      VOLUME   XXVIII                       FEBRUARY   15,  1952  -  GRAND   RAPIDS,   MICHIGAN                         NUMBER   10

                                                                           kameren.    Indien gij Uwe  jaren doorgebracht hebt in
          M  E  I-J  1  T.A  T  1  (-j-N                      `-           de Gereformeerde kerken, dan weet ge hoe in dit  Hoog-
                                                                           lied  tw.ee  partij& spreken. De eene is  ,God of  Chris-
                                                                           tutus;  en de  andere is de kerk. God wordt ons hier
                                                                           geopenbaard als de Liefhebber van de zielen van Zijn
    Het  ~et*mJden van de  U&wmmmd~  Liefde,                               volk; en  dan,als de  gr6ote Bruidegom. E n   .,de  aqdere
               "De Ironing  heeft- mij gebracht in zijne  binnen-          partij die sprekend of  zingend optreedt is  de Bruid,
             kameren; wij zullen ons `verheugen en in U  ver-              dat wil zeggen, de kerk van Christus. In mijn tekst
             blijden; wij zullen Uwe uitnemende liefde  vermel-            is die kerk  aan het woord.  Eri die kerk zegt als  in-
             deli, meer dan den wijn: de oprechten hebben U                leiding : De Koning heeft mij gebracht in Zijne  bin-
             lief ."                                                 -.
                                              +Hooglied   1:4b             nenkameren. En  nti vragen we  als vanzelf :  wat  be,
                                                                           teekenen hier die binnenkameren?
     We  Lullen U niet  vermoeiq met  eene bestrijding                        Wat we  bier hebben is natuurlijk beeldspraak. E n
van hen die allerlei onzin gebazeld hebben `aangaande                      dan  we1 Oostersche beeldspraak. Een Koninklijk pa-
. het Hooglied  van' Salomo.  '  J!lisschien  weet ge  &et                 le% telt  Vele  kaineren. Er is een gehoorkamer  ; er is            -
  eens, `dat er allerlei  onzin, in  oniloop is aangaande  dit             een raadskamer  ; en zijn spijskameren ; hdiskamers  ;
  schoone  minnelied. En  mjsschien weet  ge.  bet; wel.                   er is een  schatkatier; en  er:zijn vele slaapkamers in,
  Hoe dat dan ook zij, het is beter dat we niet te  veeJ                   het  paleis eens Konings. Doch hier is  spr`ake  van een
  tijd  besteden  aan dat volk.  <God   zal hen  richten.      ^           binnenkamer.      En dat is die plaats in het  paleis  waar
     In `t algemeen mag ik  we1 dit zeggen: er zijn altijd                 de Koning op `t innigst leeft. Dat is een kamer waar
 menschen gewekst die van dit lied  zeggen,  dat het                       men zoo maar geen  toegang ontvangt. En  als we dit
  eenvotidig  weg de natuurlijk liefde bezingt van mensch                  beeld overbrengen op het leven  de$ menschen, dan is.
 toi men&h, en meer niet. Maar de kerk van  Christus                       het overduidelijk, dat hier  bedorvld  wordt des  men-
 heeft hier altijd  geluisterd, eerbiedig geluisterd  naar                 schen binnenste, of zijn' diepste harteleven.       En dat
 den zang van Gods verbondsliefde.                                         beeld spreekt yan God, zoo is het het  harteleveli van
     We hebben hier niet minder dan  een  zting die                        d&  DrieEenigen God. XEn als we dat gezien hebben,
  spreekt van  Gods liefde tot Zijn  volk;`en de liefde                    dan  kunn& we ook de  beteekenis, de geestelijke be-'
  van dat volk tot God. En als ge in  Nieuw-TestaGe!?-                     tezkenis benaderen. En  dsln is het die plaats, waar
  tische trant wilt spreken, dan zegt ge: hier hebben  WQ' het diepe  .leven Gods geconcentreerd is,  -waar de liefde
  een  hock dat de  lhef,de van.  Christus  bezingt, beide                 Gods opborrelt, opbruischt, en jubelt van  ~oneindigen
  vanuit het oogpunt  van de liefde zooals die  zich  richt                verbondsmin. Die binnenkameren van  #God is -Gods
  tot de Kerk, en vanuit het oogpunt dier liefde der                       zingende,  volzaiige hart van onbegrijpelijke, eeuwige
  Kerk tof den Christus. En dat is de beteekenis van                       Jiefde en vriendschap des verbonds.
  dit boek. Uit een zeker  dogpunt is het  bet diepste                     En in die  plaats nu, wordt de  bruid. gebracht.  Ze
 bock uit den geheelen Bijbel. En het zal  oris  passen                    zingt hier in mijn tekst van het feit, dat ze toegelaten
om ons schoeisel van onze voeten te nemen, want, de                        is in Gods harte. Die  plaats,  mijne geliefde vrienden, ,
  plaats die we hier betreden  is.heilige  grqnd.                          is verloren. Adam  mocht in die binnenkameren  iyo-
                                                                           nen,  doch  slechts. in aardschen zin. En in de binnen-        _
                                                                           kameren was Adam zalig. Do& door moedwillige  on-
     De Koning  -heeft  -mij gebracht in Zijne binnen-                     gehoorzaamheid  &lo& hij die  plaits, werd hij  uit


        218                                       .Ti-rE  S%`.ANDARD.   B'EARER

        die plaats verbannen, dat wil zeggen, voorzoover het          dat de Koning ons in die  binnenkameren  inleidt.  Da<
        zijn praktisch, gewaarwordend leven betreft. Want             is een fundameteele waarheid, een waarheid waarop
        wat God  betrefi is Adam nooit nit Zijn hart geweest.         de Pelagiaan van  alle eeuwen zijn  tanden stomp  ge-
        Let  pel: het. Evangelie is juist dit: wij  moeten met        beten heeft.           Maar nooit had die Pelagiaan sucees.
        God verzoend,  doch God is eeuwiglijk verzoend  ge-           Want God is God en Hij blijft God. God brengt ons
        weest met  Fijn  volk.  Doch Adam en met hem  all;            toe,  tin niet wij.            D a t   s t a a t   i m m e r s   i n   e e n   v a n   `de
        natu~$l&  menscben verloren die plaats, praktisch,            psalmen ?          God heeft ons gemaakt en niet wij `tot  -
        feiteliJk,  oqderwerpelijk. En ze verloren die  zalig-        schapen Zijner weide. Een  aider beeld dan we  bier
        heid, zoo absoluut, dat een ieder natuurlijk mensch nu        hebben  doch dezelfde zaak. God komt tot  U, indien
       walgt van die  heerlijke en lieflijke binnenkamer.             Zijn eeuwige liefde U van eeuwigheid zag. Indien
               Neemt nu,  b.v.,. de duidelijkste plaats aangaande     gij genade  vondt in  iijne oogen, dan komt  Hij,~ dan
        deie zaak. Er staat dan: Wijk van mij, want  aan de           kwam Hij of dan zal Hij komen, en dan neemt Hij
        kennis Uwer wegen heb ik  geell- lust! Zoo staat              U beet in `t diepe hart, en dan leidt Hij U  zachtkens
        de natuurlijke mensch tegenover God.,                         totdat ge aankomt in Zijn diepste hart.` Nu woont ge
                                                                      daar niet  altijd,  doch  als ge eenmaal de smaak  mocht
                                                                      proeven  vax&at het zeggen wil om met dien God  ge-
                                           ~ .                        meenschap, hartelijke gemeenschap te hebben, dan
                                 Be**'                                zingt ge van tijd tot tijd, en dan somtijds klagend
                                                                      van verlangen :             ,Goedertieren Vader !  Milde  Zegen-
                                                                      ader ! Stel Uw vriend'lijk hart, op Wiens  gulist wij
           En ge  -ku& het  001:  wet& uit het  ljraktische leven     hopen,  eeuyig voor ons open  ; weer steeds  alle smart !
       rondom U. Neemt nu den Sabbat.  Wat, een klein                 Dus de grond is  Zijti toebrenging. En wat mag de
       aantal van  otis zoogenaamde  Christelijke. Amerika en         inhoud zijn van het vermelden?
       Canada gaat  tiaar God huis ? Hoeveel  men&hen zijn
       er die  zich om het  -eeuwige  Evangelic  bekoweren?
       Omgekeerd, hoevele millioenen vergapen  zich  aan het
       v&e, het zondige, het zingenot van  deze  tegenwoordi-                                          -*       -a       *`$I
       ge vuile  tijd?        De theaters zijn  vol, berstens vol,
       doch de kerken, zijn leeg.         De goddeloosheid groeit
       onrustbar&d   aan, en de  deugd.struikelt op  alle straten.
       ..De mensch der zonde,  di vuige  A&Christ  is  aan  `t                De. inhoud,  .mijne  vrienden, is beide theologisch
       komen.        Ltiistert, mijne  vrienden : de natuurlijke      en anthropologisch.                Die woorden beduiden, dat de
       m^ensch walgt van Gods hart.  Wii-.niets  weten van            tekst ons de inhoud van het vermelden van Gods  lief-
       d&t hart.      In de derde plaats,. luistert naar -de stem     de schetst vanuit het oogpunt van' Gqd alswel vanuit
       van Uw eigen vleesch, en ge zult  sidderen.            Ten     het oogpunt van den mensch. Laten we beginner;
       minste, als ge genade  ontv~ngt.  Anders weet ge niet          m e t   h e t   l a a t s t e :   E n   d a n   z e g t   d e   t e k s t ,   .dat  d e
       eens waar  .ik  bet over heb. Maar als ge genade  ont-         mensch die in de binnenkameren geleid werd van
        iangen hebt, dan zult ge mij  toedtemmen, dat ook             Gods  dieps!e hart,  zich verheugt. In de intieme  ver-
       ons vleesch afkeerig  is- van God en  van Goddelijke           -bondsgemeenschap met God is  Gerheuging en  verblij-
       zaken. Wij die God  kennel1 door  .Jezus  Christus   moetbn    ding. Bat wordt eerst geconstateerd. Let  er op,  dat
       bekennen,  .dat we ons  ,vleexh  moeten kruisigen  elken       terwijl er -eerst  s&at,   dat de Koning  *mij,  dus in  .`t
       stap op den weg  naar- den  `hemel  heen. Dat zijn  de enkelvoud, in Zijne  binnenk&m&en leide,  z&j, dus  in
       vreeselijke  fei'cen: En daarom sprak ik van  .sidderen.       `t meervoud, ons  zullen verheugen en  ens verblijden.
                                                                      En dan is het  antwoord:  dSSr stond de individueele
                                                                      toebrenging op den  voorgrond,'  doch hier is het effect
                                                                      geconstateerd in de zingende gemeente.                                   _
                                                                           Wat is nu verheuging ? Verheuging is het effect
                        _)                                            van dien  toestand wanneer  alle begeerten en nooden
                                                                      vervuld  zijn.. Als het  vogelije at en dronk,  dan zong
           Daarom, mijne vrienden,  moeten we in die  binnen-         het.       Dat is een beeld uit de natuur, en dat  beeld
       kameren ingebracht  worden. En dat geschiedt door              past op den Christen.                   Als ge intieme  gemeenschap
     _.de trekkende liefde Gods.. Dat is de wedergeboorte,
-                                                                     met God  mocht hebben, dan kan het niet anders, dan
       en dat is de bekeering. Dat is het  levea des geloofs          gaat ge  aan `t  zingen, want dan zijt ge tevreden.
       en der heiligmaking. Let er  06;  dat er staat, dat God,       Want God is `t einde van alle  vragen, van  alle nooden,


                                              ~~%`
                                                        sTANDABD
                                                                            BEsitEB
                                                                                                                                     219
                                                                                                    .-_    _-._  _  --    _.
 ._-~-   .  _ .     .._.      -     -

 van  alle begeerten. Het hart rust? het kan en zal                groote liefde, meer dan mijn eigen verheffipg, mijn
rusten als het `God gevonden heeft;  Spijze en  vroo-              eigen zaligheid. Want God moet  geprezen..
lijkheid behooren texamen in die orde.  Als God  31
 Christus. Uwe spijze is  geworden, dan  zult ge zeker
zingen,  zingen van gena.                                                                 22 A  *  a
      We zullen ons ook in U  verbiijden, zegt de Bruid
 in  onzen tekst. Dat toont,  hoe de zaligheid des mensch-            En nu nog eenige woorden aangaande  Deb derde
 en vastzit  aan God. In U, 0  iGod, verblijden, we ons,           gedachte: wie zijn  het onderwerp van dit vermelden
 en dat wil zeggen in Uw deugden, in het  voile  deug-             van  IGods uitnemende liefde ?          En, dan is het  ant-
 d&nbeeld van den  volzaligeq  God. Hoe groot is de                wobrd:  -de oprechten, want ze hebben U lief. Hun
 zaligheid van de Kerke  Christi !            En dan volgt de      liefhebben van  God is het bewijs van. hun  oprecht-
 Theologische inhoud.' Wij zullen Uwe uitnemende                   heid. En  ,die oprechtheid is een  dedgd die- God hun
 lief,de vermelden! Dat volgt  crop. En  bet volgt, niet           schonk.,
 omdat het minder is;  doch omdat het theologische                    Wat. is oprechtheid?       Oprechtheid is die  deugd,,
zingen der Kerk  meerder is. We zien in  onzen tekst               waardoor ons inwendige levkn en ons uitwendige  le-
 het  opkliminen van het leven des Christens, van het              ven harmonieus zijn.  Oti het nu heel eenvoudig en
 anthropologische  tot  -@et theologische. Eerst : ik ben          plat te zeggen:     Een oprecht mensch is een  .mensch
 verlost !          Dan: door  SGods  liefde ben ik verlost! en    die van  biqnen en  tan buiten`hetzelfde is. Een  op-
 eindelijk; en dat is ook het  leven.  de$ hemels tot in           recht mensch is zichzelf gelijk waar ge hem ook  aan-
 eeuwigheid : Wat een liefde! En dat laatste is  theo-             treft.  Hoe& dat zoo gekomen? Want een  ieder  weet,
 logisch leven en  zingen.                                         al stemt men het niet grif toe, dat de  natuurlijke
      Het gast hier niet  eves de  lief,de Gods zonder meer.       mensch verre  van oprecht is. Men rekent  er-  immers
 0 neen. Het gaat hier over de uitnemende liefde Gods.             overal mee, dat juist het tegenovergestelde van den
 Let  daa> op. De liefde Gods werd geopenhaard in                  medemensch verwacht kan  `worden? Wel, om dat te
 het eerste Paradijs. Maar de kerk ziet meer dan net               vertellen, moet ik  U-eerst  wijzen,op de waarheid dat
 maar de liefde Gods. Wij mogen de uitnemende  lief-               God de  oprkchtheid zelve is. Qprechtheid is een  deugd
 de Gods zien. En dat is niet  maar het liefderijk  very           Gods;  Gr@ is en blijft Zichzelf altijd gelijk. Want
 zorgen van den mensch, ioodat  STij Zijn  ,God mag  ken;          Hij is  waarheid en  Licht.  ,God is als de kristallijne
 nen  a1.s de gever en behouder van het gewone  aardsche,          oceaan. Er zjn geen verdachte schaduwen bij God.
 natnurlijke leven.  O'neen. We  moeten  hooger" zien,             Hij is de  Qprec@te bij uitnemendheid. En relatief
 en verder en  dieper zien... De uitnemende liefde Gods            woonde  die deugd in den mensch.  Doch we hebben
 is het Kruis van Jezus Christus. Dat is  266 uitnemend,           die deugd verloren door de  zonde. En nu zijn we van
1 dat  Paulus zegt: ik heb  n$j voorgenomen  on-i niets            nature onoprecht. Ge  .kunt den mensch nu niet  geer
 tie  weten onder U ddn Jezus  Christus  en Hem  .ge-              vertrouwei, -want hij is anders dan hij  zich  voor-
 kruist.                                                           stelt.. Hij kan U glimlachend aanstaren en heel  lief-
    0 zeker, Adam in den staat der rechtheid zou U  heb-           lijk spreken tot U met  aanvallig klankgeslacht,  dqch
 ben kunnen  vertellen van de liefde Gods.  Doch  ver-             ge kunt het niet  yertrouwen; want het is best  moge-
 gelijkt het met de kennis die de Kerk van  Christus               lijk, dat hij U in zijn hart vloekt. Eh die trek  karak-
 nti heeft van die liefde, en ge zult zien hoe  er- een            teriseert ons  allen.  `Doch als God U in Zijn  binnen-
 vreeselijk groot verschil `is. Wij  mogen kennen en               kameren  itileidde,  clan geeft Hij U  .van Zijne  deugd
 zingen van.een liefde die Zichzelven in de helsche  ver-          der  oprechtheid. En dan is er een beginsel van die
 doemenis stortte om ons, ellendige zondaren te redden.            schoone deugd in Uw  -leven,  -en den  openbaart ge  pdie
 Deze uitnemende liefde roept ons toe, dat Hij ons  lief-          deugd  iti de heiligmaking. En dat is ook Uwe  roe-
 had  toen we Hem in `het aangezicht sloegen,  toen we             ping  wants Hij zegt,  `clat ge oprecht zult zijn  als de
 Hem den doornenkroon op de  slapen drukten,  toen                 duiven. En dat volk heeft God  ljef. Daarom  zingen
 we Hem  aan-het kruis hechtten. Dat er de  uitnem-                ze: God heb it lief, want die  .getrouwe  .Heer, hoort
 ende liefde. En. zij zal den  hemel  doen ruischen tot in         mijne stem, mijn  sqeeking en mijn  klagen; Hij neigt
 der eeuwen  eeuwigheden.  Omdat die liefde zoo  uit-              Zijn. oor; `k rbep tot Hem al  mijn dagen; Hij schenkt
 nemend was, daarom zullen de uitverkorenen  zingen:               mij hulp,  Hij  re@t mij keer  o$ keer !                           _
 Gij  hebt  &s  ,Gode gekocht door Uw bloed ! ge  doen                                                                    G. Vos.
 dat meer dan den wijn. Daar hebt be  he!  theologi-                                    -::::
 sche  oogpuni. De wijn is  beeldspraak  VOOP de  zalig-
 heid,-voor de verheffing des eeuwigen  lev&s van  ,Gods               I am a stranger -here, dependent  on `Thy grace,
 volk.  Doch de kerk zegt : ik zal vermelden Uwe                       A pilgrim, as my fathers were, with no abiding  place.   '

                                         '
                                    .


220.             i                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER                                                       -    -
                                                                                                                                      _               ,
                                                                                                                               .-
  -

                       T H E   STL~NDARD   B E A R E R -                                                              EDITtHKLALS
         Semi-monthly, except monthly in July and August
   Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
           Box 124, Station C., Grand Rapids 6, Michigan                                                                 Classk, Jan,&  9,  1952
                      EDITOR - Rev. Herman Hoeksema                                                                      IMPRESSIONS (continued)
   Communications relative  t3 contents should. be addressed
   to Rev. H.  Hoekse&,  1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand
   Rapids 7, Michigan.                                                                                        As I have said, I  virrite no official report.
   Ail matter relative to subscription should be addressed                                                    I do not have all the documents to write such a re-
   to Mr. J.  Bouwman,  1350 Giddings Ave., S.  E.,. Grand
   Rapids 7, Michigan. Announcements and Obituaries must                                                   port. In  order to be  `coknplete, such an official report
   be mailed to the above address and will be published at a                                               must needs include the complete report of the  IClassical
   fee of $1.00 for each noti'ce.                                                                          Committee  in re the  Chatham  case, the letter from
   $enewals:-  Unless a definite rec&est, for discontinuance                                               Chatham  addressed to  Classis,  and the reply of  Classis
   is received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the
   subscription to continue without  the formality of a re-                                                to that letter.
   newal order.                                                                                            I But I am not in possession of these' documents.
                      Subscription Price.: $3.00 per year                                                  And as I merely write impressions, I do not need them.
   Entered Bs Second Class mail at Grand Rapids, Michigan                                                  For these impressions I rely only on my memory;
                                                                                                     -     trusting that, `if my memory should fail me, someone
                                                                                                           will be good enough to correct me.
                                                                                                               If, then; my memory is correct, the  letter of  Chat-
                                                                                                           ham, addressed  ,to.  Class&, which was also addressed
                                                                                                           io all our consistories, exhorts our churches to liberate
                                                                                                           themselves from the sins  qf the Protestant Reformed
                                                                                                           Churches.
                                                                                                               The question is: which are these sins to which`the
                                                                                                           Consistory of  Chatham refers?
                                                                                                               From the letter that was addressed to  Classis by
                                                                                                           Chatham this is not  ciear. It refers, if I remember
                                                                                                           well, only to the Declaration of Principles. But, if
                                                                                                           we also consult the report of the Classical Committee,
                                 CO.NTE'NTS                                                                the sins of  the Protestant Reformed Churches are
MEDITATION-                 -                                                                              chiefly: 1,. That they adopted the Declaration of Prin-.
    - Het Vermelden van de Uitnemende Liefde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                        217
           Rev. G. Vos                                                                                     ciples.    2.  The censure case of the First Protestant
                                                                                                           Reformed- Church of Grand Rapids against the two
EDITORIALS-
         Classis January 9,                                                                                Dutch  stndents,  H. de Bolster and H. de Raad. 3. The
                                 1952-(Impressions)         . . . . .  .l  :                        220
         Promise and Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~.................                      223    case of the Consistory of Randolph, that refused to
         ~ Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                baptize  the child of a member that was of Liberated
 THE  TRI&B  KNOWLBDGE-                                                                                    convictions.  - 4. The refusal of the Committee of Cor-
         An Exposition of the Heidelberg Catechism . . . . . . . .                                  228
           Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                respondence of the Protestant Reformed Churches to
                                                                                                           get into contact with the Netherlands.
 THE  DAY  OF  SHADOWS-
         The  Protevangel  as the. Unifying Idea  of all the Scrip:ures  . .                        232        These are the so-called sins of the Protestant Re-
         The Covenant of  Sma~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                        234    formed Churches.
            Rev, G. M. Ophoff                                                                                  All this left upon me a  v&y  stra,nge  impression.
 IN  HIS  FEAR-                                                                                                In  the first place, it left the impression that the'
         Looking to the Future . . . . . . .                           . . . . . . .              . 236
           Rev. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                             brethren in  Chatham were very eager to separate
                                                                                                           themselves from  our churches, the fundamental  rea-
 FR&M   HOLY   WRIT-
         Exposition of Matthew 5 :33-37 . . . . .          . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      238    son being that they did not agree with the truth of
           Rev. G. C. Lubbers                                                                              our Confessions as maintained by these churches.  I'@
 CONTRIBUTION-                                                                                             impression is that; the fundamental reason being that
         Hidden Evil? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .          . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240     they werk not Protestant Reformed, they now looked
             A; Haan                                                                                       for an excuse  !o separate themselves.' And they finally
                                                                                                           did "liberate"  themseltes without any regard to the


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          221

 Word of Gdd, the  Confessionsj and above all, the             For they evidently based their judgment only upon
 Church  order.                                                the testimony, written or otherwise, of the two stu-
     Leaving for the moment the question of the De- dents that were censured themselves. They never eon-
 claration of Principles  alone, what are these sins of        sulted the Consistory of the First Protestant Re-
 the Protestant Reformed  Churches? Suppose it were            formed Church. Still less did they send a protest to
 a sin of the `First Protestant Reformed Church of             that Consistory against that censure. And therefore,
 Grand Rapids to censure. the two above-named stu-             it is certainly true that they were guilty of backbiting       .
 dents,  tihich it certainly was not--could  this be called    and slander and of judging the Consistory of the
 a sin of the whole denomination of Protestant Re-             First Protestant Reformed Church rashly and un-
 formed Churches? This, of course, is nothing  short           heard.    Secondly, I want to reiterate that -this action
of ridiculous. And suppose the case of Randolph, ac-           of the First Protestant Reformed Church of  <Grand
 cording to which they refused to  .baptize a certain          Rapids is not to be denominated a sin.  .These two
 child, had been a sin of that Consistory, can that sin        students were not put under censure because of their
 be laid at the door of  all. the  Prote$ant  Reformed         Liberated views, but because they refused to promise`
 Churches? Also this is `ridiculous. And again, sup-           that they would not make propaganda for their views,
 pose it were true that the Committee of Correspon-            snd because they finally threatened in the presence of
 dence refused to go to The Netherlands or get into            the whole Consistory that if they were put under cen-
 contact with their deputies of correspondence,  .and          sure, they would make propaganda for their views in
 suppose this were sinful of that Committee of Cor-            all our churches, and thus try to make a schism. Nor
 respondence, could that attitude of the Committee be          did these students walk in the ecclesiastical way and
 &led a sin of the Protestant Reformed Churches?               appeal` to  Classis, but immediately separated them-
 The reader knows better. All these alleged sins are           selves,  iogether with a -few others, and assembled on
 simply flimsy' excuses .to cover up the real reason           the sabbath in a separate  group. If this is not  schis-
 why the Consistory of  Chatham decided to "liberate"          matic and  .revolutionary,  I  .confess that I do not un-
 themselves, and separate. from the Protestant-  Re-           derstand the meaning of those terms.
 fornied Churches. And that real reason is simply                  Secondly, there is the case of the Consistory  o-f
 that they did not agree with the Protestaht Re-               Randolph, Wisconsin. Again, I have the same  pbjec-
 formed truth. If only the brethren had freely and             tion as I had in the. case of the two students that
 openly acknowledged this' fact and informed our               were censured by the  <First Protestant Reformed
churches that they had been in error when. they were           Church of Grand Rapids, namely, that the  Consistory
 organized as a Protestant -Reformed Church, no one            of  Chatham  made themselves guilty of the sin against
 would  ,have blanied them. But now it is quite dif-           the ninth commandment. They were guilty of back-
 ferent.    For now they separate themselves on the            biting and of rashly  condemfiing the Consistory of
 basis of such flimsy excuses,  and moreover, make a           Randolph, Wisconsin, without being heard. I do not
 futile attempt to create a schism in our Protestant           know on what basis the Consistory formed their  0~
 Reformed Churches, they expose themselves  9s  revolu-        judgmelit of that case, but I do know that they never  `
tionaries  a;ld  schismatics.                                  consulted the Consistory of Randolph nor made  any
  But let us look at those  three alleged sins of  tlie        protest against that Consistory, but based their
 Protestant Reformed Churches a little  more closely.. opinion on mere hearsay, probably of the party in-
                                                               volved. In as far as  I that "sin" of Randolph is con-  '
    First of all, the case of the First Protestant  Re-        cerned, also in this respect the Consistory of  Chatham
 forded Church of *Grand Rapids  in  re  the censure of        is in error. It is true -that they  .iefused to baptize  -a
 the two students. Iri the first place, it is very evi-        baby of one that was of Liberated convictions. But, in
 dent that the Consistory of  Chatham, like a certain          the first place, it is also true that said party would
 Mr. Land that. wrote a letter in the  R'eformtie,  is         not and could not  answer the second question of the
 guilty, in this case, of the sin against the ninth com-       Baptism Form, "Whether you acknowledge the doc-
 mandment, which the Catechism  eirplains  as follows:         trine which is contained in the Old and New  T'esta-
 "That I bear false witness against no man, nor falsify        ment, and in the Articles of the Christian Faith, and
any man's words  ; that I be no backbiter, nor. slanderer  ; `which is taught here  in.+this  Christ&n  church, to be
that I do not judge, nor join in  cbndemning any  man          the  true and perfect doctrine of salvation?" More-
 ra.shly, or unheard  ; but that I avoid all sorts of lies     over, if I remember well-land I think I do-said
and  deceit as the proper works of the devil, unless  I        party  refus'ed to partake of communion in the proper
would bring down upon  .me the heavy wrath of God."            way, but insisted to  ,have his baby baptized neverthe-
Of this the Consistory of  Chatham  is evidently guilty.       less,  jo that he  demaizqed  of the Consistory of Ran-


 222                                     T'&X  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

 dolph  to make separation  b&keen the two sacraments,               the Declaration  by our last Synod. Thus  we.  uilder-
 baptism and the  Lo?d's Supper. Such is the informa-                stand. Article 31 of the  Church  ,Order of  Dordrecht.`
 tion which I have; ahd if this'is not correct, the Con-             And if after our Synod of 1952 had reached a  d+sion
 s&tory of  .Randolph  can  set me straight. But I am                and had maintained the decision of the,Synod of 1951,
 positive that if the-  Consistory of-  Chatham  had ap-             the Consistory of  Chatham  could not conscientiously
 pealed to the Consistory of Randolph, and if they had               have acquiesced, they always would have had the  tib-
 not been; satisfied, had protested against that  Cc&is-             erty to separate themselves' from the Protestant  R.e-
 tory to the  Classis, they  would have had no case what-            formed Churches. Now, however, their act is that of
 soever.    But instead of  &king in the ecclesiastic&l              schismatics  and revolutionaries. But as I say once
 way, they rather have' recourse to slander and back-                more, that Consistory never was in sympathy  with the
 biting and judging rashly and speaking of the sins of               Protestant Reformed truth.  - And that is the  ,leepest
 the Protestant Reformed Churches.                                   reason why they separated from our  ehurcher.
    Finally, there is that alleged -refusal of the  corn-               The  Classis  decided to send a reply to  th.e letter
 mittee of Correspondence of the Protestant Reformed                 ,of  Chatham.
 Churches to go to The Netherlands or to get into con-                  This letter' was not addressed to any Consistory,
 tact with the deputies for correspondence of the Lib-               still less to the Consistory of the Protestant Reformed
 erated  ,Churches  in The  .Netherlands. Also this  is not          Church in  Chatham, which they were not, but  .<i.rnply
`true. The Committee has never refused to go to The                  to those who call themselves the Consistory of the
 Netherlands, even though their visit has twice been                 Protestant Reformed Church of  Chatham.
 postponed for reasons of which they can give account                   In that letter they state that they have no  ~desire
 if necessary. The fact is that we are still attempting              to enter with them  intd  a discussion of the-Declaration
 to get contact with the Reformed' Churches  (&t. 31)                of Principles, seeing that they have forfeited  t?e right
 of The Netherlands, as is. evident  froni the fact that             to such a discussion by not walking in the ecclesiastical
 at a recent meeting the Committee has decided  to send              way.
 a  I'etter to The Netherlands, asking them whether they                Secondly, they earnestly exhort and admonish the
 still desire correspondence in spite of the adoption of             brethren, in  Chatham that sent the letter to repent
 the Declaration,  ancl informing them that  if. they                from their evil and schismatic way,  in which they can-
 should desire a colloquium, we. would be willing to                 not expect  the. blessing of the Lord, but only  wr&h
meet them in The  Netherlanls, or else to receive them               and misery.
here in  our  own country, assuring them of a brotherly                 And finally, they reminded. them of the fact that
 and hospitable reception. But. again, I say that  the               at the occasion of the organization of the Protestant
 Con&story of  Chatham  is guilty of the sin against the             Reformed  Church in  Chatham  they had been  earn&t-
 ninth  commandent. They have never consulted the                    ly  and,strongly admonished not to organize unless they
 Commmittee of Correspondence,  alid therefpre they                  could answer the second question of the Baptism
 have judged them rashly and unheard.                                Form concerning the doctrine which is taught here in
    But of all these sins they make no  mentiori in the              this  Chiistian church: And knowing  a!1 this they had
letter that was addressed to  Classis, and which  ,also              organized  ) nevertheless.
 was addressed to all our Consistories.                                 This business of  Chatham  was the main dish at
    In that letter they made mention only of the speci-              the meeting of  Classi's,   Jantiary 9, 1952.
 fic sin of adopting the Declaration of Principles.                     After this there was not much business to transact.
    But again I  say: suppose that the Declaration of                The main item on the agendum was the election of
 PEinciples  is not the- truth. as expressed in our I&-              delegates to Synod. But the names of these will be
formed  Confess&s,  which it certainly is and which                  published in the official report of  Classis.
has never been contradicted? The act of "liberating"                    And hereby I close my meditation on the impres-
tfiemselves from the Protestant Reformed  ,Churches  at              sions I received at the meeting of  Classis  East.
this time was nevertheless  schismatic  and  revolu-                                                                       H.  H:
                                                                                           -:- :-
tionary.     T h e   IConsistory o f   Chatham  c e r t a i n l y
 could have sent a prbtest through  Classis  to our next                                    IN  MEMORIAM
Synod with grounds to prove that the Declaration of                    The .Mary-Martha Society of the Manhattan Protestant Re-
-Principles is certainly not the expression of the Re-               formed Church wishes to express its sincere sympathy to one
                                                                     of its members, Mrs. P. Vis, in the loss of her sister,
 formed truth as found in  the Three Forms of Unity.                                        Mrs. Steve Faber           - .  _
We would not have blamed them if they had done so.                     May our heavenly Father comfort the bereaved in their hour
Nor would we, in the  .meantime, pending their pro-                  of sorrow  and strengthen them with His sustaining grace.
 test, have held them responsible for the  adofition of                                                     Mrs. H.  Leep,  Sec'y.


                                                                           . . __
                                          TH%  SilAntDARfj   BEARER                                                          223

                                                                 means of which, nevertheless, the Arminians have
                  Promise   a n d   Prediction:                  been defeated."

   To  dnderstand the article of  Dr. Sehilder which                 Now as far as the last clause is concerned, it is
 the Rev. Kok translated without any criticism or com-           true,  of. course, in a way, that the Arminians have
 ment in  Comcorclia (Jan. 17, `52)  ,. we must remember         been defeated by Scripture, but certainly not by read-
 and constantly bear in  milid that he writes as a Lib-           ing Bible texts. In the Canons of Dordrecht they
 erated theologian. Otherwise we can never under-                interpreted  Scriljture and composed very many  d&z-
 stand the article, and  .especially  why he is in such          trinal and dogmatical statements. You cannot  d:e-
 emphatic need of conditions.. Strange to say, Dr.               feat Arminians by merely quoting Bible texts.
I Schilder  since he was here the  ,first time, and there-           But as far as the above quotation is concerned, let
 fore approximately during the war, changed his en-              me call your attention, first of all, to the fact that Dr.
 tire conception about the covenant and the promise              Schilder makes the common error of `quoting  Canons
 and now  .embraces the Heynsian conception, except in           II, 5 apart from the rest of the Confessions, as if .in
 as far as that  subjectiv: preparatory grace of Heyns is` that article  &eve have the presentation of a definition of
 conckrned. I first was in hopes that he really did              the promise and of the whole  promise of God. At the
 not fully agree with the Liberated theology, but                last Synod I called  ,the attention  6f the brethren to
 gradually it has become  m,ore and more evident that            the- danger of  cominitting that very common error,
 he is in complete agreement with it.                            that is, of isolating certain parts of the Confessions
     This  .implies that there is rather a fundamental           and separating them from the whole. I warned that
 difference between  .him and us as Protestant Reformed          in this  way one can make the  Co&fessions themselves
 people.                                                         speak Arminian  ,language.        Recently a friend of mine
     When he speaks of the  cti+enant,  he does not mean         called my attention to the fact that this same warning
 the same thing as we  ,do. He definitely needs parties          has  been issued before. I quote from the explana-
 in the covenant,  .while  we. speak of parts, and no            tion  `6f The Netherland Confession by W. H.  Gispen,
 carties.                                                        1886 :
     When he speaks, of the promise, he means some-                  "We  be!ieve,  however, that not only the offer of
 thing quite  different from what  we-mean by it. For            salvation and the urge  .of the Holy  -Spirit to receive
 him the promise is for all the children of the covenant,        the proffered salvation, is a gift of God and the work
 head for head and soul for  soul,. elect and reprobate,         of His grace,  but> also that the  will to accept it, the-  will
 Jacob and Esau. For us the  promise'is  only for tne            to stretch out the hand to the proffered alms is the
elect.       For Schilder  the- promise is only an objective     work, the gift of God. We be1iev.e that, to attain the
 bequebt. For us it includes all the blessings of salva-         true ,knowlecLge tif this great mystery, the Hdly Ghost
 tion, as they are applied to the elect by the Holy  :Spirit,    kindleth in our hearts an upright faith;  We do not
 the Spirit of promise.  For  Schil.der, therefore, the          deny that the death  %f the Son of God is of infinite
promise is necessarily conditional,  .For us,  that is,          worth and value, abundantly sufficient to expiate the
 for all truly Protestant Reformed people, it is uncon-          sins of the whole world. Nor do we deny that `the
 ditional.                                                       promise of the gospel must' be  declar,ed and published
    In the light of all this we can also understand the          to all nations, and to all persons promiscuously and
 emphasis of Dr. Schilder on the false  ,distinction be-         without  ,distinction, with the command to repent  .and
 tween promise and prediction. Writes he: "But now               believe,'  atid that. the guilt of the unbelief of many'
 comes the fine point of distinction: God does give us           does not lie in failure  oy insufficiency of the sacrifice
 promises, but no predictions. Thus He does  not say             `of Christ, but lies entirely in themselves . . .  Btit we
 to N. N. : you shall sometime go to heaven, and to -an-         would certainly fail to speak the whole truth, if we'
 other N.N.: you shall forever remain without.                   would mean to maintain that this presentation ex-
    "Therefore He givks a promise,  with a command,              press-es the  full,  the  whole  trzcth.    For this is not so.
 even as it is taught us in the Canons of Dordt: the             He who lays a  onesided emphasis upon these truths,
 promise comes with the command to believe and re-               runs into great danger to approach the extreme limit
 pent. And thus at the time of baptism He says: He               of Remonstrantism, and may transgress that limit
 that believeth in Me shall not be ashamed; for them             more quickly perhaps than he himself wishes to do."  -
 that honour  tie `I will honour  ; unto the upright there       pp.  $58-159.  This indeed is  almost  ,the same senti-
 ariseth light  iri the darkness ; them that seek Me early       ment as I expressed at `the last Synod.
 shall find Me. And he who  wbuld call this Arminian,                But- let us return to the quotation from Dr.  -
 does not, in  tiy opinion, read his Bible correctly, by         ,Schilder.\
                                                                                                        .


     224                                   THE  S T A N D A R D   BEARER

            He writes that  `God' gives us promises, but no pre-    Lord views `them  .as `my children.' He has a right to
 dictions.                                                          them. They  nzazj not live as they please!
        We must carefully analyze this brief sentence, in               "When they sinfully depart and turn their backs
     order to find  out. what the writer means.                     to  the*Lord, their sin is greater than that of one who
        First of all, then, we ask the question: what in the        never belonged to the covenant, for it is the sin of  dis-
 sentence does the pronoun'  US mean?             It is evident     dbedience,  the breaking of the covenant.
 from the context that  Dr; Sehilder does not refer to                  "Then finally the same stage is reached as in  a
 the elect, as is so often the case in the Confessions. In          family, in which a son forgets himself sometime  :that
fact, it is very well possible to apply this pronoun us             he is disinherited by .the father.    d
 to all'men, without  d?stinction, as, for instance, is the             "He made himself  *unworthy of the inheritance ! . . .
 case when Canons II, 5 states  that the  prdmise of the                "And when later the departing covenant child
 gospel must be declared and published to all nations               would say that  (God after all did not give him the
 and to all' persons  promisciously and without distinc-            benefits of the covenant, then the word must be  .ap-
tion. But at any rate, we can state  that particularly              .plied to him: `It is your own fault; you did not want
all the children of the covenant, head for head, soul               it any different,.'
for soul, elect and reprobate, are meant. To the& all                   "Also to-this lost child the Lord promises His
 the Lord does  not give predictions, but  Be does give             salvation, the forgiveness* of sins and eternal life. He
his promises. Dr. Schilder would no doubt subscribe                 promises this and means it seriously and promises it
to what Prof. Veenhof writes  in his  Unica Catholica:              honest&."
       "In His holy, glorious covenant  language the Lord,             ?h&t in all this there is no mention of election and
 calls the children of the covenant not only His chil-              there is certainly no room for reprobation is plain to
 dren, but He also gives unto them the promises of the              all that can read. I do not say that either Veenhof
 covenant.                                                          or Sehilder  d&y the sovereign counsel of election and
        "He promises them also, that He will be their God.          repiobation outright. But I do maintain that in their
        "What these promises of  I  .the- covenant are you          covenant conception it is left out of view altogether.
may read in the inimitably tender language of the                   God promises to all the children of the covenant -all
Baptism Form, what the covenant  IGod  has promised:                the blessings of  ais salvation, forgiveness of sins and
 the Father, that He adopts us  2s His  ,children  and              eternil life  ; and' when they do not receive them, this
heirs; the Son, that He washes us in His blood; the                 is to be attributed only to the fact that they close for
Holy Spirit, that He will sanctify us as members  of                themselves the gate of heaven. How, with such a
Christ.  Thus are the promises of the covenant. All                 view, the brethren in the Old Country can escape the
this the  Lord promises to the children of the  covel;.ant.         indictment of Arminianism, I fail to understand.
-      "And these promises are  tieant for  al;Z+he children
of the covenant.                                                       Bat at any rate, this is the implication of the
       "Here we may make no separation  ; we may not                pionoun us. when Dr. Schilder -writes that God gives
say that it means for the one and not for the  othert               us promises,  bu! no predictions.
God promises  all the children of the covenant all the                 The next question concerning this statement is:
blessings of  His salvation. Therefore also. to them                what does Schilder mean when he writes that God
that are not. regenerated. -Also to them that  ilever               gives no predictions to them?
are regenerated.                                                     To'this I would answer. that God does not address
       "Also to a covenant child that will be lost these            thein by their natural name, N.N., John, Peter, Wil-
`promis& are given.                                                 liam,  etc:, and thus assure  them that they shall go
       "But  when  such a one later in life wantonly breaks         either to heaven or to hell. This is evident from the
with the covenant and with the God of the covenant                  sentence : "Thus He does not say to N.N.: you shall
and  tu'ms his back to Him, he receives no pqrt in  trle            sometime go to heaven, and to another N.N: you shall
ranks of the heirs of grace.                                        forever remain without.`! He does give N. N., John,
       "Through his own disobedience to .the  ,God of  the          P&er, William, promises  ; -but He does not assure them
covenant and of his fathers he himself despised. the                by a sure prediction that they shall be saved, or go to
blessing.and rejected it. In spite of the fact, that the            h e a v e n .
Lord had promised him much, he closed for himself                      And now what is perhaps the most important ques-
through his disobedience the  ,gate of heaven." ,                   &ion: what does Schilder mean by the promise?
       And a little later:                                             Here we hit upon the element of conditional theo-
       "Our children are children of the Lord.                      logy, and, at the same time upon the most inexplicable
        "They belong to the Lord from  their -birth on. The         contradiction in their entire view.  *


                                        T H E   snmDAR~  B E A R E R                                                       225

     Does Schilder by promises me& the entire  promise,~       it i's up to them to close the  g&te of heaven, and there-
 including the application of the  blessi;gs  of salvation' fore also to keep it open.)) for this is not the question.
 by the Holy Spirit and the gift of faith? That is                    The question is whether. the. promise includes  the
 impossible. For in that case he would make  ,Gdd a            gift of faith and of the Holy Spirit, or not.
 liar; The Holy  ;Spirit  and the gift of faith are  c&-              Does God  aromise all the subjective blessings and
 tainly absolutely unconditional. To'deny this is to be-       application of the benefits of salvation, including the
 come Pelagian and Arminian.           To say that God         Holy  :Spirit  and the gift of faith, to  all the children of
 promises faith on condition of faith is a contradiction       the covenant  ?' Heyns says : No, the  Holy Spirit only
 in terms. And to say -that God promises His Holy              promises that He  z~&ZZ, not  tha$ He  cloes, apply all the
Spirit on condition of walking in the way of obedience         benefits of salvation to  till the children of the  covenant.
 is the same contradiction, if not Pelagian.  - That can-      And I dare say': Sehilder is bound to say the  same
 not be the meaning, therefore. We remember that               thing. Faith is a condition, a condition that is de-
 even Heyns does not dare to say  this, and for that           manded of us together with repentance. And if faith
 reason makes a separation in the doctrinal part of the        and repentance are conditions' of the promise, faith
 Baptism  Form between the promise of the Father and           cannot be included in the promise.                                  I  '
 of the Son, on the one hand, and of the Holy Spirit,                 This, it seems  tbi me, is the. chief difference  be-
 dn the other. The  ~promise of the Father is that He          t.ween Schilder's conditional promise and the Pro-
 wills establish_ an eternal  covenan$.  of grace with us;     testant  Reformed conceptidn of the promise;
 and adopts us for  His` children and heirs.           The
 promise of the Son is that He incorporates us into                   Schilder?s   `provise does not include the gift of
 His death and washes us in His blood from all our             faith.  .For if God promises faith to all, all will  eer-
 sinb. But the promise of the Holy Spirit is that  He., tainly be saved.  Bixt we say: Yes, the promise  ifi-
 WIIJL  apply the blessings of  salpation  to' us,  presup-    eludes  faith. But for that very reason we say: The
 posing, of course, that we will never receive them            promise  is not for all, but only for the elect, and is
 from the Holy Spirit unless we  also will it. I do not        a b s o l u t e l y   uncoiditiorial.
 know whether Schilder would subscribe to this view              Now let us turn to Scripture and to the Confessions,
 oJ Heyns. But certain it  is, that  he cannot refer to        in order to prove that the distinction between promise
 the whole promise of  aGod  w&en he says:  `(God gives        and prediction is thoroughly  fal,se. In fact, it  is a
 us promises."     He refers evidently to the' partial         mystery to me how Schilder can `ever maintain such
 promise of future glory and salvation, as is also the         a distinction. To  my mind; practically `all the promises
 ease in Canons II, 5. Hence,  in the conception of Dr.        in Holy Writ are at the  same time predictions. And
c Schilder here the promise does not include, but  ex-         all the predictions are promises.
 eludes the gift of faith. He would undoubtedly in-                   To prove this is almost quite unnecessary. Never-
 terpret Canon II,  6 in this way, that God connects  -the     theless, I will refer to  .a `few passages at random to
 promise of salvation, the promise of eternal, life in the     corroborate  niy contention.
 future with  the demand of faith and obedience, and                  First of all, I will point to `Genesis  3.~15, the  well-
 therefore on condition of faith and repentance.               known protevangel, the mother of all promises: "And
     Thus, I think,  we can understand what Schilder           I will put enmity  betweeli thee and the woman, and
 means when he says that God gives us promises, but            between thy seed and  her seed; it shall  bruise thy
 no predictions.                                               head,  an,d thou shalt bruise his heel." That in these
     All he has is a conditional promise. to all, without      words of Scripture we have a prediction, a prediction
 any assurance that  ,a11 will receive the benefits of the     of the battle of the ages between the seed-of the wom-
 promise.                                                      an and the seed of' the serpent, a prediction, too, of
     It makes no difference whether or not he tries to         the final victory in Christ Jesus  otir Lord, Who shall
 &ye himself by emphasizing that God fulfills Himself          crush the head of  the. serpent, is very evident. But                             _
 all the conditions (This, in the  fir& place, is nonsense,    that at the-same time we have no mere prediction,  btit
 because a condition  tihieh God fulfills can never be         also a promise of God is well-known and is also very                   .
 .presented as a condition which man must fulfill. And         evident from the words' themselves, as  well as from'
 in actual' Tact the common people in the church will          Question  atid Answer 19 of the  Heidelberg- Catechism.
 never understand this, but always maintain that a             God here promises enmity between the seed  .of the
 condition is  a.prerequisite which they themselves must       woman and  the seed of the serpent.  Thtit enmity is
 fulfill. In other words, in the light of this doctrine        positively friendship of God. And that friendship of
 they always feel that they are responsible not for            God is certainly the-realization of the promise in  the
 their sin or  disobediellce but for their own salvation       hearts of the  Seed of the woman. And that this is also

                                                                 e
                                                                                                                                           ,-


226                                  THE  STANTDAR~  BEAR%%                                                         -
the meaning of the Heidelberg Catechism is  evide'nt            tract, nor as a way of salvation, but  .as an eternal
from Qu. 19:  -"Whence knowest  thou this?  Fiom the            bond of friendship between  ,God and His people in
holy gospel, which God himself revealed in paradise  ;          Christ. But the point to which we must call special
and afterwards published by the patriarchs and proph-           attention in this connection is that God passes thru
ets, and represented by the  sacri,fices  and other cere-       the pieces of the animals that are placed in juxta-
monies of the law; and lastly, has fulfilled it by his only     position over against one another  alone. When men
begotten Son." According to the Catechism, the holy             establish  ti covenant between themselves, it always
gospel is the same as the promise. And when it is               is an alliance between two or more parties, with mu-
said, that this  1101~  gospel, or `promise, was revealed in    tual stipulations and conditions and promises. And
paradise, the reference is without any question to              .hence, when in olden times a covenant was, symboli-
Genesis  3:15,  the  mother of promises. Hence, we              cally ratified by the divided animals, all the parties
have in these words of Scripture both a prediction and          of the covenant would pass between the  pieces,   sig-'
a promise. The promise is a prediction, and the pre-            nif$ing no doubt  .that they would be faithful to the
diction is a promise.                                           covenant thus ratified even unto death. But this is
       The same is true of all  the,passages  in Scripture      not the case with the covenant which  God establishes
that speak of the establishment of the covenant. In             with Abraham. That covenant is not bipartisan, but
Gen. 6  :18 we read: "But with thee will I  e`sttiblish         God is His  own.party in the covenant. It is ndt bi-
my covenant." And again, in Gen.  9:9: "And I, be-              lateral, but unilateral. This is indicated  -by the fact
hold, I establish my  .covenant with you,  and with your        that God alone passes thru  t-hhe pieces. Abraham'was
seed after  you." Notice, that here too we have both            no party at all in -the  establishinent  of the covenant
a-prediction and a promise. The promise is that God             of  `God. In fact, when God passed thru the pieces
establishes His covenant. And the prediction is that .nnder the symbol of  a,smoking furnace and a  burtiing
He will continue His covenant in the line of the gen-           lamp, -Abraham  was still in a deep sleep. It is true
erations of Noah. But again, there can be no  .separ-           that' when God established His covenant  with Abra-
ation between promise and prediction. Again, in  Gen-           ham, he became of the party  pf the living God. Bilt
esis 15  :18 we read  : "In the `same day the Ldrd made         man is never a party in relation to God. That Abra-
a covenant with Abram saying, Unto  .thy seed have I            ham was of the party of the living God is to my mind
given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the               clearly symbolized in  tl$ text when he drove away
great river, the  ,river Euphrates." Here too we have           the vultures that came. down upon the  c&cases to de-
a promise and a prediction. And really,  the promise            vour them. Thus, then, we  haye in this passage a
and  the prediction are essentially identical.         And      beautiful revelation of the covenant and promise of
from the  context it is  &lso very evident that both the        God as depending not on Abraham and God, but on
prediction and the promise, the establishment of the            God alone. And thus Abraham has an answer  to, the
covenant and the realization of the covenant-promise,           question : "LoTd God, whereby shall I know that I
depends on  CGod alone. There are no parties in the  ' shall inherit it  ?" But also  her& you have very clearly
covenant,  altho there are parts. I  say this is evident        both a promise and a prediction. The promise is the
from the context, as is well-known. In the context              land of Canaan, and therefore the city that hath foun-
God appears to Abraham in a vision. `And in the  vi&            dations, whose builder and maker` is God, or the hea-
ion. Abraham asks the Lord: "Lord  `God, whereby                venly country. That Abraham actually looked upon
shall I know that I shall inherit it?" Abraham, there-          the promise in that light is very evident from Heb-
fore, is eager to know how he  can be sure that he shall        rews  11:9, 10: "By faith he sojourned in the land
inherit the promise. And the promise is the land of             of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tab-.
Canaan  ; but the land of.  Canaan is at the same time          ernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of
`the final glory, according, to Hebrews 11. For he              the same promise: For he looked for a city which
looked for a better country, that is, an heavenly. And          hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
in  answer to the question, God points him to the ab-           And again,  this is also evident from the same chap-
solute certainty of His covenant as it is established           ter, vss.  `13-16: "These all died in faith, riot having
by God alone. For he is directed (always in the vis-            received the promises, but having seen them-afar off,
ion) to take an heifer of three years old and a  she-           and were persuaded of them, and  .embra'ced them,  and
goat of three  years old and a ram  -of three years old,        confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on
and a turtle-dove and a young pigeon.          He divides the earth.         For they that say such things  .declare
them, except the. doves, and puts  theni in  jtixtaposi-        plainly that  they seek a country. And `truly, if they
tion over against one another. These animals are un-            had been mindful of that  couhtry from whence they
doubtedly symbolic of God's covenant, not as a  con-            came out, they might have had opportunity to have


                                                                                                                                     I          <
                                                                                                         3  I
                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARE'R.  '
                                                                                              4                             i i i
                                                                                                         .       .  .._.

 `returned.  --But now. they desire a better country, that        shows the immutibility `of His counsel by an oath, does  ~
 is, an heavenly: wherefore  aGod is not ashamed to be            He give  .His promises: But again, let Schilder not say
 called their. God: for he hath prepared for them a               that the promises are no predictions. For in  Scriit-
c i t y . " Surely, Abraham had the promise. But at the           ure they are always identical. And always both re-                       =
 same time, the promise of  ,God was a prediction, the            fer only to the elect.
 prediction of the final heavenly tabernacle of. God                 Read also in that beautiful covenant psalm, Psalm
 with men in the New Jerusalem  -and in the new hea-              89, that sings of the everlasting mercies of' God to
 vens and the new earth.  Y'ou cannot separate pro-               His covenant people, how promises and predictions
 mise and  prpdiction. Prediction is the promise, and             are combined and inseparably connected: "For I  *
 the promise is prediction.                                       have said, Mercy shall be built up forever: thy faith-
    Thus it is in  .a11  the passages of Scripture. that re-      fulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens. I
 fer to God's covenant. In Genesis  17:7 we read the              have made. a  cdvenant with  my chosen, I have  sworti
 well;known words: "And I will establish my  covenan:             unto David my servant, Thy  `seed will I establish for-
 between me and thee and thy seed after thee  in-their            ever, and build up thy throne to all generations." vv.
 generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God             2-4. And again: "Then thou spakest in vision to thy
 unto thee, and to thy seed after thee."  -;That these            $01~ one, and saidst, I have laid help on  ,one that is
words are both a promise and  a. prediction is plain              mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
 in itself. The promise is that God will establish His            I have found David my servant  ; with my holy oil
 covenant with Abraham. The promise is, too, that of              have I anointed him :  With-tihom  my  hand shall be
 his seed. And the prediction is that God will continue           established : mine' arm shall also strengthen him. The
 His covenant in the line of Abraham's generations,               enemy shall not exact upon him ; nor the son of wick-
 and that it Will be  an everlasting covenant, so that its        edness afflict him. And I will beat down his  foe&
 final realization shall be in the, tabernacle of  ,God           before his face, and plague them  _that hate him. But
 with men.     Bnt take these words in the connection             my faithfulness and  .my mercy shall be with him:
 with the promise to Abraham  in  Gen.- 12  :2,3 in con-          and in my name shall his  horn. be exalted. I will set
 nection with Heb. 6  :13-l& In the former  bassage  we           his hand also in  ithe sea, and his right hand in the riv-
 read: "And I will make thee a great nation, and I will           ers. He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my
 bless thee, and make thy name  gyeat; and thou shalt             ~God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make
 be a blessing: And I will bless them  that bless thee            him my firstborn, higher than the kings. of the earth.
 and curse-him that  curseth thee:  atid in thee  sha;ll all      My mercy will I keep for him for ever more, and
 families of the earth be blessed.!' That also  h&e  you my  cotienant shall stand fast with him. His seed also
 ha<e both a promise and a prediction, and that, be-              will I make to endure for ever, and his throne  as the
 sides, the promise and the prediction are absolutely             days of heaven." And again, after the  psaimist has                           '
 sure  an-d both pertain only to the heirs of the promise         stated that God, will visit that covenant seed with His
 that is, the elect, is  evident- from `the reference to these    rod if they forsake His law and walk not in His sta-
 words in Heb. 6  :13-18 : "For  when.  SGod  made promise        tutes and  judgmepts, he  con&ues : "Nevertheless,
 to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he             my lovingkindness  will..1 not utterly take from him,
 sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless           nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will
 thee, and multiplying thee I will multiply thee. And             I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my
 so, after he had patiently endured, `he obtained the             lips. Once I have sworn by  Amy holiness that I will
 promise. For men-verily swear by the greater: and                not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever,
 an oath  *for confirmation is to  thein an end  of all           and his throne as thk sun before me. It shall be es-
 strife.    Wherein  %God,  willing more abundantly to            tablished for  .ever as the moon, and as a faithful wit-
 show unto the heirs of promise the  immutibility of              ness in heaven." Promise? 0 yes. Prediction? To
 his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two                be sure. Inseparable connection between both? With-
 immutable things, in which it was impossible for God             out a, doubt.    And both unconditional and certain,
 to lie, we might have a strong  consolatibn, who have            based only on the faithfulness of God? Absolutely !
-fl&d  for~refuge to lay hold. upon the hope  set before             Let me  quo&  a. few more passages. For the Scrip-
 us." `0, to be sure,  ,God gives no predictions to N.N.          ture is full of promises and predictions that are iden-
to John, Peter, and William. But neither does He                  tical and inseparable  from! one another.
 give,  p?omises  to N.N., but only to His people. And               .In  !Isa. 43  :l-7 we read : . "But now thus saith the
 His people are certainly not  -all that  ljve under the          Lord that created  .thee, 0 Jacob, and he that formed
 outward dispensation  qf  th!  ,covenant, but only to the        thee,  0. Israel, Fear not:  fo; I have redeemed  thee, .
 elect, Unto the heirs of the promise, unto whom God              I have-called thee by thy name ; thou art mine. When
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            228                                          T H E   STANDARjD  B E A R E R

          ~ thou passest  thru the waters I will be with thee  ; and
            thru the rivers, they shall `not overflow thee: when
            thou walkest thru the fire, thou shalt not be  burned,:             THE TRIPLE; KNOWLEDGE
     c      neither shall the flame kindle. upon thee. For I am
            the Lord thy  ,God, the holy one  of- Israel, the Saviour :      An Exposition Of The Heidelberg
            I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for
            thee. Since thou wast  precious in my sight, thou                                         Cate&ism
            hast been honorable, and I have loved thee:  therefoie
            will I give men for thee, and people  fpr thy life; Fear                                   PART TWO
            not: For I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from                                O f   M a n ' s   Redemptib-n
            the east, and gather thee from the west;  I will say to                                 LORD'S DAY-  XXX1
            the north, Give up  ; and to the south,' Ke&p not back :
            bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the                             I                     4    .
            ends of the earth; Evkn every-one that is called by
            my name:, for I have created him for my glory, I                      The  Key,Power of Christian Discipline
            have formed him; yea, I have made-him." Beautiful                    In the  eigl&y-fifth question of the Heidelberg Cat-
            predictions and glorious promises! But neither  a&e              echism the key-power of Christian discipline is ex-
            for all, but only for the elect. They were precious              plained. The answer has the following elements. 1) It
            -in  ,God's sight from before the foundation of the world        teaches us that personal admonition is not a certain
            and because they were precious in the sight of  (God             right or a certain privilege of which the believer may
            from  all,  etenlity, they are honorable, and God has
.  -,                                                                        niake use. or which he may neglect, but it is a com-
            loved them and loveth them forever.                              mand of Christ. When anyone in the church sins,
                   One more passage from Isaiah. In 44  :I-5 we read,        his brother has the obligation to admonish him. 2)
            "Yet now hear,  ,O  ,J&ob my servant  ; and Israel? whom         It `describes the objects. of discipline as those who,
            I have chosen :  Thus?  saith the Lord that made thee,           under the  name of Christians, depart from the right
            and formed thee from the womb, which will help                   way, either in doctrine or walk.- 3) It emphasizes
            thee ;  Fear not, 0 Jacob, my servant  ; and thou,  Jesu-        that those who depart must often be brotherly ad-
            run, whom I have chosen. For I will  polar water upon            monished, they must be reported to the church, that is,
            him that is  &h&sty,  and floods upon the dry ground:            in case they do not renounce their errors and wicked
            I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed,  ,and my blessing           course, of life. It is therefore not the  siti as such,
            upon  ,, thine offspring  :. And they shall spring' up as        but the impenitence of the sinner that is the prop&
            among the grass, as willows by the water courses                 object of Christian discipline. 5) . If the sinner  -also
'         -.  O& shall say, I am the Lord's  ; and another  shall call       refuses to listen to the admonintions by the church,
            himself by the name of Jacob-; and  al!other  shall sub-         he is excluded from both the sacraments, baptism and
            scribe  wit.h  .his hand unto the  L:ord,  &nd surname           the Lord's Supper, and thereby, according to the Ca-
            himself by  the.name- of Israel." Again you have here            techism, they are excluded from the Christian' Church
            glorious promises which are. at  #hei same time pre-. and  by'God himself from the kingdom of Christ. And
            dictions.    And again, both these promises and pre-             6) they may be.received again into the communion of
            dictions are not for all, not for N.N., not for John,            the church upon sincere repentance and promise of
            Peter and William.  .~BUt they are only  fbr the elect           a m e n d m e n t .
            of God, whom God has chosen from  beftire the  foan:             - Also the Netherland Confession speaks of Chris-
            dation  qf the  world.      -                                    tian discipline,  fi?st of all in Article 30, which speaks
                   I must continue next time. But when once more             of the government and the  offices in the church as
            my spirit enters into the truth of this material, I  call        follows : `"We believe, that this true Church must be
            not help saying to  Kok. and  .Schilder and the Libera-          governed. by that spiritual policy which  1 our Lord
            ted: You can  tiave all  the  -conditional theology you          hath taught  ui in his  word  ; namely, that there must
            want. But let me preach and embrace the truth that               be ministers or pastors to preach the Word of God, and
            ,God's promise is only for the elect, and absolutely  un-        to administer the sacraments  ; also elders and deacons;
          conditional.                                                       who, together  with the pastors, form the council of
                                             D                 FI.  PI.      the Church: that by these means the true religion may
                                 - - :            - :    -                   be preserved, and the true doctrine everywhere  -prop-
                                                                             .agated,  likewise transgressors punished and restrained
              Before the hills in order stood, or e&h received her fr&ne,    by spiritual means: also that the poor. and distressed
              From everlasting Thou art ,God,  to endless years the same.    may be relieved and comforted, according to their
                                                                                                          ~-
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                                      "  T H E   S!t!ANDAR-D   B E A R - E R                                           229 .

necessities.        By these means everything will be car-      per bounds, and that the-sin of the brother must be
ried .on in the Church with good order and decency,             covered as much as possible.
when,faithful men are chosen, according to the rule                However, when a sin is public in its very nature                   I
prescribed by St. Paul in his Epistle to Timothy."              or has become public by the sinner's refusal to  repens
And in Article 3.2 of the same Confession, mention is           and to listen to the admonition of one or more wit-
made more directly of the discipline of the church              nesses, the church. itself, thru its officebearers, is in
as follows  i "In the meantime we believe, though `it           duty bound to deal with the matter. This is explain-
is useful and beneficial, that those, who are rulers of         ed in Articles 74 to 77. In Article 74 it is explained
the Church, institute and establish certain ordinances          in what way the Consistory becomes  conCerned in
among themselves for maintaining the body of the                the matter : "If any one,  .having been admonished in
Church ; yet they ought studiously to take care, that           love concerning a secret sin- by two or three persons,
they do not depart from those things which Christ,              does'not give heed, or otherwise has committed a pub-
our--only Master, hath instituted. And therefore, we            lie sin, the matter shall be  reporte,d to the Consistory."
reject all human in-ventions; and  all- laws,  which'man        Qf course, in the case of a public sin the  Con&story
would introduce into the worship of God, thereby to             itself is most probably acquainted with the matter,
bind and compel the conscience in any manner what-              and therefore it will not have to be reported to it.
ever. Therefore we admit only of that which tends               In `Article 75  the  question is answered concerning
to nourish and preserve concord, and unity, and to              the manner in which a public sin in case of repent-  '
keep all men in obedience to God. For this purpose,             ante must be confessed.       This may either be done
ex-communication or church discipline is requisite,             by confessing before the Consistory and announce-
with the several circumstances belonging  to. it, ac-           ment of such confession before the whole church, or
cording to the Word of God."                                    by public confession before the church itself : "The
     The Church Order of the Reformed churches also             reconciliation of all such sins as are of their nature
speaks rather elaborately of Christian discipline: In           of. a public character, or have become public because
Articles 71 to 78 of discipline over the members, in            the admonition of the  ,Chureh  was despised, shall take
Articles 79 and 80 of. discipline of officebearers.             place (upon sufficient evidence of repentance) in
                                                                such a manner as the' Consistory shall deem conducive
    Article 71 emphasizes the- fact that discipline is  or' -to the edification of each Church. Whether in  partic-
a spiritual nature and is therefore distinct from the           ular cases this shall take place in public, shall, when
sword-power:  -"As Christian Discipline is of a spir-           there is a difference of opinion about it in the  Con-
itual nature, and exempts no one from Civil trial or            sistory, be considered with the advice of two neigh-
punishment by the authorities, so also besides Civil            boring churches or of the Classis." Usually, of course,
punishment there is need. of Ecclesiastical Censures,           the majority vote of a  Con&story is quite sufficient,
to reconcile the sinner with the Church and his  neigh'-        in such matters. Nevertheless, in case of serious dif-
bor and to remove  ,the offense  "out of the Church  .of        ference of opinion in the  !Consistory  itself; the advice
,Christ."        This `article at the same time defines tha.    of two neighboring consistories or the  Classis  must
spiritual nature of Christian discipline as consisting          be asked. Articles 76 and 77 speak of the proper me-
of reconciliation, and therefore, of forgiveness, as            thod of discipline,'  ,that leads to final excommunica-
well as of removing the offense out of the church  01:'         tion. In Article 76 we read: "Such as obstinately re-
C h r i s t .                                                   ject the admonition of the Consistory, and likewise.
    Articles 72 and 73 emphasize that Christian dis-            those who have committed a public or otherwise gross            ,.
cipline. must be exercised according to the rule of love        sin, shall be suspended from the  rl;.ord's Supper. And
and that, therefore the sins of the brother must be             if he, having been suspended, after repeated admoni-
kept -as secret as possible  -and not  mmecessarily be          tions, shows no  ~ signs of repentance, the. Consistory
published. In -Article 72 we read: "In case anyone              shall at last proceed to the extreme remedy, namely,
errs in doctrine or offends in conduct as long as the           excommunication, agreeably to the form adopted for
sin is of a private character, not giving public offense        that purpose according to the Word of God. But no
the rule clearly prescribed by `Christ in Matthew 18            one shall be excommunicated except with advice of
shall be followed? And in Article' 73 we read: "Se-             the Classis." And in Article 77 the steps that lead to
cret sins  of,,which the sinner repents, after being ad-        excommunication  are'prescribed more in' detail as fol-
monished by one person in private or in the presence            lows : "After the suspension from the Lord's Table,
of two or three witnesses, shall not be laid before the         and subsequent admonitions, and before proceeding
Consistory."         Both these articles, therefore, empha-     to excommunication, the obstinacy of the sinner shall
size that Christian discipline must  .be kept within  pro-      be publicly made.. known to the congregation, the of-


       238                                   T H E   ~$TANliARD  B E A R E R                   -
                                    - -
       fense explained, together  w-ith the care bestowed upon        ment the excommunicated sinner can again be recei-
       him, in reproof,. suspension from the Lord's Supper,           ved into' the fellowship of the church.
       and repeated admonition, and the -congregation shall              Articles 79 and 80 speak of discipline  of  office-
       be exhorted to speak to him and to pray for him.               bearers, ministers, elders, and deacons.- Article 79
       There shall be three such admonitions. In the first,           indicates the way in which such officebearers may
       the name of the sinner shall not be mentioned that he          be suspended or deposed from office: "When Minis-
       be somewhat spared. In the second, with the  advice            ters of the Divine Word, Elders or Deacons, have com-
       of the  Classis, his name shall be mentioned. In the           mitted any public, gross sin, which is a disgrace  `to
       third the congregation. shall be informed that (unless         the `church, or worthy of punishment by the' Authori-
       he repent) he will be excluded from the fellowship             ties, the Elders and  &Deacons shall immediately by,
       of the church, so that his excommunication, in case            preceding sentence of the Consistory thereof and  of
       he remains obstinate, may take `place with the tacit the nearest Church, be suspended or expelled from
       approbation  .of the Church.        The interval  betweeii     their' office, but  -the Ministers shall only be  sus)en-
       the admonitions shall be left to the discretion of the         ded.' Whether these shall be entirely deposed from
       Consistory." This article, therefore; leaves room for          office, shall be subject to the judgment of the  Classis
       really four steps of censure.       The first consists in      with the advice of the Delegates of, the (particular)
       barring the offender from the Table of the Lord with-          Synod mentioned in Article 11." A distinction is
     out announcing anything to the congregation what-                made in this article between the ministers of the di-
       soever. This is called "silent censure". The second            vine Word, on the one hand, and elders and deacons,
       step consists in announcing the fact of the sin to the         on the other. The latter may be suspended and even
       congregation without announcing the name of the of-            deposed from their office without the advice of the
       fender. The  third.step consists in this, that not only        Classis,  merely by a double Consistory. But the for-
       the offense, but also the name of the offender shall be        mer may only be suspended, and whether they shall
       mentioned in the Church. Also this announcement                finally be deposed from office is left to the judgment
       is made for the purpose not only that the congrega-            of the  Classis, together with' the advice of  synodical
       tion shall know and approve of the action of the  Con-         delegates. In Article 80 the sins that `make an office
       sistory, but also that the congregation shall have the         bearer worthy of suspension or deposition are  ennum-
       opportunity to admonish the offender and  `to pray             erated : "Furthermore, among the gross sins, which
       for his repentance. This third step of censure, how-           are worthy of being punished with suspension or de-
       ever, may not be administered  except with the advice          position from office, these are the principal ones:
%     . of the  Classis.. This also gives the offender an  op-        false doctrine or heresy, public schism, public blas-
       cortunity to appeal his case to the  Classis  if he  so.dei    phemy, simony, faithless desertion of office or intru-
       sires. The final step is, of course, that of excom-            sion upon that of another, perjury, adultery, fornica-
       munication from the church. -This step also must be            tion, theft, acts of  \ violence, habitual drunkenness,
       preceded by an announcement in the church that  thz            brawling, filthy lucre  ; in short, all sins and gross of-
       Consistory shall apply the final step of censure -un-          fenses, as render the, perpetrators infamous before
       less the offender repents. And again, also this an-            the world,  and- which in any private member of the
       nouncement is made in the church in order to give              Church would be considered worthy of excornmuni-
       the congregation an opportunity to still admonish the          cation." It is evident from this that no officebearer
       offender and to pray for his repentance.  `- And if the `may be expelled from office for any minor offenses.
       offender does not repent, excommunication follows.             At the same time it is also evident that deposition
              Finally, in Article 78 it is explained in what way      from office cannot be the end -of the matter. One
      an excommunicated sinner may again be received                  who  is..thus deposed from`office certainly  Gannet re-
       into the fellowship of the church : "Whenever anyone           main as a member of the church unless he  !,repe.nts
       who has been excommunicated desires to' become re-             of his sin, and excommunication must follow.
       conciled to the Church in the way of repentance, i-t              As to the Scriptural ground for this key-power
       shall be announced to the congregation, either before          of Christian discipline, we refer, of course, first of
       the celebration of the Lord's Supper, or at some oth-          .all, to  .Matthew 18 :15-18 : "Moreover if thy brother
       er opportune time, in order- that (in as far as no one         shall trespass against thee,. go and tell -him his fault
       can mention anything against him to the contrary)              between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee,
       he may with profession of his conversion -be publicly          thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear
      g reinstated, a&cording to the Form for that purpose."          thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in
       It stands  to. reason that only by a. public confession        the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may
       before the whole church and by a public reinstate-             b,e established.  And. if he shall neglect  to.,hear them,

                                                             _


                                      T H E      STANDDAD   BEARE@                                                             231

 tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear  the     sinneth, being condemned of himself." And that the
 church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and          church must have no fellowship with those that teach
 a publican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye            false doctrine is also very evident from II John 10,
 shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and           and 11: "If there come any unto you, and bring not
 whatsoever ye `shall loose on earth shall be loosed in      this doctrine, receive, him not -into  .your house, nei-
 heaven." In I Corinthians 5 the apostle speaks of           ther bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God
 a gross sin of fornication committed `by someone in         speed is partaker of his evil deeds." The  IChurch of
 the church. And the apostle is evidently grieved that       Pergamos is admonished to cast out those that'hold
 the church has not excommunicated this gross offen-         the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes: "But I have a few
 der. He writes that as far as he himself is  coneern-       things against thee, because thou hast there  them.that
 ed, he has already judged and excommunicated this           hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to.
 fornicator, who committed adultery with his father's        cast a stumbling-block before the children of  .Israel,
 wife : "For verily, as absent in body, but present in       .to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit
 spirit, have judged already, as tho I were present          fornication. So hast thou. also them that hold the doc-
 concerning him that hath so done this deed, In the          trine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate. Repent
 name of `our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered        or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight
 together, and my spirit, with the power of the Lord         against them with the sword of my mouth." From all
 Jesus Christ, To deliver such`an one unto Satan for         these passages it is very plain  that.`the  Word of God
 the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be        admonishes the church to exercise discipline over
 saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." And he continues       those that depart- from the truth, either in doctrine.
 to admonish the church to purge out the old leaven.         or walk or both, and if they do not repent., to  exeom-
 For they must not- keep company with fornicators,           municate them from their fellowship.
`. that is, with fornicators within the church of Christ:                                                            H. .H.
 "I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with
 fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators
 of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners,
 or with idolaters  ; for then ye must needs go out of
 the world. But now I have written  unto you not to
 keep company, if any man that is called a brother be
 a fornicator or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer,                              IN ~EMORIAM
 or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one            It pleased our Neavonly Father, in the early hours on Tues-
 -no not to eat." And at the close of the'chapter he         day, January 22, 1952, after a long illness, to take unto Him-
 admonishes the church to put away from among them           self, our dear wife, mother and grandmother,
 that wicked person that had committed that gross sin,
                                _-                                                    Johanna  Jonker
 of fornication.                                             .at the `age  of `74 years and 6 months.      '
    In II Thessalonians 3  :14 we read : "And if any
 man obey not our word by this epistle; note that man          She longed for the rest that remaineth for the children of
                                                             Gtd. `Remans  &:18, preached at her burial, are our comfort and
 and have no company with him, that he may be a-             also  h o p e .
 shamed." To obey not the word of the apostle  is,' of                                           John Jonker
 course, the same as not to obey the Word of God.                                                Mr. and Mrs. Peter Palma
 And this disobedience can have reference either to                                                and 2 grandchildren.
 the  ,doctrine  of that Word or to a walk in disharmony                                         Three. brothers:
                                                                                                   Jake' De Boer, John De
 with it, or to both. And to have no company with                                                  Boer, Joe De Boer.
 such an one certainly implies` excommunication' from                                            One sister:
the church of Christ. For if the church can have no                                                Mrs. Sharphorn
 company with someone, it certainly implies that it
 cannot allow such a person to be admitted to the Table
 of the  Lord.-. Yet the apostle adds in verse 15: "Yet                             --:  - :-
 count him not as an enemy, but admonish  .him as a.
 brother.`,    This implies, of course, that the church
must always live in the hope that the sinner comes to
 repentance. In Titus 3 : 10, 11 we read : "A man that       CLASSIS WEST of the Protestant Reformed Chur-
 is  .an  heretick after the first and second admonition     ches will meet in Rock Valley, Wednesday, March 5,
 reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted, and      la52.  -                                    `M.  Gritters,,   SC.
                                                                                     . "
     / .


             232                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   bEARE?R

                                                                           the serpent was again crushed, be it, of course but
                    THE DAY OF SHADOWS                                     typically. From the day of the death of Joshua  on
                                                                           the heathen-the serpent-had been harrassing  *God's
                                                                           pgople, the church, had thus been crushing the heel
                                                                           of the woman. This was God's doing. As was said,
                T h e   Protevangel  a s   the  Undying  I d e a           He through the  ageidy of these nations was  chastizing
                                of all the Scriptures                      His people for `their sins  and apostacies. But finally,
                                                 _                         when  ,God had done with the heathen, he raised up
                 David was followed by Solomon. Solomon, `in               David, and  ,through his age&y He crushed the ser-
             distinction from David, was the typical king of  ilory.       pent's  head, and thereupon  Solomo_Ys  typical kingdom
             His reign, in contradistinction to that of David's, was       of peace and glory appeared. The church was again
             a reign of peace. Solotion in his glory together with         on the heights but only typically. And therefore
            . his  kingdom of peace is the type of Christ and His          Solomon's kingdom of `glory could not last. It `must
             redeemed people in glory on  the new earth.                   disappear,. and so it did.
                Solomon in his glory and Solomon's peaceful reign                  Before leaving this epoch of sacred  hist?qy, we
             complete the fourth epoch in' the series.                     must take a glance at the Lord's promise to David
                 Some additional remarks :                                 that-came to  him on the occasion of his expressed de-
                 Again in this fourth epoch the two seeds and the          sire to build the Lord a" house. It reads:
            ' struggle between them are brought to the fore as                     "And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt
             this is not the case in any of the  p&eceding pictures.       sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after
      ,.        Here the seed  `of' the serpent are the heathen  fia-      thee, which shall proceed out  pf. thy bowels, and I will
             tions that dwell on Israel's, borders  and through the        establish his kingdom.
             agency of which the Lord laid his strokes upon his                    "He shall build a house for  tmy name, and I  Will
             backsliding people.                                           establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. And I
                Here the holy seed' is again the' Israel according         will be a father to him and he shall be my  soti."
             to the election as headed by such  godfearing person-                That  the  &esl is in the final instance  IChrist is plain
             ages as Samuel and the other  godfearing judges               from the use that the writer of the epistle  to the
             raised up by  the.Lord to deliver his people. (Outstand-      Hebrews makes of this word of God to David. "To
             ing here is King David. When he came to power the             which of the angels said he at any time,  I will be to
             people of Israel were groaning under the yoke of the          him a father and he  shall be to me a son" (Hebrews
             Philistines who had nearly overrun the whole of the           1:5),. Here the writer quotes Nathan literally (II
             land of Canaan.                                               Sam. `7  :5), his purpose being  .to establish with the
                David in his wars with them compelled `them to re-         Old Testament Scripture the preeminence of Christ as
             treat to  tlieir  oivn borders and rendered them  tribu-      compared with the `angels.
      tary. Then  :thPough a series of  militsary  campaigns                       Certainly the promise as proclaimed to  Davig shed
             he conquered all the other  ho&tile heathen nations           new liglit on  the identity of the seed. In the  protev-
             that dwelt within Israel's ideal boundaries and  r'end-       angel He is set forth as  the  seed who shall bruise or
             ered them, too, tributary. As was `stated, on the. ruins      rather  crush the head of the serpent. The pronoun
             of these conquered  n'atfons  he  built's mighty empire.      :lsed is  L6he,"--H~ shall bruise thy head. Eve  under-
             O`f all these kingdoms he was the Lord. Thus as               stocd and believed. For when Cain was  b&n, she was
             seated in Israel's theocratic throne he was very  actual-     glad. Thinking that the promise had already gone
             Iv the Lord- of,  lords+he Lord of these conquered            into  ful$illment, she jubilantly exclaimed, "I have re-
             heathen kingdoms  and in this capacity at  ,once the          ceived a man from Jehovah." But of what nation was
             king of the twelve tribes of Israel. Canaan was the           the  s,eed-the man with the Lord-to be born, of what
             YeaIm of grace. In contradistinction to all the Pest of       family, and house? The question must always have
             the  eal%h Canaan was  ,God's country, thus the land of       been present to the minds of God's believing people.
.-           the truly living  i- for  here was  -the tabernacle of God    And the  Lord continued to give answer. Finally the
             wiQi men, the church of the elect of that  day: But           Lord's finger pointed to the  see&! that should proceed
             this' is all type.     Its corresponding reality is  then out of David's bowels and whose kingdom. and throne
             exalted  IChrist seated at the right hand of .God in the      the Lord would establish forever, but whom the Lord
            : highest heavens where He reigns as the  Kinp nf  kinas       will also chasten with the rod of men and with  lhe
             -all the kings of the earth-arid in this capacity as  the     stripes of the children of men.            This could be  none
             king, priest and prophet of his church.         '             .other than  the  seed promised from  The beginning, the
              By.  David's  conquest of the heathen the head  6f           Christ of God. That  .Davjd understood is a  .fact at-
                                                                             /


                                              rib  S~iliNDABjD   BEARGil
    8                                                                                                                     239
                                   _-                                                                                       -
 tested by the apostle Peter in `Acts II. "Men and                  is set  ,before us. It is this: that God does not  cgst
 brethren," said the apostle to the multitude, "let me              away his people which He foreknew.
 freely speak to  you of the'patriarch David that he ,is                Judah was not less guilty than the ten tribes.
 both `dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us                Consequently also Judah in fulfillment `of the voice of
 unt.0 this day. Therefore being a prophet, and know-               prophecy was exiled to Babylon. It means that the
 ing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of                church was again in lowest depth on account of her
 the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he  woLdd          sins.' From the point of view of nature her plight was
 raise up Christ to sit on his throne ; `he seeing this be-         again hopeless. But in  f_u_lfillment  of His  prqmise of
 fore spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul            the eighth -century prophets, God turned the capti-
 was not left in Sheol, neither his flesh did see corrup-           vity of His people.     The temple was rebuilt. The
 tion."                                                             breaches in Jerusalem's walls were mended.; and the
         This brings us to the fifth  epoch'of the series. I t      temple services  restoyed. The church was again on
 sets in with Solomon's idolatry.              Shortly after So-    the heights, so to say. She had again witnessed and
 lomon's passing the ten tribes, as a result of  Reho-              experienced the salvation of her redeemer God.
 boam's sinful pride, finding expression in his harsh                  We here deal  wilth a new-the fifth ministration
 answer to the people in reply to their petition that he            of grace. Peculiar to this ministration is that it brings
 lighten their burden, broke away from the Davidic                  into clearest view an element in the promise that is
 dynasty. The ten tribes chose Jereboam as their king.              but dimly seen in the previous epochs. This element
' But Jereboam, apostatized. He instituted in Bethel                is the greet work of Christ  that consists in His calling ,
 $nd in ban the worship of the golden calf, Idolatry                in this  Gospel period by His Spirit and  Bis Word the               I
 even in the form of Baal-worship raised its foul head              elect out of every nation and tribe. Of this  work the
 everywhere        in the kingdom of these tribes,          and     turning of  Judah% captivity was the prophetic type.
 also in Judah.                                                     It requires  b&t one Scripture passage to  prclve this.
                                         1                          Micah 4: "But in  tile last days it shall come to  `pass.  ,
         The Lord now laid his strokes upon His people.             that the mountains of the house of  the Lord. shall be          '
 The throne in the  t.en tribes became a  playball of               established in the top of the mountains, and  it shall
 carnal` ambition. There were political, revolutions one            be exalted above the hills, and the people shall flow
 after the other in close succession. Not one king  of              into it.
 the ten tribes feared the Lord. All were profane and                  "And many nations shall  come and say, Come let's
 wicked. Things went from' bad to worse. Finally                    go up unto the mountain of the Lord, and to  the house
 when the cup of iniquity was filled, God plucked up                of the  ,God of Jacob,  and He shall  $each us his ways,
 the ten tribes out of His country and dispersed them               and we shall walk in hi's paths; for the law shall  `go
 among the heathen. Their exile was permanent.,                     forth from Zion, and the word  of the Lord from
         Yet  ,God'had  his elect also among-these tribes even      Jerusalem.
 in their  permanerit  dispersion. For it was with  ref-               "And  he.shall judge among many nations, and re-
 erence to the dispersion of these tribes that Paul in              buke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat  *heir
 Romans 11 beginning with verse 1 asks,  "I. say then               .&words into plowshares, and their spears into pruning
 has God cast away his people?  `God forbid.. For I                 hooks; nations shall not lift up sword against nation,
 am also an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the               neither shall they learn war anymore.
 tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away His peo-                    "But they shall sit every man under his vine and
 ple which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the  Bcrip-                 tinder his  figtree  ; and none shall make them afraid ;
 tures said of  Elias? how he  m?k&h intercession to                for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has  spoken it.
 God against Israel saying, Lord, they have killed thy                 ."For all the people will walk every one in the  name
 prophets, and digged down thine altars, and I am left              of his  SGod, and we will walk in the name of the Lord
 alone, and they seek my  life. gut what saith the an-              our  ,God forever and ever.
 swer of God to him? I have reserved to myself seven                   "In that  ,day, saith the Lord, will I remember her
 thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the                   that halteth;  and I will gather her that  i,s driven out,
 image of Baal."  '                                                 and her that I have afflicted  ;
         The seven thousand. is a symbolical number. It             "And I  will make her that  halted.&,  remnant, and
 indicates the elect remnant present among  the Jews                her that was cast off a strong nation  ; and the Lord
 throughout all the ages of the past and the ages to                shall reign  over,-*them  in Mount Zion from henceforth
 come.                                                              even forever.                         .-     -
    Thus in this exile  6f the ten tribes a `new element               "And thou, 0 tower of the flock, the stronghold of
 of truth contained in the promise of the protevangel               the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the



                                    :


                                                  T.&.G  ,sTANbARD  BEARER
      234

       fiirst dominion  ; the kingdom shall come to the daughter                             TLe Covenant of Sinai
       of Jerusalem.?
              The only work of  <God that satisfies this prophecy              1. The covenant at  Sinniz was the  cov,enant  of
       is the calling of the gentiles and finally the resurrec-            grace. It was thus the very covenant that the Lord
       tion of the just unto life everlasting at the final ap-             established  iYith our first parents right after the fall
       pearing of Christ.                                                  when  he said, "I will set enmity..." the very cove-
              The Babylonian captivity of  .Judah again  spelled the       nant that he established with Noah and later- with
      '  .`oruising  of the heel of the' woman by the  serr.ent.           Abraham  .as the father of all believers. The truth of
       `But again it was only the bruising of the heel. For                this statement is born out by the fact that the promise
       the church arose again from the depth into which she by which the Lord bound' Himself to the people of
       had  beeli  made to disappear for a season. God turned              Israel first in  Egypt, later at Sinai, was in the final
        the captivity  of His people. And the head of  the'ser-            instance the promise not of things- symbolical-typical
       -pent was crushed. Babylon  wz+ destroyed.
`i                                                                         -typical salvation and the  .typical rest  ,of Canaan-
              Between the turning of Judah's captivity and the             but the realities signified by these typical thing&-
       birth of Christ was a period of four hundred  yea?s. Christ and His redemption and the true rest of  the
        The church again passed into the depth especially  dur-            new earth where God's tabernacle will be with men.
        ing the reign of the madman Epiphanus, the son of
        Antiochus the `Great, who died, 187  B,C. By him the                   Let  -us now show that the  covenarit  -at Sinai  w&s
       izovenant people were fiercely persecuted.  _ He killed             the true covenant of grace be it  with a typical form
       thousands of Jerusalem's inhabitants, robbed the                    and ministration.
       temple of its treasures, offered the blood of swine upon .              The proof of this is that the promise by which the
       the altar of burnt offering and sprinkled the holiest               Lord bound Himself to Abraham and his seed  .and
       `placti With id; The daily sacrifices ceased, and the rite          again to Abraham's  sepd at Sinai was in the final in-
       of circumcision was forbidden,  and as many copies of               stance  the promise, not of  .t.hings typical-typical
       the  l&v as could be found were burned.                             salvation and the typical rest of the earthy Canaan-
              But in the fulness of  time  ,the seed appears. The          but of the realities signified by those typical  things-
       word became flesh. -Christ was born. And the ser-                   Christ and His redemption and the true rest of the
       pent crushed His heel. He. inspired wicked men to                   new earth where  6od's tabernacle will be with men.
       nail, Him to the cross. But so it had  td be. For the                   Let us show how true this is of God's promise to
       Lord had laid upon  Him. the iniquities of us all and               Abraham. The land that the Lord-promised him  way
       therefore also bruised Him for our sins even through                in the first  instance.the earthy land of  .Canaan.. Fact
       the agency of the serpent.                                          is that'this is the only land that  the Lord ever spake
             - But again it was only the bruising  the heel of  the        to him about directly. Let `us quote the Scriptures
       seed. Having -atoned our sins,  IGod raised Him up                  here.                     ,'
       and set him with his people in heaven  <and Him, the
        Christ,`at  His  owil right hand as the lord of lords and              Gen. 12 : 1, "Now the Lord said unto Abraham,
       the king of kings and  ,the head of His church.  The                Get thee out of thy country . . . unto a land  -that I will,
       atonement of Christ was the judgment of the serpent.                show thee."
        Christ will cast him and his brood into the  buttom-                   Gen. 13  :14, "And the Lord  xaid unto Abraham
       less pit  atHis appearing. And unto His people Christ               after that Lot was separated from  himi Lift up now
       will give the kingdom:            _                                 thine eyes, and look  from the place where thou- art
                                                     G. M. Ophoff          northward arid southward and eastward and west-
                                                                           ward."
                                      l3.l                                     ,Gen. 15  ;18,  "In the  `same day the Lord made a
               ., -                                                        covenant with Abraham saying, Unto thy seed. have I.
                       . .       IN MEMORIAM
        ., The cqnsistory  of the Manhattan Prot. Ref. Church wishes to    given this land, from the  r-iver of Egypt unto the great
        express its sincere sympathy to Rev. and Mrs. P. Vis and           river . . .  "
       family in the death of Mrs. Vi& sister,                                 Gen. 1'7  :8, "I will give unto thee and to thy seed
                                 Mrs. S. Faber                             .after  +hee the-land  `*herein thou art a stranger, all
       and to elder Henry  L:  Pisser in the death of his sister,          the land of Canaan,.  f,or an everlasting possession."
                              Mrs. G. Willemstein                              In all  th&e Scripture. passages the good thing
             May the rich promises of God's Word comfort and sustain
        them in their sorrow.                                              promised directly and in the first instance is the
                                                  T h e      Conk3tory     earthy',Canaan. Yet  *he Scriptures at  HebreWs  11:16


                                       THE  S T A N D A R D   BEAR.ER  -                                             235

 assert that Abraham desired and sought and, thus               children of God, but  the children of the promise are
" embraced the promise of a country that  was. heavenly,        counted for. the seed." At verse  11  these children of
The passage reads, "And now they desire a  better,              the promise are identified with the, elect. The verse
that is, an heavenly country .  : .  " It can mean  but         reads: "For the children being not yet born, neither
one thing, namely, that the earthy Canaan as peopled            having done any good or evil, that the purpose of  .God
by Abraham's seed was a prophetic type of the new               according to election might stand,, not of works but
and heavenly earth, so that on this account the Lord            Jf him that calleth."
 in promising  Abraham and His seed  the earthy was                 That in the final instance the Lord at Sinai was
at once and  ifi  the final instance promising him the          binding Himself to Abraham and to his elect seed also
heavenly.                                                       of the old dispensation by the  pydmise  of Christ and
    And so it was and must- have been with the                  his heavenly salvation is also clear from  Gal. 3  :16, a
promises by which God bound  Himself to  AbFaham's.             passage which reads : "Now to Abraham and his seed
seed at Sinai, when He said to this seed: `"I am the            were the promises made. He saith not, and seeds,  as
Lord thy God who  brought  thee  out of the  land `of           to many: but as of one, and to thy seed, which is
Egypt out of the house of bondage." This likewise is            Christ."
a typical promise holding forth things that were typi-
cal namely a typical deliverance and a  typical rest in            Thus the' proinises were made to Abraham and, let
a land-the earthy Canaan-that was typical, so  that             us take notice, to  Christ;  and certainly they were the
in promising this seed-Abraham's seed-these good                same promises. Now- what did these promises hold
things the Lord was at once promising it the realities          forth to Christ  `2  .And the answer: Victory over sin
of which these things  were the prophetic type, to wit:         and death and hell and the world, and heavenly glory.
Christ and all the heayenly benefits of His cross-the           This same good the promises therefore must have
 true redemption from  sin and life with  God and the           held forth also to Abraham. For they were the same'
new earth.                                    .                 promises-common both to Abraham and  to- Christ.
    Thus what the Lord was saying to His people                 This again proves  that in saying to Abraham, "I will
there at Sinai in, the final instance is  verily this : I am    qive thee this land-the earthy land of Canaan as oc-
the Lord thy God, the God of thy salvation  in'lChrist          cupied by his seed  4Q70 years thereafter, the Lord.
Jesus.    As in my love of thee  I~ delivered, thee from        thereby was indeed promising the patriarch the new
the bondage of Egypt and will enter with thee into              ear& Thus Abraham did also very actually receive
 I;he rest of a typical Canaan, so will I in  <Christ  and      that land (of Canaan) which during his lifetime he
for His sake and on the ground of His atonement de-             dwelt in  ients-received that land as an eternal pos-
liver thee from all thy sins and enter with  thee into          session, that land, ndt however in its earthy but in its
my rest-the rest of the new Earth and that  re-                 glorified state.
mainetl! for thee, my people.                                     The apostle -continues (next verse) : "And this I
    How true is is therefore that the covenant at Sinai         say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before  of.
was the true covenant of grace indeed, be it with a             God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and
symbolical-typical form and ministration.          And how      thirty years after did not disannul, that  .it  shoulcl
' clear it is again that this covenant included, could in-      `make the promise of none effect."
clude, only the Israel, the seed of Abraham, according             Indeed, this promise abode-this promise of the
to the election.    For how could the Lord be `saying           Christ and of all  the spiritual benefits of his  cross-
also to the Israel according to reprobation: I am  the:         the promise given to Abraham and to Christ and, to be
Lord thy  ,Gdd, the God of thy salvation in Christ. For         sure,  iri the first instance to Christ  ,and not to Abra-
Christ's sake and on the ground of His  atoneqent I             ham.    It abode, did  ,this promise, to be bestowed
delivered thee from all thy sins and give `thee all             anew on Abraham's, elect and spiritual seed at Mt.
thicgs in Christ." This is impossible. How,  cou!d the          Sinai, and to this seed only. -For certainly the promise
Lord `not be guilty of being unfaithful to His promise          can only be given to Christ and only to all such includ-
with regard to. the  ieprobated seed of Abraham, if it          ed in Christ by God's sovereign and eternal election.
were true that  ,he bound  liimself also to this seed by.          In fine, the covenant of Sinai was certainly  the
such a promise. But the Lord was not unfaithful'to              covenant of grace, and second it included,  coulcl   in-
his promise. For -the -promise was given only  to. the          elude, only the elect, the spiritual seed of Abra-
children of the promise in the sense that only to these         ham.
children did the promise actually  pronzise salvation.
For according to the Scriptures at Rom. 9  :8, "they                                                    G. M. Ophoff
                                                                                                  *

which are the children of the flesh, these are not the


236                                        THE.  S T A N D ' A R D   B E A R E R   =

                                                                from an educational  pdint of view, but on the basis of
           IN'BIS  FE&i                                         Scripture.      The Bible teaches us that it is not merely
                                                                our duty to let our children learn- something, but that
                                                                it's our calling-diligently. to teach them the precepts of
                 Lookiag To The Future                          the Lord and to train them in the way that they should
                                                                go. The  IChristian must have nothing of "`progressive
                            Chapter  ,2                         education.`?
 ,             THE TEACHER  PROB.LEM                               Now this parental task of instructing our children
                                                                is, to a large extent  .at least, transferred to the teacher,
(As  to Teachers Qualified for Prot. Ref. Schools)              Fwho is engaged by an organization of parents to teach
       In the present. article, I believe, we touch on what     their children. The teacher  must instruct the children
iS undoubtedly  the most important aspect of the whole          in wisdom, the principle of which is the fear of the
teacher-problem for our  Protesta&  Reformed Schools.           Lord.
And because the teacher is such an integral part of                 It is plain, then, that the teacher makes the school,
the school, we therefore also touch on the  rpost seri-         or breaks it. Principally we may say that it follows
ous and fundamental question in `all our efforts  to-           that if the teacher is a  fool,  he will instruct his pupils
`ward a Protestant Reformed educational system, viz.            to-be fools, while if the teacher  fs wise, he will  in-
how. shall we make and keep our  schools Protestant             str&t the children in wisdom. That is also axiomatic,
Reformed? Hitherto in this  series of articles we have          isn't it? And that is fundamentally the reason why
treated  only' what we may call  th'e formal, mechani-          we want and must have Christian schools. The world
cal aspects of the teacher problem. In the present              c& only instruct our children in foolishness, and we
essay we deal with the material side of the problem.            `want our  -chil,dren instructed' in wisdom, in the fear
In  o'ther words, we indeed must procure teachers;              of the Lord.
.and  tie must also work toward the maintenance  of                 This is also  the reason why our Protestant Re-
permanent teaching staffs, as much as possible. But             formed parents' insist on their own schools. We be-
ye must above  all  else have  Prqtestunt  Reefor-med           lieve that  in our Protestant Reformed truth, which
teachxws.              8                                        is the Reformed truth, we have the pure and  un-
                                                                adulteratkd principles of true wisdom, undefiled by
!i%e Importance of  th.e Problem                                any of the corruption of worldly wisdom, the true and
       In order -to see the  importahce  of this matter, we     pure delineation of the fear of the  Lor.d, according to
must remind ourselves that the important, the essen-            the Scriptures in which alone that fear of  the Lord
tial aspect of any school  .is in the instruction.      Not     is revealed. And in that unadulterated wisdom, not
the physical plant,-the building, the benches,  .the            a mixture of the `wisdom of -God `and the foolishness
books,  th; paper,-is essential.  Y,ou could have a             of the world, we want our children instructed. That
school, if need be, without these after all. But a              is our calling.
school without instruction you cannot  have.                       What follows from this?
       From this it follows, of  course, that you cannot            In obedience to that calling some of us (many more
have a school without teachers, who are the instruc-            of  us should, and should do so without further  dc.la! I)
tors. It is true that in some cases a pupil can  instrucl;      have  establishe$ our own schools. We have organized
himself with the aid of books  ; and then you have a            societies, conducted drives, built our school buildings
"self-taught man". But a school, properly speaking,              (and in  spme cases are busy expanding them already),
consists of instructors and instructed, teachers and            engaged a teaching staff,  ,and sent our Protestant Re-
pupils, those who give instruction  ancl those who re-          formed little ones off to school.
ceive instruction.     `This idea, that  .%he teacher  must.
give instruction,  - which it seems to be  self-evidenk            All of this is to be commended, and I would be the
and almost axiomatic  - is nevertheless a principle             last to condemn it.
which we must not forget. A school is no'; an in-                   But is this all? And is it  enough?  -
stitution in which the pupils simply learn what they               :We are inclined, I  sonietimes fear, to answer in
want to and from whatever  soukce they want to while            the affirmative. We have separate schools. We have
the. teacher is simply a sort of overseer or foreman,           Protestant Reformed men and women to teach  OUI
whose duty it is only to see that the pupils learn some-        child&. We can now successfully eliminate many
thing, whatever it may be. We must be extremely                 of the features we always fought in the  ekisting
critical  df such a conception of a school, not simply          schools. We shall have no off-color hymns sung in


                                           T H E ` S T A N D A R D -   BEARER                     )  \                       237     "

  ,qur schools. The  Bilple  ~instruction  will -not be colored    mean to put any of our teachers under a `cloud. My
  by the  Arm_inian error of the First Point of 1924.              answer does not mean that I do not believe that the
  We can now prevent the rendition of bad programs                 men and  women who teach in our schools are Pro-
  and plays, and- the showing of corrupt  motioli pic-             testant Reformed, that they agree  with  otir doctrine
  tures. We need no longer  sub;ject our children to the           100%' and that they also strive to live according to
  teaching of semi-evolutionist science teachers.  -We             that. doctrine.' If -1 had good reason to believe that of
  haye Protestant Reformed schools !                               anyone, be he a teacher or not, I would follow another
                                                                   course than that' of publishing it in our  Stanclar~~
      And should we ever do that, we would  tiake a very           B#eacrer.
  serious mistake. I would  almost  da& say that then
  the whole movement isn't' worthwhile. We hardly                      But my answer `does mean that merely being Pro-
  need schools of our own -merely for that. We do  no?             testant Reformed, adhering to the  Protesta& Re-
 merely need a school which provides correct Bible  i-             formed faith, agreeing with Protestant Reformed doc-
 .struction. That is only a small part of the school-a             trine, does not yet guarantee a Protestant  R.eformecl
  part which could even be left entirely to the.  charch           teacher,that  is, a teacher who in his  .particular  sub- _
  and home. It is commendable, to be sure,  that if our            ject or subject's is capable of applying Protestant Re-
. children receive  ..  instructidn at school in  Bible or         formed principles, and of giving instruction,  say; in
  Church  History, it be correct; And by correct I mean            history,  geog?aphy, language, literature, or arithmetic,
  Protestant, Reformed. But if  -bve stop there, we fail           accordihg to those principles.  Such  teacliers we must
  miserably. What about the rest of the' instruction?              have.                                                    . .
- Must that  bf: neutral? Must it be instruction in world-             And I have good
                                                                                      -      ,reason  to believe that such teach-
  ly wisdom? Must history, for example,  -simply be in-            ers as yet are rather  rare, through  nd fault of their
  struction concerning facts and {vents? Or must it be             own.  &ty reasons are these: 1) In  mg personal ex-
  instruct& in the significance of events far more?                perience, in  .the erstwhile Teachers' Club in Grand
  And who must say what is the significance of events?             Rapids, of which  the Rev.  ,Ophoff and myself were co-  n
  Man? Or  `God?  Must then our own schools be institu-            chairmen at one time, I found that not many of our
  tions in  whieh.our children receive  .instruetion  in doc-      teachers and  prospe&ive teachers were of such  cali-
  trine? No ! It is the  .duty of the church to instruct  in       bre, or showed much ability to apply  otir principles.
  doctrine. And' let our schools forever  l.eave all  inst%uc-- They wefe receptive to instruction  in. a Protestant
  tion`in  doctrineto the  catechisni room and the pulpit..        Reformed  tiew of history, for example. But to de-
  There it belongs. But our school  rnmt be institutions           velop something themselves was another story. This
  iri which our Protestant  Reformeq principles (or  clot-         also was through no fault of their own.              Most of
  tri?ze, if you will) are  ap&iecl, and  that~ too in the en-     them, if not all, were  tramed in  i  Chr.istian Reformed
  tire  cur&culum.                                                 college, where, certainly, they would not be taught to
      Let. us remember that, and never rest until and              apply Protestant Reformed  pri&ples  .in the field  of
  unless we have such schools.      \                              education.      2) None of our teachers  has had a Pro-
                                                                   testant Reformed teacher's training course. That is
      However, such a school is impossible without Pro-            simply a fact. Many  haye gone to Calvin College.
 testant Reformed teachers. The teacher gives the in-              Others.have been trained elsewhere. And who, unless
. . struction. Therefore, the teacher makes the school..           he is of unusual ability, can be a Protestant Reformed
  Without Protestant Reformed teachers  - that is,                 teacher  without Protestant Reformed teacher-train-
  teachers who tire capable of and who do actually give            ing? 3) It is not everyone's work, nor everyone's
  Protestant Reformed instruction-you cannot have a                calling,  to:. develop such a Protestant Reformed cur-
  Protestant Reformed school.                                      riculum. It is not even every teacher's work. To be
                                                              \    a  tegcher or  .to be  -an educator are two different
  What is ci Qualified Teacherg                                    things.      -You. cannot simply  say to every teacher :
                                                                   "YOU sit down and develop a history course  .along
      You  iyill ask perhaps: but do we not have  P&es-            Protestant Reformed `lines." We  .need teachers who.
  tant Reformed teachers? We engage`  :only members                are able to give Protestant Reformed instruction, and
  of the Protestant Reformed Churches to teach in our              therefore we need teachers who are themselves  trained
  schools. Do we then not  ,have Protestant Reformed               to  give it. And therefore we need educators who will
  teachers ?                                                       furnish such teacher training.
      I answer: not necessarily.              .                                      _  .(to  be  continued)
      And I hasten to add that by  my answer I do not                                                           H. C. Roeksema


                         /

238                                      T'iHE  S T A N D A R D   BEA'RER  .

1.                                                              Such is the. general viewpoint-of  <Jesus in this entire
 FROM  iI0L-Y  `WRIT Chapter:
                                                                    Now in view of this perfection at which we must
                                                                arrive more and more in this life, and unto which  we
          -  Expo+n of Matthew  5:33-37                         shall completely have arrived in the life to come, it is
                                                                of. the utmost importance, it is an indispensible  brdi-
       The Scripture passage to which we shall call at-         &ice of God, that we do not forget the law of the
tention in this essay is very important for our life of         Kingdom as to its Spiritual nature. Christ has not
sanctification in  *the midst of the world, which lies in       come to destroy the  .law, but He has come to fulfil it
the- lie -and error. .We need the teaching and  .admoni-        even unto the last iota  and. tittle.        ,Only then can
tion of Jesus, also of this passage, to  live a godly life      heaven and earth pass away when the law has per-
in  our day by day problem?; which must be solved in            fectly been written in the hearts of all the children
faith.  ;The  .teaching of this passage is  qecessary for       Gf God. When the whole earth shall be filled with the
us, and we must indeed heed it, shall we ever anew              knowledge of God and no one shall any more say  td
enter in through the strait gate and the narrow way             his neighbor : know the Lord ! then shall the end come
that leads to life. In a word Jesus' teaching is in-            of this present world in which the  ,Gospel and the  law.
tensely practical. Let it not be forgotten!                     is  being written  in our hearts. Therefore let us not
      .-This Scripture passage from the mouth'  df  our         forget  ]the warning finger while it is  today:  Such is
`Savior reads as follows: "Again, ye have heard that;           the warning note in this  :Sermon on the Mount.
it was said to  thein of  .old  tinie,  Thou shalt not  fov         This warning note is also implied and expressed
swear thyself,,' but shalt performi aunto the Lord thine        in the  Scrij?ure passage under consider&ion.  Wh'en
oath:  `but I say unto you,  Swear not at all ;  .neither       Jesus warns against the improper use of  the Oath He
by the heave;, for it is the thrdne of God; nor  by th.t?
                              --                                is instructing us to walk in the perfection of His King-,
earth, for it is the. footstool of His feet;. ilor by Jeru-     dom, according to the Spiritual nature of the law.
salem, for it is the  city of the  gre#at King.  Neither           Let us try to see this.
shalt thou swear by thy head, for thou  can&  no.t make            In the first  pl_ace, we would like to observe, that
one hair white or black. But let your speech be, Yea,           Jesus  has no dispute with Moses' statement in  Num-
yea ; Nay,  nay : and -whatsoever is more than these is D  hers 30  :2 concerning  the.Oath and `its use. He is not
of' the evil one."                                              contending with Moses, whom He has come to fulfil,
      In the quotation in the former paragraph we  havl?        but He is contending with what  the Scribes and
underscored those  parIts   which are Jesus's quotation         Pharisees have  macjle of this Word of God in Moses,
from the 0. Testament Scriptures. They  are Numbers             distorting it,  ati they did  wiih all of the Scriptures, to
30  :2; Isaiah 60  :l and Psalm  48:2.     It will help the     their own destruction ! Not seeing the spiritual mean-
readei to also  fead those passages. It will cause us to ing of this Word  .of God for the  ye.generated child of
see in bold relief, what Jesus intends to bring  ou;.:          God, being blind for the Kingdom  af heaven `and its
with these  ,quotations  in our text.                           righteousness of the heart,  ~they simply so construed
      In order the gain the proper perspective of this          the precept of Moses concerning the Oath, that it al-
Scripture passage it is well to bear in  ,mind,  .that Jesus    lowed  them room for all the evil of their hearts  ; they
is here addressing the subjects, of the Kingdom, in             simply did not enter the Kingdbm themselves and they
whose hearts the new arid everlasting `Covenant of              forbade those to enter who would.  It, is with this
grace and  mercy is established. At least that is the           c0rruptin.g of the Word of God that  J&us takes issue
viewpoint from which they are addressed.. They are              here. Wherefore He says, speaking of these evil
looked at and addressed as the poor in spirit, as those         teachers, you have heard it said  ,to you by the  Se&es
who mourn for their sins, as those who are meek and             that it was said to Moses of  ancient times, that we
lowly in heart, as those who hunger and thirst after            must perform our Oaths to the Lord. But  .according
righteousness,' and who  a& therefore blessed !       They      to Jesus they  do  no.t interpret this correctly in their
.are viewed as those who possess this blessedness, bu?;         pulpits and schools. They do not understand Moses'
who must still receive  $ in an ever increasing measure         precepts at  .all: That  and that only is Jesus' dispute
by means  .of the Word of God, by the warnings and              in this passage.  "
admonitions of the Gospel, and through the  Qoly                   Positively Jesus points out to us, that, when we
Spirit. They do have  righteous.ness;  but  ,they  .mus!;       "perform our oaths unto the  bard," it means, that we
receive more and more until they `arrive at the per-            have truth in inward parts  ;  ?t implies that  the truth
fection set before them in the life to come. Then               dwells in our' hearts, that we hate the lie and love
shall they be perfect even as  theit  Fathgr in heaven.         truth  and.  eqiuity. And that from the abundance of
                                                                                                        *


                                                                        --


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                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER                                                        239
             .

pure  heacts our speech indicates that we are lovers of          move and have their being in Him, Such is the folly
the truth, that we walk the strait and: narrow,  Gate-           of swearing  by the creature, in general, when trying
Way that  leads to life. ,Only such a man  Ferforms  his         to avoid swearing by  ,God, the Creator.
vows unto the Most High. Such a man has the last                 ,       Thus  it is  in general  we said.
iota an'd tittle of the  law in his heart.     He does  no3             But Jesus does not simply leave this matter by the
think little of the law, but sings: 0, how love I Thy            rash oath that general. He makes the folly stand  out:
law! He has heard the Gospel with its. precepts and              very clearly by applying the Scriptures to this ques-
performs them in his life. 0, the blessedness of  .the           tion.
man so doing.                                                            Hence, we have She quotations to which we refer-
      Such is briefly the meaning of Jesus' teaching and         red earlier in  this- essay,  and which  a?e found in the
admonition in this Scripture passage.            .               w?itten. text as quoted above;
      Why.  &does Jesus under&ore the positive meaning                   Says Jesus: `Do not swear  by  heccven.   Why not?
of this-word of Moses "to perform unto the  jL#ord our           Because heaven is:  thr0n.e  of  Gocl. It is quite  clear-
votis i,,                      .I                                from the original Greek, that such is the emphasis of
      The answer to this must be  sought;&, to its occa-         the text. The thought. is: Heaven is the throne of
sion, in the fact, that due to the  .Jewish  casuistry and       God,  afid he who swears by heaven swears by Him,
catalogueing of great and . smaller commandments                 Who sitteth on the Throne. `Wherefore do this not.
they also applied-this rule of the "greater and lesser"                  Says Jesus: Do ndt  swear~by the  &rth. Why not?
to the  ;Oaths, and spoke  of greater and lesser  `o&s.          Because the  f6otstool of  Gocl's   feet  it is. He who
Thus they corrupted the Oath itself;  -they lost sight           swears by the  kapth swears by God. Do this not.
of the very seriousness of the  ,Oath itself. Life had           Swear not at  $1.'                 --
lost  3s very meaning because it was not under the                       Again, says  #Jesus: Swear not by Jerusalem. Why
tension of the law of the Kingdom. With such a  COF-             not? Because it is the city of the Great King, the
ruption of the foundations the righteous could do                Lord of Hosts is  His name. Do it not.
nothing. The  .wieked simply  rqde high and handsome                     Finally,  J&us  says : Do-not swear by  -your head.
while the  righteous were led' astray and could not  ar-         Why  not?- Because he who swears by  his head swears
rive at the end of  .the law, Christ, the righteousness          by  God who makes the hairs white and  blgck.                 Do it
for everyone believing. This evil must stop and there-           not.
fore Christ says: but I say unto you,  Szvear  not  at  all!             W h a t   t h e n ?
      Jesus does not mean to teach that  the oath  ccs  SzLch            Walk the strait and narrow Gate-Way that leads
is  sinfu!, but He does mean to teach that in His King-          to life ; let each speak truth  with his. neighbor, being
dom  -where truth is loved the rule of life is:  Slue&           each others members. Then and then only will we be
not at  all! kere the truth. is to be spoken in love.            performing our vows  to the  Fast  High. Love will
Here men will not need to resort to the bolstering of            reign in our  liv& and not sin and folly. We will then
statements with all kinds (?)  of. oaths., -Yes. will be         seek the Kingdom of  .heaven and His righteousness
yes and no will be po. Hence, swear not at all.                       and all the other things will be added unto us.           God
      The Jews of Jesus' day, the Scribes and Pharisees,              will provide. The Lord will judge His people.
had a righteousness that did not allow for swearing                      Will we then never need to use the oaths? The
by the Name of God, but it did permit of swearing by             use of the oath will not be the rule in our lives,. but  i,t
many creatures. When our eyes are opened by grace,               will be the exception. Then only will it be used when
it is at  opce obvious that this evil  przictice' of swear-      the glory of God demands it, the salvation of a neigh-
ing by creatures did not change the nature of this               bor depends  upon  it,  ,or when the magistrate demands
Oath one wee bit. It was still swearing by the Name,             it. For the rest: Swear not at all. Let your Yea be
might, truthfulness and justice of God.                          yea, and your Nay be nay, for what is above this comes
`.    Sucl;l is She evident intent of these words of Jesus       from the evil one.         a
when he says  do.not  swear by "heaven," "the earth,"                                                         G. C. Lubbers
"Jerusalem" or "our head." It is sinful to swear by
all of these things..                                                                    -:::--
      Why is this  sinful?*
Because one  can- never so` swear by the creature or he
at once swears by the  Cksa.tor.                                          ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE CHURCHES
                                       Back of everything
created stands the  Qentor, the Maker of heaven and              Classis  East, at its last session on Jan. 9, 1952, de-
earth. He so rules and upholds all things by His al-             cided that Rev.  4. Petter is eligible for a call.
mighty -power and Counsel, that all things, live and                                             ,Classis East-D.  Jonker, S.C.


                                  j        `
                                             ,:'                               -- -   -~--___-~_~------
                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
         ,240      -------I
e  I                                          ---.-                                                                           -
                                                                               pastop-not  destroy him, to save the  congregatipn-
                                 C O N T R I B U T I O N   .   -               not leave it to its misery. Christ never used these
                                        HIDDE,NsEVIL?       :                  tactics. He testified of the TRUTH. He never  rail.
                                                                               away no  matter how great  the opposition.
         `. Esteemed Editor :                                                      In 1924,  our  ,leaders fought for the truth until they
.             May I  glease have a little space in the  Stan&&                 were "kicked -out.' They' did not leave the church.
          Beayel- to express a deep concern  which I have in  re-              After 28 years we are still seeking to show the Chris-
        - gard to a grave  e,rror which seems to be gaining a                  tian  Reformed churches their error.
          large foothold in our churches.                                          In conclusion, this much. I fee! `is sure-unless  wz
              First of all,. I feel certain that among R&formed                come `back from this evil way we are doomed as
          church circles, we are considered to be strict, if not               churches. We cannot expect a  blesiing.in this-way. I
          the most strict in seeking to uphold sound church-gov-               `am not advocating a  policy,of `love at any cost,,  not.at
          ernment. We believe that Christ rules in His church                  all-but we  must  ,seek one another in Truth. We
          through the offices of consistory. We have consistent-               must uphold the principles laid down by our Saviour.
          ly taught that  t&e local  -consistory is the only ruling            We may not just take things in our own hands.
          body in the church. By way of  Classis  alid  Synod all                  If we  walk in  ,God's law and  prkcepts, we can rest
          matters of church government are decided,  or'at least               as&&d that He will make all things well. Otherwise
          s h o u l d   b e .                                                  not.  Wheti. the individual member and not the  con-
          However, of late  there is much departure from                       sistory rules in the church, we are lost as  .churches.
          this rule among our people.             Due, no  j doubt, to the     Each one of us must exercise the office of believer to
          controversies of the  last few years, many of  our                   be sure. But all things in the church of Jesus Christ
          people are `taking sides' which in itself may  be good,              must be done  @ good order.  1            f
          yet if not propery applied simply tears-  LIS  apart as
        - churches. Let me  explain:                                               May  ,God give us all grace to war against this evil,
                                                                               both in our own heart and in  our church.
              When a certain minister (or-ministers) is asked  In:
          the consistory to preach for us; members of, the  don-                                                 Arthur  H,  Haan,
          gregation who do  not like, this  minister simply go to                                                     Grand Rapids,  Mich.'
        . another church for this particular service.  -They say                                   ,     (
          "I don't want to, listen to- him." They disagree with
          him. They do not follow- the rule of Matt. 18 and                                                    j--6.           -;`
                                                                                                                                        -
        speak to -him. They do not  ca,re whether or not the
      ,  consistory.has asked this minister to preach. Above
          all, they  do not care about the  calliilg which this min-
          ister has received from  `God to preach. They simply                                     BOUND  VOLUME XXVII
          take matters in  &eir own hands.                                         Volume 27 to be, bound  are- now at the book binder
              Now surely, if  g member is in disagreement with                  and should  be ready during this week.                Those re-
          this minister, -he should be able  to tell this' man of his          siding out side of Grand Rapids and who have a stand-
          wrong.- In fact, he must do this. Or, the member                     ing order for this  vqlume should forward at once their
         ., should tell the- consistory. But this is- not  done.        So     loose issues to  hr. C. Kregel, 1250 Philadelphia Ave.,
          now, what do we have? Democracy in the  church-                       S. E.,  ,Grand Rapids 6, Michigan, or to Mr. J. Faber,
          each and every member  dding  .as he sees fit? And                    829  Oakhi!l  St., S. E.; Grand Rapids 7, Michigan.
          this under the pretense of piety?                                        Those  residilig in Grand Rapids should have the
              Without  ever once appearing before. the consistory               loose issues ready to be picked up when the bound
          with any objection whatever,.  members of our  o&n                   volume is delivered.
     ,  - congregation asked for their papers to  ti sister congre-                                           Book Comm., R.F.P.A. Board
          gation and they  tel,l other members that they leave be-                          il'                  ,
          cause the.  pastof  is not Prot. Reformed.  IOne group
          wants the  pastole-  to preach their way-another group
I         wants the preaching their way.               It's not a `question
          of TRUTH-it's simply  51 question of personal opinion.
          The one is of  Apollos, the other of Cephas, etc.  '                  Under the shsdow of Thy ,throne.Thy saints have dwelt secure;
              ,Surely, in case of error, we should seek to save the              Suficient.is  Tbeine  arm alone, and our defense is sure.
                                                       ,


