     VOLUME  xxx1                            DECEMBJI.R   1,  I~~~-GRAND  RAPIDS, MICHIGAN                               Nuimm  5

I                                                                        The way of the devil is the way of the lie and the false
      .M%DITATION.                                               I prophecy. It is the dark way of sin.
                                                                          Now, from the cradle to the grave, we solely, wholly and
                                                                       exclusively walk on the way of the devil-  if nothing hap-
                     S i n g l e m i n d e d n e s s                   pens to change `us.
                  . . . . How long halt ye between two opinions?          With both our spiritual feet we walk on the way of dark-
                                                   I Kings  18:Zlb     ness and the lie : as a child, young man and. greybeard. There
     Elijah's time is dark.                                            is no halting there. All the thoughts of the imaginations of
     Historical Israel was under the dominion of the .Prince           our heart is only evil continually. We simply hate God and
of darkness.                                                           hate,.our  fellowmen. I say simply, and I mean with that
     Its king was spiritually an adulterer: the wicked  Ahab!' ,word  :' singlemindedly we persist and endeavour to please
     Its queen : the heathen princess Jezebel.                         self and the devil. We are in covenant with the prince of
     The people : "walked in vanities."                                darkness, his willing slaves. And we walk. We are at peace
     Its spiritual leaders : 450` Baa1  priests, while Elijah -fled    with our state and condition. There is no doubt about it.
to the deserts and the God-fearing Obadiah hid God's pro-              Our entire manifestation of life is a loud cry: We belong to '
phets in companies of fifty.. From the wrath of wicked doers.          the devil, the lie, the false prophecy. And what of it! "Mer-
     Certainly a sorry-plight.                                         rily we go to hell ! !"
     And the worst shadow of this picture is that the people               There is no halting there. There is only one plane.
bowed themselves before the golden calves at Bethel and Dan            Principally it is  ,the plane of hell. It is the plane that will
and cried ; Thou art Jehovah `Who led us out of Egypt, out             cause no surprise to its sojourners thereon when it will find
of the house of bondage. The very worst was that they still            them in outer darkness.
called themselves with the name of the God of the heavens                  But no halting on that plane.
and the earth.                                                                                    *  * * *
     This last sin is greater than open and exclusive idolatry.            Entirely different it is, however, when we are born in the
     It made the people halt before God and man.                       line of continued generations of God's covenant people. Then
     And to halt is ridiculous, it even partakes of the ludicrous.     we see before our eyes an entirely different plane. Prin-
     So that Elijah would call  the.elders  and the officers of        cipally the plane of that Covenant is heaven. Our walk is in
the people together and ask them : How long halt ye between            heaven. And even as little children we notice in the eyes, the
two opinions ?                                                         face, the words, the songs, the dress, the  behaviour  in a
     Literally speaking, halting is the result of walking on           thousand ways of God's regenerated and converted people.
two different planes. When the right foot is walking `on a                 Then we see the light of the world and that is Jesus.
plane that is a few inches-above the plane of the left foot, we
halt. And the result is seen in the waddling and limping and               Moreover, from morning to night, from the early chanting,
swaying of the entire body.         _                                  of our children's songs to the pastor's visit at our deathbed
     Notice in the first place that. this halting in a spiritual       we are taught to say and to walk and to behave on that plane
way is only, found, can only be found, in the sphere of the            of the heavens of heavens. Before we are aware of it, we are
Covenant. For there the two planes are revealed. The one               assmiling  the outward manifestation  of a walk  that is in the
plane is the way of God and the other the way of the devil.            clouds.
     The way of God is in His sanctuary where we learn to                  And when the heart is not renewed through God's ever-
know His will, statutes, ordinances and .judgments.  It is the         lasting mercy, we become halters.  We become of all  people
high way. It is the walk in the light.                                 the most-miserable.. It were better never to have been born,


9s                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

than to be born and live unregenerated among God's chosen                     No, but here is the difference. The halter loves sin from
ones on earth.                                                            the heart and is merely afraid of God. But he who is walking
      Then we become a double mockery to  the- world.  It's-              on the plane of heaven, even in spite of all his sinning, loves
awful.                                                                    God from the heart and loves all God's virtues. He has really
      You see, we  love, the devil and sin: our hearts never              and essentially only one desire and that is: to dwell in the
changed but, you see, eternity -is so long, so awfully long.              House of the Lord and to search in His tabernacle.
And the lurid flames of hell with the tortuous writhings of                   No, the choice must be made. Why halt ye on two opin-
the damned are so terrible. From our youth on we listened                 ions  ? Make the choice. And usually when the choice is made,
to the plaints and wailings of the Rich  man. in the flame.               that choice is hell. It seemed different in Elijah's time. But
"That he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool                 the crying of the multitude when  fire devoured the water
my tongue !" No, we better stay with the church!                          soaked sacrifice was more of terror than of love. As sub-  1
      Yet, the heart and flesh lust and hunger and.  yearn for            sequent history shows. No matter how much and how purely
Baa1  and Ashtaroth. Church and the Word of God is so in-                 we hear and see the Gospel. We finally and in the last
sipid and dry. I would almost vomit of the ever recurring                 analysis choose sin and the devil.
theme of that Jesus on the Cross : the heart of _the Gospel.                  If we do not, it is because eternal mercy gave us a better
And my opinion is that the world and all its lures and pro-' choice.
-mises of the thrill are not so bad after all.           j                    If we embrace Christ, it is because He embraced us first.
      And slowly .on, we are in the pew on Sunday and in the                                            8 * *  8
dancehall on Saturday night. Or, to speak in the language of                  But choose we must. And ministers and teachers and
Elijah's time: I am bowing before the calves in Bethel and                parents do well to talk much about this choice, when history
have Jehovah's blessed name on my lips. "Thou, Who                        reveals a `halting church-life or offspring.
broughtest us up out of Egypt, the house of bondage . . . !" '                It is necessary. First of all for God's sake. When the
      Ludicrous and ridiculous halting? Attend to this : Here             membership are so devilish as to partake of the bread and
is my dollar for the budget, Oh, Jehovah ! `Tis Sunday. And :             wine, but also of the harlot and the devil, it is time that the
Here is my $5.00 for the glee of devils ! With one foot I try             knife of Christian censure bring the choice about. When
to walk in heavenly spheres and with the other foot I walk                children pray by the table but curse expressly the Name with-
on  #hell's  dancefloor. Or  :.  dn Sunday I sit in the pew and           in the camp, it is well that Elijah's prophecy is quoted and
shiver when I hear from above the language of the light;                  the choice be born.
but during the week I sit in the theater and laugh and scream                 For God's sake. Because His name is slandered as the
with riotous glee : it's so funny !                                       day is long. It does not escape the eye of the out and out
                             *  *  *.*                                    world when those who bear the Triune Name on their fore-
      No, it is necessary that I make a choice.                           head are seen in the dance and the riotous living. And the,
      This cannot go on. Jesus said: I would thou wert cold               foolish world reasons from the children to the Father. Are
.or hot. It is all the same thing: to be halting on two opinions          these God's children ? What a farce is the church of God !
or to be lukewarm. Both will be spewn from His blessed                    And hell keeps holiday when God's Name is slandered. Make
mouth. This cannot go on.                                                 the choice for God's sake.
      Hence,. Elijah says; If Jehovah be indeed God, follow                   But also for your own sake.
Him ; but if Baa1  be, follow him.                                            It `seems to me that the mixture of the theater and the
      Notice, first of all, there is no third alternative. It's either    church make for a miserable life. I do not envy the three
Jehovah or Baal. You either walk with both feet on the                    years of Judas' walk with Jesus. It must have been awful.
plane of heaven or you walk with Baa1  on the plane of the                Imagine yon pharisee. He enters the home of the widow.
devil. When someone therefore halts, it is not because he' With pious words and "pious" countenance he says : Let us
really walks with God and also with the devil. That is im-                pray. And while he prays a very long prayer he is studying
possible: No, this halting is really also a walk of darkness.             ways and means to eat her home. It is not nice to have the
But is the worst manifestation of it. As the walk of the                  ever recurring reminder of Jehovah's name about you and
Pharisees and Scribes : they walked in complete darkness                  to iove sin and the world's pleasures'within.  It is abominable
and really hated  -God. But they said : We are children of                to the world even. They hate us, but they despise the hypo-
God and have Abraham for a father. No, halting is only a                  crite. Oh, be cold or hot.
matter of opiniouts. Their testimony was : We love God. But                   This does not mean that to be cold is pleasing to God.
they killed His Son. They were the worst manifestation of                 But it does, mean to be lukewarm will call for greater con-
the walk of hell.                                                         demnation and stripes. No, to be cold is also sin. But to
 ' Also, notice, that to be hot, or to walk on the plane of               say : Lord, Lord ! While loving sin and the devil is abomin-
heaven does not mean that we are without  -sin.  -That the                able.
world does not have snares for us or that the devil has no                    Neither does it mean that we would not say and preach:
access to our hearts at all.                                              be hot! That is the demand, the command of God. Even


                                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                              99

     the devil has no business to be devil. All things ought to
     praise God and love Him For that is good and praise is
                            /                                                                      T H E   STANPARD   B E A R E R
     c o m e l y .                                                                      Se&i-monthiy, excep nzonthbj  during July and Augu.@
         Finally : follow Him. If `Jehovah is God, follow Him.                       Published by  &~`REYFORM~~  FREE PUBLISHING  ASIOCZATION
         Be ye followers of God as beloved children and walk in                    P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids  7?  Mich.
     love.                                                                                            Editor - REV. HERMAN HOEKS~A
         That is good.- Oh, to love the Lord and to love your                      Communications relative to contents should be addressed to Rev.
     neighbour: how sweet a walk. To be imitators of the Most                      H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
     High : how unspeakably blessed.                                               All m&ters  relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
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         Oh, no, I do not mean first of all the reward of such a                   Announcements and  Oibituaries   mu&  be mailed to the above
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     be cold or lukewarm is to be miserable as the day of life is                  RENEWALS:  Unless a definite request for discontinuance is re-
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     plane is sweet and pleasurable even now. In the keeping of                                         Subscriptian  price: $4.00 per year
     His law there is a great reward. A reward of peace in the                      Entered as Second Class matter at Grand Rapids, Michig&
     heart. And with all our miseries because of the sin in our
     members that we hate, we sing. And our song improves with
     the singing. Angels accompany us.
         When we begin to be merry.
         In the Father's House.                                                                                  CONTENT>S
                                                                      G.V.
                                  * * *  *                                      MEDITATION  -                                 /
                                                                                      "Singlemindedness" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                    . . . 97
                                                                                             Rev. G. Vos
                           I N   M E M O R I A M                                EDITORIALS  -
        The  Board  of the Eastern League of Men's Society hereby                      "The Heart of the Matter". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . , . . ..lOO
     expresses its loss of a faithful brother and fellow member in the                       Rev.  H, Hoeksema
     sudden death of                                                            As  TO  BOOKS  -
                                 MR. N. KUNZ                                          Inleiding in de Zendingswetenschap.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                . ..lOZ
                                                                                      De Gereformeerde Zede . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                       . ..102
        May our God abundantly comfort the bereaved by, His Word                       Ellicott's Commentary. on the Whole Bible. . . . . . . .                                       . ..lOZ
     and Spirit and powerfully strengthen  I them in the hope of the                         Rev. H. Hoeksema
     saints.                                                                    OUR DOCTRINE -
                                               The Board                              The Triple Knowledge (Part III-Of Thankfulness) . ..103.
                                             Rev. Hanko, President                           Rev. H. Hoeksema
                                             Mr. J. Oomkes, Secretary           THE DAY  OP SHADOWS-
                                  * *       *  *                                      Exposition  :of Isaiah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .            . ..105
                                                                                             Rev. G. M. Ophoff
                                 IN MEMORIAM                                    F R O M H O L Y  W R I T -
                                                                                      Exposition od II Timoltihy 2:15-19..  . . . . . . . _ . . . . . . . . . . . . .107
        The  Consistory of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull,                           Rev. G. Lubbers
     Iowa, hereby expresses its sincere sympathy with Elder Peter               IN HIS  FEAR-
     Jansma, in the death of his brother                                               "More Sltiaws" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109
                           ANDREW JANSMA                                                     Rev. J. A. Heys
                                                                                CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH -
        Our prayer is that our Heavenly Father may comfort him in                      Tlhe  Churoh  and the Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
     his bereavement.                                                                        Rev. H.  Veldman
                                           Nick Kooiker, Vice President
                                           John Hoekstra, Vice Secretary.       THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS  -
                                                                                      The Canons `of D,ordrecht  (Art. 14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113
                                  :x  +     *  *                                             Rev. H. C.  Hoe&ma
                                                                                DECENCY AND  ORDER-
                             IN MEMORIAM                                               "The Ministry of the Word" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                     . ..115
                                                                                             Rev.  ,G.  Vanden   Berg
        The Ladies' Society of the Protestant Reformed Church of
     South Holland, Illinois, wishes hereby to express its sympathy to          ALL AROUND  Us-
     its fellow  memb~ers,  Mrs. Frank Van  Baren and Mrs. Michael Van                Woman Suffrage in the Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . _ . . .                                 . ..117
                                                                                             Rev. M.  Schipper
     Baren in the sudden death of
I                            JAMES KUIPER                                      - CONTRIBUTIONS -
                                                                                      Koks   Co~rruptions            . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    . ..119
                                                                                             H. A. Van  Putten
         May the God of all grace comfort the relatives  with,His   all-
     sufficient grace.
                                             John Van  Baren, President
                                              Mrs.`J. Van  Baren, Secretary


1 0 0                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                    the resurrection of Christ; that the law as well as the gospel
           E-  Q I  -I-  0 R I. A  1 S                              can cause us to enter into the kingdom of heaven; that, be-
                                                                    fore the coming  of Christ, some have lived without sin ; that
                                                                    grace is note necessary to live a holy life ; that grace is given
                The  Heait of  ihe Matter                           to man according to his merit. ,
                                                                        It stands to reason that, when Augustine opposed this
    The  later it becomes in the day of the recent history of       Pelagian doctrine, he must needs come  to the doctrine of
o&Protestant Reformed Churches, the more it becomes and .predestination.  The truth of total depravity and that of ab-
will become apparent that the heart of the whole matter is          solutely sovereign grace  are-  inseparably connected.
the doctrine of election and the truth of sovereign grace.            Only one that teaches that God, on His part, is `willing to
    This we should never forget.                      -             save all on condition of faith, can teach that it is our act
    This truth the Prdtestant Reformed Churches always              of conversion that causes us to enter into the kingdom of God.
wanted and still want to maintain.
    But this truth those that. apostatized from us and from.            On the contrary, one that maintains the truth of Scripture
                                                                    that God does not promise salvation to every man on con-
those churches deny.                                                dition of faith, but that He saves only His  elect,*  will also
    They majr claim, as they still do, that they ark Protestant
Reformed and that they  are'the  continuation of the Prot-          insist that, not our act of conversion, but only the power of
                                                                    God's predestinating grace can cause us to enter into `the
estant Reformed Churches, no one with a sound and un-
prejudiced mind will believe them and history will surely           kingdom of heaven.
justify us in claiming that not they but we are the Protestant          Hence, through the controversy with Pelagius, Augustine
Reformed Churches.                                                  was led to a deeper contemplation of predestination and God's
    They may seek refuge in all kinds of lies, slander and          sovereign grace.
false quotations, and even become guilty of perjury, as they          He emphasized that man is utterly dependant upon sover-
do, this merely corroborates the fact above mentioned and           eign grace and, therefore, on sovereign election, to know or
even shows that their own conscience condemns them.                 to will or-to do any good at all. Nor can anyone make himself
   And when all the dust of lying and camouflage is raised          ready or worthy to receive this grace. Grace is strictly first
and the ecclesiastical sky is cleared up;history  will justify,     and  absoluiely  sovereign. And this grace is bestowed only
not them, but us.                                                   on the elect, through the Holy Spirit that is given unto them.
                                                                    Man can do nothing about it. The Holy Spirit is the great
                                                                    gift of God, the beginner and perfecter of all the work of
    The history of doctrine clearly shows that what calls it-       salvation, and this Spirit is given only to the elect.
self church in the world never maintained and stood four-              The point I wish to make, however, in this connection, is
squarely, fox--any prolonged period of time, on the truth of        that the church as a whole and officially did not maintain this
election and reprobation and of the sovereign grace of God          truth very long in all its-purity.
in the salvation of the, sinner.
   We but have to mention the names of Augustine, Calvin,              Even in his lifetime it was already denied or, at least,
the Synod of  Qordrecht,   Kok,  Kuyper, to verify this state-      camouflaged.
ment.                                                                  `That those whd always  were enemies of the truth of
   Augustine. we know defended the truth of sovereign               predestination attacked him does not surprise us, of course.
grace over against Pelagius. And over against all opposition           They were especially men like Coelestius and Julianus.
he became more strongly confirmed in this truth as the years           It is interesting to note. that they came with the same
of his life sped by.                                                arguments which the opponents of this truth advance today.
   The question that was in dispute between Augustine and           They appeal to such passages of Scripture as I Tim. 2  :4,
Pelagius was, strictly speaking, not directly concerned with        Matt. 23  :37, and  Ram.  2  :4. But they also adduced other
the truth of predestination.                                        arguments such as that the doctrine of predestination implies
   It rather was concentrated about the total depravity  of         the acceptance of the person, that it makes God the author of
man:                                                                sin, that it denies the responsibility of man, that it is deter-
   Pelagius taught, as is. evident especially from the teach-       minism and fatalistic.
5ngs  of his chief disciple, Coelestinus, that Adam would.have         But also Augustine's disciples began to have questions.
died even if he had not sinned; that all children are born             In his lifetime there arose those that are known as Semi-
in the same state and condition in which Adam stood before          pelagians. They taught that God, on  ,His part, is ready to
the fall ; that the sill of Adam, therefore, concerend him alone    save all men, that God's calling comes to all men, but that,
and not the whole human race;. that, whereas the whole              while God seriously offers salvation to all, all do not accept
human race was not corrupted in Adam and dies because of            it. Only those are saved that believe and these God has from
his sin, all do not participate in  the. resurrection  through      eternity  choSen  in his fdreknowledge.


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B.EARER                                                    101

    When these. Semi-pelagians  spread their doctrine, which          capable of choosing the good. He is  only.weakened.   Thk
soon was embraced by many, Prosper, one of the disciples              seeds of virtue are still implanted in. his soul, but they can
of Augustine addressed several questions to him, and from the         sprout only through God's grace. Man, therefore, has a
very nature of these questions it is evident that even he is in       certain receptivity for the grace of God. He has a free will
doubt and is .in need of more light. He `w?uld like Au&tine           and this cooperates with the grace of God in the internal call-
to show very clearly what danger there is in the semi-pelagian        ing. God~certainly  wills that all men shall be saved. The call
conception, he points out that even the fathers before Augus-         of the gospel comes to all. And that many are not saved is
tine had taught a predestination which  is. based on                  dtie, only to *an's rejection of God's calling. God's election
foreknoivledge,  and  especially  would he like  Augustipe  to        is based on His foreknowledge. Of reprobation they must
show that the doctrine of predestination does not eliminate           have nothing. All men can be saved if they  only* will.
the ethical choice of the will of &an.    ,                               It is true that the teachings of Augustine still -found de-
 , From these very questions it is evident that even Prosper,         fenders.  Agorig these was Prosper; whom we mentioned
one of the  m&t faithful disciples of Augustine, began to             before. But their defense was very half hearted. They con-
question Augustine's presentation of the truth of predestina-         ceded too much- to the opposition. Prosper, for instance,
tion.                                                                 certainly, maintained the doctrine of election and reprobation,
    Augustine, however, answered all these questions  .in two         2nd especially the ,former  he wants  to explain only from the
tracts. In these he maintains very strongly the truth of              good pleasure of  God. But  next to this, he also teaches  a-
election and reprobation, enters rather broadly into the veri-        general will of God for the salvation of all men. It  stancls
OLIS   questions asked him, and emphasizes that his  .doctrine  is    to reason that, in the light of this general will of God unto
not based on any philosophical arguments, but only on the             salvatign  the doctrine of reprobation could not be maintained.
testimony of Holy Writ.                                               That many are lost cannot be attributed to God's will of rep-
    However,. the opponents were not convinced by `these              robation but only to their own *will. That many are saved is
tracts.                                                               because of God's gracious election, but that some are lost is
                                                                      caused only by their own rejection of the grace of God.
    This could be expected.                                               Thus came the synod of Orange in 529.
The  acdeptance  of the doctrine of Predestination, with
election and reprobation, is. not according to man. It is not             This synod has often been characterized as standing on
a matter of logical argument. It is above all a matter of the         the basis  bf Augustine's doctrine Of election and reprobation
regenerated heart that,  uncqnditionally,  accepts the clear          and fully maintaining the Augustinian doctrine of predestina-
testimony of Scripture. It implies, above all, the full acknowl-      tion.
edgement that God is GOD- and that,, therefore; He is ab-                 Nothing could be farther from the truth.
solutely sovereign,. also in the matter of the salvation of mati.        It was rather clearly evident that the synod was very
And this acknowledgement is always in conflict with our               much afraid of the strict doctrine of `predestination as Au-
carnal nature.                                                        gustine- had maintained it.
    Instead, therefore, of allowing themselves to be persuaded            It is true that the. synod confessed the total incapability of
`by the arguments of Augustine, the semi-pelagians  strength-         the natural man to do any good. But, on the other hand, the
ened themselves in their opposition. With all sorts of human          ihfallability  and irresistibility of the grace of God was denied.
arguments they blasphemed the truth of predestination and             As to the doctrine of predestination, the synod really said
placed it in  a_ very unfavorable light.  -Once  more they argued     nothing at all about a reprobation, but thought it sufficient
that Augustine's doctrine was fatalistic, that by it men are          to reject a predestination to evil. They assumed `really a
driven into sin and death. A pious life, so they aigued,  was         thoroughly  appologetic  attitude over against the  semi-pela-
of no avail since God does not want to save the reprobate             gians .
anyway. God, according to the doctrine of Augustine,  so                  May  .this bit  of early history warn us not to assume
they said, wills sin and is its creator.. The choice of man's         a half hearted attitude over against the stand of those that
will, whether it be to good or evil, means nothing since God's        have recently departed from  us  and apostatized from the
predestinatibn determines and works all things, both good             Protestant Reformed truth.
and evil.                                                                 Remember that their official stand is that the promise of
    Thus they blasphemed.                                             God is for every one, on condition-that they believe ; and that
    On the other hand, however, these men cast the accusa-            our act of conversion is a prerequisite which we must fulfill
tion of downright Pelagianism far from them. And so they              before we can enter into the kigndom of God:
assumed a position between Augustine and Pelagius, which                  Reformed ? Protestant Reformed ?
is, of course, impossible.                                                God forbid that we should ever be deceived to even
    They  believed in original sin, but denied that through           imagine that it is !
 this man is dead in sin and misery. He is not entirely in-                                                                       H.H.



         `


                          -102                                           TH'E  STA.NDARD`  B E A R E R

                                                                                                        a& criterion of all morality and  .ethics;  but the concrete
                                                AS TO BOOKS                                             interpretation and application of that law are not always the
                           I.       :                                                            s&&e. ~. Besides, the world and life in the world changes. And
                                                         :_                                             sd, the question arises: what must be considered normative
                                  I&i&g in  ds  Z~ndirtgszer~tenschp  (Introduction in the              in our day and age from a Scriptural and Reformed point of
                           Science of Missions), by Dr. J. H. Bavinck. Published by view  ?
                          J. H.  Kok,  Kampen,  .the' Netherlands.                                          In his book, Dr. Schippers also  discusses~ some-modern
                                                                                                        practical problems  such  ai-ihat of our  "spare  time"  .and of
                                  This is one- of the best books on the, subject of missions,           "amusements  ,,
                           from a Reformed viewpoint, that I have yet read. It consists                                    particularly the mevie and the theatre as we,11
                                                                                                        as the dance.' Still other problems are those of the sabbath,
                           of three parts,  The Theory of Missions,  l!$lenhs,  and the                 forced marriages,  sexual  intercourse before marriage,  and
                           History of Missions.  In  the first part the author discusses                birth control
                           the basis  of. missions, the approach of missions, and the
                           purpose, of missions. In the second part he discusses the idea,                 In regard to some of  his solutions of these problems, I
                b          place, and, task as well ai the main lines Of elenctical science             would remark: ,,Het kan wel, maar pas op !" It is possible,
                           (the science of refutation). In the third he presents the idea               but beware !-In fact, this expresses the author's own +ttitude.
                           and task of the history of missions to close with a chapter on          As.to fny own view, I would rather express my condemnatory
                           the future of missions.                                                      opin,ion more strongly. .,
                                  Once more I wish  td state that this book made a very                    But read the book; if yoti are aquainted with the Dutch.
                           good impression  eon me. If it were not for the fact that is                 It is worth while.
                           written in the Holland language I would probably  have used                                                                              H.H.
                           it in our..theological  school in my course on the Principles of
      :              Missions. It, evidently, was designed as a textbook, and for                  .       iEllicott's  Co*wmenta:~y on the Whole Bible.  Published by
                           this it is verk well adapted. What impresses me especially is                Zondervan Publishing House, Grand  Raljids,   Mich..  Eight
I                         the theological approach. Throughout Dr. Bavink empha-
                                               __                                                  .volumes. Price  Per  Vol.  $5.95.
                           sized that, not man, not even the Church, but God in Christ                    Sometifie ago I reviewed one volume of this commentary,
                           is  the Author  of- missions and that He alone gathers His                   which, at that time, was not complete. Now I  have all the
                           Church.                                                                 volumes. What I said then about the one volume I may now
I-                                From. this viewpoint, I consider the part -that treats of             r;peat  about the  whole  set
                           the mission-approach the weakest.                                               It is, of course, impossible to review and critjsize in `detail
                            I would consider it worth' ,while that someone  would                  a work of this nature. I  would  hesitate to recommend it at
                           translate this book by Dr. Bavinck.                                     all, if, during the course of~my almost forty years of ministry,
                                  Heartily- recommetided.                                               I had not become acquainted with the commentaries of Elli-
                                                                                       H.H.        cott. And on this basis I certainly recommend this  com-
                                                                            .-                     mentary very highly. It proceeds throughout from the prin-
                                  DL?  Gel-efog*s$zctiYde  Zede (The Reformed Moral(s) or               ciple that the Bible-  is. the inspired Word of  ~God and is
                     _     Morality) by Dr.  R: Schippers. Publisher J. H.  Kok, N.V. characterized by honest dealing with the text.
                     the Netherlands. Price f  7.90.  -                                                    It is a  colimentary  that can very well be used, not only
                                  The- term "zede" in the title of this book is somewhat dif- by the scholar -but also by the layman.
                           ficult to translate. "Ethics" will not do because it refers to                  I congratulate Zondervan on this reprint of a very valu-
                           the science of the  system  of moral rules,  and Dr. Schipper able commentary.
                           did not mean to write a book on that- science. Literally the                                                                             H.H.
                                                                                                                                      .,
                           translation would be "The  RefoTmed  Moral" which is some-                           `.                          .  #
                           what clumsy and, besides, in English the term "moral" is
                           generally  used in the plural. When I read the book of Dr.                                         The Court Records
                           Schippers I considered other -translations such  & "moral                       We have received sufficient signatures for the court re=
                           customs'? or `+oral, norms" because `the author again and               cords to make it possible for us to obtain them. But we are
                           again refers to what was considered normative in the past               not going to publish any more copies than  t6 give to each
                           from an ethical viewpoint and is being repudiated or criticized _  signator   a  copy. We are not  going  "in business".  on  this
                           in the  present:, But I finally decided upon the  translition I mattei,  nor attempting to make a profit. We will divide
                           offer above. Perhaps, the  ;eader or Dr.  Schipper himself              the expense by the number of those signing up,for them. If
                           can suggest a better rendering.                                         ypu desire a  Set, write  the undersigned in the very near
                                  In the above I also already briefly characterized the con-       future.
                           tents of the book. The law of God is, of course,-the standard I                                                                         J:A.H:



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                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              103

                                                                   not find them. But, "at the last came two false witnesses, and
          O U R   DOCTRI-NE                                   II said, This fellow said, I am able to' destroy the temple of
                                                                   God, and to build it in three days." This, of course, was `a
                                                                   downright distortion of the words which Christ had spoken,
             THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE                                  and therefore was false testimony. And when finally the
                                                                   high priest demanded under oath of Him to testify whether
     AN EXPOSITION OF THE HEIDELBERG  CATEC~IISM                   He was the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus spoke the truth
              PART  III  --I OF THANKFULNESS                       when He said : "Thou hast said : nevertheless I say unto you,
                                                                   Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right
                       LORD'S  DAY  43                             hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." And
                          Chapter 2                                when the high priest in mock indignation rent his clothes,
                                                                   and said that He had spoken blasphemy, he too bore false
  The Practical Implications of the Ninth Commandment              witness against the Christ. The same is true of the trial be-
    The Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 43 enumerates           fore Pilate. `He was accused before the Roman governor of
various instances of violations against the ninth command-         many things, no doubt, by the chief pl;iests and elders. And
ment. These are, in the first place, that which concerns the       the Lord did not deign to answer one thing, for the simple
pri.ncipal  meaning of the ninth commandment in the narrower       reason that He was  donvinced that they were bearing false
sense : "That I bear false witness against no man  ;" secondly,    witness against Him. This, of course, is the most terrible         .
that I do not falsify any man's words; thirdly, that I be no       illustration in all history of the sin against the ninth corn-
backbiter or slanderer; fourthly, that I do not judge, nor         mandment.
join in condemning any man rashly or unheard ; fifthly, that          Another illustration of `false testimony in judgment is
I avoid all sorts of lses and deceit as-the proper works of the    found in the Old Testament. I refer to the testimony against
devil, unless I would bring down upon me the heavy wrath           Naboth by wicked Jezebel. This also is rooted, of course,
of God. And positively, the Heidelberg Catechism explains          in hatred against the neighbor and hatred against God. But
that the ninth commandment means "that in judgment and             it was accompanied  by. the motive of selfish gain. Ahab
in all other dealings I love the truth, speak it uprightly and     coveted Naboth's vineyard. And when Naboth refused be-
confess it; also that I defend and promote, as much as I am        cause the vineyard represented the inheritance of his fathers,
able, the honor and good character of my neighbor."                Ahab was very ill-pleased, and acted like a balky child, lying
    Let us briefly attend to this explanation of the Heidel-       down upon his bed with his face- to the wall and refusing to
berg Catechism.                                                    eat, But when Jezebel found him, and the king revealed unto.
    The direct and proper meaning of this ninth command-           her why he was So ill-pleased, that wicked woman imme-
&ent in its narrower sense is that I bear no false  witriess       diately took steps to acquire the vineyard of .Naboth. She
against any man. For the commandment reads: "Thou                  wrote letters in Ahab's name, sealing them with his seal, and
shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." This           sent them to the elders and nobles that were in the city. And
means, of course, that in judgment, before the proper author-      in the letter she wrote as follows: "Proclaim a fast, and set
ities, I do not bear false testimony against the neighbor. It      Naboth on high among the people: And set two men, sons
is possible, of course, that I may be called upon to testify       of  ,Belial, before him, to bear witness against him, saying,
against him when he is accused of a misdemeanor and is             Thou didst blaspheme God and the king.  Arid then carry him
guilty according to my knowledge and conviction. In that           out, and stone him, that he may die." This was done by the
case, when I am called as a witness, I must and can speak          elders and inhabitants of the city. A fast was proclaimed,
the truth in love before God. But when as a witness I know         and two false witnesses came to testify against him as fol-
and am convinced that-he is not guilty of the crime of which       lows : "Naboth did blaspheme God and the king." Thus, not
he is accused, and in that case bear testimony against him,        only the two witnesses, the men of Belial, but also the elders
I  ain guilty of false testimony and the lie. This  ,is done       of the inhabitants of the `city became false witnesses against
from various niotives. Principally, of course, it is always        Naboth. It was a false testimony, motivated, no doubt, by
the motive of hatred ,against  the neighbor, rooted in enmity      hatred against Naboth, but with  the additional motive of
against God. For by such false testimony I seek to d&troy          selfish gain.
him. The most glaring and heinous illustration of this great           Over against this, according to the Heidelberg Catechism,
eyil is, of course, the-witness against Christ, both before the    the ninth commandment demands "that in judgment and all
 Sanhedrin and before Pilate. Christ was perfectly holy and        other dealings I love the truth, speak it uprightly and confess
sinless, and all His enemies were convinced of it. He could        it." In judgment  God requires that we always speak the
stand before them all and challenge them, "Who of you can          truth in love, whether that truth is in favor of the neighbor
convict me of sin ?" Yet, at His trial they attempted to find      or against him, and whether that truth benefits or injures us.
.false witnesses against Him.' We read in the gospel accord-           In immediate connection with' this we can also- mention .
ing to Matthew that they searched for witnesses, but could         what the Heidelberg Catechism describes as judging, or  join-


        104                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEA'RER

        ink in judging, "any man rashly or unheard." This, of course,        connection is not whether the report is true or false. The
        may also be done officially by those that are in authority,          evil  i-6port  may very, well be true? or at least partly true.
        either in the world or in the  .church. Or it may,  and- most        There is, of course, a difference between slander and back-
        frequently is, done unofficially among the brethren or in the        biting. Backbiting may spread an evil report of the neigh-
        world. If we are motivated by the love of the brother, we            bor or of the brother that is true, or at least partly true, and
        shall not condemn him rashly when he is accused of any mis-          perhaps exaggerated, and therefore partly false. But slander
        demeanor on hear-say, or rumors, thinketh no evil. Love              is always the lie. It is always a false report about the neigh-
        surely is not hasty to think or to believe evil of the neigh-        bor or brother. But backbiting and slander have this in com-
        bor, and to condemn him. Love always' seeks the well-being           `man, that they do spread an ,evil report about the neighbor,
        and the salvation and the good reputation of his name, and           and, of course, behind his back. The backbiter and slanderer
        therefore cannot hastily condemn him. If I love the brother,         have, for &me  reason or other, a delight in besmearing the
        I will not condemn him on hear-say. And if one approaches            good name of the neighbor. And this delight may have vari-
        me, and tells something evil about the brother? the love of          ous motives. It may be motivated by sheer maliciousness: I
        the brother will not incline me immediately to throw up my           may simply hate i'ly neighbor, and hating him, may have a
        hands in holy horror, and say, "Is not that terrible? I never        delight in attacking his good name and spreading some evii
        thought such a thing of him !" On the contrary,  l.ove will
                                                        r                    report about it, whether true or false. The backbiter and
        move me to say to the one that thus approaches me about the          slanderer may also conceive of his evil work as having some
' .     neighbor: "Let us go and see that brother together," before          advantage to himself. Perhaps he wants a certain position
        I will form and express any judgment against the brother.            which the neighbor is otherwise in danger of securing in-
        The ninth commandment in its positive sense demands that             stead of him  ; and it is to his advantage that he does not
        I do not condemn the brother rashly, or unheard, but that I          spread  his good report, and therefore, he would rather
        approach him personally, and thus treat him in love. To do           slander and backbite him, and speak in a derogatory way of
        contrariwise is the act of the hypocrite. Hence, the Lord            his name. Sometime it is motivated by pure- pride or vain-
        Jesus admonishes us in Matthew 7:1-5 : "Judge not, that ye           glory. In fact perhaps there is an element of pride in all
        be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be          backbiting and slander. The slanderer is like the pharisee in
        judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured          the parable who says to God and_befoye  men: "I thank thee
        to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy         Lord  that I am not as he." If the slanderer, or backbiter,
        brother's eye, but considerest nof the beam that is in thine         really felt in his own heart that he is just as bad as the
        own eye ? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull           brother whose name he besmears  and slanders, then the evil
        out the Inote out of thine eye ; and, behold, a beam is in thine     report woild' die on his lips. But back of this evil of slander
        own ,eye ? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine      and backbiting there is at least'often  the pi-etence of pride, to
        own eye ; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote       exalt one's self above the neighbor. Not infrequently too
        out ,of thy brother's eye." And  acording  to  oJhh  7:24, the       backbiting and slandering occurs when people are in com-
        Lord Says to the multitude surrounding Him : "Judge not              pany together, simply as a sort of pastime. In their conver-
`_      according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."          sation they have nothing serious and worthwhile to talk
        And in James 4  :12 we read: "There is one lawgiver, who             about. They are so vain and puffed up and superficial that
        is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest            in their conversation they cannot talk about the things of the
        another ?"                                                           Word of .God and His kingdom. And so, in order to make the
               This is closely connected, too, with the sin of backbiting    evening interest&g nevertheless, they talk about the- name of
        and slandering.  .The Heidelberg Catechism explains  the             the brother and sister, and begin to backbite and slander.
        ninth comandment  as demanding too "that I be no ~backbiter,         And when they leave, they say to one another that they had
        nor slanderer." In the positive sense of the word this means         a very enjoyable time. Again, the evilspeaker is often a
        "that I defend apd promote, as much as I am able, the honor          flatterer. While he speaks evil of the neighbor or of the
        and good chayacter  of my neighbor." The latter is the direct        brother behind his back, he flatters him to his face.
       ' opposite of the former. The backbiter and slanderer promotes           This, no doubt, is one of the most wicked and most despic-.
        as much as in him is the evil report of his neighbor, and            able forms of lying. Scripture often speaks of slander and
        certainly means to dishonor him by spreading about him an
        evil reputation, and thus to besmear his good character. Even        backbiting, and employs different terms to denote this form
        though the report about .the brother or the neighbor is pos-         of evil-speaking. The term  s&deu-er  is used in I Timothy
        sibly true, even though his reputation is not good,  and he          3 : 11, where' the apostle admonishes the congregation that
        already has a bad name, I shall never in'private conversation,       even the wives of the deacons must  `<be  grave, not slanderers,
        behind his back, spread his evil report. This we m&t plainly         sober, faithful in all things." In Psalm  50:20  the wicked is
       understand.                                                           adressed  as follows: "Thou  sittest  and  speakest  against  thy'
               Whether the evil report is true or false, I shall not be a    brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son.".
        partB  to spreading it abroad. In fact, the first concern in this                                                             H . H .


                                              T H E   S'I'ANUARD   B E A K - E R                                                  105

                                                                     as "all flesh" were withering away and returning to the dust
11 THE DAY OF SHADOWS'                                          11 there is Babylon, what real and abiding comfort could they
                                                                     have derived from Isaiah's Gospel, if, to their mind, all it
                                                                     promised was a deliverance from the clutch of earthy rulers
                 The Prophecy of Isaiah                              and a return to an `earthy Canaan, Jerusalem and temple.
                                                                     What was the purpose or God in voicing by the mouth of the
 The word `of the Lord  imzpmkl'zable,  XL.68.                       prophet the lamentation that "all flesh is as grass," and in
     The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry ?            concluding it with the glad tiding that, in contrast thereto,
      (Cry), kll flesh is grass,                                     the word of the Lord abideth forever, if it was not to give
     And all the beauty thereof as the flower of the field :         the lamenters  to understand that what He was' promising
     Withereth the,grass,  fadeth the flower :                       them in the final instance is a resurrection from-  the dead unto
     Because the breath of the Lord bloweth upon him:                life everlasting and that the promise would surely come to.
     Truly the people is grass.                                      pass. If this is not true, then all the prophecy of the Old
      Withereth the -grass, fadeth  the flower :                     Testament Scriptures is nothing but senseless prattle, and the
      But the word of. the Lord shall stand forever.                 living by the promise, as the captives in Babylon were doing,
    This voice, too, must be identified with the Lord. For it        `an utterly vain thing. If the essence of all prophecy was not       .
 does a thing that the alone can do. It mandates the prophet. ! that Christ would come to suffer and die for the sins of His
 It bids him to cry and specifies what is to be cried. The con-      people and that He would be raised again,' there was no pro--
 tent of the cry points to Him alone as its author: For it tells     phecy  tiorthy of the  .name  and then the faith of the saints
 what is characteristic of His Word. No one but He can. say          tias vain and they of all creatures the most miserable. If on
 anything about Himself and His word.                                the other hand there was prophecy worthy of the name, but
    The one mandated is the prophet as representative of all         of the saints were not empowered to grasp essentially the
 the prophets of God.                                                import and thrust of its promises, they were still wholly with-
    "All flesh" is humanity, every individual man without ex-        out comfort in their  affli'ctions. But they did have comfort,
 ception. That the animals are'here excluded is indicated by         their only comfort in life and in diath  and that consisted in
 the occurrence in the text of the term "The people" alongside       their knowing that they belonged not to themselves but to
 of the expression "all flesh."                                      their faithful Saviour, the Jehovah God of Israel,  who,
    Our passage- first voices a complaint, "All flesh `is as         through the Lamb that He Himself would provide Him,
 grass . . ." It receives full expression in Ps. 90.                 would atone their sins. Accordingly-they knew that though
    Thou  tarriest them- the children of men  - away as              after  their skin worms should destroy their bodies, tliey
 with a flood they are as a sleep : in the morning they are lik&     should yet in their flesh, ske God (Job 19 26).
 grass that groweth  u@.                                                 The  satmvw~.ons  to  Jemualewc..  muss.  9-11.
    In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the            Upon a mountain hi&h  get thyself, 0 thou good-news
 evening it is cut down, and withereth. For we are consumed                  bringing Zion ;
 by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we tioubled. Thou hast         Lift up thy voice with strength, 0 thou good-news bringing
 set OUT iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of             Jerusalem :
thy countenance.                                                     Lift up thy voice, be not afraid ;
    So the Lord's captives in Babylon lamented as they would         Say unto the cities of Judah; Lo, your God
 contemplate the terrifying fact. But let them consider. The         Lo, God the Lord with strength shall come,
 word of the Lord is not a, thing that like "all flesh," like the    And His arm shall rule with him.
 grass of the field, withers-and vanishes away, but it is a word     Like a shepherd his flock He shall feed:
 that stands forever, definitely  -His word to the exiles that       With His arm He shall gather the lambs,
`their warfare is finished, that their sins are blotted out and      And in His bosom carry,
 they are forgiven of him implying- that with regard to them,        And those that are with young He shall gently lead.
 His chosen people His wrath has been appeased, His justice              Zion, Jerusalem, and the "cities of Judah" ctillectively  and
 satisfied, and that He will now turn their captivity and crown      separately represent the church, God's afflicted people in the
 them with immortality and life according to His word. And           captivity of the exile with this difference that the  "good-
 it shall  come to pass seeing  -that His mouth has spoken it        news bringing Zion and Jerusalem are in contrast to the
 atid that His word. stands forever. And therefore also His          `cities of-Judah" the church as to her prophets or comforters.
 redeemed ones shall abide forever,  ,sustained  and  perpetu-       That the comforters in the church should be identified with
ated by His word by which they also were raised from the             Jerusalem and Zion and not with the other cities  of. Judah
 dust of death and crowned with glory.                               can be explained. In Jerusalem had dwelt the Lord in His
    This is not seeing in the glad announcement of the pro-          holy temple between the cherubim above the mercy-seat. Here
 phet truth that is not there and that was not there to the          had flown the blood of atonement and burned God's altars.
 minds of His captives in exile. Seeing that they, too, as well      Hence Jerusalem was known as the good-news bringing city.


106                                              T H E   STA.NDARD   B E A R E R

From out of Zion had gone forth to the saints the glad tidings       weigh the mountains and the hills, measui-e  the works of His
of  the- Aaronic blessing, , "The Lord bless thee and keep           hands. According to still others the thought conveyed is, that
thee .  ." But the voice of blessing was now silent. For             no man can ascertain the wisdom or correctness of God's
Jerusalem was in ruins and the church was in exile a captive         works; because he has no means of measuring them, or that
of the world-power.                                                  God's works defy man's power of comprehension.
       But the time of her deliverance is at hand, now that she          To my mind the meaning is, that God's work%  cannot  be
has received double from the hand of the L&d for all her             -measured by man, that, in the words of Paul, His judgments
sins. The comforters therefore shall get them on a high              are unsearchable, and His ways past finding out, and that
lllountain  and without -fear of the powers of darkness let          therefore man cannot know the wisdom and the knowledge
their voice be heard with strength. They shall say to the            that they represent, except God reveal it to him.
cities of Judah, God's afflicted people, "Lo, your God !" Ac-            This would be different if'man directed the Lord's Spirit,
cording to the lines that follow, this means that He co'ycz.es.      were His.counsellor  that instructed Him, caused Him to un-
Hence, "Lo, your God !" And He comes with strength that              derstand, taught Him the path of judgment etc. But were this
is irifinite, for He is the infinite' God. Hence, His arm shall true, than man were God and God were man's creation.
rule for Him and none other. The deliverance of the captives             But who is man ? And who is God ? The prophet tells us.
is  a,certainty.  For He comes  irresistably.                        15. Behold, the nations are as a drop on the bucket,
       And His reward is with Him and His recompense before I             And as small dust on the balance are they counted :
Him- life and  i&Fortality  for His afflicted and  contrite               Behold, jsles as small~dust  He taketh up.               :
people that war His warfare in Babylori.  but death and de-          16. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,
struction for the unbelieving and disobedient.                            Nor the animals th&-eof  sufficient for a burnt offering.
       His penitent people He loves. He shall feed them. They        17. All nations are as nothing before Him;
are His flock. And how tender His regard for each one  of                 And they are counted as less than nothing. '
His sheep. In the imagery of the text, the lambs He gathers              God's aloneness is absolute.
in His arms and carries in His bosom and gently leads them               Therefore, "Who shall weigh the mountains with a bal-
that are with young. In this manner will He bring His cap-           ance  ?" and, "who shall teach Him knowledge?" Some man
tives home.                                                          or association of men or some other god? Absolutely no one.
       Twice mention is made of God's arm of which it is said            The drop on the bucket-let  .us take notice, on  and  no?
that it is with Him and t&at by it He rules and gathers His          hz  -has no significance before the bearer. It is nothing. As
sheep. His arm-the arm of the Triune Jehovah  - is the               to the s_lliall  dust on the scale, it does not influence the weight,
personal servant of Jehovah (of subsequent chapters) the in-         so that it, too, is nothing. So all the nations before God, they
carnate Son of God, our Lord Jesus  Christ..                         ?re nothing. Worse than that, they are vanity, emptiness be-
       God is only, XL:12-26,>                                       fore God. Why is this so? For two  -reasons.  First, God
       It is a great salvation that the  Lord holds forth  tb His    being  God is the foundation of `His own blessed existence and
captive people. Its realization calls for- infinite might, wis-      therefore conditioned by no one. Second, all nations exist
dom, understanding. Doubts arise (see vs. 27). Can the Lord          solely by His power. And to His power there is no limit. He
do as he promised ? To these doubts the Lord replies in the          could, if  He, chose, take  ulj the islands of the sea Without
present section.                                                     any effort. So again: He is only. His sublimity is absolute.
Who measured with His liollow hand the waters,                       Be alone is great. And bedause  He is so great, all the forests
And the heavens with a span measured,                                of Lebanon do not suffice as a worthy sacrificial fire, nor all
And included in a mea&u-e  the dust of the earth,                    the beasts of those forests as a worthy sacrifice.
And weighed in scales the mountains,                                     1s. To whom then will ye liken God ?
And the hills in a balance ?                                             Or what likeness would you compare to God?
Who directed the Spirit qf the Lord,                                     God can be likened to no one, for He is alone. For the
Or what man was His counsellor  that instructed Him ?                same reason, no creature or its image can be likened, com-
With whqm did He take counsel, and who caused Him to                 pared, to God. To do the former is to draw God down to
          understand,                  c                             *the level of the corruptible creature. This is to destroy Him
And taught Him the path of judgment, and taught Him                  conceptually. To do the latter is to raise the corruptible
          knowledge,                                                 creature to the level of God. This is likewise to destroy Him
And made Him to know the way of understanding?                       .conceptually.
       The prophet is here occupied with the work of creation.           The people of Israel at Mt. Horeb committed this great
Who hath measured with the hollow of his hand the waters,            siri. They made carved image of a calf and said to the
etc. According to some, .what  the prophet meant is, that no         image and thereby to the creature imaged-the calf,  ."Thou
man is able to measure God's works, but without meaning to           art the God that delivered 4s from our- bondage." In Psalm
say that God did that. According to others, that precisely- is       CVI they  are charged with  worshipping  the molten image
what the prophet means, namely that God alone is ablk to                                   (Corhrtued  olt Pago  116)


                                             TH.E  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                . -107

                                                                     equipped unto good works, would not issue such a solemn
11         F R O M   H O L Y   W R I T   11 warning to preachers against the same! And let no one
                                                                     amongst preachers, the undersigned included, flatter himself,
                                                                     that he does not need this warning, lest he fall into this snare
             Exposition of II Timothy 2:15-19               c        of the Devil! For such striving about words, as we pointed
                                                                     out in our former essay, serves no positive purpose of edifi-
      In our former article we noticed how Paul enjoins Timo-        cation in the church. It is not the preaching of the inspired
thy to constantly keep the Church in mind of the central             Scriptures, the holy words of God. All it does is to bring
truth of the Gospel, that Jesus Christ is indeed in a perpetual      the catastrophe in the church by subverting the hearers from
state of being risen from the dead, and that He will come            the sound words unto godliness !
again upon clouds to judge the living and the dead. That                Hence, the further charge is indeed to the point:  "G,ive
gives reason for .hope  and godliness to the. pious and causes       diligence to present thyself  upprove'd  unto God, a workman
them, in all tribulation, to lift up their weary heads knowing       that  aeedetk not to be  ashmed,   handl~in~  ag*ight  the  zword of
that their redemption is nigh! Thus, Paul is willing to              trztth"  (or: rightly dividing the word of truth) Verse 15.
suffer for the Gospel's sake, even as evildoer. But he is of            This is a word of Scripture which gives us a sure remedy
good cheer. Faithful is the saying that was upon the lips and        in a godly preacher ,against  battling about words ; the un-
in the hearts of all those who suffered and died for the faith :     godly do not heed this word and rush on to more ungod-
if we die with Him we shall .also live with him ; if we en-          liness. They go from bad to worse. But the godly minister
dure we shall also reign with Him! And Paul is warned by             fears God. He only fears God and stands in holy awe and
the equally faithful saying : if we deny Him, by not preaching       obedience before Him. Says Calvin on this verse in his Com-
or falsifying His Gospel and the word of His patience, he            mentary." Since all disputes about doctrine arise from this
will deny us, and if we are unfaithful he will not follow an         source, that men are desirous to make a boast of ingenuity
unfaithful preacher with His Holy Spirit and grace; for He           before the world, Paul here applies the best and most ex-
cannot deny- Himself.                                                cellent remedy, when he commands Timothy to keep his
      He that hath ears to hear, among preachers, let him listen     eyes fixed on God ; as if he had said `some aim at the ap-
to what the Spirit through Paul saith unto preachers!                plause of a crowded assembly, but do thou study to approve
      For this is a "Pastoral" letter!                               thyself and thy ministry before God.' And indeed there is
                                                                     nothing that tends more to check a foolish eagerness for dis-
      And this letter is full of those exhortations which are not    play, than to reflect .that we have to deal with God."                  '
simply "good advice" but they are the solemn charge from                The proof of such being a "workman that needeth not to
the  King  of the Church to His messengers and servants. And         be ashamed" one will find in one's "rightly dividing the
let not a servant think that he can act the part of a "lord?         word of the truth.".
with impunity! The Lord is not mocked!            -                     What is this "word of the truth ?"
      There is nothing that puts our feet on the solid ground,          It is nothing more and nothing less than the infallible
the holy ground of, God, as the remembrance that it is God           Word of God contained in Holy Scriptures, as all God's truth
with whom we have to deal! The sobering reality is that we           is in Jesus Christ and His crucified. It is the full council of
are those who care for the souls of the saints as they  zvko         God concerning our redemption. The central truth by which
lspLz&  render an  account.  (Hebrews 13  :17) And let no one        it can be tested is whether one believes in the "resurrection
deceive himself among ministers of the gospel: there is no           of Jesus" with all its implications in regeneration, calling,
-creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are      justification, sanctification and glorification. This Hymeneus
naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with whom we              and Philetus did not do. They did not hold to the line of all
`have to do !                                                        that is implies in "that Christ is raised from the dead out of
      Before the face of this God Paul gives Timothy a most          the seed of David according to my Gospel.
solemn charge. It is a charge wherein God and man are                    A godly preacher is not interested in anything else but
called to witness. The term employed by Paul is "dia-martu-          the bringing of this message. He heeds the guide-posts set
romai,"  that is, "earnestly and religiously to charge." Thayer.     up by the church of all ages in the great Creeds of Christen-
Compare I Tim. 4  :l. Such is the charge to which every              dom. `He will wish to cling to the confessional lines as they
Minister in the Protestant Reformed churches, past and pre-          are the expression of the Church, the pillar and ground of
sent. has solemnly with up-lifted hand said: "Yes, I with my         the truth. He does not work slavishly, but does not see with
whole heart !"                                                       how much he can get away within the boundaries of the
      The evil of "striving about words" must indeed be a            Confessions, but he has one thing in mind: he wishes to
grievous one! Were it not so, the inspired Scriptures which          see how well he can be an approved workman of God. He
are profitable unto instruction, correction reproof and the          has- profound respect for the godly wprkmen  who have la-
pedagogy in righteousness, that the man of God be thoroughly         bored before him. He calls to memory that these Confessions


`1 0 8                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R .
 _-
 were so precious to godly workmen that they would rather              about a good conscience, but who measured by the objective
 die than not build on the only foundation, besides which              standards of God's Word presents himself as before God to
 there is none other! To thus build he gives all diligence !           the conscience of every man, since his sufficiency is of God!
       Such is a godly preacher !                                      He sees men and women leave his congregation. He is put
                                                                       to the test then of either presenting himself acceptable to
       He will not carp about words if it be pointed out to him        these deluded and fickle souls or he must prepare himself
 in "sound words of doctrine" that he is not hewing to the             acceptable to God. And the latter he does. He would rather
 line. Why? Becausehe  does not serve man but knows that               die than do anything contrary to the will of Him that says : '
 God judgeth a man to find him faithful. And trembling be-,            Preach My Word, feed My sheep! He will rightly divide
 fore God, lest his work be burned and he saved as by fire (I          the word of truth. For they who do this have a good-con-
 Cor. 3 :3-13 j, he freely admits that his work was not accord-        science. And with a free and good conscience they fight
 ing to the Confessions when this is pointed out to him. For           against sin and unbelief. Also the sin and unbelief in fickle
 he knows that'if he rushes on from this point he is no longer         and evil men, be they ministers or laymen!
 f'giving all diligence to present himself before the Lord, a
 workman that does not have to be ashamed." Fact is, from                 He sees this evil-teaihing  proceed farther and farther. The
 here on he will in shame need to be silent over his poor`work-        anxious question cannot be downed: has God forgotten to
 manship,  and/or he will have to whimper about his good' be kind ? Is His mercy clean gone ? .Must  unrighteousness
 intentions ! But His workmanship. was such that it showed             triumph in God's church for which Christ shed His precious
 that he did not labor sufficiently to present himself a good          blood on -Calvary? Must he too follow the multitude, adapt
 workman before'God!  He had not rightly divided the word              his preaching so that they will not be offended ? No, he will
 of the truth as it is in Jesus;                                       give the pl$ore  diligence before the. Throne of God to show
                                                                       himself approved of God. That is all that matters. That is all
       A good instance of poor workmanship is that of a Min-           that matters more than ever before. He will not engage in
 ister of the Gospel who will prove his orthodoxy to the con-          "word-strife" but will preach the Word.
 gregation with the Psalter  Versification  of a Psalm, rather
 than giving a good exegesis from the original Hebrew and a                And what about the outcome  ?
 solid study of the entire Psalm itself. If that is good work:             To use the words of Paul "nevertheless the foundation
 manship,  then our schools must cease giving instruction in           of God standeth firm" !
 the science of interpretation called Hermeneutics.  Qn' the               Jesus said: My sheep hear my voide! The elect do not
 other hand there is more truth than fiction in the word of            depend on the changing of events, but rest on the solid and
 Calvin, when reflecting on the phrase "to the subversion of           immovable foundation; the foundation is in the hand of God.
 the hearers," he says, "I wish that this were attended to by. The sheep will indeed know who are the faithful -shepherds.
 those who are always armed for fighting with the tongue,              They will know who are concerned about their salvation in
 and who, in every question are looking for grounds of quar-           Christ and who would take from them the `<word  of truth"
 reling, and who go so far as to lay snares around every word          by not rightly dividing it. And that will be the deciding
 or syllable. But they are carried in a wrong direction- by            factor.
 ambition, and sometimes by an almost fatal disease  ; which I             Paul did not write this word simply for dogmatical pur-
 have experienced in some. What the Apostle says. about                poses. He wrote this word for the consolation of the faith-
 subv&ing  is shown, every day, by actual observation, to be           ful. Just as in the days of Korah,  Datan and Abiram God de-
 perfectly true ; for it is natural amiclst disputes, to lose sight    termined  .who were they, who ministered faithfully before
 of the truth ; and Satan avails himself of quarrels as a pre-         Him, so He does this still in present time! Moses, the man
 tense for disturbing weak persons, and overthrowing their             of God, did not gloat that the Lord found him faithful. He
 faith."                                                               saw in it a reason for added humiliation. He knew what it
       Yet, when we see men apostatizing from the faith, having        meant to put off all iniquity that he might be fit for the Mas-
 fallen into the snare of Satan, we should not be too unduly           ter's use. Let no one who has not yet run the race to the end
 alarmed. Let us keep in mind that the labors of him who is            in any way slacken his pace in the running.
 diligent in presenting himself before God as a workman that               The godly preacher has good reason to take heart. He is
 needeth not be ashamed, are not in vain in the Lord. It is            always more than a conqueror; he is such both in those who
 true, that much scandal is created by- those who apostatize           are perishing and in those who are being saved. All may
 and once walked with us in the faith. And at such times the           seem against him. Nevwtheless! the Lord knows those who
 hearts of those, who-will be faithful are severely put to the         are His. And, therefore, the godly preacher commits God's
 test. It then seems that great pillars are falling, men who           work into His faithful hands. For he is a workman that will
 once were known as pillars in the church turn away from               not be ashamed in that day when the crown of life is given to
 the truth. What can lesser spirits then do? Such is the ex-           ~a.11 tb.e faithful servants.
 perience of the godly preacher, who does not merely prate.                                                                     G. L.


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                     109

                                                                        case such a settlement was not reached on the appointed date,
                 I N   H I S   F E A R                                  he would then render a verdict..               1
                                                                 ,!I        "No settlement having been reached during the week of               ,
                                                                        grace, the. judge rendered a preliminary verdict, that the
                             More Straws                                contending parties should occupy the  church-bLLilding  on
                                                                        alternate Sundays, till the matt.er was finally and definitely
     In their grasping at straws and in their desperate search          settled in the courts.
 for something that will as much as give the appearance of                  "This temporary arrangement, however, which was re-
 defense for their awful act of schism, those who chose to leave        ceived with evident joy by the minority group, but equally
 the'path of truth and justice read and reread the works of             evident dismay by the majority group, was reversed on the
 Rev. H. Hoeksema and of the Rev. G. M. Ophoff very care-               following day by the SlLpreme Court of the Sta,te of Michigan.
 fully.                                                                 The deposed comistovy   .zvas held entitled to hold the  ppopeyty
     They went through their works with a fine-toothed comb             m&l the matter should  hazle been finally disposed of  sin  the
 to try to find what little appearance of "support" for their           co&s." -The italics are ours. But what then becomes of the
 stancl  that they could. And in the case of Rev. Kokt sad to           evil accusation of Rev. De Wolf to  whi& he was ready to
 say yet undeniably true - so true that he dares not deny it            swear before  Godi
 and has not even tried to prove it to be untrue - also to see             It is not difficult to see why such a statement had to be
 what mzrst not be called to the attention of the public, lest his      in that cross bill. It is not difficult to see that after witnessing
 whole straw house fall in pieces.                                      the whole court trial. Those of our readers who ordered a
     But this frantic and thorough search of the writings `of           copy of the complete court record will find that statements
 these men shows the greatness of the evil in which they walk.          such as the above quotation of the cross bill fit in perfectly
 They  do  not want  the  t,mtk.   They did not read and reread         with the pattern of the "defense" ordered by Rev. De Wolf
 the  writtings  of these men to do` them justice.  They do             and his deposed elders, paid JOY by them and for which, there-
                                                                noi
 wa.ht to  guard  truth  and justice.  They  .want to pick out just     fore, they are also responsible before God.
 what see1x.s  to defend their case of schism and will not quote           The Rev. H. Hoekesma must be made out to be one who
 their writings in all honesty.                                         time and again was in trouble with the authorities of both
     For that reason,- also, Rev. De Wolf is inexcusable when           Church and State. Judge Taylor must understand what kind
 in his cross bill he swore : "That the said Herman Hoeksema            of man it is with whom he is dealing in this case! Just bear
 and his followers took possession of the property located on           this in mind when you get your copy of the complete record
 Eastern Avenue and insisted that he. said Herman  Hoek-                and you will then see that we are not misrepresenting facts
 sema,. and others, were entitled to the use of the church edi-         nor that cross bill. Revs. De Wolf, Blankespoor,  Cammenga
 fice and parsonage, and did for a long period of time follow-          and Petter will remember that the undersigned asked them
 ing said schism occupy said premises."                                 during one of the intermissions, "Are you going to stand for
                                                                        such a godless defense of your case  ?" When' you get your
     Now he cannot do here, as he tried to do with other pas-           court record you will understand why we asked them this
 sages of this unchristian cross bill.: grasp the straw that this       question.
 is simply the legal record of the Supreme Court of the State              The answer given to that question was,  "You  made it
 of  1Michigan.  The very opposite is true.  The  S.upmme Court         necessary  !" Now that we made a defense necessary by taking
 said the very opposite.                                                the matter to court is one thing. Conveniently, however, our
     Having gone through the Rev. H.  Hoeksema's book, "The             honest attempt to settle it out of court is brushed aside. But
 Protestant Reformed Churches  ' in America," with a  fine-             let them before God ask themselves whether  t&s kind of
 toothed comb, he must undoubtedly have read pages 223 and              defense became necessary. Sin is never necessary, although it
 229. At least before swearing before God to such a thing he            often is convenient and is enjoyable for the flesh.
 should have (as we suggested last time) looked-up the facts               There is, however, another grasping-of a straw which we
 and not have signed a document under oath just because it              had in mind when we began this series. And we would. call
 made the Rev. H. Hoeksema look so evil in the eyes of the              your attention to one which was seized in desperation in the
civil courts. Anyone may read in clear type the following               court room, yea even on the witness stand. Not having the
 on pages 223 and 229 of the latest edition of that book of the         official records of this testimony as of this time, we will refer
 R e v .   H .   H o e k s e m a :                                      to our own abbreviated long.hand  record which we took of
     "The preliminary skirmishes before Kent County Circuit             the whole trial. And though what we wrote may not be lit&al,
 Court, however, had no serious consequences.                           (though we personally believe that it is) we are convinced
     "When on the date specified by the injunction the op-              that the official record when published will not reveal. any
 posing parties appeared, the judge proceeded to lecture to             misrepresentation on our part.
 them and postponed judgment for one  week? in order to give               Rev. De Wolf was on the stand the afternoon of Wed-
 the opposing parties time to reach an amicable settlement. In          nesday, June 2, 1954. Mr. TLIbbs was referring to the clas-


 110                                          `l-H.E   STANDARII,   B E A R E R

 sical sessions wherein the case of Rev. De Wolf was being           as the ministers are concerned, Rev. De Wolf, it was on your
treated. He asked f "Do you claim that you did not have a            side !
 chance to be heard at- the meetings ?"                                  What is more, three of the minister-delegates were proven
        Rev. De Wolf replied: "No sir, I claim that I did not        to be in agreement with him, and one of them was to be
 have a chance to win."                                              treated, even as he was, in regard to heretical statements at
        Mr. Tubbs countered : You had no chance to win because       that same Classis.
your statements were heretical  ?'                                       The only possible packing could have been among the
        Rev. De Wolf replied : "No Sir. I claim that I had no        elders. And then, if you please, Rev. De Wolf's consistory
 chance to win b,ecause  the Classis  was packed."                   sent AN ELDER WHO SUPPORTED HIM and not one
        What an evil and unfair accusation to hurl at us after we    who had voted against him in the consistory ! The churches
pa.tiently discussed his case for almost seven days ! What an        in Illinois and. Wisconsin we doubt even knew that this case
 evil accusation to present in a civil court when he never gave      was to appear at Classis.  Our own consistory sends the el-
the slightest inkling to the Classis  that he had that opinion of    ders in rotation. They take their' turns. And we did not
the  Classis!  Nor did a word of it appear in his protest to         depart from this procedure in April, May and October of
the Classis  in October, 1953 !                                      1953. Let Rev. De Wolf mention those consistories that
        One of the lovers of Conditional Theology and of schism-     looked over their constituency and then said, `LYou go to Clas-
atic action felt the need of writing the undersigned to tell         sis because  you  will vote against Rev. De Wolf." If he can
him that he did not like the "insinuations" in our articles.         do that - which he cannot - then it still is not true that the
 Here are no insinuations but very unjust  accusations.  Let         Classis  was packed. For at best he can only point to a small
him write Rev. De Wolf a letter now. You may be sure no              minority that would have been sent to Classis  in that way.
such letter will be written and sent. It is easy to accuse one       But we `are convinced that there was not one sent that way.
of insinuations when you cannot prove one's statements to be         A straw it is. And an evil one.
wrong.                                                                   Does he mean packed because the Rev. Hoeksema was
        But even the unbiased and experienced judge was ap-          there to defend his protest ? No, Rev. De Wolf, that is nap  so
parently surprised to hear this accusation of Rev. De Wolf.          either. He had no decisive vote. Do you want to know why
His honor, Judge Taylor interrupted the questioning at this          the undersigned - and others - decided the way he did ?
point to ask the witness to repeat his last statement.       -       First undersigned's eyes were opened to the real interpreta-
   Rev. De Wolf, evidently realizing that his accusation is          tion by your group of your first statement by Rev. Blanke-
untrue and cannot be proven, and yet wanting to maintain             spoor, when he  repeatedly   refused to accept all Protestant
                                                                     Reformed explanations of the word of God to reprobate Cain
it said, "Maybe I do not know the meaning of that word.
Maybe I used the wrong term. Perhaps I should have said              and to reprobate Jeroboam.  The Rev. Ophoff showed from
that the Classis  was stacked."                                      the word of God that Moses, as inspired by the Spirit of
                                                                     Truth, says not: "Behold I have  pvoncised  you life and
        Now besides the fact that to say that the  Classis  is       threatened you with death on- the condition that you believe
stacked or to say that it is packed does not change the idea         or disbelieve," but that God says instead through Moses:
that tlierehwas  underhanded work done and that the various          "Behold I have set before you life and death, blessing and
consistories so arranged their delegates that justice was not        cursing : Therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed
done to the case and only those delegates were picked to at-         may live." This was not enough for Rev.- Blankespoor, who
tend the Classis  who were known to be "against" Rev. De             says there is no doctl-inal issue. That interpretation satisfied
Wolf, (look  up  what Webster says about "packed" and                Protestant Reformed people ever since 1924. And still do-es
"stacked." I believe I would prefer, "packed") this is a down-       today. What more does Rc want. Never did he offer a better
right untruth.                                                       or even another interpretation. He simply continued to say
        Let us look at the facts.                                    that he was not satisfied with this Protestant Reformed inter-
        Rev. De Wolf -knows as well as anyone else that our          pretation. (We can say more about this, and will if need be.)
Church Order stipulates that one of the delegates from a             All YOLI can have, if you reject this declaration of the promise
congregation to the Classis  shall be the minister of that con-      to all who hear, is either the error of 1924 that God  offel,s
gregation. See article 41. That means that there is no choice        salvation graciously to all who hear the preaching or else the
-in regard to half of the delegates to Classis.  The various con-    Liberated corruption that God proqrpises  it to all the baptized
sistories send their ministers as delegates. This half cannot        on the condition of faith.
be packed or stacked. There was in  Classis  East only one             Another factor that opened the eyes of the undersigned
possibility of packing by the choice of the minister-delegate,       (and also those of the Rev. Lubbers who once defended the
and about that Rev. De Wolf should have kept still. For his          majority report) was Rev. De Wolf's defense of his first
own church had three ministers and therefore had choice.             statement. It was not the Rev. H. Hoeksema who convinced
_ AND THEY SENT REV.. DEWOLF HIMSELF even                            us  but Rev. De Wolf. In the course of defending that first
though his case was to come LIP ! If there was packing as far                              (Contimed 01~ Page 120)


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               1 1 1
 ".I
It                                                           -71     bol, consisting of a long spear overlaid with gold, and a cross-
.li Contending For The Faith                                     11 piece of wood, from which hung a square flag of purple cloth
                                                                     embroidered and covered with precious stones. This symbol,
                                                                     then, appeared to Constantine in a dream, with the mono-
           The Church and the. Sacraments                            gram of Christ (consisting of the first two letters of the name,
                                                                     Christ, in the form of a cross. This monogram, consisting of
      VIEWS DURING THE SECOND PERIOD  (300-750   A.D.)               the first two letters of the name, Christ, was in use among the
                                                                     Christians long before Constantine, and therefore known to
                         THE   CEURCH                                the emperor. This symbol, then, as appearing to Constantine
      Continuing with the account of Gardiner's conversion, we       in his deram, was interpreted by Constantine as the sign of
quote the following: "When engaged in serious meditation             the cross.
on a Sabbath night in July, 1719, Gardiner suddenly thought            This quotation, I believe, explains itself.  Schaff  inter-
he saw an unusual blaze of light fall on the book while he           prets the incident of the sign of the cross in the heavens as
was reading, which he at first imagined might have happened          a subjective internal experience. Constantine. had been
by some accident in the-  candle. But lifting up his eyes, he        friendly toward the Christians already for some time. He
apprehended, to his extreme amazement, that there was be-            was certainly acquainted with the cross as. the symbol and
fore him, as it were -suspended in the air, a visible representa-    heart of Christianity. He was confronted -by an army which
tion of the Lord Jesus. Christ upon the cross, surrounded            far outnumbered his own. The excitement and tenseness of
with a glory; and was' impressed as if a voice, or something         the moment may well have contributed toward a dream of
equivalent to a voice, had come to him, to this effect : `0          this nature and which was experienced very'vividly  by the
sinner, did I suffer this for thee, and are these the returns ?"     emperor. This does not `deny the Divine origin, of course,
After this event he changed from a dissolute worldling to an         of this incident. All things, we know, are of the Lord. Also
earnest and godly man. But the whole apparition was                  this was of the Lord and surely for the sake of His Church.
probably, after-all, merely an inward one. For the report            The -battle of the Milvian Bridge was certainly one of the
adds as to the voice : ?Vhether  this were an audible' voice,        most significant battles in history because of its far-reaching
or only a strong ivnpressio,n  on l& nzind, equally striking, he     results. It led to the Edict of Milan of 313.
did not seem confident, though he judged it to be the former.           The battle of the Milvian  \Bridge was surely a turning
He thought he was awake. But everybody knows how easy                point in the life of Constantine the Great. We will not dis-
it is towards midnighb  to fall into a .doze over a dull or even     cuss  at this time the question whether the emperor was truly
a good book. It is very probable then that this apparition           a Christian. We know that he committed acts of atrocity and
revolves itself into a significant dream which marked an             cruelty during his reign as Constantine the Great. The pos-
epoch in his life." - thus far the account in the life of Gar-       sibility certainly exists that he may have embraced the Chris-
diner.                                                               tian religion because he recognized that it was essential to
      We now proceed with Schaff's  discussion of the "sign of       the life and welfare of his empire . After all, heathenism had
the cross" which appeared to Constantine upon the eve of             not been able to destroy it. Christianity was indeed a "grow-
his important victory at the Milvian Bridge: "The facts,             ing thing." ' Be this as it may, Constantine felt that he had
therefore, may have been these. Before the battle Constan-           won the victory over Maxentius because he had received
tine, leaning already towards Christianity as probably the `help from the God of the Christians. Until now he had been
best and most hopeful of the various religions, seriously            a worshipper of the  sungod, Mithrax-. He now became a
sought in prayer, as he related to Eusebius, the assistance of       Christian, be it in a formal sense of the word. He renounced
the God of the Christians, while his heathen antagonist              heathenism and embraced Christianity as the true religion.
Maxentius, according to  Zosimus,  was consulting the sibylline      Hence, the battle of the Milvian Bridge not only made him
books and offering sacrifice to the idols. Filled with mingled       master of the entire western part of the Roman Empire, but
fears and hopes about the issue of the conflict, he fell asleep      it also led to his becoming the first Christian emperor.
and saw in a dream the sign of the cross of Christ with a               What is the Edict of Milan? This decree goes'far beyond
significant inscription and promise of victory. Being already        the decree -of Galerius of  31i. Whereas the latter simply
familiar with the general use of this sign among the numer-          granted the Christians permission to hold their assemblies
ous Christians of the empire, many. of whom no doubt were            again, the former placed Christianity upon a footing of
in his own army, he constructed the labarzm, or rather. he           equality before the law, equal with the other religions in the
changed the heathen labamwz  into a standard of the Chris-           Empire. Hence, it did not merely tolerate Christianity but
tian cross with the Greek monogram of Christ, which he had           gave it equal rights before the law. It did not, therefore, set
also put upon the shields of the soldiers. To this  cross-           up Christianity as the only and official religion within the
standard, which now took the place of the Roman eagles, he           Ernpire.c  At the same time the church buildings and property
attributed the decisive victory over the heathen  Maxentius.-        which had been confiscated during the-Diocletian persecution
end of quote. This lnbmm, by the way, was a heathen sym-             were ordered to be restored, and private property-owners to


112                                          T H E   S'I'ANDARD   B E A R E R

be indemnified from the imperial treasury. This Decree of             cient custom, proudly ignoring the great religious revolution
Milan surely marked a turning point in the history of the             of the age and- the fact that heathenism and paganism had
Church.                                                               suffered a-crushing defeat with the defeat of Maxentius and
       From this time Constantine decidedly favored the Church, `the accession of Constantine to the throne of emperor of the
although he did not persecute or forbid heathen religions.            Roman Empire, boldly proceeded to enroll him among the
He always mentioned the Christian church with reverence               gods .of the heathen Olympus, and this in spite (of the fact j
in his imperial edicts, and uniformly applied to the Church           that they endorsed a. religion which had been set aside by
the name of Catholic. He ekempted  the Christian clergy from          this Constantine and substituted by that of Christianity. From
military and municipal duty ; he abolished various customs            the fifth century he began to be recognized in the East as a
and ordinances offensive to the `Christians ; facilitated `the        saint; the Greek and Russian church to this day celebrates
emancipation of the_ Christian slaves ; legalized bequests to         his memory under the extremely extravagant title of "Equal
catholic churches [we must not confuse .this with the Roman           of the apostles.`" The Latin church,  ori the contrary, with
Catholic Church of todayj ; enjoined the civil observance of          truer tact. has never placed him among the saints, but has
the Sunday, although not as a day of the Lord ; contributed           been content with naming him "the Great," in grateful re-
liberally to the building of churches and the support of the          membrance of his services to the cause of Christianity and
clergy  ; erased the heathen symbols of Jupiter and Apollo,           civilization. This is, in brief,.a summary of the significance
Mars and Hercules from the imperial coins; and gave his               of Constantine the Great. We cannot doubt that. the title,
sons a Christian education. When later Constantine became             "the Great," is fiting with respect to this first Christian em-
the sole head of the entire Roman Empire, including the               peror. Whatever may be our appraisal of the man from the
eastern half, he came out with still greater decision. He now         viewpoint of whether he was or was not a Christian, it is
issued.a  general proclamation to his subjects to embrace the         certainly true that he was used by the Lord to serve the
Christian religion, although he still left  .them to their own        interests of His Church in the midst of the world. And what-
convictions. In the year, 325, as patron of the church, he            ever may have been his motive when granting Christianity
summoned the Council of Nicaea;  and himself attended it;             full and equal rights with other heathen religions, it is simply
banished the Arians although he later recalled them; and, in          an undeniable fact that his famous Edict of Milan constitutes
his  monarchial  spirit of uniformity, showed great zeal. for         one of the turning points in the history of the Church of God.
the settlement of all theological disputes, while he was blind        There had been other such turning points in the history of
to their deep significance. -He first introduced the practice         the Church. But the Edict of Milan certainly ranks in im-
of subscription to the articles of a written creed and of the         portance with other turning points which had preceded it.
infliction of civil punishment for non-conformity. In the             We do well to remember, however, that this turning point
years, 325-329, in connection with his mother, Helena, he             presently exposed the Church of God to a danger fully as
erected magnificent churches on the sacred spots in Jerusa-           great as any that had preceded it. When Christianity received
lem. The emperor diligently attended Divine worship, and              rest from the attacks of the enemy without, this  .rest gave
is portrayed upon medals in the posture of prayer. He kept            the enemy within an opportunity to attack the truth and to
the Easter vigils with great devotion. He would stand during          undermine the very foundations of the Church of God. And
the longest sermons of his bishops who always surrounded              an attack from within is always fully as dangerous as from
him, and, unfortunately flattered him only too much. And,             without. Be this as it may, Constantine's influence upon the
he himself even composed and delivered discourses to his              Church of God was indeed very great.
court, in the Latin language, from which they were trans-                                                                       H.V.
lated into Greek by interpreters appointed for that purpose.                                  de=--
General invitations were issued, and the citizens flocked in
great crowds to the palace to hear  the.imperial  preacher, who               If I could always clearly see
would in vain try to prevent their loud appiause by pointing                  The reason for God's way with me ;
to heaven as the source of his wisdom. He dwelt mainly on                  . If I could fully understand
the truth of Christianity, the folly of idolatry, the unity and               And see all things as He has planned ;
providence of God, the coming of Christ to judgment. He
was baptized in the year, 337, in the sixty fifth year of his                 Then I of faith would have no need
life, and died a few days later, on Pentecost, May 22, 337.                   Nor constantly for grace to plead.
His remains were removed in a golden coffin by a procession
of distinguished civilians, and the whole army, from  Nicome-                 But now, I cannot see the way ;
dia to Constantinople, and deposited, with the highest  Chris-                What shall I ask, what shall I say ?
tian,honors,  in the church of the Apostles, which church be-                 Lord thou art Great, and Wise. and Good;
came the burial place of the Byzantine  iConstantinople)                      In deep humility, I would
emperors, till in the fourth crusade the coffins were  rifled  and            But blindly follow in the way,
the bodies cast out. However, the Roman senate, after its an-                 And.live  by faith anew each day.


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              113

                                                                      namely, that the fathers had in mind some of their own num-
         The Voice of Qur Fathers                                     ber who were guilty of making unwarranted expressions
                                                                      and placing undue emphasis upon election, must be ruled
                                                                      out.
               The Canons of  Dordrecrht                                However, this article is interpreted by some as though the
                                                                      fathers had in mind a certain real danger in election preach-
                             PART TWO                                 ing, and as though its language is some kind of concession
                                                                      to an element in the Reformed churches that saw this danger
                 EXPOSITION   OF THE CANONS                           and wanted to counteract it. And it is my considered opinion
                  FIRST HEAD OF DOCTRINE                              that this is not true, and that those who still today are of such
                 O                                                    a feeling can find no solace in this article. There are those
                      F  DIVINE PREDESTINATION                        who, when all is said and done about the truth of election,
                      Article 14 (continued j                         and when it is duly established that this truth must be
   In the remainder of this article we find a discussion, first       preached, say: "Yes, but you must be careful with election
of all,, concerning the manner in which the truth of election         preaching. You must be careful that you do not shove this
is to be preached. The fathers mention here the following             doctrine on the foreground in the preaching, so that it is
elements : 1 j the spirit of discretion ; 2 j piety (The Dutch        always and everywhere the main content of the preaching. It
has here..  ,;met  Godviwhtige   eef-biedigheid,   he&glijk."  The    leads to passivism and indifference, etc." Thus, for~example,
Latin has : "religiose et sanctc." ; 3 j in due time and place        J. G. Feenstra writes in "De Dordtse Leerregelen," page 60,
(literally : in its own time and place j  ; 4 j without vainly        as follows : ,,In de praktijk des levens wordt helaas van de
attempting to investigate the secret ways of the Most High.           leer van de verkiezing, uit onverschilligheid, of lijdelijkheid,
In close connection herewith, the Canows speak, in the second         misbruik gemaakt. Zo is het ook mogelijk, dat bij  .de
place, of the two-fold purpose of election-preaching ; 1 j the        prediking misbruik binnensluipt. Daartegen kunnen wij niet
glory of God's most holy name ; and, 2) the lively comfort of         ernstig genoeg waarschuwen. Een dienaar des Woords
His people.                                                           heeft hier vooral de voorzichtigheid te betrachten." And
  It is probably not out of place to inquire a little into the        T. Bos, in a commentary by the same title as the work .of
reason why these stipulations were proposed by the fathers.           Feenstra, page 56, writes :  "Tech moet men in de Kerk met
Did they have the Arminians in mind, or some particular               de prediking van de leer der verkiezing voorzichtig zijn. Zij
Arminian objection or accusation, when they adopted this              moet niet tegenstaan de prediking des Evangelies in het
`language ? Or did they possibly have in view some of their           algemeen en aan -alIe menschen. Op zijn tijd en plaats  moet
own number, who had strong views about election and who               de verkiezing voorgesteld  worden,  zoodat het niet  goed is,
were by some accused. of using unwarranted expressions ?              altijd over de verkiezing te prediken  en overal  met dat leer-
Or, perhaps, is this language to be conceived of as some              stuk op te treden . . . Het was in het bijzonder Calvijn, die
kind of concession to an element in the Reformed churches             het leerstuk der verkiezing weer helder begon  voor te stellen
that was afraid of "election preaching?' Or, to mention one           in de dagen der Hervorming. Hij  begon met de leer van
more possibility, did the fathers have in mind a certain con-         God, en tot de werken Gods van eeuwigheid behoorde de
crete situation, some real dangers, when they added these             Voorverordineering.  Zijn uitgangspunt was de  verheer-
qualifications to their insistence that the doctrine of election      lijking  van God, en dit komt juist in de verkiezing het
must still be proclaimed in the church today?                         duidelijkste uit. Maar  nu is het zeker niet Calvinistisch,
  In the light of the context of this article, especially the         wanneer in de prediking de leer der Voorverordineering
immediately preceding context of Articles 12 and 13, and in           zoodanig  vooropgeschoven  wordt, dat zij er altijd en overal
the light of history, both past and present, I find it extremely      de hoofdinhoud van is. Deze leer is te heilig en te heerlijk,
difficult to believe that the fathers had anything else in mind       om er als `t ware mee te  spelen."
than the reason suggested in the very first of the possibili-           Now I would not question the motives behind the above
ties mentioned above. And I consider it dangerous and con-            quotations, nor the good intentions thereof. Nor do I ques-
trary to the intentions of Dordrecht to explain the language          tion the truth of some of their claims in the abstract. But I
of Article 14 in any other way.                                       very definitely question the realism and the necessity of such
  There was no strife about this article at the Synod. It was         warnings. First of all, let us look at this matter in the light
no subject of disagreement on the part of the supralapsarians         of the Canons themselves. If the doctrine of election is set
and those who were supposed to be guilty of using strong              forth, not merely as an abstract and unconnected doctrine
language and even unwarranted expressions concerning pre-             that God has chosen a certain number of `people to salvation
destination. Fact is, that the attempt to condemn these  so-          but as it is expounded in the Canons, and as we have viewed
called strong expressions was actually made after the  Canons         it in the first thirteen articles adopted by Dordt, where is
were adopted. But it failed. And the Canons themselves                the danger so earnestly warned against? And especially if
were signed by all delegates. Hence,, the second possibility,         we bear in mind that in a&iclks  12 and 13 the fathers have


      i14.                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                         .-
      --._-_---

      precisely denied that the truth of election can lead to pas-          preach the truth the fathers make clear here that they are
      sivism and indifference on the part of the elect, this danger         not such evil men as the opponents would picture them,
      certainly recedes still more into the background. And in              and that all these calumniations of the `gospel of sovereign
      this light I certainly cannot agree that "Daartegen kunnen            election are imaginary. and false. For they certainly main-
      wij niet ernstig genoeg waarschuwen. (Against this  we.               tain that this. truth must be -preached "with the  ,spirit  of dis-
      cannot warn earnestly enough)." And in the second place,              cretion, piously,  holily,  in its own'time and place, for the
      in the light of history I. consider this warning altogether           glory of God's most holy name and the lively comfort of his
      unrealistic. Has it ever actually been the case that the doc-         people, without curiously scrutinizing the ways of the Most
      trine of elections  was too much shoved on the foreground?            High.
      Pray, when ? Has it ever been really thus, that the doctrine             In general, we may note that what is here said about
      of election was always the subject of the preaching? Has it           the preaching of election is also true of every individual
      been so that the truth of election was made to stand over             Christian doctrine, in a greater or lesser degree. What
      against the preaching of the gospel in general and to all men ?       truth is there that must not be preached in a spirit of discre-
      It may perhaps be granted that there have been isolated               tion, piously,  holily,  in its own time and place, etc.? This
      instances of preachers who became guilty of this to a degree.         becomes the more true when we bear in mind that Christian
      But that there have been whole movements and entire de-               doctrine is essentially one, and is from that point of view
      nominations in the main stream of church history that were            essentially all  theolo,T,  doctrine of God. It always then
      guilty of these .things I deny. Has not the case rather been          behooves us to exclaim: "How wondrous are the ways of
      thus, that in the history of the church there has been no             God, unfathomed and unknown !" But we may immediately
      doctrine more difficult to maintain both in.the pulpit and in         add that whenever we deal with the doctrine of God in the
      the official utterances of the church in her confessions than         narrower sense of the term, what the Canons here say about
      the truth of sovereign predestination  ? Has it not been so           the proper attitude and manner of the preaching is most
      that even Reformed churches have been loathe to bring this            emphatically true. When we speak of God, His names, His
      truth in the pulpit, have even become ashamed of their                Being, His Persons, His attributes, His works ad  intra.and
      "Calvinistic" views of predestination, have contradicted them         ad  extva, we cannot emphasize enough that we stand on holy
      with the heresy of a general and well-meant offer of grace,           ground, and that it behooves us to take off our shoes from
      and have far too often maintained an almost complete silence          off our feet. And this is perhaps above all true of the pre-
      about election ? Has it not only too often been thus, that            destination. It is by no means something to be played with.
      those who proclaimed the truth of election freely and boldly,         But the awareness of this fact is not the private possession
      and who properly proceeded from the truth of election in
      all their exposition of Reformed truth and of the gospel,             of the Arminian ! His doctrine surely gives no evidence of
      were roundly criticized and opposed and charged with, the             discretion, piety, holiness, etc. And woe unto him who wil-
      supposed wrongs mentioned above ? Yea, has not much of .fully plays with such holy things by corrupting the truth!
      the controversy and struggle of the faithful church concen-           Woe to him who deliberately keeps silence about the truth
      trated exactly in the life-and-death effort to maintain the           of such holy things of God! It had been better for him if
      sovereign and particular character of the gospel ? Such is            he had never pretended to preach!
      the light which history sheds on this question: And there-                                    (to be continued j
      fore I would much rather say:  ofte cannot  warn  ea:me&y                                                                        H.C.H.
      enough against. the danger of not  allozving  the  truth  of  pre-                              ---Sk+
      destina$ion   its proper place  in  the preachi,ng !
 _       The explanation of the language of this article is rather          God forbid that the. following should be said of us:
      to be found again in the false accusations of the Arminians,                   Ye call Me Master and obey Me not.
      In harmony with their whole false presentation, they ac-                       Ye call Me Light and see  l?Ie not.
      cused, and still often accuse, the defenders of the truth of                   Ye call Me Life and desire Me not.
election of indiscretion and impiety in the preaching of. this
      truth. They accuse us of curiously prying into the secret                      Ye. call Me the Way and walk not therein.
      ways of the Most High. They object that the preaching of                       -Ye call Me Wise and follow Me not.
      election is not for the lively comfort of God's people, and is                 Ye call Me Beautiful and love Me not.
      not to the glory of God. Instead, we must have "the good                       Ye call Me Rich and ask Me not.
      old invitation." And it is to the glory of God to save souls                   Ye call Me Eternal and seek Me not.
      and to offer divine salvation to all men. They object that                     Ye call Me Gracious and trust Me not.
      election is not kept in its proper place, nor brought at the                   Ye call Me Noble and serve Me not.
      proper time in the preaching. -And of course, they will also
      define that proper place and time for us. And in answer                        Ye call Me Righteous and fear Me not.
      to these calumniators of the truth and of those who faithfully                 If I condemn you, blame Me not.                        "


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B,EARER                                                         `115
  - -                 /                                                                              :.
  I                                                                      considered as business administrators rather than as dis-
              DECENCY and ORDER                                     II ciplinarians. -if the. minister points out sin,~ he is regarded
                                                                         ,as being critical,and  if #he insists that evil doers be punished,
                                                                         he is accused of -being:  domineering. In  .other  circles the
                                                                         discipline that is found-is virtually without power and the
                  The  lbnistry  Of The  Wo'rd-                          members who are living in various forms of iniquity, though
                             -(Continued)  -T                            perhaps softly admonished,  dare nevertheless unreservedly
                      .                                                  admitted into the fellowship of the church and the table
                             -As     O&?rs&?+                            of the Lord.
         We have  .observed  that the calling of the minister is to        This is easily understood. This work, properly speaking,
 bring the Word of God in different ways and under various               belongs to the ministry of the Word.. Maintaining order and
 circumstances. Among these is his task to bring the Word                decency in the congregation is a matter of applying the Word
 in a disciplinary manner unto those that walk in sin. In                unto the life of the members.  -There  is a close affinity be-
 general this is also-done through the ministry of the Word              tween these two. Because of this, neglect of "Christian disci-
 in the public assembly of the people of God on the Lord's               pline is inevitably the consequence of- corrupting and dis-
 Day where the minister must "say unto the righteous` that               torting the Word. When the Word is no longer purely
 it shall be well w.ith him, for he shall eat-of the fruit of his        preached, proper oversight of the congregation cannot be
 doings and woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with `him maintained. Likewise, where the truth of the Word is main-
 for the reward of his hands shall be given him", (Is. 3 :iO,            tained, the necessity of discipline will be felt and its presence
 11 j but we speak now of the specific application of- the Word          will be evident. Mark that church well for there is the true
 to individual circumstances that require admonition and  dis-- .ministry  of the- Word of God.
 cipline. Frequently, in' cases where this is necessary, the               Concerning. the actual execution of the work of discipline              .
 preaching of the Word  %on the Sabbath no longer reaches                we will have occasion- to write in another connection when
 those that are the objects of this special ministerial- labor.          -we discuss Arts. 71-80 of the Church  -Order but a few
The pastor must apply the key power of Christian discipline              remarks are proper here in as far as this pertains to the
 which is a special form of the ministry of the Word.                    duties of the minister. First, of all, the minister [and elders
       In this particular labor he is not alone, however, for Article    too) should not forget. the positive purpose of this work.
 16 states that "witk the elders  he is to exercise church disci- Whereas the work concerns not only discipline- in the narrow
 pline and see to it that ,everything  is done decently and in           sense, namely, in the sense of excommunication, but also all
 good order". He is not a pope who receives  Pinto and ex-               protective and corrective pastoral labors, the aim of these
 cludes from the fellowship of the church those whom he                  labors is always to maintain the purity of the church of Christ
 pleases but he functions as-an elder, who, together with the            and to bring the members of the church to a richer enjoy-
 other elders of the church, perform this important labor. No            -ment of their salvation. It is -a work  .of grace which aims
 cloubt~  Christian discipline, in the strict sense of the word,         to build and save. It  .aims  at the abolition of the forces of
 could be enacted with greater simplicity and executed with              evil that seek the destruction of the members of the church
 greater expediency if put in the charge of one individual               and the church itself. Because of this it. is imperative, of
 but this would not be best for the church.. There is aways              course, that those, who under the name of Christians, main-
 too much danger of bias and misuse of a power unequalled                tain doctrines, or practices inconsistent with the command
 ~for, remember, it is a power that opens and shuts the king- ~of Christ and. who, after having been often brotherly ad- ~
 dom of heaven. Beside, it is contrary to the plain testimony~           monished,  will not renounce"their  errors and wicked course
 of the Scriptures which eshort the congregation to "obey                of life, `and despise these admonitions,` shall be .forbidden
 them (plural) that have the rule over you and submit your-              the use of the sacraments whereby they are excluded from
 selves,_for  they watch- for your souls as they that must give          the Christian church and, by God Himself from the kingdom
 account, that they may do it with joy an'd not with grief,.for          of Christ; and when they promise and show real amend-
. that is unprofitable for you". (Hebrews 13  :17) Christ has            -ment  they shall be received again as members of Christ and
 given authority to the office bearers of His church to punish           of His Church.  (Heid.  Cat. q.  -85)
 transgressors with spiritual means. (Belgic Confess. Art.
 30) The minister and elders must not take this aspect of                   "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump  !"           .`.
 their calling lightly nor shirk from those duties that are -in             Or, as the Psalmist expresses it, "I will early destroy all
 their very -nature- grievous and unpleasant. for then "the              the wicked of the land that I may .cut off all wicked doers
 covenant of God is profaned and the wrath of God is kin-                from the city  of~the  Lord". (Psalm 101  :S) Remember how
 dled against' the whole congregation".  (Heid. Cat. q. 82)              Moses, the minister and servant of the Lord, was instructed
 In  .general the church today- is very weak with respect                by God to  .cut~ off from Israel those that transgressed the
 to discipline. In many circles it is an unheard of thing ;              holy commandments ! The first concern of the faithful pastor
  even would-be Reformed circles. The elders of the church are 1 must always be that the sheepfold of Jesus Christ


 116             _                           T H E   S'I'ANUARL)   B E A R E R

 clean. With this in view he labors with admonitions, re-           als& be remembered that the welfare of the church, her
 bukes, exhortations and corrections.                               name, her reputation and honor which is the honor of
   This brings us,  in the second place, to the consideration       Christ, may never be sacrificed for the sake of one'or  a few
 that this kind of labor is always very difficult. It lies in -  lfi&nbers.  The church is more than  %he individual and her
 the very nature of matters.that it should be so. The diffi-  - purity may not be  defamecl  by those who wantonly persist
 culty springs from a double source. Firstly, the minister,         in sinful ways,
 knowing himself to be  a' sinful  .man, is  bften reluctant `to      Decency and order ! The task of the  ,overseers  of the
 apply the Word with  ihe severity of Christ. His  own sinful church is to see that these are maintain&d. Truly,  -a high
 self is often  projkcted into his labor. And there is nothing      calling ! "But our sufficiency is  df God, Who also hath
 that is more difficult than that one sinner is called upon to      made us able ministers of the new testament, not of the
admonish and correct another. That such. is possible is             letter, but-of the spirit, for the letter killeth, but the spirit
 only due- to the fact that the minister labors in the strong       giveth  life". (II Cor. 3  5)
 consciousness of his calling and in the humble acknowledg-                                                          G.  Vanden Berg
 ment that-he  has nothing that he has not received. He brings                                -e-z?.%
.to the sinner iiot his own word but that of Christ. He comes                           THE DAY OF'SHADOWS
 with the "Thus saith the Lord", confessing  at. the same                                (Co@ihed  from Page 106)
 time  th$t that word of Christ also condemns him as he is          and thus 
                                                                       _         with changing the glory of God into the likeness of
 in himself. That he does not fall under the same  disci-           an ox that eateth grass. This is the great sin of all-idol wor-
 plinary blow of that word is only due to the grace of Christ.      shippers both ancient and modern. The modern man invents
 I3y that grace "I am what I  a&" Such labor takes an               a doctrine of God, that-is, forms in his mind a conception or
 abundance of grace, indeed!                                        image of God according to his own liking, and that image he
   Secondly, it is a difficult labor because the people of God      worships.  -Though he is  not in the literal sense prostrated
 who need admonition are frequently not receptive thel'eto.         before a carved image of wood or stone, he is an image wor-
 This is especially so when they are plagued with special           shipper as actually as were those Jews at Horeb that  wor-
 sins and for a time are appdrently in the power of the evil        shipped thk  golden  calf.
 one. There is the element- of sinful, human pride. Often               In the two verses that follow, fhe prophet holds LIP  for
 it is difficult, if not impossible, to reason with those who       s`cdrn and ridicule all such vile doings.
 cling to, certain sins. These sins obstruct their vision of the        19. ,A carved  image  the engraver.  motilds,
 Word of God and the way they should go, making it  dif-               And the goldsmith spreads it over with gold,
 ficult to convert them from. the error of their way. Sd today,        And chains of silver refines.
 for. example, we know of those who. complain about the                20. He that is so poor that he has no gift: a tree that will
 preaching of the Word. Though they never register a not root chooses;                                                .-
 proper protest showing the -defects of the preaching, they            An engraver cunning he  seeks for himself to prepare. him
 do a great deal of tiicked  slandering, back-biting, gossiping, a carved image that will not rot.
`etc. They say that there are not enough admonitions in the            The idolater has a carved image made for himself over-
 preaching. When they complain they walk in rebellion.' laid with gold and provided with chains for fastening it to
 When the elders visit them' and  admo~nish  them (these are        the ground in order that it may not accidentally be toppled
 the people that complain because of the lack of admonitions over. If he can't afford an image so costly, he has one made
 in the preaching) concerning their sinful walk, they become        of durable wood. That dumb, lifeless thing he now worships.
 furious and refuse to hear of-an admonition. What must             From it he .expects  all his salvation.. He does this despite the
 you  think of people like that? .O consistency thou art a          fact that his reason tells him that it is foolishness to trust in
 jewel! It  is. indeed, difficult to continue to admonish and       a dumb idol. God gave men over to this,folly, because, though
`call such to repentance. It takes  much patience, iongsuffering    they knew God, they honored Him not as God.              _
 and prayer. It is a spiritual labor that is possible only             In view of the ftict that God made man in His own image,
`thiough  the Spirit Who alone can break down the barrier           it might`be asked why it is so sinful to liken the creature with'-
 of sin that the heart may be reached by the  Wbrd.                 God. To this it must be answered that God did not make
   F'inally, th_e pastor must avoid haste. It is a natural tend-    m&n another God equal with Him but He made man a crea-
 ency to hastily apply the steps of censure to recalcitrant         ture. As o-e&we he reflected God's glories while he stood.
members in order to rid the church of them but it is not the        Idolatry identifies the creature with God and thereby destroys
way, prescribed by the Lord. It is the way dictated by the          God conceptually by deifying the corruptible creature. Es-
flesh. Of course, there are instances where the sinner gives        sentially worshipping the creature, be that creature the might-
 evidence of nothing but hardening in sin, leaving no other         iest of men, is -as senseless as to worship lifeless .&one or
alternative, but where there is still a faint hope, arduous         wood, as before God `the one as as much a nothingness as the
 and painstaking labor  dught to be expended to save. the           other.
 erring one from the error of his way. However, it should .                                                                  G.M.O.


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B~EARER                                                     117
 --

                                                                          At this point in his article professor Monsma informs his
              ALL AROUND US                                            readers that he is not at this time going' to present his own
                                                                       views on the subject, and then he states his reasons for not
                                                                       doing 
 lf~70fnzan  Suff~~age  in the  Clzurch.                                         SO. One of these reasons is that he is on the committee
                                                                       that must advise Synod and he considers that it would be
       The October-November, .1954, issue .of Torch and Trum-          both unwise and premature should he at this time, print his
pet presents the first in ,a series of articles  ~by the Rev.          own views on the matter.
Martin Monsma on: The Question of Woman  Suffrage  in                     When  _I read this I thought it rather strange, since I
the Church. In this issue he treats only the issues involved.          thought that he on another occasion did express his views on
Rev. Monsma was requested by Torch and Trumpet to con-                 this subject; and I began to wonder whether he is about to
tribute this series. What he will have to say on this subject          change his mind. Rev. Monsma some years ago was a  CO-
should prove to be interesting, since he is supposed to  <speak        author of a commentary on Church Polity in which he along
with some authority. Not only is he at present an                      with the Rev. I. Van Dellen explained the Church Order of
associate professor of church government at Calvin Se-                 the Christians  Reformed Churches. I happened to have this
minary, but he is also a cp-author of a commentary                     book in my library, and so opened it to see what he advised
on Church Polity as well as one of the committee members               his churches regarding this matter. This is what the co-
appointed by the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church                authors  &rote on page 25: "The question whether or not
to study this mater of woman suffrage in the church. We                women should take part in congregational elections we would
shall follow with interest all that he shall have to say on this       answer negatively. Voetius, the  great expert in  Reformed
subject, and report to our readers when there are any worth-           Church government, excludes women frond churdh elections
while developments.                                                    inasmuch as congregationai  elections are church governmental
       The first article, above referred to, is intended to be only    in character. And women, according to Holy Writ, are not
informative. Rev. Monsma writes that it is his intention only          to teach in the churches norm to help govern the same. (I Cor.
to "try to reproduce the issues  involve2   .objectively." The         14:34.)  Bouwman judges likewise. So does Jansen. Those
question : Should our woman receive the right to vote at Con-          who have not yet made confession of faith have no right to
gregational Meetings  ? is one, so he writes, that "has been           vote inasmuch as they are, ecclesiastically speaking, lqinors.
before our Christian RefornGecl Churches the past few years;           Members being disciplined have no right to vote inasmuch
officially ever since 1947.  Classis  Muskegon overtured  the          as censure implies that all rights of church membership are
Synod of that year `to study further the question -of the              held in abeyance, rendered non-active, temporarily at least."
proper function of the Congregational Meeting among our                   From the above quotation it is obvious that Rev. Monsma
ecclesiastical assemblies and to properly delineate the author-        emphatically denies women the right to vote in congregational
ity of that assembly with a view to the solving of the problem         elections. It will be interesting to learn therefore whether he
of allowing women members to vote in Congregational Meet-              has changed his mind now, or whether  hk is going to in-
ings.'                                                                 fluence the committee that must advise Synod to show. the
       `Synod decided in h&-many with the Muskegon overture            Christian Reformed Churches how they  should decide in
,and appointed a committee to study this matter.                       favor of the adsiice  he gives in his commentary.
       "This committee reported to the Synod of 19.50. The  '             Rev. Monsma writes further, "The mandate which the
findings, tentative conclusions, and advice of the study com-          Synod of 1947 gave  the study committee appointed by it
mittee may be found in the  Synodical Acts of 19.50, pages             included particularly two matters. A delineation of the nature
267-280. In harmony with the recommendations of the com-               and authority of Congregational Meetings, and a study of the
mittee, Synod of 1950 decided to ask the advice of the next            question of women suffrage at our Congregational Meetings.
Reformed Ecumenical Synod, Our Synod suggested that                       "Why should Synod of 1947 include a study of the nature
advice from  Ecume&cal  Synod  should~  especially concern the         and authority of Congregational Meetings in its charge to a
nature and authority of congregational Meetings in our Re-             study committee ? The answer to  his question is near at
formed system of church government and that it should in-              hand. For the answer to, the question whether or not  o~ur
clude an exegetical study of all Scripture passages which have         women should vote and take part in the activities at our
bearing on `the' question at hand.                                     Congregational -Meetings stands closely related to this other
       "The Ecumenical Synod of 1953, meeting at Edinburgh,            question : what are our. Congregational Meetings ? Are they
Scotland complied in @art with the request of our Synod, in            essentially governing in character, or are they merely ad-
that it adopted an expression on the question of women suf-            visory in character? When our men discuss various issues
frage in the churches. This advice reached  -our  Christian            at Congregational Meetings and vote on these issues, then are
Reformed Synod this past summer. Our Synod appointed `a                they merely expressing their opinions and are. they advising
committee to study the report of 1950, together with the               the Consistory, or do these gatherings reach certain decisions
advice of the Reformed Ecumenical Synocl, and to come with             which have binding significance and-according to which the
recommendations to one of our early Synods."'                          Consistory must take certain actions ?


118                                         T H E   STAND;1KD   B E A R E R                         -__  -  ._        '

       "If decisions reached at Congregational  .Meetings  are           "A model set of Articles of Incorporation, sanctioned by
really no more than advice then it cannot be said that if          our Synod of 1926, contains statements such as the follow-
our women should speak and vote at these meetings, that            .      `
                                                                   mg, . . . no such purchase, sale or conveyance, mortgage,
they are exercising a measure of governmental authority.           lease, or fixing- of salaries shall be made unless the affirm-
If, on the other hand, decisions reached at Congregational         ative vote of a majority of the members'of this church organi-
Meetings are more than advice, more than an expression of          zation, of which said trustees, are officers, shall first be ob-
opinion on the part of the congregation for the benefit of         tained at a meeting of such members of this church or con-
the Consistory ; if these decisions are binding and author-        gregation present and entitled to vote . : . .'    .
itative, then it follows that our women, taking part in these            At this point, Rev.~ Monsma mentions several authorities
meetings, would be exercising governmental authority in and        "in the field of Reformed church government" which attribute
for the church of Jesus Christ. The assumption, it should          more than an advisory voice to the congregation. Among
be noted, is that the men, according to the Bible, may help        these are Voetius, Prof. `H. Bouwman, Prof. S. Greydanus
to govern the churches, but not the women. Whether or not          and with some reservations Prof. Ii. Dyk agrees with them,
this assumption is correct, is another question ; that question    who all teach that the election of office-bearers belongs `to
we are not now considering . I merely call this assumption to the governmental authority of the church. Monsma also
the reader's attention to indicate why the question of the         points out that the committee also quotes Calvin's Institutes
nature and authority of Congregational Meetings comes to           at length to show that he too spoke of the "authoritative
the fore as a prior question, as soon as we seek to answer         voice of the congregation."
our first question, i.e., may our women' vote at Congrega-               And finally, Rev. Monsma also quotes, in full the argu-
tional Meetings  ?"      '                                         ments which the committee of 1947 -found in Scripture to
       "Now the study committee of 1947 pointed out that the       prove that the character of Congregational Meetings is more
generally accepted opinion in our circles has been that our        than advisory. Accordingly they exercise a measure of ruling
Congregational Meetings are not authoritative, but advisory        power.
in character. Not the congregation, but the Consistory, is the           Now it would seem that unless the committee that is now
ruling body of the church."                                        appointed to study the mater more fully will negate the
Here Rev. Monsma points to several authorities which               findings of the committee of 1947, they will come to the same
the committee refers to which appear to be in favor of its         conclusions: And if this is the case, that they find that Con-
position. Among these are the Kerkrechterlijke Adviezen of         gregational Meetings are authoritative in character, then ac-
Dr. F. L. Rutgers and Prof. Wm. Heyns' Kerkrecht en  Ky-           cording to what Rev. Monsma has already judged women
bernetiek  and Handbook for Elders and Deacons. Besides,           voting in the church would be exercising governmental
the committee also pointed to Art. 29 of the Church Order.         a u t h o r i t y .
It was pointed out that amon,u the governing assemblies this             As I said, it will be interesting to see whether the Rev.
article mentions Congregational Meetings are not mentioned.        Monsma will change the views expressed in his commentary.
The Church Qrder "repeatedly speaks of matters which `are          1'11  predict that he will. It isn't so bad that a man changes
to be submitted to the congregation for its approbation," not      his mind if he is wrong. But it is bad if the man is right.
d e c i s i o n .                                                  Rev. Monsma and the committee have a host of supporters
       "The study comittee  however came to the conclusion that    for the view it is decidedly wrong for women to vote in con-
the traditional position cannot be maintained. It took the         gregational meetings. Among these is Dr. H. Bouwman who
position that our Congregational Meetings are governmental         strongly condemns the practise in Vol. I of his Gereformeerd
in character and not merely advisory.'                             Kerkrecht. We have great respect `for his judgment. But I
       "Here are the%arguments  of the Committee in brief sum-     say again, I predict that Rev. Monsma and the committee
mary: `The Creeds attribute more than advisory power to            will change. It is the trend of the church not only in this
the congregation. The answer to question 85 of the Heidel-         country but also in the Netherlands. And the Christian Re-
berg Catechism. speaks of the office-bearers as `those who         formed Churches will follow the latter, not lead them.
are appointed by the church.' Art. 31 of the Confession of                                                                    M.S.
Faith speaks of Elders and Deacons chosen `by a lawful
election by the church.'                                                 . . . . Away from home one learns also to evaluate what
       "The Form for the Ordination of Elders and Deacons' the church in which he was reared, has done for him. One
speaks of these office-bearers as `lawfully called of God's        learns to be less critical and more appreciative. After all, it
church.'                                                           was in Father's providence that we were placed in the sur-
       "Art. 22 of the Church Order speaks of nominees being       roundings that helped form our character and brought us
presented, `to the congregation for election,' and of the one-     the Christ. If now we have meat to eat that others have not,
half of .the nominess  `chosen by it.'                             let us share it with them.


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              1 1 9

                                                                       4. His sermon on the last petition of the Lord's -Prayer,
                   CONTRIBUYIONS                                    he entirely omitted the little word "For," to then give. us a
                                                                    discourse on "The kingdom  ;" "power  ;" "glory," which were
                                                                    God's. So far  Kok! And that is what Kok names the basis
                    Kok's Corruptions!                              for our comfort, that as truly as we pray it, just so truly we
                                                                    shall receive it ? ? ? In plain English, then the proper answer
   .Dear Editor of the Standard Bearer:  -                          to such is : "HELL." KOK!  KOK  !,. it sent the chills down
    If room permits, please publish the following : Kok  is.not     our spines !
`only church politically cowupt,  but, even still worse so, doc-      5. Following said discourses, was a sermon on "Thine
trinally CORRUPT !  Tlze  follozpring,   howez&, is  only  ci       only Comfort,"' Lord's Day 1. "What is thine only comfort
sa?%p2e  taken from Kok's cesspool, which for the most is as        in life and in death" etc.; and I wondered just how Kok
yet still uncovered:  to  tFYe public. We must still deal with      would explain THIS conditionally! The work of the Father
that stench continually wherever we read, in Scripture or           was. one thing ; that of Jesus Christ the other ; BUT ! BUT !
the Confessions, for  Kok has so grievously mutilated, and          when he came to the work of the Holy Spirit of our complete
distorted God's holy Word, and the`doctrine of Salvation,,          salvation, then he  empha.sized  that the Holy Spirit  woztld
so much so, that his evil explanations, must be counteracted        make us sincerely willing and ready to live ,wzto I&X to then
continually as we read or study same: If  _Kok dares to do          say : "SEE  !" So far  Kok. In other words : There is  yozbv
so- with God's Holy Word, then be no more surprised that            a:nd  I~J (Kok's) proof, that Hoeksema-Ophoff, Et Alii,
he will do the same with anyone's writings.                         deny that WE MUST; but here anyone can read it with
    I.  Kok maintained that, man could  frustrate  (destroy).       his very own eyes.
The Decree of God's will, by disobeying  The Decree of God's
command. Altho God might have determined something as                  6. On Ephesians 5  :8, "For ye were sometimes dark-
he willed-it to be, man could choose not to obey God's com-         ness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of
-mand,  and by so doing, the purposed end of the will of            light" : Darkness and light were explained entirely in the
God's would be nulified. Thus God's will, was dependent on          natural sense    ( N A T U R E )   B U T !   ,BUT!  W A L K   A S
man's obedience. Kok's Reformed- Conditions ? or futilism :         CHILDREN OF LIGHT really put PEP into his  homo-
there is no God! H.V.P.)                                            letics. How this darkness  becamw  light was omitted ; and
                                                                    verse 9, The fruits of the, Spirit evidently didn't belong to
    2. In a certain sermon, Kok, set forth,.. and stressed the      his text; BUT! HOW  KOK  CAN AFFORD TO DENY
point that, the doctrine of God's (as we confess and preach it      THE TRINITY and still expect to be saved, is his problem.
H.V.P.) sovereign `grace salvation, was stocks and  blocks-
pulman-car-sleeper-service-salvation ; which denied man's            7.  Heb.  2:14,  `I. . . him, that hath the power of death,
moral, `rational, natural responsibility. Kok's denunciation of     that is, the devil ;" was Kok's text and topic for discourse,
said doctrine was strengthened by stamping his foot on the          BUT AGAIN AT THE EXPENSE OF ANY AND ALL
platform, evidentally to make it stick. It worked. in some,         HOPE OF OUR SALVATION : which the first part of the
and wrecked ( ?) Holland's congregation. (I prefer to say :.        very same verse sets forth : "For as much then as the children
It purified it. H.V.P.) and a bird escaped are we: Thank            are partakers of flesh and blood, he (Jesus our Saviour:
God !                                                               H.V.P.) also himself likewise took part of the same; that
                                                                    through death he (Jesus) might destroy him . . ." (namely :
    3. In  a~sermon  on John 1  :17, "The law was given by          the devil. H.V.P.) "who had the power of death."  KOK!
Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." He ex-            KOK! is that what your "Conscience as your guide" leads
plained that, law was one thing, and grace and truth, the           you to ? If that were my conscience, I'd throw it away ! for
other  ; but where Jesus Christ disappeared to no one knows !       it sure is a ROT! May God give you grace to purify that
    And how that gulf between `law' and grace and `grace            CONSCIENCE of yours, is my humble prayer for you. If
and truth', was ever spanned, Kok did not explain (the              such wanton destruction of God's Word, and the doctrine of
work of the Holy Spirit conditional? H,V.P.)  Thus the law          the Holy Spirit and salvation by God's elective grace in
says "You MUST  ;" and `grace and `truth' are man's ve-             Christ Jesus our Saviour must not be branded  as. the  ,sin
hicles to employ, by God's command (law) and IF HE                  described in Hebrews 10 :29, then I ask : what must it come
OBEYS, man will obtain God's promise(s) ( ? ? ? ?) , based          to, before the truth of that verse comes to its own ? I have
on verse 16 of Kok's TYPE grace : But as many as received           lots-of it, more ; but .I must end. To all of you who alike with
him etc., verse 12; at the expense of, or hushing to death          us have treated Kok with the silk gloves of Christian love:
verse 13 : "Which were born, not of blood etc." But what            NOT WILLING TO BELIEVE, NOR ACCEPT, THAT
Kok did with the Holy Spirit of regeneration is BLANK.              KOK'S  ENTIRE PROGRAM IS THOROUGLY COR-
 He hushed it !                                                     RUPT AND SINFUL, I ask: If  Kok will do SUCH with


                                           / - .~._____..           -~-.                                                 -

      120                                      THE"STANDARD                                          BEAR--ER                      ~

      the  Wdrd of God, as above- referred to; can we still then                            THY  R&D AND THY STAFF THEY'COMFORT ME
      entertain the faintest hope that he will NOT do the same                                                ._              Psalm 23 :4
      with everyone's writings ? WE KNOW KOK  ! And that?is
      the reason for our protests against him, now still  lyingglat                               I have been through the valley of weeping,
      Classis  : simply because he hung himself with the Reformed:                                The valley of sorrow and pain:
      Church Order, to which he refused to subscribe as a delegate
                                                                       . ;                        But the "God of all comfort" was'with me,
      to  Classis  East. There is MUCH MORE in that  CESS-                                        At hand to uphold and sustain.
      POOL of CORRUPTION,- both church-political and  ~doc-
      t&al, but my space allowed is FULL  ; yours in Christ, for                                  As the earth needs the clouds and sunshine,
      the truth.-.                                                                                Our souls need both sorrow and joy ;
                                                       H. A. Van  Putten                          So `He places us oft in the  furnace-
                                                                                                  The  dross:from  the gold to destroy.
      P.S. Kok, "What think ye of the Christ? whose son is he?"
      "We would see Jesus."                                                                       When He leads through some valley of trouble,
                                                                                                  His omnipotent hand we trace  ;
                                                                                                  For the trials and sorrows He sends us
                                 I N   HISS  F E A R                                              Are part of His lessons in grace.
                            (CO?&lLed  `frowl  Pqye 110)
      statement, the majority of the committee presented a docu-                                  Oft we shrink from the purging and pruning
      ment which tried to defend that statement by suggesting that                                Forgetting the Husbandman knows
      Rev. De Wolf had the elect in mind when he said that "God                                   That the deeper the cutting and paring,
      promises everyone  of you . . . .I'; even as we have the elect                              The richer the cluster that grows.
      in mind when the benediction is pronounced in our services.
      But Rev. De Wolf changed the mind of the undersigned and                                    Well He knows that affliction is needed ;
      of the Rev. Lubbers when he got up and said that he did not                                 He has a wise purpose in view,
      mean that and that he believed that he could say to any man                              - And in the dark valley He whispers -
      that he meant that God promises to him that he would be                                     "Hereafter you'll know what I do."
      saved if he believes. The cat was out of the bag then.
             What, especially convinced the undersigned of the evil of                            So we'll follow wherever He leadeth,
      the second sermon- we say  -"sermon  and not statement                                      Let the path be dreary or bright;
      merely - is that the cross as the gate to the kingdom was                                   For we've proved that our God can give comfort,
      nowhere in the whole sermon even though, it was a  prepa&-                                  Our God can gi.ve "songs in the night."
      tory ( ?) sermon, and instead we had `our act of conversioni'&                                                     -                   -
      the condition to be fulfilled to enter. Indeed, as we  wrote
      before, the condition takes the place of Christ and His cross.                                                               ALONE
      Now one can in hasty preparation present such a  Christ-                                  It is human to stand with the crowd ; it is divine to stand
      less sermon, but that one defends it tooth and nail is some-                          alone. It is man-like to follow the people, to drift with the
      thing else.                                                                           tide; it is godlike to follow a principle, to ,resist  the tide.
             Besides, the- majority report based its whole argument on                          It is natural to compromise conscience and follow the
      a Greek construction which the Rev. Hoeksema questioned-as                            social and religious fashion for the sake of gain'or pleasure ;
      ever appearing in the Scriptures. He said he doubted that it                          it is divine to sacrifice both eon the altar of truth and duty.
ever appeared but was not sure. He did not domineer the                                         "No man stood with me, but all men forsook me,".wrote
      undersigned into seein,v the evil of Rev. De Wolf's second                            the battle scarred Apostle in describing his first appearance
      sermon. But the failure of the majority of that committee and                         before Nero to answer -charges brought against him by the
      of the supporters of Rev. De Wolf to show that such a Greek                           Jews.
      form ever appears in Scripture is what convinced us.                  ~1                 Truth has been out of- fashion since man changed his
 (           No, Rev. De Wolf,  .the  Classis   ,was neither packed  xi@                    robe of fadeless  light for,one of faded leaves.
      stacked  ; but we thank God that in His providence and grade
                                                                       1                        Noah built and voyaged alone, His neighbors laughed
      He had filled-  OZ,LP   Classis  with men who loved the Protestant                    at his strangeness and perished in style. Abraham wandered
      Reformed truth, the truth of the Scriptures and of our Con-
                                                                       ,,?                  and worshipped alone. The people of Sodom-smiled at. the
      f e s s i o n s .                                             2. ,I.                  simple ;shepherd,  followed the, fashion, and fed' the flames.
             There was a sequel to this accusation' of a packed Class&.                     Daniel dined `and prayed alone. Elijah sacrificed and wit-
      But, perhaps, we better leave that for you to read in your                            nessed alone. Jeremiah prophesied alone. .* Jesus lived and
      own court record.                                           J.A.H.                    d i e d   a l o n e .   s         1                   ._  ..~
                                          _

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