    VOLUME  XXIX                          DECEMBER 1, 1952  -  GRAND~RAPIDS,   MICHIGAN                          NUMBER 5'

                                                                 long to those that are poor in spirit and not to those
       MEDITATION                                                that mourn, or to those that hunger and thirst after
                                                                 righteousness, We, find here rather a- sevenfold des-
                                                                ' cription of -the citizens `of- the Kingdom of heaven.
                    The Pure in Heart                          / Moreover; this description is not first of all the o&-
                                                                 `wurcl  behaviaur ,of these citizens of the heavenly King-
             Bl&sed   ar.e  ,bhe pure  in<  heart: for they shall see dom, as it is b portrayal 0-E t.heir +nwa&, .sp&~~~al sta-
           God.  Matthe\!   5:8                                  tus as children of God. `The' seven characteristics of
    In the very beginning of the Lord Jesus' ministry' thei3blessed  ones are  in,%ey virtues of the  hea& and
we read that He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which               not first of ill .their words and deeds. If their words
is upon the sea coast, in the borders df Zabulon -and' and deeds- are praiseworthy it is because of the fact
Nephthalim: that it mikht be fulfilled which was spo- -. that they are poor in spirit, meek, hungering, rrierci-,
lcen by Esaias the prophet, saying, the land of Zab-~ ful, pure and peacable. 7 And these Virtues  are,virtues
ulon and the land of Nephthalim, by the `way of the              of the heart.
sea, beyond Jordan, `Galilee of the .,Gentiles  ; -The peo-           So also with. sly text : the pure in heart are bles-
ple which sat in darkness saw a great light; and to              sed. It  desciibes  the  citizens of heaven from the in-
them which, sat in the region and shaeow  of death               11-r principlk of their inmost man. Their he&s are
light--is.sprung up.: And further we read in the same            pure ; therefoie t.hey are blessed ; and their blessedness
context: From that time Jesus began to preach, and               is expressed in the wonderful fact that they shall see
to say, Repent : for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.           ,Gocl.
And .a little  `further: And Jesus went about all Gal-
ilee, teaching in their synagogues And preaching the                                        *  :a_*  *.
Gospel of the Kingdom,  and  healings all manner of                                                                   _"
disease among ,the people.                                           What does  itlmean when  we speak of purity in
    The result was that there followed Him.great mul-            heart?               :          _.
titudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis,                In order to know that, we will'have to know first
and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from be-                 of all what is meant by the Word of  .God when it
yond Jordan.                                                     speaks of the heart of  man. In Proverbs  4:23 we
   And Jesus, seeing the multitudes, went up into a              read ,the admonition : ""Keep thy heart with all dil-
mom)tain: and when He was set, His disciples came                igence : for  out  -of it are the issues of life." And
unto Him : and He opened His mouth atid taught them,             P.salm 64:6 speaks of the heart as very deep. It shows
saying-and  ,then  follows the  wellknokn Sermbn on              ub that the heart of man is th)e ethical spiritual cen-
t h e   Mou'nt.                                                  ter of his  ex&t&ce. Because in the  Scdpture just
   The beginning .of that sermoli comprises what is              quoted we heard .that out of it are the issues of life.
known as the seven beatitudes, the sixth of which I . Therefor,e  it is plain that the thoughts,, the desires,
have chosen' for my meditation: Blessed are the pure             the imaginations. and reflections, together with all
in heart: for  they shall  :see  ,God.                           your  willirig and knowing  ; your loving and hating
   khese seven beatitudes do not describe seven kinds            spring from the heart. It is the  fotintain of all our'
of people. For intittahce,  it is not so that you may-,be-       conscious and  uticonseious  existence.        You  iye not
                                                                           -


 ` 9 8                                           T H E   ST-A.NDARD   BEARER.
                                          - -
  wheat you say and think, abut you are as your heart is.              Word of God: Deceitful is the heart above all things
  4s `the heart of a man is, so is he.                                 and desperately wick`ed !
        Secondly, what does it mean to be pure in heapt?                  SThai means also that alI0 the issues of our `hearts
                                                                       are wicked. ,Oh, I know, I know, that this is no,t al-
        It is  the- most  wpnderful   thing that can happen            ways evident. That we often ,times will smile with a
  .to you. If n!ty liea?t is pure, I do -not really care what          cursing he&t. That there are many things that tie do
   happens to; me. Then I am blessed even `when in the                 and speak tihich have the name of goodness and vir-
   midst of  the.~fiameB  and smoke of the stake. If  my. tye. But pray, tell me, what is behind all our so-cal-
  heart is pure; I ha&-heaven in my soul. It is the high-              led nobility' bu,t a heart that will not give God the
   est good for man.                    #,:'_                          praise and honor that is- due Him? Who among the
    i,  :$nd  ~&y,_-3-To~.~,,~~k?   Will, the word purity here         children of man will do virtue and honor because he
   `iyieti2is  th.%t the-`hez&t'.li&  no foreign, alien substances     Zove,s Gocl? And that-is the.only virtue worthy of the
                                                                                                    n
  51  i t . It is as we speak of pure gold.- In that case              name.. The Bible tells us, my friends,- that all things
  we have in mind gold that is purified of all substances              we do, ,eating, drinking o? ought else, must all be done
   that are not gold, but are dross and dirt. So we al-                to His honor -and. His. glory? In another' place it says
   so speak of diamonds of the purest water.                     `.    All that is not done out of faith is sin!
        Pure in heart we were Then we came out of the                      Hence, we conclude that we all are impure in hea&,
   hall,d of our Creator  in. Paradise.  A.da& and  -Eve' none excepted. Such is the testimony of. Scripture;
 - walked in the garden of Eden with pure hearts. And                  such is the testimony which the Holy Spirit w&es
   that has ,.som"e wonderful implications. It is. a heart             in our hearts Ghen we are regenerated and conve&ed;
   that is rich in God. A pure heart  knows and loves                  and such is our experience ,in the midst of the world.
   the idea to stand before His blessed face and to be fil-            That is also the reason why a converted sou! will cry:
   led with Him as the day is long. A pure. heart?&ns 0 G&d be merciful to me, the sinner ! At such ti.me you
   itself to `God as the flower turns- itself to the warming           will not make any nice distinctions between your so-
   rays of the sun. A pure heart hates all evil and loves              called good works  and your evil works, but when you
 ,a11 that is good and praiseworthy. A pure heart is                   stand in'the iight' of God's Spirit and when the wis-
   virtuous .in the extreme. Hence, a, pure heart is hea-, dom of heaven falls into your impure heart, at such
   ven in principle.                                                   tilmes you see nothing but sin, sin, sin. And you- find
        Where does that leave &s, dear reader? :                       only one name that fits you and that riame is sinner!
                                                                           The best man that ever lived said: I abhor `myself ,
      Listen and W~will he& what the Bible has to say                  and rep&t in c?:zt and ashes. He is Job, the man in
   on that score. I find the answer in. Jeremiah 17:9.                 the land of Uz.' We are able to make quite a catalog
   I quote: "The l'ieart  is deceitful above all things, and           of the confessions of ,God's saints in `the Bible.- -,-They
   desperately wicked: who  ??an  know it?" That is a                  all speak one language. And if that be true of the
   very exhaustive definitionsof  the i&an heart, Yes,                 child of God ; I ask you, where shall the wicked ap-
   exhaustive and  humiliatin&.  And true.  I;t  iS the de-            peay ? Ono mbre testimony: and, remember, it is a
   finition of the Holy Ghost whose name is the j Spirit               description of .the historical church of God. I find it
   of Truth. There is no  domeba+ here.  Her&e,  we                    in Isaiah 64 :66 and 7a : `{But we are all as can mlclean
   alsd read in Gen. 6 :5 : "And God saw that the wicked-              thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;
  ness of man was great in  .the earth, and that &ery                  and we all, do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like
   imaginat,ion  of the' thoughts of his heart was onljr e-            the wind, have taken  LZS away. And there is none that
   v i l   c o n t i n u a l l y . "                                   calleth  upon  Thy name, that  stirl;eth  up  hi.mself to
        How has that come- about?._                                    take hold of Thee. . . ." There you have our picture
      T.he answer is: the. sin of-Adam aild Eve in Para-               as we are by  `our natural  birth.  Tliat is  hum& na-
   dise. There the inmost heart of man turned itself from              ture. In  tliis  conne&ion  I am tempted to ask: what
   the Eternal and Triune- God to the devil and n-iade .a              of that celebrated free-will to.acceit the Gospel? The
covenant with that fallen spirit from hell;  .Listen                   Holy Ghost tells us that no one on earth stirreth up
   again to `God's Word : Isaiah 28 :15* "Beeause. ye have             himself .to take hold of Thee. * That was so in Isaiah's
   said, We have made a covenant with death, and with                  day; and so it is today.
   hell we are at agreement!" There is the record ,and
  it is against all of us, non2 excepted. There is there-                                     *-*  a  *
   fore no one that doeth good, no .not one. Ps. 53.
        Thus we can understand that when the Holy Bpi-                     We, all of us, are  impure of -heart.  Everyo& of
   rit  must define our hearts, He would testify in the                us las `gone away backward, we %iay.e  $zgotten God.


                                        I"HE  S T A N D A R D   B~EARER                                              99

.This impurity may be proven very easily. One sim-          again  i Know ye not your  own selves, how t,hat Je-
ple quesiion: why do ydu--labo+ and work and sweat          sus `Christ -is in you, except ye be reprobates? Gal.
in this sorry world?  M&y- answers, most of which           2:20 and II Car. 13 :5.
would be: I want fo earn a decent living on earth and          And the entrance of the Lord Jesus Christ in the
give every one his due. -Yes, and what about God?           depth of our hearts is called the new birth, which
If you have would ,asked  Adam when he still had his        when coming td our consciousness is called the con-
pure heart, he would have said: I $ork and keep the         version of the sinner. From that time on the Lord Je-
`garden of Eden because I love CGod. .I work unto His       sus dwells in us -and never departs from tis. And .He
honor and praises. Ah, you all know that we are sel-        dwells within us by His Holy Spirit that was poured
fish by nature. And all that, is an expression of the       out on Pentecost.
impuye  state of the. heart. The heart.  is turned to          New creatures, indeed. If .any man be in Christ,
self, our friends, humanity, the  w,orld,  in short to      he is a new creature.  ,Old things are passed  away,
everything, except to heaven's own God. And that            beho$l,-.  all things are.become new.
is also our sin.                                               Not as thou'gli:&ll the evil an'd wickedness and irni
   To-whom then does Jesus refer in the 6th beati-          purity of our nature is retioved, but SO that in the very
tude?                                                       depth of our evil heart the obedience and the pur-
   Well, dear reader, the answer to `that question is. ity of Christ dwells and works and fights against all
the Gospel of ,God.                                         the remaining evil in our nature, until the time that
   My first ans,wer  must abbe: the pure in heart is Je-    we are entirely liberated~and  shall dwell in all purity
sus. {Oh; you may rely upon it: all His heart was           in the abode of the pure ; and that is heaven.
and is pure. There were no foreign elements in the           .c Such people,  are blessed.
depth of His heart. That is also the reason tihy He
always spoke for God and unto His honor.                       And why?                   ._
   He knew that He was sent into the world to reveal           The reason for their9les`sedness is stated in the
the Father. He knew that He haa to show to the whole        text. They'shall see God.
world how lovable and  how full `of lovingkindness             I may as well say right at the start that to .unre-
the Father was. He knew also that this revelation           generated men that means nothing at all. No, that is
would call for the most  horri:rBle suffering for Him-      not correct. It does mean something to them. The
self. <God  wanted to r,eveal His love : the children of    more you talk to them of seeing lGod4he  more they will
God that were loved from all eternity -must be saved        hate the very idea. Because by nature we all hate the
from death and hell and the curse. But the way unto         idea of a ,God that must be loved z&d obeyed unto all
that salvation was the payment of justice and right-        eternity. We will go out of our way and send mes-
eousness -which were outraged  by the children of aGdd.> sengers `after Him saying : tie have no pleasure in Thy
And that payment was eternal death for Jesus. Atid          ways, 0 God ! Do you not know how' His name and
what did Jesus do? He was-so pure in heart that He          His day  and. His church is hated and outraged all
iaid : Not my will but Thy will be done and He trod the     through the ag& ? No, there  iS no natural love of
way of eternal suRering wehere  His pure heart broke        God. -And when He shall come `in the day. of judg-
in the cry: Why, 0 my God, hast Thou fdrsaken Me?           ment, then the wicked will-sajr; Mountains .fall upon
It was the question of a pure heart which never for-        us and hills cover us from the face,of Him that sit-
.sook God. Zt was His meat and drink to do the will         teth upon the throne. Fir the day of "His wrath is
of G.od. * And because He knew that His torment was         come and who is able to stand? -_
the explanation of God's great Love and *Gopdness,,  He        But if Christ  d,wells in you so that your inmost
grew still and  .suffered until the- cup of the wrath       heart is pure, there ,is nothing sweeter to poU than to
of God was emptied to the bottom.                  j        see His blessed face. Then you say with the poet':
. . Jesus is the pure in heart. j ..     .                  When shall I  cbme to appear before God? To see
                                                            God face to face and to be satisfied with such s$ec-
                       *  *  *  *                           tacle in heavenly sphere is `the highest good f,or man.
                                                            It is the cause of much singing and utmost jubilation.
   And, in the second place, this Jesus gives Himself         When I in righteousness at last Thy glorious face
through His Word and Spirit unto the men and wo-            shall see, when all the weary night is past, and I a-
men, the children and fbabes that were given Him of         wake with Thee : to view the- glories. that abide, then,
the Father. Go with me to Paul and he will tell you.        then I shall be satisfied1
I quote: I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And                                                _  G.  v o s .
                                                                       ,


                                                                                             .                                                      *

i(j(J                           L                                       TB,E:  STANDARD  k%ARE$j,

.--                                                                                                                                 :,
                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                                 E  D  I  T'O  R  I  A-L  S
           Semi-monthly, except  mopthly in July and  Au&t
       Published by the -Reformed Free Publishing Association
               Box 124, Station C., Grand Rapids 6, Michigan                                                                              Reply to the R-e,-.- Kok
                        EDITOR  - Rev. Herman Hoeksema                                                                                                   2.     :
       Communications relative Go contents should be ~addressed
       to Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand
       Rapids   7 ,   M i c h i g a n .                                                                                    &et mi: now elucidate the. statement to which, ac-
       All matter relative to subscription should  be addressed                                                       cording to .his article in Concoi;c&,  the Rev. Kok al-
       to Mr. J.  Bouwman,  1350 Giddings Ave., S. E., Grand                                                          so subscribes, namely; that the gospel preaching is
       Rapid; 6, Michigan. Announcements and Obituaries must
       be mailed to the a.bove.address  and will be published at a                                                    "a. general proclamation of a particular or conditional
       fee of $1.00 for each notice.                                                                                 promise".
       Renewals:- Unless a definite request for discontinuance                                                             The Rev. Kok writes, in that article : "Let me give
       is received, it is assumed--that the subscriber wishes  the
       subscription to continue without the formality of a re-                                                       j&t one quotation of the Rev. H.H. taken from the
       newal order.                                                                                                  Stanclarcl Bearer, Vol. 21, Page 434, `.When  he explains
                           Sub.;cription  price:  $4.00,per year                                                     -that in such passages as Ezekiel 18 :23 `God promises
       Entered as Second Class mail at Grand Rapids, Michigan                                                         con,cLiil"ional  lifk  (underscoaed  by the Rev. H.H.) to
                                                                                                                      all, he evidently. means that through the gospel `God
                                                                                                                      declarks  that He will give life to all that repent. And
                                      -  :  ---   :  _---                                                             since it is God who must `give- repentance, `in reality
                                                                                                                      He promises life  pnly to the elect and,  ngne other.'
                                                                                                                      `And surely, the complainants will have to admit that
                                        C O N T E N T S
                                                -.                                                                    this differs radically from their view,  .that Gdd sin-
                                                                                                                      cerely seeks the salvation of all-men, the reprobate as `.
 MEDITATION-
           The Pure of  Hearc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..!......... 97                           well as the elect.`.
           Rev. G.  Vos'.                                                              ~_                                  " `What the reformer here teaches is that although
 ED~~RIALs-                                                                                                           the preaching of the gospel by men is general and pro-
           Reply  to the Rev. Kok . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100                                         miscuous, &he content is always particular. God saves
              Rev. H.  Hoeksema                                                                                       those that fly to Him for pity and redemption, that
 THE TRIPLE  KNOWLBDGE-                                                                                               come to Him, that forsake their wicked ways, repent
           An Exposition of the Heidelberg Catechism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104                          c
               Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                       -nd believe. And this `condition' of salvation- not one
                                                                                                                     -.man is able to fulfill of himself. God fulfills His own
V A N   BOEKEN-
           Zielszorg  en  Psych+&                                                                                     condition.     He  ~gives grace to repent, to  belieGe;  to
                                                -door B. Chr.  Hamer . . . . . . . . . . , .  106
           Spreukken-door Prof.  Dr. W. H.  Gispen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106                            come to Him.'
O F   B O O K S -                                                                                                          " `That is Reformed; to say that God sincerely
          This  He
                      appehe$  in the`Hills  of I<entucky--by  John Vogel . . . . . 106                               seeks the salvation of all that hear the gospel, as the
              Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                        complainants would have the preacher of the gospel
T~IE D A Y   O F   SH A D O W S-  -                     --                                                            proclaim, -is, Arminian pure and simple.' "
           The Rite  6f Expiatory Sacrifice .  :. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107                                            The reader mcst remember that when Rev. Kok
               Rev. G.  K/I.  Ophoff                                                                                 ,quotes me as writing "When he explains that in such
,OUR                      DOCTRINE-                           --                 A-                                   passages as Ezekiel 18 :23,, etc.", I rifer to Calvin and
          God's Providence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    111
               Rev. H. Veldman                                                                                        to .a quotation from  Calvin's  CaBvinisnz. And  wheri
                                     :                                                                                therefore I underscored "conditional life"`, the  tinder-
 IN HIS   FEAR-
           Looking to the Future .  :. . . . . . . . . . . . ..~...............                               114     scoping is really not mine, but Xalvin's. It was Cal-
              Rev. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                     vin that underscored the phrase.
PERISCOPE-                                                                                                                 Now we must certainly understand that this writ-
           Science and the Bible. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116             ing of mine, and my mentioning of conditions and con-
           The Liberated Slam the Door  Shut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II7                          ditional life, has nothing to -do with our present con-
              Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                        troversy. `Eveil this I wrote in answer to ? complaint
FROM  HOLY   WRIT-                                                                                                    made against Dr. Qark by some of the brethren in the
           Exposition of .I Peter  1:4, 5 t.............................  119                                         Orthodbx Presbyterian `Chub-ch, in which they sbught
              Rev. G. C. Lubbers                                                                                      to prove- the contention that according to Calvin *God
                                                                                                              -       seeks the salvation of all, reprobate as well as elect.
 _-


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          101
                          _--_---
 To prove that Calvin taught no such thing I :-made              He Will save us (of what avail would it be for us'podr,
 this quotation from him.                                        dead,  @seral$e  sinners?), but with the  very posi-
     Still -more. The same quotation from Calvin was             tive glad tiding, that He did save u? and does save us
 already made in, my brochure, "Calvin, Berkhof, and             even `unto the end."
  H. J. Kuiper, A Comparison". And abo in that bro-                 A little furthe? I discuss the contention of Berk-
  chure I did not mean-to ,ernphasize  or to defend con-         hof and Kuiper that the gospel they preach is. a, gos-
  ditional theology, nor a- conditional promise  for all.        pel for all sinners. And I write as follows:
  But I agitated against the.First Point of-i924,  and op-          "The gospel.they preach is a gospel for all sinkers.
  posed the teachings 6f Berkhof and Kuiper that the             On this they both agree.                    `.
  preaching of the gospel is a well-meant offer of sal-           ' "But this implies, that they pieach, that God pro-
  vation on the part of God to all n&n. It is in this con-       mises new hearts,, repentance, faith, adoption, forgive-
  nection that I quoted Calvin, and agreed With him,             ness; justification, conversion, sanctification and` per-
  that the preaching of the gospel is a general proclam-         severance to all that hear the gospel ! For all this
ation-of a particular or conditional promise. All this           is surely implied in the gospel.
  is quite different from OUY' present controversy with             "NOW it is plain that also in tQis respect they de-
  the Liberated. and with the views df the Liberated             part from Calvin. The great Genevan reformer does
  as they are strongly recommended even by the Rev.              not agree with them. And he expaesses  his disagree-
  Kok.                                                           ment in the strongest terms. He does not hesitate ,to
     That Calvin  &d not believe that the promise of God         assert that a. man must be utteqlly beside himself to
  was pr.omiscuous  to all, but was only to the elect, is        claim, that God prom&es these blessings of grace to
  very evident from the work I quoted, Cal&n's Calvin-           all men generally and indiscriminately."
  ism. Let me make ju,st .one quotation: "For notwith-              And on this contention .of Calvin I .give my own
  standing all your vain talk about it, the truth is that        comment in the same brochure,. pp. 39,40 :
  a heart of flesh and-a new heart ar'e not pnomised to             "Niether is Calvin's language too strong. The fol-
  all  nz.en  promiscuously,  but to the elect peculiarly,       ly of maintaining that God promises a n.ew heart to
  that -they might walk after the  ~.commandments of             evefybody,  is easily discovered.    For why, pray, if
  ,God." p .   3 1 5 .                                           ,God offers the blessing of a ,new heart to all, if the
     And that also I do not, and never did, teach a cop-         promises of gqace are actually for all `men indisc+n-
  ditional promise for all, but -always maintained that          inately, why does He not fulfill His promise? Sure-
  the promise of God is unconditionally for -the elect           ly, a new heart is entirely the work of God. Man can
 alone, may be evident from the following quotation              do nothing towards receiving  it.- He cannot make
  from the brochure, "Calvin, Berkhof, and H. J. Kuip-           himself worthy of it. He cannot get himself into a'
  er", from which also m quoted Calvin in the Stancla:?$         state of receptivity fo? it. H.e canot even make him-
  Bearer, Vol. 21, p. 434. In that brochure I wrote:             self will to receive it. He is incapable to induce him-
     "Does not the gospel contain much more than the             self to even' pray for it. This is true of all men by
  preaching of what the Lord did for                             nature, of all indiscriminately. A'new heart is <God's
                                          us?                    woi-k, His gift only, absolutely. Man  camlot work
     "And does it not imply the preaching of the rich-           for it if God does not bestow the blessing on hiin ;
  es of His grace, whereby He applies this salvation to          neither  can'any men resist the operation of God where-
all His elect? Does this grace of the Lord Jesus                 by He renews the heart, if it pleases the `Almighty to
  Christ not belong to the promise of the -gospel? I am          give him a heart of fl.esh instead of the stony heart.
  now thinking of the grace "of regeneration, whereby            NOW, please, if the promise of the gospel concerning
  we become partakers of the lifme of the risen Lord in          this new heart (pot is preac,hecl to -all that hear, this
  principle ; of the. grace of effectual calling, whereby        is self-evident) is given by God to all men'without dis-
  we are translated from darkness into light,; of the            tinction, why does .He not f8ulfill His promise?
  grace of faith, whereby we know that we are justi-                 "Because some do not, will to receive it? That. is
  fied before God and have peace with Him through                Arminianism.     And even then a man must be utterly
  auk' Lord Jesus Christ; of the grace of conversion and         beside himself to speak thus, for no one. is willing to
  sanctification, the mortification of the old man and the       receive a new heart before he possesses it.
  quickening of the new man; of the g&ce of presever-.
  ante, so that no one can pluck us out of Christ's hand.            "More mysteries perhaps? I fear me, that  Kui-
  I say, .do not all `these blessings of grace belong. to the    per `will answer thus. But we say with Calvin: Nay
  pr6mise of the gospel.7 Surely, the gospel of our Lord         but more!  nonsense ! A man must be- utterly beside
  Jesus Christ does~ not come with a mere message that           himself to assert that this promise of the gospel con-


  102                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B.EARER

  c%rning a new heart is made by God to all men gen-              grace they believe and repent. And- that, of course,
  erally and. indiscriminately !                                  is the general proclamation .of a~ promise which is on-
      "But again: if God prdmises this blessing, which i-y- for the elect.
                                                                   .:
  be alone can b&tow and bestows unconditionally (I               __ You can  alsb put it  this way:  "God promises to
  now unc@score),  to all men, and does not fulfill the $on salvation, provided He works in you faith and re-
  promise, where is God?s truth? Is the proniise of God           pentance, the fruit of which you may discern in your-
  brought.`to  nought? Has His Word become of  none               s&es by believing and repenting."
  effect? IGod forbid ! Nay, but the promise was never              1. But if you preach that God promises' to all of you
  made   td all by Hi&, but only to the elect. And Kui-           salvatiolz, if you believe, that  is, if you perform the
  per has no right and no calling ,to present it -different-      act of believing, you camouflage the truth and become
  ly!'?          <,-..                                                                     0
                                                                  Armin@..
      It  iS only in this connection that Calvin ma'y be
quoted, when he speaks of a promise. of" conditional                $0 yes, God  ,fu.lfills  .a11 the-coizditions. But remeh-
  life.                                                           her,  that after  .He fulfills the conditions, we fulfill
      It is also in the same connection that I quoted him,        conditions -no more. <Only; when God fulfills the con-
  alld quoted him with my consent and approval.                   ditions, His conditions,-. .+nd not ours, we bear the
    -In  .the above quotations of Calvin and of myself            fruit of His work of grace. in our he&s, repent and
  v& simply have the doctrine of our aeformed.,  Stan-            believe, and walk in- a new andpholy  life.
  d.ards..:  Moreover, in them we. have the same doctrine         That is Reformed, according to our confessions.
  as,was.adopted by our Synod of 1951 -in the Declara-            An$  nothing  else is! If you v+nf- to. speak of Re-
  tion of, Principles.          '                                 formed conditions, you speak of conditiol!s  which God
      But %his is not the d'octrine  of the Chr. Ref. Chu&        fulfills, period.                               ..     ::
  ches  qf,..192$,.  that supported the Heynsian view of                  That this is the truth as taught ill: our..confessions
  c&mnon gra,ce@ithin the covenant, and of a condition-           is plain throughout. But I will quote from the `Canons,
  al promise to."& ,&at are baptized. Nor is it the ,doc-         which are composed in order to combat the Arminians.
  t&ne -as is held 6;; :the Liberated Churches, which in                  That faith and believing, that is, the faculty a&,
  principle. agrees &th ihe Heynsian view and with, the           the power, of faith,- as well as the. tict of faith, are not
  dojri& of the Fir@ Point. And it is not the doctirine-          conditions which we must fulfill unto salvation, and
  of an ,article by D~.&hilder  in Concordti some. time           unto the reception of the promise, `but the work of God
  a&o, translated and-.highly recommended by ,the Rey.            throughout, is plain from Canons- III, IV, 14. There
  Kok. Nor is it the  qocfrine of the brochure of  Dr.            we  read:
  Schilder in which he attacks the Declaration of Prin,                   "`Faith- is therefore to be considered as the gift of
  `ciples, also. recommended to our read,ers  bi the Rev.         `God, not on account of its being offered by God to
  Kok..'         :        `
                          .'                                      ma.n, to be accepted or rejected at his pleasure ; but
      It. will now be plain what I ,meant iyhen I suppor-         because it is in reality conferred, breathed, and in-
  &cl Calvin's statement that the preaching of the go?-           fused into him ; nor even because #God bes'tows the pow-
  p$ I iz :,a general proClamation  of a particular or con-       er or ability to believe, and then  exp$cts  that man
  ditional, promise.                                              should by the exercise of his own free will, consent
      -First of all, it must be evident that I cpnsider the       to. the. terms of salvation, and  .actually believe in
  terms particular  and conditional in this connection as         Christ ; but because he who works in `man both to will
  having the same connotation, the same meaning.  -               and to do, -and indeed all things in all, prsduces  both
         It is <I& very evident from the whole connection., the will to belieye, and the act of believing also."
  that I do not mean: `<God promi,ses to all .of. you .sal-               .This is plain language. It simply  means that all
  &ion, if you believe, that is, if you per$rm the act            is of God,  and.,none: of  uv. It means that there are
  -of believing:"                                  :.;,  `.
           _.                                                     no conditions or prerequisites which man must ful-
         With such a statement any Arrniniati would..agree..      fill., IGod absolutely .fulfills them all, so, that He be-
      Nor would I say that `God prqmises `salvation on            stows not only the power of faith and the ability to
  +dition. that you fulfill the act of believing, and add         b@ieve, but also the will to believe and the, act of be-
  the ,carnouflage statement that God fulfills- the condi-        lieving. There is nothing of man in it, and there are
  tions.                                      I                   no conditions which man must fulfill. God fulfills them
         But I will say this: the general .proclamation:.of  a    all.                                                    s
  p,~&cular  or conditional, promise means ;. the procla-                 The same is true of the gift of repentance and the
  metion  of a promise to those-in whose heart ,God works         act of. repentance in man, according to the confes-
  faith and iepentance,.  the fruit of,.which is-that by His. sions.  _                                            I'
                                                                                                             \


                                     W-r&  STANDARD  BEARER                                                             i63

   In the same chapter of the Canons `from which we           ly. He so operates efficaciously by the Holy Spirit up-
quoted, we read in Art. 10:                                   on the. sinner,. that his hardened heart is softened,
   "But that others who are called by the gospel, `o-         his closed heart is opened, his uncircumcized  heart is
bey the call, and are converted, is not to be ascribed to     circum&zed.  He infuses sovereignly and uncondition-
the proper exerci8se  of free will, whereby one distin-       ally new qualitiesinto  the will, renders it good, obed-
guishes himself above others, equally furnished with          ient, and pliable, instead of being evil, disobedient and
grace sufficient for faith and conversion, as the proud       refractory. `And only when God has so fulfilled all
heresy of Pelagius maintains; -but it must be wholly          the conditions, does man bear the fruit of that work
ascribed to God, who as he has chosen his own from            of God in him, when God so actuates the will that the
eternity, so he confers upon them `faith and repen-           converted man brings forth the fruit of good actions.
tance, rescues. them from the power `of darkness, and            Article 12 speaks of regeneration in the wider sense
translates them into the kingdom of his own Son,              of the word, including conversion.. And this too is en-
that they'may show forth the praises of him, who hath         tirely ascribed to ,God. I will not quote the entire art-
called them out of darkness into his marvelous light;         icle, but only refer to the end. of this article, which is
and may glory `not in themselves, but in the Lord, ac-        very relevant to our `discussion. After  .ths? article has
cording to the testimony of the apostles in various           emphasized that the w,ork  of conversion and regener-
places."                                                      ation is such that it is not up to the choice of man .to
   Note that here ,too God indeed fulfills sovereignly,       be converted or-not to be converted, and after it. has _
and absolutely, according to His electing grace, all the      stated that all'in whose hearts `God works in this mar-
conditions of salvation. They are, absolutely His condi-      velous manner are certainly;infallably,  and efficadious-
tions, which He fulfills, and not our conditions, which       ly regenerated, and do actually believe, it closes as fol-
we fulfill. Conversion is wholly the work of God, from        lows : "Whereupon the will thus renewed,. ,is -not only
beginning to end, the principle of conversion as well         actuated and influenced. by God, but in consequence
as the act of conversjon,  the principle of faith as well     of this influence, becomes itself active. I* Wherefore al-
as the ;act of faith. And our believing and our repen-        so, man is himself rightly said to believe and repent,
ting is nothing eise than- the fruit of AGod's work with-     by virtue of the grace received."
in us. This is very plain from this article. He chose
His own from eternity. He Confers upon th-em faith               IOnce more : God fulfills. all the conditions, in such
-and repentance. He rescues them from the power of            a way that `we have to fulfill conditions no more. But
darkness and translates them into the kingdom of              when God has fulfilled the _ conditions, .then we ,bear
His dear Son. It is all of God. But the fruit of that         and experience the fruit of that.work of God in us by
work of God in                                                actuaIly repenting -and believing, and that too, fsby
                   us is that we show forth the praises
oi Him Who hath called us out of darkness into His            virtue of that graCe  received."
                                                                  .                                              H.H.
marvelous light.
   The same is taught still more clearly in Art. 1.1
of the same chapter of the Canons.                                                       .a&---
    "But when God accomplishes his,,,good  pleasure in                         .                                 .,            1.
the elect, or works in them true conversion, he not on-                                  .%                    ;.         :
                                                                                    I
ly causes the gospel to be externally preached to them,                                        ._;      '
and powerfully illuminates their minds by his Holy
Spirit, that they may rightly understand and discern                   ~aOam3irS~oy3s   - PLEA&  NIO~TE  1
the things of the Spirit of `God; but by the efficacy.of         We will be. pleased to send The Standard Beare?,
the same regenerating Spirit, pervades the inmost re-         gratis, to all, your young men that are in -the Service.
cesses of the man ; -he opens the closed, and softens         Please send us their names and addresses and be sxL?e
the hardened heart, and circumsizes that which was
uncircumcizedj   .infuses new qualities, into  the,- will,    and keep LIS informed of changes in their addresses
which though heretofore dead, he .quickens  ; from. be-       and also if and when' they are discharged fr0.m the
ing evil, disobedient, and refractory, he renders` it         Service as we have no way of knowing this fact un-
good, obedient, and pliable ; actuates and strengthens        less we are notified directlyby you. Quite often young
it, that like `a good tree, it: may bring forth the fruits    men are discharged from the Service- and the copies of
of good actions."' .     . . .                                The Sfaridbd Beafer: are still mailed out to them be-
    Here too the whole work of salvation is ascribed $0                                                                   .
                                                              cause we' are not notified accordingly.
God alone. He alone fulfills all the conditions unto
salvation, powerfully, unconditionally, -and, sovereign-                      :_:                       .  /-THE  B&RD


      it54                                 TEm           STANDARD                 BEAREf5,

                                                                   by our sins. It is sor?ow over sin as sin, because sin'
         THE  `TRIPLE  KNOWLEDGE                                   is contrary to the will of God. The sorrow of the
                                                                   world, on the other hand, is sorrow not over sin, but
                                                                   rather over the evil consequences of sin'for ourselv&.
     An  Exposition  Of  The  Heidelberg Counterfeit sorrow over sin really rejoices in iniqui-
                          Catechism                                ty. And it would freely indulge in it, if it were not
                                                                   for the fact that the wages of sin aye always death.
                            PART III                               It is this that the sorrow of the world regrets. True
                     O F   THANKFULNESS                            sorrow over sin is a radical break with all sin. But
                                                                   counterfeit sorrpw  is a break with certain sins, and
                          Lord's Day 33                            that only to the degree that their commitment tippears
              3, Mortification and Quickening (conti)              dangerous and harmful for the time being. Therefore,
         From this it will also be evident that coliversion        godly sorrow, leads to life and salvation. ldr as the
     has two aspects. These two aspects the Catechism de-          apostle  exprksses  it in  11 Cor.  7:10, it "worketh re-
     scribes in Questions and Answers 89 and 90. The one           pentance to salvation not to be repented of." But the
     aspect is what th,e Scriptures and the Catechism both         sorrow qf the world worketh death. The latter really.
     .call the mortification of the old man, which by the ,Cat-    plays with sin. It loves the darkness rather than the
- echism is described in a profoundly spiritual way as "a          light. It likes to go the way of sin as far as possible,
     sincere sorrow of heart, that we have provoked GGod           without experiencing the evil consequences of a life
     by our sins; and more and more to hake and flee from          of corruption. And the result is always death. But
     them." And the second aspect is called the quicken-           true sorrow over sin is a sure  manifestation  of con-
     ing" of the new man, which again is described in the          version.
     same deeply spiritual way by saying that "it is a sin-           But of course, this sincere sorrow after `God, that
     cere `joy of heart in  `God, through Christ, and with         we have provoked Him by our .sins, manifests itself
     and delight to live according to the will of God in all       in the fact that we more and inore hate sin a'nd flee         .
     good wqrks."                                                  from it. This is the seal 
-                                                                                                upon  our true  repentaizce.
         The first aspect, therefore, is the mortification, or     We may be sure: if this seal is not present, we were
     the putting off, of the old man, the mortification of         never siticerely sor-ry over sin. To mortify the deeds
     our members which are upon the earth. The f&t and             of the body, to crucify our old ,natnr& and to walk in'            -
     principal characteris&  of this mortification of the old      in a new and holy lifte in pri&ple  is the sure and in-
     man is, according to the Heidelberg Catechism, ~a sin-        evitable sign of true conversion. If we do not really
     cere sorrow of heart that we have provoked God by             hate sin, we c&not be filled with sorrow after God.
     our sins, in other words, true repentance. By the ex-         And if we do not fight sin and flee from it, but rather
     perience of this sincere sorrow of heart you may cer-         s?ek it, we thereby reveal that we do not hate it.
     tainly know that you are converted, no matter wheth:             Again, we. must remember that this _ mortification
     er this coliversion was gradual or sudden. If you of the old man is first of all the work of God, and
     wonder sometimes whether or not you are converted,            that our act of mortifying the flesh and the deeds of
     it is well to ask yourself the question whether you are       the (body is the fruit of God's work. This is evident
     truly sorry for sin. Surely, the chief characteristic         from all Sdripture,  but it is empbjtically and, bleauti-
     of true conversion in this life, in which &e have but         fully taught in Romans 6. There-the apostle asks the
     a small beginning of the new obedience, is not that           question : "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may
     you are always on the mountain-tops of`-faith, and per-       abound"? And he  ariswiers that  qlzestion by teach-
     form many wonderful good works, but that you repent           ing that this is.  impossi,ble, because we were bap-
     in true sorrow-after God. Perhaps you ask: how do             tized into Jesus Christ, and therefore were baptized
     I know that my sorrow over sin is genuine? Also               into His death. We have been buried with Christ by
     that quest& is really not difficult to answer. There          baptisni into His, death. And we have been planted
     is, indeed, a sorrow that is not after God, a false, a        together in the likness of His de@h. Therefore, the
     counterfeit sorrow. It is what Scripture calls tthe sor-      a'postle concludes in vs. 6 : "Knowing this, that our 61d
     row of the world. The two, however, the sorrow af-            man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might
     ter <God and t.he sorrow of the world,, may easily- be        be destroyed, that henceforth we shou!d not serve sin."
     distinguished. True sorrow after God is rooted in the         It is on the basis of this principal crucifixion of the
     love of God, while the sorrow -of the world is reaily,        flesh that the apostle continues: "ILet not sin there-
     principally love of self. `The former is a sorrow, as         fore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it
     the Catechism expresses it, that we  havi provoked God        in the lusts ,thereof.  Neither yield ye your members


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R .                                     105
                              ._.--                                                     -    -                         -
as instruments of unrig&eousness  unto sin." vss. 12,         tion'of the Spirit of SGod in Christ. It is not so, that                 c
13.  But even thus all is  not said. It  is not so, that      wfe <are once risen with Christ, and that for the rest
God converts us prin,cipally,  so that we are dead with       we put on the new man by our own effort. The con-                   .
Christ .and crucified with Him, aqd' that now we finish       tsary is true: God is always first. And only when He-
our own conversion. On the contrary, only when God            continuously works in our hearts by His Holy Spirit
works in us  .continually to will and to do of His            can we be active, as the fruit of His grace'ili.us, in put-    -
good pleasure, are we able to be active in the morti-         ting on the new man. -An&also  this active part of our
fication of our old man. Never is there any synergism         conversiofi  is accomplished by the Spirit through the
between God and us in the world of salvation and of           e@ca$ous  calling in the preaching of tl$e Word.
conversion. It is all the work of God. And our morti-            You  will readily understand that  conversioil  is a
fication of the oId nian is the fruit of the operation of     matter tha`t concerns our whole life as ldng as we are
the grace of God in its. This is effected by the Spirit       in this world. Its beginning may be either very sud-
of Christ, Who d.wells in us, and by the efficacious call-    den and striking; so that you can point to the place
ing through the preaching of the Word of ,God,.               arid the hour when this wonder of grace was first
   The other, or positive, aspect of conversion is the        performed on your soul; or it may be gradual and un-
turning to God and to the way of His precepts. Or,` noticeable, bound up with the.  eaily years of your
as- the Catechism expresses it, it consists in "a sincere     childhood, so that you cannot at all remember that ~017
joy of heart in God, through Christ, and `with love and       ever were converted. The form& is usually the case
delight to live according to the will of God in all good      with those that live in ways of gross sin. until they
works." .This is the quickehing  of the new man. Of           have reached the age of maturity.  IGod suddenly
this the apostle Paul writes in Eph. 4 :22-24: "That          stops them in their pursuit of sin, and turns them
.ye put off concerning the former conversation the old        radically about. The latter naturally occurs when we
man, which is corrupt according t.0 the deceitful lusts;      are inst&cted in the truth of the gospel from infancy,
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind ; Ancl that         learn  tq stammer our prayers on mother's lap, never
ye put on the new man, which after ,God is created .in        depari; from the fear of the Lord, but walk in His
righteousness and true holiness." Also the quickening         way from childhood. It should also be remarked that
of this new man is first of all and principally the work      the latter is` far preferable .to the former, and that
of `God. And our active participation in the .putting         he who can mention the date and the place of his con-
7n of the new man is never anything else than the             version has nothing to boast because of it. By all
fruit of the work of IGod's grace in our hearts. This is      Means, let him not make of the experience of his sud-
also taught in the same chapter of the epistle to the         c!c:i conversion a grbund of confidence that he really
Remans, from which we quoted above. For we were               is converted. Often, it seems, this is'done. -You may
not only buried with Christ by baptism into His death,        frequently hear people boast that they know that they          .
but we w.ere also raised with Him unto newness of             are converted  because some ten or twenty years
life : "For if we  have been planted together in the          ago they came to Christ. But the question is not at
likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness       all how and when you were converted, nor whether
of his resurrection." And again, in vs. 11: "Like-            you had an experience of conversion several years
wise reckon ye also yourselves  to be dead indeed unto        past, but whether you are converted today. For whe-
sin, but alive, unto God through Jesus Christ our             ther you were converted sclddenly  or gradually, as far
Lord." It is upon the basis of this  work of God              as the beginning of y&r conversion is concerned, it
that the apostle admonishes the church not only               surely is only a bxeginning. It must continue through-
to mortify the old  .man, but also to yield them-             out your whole life. It is never finished  .until you
selves unto IGod as those that are alive from the dead,       close your eyes forever upon things mundane,' your
and their members as ,instruments of righteousness            body is lai'd in the grave, and your soul is with Christ
unto Gdd. vs. 13. This yielding of our members as             in ilory. Nor must we ever imagine that conversion
instruments of righteousness unto `God is our act of          gradually becamei le,ss necessary as we grow in grace.
putting on the new  mali.  Zt signifies the `constant         The contrary is true. Always there is with the Chris-
endeavor to place ourselves and our whole lifie under         tian the old man, seeking to  regain his former do-
the gracious dominion of the  neti life in  <Christ.  AS      minion. And never does he get rid of the ldody of this
the ,Cat$chism has it, the quickening- of the new man         death.  Always the new man in  Chrjst must watch
is "a sincere joy of heart in God,. through ChFist,  and      and pray an.d fight the good fight. We must be con-
with love and delight to live acco&ng  to the will of         verted, and convert ourselves, as long as we live. But
God in all good. works." And alsp this putting on of          remember; the latter is always the fruit of the former.
the new man is not accomplished without .the opera-           Let no flesh glory in His presence.         j  I~


                106                                       .THE  S T . A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                            --------_
ii                                 V A N   B O E K E N                           rechtvaardigen en der goddeloozen, tussen wijzen en
                                                                                 dwauen, de Godvruchtigen en  ,cle spotters, dan  @men
                ZIELSBORG  EN  tP,SECHIATRIE  door. B. Chr. Hamer. J.H.          we  in.het  algemeen zeggen, dat Christus beantwoordt .
                 Kok N.V. Kampen,  Nedemlmd   Prijs   f.8  .50.                  aan het ideaal,  dat in dit boek gesteld wordt,  en Hij
                                                                                 alleen." p. 15.
           _       Dit boek is geschrev&  door een Christen-arts. Het
                handelt,  zooals de titel reeds  te  kennell. geeft over            SOok dit deel van de  "Korte Verklaring", dat  ge-
                abnormale psychologie  en dat we1 in verband met de              stihreveti  is in duidelijke,  voor ieder  vatbare  taal, be-
                zielszorg. Het bedoelt vooral hen te helpen,  aan wie            velen we gaarne  ,bij ons  Hollands.ch lezend publiek
                de moeilijke task de: zielszorg is toevertrouwd,  opre-          aan.                                                   H.H.
                dikanten en ouderlingen. In het eerste  hoofdstuk "Het
                onveilig signaal" schrijft De Hamer:                1                                 -  :-T.d.d   :--
                   "Wie op verantwoorde wijze wil. omgaan met cle
                `normalef, niet geestes-gestoorde  mens, heeft reeds                                   0 F B 10 10 K S
                veel  mensenkennis en wi jsheid nodig, anders gelulrt
                bet, hem niet door te dringen. tot het mensenhart . . : .        TH%S   HAPPENE.D  IN THE HILLS OF KENTUCKY, by John.
                Geldt  dit voor  normale  mensen, met te  meer drang               Vogel.    Zondervan Publixhing  House, Gmnd Rapids, Mich.
                komt op ons af de bizondere-nood waarin mensen kun-                Price $3.95.
                nen komen, die niet meer tot de groep der `normalen'                We probably all heard, by this time, of the `(Gali-
                gerekend kunnen  worden.   :Ook zij  worden  geplaatst           lean Children% Home" in the "hills of Kentucky", for
                op de weg van de zielszorger . . . Wee hen, als deze             it was wfdely advertised. This book relates the his-
                (symptomen, H.H.) niet als ziekelijk, als afw'jkenrl             tory of its beginnings and growth in a very interesting
                door de iielszorger worden  herkend" . . -.                      story form.
                   Ik zou dit .fboek willen aanbevel_en,  niet alleen aan           According to "Preacher  Vogel" the "Home" is a
                predikanten  en ouderlingen, maar ook aan verplegers             pure venture of faith, and an illustration `of the fact
                en verpleegsters in Cutlerville, voor zo&er ze althans           that IGod hears and answers prayer. Often the chur-
                nog Hollandsch kunnen  l.ezen;  en voorts  aan ieder,            ches offered him help, but always he refused. How-
                die in aanraking komt met "abnormale" menschen.                  ever, although he dicl not want his institution to be
                - Het boek is zeer helder geschreven. Bovendien is               supervis'ed  by the church, he received help, financial
                de schrijder blijkbaar ken man, di% niet alleen kennis           and othekwise,  from private sources.
                van zaken heeft, maar die ook een warm hart heeft                    Those who are interested to learn more about this
      .         voor de "a,bnormale" menschen, waarover hij schrijft.            remarkable Home ought to read this story o!f tlie au-
                                                                         H.H.    thor's life and adventures in "the hills of Kentucky."
                                                                                                                                      H.H. -
                                     -:-:--


                  SPREUKEN   Dee1 I, door Prof. Dr. W. H. Gispen. J.  H.                                      m .
                  Kok,  N.V. Kampen,  Nederlan,d.  Prijs f.G.90.
                   Deze commentaar behoort in de serie "Korte Ver-
                klaring der Heilige Schrift".
                  In eene inleiding behandelt ,de schrijver de naam                                 BOUND VOLUME 28
                vali bet boek, de -schrijver van het boek, inhoud en                 Volume No. 28 is now in  \the process of being
                doe1 van het boek, de Spreuken als het boek der wijs-            bound in  .&ook   f0r.m.  `Those who have standing or-
                heid kn als dichterlijk boek, en eindelijk de beteekenis         ders and reside in the city of Grancl Rapids should
                van het boek. Het doe1 van het lboek is, volgens den
                schrijver, duidelijk aangegeven in  hoofdstuk  1  :l-6.          have their loo.se  issues in order, ready to be collected
                En het thema  van Spreukein  is uitgedrukt, in 1:7 : "De- $y the book committee of the Board. Those residing
                vrees des Heeren is het beginsel der wetenschap." Dit            out of Grand Rapids should forward their loose is-
                staat in nauw Gerband met de beteekenis van`dit boek.            sues in order  to Mr. H. Velthouse 1025 Wealthy St.
                Als het boek der Wijsheid wijst het op den Christus:             Grand Rapids 6, Mich., or to Mr. G. Byisma 904 Ad-
                `LOok dit bock behoori tot het Oude Testament, dat van           ams St., Grand Rapids `7, Michigan. Please:' -
                Hem getuigt. Wanneer we b.v. telkens lezen over de
                tegenstelling, die er bestaat in het doen en het~ lot der                                                   -THE BOARD            _


                                    FHE  S T A N D A R D   BEAkEk
                            --.-
                                                             the soul-upon the  -  altar to cover upon your souls.
    '  THE  -DAY  6F  SHADOWS  -.                            "Tom cover". Hebrew--L'kapheer, pie1 infinitive con-
                                                             struct. With his soul covered by the blood of his sac-
                                                             rificing victim, the worshipper, offender, was forgiven.
           The  Rite of  Exp~atoty  Saw&e                    Thus the offender was covered by the blood of his sac-
                                                             rifice as to his sins. How is this to be understood?
   Under this heading we are here occupied with the          No& in the sense that his sins were covered up, con-
spiritual benefits that the Old Testament believers de-      cealed,- hidden, from thC3 eyes of .God,  but in the sense
rived from their animal sacrifices. To come to clarity that they were cancelled,  obliterated (symbolic&y) in
on this point we must allow the Scriptures to instruct       the same sense that, let us say, a hundred dollar debt
us regarding the'speech that the Lord imposed upon           is cancelled by s check on a bank equivalent to that a-
the animal sacrifices. For it, was in response to this       mount. The check cancels, obliterates, the debt. So
speech that was made to dwell richly in the heart of         does the blood of Christ obliterate the moral debt, the
every believing worshipper that he received testimony        minuses, of God's people and in addition God's people
in his heart that he was righteous.                          are wonderfully rich in Christ. They' possess in Him
  The Scriptures that bear on this phase of our sub-         all things. For by His atonement, expiation of the
ject are the following : Lev. 17 : I$11 : "And whatso-       sins of His peopJe,  He not alone bbliberated their mor-
ever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the          al debt but in addition begat for Himself and them a
straligers that dwell among you, that eateth any man-        heavenly and eternal: inheritance.
ner of blood, I will set my face against that soul that         `That as covered by the blood of his animal sacri-
teateth  blood and will cut'him off from among his peo-      fice the offender had forgiveness of sin is an idea
ple. For the life of' the flesh is in the blood: and I       that receives staitement  at several other place,&  in the
have given it to you upon the altar to make an atone-        Mosaic legislation of the OJd Testament Scriptures:
ment for -yduy: souls : for it is the blood that maketh         Lev. 4:26: "And the priest shall make a covering
atonement for the soul."                                     for him as concerning- his (her,e  a ruler of the people)
   The animal in common with man has a soul and is           sin, and it shall be forgiven him." See besides Lev.
also thus capable of thought, volition  and memory and       5 :lO, 13, 16, 18; 6 :7; 16 :22'and  several other places.
of experiencing joy, grief and anger, with this dif-         The meaning of the animal sacrifices as a symbolical
ference, however, that the soul of man is a rational         -typical transaction is well brought out by Aaron's ac-
-moral soul, while the soul of the animal is non-ration-     tion with the two goats on the great day of atonement.
al moral. The animal thus thinks and wills as an Lev. -16 :6-10 and 20-22. The double transaction was
animal, not as a human being. Thus the soul of the           this, as we already have partially explained. On this
animal is dot also spirit as is the sou! of man. Asthe       day-one day  im  rthe year-Aaron took of the congre-
text states, it is the soul of the flesh and it is there-    gation of the children of- Israel two kids of the goats
fore in. the blood and accordingly dies with the flesh       for a sin offering ,and presented them bef0r.e the Lord
or -body of the anim81. Now this is also true. of the        at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Up-
soul of man. But not so with his spirit or ego. T$is         on the ;two goats he oast lots, one lot for the Lord, that
abides.                                                      .is for a sin offering, and the other lot for the scape-
   The animal for the above-cited reason stands close        goat, Heb.-azazel,  goat of departure, from the verb
to man, particularly the domesticated animal such as         azaz to depart. The goat for the Lord was offered for
the Lord selected for his altar. As man was created          a sin offtering and its blood, instead of being struck
in the image of God, so it may be said of the animal         on the horns of the altar of burnt offering that stood
that he was created in the image of man. And there- in the outer court of the tabernacle, was-brought with-
fore the Lord gave the soul of the domesticated animal       in'the vail of the holy place band thus-presented before
-one to `be selected either from their flocks or from        the face of the Lord as a covering for the accumulation
herds-to his believing people upon the altar to make         sins of the people.
atonement (symbolically) for their  sods,  that is, to       - Then he brought the live .goat. Upon its head, as
expiate (symbolically) by its death the sins of God's        has already been expl$ained, Aaron laid both his hands,
people and to cover their souls with its soul which          and confessed over him all the iniquities of the people
was done by striking its blood upon the horns of the         -the accumulation of the people's sins of the whole
altar.      _                                                by-gone year-and all.their transgressions in all their
   "To make a covering for your souls . . .  `." We sins, putting them upon the head o$ &he goat. There-
must take notice of  [this statement. Literally it reads: upon he sent the goat aw,ay  by the hand of some fit
"I have given it, t.o yoti-that  is the blood wherein ia man into the. wilderness. And then we  read:  `"And
                                                                     , ,


-  -10s                                  I'HE  STANDAi%:D  BEAR-RR
                                --___
   ithe goat shall bear upon him all the iniquities of the     of the animal sacrifice. The meaning, idea is that of
   pedple," that is, bear them away'from before the eyes       a sacrificing  victi:m,  God's `own merciful gift to His
   of (God and this permanently,.which  was equivalent to      ill-deserving and condemnable yet chosen and contrite
   their being cancelled (symbolically) .                      people, paying as their  sutbstitute  for all their sins
           But this would raise the question. how God could    by His suffering and death and thereby b;earing away
   allow sin to be lifted from the transgressor and thus       their sins, covering, c&celling, obliterating them, blot-
   borne away. Being God righteous alld holy, must He          ting lthem out before God's Face. It is thus at once the
   not keep sin before Him and destroy the transkressor?       idea of a sacrificing victim redeeming God's people
   The answer was that other goat selected f'or the sin        from all their sins by the price of its life rendered to
   offering. Bf hts death sin was paid for (symbolically)      God as a full satisfaction of His justice.
   and thereby obliterated. It is pkain,that the two goats         These are the idleas set forth, symbolized by the
   must be conceived of as being one.                          animal sacrifice. It formed, did these ideas, the very
      Further, it is clear-and it ws certainly clear also      word of God that He, Himself, imposed upon the ani-
   to ,the Old Testament believers-that the animal sac-        mal sacrifice by all such language as the following:
   rifice' by blood. was vicarious,. substitutionary (sym-     "And I have given it (the life of the flesh of the ani-
   bolically) . This is particubarly plain from the action     mal) upon the altar to make an atonement (covering,
   of Aaron withOthe  scapegoat, from his putting all the      cancellation)- for your sins" (Lev. 17 :11) . "And the
   sins of the people upon its head In- order that it might    priest shall make a covering for him as concerning
   bear them away, It was as their substitute and thths        his sin, and it shall be forgiven  hilm" (Lev.  4:26).
   as standing in their ~oorn, that their sacrificing vic-     And consider once more the laguage of the action with
   tims atoned their sins (symbolically). Instead of im-       the live goat of Lev. 16. "And Aaron shall lay both
   puting all their sins unto them, the Lord put them up- `his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess
   on the head of the live goat. Aaron's confessing over it    over .him all the iniquities of lthe children of Israel,
   all the iniquities of the people width both his hands on    and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting
   its head was simply a ceremony indicative of God's          them' ~zpon the head of the goat . . . And the goat
   laying all our sins upon Christ. Accordingly this goat      shall bear upon him all the iniquilties into a land not
   as led into the wilderness bore upon him no sin. What inhabited :' . :"
   we gaze at here is simply an action symbolizing pro-           The%nly  question is whether the saints of the first
   phetically the bearing away of our sins by Christ.          covenant were made to realize that the animal sacri-
   And the death of the sacrificing animal expiated no         fice was but symbol and `type so that this very iangu-
   sin. It was simply a shadow of the expiation of sin         age al's0 was sym~@olical  typical and that therefore in
   by Christ. And so the  priestys striking the blood  of      employing this language the Lord was really speaking
the sacrificing victim upon the horns of the altar co-         of the true  iLamb of God  thlat in His own, time He
   vered no iin ; the action was simply shadbw, symbol,        would bring in. All the prayers  of the believers of the
   prophetic of the covering, the obliteration, of sin by      first covenant plainly reveal that they were indeed
  ithe blood of Christ. All was prophetic symbol here          made to realize this. Let us attend  to some of these
  as  well as our sacraments- are symbols.  ,Certainly,        prayers while alt once taking notice of the words that
  we are not cleansed from our sin by the eatural water        the Old Testament saints em-played  in giving expres-
  of. holy baptism. Our being sprink1e.d by this water         sion to the idea of the forgiveness of sin.
                                                                                                  ,'
  is simply a ceremony symbolizinXg-  our being washed            1)  n,asa,  to lift up  and bear away. Ps.  32:1,  "0
  from our sins by the blood of Christ.                        how blessed is he from whom his transgression has
   I The priest of the first covenant must be still            been lifted u,p and xborn away." nasu kal passive part.
  brought in here. He covered the sins of the offender. .construct. T$e English versions translate here "for-
  but by the blood of an animal sacrifice, thus by a blood     give". .-                                _.
  other than his "own. Here the priest was one and the            !)&asnh, to cover in the sense of- cancelling, oblit-
  sacrificing victim another. Ch.rist, on the other hand,      erating, and not in ithe sense of concealing, covering
  saved His people from all their sins by His own blood.       up. Ps.  32:l: "Blessed is he -whose sin is covered,"
  Here the priest and the sacrificing victim are one.          kasu, kal passive part. construct..
  Fod Christ, SGod's  only begotten Son, is partaker of the       3) chashab with the negative lo, not to impute,
  flesh and tblood-the lluman nature-of His brethren.          reckon, think. Ps. 32 :l : "Blessed is the man to whom
  He entered into personal union wi;th our nature. It          the Lord does not impute his  .ini  luity." yachshob,
  was therefore God's own Son--&on of God as God-              Kal imperfect, third person  mas..  -          -.
  whp atoned our sins.                                            4)  machah,  to blot. out. Ps.  51~1, "Rave mercy
    * We are now ready-to set forth .$he meaning, idea,        upon me, 0 God, according to thy lovingkindness: ac-
                                                                                  .-


                                             2

                                           THE  +TANDARD  BEARER                                                        109
                                    - -
cording to the multitude of  thy tender me&es blot                 also made to `realize that the sacrifice by blood was but
out all my transgressions," m'chee, Kal imperative.
                  ~.                                               symbol, type, shadow.. The above-ciited  prayers plain-
         5) kaphax a) to cover in the' sense of cancelling.        ly reveal that such was indeed the case.            Had
 b) to expiate, that is, to make complete satisfaction             in David's mind the anifial sacrifice stood out as the
 for.                                                              true sacrifice he would have petitioned the Lord to for-
                                                                   give him his sin for_ the sake of @at sacrifice, ?n ,the
         6)  lcabhai,  to wash. Ps. 51 :l, "Wash me thor-          ground of its <expiation of his sin. But no such prayer
 oughly from mine iniquity," kabbees, Pie1 imperative.             is found anywhere in `the whole ,of the Old Testament
         7) thaher,  to cleanse.  Pg. 51  :l, "And  cleanse  me    Sciiptures. To take thi! stand that ithe saints of the
 from my sin," Ithaher, pie1 imperative.                           old Covenant actually imagined that their sins were
         8) phadnh, to redeem, that is, to free from captiv-       expiated and born away, .obliterated, by the death of
 ity or slavery and the like .by the payment of a price.           an animal is an insult to their sanctified intelligence.
 Ps. 130:8, "And he shall redeem Israel from all his                  ;On the other hand, neither do the saints appear
 iniquities," yiphdeh in the text. Kal pret.  3d: per.             anywhere in the Scriptures as praying that the Lord
 s,ing. mas.                                                       blot out their iniquity on the-ground of the expiation
                           .                                       of' sin of -the "man with Jehovah," or the "seed," or
         Now of cotirse, f`to cleanse," and "to forgive" are       the "Anointed of the Lord" (Messiah), or the "ser-
 noit the same. As works of IGod the latter is judicial ;          vant of the Lord" (Isaiah), the true Lamb of God still
 it squares a sinner with the law so that, if formerly to be brought, in, the only begotten and ,eternal  Son,
 his, state was `one of guilt, it is now one of innocence.         partaker of the flesh and blood of the children, and
 The divine forgiveness accordingly is the blotting out            thus like unto His Ibrethren in all things, sin excepted,
 of sin, the cancellation of sin and implies that sin has          so that in $uth He is our Immanuel, two natures, hu-
 been paid for, atoned,  eirpiated by the death of the             man and divine united in one single person, the per-
 Lamb that God. provided.- Hence, as forgiven, God's               son of IGod.                          .
 people stand before Him blameless in love.                           So the belilevers of the first covenant did nat pray.
         IGod's cleaning, on the other hand, effects a change      Such was not their confession. And this is not a won-
 in the moral-spiritual condition of God's people, so              der. Christ was not yet revealed in the flesh and the
 that, if formerly they were dead and polluted in their Spirit was-not yet, (that is, the revelations of God had
 sins, as cleanped in the blood of Chrisi, they are now            not yet attained. that fulness and clarity that alone
 new creatures in Christ, holy and undefiled before                make possible the'making of such pray&s and confes-
  God in Him.                                                      sions. Hence, as casting themselves upon the mercy
         Hence,, the Hebrew terms tisa, nzachn,  @sah, and         of ithe Lord in the awareness that He alone is the hope
 .kapher,  signify  fprgiveness  and may be so rendered            of mien such as they in themselves were--imen lost and
  in our language, but not so  ithe terms  kebhas,  and            undone in their sins-they besought Him that He re-
 thaher. p&ah-to  redeem- as a work of God in-                     deem them from their sins and blot out their iniquities
  cludes the expiation of sin,. its cancellation, and the          by his righteousness and here, they put the period.
 sinner's cleansing of his sin.                                    So they prayed even by their very act of sacrificing.
         Let us now examine the above-cited prhyers. Do- So they sought, ,asked and knocked. And in the way
 ing so we discover that in their totality these prayers           of their .asking t+.ey.also  received. First they receiv-
 as to their content are pivoted, so to sajr, on the very          ed testimony in their hearts that they were forgiven
  ideas set forth by the sacrifice by blood. Every idea            and thus justified. So it is written of Abel that he
 again meets us in these prayers. "Blessed is he whose             "offer&d unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,
  sins are  borri away," So prays the psalmist. And,               by which he obtained witness cthat he was righteous,
  "Blessed is he whose sins are cowered, and to whom               Gag testifying with-should be, upon-his gifts."
 #God does not  imp&e  iwiqui~."  And, "Blot out my                   In this  respect, although-they were properly no
 transgressions 0 my `God," and, "cleanse me from all              sacraments, yet &he s?-crifices by blood served the Old
 my "iniquities." And finally, "He shall redeem Is"rae1            Testament believers the same way that the sacraments
 from all his iniquities."                                         of baptism and ,of the Lord's supper serve the New
         W.hat  it reveals is in the first place that the sai&s    Testament  Ibielievers.    Eating the Lord's supper in
  of the first covenant were indeed made by the ISpirit            faith, they receive testimony in their hearts that
 of IChrist to grasp the meaning of the animal sacri-              Christ bore for them the wrath of God from the be-
  fice by blood. The word rthat God imposed upon that              ginning of his incarnation to the end of His life and
  sacrifice  dwelt richly in  their hearts.                        that He has fulfilled for them all obedience to the di-
         But there.  is still this question whether -they were     vine law, and righteousness, that Christ loves them and


 i16                                  THE  STANDA.R~>  BEARER

 has shed His blood for them, and will certainly feed         ly is what that  symbolical-tybical  transaction-the
 and nourish their hungry and thirsty souls with his          animal sacrifice-was. With the word of #God imposed
 crucified body, and. shed blood, that by His death He        upon it, it was preaching of the Gospel.-
 has taken away ithe cause of their ,eternal death and             We see then how ithe ,Old `Testament believers were
 misery, namely sin, and obtained for them the quick-         served by their animal sacrifices. That sacrifice was
 ening .Spirit, and that by this same Spirit they are         preaching of the Gospel of Christ. Second, as a pro-
 united as mem,bers of one body in true `brotherly love.      phetic symbol it served the Ibelievers  as an instrument
    [Sacrificing in faith the believers of the first cov-     f,or the expression of their faith-the faith in which
 enant received in their hearts essentially this same tes-    they sacrificed, and a faith to which the Lord respon-
 timony. It means that they were saved men-saved              ded by witnessing with their spirits that they were
 of God unto God through Christ, and this though              r i g h t e o u s .
 Christ stood not yet before them as having come into                                                            G. M. Ophoff
 the flesh.
    What Could, we ask, have hindered God from sav"
 ing such men,-hindered Him in the point of view. of                                  -::I-
 His own virtues, particularly His righteo&ness and
 holiness-considering (*hat `they were men that, as en-
 lightened by Christ's Spirit, perceived and believed
that their sins were to be expjated  by a Lamb that God
 would provide Him and them, that thus they were inen                                WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
 redeemed from all their sins  wilth a price, men  re-          O'n December 5, 1952, the LoEd willing, our parentis,
.deemed, saved, therefore to the great and everlasting            Mr.' ad Mrs.  Eidward   ,Gro&gnt, Sr.,  (rice Strooisma)
 credit of the righteousness of Jehovah, their Redeem-        will celebrate  their 40th wedding  annciversary.
 er-God in whom they were putting all their confidence.         It is with profound thanksgiving to our heavenly Father, thaf
 They perceived, did these men, ithat the meaning of we wish to celebrate this day with them, and pray Him miho
 the entire symbolical-typical transaction-th.,.z- animal     has so  grticiously spared them for us this far, may be with
 sacrifice-was reducible to  one basic idea, the idea         them and bountifully bless  thea  fbr the future.  -
 namely, that Zion's converts are redeemed by right-                                     Mr. tan,d Mrs. 8Stua&. Groenhout
 eousness  (Isa.  1:27),  thalt is, by the righteous act,                                Mr. and Mrs. Richard Groenhout
 work, of a righteous God, it *being- a -work by which                                   Mr. and' Mxs.  Harold Lanning
 sin is paid for, expiated, and thus obliterated, and that                               Mr. and Mrs. E,dward Groenhout, UT.
 such being its aim and achievement, it is and will ,be                                  Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Groenhout
                                                                                       - 13 Grandchildren
 to the  everlas\ting  glory of the righteousness of a        935 Thomas St.. S.E.
 righteous  IGod. And so they also prayed,  "`Save me,        Grand Rapids 6, Michigan
 0 God, by thy righteousness." So they-prayed, What
 it means is that they~ were saved, -despite  the limita-
tions of their knowledge of lust how the righteousness
 of ;God was to ope,rate  in their behalf.                                             -::::-
    And so it may again be asked, what could hinder
 God from gathering His church already in that day
if in the hearts of the men of .His choice was implan;
ted by Him such knowledge and undersltanding  of His
method  ,of salvation? What could hinder God from tel-                                   IN MEMORIAM
 ling such men in answer to their sacrificing and pray-         The Mary Martha Society of the Manhattan Protestant Re-
 ers that He loved them 2nd th& in His love-he forgave        formed  ,Church  hel;eby  wishes to express its sincere sympthay
them and that He was their covenant God .everlasting-         to its president Rev. P. Vis and his family in the loss of their
                                                              grandmother,.                                                  0
 ly and they his heirs destined-to dwell with Him in
 His house, his temple, to behold His beauties and to                                  Mrs. A.  Bnummc4,  Sr.
                                                              and their cousin,                                                   -.
be satisfied bby His likeness.                                                          Mr. Jo;hn  Brummel
   The whole  .lquestion really comes down to this:             May  tihe God of grace, Who peEfonms all things according to
 What could hinder  ,God from gathering His church            His `own good pleasure, but also in unchanging love to His peo-
 alr.eady in that day there in the land of Canaan, see-       ple, comfort and sustain them in their sorrow.
 ing that in that land He, the Lord, had instituted the                                     Mrs. Menko Flikkema, Vice-Press.
 pkeaching of the Gospel of `Christ. For that precise,-                                     Mrs, Harry Leers 8es'y.                :  :


                                       TH,E  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               111

                                                                i.s a Scriptural truth so clearly stattid  as to tolera6e  no
    d  IJ  R  D  0  CT  R  I  N-E                               contradictioli.  We are born dead in sins and tres-
                                                                passes, and. the flesh cannot desire the things &hat are
                                                                of the Spirit. I do not determine the action of  my
                  God's I3wiidenc.e                             life but- my heart determines all my action. Through-
                                                                out Scripture we hav? the complete refutation of all
                           (5)                                  pelagians. Every thought and every desire, every emo-
                                                                tion of the soul, every'action of the will is controlled
              @D'S PRO~DENCE  KND SIN             '     -       and directed by' God so that there is no action within
                                                                me  inde,pendent  of God.  Particularly in the book of
How  r e l a t e d                                              Proverbs do we have this truth clearly set forth. `We
   To understand this relation between God's Provi-             rea,d, e.g., in Prov. 16 :l : " The preparations of the
dence' and sin we must ask and attempt to answer. the           heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from
question: What is freedom? `Man is- certainly -free,            the Lord." The  smeaning  of the inspired  wriiter in
or, to `express this thoughit in a better way, -he is cer-      these words is plain. {The preparations of the heart
tainly a free being. The nature of his being and the            in this text are the considerations of the human heart
character of his operation are such that he is never            which lay in order  .over against each  c&her  and be-
driven to do anything but remains free and unhinder-            tween which we must and do make a choice. This is
ed in all his operation. This, we understand, applies           surely the case in the life of every mortal. However,
to man only from the subjective viewpoint of his own            in that choide the Lord rules, inasmuch as the answer
activity.' From the viewpoint of the living IGod Who            of the tongue is from the bard. This- answer of the
works all things according to the counsel of His own            tongue  refers surely to our decisive answer, our choice,
will, man is clay (and what may be ithe difference be-          how we are to conduct ourselves; and the text informs
tween clay and a block of wood, except that in the one          us that this answer bf the tongue is from the Lord.
instance 8 person .forms~  something whereas in the             In the same vein we are told in verse 9 : "A man's
other instance that per,son  carves something?). From           heart deviseth his way: but the Lbrd directeth his
man's subjective  viewpoint he, however,  is not a stock        steps." Or, we read it so clearly in Prov. 21 :l : "The
and block, but a free, responsible being.                       king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers
                                                                of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will." We
    We must never confuse this .freedom  of man with            should keep before ud the figure o"f an oriental mon-
sovereignty. This  is the error of  Pelagianism.  The           arch who had the power. to determine the life .or death           .
pelagian simply identifies the respd&ibility of man             of his subjects, upon whose word a person's life or
with his free will. That man has a free will he under-          death depended. And we should also bear in mind that
stands in the sense that he musit be and `is free to            the  ,heart,   the foundation and deep source of man's
choose,.between  good and evil in the sense that' he is         spiritual existence, is ruled by the Lord and governed
able to choose either of the two. Notice. that we add:          to perform whatsoever the Lord wills. Then we can
"in the sense that he is able to choose either of the           somewhat understand the thought of the man of God
two." We must centainly maintain that man chooses               in this particular word of God when he writes that the
between good and evil and also that he is free in that          heart of the king,- the fount of man's spiritual life and
choice.  In.fact, as Protestant Reformed `Churches we           existence, is  ruled and governed by the Lord, and
have been privileged by the Lord to lay emphasis up-            that He turneth it whithersoever He wills. This
on the Scriptural truth of man's responsibility and "thought is- verified r,epeatedly  in Holy Writ, as, e.g.,~
`stress its t?ue significance as set forth in Holy Writ.        in Prov. 19:21: "There are many devices in a man's
We have been careful during all these years to expose           heart; nevertheless* the counsel of the Lord, that shall
the fallacy of those who would- maintain that we, be-           stand." Indeed, this truth is taught us everywhere
cause of our emphasis upon  ithe  sovereigriiy  of the          in Holy Writ, `as, e.g., in connection with Pharaoh
Lord, have failed in our presentation of the Scriptural whom God raised 
truth of, the responsibility of man. Today,  in the                                  up to show His might.       1-t. must not
church-world about us, it is no `longer understood t&tit        escape  our attention that the Lord raised up Pharaoh,
one can be responsible for his aptions without being            not merely an Egyptian monarch, but Pharaoh, god-
able to choose the good. However, this pelagian con-            less Pharaoh, the [Old Testame& .type of the head of
ception of things is surely impossible. -It is impossi-         the antichristian power against  *Gbd and against His
ble, .firstof  all, in the light of Scripture. The fact ,re-    Anointed. Hence, that the Lord raised up Pharaoh
mains `that, according to the Word of God, not man              does not merely mean that He set the. Egyptian mon-
determines his course of action but the Lord. This              arch upon the throne.


  112                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D -   BE'ARER

         Moreover, it is also wholly untrue that true free-      determine this choice. If this were the implication of
  dom should consist in the being able to choose- be-            responsibility, then we would declare without ahy re-
  tween the good and ;the evil, and that in the sense that       servation-: there is no responsibility of man:-' And we
  we are able & choose both. In fact, it is wholly uqtrue        declare this for the simple reasori `:that sX&h htiman
  that true. freedom should necessarily consist in ,being        sovereignty does not exist.
  ablle to choose the- evil,. that man is therefore `really           At all times, therefore; tie must maintain that the
  free when he is. also able to choose that which is e-          responsibility of man- is never to be identified with
  vil. We all understand, do we not, that the Lord is            freedom in the sense-of sovereignty (vrijmacht) , that
  surely free in the absolute sense of .the word. And            we determine our course of action. It. is true that we
  we also understand that it  2s absolutely  impossi(ble         shall never declare that the child of `God is a slave of
  for the (Lord  to choose and do the evil. Freedom and          grace, inasmuch as freedom consists in the service of
  the being able to sin do not have necessarily therefore        Go& to Whom I am adapted, and the service of the
  anything in common-in fact, the highest freedom                Lord is eternal life. We are therefore not slaves of
  surely excludes the possibility of sin. God is free and        grace, although it is true Ithat this power of the Lord
  He cannot &in. The Ch&ch shall be eternally free in            takes complete charge of all our -life and being. Man
  heavenly glory and perfection, and God's people shall          is a slave of sin as he is by nature, does not possess
  forever be unable to sin: Hence, to be free does not           the freedom of .eternal life, is in the absolute sense of
  necessarily imply that we must be able to choose the           the word  a slave who must do the evil,. cannot desire
  evil. The freedom of the Lord is that virtue or per-           the good, is wholly darkness in all his thinking and
  fection of the Lord whereby H&e, unhindered and un-            deliberations. This we must clearly understand, also
  molested, wills -Himself, loves Himself, main.tains `and       as according to the sovereign counsel of the Lord Who
  seeks Himself; without ever #being molested or hinder-         performs all His good pleasure.
  ed in that Diville loving, willing, and seeking of Him-
  self.. The Lord lives His own infinite and Divine .and              However, the providence  of the Lord and sin are
  perfect existence freely. This life of God, we under-          related in such a way :that sin is and remains an act
  stan.d,  is a life of  .Divine fellowship and  ctimmuniol~,    of man, is not an act of God, and man is spiritually-
                                                                 rationally free, unmolested in `all his activity.
  a life of covenant-fellowship in which the Three Di-                                                                 Al-
  vine Persons know and love and seek each other in the          though it is true that the sinner does not possess the
                                                                 fPeedom  of everlasting life, to olive spontaneously with
  sphere of Divine perfection. And, in the living of this        the Lord in the fellowship of His everlasting covenant,
  Divine life the Lo&l is absolutely free. Besides, and"
  this surely lies in the very nature of the case, that          he is nevertheless consciously, mqrally-rationally fr.ee.
  Lord IGod also determines for us whet is true freedom.         And I do. not believe that-this is too difficult to under-
  God determines everything. `This, we say, lies in the          stand as such. Man is a moral-rational being, and
  very  na$ure of the ease. True  freedom  for man' is           therefore a responsible being. The animal, as we all
  and must be the freedom of the Lord. The question              know, is not conscious of <God, does not understand the
  lyelative our freedom is inseparably connected with the        language of the Lord revealed in the world. about it,
  relation in which we stand to the living God. Freedom          and never conducts itself in relation to the Lord. Of              .
  for me does not imply that I be able to do what and as         the animal ik cannot be said that it is either for or a-
  I please. It is surely  no:t the desire and longing of         gainst God. It cannot be charged with sin. It sim-
  the new-born child ,of >God  to be. the master of him-         ply does not possess the consciousness of Gdd and is
  self' and of all his thinking and willing and  desir-' never prompted by any attitude toward the living
                                                                 God. How. different is: man ! Whatever man does he            -
  ing, and also to be able to do the evil. It is'surely not li does in relation to the Lord. He is conscious of God,
  the longing of the bird ito be in the-~ water, or of a fish is essentially adapted to .the service of Him Who alone
  to move about in the air above us. Birds and fishes            is the Creator of the-heavens and the #earth,  can. ne-
  are not free when they are able to do either-or. But           ver escape Him. He therefore understands the speech
  this is my desire, this is my life: to be able to- serve       of the Lord in all the works of God's hands and in the
  the Lord alone and never be able to will or do anything        Holy &riptures.     And in all his activity he conducts
  contrary to the will of. the `God of my salvation ; and        hjil;nself  in  rizlation to the-living God. He  loves the
  I am free when I am able, unmolested, -to serve that           Lord -or hates Him. He is -prompted by love or ha-
  God in uprightness and perfection of heart and mind. tred. He seeks $he hondur of theLord dr sets himself
. In heaven the child of God will be really and truly            against the glory of Him Whb alone is worthy of all
  free  forevermoye.  Hence, the responsibility of man           adoration. This is his moral-rational nature; and be- .
  does not consist herein that I am able to choose and           cause he is conscious of the Lord, knows that he must
  do both: the good and the evil, and that I sovereignly         serve the Lord, has knowledge of the living God and
                                                                 .

                                                  .


                                           -l?..Hfi  STANDA-RD   B E A R E R   '                                        113

   knows how he must conduct himself in the .midst of pletely  free and unmolested. Therefore`we reject all
   the world, man is a responsible being and is held ac-           d,eterminism..which  reduces ,man to an irresponsible
   couptable for all his activity. It is well that we un-          stoek and block, without~  a .will and mind, but we gain-
   derstand this. Man is never free in the true, spi-              tain with ,a11 the powers at our command that man is
   ritual, Scriptural sense of the freedom of life, eter-          a responsible, free-ethical beivg. In this sense, we
- nal life. This freedom consists of the blessed and               understand, the Lord is never the author of sin. The
   unmolested service of the living &God. Neither is man very thought is and should be repulsive to us. For
   free in the absolute sense of the word, free in the sense       sin is never anything else than the wholly corrupt and
   that he determines his own lot, is the captain and mas-         evil direction  sf our moral-rational nature and in
   ter of his own soul and "fate," is independent of the           which man delights with all that` he is and possesses.
   living God. In this sense he is never free but remains          Man is darkness. To say this of the Lord would be blas-
   clay even forever. It is surely true that man is al-            phemy. The Lord God loathes sin- with all that is in
   ways more than a mere instrument. A mere instru-                Him. He is too pure of eyes to behold sin and ini-
   ment is dead, completely without feeling. Man is and            quity. The Lord. God loves Himself, hates all sin and
   remains a moral-rational being, moral-rational clay.            unrighteousness, and loves only that which is good
   The freedom' of man, always subject to the Lord and             and pure and `holy. Even w.hen He willed sin in His
   governed by God, consists herein that he sins consci-           eternally sovereign counsel He willed it as the holy
   ously, not because he must, but btecause he wills to sin        God, not because He delights in sin but blecause  He
   and  .desires  hhat which is evil and corrupt. He sins loves Himself and would glorify Himself, antithetical-
   of himself, is never driven to commit evil, never forced        ly, unto the greatest glory of His own adorable Name.
   to do that which is wrong. He is  &lways the  active.           The Lord willed darkness not for the sake of dark-
   agent of his own deeds, rej,oicing  in the iniquity he          ness but to serve as backgyound  for the marvellous
   commits. `Sin always remains the object and choice r&elation of the light.
   of man's will. This is his ethical freedom and it must             This truth places us before an unfathomable mys-
   always be maintained. `This alone esta4blishes man's            tery..' Man is a morally free-responsible being. He
   responsibility. and accouhtability.                             is a being who performs iniquity and unrighteousness
      This also enables us to understand hhe distinction           becaase he loves unrighteousness with all that is in
   between author and origin or source. An origin or               him,. be it consciously or subconsciously.  (Inciden-
   source is the willing, deci.sive  cause or sotirce  of some-    tally, it is well to bear 4n mind that this tyuth concer-
   thing-th$ man sins comes, in this sense, assuredly              fiing man's respoqsibility also applies to the child who
   from the Lord-therefore we  confess  without a  mo-             is therefore saved by the Lord as. a moral-rational be-
  ments hesitation that the Lord has willed siti and dark- ing,. through wil;om; and not apart from whom, the
   ness and this, entire valley of the- shad(w of sin and          Lord glorifies Himself.) Moreover, man, in his sin-
   deaith.  Whence came all the host of darl$i&ss  if hdt a-       ning, is  a$vays free,  unhindlered. This implies  bhat,
   lone from the living God; did He not create: the light          although. he is and remains a slave of darkness, un-
   and the darkness, form the day an.d the night? How              righteousness is always the object of his will and de-
   much  more comforting it is for  the child and the              sires. *This is man's free will, if only we understand
   church of the living God that the Lord and not the de-          this in this sense of the word. On the other hand, God
  1 vi1 is in supreme `command from moment unto mo-                is ,God Wtho performs all His good pleasu-re. Also this
   ment! And not only is the Lord the sole sovereignly truth must be maintained, without ceasing and uncom-
   determining Cause .of alI sin and unrighteousness,              promisingly.  `God is  IGod, Who is also the willing
   lbut He also redlizes His eternal counsel, also as far          source and sovereign Cause of all things, also of all
   as the coming of sin into the world is concerned, and           the iniquity of man and demon. He is Jehovah Who
   oper.ates  in the' life .of every mortal from moment un-        inclines and. turns the hjearts of kings, Who hardens
   to. moment. Indeed, nothing occurs by chance, and               every wicked heart, Who pe+foTms  all His good pleas-
   this also r&fers to all ,the moveme$s-and  activities of        ure, W,ho is the' Divine DirectoYof  His eternal counsel,
   the.powers  of darkness. This, however, does not mean           through Whom all things are in the most unlimited
   that the Lord is also the author of sin. How differ-            sense' of the word, realizing every curse-word, every
   ent is. the idea of author ! An author is the conscious,        evil thought, even into the minute&  details. However,
   active perpetrator  of an act, spir_itually  completely in      how the holy God thus realized His- (eternal counsel
   harmony with that act. An author of sin is there-               in the ill-comprehensive sense of the word Without in
   fore one who loves sin aid evil, who commit+sin and             atiy way affecting the responsibility of man is an un-
   unrighteousness as the frui,t and product -of his own           fathomable mystery, Also our responsibility is of the
  existence, ,and who, when committing that evil, is com-          Lord and of none other. -That  t.he.Ibibrd  hates sin, is


 114                                  fjjgji-j  S~~TA.NDAQ~-J   `BE.ARE#

 pure light and grace and life, and therefore never can      dult of God is privileged `to stand consciously in that
be the author of iniquity, and yet causes all things         wholly sovereign work of'the Lord. Besides, how can
to happen so that man, in a very real sense of the-ward,     there be's difference between the child and the adult?
is jmorally  free, unmolested, loving sin and commit-        IThey are #both elect, are they not? Moreover, the work
ting it because he loves it, and at the same time re-        of Divine grace and regeneration has been begun in
j.ecting, wilfully and consciously, that w.hich is good,     that adult, has it not, during his infancy? The Lord
is for us the mystery. The mystery does not consist simply saves His people as moral-rational creatures,
herein that man is sovereignly free,this is dualism          does not merely save His people by injecting life into
and also the experience of the child of God who con-         their veins, but enables them to eat and drink of the
fesses `chat he can perform the good only through the        bread and the water of life freely which He has ptie-
grace of the Lord. How  ,God., however, realizes His         pared for them in Christ Jesus. And, this moral-ra-
counsel also with respect to sin, Himself hating all         tional nature of man is also the basis for the moral-
iniquity and unrighteousness, is unfathomable. But,          rational- character of the gospel also as far as the
.and this we must, of course, maintain: unfathomably         wicked are concerned. However, the Lord willing, we
deep are the thoughts of the Lord ; H_e surely exceeds       will continue with this in -our following articl~e.
all that we know; His ways are past finding out.                                                          H. Veldman
    This truth we must maintain with all the power at
                                                -
our command. This truth, that man is a morally-f&e,
responsiible being, constitutes the basis for the moral-                                El
rational character of  the gospel.  Thte  diff&nce  be-
tween the child and the adult is surely not that' the
Lord realizes His promise unconditionally in the for-
mer whereas He realizes His promise in the latter con-               IN  HIS  FEAR
ditionally. The promise of the Lord is always realized
unconditiofially, and t.his for the simple reason that it
-is of the Lord alone. The adult is simply conscious of                   Looking  To  Tke future
this unconditional operation of  the  L&d. Never do
the children of the Lord experience the realization of                              CHAPTER 4
God's promise of salvation except unconditionally.                          ICONCERNING T
IThis iti the reason.why we are saved by faith. -How                                          EXTBOOKS
c_ould  the Lord, to bestow upon His people the saver-          In our discussion of the future of  bur  inovement
eignly free gift of salvation and iherein,  remain God,,     for Protestant Reformed education, with its problems
ever  bestow  this salvation upon                            and the solution thereof, the matter of proper text-
                                      us  except through
faith. ,For whosoever believeth comes to the Lord ex-        books occupies a major position, As important as are
actly in the consciousness that he is in himself a whol-     tools to the carpenter, ,machinery to the farmer, pro-
ly lost sinner, conceived and born dead in sin and tres-     duce to the merchant, so important are textbooks to
passes and the object of eternal wrath and underneath        teacher and pupii. They ape the "tools" with which
a mountain of guilt which he could never pay. How-           the finished product of an education are built. And
ever, he also comes to the Lord because the  .Lord,          no one can produce a properly finished product with
through His Spirit and Word, has levealed  unto him. fnadequate tools. To me, this means one thing: that
the  ,marvellous  and  unfathomable  depths of His  love     if we desire to maintain schools. that are Protestant
revealed in Christ Jesus and upon the cross of Cal-          Ref,ortied  indebd, we must, as soon as feasible, take
very, and whosoever learns to see the love of God to         steps toward producing proper textbooks of our own.
him as revealed to him upon the cross of Calvary, cer-       To this proposition I wish to call your attentidn in the    '
tainly must confess and adore the wholly uncondition-        present chapter.
al character of -that love of God in Christ ,Jesus. In          Again I wish to `make some introductory remarks
other words,. the Lord never bestows His salvation and       about the subject. Then intention of this chapter, in
promise upon His people excepi in such a way that the first place, is not to develop an entire scheme, and
they receive it as a purely sovereign and free gift .of      perhaps even a schedule, for the  publicatibn of our
,adorable mercy and grace. Hence, the difference be-         own textbooks. I do not believe we have reached that
tween the child and the adult is not a difference in the     stage yet. Nor, in the second place, do I intend to dis-
operation of God. That operation of the Lord and of. cuss the entire subject of the making of textbooks in
His grace is equally sovereign in ..both. The distinc- its technical aspects. It is very readily seen, of course,
tion between them lies simply iti the fact -that the a-      that much detailed study could be and must be-made


                                       TH,E  %TA~NDARD  .BEARER                                                       115

  of .this matter alone, before any attempt is made to           has had as its result this, that `our Christian schools
  write and publish any textbook on any subject. What            became the more readily "schools  with the Bible" ra-
  is a textbook? -What use must she made of a textbook           ther than "schools based on the Bible."
  in the class room? Is it a teacher's function, for ex-            The reason for this is readily seen.
  ample, simply to ,be a sort of foreman in the class, as-         . Let us take as `an example. the subject of world
  signing work from the textbooks,. and acting as a              history, since this `is one .of th,e subjects in which the
  quiz-master to see whether or not his pupih have ad-           need of distinctively Reformed instruction can be eas-
 ,equately  digested and assimilated the material pre-           ily seen `and most easily met.
  sented in the book? And must -textbooks be written                .-With  what does a history. text-book provide both
  to fulfill such a place in the school? Then, of course,        teacher Andy pupil? Does it merely supply the neces-          '
-. the textbook to a large extent displaces the. teacher         sary historical data? Does it simply relate the. facts
  in the school. But questions such as these belong to           of history? Does it merely give an orderly account
  the technical field, and we shall not attempt to answer        of' the beginnings,, development, and downf.all of na-
  them here. They are nice questions for discussion in           tions and `empires? .Any one who is at all acquainted
  an educational conference, or for research and treat-          with these questions knows that this is not the ease.
  ment in an educational journal., Much rather is it our         The duty of a historian,-even if this were possible,-
  desire here to treat the question of the spiritual, eth-       is not-simply to present-the `objective data of history,
  ical content of textbooks, and the need for textbooks          but to provide an -evaluation  of the ,history which he
  with a fundamentally Reformed point of `departure.             recor.ds; to point out reasons, to call attention to the
                                                                 significance of events, to ,observe the relationships be-
  The Ne>e.cl of Protested Reformed Textbooks                    tween one.event  and another, to call the student's at-
     It is safe td say that the neces,sity of Christian text-    tention to the results of various events, etc. However,
  books has never received its proper emphasis in the            when the historian begins to do the.latter,  he cannot
  Christian school movement in this country. True it             possibly avoid being biased by his' fundamental view
  is that in recent years the existing Christian schools         of life.' It need hardly be pointed out that it makes
  have taken steps to acquire their own textbooks, and           a vast difference whether you write history from the
  that of late some of these have come into use. But re-         viewpoint of the evolutionist- or from the Reformed
  member that this is (but of recent date, and that it is        point of view that God is not only the Creator of hea-
  only after a century of Christian education that, final-       ven and earth and the God Who Controls and governs
  ly this need is being met,-met, of course, in the tra-         the destiny of mien and nations, but that it is He Who
  ditionally Christian Reformed manner. In my per-               is our Father in heaven for the sake of Jesus ,Christ
  sonal experience, from the first to the twelfth grade,         that does these things, and that does them with a view
  the only Christian textbooks that I can recall ever hav-       to the realization of His purpose, namely, to glorify
  ing used were `a Bible manual and `a couple of church          Himself through the gathering, defense, and preserva-
  history books. For the rest, all the textbooks in all          tion of His elect.  : In fact, it may be said without
  the branches were of worldly origin, were governed             fear of contradiction that it is even impossible to write
  by the godless Vworld-view, and promulgated an ungod-          history in  .such a purely objective fashion that  the
  ly philosophy. Even in my college years, in an insti-          world-and-lif,e view of the author does not at all creep.
  tution supposedly Calvinistic, and which had existed           into the book that he writes. It creeps in willy-nilly.
  for many years, I met relatively few textbooks design-         For the proponents of the so-called scientific method
  led with a view t'o the teachings of that institution ;        to the contrary notwithstanding, there simply is no
  and again, apart from a Dutch grammar and a course             such thing as a purely objective man. Man not only
  in New Testament JGreek, these were all textbooks in           has a mind and a will, but he is a spiritual being, who
  such fields as Bible, Reformed Doctrine, and Calvin-           in all that he does stands either in the love of God or
  ism. And in that same institution, where many of our           in enmity against' God. And to avoid the fundamental
  teachers have their training even today, the textbooks         spiritual bias of that love~or enmity is in the very na-
  used in the Department of Education as well were               ture of the c;askimpossible.
  mostly,, if not completely, of worldly origin. And I            Now what happens when you injfect a history book
  do not hesitate to contend that the use of worldly             of worldly, godless origin into the classroom of the
  textbooks in a Christian school, whether on primary,           Christian school? Part One, concerning the origin of
  secondary or. college level, tends to a secularization of      civilization, being evolutionistic in the  ,most crass
  the Christiain school, or, atthe very best, has its con-       form, falls away, provided the'tcacher has the good
 sequence that the Christian, character. of. the instruc- Reformed sense to omit it. And perhaps, at various
  tion becomes incidental, rather than fundamentel. It           other stages in the course, the teacher-might be able
                                                                                                 _-


   1 1 6                               T - H E   STANDAR-7   B E A R E R   :
                                                   ;
  to cull out certain parts of the text, and tell his pupils
  that this part or that part of the section or chapter will                  PEJtISCC)i?E
  be' omitted. But it is simply impo.ssible to'go through
  the whole textbook and elimate  the author's philosophy
  of history from the book: by so doing you would de-           SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE
  stroy the book. What, then, must necessarily happen?             In Signs of the -Time& Ott, 21, 1952, an article oc-
  Briefly, the following: 1) First the teacher assigns a        curred under the heading "Is the Bible Scientific?"
- chapter from the book, the contents of which the pupil        From this article I quote the following interesting i-
  must digest and assimilate. Perhaps,. by his questions        tems :
  concerning the material, the teacher may succeed to
  an extent in stressing the objective facts with which                   The mighty advance of science since the
  the chapter concerns itself. But the fact remains,                 beginning of the-nineteenth century can hard-
  that the.pupil  studies the material, and, as pupils will,         ly be realized. In chemistry, physics, electri-
  imbibes the teachings of the author, including, of                 city, aaeronautics,  biology, medicine, physio-
  course, his history of philosophy. Strike one against              logy, geology, paleontology, the increase of
  the textbook, you' say ? I say: strike one against the             knowledge is tremendous. This is above all;
  pupil and also against the teacher. 2) For now-what                the age of science.
  must be done? The pupil, if he is to receive Chris-                     The word "atom," as we have it, comes
 tian instruction in world history, must somehow un-                 from tomos, a form of the (Greek  verb tem-
learn what he has learned from the textbook,- some-                  nein;  tmeaning "to divide." With an "a" pre-
  thing: which presents a variety of obstacles, chiefly              fix, it means "that which is not divisable."
because pupils are wont to accept very readily what P                This name is directly contrary to modern
  suppose,d  expert writes. This means that the teacher              science, which claims to have divided the ai
  is faced with an imposing task. He must first "pump                tom.
  out" the corruption which the author has "pumped                        As far as we know, no one has ever seen
  in". If the teacher is alert, interested, and Reformed,.           an -atom. Atoms are so small that one' kilo-
  well and good: he may be able to rescue the flounder-              gram of gold, weighing 2.2 pounds, contains
  ing pupil. However, consider that this`same teaehjer               three quintillion such particles. If a hun-
  h.as also never had- anything else in the way of history           dred million silver .atoms  were placed side
 instruction-than such as has used the works of the.se               by side, they would form a line only an inch
  same godless historians as its tools. The result has               long.
  been that in more than `one case the ,teaeher  has either               Think of the .power that man now has at
  not bothered or not cared to bother to -combat                     his  di.sposal.  By atomic fission or uranium
  this worldly philosophy of history in the `classroom:              235, an explosive force twenty million times
  He himself may have already imbibed too .much of it,               more powerful than TNT is available. T.he
  perhaps. Strike two. 3) But supposing, at the very                 heat of the sun in its interior is twenty-five
  best, that the teacher succeeds in overcoming the                  million degrees, centigrade, compared with
  worldly, godless, materialistic, evolutionistic evalua-            the fifty-million-dlegree radiation from an at-
  tion which the textbook has presented, let  us- say, of            omic-energy blast. This is the power that
  the fact that Columbus discovered .America  in 1492.               man now has at his disposal. Science, which
  What has the pupil left? This: the mere fact that                  was to be the savior of the world, threatens
 Columbus discovered America in 1492. Has he learned                 to be its destroyer.
  his history?- By no means. He has a fact in his mind's                  Tnrning to II hetec 3 :7-10, we read these
  storehouse, (but no evaluation of the significance of              startling words :
  that fact. He has received no positive Christian -his-                  "But the -heavens and the earth, which are ~-
  tory instruction, as yet. This the teacher, if he is cap-         now, iby the same word are kept in store, re-
  able thereof, must provide. But the history period is              served unto fire against the day of judgment
  over, or nearly so. The result: a strikeout as far as              and perdition of ungodly men. . . -. The day
 worldly textbooks' as tools in a Christian history class            of the Lord will come as a thief in the night;
 are Concerned !                                                     in the  which the heavens shall pass away  `.
                     (to be continued)                               with a great noise, and the elements shall
                                                                     melt with fervent heat; the earth also and
                                          H. C. Hoeksema  '          the works that are therein shall be burned
                                                                     qj."


                                       THE:  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                 '                           117

       Notice : elements, melted, great rtoke, fer-           the Netherlands.    In order- to understand the arti-
     vent heat.  Think of the ocean as a store-               cle, we. mu.st know, that the synod of. the Reformed
    house of latent heat. Disruption of its atoms             IChurches which  re'&ntly met in Rotterdam sent an
     could. produce great heat and energy. -.                 invitation to the synod of the Reformed Churches
       The heavens which will pass away with a_               (art. 31 or liberated) to confer with them about the
     great explosion, according to this prophecy,             question of reunion. I .read the invitation which,' to
     are the atmospheric heavens  - in other                  my mind, was cloaked in friendly and very liberal
     words, the air that surrounds the earth.                 terms. To accept it certainly would not bind the lLi-
     Some scientiststoday have been afraid that               berated to anything at all, The conference was to be
    a chain explosion might effect the atmosphere             held on the basis of Scripture and the Confessions.
 to the destruction of  th.e earth. Faraday,                  However, the synod of the Lib,erated which happened
     the great scientist, once said that there is             to meet .at the same time-as that- of the "synodicals"
     enough latent electricity in a drop. of. water           and that, too, in Berkel, in the neighborhood of Rot-
     to cause an ordinary flash of lightning..                terdam; ,did not accept this invitation. It was given
   The author of this article does not mean to say            into the hands of a committee which reported as fol-
that it require,s scientific proof to show that-the Bible , lows (this time I quote from Ge+-eformeerd Kerkbbd
is true. Ratlner,  it seems to me, he wants to expose         vor Over@e& en Gelderland and, of course,.translate)  :
the folly of the mockers mentioned in the same chap-                 "In name of committee II the Rev. Knoop
ter of 2nd Peter from which he quotes. -That the "hea-             reports in fle an invitation f.or a conference '
vens" mentioned in -the text are. merely "the atmos-.              sent by the churches that call themselves re-
pheric  heavens" I -do not believe.                                formed, assembled in synodical  gathering in
   Rather cute is the following reference-to the crea-             Rotterdam. In order not repeatedly to per-
tion of the woman and the use of anesthetics:                      form `the work of monks (monnikenwerk) '
       Now let us' read ,Genesis  2 :21, 22. Describ-              the commit+  proposed not to enter into this
     ing the creation of the human race, The Holy                  matter, for the foll,owing reasons : a. that our
     Scriptures say:             _ .                               synods of CGroningen,  Amersfoort and Kam-
       "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to                    pen have r,eplied  elaborately to a similar in-
     fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took                     vitation  ; b. that the `bounded' (quotation
   *`, one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh .in-               marks mine, H.H.) churches failed to. aizs:
     stead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord                    wer our objections, they always circumvent-
     ,God had taken from'man, made He a woman,                     ed the -questions ; c. `because our continued
     and brought her unto the man."                                and repeated summons to repent of the in-             I
       This statement of Scripture was the cause                   justice committed and of doctrinal binding
    of much laughter among the  .skeptics  and                     always proved fruitless. With great sorrow
     unbelievers  #back in the days of Voltaire.                  the committee wants to commit this cause of
     They said: "How could a man keep on sleep-          3       . strife to the Lord in harmony with Ps. 35 :l."
     ing while someone cut a hole in his side?                   A rather heated discussion followed this report,
     Even a pinprick would cause one to awake."               not because there was disagreement on the floor of
     But this was before the days of anesthetics.             the .synod about the question itself (all were agreed
     You know as well as I do that if we are go-              that they should not accept the ~invitation), but the
     ing to have an operation, if we must have a              question was rather how the reply should be worded.
     rib taken -out, or the appendix removed, or _            Finally, however, the synod decided by a vote of 17 to
     any kind of incision made, we would certain-             15 merely to receive the invitation for information
  _. ly want  to`-be asleep at the time-wouldn't              and, of course, to take no further action.
     we? -Modern science, with its invention of
     anesthetics, has shown that  <God  certainly                `The above is the occasion for the writing of the
     knew what He was doing when He put Adam                  Brticle of  deB (ondt) under the title: "The liberated
    to slceep in order to perform an operation up-            slam the door shut." -Writes he' (I translate) :~
     on him.                                                         "As our readers read, in the papers, our
                                                                   Synod addressed the Synod of the Liberated
THE  LIBERATED  SLAM THE  Doop  SHUT               ..            - Churches in a worthy document.._ In this ad-
  Under this title : "De vrijgemaakten smakken de                  dress a conference was urged, .and the argu-
deur dicht"), deB (ondt) has an-article in De Baxuin,              ments urged by formed Liberated Synods not
official organ of the Thsological School- in Kampea,               to  iccept ~such a conference were refuted.


     i18                              \           T H E   S T A N D A R D '  BEARE.R

                 "Berkel (the synod ,of.the Liberated, H.H.)             they decline to discuss, on the broadest possible basis;
              did  nd enter  into these. arguments, Behind               the matters that. separate them from the Reformed
       _      the door one shouted that it was humiliiting         '     Churches! Suppose the wrong is all on the side of the
              for them to go to the door  one.6  m&e. He                 Reformed- Churches. Suppose  _ the Liberated, have
              considered it an insult that the Reformed                  suffered gross `injustice. ISuppose  they are the only
              Churches had. the courage to &g the door                   true church, as they always claim to be.                             Are all
              bell once again.                                           these matters reasons w.hy they cannot even confer`
                 "%ith a semblance of. importance the Li-                with one another? Can they .not take minutes, make
              .berated twice referred the case back to the               an official report of their discussion and puiblish it?
              Committee.                                                        We toq have been cruelly maltreated in 1924. Be-
                 "It is sad and sinful-that there was agree-             sides, the Christian Reformed Churches in 1924, cor-
              ment on this point: Of course,' we will--not               rupted the Reformed truth. But I assure you that, if
       d o   i t .                                 ~7                    the Synod of the Christian Reformed Churches, even
                 "The only difference was that one showed                at this late date, would'have the grace td send us an
              his anger about a different point- than ,the               inivitation to.  discuss all that happened in 1924, on
              othe?.                                                     the basis of Scripture and the ,Confession,  I for one
                                                                         wou1.d be  heaitily in favor of accepting such an in-
                 `:The one said: It- is impudent that they               vitation.
              have the courage to come once m&e: slam
              the .door shut !                                                  Are the Liberated afraid? one is inclined to ask.
              "Another said: I think it is terrible that                                                                                      H.H.
              they call our Church : Ref. Churches `(main-
              taining art. 31). This last must be elided ; .
             -it is only a postal .distinction. We  niust de-
                                                           ~-                                    --.:  ~  :  -
              clare the letter not acceptable.
              "About  this  they debated among one an-
              other several times.                                                 I waited -for the Lord Most high,
                 `.`Mu$ it be : Received f,or information? or :                    And  He-&clined to hear qy cry;
             `Declared unacceptable?       . .                                     He  toqk me from destruction's pit
                 "With 17-15 votes it was ,decided : Received                      And from the miry clay ;
              for information.                                                         Upon a, rock He set my feet,               .
,               "Then the devil rejoiced.'                                         `And st@fast made my `way.                                      .
                "Then the world which heard  the news                              A new and joyful song of praise
              over the radio could blaspheme the namd. of I                        .He taught my thankful heart to raise ;
            God and reproach God's people.                                             And many, seeing me. restored,
                "But Christ, the king of the. church, `diq                         Shall fear the Lord and trust ;
              not rejoice.                                         _.                 And ,blest are they that trust -the Lord,
                "The door is now slammed shut.                                     The humble and the just.         1       e'
                "And. in the meantime, the' breach con-
              tinues in the spher.e  of the school, `in poli-              -       ,O  Lord  mv  (God, how  manifold
              tics . . .                                                           Thy wondious wo?ks which I `behold,
                "How long?"                                                            And all Thy loving, gracious thought                             .I
                                                                                   Thou hast bestowed on man ;
            We, on our part,  cannot  inderstand this  &&tu#de                        To count Thy mercies I have sought,
     of the Liberated. I  remetiber  how Dr.  ,Schilder,.ex-                       But boundless is their spa;n.
     pressed his amazement when the Synod of the Chris-
     tian Reformed ,Churehes (in the Netherlands) refused                          Not sacrifice delights the Lord,
     a conference with the Reformed `Churches. I remem-                            But he who hears and keeps Hjs word *                                      0
                                                                                                                                              f
     ber, too, how it was especially  under.  his influence                            Thou gavest~  me ,%o hear Thy will,
     that, in 1939, the conference in the Pantlind Hotel                  I ._.i -Thy law .is in- my. heart ;
     was held to discuss the possibility of t.he reunibn of.                           I come the Scri$-tire-to fulfill,
     the Christian Refwmed Churches and pours, ..kd now                         .' Glad tidings to impart,                             . .


                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEA.RER                                                   119
                                         -    -                                                               h
                                                                                 dentified with' ihe power of creation, of -providence.
-FROM  HOLY  WRIT By God's pow& ani might He called the.%orld into
                                                                                 existence. In the beginning God spoke His creative
                                                                                 word and all things came thus into being by His word.
                Exposition of I Peter 114, ' 5                         .-'  :    Th&t,  w& the power that eminated from God's will
                                                                 .I              the Logos  not  macleTflesh.   `John 1 :l-3. And it is by
                                (con&ded) .                                      this same power of the Word not-made-flesh that the
     Permit us a few remarks.,concerning  the mea&g                              world &upheld. Hefbrews 1: 1-3. Although this power
 of these verses as we have ,thus far. con&dered  them.                          cannot be separated from  the "power" in my text,
   In the  -first place, we have noticed that we have                            yet this power in creation and providence must be
 been born anew ulito a living hope, through the re-                             cleayly distinguished from the latter.
 surrection of JesusChrist  from .the dead. .The power                              The distinction?               :
 -of our. hope is the power of' ,God  *inani$ested  and                             It is this:  the power in my text is the almighty
 wrotight..in   H i s   r e s u r r e c t i o n .   l.`,  i                      power of (God, w.hich God has wrought in Christ Jesus
     Secondly, we have noticed that our hope reaches                             our Lord, raising -Him out of the dead, and setting
 out in earnest expectatioq  for the final manifestation                         Him at His own riglit. h&d far above all principality
 of: what God has prepared for His saints, the inher?-                           and.might and every name, that is named both in this
 tance kept for us in heaven.                                                    age and in that to come. It is,wrought in and through _
     Thirdly, we have noticed, .,that this inheritance is                        the Spirit .of Sanctification.
 incorruptible, undefilable  and. that it fades not away.                           Stich is not the case with cl+ation and providence.
 It is -wholly  different than the present world under the                          But such it is here: here we have the power of
 vanity of vanities. It is an inheritance that is glori-                         God wrought iq Him who suffered and died, and rose
 ously, immortal and ,everlasting.                                         :.    again and having received the promise of the Spirit
     Fourthly, we were busy dbnsidering the fact, the                            sent Him forth to empower us from on high.
 gospel truth, that God, who has begun this good work
                                ..z                                                 Such is the power of which Peter speaks in verse
 in us, giving us a new birth unto `a living, hop& also                          five, such is clearly its nature. It is saving power;
 will complete this wor4 to' the very end. _ No one is                           that keeps, guards us unto salvation. It is well to see
 able to pluck us 6ut of the hand 6f the Father, who ,is                         this distinction, and to keep-it in mind.
 greater than all. Jehovah is a man of .war. Jtihovah                               But we must proceed.
 is His name ! Let us attempt to understand this.                                   The next element calling for attefition is the rela-
    . We would remin,d you, dear peader,  that` we are                           tionship between "faith" and this power  of  God in
 considering,verse 5, th,e following clause "we who are                          Christ wrought by the Spirit of &anctif?cation.
 kept irz the .power of God through f&h . . ,. . . unto
                                                            .                       It ought to be very cleay on the very surf&e that
 salvation .  ; .  ."      .                                                     the rela+tionship  is not su$h as is expressed in the very
     The questions, that we  face here-are. the following.                       vulgar and profane quip .`iGod helps those who help
' We must .seek an answer to the questidn  what we are                           themselves".- Yes to speak thus is profane  speech.
 to  uaderstand by  the_"power" of God, and we must                              Yet, such is exactly the sin of all "&mi-Pelagianism".
 also see the proper Scriptural -relationship between                            God gives .His power and grace to those who make
 this .power  of God and this "faith" of ,our text..                             themselves wor,thy  of His gifts. In this case it would
     The word here employed for power in the original                            mean: ,God wol:ks  His power in those who are willing
 Greek really means: ability. It is i&e potense of `God.                         and who believe. This latter statement indeed speaks
 It is `the ability of ,God which is the' strength of* all                       a $@&, `but only -a half-Quth. It does not t6ach the
huinan and creaturely  strength. Without this strength                           full truth. . It was exactly thus, that ;the Arminians
 there is nqne: `In this strength. we live and move and                          also expressed this relationship of the power of God
 have our being, and it is b$ virtue. of this strength                           and faith. And thus our text does not express it.
 that we believe in Christ.                            ,                            Both the power of Go.d and the faith through which
     Further we may- say o$ this "`power" bf God that                            we  ar,e kept: are solely `of God. Salvation is wholly of
 it  is characterized by all the  vi&ues  of  Go&. It is                         theLord. Faith is God's gift qot only in its inception; -
 all-wise, just, good, holy, merciful and everlasting.                           but also iti its continuation. Our persevertirice  is sim-
 For all  #God's virtues are  tine. Upon this. we could                          ply God';.per,se?vation  of us. And thus Peter teaches
 delineate in detail. ' But we pr.efer..  .not t,o since the                     us here. We therefore read: ye who are guarded in
 text  ,does not  &all  fo? it.               -:  `.  1  ?  `:, .                the rpower  of God 8hrough jai@.
     What we .-must here point outi-,how6+er, is, that                              ,Goci's  power in Christ becqmes  a saving power in
 this power qf God in my text is not simply to be i-                             u,$ in this that it works faith in qur hearts. It `is a


                                                                         /
)                                            i1..                .I
I1.                                          j --                   ,
     I                                 .,'                                    - _ _.~ __
               12-j .  -.  ;                         .- T H E -   STANDARYD-  .&?A&
                                               --_.--_-.----
                             u                                                     .---                                          -
              power in the Spirit- of sanctificatidn of Christ, that                  our heart,` and also the manner of the working of this
              saves us through the very-faith that it iYorks in our                   power we cannot fully fathom, comprehend. It is
              .hearts.      This. power works faith,  that is,  a-certain             wholly a Divine work. We canpot trace the footsteps ~~
              knowledge and a hearty confidence, that, Christ has                     of the  Almighty. How unsearchable al-e His judg-
              not merely died for others, but that He has died and                    ments and His ways are  past finding out. That is
              that He rose again in my behalf. It is a `gloribus sav-                 true of His de$ings with nation.s,' but is also true- of
              ing power working faith in my heart. _ And then' again                  oui own souls. Compare with Psaim i39.
              He works this faith in my ,heart in such, a way that                          This lilakes us approach this subject with utmost
              the very act of faith that `we perform is His saving humility ; here .tob we touch but tile "hem of His gar-
              power..  10, glorious  my@ery of faith.                                 m e n t ? .
                ' In His power we keep' this mystery in a good con-                         However, `the Word of God does point out by &a8
              science by adhering -tom sound words, good Christian                    means this power of ,God works'faith in our hearts.
              hygenic instruction for the soul.                                             This faith is wrought in bur hearts by means Op
                   Shall we truly be and remain ~sound'. in faith `and                the p6w6,r of *God. And this power of God unto our
              upright in walk that  WB  .confess   :.  `in*- His  power               salvation is nothing  less  than  the Holy  Gospel.  This
              wrought in His gift of faith in my heart cauSing me                     SGospel isgower ; power of God it is &nto'salv&ion for
          .   t o   b e l i e v e .                                                   everyone  believ{ng.
                   Such is the evident relationship betvireeti  these two                   ,This cuts off the error; on the one h&d of the Ana-
              elements in the text. .Thus -alone. do w.e confess the                  baptist,.  who, among othep errors, clings to the er-
              architectural design of God as- sketched by Peter in                    roneous teachi-ng that-God simply wbrks faith in our
          v e r s e   t w o : "According to the foreknowledge oft God                 hearts, th& He preserves l?js church in the midst of
              the Father, in sanctification of the Spi&t, unto (into)                 this world without "means"; with the means of grace,
              the  obedi&ce and sprinkling of the blood, of Jesus                     that 2; without the means which the Holy Spirit em-
            `Christ." B u t   mores  m u s t   be  s a i d .                          ploys to work and strengthen faith in our ,hearts. The
                   Wci refer to the marzner in which Go'cl  causes His                qnabaptist  forgets that (God deais with the redeemed
              power to. keep, guards us to the very enal saiaation                    s&s according to their created- hature in Paradise.
              to be uncovered .in the last time.                                      Making t.his power a blind power. Sukh it is noi. God's
                   In general we may say,. tl& in the $sdom and                       power unto salvation is the ,Gospel,  fgr in it the right-
              justice of God He treats every creature  according to                   eousness.of <God is revealed out of faith unto faith.
           its created nature. He treats the plant different than                           At the  --Same time all  Pelagianism,  Arminianism
              the animal, and bhe animal -different than ;man,  and                   and Humanism is cut off for in this preaching of the
              man diff  &Teat   agail than the &gels.           Each one,- is         `Gospel there is Mystery. It is the Mystery of faith.
              treated according to its kind, (k&a genes) .                    .       Thi.s Gospel works faith, strengthens it by the opera-
                   This means that the almighty keeping df God, the                   tion of the- Holy$pirit in such a way that,. although ~
              power of  Gods  tinto our salvation is  wrought  iti us                 th'e Gospel is. preached by man, its operation and ef-
              working faith in our hearts, in such 5, way that God                    ficaciousness is wholly a niatter-of .God's power. Sal-
              does not do violence -to our moral-+ti.&al crkat,ure-                   vation is never in the power-of man, although God uses
          h o o d . `Our fathers contending with  .the-  Ar&nian&                     Fin to work His salvation.  ,God uses threats, pre-
              confess "this grace of regeneration does not^ treat &en                 cepts' of the IGospel ( ?) ai spoken by the preacher to
              as senseless` stqcks and blocks,. nor take.s  `away their .-&yk His grace in our lives. This iS simply the case
              `will and its p:operties, neither do&?iolence  %h&&o."                  with this epistle.of Peter. It is replete with precepts
              The Arminians insisted  that dnly  wXefi .tiati  had. an                of the Gospel! And in a way` that is hidden from our
              ethically free-will could  he  `be  t&$&d` according to -eyes, God' works grace `through the same. Here the
             .his nature, .,whil&  the Reformed Fathers say: non se-                  sinner remains impotent, while his created nature is
              quitur. - ,Man' db& -not have. the spiritual freedom io                 honored. God honors His own. work, while he main-
            _ do good, huh he remains a thinking willing beirig. (God. tains our impotency to in. any. way effect faith in, our
              honors His  otin  creatiye ordinances in m&n, while                    h e a r t s .   -.
              bringing him out of death jnto life, out of darkness'                         The manner of ,God's working Is- such, that in our
              into His marvelous light.                                              believing cdnsciousness too, we experience : Guarded
                   That i+s the Xi&t element to bear in'mind, also when in the almightiness of God working faith in our hearts
              thinking of this guarding power- of God.                               by the Word, in us who have been born again unto a
                   The second element ti, bear`in mind that the "man-                 living hope t&ough the- resurrection of Christ..
              ller of the operation of God" in working salvatioti in
                                       -.                                                                                       G@. Lubbers


