    VOLUME  XXVII1                            JANUARY 1,,1952 - GRAND RAPIDS,  MICHIGAN                                        NUMBER  7

                                                                         There is a great danger what man may do unto me,
            MEDIT-AT1O.N  ,'  a n d - n o m i s t a k e .
                                                                         Horrible things are be&g threatened bi man. u&o
                                                                     man. Man's inhumanity unto man is proverbial  it:
                  &member The Rock                                   o&days. And, remember, it is .only the beginning of
                                                                     sorrows. Things will become such that man will seek
             "Remember them which have the rule over  you,  who      death, rather than live the instinctive urge of  self-
             have spoken unto you the Word of God: whose'faith       preservation. And I can well believe it. We need the
             follow, considering the  end of  thee  converastion.    Rock.
             Jesus  SChrist, the  same yesterday, and today and          Add what is the God-employed means unto such ex-
             forever."
                                               -Heb.  13~7, 8.       alted resolution where you defy all that man may
                                                                     possibly do unto  .you ? It is this : Remember them
   Again we stand at the threshold of a new year. A                  which have the rule over 
thousand doubts and a thdusand fears beset                                                              you!        And follow their faith.
                                                           us  ai    You  will not fail to note the end of their conversa-
every side. It was thus in former occasions, it is io                tion. It will inspire you to follow their example.
now, only worse than ever before. Thin,gs are getting                 And what is behind  bbth them that have the rule
more unstable, loose, insecure as we continue our path-              over you, as-well as behind the conversation of such?
way to eternity.                                                     This: the Rock, Jesus Christ.
  And so we have need of guidance, security, estab-                     ,`It teaches- us that office bearers ought to disp1a.y
lishing: we have need of the Rock of Ages, and that                  something of the Rock.
is Jesus Christ.                                                         So that haply the church may take courage and
   Some of us have a- difficulty e<ery -morning of the               follow. And that they may be able to say with the
New Year. It is. the custom to proceed to the ordinr-                office bearers: The `Lord is my Helper, and I will not
tion of the newly chosen office bearers at the occasion              !fear what man may do unto me ! -
when the church gathers to celebrate the incoming of                     IOh yes, they should gave something of the Rock.
a-New Year. And so there are two main themes be-                     And the only available .material  of this Rock which
fore the preacher's consideration: the theme of the                  lies within their and our reach `is the Word which
office and the office bearer ; and the theme of `the New             they speak unto 
Year. I do not think that- there are many texts in                                         us.    The living Word of ,God, such as
                                                                     ' it is spoken in our hearts by the Spirit of the exalted
.Holy Writ that combine both themes. At least, I have , Lord,' is able to make me walk with confidence from
not found many. :But the above is one of them. They                  the Old into the `New Year.
are beautifully combined in that text. I have written                    Yes, we will do so smiling.
above this meditation: -REMEMBER THE ROCK.                               We have met the Rock.
And under that theme we see bothOthemes'adequately                       And shall remember Him!
covered.
   In the connection the writer to the Hebrews guides                                             *     a     *     0
the* church unto bold speech, the speech, namely, thai;'                 Remember the Rock!
says : `The Lord is my Helper; and I will not fear what                  He continually reveals Himself to us. And you
man shall do unto me! That is ir1dee.d a bold speech.                wiil be reminded of this Rock this very morning. Y o u
And it is SD more to-day than in the day this writer                 will see the emphasizing of those th.at have the rufe
penned the lines.                                                    over you: the ministers, the elders and the deacqns.


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      1        4       6                          T H E   SY'~r;tDARD  BEARER

             At other tir;Mes  `.you `have taken them so much for    scout the way, and call out unto you: There are the
      ,granted.  That  -is not good, brethren. Perhaps you           pathways to heaven ! walk in the old, tested path-
      have done worse.  Perhaps   you have not only taken            ways to heaven, and it shall be well with you.
      them for gran'ted, but you-~may  even have maltTe&erl             Remember them !
      them.         It has become proverbial: a minister  (au:!         They are a very important class of men.
      also the elder and the deacon) is the rubbing post.              -How so? Well, they lead you to heaven. That is
      Many they  are,;sometimes,  who  seein  $0  vent  theil        their charge from *God. God says to every minister,
      spleen against  the office bearer. They better look oui.       elder and deacon: See that thou bring all these s&ls
      We will kick them out of office,, if they will not de-         to heaven i If they stray ; admonish them. If they fall
      have ! Who did never hear `such and worse sentiments?          behind : return unto them and bring them .back! If
             That is very bad. This ought not  t6 be done.  1        they  run ahead: rec$ll them to obedience and lowly
      do not  s?y that all have done it. There are always            cofiduct ! If they weep, comfort them !       In short :
      some who appreciate the consistory. And you never              take care of them ; take goqd care of them : they are
      have any  trdtible  with them. They heard the ad-              Mine own peculiar possession !
      monition ; they see the unspeakable gift of the co1;-             So if they shall come at your door, do not cast the
      sistory (I mean, of course God's gift to. His people,          door in their face.        Do not growl at them. Do
      and that gift is the consistoryj ; and they live their         not. contradict them.      Instead, welcome them with
      appreciation. Although their number grows smaller              open arms. Make them feel that you are so glad they
     . as we proceed to eternity. It, too;is a sign of the times.    came. `Treat them- as you wduld Jesus Christ when '
             Remember the Rock!                                      He came knocking at your door. Iri a sense, that is
             And the Rock visibly reveals Himself in the office      exactly what happens when they ?ome a-knocking at
      bearers.                                                       your door: Jesus visits you at ,such times. He made
             Attend to this: every New Ye_ar the Lord remi&          them ; He gave them ; He charged them ; and He wi il
      you that He is your Rock, and therefore  He! gives             demand your soul at their hands.
      you new  ofiice bearers.                                          Remember them -that have the rule over you !
           R e m e m b e r   t h e m !                                                      a  *  *  -it
             ,Th&y speak to you of the Roc.1~ !                         Remember the Rock !
                                 is  *  *  rlr                          And therefore remember the men that have the
             Who are they?                                           rule over you !
             Not just anybody. ,`Oh no, they are a very special         But I have heard of false teachers,. of bacl minis-
      sort of people. That sort is so special that every ma::        ters, of crooked and weak elders; of harsh and cruel,
      who, appears on the nomination, and w_ho knows the             unsympath&ic~deaco&.   Yes, there  aresuch.  But you
      import of. the of%e bearer, i's also very much afraid.         may safely know which are which. Listen to the text :
      And they a+e always inclined to say with Moses : Send          "Who have spbken unto you the Word of God !"
      Thou, 80 God, whom. Thou shouldest send, but do not               There you have the unfailing testing stone. The
      send me!                                                       true minister speaks,unto  you the Word of God ! Ancl
.            Yes; they are a very special kind of people. God        so do the' elders and deacons. And if they do, follow
      has set them apart. aGod has called them. First, by            them. Give yourselves  to them.
      giving them special talents and gifts. And these                 * Follow their faith.
      gifts and talents are such that the congregation, filled          Their faith is their life such as it is lived by the
      with the Holy  Ghost, recognizes them.            Then they    grace of God.
      me& at the annual meeting &id say: 0 Triune cod!                  Yes, yes, I say it `with a groan in my inmost !heart :
      wilt Thou be so good and kind as- to continue Thy those poor men are also sinners. And there is no one
      wondrous gift of the Rock ! Give us the continuous             in the congregation iyho `knows this better than the
      line of office beaiers.  And then they vote. And there         true minister, the true elder, and the true deacon.
      are your office bearers. Remember them. God gave               Shall I tell you something at this juncture, something
      thkm to you. YOU asked for them: and there they are.           that comes from my inmost heart? Yes, and I am
             They are the men that have the rule over you. In        persuaded tliat when other ministers, elders and dea-
     the Dutch they are called "voorgangeren", that' is,             cons read this, it will evoke an answering echo  .in
      scouts, guides. Yes, you find the word "guides" in             their hearts.    It is this: I cannot understand that
      some of your references. And .it is correct. And yet           there is one, solitary minister, elder or deacon left.
      they not only guide, scout, but they have indeed the           Why did they not run away from the office long ago?
      rule over ypu also: They guide, and -their guidance            If they all did, I could easily understand it. We icre
      is with the purpose that you should fpllow after. They         so very,sinful  ourselves too.


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                                         THE                    SfANbARD         BtiARER                                      1 4 7

     Remember them. They partake somewhat of the                     you are. Remember so much the more. They need
 Rock.     Therefore they  stay and do not run. away.                your prayer. Pray for them. Do, so often. Bear
 They cannot, even if they would.                                    with their weaknesses.
     And they will tell you all this. Oh yes, they will                   For behind it all  - what  do I say?  - under it
 tell you this, and much more. A true minister, elder,               all, is the Rock, and the Rock .was Christ.
 and deacon will cover every step he takes with Holy                       It is Jesus Christ in the text. The ground is in
  Scripture. He knows his strength. His strength as                  a Name.
 office bearer is exactly in that Word of his God.                        .The ground is in Jesus. He is the Saviour of His
     Remember them. Pray for them. They have so                      own. He gave Himself to. prove the love of `God.
 much need of your love and prayer. Respect them;                         The ground is also Christ.. But though I hear two
 tell your children to respect them. Do not berate them              Names, `it is the one love of God. Christ is Jesus
- in the presence of your children.  Breed respect for               in His office. He is the  onljr Prophet,' Priest, and
 their office bearers for God's sake.                                King. He did -all the work that was required from
     Remember the Rock!                                              you.  He is the only real office bearer. And if you  -
                       -**A*                       _                 want to go still deeper, you may say without  .fear
     Remember your guides; and give yourselves L to                  of contradiction that  ,God Triune is the only Office
 their rule.  j                                                      Bearer. Christ Jesus is of God.
     Follow their faith.                                                  At this juncture I must ask this foolish question:
   What  .is faith? It is the Word of God transposed                 Can you trust yourselves to Him and His rule which
  into living. . You shall  knoy them by their fruits.               comes to you through His Word in the true  oflice
  Follow them. Their faith is worthy of it. Its origin               bearers? And the answer is; Yes, for He never
 is God Triune. You shall fare well by it. The  walk                 changed.
 of faith carries its own reward. You shall be blessed                    He is the same yesterday. And that refers to the ~
 by it.                                                              Cross. There He showed exactly what He is and who
     What am I saying? Must we blindly follow our                    He is. Look strongly on the Cross, and you will know
 leaders? ,Oh no, for I continue to read my text : "con' the Jesus Christ of yesterday.
 sidering the end of their conversation."                                 He is the same to-day. Look at your office bearers.
     A man's conver&tion is his walk such as he lives                They are His spokesman. They speak His word of
 it from the heart. For out of it are the issues of life.            unspeakable love to you. They bring the Cross of yes-
 Watch your office fearers. Consider their walk. And                 terday in your homes, your schools, your churches.
 consider the outcome, t,he destiny of their walk. The               They impregnate your whole atmosphere with  the
 text uses the word "end",'and that is the purpo?e  of               Christ of yesterday. Oh yes, He is the same to-day.
  all their walk of faith. What are  ,they always and                     He is the' same forever.
 1 forever pointing at? It is this : The `Rock from which                 What'shall I say, what shall I say?
 they themselves are hewn. A true minister sees to it                .    I would have to speak of immutability. And that
 that no one makes ,an idol of him: he poipts always                 is His unchanging love. I know so little, so very
 to Christ as the end of our conversation. The true                  little of it.  It. lies beyond the scope of my senses.
  office bearer sees to it that the church that is placed            And still, I can spiritually sense a little of it.
 in his charge walk toward God, seek God, live to His                     He loves me to-day. I know it, for He loved me
 honor and praises.          *                                       on the Cross. And tells me to-day by His office bearers.
     Remember the& !                                                 And He shall  love me forever. He promised it, and
     Such remembering creates a ray of light in their                His promise is good. His name is `True and Faithful.
 difficult task. Oh, how they-will appreciate such con-                   knd so I stare  iqto this terrible New Year.  1
 duct.                                                               can hear the thunder of the nations. I hear the grumb-
                        *  -ik  *  *                                 ling, t&z roaring of thunder in the offing.
     And what is the ground for this admonition? It                       And still I can stare into the New Year. I need
 is this: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day,              not be afraid.
 and forever !                                                            For our Christ Jesus is the same. He will be the
     `The ground is the Rock of our salvation.                       same when the elem&s-  will melt with fervent heat ;
     In other `words : it is the eternal, unchangeable love          &hen the oceans will roar in their waves and the swell-
 of  `God for you. That is the ground of this admoni-                ings thereof.               D
 tion to remember those that have the rule over you.                      Immutable Covenant Jehovah is His name !
     ,And do not `stray fyoti that pathway of loving re;                  Oh, remember the Rock!
 membrance  when you -note that they are as sirfful as                                                            G.. Vos.


141;                `.                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARl&                                                  -___


                          ' THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                                      E D I T O R I A L
          Semi-monthly, except monthly in July and August
      Published  by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
             Box 124, Station C., Grand Rapids 6, Michigan                                                                               The Stocking Is finished
                          EDITCR  - Rev. Herman Hoeksema                                                                        Under, the caption "De KOLIS Is Af" (The Stocking
      Communications relative to contents should be addressed                                                               is Finished), Dr. Schilder published an article in De
      to Rev.  II. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand
      Rapids 7, Michigan.                                                                         . ..l                     Reformatie  of Nov. 17, 1951, on which he certainly
      All matter relative to  subsdription  should be addressed                                                             must expect a reply in the  Strzncla~d  Bearer,  and
      to Mr. J.  Bouwman,  1360 Giddings Ave.,, S. E.,, Grand                                                               which I certainly cannot afford to pass  up  without
      Rapids `7, Michigan. Announcements and Obituaries must
      be mailed to the above address and will be published at                                                               comment.
                                                                                                                     a
      fee of $1.00 for each notice.                                                                                             The main thrust of the article, as I understand it,
      Renewals:- Unless a definite request for discontinuance                                                               is that the relationship between the Gereformeerde
      is received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the.                                                            ,Kerken (Art. 31) in the Netherlal:ds  and our churches
      subscription  to  cotitinue   yithout the formality of a re-
      newal order.                                                                                                          is finally and definitely severed, -and that, on their
                          Subscription Price: $3.00 per year                                                                part, at least, no further attempts will be made' at
      Entered as Second Class mail at Grand Rapids, Michigan                                                                correspondence. And the blame for this situation is
                                                                                                                            placed, of course, entirely on us, the Protestant Re-
                                                                                                                            formed Churches. As the reader will expect, the im-
                                                                                                                            mediate occasion for the writing of this article by
                                                                                                                            Dr. Schilder is the passing of the Declaration of Prin-
                                                                                                                            ciples by our last Synod.
                                                                                                                               I will not take the trouble to quote and to translate
                                                                                                                            the entire article. This is not necessary, and it would
                                    C O N T E N T S                                                                         take too much space in our paper: But we will re-
MBDITATION-                                                                                                                 flect on a few items, and..at the same time review the
         Remember The Rock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145                                    history of our correspondence with the Liberated
            Rev. G., Vos                                                                                                    Churches in the Netherlands. And the readers may
EDITORIALS-                                                                                                                 judge where the blame lies. Dr. SCliilder writes that
         The Stocking is Finished . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 148                                     the stocking is finished. But I would say that the
         The Synod,of  1951 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154                 knitting of the stocking was a complete failure, and
            Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                that the failure must be blamed not on our churches,
As  Td  BOOKS-                                                                                                              but `on the churches in the Netherlands. Instead of
         Questions Children Ask, Dem Korfker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153                                knitting a stocking, we tangled up the whole business.'
         Bedtime Stories' For Boys and Girls, T. `W. Engs:rom  .`. . . . . . 1%                                             And the best that can be done is to unravel that tangle
         Isaiah, Lange's Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158                       and start from the beginning, that is, if the (Liberated
         Paulus  en de  Antieke   Cultuurwereid,   Dr. G.  1. D.  Aalders . . . . 159                                       Churches in. the Netherlands still desire correspon-
         Exodus,  Dr. H. Gispen .: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159                                          dence with ~11s. And in spite of the history we made
           Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                 i,n the last couple of years, I still think that a certain
T                                                                                                                           form of correspondence between our churches, is de-
     HE DAY OF  SHADOWS-                                                                                                    sIrable, and that not only for us, - in fact, not in the
         The  Protevangel   &  the Unifying Idea of  all  the Scriptures . . . .  .159                                      first place for us, - but also, and in the first place,
             Rev. G. M. Ophoff                        ,
                                                                  1                                                         for the Liberated Churches in the Netherlands. For
30~`s  ZANGEN-                                                                                                              aithough Dr. Schilder writes that I have entangled
         N i e t   On;,  0   Heere!   N i e t   Qns  (Tweede  Dee1 )  ;........I  ..`... 162                                myself in a network, - I suppose he means: of con-
             Rev. G. Vos                                                                                                    fused doctrines; and again, I suppose he refers to the
FROM HOLY  WRIT-                                                                                                            Declaration of Principles, - I maintain, and I am
         Exposition of Matthew 5  :21-26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165                        ready to prove it, that we as Prot. Ref. Churches main-
            Rev. G. C. Lubbers                                                                                              tain the purest form of Reformed truth, and that
                                                      .~                                                                    .moreover  that purest form of Reformed truth, as
PERISCOPB-                                                                                                                  principally expressed in our Confessions, is declared
         What Others Say                                   D
                                      . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    167    in the Declaration of Principles.
                  Rev. J.  Howerzyl                                                                                            Dr. Schilder writes that he has clearly shown that
                                                                                                                            the Declaration was not neceisary, that it is not the


 _:                                      THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   -                                                  149

 correct interpretation of the Confessions, and .that it                         6) The end of all things is: the  .tabernacle
 is based on misunderstanding. And he writes also that                               of God with men. Rev. 21:3.
before long he will publish what he has written, about                           7) The center of this communion of friend-
 the Declaration in pamphlet or book form, so that                                   ship between God and His people is the
 everyone may buy it. I promise him that I will pay                                  incarnation.
 attention to that pamphlet or book, whatever it is.                  III. This was the idea of the covenant in paradise.
 And he can expect my answer. I would be willing to              No  covenant  of  works.
 give him, some advice in regard-to its contents, but I
 suppose that would be too late. -                                    IV. God alone establishes His covenant and main-
                                                                 tains it. He does this on the basis of the merits of
       As to the rest of the article, I' will begin my re-       Christ and through the grace of the Holy. Spirit. Un-
flections by referring to the paragraph in which Dr.  collditional
Schilder writes about the conferences we had when
the brother was here in 1947 in Grand Rapids, Michi-                  V.. The fruit of the establishment of God's cove-
gan. He writes (and I translate) : "And when after               nant with us is that we `love the Lord our God with
 a very broad and patient final conference  colleage             all our heart, with all our soul, with all out mind, with
 Hoeksema himself made a motion to put a period                  all our  powers,  forsake the world, crucify our old
 after th,e theological discussions, declaring (after we         nature, and walk in -a new and holy life.
were heard, also in rebuttal) : that is reformed, then                VI. The promise of the covenant.,God  realizes only
we returned cheerfully to the Netherlands.                 We    in the elect even as it is meant for them alone. Rom.
thought : good, there are still people that have a feel-         9 :6-8, 15; Heb. 6 :I6-18.
 ing for the divine prohibition,' to help with pleasure               VII. The dispensation of the covenant runs in the'
to extend the number of denominations."                          line of the generations of believers.
       And now Dr.. Schilder writes about that confer-                        a. In that line the promise is administered by
 ence, it is well that we obtain a complete picture of                          the church to all without distinction. All are
the discussions that were carried on in those meetings,                         baptized; instructed `in the way of the cove-
The first of these conferences was .held on Oct. 16.                            nant,. come under the preaching, and are sub-
The second lasted three days, from Nov. 4 to Nov. 6.                           ' ject to the discipline of the church. AlI,there--
At the first of these conferences I was able to be pre-                         fore confront, the responsibility to love the
sent only part of the time, due to, my sickness. The                  . .       ,Lord  their. God, to forsake the world, etc.
second conference I attended from the beginning to
 end.                                                                         b. The reprobate, however,  violate the covenant
                                                                                 of God, as Esau, and thereby aggravate
       Now in those conferences I presented' thirteen very                      their judgment.
definite propositions on the subject of the covenant             '                                                       . .m
and the promise. And these propositions I will now                            c. The elect, however, in whom `God realizes His
quote. Here they follow.                                                         promise are saved and by grace come to stand
                                                                                 in the world as of the party of the living God.
       I. The idea of the covenant is not:                            VIII. The elect children of the covenant are usual-
         a. The promise.                                         ly regenerated from infancy:
         b. A contract.
         c. The way of salvation;                                            a. The promise of God is fulfilled in them.
         d. An alliance- between two parties against a                        b. God places them from infancy in the sphere
            third.               .                         :-                    of the preaching.
                                                                              c. Experience plainly teaches this.
       II. .Bdt it is the communion of friendship between
God and His people in Christ Jesus.                                   IX. The meaning of "sanctified in Christ"' in the
                                                                 first question of the baptism -form is subjective :
 .       a, The highest revelation of God's own life as
            the Triune God. God is one in Being  and;                         a. That is the only meaning of the phrase in the
            three in Persons.                      -. _               *  B i b l e .
         b. Proof:                                                            b. It stands over against "conceived and born
             1) Scripture speaks of an eternal covenant.                        in sin".
             2) The tabernacle and temple are the dwell-                      c. This interpretation is historically correct.
                ing place of ,God with men.                           X. No separation can be-made in the first part of
             3) Abraham is called the friend of God.             the Baptism Form between the .work of the Father
             4) Enoch and Noah walked with.,God.-                and the Son; on the one hand, and that of the Spirit,
             5) Texts as Ps. 25 :14, II Cor. 6 :16-18, etc.      on the other.


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                 a. `The Father seals unto us that He.establishes           "On the whole, we had very interesting and in-
                      an eternal covenant of grace with us.              structive meetings.
                b. The Son that He washes us in His blood from              "The differences between the Liberated Churches
                      all bur sins.                                      and us, as they were brought out in the discussion,
                 c. The Holy Spirit assures us that He will apply        concerned especially the following .points :
                      unto us that which we have in Christ.                 "1. First of all, the definition of the covenant. Ac-
               d. All this is applicable' only to the elect.             cording to us the idea of the covenant is essentially
              XI. The.thanksgiving in the Form also has in view          that of friendship and fellowship between God and
        only the elect.                                                  His people in Christ; the Liberated Churches, although
                 i. The forgiveness of sin.                              they do not define the covenant, nevertheless, lay all
            b. Membership in Christ.                                     emphasis on promise and demand.
d                c. Adoption unto children.                    _
                                                      :                     "2. `In our view the promise of the covenant is for
              XII.  <Children of the promise in Rom. 9 means             the elect only ; according to the Liberated Churches
        the elect seed of the covenant..                                 the promise is for all that are born in the covenant
                                                                         line, although this must not be understood in the Ar-
            XIII. What is usually called `the covenant  -of re-          minian sense, since also they emphasize the truth tUhat
        demption ,or the counsel of peace has no ground in               God Himself must fulfill all the conditions of the cove-
        Scripture, but is thecovenant between Triune God and             n a n t .
        Christ as the $!tediator, or the Servant of Jehovah.                "3. The Liberated Churches speak of parties in
              Although it was far beyond my power at the time,           the covenant, although they admit that in the real
        yet I managed to discuss these propositions for ap-              sense `man cannot be a party over against God ; we
        proximately four hours in both conferences.                      prefer to'speak  with the Baptism Form of parts rather
              And now I will quote what I wrote in the Stmdurd           than of parties.?
        Becwer  concerning these, propositions, and especially              Now Dr. Schilder, in the paragraph which I quoted
        concerning the reply by Dr. Schilder at the time. A-             and translated above, once more states that at the
        bout the first conference, that of Oct. 16, I wrote as           close of his reply I must have said:      "That is  Re-
        follows :                                                        formed." I have called his attention to this error be-
              "In the afternoon Dr. Schilder replied -to these           fore, and now I will repeat it emphatically, and hope
        propositions, but my strength "was still too' limited to         that Dr.. Schilder will take note of it that I did not
        attend .the afternoon session.                                   say.*"`That is Reformed," but that I said, "He is Re-
              "According to reports, however, he seems to have           formed."     (The difference is plain to all that can
        emphasized that our differences were not a question              read. If I said, "That is Reformed," I would have  '
        of' churches but of theologians. For the rest it was             subscribed emphatically to all that friend Schilder
        largely a matter of terminology and. emph,asis."                 said at the conference, and that meant that I would
              On the. second conference, that of Nov. 4 to 6, I          have subscribed to the Heynsian idea of the covenant,
        wrote as follows:                                                which in my conviction is far from Reformed. But
              "The first day of this conference  Dr; Schilder spoke.     we must remember, in the first place, that we had a
        He elaborated on his view of the covenant, especially            very friendly discussion with Dr. Schilder, although
        emphasizing the covenant as a historical institution.            we agreed to differ. In the second place, we were
        He explained his idea of the parties in the covenant,            undoubtedly all somewhat under the influence of
        elaborated especially on his conception of the condi-            Schilder's charming personality, and in his entire
        tions in the covenant, on the relation between promise           talk he emphasized repeatedly that our differences
        and demand, and rejected the view of the late Prof.              were no differences of principle, but rather of ter-
        Heyns in as far as he proposes a subjective- covenant            minology.    Besides, at the time I received the im-
        grace for all the children of the covenant. Dr. Schilder         pression that. Dr. Schilder himself did not entirely
        spoke freely, and I am sorry that he did not briefly             agree with the Liberated view of the covenant. I
        sumn&ize his view in .the form of definite proposi-              cannot `defmitely  state why I received that impression,
     t i o n s . "                                                       and I am sorry that Dr. Schilder, did not leave some-
              And again, in the same conference, I proposed my thing black on white in the form of definite proposi-
        second set of propositions, propositions 8 and 13 a-             tions which we could criticize today. I  rememb-er
        bove. And concerning this  i: wrote as follows.             .    that during the conference one of our ministers ap-
              !`The afternoon of the same day, that is, the 5th          proached me and said, "When you speak, we all know
        of November? and the forenoon. of the next day was oc- -what` you mean; but when Sehilder speaks, I don't
         cupied by Dr. Schilder's reply to those propositions.           know what exactly he is driving at." I remember, too,


                                      T~ZE  STANDAR~BI~AR~~~~                                                  c     'i51

the sharp remark which the Rev. G. Vos made during we did not receive membership papers from any- Re-
that same conference, virtually accusing Dr. Schilder        formed Churches of the Netherlands, and did not ,re-
of Arminianism. And certainly, the Rev. Ophoff was           ceive prospective members into the communion of OLIE.
not satisfied, and wanted to  tisk Dr. Schilder some very    churches until they had first been instructed in re-
pointed questions, for which, however, he was too late,      gard to the truth as taught in our Prot. Ref. Churches.
because the meeting had adjourned when .he came in.          Naturally, this caused trouble. For evidently in the
And therefore, friend Schilder must never write again        Old Country the people had received the impression
that I said at the end oft his reply : "That is Reformed." that when they came to America, they would be re-
For I never .did. But I do remember that I said, `*He        ceived without question and without condition as
is Reformed," understanding that statement in a gen-         members of the Protestant Reformed Churches. That
eral sense, and certainly not in the specific sense in       they labored under such an impression certainly was
which we as Protestant Reformed Churches, since              not our fault, but was the fault of Dr. Schilder, who,
1924, are Reformed. That I do not regard the Liber-          according to reports, had advised-all the people of the
ated conception of the covenant Reformed, Dr. Schil-         Liberated Churches to join the Prot. Ref. Churches in
der knows. very well. And he was aware of that even          America. But once more the  ditierences  in regard
before he came to this country in 1947. For immedi-          to the doctrine of the covenant and of the promise
ately after the war, as soon as we could have cor-           were too great and too fundamental to permit mem-
respondence together, I wrote friend Schilder a long         bers from the Liberated Churches into our communion,
letter, stating in unambigous terms what I thought           Hence, we demanded `that they, `promise to submit
of his stand, and asking him how it were possible that       to our instruction, and in the meantime not to agitate
he. could so have changed that he now adopted the            against our doctrine. This was honest and fair to all
Heynsian view of the covenant, and that, in a speech         concerned. We did. not excommunicate. any brethren
at the conference at the Hague, where the Acte cEer          and sisters in .our Lord Jesus Christ and bar them
Trrijmakim.q was signed, he could make a plea for union      from the table of communion. But we wanted to
with the Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken, which            preserve the Reformed truth in its purest. form, the
before the war. he always considered as walking in the       truth as we have always maintained it in our Prot.
way of disobedience.                                         Ref. Churches. The result is, first, the sad history
     Now in the main those thirteen propositions which       of Hamilton, and now the even worse history of Chat-
I defended at our conferences certainly represented          ham. Certainly, that the'. stocking was not knitted
the doctrine as had always `been. maintained in our          and properly finished was not our fault.
Protestant Reformed Churches, especially over a-                Nor was it our fault that the stocking of corres-
gainst Heynsianism. How then  could-  Dr. Schilder           pondence was not properly knitted ofiicially, but be-
when he returned to the Netherlands, * advise his peo-       came one' entangled mess. Let me relate the history.
ple everywhere, when they immigrated to this country            In the early part of 1948 (I forget the date) the
or to Canada to join the Protestant Ref. Churches?           ,Comm.  of Correspondence of the Prot. Ref.. Churches
Surely, we desired -correspondence. But correspon-           addressed a letter to. the deputies for correspondence
dence does not necessarily mean an organic' union.           of the `Liberated Churches in the Netherlands, sug-
The differences between us were rather fundamental,          gesting correspondence between the two churches.
although Dr. Schilder called them differences in ter-        This letter was originally composed by the Rev. J. de
minology. Of this we were not convinced. But; as             Jong. I-received that letter in California, where I was
I said, Dr. Schilder advised his people to join the          still recuperating from my attack of thrombosis. I
Protestant Reformed `( Churches when- they came `to          did not agree with the contents of the letter, but 9
America, although we stood in no relation as sister          signed it on condition that the Rev,. G. M. Ophoff, the
churches as yet, and therefore could not receive at-         third-party of the committee, would also be willing to
testations from them, or they from us. The result sign it. The latter, however, at first. was not willing
was that when we labored in Canada among the im-             at all, because he. too did not agree with the contents
migrants, we did not at once organize them into Prot.        of the letter. But under repeated pressure he'signed
Ref. Churches, but first thoroughly instructed them,         his name to `the document, and so it was sent to the
so that they knew the differences in doctrine between        deputies for correspondence in the Old Country. How-
their churches and ours. Only when they were suf-            ever, when the- work of the committee for..,correspon-
ficiently indoctrinated  and:- understood. our position,     dence was reported at the Synod, of 1948, the latter
and agreed with our truth, did we organize them into         condemned that letter, .and decided to rewrite it and
churches in our commuinion. And, even after those            to send a different letter .-to the same deputies for co.r-
churches were orgamzed; like Ilamilton and Chatham,          respondence in the Netherlands, arid to: their Synod
"


 152                                ` T H E         STANlIiARD  BEAREa  -

 that was to be held at Amersfoort the same summer.          act the .business of the churches unofficially by meet-
 I write this because not the letter from the deputies of    ing behind the back of the Committee for Correspon-
 correspondence, but the letter from the Synod of our        dence of our churches with the Revs. de Jong and Kok.
 churches is therefore the only official document which      2) That the fears of those that had objections against
the Synod of Amersfoort could consider. In that let- correspondence with our churches, such as van Dijk,
 ter of our Synod we did not ask for complete cor-           van Raalte, Holwerda, and others, `were mysteriously
 respondence, but we asked that the matter concerning        allayed. 3) That the impression was created that no
 correspondence would be thoroughly discussed before         definite interpretation of the Confessions was main-
 correspondence was finally established.                     tained and binding in the Prot. Ref. Churches.  4)
        The Synod of the Reformed  .Churches  (Art. 31)      That the impression was made that there was ample
 convened that same year at Amersfoort, acted upon           room for the. covenant view of the Liberated in our
 `our request, and decided:     1)  To empower the de-       Prot. Ref. Churches, and that therefore the immi-
puties for correspondence with foreign churches to get       grants could make free propaganda for the Liberated
 into contact with the Prot.. Ref. Churches, in order        view in our churches. 5) That only on that basis the
 to. prepare the relation. of correspondence bettieen        immigrants were advised to joill the Protestant Re-
 these churches. 2) That the deputies for correspon-         formed Churches, but at the same time that, if the con-
 dence with foreign churches would' have to serve the        ception of such men as the Revs. Hoeksema and OphoZ
 following synod with advice., And 3) that in the            were maintained in the Prot. Ref. Churches, they
meantime, the ministers of the Protestant Reformed           should never join.
 Churches may be admitted to the pulpits of the Re-              This was not knitting a stocking, surely not the
formed Church (Art. 31) of the Netherlands, to speak         stocking of ecclesiastical correspondence, but was
an edifying word. Several delegates of the Synod             working on a hopeless and tangled mass.
voted against this proposal of the committee of pre-             IOn our part, in the light of all this history, and
advice, and at least 7 or 8 of them requested that their     especially in the light of our experience with the
negative vote be recorded in the minutes. Among              Liberated in Canada, the Mission Committee felt the
the latter were such well-known figures as the Rev D.        need of a definite statement which might be used by
van Dijk, Prof. Holwerda, and the Rev. van Raalte            them and by our missionaries as the basis' for the or-
of Neede. To my mind, it certainly was not very wise         ganization of our churches. That need was filled by
of the Synod to open the -pulpits of the Reformed            the Declaration. And that Declaration was passed by
Churches, (Art. 31) of the Netherlands for our minis-        our last Synod.
ters befor,e the relation of complete correspondence            Let not Dr. Schilder therefore say that the stock-
was established.                                             ing is finished. It must be entirely unravelled, untii
    But what happened further? For more than a               we come to the first false stitch, and then start knit-
year we- never heard anything from `the deputies for         ing anew.
correspondence with foreign churches of the Nether-              To one more item I must needs call the attention of
lands. In fact, officially we did not hear of them until     our readers. In the same article Dr. Schilder pub-
.November,   .1949. That was a mistake. Those de-            lishes a letter of a certain J. Land, who lives at 706
puties should have sought contact with our Committee         Alexander $t., Grand Rapids, Michigan. In this letter
of Correspondence'as soon as possible, so that at least      Mr. Land blames our Consistory for censuring the
We could report something officially to our Synod of         brethern H. R. de Bolster and H. de Raad.
1949. But, as I said, we never heard .of them. That             Personally I am very sorry that this matter con-
the Synod opened their pulpits for our ministers was         cerning the censure of de Bolster and de Raad was-
the first wrong stitch in the stocking. That the depu-       given publication without first consulting our  Con-
ties for foreign correspondence did not get into con-        sistory.    For this publication savors of the sin of
tact with our Committee for Correspondence was the           condemning any man rashly or unheard, the sin a-
second wrong stitch. And the whole thing became              gainst the ninth commandment. And Dr. Schilder
one entangled mass when in the meantime, in August           especially should know better than that. I am sorry
1949, .the letter written by Prof. Holwerda to the im-       that this matter is published, not because the action
migrants in Canada was brought to our attention.             of our Consistory cannot stand the light, but because
    That letter revealed  :. 1) That instead of trans-       the brethren de Bolster and de Raad certainly sinned
acting ecclesiastical business in an ecclesiastical way,     grievously and became the proper objects of censure.
and therefore, instead of contacting officially our Com-     I am very sorry that this matter must be published,
mitte of Correspondence, the Committee for Foreign           because personally I was rather attached to these . .
Csrrespondence  in the *Netherlands decided to trans-        young students and did everything I could for them.


                                        `I'IIG  STiNDARR  B E A R E R                                                       153

 Besides, I never had any trouble with them in class,         would make propaganda for the Liberated view in
 and they always behaved very well.                           all our churches.        In other words, they would try
    Then all of a sudden I heard from the Rev. .Hanko         to create a schism in the Prot. Ref. Churches. Then
that they had sent a protest agaipst the Declaration to       they were censured, not on ihe basis of their doctrine
the Consistory. I  ,stood  aghast. For to me person-          or of their views, but because they meant to agitate
ally, or in school, they had never objected to the doc-       for the  Iliberated  views not only in our church but
trine that I taught, nor to the contents of the Declara-      also in all the other churches of the Prot. Ref. corn-
tion. And they had plenty opportunity to  aoguaint           munion. Thereupon they separated from our churches.                   .
themselves with the Declaration, because in my young          In other words, these two brethren broke their solemn
people's catechism class I devoted a whole year to the        oath before #God and the churches that in case of mis-
discussion of that document. But they never attended.         demeanor they would submit themselves to the govern-
Now, mark you, in the abstract they had the perfect          ment of the church and to church discipline. They
right to protest against the Declaration at our Synod,        could, of course, have appealed their case to the Classis.
for they w&e members of bur church. Nevertheless,            And the Classis certainly would have done justice to
I  cqnsidered  it rather impudent for two young men          them. They could have appealed to the Synod., But
`that were aftef all only visitors for three months at a     instead of taking that proper ecclesiastical way they
titie in our country, to put their nose into the official    acted as revolutionaries and rebels and broke their
business of our churches. I called +.em  to my home,         vow. ,Once more I talked to them. They approached
and talked to them personally. They asked me whether         me, and told me that they were sorry that they had
I would nc& explain the Declaration once more in our         separated and would like to confess their sin. I -in-
classroom in &hool in the presence of all the students.      formed them that that would certainly be- possible,
I answered them that I would not take time for that          but that seeing that their sin was public before the
in school, but that I would meet with all the students       whole congregation `(for they had `already assembled
in the presence of the Bev. Ophoff and Hanko in my           in a separate grou-p  `on the sabbath) they would also
home, and then-offer a free discussipn on the subject.       have to make public  confe$sion.  After that I never
`This meeting was held.       I expounded. to them the       Saw them again.
truth as it always had been maintained in our church-             Such is the case of the two Henks. And once more
es, and they had nothing to say. Neverthejess,  they         I state here that I am  .very sorry that I was com-
insisted on their protest.           *  `.                   pelled to reveal this case because of the letter in the
    In the meantime, of course, the Consistory treated       Reformatie.
i-he matter. And also the Consistory' did not object to           In conclusion, I want to emphasize once more that
their protesting against the DeclaGation  of Principles.     the stocking is not' finished. And if Dr. Schilder feels
For they too considered that it was thei? perfect right.     that because of the stand of our churches as revealed
But they did object to the Liber&ed doctrine which           in the Declaration of Principles he does not want to
they defended in their protest openly. Mr. J. Land           unravel the tangle and start knitting anew, it suits me.
states in his letter that the brethren de Bolster and        Nevertheless; I want to state in that case that I am
de Ratid proved the truth,of their protest on Scriptural     disappointed in him, and for the rest say;-"Vale, Amice
grounds. Nothing could be, farther from the  truth.          Schilder."'
Yet everi so, the Consistory did not censure them be-                                                          H .   H .
cause they harbored Liberated doctrines, but they de-
manded of them the promise that they would not make
agitation in the congregation for their views. And.
this they refused.                                                                          la
   At a  meetinlg of our Consistory at which  !:  was
personalljr  present and presided, the two brethren
appeared. I once more entered carefully into the con-                               I N   MEMORIAM
tents of their. protest, and proved to them that it cer-     . The  fiadi.es' Aid of the  Doon  Protestant  Refoimed  :Church,
tainly was not Reformed truth. And  ggain the  two-          mourns the loss of oae of its faithful members
brethren had nothing to say, and did not defend them-                              Mrs._  Leonard  Smit
selves with one word. But when I asked them again
whether they would promise not to agitate for their          who died December 4th.                    _
views in the congregation, they refused once more.             May the God of all Grace comfort her husband cand  all other
And what is worse, they both stated .personally `that        relatives.
                                                                                                  Rev. H. C. Hoeksema, Pres.
if the Consistory would censure them for this, they                                               Mrs. H. Kuiper, Sec'y.


     154                                           T H E   sPIGNDP;R'D   BEAI~I~'R                                                              -
                           :  The  Synbd~  :of                                  to these matters. . And therefore I believe that this, remark
                                                   1951                         by the Rev. R. Veldman must be censured.
                      .               "                                           Rev. H. Hoeksems: I  am very sorry that this element has
             The Rev. Hoeksema ,concluded  his' quotation from                  been injected into our discussion. Intentionally  I said that I
     his pamphlet "The Gospel',"as  follows :                                   did not suspect any of our men of any  Arminian  tendencies in
                                                                                regard to. the promise of the gospel. It is true that recently
            ."Now, it is important, that we clearly.understand  the nature      we have had ,a history, and there has been much.discussion. But
      of a promise. It is by no means the same ,as an offer. Also in            I do0 not believe thst any one of'us wants to interpret our Con-
      the latter the -person that makes the offer d+sres his wiiling-           fessions with regard to the promise of God in a different way
      ,&s to do something for or bestow something upon the `person              from  that which I have expressed here. I believe that all of
      to  ,whom   t.he offer is  mside, but for its. realization the offer      the brethren, unless the contrary is expressed by themselves, or
      is contingent upon the willingness of the_  second pa&y, upon his         plainly shown, certainly agree with the Confessions as I ex-
      consent to the offer. But a promise is different. It is a  de-            plained them with respect to the promise of the gospel.
      claration,.written   or  $$JE&  which  bi,nds the  pers.on  that  m&es      Rev. R. Veldmsn:         I should not have said that,  perphaps,
      it.to do or to forbear to do  the very things, promised. It is an         because my  remarks-  could have been coastrued in the wrong
      enga&nient  regardless of any corresponding duty or obligation            way. I am sorry that I brought it  `up at this time. The wrong
     .  on the  &t of the  `pel;sofi  to  -,whom   the thing is promised. A     parties  ,-might  be  suspefcted.
      promise,  ,therefore,  implies the.da&ration  of .a certain good to-        Rev. J. Howerzyl: I fully agiee with the Rev. H.  Hbekse,ma,
gether  with the positive  assdrance that  ttiis good shall be                  and if anything, when he spoke, we `experienied  the beauty of
      bestowed upon or performed in  be@!f  of the person to whom               the Confessions. If anything was proved, it was proved today
      the promise is made. This eertainty of  the promise is, as  re-           that no  Arminian  Can ever get. a finger behind the Confessions.
      &l,rds  the  promi!e.   ,in.  Script&e,. emphasized by the fact, that     But that just exactly brings  `me to the overture of Oskaloosa,
      it is God  Who  plakes  the promise. God conceived the promise;           It is evident that the  Confedsions  are  sufficient, also with re-
      He it is that realizes. the 5hing  promised; He declares the prom-        spect to the promise. I am afraid the  defmition  in the De-
      ise. Which implies,: in the first  pltace,  that the promise can-         claration falls into the same error, namely, of attempting to
      not  be,  cdntingen&  for  God is God,  and  His work certainly can-      construe a complete definition of the  promis,e.
      not be contingent upon the will of the cresture.  And, secondly,            Rev. G.  .M. Ophoff: It is  her,e a question of interpretation
      t.his signifies that the promise is as  f?&hful and true as God           of the Confessions. If the interpretation is not correct, let us
      is  unchangable:  He will surely realize the promise. When He             say so.  Bit if it is, let us maintain it. Is it not our duty to
      binds Himself to do or to bestow anything, He is bound by                 confess the truth and oppose all error by our Confessions?
      Himself and all His  divi,ne  attributes to realize the promise             Rev. J.' Howerzyl : I would ,certainly  underscore all that was
      @o them to whom it is made, for He cannot deny Himself.                   said this mo?.ning by Rev. H. Hoeksema. And in case we are
      And this,  idea of the promise  lzecessarily  implies that it is          prese.nted with a concrete  errar in our churches, I would be
      made to a definite party. All offer, that is contingent upon the          willing to apply the Confessions to that error. But I am not
      dcceptance  and consent of the second party, m.ay  be general; .a         aware of such an error. This Declaration is not necessary.
      promise that binds the  proinising   part.y and that  ?s certain          Acd  the Confessions  .are still sufficient.
      of realization requires  ,a definite second party. And thus it is           Rev. R. Veldman: Will someone please point to the place
      in Scripture. For, the promise is centrally made to Christ, and           in the  ,Confessions,  and `show by them that they do not fall,
      through Him to  .the seed of Abraham, to the children of the              completely under-this definition of the prolmise  as presented in
      promise, to those that are called heirs  alid  co-heirs  ?f the           the Declaration ? What is.  ina,dequate  in D, 2 of the Declara-
      promise. And that this is  cqrtsinly  the idea of the promise is          tion ?
      clearly  expresse.d,.,in Scripture. For, we read in Hebrews 6:               Rev. H. H.: The motion on the floor is, Mr. Chairman, to ex-
      13, 14, and 17: `For when God made promise to  Abrahamj  be-              press that. this is the truth of the Confe&ions.
      cause he could  swear by no greater, he swore by himself, say-
      `.                                                                          Rev. J. Howerzyl: Does that mean that we bind ourselves
       Ing: Surely blessing I will  bl.ess thee, and multiplying I will         to this defi,nition,  and th& we may  have no other definition ?
      multiply thee. . . . . Wherei,n  God, willing more  .abundantly  to          Rev. .G. Vos: When we. adopt this motion, we decide that
      show unto the heirs of the  promisd  the immutability of his              this definition is confessionally correct.
      counsel, confirmed it by an oath.' To the. heirs of the promise              Rev. J. van Weelden: We all agree with what the Rev.  H.
      the promise is certain, because it is rooted in the immutable             Hdeksema  said in  regard to the  prom&e as presented in  .the
      counsel of the Most High.`"
,                                                                               ,Confessi&is.     And  I am  gl.ad  ~ that all suspicion has been re-
              Thus far the Father lengthy speech by the Rev. H. moved. Nevertheless, I would like to point out another ele-
      Hoeksema. And now the discussion again continued.                         ment in regard to the  promis.e., It is interesting to notice the
                                                                                references in the margin to Question 22 of the Heidelberg
            Rev. R. Veldman: The Rev. *H. Hoeksema said in his speech           ,Catechi&m.      They refer us to John  20:31; Matt. 28: 19, 20.
      that he knows that none of us believe in conditions in the Ar-            In both-these passages the element of faith is strongly .stressed.
      minian  sense--of the word. Nevertheless, I  wouLd  like to know          The promise" in John  20:31  is that  tie may have life through
      w&ether there  .nre  an$  that disagree with his presentation of          the name of Jesus  Christ,`the Son of God. And this promise
      the promise  as' ekpounded from the Confessions. Some  her,e              of life can be attained only through faith in Christ. And in
      are certainly suspected of  such disagreement.          And I would       Matt. 28: 19, 20 it is the preaching of the gospel to all nations
      like `to ask if there are any here who think that the Rev. H.             that is emphasized. It seems to tie that in .a definition of the
      Hoek$ema  ever taught anything different from what he said                promise we certainly must have these elements of the gospel
      in his speech.                                                            and  -the  Ijreaching  of the gospel and  f.sith in the gospel re-.
     .'  Rev.  J. Howerzyl: I do not know if I  .am suspected, but if I         presented.
       a.m,  then I certainly cannot sit here at Synod. I have never               Rev. R. Veldman: If the Rev. van Weelden wants what he
      been examined by my conSistory  as to any suspicion in regard             presents in the Declaration, let him make a definite.  amend-


                                             . .._ _ _ -..
                                             T'JZJE  8ffANbAR.D  BBA&%,R,                                                                       is5

 ment. Then we can discuss it. We certainly cannot include his                about the promise. If you want to give a definition of  .the
 whole speech there.                                                          preaching now, I certainly cannot and will not subscribe to
   Rev. G.  Vo,s:,  It seems to  me, that the objections presented            the  defi&ion  in the  ~amendment  that  .`is  :;on the floor now.
 by the Rev. van Weelden do not apply to the definition of the                For the preaching of the gospel is not only ,-the official declara-
 promise we  ,have  H the Declaration. That definition clearly                tion of the oath of God that He will infallibly lead all the elect
 states that God leads His elect  infalli.bly  unto salvation  through        unto salvation through faith. But it is also  .a savor of death
 -faith.  That phrase  through faith  in the definition takes care            unto death for the reprobate. If we want to have a complete .
of his objections.                                                            definition of the preaching, that certainly must not be omitted
   Rev. J.  van'  WeeBden:  I make an  amend,ment to add: The                 or forgotten. I am  -a.mazed  too about the evident ignorance
 preaching of the  go,spel  is not a gracious offer of salvation              of what t,ook place in 1924. I .do not think that we understand
 on the part of -God to all men, but the  oflicial  declaration of            1924. Then it was exactly the `question of the promise.  -The
 the  o.ath of  IGod that He will infallibly lead all His elect unto          Chr. Ref. Churches claimed that the promise was conditional
 salvation through faith.                                                     in the well-meaning offer on the part of God to all that hear
   Rev. M. Gritters: I -always believed `what the Rev. H.  Hoek-              the gospel. And that was applied to the,covenant. It was the
 sema said in his speech. But that does not change the ques-                  Heynsian view that was adopted in 1924. And therefore, I
 tion. It does not give an answer to my question as `to  wh,at                not only cannot agree with  this..definition,  but I am also  op-
 would happen if I  [would preach thus: "If you truly come to                 posead to substituting it for the definition of the promise in the
 me, I will forgive you." (Quoted from the  Standard  Bearer).                D'eclaration. This definition is substituting a cow for a horse.
 That is Reformed language, and I do not want to lose that                      Rev. J. van Weelden: Technically the thrust of  th:e First
 term whosoever in Canons II, 5. Many words have a dangerous                  Pointy  is that the preaching of the gospel. is a well-meaning
 connotation that simply cannot be avoided. Thus, for instance,               offer. Is it not logical then in opposition to that First Point
 it is with the term providence. This also can be explained as                that we maintain that the prea,ching  is not an offer? Then we
 meaning that God foresees things.        When I was, ordained,, I            use the same terminology and are historically correct.
 had to swear that I would preach repentance and faith. Now                     Mr. John Faber: *Point I,  R we have already adopted, and
 I do not want to fall into the error of the  Liberate'd  that the            that will  atand.  But here we are  discussmg what has always
 promise is for all. But there is the other danger of falling into            been called "het puntje van het eerste punt". And that "puntje
 carelessness,, and of preaching in such a way that men be-                   van het eerste  punt" is certainly that the gospel is a  `well-
 come careless and profane, Take the "whosoever" out, and we                  meaning offer of salvation on the part of God to all that hear
 will lose the  pneachmg   ,of repentance. I believe that just be-            the gospel.      I,n other `words, the question at that time was:
 cause God is ,sovereign,  therefore there must be conditions, that           What grace do the reprobate  .receive  in the preaching of the
 is, in the covenant there are stages and steps. I still maintain             gospel ? Do they receive the grace of, the promise ? That was
my.stand that in ,Canon,s  II, 5 we have a definition of the prom-            the question.     And that is still the question. We must not
 ise. I want to keep that "whosoever".                                        change this definition as it  occurs.in the Declaration. And no
     The Synod,adjourned  for dinner. And after dinner - one has yet attempted to prove that the  origmal definition is
                                                                              incorrect.     And if it is, correct, and Confessional, why should
 the discussion continued as follows.                                         we substitute something else ?
   Rev. J. van Weelden: Since in I, B we changed ".promise" to                  Rev. L. Doezema: Historically it is nevertheless true that
 "preaching", we should also  ,do so in D, 2. That is more cor-               we never said that the promise was not "a conditional offer".
 rect historically.. When we are speaking of the promise, you                 What  w.e said was that it was not "a well-meant offer". We
 may leave out the phrase "conditional offer". But when speak-                can surely speak of a  con~ditional  promise in the covenant in
 of the preaching of the  gos,pel,  that phrase does not even fit.            the good sense of the word. When God gave His promise to
 Preaching is broader than the promise.                                       Abraham, the promise  that- He would be his God, He added:
   Rev; G. M. Ophoff: This definition can of course be criti-                 "Walk before me, and be thou perfect." This latter was a  con-
 cized. The Rev.  .van Weelden  ,says that we must replace                    dit.ion  which Abraham must fulfill in the covenant of God. And
 promise  by  preaching.  What is characteristic of the promise               therefore I maintain that we may speak of ,a conditional
 according to him, is not characteristic of the preaching. But                promise.                      `
                                                                                                              ..
 this is not  ,correct.-  For preaching is far more than  ,a mere               Rev. H. Hoeksema: This is not  oa the motion or on the a-
proclamation or declaration. It is speaking-by `God through                   mendment presented by the Rev. van Weelden, and therefore it
 Christ in the heart of the elect. But why should we eliminate                is out of order. Nevertheless, I.  ,must  state, and I am willing
 the clause "conditional- offer" ? If the promise is uncondi-                 to prove it, if necessary, that' it is not true .that  when God says
 tional, as we all agree it is, how then can the preaching be con-            to Abraham, "Walk before me, and be thou perfect," this is a
 ditional ? How can the preaching of an unconditional promise                 condition of .t.he promise or a .condition  of the covenant, as the
 be conditional ?                                                             Rev. L. Doezema states. As I say, it is out of order. But  `if
   IRev.  R. Veldman:     To be consistent, we should retain the              necessary, Mr. Chairman, I will prove this.              -
 term preaching, which we inserted in I; B, also in D, 2.                       Rev. J. Howerzyl: I am not satisfied with the substitute mo- .
   Rev. G. Vos: The questionnow is whether it is not histori-                 tion, and will not vote for it.  N~evkrtheless,  I think that to be
 cally true that D, 2 contains what we always maintained over                 consistent, we should retain the term  preaching  in both I, B and
 against the Chr. Ref. Churches 25 years ago. I  maintain  that               D, 2. In D, 2, as it stands, we have not enough, and to my
 principally we always said that same thing as, we now declare                mind limit the scope of the promise.
 in D, 2.                                                     1                 Rev.  `G. M. Ophoff:     The Rev. J. Howerzyl says that  D, 2
   Rev. H. H.: I ,do not know what to say anymore. And this                   does not contain  .enough,  and  ,,that  we  aimit the  scope of the
 discussion certainly `tends to make me discouraged.               I am a-    promise too much. But, in the first `place, let me point out
 mazed that one thing can be substituted for another,  the,                   that  .in  .D; 2, you have  in  substande   ,a11 that the Confessions
 `preaching for the promise. We already  sdd that `the preach-                say. about this  .point  ,.conoerning  the promise.    If  thi.s is not
 ing of the gospel is not a gracious offer. But now we are talk-              true, let it be pointed out; In the definition the two poles  are


        156

        election and faith. And hence, in this definition you have all            w.hether he may preach `the text quoted in Canons II. 5. the
        that is between election and  f.aith. The promise is therefore            answer is : Of-  .coucse, he may preach this, but then in the
        not narrowed down or presented in a too limited sense, but                light of the rest of the Confessions he must certainly explain
        is presented exactly as  ,broad  as it should be in the light of          that believers are the elect. If he does this, I'm sure that no
        our Confessions.                                                          one will ever trouble him.
               The motion is now put to a vote, and the amend-                      Rev. G. Vos: In_ the first place, I want to state that as I
        ment fails by a vote of lo-`to  6.                                        see it, the motion by the Rev. Doezema, although negative, and
          Rev. L. Doezema: I make a substitute motion that Synod ex-              although therefore the amendment should be added as a ground '
        press that there is nothing objectionable to point I of the De-           for the motion, is nevertheless very strong. To; say that there
        claration as far as we have treated it.                                   is nothing' objectionable in point I means in effect that it is
                                                                                  the/truth and nothing but the truth. And of course, implies
               Another substitute motion is made that Synod ex-                   that it is the truth as expressed in our Confessions. In the
        press that there is nothing objectionable in point I                      second place, I want to point out  th,at the Declaration is con-
        of the Declaration as amended on the floor of the                         cerned only with the truth concerning the promise.  IOf course'
        Synod.                                                                    there are other truths with which the Synod is at present not
               The Synod took a recess of twenty minutes.                         concerned.  ,The  doctrine of the Trinity is an important truth,
                                                                                  but is not stated-in `the Declaration. Does it mean that it is
               After recess the discussion on the substitute mo-                  not. considered to be a truth by us, just because it is not in-
        tion. was continued as follows.                                           cluded in the Declaration ? We do not .say that the Declaration
          Rev: H. H.: I can see some light in this motion. But it is              expresses all the -truth about all things, but only the truth
        a purely negative motion. And I don't think that Synod should             concerning the promise.
       pass negative motions. I therefore  #amend  the motion to add:                 `The amendment is now put to a vote, and is carried
        "because it is the truth as expressed in our Confessions."                by `a vote of 9 to 7. After that the motion plus the
        Rev. J. Howerzyl: Dose not this amendment bring us back                   amendment is put to a vote, and is. carried by a vote of
       to the original motion? As I understand it, a substitute mo-
       tion is an amendment which strikes out all that is contained               10,to 6.                                                  :`:
-      in the original motion. But in this amendment you have the                  `1 After this the discussion of point II of the Declara-
        orginal motion brought back in. I do not think that this is               tion begins. This point, without. the proofs from the
       i n   o r d e r .                                                          Confessions, reads as follows.                            .
          Rev. M. Gritter: I like to know whether what is stated in                   "They teach on the basis .of the same Confessions :
       point `I -of the Declaration is exclusive ? Are there no other
       things that I may' say and prealch  as the truth ?                             "A. That election, which is the unconditional and
          Rev. J. Howerzyl:         My question still  is: what is the dif-       unchangeable decree of (God to redeem in Chr.ist  a cer-
       ference between the original motion and this substitute ? The              tain number`of persons, is the sole `cause and fountain
       substitute simply declares that point I is according to the Con-           of all our salvation, -whence flow all the gifts of grace,
       fessions, while the original really  states the same thing, that           including faith.
       is, it says that this is all you may say.
          Mr. John Faber: To say that a certain statement is the truth                "B. That Christ died only for the elect and that the '
       Certainly does not exclude other' statements of the truth. We              saving efficacy of the death of Christ extends to them
       simply declare here that this truth concerning the promise is              only.
       the truth as expressed in the Confessions. Other truths are                    "C. That faith is not a prerequisite or condition
       not in question just now.                                          1       unto salvation, but a gift of God, and a God-given in-
          Rev. L. Doezema: This amendment goes back to the original
       motion, and that is exactly what I tried to avoid. It is true              strument whereby we appropriate the salvation in
       that the original motion is negative.  Bum I think we ought to             Ch&st."
       remain negative, and avoid all danger of making new expres-                  Rev. H. H.: I make the same motion in regard to `point II
        s i o n s .                                                               which I made in respect to point .I, namely, that we adopt this
          Rev.  ,G. M.  ,Ophoff:     The simple question is whether this          point on the basis of the fact that it is the truth as expressed
       statement in the amendment- is true or not. Is point I of the              in our Confessions.
       Declaration the truth as expressed in our Confessions ? Then                   This was the .end of the session of. Friday, Sept.
       there certainly can be no objection but there is everything in             28. And the Synod continued its sessions on Mon-
       favor of adopting it, because then we `express a ground for
       its adoption. And that's what we should have.                 '            day. Oct. l.- After opening with devotional exercises,
          Rev. J. van Weelden: I have recorded my vote against .the               the discussion continued as follows.
       matter of the oath. How then is it possible for me to vote for               Rev. .L. Doezema: I request `Synod to tell me why it wants
       this substitute, with that amendment?                                      to make `such a statement at this, time. What is the reason
          Rev. M. Gritters: Am I correct when I say that  we do not               why this statement must be made ?
       mean to state here that this is a binding truth, and that we                 Rev. G. Vos: Did you ask this question about point I or
       may say no more about the promise ?                                        about point II'?
      R e v .   H .   H . : Probably the Rev. Gritters still refers, to Canons      Rev. R.  Veldman:..  I would like to ask the Rev. L. Doezema
        II, 5. If he preaches a promise of the gospel according to                why he asks this question at this particular time:
        Canons II, 5 and excludes all the rest of the Canons and of our             Rev. G. M. Ophoff :' The answer to the Rev. Doezema's ques-
       Confessions, he is in danger of going in the wrong direction.              tion is very simple. If he refers to the motion that is on the
        There ,certainly  is danger if in the preathing we isolate Canons         floor, I' would say that .it is a better expression than the nega-
        II, 5. But if it is the intention of the Rev.  ,Gritters  to ask          time motion we adopted last week ,about  point I.
-.


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D '   ~BE'AR:E~l?                                                             157.'

   Rev.+ L. Doezema: It is not clear to me  ,a.t all why the De-          Rev. Doezema himself made the motion that there was `no-
claration was made. What is the reason? And why is it neces-              thing objectionable in the Declaration.  `.
 sary ? The motion that is now on the floor is the same as the               Rev. H. H. : Anything that is declared out of order, does not
 Declaration as I see it. And Synod must  al.ways  give reasons           go into `the minutes. If it does, then  `the ground `for it being
.and explain why it does, something.          I would like to have a      declared out' of order must also be stated.             Otherwise it is
written answer to my question.                                            s n e a k e d   i n .
   Rev. ,G. M. Ophoff: This is being beside the point. And it does           Rev. J. Howerzyl: I make a motion that Synod.:table  further
not concern the motion on the floor. .The pointlaow  is whether           discussion of the contents till the necessity of the  ,Declaration
 this is the truth of  the. Confessions. About this question the          is decided.                                      i
 Synod must now decide, and about  n?thing  else..                           Rev. G. M. Ophoff: Logically the question is. always first
   Rev. L. Doezema: I want an answer from Synod, not from                 whether the matter discussed is the truth. Thus it is with'tl%
 an individual. I ask for the `reason why Synod at this time              Declaration. We'are now  deter,minin,g  or attempting to deter-
wants to `make such a statement.                                          mine whether or not the ~Decl,ar&ion~  is the truth according to
   Rev; G. Vos: The reason for this motion is  becaus,e  in the           the Confessions.         If it is not the  ' truth, that  rmturally  ends
offing is the possible ,adoption of : the Declaraton  of Principles.      the whole thing. Then we do not have to discuss the question
And before we adopt it, we must determine whether the: De-                concerning the necessity -of the Declaration.                     :
claration is in harmony with the Confession or not.                          Rev. J. Howerzyl: I feel the way the Rev. `Doezema,  #doe?.
   Rev. H. H.: If the Rev. Doezema wants an answer to the                 We are assured that this is a purely academic di&ussion.                  But
 mestion  `why the Synod adopted this Declaration or wants to             again and again it becomes evident that Synod- dkcided~in  such
to adopt it now, he can find the answer in the Acts of Synod,             a way that its decisions go beyond the academic. Last' week
1950. There it is, black on white. If the Rev. Doezema wants              through an amendment we were brought back to the original
a written answer, `it is. all in the Acta. And therefore, the. re-        motion as to its essence. It. is, not true, as the Rev. Ophoff
quest of  t.he Rev. Doezema is at this time out of order.                 says,. that my motion reasons  ,backwards..            First. we  de+&
   Rev.  `G. M. Ophoff: It is evident that the Rev. Doezema is            `whether we need a Declaration at all, and then. whether this
once more talking about the legality of the Declaration. On               Declaration fits our needs.  If-it does not, it is not necessary
this matter the Synod has already decided in June. And there-             to discuss the  cont&ts  of the  Deblaration.          "                   '
fore, it is certainly out of order.      :                                  Rev.. ,G. M: Ophoff: The ques.tion  before-the Synod is whether
  Rev. L. Doezema:        Mr. Chairman;1 want my request  re-             this Declaration is according to the #Confessions. That surely
`corded,. and Synod's answer to my request also recorded.                 must be decided first.. And that is the chief question.                  Sup-
  Rev. G. Vos: We will record' your request, but Synod `will              pose we concluded  ,that we did not need the Declaration.
give you no  answ.er  to be recorded:  .I could say as an answer,         Nevertheless, if it is the truth according to the Confessions,
because it does ,not at present belong, to the busin&s'.of  Synod,        we could never discard it.
the answer to your request has certainly been given in the                 `. Rev. J. Howerzyl: The point is that if Synod  finds'.no  need
Acta of Synod, 1950.                                                      for the Declaration then it has no reason  anymor.e  ,to discuss
  Rev. J. Howerzyl:       I can very well see a purpose in this           it, even if it is the truth,
question. The. Synod is postponing declaring the  Detilaration.             Rev. H. H.: This motion, Mr. Chairman, is also out `of order..
until it has been tested by the ,Confessions.      It does not want       `Last week we definitely decided to treat the  Declaration.`sdri-
to adopt the Declaration until the truth of it has been tested.           atim. That motion was' passed. Noti I ask: how %an you `pos-
Very, well.  But,I can see that the motion on the floor settles           sibly table a' motion that has already been passed. The, only
the question,  wGle  the Rev. L. Doezema's motion, of last Friday,        thing. that can possibly be done in a case like -this, is, that we
which was a  neg&ive  one,. does not. That is why he asks.                rescind that decision. And that requires a two-thirds.majority
Synod why it wants to declare this at this time.                          and-the mot.ion  must be made by one who voted in favor of that                   '
  Mr. J. -Faber:                                                                                                                       <
                    The Rev.  -L.  Dqezema  can ask the man who           m o t i o n .
made the motion.why he did it, and he. can undoubtedly answer               Rev. L. Doezema:  The  motion was last week `to  .treat  the
the question. But he cannot ask the Synod as a body for  ythe             Declaration seriatim. That is something else than adopting it.
reason of this motion.                                 :                  If this -mot,ion is adopted, we declare something. And that <is
  Rev. G. Vos: The Rev. Doezema is out of order., He  ian                 what; I try to avoid.                                  .;
rise to the point of order, ,and  ask the chair to put the matter                                                                           . .
                                                                            Rev. M. Gritters: Is a motion to table  ever+-+  of order?  :.
to a vote.
  Rev. L. Doezema: I request that.                                          Rev. G. Vos: No.  "But. to my mind, a motion to table in
  Rev. ,G. Vos: I declare .that this request is out of order.             order to find out the necessity is, out of order.
  Rev. Doezema: What is order? Is it not to discuss the                     Rev. R. Veldman: I can see where we could have treated the
business that is before Synod ? I asked you to `do .what Bell-            necessity of the Declaration first.  -But..you certainly cannot
flower and. Classis  West suggest and requested the Synod to .do,         `table a thing in order to do the very opposite.
that is, declar,e that the Declaration is. illegal.                         Rev. H. H.: In the first  place,-.we   fnever  said  tlmt this is
  Rev. G. M. Ophoff: Must we again discuss that? The ma-                  $he Confessions, but the, expression. of the Confessions. In&he
jority vote of the Synod decided upon the legality of the De-             s,eco,nd  place, this is all out of order. I begin @`feel.  .once  more
claration. We cannot go back to that  .now.                   :           that the whole. motivation of this, interruption is -that some of
  Rev. M. Gritters: `The Rev.  L: Doezema's request is a  .civil          us are afraid to go into the contents of the Declaration. Why?
one, and it should Be ,answered by Synod.                          . .    I'd-like  to"kriow what is the  reason.  Do they themselves feel
 Rev. G. Vos: The .Synod  of 1950 drew up a.De$aration,  and              their own -weakness ? `Are they afr%%l-of .o& arguments? -Last
submitted it to the churches to see if there were. any objections.        week we, de&ded  that `we should go$i%to the material to `deter-
The only possible object&is would have to be `of a' `tihurch              mine whether it is' in harmony with .the Confessions:`. -I claim,
political or of a confessional nature. We are testing the  .De-           Mr. Chairman, that this, whole  .discussion  is in conflict with
l&ration according to the Confessions.  .'  And.  .laat week  :tKe        that decision.


158                                          Ti333  STAN.DARD  BEARER

  Rev.  G. Vos: We must not judge motives. Thete is the  pos-
sibihty that this is not their motive.                                                       As To Books
  Rev. J. Howerzyl: My objection has become sufficiently plain.
It is not what is stated in the Declaration  .:$I: which I object.      QUESTIONS   <CHILDREN  ASK, by  Dena  Korfker. Published
But I rather object to what is not stated. That is, what makes           by Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
me afraid.  The. motion of last Friday, for example, definitely           Price $1.95.
stated that this is the truth expressed in the Confessions. That,
to my mind, is declaring something very definite.                           This is a book designed to be read by children or by
       The motion is"declared  out of order by the chair-               parents to their children. In story form it treats
man, and the ruling of the chair is challenged.                         various subjects as an answer to questions which chil-
  Rev.  `G. Vos: I declared  thlat motion out of order to table.        dren are supposed to ask and to which Miss Korfker
My ruling has been challenged. We will now vote, to see                 gives the answer. In five parts, each with several
whether the body thinks that I was wrong in declaring the               subdivisions, questions are answered about the sky,
motion out of order.                                                    the people that live in the world, "things" (electricity,
       The motion to sustain the ruling of the Chair is                 airplanes, etc.), the Bible, and Jesus.
defeated by a vote of 8 to 8 . `Then the motion to                          I find this a very interesting and instructive book.
table is put to a vote, and this too fails, due to an-                  Miss Korfker has the knack of telling interesting
other tie vote of 8 to 8.                                               stories about many subjects, some of them difficult,
       The discussion now continues, and an overture of                 from a biblical viewpoint. Usually, though not al-
the. Consistory of Pella is read, touching `the second                  ways, she succeeds rather well in reaching the level
point. This is a very lengthy ,document,.,  Andy it is im-              of the children for whom the book is written.
possible for me to quote itin this report in full. The                      On p.  22. there is an unhappy slip of the pen:
reader can find it in the Acta undoubtedly, when the                    "When God made the world, He saw to it that things
Acta appear. I will therefore briefly summarize this. would take care of themselves."
overture  ,of Pella, and state the main objections to                       IOn p. 66 I find the Arminian presentation of e-,
the Declaration which it offers. Those objections are :                 lection : "Then  ,God chose all those who believed in
1) That it sets a wrong precedent, namely, that with-                   Jesus to be His special p,eople."
out any occasion a Declaration of Principles is adopted                     With these corrections, I heartily recommend the
by Synod. 2) ,The second objection is that the Declara-                 book.  ;                                             H. H.
tion would pass judgment upon the Liberated before                                               ..v-.
we have heard them. 3) The third objection is that the                  BEDTIME  STO.RIES  FOR  BOY,S  AND  ,GIRLS;  compiled by
Declaration makes no study whatever of the term                           Theodore  W,,  Engstrom.   Published  by Zondervan Publishing
"conditions", yet promptly condemns any and all use                      .House, `Grand  Ra,pids,   Mich..  Price $1.95.
of. that term as anti-confessional. Under this head                        .This is a book of stories written by several dif-
many quotations are made from Reformed theologians                      ferent authors. It is a-mixture of good and bad, which
in favor of' the term conditions. 4) The fourth ob-                     I certainly would not recommend for reading by or to
jection to the Declaration is that it expresses itself in               our Reformed boys and girls. Many of these stories
re the promise and salvation, but leaves out of con-                    have an Arminian application. Besides some of them
sideration entirely then pedagogical aspect or approach                 strike a sickly note of false piety, unnatural and un-
of salvation. On all these grounds the Consistory of                    healthy for boys and girls.                            H.-H.
Pella through Classis West requests Synod not to a-                                                d
dopt the Declaration of Principles.
                        (to be continued)                               ISAL4H  in Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures. Zon-
                                                                          dervan  Publ. House, Grand Rapids,  Mich. Price $4.95.
                                                     H .   H .              This extensive volume on the prophecy of Isaiah
                                                                        was prepared in German by Dr. Naegelsbach and
                                                                        translated into English by Dr. Lowrie with the aid of
                        IN ME!MORIAM                                    Dr. Moore.                                     .I
  Since the Lord has bereavetd  the five sons. ,and two daughters           All the good we said about the other volumes of
of the  C. N. Kunz family in the recent death of their mother,          Lange's Commentary which we reviewed thus far .ap-
                         Magdalena   Kunz                               plies also to this volume on Isaiah. Its exegesis is
both the Ladies Society and the Men's Society herewith wish             thorough and sound and the ,work stands on a' high
to extend to them their heartfelt sympathy.                             level of scholarship.' Besides, we are glad to say that
  May the God of all grace keep their hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus with His. indispensible and ,certain comfort.              Dr. Naegelsbach' takes a position in regard to pro-
                              Mrs. Peter Koole, Secretary               phecy opposed to that of the higher critics, witness
                              Mr.  ilames   Stouten,  Vice-Secretary    -his strong argument in favor of the genuineness of


                                             `PHE  S T A N D A R D   BZ!AR%2k                                                         159

chs. 40-66 as being-of Isaiah as the author. Cf. pp.
12-25.          ..
Heartily. recommended.                                                            THE LiAY OF SHADOWS
                                                                        a

                                                   I-I. `II.
                                                                                 The P&mange1 as tfa, Unifying Idea
PAULUS  EN DE ANTLEiKE  CTJLTXJURWERELD,  Dr. G. J. D.                                           bf all the Scri,azms _'
  hiders.  Uitgever- J. H. Kok, Kampen,  Nede?lancl;  Prijs f.6.90.
  De schrijver' van dit boek is rector van het .Christe-                        As was stated, the protevangel is the, promise of
lijk Lyceum te Arnhem en classicus van beroep. Het                           the Gospel as first proclaimed and this by- the very
boek teekent ons verschillende zijden van de cultuur-                        voice of Christ.
wereld van Paulus' dagen en daarvoor en bedoelt licht                           Let us again get this Gospel before us:
te werpen op het leven en den arbeid van-den apostel                            "And I will put emnity  between thee' and the wo-
temidden van die wereld van zijn  tijd."-Het  geeft                          man, and between thy seed and her seed ; he shall
ons eerst een beschrijving van de Joodsche diaspora                          bruise (crush, #demolish in'the Hebrew text) thy head
en haar invloed, daarna van de heidensche godsdienst                         and thou shalt crush his heal."                     0
en het bijgeloof dier dagen, heeft verder een hoofd-                            As was stated, the importance of this promise must
stuk over de wijsbegeerte van de-antieke wereld, om te                       be perceived. It is verily the embryo, the  thought-
besluiten met een korte beschrijving van Paulus en de                        seed, so to speak, of all the promises, revelations,  I
literatuur.                                                                  thereafter spoken and made through the centuries `of
    Aan de  .lezers, die  belang hebben om iets meer                         the formation of the Canon of the Scriptures, which
te  weten van de  antieke.   &ltuurwereld,  bevelen we                       is to say, that the latter are but the development, un-
dit boek gaarne  aan. Ofchoon  ,de behandelde  `stof , folding, of the Gospel contained in the former.                                 -
nu juist niet bevattelijk kan geacht worden  voor ons                           There is indeed such a thing as a "history of revel-
Hollandsch lezend publiek,  zullen de meer belezenen                         ation". `But, as was remarked, what is this "history
met profijt kennis ~kunnen nemen van dit boek.                               of revelation" but the history of the development, un-
   ,Ik  .waardeer  de poging van den schrijver om                            folding of the  ~Gdspel  of the  protevangel:  There is
Paulus' speech op. den Areopagus te verdedigen. Of                           therefore but one promise, -Gospel, essentially.
hij  ,daarin geslaagd is, is een andere  vraag. Het is                          As a result. of this work of God, we have all the
m.i. niet onmogelijk om aan te nemen, dat de Heilige                         answers to the question that the protevangel raises and         ~
Gee&  dese'rede :met haar vruchtelooze uitkomst heeft                        all along through the ages of the `Old Covenant must
vermeld, om ons te  leeren,  dat  elke poging om  zich                       have been raising,-+questions such as these: just who
aan te passen bij de heidensche wijsbegeerte vru&te-                         in the final instance is the serpent? Who is his seed?
loos is.                                                                And who is the seed of -the woman .indicated  by the
    Het hoofdstuk over  "Paulus en de literatuur" is                         pronoun "He" in the sentence, "He shall crush thy
tamelijk  onbeduidend.                                                       head"? What does it mean that the Lord will set en-
                                    /                           H.H.         mity between the two seeds? How is this to be accom-
                      a    n-                                                plished and what is the character of this enmity? The
EXODUS, door Dr. H. Gispen. Uitgever J. H. Kbk, n.v.  Kam-                   head of the serpent will be crushed by the seed of the
pen,  Nederiand.   Ptijs f.4.50.                                        -woman ; but the serpent will crush his heel. What is
    Deze commentaar behoort tot, de serie "Korte Ver-                        the meaning of these mysterious words?         ~
klaring der Heilige  Schrift".  Wij kunnen haar van                             As was remarked, the protevangel itself does not
harte bij ons  Gereformeerde  volk aanbewelen. De supply the answers, so that, if there had not been any
taal is eenvoudig en de stijl helder. -                                      subsequent revelations, no unf,olding of the promise
    In betrekking tot het vraagstuk betreffende den                          of the protevangel, these questions would forever have
juisten datum van  ,de uittocht uit Egypte,  neemt                           remained unanswered. But the promise. of the prote-
Dr. Gispen het standpunt in, dat deze plaats had, niet                       vangel did unfold. The needed revelations were given.
gedurende de negentiende dynastie (1321-1205 v.                              In a word, all the ,above-stated  questions have been an-
Chr.) maar gedurende de acttiende (1580-1321 v.                              swered.
Chr.), en hij stelt, de uittocht in het jaar 1445 v.. Chr.                      The serpent in the finai -instance is Satan. The
Of dit juist is,  .beoordeel ik  nief. Dr. Gispen  .voert                    seed of the serpent is the reprobated portion of fallen
tamelijk gewichtige argumenten  aan. De  lezer   oor-                        humanity, the world that lieth in darkness, that anti-
deeie  z e l f .                                                             Christian power in the world of which Satan is the
    Hartelijk aanbevolen.                  _..      ,, H.H.             prince.


              160                                 :THE.  S?~AND~AR~~:.  BEAk%,k

                The ,seed of the woman is the church of the elect               so to speak, a Word of  tCod that, if it was to .serve
          . as headed.by  Christ  ju,dicially and organically. He is            God's believihg people as a source of full comfort and
            the  s.eed.                                                        * joy, a Word by which they could live and die in a
           - . --Between- the two .seeds  God will put enmity. This             perfect-happiness, it had to be made to unfold. This
            in part He will accomplish by bringin the seed of the               was ,done by God's shedding always more light upon it
            worn&i  into- being, a lioly seed consecrated unto God              through subsequent revelation. And this revelation
            in active, sustained and perpetual opposition to Satan              includes the words which God spake by His own mouth
            and sin and all that is of sin. Thus the warfare as `and, by the mouth of His prophets. It includes the
            %aged. bjr this, seed ,.will be holy. .The weapons em-              speaking  of God through all his marvelous works,
            ployed will be spirituak%nd .include the girt of truth,             the wonders of His grace such as the flood and the
          the breastplate of righteousness, the sandals  00  the                deliverance of the people of Israel from their bondage
            Gospel of peace; the shield of faith, the helmet of `,sal-          in Egypt.    It, includes finally the speaking of God
            vation, and the sword `of the Spirit which is the Wbrtl             through all the symbolical-typical fnstitutions of the
            o$.:,God.      `
                           .        :.`
                                       .        _'                ..,.          Old Testam&t such as the sac@ces  by blood.
                And so, too, will Satan and his seed, under tl+&-                  In. these articles we are occupied  with sketching
            pulse of "hatred of ,God and of Christ, be making war               this ,unfoldilig  process of the pro$.evangel as effected
            ag$iti& the seed of the ?&man perpetually .`2nd this                through the speaking of God,as gecorded  .in the Old
           in the atte&& to destroj;  it utterly. This, too, Will be            Testament Scriptures. : We .wil.l-  follow this process
            *of Gdd j&t as 3vell. For `He will set &miity.*~"Even-              through, the Scriptures of the `Old Testament Bible to
            tually Sat&n will lay hoid `6n Christ, the s&d, a&l%vill            the event of the fulfilment of the promise of the pro-
           ciucify   Hi& But the wzimd, however deadly, will                    tevangel by the Son qf God, the Lord Jesus Christ, in
            not be faial. In the figur&ive language of. the prote-              the fulness of time.
           irangel, it will be but the wounding of the heel of the ,               This unfolding process of the  protebangel,   be&g'
            Holy' Seed;  Christ.~  Far"Satan  and the coalition of              as it was, a process in sacred history and a process
            evil powers throi1gh:.  whieh,z he operates a&. in them-            effected `by this history, divides .into epochs or dispen-
           . selves less than, nothing `at iall. Satan is hub a rod in          sations  .of grace.  ,,
            God's hand,and as such tl& agent through +hom God                      The first epoch set in; we may say, with the f,all
            will be smiting, crushing `His Son, the Christ of <God,             of man into sin and ended with the flood. We saw
            for the sins of .His seed the total of which He laid upon
0                                                                               how that through the events included in tl$s epoch
            Him,, I And$hrough  the whole terrible -ordeal  Christ              the idea of the protevangel clarified remarkably.
            will;-not open His mouth but be silent. Wherefore God                 The sacr'e&%arrator  is next occupied with'ihe des-
            wJB also raise.Him up from the dead and set Him .at                 cendents of -the three sons of Noah, tien who con&i-
            His. own right hand in,.the highest Heavens and with                tute the neti humanity. The- time in which the writer
            l&m-. His people for whom. He shed His blood. I                     now introdqces  us is one of great activity. Cities are
            9i'What it .will mean for Satan and his brood is that               being built one after the other; and each a kingdom.
            +l@ough that evil work. of theirs they will seal their              An empire was being founded  .there  in the land of
            doom.  That ho& will be his judgment and the judg-                  Shinar in the Euphrates valley. Here the men of
            ment of' the world, meaning. that God will sentence                 the new race could duiell securely. Some of the leaders
            them to everlastilig  desolation. And so at the appear-             of this movement aqe mentioned by name. .There  was
            ing of `Christ Satan will be cast into the bottomle&                Nimrod. A mighty  man in  the,  eafth was  `himrod.
            pit and the wicked will be destroyed and this in final              The wild beasts were multiplying as fast as` this new
            fulfilment -of the prophecy of the prqtevangel, "And                humanity., And they were a menace. Nimkod made
            He - the seed,- shall crush thy head." And simul-                   war  against them with such telling effect that men
            taneoudy the': seed of the .woman - God's redeemed                  surnamed him "the s&bhty  hunter before the {Lord".
     n      people will .appear  with Christ in glory on the new                More is..  I*elated of  .Nimrod.  He was a founder of
            c.arth where God's`tabernaole will be with them. Then               kingdoms., and his kingdom was Babei, and Erech;and
            will the protevangel as to all the promises concealed in            &cad,  ,and~$alneh,  in the land of  Sbinar  laGen. 10 :
            it have gone into %na! and complete.fulfilment.                     lo).  Thel;;xhFre was Assur  anqther builder of cities
                Sb have all the qukstions raised by the mysterious              including  N+e$$.  '  `.
            language :sf the. p&evangel  been answered. For  the,                  The evic&t-purpose  was to keep `the new humanity
            full light has been.shed aqd shines in our hearts. How              intact. And what made the achievement of this pur-
            evident th#.,the~~V~is but one promise essentially, one             pose rather,.easy yas,that  the whole earth was of one
            Word  of::God.  How  evidelat,  too, that when  $his pro:           language, and of one speech. Being able to  .undel:-
            mise was first published it was but a bud of .truth,,               stand one ancther, men could live and work and play

                                                                          ,         0


                                    THE        STANDAR..D BEARER                          '      ..            .  181-
togeth'&. But would there eventually be room in this        earth the clans of the human race expanded, each in
commonwealth for God's believing people? Certainly          iis own place, into nations hateful of one another.
not. Here then was a situation `that bode only evil for     The result has been perpetual war between coalition,
the church.                                                 of  nati6ns.f The problem is how to rid the world  .of
   How the dread of beiilg scattered over the earth         war.       For that problem there  iB  btit one solution,
filled men's souls, how determined the leaders were to      namely that the nations forestike their abominations
hold the race together is evident from their tower          and, in the words of the Psalmist, `"kiss the :Son", the
building. "Go to," they said one to the other, `.let us     resurrected Christ exalted at God's right hand, the
make brick, and burn them thoroughly." In the words         Potentate of potentates. But men will not repent. The
of the text, they had ,brick for stone, and slime had       world continues to put its confidence in its Nimrods
they for morter. And again they said, one to an-            and their empire. building. It is still coalition of na-
other, `(Go to, let us build a city and a tower, whose      tions against coalition of nations. But this, too, is of
top may reach to heaven ; tind let us make a name,          God. But the. Scriptures say that the wound of the
lest we be scattered-abroad upon the face of the whole      beast will eventually heal. The reference is to a mighty
earth." This is the langu&ge of fear and dread but          anti-Christian empiie including all the nations qf the
also of defiance  of God, and of his will as revealed to    earth, Its appearance will necessarily spell the ces-
Noah the father of  this race and thus  univers$lly         sation of  war between the  natigns for a season. It
known-the will of God  $0  t&e effect they be `"fruit-      will be the Babylon of Nimrod revived and expanded
ful, ~madtiply and replenish the earth." It is evident      to  .a world-dominion. But though outwardly  united,
from this whole striving that God was not in `all           it will still be inwardly divided, a babylon of con-
thoughts of these men. And therefore they were afraid.      fusion.      Hence it will not endure. For it will be
And pnwilling to put their confidence in God, yet want-     Satan's world. And the world and all that is of the
ing to feel secure they went to founding kingdoms ant:      wqrld passeth away. But the kingdom of  Christ-
to forming a coalition of kingdoms in opposition to         the  dity that God builds on the ground of, Christ's
God and in defiance of His will.                            atonement-abideth forever.
   But the purpose was not achieved. God saw to                As a result of the`confusion of tongues, the, human
that. Quoting the text, "The Lord came down to see          race there in the plain of Shinar was seized by a
the city and the totier, which the children of men gad      strange restiveness, and soon. it was on the move.
builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is           Whole families one after the other were quiting the
one, and they have all one language ; and this they be-     plain and  .heading  for the unknown-pressing ever
gin to do : and .now nothing will be restrained from        ,deeper into the, unknown, but finally coming to rest
them, whi$h they have imagined to do."                      in the places of the earth appointed them of God.
   Aqd what had these people not imagined to do': The record of these migratory movements is con-
What fate awaited the church, should `their undertak-       tained in the 10th chapter of the book of Genesis.
ing be permitted to succeed. . She would have against          In Ur of the Chaldees, situated in Nimrod's empire
her the whole world as united under one political head.     in the Euphrates valley, dwelt Terah with his three
So the undertaking might not be permitted to succeed.       sons, Abram, Nahor and Haran. There came a time
Said the Lord, "Go to, let us go down, and there conZ       when Tei-ah, too, and his family could be seen on the         _-
found their language, that the? may not understand          move westward in  the direction of the Euphrates
one another's speech.     So the Lord scattered  them       river.      Included. in the caravan was Terah  and A-
abroad from thence upon the face of the whole earth:        bram and Lot the son of Haran and Sarai the daugh-
and they left off to build the city. Therefore Q. the       ter of Haran and the wife of Abram. They had set out
name of it called Babel ; because the Lord< did there       on a long journey. For their destination was the land         '
confound the language of the earth: ,and from thence        of Canaan. What had caused Terah to cut loose from
did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of the       his moorings in Babel and set out on this venture?
whole earth." .                      .                      Not love for adventure or the desire for better condi-
   The blow that the Lori h&e dealt the' serpent-           tions of life or any such carnal motive. The  Lord.
Nimrod and his empire, the beast of the book of th.e        had spoken to. qne of the sons of this family, namely
Revelation-resulted in a wound from which Satan's           Abram : "Get thee out of thy cbuntry, and .from  thy
world has not recovered to  this day. This is  alio-        kindred, and &me into the land ihat I will shew thee"
gether understandable.     The confusion of  tongue3        (Acts  7:3). The writer of the Hebrews says that
drove a linguistic wedge between the great clans of         Abram,obeyed not hmowing whither he went, (11:8).
the human family already inwardly divided by sin -so        As Abram's face was set toward Canaan, it is not
that as men conti~u@ to multiply on the face of the         plain just how the statement in italics is to be under-


                                   ThE  STANDAkD  BEAk,,Ek
 168                        I i

 stood. Perhaps it means that Abraham had no exact
 knowledge of the location of Canaan; ,or the thought                   SION-'S   `ZANGEN
 conveyed may be that Abram knew notlling about the
 land, not even `whether it was inhabited. But the
 meaning may be that the Lorcj to put Abram's faith                     Niet On's, 0 I&me! Niet Ons
 to a test did not reveal to him that the distillation was
 Canaan until he had resolved by `God's mercy to heed                      (PSALM' 115; TWEEDE DEEL)
 the call and had made all the nectissary  preparations           %Iet is meer dan een jaar geleden,  dat we voor de
 for the journey.                                              laatste maal schreven bnder bivenstaanden titel. Dat
    Doubtless the call had come to Abram alone. Terah          was in bet nommer van September 15, 195.0. Waarom
 went with .Abram. Doubtless the thought of allowing           wij deze serie onderbraken, lag in het feit, dat er zoo-
 this son to pass out of .&is life was too painful to him.     veel geschreven werd over de verklaring van Begin-
    Instead of pressing on  tb Canaan, the pilgrims            selen. En sinds er gedurende de laatste maanden niet
 temporarily settled in Haran. `Ihey were still in the         veel  meer geschreven wordt dienaangaande, zullen
 land `of their nativity; For  Haran lay edst of the           we maar weer beginnen, en trachten om deze lange
 Euphrates.      In this place Terah died.  It may be          serie  ten, einde te brengen. We zijn begonnen met
 that the passing of Terah at this time is the answer          deze serie in het nommer van den 15den September,
 to the question why they had come to rest in`liaran. 1939, dus dat is zoowat' 12 jaren geleden.  Indien de
`Perhaps the journey was proving too much for `lierah.         Heere ons het leven geeft, zou ik gaarne den geheelen
    After the death of his father, Abram resu'mes the          psalmbundel  willen bestrijken in deze korte  medi-
 journey with Sarai his wife and his nephew Lot.- For          tatie's. .
 the Lord had bound His  call- on Abram's heart and               Ter zake dan.
 it continued to reverberate in his soul. The full don-           In- het nommer' van September 15, 1950 schreven
 tent of God's communic&ion to Abram as it had come            we over dezen psalm, en daarvan het eerste  vera
 to him in Ur. and therefore was not perhaps repeated          In dat vkrs beluisterden we een-klassieke  gedachte var
 in  Haran,  ,reads: `(Get thee out of thy country, and        Gods Woord, een gedachte die vaak door Gods volb
 from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto           aangehaald', wordt. In d& vers vindt de nederigheid
 a land that I will she& thee : And I will make' of            van Gods volk uiting. Zij is eigenlijk hetzelfde.  al5
 thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make          die uitroep van den tollenaar : 0 Gbd, wees mij zon
 thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And             daar genadig ! Iemand, die tot God zegt : Niet ons
 I wili bless them that bless thee, and tiurse him t.h@        0  Heere,   n&t ons, maar' Uwen naam geef eer ! di:
 curseth thee: and in thee shall all the families `of the      heeft het abc van den waren godsdienst geleerd.
 earth be blest."                                                 Uit de verdere verzen van dezen psalm zien we
                                                               dat de dichter-`moeite  heeft met de heidenen. En hi;
    Taking Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew and all           heeft zich warm gemaakt voor de eere Gods. Het ir
 the substance that the both of them had gathered i.n          om der heidenen will, da* hij den Heere bad om toe1
 Haran, and the souls that they had gotten in his place,       Zijli heiligen Naam eer te geven. Hij vroeg dat me:
 Abram departed and came into the land of Canaan. -bet. oog op de heidenen. Hij is bang, dat anders die
 Fassing through the land he came to Shechem. Here             godvergetenen zullen zeggen: Waar is nu hun ,Go.d'
 the Lord appears  unto him again and said: "Unto thy          Ziet ge, dat deden die heidenen niet toen God wonder<
 seed I will give this land."                                  dingen deed  bij, de  Schelfzee,  pf  toen Hij de  eerstc
    After Lot was separated from him, the Lord re-             wereld verdelgde en Noach  met zijn acht zielen be
 peated His promise even with great emphasis: "Lift            hield. Daarom bidt deze man, dat God tech Zijn naan
 up now thine eyes, and look from the place where              eere mocht geven. Hij wil niet dat de heidenen yuller
 thou art northward and southward and eastward and             triumfeereti,  en zijn God bespotten.
 westward: for all. the land whi&h thou seest, to thee            0, hoe vaak ~hebben  de ,heiderien  dat niet gedaan
2 will"1 give it and to thy seed forever. And I will make      Hoe vaak hebben die heidenen niet  in spot  gezegc
 thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can       tegen `GQds volk: Welnu, waar is UW God? Luister
 number th& dust of the earth, then sh'all thy seed also       naar de goddeloozen ten dage van Petrus: "Waar i;
 be numbered.. Arise, walk  thrbugh the land in the            de belofte Zijner toekomst? want van dien dag dat dl
 length of it and in the breadth of it7 for I will give        vaderen  ontslapen zijn, blijven alle  dingen  21~1% ge
 it to thee."                                                  Jijk van het begin der schepping.".II  Pet. 3 :4.
                      (to be continued)                          - `0, de goddelooze heidenen van eerdere dagen, en d#
                                      '  ,G.  M .   *Ophoff    goddeloozen van  onzen dag zouden  tech zoo gaarn


                                 _  TH&  STANbAIjb  BEAFiER
                           -.--                                                                                  163
willen,  dat het waar was, dat er werkelijlf ge& God         heerlijk Zijn werken zijn in de natuur. Ziet random
ware. Maar het is qooalS  onze oude catechesatie boek-       U,  -boven U,  beneden U  .in de afgronden, en ge zult
jes het zeiden: dit is meer ten wensehen dan een wer-        zingen .van de groote werken Gods. Wat.Hem  behaag-
kelijk gelooven dat er geen God  is. Er zijn eigen-          de om te doen heeft Hij goed gedaan.
lijk geen praktische atheisten.. God liet Zich immers             Dat kunt ge nog beter  zien in de herschepping.
nooit onbetuigd. Het getuigenis Gods, is ontzaglijk,         Ten minste, als ge oogen hebt om te zien. En dan be-
rijk, overweldigend. Ziet  waar ge wilt, luistert bij        2oel ik geestelijke oogeni Dan zult ge langzamerhand
dag en bij nacht, en- g,e zult de -wondere' sprake Gods      een kasteel zien rijzen voor U bewonderend oog. Dan
hdoren. ,O j.a, God zij geloofd,  ,Hij heeft Zijnen Naam     zult ge het paleis van Zijne gunstbewijzen zien rijzen.
`eere gegeven. Dat is een commentaar` op .alle werken        De Heilige Geest heeft er van gezongen in David.
,Gods in de natuur en in de historie.    .                   Toen alles in duigen lag vanwege de zonde des duivels
   En alle goddeloos  roepen van die  goddeloozen   is       en van Adam, toen is-God weer +an `t werk gegaan, en
zo? ijdel. Het hielp niet. <God  bleef, en Hij  z&l blij-    toen  kwam er uit de  ruine van de eerste schepping
ven tot in der  eeuwigh@.  Dat  zegt de dichter met          een wereld te voorschijn-die ons doet zingen tot in der
andere woorden. Hij zegt: Onze God is  tech in den           eeuwigheid. Het behaagde den Heere om te herschep-
hemel, Hij doet al wat Hem behaagt. Let op dat               pen. En dan zou ik moeten sppeken  van Jezus Chris-
"onze" God. Let op dat  bezittelijke   voornaamwoord' tus, en van degenen die Hem geschonken zijn. Doch
"onze": Daar zit meer dan bezitting in. Als een man          het bestek gedoogt dat niet. Als maar vastaan mag,
met  groote   blij,dschap  -zegt: dat is mijn vrouw, dan     dat God alles gedaan heeft, nu nog doet, en doen zal,
zit daar Teer in dan bezitting. Dan zit daar liefde in.      al wat Hem behaagt. Niemand kan-tot Hem zeggen :
En zoo is het ook hier. Ik heb eens een leeraa? hooren       Wat  lloet Gij? De gedachte is al te dwaas. Hij is
zeggen: Hoe zoudt ge gevoelen, als men U nu eens ab-         God, de levende God. En Zijn  doen is enkel  majes-
soluht bewijzen kon, dat er geen God is? Zoudt ge dan        teit.-
blijde zijn, of zoudt ge er over treuren? Indien het              En-de  goden der heidenen?  _
eerste, dan toont dat duidelijk, dat ge nog niet bekeerd          Ja, zij hebben ook  goden.  Eigenlijk kan  &een
zijt;  doch indien het laatste, dan  bewijst ge dat de       mensch zonder een god. Luistert naar den dichter:
liefde Gods in Uw ha+e woont. `t Kan best waar zijn.         "Huniieder afgoden zijn zilver en- gou$, bet, werk van
In elk geval, een ware Christen heeft God lief.  Hij         `s menschen `handen." (Och  arme,  wat  onbeschrijf-
kan het zonder Hem niet ma$en. En het "onie God" lijke armoede, maar oak verregaande dwaasheid. Af -
van mijn tekst vindt een blijde echo in zijn hart. ~         goden zijn  on-goden,  dat is,  keen  goden. Enkel ijdel-
   En Hij doet al. wat Hem `behaagt.                         heid.  H@ is het ledige, datgene wat niet is. Als het
   Daar zit veel in. Dat is * ongeveer hetzelfde als         &et zoo tragisch was  zou  men  uitbarsten.  in een
te zeggen, dat Hij de Almachtige' is. Hij kan alles.         schaterlach. Maar het is ook diep bedroevend.
En tech moet ge er een beperking bij itellen, evenals             Ee& afgod  -is datgene wat de mensch  zichzelven
we in den tekst leien. God kan alles, ja, do& alleen` foTmeert. God die waarlijk God is wil hij niet. Die
wat Hem behaagt. Bij Sooybeeld,  Hij kan niet liegem         zit hem in den weg, want Die censureert hem gedu-
Een man vroeg mij eens j.aren geleden,  of God een wiel      riglijk. God is lastig  voor een  iedei die goddeloos,
beide naar rechts en naar links kan doen draaien. Dat        vuil  en-krom is. En dat zijn de heidenen. Zij zijn
tias een goddelooze  mari.  -Dat kunt ge' we1 uit  zij,n     een volk, dat God een scheidbrief gegev& heeft. Ze
vraag bemerken. Ik ben dien &an het antwoord  toen           hebben gezegd, ze zegg@, en ze zull,en steeds tdt God
schuldig gebleven,' want ik wist het niet.  Maar ik          zeggen: Wijk pan ons, want wij  willen niet dat Gij
weet het nu wel. Neen, dat kan God niet, want het            Koning over ons zoudt zijn. Of: wijk van ons, want
is een. jeugen in de physica. Net zoo min als bij-`Gsd       aan de kennis Uwer wegen hebben we keen lust.
o3it zwart wit kan zijn, zoo kan Hij ook niet een wiel            Maar het zit in het wezen van den mensch, dat hij            '
doen  ,draaien  beide naar  rechts en  naar links.  ;God     een God diene. En zoodra hij van den waren God af-
doet en Hij kan doen al wat Hem behaagt. En wat              viel, maakte hij zich een anderen god. Doch nu schrij-
Hem behaagt is  schoon en liefelijk. Alles wat Hij           ven we het heerlijke woord met een kleine letter. Een
doet in tijd en eeuwiglieid is `goed. `t  Is-goed al wat     afgod is geen God. Een afgod is een  onding:  Maar           '
Zijn hand beval; het staat op. recht en waarheid pal,
                                                    . .      hij gevoelt In zijn wezen, dat hij iets of iemand moet
als op onwrikbare steunpilaren.                              eeren, loven, prijzen, toezingen, liefhebben, en dienen:
   Dat kunt ge heel  goed zien in de  schepping.  H&t        En zoo niaakt hij zijn eigen god.
behaagde den Heere om de wereld te scheppen. En                   De tekst zegt, dat die-afgoden van goud en zilver
Hij deed het. Ziet nu rondoti U, zelfs -nu, nadat de         gemaakt zijn. Wel, daar- zit een historische smaak
vloek Gods gekomen is, En het zal U verbazen hoe             aan die woorden. u In de dagen van. deri dichter deed

                      :                       **


                  164                                    T H E   `STANDARb  BEAR&R

                  men dat. Men bouwde een pop van goud, zilver, Steen,           gestelde van wat de uitverkorenen zullen  doen. Zij
                  bout, ivoor, of iets dergelijks. En als die pop  klaar         zullen God dienen dag en nacht .eg tot in der eeuwig-
                  .was; boog men er zich voor ter neder, en. gaf het `ding      heid. In de ,hel is de verstijving, de ..verstolling,  het
                  Goddelijke eer. En `God werd toornig in `den hemel.            einde van de ijdelheid. In de hemel is de tinteling van
                  God mag het niet zien, ,d& Zijfi eer gegeven wordt aan         leven, van eeuwig leven, v&n,ongekend  genieten. *Want
                  de gegoten beelden.                                           iij <zullen God ,zien, dienen,. vreezen, liefhebben, ver-
                     Maar nu moet ge niet zeggen, dat zulks niet meer           Izeerlijken.
     -.           geschiedt. Want dan hebt. ge het mi`s. Er was  eens               Daarom komt er `au dan ook een aanprijzen van
           i      een profeet die tot Israel ziede: Uwe afgoden zijn ge-         de roeping voor Israel, `en voor de kerk aller eeuwen.
                  lijk Uwe steden. Men behoeft geen gegoten beeld tc             We _ zullen we1 doen om goed. te luisteren naar de:1
                  maken om een afgod te hebben. Ge kunt .van elk                Heiligen Geest.
                  schepsel we1 een afgod maken,  en dat geschiedt oak.              "Israel, vertrouw gij op den Heere, Hij is hunne
                  Elk mensch die niet God dient, die& de afgoden. Het           hulp en bun schild."                 .
                  is misschien zijn vrouw, of zija kind, zijn vaderland?            Israel, dat is, de vorst *Gods, de man die met Gdd
D               of de deugd als zoodanig, maar een afgod  heeft. hij            worstelde en Hem overmocht met weenen en bidden en
                  altijd. Hij kan niet  z6nc$er   een. afgod.                    smeeken. Dat is de Vader der patriarchen. Dat is de
                     En dan hooren we een beschrijving van het bespot-          type van Christus, en dat is het  schoone voorbeeld
                  telijke der afgoderij. 1 Het is om over te weenen.          ' voor alle ginderen' `Gods van `onze eeuwen. Israel is.de
                     %e hebben een mond, maar spreken niet; oogen.               Nieuw-Testamentische Kerk. Israel zijt gij, mijn
                  hebben ze,  maar-`zien  niet, ooren hebben zij, maar          broeder en zuster.
                  hooren niet, zij hebben en neus, maar zij rieken niet;            Vertrouwt gij op den Heere!
                  hunne  handen hebben zij, maar  tasten. niet, hunne               De Heere is Jehovah die  Zich zoo  schoon  aan U
                  voeten, maar gaan n&t, zij geven geen geluid door bun-        gecpenbaard  heeft. Hij is Jezus  Christus  aan  `bet
                  ne keel.                                                      kruis, dragende en wegdragende Uwe zondeschuld.
                     bat is een  treurige beschrijving van de  verre-           Hij is het die verlossing zond ! Hij is het inbegrip
                  gaande  dwaasheid wan alle afgoderij. Zoo `was  bet, van alles wat goed, schoon en lieflijk is. Hij ais onze
                  met hen die letterlijk van die poppen  niaakten, maar         `God. En dien God  moeten wij  eeren.                     :
                  dat is ook zoo vandaag. met allen die af&oden:maken               Maar  aangezien we daartoe geheel en al  onbe-
                  van het bloote schepsel. Alle die afgoden hebben .dit         kwaam'zijn, zijn we 0  zoo blijde, dat er  aan  toege-
                  gemeen,  dat ze geen Goddelijke  actie  l&men  vport-         voegd  wordt : "Hij is hunne hulp en hun-schild.`:
                  brengen. Dat zit in deze beschrijving.  Ze-zijn ten               Het zou er treurig bij staan, indien we niet anders
                  eenenmale ijdel. Ze kunneti niet verlossen zoo'we in hadden dan die mooie v'ermanitig  : Vertrouwt tech op
                  nood zijn; ze kunnen niet dienen om den honger te             den Heere ! Want dan konden we niet dden dan schrei-
                  bevredigen van het hart dat  liefhebben  wil.  -Er is         en. En zelfs dat kunnen -we niet. zonder d; bulge van
                  g&n actie der afgoden.                                        den zuchtenden Geest van Christus.
                     Maar het is vreeselijker dan dat. Niet alleen dat             Hij is hunnel hulp. Dat zal eeuwig waar zijn:
                  de afgoden geen actie kunnen geveli,  zij maken ons het           Hij is hunne hulp. Ja, laten we daar eens wat van
                  voorwerp van Gods rechtvaardigen toorn.  God heef?            mogen zeggen. IHij is hunne hulp, doordat Hij intrek
                  het alles gezien. En Hij is zeer toornig geworden. En         neemt in hunne  harten. Daar maakt Hij hun hart
                8 die to&n wordt straks geope?baard in de hel, in  d&z          e& heiligdom om te wonen. Door Zijn Heiligen ,Geest
                  tweeden dood. :O ja, er is reeds nu een beginsel van          wederbaart Hij Israel, en d& wil zeggen, `dat Hij bun
                  dien toorn, en hij wordt geopenbaard `van den hemel.          h& leven vali JeZus  Christus geeft in het diepst van
                  Waarom denkt gij dat er oorlog en allerlei ellende            hun bestaan. Dat is hetzelfde  als te zeggen, dat Hij
                  op  `aarde  zijn? Omdat het mensehdom  zich  bezon-           hen van dood levend niaakt. En" dat nieuwe  leGen
                  digde in de afgoderij, van eeuw tot eeuw. En bet werd         voedt Hij en bkkraehtigt Hij- hoor Woord en ,Geest.
                  s t e e d s   e r g e r .                                         En Hij is ook hun schild. Want alles hi.er op karde
                     En nu komt er een vreeselijk vers. "Dat die  ze            is hun tegen. Maar Zijn sterke hand  beschertit de.
                  maken hun gelijk worden,  en al wie op hen vertrouvbt."       vrometi en redt hun zielen van.den dood. Hij zal hen
                     Dat is de h'el. .                                          nimmer om doen komen in duren tijd en hgngersnood.
                     Als wij gelijk worden  aan onze afgoden, dan wor-              En zoo komen de  verm,aningen.  Zoekt Mijn  aan-
                  den wij ook der ijdelheid overgegeven. En dat is dc           gezicht. En dan zegt Israel: Ik zoek Uw  aange-
                  hel. In de he1 is onzen naam verdelgd, uitgeroeid. In         zieht, 0 Heere !
                  de he1 is geen pure actie me&. In de he1 is er slechts            En zoo gain ze voort van kracht tot kracht! :
                  &5n ding:  passief  lijden ! Dat is juist het tegenovey-                                                G     .              `Vos.
                                          .  -                                                  c
                                            -.


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   IBEARER                    bi  I                   165

                                                                      heard ,(it said by the teachers, 5G.L.) that it was said
=FROM  H O L Y   WRI'k` unto the ancients .( by Moses) : Thou shalt not -kill ;
--_  __-.                      _ .___                  ..-            but I.saz_! unto you that you must not limit this com-
                                                                      mandment' to the literal deed of slaughter, but must
              Exposition of Matthew 5:214                     `
                                                              *.k     apply this to the very thoughts and intents of the
                                                                      heart! Thus we would briefly paraphrase this terse
   In our previous article we stated that it  1s our                  statement of Jesus iy our text. For our lL)ord does not
mtention to write a brief exposition  0;  this  emire                 look at each. commandment by itself, but he views
se&on in  ivlatthew 5 from verse  1'1  till  48.  In our              the law as it is briefly sumFed up in the one Great
i%rmer article we attempted to show the impllcazlon                   Commandment to Israel. It asks  no less than per-
31 Jesus' warning to us not to have the 1oolisn notion                fection.  .Jesus does not forget the Tenth  Commdnd-
that he is come to destroy the law and the prOphew.                   ment while He instructs us in the meaning of the
For such is indeed not the case. He-is not come 1;o de-               Sixth Commandment. The Commandment "Thou shait
stroy but to  Pulfil.  the law and  the  prophets.  Umy               not covet" stresses that not the least thought ezler rise,
when all rlgfiteousness  has been perIecr;ly  1-uiniled anti          in OUT heart against any of the cotiandments  of ,Gocl.
311 the saints shall be perfect, without spot or blemisul                Such is the intent and abiding significance of the
)r any such thing will God cause the heavens anti tnr;                Law in general and of the Sixth Commandment in
?artn to pass away.                                                   particular.
   This is a truth that should spur us `on as children                   But the Jews made the Law of God of none effect
)f God to greater zeal in a walk in rignteousness,  -60               by their evil and perverse teaching. They `did not see
3e the iight of -the world, a city set on an hill-top,                the one Great Commandment and the Second like unto
i light on the candle-stick to enlighten all tnat are m               it, but they had greater and less'er  arid least cotiancl-
;he house. `1'0 be salt that indeed has not lost  ?cs                 ments. It was! all catalogued. Theirs was a casuistric
savor it means that in gratitude we keep the Second                   interpretation of the law in which the very heart had
Lommandment, which is like unto the l?irst and tireat                 been lifted out of it. And now Jesus will very strik-
Commandment, namely, that we love our neighbor as                     ingly bring this to light in His exposition of the Sixth
ourselves.                               -.                           Commandment. .
   In the  remaining verses of this Chapter Jesus                        Let us try to see this.
points  out very concretely how we can be then salt of
the earth, how in. all the relationships of men it 1s                    On the surface it would seem that Jesus Himself
possible to be, light in the Lord, in                                 brings in a casuistric interpretation of the Law. Does
                                                the  aarkness  01~
3m and death.                                                         He not say: "But I say unto you that He that is an-
                                                                      gry with his brother shall be held to the judgment,
   IShall we be this light of  the world, letting our                 and he that says to Gis brother, Blamed bonehead !
tight ihine before men, then it is of importance that                 shall be held to the Sanhedrin; and whosoever says,
we keep even the least Commandment of the `Savior.                    blamed fool! shall be held for the Gehenna of the fire?"
But this again is -impossible unless we are deeply a-                 Is this not again putting things in different catagories
ware, with a Spirit-enlightened mind and heart, or th6 and departments? Is this not a little more advanced
im&cation  of the law of ,God, that it is holy, and that              casuistry over that of the Jews? They simply said
;he commandment, the precepts of the Gospel are holy,                 that it was good Orthodox Teaching that the murderer
cighteous  and good. This commandment of Christ is `should be held to the judgment, that is, should be tried
lot satisfied  with the lit&al externalism, but it &a&s               in court. But Jesus goes a-bit farther. He says:  1,f
.Is light and makes its demands upo'n the entire heart                one is angry with his brother he shall be tried in court
tnd mind and soul and strength of man. From  the                      and if he says : Blamed' bonehead! then he must be
leart are the issues of life. And it is this heart that               tried before the Sanhedrin, the seventy elders in Jeru-
s demanded.                                                           salem, and if he said : Blamed fool! then he would
   Because this central and  a!l-controlling element be cast into the Gehenna of fire. Is this not more
)f the law was not taught to the people by the Phar-                  casuistry? !
sees and Scribes -iri His day, He forcibly places the
lictum of the law over against this horrible perver-                     We' think not !
lion of the sacred law of `God. He will teach the law                    We are of the convictiori that Jesus is here merely
lot as corrupted by the Scribes and Pharisees but as                  satirizing the entire Jewish approach to the law by
t was intended by IGod when given through Moses-.on                   showing its absurdity when you would try to apply it,
he Tables of Stone.                                                   as the Jews attempted to do. It is true the Jews never
   Wherefore Jesus says in verses 21 and 22 : Ye have                 came to. the prQblems that Jesus here presen&,  because


          166                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                 :..-,          "        "

          they simply stated that the actual deed of murder              the law of God teaches the greatness of our misery
          is murder and not the hatred and anger of the heart.           That altar too, teaches us forgiveness, and the art o
          But as soon aa the Law is taken seriously then such being forgiven.
          would be the construction to which the Jews, would                How true `to life Jesus pictures this. It must hav
          have to come. Now by thus satirizing this whole un-            been the experience of many a saint in the Old Testa
          tenable and evil position Jesus lifts the vail upon the        ment Dispensation,- that at the Altar many sins cam{
          nameless blindness of these leaders of the blind. J@-          to his mind which otherwise remained hidden in hi
          sus does not meap to teach three degrees of murder             sub-consciousness.    Who  ,of us has not  experience1
          and three degrees of higher courts, but wishes to show         the impossibility of praying when unconfessed  sin
          that the law must be applied in such a way also in             keep haunting us in our souls.. No peace and rest ar'
          the Sixth Commandment that it is a question of the             then forthcoming. .
          whole heart and mind and soul and strength !                      It is not very ceremonious.to  be already at the alta
                 The very thought of revenge and hatred is already       the service having begun, and. then to leave the gif
          murder. This murder is rooted in hatred of the bro-            at the altar and be reconciled to the brother and the]
          ther, and reveales itself in the evil ebithets that are        come to offer the gift. But it affords great  peat
     -    hurled at each `other. The poison of asps is under our nonetheless ! Do not think that you will experienc
          lips, and our feet are thea swift to shed blood and the        the foregiveness of sins, my dear reader, if you  dl
          way of peace is not known ; the course of our birth            not confess your faults to the br,other whom you hav'
          is set on fire of hell ! &nd most of the murdering is          off ended. Foi the brother offended is not the judge
          d&e with the tongue, with tne evil tongue. The air is          God is the Judge, the Lord will avenge His people whel
          then soon  &erced  .wiBh the shrill cries of "Blamed           He judges the world according to this Gospel!
          loo&head", "blamed f6ol!" And another man has been                In warning us that we should be reconciled wit1
          murdered in. his soul, he has been cruelly hurt! Ah,           pur  brgther  whom we have offended, Jesus employs th
          life is so full of this. No wonder %hat men felt of this       figure of an adversary at law. This man has been de
          Rabbi of Nazareth that He taught with authority and            frauded.  He brings the matter to court. Now w
          not as the Scribes. He placed His finger on the very           should not let it come that far. We should be well
\         sore spot of life ; the knife of the law cuts into the very    disposed with otir brother soon. We should settle th
          boil.of this awful sin when it is in His hand!                 matter with him out of court voluntarily. Otherwis
                 But now there are also a great many more sins to        we shall be cast into prison until the debt is paid
          confess ; sin becomes indeed very sinful. And in the           The law cannot `grant the grace of acqfiital of debt.
          light of this iaw we learned to see the greatness of              Now the point of  JeSus' teaching if evident. I
          our sins ; for from the' law is the knowledge of sin if        we do not agree with the- brother offended quickl:
          only it is .preached  as it was by Jesus on this moun-         now in life this matter becomes one of hardening, o
          tain slope in `Galilee `of the nations. Ah, when man           becom@g morally apd spiritually calloused, ,and w
          does not want to see himself as he is, then he exter-          fall into the hands of the living Go@ ; He will cast intl
          nalizes the law so that he may soothe his conscience.          tjne Gehenna of fire. We shall never come out theneN
          He then holds down the `truth in unrighteousness by            till we have paid the last farthing. But this is no
          dofng that by which he becomes without excuse be-              possible for us ; there none can fulfil all righteousnes
          f o r e   G o d .                                              in hell!                             ,
                 But this is not the c?se with those who seek ,God's        Jesus here confronts us with the precept of loving
          altar; who come as the penitent. Their flesh may re-           God above all and our neighbor as ourselves, having :
          bel, but when they draw near to God, near to the altar         righteousness that is indeed righteousness. At  thl
          %ith their sin-offering and thank-offering, then they          same time He very really accompanies this precept o
          will remember whether their brother has something              the `Gospel with the. cqnfrontation with the law! Le
          against them or no.t. No they have not pursued theni -there ,be no mistake about this. No, we are not ask&
          with a knife in hand, but they have said something             to. fulfil the law by works of law, for Jesus ,speaks tl
          to him or about him out of sheer meanness; they have           us beside the :Altar. It is the righteousness of faith
          not spoken .the truth in his defense, and it hsis caused       by which the Law is established., But even so there i,
          the brother grief and sorrow. They may attempt to              here a warning finger of threatening and warning
          gloss it over, but it  will' not really be blotted from        that we may not and cannot forget with impunity
          memory, even though they think to have succeeded               Think not while at the Altar that Jesus is come tc
          quite, well ; time has a way of erasing these impres-          destroy the law and the prophets! ,God is not mocked
          sions, but the Lord brings it to our attention very or-           We are here reminded of the beautiful question ant
          derly and concjsely  when we approach.His altar. Then          answer of the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 44


                                                                                -_

                                                                  ,~

                                       !tWR        STANDARD                     BEARER                                167~

Qu. 115,  "Why will God then have the ten command- ranted  conclusioti is drawn from the First  Helvetic!
ments so strictly preached, since no man in this life           Cqnfession because (p. 89)- `Erwahlt' is translated re-
can keep them?" And the answer is as follows:                   generated instead of elect. The author recognizes only
"First that all our lifetime we may learn more and              an unconditional promise of the gospel, to the elect.
more to know our sinful nature, and thus become the             l!-Iis morbid fear of Arminianisk causes him to deny
more earnest in seeking the `remission of sin, and              the promise of salvat&  upon the condition of (evkn
righteousness in Christ ; likewise. that we const&ntly          a  ,God-given) faith, p. 114. `On page 140 we are told
endeavor and pray to God for the grace of the Holy              that the standard `Reformed view of the covenant of
Spirit, that we may become  more and more conform-              works is `pure fiction.`. That standard view  js that
able to the image of God, till we arrive at the per-            `Do this and thou shalt live' meant a living beyond the
fection proposed to us in the life to come."                    li?e Adam already had, that is, eternal life. Without
                                        G. Lubbers              any ground or proof we are treated to the `pure fit-
                                                                tion' that these words meant Adam would-have con-
                                                                tinued to live on the ea'rth.  Again, the opponents uf
                                                                Rev. Hoeksema are pushed into a corner in which they          -
                                                                refuse to dwell. Thus we are told on page 35 that ak'
             ,PERISCO.PE                                        zuavs `the altar calYis `a hawking of Jesus in its worst
                                                                form, a burlesque caricature of the preaching of the
                                                                apostles.' While on page 139 the R&formed are re-
   Knowing that our people are always interested in             minded that `The covenant between God and man can
reactions to such books, we are copying two Pecent re-          never be a pa& . . . with mutual stipulations, condi-
views on Rev. I$oeksema's  latest book "Baptized Into           tion, and promises." Which, of, course, no Reformed           -
Christ."                                                        theologian has ever claimed for .either the covenant
   The first review is by Rev. J. K. Van Baalen, well-          of works or of grace.
knowil to all of us that are at all acquainted with the           "The wo?st feature of the book is that an unscrip-
history up to and  ,including 1924, now  ltiinister of          tural, one-sided view of :God leads to an unsatisfactory
the Christian Ref ortied Church of Edmonton, Alberta,           presentatibn  of the gospel. On the concluding page
Canada. He writes in The Banner of November 2, as               it is correctly stated that `the `sign and seal of the
follows:                \                                       covenant is a savor qf life for the children of the pro-
   "Baptized Into Christ", by the Rev. H. Hoeksefila.           mise, it is at the same time a savor of death unto death
                                                                to the reprobate.' `We must watch, therefore.' But
   "This is Volume VI in an Exposition of the Heidel-           watch unto what? -Unto a being moved with com-
berg Catechism,. and it covers Lord's Days 25, 26; 27.          passion, as Was Paul, and a `persuading men'? No:
   "The bobk contains  much that is good. The so-               we must watch because `it is our calling to walk as
vereignty of `God is stressed as it is too little in today's    spiritual children of the coienant.' The author does
religious literature in America. But it also has some           not preach to believers and imbelievers, but to the e-
weak points. Its chief fault is that (as  iii the con-          lect who show signs of regeneration. He takes his
troversy about common grace) we are promised in ad-             point of departure in the hidden things of God. That
vance an improvement upon the great Dutch theolo-               is neither supralapsarianism nor Calvinism.          It is
gians, but we are sorely disappointed. Then it was              known as hyper-calvinism."
`the organic development:' of evil.' Now we are told
that `In the more recent Dutch theologians one finds                                  -           :
a glimmer of deeper and richer notion of the covenant.'
The author, who is deadly afraid of all signs' of hi-                   The second review appears in the November, Cal-
laterialism in the covenant (throughout it has to be            vin Forum, and `is written .by Rev. Alexander De Jong,
God alone, and one-sided or unilateral) finally comes , pastor of Boston Square Christian Reformed Church
to the chapter, `The Idea of the Covenant.' We read of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
3n eagerly, looking for. that further development `of                   He writes as follows :
the `glimmerings' of Kuyper and  Bayinck. We  are                       "Doctrinal Preaching. Baptized Into  -Christ, by
told that the essence of the covenant is unilateral in          Herman Hoeksema. :. . .
its origin in  *God, and  b,ecomes  bilateral when God                  "If the reader is interested in the Heidelberg ca-
causes man to enter into fellowship with him. At any tebhism,  he should obtain this book. This volume con-
rate, we are not told how fellowship can remain one-            stitutes the sixth in Hoeksema's exposition of the Ca-
sided.                                                          techism. It covers the material  -contained in  Lor$,s
   "There are other errors in this book, An unwar-              Days 25, 26 and 27. As theologian and pastor the


                    f
                                          I
                    j                          `.-.           ~__.__~ __ ~___-__
168      `     :                     T H E   STAN,DARD  B E A R E R                                      -
author proves himself an able expositor of this Re-           process of realization? Is not the covenant in a cer-
formed confession.                                            tain sense  3 method of the administration of  ,God's
   "Hoeksema is a careful workman. He operates                grace? Hoeksema apparently leaves no room for the
deftly withmany dist&ctions  necessary in Reformed            distinction, historically maintained in Beformed cir-
thinking. `The opening chahtei deals with the means           cles afid certainly' not `Scripturally unwarranted, bc-
of grace. After carefully detailing the four main             tweeil the covenant as an external- and internal rela-
usuages of the concept grace, he gives the following          tionship? `Though this distinction must be employed
definition of the means of grace. `When we speak of           with care, and though it does not answer all the prob-
means of-grace, we refer to grace in the fourth or sub:       lems, it goes appear to point up the limits within which
jective sense of the word. It is through  meatis'  that `ws must confine our understanding of the covenant.
the Holy Spirit work,s  faith in our hearts, effects with-    One can riot escape the impression that Hoeksema
in us the grace of the !Lord  Jesus Ch&st, and bestows        wants to do the impossible'. That is, he wants to har-
upon us all the blessing of salvation.' (p. 21). No           monize for mere mortals the secret and revealed will
doubt, if God's people would make more prayerful and          of  `God. No `one can bring together election and. the
diligent use of the means, their commitment of faith          historical realization of the covenant. Certainly not
would be more relevant and meaningful today.                  by restricting the covenant idea as exclusively an end
   "There is an exceptionally worthwhile chapter .OU          in itself.
`Preaching as  a Means of Grace.' As many today                   "On'e regrets that the author sets up straw men in
carelessly  disregard  and discredit the  of&e of the         his discussion.      This becomes apparent in his ful-
ministry this chapter gains cogency. `Today every-            minations against the idea of the covenant of works.
body preaches, except those perhaps, whose specific           In connection with the coven&t of works Reformed
calling it is.' (bage 28.) `Preaching is  the authorita-      thinkers have always operated carefully with the dis-
tive proclamation of the gospel by the Church in the          tinction between the principle of justice and the prin-
service of the Word thrgugh Christ.' (p. 29.) As such         ciple .of grgce,  especially in understanding the proba-
the following elements are involved: 1) -being sent;          tionary command. Hoeksema summarily dismisses -the
2) the  proclamatioil  of the whole Word of- God; 3)          distinction with -this statement.      `But I, object that
by the church ; 4) it is the service of the Word of God       ,God cannot deny Himself, and that even by grace He
through Christ, for only Christ through the Spirit            cannot so condescend to man that the lattei becomes LL
can make preaching of the Word powerful and ef-               party next to Him, even t$ough  the relation is pre-
ficacious as `a means of grace. With free lance preach-       sented as tine between a very great party and a very
ing gaining ascendency, it is well to reemphasize the         small party.' (p. 139.) The reader is very uncon-
Biblical basis of preaching.                                  vinced.       Furthermore, no one who understands the
   "The authoritative character of true preaching lies        covenant of works thinks of man as setting up biS re-
in the theme of all preaching. This theme is Jesus            latively autonomous stipulations as Hoeksema would
Christ as the revelation of the God of our salvation.         have his readers believe.
Joined with this emphasis is a chapter on `Preaching              "Despite such questions, we would heartily recom-
in the Covenant.' It is worth reading twice over. As          mend reading this book, as well as the preceding vol-
the- same Word of Christ i.s brought to all, it becomes       umes. Hoeksema is Reforded, and demonstrates him-
evident that it is a savor of life unto life unto God's       self an able writer. We hop&e that God will spare the
chosen, and a savor of death unto death unto all' others.     brother and give him strength to complete his work
   "There is much valuable confessionals  material on         on the Heidelberg Catechism. Meanwhile we look for-
the idea of the covenant. In Hoeksema's discussion            ward to the next' volume."
the view of the late Prof. Heyns, Professor at Calvin                                 --_:-.
Seminary, is thoroughly, criticized. H'oeksenia  is in-
sistent upon making the distinction bettveell  the cove-         bince book-reviews are, to an extent at least,,. pri-
nant as a means to an end and as an end in itself. vileged we shall. refrain from mtikitig  even the most
At all costs he wants nothing to do with the covenant         obvious comments.                         J. Howerzyl.
as a means to an end. This point is labored to weari-
some lengths.                   '                                                          B
   "Certain questions refuse to be silenced`when  read-       CLASSIS EAST-Gill meet in regular session D.V.,
ing Hoeksema's understanding of the covenant idea.            Wednesday, Jan. 9 at 9 A.M., in the First* Prot. Ref.
How  does he fit Es&u and Judas into the covenant?            Church, ,Grand Rapids, Michigan.
What happens to history? Is not the covenant in the                                             D. Jonker, Stated  Clerk


