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city their bears were grown.
         shall flourish like grass of the earth.                     The Ammonites plainly desired war with David.
         Ms name shall endure for ever; his name shall            Th,ey  must have been jealous of the mighty growth of
         be continued as long as the sun: and men shall           his kingdom. They knew that by their treatment of
         be blessed in him: all nations shall call him            the messengers they had made themselves hateful
         blessed.                                                 to David. The Ammonites now hired the Syrians to
         rJlessed  be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who        help them in their war with David,-the Syrians of
         only doeth wondrous things.                              Bethrehob, and the Syrians of Zoba, twenty thousand
         And blessed be his glorious name forever: and            footmen, and of the king of  Maacah,  a thousand men,
         let the whole earth be filled with his glory ; Amen,     and of Ishtob twelve thousand. The accounts of Sam.
         and Amen." Psalm  72:7-20.                               and Chron. differ in some details.
                                                                     Against these hostile troops David sends his gen-
    For the reception of this prophecy David must                 eral, Joab, and the whole host of mighty men. The
 have been prepared by the contemplation of Nathan's              Amonites  came out of their capitol city, and put
 prophecy, of his successes in war and of the extention           themselves in battle array before the gate of the city,
 and the growing peace of the Israelitish kingdom dur-            that is Rabbah. The Syrians had taken their position
 ing his own reign. It is a wonderful prophecy that               in the field, on the broad plain. Joab could be attacked
 could reach its final fulfillment only in Christ.                on both sides, by the Ammonites in the rear, by the
    David was " a man of blood". So the Lord char-                Syrians in front. So he selected some of all the chosen
 acterizes him. `But he was also a proclamator of peace           men of Israel, which he set against the Syrians. The
 ready to show mercy to every city in his vast empire             rest of the army he placed under the command' of his


400                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R ,

brother, Abishai, against the Ammonites. Either was          an immense host that was gathered. The plan was
to come to the help of the other, if there was danger        the invasion of Canaan. On the way the Syrian forces
of being overpowered by the enemy.  _ Joab then utter-       were to be joined by the troops of the Ammonites.
ed a warlike exhortation, brief but full of meaning:         But  before,the  campaign could get under way, David
"Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our         had hastened to the Euphrates. Before his onrushing
people, and for the cities of our God: and the Lord          troops the Syrian army had scattered like chaff before,
do that which seemeth him good." Joab attacks the            the wind.
Syrians, and they flee. The rout of the Syrians oc-             But there were yet the Ammonites to be dealt with.
casioned the flight of the Ammonites. They retreat           Rabbah was still defiant and threatening war. So
into their city. After the exploit, Joab brought the         after the year was expired, at the time when kings go
war to an end and returned to Jerusalem.                     forth to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with
       As shamed by his defeat and also as alarmed by        him, and all Israel against Rabbah. The city was
David's growing power, Hadadezer, as we have seen,           besieged. When about to surrender, David appeared
collected new forces for the continuation of his war         on the scene in person with additional troops ; and
on David-a war the circumstances of which are                under his direct command the war was brought to
related in Scripture passages (2 Sam;  8  3-6 and 2 Sam.     completion.  So Joab had wanted it to prevent the
10:16-19)  already treated. If for this second effort        city being called after his name, which would have
Hadadezer called to his aid also the Ammonites, his          happened, had he taken it.
summons went unheeded. The Ammonites were keep-                 A severe punishment was now inflicted upon the
ing themselves to their stronghold-the city of Rabbah        inhabitants of the fallen city. First the crown was
-whither the remnant of their forces, cut in pieces          taken from off the head of the Ammonite king and
by Joab, had fled.                                           set on David's head. It was a costly thing of a talent of
       As to Hadadezer, as we have also seen, the outcome    gold with precious stones. There was also a great
of his new venture was for him a defeat so disastrous        abundance of spoil. All was carried off to Jerusalem.
that his power was permanently broken. As forsaken           It `included doubtless the women and children. The
by his vassal kings, all of whom made peace with             male population was led out of the city. As lying
Israel, the only choice remaining to him was to be still     prone on the ground, they were run over -with saws
ano quietly submit himself to David's rule. And it           and harrows of iron, while others were made to pass
must be assumed that he did so. For we do not read           through the brickkiln. So it was literally done. And
of him again making trouble for David.                       so it was done to all the cities of Ammon. The punish-
   But the defeated Ammonites continued hostile. Hav-        ment inflicted was as horrible as it was terrible. But
ing defeated them in battle, Joab, as was stated, had        the Ammonites had asked for the doom by which they
returned from them and come to Jerusalem. He had             were overtaken. They would make no answer of peace
ended the war without capturing their city. It would to D,avid.  (2 Barn. 12 36-31).
not have been wise to prolong the war at that time.                                                G.  M. Ophoff.
For the season was late. But no sooner was Joab with
his troops departed than the Ammonites began  nego-
tiating with the Syrians-definitely with Hadadezer,
It must be assumed-for a new war on David. This
is plainly implied in the statement at  10  :19b, "So the                     CALL TO SYNOD: .
Syrians feared to help the children of Israel any more."
Hadadezer, as the account of the further developments           The Consistory of the Hull Protestant Reformed
reveal (8  :3-9 ; 10 : 16-18),  had been exceedingly willing. *Church being designated the calling church by the
He had immediately become active collecting new last Synod, hereby notifies the churches that Synod
forces. But the attempt ended in dismal failure. With        will convene on June 7, 1950.
his fresh army vanguished by David, his power was               The pre-synodical prayer service will be held in
permanently gone, and he could help the children of          the auditorium of our church on June 6, beginning
Ammon no  m0r.e.                                             at 7:45 P. M. Rev. C. Hanko, president of the 1949
       So had the Ammonites not alone refused to make        Synod will lead us in this hour of worship.
answer of peace ,to David ; even after their overwhelm-         Requests for lodging will kindly be forwarded to
ing defeat at the hands of Joab before the gates of the undersigned.
their city, they had continued to add insult to in-
jury.                                                                       Consistory of Hull Prot. Ref. Church
       David was fully cognizant of the new alliance                                          Rev. John D. de Jong
against him in process of formation.         He received                                      Box 20X
tidings of Hadadezer's collecting other forces. It was                                        Hull, Iowa.

          .


                                   THE       STANDARD   BEARER                                                       401

           Christ Sees His Seed                              was deep and enduring. But soon His people would
                                                             understand, when the resurrected and glorified Christ
                                                             will have sent the Comforter, which is the' Holy ,Ghost?
    We now, turn to the 9th and 10th verses of Isaiah        to teach them all things. And there will also be a
53 and, as quoting the original text, read the Word of       most remarkable sign to which Christ's Spirit will be
<God as follows: "But they assigned him his grave            directing their attention and the attention of us  all-
with the wicked, but he was with the rich man in his         Christ's body  ih a rich man's tomb. In the light of
death, because he had done no wrong nor was guilt in         the consideration that the hostile world had selected
his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him: he         for him a grave in a cemetery where criminals were
hath put him to grief. When his soul shall make a            buried, what a remarkable token of the fact that the
guilt offering for sin, he shall see his seed ; he shall     Man of sorrows was bruised for our iniquities in-
live long ; and the purpose of the Lord shall prosper        deed.
in his hand."                                                   Christ did no wrong; yet, so the prophet con-
    Though they had assigned him a grave with the            tinues, it pleased the Lord to bruise Him ; He hath
wicked, Christ was with a rich man in His death.             put Him to grief. Mark you well, the text asserts
This man was Joseph, a resident of Arimathea. He             that God bruised Christ, bruised Him, namely, for
is described to us in the Gospel narratives as a coun-       our iniquities. The natural man, we by nature, has
sellor, a member of the Sanhedrin. He was thus a             no objection at all to the assertion that th.e Lord was
man of position in Israel. The Holy Spirit, speaking the one to afflict the Man of sorrows. By nature  we
by the mouth of Isaiah, classifies him with the rich.        want it that way. But what the natural man objects
The Gospel narratives tell us still more about this          to is the idea, the truth and face, that the Lord af-
man. He was a good man and a just. He waited for             licted Him for our sins. We don't want it that way.
the kingdom of God. Being such a man he had not              Apart from grace we welcome the thought that God
concurred in the sentence of death pronounced upon           smote Him for His own sins. That was the contention
Jesus by his colleagues. With Christ's body on the           of Christ's contemporaries. It is only when the virtues
cross, this man's love of the Saviour waxes exception-       of His cross are realized in men by His Spirit that they
ally bold. He goes to Pilate and begs the body of            confess with the prophet, "Surely he hath borne our
Jesus. The Gospel narratives state that he goes in           griefs; he was wounded'for our transgressions."
secret .for fear of the Jews. The fear of the man is            Just why the idea of God's bruising the Man of
well-grounded. To add to Christ's disgrace, the hostile      Sorrows for our sins is so utterly distasteful to the
Jews had assigned Him a grave with the two criminals         natural man is not hard to explain. Firstly, the idea
with whom He was. crucified. Hence, it could. be ex- spells a Christ, holy, undefiled and separate from sin-
pected that they would be on hand to dissuade Pilate ners. Such a Christ can only be the object of the fear
from granting the man his request, should they learn         and scorn of the natural man. Secondly, if the Lord
his intention. That was the fear of this disciple of         bruised Him for our iniquities, it follows that we our-
Jesus. And therefore he acted in secret, as unbeknown        selves are lost and undone sinners whose only hope is
to the Jews. Going to Golgotha, he takes down the            the crucified ,Christ. Man's sinful pride rebels against
body of Jesus, wraps it in linen, and lays it in a sepul-    such a conception.
chre that was hewn in stone, wherein man never was              It is the Lord who bruised the Man of Sorrows for
lain.                                                        our sins. That the Lord bruised him is an element of
    That was  aGod's  work. Necessarily so, as it had        truth that now for the first time received a direct
been foretold as much as 600 years beforehand by             statement in the prophet's discourse.          0, certainly,
the Lord Himself certainly. For He alone knows the           Satan and men bruised Him, too. But men enter in
end .from the beginning in that He doeth all things.         here only as the rod in the hand of God by which He
Christ's body in a rich man's tomb has great signifi-        smote the Man of Sorrows for our sins. And it cannot
cance therefore. It is a definite Word of God, a sign        well be otherwise.    Those wicked men were God's
of the Lord to His people, telling us that Christ did no     creatures. They lived and moved and had their being
violence  ; and that in His mouth there was no deceit;       in God. By His  power.did  they exist, as do all things
thus telling us that the crucified Jesus was the Lamb        creatural.  * They crucified the Christ as men raised
of God indeed,-the Lord's spotless Lamb bearing              up by ,God and sovereignly hardened by Him. To end
away our sins by the travail of His soul.                    with Christ's travail in men is a fatal error. Sin is
    It was a great work that Christ was performing           an offense against God, a violation of His majesty,
on that terrible cross; but, as the prophet points out       the transgression of His commands. It is God's  right-
in the verse that precedes, a work as little understood - eous anger, therefore, that had to be appeased; it is
by His contemporaries-enemies and disciples alike-           His righteousness that had to be satisfied ; it was unto
as the love that inspired Him to make that sacrifice         Him that His people had to be reconciled. To end with
                                                                                                       .


       402                                      T H E   STANDARD   BEARER

       the travail of Christ's soul in men, is to affirm that           against our sin. How plain then that if it had not
       He was delivered according to men's counsel and not              been the Father who smote Him, there could have
       according to the sovereign counsel of God, as the                been no atonement. So did His soul make an offer-
       Scriptures teach; it is to affirm that the Saviour was           ing for sins-our sins. Whose soul  but. His could
'      a victim of men's wrath ; it is thus to deny that He             have done that  1  ICould the soul of any of us have
       was the Christ of God, through whose cross `God was              made an offering? We are men by nature dead in sin.
       reconciling the  world:God's   world&rnto Himself,               Apart from His grace, the only response that the
       not imputing unto them their sins.                               pains and sorrows of God's strokes draws out of us
       *       But we know that Christ was the Christ of God.           is a curse. The writer of the Hebrews presents to us
            God bruised Him ; His. nameless sorrows in their            this truth, "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,
       totality were the burden of God's wrath against our              and scourges every son whom He receiveth. If ye
       sin sustained by Him in soul and body. Not that the              endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; ,..,_
            Father `was angry with His Son. It could not be;            for what son is he, whom the Father chasteneth not?
            He was the beloved Son of the Father bringing under         But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are
       the impulse of a perfect love to God the supreme sacri-          partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons." Yet, II  ,
       fice. It was against our sins that the Father's anger            apart from His grace, how we despise God's rod.
     , burned.                                                          How far we are from thanking Him in love for the
               However the work of God whereby He bruised,              pain of His strokes. Christ did just that. His soul
       crushed, His servants-the Man  ,of Sorrows-was not               made an offering-an offering for our sins accept-
            properly the atonement. The atonement was that              able to ,God. Our sins therefore are cancelled, blotted
       work whereby He by His grace empowered His ser-                  out as fully covered by the offering of His soul. For
            vant to offer Himself; namely, willingly to bear in His     by that offering God's anger ~was appeased, His justice
       .5oul the sufferings and sorrows, the pains and agonies          satisfied; and we reconciled to, God.
            of God's strokes and willingly to die the death that           And therefore the prophet, speaking of this ser-
            God inflicted on Him. And .by the power of God,,            vant, can go on to say of Him, "He shall see his seed ;
            the Lord's servant did just that. In the words of the       He shall live long; and the purpose of the Lord shall
            sacred text, His soul made  an offering-an  offering        prosper in His hand."
            for sin. What does it mean? It means just that,                "He shall see His seed." This is truly a remark-
            namely, that Christ willed to be bruised by the Father,     able statement.    For it is the Man of Sorrows of
            and to die ; that He truly wanted those sorrows and         whom this is said-the Man cut off from the land of
            deaths and accordingly prayed for them. And we              the living at the early age of 33 years, cut off there-
            know from the Scriptures, just how he prayed, "Sacri-       tore in the midst of His days as `unmarried and child-
            fices and offerings," such was His prayer, "thou didst      less-that Man sees seed, offspring. And he sees seed ;
            not desire ; mine ears hast thou opened : burnt offer-      it necessarily implies that though He was dead, He
            ings and sin offerings thou hast not required. Then         now liveth, He and His seed with Him. It is evident
            said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book  it is        that God has performed a~ wonder-the wonder of the
            written of me, I delight to do thy will, 0 my God: yea,     resurrection of Christ and His people. The Man of
            thy law is written in my heart." Ps. 40 :6-8. So the        sorrows arose, He and His seed, with Him, as raised
            Lord's servant prayed. He willed God's strokes in-          up by the Father and received thereby the Father's
            deed-willed them in a love to God and His people            seal of approval upon His expiratory sacrifice of self
            that claimed all His heart, all His soul, all His mind      for the sins of His people. And He now sees His seed ;
            and all His strength. Sustaining in His soul  God"s         it is, to be sure, the very seed that God chose  in*Him
            wrath against our sins, laying down His life for His        before the foundation of the world unto life everlast-
            sheep, tasting death for His people, was with Him a         ing, and predestinated unto the adoption by  thisser-
            voluntary act in the supreme sense ; a work of undying      van&Christ Jesus-according to the good pleasure
            love to God into which He threw `Himself with every         of His will to the praise and the glory of His grace;
            fibre of His being ; thus a perfect consecration of the     it is the very seed that with Christ was crucified and
            whole man to God. .As bowed down under the weight buried. Thus, it is the very seed whose sins the Man
            of the transgressions of us all that the Father had         of Sorrows expiated on the cross and that God made
            laid upon Him, and with the Father smiti,ng, bruising,      acceptable in Him by vesting it-this seed-with His
            and afflicting Him for our sins, thus with all the          righteousness. For certainly God has not two seeds,
            billows of God's wrath gong over Him, He still cried        the one whom He chose in ,Christ in His counsel and
            from the depth of  His  sorrows, "Father, I love thee in    the other upon . whom He reveals His mercies and
            all the pain of thy strokes." That, let us understand,      thereby actually saves.     He has but one seed, one
            was His atoning our sins -- that heart cry.        That     people, one church of the elect, according as there is
            was Christ's sustaining the burden of God's wrath           also but one Christ, one Christ, one Spirit, one pro-


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          403

mise, one inheritance for all God's people. And this                               ._                              --^ll
one seed Christ now sees as a seed for whose sins He                     SION'S  ZiNGEN
atoned, sees therefore a seed raised up with Him from                     -.--_
the dead. So the Scriptures literally teach. In the
light of the Scriptures, then, how erroneous the view
according to which Christ prepared salvation for all                        De Lof Des Naam
men indiscriminately b.ut that it is contingent on every                                 (Psalm 113; Slot)
man's will whether this prepared good will be accepted
or rejected. In the light of our very text, how erron-.          De laatste  klarik die we opvingen uit dezen  lof-
eous the view according to which God's believing  psalm   was  de  waarheid,   dat  des  &eren  heer-ij&eid
people can fall from grace, SO that time only can tell boven  de hemelen is.
whether they will persevere and ultimately be saved.             Die gedachte wordt verder uitgebreid in het zesde
The risen Christ sees His seed.                              vers waar. we lezen: "Wie is gelijk de Heere onze God,            '         5
   My text next states that the Man of Sorrows, hav-         die zeer  hog  woont,"
ing atoned for the sins of His, seed, will live long.            Er zijn menschen met lieflijke namen. We .denken
Indeed ! He is the everlasting Mediator of an eternal hier vooral  aan Micha. Die naam beteekent: Wie is
covenant, and with reason. This seed, the church of          den Heere gelijk?
the elect, is in need of Him, the Christ now and ever,           Er zijn engelen Gods die odk schoone  namen heb-
for He is the sanctification, the justification, and the     hen.      Michael, DDE naam van een aartsengel, en die
redemption of this seed, the true bread, the living  naam beteekent  : Wie is den Heere  Go.d  gelijk?   Wat
water, yea, the very life of His people now and ever,        een naam om mee rond te wandelen tot in alle eeuwig-
so that without Him they can do nothing ever.                heid !
   My text states finally that the good-pleasure, the            Ge hebt in onzen  tekst dezelfde gedachte als uit-
purpose of the Lord,  ,will prosper in His hand. What        gedrukt in die namen. Het is een vraag die haar ant-
may be the good-pleasure of God? ' Briefly stated, it is .woord suggereed. Het antwoord  is : Niemand  1 Nie-
this: that the church of the elect, God's people, be led     mand is gelijk de Heere onze God 1
through sin and death to its heavenly  d,estination,             Hoe zou het ook !
which is the Father's house with its many mansions ;             De Heere is de VerbondsGod  die van eeuwigheicl
be lifted up out of her fall and clothed with the per-       af  aan bestaan heeft, en die Zijn  Wezen  in Zichzelf
fection  and glory of the heavenly. This purpose  pros-      heeft~.  Niemand heeft Hem gemaakt. Ik kan er niet
pers in Christ's hand,-the hand of the risen and             bij. Ik kan slechts aanbidden.
glorified Saviour. He brings it to pass quickly. For             En Hij is de eeuwig Getrouwe. Dat behoort bij
all power in heaven and on earth is now His; and `Zijn Heere-zijn. Hij laat nooit  varen de werken Zijner
all things are in His hand as put there by His  handen. Als Hij U bemind heeft van eeuwigheid a!
Father. His kingdom comes therefore ; the church  is         aan, dan zal Hij U minnen totdat geen  maan meer
being gathered verily, so that without fail the day schijnt, en tot in alle eeuwigheid.
is fast approaching  wh,en Zion's righteousness will go          Die Heere is onze God.
Eoith  as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that            Dat beteekent eerst, dat die Heere ons bezit  als Zijn
burneth and the sinners shall be destroyed out of the        Eigendom.
eaxth.                                                           Dan ook, dat Hij daarom ons bestuurt en leidt tot
   Do you believe in the crucified and risen Saviour? over dood en graf tot de erfenis die voor ons wach'.
Then you are risen with Him and are saved now and                En, eindelijk, dat die <God over ons te zeggen heeft,
for ever.                                                    en dat wij Zijn bevelen en geboden opvolgen zullen.
                                         G. M. Ophoff.           E,n die Heere God woont zeer hoog.
                                                                 Men woont waar men  zich thuis gevoelt.
                         *.  *  *  *                             En  ,God gevoelt  Zich thuis in het hooge.
                                                                 Wat dit mag beduiden?
             The glory of His kingdom                            Het hooge is figuurlijke taal voor datgene  `wa:
                 Proclaimed abroad shall  be,.,              onovertreffelijk is.            J,esaj,a  mag daar  gaarne van
             That ali may know His mighty deeds              spreken.      God woont in het hooge en het heilige.                   i
                 And glorious majesty ;                     / Zie: Jesaja 57 :X5.
                                                                 Er is een hoogte .die wij nict kunnen benaderen,
             His kingdom is eternal,                         zelfs  niet met onze gedachten. De Bijbel spreekt van
                 His throne shall stand secure,              het ontoegankelijk licht. En zoo is God het heerlijk
             And his dominion without end                    Wezen die in alle Zijne deugden hoog  en verheven is.
                 Through ages shall endure.                  Niemand kan nog mag met Hem vergeleken worden.


                                      THE  STANDARD   BEARER                           t                             405

                                                               knowledge, that ye may be filled into all the fulness
            FROM HOLY WRIT                                     of ,God."
                                                                  We would call your attention, dear reader, to the
                                                               following elements here in this marvelous paragraph
    Exposition of Ephesians 2:4-10                             from the apostle's pen. They are:
                                                                  1. That the apo&e is here addressing the saints,
                                                               who do have faith in Christ Jesus and who have love
                                                               unto all the saints.         He is not addressing heathen,
    That faith is a gift of God not only in the first          who had not yet heard the gospel nor believed unto
 impartation of the same in regeneration, but that it is       salvation. On the contrary he writes to those who
 also gift of ,God in its constant activity as it is worked    having believed in the ,Gospel  were sealed with the
 in us by the Holy Spirit though the Gospel we have            Holy Spirit of promise unto the final possession of the
 shown in our former article. What we there wrote              salvation in Christ. Yea, they had been blessed with
 concerning faith as the constant gift of God does not every spiritual blessing in Christ accordingly as they
 mean that God works an endless series of regenerative had been elected.
 acts in us, that he constantly creates anew.         Guch       2. Still the apostle travails in prayer for them to
 is no more the case with God's constant preservation the end that they may constantly be given power and
 of us in the faith than `what it is with *God's almighty      might in the inward man. And this must all be accord-
 and omnipresent power whereby He upholds all things ing to the riches of His glory-that is-according to
 that he once created in the six day creation-week in          the riches of the glory of God from  whom every family
 the beginning. Providence is not continued creation;          (fatherhood) is named in heaven and on earth. No-
 it is the preserving of what God has once brought where does the apostle rise to such heights of spiritual
 into existence by His mighty Word. To be sure it is           emotion nor to such depths of spiritual passion as
 by the Word of the Lord that the heavens are made,            here.  AlI is  coloured  with "the riches of His grace".
 and all the hosts of them by the breath of His mouth.         The reader will remember, that in our passage under
 And it is by this same Word of God that the heavens           consideration in chapter 2, the riches of grace, yea,
 are upheld. Heb. 1 :I-3; Cal. 1:18. But this does not         the exceeding riches of grace is so very  overwhehn-
 make these two acts identical. Creation and Provi- ingly on the foreground. To show this riches is the
 dence are two acts that must not be confused into             grand motive of God in all things in view of the ages
 one; where the former ends the latter begins. Just            t o   c o m e .
 so too it is with the elect-sinner who is regenerated            3. And the specific content of the apostle's prayer
 by God and called a new creation. The first imparta-          is that  <God may give the believers so to be filled with
 tion of the new life in Christ is first: the preserving spiritual power, to be overcome with power and might
 in the faith and in the state and condition of grace          in their mind and heart, to be strengthened in the
 is a subsequent act of God. Yet, even so, both are            inward man, that Christ may dwell in them, may make
 gift of God. Faith asit is implanted into our hearts          His abode in their hearts.
 by the Holy  Bpirit and called forth by the Word is              4. And by virtue of this indwelling of Christ we
 both gift of God.                                             may with all the saints be able to understand, to ap-
    That we must not think of faith in a rather deistic,       prehend the love wherewith we have been apprehended
 static sense, but that we must bear in mind that faith        in Christ, to know with all saints what is the length
 is always manifested as the power of the love of God          and breadth,. the height and depth of the love that
 shed forth in our hearts as clearly implied here in           passeth all knowledge. And in this apprehending of
 Ephesians 2:8 and 9. But, what is more, it is clearly         the love that passeth knowledge to be filled into all
 taught to be a constant gift of God, so very constant         the fulness of ,God,  that is, into the fulness  that SGod
 as God upholds all things by the Word of His power.           has prepared fox us in Christ Jesus.
This is the plain teaching of, the Word of God in chap-           5. ,This all must be g&err us. And this all must be
 ter 3 :14-19, where we read : "For this cause I bow my        received by faith, by the faith as it is given to us in
 knees unto `the Father, from whom every family in             regeneration and through the preaching of the Gospel.
 heaven and on earth is named, that He would grant             It is gift; free-gift, constantly given to us. Nothing
 you, according to the riches of  His, glory, that ye may      of this is ever out of us. The salvation is not of us,
 be strengthened with power through His Spirit in              nor is the impartation of this salvation out of us.
 the inward man; that  Chris,t  may dwell in your hearts       It is all out of ,Cod, Who is exceedingly able to do far
 through faith, to the end that  `ye being rooted and          above all that we ask or think.
 grounded in love, may be stong to apprehend with all             In .a11 of our salvation there is nothing in which
 the saints what is the breadth and length and height          man may boast. Salvation is of the Lord from be-
 and depth, and to know the love of Christ that passeth        ginning to end.


                                  .   THE   STANDARb   B E A R E R

   Thus it should be to the glory of God's grace.            new creatures.        We are in this faith created unto
   That there is nothing in all of our salvation of          good works. True faith in us is such that it neces-
which we can say: tha,t  is of us, is further made abun-     sarily issues forth in good works, yea, ,in a conscious
dantly clear in verse 10 of Ephesians 2. We read here :      and glad walking in the same . Light shines and re-
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus         flects in the spectrum of colors. Water is wet and
(unto) good works, which God  afore  prepared that we        flows, freezes in cold temperatures and again melts
should walk in them."                                        under the warming sun. Fire burns and consumes .
   It is very clear from the particle "for" (gar in the      all that is adapted to being fuel. So faith cannot but
Greek) that in this verse the apostle assigns the            issue forth into good works according to the good law
remon  for the fact, that we as Christians are not           of God. Yea, all that is not out of faith is sin. And
at all saved out of  the  works  that  we  perform.    We    this last is not merely relatively true, that is, it does
are not saved out of law `works. We are saved by             not merely hold in certain aspects of life and morals,
grace. We did not so much as raise a finger toward           but it is absolutely true over the whole life. rlll that is
the bringing about of our salvation. Works that we           not out of faith is sin !
perform under law are simply transgressions that we                  In this faith we are justified with Christ we very
perform under the curse and wrath of God. In these           really die through law unto law. And we are account-
works we are still dead. They are dead works. They           .ed righteous before God. And so what we thus live
do not glorify (God. The strict Pharisee is no nearer        we live by the faith of the Son of God. By faith we
to life than the harlot and the adulterer. Both are          appropriate Christ. And this whole appropriation is
children of wrath, walking in sin. Neither has life,         for us an entering into the grace of adoption. And
nor the love of God abiding in him.                          this entering into the grace of adoption is: Walking
   Salvation is not out of us.                               in good works first of all. He who does not begin in
   It is not out of us lest any man should boast.            faith does not begin. He who does not appropriate
   Nay, salvation is never out of works. It is out of        Christ's righteousness by faith is still dead in tres-
grace through faith. And since it is out of faith that       passes and sin.
is energized by the love of  )God  shed forth in our                 In this same faith we also walk in good works of
hearts salvation must not be explained out of works,         sanctification. We are thus by faith zealous unto all
but works, that are really good, must be interpr,eted        good works. For we are "created unto good works".
as springing forth from faith. For good works are            Well, that creation is unto good works by faith. Apart
those that proceed from a true faith, are performed          from this faith all is still sin, all is pure self-righteous-
according to God's law and unto His glory !                  ness,. Romanism ! There is no conscious delight in all
   Salvation is the free-gift of God.                        good works apart from faith. The short definition of
   Well, that is the teaching here of Paul in Ephesians      the Heidelberg Catechism that "good works are only
2:lO: "For we are His workmanship", writes Paul.             those that proceed from a true faith, are done accord-
And in the Greek the emphasis falls on the pronoun           ing to God's law and thus unto God's glory" is no trite
His... And this "his" refers not merely to God as the        and commonplace saying, that we may easily gloss
creator of the world, but it refers to God as spoken         over. It is startling, wondrous reality. It alone fits
of by Paul in the preceding verses where God is em-          in with the plan and purpose of God that no flesh
phatically stated to be the Oiv.er  of faith. He whose       should boast before God, and-that he that glories shall
gift is faith, the apostle would say,  His  workmanship      glory in the Lord. And, so let it be understood once
we are. He  made us. And, oh, yes, He made us                and for all, that there is no walking in good works
originally in Adam's loins and He brought us forth           apart from faith.
wondrously from our mother's womb, but to that the                   This truth that we are saved by grace alone, there-
apostle does not here refer. He is here rather speak-        fore, does not make men remiss, does not make men
ing of our being the "workmanship" as  IGod has              careless and profane. The new creature in Christ
brought us forth from the. darkness of sin and death         Jesus under the operation of the Holy Spirit cannot
by the working of the power of His might in Christ            . :
                                                             sm. Faith is energized `by love. And faith cannot
Jesus, calling us out of darkness into His marvellous        sin. It can only be victorious over sin and death and
light. And in all that we are by faith in Christ there       the grave and all of hell. For faith is clinging to
is nothing. that is not His workmanship. It is all           Christ Jesus the Lord.
rooted in His everlasting love and boundless mercy.                  And so in faith we. are new creatures in Christ,
    Our actually being saved by grace through faith          we are "cr-eated  unto good works". It is thus so very
is His wondrous workmanship. He that is thus in              true what the Heidelberg Catechism says "that it is
Christ is a new creature ; old things have passed away       impossible that those who are implanted into Christ
and all things have become new.                              by a true faith, should not bring forth fruits of thank-
    And because  ,God's gift of faith is ours we are         f ulness.


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          407

   She apostle also teaches very definitely, that there      cludes, "IN VAIN do they worship me . .  ." So we
are certain "good works" which `God has before pre-          must not content ourselves with the merely formal
pared that we should walk in them.                           operation of getting into our cars and driving to
   What these works are we hope to see in the next           church, imagining that thereby we have done what
issue of the Standard Bearer, in which we plan to            God requires.' God requires that the heart be in it.
write our final article on this beautiful and instructive    All worship shall be a matter of the heart, of love to
passage from Ephesians.                                      God, of loving Him because He first loved us, and
                   (to be continued)                         now we return to worship Him. Faith and worship
                                        Geo. C. Lubbers.     belong together. Fruits of God's election. We should
                                                             see them in our lives and convince ourselves of them
                                                             as we go to worship. "Worship" without faith, con-
                                                             fession, love and theodicy in it is VAIN, on any Sab-
           I N   H I S                                       bath morning, and every Sabbath morning.
                              f F E A R                       The Sabbath bells ring.
                                                                And we go to church.
                                                                 `I
              We Go To Church                                                     The Building.
                                                                There is the building.
   I'll never forget the farmer who brings his busy             Men  .have argued sometimes how many angels
day's work to a close early on Saturday afternoons,          could dance on the point of a needle. We are not
so he has ample time to prepare for the Sabbath. Per-        angels . . . if we were, most probably we would not
haps not everyone can do that, and life is far too com-      need a meeting place. We are human beings, we `have
plicated to put it into alphabetical files, but most of      bodies, we need a place to stand, a place to sit, to sing,
us can adopt some system which gives us time to pre-         to pray, a place where we can come together. The
pare for the Sabbath. Some of us were discussing the         Church is not the building for the Church is made of
other days how come that we, with a world. full of           living stones, laid by the Master Architect and Builder.
conveniences, seem to have less time than when these         When people say: you should see our new church
conveniences were unknown. No doubt the book of              once, they are speaking of the stones concerning which
Ecclesiastes holds an answer. One of us remarked             Christ said that not one will be left upon the other,
that they used to go to church with horses, but some         but all shall be thrown down. The Church is not the
people had to whip their horses into a fast trot to          building. I wouldn't have to repeat that so often if it
get to church on time ; but the other remarked that          were not for the fact that somehow people always
today they have to "step on the gas" to get there on         confuse those two entirely different things.
time. So the score is about even. And perhaps in                Is God concerned about what kind of building?
both instances it is a matter of attitude and system,        During the days of Nymphas  (Coll. 4 :15) the Church
more than a matter of whether we have conveni-               met in his house, and the house of Aquilla and Priscilla
ences.                                                       was also the meeting place of the Church once upon
   And so comes the Sabbath. Sun'day is not a very           a time {I Cor. 16  :19). So the building could be a
appropriate name. Teutonic peoples named this day            house, that would please  (God. Sometimes the callers-
after the Sun. Sabbath is a day devoted to the wor- upon-the-Name met in places that could not even be
ship of God and in that worship we are to find our           called buildings, they met in caves and dens of the
rest. Hence the word Sabbath.                                earth, and sometimes they met in the open field.
   The Sabbath bells ring.                                      But since the worship of God is a matter of the
   And we go to church.                            .         heart, of devotion, consecration and love, the callers-
   Isaiah one time said to some people, "When ye             upon-the-Name would insult God very grievously if
come to appear before me, who hath required this at they had money and goods enough to fix themselves
your hand, to tread my courts", and he told them that        fine homes with all modern conveniences, but if they
their new moons and sabbaths were wearying to God,           had no money to set up an equally nice building as a
and ,God could not bear it. In the last two words of         Church meeting place. Haggai one time loudly pro-
verse 13, Isaiah 1 (in the Hebrew) Isaiah complains          tested against the Jews who came back to Jerusalem.
that they have "iniquitous assemblies" and God abhors He accused them that they themselves built plastered
their coming together. The merely formal coming houses, but the House of God lay in ruin and waste.
together on Sabbath morning does not please God.             That was highly displeasing to God and the prophet
Jesus had reprimanded the Jews for drawing near assured them that until they changed their ways their
unto  `God with their mouth and honoring God with            daily wages would go into a bag with holes, that is,
their lips but their heart is far from  <God, and con- they labor in vain, The days of shadows are past but


 408                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R , ,

 their heart-attitudes remain until this very day. God        holding the conspicuous place and the pulpit off in
  IS concerned about the building, because the building       a corner.      All little telltales, betraying a basically
 may reflect the attitude of the hearts. If men boast         wrong principle.        When we come into God's house
  about the beautiful stones, Christ is there to remind       the predominant thing is the pulpit and the very build-
  them that the sones shall all be overhrown; if they         ing should bespeak this. Whether the building com-
  build plastered houses for themselves and neglect the mittee can work this out architecturally is less im-
  demonstration of love for the Cause of God, God is          portant than that this matter be worked out spirit-
  there to remind them that He will punish them. $0           ually. Frrhaps the latter is the more difllcult.
  God is concerned about the building.                            The pulpit, that is, the preaching of the Gospel, is
        As any business man sets up a building that will      the center of all that the Church does, that it lives of,
  serve the purpose he has in mind, so the children of        hopes for, has in mind when it buys an organ, labors
  ,God will provide a building that will answer to the        for, in which it prays and sings, etc.  A's soon as
  reason why God has His Church in this world. What- the pulpit turns away from the Word of God, the
ever we build here shall eventually be overthrown.            tunes  prhich  the organ plays, the songs which are
  That will urge us to regard our building as very sung, the coins which are collected threaten to become
  secondary. Build worthy of the great calling we have,       idolatry . . . and the building . . . a temple to some
  build soberly lest we glory in stones that are dead.        god. The Pulpit, the preaching, the living testimony
  As clothes were made for the man and not man for            from the Word of `God, that is the life of the Church,
  the clothes, so the building is made for the Church         and the only cause for its existence.
  and not the Church for the building.                            When you take your place in church on the Sabbath
                                                              Day, keep the pulpit before your mind as the center
                           The Pulpit.                        of everything.
        It must be the first, the important thing we see.
  Around that pulpit (figuratively speaking) everything                         You  Pray  Before Service.
  centers. What that pulpit does (still speaking figur-          You cannot do this very well if you come late.
  atively} and what proceeds from that pulpit, around          There could be an exception now and then, for life
  it the entire significance of the Church centers.            is complicated and there are things beyond our con-
        So the pulpit must remain the important thing.         trol every day. But isn't it insulting to God and dis-
  lf the pulpit (not speaking figuratively) is made of         turbing to the people when you shuffle your way down
  cedar, oak or plywood, that would not make too much          the aisle while worship is in progress? I'd rather, of
  difference, for God rejoices in all kinds of wood. But,      course, you come late than not at all, but why adopt a
  whatever the pulpit is made of, it `should hold a com-       pattern of life in which you have to choose between
  manding position, even in the building scheme. It's          two evils?
  placement in the structure as a whole must bespeak              You will be at church on time.
  what place it holds in the hearts of those that come            You take your place in church.
  together there. Its placement must bespeak how aware            You bow your head in silent prayer as soon as you
  we are of the reason why God had even placed a               have taken your *place.
  Church in this world.                                                                                          M. Grit&s.
        Our Fathers of olden days watched this rather
  carefully. When the organ and the piano, the choir-                                    * * *  *
  loft, pictures, etc., came knocking at the door of the
  church, seeking admission, the Fathers insisted that                                 ANNIVERSARY
  the Pulpit would hold the  central  place, and no organ,       On  June  9,  1950, our beloved  parents
  no piano, nor anything would takes its place.                                 Mr. and Mrs. A. Van Tuinen
        Hence the organ or the pipe-organ or the electric      will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary.
  organ must not be the conspicuous thing. In many                         "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace
  churches the organ exactly overshadows the pulpit,                       whose mind is stayed on Thee."-&.  26:3.
  and in the minds of the people the organ soon becomes          We thank God with them for having kept them together
  far more important than the pulpit. And the organ- through the years and pray their remaining years may know
  ists were \quick to detect this shift of emphasis and        the blessedness of His peace.
  proceeded to build a little service around the organ.                                 Their devoted chiIdren:
  This had its effect on the function of the Church.                                         Mr. and Mrs. G. Van Tuinen
  Neither may the choir loft take the place of the pulpit                                    Mr. and Mrs. A. R. Van Tuinen
                                                                                             Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Piersma
  (speaking figuratively yet). Sometimes when one                                               Mr.  a`nd  Mrs. R. Van Tuinen
  comes into churches one sees the Communion Table Grand Rapids, Michigan.                        and  `7 grandchildren.


