  .$ ,-I~N(I-O-`
                I-`
                    ,-,-"
                         -`
                             ,~,-~,-,,-,,-,-,,-,-,-!-~,-~,-,**.         ed.as  if all else had failed. He is appealing his case
] . .        `M E D I T A T I O N                           `1 to the highest court  f  G&d.  :             " ,.
 .~,~-`-e-`-,,-~,-,,-,-~-~,-,,-~,-,-,-~-~-,-~ ,-1-o-,,, ~.                 .' The preliminary was already past. -David knew
                                                                        this. He says to his Judge: Thou  ha& proved my
                       A  Cry  for  Help                                heart; Thou ha&t visited me in the night; Thqu hast
                                                                        tried me!
                                               --psd!m 17          _Y       Happy is- the man that is searched thus and who
     Many, many years ago, it happened t.hat a pi.ercing,               can say.: and Thou shalt find nothing !
 $hric&repeated  cry ascended to the  lieav&. It was                      ~ Such was the case with David. Whatever this case
 David, and, as was very often the case, David `in                      has been, David knew that he was innocent. .ke knew
 trouble.                                                               that IGod needed no witnesses to swear to the innoceni
  Thrice   repeated  ill his crying to God. We  tiefer to               CY of David. ,God had looked. And God had  m&e
 the opening of i&i! seventeenth psalm.                            David acquainted with .His searching vitiit.
   Hear! Attend ! Give ear !                                               Do you remember,. brofhe?,  Thei ,God visited you
     Involuntarily we will repeat our cries of anguish.                 in. the  night?
 And in .th,e same measure that we are in trouble, we                      That season, the night, is a wonderful time for
 will also, repeat our cries for help.                                  God's searching visits. During the day your world is
     80 also David, he was in great tr,ouble. We do not so
                                                                   -       large, the creatures surrounding you are so many
 know the historical background. It m&y have been at the voices of them are so loud. Life is ao'ri@that  we
 the time that he had to flee from Saul.            .'                  hardly hear. the searciling  voice of the Inquirer.
     At once, at the very beginning of the outp&ring                       But  the  `night came: A cloak of darkness rests
 of.his .cry to God, he points.the  Almighty to the sincer-             upon-your world. You see and  hear nothing, And
 ity of his' prayer. It did not come from feigned lips. there is t&e Judge. Insistently He asks and prods and
    You must be very sincere when praying to #God.                      digs, until He talks within the depths of your heart.
    ,Oh yes,  &hen asking for help of  ati earthy indi-                    So He did with  David. And. he knew  that.God
vidual  yoil may be able to fool him. .You may act aS              found nothing.
 though- you are in the last extremity, while you are                     . No David was not perfect. But:with  respect to the
 really notzafraid  at all. It may be possible to- deceive `- case"at hand he: was inndcent. `Moreover; he had pur-
 your fellow man ; but td fry to deckive  ,God is horrible         posed within himself not to transgress with his tongu;e':
 indeed.                                                           We often spoil a good cause with our foolish babblings.
    But listen to David: he .requests  a favor from God.           Be still'; give pl-ace for the wrath of `God ! He will
He: wants the- Lord'to inquire into his case. He pre-              fight  your fight, if it is a good fight;  :  '
sents himself before the bar of ,God's justice. At once,                   How was it pd&ible  for David to &main so clean`
in the very beginning of the psalm we hear the same                in. his cause? `Was he not surrounded by the bah 6x:
thing : Lord, hear the right!                                      ample of them that are ca:alled  the de&oyers  ? Yes,
  .David was  in-trotible with  ma+ There was a case he' sati the &il~:e%ari-&`of  the` wicked. oti e%S;"side.
pending. And David had `received the worst part. He                But he possessed a reservoir of power IS&t i?fkd him
lived under the shadow of a false a`ccusation. It seem- above the comm& mass` of .evil doe&`: the .~Word of


  338                                  T H E   STANDARD  BEARER

 Go& He says: I kept myself from evil paths, by the derful phrases. He calls it the m.arvellous  lovingkind-
  words of Thy lips.                                            ness of-..God.
                                                                   Marvellous  is the lovingkindness of God. It will
         Wondrous   po&r of the  WOKI   of-  God!               bring-about your complete deliverance from all your
         Long ago I have experienced this wonderworking .enemi& worst. of them being guilt and sin.
                                                                         .'
   power. Just stay out of ch&ch for .a few .Sundays.               The lovingkindness of ,God is Jesus on the cross
   Neglect your dommunion with those that hold forth            o? Golgotha, because it is called the saving of those
   the words 6f life. : Just close your Bible and fail to that trust in God, by His strong right hand.
   ,l*ead  iti pages  for. some days, weeks,  moyth! . . . .        Saving them, because they ar,e surrounded by im-
         And the results will be that you de$art .,from the     minelit dangers. There is the flesh, the world and
   highway to heaven. You walk in darkness again. You .the devil. But they are the very apple of ,God's eye.
begin to destroy. You become foolish. .                         They are loved from all eternity.. And they must be
         The-  Wo+d of  ,God is a light on our  phthway. It     saved. . If one elect child of God would be really hurt:
   keeps you from ways ,of wickedness, displeasing to the ,Gocl would be hurt. They must be saved therefore.
   Lord . . . .                                                     And David has recognized his enemies. IHe gives
         But if this is so, how do you explain the devilish     us a description of them: they are the wicked, the
 ~- work of Judas, performed in the very presence of the        deadly enemies of God's people, who compass them
   Word  become  flesh, that' is, Jesus? If  .anyonb had        about, like as the hordes of the enemy's hosts. And
   access to the words of `God's lips, it @as Judas. And        they are the wicked because they reveal themselves
   so we could continue to ask: If the words of God's lips      as very proud.
   keep us from the paths of the destroyer, how is it               Ah, yes, proud they are. And pride is the worst of
   that you find so many wicked evil doers in church?           all sins. It is the very root-sin of man and apgels.
         The answer is : you have not saicl enough- when ydu        -Tb be proud means' that you .conceive  of yourself
   state that ,God's Word is a power that keeps us from         and  set as though  you are  Very' ,God yourself. That
   evil deeds. IOne thing must be added. And that miss-         was the idea of the  dev11  when he fell himself, and
   ing element we find in the next verse. "Ho!, up my that .was also his idea in the temptation of man: ye
   goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not."            shall be as ,God! And thus it shall be when sin shall
         That is the work of the Spirit of God. Thb Word        have come to full completion. Then the sinful man
   without the Spirit works death unto death to me. It          shall sit in the temple of Gbd, acting as though he were
   makes me worse than before I heard. And that is so,          God!           :
   not because of the word; but because I am evil.                  To be proud is very foolish. Oh, why should the
         No, the Word must be preached and the Spirit           spirit of man be proud.7 We are so utterly dependent
   must apply it to me. And then I keep myself from the         upon  `God. We  are also so sinful and abominable.
   paths of wickedness.                                         We .ought to hide our faces from God, man and angel.
         In a figure I may say : G3d must hold up my goings     "Dan zou geen schaamt' mijn aangezicht bedekken !"
   3n His paths.                                                 is the cry of .God's child.
         A wonderful picture. I see the picture of a &other         And David has recognize'd them as being proud.
   i?rho holds her child under the arms and teaches it to        Thinking themselves to be sovereign upon the. earth,
   walk. My goings would bring me to destrutition  with-
                                              .                  they handle creation as though it were their own.
  .out that constant guiding, lifting, steermg power of          They compass the righteous, they lurk like lions for
   the Spirit of  ,Christ within. The Word for wisdom            their prey. They have set their eyes bowing down to
    and the Spirit for its application and then all is well.     the earth in order to follow the footsteps of the poor
    Then my course is laid for the everlasting haven of          and needy, of the righteous whom he will devour.
    rest.                                                            Therefore he cries to *God : Arise, ,O. God ! Do not
         And David returns to cry for help. Hear my              allow me to fall into their hands. Personifying all his
    speech, 0 God! He will bring his cause before the enemies into one individual, he cries to God: disap-
    tribunal .of heaven.                                         point him, cast him down, deliver my soul from the
          There are -those -that rise up against him. David wicked, which is Thy sword !
    realizes that their. intent is destruction. They will          _., This last clause brings a deep truth to the fore-
    kill him if they could.                                      gl:ound.
          Over against this te&ble and threatening danger            All these wicked people that compassed David were
    he invokes God's help.                                       in reality the hand &ad .the sword of God. The next
    _     And God's help is pictured here in the most won-       irerse  calls them the hand of God.

                         _  -


                                              f~%  S,T.ANDA&   -BtiAiZER                                                                                                                       339

    The men of, the world are *God's  sword `and God's
hand. .                                                                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER
 Miserable creatures  they~ are. Every dog  has his                                             Semi-monthly,  except  monrhly during July and August
day. Yes, and  t-hey have their day- too. And their                                       Published by the  REFORMED   FREE   PUBLISHING   ASSOCIATION
day is the, now and the here.                                                                         Box  124,  Station C, Grand Rapids 6, Michigan
    Listen to Davrd's description of their lot.                                                              Editor  -  REV.   HERMAN   HOEKSEMA
                                       . .                                   Communications relative to contents should be addressed to Rev. H.
    They have their portion in this life. Who does                           Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S.E. Grand Rapids 7, Michigan.
not think -on the rich man and Lazarus in ,~this con-                        All matters relative. to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr. J.
                                                                       Bouwman,   1350   Giddings Ave.,  S,E., Grand Rapids 6, Michigan.
nection? Yes, they have their portion in this life.                          Announcements and Obituaries must be mailed to the above  ,address
And what, a portion ! Being created in God's image                           and will be published at a fee of $1.00 for each notice.
so that this very cpeation  calls f,or ,God's communion,               RENEWALS:   Unless, a definite request for discontinuance is received,
                                                                             it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription to continue
they only receive bread and drink, clothing and shel,                        without the formality of a  &newal  order.
ter, gold, silver and possessions, etc. They receive                                                           Subscription price: $4.00 per year
the things that are seen, that are temporal, that are                                     Entered  as Second  Cluss matter at Grand Rapids, Michigan
transitory. They need spiritual things most of all.
They will surely die and continue to die if they do not
have God for their portion, but they' only receive the
husks, that is, the earthly things.
    Note that God fills their belly.
    Well, you must have some things in your stomach
if you are to live upon this  earth. You must have                                                                      C O N T E N T S
some bread and some water. You need some rags to MEDITATION-
cover your nakedness `and, to protect you from the                                        A Cry for Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
cold. You must have shelter.-  You must'have all these                                           Rev.  G.  Vos
things if you are to live upon this earth. Still, these               EDITORIALS-
things are not essential to your well-being. M,an does                                    Cl assis West Versus the Declaration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
not live by bread alone. The meaning-is that you do                                       Censured!!?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
                                                                                                 Rev. H. Hoeksema
not need earthly bread in order to live in the real
sense of the word. Christ lived without bread  and. OF  BOOKS-
                                                                                          De  Civitate  Dei  I--Dr.   D. K.  Wielenga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
shelter for 40 days in the desert. And when he hun-                                       Gods  Woord  In  Menselijk S&rift-Dr.  H.  J.  Westmink . . . . . . 344
gered he refuse.d to make stones into bread.                                              Het  Paradij&-Jan   Orerduin                                                 I_
                                                                                                                                        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
    If you have a hun,gry belly, but a soul: that is-filled                                      Rev.  -H. Hoeksema
with ,God's fa'vorable and loving presence, .you live and             OUR  DOCTRINE-
live indeed.                                                                              The Triple Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
    How different is the close of this psalm from its                                            Rev. H.  Hqekhema
beginning.       There  a cry for help ; here the .rest that          THROUGH   THG  AGBS-
fo!lows  s a t i s f a c t i o n .                                                        The  Arminian  or Remonstrant Struggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
                                                                                                 Rev. G. M. Ophoff
    How different is the lot of God's people!' `.                     FROM HOLY  WRIT-
    They will awake. Their bodies also.  First their                                      Eipbsition  of Genesis  25i27-43                  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .."........... 351
soul awoke in regeneration and conversion.               Then                              R e v .   .G.  L u b b e r s
also their bodies will awake in the day of Christ Jesus`
                                                                 2    IN  HIS   FEAR -
    And then they will be filled to ov&flowini when                                       My Brother's Keeper .  .1.. . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . .' 353
they, see the Face of #God. And that is also His image                                      ' Rev. J. A.. Heys
which they will see in righteousness.                                 THE  .V~ICE  OF OUR  FATHERS-
    Here a wicked man wonders.                                               ..           The  Canons of Dordrecht  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :. . . . . 355
                                                                                                 Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
    When they hear you say that the choicest and the
most delightful thing for you is wrapped ,up in this:                 CONTENDING   FOR   THE  FAITH-
                                                                       .:                 The  Study of the History  kf Doctrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
that you may see ,God, they .wond:@r.                                                           Rev. H.  Veldman
    But we know and therefore we also  sing'.in'the                           _                                     `.  -
                                                                      DI~CENCY   AND  ORDER-  ,:
longing of o;r deepest hea&: "Warineer zal ik ingash                                      The  Ordgr of Assemblies .: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _. ..-i . `., , . . . . .,... 359
en voor Uw aangezicht  verschijnen,?"  `.               ;- .
                                                           `.
                                              _                                    y. 
                                                                                    _( R e v ,   -G.  -Vandetr   B e r g                                                                           .
                                                   G. Voa:` :


  340                                                T H E   STkNDARD  B E A R E R

                                                                                  b. That Synod did not sub,stantiate the document from Scrip-
                                                                                ture. It is inadmissible for the Church to declare a doctrine
  t            E WI-T-0 R I A.L S                                               withou,t  reference to Scripture.
                                                                                  l/ For it separates the Confessions  frgm their derived and
  .++,--,-<
  i              -l--o-,,- t-t(lll.tl-;l--;>&  1-o- `i? <ml- `
                                                                        4.      inseparable context, Scripture.
             `basis West v.Asus the l&+ati~n                                      2/ It omits what the Church has done in its formulation atid
                                                                                use of  the Confessions.
          At :$he `last session of :C&sis :&Vest  there were no                     Now I understand that Classis West adopted the
  less thon five protests against thti.Declaration of Prin-                     first part of this advice, the part regardirig  the legal-
= ciples : from ,Sioux Center, frdm .Bellflow&r,  f&ti Pella,                   ity, or illegality, of the Declaration, but that they re-
  from Oskaloosa,  alTd from  Bev. W.  Hofmati.                                 fused to adopt the second'-pa&,  regarding the cont&ts
                                                                                of &e Declaration. Into-the contents they did `not en-
          The committee  that was ippointkd `to advi;e Clas-                    ter: I understand that their  argum&t  tias that the
  sis in re all these protests reported as follows:                             Declaration was not legal anyway, and.it'?ertaigly was
        Regarding, this material we advise:                                     not proper for the Syndd, `no more than for the Ch-
  ! I. That Classis  West express to Synod that we kannot  b3 sat-              sis, to discuss an, illegal document; Hence, all that
  isfied  w%th Synod's treatment of  ;the Protest of  Class%  West              will  btz brought. to Synod as far as  Classis  We& is
  since Synod did not answer said protest by positively  indi*cat-              concerned, is  tk;e co&&ion that the Declaration is
  ing the legality of the Declaration with well-motivated grounds.              illegal.
  Classis  therefore maintains its torigina position that it consid-                Frankly, the Stan&&cl &XM%Y  cannot understand
  ers the Declaration to be illegal.               (This last statement  was
  an amendment to the  Tommittee?s  advice, made on the floor                   the church polity of Classis West.                 '
  of the  `Classis.  H.H.).                                                         It seems to emphasize very strongly that "eccles-
        ,111 That  Classis  West  exbress  #that. fhe Synod of 1951, in its     iastical m&tte.rs  shall be transacted in an ecclesiastical
  adoption of the Declaration of Principles, violated Article 30                maliner." This is based on Article 30 of the Church
  of- our Church  ,Order which  st,a.tes  Mat "ecclesiastical matters
 shall be transacted in an ecclesiastical mantier." This violation              `Order : "In these assemblies ecclesiastical matters on-
  is clearly proven by the various grounds given in the do,cuments              ly shall be transacted, and  that in an  e'cclesiastical
  of: Bellflower,  grqunds  1 and  2, page 13;  Pell:a,   %he closing           manner. In major assemblies only such matters shall
  paragraph, page 19 and 20;  Oskal&s&  ijoint  II, page  22; and               be dealt with as could not be finished in minor assem-
  Rev. W. Hofman, grounds  un,der  B,  ptige 28. (These grounds                 blies, or such as pertain to the churches of the -major
  were later quoted and  .adopted as  Classis' own grounds for                  assembly in common." And  Classis West seems  to
  this second proposition. H.H.)
  `III. `That  Classis West express that the contention of both                 be of the conviction that the Synods of 1950 and 19'51,
  ,Rev. J. Van .Weelden` and the Consistory of Pella, that the def-             in adopting the Declaration of Principles, violated
  inition of the promise as given in the  DeclaEation  is not ad-               this fundamental principle of the Church `Order.
  equate to express all that our Confessions teach regarding the                    To this we -will refer presently.
  Promise of the Gospel is correct and therefore this definition
  must be rejected `as a complete <definition.                                      But now let me point out that the ecclesiastical
       '  ;Zlder Leep feels that the promise is  idequately  defined es-        manner of Classis West manifests a strange mixture
  pecially in the light of the  IDeclaration  part III, B.                      of indepententism, bn the one h`and, and hierarchy, on
        IV. A. That Classis express under 2 of Rev. Van Wee&den's               the other.
  ,protest,  page `7 ff, that he- has not proven that the declaration
  expresses that "The promise of the gospel is not conditional"                     Let me explain.
   and "faith is  not a condition."                                                  The decision of  ,Class&  West is indepentistic in
        B. That Pella has failed to preve .th@ "Synod s&ply declared            relation td Synod. Although the Synods of 1950 and
   all conditionality to be heresy." ' Page  3,s and, 19, No. 2.                1951 took. th,e &and that the Declaration of Princi-
       _  C. That  Classis  West express:
         a. That, while we are not pleading for the ushering in of the          ples was legally adopted, and although it maintained
   term condition, Synod  was. obliged to give  aocount  of its use             this stand even after all the protests of Classis West
       bf the terminology in view of the  f.act,                                had' been considered, nevertheless Classis West now
         l/  that the terms, condition, conditional, and conditioned, :not only again protests against the adoption of the
   have been used at least from  $alvin  on down  ip Reformed                   Declaration as being an illegal act,--which, of course,
       circles, by theologians, by the  fra,mers  of the Confessions, by
   ministers in our. history in which we were engaged in a fierce                is its legal right, provided it can show new igrounds,
       struggle to defend free, ,soyereign, -and par$icular  grace against      that have not been considered by Synod,-but Classis
       denials of it in the "well-meant offer."                                 West positively declares that the adoption of the DFC-
         2/ The promise is put in conditional f&m i,n the Confessions.          laration of Principles by Synod was illegal; and acts
         3/ An amendment was made, and proven upon request, to                   upon that declaration. For it refuses to recognize: the
   p?ove  that there  are conditions in -the Bible. Synod was ob-
       liged to disprove in discussion and writing before-it failed to           protests of the consistories.that asked to enter into the
       adopt this  .-amenldment.   `         ..                                 contents of the Declaration, and it does that on the


                                                                                  -_
                                              TBE  ~JTANDARR'  ~ARJZR
     *.,                                                                                                                                          341
               -_ . . .
 &sis,.oS  the  supposed.fact  that  the  Declaration  is  not                   principles of. ecclesiastical actions," together with the ground
 legal.. `-Evidently the position of Classis West .is that                       1, 2, and 3 is put to the vote. The motion is defeated 9 to 7.
the Declaration. is not legal, and that .no matter what                                  In Art. 128 of the same Acts of Synod, to which
Synod may decide, it will continue, to take that stand.                          Art..-200 refers we read :
                                                                                                      ,                                   i .>
      That is pure independentism!                       :
      On, the other hand, however, the church polity  -A  any  Committee  B
                                                                                        Reporter -reads advice of Comr&tee, divided into Committed
which  Classis West  follows is hierarchical.  -The &as-
 sis Grds it ovel:. the consistories.                                                                        Committee A.
                                                              ;            ~
   Mark you, there  were legal  .protests  by the.  con-                                I. We advise Synod to heed the protest of  Class&  L&&t
                                                                                 found in the Agendum,  p.' 47, point 1  df the  ovedure, and to
 sistories,  nc$ only against the illegality of  the. Dec- declare:
 laration, but  also  agailist the contents.  The.  consis- . That the action f  .the 1950 Synod in reference to the Dec-
 tories, therefore, intended to have the contetits  of the 1                             t*
                                                                                 ara  ion of Principles is  coatrary to our Protest&t Reformed
 Declaration discussed at the Synod. But the  Classis  way  ana regulations and to Reformed principles- of  ecclesias-
 hierarchically decided to mutilate and to split these                           tical actions for the following reasons:
 protests, so that only the part that treats of the il-                            l.*.Because' this d0cumen.t concerns- confessional material, is
 legality of the Declaration shall come before Synod.                            classified in the same category as interpretations; regulations,
 This is purely hierarchic& No Classis has the right, declarations, explanations, elucidations, and any decisions of
                                                                                Synod  x&h bind with respect to doctrinal material. It is
 and can possibly have thle right, thus t,o mutilate and                        material which, with respect t`o its official formulation as basis,
 to divide protests that are presented by the consistor- ;IS beyond the present basis, which we have. ISt goes beyond
ies.  `Ci&sis, of course,  can act unfavorably on those                         quotation. Even  mere quotations may modify by virtue of
 protests, .or ,on part of them.  And even then the con-                        their being  extracted*
 sistories can still appeal to Synod; and demand that                              Such material does not belong under the scope of the  mis-
 their entire protests be sent through. to Synod. But                           sion  committee' The mission committee according to clear
                                                                                statements in -its constitution and6 according to the very na,ture
 the Classis certainly cannot have the right arbitrarily                        of the case cannot deal with nor suggest to have Synod deal
.to decide that `only part of the protests by the consis-                       with any other than that which  penttiins  to its activity such
 tories shall be presented to %yfiod.                                           as field of labor, and other regulations for its work.
    -In my opinion, the !Synod simply ought to ignore                              2. Its message is only the same message as based upon the
 this part of the decisi,on  of ,Classis West, and also en-                     Word of God and the Three.Forms.        That message is the same
ter jnto that part of the protests by the consistories ,as the Reformed message of our historic past'as it has its root
                                                                                in  the Reformed Creeds of  &he Reformed Fathers, and in  Cal-
that treat of the contents of the Declaration.1                                 vi?. Augustine-to Christ and the prophets. The mission  com-
    But. how about the question -of the iegality.  or ile- r:ittee does not have authority over the content of the message
 gality df the actibfis of Synod' of 1950 and 1951 in - Or the preaching  in `any waY: According to our Reformed Prin-
adopting the Declaration of Principles?                                         ciple,  the Church preaches the word; the living organic body
     At, the Synqd .of 1950 there was no question about                         of Christ  #through  its instituted offices.    Therefore we place
                                                                                that in a servant of Christ, a  Missionary-sen.t out by the  cal-
the legality.. ,The Declaration w;Zs almost unanimously ling  church. To have  `any other  principIe  is `to fall into the
adopted, that is, I believe, -with one dissenting vote.                         error of boardism, so prevalent in our -modern American  Church-
And no:.one  certain&  raised an objection against th&                          es.. We must emphasize the missionary as our representative
right of Synod to adopt such a Declaration for the use . sent by Christ with His Word to those outside of us, with that
.o$ our Mission ICommittee and upon its .request. Even very particular emphasis that the world is held accountable to
                                                                                the lively preaching of the Gospel. Therefore he is sent by a
the delegates of. Classis West at that time raised no                           local  &ur&. .
objectioii against the legality .of adopting the Declar-                         ;  If  t@s message is in any way brought  directiy  to the  Mis-
ation of Principles.                                                            slon  Committee+Synod,  that is so that Synod initiate  its.con-
     The objections were raised in  Classis West and                            sideration. This is a serious error. Synod  can only treat that
overtured toSynod in 195s.                                                      sort  of material which belongs to all our churches in common
     Now, in the Acts of Synod, 1951, Article 200, p,                           by way of instruction from our Churches. Other material that
                                                                                belongs to our churches in common which synod may treat up+
182, we read:                                                                   iti own  ini,t&tive  is that which has been  ,delegated   tom it and
  The motion of Article 128 "That the ,action  of the 1950 Synod           .regulated.  by  Synodical  standing  c&mittees  and constitutions.
                                                                                  3. We.  wish. to call attention to our history as Prot. Ref.
in reference  ko the Declaration of Principles is contrary to our  `.
`Protestant Reformed way and  re&&tions   and to Reformed                       Chukches, how we have  alwa.ys  emphasized these principles
                                                                           more than any one ~else. We have emphasized, moreover, &ore
  11 was in doubt about this part of the report. `Hence, I  in-                 than any present-day  R&formed  group that we always must
quired about it. It now appears, that the  classis merely  de-                  have  a. clearly defined, concrete case before we take action.
tided (a) that .as far as they are concerned the synod cannot                   This- action regarding t'he Declaration  lacks the essential ele-
go into the contents d`f the ~`~D`ecla.ration"  because it is ill&gal;
(b) that. they,  $evertheless,  Send the entire protests through                ments of this principle. We really only have a general call
to  syndd- for this  .body to  det,eSmine  whether,  or not  .they will         for  help on the question what is binding, without a concrete
discuss  tr;e contents."  "                                                     error presented. To do  `this what we have done  a,dmits  a/ the


342                                      _  .THE  S T A N - D A R D   B E A R E R                                       -
                                                                               L
in,sdequacy   df the status quo basis, and  b/ will fail of effec-                  in its  June session,  1951, thoroughly went into the
tiveness.                                                                           matter, allowed all the delegates of Synod to argue at
We  call attention to our  method  pursued in our  H&and case,                      length about it, and finally found the protest and its
the  g&ing  of infants for adoption. From a'concrete case, there                    grounds wanting. By the rejgction of this advice aud
was presented a protest.  A,nd Synod very wisely advised to
put into .the hands of a study committee.                                           of this protest and its grounds, it stands to reason that
  Let us also see how Scripture in its historical instanc,es  -and                  at  -the same time the Declaration was considered le-
utterances teaches us to wait  fo< the occasion God causes to                       gal and legally adopted. Classis West and the Consis-
arise, and gives us wisdom and insight at that particular time.                     tory of Bellflower certainly exerted all their influence
Consider how Saul was commanded tq wai,t  seven days according ' to show that the :Synod of 1950 committed an illegal
to the command of Samuel. Let us wait according to our tried
`and tested `ways  tp be most effective in our peculiar times.                      act, contrary tp church polity, when it adopted the
                                                                                    Declaration of Principles. It therefore accused Synod
       ?)k;is  m&olz;`tog&er   with its' grounqs,  the Sjrio$                       of a violation of the Church  Order. Synod  was not
rejected.        And by  the rejection of this  pTot$st the                         fourid guilty of the matter of this accusation,  dnd
legality of the Declaration  still stood.  -                              :         therefore was found innocent. Now certainly, Synod
. Mow, does  Classis West in its  -r.eneGed  protest \does not have to produce special grounds to prove its
against the legality of the Declaration produce. any                                innocence.    After the  pkotest  of  Classis West and
new grounds which Synod will have to consider?                                      Bellflower was rejected, the- Synod at the same time
. The decision of Classis West in this` matter ?ef ers                              and by that very rejection decided that its adop.ti.on
as `gl:ounds,` first' if' all, t6 the" overt&e of BeilfloweK,                       of the Declaration of Principles in 1950 was entirely
.grounds 1  and 2, , on page  13.  `There we read the                               according to Church [Order, and therefore legal.
following : 1                                                      1 .                 2." Does that mean, however, that the rejection .of
 ,$y&d  bf 1951 failed  to  an&e;   &he protests  ok  ,Classis'  West,              the protest of ,Classis West and Bellflower was decided
`and Bellflower, and rejected. the  .a.dQice  of  the  commi.ttee of                upon without any grounds or motivation,. although
,pr+-advice  A,  without  motiv&tion.-   i                                          they were not expressed verbally and literally? Of
   ?his is contrary to  ,ChurchV   Qrder,   al&l?  30, which states                 c6urse not, I well remember how the Synod argued
`that  ecclksiastical  matters shall  he transacted  in"  +q.  e<clepias-.
tical  mannei. 5.  J&&n   k  his  `coFmenta.ry   diskinguishek   this               in d,efense  of the legality of adopting the Declaration
&anner  from  1 political, military, `judicial and other manners
          s                                                                         of Principles.    It pointed out. that the Declaration
which `are "&aracterize! by I coinmand &d force. H e   `corr@ly                     was mleant for the Mission Committee as a basis for
points out that  ,the  ecclesi@i&al,,   appioach  is characterized  by              the organization of churches  ;. that the Mission Com-
convi&ibn?  persuasion, instruction  and guidance. .  .So  he  al.so                mittee was a s:-nodical committee ; and that as such.
points but that all decisions  sh&ld  bk  &tiv?ted  and- founded
upon  God';  Woid.                                                                  *it could only appeal,  as well as report, to Synod di-
  "This-  failure of  Synod- which  ibva@at&  '  the  :actio,n   dalien             rectly ; that therefore the matter of the Declaration
-\Gas f&ther  maintained ih a failure `to honor `6 request to con-                  could not originate in the consistories and be orer-
sider the necessity  of adoptink  the' docum&t-  before prbceed@g                   tured .from consistory, to classis to synod. It pointed
tp adopt  it.                                               ._.                     out that, moreover, the  synodical Mission Commiltee
   2. Tge d&isi&~ "zto adopt . . . to be used  o&  by,  ihe,  %Iission              had a very copcrete  case in regard to the organiza-
Com&ttee  `and the Missionaries . .`. ." (Acts, Art. ,248) is a
decision not' worthy  of a  ihuicl!.   `.To `limit an expression of                 tion of churches from the Liberated ; that Artiole  30
`d&t&+ to  niissioli  work  and  not  `t?  us:' it for office bearers in            does not characterize as ecclesiastical matters only
chu&es   alrealdy  orga&ed  is "very strange and annuls itself.
                            .      _          _~     ,.       .                     those matters that come to the major assemblies from
       Now certainly, in "1" there is no nevir ground .fur- the minor assemblies because they could not be dealt
riished by Blellflow&r against the legality .of the Dee-' with in the latter, b.ut also matters that pertain to the
laration. `Whit Bellflower hkre protests  against, is nbt                           churches of the major assembly in common, in this
the legali& .of the Declaration, but. path& agaiqst `t&e                            case, therefore, of the ,Synod. It appealed to Art. 51
fact that the Synod .furnished' no grounds for its re-                              of the ,Church Order, which reads: "The missionary
 jection of the advice .of the Committee of Pre-advice                              work of the churches is regulated by the general syn-
.A, Point I, with its grounds 1, 2, and 3. 1 But I reply :                          od in a mission order." * It is certainly not true, there-
       ' l.`That `it certainly. was. not `tiecessary  f Or Synod fore, that t&e rejection of the protest of Classis West
to'  furnish  +c~  giounds. &as& West  and the  Con- and Bellflower was entirely unmotivated, even though
 sistoiy of, ,Bellflo.wer  prqte&ed  against the legality of the Synod was not obliged to furnish grounds for the
:the Declaration of Principles. -Synod considered their legality of its own actions.
 grounds. f or this .protest,  argued about them. at .length                            3. Also' the argument of Bellflower, that Synod
-
   1It must be  ~en&nbered  that the  grounds,  belong  &Jy to II                   "failed to honor a request to consider the necessity of
 of tli@ i-&port' quoted -in the first part of the editorial, .and:con-             adopting the document before pr0cedin.g  to adopt it,
 tern;  strictly speaking," only `the  .alleged  violation of  $he  ec-
.clesias&l        Imanner!"                                                          is certainly not a ground of protest `against the legal-


-
                                                `1'HG  $y&frARfi  BEARER                                                      343

          ity of the  Decl&atton of Principles. Or may  Sjrnod         of the' necessity of cleaning out some cesspools  df
          only adopt what is .strictly  necessary? Besides, the        corruption in our churches.
          very fact that the Mission Committee applied to Synod            I openly declared- that. I agreed with the Rev. bp-
          for some such document as the Declaration of Princi- hoff.
          ples, and that Synod honored its request, is sufficient          Thereupon a motion was made that the Rev. Op-
          proof that-there was  riced of such a Declaration.           hoff and myself should be censured for these state-
             4. I fail to understand the force of ground 2 in this     ments. Personally, I urged. the classis that &hey should
          protest of Bellflower. If Bellflower means to argue in       unanimously 5dc$t this motion, seeing that this would
          favor of the adoption of the Declaration of Principles       offer me an opportunity to bring the whole matter to
          in general, without limiting its force and value to the      the attention of  Cla&is.'  .--
          Mission Committee, I have no objection. We should                Hesitatingly the motion was carried.
          have had some sort of Declartion  when we ov'ganized             Thereupon I asked Cl&is for time to preptire  my
          as Protestant Ref. Churches, a positive declaration          reply and to. prove that I said nothing improper, un-
          over against the Three Points adopted by the Synod- seemly, or untrue.                                ,.. -
          of 1924, Kalamazoo. But Bellflower is begging  thx               This I did in a seventeen page document, ih which           -
          question when it simply states, without any py'pof or        I proved that the parties -concerned  lied indeed, and
          motivation, &hat it is wrong for d church, that it iS not    that it is high time that we clean .ouit certain cess-
          worthy of a church, to declare to the outside and as a       pools of corruption in our church&. At the end of
          basis foi organization of- churches,, what we as Pro-        my speech, I gave a copy to the clerk -of the Classis,
          testant -Reformed `Churches beIieve  to be the expres-       and informed the Classis that, unless they apologized,
          sion of the truth of our Rkformed  Confessions. Nor          I would never appear again.
          is there in this ground a protest against the &gality            The next day, I received a delegation from Classis
          of the adoption of the Declaration by Synod.                 that presented me with the following document:            ..
                                                              H.H.         "Moved to explain our decision under Art. 96 (the
                                                                       article of the Minutes pertaining to our censure H.H.)
                        ---@                                           since that decision has been misinterpreted so as to
                                                                       mean that both, the Revs. H.H. and ,G. M. ,Ophoff, are
                              C.n&,d!!??                               under `censure in the accepted sknse of the word as                  .
                                                                       outlieed  under Arts. 71-80 D.K:O., while Classis kndws
             The Revs. Ophoff and Hoeksema are censured!               and hereby exljresses that the decision meant no more
             This news flashed like wildfire through our church-       than to express .that the pertinent remarks we're pre-
          es during the week of the recent meetings of ,Classis        matune and hence out of order."
          East,                                                            I am glad, indeed, that the Classis expressed that
             From Grand Rapids-it was flashed to Hull, and from        my remarks  w$~,."pertinent." This means, according
          Hull to distant Redlands, California.                        to the dictionary, "related to the subject or matter ifi
     -       And the day after it all happened I received a tel-       hand, fit oy- appropriate in any way . . . " with the, syn:
          ephone call from Redlands to inquire whether it was          `or&n? : ,"apposite,  relevant, suitable, appropriate, fit."
          really true:                                                     Only, I fail to understand how a classis can censure
             How sinall and gossipyh village is the -U.S. when it      anyone ,for making relevent, appropriate and suitable
          concerns  n.ews that people are interested  td  he&,         r e m a r k s .
          whether .sad or joyful !         _                    *          But let-that be. It is plain from the above state-
             What happened?                                            ment that the  Classis .did  not intend to censure  USj
             At this time, I will not relate the whole story, for      though they used the term.
          it is ndt ,edifying. If later, it should prove necessary       . Thereupon, I ,returned  to ,Classis and presented the
          to broadcast all that happened (after all it was pub-        following statement:  1  ;:
          lic), I will not hesitate to do so. All the documents          "Esteemed brethren :
          relevant to the case ,ark in mjT possession. But now 1           "I received your committee and their message this
          will reveal only the bare facts.                             noon. And in reply I have .the following :'
          Here they are.                                                   "1. .In the 1i:ght of your explanation of what you
             The Rev. G. M. Ophoff read a document in which            meant by Ait. 96, I can again take my place in the
          he  acetied certain parties of lying. I had done the         classis,  and function -in my advisory capacity.
          same thing in a document which was received by the               1`2. However, even with the censure as explained
     `ClaBsis for information without any further comment.             this morning, I"do not agree,: biit insist that I said
          Beside& the Rsev. Ophoff, in the sanie document, spoke       nothing-out of order.or prematurely, but simply spbke
                   1                  .


3        4       4                                 I'HE.  STAN.DARC  -@E,ARER

of. things that were known to the whole classis froni Christian young woman. When, after  .a few years,. his wife
the  .material  on the table and used no improper                              died, he cursed God, and in an insane rage became the cause
                                                                               of the death of his little girl. Later,  Fe became interested in
language, ,but merely spoke the truth without camou-                           a little girl from an orphanage, who had a good itnifluence  upon
flage.`?                  -                                                    him. `He contracted an incurable disease, wrote his  own' life's
      The Classis also received this document for infor?                       history (the present novel), and through the. instrumentality
mationl                                                                        of the minister of his former wife, became converted.
                                                                                     Interesting,-though I do not like the main character of the.
" This concluded the matter.                                     - H . H .     b o o k .
                                                                                      Read it, and see .how you like it.
                                                                                                                                        -H.H.

                                                                                                         -:-::--
                         O f ,   B.00..KS- .
                                                        :                      -.
DE  CIVITATE   DElI I; by Dr. D. K. Wielenga.  rublished  by                   . . ...-.-.io-,-,,-,~,-,,-,-,-,-~,-,-,,-,,-,-,,-,-,-,-~.:.
,;.J. H. Kok, N.  V., Kampen the Netherlands. Price f.3.50.
                                                   .                           1  O U R   D O C T R I N E   1
     This book has nothing to do with the  ywell-known  work by                 7
Augilstina  under  the same title, exdqpt  th$ the author treats               .~-Be,w.~~-<-s~ ,,-l)ll,-t-l,-l,-~,-,,-,,-~-,,--,-,,-~~
somewhat the same kind of material as Atignsiine  in his "City
of God." It is designed as :a textbook  fo$ high schools, and                                THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE
for this it is admirably adapted.                                                      AN EXPOSITION OF THE-HEIDELBERG CATECHISM
     `Xt is  .difficult  to  char.acterize  the  cohtents  of this work. It
is partly doctrinal, partly history of dogma, partly church .his-                               `PART' 111 - OF  -THANKFULNESS
tory. This first volume treats, apart from a  doctrinal.   part,
the history of the church up to the time of the  Reformatlon.                                              LORD'S DAY 35
     This is  .a very interesting book, worthy of a translation for
our own Christian High Schools, and I gladly recommend it                                       4. God is a  Jeald& God (cont.)
to the average reader who is  able  to read Dutch.
     Two remarks. I do not believe that the question of the age                         It is evident from the entire passage that the
of. the earth can be left to the scientist; and whether Thomas                  apostle is thinking not of all that may be known of
a   Kempis  wrote  De  In@atione   ChrLti   is,. to eay  the..,least           IGod, but of those attributes that through the medium
d?ubtful,                                                                       of the works of ,God's h&d ii creation and providence
                                                                                even the natural man is capable of discerning. And
GODS  WOO'RD  IN  -MEN,SELIJF   ISCflRIFT,~  by Dr. H. J.
     Westerink. J. H. Kok, N.V..Kampen,  the Netherlands. Price                 he emphasizes .tha$ these attributes of God are mani-
     f.5.75.                                                                    fest in them. They are not merely written before their
                                             `
                                              .                                 eyes in the works of the Almighty, but the knowledge
,, Also this book (The Word of  Go6  in  Hum?   Sciipt)  is  some-
*hat difficult to summarize as to its contents. Partly, it moves                of .God is conveyed: to their very consciousness. God
?n the  iield  of what we would call the  Introlduction  to the Old             hath showed it unto them. In themselves the things
and New Testament; partly, it is .a textual criticism'; partly, `of  `God are invisible. For not only is God a Spirit,
it deals with various translations of the Bible: the Septuagint,                but Re is-also infinite in all His perfections. If He is
the Vulgate, and the var$us Dutch t:anslations.                                 to be known, He must show Himself in such a manner,
     Dr. Westerink is a conservative theologian who  p?oceeds
from the principle  of. faith that the Bible  is the Word of God.               speak of Himself in such language, that tht creature
     ,He writes lucidly and the book may be recommended to the                  who is made by Him can understand the language.
average intelligent. reader. The  treaimetit  .. of the different 1 This God has done from the creation of the world. The
subjects-is brief as might be expected in a book of 111 pages.                  things that are made are inst?umental  in the revela-
For the theologian there is very little new information  b the                  tion of the ,invisible things of #God. They speak. They
book, except, perhaps, in the history of the different Dutch                    utter knowledge. And to a certain extent that speech
translations.         Nevertheless, for the average Bible student, it
,is both  interesiing  and  vahiable..                                          also penetrates to the natural man, who is in the dark-
                                                                                ness of sin and corruption. He certainly possesses suf-
HET PARADIJ,S, by Jan Overduin; J. H. Kok, N. V., Kampen,                       ficient light to prove the apostle's statement that he
     the Netherlands. Price f-5.40.                                             holds the truth in unrighteousness. For also to the
     This book (Paradise) is a Christian novel. Its main  charac-               natural man  the things that are made convey the
 ter`is a morbid introvert, shy and inclined to live by himself,                knowledge of God's eternal power and Godhead. Crea-
who as a boy .and young man did not enjoy a Christian bring-                         tion speaks of God as infinite in poiver, witnesses of
 ing up or attend church.  SIn school he  once  idolized `a certain                  Him as being God over all, and therefore as the One
 girl but  beca:me  thoroughly  disaptioi'nteld  when she proved not that is to be feared and thanked and adored. And by
 to  tieasure  up -to his paradisiacal ideal of her. Later, he fell
 in love with and  marrie.d a co-student at the university,  ,a                      his natural light `man, even in his sin beholds this,


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   BBARER                                            345
                                 -                                                                                  -
and hears this speech.      For the things are clearly ishable man, corruptible beasts, creeping things and
seen. They are understood by  the things that are winged fowl. This was a terrible encroachment upon
made. {God causes them to be manifest in him. Men-            the majesty of an ever-living and infinite God. But at
tally man is able to contemplate the invisible things         the same time. it also is a revelatioti of the wrath of
of God as shining t.hrough.the things that are made.          `God, Who plunged them into their foolishness. Man,
If, therefore, he sins, it is not due to natural darkness.    originally formed after the image of God and designed
If man had lost even his natural light completely, so         to have dominion over all things, now was found kneel-
that in no sense any testimony of God could penetrate         ing before, trusting in, and expecting all his help and
his consciousness, he would not be able to sin and as'-       salvation from the graven image of a creature that
sume an attitude of ungodliness and unrighteousness           was perishable like himself and over which he had
over against the living God. But now it is different. been destined to reign. The  self:willed  and wicked
What is known of God is manifest also in his consci-          wisdom of man was proved to be foolishness.
ousness. He knows God as the One t,hat must be serv-             The wrath of `God was revealed from heaven be-
ed atid feared and glokified.                                 cause of this encroachment  u,pon the glory of the
    This, however, man refused to do. We read in vs.
                   .                                          divine Being.
21: "Because that when they knew <God,  they glorified           And hoti did it become revealed upon the world
him not as God, neither were thankful ; but became            of that time? The  answer we find, first of all, in
vain in their imaginati.ons,  and their foolish heart was     vs. 24: "Wherefore <God  also gave them up to unclean-
datikened." Man was in duty bound to extol the glory          ness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor
of IGod. `Such was his calling. It was incumbent upon their- own bodies between themselves."
him to know the name of the living God, and behold-
iqg its glory, to  sing its praise.  And.not only this.          The moral degradation of the  heat,hen  world is
For God is not only glorious in Himself, so ,that all         revealed here as the r.esult of an act of God's wrath
praise and honor- belong to Him alo?e ; but the crea-         upon them. IGod gave them up unto uncleanness.
ture also receives- all good things from Him. It there-          We know how Dr. Kuyper, in his "De Gemeene
fore is becoming. to man; who knows Him, that `he _ Gratie," interpreted these words, as well as those in
s'hall bow in grateful acknowledgement  bef,ore  that         vss. 26 and 28. To him `<God gave them up" expres-
IGod and thank Him for all His  ,goodness. But in             ses  &e same thing aB if the apostle` had said, "He
both these respects the sinner failed. He refised +o          abandoned them, He let th.em go, He refrained from
glorify Him as God, aiid failed to be thankful. Upon `further exerting His restraining influence upon them."
all this ungodliness-the wrath of God i,s revealed from       ihe text was exegeted thus in order to find a basis -for
heaven.. It is reveal:ed  also in the fact that the sinner    the theory.that God in grace restrains sin in its pro-
became vain in his imaginations and that his foolish          gress. This being Dr. Kuyper's purpose, the entire
mind was darkened, so darkened that "he changed .passage  of  R,om.  1~18, `ff. is distorted to say exactly
the glory of the uncorruptible  God into an image made- the opposite `from what the apostle actually teaches
like to eqrruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted         here. The argument is as follows. #God let the heath-
Ibeasts,  and creeping things." Thus the heathen world        en go ; He abandoned them to their own hearts lusts
plunged into all the folly of idolatry and image wor-         at a certain period of their religious and moral- devel-
,ship.    They professed  themsel&s  to be wise. But          opment. This presupposes. that there was a period
their pretended wisdom was spiritual foolishness. And         preceding this historic moment in which, He had not
the Lord turned it `into all the folly of idolatry and thus given them up. Hence,, dariqg', tl;iS  heriod He
image worship. They professed themselves to be wise.          restrained them. He held their sinful lusts. in check,
But their pretended wisdorq was spiritual foolishness.        so that they were not  as sinful  ai'- they  .otherwise
And the Lord turned it into folly even as far as its          might have been. But this interpret&ion is plainly
natural manifestation was concerned. In their .wiek-          against the clear meaning of the -p+s?ge.     The con-
ed deliberations they  chose. and formed their own text witnesses against thjs  i@&pretation.  For Paul
god.s and-made images of the invisible and infinite maj-      had not spoken of a revelation' <f God's grace, where-
esty  ih the heavens. Not heeding the truth being wit- by sin had been checked in tee past, but on the con-
-nessed to them through the things that are mad2 con- trary, of a  revelation-`,bf   &d's wrath from heaven,
cerning the glory of  .an imperishable and  &orPup-           whereby sin had developed from bad to worse. The
tible God, revealing His eternal power  arid godhead          foolish heart of the sinner -@ad been darkened, and
round about them in the works of  I&s hands, they he now bowed before `man and  be&t and creeping
p&sently realized their own conceptions of God. They things.           Besides,  .the meaning of the words them-
represented the Most. High under the images of per-           selves, `<God -gave `them up,". testifies against such


 345                                      T H E   STA.NOARD   B E A R E R
                               -.--.-/                               (?
 an internretation.  This is evident fr.om all Scripture.                  ani  Pelagian. Hence, ,the word in Romans 1 denotes
 When we read in Matt. .I0 :21, "And the brother shall                     a positive act of Gbd whereby the heathen, who changl
 deliver up the brother to death, and the father the                       ed the image of the incorruptible God into the image
 child,". the same worcl .is used in the original for "de-,                of corruptible man, was cast into all the moral degra-
 liver up" as in Romans  l-24 for  `cgave up". `Yet it                     dation that is described in the rest of the chapter and
 is `plain that:the  meaning- is not that the brother shall that is here denoted by the single word "uncleanness".
 abandhn or let go the brother to death, and the father                      Indeed ,God visits th,e iniquity of the fathers upon
 the child.  :  .See also Mark 13  :12. In  A,cts  8-:3 we                 the children in the third and. fourth generation of
 read: "As for Saul, he-made havoc of the church, en-                      them that hate Him.
 tering into every house, and hailing men and women,                          Let us enter a little more deeply into this act of
 com?nitted  them  to prison." Th.e word for "commit- ,God whereby He gave up the heathen that trampled
 ted" in the original of this verse is the same as that                    His glory under foot.
 employed in Romans 1 for -".gave up". Yet it is- plain                       First of all, that God cast them down into unclean-
 that the meaning cannot be that Saul abatidoned  them                     ness, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, and
 or let thein go into. prison, but that. he actively led                   further into all the moral debasement described in the
 them into prison. In Matt.  17:22 we find the same                        last part of this -chapter, d-r;aws  our attention.- It is
 word used in.tlle following sentence : "The Son of man                    evident that the punitive infliction here indicated is
 shall be betrayed into the hands of men." Also there                      entirely in harmony..~with the nature of the sin they,
the word ddes -not  de?ote  a  m~ere passive abandon-                      the heathen; had first .committed.  Debasement relig-
 ment, btit a positive act. The same is true of Matt.                      i,~usly is punished with debasement morally. If man
 24 :9, where we read : "Then shall they deliver you up                    perverts the relation between God and himself, his
 to be afflicted." These examples could easily be multi-                   sin is punished with a distortion of the moral relation'
 plied. They shed light upon the meani.ng of the word                      among men mutually. The sin and the  punishme&
 which Paul here in' Romans 1 employs.               No more               are in harmony with each other, and the latter is
 than it can be said that anyone is deliv.ered  up unto                    manifestly just. The heathen had changed the glory
 i&son or `into death,  in,&0 the hands of anyone, or                      of the incorrtiptible  God into an image of corruptible
 unto affliction' and tribulation .by an act of mere pas-                  man and of beasts and qf creeping things. Man want-
 sive abandonment,' no more has anyone the right to                        ed a god, but he refused to acknowledge. and honor
 ~give that passive meaning to the word used in Rom.~ `God. He closed his eyes to God's revelation of His et-
  1:24, 26, 28. Certainly, the heathen also fell into                      ernal power  z-i! godhead,  aad he made himself an
  thk mire of their moral corruption and degradation by                    image of. God like unto himself and the beasts of the
  an act of their own will. They chose to follow after                     field. Now it is entirely proper and just that as a
  the lusts of their o&-hearts.  IGod's operation never                    man's god is, so is not only his religion, but also his
  encroaches upon man's moral. freedom and  regponsi-                      moral standard. If he chooses to call sinful man.his
 bility. The giving up of God did fiat take place against                  god, his moral principles and his life will be according
  but in harmony with their own will and lusts. ,to the standard of sinful man. If he worships an ox,
  But' this does not remove the fact that the word de-                     a frog, a serpent, he will have the moral principles
  n&es a positive act of `God whereby the heathen that                     of an ox, frog or serpent. And since after- all him-
  abondoned Him is cast .into deeper degradation and                       self is no animal, but man, made originally after the
  cbrruption.. Besides, thig is also in harmony with all                   image of God, it is but just that he should be degra-
  that the Scriptures teach concerning God's relation                      dated so far below the level of animal life as a wor-
  to the*creature,  and in cogformity  with-Reformed doc-                  shipper stands below a god whom he worships. For
  t&e: It is not Scriptural, neither Reformed to teach man never stands on the same level with his god. If,
  that dad `ever abandons the creature, even His moral                     then, an ox is the god of his choice, it is `evident that
  creature. `Thou& ,.God `is never the author df .s7n in                   he should be lower than the ox. Religion and morality
  &an, yet he dqe%,.cooperate  with. Him even when he                      are closely related. The latter is dependent upon the
  wal& in ways of-&n and corru$iog.l*  ,He does not on-                    former. This is the relation God established. It is a
  ly] ferm. the vessels of honor, but also.. &he vessel2 of                just relation, so'inseparably  connected with and in-
  w+&j th! former unto,  kternal glory,. and the latter                    hererit in the nature of things,' that to us moral deg-
  u-r& "destruction ; .the former as a manifestation of                     radation appears but as an inevitable consequence
  His-  infin&e.:mercy;   `the.  latter as a  Y:evelation  of His           of religious  apostacy  from the living God. Yet this
  righteous iqdignation. .To .s.peak of God as abandon-                     moral degradation would never result if .God did not
  &.,&e `,&e,tur~:a~d-  .al&vinb' hi--to choose his. own                    bring it about as a punitive infliction upon the sinner
  ways iodepend!@. @~-an operz$ion of . . God is deistic
   __      .._.                                                             that lifts his rebellious fist in the face of the Holy One,


                                     -THE  S'I'A%DAAR  BZARER.                                                       347

He -casts the sinner down as a manifestation of His ly the apostle express& this when he adds: "To dis-
just wrath and holy indignation.                               honor their bodies between themselves." It may be
   Besi-des, we may also note that even in the act of admitted that this last phrase is descriptive indeed of
this punitive infliction God never encroaches upon the the particular uncleanness which the apostle has in
moral nature and responsibility of a sinner which He mind. But it is not  mer,ely  c+seriptive,   further  qual-
thus gives over and casts down. Man is never a mere ifying the moral degradation of the sinnkr. It also
machine, operated by ,God.. When God through grace expresses purpose and. design. ,God cast them down
draws the sinner unto Himself and sheds abroad His             into that uncleanness in order that they should, liv-
love into his heart, renewing and sanctifying him by ing apart from Him and departing from.His  ways and
the efficacious operation.of His Spirit, the sinner him-       corrupting His glory, dishonor their bodies, and thus
self wills to repent,-wills to humble himself, wills to be corrupt themselves, receiving the mete recompence  of
saved, wills to turn from his evil way, wills tD believe their error' in themselves. Sin begets sin. And sin
in Christ, and wills to -walk in a new and holy life of        begotten works .dNeath and destructioti.  And God works
love to ,God. He does not feel- himself compelled by a it all to manifest that He is holy and righteous, and
force outside of him and foreign to his own moral that He cannot be in'. league with the sinner that de-
nature. On the contrary, in all these actions he is.im-        parts from Him:and chooses to corrupt His glorious
pelled by the promptings of his own heart, although revelation. No one can  depert  from -the living God
them deepest cause of it all is. the irresistible bperation    and be safe, even for a moment.
of God drawing him out .df darkness into His marvel-              The apostle continues to. develop; this theme of the
ous light. The same is true of the- wicked when God            reveletion  of the wrath of God to the very end df the
punishes in this case sin with sin, and casts the sin-         chapter. In vs.-25 he calls attention once more to the
ner. down into the mire of moral debasement. This is judicial ground upon which <God gave over the heath-
indicated in  the  t,ext when the apostle writes:              en world into the miye of corruptiqn  and debauch&y
"Through the lusts of their own hearts." God gave which he will presently describe. The ground is that
up the heathen that forsdok Him not throu.gh any ex- men have sinned against the: living, Go& against .the
ternal power or force, but through the instrumental- Creator that is blessed forever. ' -He. al'one- is worthy
ity of something that was inherent in their own moral          to receive the praise and adoration of all His creatures.
nature. Man has desires. When. that creature with And it is particularly man's calling to extol this praise
those desires is controlled by the love and fear of' the -of the blessed God. For he is made after-.the image
Lord, and chooses ,God to be his God all is well: for          of God. And  besore all creatures man  n&t praise
then he will thirst after the living God. above all, and the great and glorious God, and tell of His`wonders.
in his moral life it will be his delight' to do the will       Such is his calling. But instead, men changed the
of the` Lord. But when the relation between God and truth of God into a lie. The truth of `God is His rev-
his heart is distorted because of sin, `God operates ,in       elation, in this instance the revelation -as*.it  co$es `in
`wrath upon him. and upon the desires of his -heart.           all the works of ,God's hands, the revelation of God's
For the object of ,God's  wrath he is. _ And again, when       eternal power and godhead. That truth, which pro-.
God operates in His fiery wrath upon those desires in          claimed God as being glorious `and infmite ifi power,
the heart. of' that sinful man, those desires turn into        they had wilfully ehanged into the lie of their false
lusts. And in these lusts the sinner yearns after uni          gods and images, and they had represented `ihe Most
cleanness, and, chooses moral degradation and filth as         High under the images of man and beasts and creep-
the sphere of his life. And the result is .that. the sin- -ing things. Thus they worshipped  ,and served the
ner, forsaking Gpd, arrives in the;mire of moral de-           creature instead of? the gl%ious Creator. This was
pravity and uncleanness by virtue of `his own choice. the  Cause of God's burning  .wrath. He cannot allow
Yet God, employing the lusts of the sinner. as His in-         His `glory to be trampled under foot. And this wrath
strument,. directs that'choice from heaven; and,in pun- He continued to reveal from heaven in giving the
itive wrath casts down the sinner intq the darkness ungodly over into all the vile sins they c,ommitted..
qf corruption. -                                                 Then the apostle takes up-the thought again which
   Thus- God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon he had already expressed in vs. 24.  ,Only from vs.
the children unto the third and fourth generation of 26 to the end of the chapter `he- enters into a detailed
them that hate Him.                                            #description of the corruption of the world. In vs. 24
   Finally, in this connection we may also notice that he had spoken of the lusts of their hearts, and of
the ultimate purpose of God in thus dealing with the their dishonoring their {bodies between themselves.
sinner is not the deeper sin and corruption with which Now in vs. 26 the apostle expresses definitely the sin
he is punished, but his death and destryction,      Plain-     to which he refers, He emphasized `once more that


                                                       . .



      3&                                          iiim  STANDA~~D  BeARBR
                                           -.

       he is dealing with the judicial act of retribution on the
       part of  IGod. He gave them over. And the  first cor-
       ruption he proceeds to mention in detail is that which f.  .THROU-GH  THE AGES  1
       pertains to sexual intercourse. These are mentioned
       first undoubtedly becau'se they were first in ,reality.          The Arm~an  or Remonstrant Struggle
       Bodily  lust> followed closely upon the heels of un-
       godliness. When mati departs and separates himself              In the third number of the 28th volume of "The
     from God, his bodily lusts are unchained. These are            Standard Bearer" I presented, in the course of my
       the first that assert themselves. They are strong and        treatment of the above-cited subject, the "Five
       become like-a consuming fire in his blood. They rule         Articles of the Remonstrants" in both languages (the
       over him, and he is their slave. They drag him down,         Putch and the English) ; and in the following num-
       and he follows them into inevitable destruction. They        ber the "Contra-;Remonstrati$on"  of the Calvinists. The
       are also most degrading and revolting, where they            translation is mine.
       manifest themselves in the unnatural relations of               It waswith  this "Remonstration" of the Calvinists
       w$ich the apostle is-speaking in the text. And last-         that I was last occupied. In commenting on this trea-
       ly, they are at the same time the clearest manifesta-        tise, I wrote:
       tion of the wrath of  Gods against all ungodliness of           Certainly the ,Contra-Remonstration  of the Calvin-
       men. For they reveal <God's design upon the corrup-          ists is a noble document despite the fact that there are
       tion of the body as a mete punishment for their sin.         weaknesses in it. The theme of its seven articIes is
       In the original the apostle does not speak pf men and        that :God is God and none else, and that, accordingly,
       women, but of .males  and females. The reason `is un-        His predestination-election and reprobation, his sav-
       doubtedly because it is to that part of their life that      ing grace-are sovereign. This doctrine it success-
       had to do with sex particularly that he js here refer-       fully champions and defends in opposition to the lying
       ring.. We may notice too that he mentions the sin of         theories of the Remonstrants. All the complaints and
       the women first, probably because in them it is most         repuests that it voices and directs to the rulers in the
       revolting. ~ The sin mentioned is horrible indeed. Wo- -state are just. The spirit that pervades the document
       men live with women, men are heated toward men.              is thoroughly Christian throughout; it is humble, con-
       In their craving lusts they seek satisfaction in prac-       trite, sincere and respectful. Not once did the author
       tices uncommon, against nature, and unseemly.  And_ and thle signatories of .this writing fonget that it was
       thus God's purpose was reached. For in His wrath their government that they were addressing. Yet in
     He purposed to destroy them. And by their anti-nat-            stating their complaints and in exposing the errors of
       ural practices they worked out their own destruction,        their opponents they did not mince words.  IOn the
       and received in themselves the due  recompence  for          contrary, their sentences bespeak a firmness of spirit
     their first aberration, the changing of the truth `of          born of the conviction that the doctrine championed
     IGod into a lie. And  certainly,~  if the cover  could`be      is the' truth and nothing but the truth.
       torn from the hidden night-life of the wqrld of today,           The "Remonstration" contains some passages that
       we wodld discover undoubtedly that with equal verac-         I here want to quote and comment upon. First this
-      ity the same. statement might be made in application         passage : -
       t?  imodern life.    1,  ,,
                            _.'                                       "The ministers sin with reckless  boldnless,  if they
                               _.                        `-H.H.     spread-and if the rulers allow to be spread-among
                                                                    the churches opinions that militate against the accept-
                                           ISI                      ed doctrine before.they have been investigated by their
                                      -                             brethren and have been generally approved. Had the
                                                                    Remonstrants indeed but acted according to the ad-
                                                                    monition of this celebrated theologian (Ursinus) , we
                      80 Lord, to Thee I cry  ;                     would have preserved rest and unity in our churches.
       :._      :       Thou are *my rock and. trust;               What mikes it that some of our churches are so divid-
        .      ..:    10 be not silent, lest I die                  ed, that some do not desire to hear their ministers
                        And slumber in the- dust                    and eat with  theti the Lord's Supper? The reason
                                                                    is that even the common man notices that some mini-
                      ,O let me have no part                        sters preach differently than until now it has always
                        With those that hate the right;             been the custom to teach in the Reformed Churches,
                      For as their works, so their reward:          yea, even diffenently than they, themselves were accus-
                      Jehovah will requite.                         tomed to teach."


                                         THE  STANDAR,D   BIZARZ:R                                                              849

      We need `only observe here that so it always goes                 essarily'and inevitably must be saved and cannot per-
   when a differen* sound is heard from the .pulpit.                    ish, and that the reprobated-whose number exceeds
      FuPther, this passage :                           .-              that of  *he elect--necessarily and inevitably are
      "Theref,ore  we cannot by ally mea& approve that                  damned.          i",
   the Remonstrants have submitted to your Noble Loyds                      `{Others tea& that-God did, indeed regard the hu-
   certain points that they have never laidrbefore any man race as fallen ifi Adam and in consequence there-
   Consistor or Classis, and that $h.ey by the. kuthority  of           of as ill-deserving, and decreed 6 save son& but also
  your Noble Lords (the civil goveriment) want to corn-                 to allow others to abide under the c&se, yb&ig as well
  pel their brethren not alone to ,bear with them regard-               as old, even children .of covenant members, who die
  ing these views, but also to maintain future ministers                in. their infancy-and so decreed without' any respect
  who  &hare these views with them in the hope that to penitence and faith in the some and to unbelief and
  eventually they will prevail in the Resormed  churches                impenitence in the others. In consequence thereof-
  of these lands."                                                      according to these teachers-Jesus Chri& di,d not die
      The Calvinists  were  certainly justified in protest- for all men, but for the elect alone. Ili the latter ac-
  ing against this doing of the Remonstrants, Apart                     cording to these same teachers, thie Holy Spirit is op-
  gram every other consideration, it meant that they                    erative with a power that cannot be `resisted, so that
  were unftiithful to their promise implied in their sub-               they'must believe and  rbpent and necessarily be saved."
  scription of the Formula of Subscription.                                 "The undersigned`. . . cannot in any case hold these
      Also this :                                                       points to be iri agreement with the Word of God.
                                            ,                                                                                    To
                                                                        their mind they are unedifying and harmful.`!
      "When they set forth some teachings and say that
  among us almost nothing is being preached but these                     Mark this last statement. The  doctrin(e of. sover-
  points, tie find that therein they act unjustly and not               eign election and reprobation and the doctrine that
  in good faith, since they begin-&h the high'point of                  grace is irresistible is  &arr@ul.  This, they said, is
  predestination, which is preached in our churches                     fatalism. It makes of men stocks and blocks and de-
  with moderation and caution only to bring out that                    nies human responsibility. In'these doctrines is to be
  the gface of God is unmerited and to t$ke away al.1                   found a -cause fmor carelessly following the evil lusts
  human merit and worth."                                               of the flesh. `Of course, these objections the opponents
                                                                        ,of .the truth always and forever do raise against the
      From these lines it appears-.that  the Remonstrants true `Gospel of the Scriptures.
  were saying of the Calvinists that they almost pre,ach-
  ed nothing but election. Such is the complaint of the                     The Calvinists (Fathers of Dordt) replied also to
  enemies of the true preaching of thfe Gospel of today                 these slanders. `The seventh and final article of their
  as well as of that d&y. The Calvinists, of course, did                "Contra-Remonstration" reads in part :
                                                                 . `
  not deny it. On the contrary, they justified their do-                  ; "That even so the true believers do not take from
  ing on- the ground that it was necessary in order to                  this doctririe  a cause for carelessly following the evil
  bring out that the grace .of ,God is unmerited and to                 lusts of the flesh, seeing that. it is impossible that those
  take away all human worth.                                            who by a true faith have been planted into Christ
     But `the Remonstrants `(Arminians) had serious                     should not bring forth fruit% of gratitude. The v,ery
  objections to the doctrine ,of sovereign election and            opposite takes place. The more they  ho6d  themselv,es
  reprobation. In the introduction to. their "Five Ar-                  persuadsd and understand that God works in  thelm
  ticles" we come upon these lines:                                     both to wit1 and to clo according to His good pleasure,
                                                                   the more they work out with fear and trembling their
     "In order further that neither $heir noble !ords (it
  is .the Remonstrants that here speak-O) nor anyonk               salvation, seeing theat thezj ,&now .that this is the only
  else may imagine that there is something strange                 means whereby it pleases Ggcl. to make them to stand
  about their considerations that cannot bear light, they aml to lead them unto salvation."
  shall reveal which points of doctrine grieve and bur-                    The italics are ,of the undersigned. But let us take
  den them most .I. . These points of doctrine are the notice of this statement. The Arminians said: The
following: that  IGod-as  somle teach-by an eternal                preaching of a sovereign election is a cause for care-
  and unchangeablti  decree predestinated `from the hu- lessly following the evil lust of .the flesh.
  man race some unto everlasting life, and others unto                     The  fathers.~of Dordt said: the very opposite is
  everlasting damnation, soiely because He so willed; true. The doctrine that ,God works both to will and
 and without any @respect to righ,teou$ness and obedi-             to do-and this is sovereign election-is in the elect
 ence. Further that by a second decree the electnec-               the very and only incentive to holy living.


850                                      THE  S T A N D A R D   B%A.QER~
                                                        c

       This is so very true. Substitute for- the preaching threats. For he does that (they go on to say) not to
of election-and election is, the ,Gospel  and Gospel is           cause  t.hem to d,espair or to make them doubt-their
election-law, the demand of, :&he law, iexhortation  to           ofvn salvation but to awaken in them a childlike fear,
right living, and the result will  be,$eterioration   6f          d.oing so with a view to the weaknesses of their flesh"
spiritual life of `the flock ; and the end will be a church.      (Art. 7). And, ,of course, these fathers meant to say
from  which the candlestick has been removed.  ,To                these admonitions and threats do always without ex-
ke6p silence about election is to do the flock a great            ception be& precisely this fruit in His- elect, seeing
injury. What is music to the true believers is precise- that the true Preacher of the word is not man but
ly that -he loves God, serves *God, lays off sin and puts         Christ, mighty to speak His ex.hortations  in the hearts
on Christ just becaus,e  and .for the only and very rea-          of His sheep.
son that the Father of Christ m&es him to 10~6 and                   A final question.  W.as, on account of their doc-
to serve Him, to lay off sin, and put ,on Christ; that trinal position regarding election, the G?d whom they
thus his faith, also a$ an act, is ,God's  work in him. worshipped, the Allah of the Mohammedans?. ,And is
How well our Ref,oimed  fathers understood this.                  according to their conception, the believer a stock, and
       Notice; tab`, how that according to these fathers,         a stone, and the reprobate an irresponsible puppet in
`the believer's faith, His  s&eking  and striving, etc.,          <God's hands, one who, though he so very much likes
that is, faith as his act is God's means whereby it to go to heaven, `must, nevertheless -go to hell, because
pleases G,od to make him to stand. Let us take care- IGod so  determinea?
ful notice of this teaching: faith as the believer's act             .The- concluding lines of  their "Remonstration"
is  #God's means (not his) for making him to stand.               make it very  @lain what their stand was  Tegtirding
And why is this? Simply because faith as the b.elie-              these points. These lines read :.
ver's act is ,God's very own work ixhim. God worketh
in him both to will and to do. This has reference to                 "This, noble, potent and  mandating   lorc$, is in
faith also as an act. These things being true, how can brief what we insist is being taught in our churches.
faith as the believer's act be a condition that Ice must          What the Remonstrants add to it, to make. it appear
fulfil in order to be saved. This cannot be.  _  :                as hateful as possible is but a mass of consequences
                                                                  and slanderings that the carnal mind, which is :enmity
       Well, now, according to the teaching of  the.-Re-          Against God, deduces horn 3.: However, he who holds
&rmed fathers here encountered, just bemuse the be- that God was not resolved to `damn anyone` btit for his
liever knows that his working out of his salvat@,  li&            sins ; that he does not move atiyone' to sin and that also
faith as his act, is God's work and therefore al&6 @d's           they who, being dead in sin,' cannot otherwise but
means, he, the believer, is thus active,-active in work-          sin, yet sin voZuntariZy (italics-O) will not be offend-
ing out his. salvation.           That knowledge,  which, of      ed by this doctrine."
course, implies the knowledge that he, himself, is a be-
IlieVer ,and therefore an elect, is to him the `sole and " " In a word, they made it plain that their doctrine
emighty incentive to work ,out his.salyation;  And why? df soaere%g;l  election and grace was free from all such
`Because he loves God and because, loving  <God, he               erroneous and horrible ideas, and that, therefore,  there
wants to `be holy in order that he may see God~as He could be no valid reason why anyone should be offend-
:js in .the face of. Christ. -                                    ed by it. Nevertheless, the Remonstjrants  were offend-
                                                                  the liatural `man than the idea 6f a ,God, who is God.
   " All-things considezed, our fathers- meant to ble say-        ed by. it, as we have seen. Nothing is more hateful to
ing, how utterly impossible, how unspeakably absurd,
.theref,ore,  ihe contention that sovereign election and             Such  .then, was the doctrinal position of  tk;e  Re-
the! preaching thereof is, can be, to the believer, the           fcrmed fathers as set forth in their "Contra-Rlemon-
elect of ,God, a cause for their f,ollowirig  ,after" the evil    stration".              '
`ltists of their sinful flesh.                                                                            -G. M. Ophoff
                                                                                                    -
       Wene then our Ref.ormed  fathers opposed !o .eir-
hqrtation  in the pulpit?           They were not certainly.                       -----mm
They wanted it, because, ,occupying the position that                                          .
thej, did, doctrinally, they saw the need of and the true            `_.
reason for it. This also is &id&t from their ."Rem-                         0 Lord, regard me when I cry;
onstration". The statement occurs `(Art. 7) :                                 In mercy hear me when I speak ;      '
       "For this purpose (namely, for the purpose of                        Thou bidst me seek Thy face; and I,
causing, making His elect to stand-o), He (the Lord)                        0 Lord, with willing heart Teply,
also in His word employs various. exhortations and '                          Tnhy face, Lord, will I seek'.


                                         T-H E ; S :T A H D ,k R;Q .B .EaA IE'.E R              `,                              351`
                                - - -                                                                 -
                                                               ering the.passage  quoted above from. Genesis 25 :27-34.
1                                                                  For in this pabsage  `tie do not have a description
.  F R O M   ,H:OLTY   W-RIT  .i simply of the natural disposition of the two sons, twin-
                                                               boys, of Isaac and Rebkkah,  but we here have a work-
             Exposition  of                                    ing out of the sovereign purpose and counsel of God!
                           Genesis 25~27-34
     , ..                                                      as this was revealed to Rebekah, ere the children were
                                                               born o'r had done good or evil. Compare Gen. 25:23
     This passage from the inspired pen of Moses, `the         with kom. 9:8-13.  And we are told in this passage,
man of  ,God, is well-known to all of us. We first             quoted above, how Esau, as he moved arid lived and
thought that it would not be necessary to write it out         had his being, under the administration of the.coven-
in full.. Bu;t upon second thoughk we deem it wise to          ant Promise, showed in -all of his attitude and life
q u o t e   i t .                                              that he is profane, a fornicator, who tramples  the
     The passage reads as follows : "And the boys grew :       birthright undel*;foot. We have here layed open to us
and Esau was a skillful1 hunter, a man of thd field;           the reprobate m&cl of the reprobated Esau. And while
and Jacob was a quiet (Hebrew : perfect) man, dwell-           the ways of the Almighty are passe4 finding out, en-
ing in tents. Now Isaac loved Esau because he did              shrouded in darkness, yet the truth of the matter, as
eat of his venison: and Rebekah loved Jacob. And               here stated  in this paragriph,  is here clearly-  revealed
Jacob boiled pottage: and Esau came in from the seld,          to  us.
and he was faint : and Esau said to Jacbb; Feed me,                Esau never approbated the good work of God as
I pray thee, with that  same red pottage  ; for I  am          he was confronted' with the gospel-tidings "in Isaac                       ,
faint i therefore was his name called Edom. And Jai shall thy seed be called".
cob said, Sell me first thy birthright. And Esau said,
Behold, I am about to die: and what profit shall the               Let us attempt to understand the various elements
birthright do to me
                        ? And Jacob said, Swear to me          in this passage.
first: and he swear. unto him: and he sold his bilrth-             The first matter, that should be made crystal clear
right unto Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and                is the matter of the Scriptural implication of the term
pottage of 1,entils: and he did eat and drink, and rose        "b@zhright".
up, and went his way: so Esau despised (his)  the                  The Hebrew language. does not really have a, term
birthrigh,t.`,'                 ~_                             to'express birth-vight.  It .only has the term CLb&&ah'Y,
     In,,order  to  ploperly  .understan$ this  p&sage of      which is the term for  "f%stborn".               T h i s   t e r m   t h e n
Holy W:rit, +e should see it in its proper setting here        comes to mean: That lqhich is ours by being the first-                          _
in the book of #Genesis. Wh&t the sacred writer is at-         born son. It is-the right of primogeniture.
tempting to do, is to portray to us the generations of             Scripture, it should further be tinderstood,  teaches
Abraham, the father of all believers.  The?? gener-
ations of Abraham are twofold. In  the first place,            a two-fold birth. The bne is the birth from father atid
there are. the generations. of Abraham after the flesh.        mother.      Thi.s is the first birth, from our mother's
They are the children which Adraharil received from            womb. This is a birth that all men have. The se-
Keturah and from $Hagar. The former are. portrayed             cond birth is that which is ours by the water and the
                                                               8pirit. This is degeneration, the b'eingborn anew and
to us in the verses 1-6. The latter, `the sons of Abra-        from above. Of the latter birth Jesus speaks to Nic-
ham by Hagar, are described to. us in the verses 12-18.        odemus,  saying: Verily, verily, I say, unto thee, except
The evident intention of the inspired writer is to show        a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom -of
that none of these children share in t%e promise and           God. This is only for the elect.
in the promised land ; at le.ast, not in their generations!
But there are also childr'en qf God, according to the              A twofold. birth, therefore. Of this there can be
promise of (God ; ithose who are born by th_e power- of        no doubt.
the Promise from above,"by the wonder'of God's grace.              But ans8wer1ing to this there is also'a'twofold birth-
And these are the children of Abrahani in Isaac, the right. The one is that which is. ours by virtue of dur
geneology as it will lead up to the birth of Jesus Christ      being born from our parents, especially as the first-
from Naxaret'h, the First-born of Mary, and the First-         born, and the other is th" birthright that is ours, by
born  Son of  Go'd, Who has the preeminence in all             virtue of being foreknown, predestinated, called effi-
<things, both in heaven. and on earth.                         catiously,  justified, glorified, and set in the heavens
     That,. and nothing less, is in the mind of the Holy       a.bove as heir of ,God and J'oint-heirs with Christ. See
Spirit in the Holy Scriptures under consideration.             Remans-8              :15,X,.
     We shall need to bear this in mind also in consid-            A twofold birth, according to Scripture, and a two-
                                                                                                           -


352                                     ~IYHE  S~TANDARD-BEARER

fold birthright to correspond with it, also according                   We said : Esau despised the birthright!
                                   L
tb Scripture.                                                           Let us try to see this briefly.
        .Just one more remark, for the sake of clarification.           In the first place this is evident in the fact, that
We should bear in
 .._                     min,d, that there are inshy sons in _ Esau was  a  man  of  the  field . What  ! you  may  say ;
glory, but that only  one is the First-born Son.                I n is Esau's b.ein,g a man of the field an indication of his
.this Son of;God, the Christ we have fully revealed to               deepest hostile attitude toward the birthright in Christ
us the implication of what is meant by the Firstrborn                Jestis?  We `believe that such is the plain tieaching of
:Son, `and the right `of the First-born Son.  .A11 the               the text. When we give due regard to the text we
children have birthrights, but only the firstbtirn has notice, that there is an evident contrast drawn by
first-born birthright !                                              Moses. We see E,sau in bold. relief against the back-
        This'lartter  point should be clearly seen as being to       ground of Jacob. Jacob is a (plain) upright man of
the point when we consider the natural place of E&u                  moral. and  .spiritual  integrity. It is true  that much
in the family of Isaac. Esau is by ,God's  very specia!              flesh must be purged away in Jacob. But he is up-
appointment the first-born son of twoin boys. And thus               right. The reason.7 He is "dwelling in tents". He
he is portrayed to us here in this passage.                          dwells in the -tents of the Patriarchs, he is a pilgrim
        `With the forigoing  in mind let us attend td the            and stranger in the earth, and he seeks the heavenly
                                                           .
passage under consideration.                                         fatherland.  Beb. 11.     Esau is a profane man, he
        In this text we should notice very carefully and             will not live near the altar of Abrah,am's tent. He is
                                                                     outside of all that is  of. the life from above. And
 exactly, that a distinction is made ifi.th:e  text between          that too while he has been diligently instructed "in
these twofold birthrights above %numerated,  to wit,
 the birthright by natural birth, and We birthright by               the aforesaid doctrine," and told in newness of life.
                                                                     That tent .with its instruction galled .Esau; his life
 second birt-h, by- the wonder of grace.                             is full of the bitterness of  d.eath.  He has a great
   .#Of the former ihe text -speaks when it says ".Sell hatFed for the tent of-Sarah. ,H& claims the land now,
 me first (today)  thy  birthright." And, again, "he                 but  not in faith as a  picture  df the heavenly. The
 sold  his  birthright unto Jacob". While of the latter              hope qf the Cave of Machpelah he does not share, the
 birthright, that is, the birtl1right.b~  election and sec- hope of Israel.
 ond birth, is mentioned in the last verse, whe;e: we
 red : "so Esau' despised  the Ibirth right."                            In the second place, because of his choice of wives.
        We call attention here to the following:                     He could izot have done worse. These wives are Hit-
                                                                     tites, daughters of Heam, of the accursed Canaanites.
        In the `first place, that Moses does not call atten-         And Esau chooses these wives simply because he I&es
 tion heu:e to Jac,ob's mistaken conception of the man-              women. He knew the difference between a wife and
 ner  in- which  the  birthright is to be obtained.  Th& woman. .His consideration is not to have a helpmeet,
 Moses Will show us in the Chapters that follow. He. who is a fellow-heir of the grace of life. And `these
 calls attention here to Esau's evaluation of things. wives are bitterness Gf spirit to Isaac and Rebekah
 spiritua! and heavenly, tlze birthright.                            because this choice of wives was an indication of the'
   - In the seCond place, that Moses does not speak in               deepest attitudie  of Esau toward the proclaimed birth-
 the `la& sentence of' Esau .seZZing the dirthright, hilt            right of heaven, as this was pictured in his otiirn birth.
 of his attitude eviticed  toward the birthright by sell-                And finally, the definite  dgspising of  all.`. that is
 iiig lzti birthright. These two are not to be identified.           holy comes to the clear expression in the tent of Ja-
 And the text clearly distinguishes them. _' Hence the               cob. We kndw the circumstances. We.need  not repeat
 text in the Hebrew says : thus Esau despised the  birth-
                                                      .              them here. But what we must point' out is, that Esau's
 right.                                                               rejection af the hqpe of the resurrection,  the refusing
         For it ought not to escape our notice, that Jacob's         to look for Christ as the preeminent one, ,comes  to ex-
 pot of lintels could not purchase the heavenly birth- pression in the worst f,orm, when he says: B,ehold I
 right. Esau could not sell it.: He  ,could only sell it              die,' what shall  the birthright do f,or me? Here  the
 in his own mind, as he coliceived  of it, and as he had              birthright would exactly be all in all. But Esau is an
 all his lifelong been instructed in it. But sell it he               unbeliever.    He refused to bring forth the Seed in
 could not, no more than Jacob could buy-it. For this                 hope in his f,amily. And, saying, let us eat and drink
 birthright is nothing less that the "sure mercies of                 and be merry for tomorrow we die, he goes his way.
 David", which are for the thirsty and the weary and                  Thus Esay despised the birthrigk;t !
 heavy laden.        And this is sold to those,  who have
 neither money nor .price. Is. 55 :l.                                                                          -4. Lubbers


                                               rH&  STABiDAk'D  BEAR&                                                                      3%
                                                                                                                                          -
                                    f
 *:~,,HlH,H)-II-O.`,-,,-,,-,,-,,-`,-,,~`,-,,-,-~,-,,-,,-,,~~,-,...             what you practice, where you- go, what you .se&k `for
 1         1.N  .,H  1,  S  Jf'
                                          E  A  R  `-                       f- entertainment, what you. read, `etc., etc., you do not do
                                                                                all alone in a corner either, And we ought to remem:
 *~*`~`~`~t)ro~~~ll~~l~~~`l~~l~~~~~~~~~~,,~,,~~,~,,~,,~,,~,,~,,~~.             her that iti all that which we do, we are our brother's
                                                                               keeper !
                   My Brother's Keeper                        `.                   In the passage we alr.eady quoted; Jesus `warns                ,
      Your brother, where is he?                -     `.s           `.         us against offending others by our sinful walk. And
      .D,o you know where he is? We have  not.  noti in                        we ought, then, to have the scriptural idea of offending.
 mind his physical presence in some geographic spot' ,Offending  is not an act ,of hurting one's feelings. It
 of this. earth. But spiritually do you know  wh&e                             goes far dieeper and is far .-more  evil than that. The
 your brother is? As his keeper you have not s&t him word, that is the orilginal word, used in the `text 2nd
~  into darkness and sin and then covered him with                             elsewhere in Sc;ripture  fo_r "offend" is one that means
 sand and.tialked  away as wicked Cain did, have you?                          "cause to stumble".        He that offends one of "these.
      You .have not walked in sin yourself, you hive not little ones is one who by his `sinful example and -prac-
 coaxed him along into sin,  `you have  riot set for  `him tice leads others into the practice of that same sin or
 the awful-example till he became as skilled at that sin                       ,even to ericourage them to greater sins. .Th6 f`broth-
 as you are and then lifted your chin and said when                            er's keeper" will never ,do that ! He will rathe; seek
 this is called to your attention, "am I my  br,other's                        and do  till in his  power:tD  keep the brother from a
 keeper ?" You have not' done that have you?                                   sinful walk. He will strive to do all he can to keep
      ,Jesus was very careful to warn the Jews not to                          the brpther spiritually healthy. He will got bury him
 offend one:little  child in Mark 9 :42. He said that it' under the sand so as to forget him. He will n&-go on
 were better for that man that a millstone had been                            in his own iniquity before -the' eyes of the brother,
 hanged about his neck and that he were cast into the                          unconcerned as to whether he tempts the brother or
 sea than that he should fail to be that ,brothier's  keep-                    not. He will refrain even from an appearance of
 er and cause him to stumble into sin.                                         sin lest he encourage others into sin.
      We are beginning to realize niore clearly every day                          That surely &as in the mind of the Apostle when
 that we cannot  live an isolated physic&l existence' here he wrote to the Rbmans in chapter 14:21, "It is good
 below. We begin to find how complex life is todAy.                            neit,her.. t6 eat- f&esh, nor to. drink winei:.Lnoz.  anythin.g
 We are not merely  influenced by what happens in our *hereby thy brother' stumbleth, or is offended; or is
 immediate families. What happens in  .our city and made weak."- He.had already written in verse 13 "Let
 state also effects our family and personal life. What  .us  not therefore judge one another any more: but
hap.pens  in our country may change our external life                          rather, that .n6 man put. a stumblingdblock or an oc-
 entirely. The actions of a group of. men in Europe casion to fall in his `brother's way." Now it is true
 had  such a profound effect on our lives these thousands                      that the Apostle is speaking in both these instances
 of miles away that we had to have the portion  of our                         of  eatinlg and drinking things that were considered
food allotted to us ,and in many other ways to have" unclean when `Israel ,lived under the .types  and shad-
 our life regimented. Because of what happened on the ows of the Old Dispensation. But Jesus Himself ap-
 other side of our globe there  arrie vacant chairs in                         plies. this truth to a narrower sphere even than that'
homes all over our  country.  But what  I do  `tod2y of brother and  brother.  He declares in Matthew 18
also has a far  tiore  profound  effect upon' `all  ?o&d                       :8 that if our hand or our e'ye offend us, it would be
about me than it did in times past. My carelessness better to be without that eye and that hand than with'
can cause a great traffic snarl that delays many in them to be led in the way .of detitruction.  And in that
their return `home frqm work, prevents others from same connection He also states that truth "Take heed
punching the clock on time .and losing a part of their                        that ye despise not one of these little ones ; for I say
wages. My failure to keep my car,under control may unto you, that in heaven their. angels do always be-
result in a power line bein.g snapped as the pole that hold the face of my Father which is in heaven."
holds it is struck. Hundreds may be without electric-                           Cause  none to be led into sin by your example !
ity, meals cannot be cooked, cakes in the oven are                            For you are your brother's keeper. And for that
spoiled, houses become cold silice thermostats do not reason we ought. to `walk circumspectly. Especially
function, .fuel is not ignited; perhaps i!r6n. lungs .ftiil                   because we live in tho.se days which. the Apostle, under
to operate and polio victims die. It did not us'e $0 be the guidance of the Holy Spirit, characterized. as, days
,&us, but so it is today.                                            . .      when men --shall *be "lovers of p1easur.e  rather than
      However, do npt overlook the fact  thsit in  ' the                      lovers. of God." should we ,remembes our Cal&g. to be
realm of the spiritual -your actions, what you allow,. our brother's keeper. Niever in the `history --of the


  354                                 `r$fg  $TAND.AR.D  BEARER

  world has the human race;especially in the land where        we die unto the Lord : whether we live therefore, or
  we live, had so much time for pleasure. ILabor  saving die, we are the Lord's" Rom. 14:8. And in the pre-
  atid time saving devices have turned out to be pleas-        ceeding  verse he says, "For none of us liveth to him-
ure-assuring and -time-f or pleasure-giving ,&vices.           self, and no man dieth to himself." We try to live
  Radio, television not only,.; but also the automobile        unto ourselves. We like to live as we please and let
  have all  brou'ght the things of pleasure within the         the brother  per.is&  if he stands' in the way of our
  reach of all of us. How careful then we ought to be          pleasure. What does it  .concern us if the brother
  what pleasures we seek, what recreation we seek and          dies or becomes spiritually weaker and more and more
 to what degree we indulge in these things. We may sinful? How ready we are to question whether we
  not steer our brother to-the world, may we? We may           are our brother's keeper. Can we hot live our own
  not set the example for him, may we?, that last things       lives, must we always and f&ever be conce<ned  with
  are first and that the liingdoin of ,God is a necessary the spiritual walk of our brother in Christ? Indeed
  afterthought when time off for pleasure permits, Be          we must! And' one caii never walk too carefully.
                                                                                                                 ..
  sure that your actions do not sljeak  such language!               Cain was his brothler's  keeper. But Abel was also
         And do not cover your brother with -sand and say      Cain's keeper, and therefore he #rebuked him and point-
  that keepinig your brother is your pastor's* duty and ,ed him to the right way. He lost his.life for being his
  the work assigned to the elders whom God has called. brother's keeper. But he received his reward from
  to be wat`chmen  upon the walls of Zion. To be sure,         God. And as our brother's keeper let us not overlook
  it is the duty ,of him who is called to be an under-         the fact that this includes brotherly admonitions to
  shiepherd  I@ the flock of -Christ to keep the sheep in      those who do seek the pleasures and treasures of this
  the fea; ,of the Lord. And to the elders are giveI; the      world.. It `makes no difference who that brother is,
  keys of the kingdom  of -heaven. ,But being your bro-        give him a brotherly admonition as Abel did. Set
  ther's keeper is also your calling and duty. Those in        him a good example, as Abel did, so that your rebuke
  special offices may have special responsibilities, but       and admonition is not nullified by your deeds, ,but then
  you in your ofice ,of every believer have the responsi-      in the spirit of brotherly love call his attention to his
  bility of that office.                                       worldly life. And the brother who is spiritual will
         We surely- do. not wish. to minimize or leave the     welcome such loving concern on your part. The rep-
  impression that we are minimizing the greatness of           robate, unregenerated neighbor will resent it and per-
  the responsibility of those who are befo5re the eyes of      haps follow Cain's example. But it still remains your
  God's peoplle because df their offices. Do not the Scrip-    calling as his keeper to warn him, admonish him and
  tures lay down for us the principles according to            point out to him the way he ought to go. And as your
  which we must choose our @de??  and deacons? Does            spiritual  brother's-   keeper it is your calling to help
  Paul not in I Tim. 3 :3 instruct  ,Timochy  to the effect    him along the difficult way of faith in this world of
  that an elder must be. one who is "of good behaviour". darkness and sin.
  even "having his children in subjection with all gra-              You  are your brother's keeper.
  vity" ? And in chapt.er 4 :12 he tells Timothy that he
  ought &I be "an example of the believers, in word, in              But are you? Are you conscious of it? Are you
conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in:.purity."    behaving as such in all your life? Can you honestly
  The same is true, though it is not stated literally, from    say, I set him a good example. Living in His fear,
  what the Old Testament declares to us in Ezekiel 33 :l-      you-will desire to see the-brother walk in His fear.
  8. There the watchman upon Zion's Walls is reminded                                                          -J. A. Heys
  of his responsibility to warn the people against the
  enemy.       Now, surely, such watchmen cannot warn
  and are not warnin.g th.e citizen's of Zion when they                             -::::
  themselves are fraternizing with the enemy in order
  to find a little pleasureaand  amusement. ,One in office
  surely -does have to be careflul even of that which he                        CLASSIS  EAST  RECES:SED
  laughs at and wherein he shows pleasure and joy. And
  `in the. fear of the Lord he must be afraid to leave any       `Classis East  ,c&vened  on April 8, 1953 recessed on April
  other impr"ession with those .whose eyes are upon him        16,  .,l953  till May 19, 1953 when the same  Classis  will again
                                                                .
  than  that he lives "in  His fear".                   ., -;$ be in session in the basement of  F&t Church. Will the del-
    . . The same thing holds true of every child of God.       egates of said  Classis  please be present at that time, when
  And.we can never be too .careful. Paul says, ~"whether       the. various Committees will be ready with their reports ?
  wee live, ,we live unt.0 the Lord ;. and whether .we d$e,                                   G. Lubbers, Stated Clerk        `.

                                                                                                          Y


                                          THB  ST.`ANDARD  B E A R E R                                                  355

                                                                     Bog&man dismissed them in strong language, there
.> l-llllU(ll;l-,l-0-,,~~,-,-~,~,-,,-,,-,,-,,-~,-,,-~,-,,-~~-,.:.
1'. The Voice of Our Fathers f; was no small measure of criticism by some because of
3. . 
..-lrn.-lr-l,-,,-~,-,,~~,-,,-,,-,,-~-,,-~,-`,-,,-~,-,,-,,-,,-~,*~. the harshness of the dismissal.
                                                                        And as to the  matter of  ctoctrine  also, we need
                 The Canons of Dordrecht                             entertain no notion that t$e synod was a kind of clique
                                                                     of Reformed men, who were simply determined by al'1
                        CHAPTER II                                   mealis to read out of their party another `clique who
                                                                     threatened their power.     For one thing, the whole
       a         THE G?.EAT SYNOD (Cont.)                            procedure of the synod, caEefu1 and thorough, gives
       Besidles the national an< the foreign delegates to            the lie to any such conception. But besides, there
the synod, t~here was one more group of officials whom               were all  kirids of men on the synod. There  we&!,
we may .mention in passing, not because their -pres-                 of course, to begin with, the supralapsarians and .the
ence was so important but because to us, whd are                     infralapsarians, the latter being of the greater in-
accustomed to the separation  of'church and state, their             fluence and power at the synod. Here already there
presence is a bit of a curiosity. Although the rela-                 was a potential Source of disruptibn and dissent, and
tionship between church and state, as' we remarked                   there were times too when this difference of view-
before, was not entirely free from politics at all                   point flared up and thlyeatened  trouble. N&ertheless,
times, yet it is no more- than- fair to add that there               the supras took an actiye part in the synod and in the
certainly was an element of lively spiritual interest in             formulation .of ,the Canons, and rejoiced together with
the affairs of the church on the part of many in high                the infras Ian the condemnation of the Arminian here-
governmental places. This, of course, in our day, and                Sy. And while it must be admitted that'the Canons
espeeitilly  in our land, is difficult to imagine ; yet then         are definitely infralapsarian in content, it is too ex-
it was Very real. And while, on the one hand, it is                  treme m&rely  to say that the synod tderated the sup-
true that the representatives of the government took                 ralapsarians. For they had ample opportunity to con-
no active part in the deliberation% of the synod, on the             demn their view,.  an'd there were  ,even requests to
other hand,. we' must not minimize their .presence. A                condemn some of their "extreme expressions." But
study of the proceedings reveals clearly- that the del-              this fiever took plsce. The supras were recognized as
egates were very conscious of the presence and auth-                 Reformed, and room w&s left for them.
ority of ,these  government watch-dogs, and in sever-                   But there wer,e other,differences. The&were those
al instances they reoognized their authority by seek-                at the synod who, to put it mildly, were doctrinally
ing and obtaining their approval before proceeding to                sympathetic with the Arminians. The theologians from
final action.                                            -_          Bremen  a17e  noto.rious  in this connection, and `the
       This, then, was the constituency of the great syn-            name of `Martinus stands out among them. The Ar-
bd.                                                                  minians found  pr,otection  at the synod from these
       We'hatre already analized somewhat the nature of              men, and courted their favor. One who carefully stud-
the synod. Cqncerning its membership we may make                     ies the written opinions, especially on the s&ond art-
one more observation. It is this : we rriust not imagine             icle of the Arminians, discovers that the Bremen the-
that the delegates were all of the same calibre, either              ologians were in some eases as Arminian as the Rem-
as to their,,&titude  toward the indicted Arminians or               onstrants themselves. `And although it is true that
as to their doctrinal conceptions.            I suppose there        they finally signed the Canons also, yet it must be that
has never yet been a synod of which this could be they were simply swept .along by the overwhelmingly
said; and the Sypod of Dordt is no exception. As to                  Reformed tide of the synod. For their chief repre-
the matter of attitudes, `.there  were moderates and                 sentative, Martinus, later expressed the opinion that
there were  extremiits   ; there were those,-and who                 there were "some divine, some human, `and some devil-
can blame them, after the iong history of obstruction-               ish" elements in the work of  the, great synod. Be-
ism,-who had little patience, and there were those                   sides, there were those at the synod who, though they
who were overly lenient toward the prophets of a                     certainly wanted to condemn the Arminian view, nev-
false gospel. In fact, there was one of the foreign del-             ertheless wanted to maintain a conditional element
egates, Martinus, who under the cloak of darkness                    also in the Reformed view. This too. is evident from
had intercourse -with the `&riinians even after they the written opinions which were submitted before the
were dismissed.-Yea, even after more than two months                 Canons were formulated. It is simply not true, as
of+ patient dealing with the Arminians on the floor of ha:s sbmetimes  been alleged,' that the fathers at Dordt
the synod, and after  they had long been coaxed to                   had @ opportunity to adopt, in their formulation of
bring their objections in the open, and when President               the Reformed view, a certain concept of conditional-
                                                                                          Y


356                                  T H E   -STANDARP   -B%ARER

ity. The fact is that among their own membership,-            had not been a common language. And all intercourse,
and I am not now  spaking merely of the Bremen for that matter, between scholars of different national-
theologians, whom I consider down-right Arminian,- ities was carried on in the Latin  lanlguage. At the
there were those who, if they had had the&way,  would Synod of Dotrdt this was also necessary, especially be-
ce$ainly have introduced into our Canons a condition-         cause of the presence of the foreign delegates. Trans-
al element. A& I suppose that this, then, would have          lation of all the speeches and all the proceedings and all
been a confessional formulation of " conditions-in-the-       the tiritten opinions into the several languages of the
Ref owned-sense," whatever that may mean. But in- nationalities represented at  khe synod would have been
stead, the.Cano+zs  stedfastly  avoid using both the term a ted*ious  process and would have greatly hampered
and the idea, and, on the contrary, always place both         the work of the synod.  :For  convehience   sake,--con-
term and idea in the mouths of the Arminians, in              tri.buting,  perhaps,  ,greatly to the  iqconvenience  of
order then to condemn it.                                     &any in ou;r day,-the Latin language was used. And
       Against this background of the make-up of the I mean that it was actually spoken too, when various
synod, ,our Canons: take on an even stronger and sound-       of the renowned  delegates delivered lectures. and or-
er appearance; I would not hesitate to say that if ,ations  to the synod. Of cour,se,  the Canons themselves,
one  reads the. Canons in  cotinection wil?h the. many        as well as the Acts of  $he Bynod of Dordt, were al-
written opinions that were submitted concerning the most immediately translated into the- Dutch language,
.five Arminian articles, and then beholds the varying for the benefit of the Dutch layman. And the C@nons
and sometimes  ,even conflicting views that were rep-         were also translated into several otiher languages, Eng-
resented at, the synod, and ,begins to understand a lit- ,lish included. But the original is `in Latin. .And this
tle-what  might hwe been introduced into our official         means that -when any question ,arises-  as to what trhe
Reformed view, but was not,-then one stands almost            synod intended to say, we must consult neither the
amazed at the cIarity, the conciseness, the purity, and       English nor the Dutch editions, but the original Latin.
the soundness of this our Third F&m. It has some-                                                            -H. C.  Hoeksema
                                                                                                       -.
times been alleged -that in the Canons we, find the
weakest, the.mildest,  and most modera.te expression of                                          @ - - - - -
the Reformed truth. And I suppose that this is said
sometimes because of the decidedly. infru tendencies
of our  Cu?zons. Nevertheless, I cannot  agr,ee  with
this allegation. In t;he light of their historical, back-        RESOLUTION OF  APFREXXATION  AND SYMPATHY
,gyoun&,  .the Canons are a `very strong and sound and          Whereas it has pleased our covenant God, in His infinite wis-
clear-cut  e&pres&on of the Reformed truth, than dom, to suddenly take to Himself our beloved brother,
which it would be very. difficult to find a stronger ex-                          D    I    C     K          JONKJZR
pression  among all the Re@rmed  symbols.                       And whereas it is a matter of public record how our brother
-`. A -few words must still be. said about the method faithfully, and  foS a long time,  conducted  the labors of the
                                                             Stated` Clerk of our  Classis;.
which the synod followedi  for a.proper understanding           Be  it resolved that  tie express our deep appreciation of all
of this method, thorough and careful as it was, will          our heavenly Father has given to us in  .the departed brother
certainly heighten our  apbreciation  of the heritage         and his labors;
which  is.,ou!rs  in the Canons.                                And be it further resolved tihat  this Tesolution  be spread upon
                                                              our minutes; a copy of same appear as public testimony in our
       The official language of the synod was ~Latin, not Church Publications, and a copy be sent with expression of
Dutch.      This  ,is probably a. surprise to many, but       our sympathy to the,bereaved  widow and children.
there' were reasons for it: Latin at that time was                                          Done.in  Classical Session of Clas-
still the universal language, especially in scholarly ,.                                    sis East, April 9, 1953.
and scientific circles. Today, of course, the use ,of the                                        G. Lubbers, Stated Clerk
Latin language, even among  scholar,s,  would  b&.an
almost insurmountable -obstacle.       Besides, the Eng-
lish 1,anguage has become so well known, and so com-                                   -::z-
monly used that it is fast developing into a sort of
.universal language. But in  the  ,old days Latin was
used, as we said, especially in scholarly &cles.` The                 `My heart had failed in fear and woe
student who could not read and write and speak the                       Unless in God I had believed,
Latin language was simply at `sea. In the universi-                    Assured th& He would mercy show                           *
ties, to -which students from all the nations of Europ@                And that `my life His grace should know,
flocked, instruction would have been impossible if there                  Nor was my hope deceived,


                                         T'ETE  STANDAkD  :.B%ARBk

                                                                  old nature of sin while in. the earthly- house of this
  I Contending For The Faith `I tabernacle. We need not elucidate on this observation
                                                                  as such. The Word of `God is `replete with passages
                                                                  to this effect. `Besides, the history of the Church of
           The Study of the History  of Doctrine                 ,God, as held bef,ore us in the epistles of the New Testa-
                                                                 ,ment,  speak but too clearly of the trouble experienced
                                                                 by the Church of <God because of these ever present
                  I~PORTA~~T CONSIDERATIONS,                     imperf e&ions.
 The  Ch&ch on earth  is  militunt and  imperf,ect.              Its efSect upon the history 
     When we speak of the Church as a militant church                                            of doctrine.
- we can-refer to it as a fighting church. The  word                 It is because of the imperfection within  .the
  "militant," reminding us of the word "military," -im-           Church that sinful elements enter into' .the historical
  mediately suggests this  thgught. A  famous  passage           development of doctrine. It is certainly true that he?-
  in the Scriptures which refers to the ,Churoh of' *God         esies  dleveldp throtigh  the influr.?nce of the carnal el&
  as a fighting church is Eph.  6:10-17,  in which  the          ment in `the church. `One can readily understand that
  peoplle of iGod are admonished to put on the whole &-          this carnal element, which is e&hly and not interest-
  mour of" ,-God,  and we quote : "Finally, my brethren,         ed in the things of  ,God's covenant, will  attetipt  to
  be strong in the Lord;  and in the power of His might.         subvert ithe trtith and conform the pyeaching  to,their
  Put on the whole armour  ,of `God, tha4 ye may be able         carnal and sinful desires. It is also true,  hoviitive?,
 t,o stand against the wiles of the devil. For we.wrestle        that sinful elements enter in becausg of. the impgrfec-
 not against flesh and blood, but against principalitiies,       tions ,of the saints. It is simply a fact that personal
 against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of           Ambition, hatred, pricle, jealousy often wholly or ifi
 this world, against ,spiritual  wickedness in high places.      part determine a certain formulbtion of the ddctrifie
 Wheref,ore take unt.0 you the whole. armour,  of' God,          of the Church. We need not elucidate on these things
 that- ye may be able to withstand iri `the evil day, and        at this time.                       . :
 having done ail, to, stand'. Stand therefore, h.aving               It is not difficult to understand this'. The Chtirch's
 your loins girt abotit with truth, and having .on the           struggle for the maintbnatice of the truth is cbnstant-
. breastplate of rightieousness; knd your feet shod with         ly b:eing waged by the enemy froni `within. This was
 the preparation ,of the gospel ,of peace;. Above.,ail,  tak-    true in the Israel of `God in the Old Dispensatidn; and
 ing the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to          it is equally true in the New Dispensation. Israel's
 quench all the  kery darts of the wicked. And take              departures from the path of ,God's covenant in the *Old
 the helmet of salvation, and the sword _qf the Spirit,          Te&ament  were always the result df .sins and corrup-
 which  .is the  word  of God." HoweveT,   wk can also tions within. And this carnal Israel is ever, on the
 speak  of the militant church in the sense of a strug-          ale?t  to,;subvert   `aed corrupt the Word  of God. It
 gling church.                                                   will  ,alvays interpret the Scriptures  iri such a  w$y
                                                                 that it will be able to justify their seeking of the things
     When we therefore speak of the Church as mili- that  ar:re below.  Pelagianism  and  Armi<jaliism' are
 tant and imperfect, we refer to the struggle from the           pot  the fruit of prayerful and  earnest  study of  the
 viewpoint of its imperfection, and to the `fact th.at the
 constant struggle of the Church to hold -fast  `that            Word ,of God but of the carnal heart and mind. It is
                                                                 very natural for the proud heart and .mind of man to
' which it has and to keep the faith is occasioned ex-           d&o,& .th& Scriptures in such a way that man is able
 actly by this imperfection. ~-                                                                                  _. _.
      .                                                          to  do something ; such a pres+t&tion df the t&h is
     This, we understand; is true in a twofold sense.            pleasing .to man. It is very natural for nian who loves
 Israel is constituted of a t%ofold people in the midst          this world to make the attempt to nullify- and
 of the world: the carnal and spiritual Israel. Thepe            destroy the antithesis and proclaim a theory of
 are always in. the ,Church visible as it reveals itself         "CommoQ  IGrace" which justifies a person in  &is at-
 in the midst of the world those who do not belong to            tempt to seek common cause with those' who do not
 it in the spiritual, true sense of the word: These are          glory in the God of our salvation. Isaiah  &peaks of
 Israelites according to the flesh. They belong to the those who demand of the prophets that theji 1 speak
 church as it develops organically throughout the ages,          things they tiish to hear. The truth of the Wo+d of
 must therefore bear the name of the .elect kernel: Is-          God is so terribly exacting and  sevel;e.'  It'knows of
 rael, but are not Israel in the true, spiritual sense ,of       no  compromi&  ' It renders man wholly naked and
 theiword. And, secondly, we also know that the true             unworthy. It presents salvation. as exclufiively .Divine
 people of the lord are nbt perfectly delivered from the         and nian as utterly and k;bp&lessly .loslt  in sin alid- guilt.


     358                                  T,RB  S T A N D A R D   BEAkl3k

     The natural man has no desire to' listen to these truths been redeemed by the same Saviour,  love the same
     of Holy Writ. And, because of this  .carnality,  they         Word, and are enroute to the same city that has founl,
     will always try to silence the severe and uncompr,o-          dations. How is it possible, then, to minimize or ig-
     mising testimony of the holy Scriptures. Hence, the           nore .the struggles of this Church of the living God in
     struggle for the preservation  qf the truth will con- the past?! This, how#ever, is not all. We should also
     tinue as long as the Church must continue its existence       consider this oneness of the Church of all ages from
     in the' midst of the world that lieth in darkness.            another point of view. We are also one in the sense
            However, this is not all. The saints of the Lord,      that without them we simply would not be what we
     too, are characterized by imperfections. Jealousy and         are. Their struggle for the truth vitally  elects  us.
     pride play too often too large a role in. the history of (Our understanding of the Scriptures is inseparably
     the Church. In .fact,.  these things have caused formu-       connected with and related to this struggle. The books
     lations in the `past which have been deviations from          that have been written, also the books which our chil-
     the truth. `How, often has it not happened that cer-          dren use for the catechetical instruction, owe their
     tziin statements regarding the truth have been made           existence to this contending Church of God for the
becausle  of personal animosities and bitterness, be-              faith. Is not in this sense the Church the mother of
     cause of the desire to remove one from the fellowship         us  a-11? Is not  ,our knowledge of the Scriptures de-
     of the  <Church  f,or reasons of personal bitterness?         pendent upon the instruction we have received from
  I -One's admiration or dislike for a certain truth is often      infancy on, and has this instruction not been imparted
     determined by one's admiration or dislike for him who         to  us  according to the "doctrine as taught in this
     is associated with that particular truth. That person- Christian Church"? And is it not equally true that the
     al bitterness and jealousies often play a. prominent          doctrine which is "taught in this achristian Church"
     role in the history of doctrine was certainly true in         is dependent upon the  ,declarations  concerning the
     the history of the origin of our Protestant Reformfed         truth by the Church of God in the past? From in-,
     Churches in connection with the formulation of the            fancy on our approach to the Word of God has been
     Three. Points. -This applies not only to the history          vitally affected by the instruction wle have received.
     which led to our eviction from the Christian Reformed         It. is clear, therefore, that we are united with the
     Churches but also to the proceedings against Professor        Church of the past and that its struggle for the truths
     Jansen which immediately preceded our case and was            of the holy Scripture vitally affect us. It should, there-
     inseparably connected with- it.                               fore, be of great benefit to us to study this history of
                                                                   doctrine and live in the consciousness of this unity
                    THE BENEFITS  OF  THIS STUDY                   of the Church of God throughout the ages. We should
                                                                   be eager to renew'our  acquaintance with the struggle
     It unites US with the Church of -2he past.                    of the Church and the people of God, inasmuch as we
            This, sad to say, is a consideration which is too      would not be what we are and know what. we know
     often minimized-or wholly ignored in our present day.         without them.
     Those churches, which ridicule ,confessions  and creeds                                                      -H. Veldman
     as the work of men, certainly  d.o not  sho.w due re-
     spect for the #Church and its history of the past. It
     can hardly be considered respectful and appreciative
     when the blood of the martyrs is ignored and one                All Young Men desiring to. study for the Ministry of the
                                                                   Word, kindly appear on the Meeting of May 15, 1953 of  the-
     speaks disdainfully of these confessions and creeds Theological School ,Committee  at First Church, Grand Rapids,
     which, in many `instances, were' bought and sealed at 8 o'clock p.m. or write the Secretary, Rev. George Lubbers
     with the precious blood of the saints.                        1304 Maude Avenue, N.E., Grand Rapids 5, Michigan, if you
                                                                   live too far from Grand  Repids.
            It is well to consider the truth that the Church of      Those needing financial aid can contact the  E.B.P..Committee,
     all ages is one whole. There is one Church of  ,God           providing they  are  not married.
     throughout the. ages. This is not merely true in the            The  qualifications  to be enrolled in our school are the fol-
     sense that God, when He elected and loved' a people,          lowing:
     loved a people, a  church,  and that the Scriptures speak       1. Must be a graduate from High School and preferably
     of this people of the Lord as a building or temple.           College.
     This, too, is true; It cancertainly  hardly be consid-          2. Must have certificate from local Cdnsistory as to upright-
                                                                   ness in walk and purity in doctrine.
     ered commendable when, the struggle of .the Church of           3. Must have certificate from a reputable Doctor of being in
     -all ages no longer fascinates and interests us. We be- good health.
     long, with them, to the same elect body of Christ Jesus,                                     G. Lubbers, Sec'y of` Theol.
     .our Lord, We share, with them, the .`same life, `have                                             School Committee.


                                           TH-k  STANDARD  BEARER                                                   359
                                     -_
                                                              Classis.    This will become more evident from our
                                                              second suggestion.
                                                                                      .      .
                                                                                    Suggestion No. II
            The Order of Assemblies                              Classis should instruct the Cla$sical Committee to
                                                              serve the Classis with advice concerning the legality
   Among other things the `first article of our Church        of all matters coming before the Classis ! It is simply
Order speaks- of the necessity of  assenab.lies in the        a fact that a great deal of time. is spent at each meet-
church for the maintenance of good order. By these            ing of Classis dealing with the question as to whether
assemblies is not meant the gathering of the congre-          or not certain matters are legally before the body. If
gation .in divine worship but rather the me'etings  of        Classis has an agenda which together with all the ma-
such ecclesiastical assemblies as the Consistory, Clas-       terial the Stated Clerk would submit to the Classical
sis and Synod. ~Concerning these assemblies we will           Committee at a meeting held two or three weeks be-
write, D.V., in connection with later articles: At pre-       fore Classis convenes, that Committee could look into
sent, having just returned home from a six day ses-. the. legality of each item and if there are some things
sion of Classis, we feel constrained to cast a few re-        that are questionable, the Committee could study them
flections upon these assemblies -from the viewpoint of        and bring some sound advice to the  Classis which
good order `and offer some suggestions for improve- would in many instances save the Classis many pre-
ment of the same. That there is room for improve-             cious hours and, perhaps, even save. an elder a day's
ment in the orderly execution of the work that comes          wage. It is my conviction that a Committee such as
before our major ecclesiastical assemblies (we have           this, composed of four ministers, can determine these
in mind now particularly the Classis)  ought to be self-      legal questions with much more dispatch than the
evidfent to those who attend these meetings. Taking entire Classis and their advice in many difficult cases
the present six day session of Classis as. an example         would be an invaluable assistance .and guide to the
we  .note: (1) That  Classis in this time did not treat       broader gathering.             .-
and come to a. decision on a single case before her.
(2) That Ciassis took six days to read material and                             Suggestion No. III
refer the same. to various committees. How. is this
to be explained                                                  Our churches denominationally ought to employ a
                   ? - ,Couid not this same work have been
accomplished in one third of this time? Our convic-           full time clerk ! Permit me to elucidate upon this. By
tion is that somewhere along the line of the execution        a full time clerk I have in ,mind a man who is clerically
of `this wo,rk there is a deficiency in ouro&er and,          inclined- and who could serve as the Stated Clerk of
therefore, we would offer some pointed suggestions:           both our Classes as well as of our Synod. His task in
                                                              general would be to serve the churches wherever cleri-
                                                              cal labor is needed. He would perform all the duties
                      Suggestion No; I                        that are now performed in the spare time of three
   *Our Classis should have an agenda, by .which we           separate clerks. In addition, he would prepare mimeo-
mean a mimeographed report of the work that is to             graph, (or in some instances printed) copies of all the
come -bef,ore  the body which is sent in advance to the       material that is .to be treated in the different eccle-
various consistories. We do not suggest this particu- siastical assemblies.                Furthermore, he could be en-
larly with a view to the present prolonged session of gaged to perform clerical labors for our Theological
the Classis but we are convinced that this belongs to         School, Mission Committee, etc. Denominationally,
an. orderly arrangement at any time. More- than two there is enough of this kind of labor to provide a man
years ago the consistory of Oak Lawn requested this,          with full time employment. The churches would bene-
but their request was- denied. At  that time the re-          fit from the services of such a person in many ways.
quest was motivated by these  consid+erations:  (1) It E.g., the problem that arises every year (and seems
would give the delegates time to premeditate. (2)  It to be getting worse) of getting the  Synodical Acts
would avoid hasty and erroneous decisions.         (3)  It out within a reasonable time after  ,Synod adjourns
would enable' especially the ,elder delegates to have         could be handled by this person. The moderamen of
some conception of the amount of work before the body Synod should meet immediately after Synod adjourns
so that they could arrange, if possible, to be present        and compile the material and then put it in the hands
throughout the entire session. And now we are con-            of the clerk for editing and publication. E.g., too,
vinced of a fourth motivation which is that such an the-work of the Classis would be more efficiently per-
agenda would help greatly to expedite the work of the         formed if the delegates had before them in advance,


     .A
36p                          _.    -.     ..-     --.    T H E -   `STA-N-a-ARti  B E A R E R
                                   . .                             .
black on white, the  &aterial  upon  which they  tiust                       there are not four, but three permanent dffices  in the
make  d'ecisions. Hasty and  often- later regrettable                        New Testament church. Historically we might ex-
decisions would be. avoided. More examples could be                          plain that the reaction of the second article is the
given. No doubt such a clerk's services would prove                          result of the influence of Calvin upon the composers
to b$ivorth mo$e than the wages received. The work                           of our Church Order and is based upon "nis faulty in-
of' the ,churches would be executed  more orderly.                           terpretation  ,of  Ephesians  4:ll. This  passage  yeads
.  .-
     _           F..                                                         as follows : "And he gave -some apostles ; and some
            ` ,'                   Sug.gestion' No. IV.                      prophets ; $id some evarigelists  ; and soine `pastors
             I....                                                                                                          . .
. . `Our churches &ght to adopt a set of parliamentary                       and teachers."
r&s f&' it$ ecclesiastical- assemblies in addition to the                       The first part of this -passage does not coke intb
ec~lesia$ica& rules we` now have. Parliamentary or-                          question h&e as that deals iyith the temporary offic&
der. and.ecclesiastical  qrder are not mutually exclusive.                   in the New Testament Church but the last phrase, viz., _
Often .c$r assemblies are delayed in their work bf a                         "and some pastors and teachers" is the part that de-
question of parliamentary order. A set of such rules                         mands attention.
cpniijiled  in booklet form. would serve as a guide and                         IConcerning  this part of the text, Calvin taught:
reference when such questions arise. It is true that                         "Pastors and- teachers are supposed by some to denote
no.`& of rules is or can be broad enough to cover ev-                        one office, because the apostle does not, as in the other
ery, situation that may arise and it is, also unwise to                      parts of the verse, say, and sbme, pastors; and some,
introduce unnecetisary  rules and, therefore, that which                     teachers; (note the punctuation, G.V.) but and sOme
w'e, advocate here should be concise and contain only paitwrs  anA t.eachers. `Chrysostom and Augustine are
basic principles of parliamentary  order  from which                         of this opinion ; not to mention the commentaries of
the assemblies could be guided t,o a quick decision in Ambrose, whose obstirvations on the subject are truly
t$e. situations that do repeatedly `arise. This would                        childish and unworthy of himself. I partly agree with
aGoid unnecessary' and prolonged delays in many in-                          them, that Paul speaks indiscriminately of pastors and
s t a n c e s .   -  '                                                       teachers as beloliging to one and the same class, and'
                                                                             that the nanie teacher does, to some extent, apply to
           The above does not, of course, exhaust the possibil-              all-pastors. But this does not appear to me a sufficient
ity of suggestions. From them we wish  tierely  td                           reason why,two offices, which I find to differ from each
deduce that we have "not yet reached orderly perfection other, should be confounded. Teaching is, no doubt,
but strive to avoid confusions, and endless w.rangling                       the duty of all pastors ; but to maintain sound doctrine
-so that "all things may be done decently and in good                        requires a talent f.or interpreting Scripture, and a man
order?`: in the church- of our Lord Jesus `Christ. If may be a teacher who is not" qualified to preach.
these-3uggestions  will help attain  a  measure of in-                          "Pastors, in my opinion, are those who have the
crease of that order  they are worthy of consideration.
:                                                                            charge of a particular flock; though I have no objec-
                                                                             tion to their receiving the name of teachers, if it be
                                            Article II                  '    understood that th@e is a distinct class of teachers,
           "The offices are of four kinds : Of the ministers of              who preside both in the educ@ion of pastors and in
the, .vor.d,  of the .professors  of theology, of the elders;: the instruction of the whole church. It may some-
a@ of the deacons."                                                          times happen, that the same person is both a pastor
 .:                   ..-                                                    and a teacher, but the duties to be performed are en-
     .                                    The Offices                        tirely different."
      ! Having spoken in the first article of the helps                         Next time, .D.V., we will comment on this idea .of
which ar,e necessary unto the maintenance ,,of godd or-                      (Calvin's and alse write about the holy offices, which
der. in the church of Jesus Christ, and having noted                         Christ,. our Lord, has instituted in His church "for
that these. helps are five in number; we are now to , the perfecting .of the saints, f'or the work of the minis-
c0nside.r them individually. The first of these is the                       tl*y, for the edifying of the body of Christ." (Eph.
offices which in the, church occupy a very prominent _ 4 :12)
place. Their importance is. sig&fied  by the detailed                                                                 G. Vanden Berg
treatment which is  `.,given  &his subject in Articles  2:                              .           *  $r A  *              _*
thyqugh 28 of our ,D;K.O.                                                      Notice: I am sorry th&t because of the busy and ex-
           According to: the above. article the .offices are f pu'r          tended sessions `of tilassis, the Rev. Schipper-  could not
in number. : This assertion is not above criticism as                        get ready in time for .his interesting articles under the
`it can be shown on the basis of the Word of God that                        rubric "All Around Us,"                        - E d i t o r


