                                                                                                                                -
       ,VQLUME        XXX                      _         _                OCTOBER 15,  1953.~- GRAND-RAPIDS,  MICH.                                     NUMFSR  2

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.2        1-,4(1-,11118,11(,-,,-~,-,,-,,-,-`,-`,-~,-,-~,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,.:.                                        -
              M[  E                                                                                  ~o;~~~~;v~~~~~'
 I                                D  I  .T,  *  rT  I  0  N                              -,I                                     The   experience.at   Gath  h    e      wi11
                                                                                                     use' as  & means to teach  his  compamons the way of
 !                                                                                                                      .
.~.le.-clrl,-l,rc,-,,-~,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,-,,-~,~,,-`,-,,~,,-,,-,-,,.~.
                                                                                                              I-T& begins his hymn by stating  that the  .praises  of
                      Fruits -of  Deliver&e                                                          Jehbirah  `shall be. f  6pever  in- his mouth. Wherever he
                                                                                                     is,  he  wili speak a good  word about and to his  ,God.
.- .                -(`I will bless.  the  ,<ord at ail. times: his praise                           ISu6h;liis  the literal meaning of to  Mess. `To bless means
               shall continually  *be in my mouth. My soul shall                                     tha;t  you speak good words,  cotifortable words about
               make her boast in the Lord: the  umble  shall hear                                    a  per'son  or to a person.'  It. means that  you  utter
               thereof,. and be pla&" et&                            ~           -Psalm 32           beautiful  words.  ,Our English word Eulogy is derived
                                                    _
       Tile  &per&zription o&his  psBIm tells us at  what- froni the  ,Gi;eekword for to bless.
occasion it was composed. It was when  David changed                                                 . Such  endeavqur  iS exactly  wliat we  n,sed in order
his behaviour before -the face of  .Abimelech,   the king                                            to  Answer to the  purpdse for  which we were created.
of  IGath. The record of this history you. will find in                                              That's all  we will-do unto all eternity in heaven.. That
J. Sam. 21.                       .~:                                                                will make us happy too. -That  is'thb  only occupation
       Well,  tihen~ David found refuge in  ,Gath, he could                                          v-hich makes for. happiness.           Bless  iGod, praise His
not  relllain there for any length of-  time  befqre they                                            name and let your soul boast in the Lord and I assure
recognized him as the dangerous warrior-  and enemy you that you will be a happy person.
of the Philistines. The people said: Is not -this the                                                    And that is not all.
man of whom the maidens sang: Saul hath  slain his,                                                      Yoti do.  that'be$ore  -the  face.of  tien and your song
thousands but David his  ten thousands?  And  Davicl                                                 of praise will breed  .einulation. `The  humble will hear
be&tie  sore afraid.  He lost  ~sight  pf  `God and saw                                              your song  `2nd be  glad;-,-: I am reminded of a phrase
dnly Achish, the-wicked king  of  ,Gath.                                                        -ii  .the New  pestam&it  tirhich  is used several times:
       P,salm 34 reflects this misgiving on the part  of- And the people  Seeinglthis  br'hea?iri& this gave praise
D&id.         He speaks  of troubles and -fears.  $Ve. can -.to  :God.  Incle&d;  -6hen  yb;u  do-`the  right thing, and that                                                    -
$11  i m a g i n e   t h a t   `D a v i d   was  s o r e   afraid.~                                  is to praise Jehovah, you will cause  gladriess  for
       But he found a way out. He -acted as if he were                                               others.
insane.  He -began to scratch at the  wal.ls -of  ihe city.  _,'                                         Henceforth we see David  in  th.e cave of Adullam.
&id let his spittle drip  into  his beard. And he  abhieved                                          It  is a motley  tlikong that surrounds him. Some are
<the desired results. Achish asked grumblingly of his -in debt and  ar,e  k&ted as a partridge upon the  moun-
?&v%nts:  Do we lack mad men in this city? Let him                                              tains  ; some  tiY;e- discontented, in bitterness of soul,
be gone at once. And David fled to the cave of  Adul-                                                some were in distress. But  David stands in their
lam.        There his kinsfolk and  a veritable host  o? .midst  and calls them to the only endeavour that is
stragglers-came to him  ..and. he became `their  .captain.                                      wocth while. Listen:  30 magnify the Lord with me
       Such is `the history.  David was in trouble and                                               atid let us exalt His name together.
cried unto  the'Lord   w@6 heard him and delivered him                                                  `From the beginning of time the people of  ,God
out of all  his troubles.                                                                       have liked to  praise God in unison. In the time  df
       The first.  pa&. of the psalm, up to- verse 10 is a                                           Enos men began to  `&l-l upon the name of the Lord.
song of praise  a&t&  r,emainder of  the--psalm  is as                                               And in our time we still like to  gd  td -church so that
                     ,.-                 .,


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              26                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
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         w.e may  prais:e His name together.  .The older I  b&come               i Oh no, it does not mean that you always and ever
        +  tile more I like  to. go to  church.~"  $$&$y on I  &gin to         .ipeak  the  puke truth of God. It does not mean that
        &derstand that pur  Chtirch4if&  is a little bit of heav-
                                  - .         *x                               y& live  `a sinless existence.  No, but it means that
         e n .
        ,              -.-                                                     you are turned against the original root-sin of all sin:
                    Listen, David  &going to  tell the dwellers in  .the       the lie of the devil. You know that  jie:  ye shall be as
         cave of  hj$  narro~~"&&pe.& dath. .I  was? in-terribly..  :  gods ! Itmeans  that you hate  t@e lie and  fight against
                                                                                                                        ~
   .. fear,  I.  Fas  sore  tr'oubled :  .death  it~eif"$&e&  r$  .inX'  '  it  every  day. `And that  y& cling to the truth of God
                     ..,
         the  $ace,.  ,iBut this poor nian  criecj unto  <God  and he -Andy that.  is Jesus*
        i%as heard.' David  .fnrtber~desc~i$Bs  that ascent  .unto                  If you desire life and if you desire it for all  eter-
        $ie throne  q~G~d-,~Helik.~as*it~~~~~~~   `i;u&ing  s&eam nity,  you must do  good. You must  ssek peace and
         -0-f  water.  @&8  th8~.Dutch~traasl~~ion   OF  &se 6). And           pursue it. The very  phraseo!ogy `suggests that this
        rGod heard : He- delivered, He heard his  -pitiful cry `and .course it not easy. it is the fight of faith which  ev-
         his  burden  +a+, taken away. He was lightened and                    ery Christian  .is privileged to fight in the power of
         his face was not ashamed.                                             God. Peace is not our natural sphere. Very rebellion
                    Ah, David  knows:the solution. The Angel of the            is our  atmosph.ere  by nature. Rebels against  <God and
         Lord is round about those that' fear the  L&d. There rebels against all authority. But through the regen-
         was no  daligq. It was not necessary  fo@ David to                    erating influence of God's  *Spirit we are able to fight
         act as thpugh he was insane. God was  .for him and                    ag&in&  the indwelling rebellion, killing it,  mdrtifying
         th.erefore there could not be anything or anybody real- -it and thus growing in gracious obedience which is
         ly against him. What wondrous- safety.  .The literal                  th,e atmosphere of real peace, of real tranquility  ancl
         meaning of the word that is translated by  ldeZiw'er harmony with the heart of our God.
         really- means to snatch away as from the brink of a                      Such people are really happy and blessed.
        precipice.            That is  -what happened at Gath.                     Listen to David-: he will describe such happiness.
                    And the experience of such wonderful deliverance
         awakens the desire to share it with all God's people.                     ,God's eyes are upon the righteous and His ears are
         Hence~ we find  Davicj full of  exhtirtations.  He says :             open to their cry. Remember here what the occasion
         10 taste and see that the  .Lord is good  ;  ,O fear Him !            was for this psalm and it  speakk,<the  more strongly.
        `And by  itiplication- we may read in the  followirig -Righteous David was  iti  real danger of his life. His
        verse  :--  Q seek Him !                                               cry arose, interpreting- all his fears.  .But he  founcl
                                                                               out that even in the  ,city of  ,Gath  Gocl is the only  $ov-
                    10 what  .fools  nien are  !, Millions will seek  .the  ,ereign
        -earth and sin,  but they will never ask, seek for the  `..                           He heard the cry of David and  hastenecl  to
                                                                             ,  his  heip.
 l i v i n g   `God.                                 :                                               _.
                    And there is nothing that pays such wonderful                  ;How different is the experience of the wickecl.
 dividends as  thk-service of  -God.  Ta&e  God and  you .Gdd's face is against them. That is awful. Even if a
        will see that He is  ,God ! Trust Him. and you will be                 man's face is against you, you feel embarrassed, ill at
        blessed ! Fear Him and you will have no  want ! Seek                   ease, miserable. Let a man frown at  YOU, raise his.
         Him and you will not  ti&  &y good thing.  `God in- voice, glare his contempt or anger at you, and your
        His blessed revelation (and that. is Jesus) is the only                cheeks are blanched, your breath is shortened, your
thing  YOU   really need without wliich you will have                         heart. is pounding within you.                             5
        nothing but hell.                                                          But this is God!                                     :2.,
                    But David  knows:  He has  experi.enced- all-this and          His Face is against the -wicked. And while we  Mn
        more. And love is not  nar?ow: He Will share it  -wit&                 do nothjng  .more  thati afflict the bodies of men, God
        the children of  ,God. From verse  16-.on he will -preach             cap cut  -off our remembrance from the earth.                     U
        to them ; he will teach them the fear of the  Lord.                        And history bears witness. Where are Cain  qcd)
                    In the first lesson he tells us  then way to real and     Esau and  ,Judas, the unholy triumvirate? Where  `%
        abiding happiness. If you desire life, if  yoh love to                their remembrance? -Even their names shall be  anni-
        live that life eternally, if you want to see God,  you hilated.
        must pursue a definite, course.                       : .
                                                                                   How gloridus is the  ,comfort for the sorrowing
                    Negatively  YOU  must hate evil and positively  YOU       saint on earth. They have the light of God's Spirit.
        must love gdbdness.                                                   By the light of that Spirit they see their sins and
                    You  .m&t hate evil  to.  such- an extent that you guilt.           And slowly their hearts are breaking. They
        keep Your  lii?s and tongue from thk works of the devil,              love God and they have sinned  against Him. True
        which is the making of the lie,                                       remorse and  sorrow  is born of  fh> love of  ;God.     They


                                              i@  $TAN'DAkb   B%;ARER.                                                                                                             27
                                                                                                                          -___
become  ,coqtrite  in spirit. Arid the  night hears their
 oft-repeated cry:  ,Oh my  ,God, be merciful  .to  mei  &e                                   THE STANDARD BEARER
sinner !                                                                            Semi-monthly,   except  monthly  during   ]uly  and   August
  Even though it seems as though the Lord could                              Published by the  REFORMED   FREE  PUBLISHING   ASSOCIATION
have no communion with such sinners as  we. are, the                        P.  0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
very. fact that' ybu  are contrite in spirit "and.  zbroken-                                    Editor  -  REV.   HERMAN   HOEKSEMA-
                                                                          Communications  r&rive to 
hearted is proof  &at He is very near you. The Lord                                                               contentS   should be addressed to Rev. H.
                                                                          Hoeksema, 1139  Fra,&lin St.,. S.E. Grand Rapids 7,  .Michigan.
 is nigh unto them that are of a  .broken heart, and                      All matters relative to  subscriptions  should be addressed to Mr. G.
 saveth  such that be of a contrite spirit.  Such near-                   Pipe, 1463  Ardmore "St, S.  E.; `Grand Rapids 7,  M&h.
                                                                         Announcements and Obituaries  must: be mailed to the above address
 ness was experienced by many -when Jesus walked-  up-                    and will be published at a fee of $1.00 for each  norice.
 oii the earth. He would say: Be of good  ,courage, my                    RENEWALS:          Unless `a definite  request  for  discontinuance  is received,
 son, thy sins are forgiven thee ! Methinks there is no                   it is assumed that the subscriber  wishtis the subscription to continue
                                                                          without the  form&y of a renewal order.
 s w e e t e r   m u s i c !                                                                      Subscription  price:  $4.00  per year
      Y  #Oh then  w,?  are able to bear the  cross.  ,Our  afflic-           Entered   as  Second   Class   matter   at  Grand  Rapids,  Michigan
.tlons may be  q_any  ; they  (Lre many. But if  I  .may
know that my God is near me, that  my sins are for-
given and  my  .guilt removed :  then I  &n  `sing.my song
 of praise and thanksgiving. Then  it, is heaven in my
                                                    .a
s o u l .
        This God is very  .careful over His saints: He  keep-
 eth all  the  gbones of. the righteous, not  one of them is
 broken.       That is true of all the righteous, but it was
fulfilled in Jesus. `John tells. us in his  4Gospel  that this
 Scripture was fulfilled  afte,r Jesus' death when the
 soldiers  ,came with -hammers  to~crush  the last spark of
iife out of our Lord :. but finding Him already dead.
they did-not break His bones. Indeed, the  fiiht was                   1~`1~`1~,,~,,~`,~,,~`,~~,~,,~,,~,~~`,~`,~`,~,,~,,~~,~`~~,,~,,~~,~
 firiisbed: Christ had paid all the debt of God's right-
 eousness ; therefore- His bones might not be broken.                                                       C O N T E N T S
       -So the Lord has a-special care for His own.  No  MEDIATION-
pain or suffering will He allow to come nigh unto them,                      Fruits of Deliverance . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
unless  it, must be for  thkir eternal  and spiritual  wel-                         Rev. G. Vos
fare. And in such case. their' suffering  and tears are                EDITORIALS-
blessings in disguise.                                                       What Happened  Ac  Classis East . . . ..*....... . . ........... 28
        How different -with the wicked. -Evil shall slay                            Rev. H.  Hoekse&                                        ::
them., Do you not note that the punishment is alread-
y in the transgression? If you hate the righteous and                        Firther Report on  Classis  East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
their righteous Father in  heaven  ;  ifs you do evil all                    Reply to Rev, Hofman  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,                 . . . . . . . . . . . 37
the day long, you will' never  be a happy man. The                                  Rev. H. C.  Hoekse&a
more you sin, the more miserable you  ,become. `Evil                   OUR  DOCTRINE-
slays the wicked already here below. But in the rev-                      ' The  .Triple  Knowledge . ..*..*..........,...                                    . . . . . . . . . . . 42
elation of the just judgment of God he will be  ,de-                                Rev. H. Hoeksema
clared  g u i l t y .
 ? But when- God's people  SrriGe. before the great                    IN HIS   FEAR-
                                                                             Afraid of the Gospel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .               . . . . . . . . . . . 43
wh.ite throne in the revelation of that  -same judgment                             Rev. J. A. Heys
,God will show within them the  glory.. of His own work.
Take courage, ye  righteous! In that  day..the Lord                    CONTENDING   FOR   THE   FAITH-
will turn  yoti? hearts' iiisidb  OLI$~  atid  the%hoIe  univel"se        `~ The Church and the Sacraments . .  ^. . . . . . ,                                . . . . . . . . . . . 45
..will `see that Jesus dwelled in  you,  th&t you trusted in                        Rev. H.  Veldman                         ,
_             _"
your God, that  y6u sdught  Hi#rn and found Him and                    coNTRIBUTIONS-                 -_
that your deepest  hungers  and thirst was to' `see the                      Letter to  Concordia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    48
`glorious  Fat? of.  ,Gbd!                                                          Rev. G. Lubbers
                                _.                   --G.  v o s       --1-1-(14`-11---~-,-~-~-"-`,-,,-,--"-`~~
                                                                                                                             _


2e                                       THfi       ~~TANDARD                   BEARER
                                  -____                                                                     - - - -
                                                                        matter." Another of them also supported this but it too was
~~~,~O~-l--`-,-`,-,-,,-,~l~~~.l,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,-`,-,-~`..                defeated when called to a vote.
1  E D I T O R I A L S -   1.
i                                                                       (Note:-this was the only meeting that  Eslder  N.. J. Yonker,
..~,-lu,-arn-,-,-`,-,-`-,--`-,,-`,-`-`-,-~-~-~,-,,,~. one of our Committee members, was able to attend due to his
                                                                        illness.)
                                                                          III. After some discussion of the matter during which one
            W h a t   Happened  at  Classis East                        of the involved brethren threatened to leave the meeting, the
                                                                        above  motion "to adopt  the advice of the  tClass.is and to act
      Here  foll,ows a complete report of the  docul`nents              accordingly" was  adopted shy a majority vote of the Consistory.
that were  #presented  to  Classis  East in re -the case of             Only the Rev. De Wolf registered his protest and negative vote         -:-
                                                                        to this decision.
the First Prot. Ref.  ,Churah  ,of Grand Rapids  Mich.
against  the Rev. De Wolf and his deposed elders when                     IV. At this point it may be noted that the Consistory of
the  Classis  reconvened  tin Oct. 6, 1953.                             First Church, misunderstanding our missive, erred when on
                                                                        June 1 she failed to take the necessary steps to "act accord-
      In substance, the  Classis granted the  request  which            ing to the decision which she had  mz,de." Instead of doing so
is found at the end of the report by the First Prot.                    the Consistory erroneously:
Ref. Church and declared that De  W'olf and his de-                       1..  .left  the impression with the guilty brethren that  they
posed elders had severed  connectioh with the Protes-                   had lots of time in which to decide whether or not they would
tant Reformed Churches.                                                 comply with this decision.
                                                                          2. permitted them to meet separately as a body  an&d  thus
                                                                        sanctioned group  a,ction  in the church.
To the  Classis  East of the                                              3. allowed them to function in their respective  offi,ces  while
Protestant Reformed Churches                                            in a state of guilt and condemned by the decision of the  Con-
convening October 6, 1953 at Grand Rapids, Michigan                     sistory.
Esteemed brethren:                                                        Your Committee, aware of these errors, and desirous to
     Your Committee which has been given the mandate to con-.           "spare ,n'o efforts `to save the dear brethren involved", returned
vey to the Consistory of the First Protestant Reformed Church           to the Consistory on June 15 and pointed out to them these
the decisions  and advice of  Classis  in re the "Hoeksema,  Op-        errors. You may find this in Document II  attsched  which is
hoff-Fuller Ave. Case" and which was further mandated "to               the transcript of the address delivered by our spokesman at
spare no efforts under the blessings of our `Covenant God to            that  meetin,g.
save the dear .brethren involved" presents to you the following           V. On June 15, therefore, the  ,Consi&ory   decidk.d  to carry
report of their activities.                                             out its decision of .Jlune  1st.  T.he brethren involved were given
     I. On June  `1, 1953 yonr Committee  met  an'd appointed as        until June 22 to reply to an apology submitted to them by
spokesman the Rev. G. Vos. We also decided to make a  tape-             the Consistory.                                    "
recording of all that would be said by your  committee before             VI'. On June 22 the Rev. De Wolf submitted the  fol!owing
the Consistory so that our report to  Classis  might be accur-          moul,d.-be  apology to the Consistory:
ate and complete; Later on the same evening we met with the
Consistory land  delivered our message which -you will dad lit-           "As far as  ihoPe  statements are concerned I am ready to
erally in Document I attached. Concerning this report we would.         s-y that I am sorry that they were not clear and, therefore,
                                                                        left  rocm for a wrong  inkerpretation.  I would like to ex-
have you notice:                                                        plain that by the first statement I  hs,d no intention at all to
     1. that we emphatically stressed that it was not the pur-          teach that God promises salvation to all men and that it de-
pose of  Classis  by its decision to  Cal.1 the Rev. De Wolf  n her-    pends on man's own will whether  dr not he wi!l be saved. I
etic.  pi. 3.                                                           have never taught this and could-not have intended to teach
     2. that  Classis  would of necessity be compelled lo  db so if     this by that  -statement.     By the  second  statement I  d!d not
the Rev. De Wolf refuses to cast. aside the statements literally        mean to teach that a  ratural   tian  must  ccnvert  himself while
,condemned by the  Classis.  pg. 3                                      he is in the power of darkness outside of the Kingdom of God.
     3. that we explained in detail before the Consistory the           Also this is contrary to anything that I  h:ve ever preached.
evil of these statements in question. pg. 4-6                           If, therefore, I have offended anyone by not stating clearly
     4. that we pleaded with the brethren to  thrsw  awzy "the          what I meant and thus giving occasion of  misinterpretation,
heretical statements and continue with us in unity. pg. 8               I am sorry."
     II. On the same meeting of June 1st it already became ev-            T.his  the Consistory  cou1.d not  a,ccept  for it did not comply
ident to your Committee that the brethren involved did not              with the decision of the  ,Consistory  as advised by the  C!as;i:.
.desire  to enter into the treatment of this  mltter. This fol-         In the latter the statements and any  inferpretaiion  of them
lowed for:                                                              is declared heretical while i.n the would-be apology of the Rev.
     1. Not one of  the brethren involved made an attempt to            De Wolf it is merely  stated. that they are not  c!ear.  The
show that the .decision  of the Classis  was wrong although they        Consistory's decision requested an apology (retraction) while
were not in agreement with it.                                          in the above quotation it is evident thst Rev. De Wolf still
     2. One of them moved to adjourn the meeting of cdnsistory          maintains the statements according to his own interpretation
almost as s:on as your Committee had delivered its message.             (which was also condemned by the  g,d~~cision  and advice of
Another of them supported the motion but it was defeated                Classis  which the Consistory adopted.)  ' .
when called to a vote.                                                    In this connection it may be stated that your Committee
     3. When then it was moved "to adopt the advice of the Clas-        p!eaded  with Rev. De Wolf to accede to a minimum apology
sis and to act  according.ly", one  of them moved to "table this        which would then consist of the following three elements:


                                                    THl3  S T A N D A R D - B E A R E R                                                         29

    1. Acknowledge that the. statements in their  lideral  form            labored to spare them. But they persisted and we are, there-
  are wrong.                                                               fore, compelled to relate to you as your Committee these dis-
    2.  Inform. the congregation that you did not mean  then?  as          heartening but truthful facts.
  they literally. are nor did you intend to teach the heresies t.hey                                    Respectfully submitted
  express.     It  ,may be added that neither the  ,Consistory  nor                                       Pour Committee
  Classi`s  regards that you*intended  to teach what the statements
 `express.             ",.,                                                                                 (w.s.) G. Vos
    3. Promise that  in-the'futurk yo`u will refrain, by  t.he grace                                        (w.s.)  M.  Schipper
  of God, from making such or  similar                                                                      (w.s.) G.  Vanden  Berg
                                                  statemea!ts.
    This the R.ev.  De Wolf refused to do but when plp,ced   before                                         (w.s.) N. J. Yonker
  the question : "Will you now apologize as requested by the                                                (w.s.) D. A. Langeland
  Consistory an,d  as advised by the ,Classis",  his reply was: "You
  have my apology".                                                                                                                    Oct. 5, 1953
    VII. Further, it was also evident at this meeting of June              Classis  East of the Protestant Reformed Churches.
  22 that the elders involved had no intentions of complying with          In session O,ctober  6, 1953
  tbe decision  of, the Consistory requesting them to apologize            c/o  R.ev. George Lubbers, Stated Clerk
-- for their having supported -Rev. De Wolf in this matter. For:           Esteemed Brethren:
    1. they voted  (illegally)  against the motion requesting them           Following is a report of what happened in the consistory of
  to do so.                                                                the First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Mich-
    2. when the first elder was asked, he stated that he had               igan, since the last meeting of  Classis East in re the Rev.  Ht
  n,othing  to apologize for,                                              De Wolf and his apostate elders. Much of  w.hat is reported
   `VIII. `To complete our report we may add that your commit-             here will, no doubt, also be found in the report of your com-
  tee, upon the request of the Consistory, was al& present at the          mittee that was  a,ppointed to make the case pending with our
  meeting of. June 23 where the suspension and deposition pro-             consistory and which we asked to be  ,present at all our meet-
  ceedings  occured.  We have witnessed all thnt took place at             ings in which the case was treated.
  this' meeting a.nd  cnn:  give testimony that jn our. judgment the         Our first meeting after the sessions of  Classis  East, was
entire proceedings were legitimate.                                        held on June 1, 1953. At that meeting your committee through
    The~Consistory  at that time merely took for&al action to ex-          their spokesman, the Rev. G. Vos, presented the decisions of
  ecute its own decision of June 1  fqr it had now become ev-              Classis East in re the De Wolf case at the same time making
  ident  that. the brethren involved would not comply therewith.           a strong and spiritually earnest plea to the brethren to fol-
  It was also at this meeting that the Consistory of our  Fourtih          low up those decisions and thus preserve the unity of the Spir-
  Church was  ,con4ted.  ThiT was necessitated by the fact that            it in the bond of Faith.          Immediately after the reading of
  Rev. De Wolf had tendered a would-be apology. Had the                    this report and the plea by the Rev. G. Vos, serious doubts
  Fourth Consistory judged this apology valid, suspension pro-             were raised in the hearts a.rid minds of the econsistory  and the
  ceedings by the Consistory as advised by the  Classis   $ould            committee,. whether the deviating brethren would even  ser-
  have been abated. But, the Consistory of Fourth Church judged            io:l5ly  consider the case before the face of ,God. For it became
  as  fol.lows  :                                                          ver;ti evident that they  siinply  `stalled  for time and played
    "It is  clenr  to  our~Fourth  Consistory:                             politics. Ti.me,  .they  considered, was in their favor for in time,
    1. That neither Rev. De  %olf  nor the Elders involved have            they thought they  woul,d  still gain a  msjorit.y, or, at least,
  msde the apology demanded by the Consistory as  adGised  by              a tie, in the consistory.
  Classis.                     :                                             That this is true is evident from the following facts:
    2. That  Classis  advised the  Cotisistory-  to proceed `with  SUS-      11. Immediately after your committee had spoken a  -motion
  pen&n in case Rev. De Wolf and  -the  El,ders  involved should           was' made by one of the erring elders to adjourn, although the
  refuse to apologize.                                                     hour was still early and the business for which the meeting
    3. That in so far the Consistory has the right to proceed              was called had not even been treated. This motion was sup-
  with suspension on the basis of the Classical decision.                  ported -but `defeated.
    However, we are not prepared to s$y:                 '                   2. A motion was then made and  su,pported that the  consis-
    a. That a consistory meeting can be called-legal when half             tory "adopt the advice.  of.  Classis  East and act accordingly."
  of its members were not notified that it would be held.                  Immediately one of the erring elders made a motion to table
    b. That a suspension can be called in order when the involved          the motion. This  mqtion  was supported but defeated.
  were not notified of the fact `that the double Consistory would            The motion that the consistory "adopt the advice of  Classis
  be held and &he suspension decided on."                                  East and act accordingly" was then carried. And because of
    Thereupon it was evident that the insubordinate brethren               the fundsmental and decisive character of this motion' we will
  had not complied with the decision of the Consistory and were,           say a few words about it.
  therefore, as advised by the Classis,  to be suspended and- de-            1.  The motion itself is plain. It implied that the consistory
  posed. This the Consistory  .properl.y  an,d   1egal.l.y proceeded to    put the erring brethren officially in a state of guilt. (J't certain-
  do on June 23.                                                           ly implies that in that  state of guilt they  coul,d not serve as
    JX.  I'o your Committee therefore, it was and now is kvident           officebearers in the First Protestant Reformed Church. By this
  that these  brethren  have made themselves guilty of gross               decision they were declared guilty of heresy and of supporting
  insubordination and ha-ve  caused schism in the churcl!  in their        heresy.  Their state' was such that only by their own apology
  refusal to submit to the decisions of the Consistory  a.nd in            and.. the acceptance of such an apology by the consistory would
 their maintainence of the heretical statements.                           they again be received as minister and elders in good  stan,d-
    In conclusion, our hearts  are grieved to submit this report           ing. This ought to be plain to anyone that reads this motion
 to your body. We prayed that the  brethren   rnight repent. We            in the light of the decisions of  Classis East.


30                                         T H E - S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
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   2. The erring brethren asked for time. And they also asked          willing to apologize. He offered the following would-be  apol-
that they might be permitted to meet by themselves to con-             WY.
sider the matter. Your committee' considers this a mistake.              "As far -as those statements are concerned I am ready to say
We agree with your committee. Nevertheless, consider the               that I am sorry that they were not clear, and, therefore, left
f o l l o w i n g :                                                    room for a wrong interpretation. I would like to explain that
   a. The consistory wished to avoid every appearance of de-           by the first statement I had no intention at all to teach that
siring to rush the matter.                                             God promises salvation to all men  and= that it depends on man's
   .b. By the above mentioned decision of the consistory the           own will whether or not he will be saved. I' have never taught
whole matter was decided. : `All the. erring brethren could ,do        this and could not have intended to teach this by this state-
was to consider  .whether  or not -they would offer the defi-          ment. By the second statement I did not mean to teach that
nite apology demanded by the consistory on the advice of               a natural man must convert himself while he is in the power of
Classis  East,. and inform the consistory. They could do noth-         darkness, outside of the kingdom of God. Also this is con-
ing else.                                                              trary to anything  t.hat I have ever preached. If, therefore, I
   c. The consistory felt that there cou,ld be no harm in: giving      have offended anyone by note  stating clearly what I meant and
the erring brethren time to consider the matter prayerfully            thus giving occasion to misinterpretation, I  ,am sorry."
both individually and as a group.                                        About, this would-be apology, the consistory wishes to make
   Who, however, could possibly imagine that the erring breth-         the following remarks.
ren would never even consider the matter of an apology as they
were supposed to do, but that they merely stalled for time?              a. The consistory asked whether this was supposed to be
They were awaiting for the time  when!  their opposition. woul,d.      the same apology the Rev. De Wolf had made from the pul-
be strengthened by the installation of a new elder, Mr. A.             pit the previous evening.     He said it  was.     The Rev. Ophoff
Vermeer.                                                               denied this. The sermon  havi.ng been recorded, and the Rev.
   This became evident when, at the request of your committee,         De Wolf himself possessing the record, the. consistory asked
the consistory met two weeks later, June 15 1953. At that              him to produce it in evidence. At this the Rev. De Wolf  .be-
meeting it became evident that the erring and guilty brethren          came indignant and asLed whether the consistory wanted him
had not even considered the matter of apology. They were               to swear with  .his hand on the Bible. Yet in a speech in the
not ready! When the remark was made that the installation              Middle West he said that "it was essentially the same," which
of the new elder should be postponed because officially he.knew        is something quite different.
not.hing  about the case of Rev. DeWolf, the erring  bret,hren           b. The  -consistiry   could  not and did not accept the apology
were strongly apposed to this. We let it go. This was another          simply because it is no apology.       The Rev. De Wolf states
mistake the consistory  ma:de.    We should and could have de-         that the statements were not clear. But they were very clear.
cided to post-pane  this installation, seeing that the accused and     He says that he  coul,d never have taught what,  ac,cording  to
guilty brethren  ha,d no longer the right to vote.  1But also this     our interpretation of the statements, he did teach, But fact
mistake,  we. wish the  classis to know is only to our credit. It      is that he did exactly that. In fact, he did not apologize for
merely shows that we did in no wise wish to force the matter           the statements, but for our interpretation of them..  .Besides,
in spite -of the fact that it became more- and more evident to         the consistory on  the advice of the  Classis had declared that
the  ,consistory  and to your committee that the guilty brethren       the statements  were  literally heretical regardless how one
were insincere  an!d were playing politics.. Let your committee        might interpret them. For this the Rev. De Wolf was asked
s p e a k !                                                 ,.,..      to- apologize.
  Next was the meeting of June 22, 1953. This  meeting  too,             c. This he refused to do. When he was placed once more
was held in the presence of your committee.                            before the question he said: "You have my apology." This
                                                 About this meet-
ing we report-the following.                                           meant that, according to the  .decision  of the consistory of
                                                                       June 1, 1953, the Rev. DeWolf was declared guilty of sus-
  1. The Rev. Hoeksema asked the  &air to inquire of the               pension and that it needed only the advice of a neighboring
erring and guilty brethren whether or not they were ready              consistory to seal the suspension.                ' .
to apologize.                                                            5. After this a motion was made and supported to ask the
  2. Immediately one of the guilty brethren demanded that              guilty elders whether or not they were ready to apologize. The
we must' first make a motion to this effect.         This, let the     motion was again carried unanimously this time by a vote of
Classis  understand, was entirely  out  of order,  seeins that this    121 Again, the guilty elders voiced their vote against this
had already been decided by the consistory in its meeting of           motion. Again, though  t,his was illegal, they nevertheless ex-
June 1, 1953.                                                          pressed that they  woul,d  not apologize. Hence, again, accord-
  3. Nevertheless, the motion was made, first to ask-the  Rev.         ing  to. the decision of the consistory of June 1, 1953, they
DeWolf whether -he was ready to apologize, with the remark             were already declared to be deposed from office.
that the guilty brethren could not vote in the matter,  Tshis            At this point it may be well to offer a word of explanation
motion was supported and carried unanimously, i.e. by 11 votes,        about the question of this illegal voting. When is a member,
one  brother-  not voting. At the same time the guilty brethren        when he is an office ,bearer deprived of his right to vote ? The
also expressed their `vote; although it was illegal.      And, by      anscwer  is: The accused can-never have the right to vote in his
this illegal attempt to vote they definitely expressed that they       own case. And, as soon as he is found guilty he has  lost- all
did not want the Rev. De Wolf to apologize. By this, they gad,         his right to vote, whether as a member in a congregational
according to the decision of the consistory of June 1, 1953 and        meeting, or as an oflice bearer in the .meeting  of the consistory.
according to the advice of IClassis  East, definitely declared that    This is not only according to all usage in:the Reformed Chur-
they already were deposed from office, and that it needed only         ches, but is also the clear implication of Art. 33 of the Church
an official decision of the consistory with the advice of a neigh-     Order. Now, the Rev. De Wolf -and his guilty elders maintain
boring consistory, to declare them deposed.                            that the same rule applies also -to- the accusers. Hence, in the
  4. The chair then asked the Rev.  .De  Wolf whether he was           consistory, the  Rev. Hoeksema and Rev.. Ophoff, according to
                                                                                                              L :,


                                                                        7,             i      .,
                                                                                                               _  -..
                                                    TBE  STANDA&@-  -BEARER                                                                                                  31
        -.
       them, also had to refrain from voting. But how absurd:this                                      `How,evkr,  they refused to submit to their suspension and de-
       would be. Suppose that several elders had accused the- Rev.                                   position. Thus they became schismatic, and lost all right of
       De  Wo1.f of heresy. Suppose that even the majority had be-                                   appeal by continuing to function  ,as the legal officebearers of
       come his accusers, as finally they did. Must, in that case, all                               First  Prot:-  Ref. Church.       '
       refrain from voting ? You feel how absurd this is. No, the                                      We therefore request Classis  East, in session Oct. 6, 1953, to
       rule is that any.officebearer  may vote as long as he is an office-                           declare :
       bearer in good standing,. but, that. as soon .as- he is no longer                                                                                             `S,.
       in good standing, either as the accused, or as guilty, he loses                                1. That the Rev.  DeWolf and his  ,dep'osed  elders have sep-
       his right to vote.                            `I                                              arated themselves from the communion of the Prot. Ref. Chur-
                                                                                                    ches. .
         After this  the'kev. Hoeksema-left the meeting. He felt that
       the case was finished, --and, besides,. through  al& this illegal at-                        12. That therefore they lost  ,a11 right to send delegates to
       tempt to vote, the  meetings   be.aame chaos. When the Rev.                                   Classis East of the  Prot. Ref. Churches.
       Hoeksema had -left, the Rev. De Wolf had a. speech chiefly                                      3. That they have lost all right of appeal, whether to  Clas-
       against the  Rev.: Hoeksema and  `.the   .deceased Mr. D. Jonker,                             sis or to Synod by their schismatic action.
       and. the  Rev.   lOphoff answered him. Bht nothing was  accom-                                  4. That `Classis East declare thatthe  vonsistory  of which the
     plished. The ease was finished.                                                                 Rev. H. Hoeksema and the Rev. C. Hanko are presidents, and of
          6. The last meeting of the consistory, again in the pres&ce                                which Mr. G. Stadt is clerk, is' the legal consistory of the
       of  your. committee, and also in the presence of the consistory                               First Protestant Reformed Church of Gr. Rapids, Mich, and the
       of the  --Fourth  Protestant Reformed  ,Church  of Gr. Rapids,                               Classis  receive  ,and seat the delegates appointed by them.
                                                                                                                                             .
       Mich. was held on  Jun:e 23, 1953.                                                                                     Your ,brethren.  in the Lord
         (It is alleged that this--meeting was illegal, because the guilty
       .brethren  were not' present and were not even notified of  .the                                                             The Consistory of the First Protestant
      meeting. But the meeting was perfectly legal. Consider:                                                                       Reformed Church
       .a. That the guilty -brethren had been. present -at every meet-                                                                by C. Hanko,' President
       ing in which their case was treated.                                                                                           by G. Stadt, Clerk
         b. That they had plainly proved that they were worthy of
       suspension and  .deposition.
         C. That they had no' longer any place- in the consistory of
       the First Prot. Ref. Chuxh.                                                                  ,Classis  East of the Protestant Reformed Churches
         d; That their  case was completely finished.               ".                               Met in session, October 6, 1953,
         e.  !That  their $resence would only have resulted in more il-                             Esteemed. Brethren:
       legal voting and #chaos.
         f. That the Church Order  does-  not require that  &&bearers                                 We regret that we must inform you that a number of breth-
       that -are to be suspended ordeposed,  must be present at their                                ren, who,.were  members of our consistory, have:arbitrarily  and
       own suspension and deposition.                                                                sinfully separated themselves from our communion, established
         a&d it will be evident' that the 7 indictment  %hat the -meet-                             themselves as a separate church and illegally assume the name
       ing of Jun:e  23, 1953, was illegal, cannot stand for one moment,                             of the  con&tory of the `First Protestant Reformed Church.
                                                                                                     These brethren include the Revs. H. Hoeksema and C. Hanko.
         .The consistory of the Fourth Prot. Ref. Church advised as
       follows:                                                                                        ;By their act of separation they have broken with the legally
                                                                                                     instituted cbnsistory and congregation. of First Church and,
         It is clear to our Fourth IConsistory:                   -.                                 therefore, with the denomination of  Protest,ant  Reformed
         1. That neither the Rev. DeWolf nor the elders involved have                               Churches.  .._
       made the apology demanded by -the consistory of First Church                                   Besides ,separating  themselves, these brethren have illegally
.      ,as advised by  ,Classis.                                                                    assumed the power to suspen,d  and depose us. This `action was
         2. That Classis  advised the consistory of First Church to pro-                            taken by them  `?n  g-&ret  meeting, held June 23, 1953, of
       ceed. with suspension in .case the Rev. De Wolf an,d  his elders                             which meeting the membe&`%f  undersigned-`,consistory  were not
       should refuse to apologize.                                                                  even notified. That same' week they sent a communication to
         3. That in so far the corxsistory  has the right to proceed with                           all the members of'the'tongregation calling upon them to  fol-
       suspension on the basis of the Classical decision.                  ..                       :low  them in their schismatic act of meeting separately in the
         However we .are not prepared -to `say:, :                                                  auditorium of the `Christian High School.
         11. That a consistory meeting can be called legal when half                                   Since. these brethren have separated themselves from us
       of its members were not notified that it would be held.                   ~,                 and are therefore, no longer members of our congregation and
         2. That a suspension can be called in order when the in-                                   of our Churches, it has become  impossi,ble  for us to discipline
     volved were not notified of the fact that the double consistory                                them. For the same reason it is impossible for us now to pro-
      meeting would be held and the suspension decided on."                                         test against them.      However, since it is common knowledge
         Although' the' consist&y  of First Church-would have liked to                              that they intend to send delegates, to  t&s  dassis to represent
       have had more wholehearted and positive advice from our                                      themselves as the legal consistory  .of First Church, we feel
      neighboring consistory, and  ~although  our consistory could `do                              constrained to warn the classis  against ackn.owledging  them as
       nothing  wit,h the last part of  the;advice,  seeing that  it is  neg-                       such.. As long as they do not repent and  sonfess  their. sin of
      .ative and merely states that the consist&y -of 4th church is not                             &bellion   ,and schism but  *continue  to perpetuate it, they may
       prepared  to"  say:`something,  yet, the advice of that consistory                           not  ,be recognized by this  classis.
       is nevertheless that we had the right to  pio,ceed.'                                          ,-We are well `aware of the fact that they  a,ccuse  us of creat-
         This the consistory of First Church  did; and the Rev. De-Wolf                             ing schism, (and they will undoubtedly attempt to convince
       and his  de,posed -elders were duly notified' of this action,                                the  Classis  of this as  ,appears from the fact that the Rev,


.8i                                                fij4.E  Sfi?~l\iD~#f;  B.%A,RER

Hbeksema has repeatedly publically predicted that this. Classis
will justify them) but this they can not prove becacse  it is not                     Copy of Speech by the Rev. G. Vos
true. We did not separate from them. They separated from                    Delivered at the meeting of the consistory of the First
us. The Rev. Hoeksema walked `out of the meeting. More-                            Prot. Ref. Church of Grand' Rapids,  Mich.
over, before he left he advised the elders that stood with him
and the committee from  Classis  to walk out with him  an,d                                           June 1, 1953.
meet separately, which they started to .do. It was only upon
the plea of on.e.of  our elders, that they-stay and talk about the            Well brethren,' I am very, very, very glad that the president
matter in question, that they consented to stay for a while.                of the  Classis appointed me not only  on the committee, but
However before the meeting  ,adjourned   they informed us through           that the committee appointed me as  tfheir  spokesman: and there
Rev. Hanko that if we did not do what they demanded, they                   are more than one reason why I really rejoice that the Lord
would separate from us. Hence, we did not refuse to work to-                so guided and ,directed us that I may-sit here before you.
gether, to discuss the matter involved and seek for a solution.               First of  ,sll because you are my brethren who are called to
They refused to do so. Surely  n.othing  that we  di.d could jus-           be elders, either ruling or teaching elders, in the church of
tify their act of walking  ,away,   meet.ing illegally to suspend           Christ but much more, elders, the consistory of the mother
and depose us and establishing themselves as a separate church.             church, that for nmny, many years has given directives to the
These brethren certainly understand that the only legal way                 activities of the whole denomination. Yen men always h,ave  a
open to them was that. of protest and in the meantime main-                 very large place in my heart, and I h,axe watched you, and I can
taining the status quo. But this they  refuse,d  .to do.  .They             tell you in honesty  thaat I was awed by you always. I was al-
took the law into their own hands,  crea.ted a schism in the                ways afraid to be in your midst. I feared it. And I think
congregation and thus became guilty of gross sin.                           you all have realized it too who have seen me. I used to quake
  And by this action; they have forfeited every right to rec-               with fear. I am a simple man. I am  eas,ily  embarrassed and I
ognition and a voice in this  Classis.                                      am easily scared.  T.hose  that know me well know that that
  The fact that  Classis  had advised  sus,pension  and  .deposition        is true. And now you are in such a very, very miserable con-
,does not  .alter the matter as far as their action is concerned            dition. I've watched this thing grow and come to a head. Now
because:                                                                    you are in such a miserable condition that you not only no
  1. An apology was tendered an,d  ignored;                                 longer give directives  ,but you have lost your voice. You have
                                                                            no more voice. That cut me to the quick when I  ca,me `to
  2. An  ,advice of  Classis  may never be executed in a rev-               classis   sand I inquired, for I wanted to know. I missed about
olutionary and illegal manner;                                              a half hour and then the truth was, told me that you had lost
  3. We were.not suspended and ,depos#ed on a legal consistory              your voice. Eight for and eight  agajnst. You didn't speak
meeting.                                                                    any more. That hurt me more than you will ever realize on
 It will undoubtedly be contended -that we were suspended                   this side of the grave,  be,cause  you know how I have lived in
and deposed when  then consistory  ,adopted (under intimidation             this movement from the very beginning, the very inception-, be-
on. the part of the two protestants, against which Rev. De                  fore the inception of our churches. I saw the clouds gathering
Wolf.registered  his protest as the minutes will show) the ad-              years and years before that while in Calvin and that's why
vice of the  >Classis.      But fact is that we ~continued  to- function    I say `again Dh,at  I am glad that possibly I may help you as one
in our office and were still functioning in our office  w.hen the           of the committee and as the spokesman. But that is not the
,tionsistory  adjourned on the evening of June 22. This means               only reason.
that a meeting of which we were  alot notified can never be                   And  that  makes  it very easy for me. I said to my wife that
called a legal consistory meeting. Moreover, apart from the                 this is the most difficult night of my whole career. I never
question whether a minority can depose a  mtajority, we were                h-d anything like this, that  T,  of all persons must come here.
legally in office until such a time as, on a legally constituted            Aml  T  struggled with you. The truth must be told. You will
consistory meeting, it were decided, with t.he advice of a neigh-           hear it in the judgment day anyhow. (I'have  lain on my knees
boring consistory, that we be suspended and deposed.                        night after night, Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night
  But the opposition chose t.o ignore  tall these facts. It acted           struggling with you and have asked the Lord, "Lord give me
,a,s though we were suspended and deposed and then met se-                  th0s.e  men . . . give them to me.    Give me grace in the sight
cretly without us, to suspend and depose us. Rather than to                 of these men and that they may listen to me as I plead with
continue the matter any longer and seek for a solution in a                 them." Maybe you know and maybe you don't know but I
legal, christian and brotherly way; it chose to dictatorially ex-           asked  Classis  "Will you limit my mandate ? Then tell me
ecute its wishes. By this action these brethren have wilfully               now because I am going to plead if you don't." And they did-
separated t.hemselves  from our congregation and from the com-              n't give me a single limit to the  mand.ate.      And the mandate
munion- of our Churches. Should  Classis,  therefore, recognize             itself is, of course, broad as you will hear when I read the
them as the consistory of the First.  Church,  it would there-              first document.
by condone. their schismatic action and itself become guilty of               What  m?kes it so easy for me to sit here and talk after all
their sin.
  May the Lord give you wisdom and grace to judge right-                    these prayers is this.     `That's really beautiful.    It's all  de-
eously in these difficult matters.                                          cidcd.  It is decided. Whether you hear or whether you  for-
                                                                            be.2r. Whether the Lord will move your hearts so that you will
                          ;i The Consistory of the First Protestant         hear and unity will come and evil will be eradicated. It makes
                              Reformed Church  of Grand Rapids, Mich.       no difference for it is decided; And it is decided by the great
                                H. De Wolf,  Pres.                          Arbiter up there in' heaven. And- all I am is a puppet moving
                                S. De Young, Se,c'y.                        as a means in His hand, a mere tool.            That makes it easy
                                                                            for me. That is my strength.  .All that I am doing is walking
Done in Consistbry                                                          by His hand; He leads me.


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                       _  .                    I'HE.  STANDARD  B E A R E R                                                                          33
                               - - - - A - -                                                                           -      -    -    -    -
 I-have  a broad mandate, I said. I have to acquaint you with                        2.  Cl.?ssis  adviz.es  the Consistory of First Church:
 the decision of the  Classis  and advice. But see ground .a:                        a. to demand that  the  Rev. De Wolf make a public apology
 I'm going to read pretty soon that final document. :See grc9ti.d                 for  $a$ng   malde  the two statements in question.
.a: "Almost all the elders of the- Fira,t Church are absent from                     b. that the Consistory also publicly apologize for having sup-
 Classis  Meeting  and thus are not aware of  the five days of                    ported the Rev. De Wolf with respect to the two statements
deliberation which  preceeded the  atiove  motion." And that five                 in  qtiestion.
days . . . it was  ~five  ,days when I wrote that motion. And a                      Groun,ds  in  re the first statement:
 day and a half . . . a day and three quarters were added to ,it.                    a.  Scripfard:  I1t.b.  F:16-18, Rom.  9:6-S,  16,  lS, Acts  13:43
 Six days and three -fourths we lookrd .a! your problem, prayed                   Jobn~G:36  and 37, John  10:26-30.
 over your problem and  deli,berated   a`nd debated. See  grohnd                     b. Confessions: Heid. Cat. 20, 65, GG; Confession 22, 33-35,
`!a." I say: "All'the  elders were absent," and therefore my man-                 Canons I- A 6 7 10; I B 2 3 5; II A 5.8.
date is broad. I  wgnt to give  ybu the full thrust of the  Clas-                    Grounds in re the second statement:
 ris. hnd then especially the last ground, ground  `(d" of the                       3. Scripture: Col.  1:13, Eph.  2:1-3, John 3:3-5, Phil.  2:12-13.
 Classis.  I  to1.d  -the  Classis  that there you find my heart more                b. Confession:  Heid. Cat. 8, Canons III-IV, l-3,  10-12;  V,
`than. anywhere  e1s.e. "We should spare no efforts on our  be-                   C-8.
hqlf, under the blessing of our Covenant God, to s,ave  the ,dear                    3. (Classis  further advises the Consistory of First Church:          '
brethren~  involved;"  -That's fou!                                                  a. that in case the Rev. De Wolf should refuse to apologize,
' And now I shall  first read the decision-:                                      which  our God -graciously forbid, the Consistory proceed to
   . .                                                                            suspend him from  Ihe office of the ministry of the Word and
          D&is&   re the Hoeksema, Ophoff-Fuller Case                            -Satiraments,   a,ccording   to the pertinent articles of the D.  K. 0.
   "Tn our opinion both  the  statenigm  which the  p>otestants                      b. that in case any elder or elders should refuse to submit
 condemn  are literally. heretical  reg.ardless   of-  w.hat t.he Rev.            to the proposed action as stipulated uader  No. 2, b, which God
 De Wolf  mezlnt  by them; regardless of how he explains them                     graciously fo&d,  such elder or elders be disciplined according
b e c a u s e :                                                                   to  the-a.rticles  of the D.  K.  30.  pert-in&g  thereto.
  the first teaches a  generai promise of  Go,d unto salvation                       4.  Th7.t`  Classis  appoint a delegation of three ministers and
to .a11 that externally hear the- preaching of the ,gospel  head for              two eld,&rs  t.o personally acquaint the,Consistory  with the above
bend and soul for soul, limited-by a condition which man must                     decisions and  ,sdvice at the earliest consistory meeting:
fulfill, while Scripture and our confessions. plainly teach:                         Grounds :
   1.  That, indeed, the proclamation of the gospel comes to all                     a. Almost all the elders of the First, Church are absent from
to whom God in His good pleasure sends it.                                        Classis  Meeting and thus are not aware  ( of the five days of
   2. That, however, in our proclamation of the gospel, we may                    deliber&ion  which proceeded the. .sbove  advice.
never say that  God. promises salvation to everyone of the
hear&;  on condition of faith, for the promise itself is  par- b. The matter is one of great magnitude and importance.
ticul&,  ,unconditional,   land only for  ~the elect; for it is an oath              mc. We  otie the mother church of our entire denomination
of God which  He,- in His  everl,asting  mercy and  grack,  swears                such `courtesy and respect.
by Higself to His beloved elect; whi,ch  He, by sovereign grace,                    `d. We should spare no efforts on our behalf, under the bless-
fulfills -only  to. and in them, without any  con,dition  or  prere-              illgs  of our  ,Covennat  God, to save-thk  da3r brethren involved.
quisite  t.9  b.e fulfilled by them; and which promise implies                       Brethren, this document was adopted by our  Classis  with
that, by His  Holy `Spirit, He  caus,es  them to receive and ap-                  almost  ~u,nanimous  vote.       The reports  vary as to how many
propriate salvation by a true  :and living faith.                                 votes were against- it. Some  s.ajr two, others say three. I
   The second teaches that our act of  .conversion  is a prere-                   tbought `four voices.
quisite to enter then Kingdom of God, which .me%ns-that we con-                    Now I come to the process, of the case at  Classis.  And
vert and  humhie   ~o&s&lves  before we  are! translated from the                 before I do, it may be well that I say very emphatically, in the
-power of  d7rkn&s  into the kingdom of God's dear Son, while                     name -of the  Classis,  thst the  Classis  very emphatically  ,does
 Scripture -and -Confessions plainly teach:                                       not consider the Rev. De Wolf a heretic, not at any time; but
   1. That the whole work of our conversion, -regeneration in                     at the same time very emphatically the  Classis  will consider
its narrower as well as in its wilder sense, in virtue of whbch                   him a heretic if he keeps those  t%wo  statements to his bosom
we humble  ourfelves,  is sovereignly wrought  :by God, by His                    and refuses to throw them away. There is no doubt about that
 Spirit  and  .Word,  through the preaching of the gospel in His                  either.         That will become plain as I go on. Your  sdocumen,ts
elect.                                                                            . . . . all  the documents in question . . . they were placed in t'he
   2.  .That this entire  work of conversion is  our t!:ansl+ion  and             hands of a broad committee.               Thnt committee met and met
entering into  t.he kingdom of God. Hence, it is not, cannot be                   again to  study  th.st material; and the result was  t,hat we had
before but THROUmGH  our conversion that we enter the king-                       both a. majority and minority report. And the majority report
dom; We humble ourselves IN the light, never IN  darkness;~                       was signed by the three ministers in question and the min-
we humble ourselves, whether initial&or repeatedly, IN the                        ority report was signed by two elders, that -were part of the
kingdom never OUT.SIDE  of it. Hence, our- ACT of conversion                      committee.. And without any contradiction I can say here that
is never anteceldtint  to our entering in,.but always, is performed               the -report of the majority committee was an attempt. . . a long
IN  the kingdom of God; and there are no prerequisites.                           ddcument  . . . 12 or 13 pages.. . the majority report was a doc-
                                                                                  ument of 13 pages wherein an attempt was made to prove to
   Grounds :           '                                                          Classis   tha.t the two  s.tatements were  Dot necessarily heretical
   a.  the protestants have clearly shown  from Scripture  prid                   .- that both of these statements could be explained in a Re-
                                                                                    . .
the confess'ons  that the lit&al.  statements are heretical.                *     formed  sense.  And  that  majority report when it  cam&under
   b. we believe this is necessary for us to state in the  light of               the hammer and when it was discussed . . .ca<efully  discussed
our past experiences  aad  his&y  with the  LBerated  churches-                   by the whole  classis   .days on end, became  g miserable failure.
who use these arminian expressions.                                               Now whether the composers of the majority  re.port were.  con-


                      ..,
34                                           J?HE  S T A N D A R D   BE.kRER

 verted by their own  norrsense  or by the  Iarguments  that were          to all of you salvation if you believe. There you have the
 alleged aganist them, that I ,don't  know but lhey were- conver-          essence  .of the first point. That's why I said to the  Classis
ted. One of them told me, "did you  hear  my resounding NO                 the moment I looked at that thing as it stood on the black-
- when the first statement came `un,der  the hammer?" And the              board, as I stood' here, I said that if the two members of the
 question came up  "that. it  nee~d not be heretical." But they            committee* of 1924 were here- in this room, the third one can-
voted it `down.                                                            not be-he  is, insane-Dr.  Bouma-1 said those two men would
   The  first motion pertaining to the first  sbntement was taken          laugh their heads off, and say "You go us one better." But,
unanimously with the exception of one person and that person               you see, this -statement has liad a tremendous influence.. . is
who. voted contrary to the. whole classis,  later, on a later day          a terribly evil thing. . .  s.nd we see signs of the terrible influ-
 came back from his stimd so it is unanimous. The first state-             ence that it has had.. . that's the bitterness of it, the sorry
ment . . . the motion that it is not necessarily heretical.. . was         part of  it. You know, in the first place, that statement in
rejected;                                                                  he mouth of one of our ministers. I know..  .S believe him
                                                                           when he says, I don't mean if that way. I believe that  al-
   And so we come  ,to the statements as such. And I. like to              right. That's not the question. I take it with all my heart that
 give you the  bsckground  of them. I'll write them down. We               he didn't- mean that. It would be evil of me to  -think  that
looked .at those statements, studied them, debated them. And               he meant that.  ,Of course not. But he made the statement
 I  Iassure  you that .the best debater that we have at  Classis           and the st.atement  in his mouth corrupts. him if he hangs on to
 tried to defend  .them. I. There is no better  ~debater  than Rev.        it.
Veldman,.  Rev.  .Ri,chard  Veldman.  T know- the man for 27, 28
years. He is by far the best debater tha.t we have. `(God prom-                   In the second place, and that was also made plain on the
ises everyone of, you that. . . ." I'll tell you -something Isbout         classis, there was a  .group of elders, and I think if I am well
the adebate  .,.. . . "if you  believe,He  will save you." I don't know    informed and I think you can show it by the minutes; I think
how many stepshe use&but  some of you were present. Wheth-                 there was a group of elders, &d then you have the concentric
 er it was three  or.- four steps  but he talked and talked and            circles just as when you throw a  &bile   in  the, water and it
talked  .until  promises became- "declares? But the  Cbassis               gets wider  anal  wider and wider,  land misery is added to mis-
looked at that statement and came to` the8 unanimous decision              ery, and elders, Prot. Reformed elders; mind you, they took this
that the statement. as such cannot -stand in our churches,. .              statement upon their lips too when they  defen.ded it and that
that it is certainly heretical.. . and I like to prove it to you           is worse of course, but it is not by far the worst. Then slow-
too. The moment you put "promises" next to "God" land make                 ly on it comes to the `congregation and now they tell me, and
God.the'subject   `of "promises.", then all you can add here is            whether it `is true or not I don't  know;  I hope it is not  true!
`felect, elect; elect..  . . . " and never anything else,' `I?&%  the      they tell  .me that the majority of people in Fuller Ave., be-
plain teaching of Scripture. Because the. promise  of God  a&              loved Prot. Ref. people,  tske  this `to their bosom. They walk
cording- to  Heb. 6 is an oath  ~which  God  swe&s  by Himself;            on the streets of Jerusalem.        They say "what's wrong with
and because of the weakness of our faith as it was seen in                 that". That's the misery of it, brethren.  IBut that's not the
Abraham, He swore by Himself that by two immutable things                  worst.       That's nothing really yet. The worst of it is this
thlst promise might stand, the promise namely, that He will                that we befoul  the iiving God with it. Mind you, it is not an
surely save His elect  people, irrespective of what we are  an.d           innocent thing. If only I put down here  ,"De Wolf" then it
how we appear in history. Some of  US; millions of us,  nlever             wasp%.  so bad but it is my  `(God". What must God think of
come to consciousness. But whether you come to consciousness               that statement in  the. mouth of your minister, in the mouth
and live `to be an hundred years old and break all' the'fcommand-          of your elders, in the mouth of  your- congregation ?       And it
ments  of  Gosd as you do to the last moment of your life,  f`God          is spreading in other churches. You know the condition of our
swears I am going to save you" and `the `moment you use the                churches at present.' !It is almost a hopeless condition. You
word promises `all-,.you  can add is -all- the blessings of election.      understand now why I am so glad  thfst I may come here and
A,nd that is  tbeantifully  shown in  II  Cor.  I:26  "For all the         talk to you and testify to you ?
promises of God are in Christ Jesus yea and Amen, unto the                        The same is true of the other statement. "Our act of con-
glory of God by us.,' So all you have here, is a general prom-             version is a prerequisite to enter the Kingdom of heaven." That
ise, a general promise, mind you, that is also conditional be-             is the second statement he made in his sermon.           Agai.n  w e
cause there is a  con'dition  attached: "if you believe". A gen-           don't believe, I don't believe I  don%  think that any of us be-
eral conditional promise a thing unheard of in Reformed cir-               lieve, knowing Hubert, that He believes the heresy in that.
cles. It is really not saying too much that if Rev.  -Veenhof              I can't believe it. Because a heresy it is. We looked at that
were here, he wouldn't take this.         I know  beca.use  I have         too. and how your committee of the majori.ty  report tried their
read all his writings, whatever came across in De Reformatie               utmost to  mlake  this thing reformed. And the Rev. Veldman
and'.Unica   ,Catholica;  and he would say,  "No  s'ir, not this." -He     tried his best to make the  Classis  see that this was reformed,
would say, "God promises all the covenant  chil~dren,  the.  ,cov-         according to the Reformed confessions and  %ripture. And the
enant people  that- he will save you on the  comlition  of faith."         Rev. Lubbers did. They wrote thirteen pages, and they ably
But he wouldn't take the phrase as it stands there. Really,                defended their propositions. And the  Classis  looked at it and
brethren, I am not making it worse than it is.  I  was  akcusea            they studied it. :a@, here is the wickedness-.. . . PRE . . . Pre
of that twice on the Classis  and once in private. I don't make            means this:. .I+ &e,ard about lines. That you cannot  pu.t things
it worse than it is. I made it less evil than it is. ,I pulled  my         on lines. Of  c0urs.e  you can put things on lines. Here is dark-
punches.` I didn't pull out all the stops. I'll say much more              ness and here is light. And there is a gate between. And
about it now because it is in that mandate. It is of great                 that is the question. of that outfit there. Our conversion is a
magnitude. .A11 that should be said especially now when I am               prerequisi.te  to enter into the kingdom of  ,heaven.  That "pre".
before the consistory who is directly involved, I like to add to           All the wickedness is in that  `ipre',. And it became so clear
this, but before I do, I want  to change this to the  first point          to the whole  ,Classis that every last one of the  Classis, Rev.
as to its essence  and then  .you' make it less evil. God offers           Kok included, condemned the statements  #as per se heretical.


                                                p&g       S'i`ANoARlj                   BEAiEER
                                                                                                                                                      .3Ei


  Rev. Kok . . . we  .didn't  know what we heard. . . You know, we           graciously forbid, such elders  pr elders be disciplined  a.ccord-
  tried to say for the longest time not to say it but there  Tare            iug to the articles of the  D.K.Q.   ~pert-aming  thereto.
  factions in the church. There are two factions and they be-                   G r o u n d s :   Art.`i9,-80   D.,`K.  0 . "  r  :  P.
came more and more clearly defined. Rev. Kok got up and                         5. That  Classis appoint a delegation of three ministers and
                                                                                                       -._ _ I.
said "the two statements are heretical;" then  ,honestly  I  ,did            two elders to persona,lly;acquaint  the -Consistory  with the .above
  not know what I heard. But he said  i.t. It' all became clear              decisions and advice at the earliest -eonsistory  meeting.
  to us.  Also- in light of Scripture  -*and  the confessions.. I al-          `Grounds:                           0                       .i  .C-
  most think it would be an insult if I read these, things to you.
  You must have heard these things time and time again. They                    a. Almost all the elders of the First Church are absent from
  sounded in your ears as your ministers and some of your el-                Classis  Meeting and thus are. n&aware  of,the.  five days delib-
  ders . . . as you debated these things together. Must I explain            eration which pre,c,edecl  -,the, above advice. . . .
  that? That the Lord places us in the light ? Every Scriptural                b. The -matter  is one of great,ima.gni$ude  and importance.
  reference and every confessional reference, and brother De                   .c. We.owe  the-mother chprch of our entire denomination such
  Wolf knows that too.. .  th,e one speaks of "illumination". . .            ,courtesy.  .and  respect. ,  is. ,.
  +l& the Lord illumines us before we ever think of converting                  d. We should spare no efforts on our behalf, un.der'the  bless-
  ourselves.       Of course we are  a,etive.  And now look at Art.          ings of our Covenant God, to save the dear. brethren involved.
  10-11-12, especially .12.     After our fathers plainly speak of              That "4" came under the hammer  beoause  some of them
                                                                             d(dn't want  .that in there.
  what God does and how .he takes us and how he transbafes  us                                                          And I and others in the  Classis
  by. regeneration, then you read WHEREIJPON  . . . Which cer-               held that it should be in there because the matter of sus-
  tainly is not PRE.  .Whereupon..  . the Lord regenerating us               pension was on your table more tban  once. The minutes were
  and giving us all that light  land all that grace, we act., . of           on the table and there it shows that the matter of suspension
  course we do. And mind you, the brother kept that to his                   was on the table. And, therefore, that was voted on. The
  bosom. I could weep and I did weep on account of it in his                 majority ,decided to keep it in. And,after we hs.d decided that,
  own study. Not because of that but about the factions that                 .the Rev. Kok arose an.d  then he made the statement: "I agree,
  were forming in 1949. And,  I talked  #and  pleaded with him,              the two statements are heretical but I like to have two state-
but that has nothing to do with this. And I did weep on ac-                  ments in there to show why it is heretioal.                   I have need of
  count of that because he kept it to his  ,bosom, months and                that Mr. President." And he read something  and the  Classis
  months  an.d months. And it is through him  tha.t some of the              didn't like that, especially, our professors in dogmatics and
                                                                             exegesis, they said it was not right to make a  dogmiatical
  elders took it to their bosom. They  defentded  that. The church           statement on the spur of the moment. That's dangerous. And,
  . .  .12 churches  in. Classical session, looked at it, listened to        therefore, one of our professors, Rev. Hoeksema, offered to
  all the defense and unanimously `said. . . It's heretical.                 study it carefully and put down what Rev. Kok wanted  i.n
    And so we came to the end of the majority report. It was                 sound  .words,  oarefully  thought out words. That is document
  thrown aside.       ,One of the composers  st.ood in front of the          number 9 and here it is. That came next morning.
  Classis   sand said, "Now that we are  rid-.of. the nonsense of the
  majority report." He said that an,d  he had for four days tried               The statement is heretical. . . .
  to defend it.- Then we were through with that. Then the Rev.                  Amendment ad l-mu:
  Kok arose. After I made motion, No.  .8. Maybe you have it                    Because it teaches a general promise of God unto salvation,
  aand maybe you don't. I made the motion- because I saw that                to  la:1 that externally hear the preaching of the gospel, head
  we wou1.d have the minority report before us and I did not like            for head and soul for soul, limited by a condition which man
  that report as it was, because it was not according to the truth.          must fulfill, while Scripture and our Confessions plainly teach:
  Those men meant, well. and so I made this' motion.                        1. `That, indeed, the proclamation of the gospel comes to all
    Relative the minority report, Cba:ssis  expresses what it `found         whom God in His good pleasure sends it.
  under 1, a .and b, with the following amendments:                            2.  Thlat, however, in our proclamation. of the gospel, we
    1. Elide the 1st sentence under  .l, and 2nd half of the 2nd             may never say that God promises salvation to everyone of the
  sentence, starting with "and regardless of however much etc."              hearers, on condition of faith, for the promise itself is' partic-
    2. Elide all of 2, a, b, and c.                                          ular, unconditional, and only for the elect; for it is an  os.th of
    3.  Glassis  advises the  ,Consistory  of the First Church:              ,God  which He, in His everlasting mercy and grace, swears
    a. To demand that the Rev. De Wolf make a public apology                 by Himself to His beloved elect; whi,ch  He, by sovereign grace,
  for having ma.de the two statements in. question.                          fulfills only to and in them, without any condition or prerequi-
    b. that the Consistory also publicly apologize for having sup-           site to be fulfilled  by- them; and which promise implies that,
  ported the Rev. De Wolf  ,with respect to the two statements               by His Holy `Spirit, He causes them to receive and appropriate
  in question :                               . . . .                      ' `saivation by a true and living faith.
    Grounds :                                                                  A m e n d m e n t   a d   &urn:
    a. Scripture: Heb.  6:16-18;-  Rom.  9:6-8, 16, 18; Acts  13.:48;          Because it  tea,ches  that our act of conversion is a prere-
  J'ohn 6:36, 37; John 10:26-30.                                             quisite to enter  .the Kingdom of God, which means that we
    b. Confessions:  ,Heid.  Cat. 20; 65; 66; Confession 22; 33-35; convert and humble ourselves before we are translated from
  Canons I A 6  `7.10;  I, B  2-3  -5;  II,.A 5. 8.                         the power of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son,
    4. Classis further advises .the Consistory of the First Church:         while Scripture and the Confessions plainly teach:
    a. that in case the Rev. De Wolf should refuse to la.pologize,             1; That the whole work of our conversion,. regeneration in
  which our God graciously fonbid,  the :Consistory  proceed to sus-        its narrower as well as in its wider sense, in virtue of which
  pend him from the office of the ministry of the Word. and the             we  hum,ble  ourselves, is sovereignly wrought by God, by His
  Sacraments, according to the pertinent  .articles of D.K.O..              Spirit and Word, through the preaching of the gospel, in His
    b.  that  in.case  iany-elder  or elders  shoul,d  refuse to submit     elect.
  to the `proposed action as stipulated.  under:  3,  b; which. God            2, That this entire work of conversion is our translation and


       56 ,                                        Tfiii:  ST,ANDARD   BEARER
                                         __-
       entering into the kingdom of God. _ Hence; it is n.ot, cannot be     that. thing away, you will save the congregation, and the back
       BEFORE but THROUGH  our.' conversion that we enter the               will ,be broken of that whole movement and we can go on and
       kingdom. We humble ourselves IN the light, never IN dark-            we will go on. We can thank God. I can give it to you, and
       ness; we humble ourselves, whether initially or  re,peatedly,        that is outside the  Classis now, but  S know and perhaps he
       IN the kingdom, never OUTSIDE of it. Hence, our ACT of               said it on the  Classis, I don't know, but I know that if Revs.
       conversion is never antecedent to our entering in, but ,always       Hoeksema and Ophoff, that if they just hear that you take those
P      is performed IN the kingdom of God, and there are no pre-            statements and throw them away, throw them away for God's
       requisites.                                                          sake, they are going to embrace you and we're going on in
         That whole- statement. was -brought the next morning under         unity. I have come to the end and I thank you very  mu,ch for
       the hammer and the. Classis  after debating this issue adopted _ your patience that you have listened to. me.
       it unanimously- and it became part of the decision that is given        The above is an address delivered. by the spokesman of a
       to you as an answer. to your oase.  And- then, after that was        delegation, appointed by Classis  East, in session-May  28, 1953,
       done the final decision came ,under  the-hammer and was adopt-       at `a special consistory meeting of the First Prot. Ref. Church
       ed with all the votes except 2, 3, or 4.    We probably never        of Grand Rapids, Mich.,  Monday evening, June 1, 1953.
       know how many. Nobody registered his  ne.gstive   vote.; Not a                                Rev. Gerrit Vos Spokesman
       one. I0n.e told me in private, "maybe I will. register my neg-                                Rev. Marinus Schipper
       ative vote", but he never did.                                                                Rev. Gerald  VandenBerg
         And so, brethren;. we came to the end of our work as far                                    Elder Nick Yo.nker
      &s you are concerned. And  no.w,  brethren, make no mistake.                                   Elder Dennis Langeiand
       There are two things I didn't mention. I would  s,ay, brethren,                                                                H.H.
       in all seriousness and I ought to be known to your body by my
       personal contact with you and by my writings that I certain-
      ly am not a vindictive man. That's why I am so glad that
      they chose me for spokesman. If I err I usually err on the                             --- q
       side of love.. I think that each one in your heart says right
       away,.  "that's correct" I'm not vindictive. But I must give you
      the full impact of the  classis.  I include myself there too. I
      would say, "make no mistake". As far as the  classis  is con-
      cerned this is  a-  fund,a.mental  matter for us and we will never                Further Report on  Classis East
. go back on this stand; and therefore it may be the, end of
      the road,       There are two things that I didn't. tell you. A            ,On Wednesday afternoon, October 7, the  Classis,
       document was read that  .a,dvised  separation. That the matter       after lengthy discussion came to the following decis-
      is beyond help. It is very well possible that all my work and         ion concerning  the "Fuller Avenue (Case".
      the work of the committee is to no .avail,  that you will harden
       yourself against it  a.nd go on. But we are unshaken in our             A.  Classis expresses that the Rev. H. De Wolf and Elder
      position and our conviction based on the word of God  -and            Sikkema cannot be seated as delegates of Classis East.
      three forms of unity and our Prot. Ref. Truth that  ia so-dear
      to our hearts. We are not -going to go back on this, I can tell         ,Grounds  :
       you that. Because in the second place there was a motion               -1. It appears from the Report of the Committee delegated
      . . . which was church politically wrong. , .  ;but there was a       to the  Consisto:y  of First Church that these brethren are  un-
      motion  to stop and that was because of that miserable ma-            jder  censure and censured officebearers carmot function in their
      jority report. We thought it was hopeless. We thought  `it            OffiCC.
      impossible to go on. But we -took the  way of more patience             2. It appears from the same document that these brethren,
      . . . more patience to explain things. That motion was with-          together with  sever21  other elders, did not submit to the cen-
      drawn:.      What are the  ~alternatives  ? You ought to know..       sure of their consistory, but on the contrary, rebelled against
      Would the Rev. De Wolf and the consistory, that part that             their consistory.
is with him and  def.ended  shim and who hugged those state-                   3. These brethren, therefore, and  .a11  who follow them in
      ments to their-bosom, would they rally arourid those two state-       this, sinful way have by the  some  token become schismatic,
      ments ? You can't get rid of them. They stick with you. You and severed themselves from the communion of the Protes-
      either throw them away or they are going  ,to  sti.ck  wit.h you.     tant Reformed Churches:
      Are you ready to break with thos,e statements hanging around             B.  Classis  further expresses  thz,t on  the basis of the facts
      your neck ? Would you rally  -around  them ? Then the `end' as. expressed under decision' A, the brethren Rev.  ,C. Hanko and
     of course is disaster. No doubt about that. On the other               Elder Gerrit  B&ma  are the rightful delegates of the First
      hand, if you listen to the wisdom of God's Word and the con-          Prot. Ref. Church of, Grand Rapids,, Michiga.n."
      fessions' and if you repent and if you apologize- it shall be
      written down in the heavens unto all eternity to your glory..              In close connection with the. above,  Classis  also
      IBy God's grace, of course. But -then.it will be a manifestation      took the following decision :
      and proof that God does not let you go. If you say, we will
      have nothing of it and will throw those statements away; ,God           Moved that on the basis of our previous decision under Art.
       only knows how many you will save  i,n your. church.         T.he    310 (the  ,decision just -quoted above,  I1C.H.)   Classi.;  East
      whole movement.. . the back of the movement, will. be bro-            ,d,&ares  thnt the Consistcry of  whfch  the Revs. I-I. Hoeksema
      ken if' Hubert (a,nd I say that word Hubert and+ not Rev, as a        and C. Hanko are presidents and of which Mr. G. Stadt is
       token of tenderness because I love the boy, if he will throw         clerk is the legal consistory of the First Protestant Reformed
      that thing away and if you elders are wise enough to. throw           Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan.


                                                                   -.


                                       THE.
                                       ri            STANDABD                   ?~EARER                                              37

    As was generally expected, there was a negative                   of  ,Grand Rapids. He asked to have his negative vote
reaction by some of tlie delegates- to the  d&cisio&&-                i.eUi%led`dg'ainst  the decision of  Classis, and presented
-setitin.g  De Wolf and his elder and seating the Rev.                the following written grounds :
X3. Hanko-and Elder G.  BylsFa, and thereby recogniz-
ing the rightful Consistory of First Church.                                                                               act. 7, 1953
    This reaction came, first of all, from the Rkv. B.                Classis   EI.st of the Prot.  Ref. Churches
Kok and  then  Cdnsistory  of Holland. in the form of a               Grand Rapids, Mich.
letter presented to the  ,Classis  after  the decision was            Brethren:
taken. This  decision of Holland's C&&story (a de-                      I herewith  forward  my grounds for not being able to agree
cision to which one of the elders, Mr. J.  I&tering,                  with the decision of unseating Rev. H. De Wolf and elder Sik-
did not agree)  was taken long before the  Classis met,               kema.  There cannot be two First  Prot:Ref.  Churches. Actual-
on  Septemlber 24. And yet the delegates from Hol-                    ly and officially there is only one and the other simply does
                                                                      not exist. To me the Rev. De Wolf and his consistory are the
land saw fit to withhold this document until  Classis                 legal Consistory and therefore the First Prot. Ref. Church of
.h?cl actually decided the  case. We quote  th.is letter              Grand Rapids. This implies that T cannot recognize the Rev.
in full :        L . .                                                Hanko and elder Bylsma a.s legal delegates.
To the  Classis-  East of the  Protestan,t  Reformed Churches,          Grounds:
To reconvene on the 6th day of October, 1953                            1. Rev. H. H. and  his, men have by  walki*ng  out of that last
Esteem&d Brethren:                                                    Consistory me&ing  severed themselves from our churches and
                                                                      have. become schismatic. Since they did-not have a. majority
  Aft& having carefully,  atid prayerfully considered the doc-        there was only one way left,  &at of appeal. On the contrary
umentary evidence, on. the one hand- from a section of the Ful-       they met secretly as a minority. This is illegal.
ler Ave. congregation headed by the Rev. H. Hoeksema, which             2. The suspension and deposition of officebearers by the min-
announced that they had suspended the Rev. De Wolf as inin-           ority group, cannot. be recognized as legal. A minority is not
ister of the Gospel, together with eleven- of his Elders, and on      the consistory and cannot suspend from office, nor can it de-
the. other from a section of  .Fuller  Ave. congregation headed       prive of a  vote.
`by the Rev. De Wolf  .which  announced that this was a schis-          3. Rev. H. H. and his followers failed to walk in the way of
matic action  bn  then  part of the Rev. H. Hoeksema and his          Art. 79 of the Church Order.  A&.. `79 states that officebearers
group, the Co,nsistory  of the First Protestant Reformed Church       can be suspended or expelled only by the  seritence of the con-
of Holla,nd,  Michigan has come` to the following #decision, and      &tory involved and of the  .tiearest  church. This means that
humbly.   $egs  Classis   Ea+ to also -express itself as follows:     the nearest church not only advises, but also actually passes
  1. That on  then basis of the  .information  received they can-     sentence  o.n the  ma,tter.  This Fourth church neyer did. There-
not recognize the suspension of the Rev. De Wolf, and                 fore the brethren have never officially been  s.uspended  or  .de-
  2. That. they. consider the Rev. Hoeksema: and his group to ;be     posed.
guilty of  Sehisma&  action and mutiny.
  Grounds :                                                                                   Yours respectfully,
  1. Under no circumstances  dird the Rev. H. Hoeksema, and                                     J. Blankespoor
the Elders  that  suppbrted  him,. have the right to walk out of
the Consistory of, Fuller Ave. and  meet separately. This  was            The third negative reaction came from Rev. E.
not a walking in the legal way of Consistory, Classis  and Syn-       Knott, minister-delegate of the Kalamazoo Church.
od, but in the way of schism and mutiny. The Rev. H.  Hoek-           Whether he did so on the spur  bf the moment or
sema  here folldwed  .the.  same' evil tactics which he several
times threatened  at  Classis  East. D.K.O. Art. 31.                  whether he had had previous opportunity to  stucly,the
  2. A minority is not the Consistory and cannot  sus&nd              gr'ounds offered by the Rev. J. Blankespoor, he  dicl
from office, neither can it deprive of a vote.                        not say. However, he took as his grounds the three
  `3. The Consistory of the Fourth Church erred by giving the         ofYered in the  lett.er of the Rev. J. Blankespoor.
minority even a semblance of recognition by meeting with them,
and giving them advice, and the s,tihismatic.  consistory had no          ,Classis appointed a committee to study and ad-
right to proceed with the suspension of the Rev. De Wolf, a,nd        vise on these matters. Said committee reported at the
the deposition of a majority of the  -Ealders,  especially in vi&w    Thursday morning session,. A-nd, again after a lengthy
of the fact that the Fourth Consistory question&d. the.legality       disc&sion, the  Classis  came on Thursday afternoon
of the meeting. D.K.O.  ,Art. 79.                                     to the following decision in the first case, that of the
  It is our earnest hope and prayer that the .schismatic  group
of the Rev. H. Hoeksema will repent of its evil way, and that         Rev. Kok:
the breach which has been made may graciously be heriled  in
the way of truth and justice, and in the spirit bf brotherly love,      1. That  w& ask Rev.  B.. Kok to  .declare  that -the action of
                                                                      Classis  East whereby they seated. the Rev. C.  Hank0 and  El-
                  ~_      Respectfully Submitted,
                            B. Kok, Pres.                             *der `G. Bylsma as the legal delegates from the Consistory of the
                            B. Stegink, Seer.                         First  Protesltant  Reformed Church of Grand  Rapi.ds,   Mich.,
                                                                      was not schismatic.
                                                                        2. That he will consider the above mentioned action of Classis
   .The second negative  feaction  cameo  f.rom  ~the  tiev.          settled and binding, and, therefore, will consider the above
J. Blankespoor, minister-delegate of the  Second  Fhurch
               `--..                                                  mentioned .delegates  from the First Prot. Ref. Church of Grand
                                 _~                  _


             Rapids,  Mich. the legal delegates, so that he can work with           incapacitated by illness, and although he is well on the
             them at the sessions of  classis, until he, at  the  .next  i&&ting    w&y to recovery (for which we are thankful to our
             of classis  has proved from the Word of God and Church Order
             that they are not the legal delegates.                                 ,God), he was forbidden by his physician to  attencl
               3. That in case he refuses thus  ,to declare himself he has          Classis. The Rev. H. Hoeksema did not arrive home
             violated the Church  Oader, and forfeited, by his own action,          from Redlands, California until the evening of the
             the right to be seated as delegate from the Consistory of Hoi-         first day of  Classis   ; and even thereafter he did not
             Tand, Mich. to ,Classis  East.                                         make his appearance at  Classis  until the De Wolf
               Ground for 1 and 2: Art. 31 of the  Church  Order.                   Case  I was finished.    The false impression to be re-
                 The Rev. Kok, agreeably to him,  was granted an                    moved? Well, sometimes it is slanderously  reportecl
        hour in which to consider this question, and then he                        that all the rest of the delegates to  Classis  East are
             gave the following answer:                                             mice, instead of men, and that they are dominated in
                                                                                    their actions  .by the Rev.  Hoekse;ma (who some say
               My answer to numbers 1 and 2 is no, on the grounds I                 is a man broken in mind and body) and the Rev.  ,Op-
        have submitted an.d  Art. 31 of our Church Order, hence I dis-              hoff (whom some call a bull-dog).                 This time,
        agree with the conclusion expressed in the 3rd point and re-                surely, that could not possibly be the case.           Unless,
             serve the right to appeal this action of Classis  to the Synod of      ,of course, such domination took place -through the
        our Prot. Reformed  ,Churches."                                             ameans of  &mote control, hypnotism, or telepathy.
                                                                                                                            -H.  C. Hoeksema
       .,        Thus, the Rev. B. Kok forfeited by his own answer
      the `right to  be seated as d&gate from  the Consistory
        of Holland,  Mich.
                 In regard to the negative votes of Revs. Knott and                                 ---a
       Blankespoor, the  Classis  decided to place them before
        the same question presented to Rev. Kok.
                 Without delay they informed the  Classis  that their
        answer was the same as `that of the Rev. Kok. They                                          Reply to the Rev.  Hofman
`.      too, therefore, forfeited the right to be seated as  del-
        egates to  Classis East.                                                        During the week of September 21 the undersigned
                 The document presented by the  Rev: Kok,  however;                 sent his  personal reply to the slanderous charges lodged
      was officially the document of his consistory.                        The     against him personally and against the Committee
        Classis  therefore decided as follows:                                      for Protestant Reformed  Action. With this reply went
                                                                                    a letter, in which I requested that my defense be
               In re the document of Holland Consistory it is moved that            placed in  Concor.clia, if necessary in two installments.
        whereas it is very plain from the  .document submitted that                 In  th.is letter I emphasized that the word-limit on
        the delegates from Holland should have presented said doc-                  contributions could not rightfully be imposed against
        ument  before  we took our decision, we notify- the Consistory              my article,. seeing it was only just that  Concorclia
        of the decision we  have  taken with its grounds,, and call the
       ,consistory's  attention to this action of her  ,delegates  in  ivith-       should allow me  full opportunity to defend myself
        holding this document until after the decision `had been taken.             against the.  evil charges lodged. I further requested
        Carried.                                                       .            that I receive an answer to this request on or before
                                                                                    ,O&ober  2, in order that I might know when my ar-
                ,Classis further decided to notify the three  Consis-               ticle would be placed.
        tories involved of the action of  Classis with respect                          To all this  1. received the following reply:
        to their ministers. And at the end of the afternoon's
        s.ession the Chairman, Rev. J. Heys, instructed. the                                                                   September 28, 1953
       elder delegates  from  Holland, Second, and  Kala,mazoo
       to have alternates present in the places of their min-                       The ReY.  H.-C. Hoeksema.,
        isters at the Friday morning session.                                       Doon,  Iowa.
                 Thus, in three days' time, after lengthy and care-                 Dear -Rev. Hoeksema:
       ful  considerration,  the  Classis at  1eas.t finished the mat-                We received. your note with the enclosure requesting that the
                                                                                    enclosed material-copy be published in our next  Concordiia.
 -. ter of the roll-call,                                                           Having met and  ,discussed the matter we have decided to ex-
                :O yes. To remove  all `false impressions concern-                  press great reluctaace'to publish your material since we feel
       .ing the, make-up of  Classis  East, it must certainly  (be                  that it can hardly serve for the edification and true  instruc-
       noted that the Revs.' H. Hoeksema and G. `M.  Ophoff                         ,tion of our readers. We feel strongly for what one brother
       were not at all present at the  OClassis.  while the De                      wrote that "the last issue of the  Standard Bearer  evinced a
                                                                                    spirit from which we must completely escape or God cannot
       Wolf Case was being treated. The Rev.  Ophoff.  was                          use us for the furtherance of the church-ingathering." Since


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                                                                 .-..





                                                 T H E   STAMDAR,r\  B E A R E R                                                   39

   your proposed article is in the same spirit. we prefer not  20         merely the Rev. Hofman's personal position, but that
   publish it  a.nd  would strongly advise you to retract it.             of the entire staff of  Conco&a.
     If, however, you still feel that you must answer, above and
   beyond what has  alrea,dy  appeared, we will have to remind                  .
   you that your article far exceeds the 300 word limit for con-                                    *`*  *  *
   tributions; which limit was specifically noted just a few issues
   back. Hence your present article is much too long. Nor do                  In the light of all the above, I wish to say the fol-
   we expect to prolong this matter `and publish it over `a series
- of numbers..                                                            lowing :
     But again, to give you all the benefit of the  ,doubt,  we are           1) There is only one course left open for me,
   willmg to relax this rule for this time and offer you as much          namely, to place my reply in the  Standard Bearer,  in
   space as  was  taken by the Editor in his original writing on          the hope that not all minds are closed to truth and
   this matter. That was about 1200 words or the equivalent of
   4 typewritten pages,  idouble  spaced. We feel that this-is-a very     justice (not the brand of  Concordia   and the  Reformed
   gra.cious  concession on our part and affords you ample space          G u a r d i a n )   .,
   for an answer. That means, of course, that your present art-               2)  ILet our people be  warnecl that  Concord~a is an
   icle would. have to be revised and cut  ,down  to  atbout  half its    anti-Protestant Reformed paper. By all means, read
   present length if we shall  place it.                                  it, in order to keep posted on the views of the opposi-
     Finally, we must inform you that we could not place it be-
   fore our issue of -October 22, since our available space is tak-       tion. But do not support it. And do not believe it.
   en until then. You should also understand that our  E,ditor            It is not to be trusted.
   will  heve opportunity to add his comment and  correction,  if             3) I personally will have nothing to do with that
   he so de&es, and that will close discussion on this matter as          paper any more, except to call upon its staff to repent
   far as Concordira  is concerned.                                       of their evil way. They are plainly not devoted to the
                            Sincerely yours,                              cause of the truth, either in  dootrine or in ethics.
                              For  Concord?a,
                                (w.s.) W.  .Hofman,                                                 .a  *  *  6

       I will not comment at length about this reply. On-                     Here follows the original article- in reply to  Hof-
   ly the following remarks I want to make :                              man.  Concordia  did not have the courtesy to return
       1. From this it is evident once more that  Cbncoy-                 it, but I fortunately had the foresight to keep a carbon
   cl& is principally a closed paper. It refuses to allow                 c o p y .
   anyone who is attacked viciously in its editorial col-
   umns free and full opportunity for defense. In cases                   Rev. W.  Hof,man,
   like this it certainly is,, not up to the accuser to say               Editor of  Concordti,
   whether the accused needs 120.0 or 2400 words to de-                   ,Orange City, Iowa
   fend himself. That is a matter for the accused to de-                  Dear Mr. Editor:
   cide. Besides,  Concondti  .wants  to close all discussion                  I had never  intendecl  to ask for space in  Conco&a
   on the matter after this one article and after  Hof-                   after, through the unjust closing of its columns some
   man can nicely make his own comments and correc-                       time ago to the "condition debate", it became prin-
   tions without fear of reply.                                           cipally a closed paper, But now, by your recent slan-
       2. It is further evident that  Conco&q--and I have                 derous attack  (both against me personally and against
   an idea that this motivates them in  closing,their  pap-               the organization of which I am temporary chairman,
   es,-is  afTaid of the facts,  due to the fact that what                you have made it  necess,ary  for me to seek space in
   was presented in its editorial columns was so very far                 your paper. And ethically you cannot now deny me
   from the truth.                                                        as much space as is necessary to defend myself and
       3. In the third place,  Concor,dia's  enmity against               the good name of the Committee for Protestant Re-
   the  Standard   Bearer is plainly evinced in the opening               formed Action before  Con'cordia's  readers. I have,
   paragraph of  Hofman's~ letter, when he expresses a-                   therefore, every reason to expect that you will allow
   greement with what "one brother wrote".                                ample and prominent space in your columns for this
       4. In the fourth place, this same letter. evidences                answer, and to expect also that when I have made
   a new slant of the new-found "conditional theology",                   my defense you will retract your  e,vil  ,charges  com-
   when in the same quotation of "what one brother                        pletely and humbly confess your heinous sin of lying
   wr.ote" the staff of Concordia adopts the position  they               and slander. For of such you are guilty.
   must do something in  ord.er to become fit -for  `God's                   By this time you  are,aware that your editorial has
_ work of. the church-ingathering.  _  :                                  been attacked from other quarters, namely, by the
       5. Finally, it is to be noted that all this is not                 Editor of the Standard  Bearer.  I have known for some


                                                                                    `.




       40                                            TH-E  ST.ANDARD   B E A R E R
                                   -  - - - - - -                                                               _--
       times of the writing of that editorial, and  for that                  were all true, you would still be guilty of  back-bit-
       reason I  also refrained until this time  f-ram  &s;wer-               ifig,:-.&hich,,is really as  e!vil as slander. Did you  nev-
       ing your vile charges, lest there should  be: unnecessary              er `learn that if your brother has sinned against you,
       repetition.      And because you should in, all honesty                you must tell him his sin between thee and him `a-
       take over said  edi`tcirial of the  &m&wd  Bearer  (Sept.              lone ?
       15) in full, I shall  briefly~ cover those aspects-of your                 What  makes your doings all the more astounding
       article upon which the Editor of the  Stmadur.cl  %enrer               is that you belong to those who  have  bedome known in
       did not reflect at  .length.                                           our churches by their pleading for brotherly love
             And  theri I want  to call attention, in the first place,        and tolerance. Concor&`s very name speaks of such.
      to the ethical aspect of your article,  and  to  some facts             And I recall distinctly that last spring at the home
       on this  &ore of which your readers could not be aware.                of the Rev. J. D. de Jong you personally spoke great
      Your editorial constitutes a breach of  ethics so  h&=                  -boasting words about tolerating tie and about the
      rible that even a worldly daily newspaper  wol.71~1                     need of tolerance in  Classis  East. I contradicted you
      scarcely  become   guilty of  such a thing. You have                    then. And now you have by your infamous editorial
      publicly made  c$srges and insinuations against  z fel-                 contradicted yourself. I have  ,oflten been suspicious
      low-minister (At that time he was your fellow-min-                      about this brand of brotherly love in recent years,
      ister, at least;  `by this time you have schismatically                 for. I have more than once experienced its activity.
      followed the Rev.  H; De Wolf; and  y&7 `are no more                    Now  Lam no more suspicious: I  anl. convinced! To
     PTotestant  Reformed.) and against  brethrell  iri. the                  you, therefore, I say: Repent! To'  Concor:clia's  staff
     church without  ev,e.r  &ppqoaching either that minister                 I say: It would have been better had  Concorclia never
-     or those  .brethren  p&!sonally. Never  did you  admon-                 been born ! And to all our people I sound the warn-
      ish me. Never did  ~you say one word to me  abolnt                      ing : Do not support such a slander sheet !
      anything connected with the  or&nization  of  our com-                      In the second place, your whole editorial is false.
      mittee. Never  did you approach my  consistory  .even,                  Many of the things which you state are down-right
      about this  s+called  "inkruiperij".--  Never did you both-             lies. And when occasionally  y&u mention a  fact,-
      er to ascertain whether  YOU had the  [bare  -facts about               and you have very few of them. straight,-you twist
      our committee  atid its organization. All of a sudden,                  and  -contorF-  seven the facts by all kinds of innuendo
      withd77t warning,  -you  break  out  into print witk  &!                and insinuations, until even those few facts are
      most horrible charges  and slander.                               -.    slanderously turned against us. Let me prove this:
             This I call absolutely  &thical: It must be classed                  1.  You  speak in your second paragraph of our
      ai  belonging.to "the proper works of the  devil."                      lla,rne, The Committee for  Protest,ant  Reformed Ac-
             Would it not have been proper on  your  part, if                 tion. And then you wickedly compare  our committee
      indeed I was  a&ally- guilty of interfering in  another                 to. those "subversive  organizatlions that are always
      minister's con-gregation' unlawfully, to call  my.  atten-.             being  ,inv&stigated  by Congress- for  un-Ameiican ac-
      tion -to this  siri ? Should.  you  not. have made plain. to            tivities." Surprisingly you quote our  name-  cory32t-
      me  my sin,  -and admonished me ? And; in case I `would                 ly. But that is as. far  as the facts go in  thlis para-
      not confess the sin with  which:  you  chafge me; should                graph. The rest is all insinuations, without basis.
      you not  have~marle  the case pending with my  Consis-                  You should have been honorable enough to quote our
      tory?       My Consistory, I- am sure, would not have                   own explanation of our name and purpose. Then you
      turned  yen away ; they are honorable men, and up-                      might  have, if such were indeed the case, tried to
      right  officesbearers, who will not tolerate  ariy error in             prove that  our committee did not  jive  `LIP to its avow-
      doctrine or in walk on the `part of their minister.                     ed name and  -pL7rpose. Let me refresh your memory
      And if  -you had convinced them  that  thei?.  minister                 on this score by quoting from the very first letter
      was walking in a sinful way, they would certainly                       sent out by our committee:
      h-ve "taken their  ministe?  in  harid."                    ,'
         -Bnt  all  .this  yi& refused  760 do. Instead you gos-                "As our name implies, we are and mean to be Prot-
      siped with others,  as  is- plain from your opening                     estant Reformed, first of all. We` love our  Protes-
      paragraph. It makes no difference to me who were                        .tant Reformed truth, and we want to maintain and
      in  that "group" of you  who were -discussing these                     preserve it, under `God's blessing."
      matters.        You gossiped !    A n d   a f t e r   YOU  @ad  gas-      "Our name also implies that we mean to be active
      siped, you published your old wives' tales in a  pulb-                  in this respect. And our activities will be directed
      lie paper, and that too in-the name of harmony,  con-                   toward :
      cbrclia. `Even if all your charges were true (and I                       "1. Bringing before our Protestant Reformed peo-
      shall show  .that they are false !)  ,-but  evei if they                pie the  facts  and the  truth  in the present  ,church   situa-


                                                     THR  STANDARD  B:%ARER

tion. We are doing this in the proposed mass meet-                                  2. In your third and fourth paragraphs you do
ing. We shall  d? this in the future by means of  .more                             not present a single fact, when you write concerning
meetings and by  tieans of literature.                                              the  origin and the first meeting of our committee.
   "2. Rallying all lovers of the Protestant Reformed                               Let me expose your falsehoods and insinuations on
truth behind our Standard  Bearer.  This cause seems                                this score :
to be  languishing especially  i'n this vicinity, and does                             a) It is not true, as you would make men believe,
not have the support it should have.  -  Btit the Standard                          that this committee  .was conceived of by me and or-
Bearer  is  .&ill  the  bearer of our Protestant Reformed                           ganized  throlngh  my efforts. The very first sentence
standard.  And we would like to see more readers,                                   of our letter states otherwise: "The idea of the mass
more subscribers, and more financial support of it.                                 meeting and the beginning of this committee arose in
   "We believe, however, that we do not stand alone,                                the minds of some of our men just recently. . .  ." I
but  ,that there are still many of our people who love                              am very glad that I was one of those men. And I am
the truth of God's sovereign, unconditional grace,  land                            happy to this day that I could aid them in the organ-
who  ares willing to  rally.to its defense, and to the pres-                        ization of this committee. But anyone who knows me
ervation of our Protest&t Reformed cause.  And  `we                                 and is acquainted with  my labors will  testify that I
avoulcl~like l~ou to joha us, ancl work along with u.s as                           am not one who believes in one-man rule or in dom-
a permarbent. organiza~tion."                                                       ination of the organic life of the church by the  "dom-
                                                                                    inie". Furthermore, I did not even have a vote in the
    All this you ignored. If you saw fit to  attack our                             organization of the committee, for as chairman I  re-
committee as subversive, you should have proved that                                fraitied from voting, and allowed the majority to de-
we  clid not live up to our name and our  ,avowed pur-                              cide things freely, after full discussion.
pose. You should have proved, for example, that we                                     ,b) You cannot even present my name correctly.
did not bring  .before our people the facts- and the                                I suppose you will claim that you wanted to distin-
truth in the present church  situation.- There are some                             guish me from "the old Rev. Hoeksema." But the
of your friends, the Rev. A. Cammenga and the  Rev.                                 fact is that names themselves are for the purpose of
1-I. De Wolf, who  have  -a tape recording of that mass                             distinguishing. And neither the names, nor the in-
meeting in Hull:  You  c&n undoubtedly gain access to.                              itials, nor the place  df residence, (I live in  Doon, Iowa,
it frdm them; and if not from them,  froin me. I                                    nat Grand Rapids,'  IVIichigan) are the same in this
would like to have you  proye black on white, with                                  case. You might very well, of course, have used my
full  opportunitjr  for  dGba!e and cross-examination, that                         first name, especially in the light of the fact that for
at that  inass meeting the Rev. H. Hoeksema did not                                 years we were neighbors in Grand Rapids, and knew
present the facts and the truth  i-n the present church                             each  other as "Homer" and  "W,ally".  But that's all
situation. Furthermore, I would like to  ha% you show                               right, Reverend: I have never yet been ashamed that
what is  `su,bversive about rallying our. people to the                             my name is Hoeksema  ; and in good conscience I can
support of the  Stanclartl Bearer, and that too, pub-                               s7.y that I strive to heed Paul's  &dlmonition to Tim-
licly. In the third place, I would like to have you                                 othy, "Let no man despise thy youth ; but be thou an
prove what is  su,bversive  about inviting people to join                           example of the believers, in word; in conversation, in
us and  to work along with us as a permanent organ-                                 charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." I Tim.  4:12.
ization and to rally to-the defense of the truth  .of God's                             ,c).  You  speak of our insinnations and of our sow-
sovereign, unconditional grace and the preservation                                 ing seeds of distrust and suspicion. Again, you offer
of our Protestant Reformed cause.  Th&e things you                                  absolutely no proof. Indeed, we recognized the fact
cannot prove. Nor can  you point to a single instance                               that there were some with whom we could not agree
in which we did not act in accord with that purpose.                                concerning affairs ecclesiastical. We realized too that
But you have ignored all this  wilf77lly.                                           we constituted a minority in the churches of this area.
     Instead you have slandered  77s without a cause.                               We  realizsd long ago that we could not any more ex-
Is it because  we- differ  aS to-what is Protestant  Re-                            pect righteousness and truth from  Classis West and
`formed and who is  .Protestant Reformed? Is it be-                                 from most of its constituent consistories. We ex-
cause you did  n& want the facts and  the  truth to be                              pected, in the light of past history, that the people
published, lest the eyes' of many here in, the West                                 would not be given the bare facts of  the church sit-
should be  open&d? Is it becsuse you hate and oppose. uation and be allowed to decide for themselves.  Ancl
the Standard  Bectrer without a cause? I fear you                                   so, as was our perfect right, and because you and
must be numbered among such, Rev.  Hofman: And                                      others had given occasion for distrust and suspicion
I   s a y   o n c e   a g a i n   :   R&pent,  b e f o r e   ,God  a n d   H i s    long ago, we organized a free committee and are or-
church ! Repent !                                                                   ganizing a free society to further our- purposes  an-


           48                                        THE  STkNhkRD   BI~ARER

           fioun&d  above. I  would still  say,- after you apologize              acity.  And I was under no obligation to inform  Ed-
           for all this slander : If  you are Protestant  ~Refor@ed;              g,qton's minister of our visit, any more that you were
           if you agree with our announced aims ; join  our  so-                  when  you visited members  ,of my  frock last May after
           ciety !                                                               you had preached in  Doon. Let me warn you,  Rev-
                 d) You speak of  the delegates being gathered                    erend  Hosman:  it is fatal to give heed to old  w.ives'
           through  "VaY;ious and  dev;iou,s means." Let me tell tales!                                   ,b  I'
           y o u   someething.    They were gathered through  one                    3. A few explanatory remarks- concerning. your
           means. We  oAked  m&a pointblank  if  tlley  were  will-              fifth paragraph, wherein  you make mention of the
           ing to  come. And we asked men to bring one or two                    thoought being suggested at our meeting that this  ac-
           others along with them if possible. Anyone  was free                  tion was mutinous and schismatic. Again, you don't
           to decline. And some did decline to come. Nothing have your facts straight. Indeed, the suggestion was
          devious about it. I believe in going straight -to the                  brought up,  btit not seriously. It was suggested  be-
           point.                                                                cause we knew the workings  Iof  the minds of the  op-
                 e)  YOU  s,peak of the fact that  nto ministers were            position. We expected that you and  others  would try
           -in$ted or &en informed  of this  meeting,  except-   my-~            mightily to besmear  US. We-  knelw the  h.ierarchy and
           sellf. You add that no  consistories were  Iinformed                  the "dominocratie" here in northwest Iowa from  ex-
           or notified.  .You  know very well, of course, that  ours             perience. And  tie expected that some would  foolish-
           is a  I%&  organiz&tion,  not  under the jurisdiction of              ly try to call our actions  &utinous, because we were
           the. church institute. You know too  why.no other.  min-              throwing off the yoke of "dominocratie" and thinking
           iters were invited, and you yourself. have  recei&ly                  and acting for ourselves. lAnd as far as that "stock
           proved this by  your schismatic  actiog  at  Classis  West' answer" is concerned, (it was part of my answer; I
           and'in your own Consistory. Did you think we  were                    also explained why at the meeting), I meant it and I
           blind? Did you think we  were going to allow the still `mean  it. I would like to have anyone show  con-
           enemy to  i'nfiltrafe our society just as he has  infil-              elusively that the gathering and organization of  0171'
           trated  m&y of  ou,r  churches ?                                      free committee and free society is in any way  schis-'
                 f) But  you  are  amiss  Once more when  yeu  say that matic-or mutinous.. -It cannot be done! And we have
          we acted secretly or  s!yly. All our  doings were  $ub:-  - no uneasy  .copscience  about it  at all to this day. I t
           lished,  iby bulletin announcement  &n,d by letter, bothwas no  scTteurmnke&j;  it was no  m&e&i; it was no
           concerning the mass meeting and concerning our  ,or-- inkruipe+ (whatever that may be: Van Dalen  does-
          -ganiiation. We had absolutely nothing to hide.'  -=In                 n't give the word, you know) ; and it was no  onder-
           fact, we  `did  ti`ot want. to hide it, but rather  to pub-  kru'perij*
           lish  $5 far and  wide,. If you were. in  dou,bt  `about the              lSometime, Rev,  @ofman,  I  would like  tb have you
          bulletin announcement  (your  oFn elder,'  1  Mr.  .Hdek-              meet a group of cons&rated, faithful, and militant
           stra, was not), `you could consult your  ,co&istory, as               Protestant Reformed men! I would like to have you
           some did.' .if you  are in  dou.bt about. our committee,              meet the members  ,of our committee and our society for
          Y;OU  may  still  at  this  late  aate  have  a  copy  of  all  our    Protesbt  Reformed  Action.  well  might  YOU  wish
          minutes.      But I will not ask you for  any "minutes" You  were among  -them.
          of your meetings (plural) with other  minisiers from                       But before you can join them, you must repent and
          East and  We&  me&ings to  -which I was not invited.                   confess  !                  May  <God  give you grace to do it, is my
          I expect, of  cogrse, that all your  disucssions were  pray-er.
     -    honorable. For  even- as editor of a public  .paper  you                                                   Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
          try to be  ."fair and honest."
                 g) Your fourth  .paragraph reveals the  untrust-
          wor-thy  char:acter of gossip. You refer, of course, to                              . . . .              -:::-
          Edgerton `in these lines. But let me set you straight.
          The Rev. H. C.  Hcoeksema did not make a few person-
     ..- al  call,s  upon certain sheep in that  frock, as  you  write.
          The story is this. The Reverend and Mrs.. (my wife                       (God's people are trapkllers. Sometimes  th,e.y are' in
          likes to go  visliting  with tie) H.  C!.  Hoeksema visited            dark lanes and deep valleys  ; sometimes on the hills
          Mr. and Mrs. Henry Huisken, upon the  l&ter's  invi-                   of joy, where all is-light and cheerful.                   -Toplady
          tation,  not as sheep in  Edge&on's flock,  #but as  re-
          spected personal  frieridsi       That is far from  ori@er-              The Word of God will not avail to salvation with-
          krui~erij,  is it not? I performed no -pastor&lab&s.                   out  the Spirit of  ,God. A compass is of no use to a
          In fact, I  w&s not  even `present in  any.  officiar'ca$-             mariner, unless he has light to see it by.                 -Toplady


L


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                                                `.     _           -.;                    :     _    _  .,  P
                                                                    ..-                                          ,:




                                           T H E :   S T A N D A R D   BEAR&R                                                                                          43

                                                                                        if. the threat of the  Third Commandment is strictly
;  O U R   DOCTRINE,~.f .applied to anyone of us, we are certainly lost. But let
                                                                                        us remember that we are not under the law, but un-
F                                                                            5
*:*l~lro-,,re-,H,,-,,-`,-~,-,,-,,-,,-~,-,,-~,-~,-~,-"-,-,,-*.*
                                                             a.                         der grace. The law can no longer curse us. The
                                                                                        guilt of transgressing the law even of the Third Com-
                T H E   TiUPLE  K N O W L E D G E                                       mandment is no longer imputed to us. Christ bore our
                                                                                        sins upon the accursed tree, and in His blood there
     AN.EXPOSITION  OF THE HEIDELBERG-CATECHISM                                         is forgiveness for all our transgressions, and ever-
                  PART III  - OF THANKFULNESS                                           lasting righteousness. And therefore, how ever true
                                                                                        it may  `be that the Lord will not hold him guiltless that
                          LORD'S DAY 37                                                 taketh His name in vam for one that is outside of
                                                                                        Christ and that never repents of his sin, to the pen-
                                .2.
           _                                                                            itent sinner there is complete forgiveness and right-
      -                The Oath in the World                                            eousness in the blood of his  Redeejmer.                       And being
                                                                                        redeemed by the blood of  ,Christ, the penitent sinner
     It is evident that no Christian can possibly take                                  is also delivered from the dominion and power and
such an oath, in which he swears -that fidelity to the                                  corruption  ,of sin, so that in principle he has the love
union shall be held sacred above all other allegiance in                                of God and the love of  `His law in his heart.  [And he
society, church, or state. Nor -is it. possibe blindly to                               longs for that perfection where he shall be completely
.swear obedience to the commands of the  unionj  w,heth-                                delivered from the body of this death and  foreve,rmore
er they concern  six&es or boycotts or any other  a&                                    consciously stand in  the. presence of the living  `God,
tivity, to which the Christian- would pledge himself  to  glorify  Him forever
                                                                                  .\
by taking this oath. It is for these reasons that no                                                                                                      - H . H .
conscientious believer in Jesus  &Christ  can allow him-
self to be oath-bound to any worldly society.                              The
Christian as he swears consciously stands. before" the                                                                           If
fact of his covenant God, and certainly will  notswear
or pledge himself to anything that is contrary to His
Word.                                                                                                                      IN MEMORIAM
     We need not elaborate upon the second question                                       On Thursday, September 3, 1953, the Lord took unto Himself
and answer  ,of this Lord's Day. There the Heidelberger                                 our  ,wife,  mot,her  and grandmother
asks : "May we also swear by saints or any other                                                                       MRS.  JENNLE  ZANDSTRA.
creatures?" And our answer is, of course, that this                                     at the age of 55 years.
is quite impossible. For an oath is calling upon the                                      The  assuran,ce  that  ,all  the suffering of this present time is
name  ,of Him Who knows the hearts, and Who as                                          not worthy to be compared with the glory  s*he now shares
such  will witness to -the truth of our statement or                                    ebefore  the Throne of God comforts us in. our bereavement.
pledge.          This honor is due to  (God alone, not only,                                                                    Mr. John Zandstra, Sr.
but He also is the only One that is omniscient and that                                                                         Mr. and Mrs. Charles Zandstra
knows the hearts of men.                                                                                                        Mr. and Mrs. Henry Zandstra
     In conclusion, let me `call attention once more to                                                                         Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Zandstra
the threat that is added- to the Third  ,Commandment :                                                                          Mr. .and Mrs. John Zandstra Jr.
"The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his                                                                          `Mr. and Mrs. John Mesman
name in vain." This does not mean that even curs-                                                                               Mr. and Mrs. Peter Zandstra
ing and fearing, no matter how heinous and terrible                                                                             Mr. and Mrs. Harold  Schipper
a sin this may be, is  unpardonab1.e. For if this were                                                                          Mr.  and Mrs. Bartel Zandstra
the case, we might well ask the question: "Who then                                                                             Mr. and Mrs. Arthur  Dotter
can stand?" No one of us goes free, even in respect                                                                             Sadie Zandstra
to, this sin against the Third Commandment. Even                                                                                Elizabeth  Zandstra
if we are not guilty' of  dir.ect cursing and swearing,                                                                         Bernard Zandstra
which God forbid that we should- ever commit, it is                                                                             and 2'7 Grandchildren
nevertheless true that everyone of us is guilty of pro-
faning the name of God. How often do we take the
nam.e of  ,God  .upon-  our lips thoughtlessly and without                                Nothing but the  lancet of  :God's law, in the hand
being conscious through the use of that name of stand-                                  of the Spirit, can let out the proud of a Pharisee, and
ing before the face of the living God, And therefore;                                   reduce the swellings of self-righteousness.  -Toplady


                                                                    .     .




       44                                               T H E   STANbARb  B E A R E R

.~,t-,-II.I)-(I-~,-~,-,,-~,-,,-,,-~,-~,-`,-,,-,,-,,-,-~,-,,-,,-,.~             that the statements we quoted last time were in his
       i                                                                       writings as well as those we quote in this present
       IP         IN  H I S   F E A R   .-  1
       *~.,-l,-llb0-(1-,,-~,-,,-~,-,,-~,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,.~.    article.
                                                                                   But now, since he is ready apparently .to defend
                                                                               the two statements which  Classis  East declared to be
                           Afraid of  the  Gospel                              literally heretical, now that he  ancl his consistory
 .:                                                                            went on record and even lead in the movement to
                                        (4)                                    recognize as the legal consistory  ,of First Church that
             In  ,the article just preceding this one we  sta_tecl             group of men which refuses to abide by the decision
       that the seeds of conditional theology  .were planted                   of its  ,Classis, we felt that the good of  our Protestant
       into our churches from foreign soil.                                    Reformed  ,Churches  demanded that we show very
                                                                               plainly from the writings of the brother that this con-
             `J%at  conditional theology was not here even dur-                ditional  theol,ogy has been -imported, that it  ,was not
  ing those  days~ when our leaders used the word "con-                        here ten years ago, and that those who now embrace
  dition" without having fully  Ibefore their consciousness                    and defend it wrote things which the  opponents of
  the implication of that word. Today, however, fully                          conditional theology would be  rebuked for, were they
  con.scious  ,of' the use of that word' among members of                      to say them today. That we have to refer to the writ-
  the  L?ber&ed Churches of the Netherlands who `desire                        ings of one whom we always respected so highly  be-
  to become niembers of  our congregation  w,hile still                        f,ore, as we wrote above, is painful and we do not rel-
  holding on  I@ their conditional  ,theology, fully -con-                     ish it, but our people must see that something has
  scious of its implications because of thorough and ex-                       happenecl  in  OLW churches and that to  deny  conlditions
 haustive  di&ussions on the floor  pf  !Synod  and  IClassis,                 is to  continu_e in the Protestant  Ref,ormed  way.
 there are those who still want that which  manife,stly
 they did not want and  did  n.ot know only a few years                           Naturally we are interested to know  what the
 ago.                                                                          brother  ha;d to  stiy about the much-quoted passage of
                                                                               the Canons which was presented to  defend conditional
             There was a time when there was none in our                       promises when the Declaration was treated at Synod.
  churches who was afraid to preach the gospel. We                             We have reference to  *Canons  II, 5. We quote his en-
 like to show that at this  tilye:- We  #quote again from                      tire statement on this art. and underscore that last
 the work of  the Rev. M.  IGritters,  "The Testimony                          sentence. "Art. V . . . You will notice that the Fathers
  of  Dordt."                                                                  bring  .in the mention of the Gospel as being THE
             We find no personal joy or  pleasure   ins revealing              MEANS whereby God applies the merits of Christ's
 i-hese things of the brother's past writings, for we                          redemption to the Elect. That is noteworthy. Es-
 always had great respect for him. He is a hard work-                          pecially if one  be&s  in mind that the majority of
 cr, and produced more in the line of such works than                          people today view the Gospel and its preaching as
 any other of our ministers with the exception of our merely a well-meant offer, or as a means to improve
 leaders,- the Rev. H.  Hoeksema and  the Rev.  ,G. M.                         the world or as a  .means to try to bring `some sinners'
 Ophoff. We always considered the brother also to be                           etc.  The Reformed fathers have rightly grasped that
 a very conscientious worker and in our student days                           Word of Paul which says that the Gospel is the Power
 we respected and appreciated his advice, which he                             of  `God unto salvation, it is thus the POWER  where-
 will no  doubt remember.                  Added to this is that, as           ,by God brings to salvation them for whom He has
 we wrote him, we  -enjoyed this work of his,  es$pecially                     prepared salvation. The Gospel comes with the as-
 because of its real Protestant Reformed  emp,hasis.                           surance that whosoever believes in Christ shall be sav-
 We, had always hoped that the -brother  woul,d see his                        ed." This Gospel, although it is intended Lo gather and
 own departure from his earlier teachings, that he                             to save only the elect,. must however be preached
 would be persuaded to go back to it  ,by all the argu-                        throughout the whole  woyld.  IGod commands this, for
 mentation in ecclesiastical gatherings and in our                             ALIL must be called to repent (and demanded to re-
 church papers. And since he never assumed the role                            pent) and believe in  ~Chri&. Although therefore the
 of leading a battle against his form& teachings, that                         preaching is general,  ,the message is particular. . .
 is, not  $bef'ore  Classis West met in September,  with the                   it promises eternal life only to them that believe."
 exception of the document  .he and his  consi&ory sent                           That last sentence, surely, is quite different from
 to  Classis West and to Synod in order to seek the de-                        a promise to  all who hear on the condition of faith.
 feat of The Declaration of Principles, we never in-                           When the brother wrote these lines ten years ago, it
 tended to bring out of the past these writings of his,                        is  plain that he had not yet heard of the conditional
 even though we knew for the last three years or more                          theology imported from the Netherlands. He surely


                                            THE  STANDAkD  BEARER
                         ---

  would have written the dbove  paiagraph in quite dif-             called accepting  (,believing)  lies the decree of elec-
  ferent language. His paragraph above gives  nqt  %he              tion." But even apart from that observation,  `God does
  faintest notion that believing is the  :condition to  that        the accepting. In the light of that statement the
  eternal life or even to the conscious- enjoyment  6f the          brbther, surely could not mean by the last line of the
  promise of eternal life. WouMhe  today write that last            preceding quotation that the promise of eternal  1,ife
  sentence  thus,  " . . . it promises eternal life condition-      is  ,only to them that believe because  beli.eving  is the
  ally? It promises eternal life to all who hear on the             condition that  ,God requires of man.         For God does
  condition of faith"? Would he today end up this                   the accepting. Shall we be as careful as our fathers
  l:&ragraph  with the statement?  `<God promises every             were and though many of  us are saying that faith is
  one of you  (,those who hear the Gospel) that if you be-          the condition of salvation, shall we cast the word and
_ lieve you will be saved".                                         the concept far away and say that in the way of caus-
      But  theli note what he writes on the same page,              ing us to believe through regeneration and the preach-
  page 17, about -Art. 7.        "As  the  ,Gospel is  preachecl    ing of the Gospel,  <God brings us to the consciousness
  in the world there are those who  .bel,ieve and are saved.        that the promise of eternal life is ours ?
  Now, how did this come? To what is this to  ,be as-                 . We have other passages we like- to quote of the
  cribed? Notice how carefully our  ,Fathers answer                 brother to show, that  h6, not only ten years ago but
  this question. If peopie go lost it is because they re-           as short as two years ago knew nothing of  prere-
  jected  C.&rist: if they are saved,- is it because they ac-       \quisites unto even the conscious enjoyment of our
  cepted Christ? We would say, Yes. But notice that                 salvation, though now he and his consistory desire to
  they do not say that.  So afraid are they to ascribe              encourage that group of suspended and deposed office
  any honor or power to man, that even in this case they            bearers. which stands  behind the heretical statement
  refuse to use the word `accept'. Faith and salvation              that "our act of conversion is a prerequisite to enter
  is due to  .the grace given them of  ,Christ  and not due         the kingdom."
  to any merits of their own. The words, `accepting                    And the  br.other,  of course, may feel free to use our
  Jesus', although very popular today ought to lead  us             space in this rubric to show us that he has returned to
  to consider its dangerous implications.  Not WE but               the Protestant Reformed truth and that he main-
  God does the accepting.  (The italics  are%urs. J.A.H.)           tains all these things which he wrote ten years ago.
  Behind the so-called accepting (believing) lies the                  But, as little space remains, we like to quote just
  decree of election. And who cannot see that also be-              one short passage to show that some of our people have
  hind the rejecting (disbelieving) lies  the decree of             been trained to lately listen to something which is
  repr,obation.    In faith and unbelief both God real-             different from that which has always  ,been taught in
  izes His eternal decrees, and the  iGospel  is His Hand-          our circles and was taught by  the  Ibrother.
  maid to that end." That, brother, is beautiful lang-                 Undersigned would expect quite a: reaction, were
  uage, would to God you would return to it.                        he to preach on some of our pulpits and say what is
      While copying the above lines we  could not help              found on page 28, where the  brother, in the days  whe,n
  but  wond.er whether the Fathers. mentioned in this               he was not afraid to preach the  .Gospel wrote, "Third-
  article ever used the word  "a,ccept" in their writings.          ly . . . But behind and beneath this all.lies that almight-
  Those addicted to conditional theology, as you know,              y work of grace called Regeneration, whereby both the
  like to insist that the word "condition" is good re-              heart and the will are touched by divine grace, and
  formed language even though the  ,Confessions  ,do not            the person so touched actually believes, and with the
  use it. And they base their assumption on the fact                Philippiun jailer cries out, `What must I  .do to be
  that outside of the Confessions these fathers did use             saved?' And forthwith comes the answer,  `-I  have
  the word.  ,Could it be that they also do use the word            savecl you.' Let therefore the  `Gospel  be preached  frobm
  "accept". It would be interesting if anyone. can show             a thousand pulpits and in all countries, but, let the
  this from  the'ir writings.                                       preacher tell every soul that salvation is only of God."
      But the point we want to make is that the brother             (The underscoring is ours. J.A.H.)
  said ten years ago that  "Goal does  the  acceptitig". The           Can you visualize people coming  .up to one who
  italics are ours, not his. Wonder what some  ,of the              preached that which we have underscored above and
  disciples of  conditiona! theology would say, if that             telling him,  "Domine,  you make man a stock and a
  statement would be made from the pulpit in their                  block !? That is passive preaching and denies man's
  church by  ,one who cannot believe in conditions. What            responsi,bility."
  would,the reaction be, if we were to say that "God does              "Tell us what WE must  D&O  !"
  the &believing"?, for note how the brother uses the
  words  interchangea.bly when he says, "Behind the  so-                                                     - J .   A .   Heys


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                                                             _             .I                  ."            _



                                            THE  sTANDAkb
 46                                                                                                   BEARea
                                                                       - -

.~PI`II,I-IIIII-I,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,-~,-,,-~.~.               the King  <of England bears the title: The Chief  De-
1 contending For The Faith. 1 fender of the Faith. We understand of course, that
                                                                                  the--episco$te is historically first. The papacy is
i-
.~~~~-IYI,~`~~I,~,,~~,~~,~,,~,,~,-,,~,,~~,~~,~,,~,,~~,~~~~,~,,.~. simply the development of the episcopate when drawn
                                                                                  to its inevitable conclusion.
            j-lie Church _and the Sacraments                                              The offices, especially  th%t-  of. the bishop, were
        E A R L Y   6~s O F  T H E   CHURCH   (C&&d)"                             held in very high esteem. Submission to the bishops
                                                                                  was generally emphasized  .as the duty of the mem-
Bishops gnd`&hop of Rome.                                                         bers.  ,One need not question the high esteem in which
       When discussing the organization of the  Chirch                            t he office of the bishop was held from the following
of God during the first centuries of the New  Dispen-                             quotations in the letters supposed to have been written
sation- `(we discuss, of course, the organization of the                          b I
                                                                                  y            gnatius, one of the apostolic fathers  ,and bishop
`Church when we call attention  to the bishops and the                            of the church at Antioch in Asia Minor: "Wherefore
bishop of Rome) ,-we realize that the presbyterian form it is fitting that ye should run together in accordance
,of church  gov&ment is the  ,o,nly  conc.eption of church                        with  thk will of  your  bishop,   which   thing   also  ye  do.
government which is in  harmony  with the Scriptures.                             For your justly renowned presbytery, worthy of  `God,
And-  this is also the Reformed conception. According                             is  .fitted as exactly to the  bishop* as  the strings are to
to this conception of the  .organization  ,of the  Chu&h,                         the harp. Therefore, in your concord, and  harmon-
the elders, deacons, and ministers of the gospel are                              ious love, Jesus Christ is sung.  ,And do ye, man by
all of equal rank, and the  presbytery  or college of el-                         man, become a  ,choir, that being harmonious in love and
ders (the consistory) is under Christ the only and the                            taking  up  the  song  of  'God  in  unison,   ye  may  with  one
highest judicial power in the  IChurch of God. This                               voice sing to the Father through Jesus Christ, so that
means that each local congregation is autonymous.                                 He may  both- hear you and perceive by your works
A:ccording  to Rome, however,  ,the Church  of  ,God is that ye are indeed the members of His  Son. It is
constituted of several churches or congregations un-                              profitable, therefore, that you should -live in an un-
der the pope of Rome, Christ's vicar or representative                            blameable  unity, that thus ye may  always enjoy  com-
upon  earth, and  everybody is. subject to him. The pope munion  with;  (God. . . . Now the  .more any one sees
is supreme in the Romish  Ch.urch. He is the supreme                              the bishop keeping silence (showing forbearance), the
judicial  power and the culminating point in that more  &ght he to revere him.  F.or  we  ought  to  re-
church.      He is the supreme deacon, the supreme  el-                           ceive every one whom the Master of the house sends
der, the supreme minister of the Word  ,of God.                    All.           to be over His household, as we do Him that sent him.
the dignitaries of the Romish Church are subject to                               It is manifest, therefore, that we should look  upon  the
him. Rome niaintains that the pope is the successor                               ,bishop  even as we would upon the Lord Himself.. . .
of the apostle, Pete?, and that to him have been  trans-                          It is fitting, then, not only to be called Christians, but
ferred the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven which had                                to  ~.be so  ii  reality: as some indeed  give one the title
been bestowed upon  .that apostle.            The pope is the  oft bishop, but to do all things without him. Now
supreme head of  the Church of  G,od upon earth. This                             such  <persons  seem to me to be not possessed of a good
is papacy.                                                                        conscience, seeing-they  are not  stedfastly gathered  to-
       Incid,entally, `when discussing the organization  -of                      gether according to the  com,mandment  . . . .                       :Since
,of  the  ,Church, .we do well to distinguish  ,between the -therefore, I have; in the  persons   before  mentioned,   beI
episcopate and. the papacy or popery. Both have in                                held the  mtiltitude  of you in faith and love, I exhort
cominon that the office of the  .bishop  is of a higher                           you to study to do all things with a divine harmony,
rank than  ~that of elder or deacon. We have  already while your  :6ishop presides in the place of God, and
noted the historical development of the episcopate in                             your  presbyters   in  the  place  of  the  assembly   of  the
the early history of the  Church  since the days  df the                          apostles, along with your  d,eacons, who  Are most dear
apostles. However,' the two are  .aiso different in one                           to  #me, and are interested with the ministry of Jesus
very- important respect.          Popery refers to  the rule                      Christ, who was with the Father  *before the beginning
of one  +preme  sbishop  over the entire church. In the                           of time, and in the end was revealed. Do ye all then,
episcopate  th,e  lbishops  are  all of equal rank. In the                        imitating the -same divine conduct, pay respect to one
Romish church the pbpe is supreme and all the  digni-                             another, and let no one look upon his neighbour after
taries  ,of that church are subject unto him.- The  epis-                         the flesh, but do  ye continually love each other in  Je-
copate knows of no such head, except it be the chief                              sus Christ.                           Let nothing exist among `you that may
lay ruler in the land, as in England and in the Nether-                           diGide you  ; but be. ye united  with your bishop, and
lands in the present day. We are all aware, e.g., that                             those that preside over you, as a type and evidence of
                                                                                                                                  ~.


                                                     TH,E  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   ..                                                       47
                                         -     -
                                    d

      your immortality. . . . A$ therefore the Lord  di$-:n$h-              lo&  upori the bishop as upon God Himself; the bish-
      ing without the Father, being united to  Hini, neither                op presides in the place of God, and the presbyters
      by Himself. nor by the apostles;  so.  neith:r do  ,,ye'  &,y-        or elders-in the place of the assembly of the apostles.
      thing without the bishop and presbyters.."  ,Judging                  Besides, these quotations can easily be multiplied.
      from this quotation, one need not doubt  ihe  tkem'en-                The  Lmity of the  ,Church  ,of God was inseparably link-
      clously high esteem in which the office of the -bishop                ed up with the bishops. He who does anything  with-
      -was held during the early  New-  T.estament   Ghurch.                dtit  '  thi: knowledge  of the bishops `simply in reality
          Ctintinning  with `Ignatius- we would also quote the              sertres the devil.        The service of the Lord and the
      following from this eminent  -church father: "For,                    ofice- of the bishop were simply considered insepar-
      since ye `are, subject to the bishops as  to. Jesus Christ,           able. This office was  ,certainly held in high esteem.
      ye appear to  me to live not after the manner  of;men,                   There is, however, another thought in these quo-
      but according to Jesus Christ, who died for us,  m or-                tations of Ignatius which we consider very important
     der,  by believing in His death, ye may escape  frolm                  and to which we would call attention.  This Apostolic
     ,death. It is,  therefore, necessary that, as ye indeed do,            Father certainly did not develop the episcopate as ex-
     so` without the bishop ye should do nothing, but should tremely as `it was developed later, particularly in the
      also-  :b& subject to  the  prksbytery  -as to the apostle of         Romish `Church. We must remember that Ignatius,
      Jesus  .Christ! who  is.our hope, in whom, if we live, we             bishop at Antioch, and  virho is believed to have. died
      shall (at last) be found . . . .  Wheref,ore,  as children            in `the year, 115, lived  im,mediately after the age of the
      of light and truth, flee from division and wicked  doc-               the apostles. Later this emphasis upon the office of
     , trines  ; but  tihere the, shepherd is  .there  co ye-as sheep       bishop  r.eached far  ,greater heights. The thought in
      f,ollow. FOP there  ape- many wolves that appear wor-                 his writings to  which we now refer is his reference to
      thy of credit, who, by means of a pernicious  .pleasur@,              the office of the presbyter or elder. It certainly can-
      carry captive  $ho$e that  are running towards God  ;                 not escape our attention that the  ofice of elder is also
      but in unity they shall have. no place . . . . See that ye            held in high esteem. Mor,e than once he speaks of the
      all follow the bishop, even `as `Jesus  SChrist  does the             bishops and  el>ders  in the same connection. Striking
      Father, and the presbytery as ye would the apostles;                  is surely this statement: "It is,  therefore, necessary
      and reverence  `t&e  ydeacons, as being the  fnstitution of           that, as ye  inde.ed do, so without the bishop ye should
      God. Let no man  do. anything connected with the                      do nothing, but should also subject to the  pr'esbytery,
      Church -without-the bishop . . .  ._ Moreover, it is  in ac-          as  to, the apostles of Jesus Christ, who is our hope,
      cordance with  reahon that  we should return to sober-                in whom, if we live,.we shall at last be found." Ther,e
      ness (of conduct), and, while yet we have  opport-uni-                is nothing in the writings of Ignatius which suggests
      ty,  exercise repentance towards  -God It is well to rev- the supremacy of one bishop over another (this, we
      erence both  iGod and  -the  ~bishop.         He who honors the       understand, is characteristic of the papacy), and the
,     bishop has  beep honored by  ;God ; he who does any-                  mem(bers of the church are exhorted to hold the el-
      thing  withoiit the  .knowledge  of the bishop, does  (iti            ders  in &teem as well as the  ,bishops.               The fact, how-
      reality) serve-the devil. . . .         Give  ye heed to the bish-    ever,. remains that one cannot doubt the fact that the
      op, ,that God also'may give heed to you . . . My                      office of bishop is held in  tr.emendously  .high esteem
                                                                soul be
      fo? their's that. are submissive  to the  ~bishop,  to  the           dur.ing the early centuries  of  the.Church of  (God in the
      presbyters, and to the.  d@acons, and may my portion New Dispensation. And-this; we can readily  sm+mise,
     b`e along with them in  (God ! Labour together with  one had its invariable and  bitter `results.
      another, strive  in.  ,company  together  ; run together,                                                                    -H. Veldman
      suffer  tdgether  ;  sleep together, and awake together,
      as the `stewards, and  associattis;  and servants of God.`?                                   -  I--  : - . - -

         From  these- quotations of  the church father,  Ig-
     natius, we  :rnay- safely  con,clude the following. We                                           IN MESMORIAM
     have  ,quoted  .&is eminent church leader  ,of the era im-               The Consistory of the  ProtestaYnt  Reformed Church of  Ed-
     mediately  f6llowing  upon the apostles and have,  quoted              gerton, Minnesota, wishes to express sympathy to their fellow
     him at length in order that our readers may have                       consistory member, J. Van Niewenhuizen, in the loss  of. his
     indisputable  evidence  ,of the high  &teem in which he                daughter.  Mtiy  the Lord sustain him and grant him  His.-.&a&e
     held  .the,office of bishop..  Thb can  sti?ely   not be doubt-        ~xrhich  is always sufficient.                                   .,i
     ed. In  these letters which he is  suppo,sed-tQ have writ-                                      `The  Consistory of the Protestant Re-
     ten,  the,  aqt&  emphasizes that the members owe                                                  formed Church of Edgerton,
     kubmission  to  the bishops as  unto. God. This vein of
                      _/                                                                                      J.  Dotter,  vice president
     thought runs throughout  al,l%hese Quotations, We  lmus:                                                 J. Verhey, clerk.


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                                                                                                                                        . ., 1~
 48       *                               '          ~.~HE-`.ST-AND.A:RD              BEARER
                            .--.-- _..._... -_
                                              :.                  p --~                                  -             -           -         -
                                        -_                                They are the hypocrites who know that they are not
        C  O-.N  T   R   I~.B  lb  T.i.6  N   ,!S  .~                     truly shepherds of the flock., For the passage  you
                                                                          quote from Titus  3:9 continues as  follo&: "A man
                                                                          that is an heretic after the first and second admoni-
Dear Editor of the Concordia:                                             tion reject, knowing that `is such is -subverted, and
  Just this morning I received  the~.September  10  is-                   sinneth, being  condeimned of  hi'mself".          -
sue of  ,your  papes:  `It  occured  -to me that I may con-                 In the  ,light of this quotation, Mr. Editor, the  mat-
elude from-the  Ieditorials of the past two issues of                     ter is very serious `to  whi'ch Paul refers, when  -he
Concordia.  thatthe editorialpolicy has been  ,ehanged.                   speaks of "foolish questions".
Once, your. paper closed its columns to the  `%ontro-
versy', in our churches on the question of  "Condi-                           The questions placed by the  "A:ction Committee"
tions".. Bnt now  .the matter is  bnce more discussed in should have been squarely faced by you, and answered".
your  columns.~ At least matters  which- have their roots                 If you  -could not answer them because of lack of  evi-
deeply., bedded  irr the questions of conditions,  pre-                   dence, then refrain from judgment. If the questions
requisites,' et&  .. -And that `is no doubt  due. to the  fact            were such that the  imp1ied.answer.s  were wrong, point
that as  .long` as we are- in this  worlds we are forced to               it out and show this by motivated. grounds. That is
face,  beillg  call&  hereto  of  Ggj,  the  realities-   of.  ihe  tile  `~Stylc?"   ill God's  ohuroh.   ?iSkSSiOfl~   in  God's
life. of' God's people' in this world.                                    church  .must remain on the lofty plain of truth and
                                                                          righteousness. Thunder if need be,  but in the Name
   ~!I% your  e'ditorial-reference is made to the Commit-  j of the Lord. If 
tee of pre-advide of  Classis   -East' the-Majority report.                                    you  could not-gainsay the implied  an-
                                                                          swers of. the questions with the facts then walk in
It is statedthat  "o?al?_l   ow of these ministers changed                the requisites of true faith that bows before God and
his' mind about his -own work and exegesis." This                         say: I put  -my hand on my mouth. For God is the
"only one" whom you have in mind  m said editorial                        Lord,  a&l He  j'udges~ righteously. Naive, do I hear
is  the  undersigned. I do, not bare to reflect  .on this                 someone say. Humble trust, I answer!
just now. -That I shall do possibly in the form of a
brochure. I have in mind at  .this time to merely point                      Mr. Editor, I submit that by not facing the truth
out- to  you  `lvhat I consider very essential to good lead-~ Of  the'  `Stateiments" referred to in  .yo171'  Editorial,
ership in  `God's   churoh: Certainly one who is  desir-                  ,and also. as reported in the report of  Classis  West,
ous of  giving..the best in leadership in God's church,                   the  - "moral issues', are simply created and multiplied
cannot object to good advice.                                             and. perpetuated. till there is- no end in sight.  That
                                                                  `.*-    is folly crowned!
    I  ~ have in  .mind- Mr. Editor  ,the advice of -Paul,
which you appended. to your editorial. That  word of                       : I write you this, Mr. Editor, as one who has vowed
Pad  has often. come to my mind-of  1,ate. And I thought                  to-seek the good of  Gocl's  sheep here in  Creston. -Your
it rather. note-worthy that it-came to your mind-after-                   editorials are read. I welcome your editorials  provid-
you had  written your editorial.                                          ed they give sound leadership,.`show vision and  per-
   It seems to me that  you  yourself did not take this                   spective  6orthy of any man assuming the  responsi-
vord of Paul  suff%ziently  to heart. You quote it Mr.                    biiity of- being an editor. But then `we must be  care-
Editor, but you did not exegete it. And you simply                        ful in  our  analysis of a given situation and the  ap-
imply that it is applicable to the whole situation  you                   piioation of the  Word of God!
are discussing. That passage did not have- in mind                                                                    G .   L u b b e r s
then fact that matters of sound words and pure doe-
trine are "foolish  questions",.nor that the truth and
facts of  e&lesiastical  gatherings are simply foolish
questions, and  are-to no  profit.  It is true, that some
of' .our striving  atbout doctrine  m,ay be such that it                                         -I:---
cannot be placed on the altar of God. But doctrinal.
matters-are not foolish questions, but they. belong to
the very foundations as they are anchored in the Chief                                                           4
Corner-Stone, Christ Jesus. All questions that do not.
pertain to this are indeed foolish.. They are  thk~ hay                          The Lord be praised, -for ever near
and the stubble that  .shall  ,be. burned in that day when                         -~The helpless poor He stands,
the'work of preachers is tried! Then when the work                               Protecting them with wondrous power
of preachers  is- tried-the "heretics" will not be saved,.                         From their oppressors' hands.


