-
      ~V0LUME -XXIX                            MAY 15, 1953 - GRAND RAPIDS,  MICHIGAN-                              NUMBER 16  -
              0                                                                                     I  _
$4 ,H,-`,o,,Q,,-,,-O-~,-~,-~,-~,-,-,,-~,~,~-~,-,,-,-,,-~,-,,-~*:*
                                                                A      Brethren, that is bad ! very bad.
                                                                             But it is not the worst you can do.
i;          IV-E.D.ITATION-                                             1                                              '
                                                                             You do worse when you mix work and grace.
                                                                      Nebuchadnezzar had the oven made seven times
                        G race qr- Work?                              -hotter because of the challenging answer of the three
                                                                      children.  why?-  Beoause he was very angry. I  as-
                   "And  -if by  grsce, then  i$ is no more of works:  c sure you that ,God hates the mixer of grace and work
             otherwise grace- is no more grace. But if it be of
             wonks,   then it is no more grace: otherwise work is mu&h  more than the blunt Pelagian.
             no more work." Romans  11:6.                                    W.hen you work with all your might to lay hold of
                                                                      salvation, and really hate- grace, but whkn you never-
      What do you desire? To be baved by gface -or by                 theless prate about grace no end, -you are a double of-
works ?                                                              f & s e   -to  Go&
      That is the  qL7estion.   Shakespesre   would say: To                  It is either or: grace or wolrk!
be or nof to j@&, 4hat is the question. And it fits here                     Do not n&x them. This-mixture is a fire that burn;
to& `To be or' not to be in the arms of God- nnto all                 a--d evokes great indignation  with  ,God:  _                    _
e t e r n i t y .   T r e m e n d o u s   q u e s t i o n ;                  Grace or work.
      `There are those that want to be saGed by works.                       Either the one or the. other.
Foolish? Yes.  Stu~pid ? Yes.  ,* Proud?  Yfes. Offend-                                                                         ,._
                                                                             What is salvation by.grace?
ing to  ,God? Yes.                                                      It  is. this : God  loved you before the world was
      Did any attain tinto salvation by the works of the made.  Soiereigfily; ,lovingly, He saw yqu  ,apd willed
law?. No, not one.                                                    you and  dete,rmined'  ~67.7;  and  said within  Himself:
      Did the  Pelagialis learn that lesson  throbgh the -on you. I will look with- favor from this eternity to
ages?. No, they did not. It is an error that is as old                that -eternity. I love you now while  I- am dwelling
as the sinner. #Cain is the first Pelagian. He cast a                 in eternity. All  the dynamo of My Being is set on
disdainful -look at weeping, sobbing  Abel, as that                   you in sweetest love.
righteous man gathered hi3 sticks of wbod for the al-                        I am.gding to love you-when you stand before me.
tar, after killing the lamb of God, and went to work:                 in Paradise, where all things around you testify of
he was going to-be saved by his own toil: He brought that love and will help you to love Me.- `,
-the sacrifice of the 1abor.s of his hand: the fruits c& the                 And I am going to love you when you" s.hall have
field. Foolish, stupid,  pr,oud,  impossible, and an of-              become wicked  and when you shali smite Me in the
fense to God. But he brought it.                                      F&e. I will still go on loving you.                     _I _
      Did he learn the less&? Even after he killed the                 -' I &m going to love you when I will come to you and
correct  worship$er? No. Did he learn the lesson af-                  will stand before you in the Face of My Anointed Son.
ter ,God took him to task ,and set-a sign'on the crooked              And I .wQl sspeak and sing to you of this IVJ$ everlast-
.worshipper ?  No.                                                    ing love..  -
      Did his corrupt stock learn that lesson? No.. They                     I am going to love you ~when you shall hate  Me
continued the impossible task.                                        and despi,se Me atid tu?n your back upon Me. I will


     362                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D -   .BEARER                               I

     hever cease'ioving-you  nomatte?how  wicked YOU shall' 0 my wbnderful God: to Tyill is present with me; but
9

     have become.                          -_                        hoti to perfor,m  that which is good I find not!
            .I am  going to love' yOi7 when I shall hear-  your          And then I will show you the nature of My ever-
     voice, cursing and svirearing  and calling upon Me in           Basting love, and- I-will say : I forgive you all your gobd -
     heaven to kitness to the fact that you will have -none works ! Fret no more, and worry no .more  ! Did you
     of Me. Even  then I will still ldve  YOU.                       not hear Me say : It is finished !?
          And then you shall tear at Me anh beat Me and                  My' .child, My  .beloved  child: you are saved by
     crucif;.Me and kill we, but My love is-eternal, and I           grace !
     will still go on loving you.                                        That, my brother, is to be saved by grace!
            And then I shall pro-ye My everlasting and beauti-
     ful love, because.1 will actually die for you, the wicked
     siqner !                                                                                   *  *  *  *
     d      But my. love is so great and So beautiful- and So.
     strong that death shall lib+ be able to hold me in its              And what is salvation by worki ?                a
     cruel cords: I shall awake  in the garden of Joseph. _=             I hate to outline it: it's a foul thing.
            And then I shall stand before you, and .I will say.
     to you : Do you love Me?                                            It is foul, for it is born of `the devil.
            And you? There shall be a blush of shame on you-r          It says: I am a sinner, but by Jove, I am going to
     cheeks, alfd you will stammer: Yes, Lord, Thou know-            save myself.  I. am going to be good. I am going to
     est all things: Thou knowest that I love Thee:!                 see to it that God is obliged to me. I am going to ssnc-
                                                                     tify myself, so that I may be- able to stand in the Tem-
            And I will say : Of course,-you love Me-!. . I know it. ple -of.$od and say: `I thank Thee God that I am not
     It was I that placed that love in your breast.             -    as the rest of men are!
            Listen, My dear people, I will save you from`your-           Salvation  by works is  i foul thing.
     selves, from sin,. from guilt, from death, from the
     Cur&, from hell, from damnation, from the devil,                    But fouler still is when you mix the above para-
     from the wicked, from the earth, and -1 will give you           graph where I tried to outline salvation by grace with
     My own virtues: I will make you beautiful and spot-             the paragraph where I outline salvation .by works.
     less-as the angels in heaven, no, `more. bkautiful than         That breeds a very obnoxidus `mixture. .And of that
     they: the greater is served by the lesser. You shall            mixture Paul spoke in my text. It is when you mix
     exceed in beauty the holy angels of IGod.                       grace with worl;3.
            And-1 will write My new name on your heart, your             You  do that  &hen  you say:  &7re, sure, sure, sure  -  -
     forehead. And you shall be called The Beautiful!                God works salvation by His marvellous grace. But
                                                                     tie must also do something. We are responsible creat-
            And I will recreate a new Heaven and a new earth         ures, you see. <God  gave  us  much, oh so much. And
     so that you may have a new  dwe!lingpla&  -forever              ydu must get to work, ably assisted (they will insist
     and ever.                                                       on that that) by, the  grace of  `God. The Arminians
            Aild I will come and dwell among you and be a            almost ,wore out the word grace in their foul produc-
     Father unto you and you shall be My sons and daugh-             tions.
     ters.                                                               And then You have salvation by a mixture of grace
            And your peace shall fldw like z+ river.                 and work..
            And .great shall be the -peace of your children.             knd Satan smiles.
          And `all this love I will spread abroad in  youyr              But God is furious.
     hearts, while- you are walking in the valley of the
     shadow of death. And, that love shall burn in you and
     shall quicken you, and you shall begin to sing with                                        *a**                -
     breaking voice, and you shall look up to Me at times                                                     _.
     and  YOU shall say, weeping as you go; Abba, beloved
     Father! I &all continue to spread love in your heart,               What ihen?        _
     and faith and hope, and you shall work for the night                If it is grace, then  bi silent  ab&7t work unto all  *
     .is coming. You shall notice in  yo77r  h&a& in your eternity.
     inmost heart, that you want to be pleasing unto Me,                 If .it is .work,  then be- silent about `grace unto all
     and  YOU  will needs work,  but:  ybu shall  wetip  again,      etei:nity.
     and say with burning eyes, at night, when all is black:             If it is work, then take your chances with God --
                                                                                                        __


                                                        f.Ha        $,~ANDAi&~.~,B@A-~-~#                                                                                                                                                                             "  96s
        --  ..^  _                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                c
       who damns the proud.~  I-will give you a p.review  : -He
       will cast you into the pool that burns with fire-and sul-                                               THE STANDARD BEARER
       phur.                                                                                        Semi-fionthly,; except monthly  d&g  ]uly  md  Au&t
               If it is grace, then sing, sing, noti .and forever, for                      Published by the  REFORMED   FREE   PUBLISHING   ASSOCIATION
       you are blessed*  and -shall not come into condemna-                                              Box 124,  St&n C, Grand Rapids 6, Michigan'
       tion. For His salvation by grace is founded on work                                                          Editor  -  REV.   HERMAN   HOEKSEMA
       which shall make heaven musidal  forever.. ,Oh yes,                             Communications relative to contents should be addressed to Rev. H.
                                                                                       Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S.E. Grand Rapids 7, Michigan.
       you? salyation by grace is also  by,  works,  but they                          All  matters- relative to `subscriptions should be `addressed to Mr. J.
       are the works of `God which He wrought in the depth                             Bouwman,  1 3 5 0   G i d d i n g s   A v e . ,   S . E . ,   G r a n d   R a p i d s   6 ,   M i c h i g a n .
       of the hell He tasfied for you.                                                 Announcements and Obituaries must be mailed to the above address,
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                                                                                       RENEWALS:               Unless a definite request for discontinuance  is received,
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                                                                                                                         S u b s c r i p t i o n   p r i c e :   $4.00  p e r   y e a r
                                                                                             Entered  as Second: Class, matter at Grand Rapids, Michigan
               But I hear your quest: But must we then riot work
       $t all? IOh yes, we must work and we do work. And
       when we work it is because `G'od wrought in us, and
       set us on a pa&way of works which He foreordained
       that we should walk in them. But wait: .two things
       in this connection: l/ what kind of p;ropri+or.  are you.
with respect to these good works? Ipagine:  they are                                                                                C O N T E N T S
' ordained  bef,ore the world was!  -2/ when you are                         MEDITATION-
       through w&k&g the works of God that He ordained                                      Grace or  Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
       that should go through you, you look behind you -Ghen                                        Rev, G. Vos
the shadows of the night are uppn you, and the night EDITORIALS-                                                                                 \
       hears your cry: That's not what I  hid to do, must                                   Classis West versus the Declaration . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . 364
       do, intended-to, do : IOh God, forgive my good works!                                       Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                 .            .~
               And he listens, and. hears, and paints His cross              OUR  DOCTRINE-
       before your sorrowing eyes.                                                          The Triple Knowledge                                      .   .   .   .   .   . . > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
               And that cross whispers,  just before you  sI6ep                                    Rev. H. Hoeksema
       in peace :. your warfare is accomplished ; your iniquity THE  DAY  0~  SHADOWS-                                                                     _
is pardoned: and I  lovk you  -stil!                         -                              David's Grief for  Absalom' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
                                                                                                   R e v .   G .   M .   O p h o f f
               Shall we barter that kind of salvation fair a foul
       mixture of grace -and work?                                           FROM.   HOLB   WRIT-
                                                                                            Exposition of John  6:51  my.-. . . . .  :. . . .  .I.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  :. . . 373
       We throw it  from us  as we would a poisonous <                                             Rev. G. Lubbers
       yeptile.          -                                          _        THE  VOICE   OF OUR  FATHERS-
               Why? Because I hate it ; because. I do not. want to                          The Canons of Dordrecht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                            . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
       infuriate the Almighty; because I. want to go to heav-                                      Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
       en!                                                                   IN HIS  FEAR-
                              e                                   G. Vos.                   M y   B r o t h e r 's   Keep& . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                                                                                   377
                                                                                                                                                                                                    .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     L



                                                                                                   Rev: J. A. Heys

                                                                             CONTENDING   F                    O          R           THE  FAITHS
                                   -         :          -                                  The  Study of the' H&tory of Doctrine . . . . . . . . , . . . . ...*.... 379
                                                  $.                                               R e v .   H .   Veldman

                                                                             DECENCY   AND  ORDER;
I-        -                                                                               ~Tbe Order of Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .,. 381
              M,any of the. enemies to God's truths, when they               _                    -Rev.  G.  Vanden Berg
  are silenced by  the force of  evi,dence,  do.,  likk a snail  ALL  ARoUND  us-                                                                                                       . "
  provoked, draw: in their horns and spit. -Toplady.                                       Changes His Mind on Unions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
                                                                                           Another Declaration of Principles. . . . . . . . . . ..a............. 384
                                        c-D@oo                                                     R      e         v          .          M           .           Schipper

                                                                             CONTRIBUTION-
              Faith is the eye of the soul, atid the Holy Spirit's                         M r . Vander  W a l l                          . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.. . . . . . . . 384
 influence is the light by which it sees.. ---ToBlaqy.                       alrellol~n~l*rs~~~~,~"~,~,~,-~~.-~`,~,-`,~`,.-~
                                                                                  _                                                               ..>


        864                                     rjyiB&i  SFj+A$DARD;.   BB.AkEa
 /=*
                                                                         the Rev. de Jong, upon his return to this.coun&y, had
        1                                                                a letter in his pocket asking for full correspondence.
        i          EDI-T.ORIAL'S-                                           Judging by this effect, which their testimony had-
                                                                         upon the brethren of the Liberated Church in the
                 `Classis                                                Netherlands, we may, even apart frcm the report by
                             West versus the Declaration                 Prof. Holwerda, certainly conclude: 1/ That they de-
               Before I cbntinue,  I .-wish to r,efer back to the ar-    nied the distinctively Protestant Reformed truth, and
                                                                         left the impression that there was since 1924 no `dis-
   gument of Bellflower that Synod failed to -honor -the                                                                              -
                                                                         tinctive explanation of the Three Forms of Unity in
   request to consider the necessity of adopting the Dec-                opposition to the Three Points and in opposiltion  to the
   laration of Principles.                                               Liberated and Heynsian conception of the promise of
               I ask : ,was this necessary? Was it necessary for the covenant bin&ng in our~ch~~1'che~. 2/- They gave
   Synod to point out that necessity? lShould%it  ilot have the impression that our church& stodd wide. open for
   been evident to all, in the light.of what'happened be-                the Liberated and their doctrine. This is evident  '
   fore the Declaration was adopted, that itwa_s indeed                  from the very fact that the same brethren, such as
   very necessary to adopt a document of this kind?                      van Dijk, .van Raalte, and Holwerda, who after they
               Did not the'Mission  Committee have a request from        heard the testimony of the Revs. de Jong and Kok
   the Liberated in--Canada that they might be organized were entirely  ready, without further discussion, to
   into a church~  without subscribing ta the distinctively              enter into correspondence with us, now, after  ths
   Reformed conception of the' covenant which is. always                 Declaration- of Principles was adopted, in which the
   maintained in the Protestant Reformed Churches?                       `d&tinctively  Protestant `Reformed truth of the prom-
              Was  there not a report by Prof. Holwerda concern-         ise of the covenant is set forth, will have nothing to ;
   ing the testimony of the Revs. de Jong and-Kok?                       do with us anymore.
               That report was circulated among the immigrants              Moreover, this is very clearly evident from the  '
   in Canada.                                                            let$er which  Prof: Holwerda  &n$ to the  itiniigrants
               According to that report the Revs. .de Jong and Kok in Canada.
  had presumed to do the very work in the Netherlands
  which properly,belonged to the Committee of Cdrres-                       Let it not be said that this letter is not true. For,
  pondence. I understand that they did not presume to                    in the first place, it is the only report we have of the
   do so in any official capacity. But the effect was the                distiussions between the brethren in the Netherlands
   same. I will grant that they met with the Committee                   and the Revs. de Jon& and Kok. They never offered
  of `Correspondence of the Reformed Churches (Art.                      a report of their discussions. In the second place, the
   31) in the Netherlands on their invitation. Fact is,                  report by Prof. Holwerda was never contradicted. Al-
  nevertheless, that the  br,ethren of the Reformed                      though we have repeatedly asked the two brethren  to
   Churches (Art. 31) in the Netherlands received their                  give Prof. Holwerda the lie and to offer their own
  testimony as a tru:e picture of the `stand of the Pro>-                report, they never did. In the third place, as I have
   estant  Refor.med Churches in America.                                already stated, the report by Prof. Holwerda is car-
               What was their testimony?                                 roborated by the effects. The opponents were willing
               We  do not shave their own report, which `indeed          to have correspondence with us on the basis of the
  we should have had, but only'the report of Prof. -Hoi-                 testimony of the Revs. de' Jong and Kok, but changed
  werda.                                                                 around again when they discovered that our churches
               But we may nevertheless gather what ias the con-          were after all Protestant" Refor&ed, and no't Liber-
  tents of their testimony not only from the letter which                ated, and adopted the Declaration of- Principles.
   Prof. Holwerda wrote to the itimigrants in Canada,                       Now what did Prof. Holwerda write to the  im--
  but also from the effect which their testimony pro- migrants in Canida? I *quote the following:
  ,duced among the Liberated brethren in the Nether-                        "His (the Rev. Hoeksema's) conception regarding "
laxids.whom they met. It is evident that they did the                    election etc. is not church doctrine. No one is bound
  work of the Committee of Correspondence in such a                      by it." What does this mean? What impression must
  way that even the most pronounced opponents of the                     this have left upon Liberated ears-? .-The only impres-
   Protestant Reformed truth, such as van Diik,  -van                    sion it can have left is that- their view in relation to
  Raalte,  Holwerdr,  and others, were satisfied! were very the covenant, that is, the Heynsian view of election,
willing to have full correspondence with  I'S, even so                   has just as much right in the Protestant Reformed
  that they considered `further discussion quite unnec-                  Churches as the  view of Rev. Hoeksema, which is
  `essary. The effect of their testimony was such that                   that the covenant is established only with the elect,

                                                                                                                     . .


                                                                                                           \
                                                                                      .-


                                                       - _ -. ._
                                         THE     s$Ag.fiARD                      -q.-j$A&-ER        I                      365

although the reprobate are under the- dispensati:ln  of             is found in the protest of Pilla, the closing paragraph,
the covenant. It also  .implies that the view of the                PP. 19, 20 of the Classical Agenda. There we read:
Liberated concerning the p,romise as being for all that             "NOW  we believe that since gynod submitted the Dec-
are under the- dispensation of the covenant has a place             laration to the churches for their tipproval and thus
in the Protestant Reformed Churches.                                asked for objections, synod owes it to our cbnsistory  to
    "Most (of the Protestant Reformed people) do not                honor our objfections  with an answer before it proceed
think as the Rev. Hoeksema and the- Rev. Ophoff." to ask us to accept the Declaration. We believe that
This is nothing less than a schismatic statement. It                Scripture re.quires such proceduye  among brethren and
is the same `as. the other statement which made, ac-                the churches, and Art. 30 D.K.IO. speaks `of an `eccles-
cording to Prof. Holwerda, that an entirely different               iastical.manner,' of doing to the Lord's work."
sound was heard in the' Prot. Ref. Churches.                           The objections to which this -paragraph refers con-
  `fSymp.athy  for the Liberated was great,  also in                cern especially three matters, according to the protest
the `matter of their doctrine of, the covenant." And                of Pella.
again' : "`For the conception. of the Liberated there                  The first -is stated, in the protest itself as follows :
is ample room."                                                     "In Acta 1951; page 131, we objected to the fact that
_ Let this be sufficient: From, all this it is very                 Synod made a Declaration of Dogma, with reject&n
evident that' -in the Netherlands the Revs. de Jong of errors, when we, and the Churches in general were
and Kok denied the clear-cut Protestant Reformed                    not conscious of any errors."-  This objection I wo$d
donception of the covenant and. of the promise of -<God,            answer as` follows:  l/ It is hardly true that Synod
and that they gave the impression that the door of the made a  Decltiration of Dogma, with rejection of  er--
Pro;t. Ref. Church&  was wide open for the Liberated                rors.- What it did do is  make a  D&ltiration  of Prin-
and iheir view.. It is evident-that they sold otit -our ciples which were clearly  ennunciated in our Con-
churches to the Liberatedi  and denied- that there was              fessions, in the  Th.ree  Forms of Unity. It, did not
anything distinctively binding in our churches as far               make a new dogma. And until now no one has ever
as Prot. Ref. truth is concerned.                                   even attemptedbto  prove that the Declaration of Prin-
 : Now I ask : in the light. of. all above, must. Bell-             ciples is not based foursquarely upon our Reformed
flower and Classis West still ask the question why it               Confessions.       2/ The Declaration  oft Principles was
&as necessary that we composed and officially adopted               not. motivated by the supposition th'at there were er-
the Declaration of P'rinciples, `in which is.set forih the          ors  within our churches; but by the danger, which
distinctive conception of the promise of God as -only v&, very real, that errors would creep intb our church-
for the elect, and as hnconditional,  as this conception. es from without, namely, through the organization of
is clearly based on the Three Forms of Unity, the con-              churches. 3/ The `Synod did not adopt the Declara-
fessions that arti beli6ve.d  and maintained in the Prot- tion of Principles for our churches, but for the tise of
e s t a n t   R e f o r m e d   Chur&es?                            the Mission -Committee, with a view fo the organiza-
    Excuse me for saying it, but the opposition ~agaitist           tion of churches. In-doing this the Synod of 1951 vi-,
the Declaration of Principles by  Classis  West  leaves' elated  no article of'the Church Order whatsoever. <For
upon'me the imeression  that they are no longer inter'- according to Art. 30, to tT;hich   Classis West appeals
estbd in distinctive Protestant Reformed truth, but partly, those matters which belong tp the churches in
that they rather support .the "entirtily different somid"           common may be decided directly  by the synod. And
that is recently heard in &ir chdrches.                             certainly, according t6 Article 51 of the same Church.
    Btit I insist that it was verjr necessbry  indeed that          Order, mission matters belong to the churches in com-
we -as Protestant  Reform.ed  Churches officially decla?e` mon and are regulated by' the general synod.                     All
to  thd  tihole   chtirch  what' iS our  coricept<on of true        these matters -were thoroughly $scussed  at the Synod
Refdrmed  doctrine.' .              .                               of 1951, and therefore Pella-brings nothing new.
    The' Declaration  of Principles should  h&e been                   `The second objection toj?rhich  P,ella refers is brief-
a d o p t e d :   l&g  a.go.                                        ly expressed in the foilowitig quotation from. the. pro-
                                                                    test of Pella: "While we expressed that we were not
                                                                    pleading for the ushering  in of the term `conditions'
                                                              `. and likewise .expr&sed that. we were in agreement with
  ' The next ground which Classis West adduces -for                 the essence of the Declaration, we nevertheless felt
its contentidn.that  the Synod of 1951 "in adoption .of             that if Synod so simply declared all conditionality to
the Dec:laration  of `Principles, violated. Article 30 of .be heresy, tie w-ere not being serious about what the
our Church Order which states that `ecclesiastical mat-             F&hers taught, .and we" stood to alienate ourselves to
ters sh&il be tftin%ted- in all ecclesi$stical `manner,? ": them." To this I `answer as follows : 1/ It is not true
                                                                                             `_j


       3       6    6                                  THE..  STANDAti.D:.BEARER
        -                            -       -    -      -                      :                                - - - -
       that Synod. condemned all conditionality,  althou& it                  But the point is this, that`as an  ecclesiagticrsl  broader  gather-
       would be a good thing-if in the proper way oLir church-                In-g, conscious of its calling according to Articles 30 and 36,
       es would come to a definife  conclusi&  about this mat-                and especial,ly  in the-strained situation, Synod was obligated to
       ter. The Synod, however, dealt. with the question of answer the arguments of  Classis  West and give light on the
                                                                              matter. T#his she failed to do, but  hierar~chically  went on to
       a conditional `promise for all, or the unconditional                   other phases of the Declaration after defeating the motion to
       promise for .the e&t' only. And on the basis of the                    adopt the protest of  Classis  West.
       Confessions it decided for the latter. .2/ The Synod                     2. This hierarchical action is all the more glaring in view
       was not `concerned about what our Fathers `taught,                     of:
       but only with the Confessions. If we want to make a                      a. The advice of -.the Committee of Pre-advice I-B which ex-
       study of what the Reformed fathers  taught, much                       actly  advised  Synod to enter into the arguments of  Glaasis
       more must. be said than the simple statement that %&t and declare positively and with grounds that the  !sction
                                                                              of  Synpd. 1950 was  leg?1  and correct. This advice Synod  re-
       they taught conditions. But it must be admitted that                   fused to `adopt in a substitute motion, Article  211. Now I do
       the Confessions certainly never speak of conditions,                   not believe that the arguments of Committee I-B were con-
       except to condemn them,' And this is what the Dec-                     vincing but. it pointed Synod to the proper way, which she
       laration of Ppinciples maintained in regard to the pro-                refused to follow.
       mise of God. But also this matter was -thoroughly                        b. This  hierarchica:   &tude becomes even more -evident
       and elaborately discussed at Synod, and there is noth-                 when one of the delegates of Chssis West pleaded with the
                                                                              Synod  to express its  reason,s  for its actions and asked to have
     ing new in the protest of Pelia.                                         them justified, Art.  254  This request was simply ruled out of
              The third objection to which  Pella  ref&s in  the              order by the president. but may I point out tb& this very fun-
       above statkment  is found in the following quotation:                  damental question was  again  called to Synod's attention and
       "And `we  -also notified  Sylrod that we  objected.`to a               Synod  simpIy  went on in its  hiera.rchical  way.
                                                                                c. This is eveident once again when the question was raised
       definition- of the promise which practically set aside                 as to the necessity of the  Declaration,   A$. 255. The motion
     the. definition of Canons  II:5, which the  Reformecl                    lost by a tie vote, ,but the point is that here the Synod resused
       Churches have always acknowledged and used." To                        to express or to discuss the necessity of the Declaration,, but
       this I can only answer that this  acdusati&  is not                    even  thkir reminder was  not enough for Synod to do so, for
       true. `All the brethren will remember, and Pella can                   neither then- not later did Synod ever  express  the reason for
       find it in my elaborate report of Synod-1951, that this                its action, nor  t.he necessity for it as  #a search of the Aota of
                                                                              1951 very evidently reveals."
       matter was discussed again and again; that we neyer
       set aside the so-called definition of the-promise found                       What shall we say about all this?
      in Canons 11,5, but maintain it; and  o&y- contended                           The Rev. F---Terzyl  and his Consistory evidently
     that we would make & mistake if we would appeal on-                      have the accusation "hierarchical" on the tip of their
       ly to. Canons II, 5 fol: a complete definition of. the                 tongue. Tliey speak of "the Synod's hierarchical ac-
, promise. But as far as the "ecclesiastical manner" tion in departing from its true ecclesiastical character
       is cbnc&ned,  this certainly was not violated whatever                 of an advice-giving body." They claim that Synod
       by the Synod of 1951. If a thorough  and elaborate                     failed to answer the arguments of Classis West, `"but
       discussion for days on end, concluded by legal deeis-                  hierarchically went on to other phases of the Declara-
       ions (by a majority vote, is -not` ecclesiastical- manner,             tion."' They say that "this hierarchical action is all
       then I do not know what it is.                                         the more glaring" in view  of other matters which
              The next refkrenceto  which Classis West points as              their protest mentions. And. they say: "and Synod
       a nound for its contention is to the protest of Oska-                  simply went on its hierarchical way.?
       loos& (Rev. Howerzyl) , point II,. page 22 of the Class-                      I begin to doubt. whether the Rev. Howerzyl and
       ical Agenda. I will quote -the entire -paragraph fY:om                 his aonsistory understand what the %rtis hierarchy
      the protest of `Oskaloosa, iahich was presented by the                  and hierarchical mean.. I understanh. by hierarbhy  a
       Rey. Hqtierzyl  :                                 ~.                   form of government in which the broader gatherings
                                                                              assume the power of higher courts and -lord it over
            ,II. I wish also to protest against the action of the Synod of
       1951:  j                                                               the con&stories. ,Of this,  c&ainly, Synod in 1950
       a.  Jn  adopting the  Decllsration  of Principles in spite of the      Andy Synod of 1951 were not guilty, and could not
       well grounded protests and objections to the  coatrary.                be guilty, simnly because the matter of the Declara-
            b! And its hierarchical action in departing from the true         tion of Principles concerned the churches .in common.
       &clesiastical   character  of an advice-giving body.  In  proof of     And r find it very strange that the Rev. Howerzyl,
       the above I offer the  followilig:                                     who in 1950 was a delegate to the Synod in Hull, and
            1. That  ,Qassis West came  to Synod with a Protest. As far'
       as its Protesting was concerned Synod  ,simply ignored  `Cl,~s~is      certainly voted -in favor of adopting the Declaration
       West. I  l&w  Synod made a motion to adopt the  protest  of            of Principles, now speaks so repeatedly and empha.L-
j      Cltissis West which motion was  defe&ed  by a very close vote.         ically of hierarchical tendencies arid hierarchical 86..


                                                                                  "
                             I.

                                    rfl'
                                       g%     .;sTAwc@D-~                 j,EA.RRja                                        365
                                                                                                   .


 tions.    Nevertheless, also about this part of the pro-            legally adopted, it automatically adopted, or rather
  test of Oskaloosa, which was adopted by Class@ West                re-affirmed, the legality of the  Declalation.       Synoci
  for its own, I wish to make,a few remarks.               I         dealt with protests, but certainly did not have to es-
     1. First of all, a remark about the statement, "Its         tablish positively its legal right to adopt the Declar-
 -hierarchical action in' departing from its true &ccles-            ation of Principles and offer grounds for this.
  iasti&l character of an advice-giving .body." Princip-                4. What Pskaloosa  states under 2-b is .not. quite
  ally this objection is absurd.      The Declaration of             correct. It states that the request of Classis West that
Principals does not concern the Synod as an  advice-            Synod "express its reasons for its actions and asked
  giving body whatsoever. And therefore, there  ~8s              to have them justifi.ed . . . . was simply ruled auk of
 not and could not be any hierarchical action involved.          order by the president." The reference by Oskaloosa
  The Decl,aration  of Principles was not in the nature          is to- Article 254 of the Acts of Synod-1951, which
  of  tin advice, given by the Synod to any  particul+r          reads as follows: "Rev. Doezema requests Synod to
 con&tory, but concerned a matter that belonged to              state definitely the reasons why it expresses the pre-
 the churches in common,  whi$. therefore, could not            vious motion -(Art. 247) and'asks that this request be
 possibly come in the way of consistor.y,  classis, synod,      recorded and that Syliod's  answer be recorded. The
 nor c&ld assilme the natur.e  of an advice, but was a          chair rules this request out of order. <Grounds: The
 definite decision which the Synod had the right to             procedure to express that the Declaration is in har-
 make, on the basis of Articles 30 and 51 of the Church mony with the Confession properly belongs to the bus-
 Order. ThiS has been stated so often that its repiti-          iness of Synod. Synod of 1950 placed this matter be-
 tion becomes positively tiresome.                    ^         fore the churches, convened in  8ynod oft 1951." Now,
     2. As to the  content& that the  @nod of 1951              in the first place, it is not correct of Oskaloosa to state
 simply .ignored  Classis West and its protests, every-         in general that ,Classis  West "pleaded with the Synod
 one knows that attended the sessions of Synod-1951 in -to express its reasons for its  .actions and asked to
 .June and September, that this is simply not true. Syn-        have them justified." For the action of Synod referred
 od did not ignore anything at all that Classis West pre-       to in Art. 254 of the Acta applies only to the motion
 sented, but elaborately discussed  their protests, both        in Art. i4'7 of the Acts, "that the Synod declare that
 as to the legality of the'Declaration.and as to its' con-      point II of the Declaration as amended by  -Classis
 tents. :Surely, Synpd was conscious of its calling ac-         East is the expression of the Three Fdrms of Unity,
 cording to Art. 30, and therefore was quite conscious          With regard to certain fundamental principles,  as
 of the fact that the Declaration of Principles was a           these C,onfessions  have. always been maintained and
 matter pertaining to the Mission Committee, and                interpreted by the Protestant Reformed Churches."
 therefore belonging to matters that concern the                And secondly, the contention of Oskaloosa that the
 churches in cdmmon. What Ar.t. 36 has to do with the           president simply ruled this out of order is  also not
 matter, I fail,to  understarid.  This, in fact, is' an ar- -true. For according to Art. 254 ,of the Acts, the pres-
 ticle which we are discussing iri connection with the          ident produced. grounds, for his ruling. And what all
 revision of the #Church Order in the Netherlands, be-          this ha,? to. do with the :accusation  of Oskaloosa that
 cause if any article of the Church <Order; this one is Synod acted hierarchically is a mystery to nie. -
 liable to misinterpretation in a hierarchical sehse. It             5. As to the necessity of adopting the Declaration,
 speaks. of "the classis" having "the same jurisdiction         I do not have to r&peat  what I already wrote in c&i;
 over the con&tory  as the particul,ar  syinod has over nection with the protests of Bellflower and Pella.`.'
 the classis,  and the general synod over the particular."                                                              - H . H .
 Surely, Synod defeated the motion to adopt the pro-            i                                                             . . .
 test of Classis West. But it did not do so hierarchic-                                -:-:-
 ally, but in the &y of a long discussion, day after
 day, in which the Synod defended its right with an                                                        -
 appeal to Articles 30 and 51 to adopt the Declaration                 The Arminians think t$af in conveision, &bd does
 of Principles.                                                 little or nothing for men, but gives them a pull by the
    3. The same is true of the  argumeit under  "2")            elbow, to awake- them from their sleep. RIFther, He
 an argument which I already answered in connection             acts, as maritime ofIicens do by their sailors; He cuts
 with the protest of Bellflower. Certainly, after Synod         down the hammock of carnal security in which the
 liad rejected .the advice of the Committee of Pre-Ad-          elect are: down they fall, and the bruises and  sur-
 vice  I-A, it was no longer necessary to discuss, the          prise they receire,  awaken them from *heir `death in
 @ontents  of I-B. `By rejecting the contention of Clas-        sin, and bring them to themselves, whether they will
; s'is West that the  -Declaraticin  of Principles was  il-  ,or no.  -from  Toplady.                             *_


 3%                   -.                     THE  --S.~A.~DA~R.E~`E~ARER
                                        -                 :                   .-
                                                                            that this judgment is false, and that he who  thus
.:.,,H,H,-,-,r~,~,r~,-,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,~,,-,,-`
                                                     ,-,,-,-`
                                                                ,:.
 1  OUR.DOCTR'INE   1 judges is a liar. Hence, Gdd punishes h,iim by giving
                                                                            him over unto that reprobation of mind which impells
 5                                                                          him to practice horribly- unseemly things. And by
                                                                            doing these he plainly shows that his mind is corrupt
                THE   T R I P L E   K N O W L E D G E                       and that also his first judgment regarding God pro-
       A                                                                    ceeded from a corrupt mind.
             N EXPOSITION OF THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM
                                                                                    Finally, in verses 29 to 32 the apostle gives a more.
                  PART   III  - OF THANKFULNESS            .                detailed  de'scriptidn  of the actual  condStion of the
                                                                            world of his time from a moral, spiritual viewpoint.
                            LORD'S DAY 35                -.            -
      ' .                                                                           F.irst of all, the inward spiritual and moral dispo-
               ~1 4. God is a Jealous-God (cont.)                           sition is descri6ed~  in_ vs. 29 : "Being filled with all
                                                                            unr.ighteousness,  fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
        `Once more the apostle repeats the prase, "God gave maliciotisness ; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit,
 them ov&," in ver!se 28. In this veTBe there is an ex- malignity." The first paI% of this text speaks rather
 pressed comparison between the sin committed "and                          of the general spiritual disposition of the ungodly, the
 the punishment inflicted. The apostle designs to show                      second part of the more particular sins that are hid
 how proper the punishment  ,of God-was, seeing it                          in their heart. It  ~cannot  escape our  ittention that
 was `entirely in harmony with the very nature of the                       the apostle speaks in terms that  -are absolute. `All
 sin they committed: "Even as they did not like to re-                      is  gull of wickedness; and what is full of  antihing
 tain God in their knowiedge, God  gave them over                           c&ta.inly cannot contain anything else. We must al-
`to z reprobate mind, to do those things .which, dre not                    so .remernber  that the apostle is speaking of -a highly
 convenient." As  the. sin, so is the  pun'ishment.   [God                  civilized world, often praiseId and extolled in our day
 is just and riihteous. The sin they committed is ex-                       because of its attainments. Yet,  acoording  to the
 pressed in the words : "They did not-like to retain God                    Word of God,. that cannot lie, this world was full- of
 in their knowledge." T1he original here is richer than                     iniqyity. `There was absolutely no room for any good
the  tr&slation. For "they ,did not like" the original                      in their hearts and minds. -The first five- terms em-
 employs one word, the meaning of  which~ is really                         ployed all describe the corrupt  c.ondition of the  in-
 "to prove, to test, to .examine, and to express judgment                   wa?d disposition of the natural men : unrighteousness,
upon a thing after  ldue .examin&ion." The object of                        fornication, wickedness,  covetousn&s,   mdliciousness.
 the examination in the question, "Is ,God worthy to                        Of these, unrighteousness and fornication, that is,
 be kept in mind-; is He wprthy of consideration and                        spiritual fornication, ,are so related that the first ex-
 honor?`: And the  delibel"ate answer was negative, presses the inward antipathy against the righteous-
 T'hey did ,not deem God worthy of remembrance. The                         ness of God, the opposition- of our nature to His law
 knowledge of God was. manifest, in them, an! they                          and precepts, its antithesis to His holy will; while the
 knew that H.e wi&. worthy to be thanked and glori-                         latter expresses the tendency of that unrighteous na-
 fied. But .they were of aieprobate mind, and stood in                      true to go .a whoring from-God, to seek the ,darkness
enm,ity  against God.  And-  so,  in their sinful mind                      and  eschew the light. Again, wickedness and mal-
 they passed judgment- on  GGod,  ancl came. to the                         icious are closely related, and nearly alike iri mean-
 wilful  ,-c&clusiqn that He was not -worthy to be                          ing,' with th!& difference, that the fortier refers to the'
 remembered.          They  cast Him out. They  wilfully                    depravity ,of our .nature in general, to its moral and
 rejected Him. They- made of  `God a  reprobite. In                         spiritual corruption, while the latter points to the
 f,ull  h&rmony with this is the punishment Gqcl in-                        tendency of t?lat depraved nature to be vicious and tb
 flicted upon them. He gave them over to a reprobate                        do- evil. Govetousness  denotes  sin in its insatiable
 mind, -to do those th.ings  which are snot convenient.                     character. #in tends  to create always deeper .cravings.
 By an operation of the God of wrath t&e minds of men                       Every form of wickedness .accomplished leaves &. larg-
 became morally reprobate,. a$ turned  to  unseenlly                        er hole in the heart, that craves for more and deeper
 things. Thus God vindicates Himself. In the  pun-                          s i n . Lusti  &raves lust as soon as it is satisfied by
 ish.ment  of the sinner He justifies Himself. And He                       Sin.      The end of -sin is hell, et&la1 dissatisfaction.
 reveals that, to live apart `from God i.s death, and that                  Even as righteousness -tencls  to..ever  greater &tisfac-
 the sinner. that rejects  God does.so  only because he is                  tion because it finds r&t in the eternal God, so Unright-
 of a reprobate mind.` .When the sinner F passes then eousness creates ever deeper dissatisfact.ion because it
 judgment that -*God is not. worthy to be kept in inind,                    separates' from the Fount of all' good. The `second
 art&. to  `be feared, it certainly  niu& become  evident-                  part of the text rather points to specific tendencies.


                                        T H E   .STdN-~DARIS.`BEARER                                                369
                                  -,                      -
and inclina8tions' of this deiraved nature, even as to         must not be interpreted- to mean that after the fourth
be full is- the result of to be filled. They are full of generation the wrath ~of -God will -cease to be revealed
envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity.      Certainly,       upon  tliem. The meaning is -rather that the sin of
-one does not have to lopk far to find--these same sins        imageLwo&ship,  or the siri of rejecting God as He has
in the modern world. The political world is full of            revealed Himself  ip His Word, will continue  uncler
them. The commercial  world  is permeated with them.           the influence of the&wrath of God, and develop more
The strife in the industrial world is rooted in them.'         and more, in the line of generations, until they are
   Finally, in the last two verses the apostle refe_rs         completely  har,dened in their sin and  are  .hopelessly
to the actual sins of the ungodly as they  manifest            lost.
themselves in the world. They are whisperers and                  *On \ the other hand, the commandment conclud&
slan,derers,. backbiterIs, secretly or more openly defam-      with a  gl&ious promise that God will show mercy
ing .and speaking evil of one another. They are hat- unto thousands.%hat love Him and keep Hii command-
ers of God, in all their actions assuming an attitude          ments. Mercy is, of course, a virtue of God. God. is
of opposition against Him. They are despiteful, proud,         rich in mercy in Himself. As such, `mercy is the vir-
hautility, boasters, always dverestimating.self  and dep-      tue of ,God according to which He is tenderly: affected
reciating the other, trampling him under foot. They            toward Himself as the highest and- sole good, and as
-are inventoris- of -evil things, employing their genius       the implication  -of all perfections. As the Triune
and power to work out evil schemes. `They are dis-             God .He knows and wills Himself as the most bless-
obedient to  pare&,. revolutionaries, breaking  ali bonds      ed, forever. `And with respect to Hiti people, mercy is
of authority. They are without understanding of spir-          the virtue of God according to which He wills .them
itual things, and so far have they wandered. from the -to be perfejly -blessed in Him, to taste Hits own- bles-
truth that you cannot interest theni in things heaven-         sedness, and'adcording  to which He leads them,through
ly, or' reach even their natural  understan,ding  with         death to the highest possible life of His covenant
them. They are  CoVenantbreakers,   faithlesls  with. re-      friefidship.  There is, of course, a close  .relation  he-
gard to ,God and meri ;' without, love of kindred and          tween`the virtues of  loire, grace, and mercy;- Love
natural affection. Cruel they are, without mercy, deaf         is the bond that unites those `that are ethically perfect.
to the cries of those -whom they oppress.- A most tey-- Grace is the objective pleasantness and the subjective
rible list indeed ! ket perfectly true, and without a          attraction of those~ that &e_ in ethical perf&tio%. And
shadow of exaggeraiion is- this pic_ture !                     mercy wills and desires that the ethically perfect shall
   The apostle concludes by emphasizing the wicked-            be blessed forever. Hen&,  it is evident from this that
ness of the world in a twofold statement. in vs. 32. In        ,G-od cannot be merciful to the reprobate wicked.. And
the first place, he reminds us once more that ignora$ce His mercy toward His people tinst .be..founded  in His
is not the explanation of the wickedness of the world.         soGereign  election, according  t& which He beholds
They 60 these wicked things conscious by very exper-           them eternally as` perfectly righteous' in the Beloved.
ience of the judgment of God; natiely,  that they who do       God's' mercy 9s from everlasting to everlasting upon
such things are worthy of death. Y.et, they not onJy           them-that  fear Him. His  mercy,  therefore, is  unlim-
commit these things themselbes,  but also have pleas- ited.             He is merciful to thousands of them that love
ure in them  that  do them. Here is the climax of it           Him and keep His commandment& That they love
all. To  commit wickedness themselves implies that             Him is not of themselves, but is solely tl%. fruit of His
they have' a certain interest in the f?uit of sin. Cov-        sovereign grace. He loved them first. And He re-              .
etousness seeks to satisfy self. But to rejoice in the         vealed  His love to them in the death  qf His belov-
sins and wickedness of others reveals`that the?& is a          ed Son. He  cau,sed them to taste His love by shed-
certain disinterested love of sin for. its own sake.           ding it abroad in their hearts, so  that  they know
They are lovers qf darkness and haters' of the light.          and experience His l&e. .&d it is the .fruit of that
Afid this love of darkness as such causes them to `love        love of God which He causes them to taste, that they
those who- with them walk in the same darkness, .and           love Hi&. And this love reveals `its&; in the fact that
to rejoice in their ,iniquity.                                 they .Geep His commandments.
   ,Once more, this whole chapter; illustrat,es the truth                                                           H.H.
expressed in the second commandmetit,  that God is a                                       .'
jealous *God, that He will not allow His glory to be                              -:-::                    `
                                                                                                             .
trampled under f,oot, and that He will visit the" ini-
quity of- the fathers upon the children unto the third
and fourth generation of them that hate. Him.                      According to Arminianism, grace  hsis the name,
   - -The phrase, `%mto the third and fourth generation," but free-will has the galme; -f?om Toplady.                  .
                                                                                     ~-


.`

                                     1  ..

      370      *     -          _                      T H E   ST.ANDAR$  BE-iRE;R

                                                                          And said the .king, A goocl man this- IAhimaaz), ancl
      1 -`I THE DAY OF- SHADOWS 1 with tidings goo.d he `comes. 27.                                                *
                                                                             No more was Ahitiaaz within earshot of lthe king
                                                                          ttien he .c!rie.d out his greeting, "All is well". Rushing
                                                                          into the king's presence, and hurriedly paying him his
                     David's Grief  for.. Absalom                         respect-by bowing with his face to the ground, he pro-
                           _  I I   S a m u e l   18:24-19  :8            cltiimed his tidings. "Blessed be the Lord thy  ,God
         c                                                                &hich hath shut up the men that lifited up their hand
              The sacred writer now takes us again to Mahanaim            against my Lord the king." "Blessed be the iLord . . ."
      across the .Jordan, the sight. of David's encampment.               It was a challenge that'the king now, too, bless- the.
      The city had an outer ,and inner ,gat:e with a .roof sup- Lord. But the king did not bless. The matter was `not
      porting an upper chamber, On the roof was a watch-                  clear to him, iarticularly the greeting of the priest,
      man o-n the- outlook for messengers. For the day was                "All is well". Did this include Absalom? Had he been
      well spent, ,so that reports on the battle could be com-            captured? And had his life been spared? Let Ahimaaz
      ing in at anytime  riow. David was seated in the                    say definitely. Anxiously the king asked, "Is it well
      space between the two gates below.                   Here he may    with the young man Absalom?"
      hbve been sitting all the day long waiting for this                    Absalom. Yes, indeed, Absalom, Ahimaaz. He is
      hour. For it was the same place in which he had part-               dead;  Alid  thou knowest. Tell the king the truth,
      ed from his troops in the -early morning. His deep                  Ahimaaz. But his courage failed him.. But he must
      concern was Absalom.                                                give some kind of answer. "I saw," he said to the
              There was a cry from the -watchman that he sati_ king," the great crpwd, when Joab sent the king's ser-
      a man running. "If he be alone, there is tidings in his             vant (meaning the Cushite) and (me)  tlly servant,
      mouth," cremarked  the king perhaps to the porter.                  but I knew not what it was." This was like telling
      Ii was a likely conclusiqn. l?or if the battle had been the king that he was fiot-,@bl{ to report on Absalom,
      lost, several would be coming as fugitives. Again                   that, as far as He knew from what he had seen, Ab- -
      the watchman cried, "Behold another m&n rumling a-                  salom might have been taken prisoner, and also inight
      loiie." "He also bringeth good hidings," was the king's .still be alive, depending on whether the king's man-
      only c;mment. The watchman could now recognize                      date regarding his son'had been obeyed. But Ahim-
      Ahimaaz by his rapid `running. "I see the running                   aaz was not speaking the truth. He'knew from Joab
      bf the -foremost  is like the running of Ahimaaz the                that Absalom V.-X dead. He should have told the king
      son of Zadok." The king obserSed  that. "a good man                 and not .kept  him in cruel suspense by his ambiguities.
      this ( Ahimaaz) . With `good tidings he comes." Doubt-              Joab was right. The priest should not have run. But
      less the reasoning back of his remark was that~ Jbab                he had insisted. What could have  b&en his motive?
      would not have chosen Ahimaaz as a messanger of                     Was it that he loved the king and wanted so badiy to..        .
      evil. His hopes -seemed  to be rising.  Little did he - be the one to gladdefi his heart with the good news
      surmize that Joab had not sent the priest.                          that the Lord ill His mercy had judged him from the
              The cries of the watchman  -bespeak  not a  little          hands of his enemies? That was my conj,ecture.  But
      excitement. But the king. was scarcely moved,-  judg-               he may have,beQn activated by a different motive. W,ho
      il!g from his words. The one thing that lqe was wait-               &n tell. --PIerhaps the least we. say about this priest
      ing to hear was that it was well with his son.                      the better.
                                                                             And cried Ahimaaz and  said to the king, All `is
              But.  Dqx$ sat between the two gates. And bent              well!-. And he bowecl himself before the king with his        '
      the watchman unto the  Toof of the gate  unto (its)                 face to the grotid And he said, Blessed be Jehovah
      wall; and he lifted up his eyes, and- looked, and -behold           thy God which hath shut up the men- that raised up
      a man rxnning alone. 24.                                            the+  hard  agaikst  m,y lord the king. 28
              And cried the watchman, `and told the k&g. And                 Ancl the king said, Is it well with the young man
      Said  the  king,  if  (he  be)  alone,  (them  is)  tidk7s  in A&&o&?   AWCJ  said  Ah&aaz,  .I  s-al0  a  great  CYO~&,
      his  <mouth. And he came hastily and  clrew  near.  25  _ when -Joab sent the se.rvard of the kin-g ancl thy ser-
              Anicl saw the watchmaw a. man, another, running.            vant. ..But not  ciZi~$ I know  ,what (it was). 29
      And  called the  watchman unto the porter, and  sad,                   Let us take notice, "Which hath shut up the men
      Beho.ld, (another) man tinning  `alo,ne. And  SC&~.  t&e            . . . +-ry So reads the statement in the Hebllew  and not
      king, Also this  (m.an)  bring&h tidings. 26                        "which- hath delivered up the men:. . . . " (K. James
       '  A@ said the watchman,  I see  th.e  running  of  the and  A.V.  versions). This  could  be  taken  to  mean
      foTemost as the ?WrKnin~ of Ahimuax-the  son of Zaclole..  merqly that the leaders in the rebellion had been taken
                                                 ~.


                                         PffE      S'J?AND,ARD              -BE-A'fij!!%                                   371
                                         - -                                                      _I~-
      captive and imprisoned. But there had been a great               for' the time being to remove themselves from his
      slaughter among the followers of .ibsalom.                       immediate presence  would-   seem  to follow from the
_.        Since Ahimaaz could not say what the king most fact ,of their betaking%hemselves.  to the "city". , They
      of all wanted to know, he waved  hiti aside. The did n6t each of them -return to his own place. They
      watchman had annou,nced the coming of still another behaved, sags the text, like a people that have dis-
      messanger. Perhaps he could report on Absalom.                   graced themselves by fleeing in battle.
         And  saicl the king, Turn  Sa.$ide and  stan4cl  there.         It is plain that the king was making a dreadful
      And he turriecl aside ancl stood. 30                       `,    mistake.
         And  beholcl  th.,e  Cushite  iame, And he  sa'icl, Tid-         And it was to,lcl Joab, behold, the king l.cleeps ancl
      ings  riy Lord the king. For hath  judgecl thee. the             mourns for Absalom,  .19:1. .              :
      Lord thisday from the hand of all that r&e up against               An2 was  the  salvktion in that  &clay  for  mourn&
      thee. 31.           c                                            unto all the people. For 6eag.d say the ieople in that
       Indeed, but how went it with Absalom?                           clay that the king-was grievecl for h.is son. 2.           _
         And said the king to the Cushite, Is it well with                And stole away-the people' in that .day to go to the
      the young man`Absalom? ..And said the Cushite, Let city as steal away the people put to  skame by  the@
      be ,as the young man (is) th& enemies of my Loud the flight in battle. 3  _                            I
      king and all th~at rise up against thee fo(r evil.- 32.             And the king covered his fac.e,  ancl cried the king
       - This was telling the king indirectly yet.clearly  that with a great voice, My Bon Absaloriz, Absalom my son,
      Absalom was dead, slain in'battle, and justly so, see-. my son! 4.
      ,ing that he was an enemy of the king, one who had                 And also (18  :33), "Who  wou@l that I had  died in
      rose Up in rebellion against him. The king now knew thy s&ad." [Eng. A.V. and K.&V, "Would to ,God that
      the full truth.            -                                     I ha! died for thee," but ndt corr,eotj
         And was violent&shaken the king.-,.Arxl  he went                 We must not, as do some, turn away from this
      up to the chamb'er over the gate and wept: and as he             lamentation with some such remark &s that "there are
      went he said thus, My son Absalom, my son, my sqn griefs, as tie11 as joys, with which a stranger may not
      Absalom! Who would givle that I, even Ij had died for intermeddle".               David's expression of sorrow with
      thee, 0 Absalom, my so?,  my son! 33                             which we ar_e ,here confronted is .also scripture given
         While David-was crying out his heart for Absalom,             by inspiration of God  and thus "profitable for doc-
      Joab returned from the field of battle. It was told him trine, for reproof,' for coryection,  fchr instruction in
      that the king was weeping and mourning for his son.              righteousness :- that the man of .God may be perf,ect,
      It was told him, Joab, as it was by his hand that Ab-            thoroughly furniihed  unto all good works." (I? Tim.
      salom had ,died. Apparently, it m'ade .him not want 3  :16),
      to face the king. For he did not go near him until                  The lamentation reflects the heart-rending  .so~-
      some time latter as driven to it by the deportment of row of a wounded nat!ral affection by which is. to be
      the people.                                                      understood the loqe of offspring and of kinsmen accor-
         The people were no eye-witnesses of the- kirig's              ding to the flesh.
      tears. They heard that it was being said that he                    David's sorrow over Absalom is not to be frowned
      mourned for Absalom. And it  distres,sed  them.  For             upon as thobgh it were as such sinful. Christ as man
      the text states that what should have been a cause for knew this sorrow, as is evidenced by His weeping over
rejoicing-the salvation that the Lord had sent-made Jerusalem. And wasn't the thought of kinsmen doom.:
      them to mourn. Besi,des,  `recalling the king's, entreaty ed to everlasting perdition to Paul. a great heaviness'?               .
      regarding his son, and mindful of how that it had tieen          It gave him continual sorrow in  his heart. For the
      disregarded, they felt ashamed. For the  ;kifig's sor- sake of these ,brethren he could wish him&lf accuysed
      row was great. He cried with a loud voiek. It made from Christ, if that were allowable. And so, to& Dav-
      them all feel like criminals. Naturally it made  them id. He wept. copious tears  over Absalom.  H,e could
      want to get them out of his presence. So they stole do that because, being a saint, his ha&&d of the wicked
      away, says the text, that is, without notifying their was not sinful malice but at bottom love of God; truth
      generals and captains, they went quietly away, in small          and righteousness. He derived no gratification from
      groups  perh,aps,  and  betook themselves to the city the suffering .of the damned as such.
      (Mahanaim) nearby, probably as fearing that, should                 How David pitied' Absalom! And this despite all
      they  .remain, the king at any time might appear ikl             the great wrong that this son had done l$s father and
      their midst to' bewail to their faces their disobedience.. all the grief that he had caused  him. His pity skemed
      That they. purpoked  not to forsake him, but as sad- boundless. Doubtless this was largely- due to his a-
      dened and. dismayed by his reaction, merely wanted               wareness that his. past gross sinning-his adultery


 8'f:!.                              f H g .' $q A<-& 0 * R r>-:: B,E.* R E R
                                                                                                                     _
 and murder-was causually related to Absalom's' re-           overcorn+  with grief for  Absal_om's sake-grief.: to
 bellion and his perishing-m it. He recalled the words        which there w_as~ also -this side that, as freed from its
 of the prophet: "Now th.ereforez  the sword shall never sinful ingfedients,  it was a ckeatural  and dim reflec-
 depart Srom thine house; because thou hast dekpked tion of the heart.of IGod. "Like as a father pitieth his
 me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the' Hittite to be children, so the L,ord pi)tieth them that fear him" (Ps.
 thy wife.`! It -was a terrible  example that he had          103 :13). As a floweT of the field that, when the scor-
 set, his children. Amnon's -rape of Tamar and jater          ching winds from the desert pass over it, iS so- com-
 Absalom's murder of Amnon climaxed .by hi+ attempt           plete& gone that its place knows it no more, so they
 to capture his father's throne were but so many cases        flourish.- But: he knoweth their frame. And' in His
 in which the Lord was visiting his sins upon his-child-      compassion He will one day raise them up from the
 req. It rexplains  the violence of his grief, his bewail-    dust -gf death irito which he brought them, and clothe
 ing the fact that he could iot have died in Absalom's        them with a  perf,ectibn  and glory that  iS heavenly.
 stead.                                                       For He is not a man`-as if anything can separate His
      And ihis brings us `to' the observation ihat there prodigals from His pity. He- is- ,Gpd. ais pity is in-
 were  ,elements  in David's  ,grief that were sinful.        finite, from everlasting to everlasting, and infinitely
 "Who would give that I had died in thy stead, Absa-          potent, able to save to the uttermost them that fear
 lom, my  son, my  son  !" That bespeaks not subrhis-         Him, His chosen ones,. +part from his grace lost and
 .sion ,b'ut despair. Absai'om  was lost; And he could undone, but by His mercy fearing Him, keeping His
 do nqthing about it, however much he would. Appar-           covenant,, and rememberiing  His commandments to do
 ently, were it in his powef, he w.ould have recalled him     t h e m .
 from the grave,, and delivered him from the ruin o.f            joab'S words of rebuke seemeg  to have: their effect
 h@ll.     His grief was inordinate. He cried  -with a        almost immediately. With a sudden jolt they brought
 l&d voice, "Absalom, my son,  my Sqn!. So it went,           the king..to himself. When k;e was sufficiently calm,,
 on and on.~as if Absalom  had `been the inno?ent viotim      Jo& spake to him words of advice that were wise and
-of his father's sins~ and had not been wicked. also by       g o o d .
_ choice, and as if he, .himself,  had sinned -by his own       And now arise and  ,.go  fqr;th and  spe:ak  according
 choice and not also by the sovereign determination of        to the h*eart of thy servants. For by Jehovah I swea?
 IGod.        j                                               that, if :thou- goest not forth, if. will lo?dge a man with
     His sorrow was inoydinate indeed. It stifled for a       thee this nibht., ..And th'at  will be worse evil  tb thee
 moment every impulse ,of grace in .him to praise God         than all the evil that befell thee from. thy `youth until
 for the salvation He had wrought in his behalf; more-        now. 7.
 over it blinded him- to' his `obligation to honor and           Joab does not explain just why; ,to his mind, the
 comfort his troops who had stood by him in his cal-          king might be overtaken~  by greatest calamity, should
 amity.                                                       he be forsaken that night by all his people,. or what
     So, however rough and unfeeling Joab's word,s  of        that calamity might be. Certainly, the enemies of Da-
 rebuke may have b&en, they were just what the king           vid, hearing abbut it, would be jilbilan,t. They might
 had need of hearing in that mopent, submerged' as he         even `be encouraged to renew their attempt to rid the
 was  iti his great sorrow for his son. The torrent of        land 6f him. And with him ,abiding solitarily `at n/la-
 his grief had to be damned up, if he was to be rescued       hanaim, as now forsaken ,even ,by those who had risk-
 from  it.                                                    .ed their. lives for him in the recent crisis, they woulcl
     And went Joab knto the king to his house and said,       be certain to succeed.
 Thou bust shamed th& #day the face sf all thy servants,         A&pareti8ily,' David was now fully alive to this dan-
 who huve delkred thy life this day and the life of thy       $ger. For he arose, and sat in the gate with a heart
 sons and daughters and the life of thy wikes and the         heavy  wit,h silenced grief. The  n&rWs  went quickly
 life of thy concubines in that' thou  lovest  them, that     through the people. They returned to the king. In
 hate thee and ha-test them that love thee; for thoL hast     accordance with. .Joab's counsel, he expressed to them
 shown today that-the princes of thy servants are no-         his kind feelings. So was the danger of his once more
 thing to- thee. ~.:For I p,erceive today that if Absalom.    losing his throne averted.                                  : `.
 had ICued &and all we had #died, then~it would have been        And arose  th.e  h&g and  sat.& the gate. And  a2i
 right in thy, sight. 5, 6.                                   the people heard that it was said, Behold,, the king sit-
     It cannot b,e denied that the king% reaction made        teth in the gate. An@ came all the people before tF,e
 this iinpression. But actually there wasn't a grain of       king. 8,
 truth ig what .Joab. said. It was simply .that he was                                            -y-G.  nlr;  Oph&


                                                                                                                             I -... 1
                           I             `f`Q%                 s-liAND-A.k~-.~B~Ak~it                                        373
                                                                              .
                                                                       t6 will and to- do is of Him. No one can come to the
  .:~,-,I-,-O-,-O-~,-~,-~,-,,-,,-,,-`
                                     ,-~,-,,-~,-i,-~,-~,-~,-~,-,.:.
  1  FROM'  HO-j-J  WRIT.-  j Son e&except the Father which hath sent Him draw .us
                                                                       by the almighty operation of the Holy Spirit. This.
                                                                       the unbelieving. Jews lacked. They come not because
                                                                       they are not drawri, and they are not draw-n because
                     iipsition   o f   J o h n   6:~  :                they. do not belong to the- "all that the Father ha;th
                                                                       given" to the Son!
   . The passage from Holy Writ to whicll-we will call                    This is a "hard saying" in the `ears of these Je&,
  your attention-in this aJ+.iticle reads as follows : "I tim          but it is t_he truth o!f God.
  the liv@g bread which cam.e (downy from heaven : if any
  inan eat                                                                For  &his same reason the Gibraltar truth remains
                of this bread, he. shall live forever : and the
  bread which I  giti:e is my  flesh, for the life                     standing, that every one -that cometh and believeth in
                                                          of  the
  world."           '                                                  Christ shall be saved, he shall in no wise be cast- out,
                                                                       put shall live fore&r, and be raised up in the last day.
     Jesus had multiplied the.-three  barley loaves and
  the two small fishes on the shores of the sea of Tiber-                 W-hat lias this now to do with the text under con-
  ias on the day before He spoke these words to the squl-              sideration? . .  '
  titudes in Capernaum. He had come to  Capernaum.                        This text speaks of our "eating" Christ, the liv-.
  towaid morning after tie had spent most of the night                 ing Bread ; if says that if anyone eat of this br,ead,
  alone .on a mount in prayer. And, now, on this day                                                    .
                                                                       he shall live forever.
  after He had multiplied the bread the multitudes came                   Let us  tri to understand this.
  $0 seek Him.                                                            What does it mean that  Jesus is "bread"? And
      They colne' to Jesus, saying : Rabbi, wheti earnest              what does -it mean that He is ;the living bread?
 `T h o u   hithey?
         `.-                                                            Jesus is  break. Now "bread" is prepared food.  ,It
      They had eaten from the multiplied beead,  it mu&                is not the same as simply bare -grain, be it barley or
  be remembered. In their. enthusiasm they had desir- wheat. Bare grain, it is true, is very nourishing ahd
  ed to .make Him King .by force. They had recognfzed                  can make a meal. But it is not the same as bread in
  in Him the "pro@iet" of wh;om Moses had- spoken.. But. its nature and.idea. For, let it be observed, that bare
the .one thing that they had forgotten, 6s -all men fo E-              grain can be sown,, it can die and bring forth new
  get by nature, is, that Jesus is also priest; that He is             grain.  ,But this is not true of bread. Bread is'many
  the-King-,Priest  aft& the order of Melchizedek. And                 grains- ground to flour and made into a lump and bak-
  as the Priest He brings the perfect sacrifice for all                ed. And in .this process grain has been. transforme,d
  that the F&her has given Him in sovereign election.                  into another product. It is a product that is-finished.
  These must be brought to glory through His  de&h                     Bread cannot bring forth new bread. It is in this
  and resurrection ; He must give His life a ransom for                sense not like wheat.
  their souls. And as He gives His life, His flesh and                    Jesus, we should notice, did not Multiply bare grain
  blood, He is the Living Bread that came down from                    on the shores `of the Sea of Galilee. That God does
  God. He is the'Bre&d of God, prepared by God in the                  every day in nature. But Jesus -multiplied "bread"
  sacrifice of His Son in the flesh.                                   and "fish"! He gave sufficient bread, abundance  of
      0, the unbelieving Jews only saw  th6  m&iplied                  bread. Twelve full baskets of the fragments are gath-
  bread ; they had not really perceived the meaning-of                 ered. He multiplies the finished product.
  the. "signs", and penetrated to the thing signified by                  And what is the sign? It is that Jesus is the bread
  it. They simply labored for the bread that perishes.                 of G6d from heaven, the real bread of which the Man-
  Living bread they do not eat.                                        na in the Desert was buit a type. That bread was-won-
      Why do these qot eat?                                            der bread. The people  said: Manna, that is, "what
      Because they .do not share in God's work. What is .it" ? But the Bread that God gives is the true Bread,
  is this work? It is this : That we belieie in -Him whom              the Wonder of grace. It is Christ's  fk'sh and blood.
1  .God hath sent! No, this does not simply mean, that                 Not in the literal sense ; it is not flesh and blood, but
  this faith is the work, that God asks of us instead of               in-the sense that Jesus gives it a ransom  for the `sins
  the works  of the law, by& it means that o'ur belie&y,               oF all. His' people $11 every.tongue  and tribe and people
  dur act of believing is God's atior,k in us!                         and nation. _ He gives it for the life of the. Kosmos.
      It is God's ws~k that we actually believe, as well as -All creation.will share in the.benefits  of Christ's suf-
  that .we'have the potens, the ability to  believe. Both fering. .The Kosmos shall, be saved.
  are wholly what God energizes, `works into us,; both                   And then this prepared bre&-is the Bread of. .God,


 -.                                     THE  sTA.ND
374                                                       AiZ.D  B%A:RER                                           - .
because He becomes untd us from God wisdom, &hte-              need of the regenerated and enlightened mind and will
ousness, sanctification and. complete redemption.              long&g for nourishment in Christ.
       Thus Jesus is the prepared f86d for the hungering           2. When we eat food, this food passes into our sto-
and thirsting souls qf -those believing, that is, those        mach, and thus into the process of digestion, and is
drawn by-irresistible grace, who ar'e "taught of God?!         transformed into living energy of,the body and phys-
                                                               ical soul; Then we live. Now it is true, this food does
  -- With this in mind Jesus makes the statement, say- not really impart life. It only keeps the flickering
ing : "if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for-        life in our body burning for three score years and ten.
ever".                       .-
                                                               Eating it we still die. But this food given by Jesus,
        What cloes this statement imply?                       the Bread from heaven, is different. It gives endless
        We wish to point out that what we have here is         life- in our spiritual souls now, effects our entire life
not "Conditional Theology", .that is, the teaching that ,even of the body, and gives us -the hope, of presently
there is objectively salvaticm for all in Christ, that it      living forever in the heavens above.
is offered well-meant to all, and `that it now depends'           3. This, however, is only true "if any man eat it".
upon majn whether he will believe the ,Gospel,  wheth.er       "Condition", I hear someone say. I answer: it is a
he will accept Christ. We will say i*t still more point-       conditional sentence expressing that those drawn by
edly: That it is o,bjectively intended for all.men  head irresistible grace only, receive. the conscious enjoy-
for head, and soul for soul, but that it is up to nian,        ment of the forgiveness of sins, and that they are
whether he by his own "native free:will? is willing to more and more "bone of His bones, and flesh of His
accept Christ and take Him as his Savior. That is flesh" only when, they eat. It is only in eating that we
Conditional Theology.                                          taste the goodness of- the Lord as a conscious posses-
        That we do not have here in the text! .                &on in  Christ. No one, who does not  eat,  receives.
                                                               Only those who eat and drink Christ shall live forever !
        Fact is, that that is nowhere the teaching in Holy        `4. This certainly'is a,word for the entire audience.
Writ !                             _                           It tells those who eat not, that they have no hunger,
        ?hat is the heresy of Arminius together -with `the     they do not -have the knowledge of sin, misery, re-
proud heresy of Pelagius raised up out of hell !               demption and gratitude. .They are not "taught of God".
       But, perhaps, someone interrupts  and says:  Bit        But this not knowing God `reveals itself in not eating.
Jesus says : if any (man) eat of, this bread he shall          Hence, this statement is an announcement to those
l i v e   f o r e v e r !                                      not eating, that they have no part in Christ. On the
        I answer: every word is true, and must be- care-       other hand, those eating Christ taste the goodness of
fully weighed.                                                 the L&d. They lift up their hearts into heaven and
        In the first place, we underscore the truth, that we see- Christ as the true spiritual Manna, and live by
must carefully distinguish between a  coniditional sen-        God's . Covenant faithfulness ; they are admonished
tence, and -Conditional Theology as `above circum&rib-         and assured of Christ's hearty love.. They are assured
ed. A con'ditional  `sentence is logical thought, a condi-     of `this .ifi the sentence: if any man eat of this bread
tional Theology is the teaching of a Christ for all, and       he shall live forever.
the Free-will- of natural man!- Jesus never taught or             The act of believing is eating.
teaches the latter, but He often employs the former.              The act of our believing is the work of Go.d!
These two must not be confused. If we do, we simply               Hence, if any man eats he shall live forever.
make it impossible to interpret the, Bible. Then ,each           -This, I repeat, is- not "Conditional Theology." It
time we see a conditional sentence we immediately as-          is a conditional `sentence telling us who shall live for-
sociate it with ,Conditional  Free,willism.    That is fat-    eve;, and who shall not see life.
al to all good understanding of Scripture.                     _ But is is more.  -
        In the second place we must interpret Scripture in       It is an assurance and admonition, a promise of
the Itight of Scripture. ' In this case. it means that we      God to all believers, the oath-bound word of Jesus to
do the following:                                              every believing  one that he has life, and it thus is a
        1. That we notice that eating and drinking Christ      strengthening from faith to'faith.
is wholly identical with believing in this chapter. We            It is the Key of the Kingdom of heaven, whereby
must not say, that believing is  the "condition" for ,it is publicly testified to all and every believer, that,
eating. We must say that believing is the spiritual whenever they receive ihe promise of the Gosfiel by
appropriation of the riches of `the -graces in Christ, the     a true faith, all their sins are really forgiven them of
forgiveness of sins and life and glory. "Eating" is a          G o d .
metaphor for believing; it presepts faith. to us as the                                                ---G. Lubbers


                                        THE  S T A . N D A R D .   BEh-RER                                          375
                                 _--~                                                         - -
                                                                 _
                                                               istic is this strategy of all here&sj and especially of
                                                               those who assail the truth of God's sovereign predes-
                                                               tination. ,It iS nothing new that heretics refuse. to
                                                               abide by proper  ecclesiastical  .procedure.    Nor is it
                                                               an innovation when they attempt to portray those who
              The Canons of Dordrecht  -                       hold to the truth as -terrible men, hard, implacable,
      PkRT I - HISTORICAL BAiCKGR~OUND                         cruel. But  not?ce  that in this double  str-ategy the
                                                               question of the truth is not so much as -mentioned.
                      CHAPTER ' II        .                    Their purpose was, if at all possible: to avoid the issue
               THE GREAT  SYNOD  (Cont.)  `-                   of the truth, and as long as possible to obstruct the
    As we- remarked iq the beginning of this chapter,          procedure of Synod..        _  -
one of the reasons why the Synod of Dordrecht merits                  From the v&y beginning they attempted to follow
 the reputation of being ."`the great synod" must un-          this strategy.  Already before they appeared at the
 doubtedly be found in the'methdd which it followed            Synod they tried, fi?st with the foreign delegates, and
 in its labors. And because of this method, of course,         then with the political com&sioners,  to have Boger-
the Synod produced such a,sound  and lasting product.          man removed as president of the Synod. They failed.
 Sound methods and sound products are inseparabla-             Then, at the time of their entrance, having been given
    In order to evaluate the `tiethod which Sjrnod fol-        the floor by President Bogerman, Episcopius  amazed
lowed, it will again be necessary somewhat to enter            the entire assemby by piously pronouncing a blessing
 into the history, this time the history of the Synod          upon them. `Thereupon he announced the readiness
 itself, as it is recorded for us both in the official Acts    of the Arminians to proceed to the matter at `hand,
 and by church historians.                                     but  spqke pointedly of a  conference.  This was but
    The  Syliod convened in November  l&3. For ap-             the beginning (for we have not the space to recount
proximately a month it gave its attention to matters           the dqily proceedings of the Synod) of a lengthy per-
other than .the Arminian controversy, so that it was           iod of pious  subterSuge,  obstructionism, and forth-
not until the, sixth of December that the most import-         right flaunting of the authority of theSynod  by the
ant part of Synod's labors began. On that date the Arminian defendants. Stedfastly they avoided. en-
Arminians made their appearance for the first time             tering into the doctrinal issues. Patiently, yea, al-
on the floor of Synod. They had, according to' proper most to the point of folly, the Synod labored with
ecclesiastical procedure been indicted, and were called        thein, tried to examine them; allowed them at their
to defend themselves and their views befdre the broacl-        own request more time to prepare their opinions. All
est gathering of the church. The elite of the- Armin- was in vain. Finally, .even the foreign theologians,
ian party were represented by the group of. heretics           who apparently were not very well acquainted with the
who appeared at the Synod. At their head was Epi-              cunning craftiness of these heretics, also agreed that
scopius, `erudite, polished of manner, conceited, and,         the Arminians were incorrigible. And on the four-
admittedly, a rather capable leader. H.e had some              teenth of January, 1619, when once more they re-
years-before been elevated. to the chair of professor of       fused to submit to the authority of the Synod- in the
theology' at the University of ,Leiden, and is usually matter of their examination, President Bogerman
acknowledged a.s the theological leader of the Armin-          burst forth with those memorable words of dismiss-
ians after the death of Arminius him$elf. At the Syn- al : `!The foreign delegates are now of the opinion that
od he certainly acted as their spokesman.                      you are  upworthy to appear before the Synod. You
  - Before appearing at Dordt, the indicted Arminians          have refused to acknowledge her as your lawful judge
had  assembled at Rotterdam, in order to  -determine           and have maintained that she is your counter-party ;
upon a plan of action,' They had decided upon two you have done everything according to your own
things. In the first place, they would cling to the il-        whim ; `you have despised the- decisions of the Syndd
lusion that ihe Synod was really a conf,erence  between        and of the Political Commissioners; you have refused
the opposing parties, at which `the political commis-          to answer ;~ you &ave unjustly interpreted the indibt-
siopers, aided by the advice of the foreign theologians,       ments. The  -Synod  has: treated you mildly  ; but you  '
would act as arbiters and make the final decision.. In         have,-as on'e of the foreign delegates expressed it,-
the second place, their strategy was, especially with          `begun and ended with lies.' With that eulogy  w&
ati eye on the foreign delegates, to depict the national       shall let you go.  `God shall preserve His Word and
delegates as meli who maintained horrible, God-dis-            shall bless the Synod. In order that she be ni, longer
honoring opinions, and further as schismatics and as           obstructed,  you are sent away  !" Thereupon  the un-
p@rsec$ors of the innocent and simple;.  `Character-           Ideniably wrathful president thundered : "Dimittimini,


                                                 -     -
       376                                   T H E S T& N-D AR- @ B'-E A R E R                 :-

       exite! Yoti.are  dismissed, get out!"                          their lengthy documents, it is evident that the here-
              All the  R,emonstrants  arose  atid left. Episcopius    tics were at their!-same  old strategy of obstructionism,
       cried out: "With Christ I shall keep &lence  about all         trying. their level best-so to $a% the patience especially
      this. God shall judge between me and. this Synod." of the foreign `delegates  that the Synod might per-
      -Niglles appealed to Christ's throne. And  `Naeranus,           haps *break  up.
      another foremost Arminian s&d: "You, who now sit                    Finally, however, by the ttienty-second  of March,
      ai judges,  shall soon stand with  US before Christ's -1619, all the written opinions of all the delegates had
      judgment-seat." To his associates another of the her-           been received and  heard by the  Sy&d. In order to
      e&s, Hollfnger,  &led :- "Go forth, go forth out of ihe         understand how tho?oughly the Synod worked, you
      assembly of the godle;ss  !"                                    must remember  that the Acts .of the Synod of Dordt
-             Everyone  was, of course, upset. - `But now that the    comprise a volume of almost a thousand large, finely-
      Arminians were dismissed, the Synod could proceed               printed pages, and that by far the largest part of this
      with its work.  -'                                              volume is made up of the various written judgments '
          IOne could conceive of it that the Synod could now          concerning the Arminian errors. `The Synod was at
      have justifiably end.ed its sessions, and simply refused        lqng last- ready to formulate its official stand. Pres-
      .to have anything further' to do with the Arminians ident Bogerman presented to .the Synod his own' for-
      and their heresies. After all, th&y had shown beyond mulaiion  of  conceptCanon's  I and II. But the Synod
      .a shadow of a doubt that they did not want to be Re- `would not work this way+ A  comniittee consisting of
      formed, and had, besides, made themselves unworthy the president, the two assessors, .-three foreign dele-
     of being dealt with, through their stubborn rebellion. g&s,  was appointed to present  conceptaCanons to
      and refusal to recognize &he Synod: But this did not the Synod.                This Committee worked until the six-  ~.
      happen.       The fathers were. determined to  <rid the         t&th of. April, and on that, date presented the Synod
churches of these false teachers and their evil' doc-                 with its formulation of the-first two Canons, which in-
      trines once and for all, and to set Up such confession-         cluded  -in each case a Rejection of Errors, something
     `\ al barriers that they could never again occupy any which Bogerman had  -not provided in his personal
.rightful position in the Reformed  Chuyches.                         foqnulation. dn that date the .first two chapters were
          NO% began the long and  t&ious process  of judg-            adopted, and `the following day was set aside as a day
     illg the Arminians' views and of constructing a care-            of `prayer and thanksgiving by order of the States
      fLi1 .formulation  of the Reformed tr&h in opposition,          General.. The Remonstrants called it `<Ahab's prayer
      thereto.      For  @is purpose the Synod divided itself         day." `On the eighteenth of April, in its 130th Session,
      into as many committees of pre-advice as there~ we?e            the Synod  addpted  Canons  III, IV and V,  t.hereby
      delegations from the various -Dutch particular. synods          finishing, its main work. Now it only remained to
      and from the foreign churches. Each group of del- formulate and adopt an Epilogue and a foreword. to
      egates worked separately, and was instructed to pre-            the Canons, which work was completed w$out great
      sent in writing a thorough and well-grounded opinion difficulty; in spite of the fact that there  w&e some
      concerning each of the Five  Ar>icles of the  Renion-           delegates. who also wanted to include a condemnation
      &rants. The Arminians had now no personal repre-                of certain  "hard" Reformed expressions., And now
      sentation at thti Synod, but were judged from -their            the Canons as we  .know them `were  fini,shed! Synod
      writings. `The Commissioners, with extraordinary had, afterjong  and hard labor, given birth to our third
      longsuffering,  .still permitted those who were indidted        Form  pf Unity:  ..
      .to present to the Synod in writing whatever they wish-            The Synod gathered yet uptil the ninth of May,
      ed in the way of a further defense Andy explanation of          busying themselves  *with various matters  coqnect@d
      their views. This they did, and wrote  voluminously.            with  -t.he~ controversy, and then the foreign delegates
      In all, their defense of the first article comprised more       formally said' farewell, after receiving.. the thanks of
      than two hund:ed pages. Later they came virjth sim- the Synod. for their long and helpful labors; Follow-
      ilarly lengthy documents concerning their.otheu' points.        ing this a Post-Synod was held, of a st?ictly national-
      By the eighteenth of March (though they had been                character, with whose labors we need not busy our-
      allowed only 14 days originally) they were finished,            selves. .
      and concluded their- defense with the claim that they             Such, then, were  the.methods  of labor of  the great
      fought the Contra-Remonstrants out -of reverence for            synod.. Sma;ll wonder it -is, in the light of all this, that
      ,God,-seeing  that the Reformed view-fell short of God"s        our Canotis have now for more than three centuries
     c  ,honor;-was  injurious to true piety, and  offer&&e  to       stood withodt chdnge, and -without any need of change, .
      Christianity. But in all -that they  lyrdte   there was         as & redotibtable bulwark of the Refdrmed truth.
      nothing n&w, and though the Synod very patiently read                         .'                     -H. C, Hoeksema


                                          rim       STANDARD                           +&4kEk
                                                                      :
                                                                                `-.
                                                                           conscience concerning. a particular deed. We may
     1                                                                     grieve some one in the congregation by our boldness
     1         I N   H I S   FE.A.R'                                       to perform  .a particular deed. We  .may cause the
                                                                           pastor of the local congregation and the consistory
                                                                           members and eve< our parents and brothers and sis-
                       MY  Brother%   Kee+v                                ters to be -heavy hearted 2nd to spend. sleepless nights
                                                                           by sins which we openly and boldly ..perform-without
           Your brother in Christ, is he your friend?                      a qualm of conscience. Btit this is not offending them
          .- Theoretically he is, and according to the new prin-           in the sense that #Scripture  speaks of offending others
     ciple of life in him and ie you he can be nothing less.               by the things we allow. You may find' such a descrip-
     What is- more,~ you are admonished by the Word of                     tion of an offense in the English dictionary, but the
     Goa to live with him in .that sweet fellowship of `God's              word Scripture uses (skandalon, from which we get
     covenant. Zion also sings                                             our  english word "scandal") means "the  moveable
                                                                           stick -or trigger of .a trap; any -impediment  placed in
c                 "How good and pleasant is the sight                      the way and. causing one to stumble and fall." Met-
                  When brethren make it their delight                      aphor&ally it means anyone or any&ing that causes
                Td` dwell in blest -accord ;*                              another to be drawn .into sin- or error." This idea is
                  Such love is like anointing oil.                         cleafly borne out in the pasbage  we quoted last time
                  That consecrates for holy toil                           when Jesus says in Matthew 18 :6 !`Whosd shail `offend
                  T& servants. of the-lord.                                .one of these little ones which believe iti me . . . . . " and
                                                                           also- that othfer passage which follows a few verses
                  Such love in tieace and. joy distills        `--         later " . . . if thine eye offend thee. . . if thy hand or
                  As o'er .the slopes of Herimon's  hills _                foot offend thee. . . . . ; "-
                  Refreshing dew descends  i                                   Now surely one'$ eye, hand and foot never caLises
                  The Lord commands His blessing there,                    the person to be shocked or grjeved by what they-have
                And they that walk in love shall share                     done as something it would never think of doing. Ra-
                  In life that never ends."                                ther did the person do these things. through the eye,
                                                                           hitid and fobt and enjoyed them. Nor does one shock
           But your brother in Christ has an old evil nature               a  liktle child and ca(use it to grieve that some awful
     ,which lusts after the things of the flesh. And you still             ofiense has been committed before ,God. And note we.
     have an evil nature, because of which the admonition                  use the word %fFen~e7 in the sense of sin and not un-
     of the. Apostle Paul to the Galations is to be heeded,                expected deed. The meaning  surely is that that eye,
     namely, "For, brethren, ye have been called unto lib- that .htind and that foot are a snare to us, a thing
     erty ; only use not liberty for an occasion to the -flesh,            which causes -us to stumble and .fall `into siti.
     but by love serve one another." Galatians 5 :13.                          And we, by our sins; can very really cause the
           And therefore it is not at all- impossible that your -brother,- whom tie. must keep, to fall into the sins we
     brother in Christ is your friend and companion be-                    excuse, pr&tice and at which we laugh as someth.ing
     cause of the things. of t_he flesh -which so easily ,beset            humor& instead of something abominable in  ,God's
     him and because be fill& encouragement in walking sight. To hive friends and to enjoy their fellowship
     in these things by the example ybu set and the atti-                  is a wonderful experience,  `Ykt "in His  feai"  it is
     tude you assume over against these things of the                      also well for us that we time and again take stock of
     flesh. We remarked last time that as our brother's                    ourselves and make sure t'hat  we are riot seeking the
     keeper we were certainly to be `very careful lest we                  friendship of certain individuals because they are as
     offended the brother. At that time we also remarked                   liberal about sin as. we like to be or that we attract
     that to offend him does not mean that we hurt his the friendship of others by our loose iiving. The
     feelings by .the things which we allows but rather that dutch ha% a saying "Soort .zoekt soort" which.is also
     we cause him to stumble and fall into sin by the things               expressed by our english proverb "Birds of a feat&e+
     which we excuse` and after which we seek. It is about                 flock together." Let it be in your life that others are
     th<s matter of offending the brother and so ceasing to                attracted to you because you. live "in His fear." Then
     be his keeper that we wish to add a few lines -this                   y@ will have real friends with who& you can fellow-
     time.                                                                 ship in the friendship of God's covenant. You will
           Let us repeat, :their, that to .offend,  as the Scrip-          be able to enjoy their, friendship while experiencing
     .tures - understang it .and speak, of it .does not mean               God's friendship. Beware of -any friendships which
     that we shock someone by' our. liberty  and',,lack  of                m&t be sought and be expelienced at the expense of


  878                                    f"HE  s,,TA.irjiiARb.  B-E..AR%a
                                                                     .~                                 -                  _.-
  loosing God's friendship ! The Psalmist  declare6  "I          in themselves you, with ydur stronger conscience, can
  am a companion of all- them that feaq thee, and of             perform to the glory. of  God, you are to remember
  them that keep thy precepts." Psalm  119;63. Let               that your stronger conscience is due to the fact that
  it be said of you "He is my companion because he fears ,God $as given you -more light, a clearer insight into
  the L,ord and keeps His precepts."                             the truth. A stronger conscience is not one hardened
      Sad to say but nevertheless true is also the fact          by sin. Not at all ! It is one that judges your deeds in
  that congregations and denominations will grow and             the `light of  `God's Word with a `fuller revelation of
  gather members because `of the sins and evil practices         the truth in that Word than the man wi*th a weaker
  it will not discipline. Churches also make a name for          conscience possesses.. -And it is GOD Who has brought
  themselves and become known for allowing their mem-            next to you th,at wetiker  brother. It is God, then, Who
  bers to -walk in certain sins without  being disciplined.      gave you that clearer insight  into the truth, and i.t
  Surely  ;those to  whpm the keys of the kingddm are            is God Who put next to you that brother with less"in-
  given to exercise over ZGod's people must be doubly            sight and, perhaps, with a greater tendency to fall in-
careful as the brother's keeper lest they be  keep&g             to sin.. The brother's weaker conscience then, and the
  him iri sin. Ministers of the Gospel, elders and dea-          brother's  "lower.ed  resistance" to sinful things does
  cons cannot walk too carefully either in their own             not rule your conscience and determine your walk of
  personal walk or in their official work in the kingdom.        life. But God's calling to you  to: be your brother's
  Popularity for an office bearer in the Church of ,God          keeper `does'! Listen to the Apostle in I Cor. 8 :ll r
  may be an evil thing and `always is. when it is cue            "And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother
  to .the laxity and looseness of life of the one who has        perish,  .for whom Christ  -died-?"  (Still  more- in the
  received the ofice. Cause none to fqllow your'example          next~qerse,  "But "when ye sin so against the brethren,
  of sin, but let it be said that men follow $6~ for the and  wound their weak conscience, ye sin against
  truth and for  righteousnkss' sake. And without a              Christ.:' I& read I Cor. 9 :20-23. Nay the brother's
  doulbt it' is a- higher compliment to be bestowed upon a weaker conscience and his tendency to geek the world
  minister of the Gospel to be' told that he ,practices          does not determine your conscience and your walk of
  what he preaches than to be told that he preaches an           life,  `but your  ,calling of  ,God to be your brother's
  interesting and .well organized  sermon.                       keeper and your calling of ,God to deal with the both-
      There is another side to the matter. As. your bra; er as a true brother and friend do determine your
  ther's keeper you do nothing to encourage him in sin.          conscience and your walk of life, but your calling of
  You never set him a bad example. But as his frietid ,God to. be your brother'8 keeper and your calling of
  you also rebuke him, for his sins; and you do it in a          God to deal with the brother as a true brother and
  spiri.t of brotherly love. At first he may resent it           friend  do determine your life before your brother's
  and consider you to be ,an enemy rather than a brother.        e y e s . -
  And that `is to be expected. Ai far as his aid nature              `Think it over. Think before you laugh at sin. Con-
  is concerned,  ;You  aEe his  enemy,  and  wit.h that old      sider before you walk a certain way whet,her you. are
  nature you can never have fellowship. But by `God's            not encouraging others to walk in sin. Your broth-
  grace he will according  t9 the new principle of life          er's keeper. Indeed.      But parents ! -your children's
recognize your rebuke as one of brotherly love, as               keepers also. In the home when `they are so close to
 one coming from the brother's keeper. Even then,                you, closer than the brother who is outside your home,
  you will need to walk in His -fear yourself and- set           what example d-o you set ? Be sure that you are keep-
  him the example.          You. will have. to deny yourself,    els of these chil'dren and not offenders. Read Matt-
  very .often,  things which in themselves are not sin-          hew 18 :6 and tremble! Yea, rather, read it and run
  ful and which you cafi.perform with a clear coilscience.       in His fear to the throne  of grace for help and strength
  But for the brother's sake, you. will desist that you          to jive before your children in `His fear.
  may gain him and not encourage hiln in worldliness.                             "r                      LJ. A. Heys
     Do not say, must I let his weaker conscience and
  unspirituality rule me and my conscience? -Must I                                     ---::.:-
  be -hemmed in aed be put in a straight-jacket by the
  weaker, more. unspiritual. brother.? Nay,  thalt is not                                                             :
  stating ,it correctly.      Remember that you are your                                     _I
  brother's keeper. -That is your calling. Bear that                 Arminiatis consider' the, grace that is inspired `into
  in mind before you. ask -what you mu& give. up. Sin-           a true believer's heart, as a text of_Scripture  written
  ful .practices, of course, you must give up wholly and         upon a pane of glaRs, liable to be-  d.emolished .by the
  always. .But even when it comes to those things which          tist hand that flings a stone at it. -Toplady;


                                             T      H      E           STANDARD..~B@ARE,R                                       379
                                      - -
.~a-,,~`,r,,-`lr,,i~,-,,-,,-~,-~,-~,-~,-,,-,,-`,-~-~,-~,-,,-,;-,.:.      ship in the things of this present life. And this also
                                                                         applies `to our Protestant Reformed Churches. The
1        Contending For The- Faith. 1
.:nro-cus-a-o-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,-~,~,,-~,-,,-~,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,.~*         existence and life of a church or a group of churches
                                                                         is unquestionably affected by their  "place in history
                                                                         and in the light of. the past.
        The Stud; of the  Histsry   of  Doctrine                             Hence, a study of this history of doctrine wil! en-
                                                                         able us to understand more readily -and moire -clearly
         THE BENEFITS  IOF  THIS  STUDY  (cont'd.)                       the ddctrines o$ our Church or Churches. Fundamen-
                                                                         tal truths such as the Trinity, Absolute and Uncondi-
It enables +s to understand m'ore clearly the c1octrine.s                tional Predestination, Total Depravify, Particular A-
     of owr Chwrch.                                  -                   tonement, Irresistible Grace, Preseverance of the
     -The -reader will recall that we were calling a.ttem                Saints, the Promise, Infant Baptism, can be more
tion- in our previous article to the benefits which we                   clearly understood when' studied in the light of the
derive from 9 study of the history of doctrine. And                      past. This lies in the nature of the -case and needs
we  concludtid our article with `the observation that                    very little elucidation. In fact, the possibility cer-
one of these benefits  is, that it. unites us with the                   tainly exists that words and terms change in metin-
Church of the past. Another benefit which we derive                      ing, and that certain terms as. "they appear in our
from this study. is that it enables us to understand                     Confessions today may have had another meaning
more clearly the doctrines of our `Church-or Churches.                   when these Confessions were composed. A striking
      This truth is illustrated in natural life. The his-                example to illustrate this truth is the use of the word
tory of our  country  enables us to understand our                       "offer". We know that the..meaning of this word to-
country as it is today. We cannot discuss this now, of                   day certainly varies  fpom its meaning at the  time
course, in :detail-to do so would lead- us too far as-                   our Confessions were drawn up. The word today de-
tray from our present `subject. The desire, for ex-                      notes a general inclieation~on  the part of God to save
ample, for personal freedom and liberty is inseparably                   all those who hear the gospel, whereas in, the past it
linked up with the past.  ,Our country's decision to                     simply meant: to exhibit, ,show folrth. Hence, a study
have a democratic form of government can be under-                       of the history of doctrine will. certainly enable us to
stood better if we- examine conditions in Europe at                      understand more readily and clearly the doctrines of
the time of the founding of our counkry. IOur country                    the Church of ,Go_d today.
would not exist as it does today were it not for its pe-
culiar history. The history of the French Revolution                     It enkbks us to discern, the ,tru$e from the false.
certainly affected the content of our  cotintry's  con-                      This, too, is a matter  df vital  a<d fundamental
stitution-the two can nevelr be divorced.-                               signilficance.    It is not always easy to discern the             _
      This truth  is also illustrated in the histories of                true from the false. To be sure, we cam readily recog-
various churches. The past, also in this respect, vi.&-                  nize error when the so-called cardinal truths of Chris-
ally affects the present. There are, for example, any -tendom are brutally attacked and lived. It is not dif-
number. of churches who lead an anemic spiritual life                    ficult to recognize error when the enemy boldly denies `
and existence because'their -origin was not rooted in                    that Jesus is God in the flesh or brutally asserts that
a de&se  and longing for the truth and the things of                     our Lord-Jesus Christ never arose from the dead. How-
God's Kingdom and covenant. Is if no;ttrpe that the                      ever, the devil can. be very subtle in his attack upon
California of today  stands in the sign of the  -"gold                   the truths of the Holy Scriptures. It is characteris-
rush" in the middle of the nineteenth century? And tic of him to appear as an angel of light, to be gai:bed
has this also- affected the' spiritual life of that state                in the `gar~ments of the- truth, and to camouflage his at-
today? Is `it not true, to quote another example, that                   tacks upon the Word of (God. -One of his most effective
the existence of ;the Liberated Churches in the Neth-                    weapons is to borroTir the language and terminology
,erlalids of today must be viewed and appraised in                       of Reformed truth and use it to "cover up" and spread
connection with the doctrinal controversy in the Neth-                   his distortion of tkie Word of `God. This .is also true
erlands  ,some  fifty years ago?  The  midersigned  was                  of the modernist. He speaks -of the Son of God, of
told repeatedly that the rejection of "Common (Grace" the death and resurrection and ascension of the Lord
by these brethren must- be viewed historically as re-                    and His return upon the clouds of heaven to judge the
volving about the person of the late -Dr. A. Kuyper,                     quick and the dead. The trouble is that, although he          -
noted for his systematic setting forth of this doctrine                  uses the same terms we do, he gives them an entire-
which champions the synthesis: that the church and                       ly  -different  connotatiog.  We certainly need not
the world can live together in cooperation and fellow:                   quote examples to substantiate this observation. It


                                                                                        . .

                                                                                                              -
      380                               T H E .   ST'A=NDARZ!-   B.EARER                              I

      is well to bear in mind that we, also in our termin-          must ultimately dry up. T_he purpose of our C&fess-.
      ology, emit. a clear and no uncertain- sound. P.eople         ions and. creeds was certainly never to s?y the final
      should have no -difficulty understanding. us and know-        word as far `as the development of the truth is con-
      ing exactly what we mean and proclaim.                        cern&d, so that there wou!d no longer be any develop-
          A study of the history of doctrine will, prove to be ment of doctrine" Our fatherIs-did  not compose these
      `helpful and very beneficial also in, this  re?pect.   1.t    wonderful and beautiful documents to stifle and render
      is extremely helpful, in our attempt to discern the true      impossible ali advance, but rather to encourage land
      from the false, to be able to  Jecognize  the modern          Btimuiate-the  study of the Scriptures. We may never
      voice of heresy because we have learned to know them          rest upon our laurels. To do so is `tragic, inasmuch
      -in the light of the past. Doctrines. haGe a history, but as ache &nemy is never satisfied-with past accomplish-
      this is a!so irue of heresies. One may well begin to          ments* That.enemy  is ever on the alert to undermine
      wonder when he recognizes in the voice atid speech of         the Word of. God, an,d we must ce,rtainly be ever on the
      some the same speech of those who were condemned              alert-to study the Scriptures which -alone can make us
      in the past. Iti is also' extremely beneficial wh&n the       wise unto salvation. The ,Confessions  myst, therefore,
      &me tru& are attacked which were attacked by those            never be studied as an end in themselves, but to help
      who were condemned as heretics in the past. To use            us in our understanding and study of the Bible. If we
      an illustration, we could point to the truth of God's         study and regard the Confessions as. an end in them-
      sovereignty and  man's responsibilty. When, for  ex-          selves the-invariable result will be an attitude of `smug
      ample, we al-e accused of laying undue stress upon the        complacency and this will ultimately have for its re-
      sovereignty of  ,God and  insufficien.t emphasis upon         sult that we place these Confessions upon .our shelves
      man's :respontiibility,  we should not feel alarmed be-       and simply pride ourselvels -in their possession with-
      cause, judged in:.the light of `the past, we find our-        out concerning ourselves with their content. To love
      selves in exceedingly good company. #Or,  when we. our cregds,  however, because they lead us to a richer
      are told that, because of our emphasis upon election,         study of the Word of the  Lord will safeguard us a-
      . we do not  h&e anything  f,or the  w.icked,  we again' gainst this @or and danger.
                                                                         .
      recognize this speech as having been uttered in the                     How important, therefore, ?s also in this respect.
      past by those who were kno%rn enemies of the truth            a study of the history of doctrine ! It enables us to be
      of  .the particular gospel. -Again, when we are told          busy in the~further development of the truth along its
      that our emphasis upon. God's election and irresistible       positive histori.cal  line. It points out to us the direc-
      grace makes'.Fen careless .and profane; we are able           tion in which we must go. These doctrines are as
      to recognize that the apostle, Paul, already was com-         many sign-PO&s which direct L& in the further devel-
      pelled to conterid wjth this same opposition. Romans , opment of the truth. A.study-of  the past will disklose
      6 is a striking illustration in support of .&his obser-       to us that we must not travel in a-direction which .will
      vation. And thus we could continue. I am sure that nullify or weaken the, doctrines of God's eternal and
      we understand the importance and ,benefit  of a study sovereign  election and ~*eprobation,  th& the grace of
      of the history of doctrine also from this point of view.      the God of our salvabion is sovereignly particular. We
      It, is extremely important that we are not me'rely able must never. fall victi,m to `a conception  of t.he pro&se
      to discern the truth,but  also the lie; the two are in- which fails to consider  the fundamental truth that the
      separable. And the struggle ~of the Church of the iiv-        Lord generally realizes His promise in His children
      ing God in the past has beefi recprded  for our ,benefit      duping  their infancy-to do so  woul(d  imply  that  'we
                                                                    have departed from the "tried, beaten path." A study
      it hlelps u.s in furthe; development of the truth.            of  tht: past' will  help us to understand the road we
             The truth must  be d&eloped.. This lies in the very must travel in the fut&e. That must be our purpose
      nature of the case. (Ori the one hand, `the enemy will        and  Y;egolve.
--    afford the Church of  Gsd plenty opportunity to be                                                    '  - H .   Veldman
      busy alone this line.' Life becoimes  more complex and        -
      the position atid calling of the Church and Christian                                    ,-:-::
      more difficult in the midst of the world; And ai these
      attacks upon the Church and the truth become more
      varied and com$ex it lies in the very nature `of the                    A truly enlightened believer (i.e., one who has a
      case that the Church is called upon to sharpen  its- clear view of gospel privileges, and makes conscience
      weapons to resist and ward off these attacks.         Be- of gospel- dut&,`) stands between two. fires: the Phar-
      sides, on the  the,. other  hand; the truth itself is so      iseas call him an Antinomian, and the real Antino'm-
      tremendous in itis content and scope. Stagnant pools          ians call hi& a Pharisee. -Toplady+


                                                                                                                      .                     a

                                                THE  STAr;ibAkD   BtiARE:R                                                             $91

                                                                                  _.
                                                                           the Word are not professors to be sure but all profes-
.~,,rllr~lrl,-o-~,-,,-~,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,-~,-,,-`,-~,-~,-i,-,,-~,-,.:.
 I.  .~                                                                    s&s of theology are ministers of the Word.
 I          DECENCY and ORDER  1
 F                                                                             Thirdly, if we adopt the view of Calvin in this
*:*1-1)-1)-1)-1)-(1-1,-,,-,,-,,~,,-~,-,,-`,-,,-,,-~,-,,-,,-,,-,,-~,-~.     connection &e destroy in part at least the symbolism
                                                                           of the offices in the church.  The three-fold office of
                    The Order of Assemblies                                ministers,-elders, andpdeacons  is undoubtedly  a reflec-
                                                                           tion 6f the three-fold office of Christ Himself. More
                      THE OFFICES (cont'd.)                               will be written about this w.hen we discuss the offices
       It would be better if the second article of our                     individually but pertiit. me in this connection mere-
 Church Ordkr were revised so thst. the word "fo%~" ly to cite the thirty-first question and answer .of our
were changed tb "threg" and the  phrase "of the pro-                       Heidel.berg  Catechism which implies this analogy.
fessorx of theology" were elided altogether, or if it is                       `%@ist is ordained of ,God the Father and anoint-
desirable to retain that phrase &6 following redaction                     ed with the Holy Ghost, to be our chief Prophet and
might be suggested as an ilmprovement  over the p&- -Teacher,  (Minister . . . (G. V.) who has fully revealed
sent articlre  :                                                           to us the secret counsel .apd will of God concerning our
      -"Article 2 - The of&es are of three kinds: of %he                   redempf;ion  ; an,d to be our only High Priest, (Deacon
ministers of the Word and professors of theology; of                        * * . Servant. . . GV) who by the  orie sacrifice of His
the elders, and of the deacons."                                           body, has redeemed Us, and makes continual interces-
                                                                           sion with the Father for us ; and also to be our eternal
       ,OUr present redaction of this article, we Wrote la&                King (Elder . . . Ruler . . .lGV) Who gbverns us by
time, is the result 6f a faulty"interpretation  by Calvin                  His %ord and Spirit, and who defends and preserves
of Ephesians 4 :11; "And he gave some, apostles ; apd                      us in that salvation He has j,urchased  for Us.".           i
some, prophets ; an-d some, evangeli& ; and some, pas-
tops and teach:ers". We quoted Calvin's interpretation                         From this it is evident that we would have to have
of this passage and if you will now refer to the last very preponderant  reasons to introduce into this
issUe of the Standar,d BezFer  you will find that accord-                  scheme a fourth office. These reasons `Calvin does not
ing to his view the office of the ministers of the Word . have. We may, therefore, not destroy this symbolism
and that, of professors of, the.ology  are `two distinct and analogy ,by separating the offices of the ministry
 church offices. That this is not c&r&t may be shown of the Wdrd and that of proflessors  of theology.
from the  follo!wing considerations. Let it be  undcr-                         T,hat the revision of Article 2 as suggested above
 stood, however, that we do ndt disagree with th-e Gene-                    is proper also follows f,rom the fact that it wzuld bring
van Reformer when he asserts that the oficc of pro-                         this article into better harmony with the rest ,of our
fessor, is.a church o&e but we only beg to ,differ with                     Reformed Confessions. Arti`cle 30 of our Netherlands
him when he claims tha.t this office is separate from Confession, for example, speaks df a three-fold office
that of the Word. #Our &aso$s for this disagreement                         in the church as .follbws:  "We believe that this true
 are these.                                                                 churoh must be governed. by that spiritual policy
       First of all his interpretation- of Ephesians 4 : 1+                which our Lord hath taught us in Hi% Word; namely,
we believe cannot be substantiated by ihe grammati-                        that there-musk be ministers or pastors to preach the
cal construction of the text. In the  ori'ginal especial-                   Word of God, and to administer the sacraments; also
 ly but even in the English translation it is rather evi-                   elders and deacons,. who; together with the pastors,
 dent that the phrase_f'pastoys .und teachers". is intend-                  form the.council of the church . . . "           ,.-...
 ed as  a single entity. Were this not the case the                            Likewise Article 31 of the same confession speaks
 apostle could have smade-himself  crystal clear by siti-                   of ministers, elders and  dxeacons  who are chosen to
 ply adding one. word.                                                      their respective offices by a lawful election by the
       Becondly, in criticizing this view  we might point church. In both of these atiicl& no mention is made
to the f.act that Scripture nowhere speaks of the ofTice                    of the office of professors of theology which-would not
 of professors of theology apart from the office of the                     likely be the case if that -were a separate office in the
 ministry of the  Woyd. Timothy, a, minister of the church.
 War?, is enjoined by the apostle  P&u1 to "commit'                            It is also true that our Form for the Installation of
those things which he had heard of the apostle among                        Professors of Theology is written on the supposition
 many witnes.ses to faithful men, who shall be amble to                     that these professors are ministers  of the Word. The
 teach others also." (II Timot,hy  2 :2). In this passage                   following statements taken from. this form indicate
 the office of professors of theology is plainly an annex-                  this clearly: "Beloved, brethren, it is known Unto you
 ment of Timothy's ministerial office. All ministmers of that our. brother in the holy ~mi&st~y N. N."' (italics


 mine, G. V.) . And again, "Conscious  of this cal-               instruction`and he does so only upon the authority of
 ling our church has also  e&ablished a Theological                Christ. The  institu%ion of the office of deacons is
 School and called the reveyend brdther  -N N.`! (Italic clearly set forth in Acts 6. For still further refer-
 mine, `G. V.).                                                   ences we might point out readers to Hebrews 13:7,
   .And what is still more, the churoh order itself in            II Corinthians 5:20, I Peter 5:1-4, I  Tjarn. 5:1'7, Phil.
 Articl.es  16 and 18. essentially identifies the- office of      1 :1, etc.
 the ;ministers  of the word and professors although a                This means that these offices are one of the most
 distinction may and also should be` ,made in `their re- -precious gifts which God has given to His church and
 spective labors.. There we read-that "the office. of the         ought always to, be regarded as such. ,Often this is
 tiinistry is to continue ifi prayer and in the ministry not done. T&e offices aae frequently misunderstood,
 of. the Word"' while the "office of -professors  of theo-        taken for granted and even slighted. We should re-
 logy is to expound the Holy Scriptures." Certainly, no member, however, that in these  offices. ,God has en-
 one would  aver that. expounding the Scriptures does trusted such things as the ministry of His Word and
not belong to the ministry of the Word and is an in-              of the holy sacraments, the keys of the kingdom of
 trinsic part of the proclamation of the (Gospel except,          heaven-by which the doo.rs of the kingdom are. opened
 perhaps, the modernist whose conception qf th; office            and closed, and the tiinistry of mercy in the Name.of
 of the ministry is grossly distorted in our present day.         the Tnerciful Saviour. Through the instrumentality of
     *Opr conclusion is, therefore, that there are only           these  @ices it pleases the Lord to bestow the abundlant
 three .distinct -offices in the church of our Lord Jesus         goodness of His grace and the eternal riches of His
 Christ. This does not mean that the task of training inheritance upon His church.  _,  T!brough  them the
 men for the ministry of the gospel which is the labor            church-of all ages is gath&+d, God's people are spirit-
 of the professors of theology `does not belong to the in-        ually enriched, and His Kingdom is realized. and pre-
 stitute of the church. It certainly does. ,Our cofiten-          pared for its ultimate manifestation-in heavenly glory.
 tion, based espe@ally  upon the passage of II Timothy            If these things are consciously before us, we, as -chil-
 2.:2, is that this work does not belong to a separate            dren of God, will always properly regard these gifts
 office but is inheretit  in the office of the ministry of the    of :God with due sespect.
 gospel. And, whereas the work is of such magnitude                   Those,w!ho  function ifi these offices must also know
 that it r.equires the whole effort arid tibme of the office      that they act thesein only upon the authority of Christ
 bearer, the minister who functions as professor of               Who has- called them and placed them in this sacred
 theology should be relieved of his congregational dn-            trust. They have no rights in(herent in themselves.
 ties so that he may devote himself entirely to that              They tire undershepherds  under Christ. TIhey are ser-
 labor.                                                           vants w&o are mandated to feed His flock'and to have
    We will not it this-point enter into a discussion ~of         oversight over His heritage. They can only speak that
 these offices indivXually. This can be done more ap- wlhich He commands saying always, "Thus saith the
 proiriately in connection with the particular articles           L&d." They oan only do what He orders. They must
 of the Church  Or,der which specially circumscribe               carry out His will in all things as those who must
 these offices. (See Arts. 16, 18, 23, 25). In this con-          give account I not only of themselves but also of the
 nection we are only to note that these offices do exist          souls over  which they  aie  c&ed to  watch.  Ind$eed, it
 in the church land that they aYe not man-made posi-              is a great privilege to sd serve Him in those offices
 tion,s but rather that they are Divinely instituted. This        but it is `also a most solemn repsonsibility fo? "Woe
 fact must be firmly fixed in our conscionsness  before           be unto the -pastors that-destroy  and scatter the sheep
 we can. possibly go on to discuss any further implica-           of my ~pasture, saith the Lord". (Jer. 23 :l)~.         __
 tions of the offices in -the church.                                                                           G. Vanden Berg
    Hardly do we consider it necessary that we point.
 out the Scriptural proof-for this claim to our reader,s.                            -    - :    -    :    -
 No reformed person questions that the sacred `offices
 in the church are bf IGod. To remove all doubt,  .how-              As the bullion of which money is made, is the
 ever, we might cite Ephesians  4:ll as proof that                king's property, even before it is struck into coin, and
 Christ (The Son of God)  has. instituted the office of           before it yisibly bears the royal image and superscrip-
 the ministry of the Word in his church.  TXtus,   in             tion ;. SO- the unregenerate elect are God's pwn heritage,
 chapter 1:5 of the Epistle that bears his name, is en- though they- do not appear to be such, until the Holy
- joined "to set in order the things -that are wanting            Spirit has made them- pass through the mint of ef-
 and to ordain e1der.s  in every city as I appointed thee".       fectual calling, and actually stamped them into -cur-
It is, of course, the a;po&e  .Pa& beye that gives t,h$s          rent coin for the kingdo,m of heaven. -Toplacly.


                                          THE.  ST.Ati+RD.   BEAR-ER                                                   383
                                         -  ,.
                                                                   their leaders in the interfest  of the nation as a whole
_-  I                                                       <Em    is fought relentlessly.' The leaders are no longer con-
  9            A L L -   A R O U N D   IjS  f tent wlith being on a plane of equality with manage-
    T                                                              ment; they demand `the whip-hand in industry.' But
                                                                   that, says Morrison, would spell the end of the system
   ,CEIANGES  HIS  n/IIND ON UNIONS                                o,f free enterbrise  which- they profess to uphold."
         . In the editorial ,department  of the Bannw of- May          "The churches should realize that `the union toddy
    1, 1953, the Rev. H. J. Kuiper gives a "review" of an          has becoye a prodigious concehtration  of-power wield-
    article a,ppearing  in THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY of                ed by a few leaders' and that if the union yields to
    January 21, 1953, written by a reputed liberal, Dr. C.         the temptation to use that power in an irresponsi,ble
    C. Morrison. The latter wrote on  the subject: "Re-            way it !may become an- enemy of labor itself as well
    examine the Social Ideals."                                    as of the nation.,
         IRev. Kuiper  considere'cl the article worthy of edi-        "The old capita&n& according to-Morrison,  is gone
   torial co'mment, and intends in future articles to reflect      . . . . However, the system of  capitalislm still stands-
    on the views of Morrison in as far as they have refer-         2nd will stand as long as the iight of private property
    ence td the droblem  of union&n confronting his own            is maintained and business enterprise still remains
    churches. & the above menti'oned editorial he at-              competitive. At the same time, the writher  asserts that
   tempts' only to review the stand of Dr. Morrison.               our form of economy is..no  longer merely capitalistic,
          We, too, consider the revised stand of this lib&al       for one-half of its power is now claimed and exercised
   leader oti unionism worthy of note. We ar.e sorry we- by  Qrganized labor."
    do riot have- the original article of' Morrison in` our           I%.  Morrison  mentions  bnly two evils on which
   possession,  and will  h&e to rely on the accuracy the churches should focus their thought, but adds that
    of Rev. Kuiper's review. Accordingly it is reported            there are others which call for correcti.on.
   that this liberal leader, who for.39 years was edit'or of          The first  e'vil mentioned is the strike.  `The.  ch&-
 . the CENTURY; has in the past supported the cause                ches must condemn as morally and socially vicious. the
   of unionism most vigorously. ,Dr. Morrison believes             alleged. right to strike;' `It turns the economic stage
 -. in and evidently preaches a "social gospel." But of into a  ,bati$efield. It is `inherently.  imhorac' `The
   late he hlas changed his mind with :respect to oqe phase persistence of this b;r&l and uncivilized struggle will
   of it as it pertains'to the cause of unionism.                  inevitably lead to a government-planned and -contrail-
          Dr. Morrison maintains that, to quote Kuiper, "the       ed economy which neither labor nor capital, but only
    changes in our econo&c life-during the last fifty years        socislists  and communists, want.' The second etil men-
   %a11 for a reorientation of the church's economic               tioned is `the irresponsible power now wiel'ded by the
  `ideals' ". There' was a time when "the evils of that            official leadership of the labor unions.' T h e s e   u n i o n s
   capitalistic system, such  as long hours, low  wages,           claim to -be democratic but in reality bear a close re-
   child labor,-- sweat shops, and other abuses moved              semblance  tom facism or sovietism. They are controlled
   churches to champion the- cause of labor and lab& by a sn&ll group .of persons respotisible only to them-
   unions. But now the pendu1u.m has swung to the' op-             selves. The churches should become aware of the dan-
   posite extreme. Most of the injustictis of the capital-         ger of such'tiutocpatic  control of the great masses of       '
   istic system `have been corrected -oy are on the way to         men."
   correction.' T,oday labor has become "the most pow&-               T.here  is mork  in this editorial which we  .do not
   ful bloc in our democracy.' Its  ,political influence is have the space tb quote, But this will suffice to show
   great. `The union is able to and, under its autocratic how this erstwhile advocate for the labor masses has
   .leadership,  appears to <be willing ,even to disrupt the - changed his. mind with respect to unionism as it has
   national econoimy in order to gain ends which, many             in late yeafs- t.aken on power. '
   believe, are not good f&r We count?y  jas a whole and              We end ivith a -few obs&vations and questions :
   thus, in the long run; not good f,or labor. itself.' `In          1. We are thankful  `for-the stand our  ,Protestant
   their `partisan' support of the unions the churches Reformed Churches. liave taken almost from their in-
   haye failed to take into account-thus Dr. Morrison- ception.  with respect to union  membershilj.  We be-
   the change in the status of labor. They still assume lieve the stand is correct that membership in the so-
   that `whatsoever the union demands is good;'                    called -neutral unions and in the church is incompkt-
          "Morrison's first indictment against unionism is ible. Hence one'smembership  in these unions makes
   based on its entrance into the political arena. It wields       it necessary for the church to inittate  discipline. We
   ,a tremendous influence there and- abuses its power.            question whether our Churches are consistent in their
`Any  pr,oposed  law  :to limit the autocratic power of thinking and acting with  respect  to all phases of


                                                                               -.
                               --

                        .      `-_
              384                     t    :          T H E   - S T A N D A R D   BEARI&
                                            -_-__--                        ~-
             uniofiism ahd worldly  atisqciations.        For  ,example, I -ANOTHER DECLARATION  ,OF FRINCIPLES
            have never been able to understand the cotisistency of                     .In thk late& issue of Torch and Trwnpet- (Vol. 3,
            disciplining union members and at the same time al-                      No. 1, pp. 30-32) we came `upon the first in a series .of
              low&g to go ~untouched  those whose livelihood depends                 articies written by the president of a newly formed
              on hiring- union help. Neither do-1 see the consistency- organization which- calls its& : The Calvinistic Cul-
              of advocating membership in the so-called Christian t&e- Association. ' Since our space is about used `up,
           -  %abor Association and disciplining-those who belong                    we will have to be ,s&isfied simply t.o s<y that the .or-
             to  .the A.F.L.  or C.I.O. But perhaps some day we will                 ganizatipn h& a: Declaration of Prineipies  and Work
              get around to cutting off these fuzzy edges.'           .              SProgram.  ,                -                          I
                -2. Wk are also curious to -know-what the &d&or of                          We note in `its Declarations of PTinciples that the
              the l3cqqwr is going to co?nment  on this articli of Dr.               associai%on "accepts as the foundation for its existence
              Morrison, especially as the u&on question confronts                    the unchanging Word of God, which it understandd in
              his churches. Is -he going to advocate a pew approach .the sense of the Reformed ore Calvinistic confessions.
              to the question of union membership in his Churches?                   Further, the C.C.A. acknowledges the principles of
~.          As it now stands, we understand the matter of union                      Calvinism to be valid for all the cultural life of man-
              niembership r'ests solely with the local churches. And. kind,"                                                    `L
              apound  wheTe we live many of  the- members  of his                           Besides declaring certain principles ,as its aim, one
              churches tiho are tiember, of the worldly unions go                    of which is the Second Point of 1924 "[God in his com-
              unmolested. And when you approach them regarding  - rnon-grace-  checked sin and c&ruption in its effect, by
              their union &Kliation, they leave you with the imp& .. whieh-means; not withstanding tlie eleme$.t  of wicked-
              sion that $&en you object you are a flea-brain, o? a                   ness in the heart of man, a deveiopment of the world
             -man from MaPs 0~ -another world.              '                        could take place," the association adopts certain yiew-
                     3. we 61~0 .were wondering how the Christiall- La- points rsspecting the following : Marrifage and Family,
              bor Association is going to reac't when it reads this                  Rearing and  Educabion of  Children, Social  organiza-
              editorial in the Bannb.  We have especially in mind                    tion, Science,- Literature, krt and Sports, Christian
              that part in which the "strike" has been denomillated-- Press, Int&n&ional Relations, Authority-and Liberty,
              as "inherently immoral." Are they going to pass it                     etc. Thb president cla!ims ,that the association is grow-
              up with a shrug  of the shoulder and say perhaps `well                 ing; its membership is "&eadily increasing."
              we never did. believe in the strike in the s&me way as                  We will watch for further  developlments,- and  per-
              the worldly. unions.' .br are they going to-still main-                haps give a clearer pi&u% of the Declaration of Prin-
              tain as the president of a furniture local said in my                  ciples next time,  D.V..                                M.  Schipper
              presence several yea?s ago when it was suggested that                                     -             -
              the  1C:L.A. remove'the word  %trike" from its consti-                          -.                      . q  
             _ tution : "Not by a long shot! - if you take that word                   i               `CONTRIBUTI.ON
              out, we have nothing-left. %he strike is o& `only wea-
              pon." As I -see it, unless ,the C.L.A. changes its eon-.                              E E N   NOOI~REET   UIT  REDLANIX                _'
      e
              stitution and attitude, in my book it's nd differetit than               Zal de a.s. Synode nu ook geblinddoekt  worden door ~-
              the C.I:O., except that it has the name "Christian".                   antipathie tegenover een broeder in "good standing" ?
                     4. Finally, it seems so sti*ange  -that a big man like          en zal men ook van .de Synode-terug keeren,  gelijk de
              Dr. Morrison, aft& some $9 years pulling for- the un- afgev$ar&gden vah- Classis West, met de triumfante-
              ions, now- suddenly wakes up to the fact that the baby                 lijke  &troep "we won" !  !??-  .Als dat zal  geschieden,
              he once cuddled is becotie a ferocious gorilla. We have                dan zie ik nog donkerder wolken aan .den kerkelijken
              told our people for .pears that any one who' supports                  hemel  vlan Redlands dan er ooit zijn geweest. &-men
              the so-&led  neutral unions is cutting his owl% throat.                t,&ht onder den schijn van recht een broeder uit an--
              1 rejmember several years `ago when I made a study tipathie zedelijk -onschadelijk  te maken dan struikeli?
              of the constitutions of these unions that I. learned that              het recht we1 op de straten.
              some 40 percent .of the ,dues -paid went to headlquarters                     Daarom zou ik vanuit Redlands de breeders willen
            to pay for strikes.  IOf the  &ost  of  the  .remaining  60' toeroepeii,   verwart iaken niet. met personen, onder-
              percent I  suppoSed  that the  ~racketeers  who run the                zoekt de protesten  biddend, en indjen ge geen voldoende
              unions got. fat. The fact that J. L. Lewis and others licht -kunt verkrijgen onderzoekt d,an de zaak in loco: -
              df his ilk can pull down the salaries they do .bespeal&                het,gaat om het welz'ijn van Redlands' gemeente in het
              the racket that it is. And the 1a;bqr man who sees dnl$ .-, Ijizonder,  ell orn- al onze.&erken in `t  -algeineen.
           shiny pennies- is made to think he ,is going places.                                                                 _     J ,   R.  Vander'Wal
                                                            _


