        VOLUMB   x x x                          JUNE  1,  1954-  GRAND  FCAPIDS,   MICHIGAN                             Nuiv~k~  1 7


  II                                                                    hands . .  ~ . . but into heaven itself, there to appear in the
              MEDIITATION                                               presence of God for us !
                                                                           Realities belong with realities; fulfillments with fulfill-
                                                                        ments !
                          Into Heaven Itself!         .                     God hath spoken in these last days to us by  l&s Son,
                  "Fomr  Christ is not eutered into the holy places     His ascended Son!
               made with hands, which are the figures of the true:                                  +  *  *  *
               but into heaven itself, now to appear-in the presence
               of God for us." Heb.  924                                   Literally the text does not speak of  the' "holy places,"
        I& these last days God hath spoken to us ~by His Son !.         but of "the holies." And by "the  holies" is not meant the
        Thus it is also with the ascension of our Lord Jesus            outer court, to which all Israel was admitted, nor the first
  Christ. For He is the reality. In Him the promise is ful-             sanctuary, the holy place, into which only the pri2sts might
  filled. He, Who was appointed heir of all things, has come ;          come; but the most holy place, the second tabernacle, into
  and has, having purged our sins, sat down on the right                which only  tile high priest might come once a year., and
  hand of the Majesty on High. And He appears there, in                 that not without blood.
  heaven itself, before the face of God, in our behalf!                     From that most holy place the whole tabernacle derived
        To be sure, in time past God spake at sundry times and          its meaning. For there,. in the holiest of all, stood the ark
in divers  mantiers  unto the fathers by the prophets. They             of the covenant -of Jehovah, with its mercy seat; there was
  had the promise, also the promise of the ascension and its            the Shekinah, the wonderful symbol of God's Presence;
  blessings. But they lived in the age of shadows. And to them          there God dwelled .between  the cheri;bim. Into that holy of
  God spake in the sphere of the shadows.                               holies went the high priest once every year to sprinkle the
        And so, for the fathers in time past, there was a high          blood of atonement upon the mercy seat before the face of  '
  priest who was a shadow high priest. There was a sanctuary            God !
  which was a shadow sanctuary. And there was an entrance                  But that most holy place was made with hands, and it
  into that sanctuary which was a shadow entrance. And for              was a figure of :the true !
  that shadowy entrance by a shadowy high priest into a                    It was, therefore, not the true sanctuary, although it
  shadowy sanctuary a typical sacrifice and blood of atonement          pointed to that true sanctuary.
  were quite sufficient. Surely, even though it was typical,               And that it was made with hands, and but a figure of the
  that sanctuary had to be purified : fdr there is nothing pure         true, implies that the'most holy place of the old tab$macle
  among men in this sinful world. But a typical blood for a             was purely local ,limited,  material; temporal,' perishable. It
  typical sanctuary .would suffice. The blood of calves and of          was not the spiritual tabernacle of .God with men, though
  goats purifies the figures of holy things.                            it witnessed of spiritual realities. It was not universal in
        Figures with figures  ; types with types  ; shadows with        character, though it looked ahead to  tlie time when God's
  shadows.                                                              tabernacle would embrace all things. It was not yet the
        But as soon as you begin' to speak' of realities, of the        tabernacle of God with men, with all His people, even though
  real sanctuary, of heaven itself, and of the face of God in           the high priest entered with  the blood of atonement for them.
 that real sanctuary, then you must have better sacrifices.             They  could never follow that high priest into the sanctuary
  Since Christ, the real High Priest, entered. not into the             of God. It was not the eternal and abiding tabernacle of
  sanctuary of the shadows, but was destined to enter  into1            God, even though it was a figure of that eternal covenant of
 heaven itself, therefo're nothing less than the better sacrifice       God with His,people.  It was not the imperishable tabernacle
  of His.own  blood might He bring.                                     of God: for it could and did perish. But it pointed to the
   ., Fos  Christ is entered not into the sanctuary made with           imperishable tabernacle of God with men. In fact, in its


386                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   ` B E A R E R                                                    _

very figurative, material, local, temporal, perishable nature        into the most intimate communion of His own covenant life
it gave testimony that there was another sanctuary-the               as the God of our salvation. It is our Father's house.
real, spiritual, everlasting, abiding, permanent tabernacle of           Into that heaven, the true and real holiest of all, where
God with men. Plainly it testified that the  way into the            the beauty of the Lord is beheld in all its glory, and where.-
real sanctuary was not yet made manifest. Even the high!             are enjoyed the pleasures at His right hand for ever and
priest could not remain there. Only for a moment could he            ever, Christ entered. He, the Son of God in the human
stay there, - long enough to serve the shadows, -and then            nature, Who hid- come into the flesh, Who had descended
he must retreat. And every year he must enter anew to                into  the  nethermost  parts of the earth, the Son of Man,
repeat  the atonement for himself and all the people, the            entered there in the glorified human nature, - oztr glorified
people who themselves could never appear in that sanctuary,          human nature.
no matter .how much atonement was made.                                  He did that on the fortieth day after His  resurrectio;,
       It was indeed a sanctuary made with hands, and only a         in the sight of His disciples, gathered on Mt. Olivet. He
figure of the true!                                                  departed from one place, the place of corruption and death,
       Into it Christ did not enter!                                 the earth, into another place, the place of glory and incorrupt-
       In fact, Christ never entered, and never could have           ibility, the place of perfect communion with the Father,
entered into that most holy place. He was not of the tribe           heaven.
of Levi, still less of the house of Aaron. He had no right               And He  is entered,  that is, He entered once,  neGer  to
to minister in the Holy of holies  that was made with hands.         be compelled to retreat from that sanctuary again !
He could only stand in the court-yard with the rest of the
people, - even though it was true that also that sanctuary                                     *  *  *  *
was His Father's house.                                                  The way, -a  ,wiy that was symbolized- already in the
       Besides, He was not destined to enter into such a sanctu-     day of shadows on the great day of atonement,-was the
ary. Adam had been created to enter' into an earthly sanctu-         way of blood.
ary in the first paradise. But Adam had profaned the                     He travelled all the way, and sprinkled the way into the
sanctuary. And God had instituted another sanctuary, one .sanctuary  with blood, the blood of atonement!
that was to be entered by way of blood. But Christ,                      And it was the real, the perfect ,the only blood of atone-
God's Son in the flesh, was destined to enter into the per-          ment ! Otherwise He could never enter. He entered, not by
fected, heavenly, real sanctuary, in which God's tabernacle          way of the blood of calves and goats, but with the better,
would be perfectly with `men forever. And He was destined            perfect sacrifice of His own precious blood. Realities be-
to enter by way of His own blood!                                    long with realities ! To enter the real sanctuary the real
    And of what avail would it have been if Christ had merely        blood of atonement was absolutely necessary. And He shed
entered into the sanctuary made  with, hands ?                       it ! And so He could and did enter !
    If such were the m&ning  of His ascension, then we must             You ask : why ?
still look for another. Then it is not true that there is an             Because, in the first place, He is our High Priest. Or-
inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not         dain&d by God to be our representative, to act in our  .behalf,
away, reserved in heaven for us. Then He has only prepared;          to prepare the way for us, to lead us into that blessed fellow-
the way into an earthly, perishable, temporal sanctuary.             ship of God's covenant that is the essence of heaven, i--Ie was,
   But Christ is entered into Heaven itself !                        from all eternity.
   And. the essence of heaven is the presence of the living              To Him, -and this belongs to the answer of that
God !                                                                "why." - was &ven a people; by sovereign election. It was
   Yes, heaven is a place, a part of God's creation. It is not       the eternal good pleasure of our God to glorify Himself as
to be Spiritualized so that there  ,is  &thing  left of it. It is    the Triune Covenant Jehovah by leading many sons to glory
the place where the angels dwell, and where are the saints           through the deep way of sin and grace.
that have gone before. And it is a glorious place, a beautiful          That way of sin and grace was the way of O~W sin, and
place. But in our text the emphasis is not on the` outward           God's grace !
glory of heaven, but rather upon the spiritual idea and es-             That ineans  that as far as we were concerned, the way into
sence of it. It is the original of that which the earthly taber-     the house of  fhe righteous and just and holy God was closed,
nacle prefigured. It is the dwelling place of God. In heaven         absolutely closed. For fellowship with Him, the Holy One,
is God's face, His presence. Heaven is the perfect,  all-            cati be only `in  the sphere of holiness and consecration, never
embracing, spiritual, everlasting, and imperishable realization      in the sphere of sin and corruption. And we had wantonly
df $1 that was symbolized in that earthly sanctuary. Heaven          departed from His house, despising its beauty and fellow-
means that God dwells with Us  ; that He is near us, and             ship. Nor could we ever return. Nor would we ever return.
that we are not consumed ; that He is near us in His friend-         Guilty we became, and forfeited all rigits to God's blessed
ship ; that He causes us to know Him as we are known, to- favor and fellowship. Corrupt we became, and lost all
see Him face to face, to enter into His secret fellowship,           ability and fitness to dwell in God's house. Heaven, the


                                          T H E   S T A N   L)ARD  B E A R E R                                                                                               337

house of God, is closed to  us:  And we neither could nor
would ever effect an entrance even for a moment into the                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
most holy place.                                                                 Semi-monthly,  excep  monthly  during  Jnly  and  A&st
   But Christ  cam:, not for Himself, but for us. And He,                      Published- by  the  REFORMED  FREE  PUBLISHING  ASSOCIATION
entering into our guilty state, as the Guiltless One, Who                    P.  0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids.7,  Mich.
knew no sin, carried our sin and condemnation to and upon                                       Editor  -  REV.  HERMAN  HCVEKSEMA
the accursed tree. And thus He entered, -as our Repre-                       Communications relative to contents should be addressed to Rev.
sentative ,  - into heaven itself, along the blood-sprinkled                 H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich..
way, the way of perfect obedience!                      -_                   All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
                                                                             G. Pipe, 1463 Ardmore  St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7, Michigan.
   Into the presence of the living `God He entered !                         Announcements and Obituaries must be mailed to the above
                           * `:k  *  *                                       address and will be published' at a fee of $1.00 for each notice.
   For. US He did that.                                                      RENEWALS  : Unless a  d&n&e request for discontinuance is re-
   And before God's face He now appears for us!                              ceived, it is assumed fihst the subscriber wishes  the subscription
                                                                             to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
   That means that He not only died in our stead, but He                                           Subscription price : $4.00 per year
also goes to heaven, where  we could not go, in our behalf.
Interpret that "us" in that light' too : do you behold Him by                  E?ltercd   as  Secmd  Class matter  at Grand  R@ids,   Michiga?t
faith. as the One who went for you, instead of you, ahead
df you, with His own blood, where you could not possibly
go, not even with your own blood ?                                                                          C O N T E N T S
   That means that He is there &en now in our behalf.
As our Advocate He is there pleading our cause, and ob-                 MEDITATION  -
taining for us the right  to follow Him into the -sanctuary !                    "Into' Heaven Itself". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -385
As our Intercessor He  `is there, obtaining for us  911 the                            .Rev.  H. C. Hoeksema
blessings of God's house, and praying, "Father, I will, that. EDITORIALS  -
those whom- thou hast given  me, may be with me where I                          As to, the Court Case.. . . . . . . . ..:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .388
a m . "                                                                                Rev. H. Hoeksema
   Interpret that "us" also in that light: is His intercession          As To  BOOKS-
already answered  by the Father in  ybu  ? For the Father                        Ellicottis  Commentary on the Whole Bible by
                                                                                 Chas.  Joh~t El&o tt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . :. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .391
surely answers Him! Then you follow Him now already                                    Rev. H. Hoeksema
into that sanctuary: Then you .walk along the way sprinkled             O
with His own blood. Then you repent and cry out for for-                 UR DOCIRINE -
                                                                                 The Triple Knowledge (Pant III  - Of Thankfulness). . . .  .392
giveness and righteousness. Then you cleave to God in                                 Rev. H. Hoeksema
Christ, and enter now already in beginning into that fellow-            THE  DAY  OF  SHADOWS-
ship of God's covenant.                                                          The Prophecy of Isaiah..................................395
   And you may, in spite of all evidence to the contrary,                              Rev. G. M. Ophoff
confidently utter the challenge: Who shall lay anything  to,            IN HIS  FEAR-
the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.  Who                       Walking in  Error (7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .398
is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather,                            Rev. J. A. Heys
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God,                                                                                                                            *
                                                                        CONTENDING  FOR THE  FAITH  -
who also maketh intercession for as.                                             The Church  and i&e Sacraments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .,. . . . . . . . .400
   And: Who shall ever separate us from the love of that                               Rev. H. Veldman
Christ?                                                                 THE  VCPICE   OF  OUR  FATHERS-
   Nay: He shall surely dra; us all unto Himself, that we                        The Canons elf Dordrecht (Art. 9). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .402
may be with Him, in tha presence of the Lord. our God for-                             Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
ever and ever!                                                          DECENCY AND  O:RDER-
                                                              H.C.H.             Emeritation  od Ministers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .404
                                                                                       Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg  '

                                                                        A L L   AROUND   U s -
                                                                               ' The Covenant od Grace.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .405
                                                                                       Rev. M.  Schipper

                     .NOTICE  ,                                         CONTRIBUT?ONS   -
                                                                             W a t   I s  Waarheid?......................................407
   Following our usual custom, we will publish only one                          Report od Eastern Ladies League.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .408
issue of the Standard Bearer per month during the months
of June, July and August.

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

                                                                              Michigan, a corporation, which was declared by  Classis  East!
                    EDI'TORIALS                                              of the Protestant Reformed Churches to be the only legal
                                                                              Consistory of said church at its-meeting of October 7, 1953,
                                                                              notifies you as follows :
                          As to the, Court Case                                   1.  You  shall no longer use the name `First  Protestant-
             At the time of this writing the court case is approaching.       Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan.'
             The case was to come up in court on the eighteenth  of!              2. You shall deliver forthwith to Mr. G. H. Stadt, clerk
. May. But this morning our attorney called me and informed                   of the Consistory of First Protestant Reformed Church of
      me that it was delayed for a day or two because there .was              Grand Rapids, Michigan, all documents, record books, and
      a murder case to come up in the same court that had the                 property belonging to the corporation .and now in your pos-
      precedence. Hence, it will not appear in court till the nine-           session or under your control.
      teenth or the twentieth of this month, and if the murder,                   3. That you will forthwith remove yourselves and your
      case should demand more time, even later.                               property from the church building and turn over to Mr. G.
 _           As editor of the Siandaf*d  Bearer as well as for general        H. Stadt, clerk, the keys thereto.
      reasons, I am sorry for this. I `was in hopes that, in the
 present issue of our magazine, I would be in a position  tar                     4. That you will forthwith refrain from conducting meet-
      inform our readers, at least to some extent, about the pro-             ings, services, or assemblies in or on the premises of the First
      gress of the case. And this now seems to be well-nigh im--              Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
      possible. Besides, we are all anxious to have the case settled              5. That you will forthwith notify the Old Kent Bank
      whatever may be the outcome.                                            that you have no: claim to any funds on deposit in said bank
             No one of us, of course, considers this the most important       in the name of First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand
      aspect of the present upheaval in our churches. It is not               Rapids, Michigan.
      the question of material possessions but of the truth with                  Mr. G. H. Stadt, clerk, will expect notification from you
      which the church is concerned. And that question is settled not later than October 16, 1953, as to the time and  place.of
      already. Nevertheless, the. matter .of brick, and more especi-          receiving  the.property,  keys, and other things which  are to
      ally of the name Protestant Reformed, is by no means with-              be turned over to him in accordance with this notice.
      out significance, not only for our local congregation but for               Done at Grand Rapids, Michigan, this ninth day of Oc-
      all our churches and for all that love the Protestant Reformed
      truth.                                                                  tober, 1953, by resolution of the Consistory of First Prot-
                                                                              estant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan, a cor-
             And sad to say;this can be decided only by the worldly           poration, in accordance with the law and order and findings
      court.,                                                                 of  Classis  East of the Protestant Reformed Churches of
             The chief reason. is that  .the'opposition  still claims the     October 7, 1953."
      right to the name Protestant Reformed.                                                (ws. by presidents and clerk of the Consistory)
             In the meantime, let us not forget that we have no reason            If you should wonder why we address them as  "sirs"mand
      to be anxious about the outcome. For the Lord reigns even not as "brethren" we can refer you to the filthy and slander-
      over. the worldly court, over the hearts of attorneys and               ous Cross Bill. This made it impossible for us to call them
      judges. Even, therefore, if, in spite of the fact that we have          brethren, as long as they did not repent.
      a just cause, the case is decided against us, we know that. Soon after this, the consistory received the following
      it is of the Lord, that He is for us as we walk in the way              communication, addresed to the clerk only:
      of His truth, and that  also' decision of the court, whatever           "Dear brother :
      iti may be, is for our good and for the good of His Church.                 "The undersigned have taken note of your communica-
          That is all that matters.                                           tion, addressed to us as individuals, and beg to reply as
             But the purpose of this editorial is to tell you about an        follows :
      incident that occurred during the past week, the week before                "1. That we, as addressed by you, are but two indivi-
      the date set for the court trial.                                       duals, who, as mere individuals, are without any power or
          In `order properly to understand. this incident we must,            authority to act in such matters as referred to in said com-
 first of all, refer `to some correspondence that had been con-              munication.
 ducted some time ago between our consistory and those. that                     "2. That, whereas  `we, as mere individuals, have  noi
 were no longer Protestant Reformed but were in illegal                      power to act in such matters as referred to by you in said
possession of the church property.                                           communication, it is impossible for us to perform the de-
         On Oct. 9 the consistory sent to them the following com-            mands which you impose upon- our persons.
1 munication :                                                                   "We trust that you will forthwith notify the other signers
"Sirs :                                                                      of said communication of this our, the persons Hubert De
         The undersigned, presidents and clerk of the Consistory             Wolf and Sidney De Young, reply."
 ~bf the First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids,                                          (w.s.) H. De Wolf and S. De Young.


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R .                                           389

       However, on Jan. 23, 1954 the cons&tory received from                                                        "March 1, 1954
them another communication as follows :                              "Sir :
"To our former fellow consistory members of the First Prot-              "Received your communication.
estant Reformed Church.                                                  "Please inform the group you represent as follows :
"Brethren :                                                              "1. We, indeed, consider. an equitable settlement of the
                                                                     property out of court desirable from a Christian viewpoint.
       "You have ,grieved  and surprised us with respect to your.        "2. We remind you of the fact that this was our purpose
action of presenting your grievances before the courts in- `from the very beginning but you made this impossible by
stead of, Scripturally, seeking to make a possible and mutu-         claiming the name, records, archives and other church pro-
ally- equitable settlement with us, your brethren.                   perty, and even locking the doors on us.
       "The policy which you now pursue has always been con-             "3. We consider a settlement out of court absolutely im-
demned by your Rev. Hoeksema, both in spoken and written             possible as long as you claim to be the First Protestant
word. In reference to this matter he recently quoted I Cor.          Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
6 :l, 7b : `Dare any of you, having a matter against another,            "We deny that you constitute the majority of the mem-
go to law before the unjust, and. not before the saints ? Why        bers of the First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand
do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather                  Rapids, Michigan, as you so confidently claim.
suffer yourselves to be defrauded  ?                                     "Your letter indicates that you would prefer a peace-
       "Possibly you now object that we are no longer your           able and equitable settlement of the property out of court.
brethren in the Lord, and therefore, these Scriptural pas-           The Consistory of the First Protestant Reformed Church of
sages do not apply in this case. This is the subterfuge, we          Grand Rapids, Michigan, is at all times ready to consider
understand, Rev. Hoeksema has now used to neutralize and             whatever overtures you may have to offer, but in the lighti
make of none effect his former statements.                           of the allegations of your cross bill of complaint ,which  you
       "Brethren! you know that before the Lord this will not        filed against the. individual members of the Consistory, and
hold.                                                                in view of the fact that you have been found by proper
       "We further understand, that you wrote to our Rev. De         ecclesiastical authorities not to represent the Protestant Re-
Wolf and Mr. De Young, personally, demanding the keys                formed truth, and as long as you have not repented and have
and claiming for yourselves the legal right to the name,             indicated no intention of conforming to church polity, we
archives and church property. You certainly cannot, by any           can see no basis for discussion of settlement unless you are
stretch of the imagination, construe these demands, made to,         willing to relinquish the use of the name."
these men personally, to be an overture intended to promote                    (Signed by Consistory of First Prot. Ref. Church of
a  peacable  and equitable settlement between your group and                   Grand Rapids, Michigan. by the presidents and clerk)
us.                                                                      To this communication no further reply was received.
       "The truth is, that without any attempt to put into prac-         Then, on Tuesday morning, May 11, the Rev. Hanko
tice the Scriptural injunctions which you yourselves put forth,      told me that Mr. Tubbs, our attorney, had called him
you placed the matter before the courts and forced us, against       up and informed him of the following transaction, all orally,
our will, to answer your charges before the `unjust'; whereas        between him and Mr. Linsey, the opposing attorney:
by pursuing a Christian and brotherly approach we possibly               They had met each other in probate court. Mr. Linsey
could have decided these matters peaceably.                          tasked our attorney whether he intended to go through with
       "We admonish you that the action you are pursuing is          the court case on tiay 18. Our attorney replied that he did
evil and irreconcilable with. God's Word.                            unless a settlement could be reached out of court. Mr. Lin-
       "We also feel that we must again point out to you the         sey asked Mr. `Tubbs on what conditions he considered such
injustice of the position you hold. ,You are very well aware         a settlement could be obtained. Our attorney replied` that
of the fact that we mutually agreed in our articles of agree-        he .could not speak officially for his clients, but that he was
ment that if any question or differences arose among us, that        sure we want the name Protestant Reformed and probably
in that case, the properties should belong to the majority.          would demand one hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Linsey
We are very clearly and decisively that majority.. In all            promised that he would confer with his clients. He had al-
honesty you must admit, that in view of this fact, you are           ways urged them to settle our differences in a Christian
dealing dishonestly and unfairly. Dare you say otherwise ?           way out of court. Later he returned to Mr. Tubbs and in-
       `<These  are not matters merely touching on a few material    formed him of the fact that he had had a four hour con-
possessions. These are matters of a clear conscience before          ference with the Revs. De Wolf, Blankespoor, Cammenga,
God. You know we are speaking the truth.                             and Kok, and had  ,again strongly urged them to accept a
                               (w.s.) Sidney De Young, clerk."       settlement out of court. They had finally decided that they
                                                                     would be willing to listen  to- the following proposals coming
       To this the following reply was sent to Mr: Sidney De         from us: 1. That they relinquish all rights and claims to
Young who claimed to be the clerk of the illegal consistory :        the name First Protestant Reformed Church  ; 2. That they


 390                                            T H E   S T A ' N D A R D   B E A R E R

 would re-organize under a different name  ; 3. That, they               by the legal consistory of which the  Rev.s C. Hanko and
 settle on the basis of a pro rata division of the property ; 4.         H. Hoeksema are presidents, the following recommenda-
 that all this would pertain only to the local case.                     tions :
        Our attorney suggested that both parties hold consistory             "The Consistory shall dispose of the real estate holdings
 meetings that same Tuesday evening, that our consisfory                 of the FIRST. PROTESTANT REFORMED CHURCH
 then come with proposals to them, and that others would                 to the highest acceptable outside bidder and pay to those
 wait until they should hear from us.                                    who wish to reorganize under a different name half of the
        This, then, was the proposition, which was all delivered         proceeds of their sale of the above mentioned property.?'
 to us orally and of which it is deplorable that nothing was                 Provided, that before Friday, May 14, 7 P. M.
 in writing.                                                                (1) You acknowledge that the legal consistory of the
        The Rev. Hanko and I  considered'this  proposition and           FIRST PROTESTANT REFORMED CHURCH of
 thought it advisable : 1. That we should not ask for a con-             Grand Rapids, Michigan, are the brethren represented by
 sistory meeting that same evening because the matter was                the Revs. C. Hanko and H. Hoeksema as presidents, and
 too important to decide without thorough consideration.                 John M. Faber as clerk, and which are recognized as such
 2. That we should immediately acquaint all the members of               by  Classis East of the Protestant Reformed Churches in its
 the consistory together with the consistory members of last             October session, 1953.
 year with the matter and ask for a meeting on the following                 (2) You immediately vacate the church building located
 evening. 3. That we should ask for a meeting that same                  on the corner of Fuller Ave. and*Franllin  St. of which you
 Tuesday afternoon of as many representatives of the church-             held illegal possession since June, 1953, and deliver the keys
 es in the vicinity as could be reached on such a short notice,          to the clerk of the consistory, Mr. John M. Faber.
, because they were all more or less involved in the matter.
        We let our attorney know that our meeting was to be                  (3) That you retract and apologize for your filthy and
held on Wednesday evening and requested him to be present.               slanderous Cross Bill in which you besmear the good `name
 He would aquaint  the other attorney with this decision.                of the Rev. H. Hoeksema.
        The proposed gathering for the afternoon was held and                From the above it is evident:
present were representatives of First Church, Fourth. Church,                1. That for us it is a matter of principle and not of the
 Creston Church, Second Church, Hope Church,  Hudson-                    brick.
 ville Church, and Holland Church. The matter was thorough-                  2. That we are willing to put you in -a position to build
 ly discussed from `every angle, but, of course, no decision             a new church and parsonage."
 was made.                                                                   The consistory further decided to acquaint the opposition
        On the following evening the consistory met in the pres-         with this decision and to inform them that we would meet
 ence of `Mr. Tubbs and adopted the following:                           Friday evening to consider their reply.
            "Re THE PROPOSED SETTLEMENT                                      At the time of this writing, i.e. after the consistory met
                       .OUT OF COURT                                     on Friday evening, no reply was received.
    The MESSRS. HUBERT DE WOLF, FREDERICK                                   This is all that happened officially, as far as I know.
 SYTSMA, HENRY KNOTT, WILLIAM STUURSMA,                                      But unofficially I must add something to this story.
LAMBERT  MULDER, ANDREW  DYKSTRA, HENRY                                     And what I now write took place in the presence of two
BASTIANSE, SIDNEY DE YOUNG, ADOLF  VER-                                  witnesses who happened- to be present.
MEER, GERRIT SIKKEMA, JOHN BOUWMAN, AN-                                      On Thursday.afternoon  two members of the illegal con-
DREW VOSS.  -                                                            sistory, Mr. J.  -Kok and F. Doezema, called on me in my
    It has been brought to our attention through our attorney,           parsonage. I do not know whether they were a delegation
Robert S. Tubbs, that you seek a settlement of our differ-               or a committee or in what capacity they came. But they
ences out of court and the following was proposed:                       came to find out the truth about the matter which I above
    1. You will relinquish all rights and claims to the name             reported and about which they had heard in a round about
F I R S T   P R O T E S T A N T   R E F O R M E D   C H U R C H   o f    way. They, so they said,  hnew nothing about it. Mr.  Kok
Grand Rapids, Michigan.                                                  offered to shake hands with me, which I refused on the
    2. You will reorganize under a different name.                       ground that I could. not possibly shake hands, with one
    3. You will divide the property of the First Protestant that was responsible for the filthy cross bill. But I informed
Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan, pro rata ac-                  them about the .whole matter and gave them a copy of what
cording to the number of families on each side.                          the consistory had decided on Wednesday evening.
    4. The above shall pertain to the local church only.                    An hour or so later they returned and said that they
    In reply we offer the following :                                    now knew the facts and that they were not as I had presented
    1. We are willing to present to a congregational meeting             them to them, for they had a letter from Mr. Linsey or
of the legal members of the FIRST PROTESTANT RE-                         rather a copy of a letter which he, had written to Mr. Tubbs
FORMED CHURCH of Grand Rapids, Michigan;  ,called                        and .which  gave quite a different version of the matter.


                                               T . H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARE-R                                                         391

      8f that letter. I have a copy. He does, indeed, give a              The first volume contains expositions on the books of
   different version of the matter and states that we had  `CU-        Genesis to Numbers. We perused this volume and, on the
   sulQl.ed  certain things (which we  .certainly did not). In it      whole, recommend it to our readers. It is a conservative
   he also states that he will recommend to his clients not to         exposition, very clearly written and faithful to the text of
   accept our proposition, which was to be expected, of course.        Holy Writ. He does not hesitate to defend the miraculous
   In it, however, he also states that the Rev. De Wolf had            element in the Old Testament over against those who "among
   proposed to him that they might be willing to relinquish            ourselves . . . accept the view of Hume, that it is more
   the name but that we would have to offer a lesser sum than          probable that the witnesses to miracles should have been
   the one hundred thousand dollars suggested by Mr. Tubbs             deceived, than that the miracles should have happened."
  .as a basis for  ,settlement.  Of the four hour meeting with         p. 191.
   the. other ministers he does not mention one word, although            It stands to reason that, in a brief review  `of this kind,
   this certainly took place in his office.                            we cannot enter into a detailed criticism of the work. We
      One more item.                                                   do not always agree with the exposition. As an example
      The following morning, Mr .F. Doezema  again called me           we refer to the explanation of Ex. 4 21.
   up.  I will not report a mere phone conversation. for which            But Zondervan rendered us a valuable service by re-
   there are no witnesses, He told me, however, that the               publishing this work. And we heartily recommend, it to. our
   rumors afloat about this. matter ought to be corrected: With        readers.
   this I agreed and I informed him that I would give a com-                                                                             H.H.
: plete account of the whole matter in the Sta.ndard  Bearer.
   This he, apparently, did not like. I then offered him that                                       -               -
   before I would publish the above editorial he might come
   over to my house and read it. This he did not accept but
   instead hung up the phone.                                                             WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
      The above is a true account of what happened  "Re  a               On June 6th our dear parents
   settlement out of court."                                                          MR. AND MRS.  T0.M ELZINGA
                                                            H. H.      hope to celebrate their 35th -wedding Anniversary, D.V.
                                                                         We are thankful to our God who has seen fit to give them
                                                                       to us and our prayer is that He may bless them in the way that
                                                                       lies ahead and that they may experience that there is no peace
                                                                       apart from Him.
                                                                       Their Grateful Children :
                     AS TO SSO~S                                             Mr. and Mrs. James Elzinga                  Peter
                                                                            Mr. and Mrs. Fred Harbin                     Alan -
                                                                          Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Hossink                     Ronald
      Ellicott's  Cowmenta.ry on the Whole Bible,  Vol. I, Gen.             Mr. and Mrs. Louis Elzinga                   Terrence
   Numbers, by Chas. John Ellicott. Published by Zondervan                  T,heodore  Elzinga                           Thomis
   Publishing House, Grand Rapids,  Mich. Eight volumes.                    Elaine                                       and 11 grandchildren
   Pride per volume $5.95.                                             576 W. 18th St., Holland, Mich.
      In an introduction by Dr. Herbert  Lockyer  he writes:
   "No pastor's study should be without this set of beneficial                                      -               -
   expositions. We have no hesitation of affirming that Semi-
   naries? Bible Institutes and Christian Colleges adding Elli-                           WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
  cottfs Commentary and the Whole Bible to their library will            On Wednesday, May 19, 19.54, our dear parents,'
   prove to be the most sought after work of its kind. Students
  .for the ministry will not be long in>discovering  the rich mine)                   MR.  AND MRS. DICK DE BEER
   of truth its pages contain."                                        hope to celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary.
      With this we agree. It is a work which is easily accessible        We are thankful to our God for having spared them for each
                                                                       other and for us, and we pray that God may bless them further
   to  every.bible  student. Also to those who prepare for their       in the way that lies ahead; and as the days approach when their
   bible lesson in Sunday school or societies, we gla?lly recom-       earthly pi&image  shall end, may the? enjoy the peace which
  mend this work.                                                      alone can be found in Him.
      Dr. Ellicott was an English divine of the nineteenth cen-                                          Their grateful children:
  tury, a scholar of the conservative type as his introductions.                                              Mr. and Mrs. Edward Fennema
  to the various books of the Bible in his commentaries plainly                                               Mr. and Mrs. Abe Vree
   reveal. To  us he is better known for his  critic,al and gram-                                             Mr. and Mrs. Nick De Beer
                                                                                                              1.2 grandchildren
  matical commentaries on several books of the New Test-                                                      7 great-grandchildren.
  ament than for his Commentary on the whole Bible.                    T'he Holland Home, 1450 E. Fulton St., Grand Rapids, Michigan.


 3 9 2 '                                      T H E S T A N D A R D B E A R E R

                                                                        "except it be for fornication," it also is not conclusive. It
            0 U R  D.0  CT R I N E                                   II teaches us that not only a man that remarries when he is
                                                                        divorced commits adultery, but that also a third party, when
                                                                        he marries the divorced woman, commits adultery. Also this
               THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE                                     `passage, therefore, when taken by itself, condemns the re-
      AN  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  HEIDELBERG  CATECHISM                    marriage of divorced parties. But again we say: because
               PART  III  -  OF  THANKFULNESS                           the text says nothing abo,ut those who are divorced on the
                                                                        basis of fornication, the text is not conclusive.
                         LORD'S DAY 41                                      DifIerent  it is, however, with the text in Matthew 5 :32
                            Chapter 2                                   and Matthew  19:9. Especially the former passage we con-
               Divorce and Remarriage (cont.)                           sider conclusive in favor of our contention that remarriage
     And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife,             of divorced parties is under all circumstances condemned by
 except it be for fornication, and shall marry another,  com-           `Holy Writ. I say  es+ecinlly  the former text, because it is
 mitteth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away             not certain whether in Matthew 19 :9 the clause, "and whoso
 doth commit adultery." And the passage in Mark is similar              marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery," be-
 to that of Matt. 19. And after the Lord had answered the               longs in the text, according to the original. The best manu-
 pharisees that came to Him to tempt Him about the matter               scripts- omit these words. However, for our purpose this
 of divorcement, we read: "And in the house -his disciples              does not make any difference, because the clause does occur
 asked him again of the same matter. And he saith unto them,            in Matthew 5 :32.
 Whosoever shall put his wife, and marry another,  com-                     Notice that in these passages there is  mention.of three
 mitteth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put                 different parties that commit adultery. In the first place,
 away her husband, and be married to another, she  com-                 there is the man who without the cause of fornication for-
 mitteth adultery." And the text in Luke reads : "Whosoever             sakes his wife and marries another. He commits adultery
 putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth                because he is considered still to stand in the marriage rela-
 adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from             tion to the woman whom he has forsaken. And therefore
 her husband committeth adultery." The,  text in' Romans is             his marriage with another woman is adultery. In the second
`probably not directly applicable, because the apostle Paul             place, there is the man that marries the forsaken woman,
-uses the marriage relation as an illustration of the spiritual         who is entirely innocent and has committed no fornication.
 relation of believers to Christ. Nevertheless, it is by no             He also is said to commit adultery, for the very reason that
 means without importance, and therefore we quote it here :             the forsaken woman is still considered to stand in the rela-
 Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the               tion of marriage with the man that put her away and that
 law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as              is married with another woman. And in the third place, it
 he liveth ? For the woman which bath an husband is bound               stands to reason  .that. the woman that is forsaken by her
 by the law to her husband so long as he liveth ; but if the hus-      first husband and marries the other man also commits adul-
 band be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So.          t e r y .
 then, if, while her husband liveth,. she-be married to another             In spite of these clear declarations of Holy Writ, there
 man, she shall be called an adulteress : but if her husband           are still those that maintain that the innocent party, man or
 be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adult-          woman, that has not committed fornication,' may remarry`
 eress, though she be married to another man."                         with another. However, I am convinced that this interpreta-
    The text in Mark is not decisive to determine whether              tion of the words is absolutely untenable.
 or not a divorced man or woman may remarry, because it                     Let us -have the implication of the'words of the Lord in
 does not mention the limiting clause, "except it be for forni-        these passages clearly before our mind. A man puts away
cation." Nevertheless, the text as it stands there, if there           his wife, and' marries another. A second man marries the
were no other passages in Scripture, is decidedly against re-          woman that has been put away, and by marrying her he
marriage. Without any limitation it teaches that if a divorced         commits adultery. And. through that marriage the woman
man remarries, he commits adultery. And the same is true               also commits adultery. This, to my mind, settles the whole
of a divorced woman that is married to another man. The                matter. The attempt has been made to change the words of
question, however, whether it is allowable that any divorced           the Lord by translating the clause, "that is put away from
party remarry in case the divorce is based on the `sin of              her husband," into, "when she is put away," and by adding,
adultery or fornication, is left out of consideration. Certainly,      "before her husband' is married  with another." The case
however, it must beg admitted that as the' text stands there,          then is supposed to be thus, that the man indeed has put the
it is decidedly against the remarriage ,of divorced parties.           woman away, but has not yet committed adultery by mar-
But it must be admitted that it is not decisive for the question       rying with another woman. But in the first place, this
we are discussing. The text in Luke is a little more to the            translation is hardly permissible because also the original
point. Nevertheless, because of the omission of the clause,            simply has, "her that is put away," or, %e forsaken one."
                                                                               .


                                                    ,            -
                                                          1)          .'


                                           THE..STANDARD   B E A R E R  <                                                            -393

And secondly, even if the translation,  "when she is put                    Christian, and from the heart controls his mind and his will,
away," would be permissible, this is by no means the same                   so that he fears the Lord and keeps His commandments. He
as translating, "immediately after she -has  been put away."                stands in covenant relation to Him, and in the covenant is
And besides, no one has the right to corrupt the text by                    the servant of God. He respects and loves His precepts for
adding, "before her husband is married to another woman."                   every relation of life in the midst of the world, and that
 Such an explanation certainly cannot be considered true                    too, antithetically, so that while he walks in the light, he
exegesis. And that this cannot be the meaning becomes ,a11                  hates the darkness. He cannot and does not attempt to
the more evident if we remember that the Jews had made                      serve God and Mammon, but he serves God with the re-
it  a. law that a man who put away his wife without the                     jection of Mammon.
cause of fornication, and given her a letter of divorcement,                   Hence, the law also implies that we love the neighbor as
might immediately marry another woman, but that the wo-                     ourselves. This love of the neighbor is not a second com-
man would have to wait three months before she could marry                  mandment, next to that of the love of God. But as the Lord
with another man. Hence, there is not much ground for                       has it, the former is like unto the latter. The love of the
the supposition that the Savior in these declarations of                    neighbor as `ourselves is rooted in the love of God. We
Matthew and Luke had in mind the case of .a woman that: must love our neighbor as ourselves for God's sake, and in
was put away by her husband, but whose husband had not                      the-love of God. And also this love is not a mere sentimental
yet been remarried. The contrary is undoubtedly true: the                   feeling, but is rooted in the heart, and from the heart controls
Lord speaks -of a woman whose husband has not only put                      our entire life. The love of ourselves is'not the same as carnal
her away, but who also is already married to another. All                   selfishness, so that we seek ourselves in distinction from the
this takes place "without the cause of fornication." The                    neighbor and exalt ourselves above him. But it is the love of
woman, therefore, is innocent. But the man now  comm;ts                     God applied to ourselves, to our soul and body, to all our
adultery by marrying with another woman. His wife there-                    mind and will and strength, to all our powers and gifts and
fore has Biblical ground for divorce. If any divorced party,                talents, and to our position and relation in every department
therefore, can ever have the right to remarry, it certainly is              of life in the world, in church, society, and state. It means
this woman. Her husband, as far as he is concerned, has                     that we respect ourselves in the gifts which God bestowed
broken the bond of marriage with his first wife, and now                    upon us and in the position in which God places us as the
lives in adultery. Yet, according to these passages the woman               servants of the Lord in His covenant. This is also true in
has no right to remarry. .On the contrary, whoever marries                  regard to the love of the neighbor. It means that for God's
her, even after her first husband has. fosaken her and con-                 sake, and in the love of God, we respect him too in all his
tracted another marriage, is said to commit adultery. The                   God-given talents and powers, as well as in the position which
question is : why? The only possible answer to this question                he occupies in the midst of the world in every sphere of life.
is : in spite of the sin of the husband, in spite of the woman
having been put away, she is still considered to be the legal                  Applied to the seventh commandment, this implies that
wife of her former husband before the face of God.                          husband and.wife love each other'in  the Lord and for God's
    Hence, there can be no doubt but that Scripture teaches:                sake. The Christian. marriage relation cannot be based upon
1) That there can be indeed Biblical grounds for divorce,                   a mere natural love between husband and wife, a mere at-
the ground of fornication. Mark you well, that even in                      traction of the sexes, which without the love of God degener-
case of fornication the innocent party does not have to. put                ates into sexual lusts and principally becomes adultery, nor
away the guilty party. Even then the Christian way .is  un-                 even upon the attraction of a particular young man to a par-
doubtedly the way of forgivenesss. Nevertheless, fornication,               ticular young woman, which the Lord often uses as a means
and, especially repeated fornication, is .a ground for separa-              to bring them together. But it must be based on and rooted
tion, or divorce. 2) At the same time, the Bible teaches                    in the love of God. It is in the love of God that the husband
without any doubt that the marriage bound is indissoluble,                  m&t respect his own body and his own relation to his wife.
that it can only be dissolved in death, and that therefore                  And it is in the same love of God that the wife must love her
remarriage while both parties are -still living is condemned                `own body and respect her position in relation to the husband.
by the Word of God.                                                         This is emphasized in Scripture  ,repeatedly.  In Ephesians
                          Chapter 3                                         5  :21, ff., the apostle writes that we must submit ourselves
                                                                            one to another in the fear of God. This he applies, first of all,
                          Chastity                                          to the relation of a wife to her husband when he admonishes :
   The fundamental principle of the law is love.                            "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto
   The law of liberty, objectively considered as a demand of                the Lord. par the husband is the head of'the wife, even as
God, and subjectively as written in our hearts, is that we                  Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the
love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our mind,                body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let
with all our soul, and with all our strength. And this love                 the wives be-to their own husbands in every thing." Notice,
is not a sentimental feeling, but is rooted in the heart of the             in the first place, that this submission of a wife to her hus-
                                                                      .


 394 .                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   BE.A'RER                    .

 band is not a mere slavish yielding or subservience,-but a very     the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have fore-
 active obedience in the fear and love of God and for Christ's       warned you and `testified. For -God hath not called us unto
 sake. This submission of the wife to her husband naturally          uncleanness, but unto holiness." Also from this it is evident
 implies that she subordinates herself willingly, in the fear        that the love between husband and wife,, even in their sexual
 of the Lord, with both body, and  soul:  And in the second          relationship, must be rooted in and based on the love of God.
 place, note also that this submission of love in the fear of
 God consists in respecting the ordinance of God with regard           The same love of God, which is principally the same as
 to the relation of man and wife. For the apostle writes, motiv-     the love of the neighbor, is also the principle that causes the
 ating his admonition, that the husband is the head of the           Christian to flee from fornication. He loves the neighbor for
 wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the       God's sake, that is, he respecst his person in whatever state
 saviour of the body. But the apostle also applies this fun-         he is. If the neighbor is married, he will respect his mar-
 damental precept of the fear of the Lord, of the love of God,       riage relation in the love of God. Hence, a man will not
 to the relation of the husband to his wife, Writes he: "Hus-        commit fornication with `his neighbor's wife, nor a woman
 bands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church,       with her neighbor's husband. Or, when you are married
 and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it      and the neighbor is single, you will refrain from committing
 with the washing of water by the word, That he might present        fornication with him or with her. And the same is true in
 it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle,       case% you and  -your neighbor both exist in the single state.
 or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without           Also in that case the love of God, in which you respect your
 -blemish: So ought men to love their wives as `their own            neighbor in his position, will cause you to refrain from com-
 bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man          mitting fornication with each other. All this, namely, that it
 ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it,     is' the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord applied to the
 even as the Lord the church : For we are members of his body,       neighbor that is the only principle that causes the Christian
 of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave    to flee from fornication is plainly taught in Scripture. Thus
 his father and mother, and shall be-joined unto his wife, and       the apostle writes in I Corinthians'  6:13-20:  "Now the
 they two shall be one flesh." Here too, notice that the love        body is' not for fornication, but for the Lord ; and the Lord
 of a Christian husband to his wife is not a mere natural love,      for the body. And God hath both raised up the Lord, and
 but is rooted in the love of God and in the love of Christ to       will also raise up us by his own power. Know ye not that
 His church.  -Hence,  also in their sexual relationship the         your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take
 man ought to love his wife even as he loves his own body.           the members of Christ, and make them members of an
 And even as he must love his own body for God's sake and            harlot?  ,God -forbid. What? know ye not that he which is
 in the fear of the Lord, so also he must love and respect           joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be
 his wife and her body in relation to himself. The same is true      one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one
 of Colossians 3 :18, 19. In the context the apostle addressed       spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is with-
 to the church first of all some general exhortations.. As the       out the body  ; but he that committeth fornication sinneth
 elect of God, holy and beloved, they must put on bowels of          against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is.
 mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness,  longsuffer-       the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye
 ing. They must forbear one another, forgive one another, as         have of God, and ye are not your own! For ye are bought
 Christ also has forgiven ,them. They must put on the bond           with a price : therefore glorify God in your body, and in your
 of charity, or of love, which is the bond of perfectness, The       spirit, which are God's"
 peace of God must rule in their hearts: And the Word of
 Christ must richly dwell in them in all wisdom. And what-              The same principle of the love of God, according to
 ever they do, in word or in deed, all must be done in the           which we must also love ourselves for God's sake, implies
 name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the                that we keep our soul  and body pure, and-free from lusts
 Father by Him. And in that connection the apostle writes : of any kind. free also from those unnatural sins that are
 "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is          mentioned in Romans 1.
 fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter
 against them." It is evident also from these passages that             And this is the spiritual virtue of chastity which is em-
 the relation between husband and wife must be based on and          phasized by the Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 41 as
 rooted in the love of God. Again, this is also evident from         the general meaning of the seventh commandment. For in
 I Thessalonians 4 :3-7 : "For  .this is the will of God, even       answer to the question what the seventh commandment
your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.        teaches us, the Catechism instructs : "That all uncleanness
That every one of you should  know.how to possess his vessel         is accursed of God: and that therefore we must with all our
in sanctification and honour ; Not in the lust of concupiscence,     hearts' detest the same, and live chastely and temperately,
even as the Gentiles which know not God : That. no man go            whether in holy wedlock, or in single life."
beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that                                              I                     H.H.

                                                                                                             -e


                                              T H E   S T A N ' D A R D   B E A R E R                                               395

                                                                      count the towers on its wall. Accordingly, scribe, weigher
            THE DAY OF tiADOWS                                   11, and--counter of towers symbolized oppression, bondage, war.
                                                                      The far off land will be free of all such evils so that its in-
                       The Prophecy of  Isaid,                        habitants will be able to exclaim, "Where is the scribe ?
                                                                      Where is the weighmaster 7 Where is the counter of towers?
                                                                         And they shall not be harassed any more by a fierce               .
                                                                      people whose speech is deeper than they can hear and whose
      So has the Lord by His anger consumed the enemies of            barbarous tongue they cannot understand (vs.' 19).
  His people: By a terrible demonstration of His might He                The allusion is to the nations that successively possessed
  has delivered Zion. The sinners in Zion are now afraid.. the- world-power-the Assyrians, Chaldeans and the  Ro-
  Fearfulness seizes the unclean.. For they find themselves in        mans. They were foreigners whose language the people of
  Zion. Here is the temple. Here Jehovah dwells. Here is              Israel did not understand. At the present time the fierce
  the fire of His altars. Here His wrath has flamed and               people is the world that lies in darkness and whose prince
  reached out to devour the adversary. In their alarm the             is  satan. The assurance is that on the new earth the ad-
  sinners cry, "Who shall dwell  for  US with the devouring           versaries of `the church will never again be seen, because they
  fire  ? Who shall dwell for  US with everlasting burnings           shall be no more.
   (vs. 14)  ?    '                                                      The redeemed shall -look upon Zion, the city of festival
      Others, "Who a.wzong MS shall dwell . . ." but incorrectly      days. Their eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation;  a
  so. The preposition that occurs in the Hebrew (it is the            tabernacle, house of God, that shall never be broken down ;
  lamedt) does not have the meaning of a?+zong,  iti  th.e Inidst.    its stakes shall never be removed, and not one of its chords
 The thought conveyed is, "Who shall place himself between            shall ever be broken (vs. 20).
  us and the Fire in order that we may not be enveloped and              In contrast to the traveling tabernacle of the wilderness,
  devoured by it?' The prophet replies to these anguished             it shall never be broken up either voluntarily and in an
  ones.                                                               orderly way or violently because of the onset of an enemy.
     He that walks in righteousness and speaks uprightness. He        But it shall  ,be a permanent tabernacle, a house of God
  that despises the gain of deceits, that shakes his hands from       eternal in the heavens.
  holding of bribes, that .stops his ears from hearing bloods,           There in that land the glorious Lord shall be unto His
  that stops his eyes from seeing evil. He shall dwell on high-       people a place of rivers and streams broad of hands. No .
  places. Fortresses of rocks shall be his strongplace.  Br,ead       oar-ship shall go therein ; no sail-ship shall pass thereby.
  shall be given him. His water shall be sure (vss. 15, 16).          For the Lord is their judge, their lawgiver and their king ;
      What is here demanded is a perfect righteousness, so            He will save them (vss. 21, 22).
  `that it may well. be asked who among men measures up to               If the Lord is the rock of His people, their sun and
  these requirements. -Only one and that one Christ. But this shield, so, too, is He their streams and rivers. And there-
   did not leave the penitent of that day without comfort and' fore no hostile ship can reach them such as the proud ship
   assurance. In principle walking uprightly and keeping the          Assyria- the Assyrian host-moored. before the gates of
   Lord's covenant, they received testimony in' connection with       Jerusalem. Wrecked by the stroke of the Lord, the ship
   their sacrifices by blood that in Christ they were righteous       was abandoned by its crew to the enemy, the inhabitants of
   and that they pleased God (Heb. XI :4, 5). It is to such that      Jerusalem, i.e., the Assyrian camp with its treasures and
the prophet now speaks.                                               huge supplies of foodstuffs was forsaken by the remnant of
      Their eyes shall see the king in his beauty . (vs. 17a).        the depleted Assyrian army and taken over by the Jerusalem-
      This king is the ascended Christ in heavenly glory.             ites for plunder.
      They shall behold the land that is very far off (vs. 17b).         In the imagery of the text, they forsook their tacklings ;
      This land is the new earth. It is far distant in the            they could not strengthen their mast, they could not spread
   sense. that its extent is immeasurable.                            the sail (vs. 23a). In a word, the ship was abandoned.
      Their heart shall meditate terrors (vs.  18a).                     All the Jerusalemites, including the lame, took part  ia
      As delivered out of all their troubles they shall contem-       gathering the spoil. None refused by saying that he was
  plate their blessedness against the background of all the           sick. This wonderful deliverence shall be to the Lord's people
   sufferings that was their portion in this present time.            the token that their iniquity is forgiven (23b, 24).
      In that far off land there- will be no scribe, no weigher,
  no counter of towers (vs.  Mb).                                     The  Judgwtent   0% all the  na.tions.  Chapter XXXIV:l-4.
      The scribe and the weigher were concerned with the                 The prophet bids the nations, people, the earth and its
  collection of revenues. They were government agencies be-           fulness, the world and all things that come forth out it, to:
  fore whom one paid tribute and who weighed the valuables            draw near, hear and give attention (vs. 1).
   received and compiled a list of them. The first step that the         The matter that the prophet, will announce is weighty.
   enemy took toward attacking a city was to observe and              Its significance is universal. And therefore `he bids all na-


   3       9    6                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER

I tions to come'  and_ hear. For  <wrath with respect to the             the earth and all the works therein shall be burned  .up,  2
   Lord is upon all the nations, ,and His fury is upon all their         Pet.  3:lO.
 hosts. He has devoted them to destruction, and given them                  From generation to generation it shall lie waste  ; none
   over to the slaughter (vs. 2). Their slain will be cast out,          shall pass through it for ever and ever. But the pelican and
   and their stink shall ascend from their carcasses, and the            the hedgehog shall possess it; the owl and the raven shall
   mountains shall flow with their blood (vs. 3). And the                dwell in it (vss.  lob,  lla).
   hosts of heaven shall melt, and the heavens shall be rolled              The land will be inhabited by wild beasts of the desert.
   together as a scroll. And all their hosts shall wither and fall,         .The Lord will stretch out upon it the line of desolation
   as a wilted leaf from a vine, and as a wilted  fig from a             and the plummet of emptiness (vss. IIb).
   fig tree (vs. 4).                                                        The line and the plummet are instruments for measuring.
        The destruction of the world that is here foretold is the           The meaning of the metaphor is that the Lord has ap-
   final stage in the progressive fulfillment of this Assyrian           pointed Esau to destruction, that is precisely Esau as the
   cycle of prophecies. The New Testament Scriptures contain             object of His eternal hatred that He wants destroyed, and
   passages that are founded on the present text. Comp. ,Matt.           Esau only, and not Jacob whom He loves.
   24  29  ; II Pet. 3 : 7, 10, 12  ; Rev. 6  :13, 14.                       "The line of desolation,"  - so called because it is
   The  J.u.dgvxent  on Edom  as representative and type of the          stretched for the purpose of making desolate. And the line
   world of reprobated  wzen.  Cka#ter  XXXIV:5-15.                      is made plumb for the purpose of emptying, depopulating,
        For the sword of the Lord is intoxicated in heaven (vs.          Edom's heritage. Hence, the `rplummet of emptiness."
   5a).                                                                     As to the nobles, there is no kingdom that they may
        Intoxicated, i.e., sated. with judgment. The tense of the        proclaim (vs. 12b). This passage has been variously trans-
   verb is the prophetic perfect indicating that the dissolution         lated. Doubtless the meaning is that the kingdom -of Edom
   of the hosts of heaven shall surely come to pass, is thus as          shall be overthrown ,so that there shall be no more govern-
   good as accomplished. And therefore the sword descends to             ment. For the prophet adds, "And her princes shall be no
   earth ; it has performed its work above.                              rmore (vs. 12b).
                                                                            All shall pass away-kingdom, princes, nobles and the
        Behold, it shall come down upon Idumea (Edom), and               general mass of people.
   upon the people of the Lord's curse, for jugdment (5b). The              And thorns shall come up in her forsaken palaces and
   sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with. bramble-bushes in her strongholds (vs 13b).
   fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the                 And it shall be a habitation of great serpents and a court
   fat  .of the kidneys of rams: for the Lord has a sacrifice in,' for the daughter of owls. And there the wild beasts of the
   Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea (vs. 6).          desert shall meet with the jackals, and the hairy goat shall
        The sword of the Lord `is not only sated with blood, it          cry to his companion. The beast of the night also shall rest
   is fatted, i.e., it drips with the fat of the Edomites regarded       there, and find for himself a place of rest. There shall the
   as a sacrifice and compared to sheep, goats and rams. Bozrah          arrowsnake make her nest and hatch and brood over eggs
   stands for Edom. It is a people cursed of the Lord.                   under her shadow\ There-the vultures shall also be gathered,
        And the. buffalos shall be cast down with them, and the          every one with her mate (vss. 13b-15).
   bullocks and the bulls; and their land shall be satiated with            The exact meaning of the words for the various animals
   blood, and their dust made fat with fatness (vs. 7).                  cannot  .be determined. But this is not a loss. It is enough,
        Symbolized are the mighty men in the nation, the fierce for us to understand that Edom's ruins shall become the
 and the strong. All shall perish, great and small, high and             haunt of beasts that prowl in the night, beasts unclean, wild
   low.                                                                  fierce and repulsive as the weeds with which Edom's
        For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the yean          abandoned palaces shall, grow rank. For what must be
   of  recompence  for the strife of Zion (vs. 8).                       manifest is that Edom is a people against whom the Lord
        This is the purpose of the "sacrifice,,' and the "slaughter,"    hath indignation forever (Mal. 1 :4).
   Zion's strife, her good fight, must be compensated ; her in-             The words for the animals denote actual beings and not
   juries must be avenged.                                               spectres, ghosts, demons, as if the prophet were here fixing
        Edom'.s streams shall be changed into pitch, his dust into       upon the Scriptures a popular superstition.
  brimstone, his land shall become burning pitch, that shall             Conclusion.  Clmpter  XXXII7:16,  17.
  not be extinguished day or night but the smoke of which '                 The prophet now summons to seek, i.e., inquire, at the
  shall ascend forever (vss. 9,  10a).                                   book of the Lord and read (vs. 16).
        In the final instance the prediction is that of the fire of         As the following verse makes plain, the prophet has in
  the last judgment destroying the whole globe of the earth.             mind the predictions of the judgment on Edom as put into
  The description is by images supplied by the overthrow of              writing. More particularly the reference is to the prophecy
   Sodom and Gomorrah. It is the prophets' way of saying that            that Edom's ruins shall be occupied by all the unclean and


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              397

 fearful beings enumerated in verses 1 l-15. The prophet             SO  that they shall be wholly conformed to the state of the
  wants God's afflicted, people to take firm hold of this prophe-    home-comers that pass through them.
  cy  in order that, when the thing shall come to pass, they            This prophecy, -like all others, undergoes progressive ful-
 may know that it is of the Lord. And come to pass it shall          filment.  First to be mentioned as this home-coming of the
  without fail.                                                      redeemed is the deliverance of the church ,from the bondage
     Not one of the weird beings named shall be missing. Not         of Egypt and the turning of Judah's captivity. The reality
  a female shall be lacking her mate. For the mouth of the           typified is the calling of the church. according to the election
  Lord it has commanded, and His Spirit He- has gathered             of grace in this Gospel period as climaxed by the appear-
  them (vs. 16b).                                                    ance of the church and the whole earth in glory at the end
     As  ~activated and directed by the power of the unseen          of time. The destination of the home-comers is always Zion
  God, they shall come from every .quarter  of the desert and        now and everlastingly. For in Zion is the temple. In Zion
  congregate in Esau's desolate country, there to abide.             Christ  is- at God's right hand. From Zion flows the stream
     For He has cast the lot for them, and His hand  .has            of grace from which. the ransomed will everlastingly drink.
  divided it unto them by line. They shall posses it for ever,       And the redemption is through judgment-the atonement
  from generation to generation they shall dwell therein (vs.        of Christ and in subordination to the sufferings and death of
  17).                                                               the Saviour the desolation of Edom. Of the sufferings of
     As the Lord allotted Canaan to Israel, so He allotted           Christ the Egyptian bondage and the captivity of Judah
  Edom to these doleful creatures.                                   were each in turn prophetic.
     Then whole description is plainly calculated to set forth          And so the prophet .continues  addressing the ransomed:
 .Edom as a type of the damned and Edom's land as a type of          Strengthen ye the weak hands, and make firm the tottering
  the place of eternal torment of the damned. __                     knees (vs. 3). Say to them that are of a troubled heart,
                                                                     Be strong, do not fear. Behold your God will come with
  Israel's redemption and return. Chapter  XXXV:l-10.                vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and
     The wilderness and the land of draught shall exalt for          save you (vs. 4).
  them, and the sterile plain shall be glad, and blossom as the         Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears
  lily. She shall surely blossom and rejoice with joy and            of the deaf will be opened (vs. 5). Then shall the lame
  singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto her, the         man leap as a hart, and the tongue `of the dumb `shall sing:
  splendour of Carmal and Sharon. They shall see the glory           for in the wilderness waters shall be  cleaved,  and streams
  of the Lord, and the splendor of our God (vss. 1, 2).              in the desert (vs. 6).
     The demonstrative them of vs. 1 looks to the redeemed              The rocks in the desert shall be cleaved and streams of
  of vs., 10 and not to the Edomites of the preceding prophecy.      water shall gush forth out of them, as in the days of Israel's
  Nor must Edom's desolated  kind be comprehended in the             sojourn in the desert. And the rock is Christ. And He is
  rejuvinated sterile places of the .earth. No such prospect is      the living water of the ramsoned, so that as grafted in Him
  here held forth to Edom. The Edomites are a people against         by a living faith they who are by nature dumb and blind
  whom the Lord has indignation forever. Forever shall the           and lame speak and see and leap.
  smoke go up from the burning pitch into which their land              And the dry plain shall become a marsh, and the thirsty
  shall be changed. Not that the territory formerly occupied         land springs of water. In the habitation of the great serpents
  by the Edom of the Old Dispensation shall not share in the         - in the places where they lie down - shall be grass of reeds
  glorification of the earth at the appearing of Christ. But         and rushes  (vs: 7). And a highway shall be there, and a
  the total of the reprobated of which Edo,m was the type shall      way, and it shall be called the way of holiness ; the unclean
  be assigned to a place that, in the imagery of the prophet,
                                      1                              shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those, the way-
  shall lie waste forever.                                           faring men. And fools shall not stray therein (vs. 8).
     Vss. 1 and 2 are descriptive of the sphere for the coming          Christ, too,, is the way and the redeemed alone go by
  of the ransomed to Zion (see vs. 10). The home coming              this way, such chosen of God.
  shall be through a desert. A parallel passage is Isaiah 9 :16 :       No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go
  "And there shall be a highway for the remnant of the people,       up thereon, it shall not be found there but the redeemed
  which shall be left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in      shall walk there (vs. 9).
 the day that it came up out of the land of Egypt." The Nile
  and the Euphrates shall be divided into seven small streams           And  the- ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come
 and in that way these- rivers shall be made passable for the        to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.
  journeyers,  .ll  :15. Their shall be signs to direct them on      They shall attain to joy and gladness, and sorrow and- sighing
  their way, Jer.  31:21 . And. they shall enjoy abundance of        shall flee away. (vs. 10).
water, Isa. 43  :19 sq.  ; 48  :21. There shall be no more curse.       Herewith ends the Assyrian cycle of prophecies.
  The life in- Christ shall operate also in these desert places                                                              G.M.O.

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

                                                                           1. It appears from the report of the committee delegated
           I N   H I S   F E A R                                       to the Consistory of the First Prot. Ref. Church of Grand
                                                                  II Rapids, Michigan, that these brethren are .under censure,
                                                                       and censured office bearers cannot function in their office.
                       Walking in Error                                    2. It appears from the same document that these breth-
                                 (7)                                   ren, together with several other elders, did not submit to the
                                                                       censure of their consistory, but on the contrary, rebelled
.      We come, now, to that sad  bhapter  in the recent history of    against their consistory.
the Protestant Reformed Churches that deals with the sinful                3,  These  brethren, therefore, and all that follow them
act of three of its former ministers, Rev. Blankespoor, Rev.           in their sinful way have by the same token become  scOhismatic
Knott and  Reir.  Kok, whereby they left these Protestant!             and severed themselves from the communion of the Prot-
Reformed Churches in a schismatic way and whereby they,                estant Reformed Churches.
as unfaithful shepherds, led- large portions of their flocks               "B.  Classis  further expresses that on the basis of the
astray and into walking in error with them.                            facts as expressed under decision A, the brethren Rev. C.
       This they will vehemently deny !                                Hanko and Elder Gerrit Bylsma are the rightful delegates
       This they have at various times and in several ways tried       of the First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids,
to deny. They even dared to meet with Rev. De Wolf and                 Michigan."
one of his elders and draw up a document entitled, "Declarad               All during the discussion Rev. Kok kept in his pocket
tion of Continuation" wherein they claim to be the'continu-            a document that had direct bearing upon this motion. He
ation of the very Classis  they despised and left.                     had a letter which we should have heard before we made our
     But let us examine this act of theirs perpetrated at  the         decision. In fact, he had a document which he should have
October session of Classis  East.                                      handed in to the Stated  .Clerk  or have sent to the Stated
       We wrote last. time that Rev.  Kok gave  Classis  East          Clerk so that he might  introdtice it at the proper time or
an ultimatum by abusing a document of his consistory. We               at least notify us of it during discussion on this point. In-
will, a little later, spread that document upon these pages as         stead Rev. Kok kept it in his pocket, and after the motion
it rests in the archives of our Classis.  But let us first recpn-      was passed that Rev. Hanko and Elder  Bylsma  be seated
struct  for you the whole situation.                                   as the legal delegates from First Church, he asked to
       Classis  East met to receive the report of its committee        have his negative vote against the motion recorded and then
appointed  to:inform Fuller Ave's. consistory of our advice            read to us the letter which we give you below:
in re the De Wolf case and especially to continue the work
that remained of its April session,  noteably  the protests                "To the  Classis  East of the Protestant Reformed
against  Rev.   Kok for his heretical statements. He knew              Churches,
that this was coming up at this session of  Classis.  And in              To reconvene on the 6th day of October,  1953
that light his action with this document becomes significant..            Esteemed Brethren :
                                                                          After having carefully,  and prayerfully considered the
      Before we could continue with our work, we  first had            documentary evidence, on  the one hand from a section of
the problem of deciding who could properly be seated as.               the Fuller Ave. congregation headed by the Rev. H. Hoek-
delegates from. First Church. Rev. Hanko and Elder Bylsma              sema, `which announced that they had suspended the Rev.
responded to the roll call as replacing Rev. De Wolf and               De Wolf as a minister of the Gospel, together with eleven
eldel; Sikkema. But Rev. De Wolf and elder Sikkema in-                 of his Elders, and on the other hand from a section of Fuller
sisted that they should take their regular places and declared         Ave's. congregation headed by the Rev. De Wolf which an-
themselves to represent the only legal consistory of First             nounced that this was a schismatic action on the part of the
church.  Classis thereupon' heard a letter read from Rev.
Hanko's Consistory expl&ning  what had taken place in the              Rev. H.  Hoeksema and  Fis group, the Consistory of  thei
                                                                       First Protestant Reformed Church of Holland, Michigan has
Consistory since  Classis  had given its advice in re the De
Wolf case. We then listened to a document from Rev. De                 come to the following decision, and humbly begs  Classis  East
Wolf. and his followers in which' they gave their version of           to also express itself as follows:    .
the same events. And then the committee appointed  tot                    1. That on the basis  .of the information received they
inform First Church's Consistory of our advice and which               cannot recognize the suspension of the Rev. De Wolf and
met with the Consistory on June 1, June 15, June 22 and                   2. That they consider the Rev. Hoeksema and his
June 23 gave its report of the same matter.                            group to be guilty of schismatic action and mutiny.
     After much disc&ion the following motion was approved                G r o u n d s :
by maj&-ity vote :                                                        1. Under no circumstances did the Rev. H. Hoeksema,
     "A.  Classis  expresses that  The Rev. De Wolf and Elder          and the Elders that supported  .him, have the right to walk
Sikkema cannot be seated as delegates of Classis  East.                out of the Consistory of Fuller Ave. and meet separately.
     Grounds :                                                         This was not a walking. in the legal way of the Consistory,


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                399

   Classis  and Synod, but in the way of Schism and mutiny.               Surely they were not loyal  torClassis  East of the  Prqt-
   The Rev. H. Hoeksema here followed the same evil tactics            estant Reformed Churches. Their negative vote to the ques-
   which he several times threatened at  Classis  East. D.K.O.        tions put before them, especially the second question, shows
   Art. 31.                                                           that they were not loyal to Classis  East. Nor were they loyal
      2. ,A minority is not the consistory and c&not suspend          to the Protestant' Reformed Denomination. Their defense
   from office, neither can it deprive of a vote.                     of the literal statements of Rev. De Wolf shows this.  Foti
      3. The Consistory of the Fourth Church erred by giving          the Protestant Reformed Churches adopted the Declaration
   the minority group even a semblance of recognition by meet-        of Principles which condemns the statements of Rev. De
   ing with them, and giving them the advice, and the schisma-        Wolf in their literal form. It also  says that regardless of
 iic consistory had no right to proceed with the suspension of        how he explains and interprets the statements, they  are
   the Rev. De Wolf, and the deposition of a majority of the          literally to be condemned. And these three former ministers
   Elders, especially in view of the fact that the Fourth  Con-       in the Protestant Reformed Churches together with Rev. De
   sistory questioned the legality of the meeting. D.K.O. Art. 79.    Wolf defied that Declaration and were in that act disloyal
    It is our earnest hope and prayer that the schismatic             to the Protestant Reformed Churches.
   group of the Rev. H. Hoeksema.  will repent of its evil, way,
   and that the breach which has been made may graciously be              Loyal:  delegates ?  a
   healed in the way of truth and justice, and in the spirit of           Loyal to whom ?
   brotherly love.                                                        Loyal. to what?
                            Respectfully submitted,                       Loyal to Rev. De Wolf whom they with his slanderous
                                    (w.s.) B. Kok, Pres.              cross bill will defend regardless of what he says and does.
                                    (w.s.) R. Bouwman,  Sec'y."       Loyal to former Classis  West which had committed a most
      Now we ask you, is it not so very, very plain that Hol-         abominable sin a week or two before. Loyal to the heretical
  land's  eonsistory had intended this document to be presented       statements of Rev. De Wolf. Loyal to the evil advice of the
   BEFORE  Classis  took a stand in  .regard to- the De Wolf          late `Prof. Holwerda who advised the immigrants to join
  faction ? Do `they not in their own words state in this docu-       the Protestant Reformed Churches in America, if they would
  ment? "The Consistory of the First Protestant Reformed              be accepted, in order then as a fifth column to work from
  Church of Holland, Michigan, has come to the following              the inside to destroy the  truth for which the Protestant
  decision and lutmbly  begs Classis East to also express itself      ReforJned Churches were called into existence by God Him-
  as follows: . . . ." ? (Italics ours. J.A.H..) What kind of         self. Just get yourself, once again, a copy of that letter which
  nonsense is it to wait until one has made a decision and then       Rev. Kok defends and which gave us to understand what it
  to notify him of what you wanted him to decide ?                    was wherewith we were dealing. In loyalty to the liberated
      Why did Rev. Kok keep from  Classis  East this plea of          Rev. Kok kept that  document  in his pocket. In loyalty to them
  his consistory? Why did he cross up his own consistory?             he fought tooth and nail against the Declaration of Principles.
 , When the undersigned, as President of the  Classis, asked          And today they dare before God to state in their "Declara-
  Rev. Kok whether his consistory Chad given him instructions         tion of Continuation" that the basis for. their organization is
  to wait with informing us of this matter till we had taken          "The acceptance of the Three Forms of Unity, to wit, the
  a stand ourselves, he answered in the negative. It was all          Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession and the Canons
  his own sinful plan and work! That document had no                  of Dordt, as interpreted and maintained  by the Protestant
proper place anymore after our decision was taken. And                Reformed Churches." Let them for Gods' sake change that
  the sad thing is that his consistory instead of rebuking him        at their July session and add "with the exception of  the
  for so abusing their document upheld him and with him               Declaration of Principles which' does not allow us to em-
  left the Protestant Reformed Churches, that is, with the            brace the heresy of Rev. De Wolf which we have learned. to
  exception of the only Protestant Reformed man in that whole         love so dearly and which heresy has become the very reason
  Consistory, Elder J. Kortering, who is still in the office of       for our separate existence." Rev. Kok fought against  the
  Elder in the Protestant Reformed Churches.                          Declarition of Prindiples without a formal protest even after
      And yet, as we wrote above, Rev. Kok together with Reir.        it was adopted. Loyal delegate to a Classis in the Protestant
  Blankespoor  and Rev. Knott dared to meet with their elders         Reformed Churches ? Loyal to his own flock and to his own
  and Rev. De Wolf with one of his elders  and. draw up a             consistory? Don't you believe it?
  document in which they claim to be  the continuation of                There are several things in this document that can stand
  Classis  East. A&d they dare before God, if you please, they        treatment. And we also like to show $0~ the questions put
  dare to say that they were "loyal and legal delegates" who          to these three men who were formerly ministers in the
  w&e deprived of their seat at Classis.                              Protestant Reformed Churches, that you  majr see what an
     ' Loyal delegates ?                                              evil thing they did. This will have to wait till later.
     Loyal to whom ?           /                                                                                                 J.A.H.


400                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E - A R E R

                                                                     and blood of the Lord. This is, permit us to say, a rather
             Contending `For The Faith                               fantastic conception. We sincerely wonder how  it- is possible
                                                                -i for anyone to be addicted to such a view of the Lord's Sup-
                                                                     per, although it is not difficult to understand, on the other
             The Church and the Sacraments                           hand, why this conception should have such a strangle hold,
          EARLY  VIEWS  OF  THE  SACRAMENT  OF  THE                  on the people of that church. Do they actually believe that,
                          LORD'S'  SUPPER                            when Jesus spoke the memorable words at His institution of
                           (Continued)                               the Lord's Supper the night before His crucifixion, the
                                                                     disciples really believed that the bread which He broke `and
Irttroduct&y   remarks   (continued).                                gave to them was not bread but His own body and that the
       The chief question concerning the sacrament of the Lord's     wine was not really wine but His own blood? We will havd
Supper is that which is concerned with the proper interpreta-        more to say on this subject at the proper time. However,
tion of the words of the Saviour which were spoken at the            we may say already at this time that, although a fundamental
institution of this sacrament: this is My body, We may say           difference between Rome and us certainly revolves about tha
this without fear of dispute. This lies in the very nature of        question whether we are justified by works or by the un-
the case. The holy Supper is a sacrament in which we eat             conditional grace of the living God, the view of  Transub-
and drink. We eat bread and drink wine. However, we must             stantiation' surely constitutes a vital part of the life of the
eat and drink Jesus Himself. This thought is beautifully             Church of Rome.
expressed in John 6  :50-56,  and we quote this passage : "This
is the bread which cometh  down from heaven, that .a man                 Another view of the Lord's Supper is that which is enter-
may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which            tained by the Lutheran Church. This view is known as Con-
came down from heaven: if a man eat of this bread, he shall          substantiation. According to this Lutheran conception of the
live for ever : and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which    sign and. the thing obsignated they are not identified. Luther
I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore!           certainly rejected the view that  -the bread and wine are
strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give               changed into the body and the blood of the Lord: However,
us His flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,              although the Lutheran conception does not identify the sign
verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son           and the thing obsignated it does teach that they  are.objective-
of man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whose            ly connected. -Their conception is known as : Consubstantia-
eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life  ;           tion. And this means literally: with the substance.  Luther-
and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is             anism   advocated.that  the body and blood of the Lord are!
meat indeed, and My blood is' drink indeed. He that eateth           really present in, with, and under the bread and the wine.
My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in            We will also have more to say concerning this. conception
him." It is obvious from this passage that we must and do            at the proper time. Very strenuously and vehemently the
eat and drink the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.           German reformer' maintained that Jesus said : This  is My
I say: we must eat and drink and we do eat and drink the             body. And they base their conception of Consubstantiation
body and the blood of the Lord. If we do not eat and drink           on the teaching of the omnipresent character of Jesus' human
the body and blood of the Lord then we simply have no                nature which the Lord assumed at the time of His glorifica-
sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Does not the Saviour"  declarei      tion (that is, He assumed at that time its omnipresent char-
that "except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His        acter) . The attempt to change the reformer's position proved
blood, ye slave no life in you ?' Hence, we must not eat and         utterly futile.
drink Christ in order to live but because. we live and havei             A third view of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is
life. Jesus we must eat and drink. From this we may surely           the Calvinistic conception. Luther and Calvin never met
conclude without fear of contradiction that the words: this          although the German reformer and Zwingli did meet once
is My body, and their proper interpretation constitute a vital       in debate. The Calvinistic view is the sacramental concep-
part of the true understanding of the sacrament of the holy          tion. This conception teaches that the relation between the
Supper. Hence, the chief question concerning this sacrament          sign and the thing obsignated is purely spiritual. It rejects
deals with the relation between the sign and the things ob-          the literal interpretation of Jesus'. words: this is My body,
signated.                                                            and maintains that the bread. and wine are purely and ex-
   Relative this important question we may say that four dif-        clusively symbolic. The eating and drinking of Christ's
ferent views have been developed and are held at the present!        body and blood does not occur through the mouth and is
time. There is, first of all, `the Roman Catholic view. This         exclusively an activity of- faith. The bread and wine must
conception is known as the doctrine of Transubstantiation:           be separated from Christ's body and blood, are merely sym-
This word refers literally to a change of substance. Rome            bols of this body and blood. However, this does not mean
simply identifies the sign and the thing obsignated. They            that the Lord's Supper is merely a `remembrance feast,  a
teach that the bread and the wine are changed into the body          joyful occasion at which we simply meditate upon the suf-


                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             401

  ferings and death of our Lord. The Lord's Supper is a `the complete satisfaction of that justice of God. Nevertheless,
sacrament; an operation of grace certainly accompanies our              it is not difficult to realize that they did not have a clear
  eating and drinking of the bread and the wine ; only, this            and concise conception of the revelation of God in Christ
  relation between the sign and the thing obsignated is purely          Jesus. This revelation of the God of our salvation in Christ
  spiritual.                                                            Jesus had been`bestowed upon the Church of God through-
      The fourth view  and also the final view of the Lord's            out the Old Dispensation only in symbols and shadows and
  Supper is known as the Zwinglian conception. Zwingli was              types. The light of God in Christ had shone only typically.
  the Swiss reformer. He entered  ofice with Luther into  a             Now the full light of the living  .God in Christ Jesus burst
  very `violent and utterly fruitless debate. He disagreed com-         forth upon them. Even the apostles had experienced great
  pletely with the German, refbrmer, maintaining that Christ            difficulty to apprehend this light in its true heavenly and
  was in heaven and not upon the earth. His view may be                 spiritual significance. The tremendous change from type to
  defined as the symbolical, the merely symbolical view. He             anti-type, from shadows -and symbols to their corresponding
  maintained that the bread and wine were symbols and nothing           reality eluded `their grasp as far as the tremendous implica-
  more. It is true that the Calvinistic conception also stresses tion of this glory was concerned. "This is My body," the
  the symbolical character of the bread and the wine. How-              Lord Jesus had said to the amazed disciples, and  they ex-
  ever, we maintain the sacramental relation between these              perienced great difficulty to understand Him when He con-
  symbols and the Living Bread and Water, Jesus Christ, our             tinued : "Except  yC eat My flesh and drink  Mya blood, ye
  Lord, whereas Zwingli's conception of the sacrament of the            have no life in yourselves." To be sure, presently the Church
  Lord's Supper is such that this sacrament is a mere feast of          of God would have full opportunity to develop in the truth
  remembrance at which we remember the  death of a departed             and advance to a clear and distinct and- concise understand-
  Friend.                                                               ing of the great truths of the Word of God as they center
  These views in the early Chawch.                                      in Jesus Christ, the Son of God revealed in our flesh and
                                                                        blood. They would have this opportunity, in the first place,
      As might be expected none of these four views had been            because the enemies of the truth would attack the truth as
  distinctly and fully developed in the earliest period of the          they had never before attacked it. Of course'! The more
  Church. We can easily understand this, namely that the                clearly the light shines the more relentless and pitiless is this
 . Church, in its New Testament infancy, simply accepted the            attack. God appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh! The
  sacraments and observed them without entering into the                light of the God of our salvation in Christ Jesus burst forth
 deeper significance of them. It did not at once  -give itself          from its typical shell of the Old Dispensation. Presently the
 an account, clearly and distinctly,' of the meaning of the             wicked  forces- of darkness and hell would level off against
  Lord's Supper. I say that this is easily understandable. The          this revelation and assault the truth of the Son of God with
  Church of God was in its New Testament infancy. We re-                all the fury of hell. They will do all withiri their power to1
  peat that this does not mean that the dawn of the New                 minimize the tremendous gospel truth that salvation is purely
  Dispensation witnessed the birth and beginning of the                 a matter of God alone, that this line of salvation is horizontal,
  Church of God. The Church of God. has been in  exiStence              -running from top to bottom and always beginning at the top
  all through the ages. We refer,  bf  cqurse,  to the infancy of       with no strings or  condifions  attached. This has been  a&a
 the Church of God from the aspect of its New Dispensational            our struggle of late, a struggle from which our churches
  revelation. And then we can surely understand that the                have emerged, with thinned ranks, it is true, but with our
  people of `God did not have a clear and concise conception            numerically decrease-d forces united  and solidified as we have
 of the great fundamental truths of the holy Scriptures. To
 be sure, they understood the holiness and righteousness and            not been for several years. Moreover, besides this relentless
 oneness of the incomparably glqrious God. They knew that               attack of the forces of evil, Christ Himself gave His Church
 God is one and that there is no god besides Him. They knew             the promise that He would lead His people, through His
 and realized that the promise of the Lord is faithful and              Spirit, into all the truth. And this promise has certainly been;
 inviolate and that  rio action of men can ever frustrate or            fulfilled throughout the ages. However,, at the beginning of
 annul it. They knew that salvation was of the Lord alone.              this New Testament era the Church of Go2 did not have a
 They surely knew themselves, their sin and guilt and utter             f&l and clear conception of these fundamental truths. This
 hopelessness, and' that fellowship with the Lord was alone             also applied to it4 conception of the sacrament of the Lord's
 possible in the way of the complete and full satisfaction of           Supper. The Church simply accepted the sacraments and  '
 God's justice for sin. One can readily understand, in the              observed them without entering into the deeper significance
 light of the Old Testament  sacrifies   .for sin;  that the .people    of them. This clearer and more concise understanding would
 of the Lord surely understood the righteousness and justice            c o m e   l a t e r .
of God and that salvation was alone possible in the way of                                                                         H . V .
                                              :

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

                                                                        and Reformed doctrine becomes a relative  matter: it is a
11 The Voice of Our Fathers                                        11 matter of "opinion,", or a "difference of  viewpoi&"  .or a
                                                                        "difference of emphasis." Then, of course, .one theologian:
                  The Canons of Dordrecht                               emphasizes,  and probably over-emphasizes, one  ,aspect of  the
                                                                        truth, while another emphasizes a different aspect of the
                               PARTTWO                                  same truth. One looks at Scripture from one viewpoint,
                   EXPOSITION OF THE  CANONS                            and another expounds Scripture from a different viewpoint.
                    FIRST  HEAD   OF  DOCTRINE                          Both are correct from their own point of view; and both are
                   OF  D                                                not to be condemned. Probably it is best to assume an inter-
                            IVINE  PREDESTINATION                       mediate position, and, thus avoid both extremes. Along such
                      Article 9 (continued)                             lines, of, course, it is but a small step to erase all lines of
       Having repudiated and denied the Arminian view, which            distinction and'to succumb to the false spirit of amalgamation
makes of God ,a glorified spiritual weather forecaster, and             and ecumenicity which pervades the church in bur day and
makes God's decree of election dependent upon various con-              which to no small degree may be found even in Reformed
ditions required. beforehand in the- elect persons, the  faihers        circles. But how entirely  .different  is the language of our
turn to business of a positive statement of the truth on this           fathers. They make absolute distinctions. "This election
count.       *                                                          WAS NOT . . . . BUT men are chosen unto . . . ." Between
       And it becomes very clear at this point that the Reformed        these two views there is no common ground. The truth will
truth stands diametrically opposed to the Arminian heresy.              not tolerate the lie. It will condemn and repudiate and deny
It is the complete opposite of the lie of the Remonstrants. The         it. Such is the plain teaching of this article.
Arminians make faith, the obedience of faith, holiness, and:                As we have before obstrved, this article teaches nothing
other good qualities or dispositions in man  first,  and election       new as to election than .was taught in Article 7. There also
second; the Reformed and Scriptural position is that election           it was plainly taught that all the blessings of salvation were
is first, and'faith, the obedience of faith, holiness, etc., second.    the fruits of sovereign election. For God had decreed to give
Nor is it merely a matter of order, of what is first and second.        us to Christ to be saved. by Him, "and effectually to call and
The Arminians teach that election is o`zd of faith the obedi-           draw them to his communion by his Word and Spirit; to be-
ence' of faith, and the various other prerequisites; the Re-            stow upon them true faith justification, and sanctification ;
formed teach the very opposite ; Faith is out of election ! The         and having powerfully preserved them in the fellowship of
Arminians make faith,  the obedience of faith, holiness,  et            his Son, finally to glorify them for the demonstration of his
cetera,  the cause of election  ; the Reformed  ma&e election           mercy." Here it is this same truth which is expressed.
the  caus'e and fountain of faith and of all the blessings of           Election is no mere decree  ; it is not simply a choice of
salvation. And, by the way, if it be objected that the terti            God. But the decree of election is the living will of the Lord
caztse is not employed by the Canons as a description of                God to save His people, and the whole of their salvation,
election, and that this term is not appropriate when speaking           including all the means and the way to final glory, is included
of the relation between election and the blessings of salvation,        in that decree. The "condition" or "prerequisite" of our sal-
then let it be admitted that the article does not use the term ;        vation, if such language may be borrowed for the moment, is
but let it be noted that the fathers do indeed employ the term          eternal and unchangeable election. And that is indeed a con-
effects  (effectus   in the original Latin).. And how, pray, can        dition of which the fulfillment  is not and can never be man's,
there be an effect without a cause ? And how can the bles-              but God's alone. And He fulfills that "condition" uncon-
sings of salvation be the effects `of election, if election is not!     ditionally. Behind election, precedent to election, prerequisite
their cause ? And finally, let the implication which is  in-.           for -election, is  `God, eternally God! Election can only be,
escapable in connection with these two opposite positions  beJ          therefore,  ,unto  faith,  unto  holiness,  ztnto  the obedience of
noted: the Arminians teach that man is the  sole author of              faith,  unto perseverance,  unto glory!
.his own salvation, while the Reformed position is that salva-
tion is solely of the Lord.                                                It is at this point that one finds that wonderful expression
    P&haps the following is not strictly in the sphere of               of the  Cartons: "Therefore election is the fountain of every
exposition, but nevertheless we cannot refrain at this point            saving good ; from which flow fbrth faith, holiness, and the
from making an extremely practical observation, one which               other gifts of salvation, and finally eternal life itself, as its
is especially germane to any discussion. of the church and              fruits and effects." An expression like this reveals why the
of various doctrinal positions and doctrinal differences in             National Synod was the "Great" Synod, and shows to us
our time. We live in an age when doctrinal differences are!             the clear insight into the Scriptures which the fathers had.
frequently minimized and when  they are reduced to the rank             To be. sure, when the fathers apply the term  fount&   to
of the unimportant and the non-essential by being reduced               election, they do  isot use a literal expression of Scripture.
to mere relative distinctions instead of absolute differences.          But this expression of truth. is nevertheless Scriptural as
Thus, for example, the difference between Arminian doctrine             to its genus. For God is, as also the Belgic  Confession has


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                403

  it, in Article 1, the overflowing fountain of all good. He is        out of the stream of salvation, out of faith out of the obecli-
  the fountain of living waters. And to forsake Him, the foun-         ence of faith, out of holiness, out of perseverance,-nay, is
  tain of living waters, and to dig instead empty cisterns that        God, and is God's decree, out of the people whom He saves  ?
  can hold  nb water, is already in the old dispensation the.          You say: absurd blasphemy !  .The fountain is the source  ;
  double evil of Israel. If God, then, is the fountain of living       and the stream flows from it. And here you have the marvel
  waters, and if we correctly conceive of eternal election as          of it! This fountain is eternal and unchangeable. It cannot
  being not merely a blueprint, a dead plan, but the living            be dried up.  It cannot be shut off. It cannot be diverted.
  thoughts of God concerning His people, and His living and            Always it'  flows. And it flows determinately in only one
  eternal will, -then to say that election  is the fountain of         channel and one direction. All saving good is the fruit and
every saving good is the same as saying that God is that               effect of the fountain and cause of  elkction.  Election is the
  fountain. And in that light the genus of this statement is           unchangeable and eternal fountain of all our salvation, from
  indeed thoroughly Scriptural.                                        the very first beginning of our union with Christ to the
     But now let us give our attention to this expression.             glorious end of eternal life itself!
  What does it mean ?                                                     And no& we return to our former statement that under
     If is, of course, figurative. And as always with a figure,        this article it is also impossible to maintain a conditional
  so also  .here,  there is a point of comparison, but there are       salvation. This must be quite evident. In the first place, it
  also possible points in which the figure and the reality do          must be remembered _that  all the contents of that stream of
  not agree. Thus, for example, a fountain .has no mind and            salvation are eternally the contents-of the fountain of election.
  no will. It is not personal. Water. simply flows from a              In the second place, it must nof be forgotten that the direc-
  fountain without a conscious *activity of mind and will              tion and flow of that stream of salvation is also determined
  on the part of the fountain. In this respect, of course, the         by the fountain. -This is the  ,living fountain that does not
  figure does not coincide with the reality of sqvereign  election.    simply arbitrarily bverflow,  but flows where it will, and
  The decree of election is the decreeing God. It consists of          determinately. If then, the salvation, the stream, is con-
  His eternal thoughts and' will concerning the elect persons.         ditioned and conditional, then you cannot escape the con-
     But the point of comparison is obvious. The figure is             clusion that the fountain, election, is also conditioned and
  that of a fountain and the stream' of water which issues from        conditional . They are inseparable, and therefore inseparably
  that fountain. And what is the relation between the two ?            either conditional or unconditional. Those who claim that
  Is the stream the cause.,' condition, or prerequisite of the         election is unconditional while salvation is somehow con-
  fountain ? Is it thus, that the stream is required beforehand,       ditional cannot escape the charge of a blatant and obvious
  in order to have a fountain ? In fact, does the stream have          contradiction. Besides, if faith, the obedience of faith, and
  any effect whatsoever upon the fountain? Is the fountain             holiness are part of the contents of the stream of salvation,
  out of the stream ? Such suggestions are absurd, you say.            how, then, can they, be conditions of salvation? Is it not
  The fountain, you reply, is the source ; and the stream flows        absurd to  ,maintain  that the stream is a condition of itself,
  from it. The fountain is the prerequisite of the stream. It          that the Mississippi River is a prerequisite of the Mississippi
  is its cause. The stream is the fruit and effect of that foun-       River? Just as absurd and confusing it is to maintain that'
  tain. Remove the fountain, shut it -off, let it run dry, divert      faith, the obedience of faith, etc., are conditions and pre-
  its flow, and the inevitable result will be the end of the           requisites of salvation.
  stream.                                                                 Pinally,  let us pay attention to the Scriptural support of
    And thus it is with election and all the blessings of sal-         this article. With one brief stroke of exegesis, inserted in
  vation. The former is the fountain, and the latter are the           parentheses in the text of Ephesians  1:4,-the  fathers  makd
  stream which issues from that fountain. And out of the               plain that their position is Scriptural. God has not chosen
  eternal and overflowing fountain pf the electing God come            us  beqauss   we were holy and without blame before Him in
  forth all the blessings which constitute the stream of salva-        love. But  `then Scripture saith: "He hath chosen us  t?zaP
  tion. They are the living waters that issue from the over-           (puypose)  we should be holy and without blame before him
  flowing fountain in  Chi-ist  Jesus.   Are then those living         in love." And the point, v&y briefly given also in this article,
  waters the cause, condition, or prerequisite of that fountain ?      is that "because" and "that" or "in order that" are mutually
  Is it thus, that the stream of salvation is requireh beforehand,' exclusive. If it is "because," then it cannot be "that." But
  in order to have the fountain of election ? In fact, does the        it is "that." And therefore, it cannot be "because."
  stream have any effect whatsoever upon the fountain and its             Indeed ! Sovereign, eternal, and unchangeable election
  action ? Is the fountain of election out of the stream of living     is the fountain from which flows forth every saving good.
  waters  ? Is God's decree, nay, is God Himself, the living           Thanks be to God for His unspeakable mercy !
  God, the overflowing fountain of all good, in His eternal
  thoughts and desires concerning His people in Christ Jesus',                                                                  H . C . H .

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

 I                                                                   con&story who shall decide upon his request with approba-
             DECENCY and ORDER                                       tion of Classis  and Synod.`7 (Art. 3, Constitution of Emeritus
                                                                     Committee).
                 Emeritation Of Ministers                                 If this rule means that the minister, and the minister only,
                                                                     can request emeritation, we think the rule is wrong. If it is
                           (Continued)                               intended merely to prescribe a course which is to be  fdllowed,
       In the former issue we explained that implicit in the         namely, that the request goes .&rough  the consistory to clas-
idea of emeritation is retirement, either temporary or per-          sis to synod, we can agree with it although in our opinion
manent, from the active ministry of the word. We further             it is not quite complete _ There ought to be a provision' in-
stated that this retirement is due to reasons of personal            serted according to' which also the consistory, which deems
disability. It is our position that an emeritation proper is         it necessary, may request emeritation for her minister. If
not granted because of circumstances in which others cause           this is not clone a minister can conceivably place a serious
the continuation of the work of the ministry to ,be impeded.         detriment upon the congregation. Let us suppose that a
These cases should be treated under a different heading.             minister becomes seriously ill so that he will not be able ta
Emeritation means that the minister who for valid reasons            labor for'several years. If he does not ask for an emeritation
is unable to perform the duties of his office is relieved from       and  thg consistory cannot  do so the congregation will be
active duty, supported by the church, and retains the honor          without a pastor for a very long time which is never a whole-
and title of Minister of the Word of  .God. Where these              some situation. The elders must "take heed unto themselves
reasons spell permanent disability the emeritation is  natural19     and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made
for life. Where they spell temporary disability the emerita-         them overseers,' to feed the'church of God." (Acts 20 :2S)
tion runs until such reasons for disability are removed apd          They must see to it that the church is shepherded and the
for a reasonable time thereafter during which the minister           disabled minister ought not to have exclusive power to
concerned may again be considered for a call by the churches.        stand in the way of the congregation having a pastor who
We now wish to take up a few other matters relating to               is able to  ac&ely labor in the ministry of the word and
this matter.                                                         dispense unto them spiritual things according to their need.
                B. The  Request For  E+xeritation                    If the consistory, therefore, considers it to be in  .the best
                                                                     interests of the -church that the disabled minister receive an
      From whom should this request come ? Some are of the           emeritation, he ought to accept that in the confidence that
opinion that only the minister himself can ask for an emerita-       when the Lord once again restores him He will also provide
tion. Others hold to the view that the consistory should             for him a field of labor. Of course, if the congregation is
make this request. Still others, which view we are inclined to       large  and can support two ministers such an emeritation
support, say that the request may be initiated by either the         would not be necessary. If, however, she cannot  do this it:
minister or the consistory. This, it seems, is the only proper       would appear quite proper for the consistory to make the
course which is fair to all parties concerned for an emeritation!    request for emeritation. The validity of it would have to
concerns not only the minister directly involved but in inore        be judged by classis and synod which would also safeguard
than one way effects the congregation itself. In 1893  the, against any abuse  oi- `injustice. These broader assemblies
Synod of Reformed Churches in the Netherlands decided                would also have to decide the matter in cases where the
that, "Emeritation, where necessary, takes place upon  thei          minister and the consistory are unable to agree upon the
request of the parties concerned (either minister or  con-           matter.
sistory) by action` of the Classis, supported by the Synodical
Examiners of the Provincial Synod." (Church Order Com-                          C. The  Sta.tus Of The  lEwLe&us   Ministe-v
mentary, pg. 66)                                                         The article states that these shall retain the honor and
      However, freely translated, Dr. Bouwman writes con-            the title of a minister. `This  means that he remains in the
cerning the decision of the same synod as follows : "About!          office in the church he last served although he is  n6w relieved
the emeritation itself it is established: (a) that the request       of all active duty. He may preach  the word if requested to:
proceeds from the minister of the Word and that there is an          do so and he is able. He may administer the sacraments.
expression that the consistory consents thereto, (b) that the        He may function-in all the labor of the office and may even be
reasons for disability to function `in of&e be submitted, (c)        delegated to the broader assemblies of the churches because
that in case sickness is the cause of disability, this is made       in very fact he is a fullfledged minister of the Word of God.
-evident  from the expression of two experts, (cl) that the          His status is and remains unchanged  thiough  emeritation
classis considers the request legitimate. The emeritation it-        although he is no longer compelled to perform the work of
self goes through the  classis, supported by the deputies            the office.
ad examina of the Provincial Synod."                                        D. The  Suppod  Of The  Ew~eritus  Mikster
      In our own rules we come upon the following: "The                  According to Article 13 of the church order two things
minister shall present his request for emeritation to his            must be considered here. First of all, the article states  thae


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               405

the support is to be "provided out of the comtion fund of           ment the  eqtiivelent  of 40  70 of the' average annual salary
the churches according to general ecclesiastical ordinances         of the ministers in that church. The widows of such ministers
in this matter," and secondly, he is to be cared for "honor-        are entitled to 30%. Minor orphans receive a pension of
ably in his need." It is evident from this that, such support: $100.00 per person per year. Those who do not contribute
is not the same as a gift or charity but is something to            to this fund are naturally not entitled to its benefits. They,
which the minister is legally en'titlecl. His rights are limited    up& retirement, receive aid only from the Relief Fund and
by his needs and the ordinances of the churches. These              then such aid is not to exceed 25 % of the average Christian
`ordinances may be found in the Constitution of the Emeritus        Reformed minister's salary or 20  %- for the widow or $100.00
Cominittee. Article 7 `of this constitution, for example,           per year f&r each minor orphan. In the event that a minister
stipulates that "the obligation of giving this support rests in     draws from both funds the limitations are set at 66 and
a legal sense upon the local church which the minister serves       2/3  70 of the average $alary  for the minister  ; 50 % for the
?r has last served." A minister then cannot makk an imposi-         widow and no minor orphan is entitled to draw more than
tion upon the  classis  or the synod or the committee for           $175.00  per year.
desired support. He must present his request to his local              "These rules, as found in "The Chur& Order,"  by J. L.
con&story. Likewise, the local church may not simply shift          S&aver,  pg. 209, were adopted in 1939. Whether the figures
the  bukclen of emeritation to  the churches in general  but:       given above have since beep altered we do not know. But
must always remember that it is first of all her obligation to      whereas our space for this issue is filled we will have to
support  .the `nlinister. she has made emeritus.                    refrain from commenting on this until next time.
   -This iminecliately presents a problem. How would it                                                                     G.v.cl.B.~
ever be possible that a small congregation grant an emerita-
tion ? Small churches -have sufficient burden to provide their
active minister. To offset this difficulty a provision is `kina&               A L L   AROUNP  U S
in Article  8 of the constitution according to  which those
congregations which are unable to support their emeritus
minister can apply for `support. at the classis under whicli        The Covenant Of Grace.           '
tliey  resort. This request, if approved by the classis, is for-       Recently a friend sent  us three copies of an interesting
warded to a  synodical  committee  which acts upon it until         and instructive booklet that bore the title set above this
the Synod meets. When the synod gathers she passes final, article. It is a Biblico-Theological study written by Professor
approval upon the emeritation as well- as the request for           John Murray who teaches Systematic Theology in the West-
support and then assesses all the churches accordingly so           minster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pa. The book-
that a common' and adequate fund is established out of which;       let is a transcript of a lecture the professor delivered  `la&
the payments can be periodically made.                              year in London, England, and is printed by the  Tyndale
   In the short history-of our churches .we have no occasion        Press of the latter city.
of using the Emeritus Fund for real cases of emeritation. It           The present article will contain excerpts of this  booklet
has been used in the abnormal situations we referedto before.       and a few comments of our own. As weil as we were able
Should it become necessary to  use this  filnd for several          to observe with only one perusal of the booklet, the writer
emeritations, we would very likely find out that such a             concludes from his study of the doctrine of the covenant in
system would be inadequate to properly provide for the              Scripture that it is both unilateral and unconditional. Quite
needs or that the system would, lay a very heavy burden             naturally one becomes interested when he reads material of
upon the churches. The Christian Reformed Churches havg             this sort written by one who is outside the circle of Prot-
experienced this in the past. Many of those that had been           estant Reformed theology. For that reason we thought our
given an emeritation were not adequately provided for in            people would be pleased to know that others, after thorough
their need. Their support had  to"be  stibsidized  in  YariouS      study of this subject, also came to our conclusions.
other ways. Hence, ins 1939, they made an alteration in Art.           In his introduction the professor, pointing out the method
13 of the church order by eliding the phrase, "in their need,"      of his approach to the subject of the covenant, makes the
and then approved of a different plan by which the needs            assertions: that "the covenant theology  not only recognized
of the retired are met. They have established two funds.            the brganic  unity atid progressiveness of redemptive revela-
One is known  as the Pension Fund and the other  as the             tion, but also the fact that redemptive revelation was cove-
Relief Fund. Both of these are placed. in -the charge of  a         nant revelation and that the revelation was covenant religion
Board of Trustees consisting of five men appointed by the           a&l piety ;" that, "it was in the Reformed theology that the
Synod. The Pension Fund is established- by  Synodical As-           covenant theology developed, and the greatest contribution
sessments plus the paymect of 3 $% of the annual  ialary of         of covenant theology was its covenant soteriology and  es-
each minister desiring to benefit from- it. No minister is          chatology." Murray also aserts that "it would not be, how-
compelled to contribute to this fund. The matter is optional        ever, in the interests of theological conversation or theological
with each one. Those who do contribute receive upon retire-         progress for us to think that the covenant theology is in all

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

  respects definitive and that there is no further need for cor-      then the idea of stipulations and conditions devised by
  rection, modification, and expansion. Theology must always          mutual consultation and agreed  upon as the`terms of engage-
  be undergoing reformation." He concludes this introduction          ment need not to be present even `in human covenants. There
  with the following : "It appears to me that covenant theology,      is, of course, the bond of committment to one another, but
  notwithstanding the finesse of analysis with which it was           so profound and all-embracing is this committment that the
  worked out and the grandeur of its articulated systematiza-         notion of contractual stipuiations recedes  intg the back-
  tion, needs recasting. We would not presume to claim that           ground or disappears  en&ely. To say the least, the case is
  we shall be so successful in this task that the reconstruction      such in thtse instances of human relationship that no  evi-'
  will displace and supersede the work of the classis covenant        clence can be derived from them  Yo support  the idea of
 theologians. But with their `help we may be able to contribute       mutual contract or compact."
 a little towards a more biblically articulated and formulated
                                         0                                Next Murray considers the covenants made by man with
 construction of the covenant concept and of its application          God. He `points out several instances of this kind of
 to our faith, love, and hope." _                                     covenant revealed in the  Okl Testament: For instance,
        In his study of the definition of the term `covenant',        "In the days of Joshua the people said, `The Lord
 Professor Murray concludes from the writings of a large              our God will we serve, and unto his` voice will we hearken'
number of theologians of the past that "from early times in           (Jos. XXIV: 24, T.v.), and in answer to this promise `Joshua
 the era of the Reformation and throughout the development            made a covenant with the people that day, and set them d
 of the covenant theology the formulation has been deeply             statute and an ordinance in Shechem.' He  al& refers you
 affected by the idea that a covenant is a compact dr agree-          to II Kings.  11:17; II Kings  23:3,  T.v.; Ezra  10:3. Then
 ment between two parties." Here the professor quotes such he continues : "These are instances of covenanting with God
 men as Bullinger, Ursinus, Preston, Perkins, Van Mastricht,          We cannot fail to note that what is in the forefront in these
 Turretine, Cocceius and Witsius. According to Murray thesd           cases is not a contract or compact. Strictly speaking, it is
 theologians consider the covenant as some sort of a mutual           not an agreement. Though the persons: entering into covenant
 compact or. agreement between God and man, or, God and               agree to do certain- things, the precise thought is not that of
 the elect sinner, according to which God promises to  be             5greement  by the people among themselves, nor a mutual
 gracious  and favorable to him, while the latter binds him-          agreement between the people and the Lord. We must dis-
 self to faith and  repentance.  Faith and repentance. are a          tinguish between devising terms of kgreement  or striking an
 certain condition man fulfills  tb the obtaining of the  covenant    agreement, on the one hand, and the agreement cif consent
 favor.                                                               or committment on the other. What we find in these in-
     When the professor, however, begins to search the Scrip-         stances is solemn promissory committment to faith or troth
 tures to see whether these things are true, he discovers             on the part of the people concerned. They find themselves in
 something quite cliff erent. In his study of the concept bond to- be faithful to the Lord in accordance with His
 `covenant' in the Word of God, Murray, first of all, considers       revealed will. The covenant is solemn pledging of devotion
 the covenants between men. For example, the covenants                to God, unreserved and unconditional committment to His
 between  Abraham  and Abimelech, Isaac and Abimelech,                service. We are far away from the idea of a bond as sealed
 Laban  and Jacob, Joshua and the  ,Gibeonites,  David and            on the acceptance of certain prescribed stipulations and the
 Jonathan, etc.  Conclrning  these he writes : "It must be            promise of fulfillment of these stipulations on the condition
 said, first of all, that, even should it be true that in these       that other parties to the  contrsct fulfill the conditions im-
 covenants the idea of mutual compact is central, it does not.        posed upon them. The thought is rather that of unreserved,
 follow that the idea of compact is central in or essential td        .whole-hearted  committment."
 the covenant relation which ,God constitutes with man. We               Under this same heading the  professor also treats of
 have to recognize a parity existing between men which can-           "Divine covenants." Here he refers to those of  "God's
 not obtain in the relation between God and man . . . ." "In          creative and proviclehtial ordinances."
 the second place, it needs to be nqted that the .LXX in these           The author then considers in order: "The Post-Diluvian
 cases renders the Hebrew berith by the Greek word diatheke.          Noahic Covenant," "The Abrahamic Covenant," "The' Mo-
 This is significant bedause if mutual compact belonged to            saic Covenant," "The Davidic Covenant," and the "Covenant
 the essence of covenant in these cases, we should have ex-           in the New Testament."
 pected the translators to use suntheke.  To say the least this          Space will not allow me to quote him ai! length concern-
 raises our suspicion that the LXX translators were not               ing each of these phases of the covenant, but what he says
 governed by the thought of mutual agreement when thky                is interesting indeed. Allow me to give you a few examples.
 came to these instances of covenantal human relation-                Concerning the Noahic Covenant, he calls attention to tha
 ships . .  ." "In the third place,. when we examine some of          following features :
 the instances in question we`shall  discover that the thought           "1. It is God's covenant in that it is conceived' devised,
 of pact or contract is not in the foreground . . .  ." "If this      &terminecl,  established' confirmed, and dispensed by. God
 analysis of the nature of these human covenants is correct,          Himself.


                                              TH.E  STANL)ARD   BEARER                                                              407

    2: It is universal in its scope, a convenant  not only with
Noah but with his seed after him and with every living
creature . . . . This places -in obvious relief the fact that it I I                  CONTRIBUTIONS
affkcts  for good even those who do not have any intelligent!
understanding of its meaning. The covenant operates for                                      Wat is Waarheid?
good to such an extent that its benefits are not contingent               Ongeveer een jaar na de  Boerefioorlog  bezochten  som-
upon intelligent appreciation of the covenant or of the bene-         mige Boerengeneraals Nederland, met het  doe1 om door
fits which are dispensed in terms of it . . . .                       redevoeringen gelden  te verzamelen voor de wederopbouw
    3. It is an  ,unconditional  covenant. This feature is, of        hunner verbrande  hoeven  en verwoeste landerijen.
course, co-ordinate with the fact that intelligent understand-            Door heel het land werden kerken en zalen voor hen
ing is not indispensable to the reception of its benefits. But        geopend om hun zaak te bepleiten.
the particular consideration now in view is that no  -corn-               Uit een iler redevoeringen is me deze aanhaling bij ge-
mandment is appended which could be construed as the                  bleven .. ,,We.  sijn overgeleverd  aan de  Nzctspolitiek   vam
condition upon which the promise to be filfilled.  And there          E`rtgeland."  (De generaal  had zeker de uitspraak van Kajafas:
is not the slightest suggestion to the effect that the,covenant       op het oog.)
could be annulled by human unfaithfulness or its blessing                 Onwillekeurig derik.ik  tegenwoordig nog al ee& na over
forfeited by unbelief; the thought of breaking the covenant           dat gezegde van dien Boerengeneraal in verband  met onze
is inconceivable. The confirmation given is to the opposite           huidige kerkelijke  troebelen. Ik stel tie  we1 eens voor de
effect. In a word, the promise is unconditional.                      vraag is hier ook een sooit nuttigheids politiek in het spel ?
    4. The covenant is intensely and pervasively monergistic.         De beschuldigingen die. onze leiders naar het hoofd worden  .
Nothing exhibits this more clearly than the fact that the sign        geslingerd zijn die op waarheid gegrond ? Of komen  ze
attached to attest and seal the divine faithfulness and the           soms uit de mond van valsche gettiigen  ? Het gaat over de
irrevocability of God's promise is one produced by conditions         Split niet waar ?
over which God alone has control and in conriection with                  Heeft Ds. Hoeksema met woord en pen daar niet tegen,
which there is rigid exclusion of human co-operation . . . .          gewaarschuwd  ? Is het niet te over bekend dat door Ds.
    5. It is an everlasting covenant . . .  .The.  perpetuity is      Hoeksema  `i4 is  aangehaald  als een gebeurtenis waarvan
bound up with its divinely unilateral and monergistic char-           een  herhalitig  verreikende gevolgen kan mee brengen? Waar
acter . . . . These features  of'the covenant plainly evince that     vecht men dan tegen ? Tegen de gevolgen  wdarvoor  men
this covenant is a sovereign, divine administration, that it is       is gewaarschuwd, en  zich zelf op den hals heeft gehaald ?
such in its conception, determination, disclosure, confirmation,          Het wil me voorkomen dat de, geesten die lang hebben
and fulfillment, that it is an administration or dispensation         gesluimerd, thans openbaar  worden.  Is misschien met de
of forbearance and goodness, that it is not conditioned by            oprichting van Concordia een voorspel begonnen waarvan
or dependent upon faith or obedience on the part of men . . ."        men nu het volle  accoord kan beluisteren? Men bazelt op
   I am sorry that I have to stop here. What Murray has               de preekstoel van liefde en yerdraagzaamheid,  doch men kan
to say about the other phases of the covenant is most in-             niet nalaten. en men schaamt  zich niet onze leiders na te
teresting. I will, therefore, the Lord willing, continue this         bootsen  en belachelijk voor te stellen, daarbij vergetende
article in the next issue. Though Professor Murray says               dat men zich laat kennen met welke geest men inwendig be-
things a little differently perhaps than we would say them,           zield is.
he  nev$rtheless  has seen- things  which  the majority, including        Men is' gelijk aan een zeker soort aap die uit pure liefd&
our opponents in our present controversy, do not see.                 zijn jongen dobd knijpt. Soms zou men denken  dat Darwin
                                                             M.S.     nog we1 eens gelijk heeft gehad.
           :                                                              Ook The Reformed Guardian laat zich in dezen ook niet
                                                                      onbetuigd. Men meet we1 durven als men de artikelen van
                                                                      Ds. Hoeksema bestempeld als  tactics  die ons  doen herinneren
       ALL NATIONS, CLAP YOUR HANDS                                   aan die van Stalin en Hitler. En om dan zijn  beschuldigin-
                                                                      gen te besluiten met de  wensch  : "May God grant repentance,
                All nations, clap your hands,
                   Let shouts of triumph ring,                        according to His will! That the breach may be healed even,
                 For mighty over all the lands                        at this late hour."
                                                        -
                   The Lord Most High is King                             Volkomen mee eens Ds.  DeBoer. We  willen   dopen  dat
                                                                      uw  wensch   opr&ht  gemeend is,  doch daar vloeit dan ook
                 Above our mighty foes                                uit voort een hartgrondige schuldbelijdenis van  uw artikel
                   He gave us power to siand,                         in de Reformed Guardian van March 10, 1954. Zonder een
                 And as our heritage He chose                         oprechte belijdenis bestaat er geen vergeving, en is  toena-
                   The goodly promised land.                          dering onmogelijk.
                                                   Psalm  47:1,-Z                                                 J.  R .   VanderWal


                                  -- -~.__-  __._~._ --~-~.--~  - __l__.
 408                                          T*HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                             .
           Report of Eastern Ladies League                                        BE  THOU MY HELPER  .IN. THE STRIFE
                                                                                                             ,
        Our Spring meeting of the Ladies League of the Prot.                       Be Thou my Helper in the strife,
 Ref. Churches, which was held May  ~4, 1954, at Fourth                               0 Lord, my strong Defender be;
 Prot. Ref. Church was opened by singing two Psalter num-                          Thy mighty shield protect my life,
 bers, after which our president,.  Mrs. F.  Harbin,  opened                        .Thy spear confront  the enemy.
 with prayer, read Isa. 51  and.  welcomed all the ladies present.                 Amid the conflict, 0 my Lord,
 We then enjoyed a vocal quartet from  ~Priscilla Society of                          Thy. precious promise let me hear,
 First Church and our president introduced our speaker for            ._%          The faithful, reassuring word :
 the evening, Rev. M. Schipper, of South Holland, Ill. His                         I am  ,thy Savior, do not fear.
 topic was "`The Joy of The Redeemed" as based on Isa.
 51:ll.                                                                            Ashamed, confounded let them be
        1) Fact of Joy. Every child of God experiences this                           Who seek my ruin and disgrace:
very real  and personal joy even in distress and sorrow.                           0 let Thy angel fight  .for me,
 Isaiah was exhorting Zion to rejoice even in captivity- a                            And drive &foes before his face.
 picture of our earthly bondage. So, we must rejoice; for                          Without a cause my life they sought,
                                                                                      Without a cause their plots they laid;
 Christ, alone, has  unconditonally,  paid our ransom for sin
 to Jehovah.  _                                                                    Themselves within their snares be `caught,
                                                                                      And be my crafty foes dismayed.
    2) `Character of Joy. Even as God met His people  on
 Mount Zion in Jerusalem, so o& Zion, which is manifested                          My soul is joyful in the Lord,
 on earth in the Church, shall be realized in Heaven. So, the;                        In His salvation I rejoice ;
 Elect can experience this joy on the way to Zion, even  in                        To Him my heart will praise accord
 sickness and death, This joy is very particular and only for                      . And bless His Name with thankful voice.
 the Elect; for the world has no joy and there is no  peBce                        For  ~who, 0 Lord, is like to Thee,
 for the wicked.           _                                                         Deiender  of the poor and meek?
    3) Manifestation  of. Joy. God speaks to us of this joy,                       The needy Thy salvation see
 only through the pure preaching of the Word ; so, we feel                           When  mighty foes their ruin seek.
 especially joyful now, aftkr having separated ourselves from
 heretical preaching.                                                              Unrigliteous witnesses have stood
                         Neither can  we  find this joy in the                       And told of crimes beyond belief;
 company of the wicked ; for when we walk in sin the Spirit                        Returning evil for my good,
 is grieved and is removed from our consciousness  ; but when                        They overwhelm my soul with grief:
 God sends repentance, not as condition but as a fruit of our                      When in affliction they were sad,
 salvation, we.may again be joyful. This joy in Christ should                        I wept and made their grief my own;
 also be reflected by us as mothers in our home, to our chil-                      But in my  trouble they are glad
 dren and in our every walk of life so our children may also                         And srtive that I may be o'erthrown.
 learn to rejoice.
    4) Comfort of Joy. Otir only comfort lies in the fact that                     -0  Lord,   ho\?  1oQg  wilt Thou delay?
 our Salvation is sure,because it rests on God's Almighty arti                       My soul for Thy salvation waits;
 and He has promised us in His unchangeable decree, that                           My thankfulness I will display
 He has overcome darkness and will be true to us to eternity.                        Amid the crowds that thiong Thy gates.
    After this edifying talk, opportunity was given to ask                         Let not my enemies rejoice
 questions of Rev. Schipper on his speech.                                           And wrongfully `exult o'er me  ;
    While singing a Psalter number, a collection was taken                         They speak not peace, but lift their voice
to defray expenses, after which a short business meeting                             To tr&ble those that peaceful be.
was held. After hearing another selection from the quartet,                        My foes with joy my woes survey,
 Rev. Schipper closed with prayer. Our evening ended with --                        But Thou, 0  I&d, hast seen it all ;
refreshmerits  served by ladi-es from Fourth Church and the                        0 be no longer .fai away,
 Ladies Aid of First Church.                                                         Nor silent when on Thee I' call,
    We feel that God has richly blessed us by allowing us to                       0 haste to iny- deliverance now,
meet in true,,Christian  fellowship and,we pray that He may                          0 Lord, my righteous cause maintain ;
give us grace so that all of our future activities may be done                     `My Lord and God alone art Thou ;
only to the glory of His most Holy Name.                                            -' Awake, and make Thy justice plain.
                                `Mrs. Geo. De Vries, Reporter                                                               Psalm 35 :l-6
                                                                                                                      .,


