      VOLUME   XXXI:`.                        JANUARY  15, 1955  -GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN                                &UMBER S


                                                                     heaven, subjecting all things under Him. And, being thus
               MED'ITATIQN                                           bi-ought  as the firstborn into the world, of Him it is said:
                                                                     Let all the angels of God worship Him!
                                                                         kea, as we have heard so have we seen in the city of our
     "The Mother of us all .i Jerus.alem Above"                      Gqd;  the dwelling-place of the Lord of Hosts. For it has
               "But Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our    been told us by God's apostles and evangelists, and by faith
               mother."  Galatians 4  26.                            >yYe  see it that Jesus is, indeed, crowned with glory and honor:
                                                                     For it behooveth him by whom all things are, in bringing
      Jerusalem, the heaGenly  !                                     many sons to glory, to perfect the captain of our salvation
      She is the city of the living God  ; most beautiful for        through suffering . . .
  situation, the joy of the whole earth, on the sides of the             And what marvelous reality of grace!
  north., the city of the great King . . .                             - He is not ashamed to call us brethren . . .
      Jehovah; our God, hath made Himself known in her pal-           Hear Him say: behold, I and the children which Thou
  aces for a refuge ; a refuge for .the first-born congregation      hast given Me. Multitudes and multitudes of children in
  out of the dead through the power of the resurrection  oi          Me, the Seed, to Whom it was promised from days of old,
  Jesus Christ. Here under the shadow of His. wings the cqn-         even from ancient times !
 gregation  ?f just men made perfect find a refuge for their             Multitudes of children, even `where least -expected. But
  souls, a shelter in the time of storm. Securely the sons of        the children of desolate Israel, Zion above, are more than of
  God dwell as free men in the city of the Lord of Hosts . . .       her who hath an husband.  Maher-shalal-hash-bai  : a rem-
      The Kings of the earth were, indeed, assembled  ; they         nant shall return, according to the purpose of election.
  took counsel together against the Lord and His Anointed.              Jerusalem the beautiful and heavenly city.
  Aiways  such was the case, and  &ways  the Lord of Hosts              The beautiful city of God.
  had them in derision, declaring from the Decree: I have                                         *  *  *
  anointed my King in Zion, the hill of My holiness. But cen-
  trally the kings of the earth, the mighty  amongst men, arose         Jerusalem, the city of God!
  against the Lord of glory in Herod and Pilate and the rulers          The  ,mother  of the free-born sons, by the Word  and
  of the people.. They nailed the Son of God, in our flesh, to       Spirit, born of the Promise.
  the tree.                                                             0. city of our God, unto whom.all  the.nations  flow, say-
     Seemingly they ti-iumphed over Him there. They took             ing : come let us go up to Zion. In thee alone `are all of our
Him down from tlie tree and laid him in the grave. And               fountains. Thou art  the city that hath twelve foundations
  even then fhey gathered together against Him, saying let us        upon which are written the names of the twelve Apostles,
  break His bands asunder. They sealed the grave, put  a             ancl which hath a Corner-Stone elect and precious of- the
  watch of soldiers about  it. thinking that they could  have        Architect and Builder. On the pillars of justice thou art
  the victory over Him to whom all things were promised in           stayed. They, who dwell in thee, dwell securely from all
the Scroll . . .                                                     their foes. Thy gates shall never be closed, the sun shall
     But  He, who is anointed King in Zion. the city of God,         not set on thee, nor shalt thou ever be enveloped in the
 triumphed gloriously. He arose from the grave with a mighty night. For the Lord, God almighty, Himself shall  be the
 triumph o'er His foes. Powerfully He revealed Himself to            Sun unto thee . . .
 be the Son of God, and as the King of righteousness, who               Thou art the city fair, the city foursquare, having thy
 loveth equity and hateth all  unrighteousnes-s,  He ascended        gates open to &try direction on the compass of the earth's
 up  on high at the right hand of the Divine Majesty in              globe. From afar father Abraham saw thy towers in majes-


170                                           T H E   S `T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

tic splendour, and he rejoiced at the consolation .that thou            Such is mount Zion, the mother of us all.
art a fruitful mother, able to suck thy babes and to care for           Come then, ye children of Zion, let not your joy of frl
the multitude of thy children. He saw from afar that  the           dom be marred or wholly taken from you, by a little "leave
children of. the desolate are more than of her who hath an          that leaveneth the whole lump. Let not the enemies of: Zi
husband . .' .                                                      tempt you to be placed under a yoke of bondage which i
       Did not Jehovah pass between the pieces of the sacrificed    Father of lights, the God from whom all blessings in  Zi
beasts  7 Was there not a smoking furnace, and a flaming            flow, does not place upon you. Delight then in the Lord
torch that passed between the pieces ? And did not Jehovah          thy- freedom, ye children from the east and from the WE
in Covenant mercy  .assure Abraham that' this was His               from the nol;th and from the south. Do not be placed unc
                                                                                                                              ~..
token to Abraham : thus shall thy seed be  ? And did not            the heavy burden and the hard yoke of the keeping of da
Abraham under&and that the deliverance out of Egypt                 yonths, seasons, and years. For these are beggarly  .pr
meant that the multitudes of the children, promised to Him          ciples which cannot enrich your life with the joys of Sari
in the Seed, would be delivered from all. the guilt of sin and
          -.                                                        our mother, nor are they strong, able to save us from de:
its corruption to be set with Christ in the heavens above  ?        to life, calling the things that are tiot as though they we
       Jerisalem,  which is above, the Mother of US  1 . .              Hearken unto me, then, ye children of Zion!
       In thee we find refuge from the curse of the law and            -Stand in the freedom wherewith Christ has made y
from' the weak and beggarly principles of the world: the            free. Enter i&to the reconciliation by faith, and appropri:
man that doeth the same shall live thereby! In thee we serve        by the Holy Spirit out of faith the riches of grace untold
our God day and night in His temple in Spirit and in truth.         Christ. Do not give out your money for that which satisfic
In thee we need not keep days and months and seasons and            not, nor your money for that which is not bread. Witht
years. Here are no anxious  questiohs  of a perplexed con-          money and without price it is for us the children of  Zic
science.                                                            Grace, freely  giveri  to all the sons by faith; yea, even 1
  0, city  bf the First-born among many brethren, all our           f&ith wherewith we appropriate is wrought in us by  1
fountains are in thee. For thou art the Mother of thy chil-         Spirit, shedding God's love abroad in our hearts . . .
dren. From out of thee the Holy Spirit was poured forth                 0, the refreshment and the power of these waters
on Peptecost  on the church, and the children are gathered in       grace that  flow peacefully in Salem  ; they flow from  1
all nations ! Thy children, born of the Promise, 0 Zion,            Throne of God  and. of the Lamb, and they become in
must be gathered, beginning at Jerusalem, which "now" is,           fountains of living waters springing up unto everlasting li
Judea, Samaria, and unto the ends of the earth . . .                The sure mercies they are, affording us the end of our fai
  Forsoothe, from out -of thee the Spirit blows where it            the salvation of our souls.
listeth; from thence is His sound heard as of a mighty rusli-           Nay, 0 sons of the Mighty, do not'hang your harp up
ing wind. and we hear this sound not knowing whence it              the willows and say : who will show us any good . . . .
cometh  or whither it goeth. Yet, certain we are, that not              Arise, 0 Zion, put on thy strength, put.on thy beauti
one of the  .children  born in Zion is born a slave-child. For      garments, 0 Jerusalem, the holy city; from  hence-f01
Sarah,  the niother of the free, can not deny her identity-         there shall no more come unto thee the uncircumcized  a
even though Abraham in a moment of weakness thus in-                the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit on t
structs her to do ! For Sarah, Jerusalem above, is exceeding        throne, 0 Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bonds  o'f t
fair, clothed with the Sun she is, and the moon is under her        neck, 0 captive daughter of Zion!
feet, and all the stars of heaven will bow to her.!                     Walk about Zion, and go round about her, and number
       Many are thy -children, thou beautiful free-woman of         the towers thereof. And from these towers of  Jehovd
Abraham..  All that hear of it will laugh with joy unspeak-         strength look  down and smile on all of Zion's  childre:
able and full of glory, the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem.        foes.
Happy art thou . . .
       Multitudes upon multitudes of children.                          0, city of Jehovah of Hosts . . . . .
       A full quiver wherewith to meet the enemy in `the gate.         -The "Hosts" of the joyful, free-born children!
The gates of hell shall never prevail against thee to subject           The joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion!
thy children once more to slavery, who are free-born by the                                        :t  8  *
Word and Spirit. A sword shall not pierce thy soul, neither
shalt thou weep and lament for thy children because they                Blessed Sons of Zion !
are not . . .                                                           Who in all the earth are like unto thee ?
       Glorious things are spoken of thee, 0 city of God !              Who is like thee in thy beauty and strength ; thy yor
   All my fountains are in thee!                                    is constantly renewed and thy strength is constantly giv
                             *  * *                                 thee like the eagles.
   The joy of the whole earth !                                         God shall establish thee forever!


                                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                                          171

     Great and fierce are thy foes, and their cunning is ciuel.
 Satan and all his hosts would rob thee of thy heritage, of                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
 the glory of God's grace in thee the saints. But bk not dis-                                    S&-monthly, except monthly during July  am2  Aicgwt
 mayed. The mighty God of Jacob is our refuge. He will not                                    Published by the  REFORMED   FREII PUBLISHING  ASSOCXATION
 allow any of His "little ones" to be given into the hand of                                P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
 the foe. The crushed reed he will not break and the smok-                                                    Editor  -  REV. HERMAN  HOEICSEMA
 ing flax he will not quench . . . .                                                        Communications relative to contents should  be addressed to Rev.
    Sons of Zion, born from the free-woman. Thy portion is                                 H.  Hoeks.ema,  1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
 to be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. The lines have                            All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
                                                                                            G. Pipe, 1463 Ardmore St., S. E., Grand  Rz+pids  7, Michigan.
 fallen unto thee in pleasant places !                                                     Announcements and  Osbituari&   mu& be mailed to the above.
                                                                                           address and till  Ibe published at a fee of $1.00 for each notice.
    Sons of the mighty ye are! Opposed ye may be, but ye                                   RENEWALS:  Unless a definite request for discontinuance is re-
 shall ne'er be overcome. Nay, but Sarah, Jerusalem, which                                 ceived, it is .a.ssumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription
 is above, will surely cast out those, who are pot her  chil-                              to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
dren, born of the Promise. It is the "logic" of God's elective                                                 Subscriptian  price: $4.00 per  year
 love. Before this all fle+h  must bow, even the flesh of believ-                            Elttered  as Second  Clam  matter at  Gramd Rapids, Michigan
 ing Abraham . . . .
    Jehovah, thy God, is with thee; the shout of the King is
 heard in thy midst!
    B l e s s e d   s o n s !                                             G.L.                                          C O N T E N T S

                                                                                       MEDITATION  -
                                                                                               -"The Mother  ood Us All -Jerusalem Above". . . . . . . . . . .  .169
                                 IN MEMORIAM                                                         Rev. G. Lubbers
   On December 23, 1954, it pleased our Heavknly Father to                             EDITORIALS  &
 take unto Himself our beloved daughter and sister                                             Repercussions         . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
                 ELIZABETH (BETTY) DYKSTRA                                                           Rev. H. Hoeksema
at the age of 26 years.                                                                OUR DOCTRINE  -
                                                                                               The  Triplle  Knowledge (Part III  - Of Thankfulness) . ,  .I. 174
   Our loss  is'her gain.  The words of Scripture are our comfort:                                   Rev. H. Hoeksema
"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth;
Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their  labours;                         T H E  D A Y   (YF  SHADOWS-
                                                                                                                                                             ......... . . . . . . . . . . 177
and their works do follow them." Rev.  14:13.                                                  Exposition of Isaiah.. . . . . . . . . , . _ . .
                                                                                                     Rev. G. M.  Ophoff
                                  Mr. and Mrs. John Dykstra, Sr.
                            Mr. and Mrs. Herman Dykstra                                FRCPM  HOLY WRIT  -
                                  Mr. and Mrs. Christian Vander  Stel-                         Exposition of Galatians 5 :13-15. . . . ......... . . . . . . . . . . 179
                                  Mr. and Mrs.  P'eter   D y k s t r a                               Rev. G. Lubbers
                                  Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Dykstra
                                  Mr.`and  Mrs. Ernest Pluger                          IN H I S  F E A R -
                                  Mr. and Mrs.  Boreas  Dykstra                                "The Gate is Ope$.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                  . . . . . . . . . .181
                                  Mr. and Mrs. John Dykstra, Jr.                  -                  Rev. J. A. Heys
                                  Mr. Frank Dykstra                                    CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH  -
                                  Mr. and Mrs. Richard Dykstra                                 The Church and  the Sacraments.. . .                                               . . . . . . . . . .183
                                  Miss Ruth Dykstra                                                  Rev. H.  Ve~ldman
                                  Miss Theressa Dykstra
                                  Miss Shirley Dykstra                                 THE  VOICE   OF `OUR  FATHERS-
                                  Miss Julia Dykstra                                           The Canons of  Dordrecht  (Art. 15)                                                          . . ...185
                                                                                                     Rev. H. C. Hoeksema

                                                                                       DECENCY AND  ORDER-
                            I N   ME'MORIAM                                                    "Equality of Office-Bearers". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187
                                                                                                     Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg
   T.he Mr. and  M;s. Society of the Hope Protestant Reformed
Church herewith expresses its sympathy with its members, Mr.                           A L L  A R O U N D   U s -
and Mrs. John Dykstra, in the sudden  lo& of their sister,                                     "What Really Happened In Our Churches". . . _.  _. . . . . . . .189
                                                                                                     Rev. M.  Schipper
                           B E T T Y   DYKSTRA  .
                                                                                       CONTRIBUTIONS  -
through the cold hand of death.                                                                Arminianism - Protestant Reformed.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
   May He Who is the resurrection and the life comfort them                                         Thys       Feenstira.           _
and cause them to  expedience His grace in this loss.
                                           Rev. J. A. Heys, President
                                           Mrs. A.  Grjffioen,  Secretary


  1 7 2                                                  `T H E   S T A N - D A R D   B E A R E R '

                                                                                  be governed`by the Eighty-Six Articles of the Church Orcle
                      `E D I T 0  R' I A  1, S                                    of Dordrecht."
                                                                                     This implies, of course,  .that those who violate  eithe
                                                                                  article 4 or article 6 of this act of incorporation have  n
    :     .,                       Repercu&ions                                   right to the name, nor to the property of any of the Pro
          .



                                                                                  estant Reformed Churches. And since, ultimately, not  tl
           All our' readers have, by this time, received and read the             individual consistory or congregation but the  classis an
 : "Opinion" rendered in the case of the name and property of                     synod decide, according to Church Order, whether anyor
  the First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids,                           violates the Confession or (andj the Church Order  ; an
  Michigan, by the Superior Court of this city.                                   since the defendants in this case violated both, Confessic
                Personally, although naturally I am glad that the court           and Church Order; and since the court never enters  in1
  rendered a decision in our favor, I was not surprised about                     question as to who is right and who is wrong according 1
it.' The more I thought about the matter, the more? too, I                        the Confession, but simply recognizes the decision of  tl
  heard, in court, the testimony of the opposition corrupting                     broader assemblies, it was a foregone conclusion that  tl
  our Reformed Church Polity, which, evidently they never                         defendants in this case would lose, just as it is virtual
  understood, and the more I heard, in court, the honorable                       certain that they must lose if they appeal to the Supren
  judge Taylor insist repeatedly that `his judgment had to be                     Court.
  based on the eighty six articles of the Church Order, the                          Hence, in the light of articles 4 and 6 of the Articles I
  more I became convinced that the court's decision had to be                     Association article 7 cannot possibly have any weight.
  in our favor.                                                                      I have a suspicion that the opposition realized this ver
           At the time of this writing I know not whether the op-                 well. This may be the' reason why they themselves  nevc
  position Will appeal to the Supreme Court.                                      even attempted to apply article 7.
                But if they do, I am convinced, too, that the opinion of           0, it is true, they always boasted that they had  tl
  judge Taylor will never be reversed.                                            majority. Perhaps, they have if by majority is simply meal
                It is very clear-cut, perfectly logical, and based through-       that they have a larger number of members than the preset
  out on the Church Order and many precedents.                                    First Protestant Reformed Church has, although even  th
                The opposition appears to have based their hope for a             boast has never been verified.
  decision in their `favor chiefly,  at-  first on article 7 of the                  But what is meant by a majority in the sense of  artic
  Articles of Association which insist that the question con-                     7 of the Articles of Association ?
  cerning the property shall at all times be determined by a                         It is, evidently, half plus one of the legal members prese
  majority. vote of the members of the congregation. This                         at a legal congregational meeting.
  article was, in 1925, inserted by our consistory at the time                       But who could possibly call such a legal congregation
  to prevent a repetition of  ,the history of the Eastern Ave.                    meeting  ? Only the legal consistory who was declared ar
  Christian Reformed Church. when comparatively few mem-                          recognized to be such by classis. And what members cou
  ibers obtained the property while the large majority were' possibly vote at such a `meeting ? Evidently, only those th
  deprived of it.                                                                 would recognize the legal consistory.
                But it soon became evident that this article would have              This the opposition could never do. Hence, they nev
  no force in court whatsoever, for the judge ruled from the                      even ascertained whether or not they had a legal majority
  outset that the testimony concerning this article would be                         No matter from what angle one looks at the entire cas
  entered in only on a separate record.                                           the defendants had no ground to stand on.
                In my testimony in court, I freely admitted the import               And, as is evident from the "Opinion" of judge Taylc
  and purpose of this article and the reason why it was in-                       those of their witnesses that tried to corrupt the  Churn
  serted. Besides, several of the old consistory members testi-                   Order and to leave the impression that we were really
  fied to the same effect. But all this testimony was of no                       group of independent churches, simply made matters wbr
  weight in court vvhatever.                                                      for themselves. A man like .I<ok  was a very poor witness fl
                The reason for this is evident.                                   their side. Nor did he, even for moment, deceive the COW
                First of all, this article 7` is in direct conflict with other
  articles of the same act of incorporation.
                Article 4 states `very definitely that "the members of said          It stands to reason that the case of the First  Protesta
  church or society shall worship and labor together according                    Reformed Church of Grand `Rapids will have its repercu
  to the discipline, rules and usages of the "Protesting Chris-                   sions for virtually all of our churches.
  tian Reformed Churches (Protestant Reformed Churches                               The entire opposition, both in  ,Classis  East and Class
  now) in the United States of `America as from time to time                      West, will lose the name and the property.
  authorized and declared by said churches."                                         This is particularly true of Second Church in Grar
                And Article 6 definitely declares that this "church shall         Rapids, as well as of Fourth Church ; and it applies equal
                                                                                              *


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                    '                            173

to the churches in Holland and Kalamazoo. Of. course,                    d. That the Church Order demands that the consistory
Fourth as well as  Creston in Grand Rapids, still are in            protect the property rights of the congregation if neces-
possession of their property, but if before they most probably      sary through the worldly court. Art. 28.
had in mind to cast out the present occupants, now they                  But I would call special attention to the clause in this
have lost all hope.                                                 bulletin that claims that  "our  churches in  Classis  West are
    But the same applies to the churches in Classis  West.          safe in keeping their properties, seeing our  Classis West
    The faithful members of  Pella, Hull, Edgerton, Man-            supports  our churches by overwhelming  .majority vote."
hattan, Redlands, and the other churches of  Classis  West               This, of course, is a very serious error.
can make the same claim.                                             Let me explain.
    In this connection, I wish to quote a strange item from
the Bulletin of the apostate group in Redlands, Cal.,  thatl             1. By the present court decision it is established that the
are still occupying the property. -It reads as follows:             only legal consistory of the First  ,Protestant  Reformed
    "Word was received Thursday of the court decision re-           Church is the one of which the Revs. C. Hanko and H.
garding the properties (not including the School) of the            Hoeksema are presidents and of which, at present, Mr. John
First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids,  Mich.            M. Faber is clerk. They have the only right to the name
The judges (judge's, H.H.) ruling was directed against the          Protestant Reformed.
Rev. H. De Wolf and his consistory, primarily because the                21 According to' the same court decision, the action of
judge ruled that seeing the Classis  East (under which First)       Classis  East by which they received the delegates. sent by
Church resorts) has by majority vote upheld the minority            the legal consistory of the First Protestant Reformed Church,
of the congregation under Rev. Hoeksema, and seeing the             and approved of the deposition of De Wolf and his elders, is
Classis  is a higher authorative body than the consistory,          also approved.
therefore the properties go to those favored by the,Classis.  If         3. The former Classis  West publicly disapproved of this
the judges (judge's, H.H.) ruling in this would be correct, action (which, by the way, was none of their business) and
then according to the same standard of judgment our                 openly  .claimed   that# only the consistory of which De Wolf
churches in  Classis  West are safe in keeping their proper-        is president is the legal consistory. This was not only an
ties, seeing our Classis  West supports our churches by over-       act of schism, but also this act of Classis  West is, by implica-
whelming majority vote., But we will await developments!            tion, condemend  by the present court decision.
assured of God's unfailing love and care over us. We cannot              4. Several consistories of the former  Classis-  West  con-
conceive of Christians deliberately violating God's Word as         demned this act of schism and  reoreanized  the  oritinal
we read it in I Corinthians 6:1-6. `Rest in the Lord with           Classis  West. They notified the Synod Ghe only legal syiod)
quiet trust. Wait patiently for Him. Though wickedness              of the Protestant Reformed Churches to this effect, the
triumphant seem. Let not thy faith grow dim.' Psalter 100,          Synod set its stamp of approval on this action and received
vs. 4."                                                             delegates from the true and only Classis West, All this is, by
   We shall refrain from commenting on this whole item in           implication, included in the present court decision.
Redland's bulletin.                                                      I maintain,. therefore, that the former  Classis  West has
   If Vermeer writes that he cannot conceive of Christians          no ground to stand on, and that the courts will have to favor
going to a worldly court; we, on our part, assure him that we       those on our side that will claim the name and the property.
cannot conceive how a man like him, in the light of his entire
history, can still write so piously about resting in the Lord            It is true that the case is not finished.
with quiet trust. To me that is a complete mystery, so much              Not only must the question concerning the property of
so that I cannot believe it. The state of resting in the Lord       the individual congregations be settled, perhaps even in the
with quiet trust is to be reached only in the way of confes-        supreme courts, but it is not impossible that our synod will
sing our sins and receiving forgiveness. Remember this,             have to file a suit in court for the possession of their archives
Vermeer !                                                           a n d   p r o p e r t i e s .
   As far as his reference to I Cor. 6 :l-6 is concerned, I             But, in principle, the whole case is settled by the decision
would like to remind him :      .                                   of Judge Taylor.                                           H.H.
   a. That the opposition forced us out of the buildings and            P. S. In the meantime, I learned that the opposition
changed the locks.                                                  has appealed to the supreme court. This means that'we  will
   b. That they never made any attempt to settle the matter         have to wait another year for the final outcome of the case.
out of court. When they' claim they did (as I understand
they now do), they simply tell a.downright  lie. I challenge                                                                   H.H.
them to prove the. contrary.
   c. That we made them a definite offer to divide the                                          Announcement              -
value of the property half and half. But to this they never             Creston Consistory announces the following trio- Rev.
gave us an answer.                                                  C. Hanko, Rev. H. C. Hoeksema, Rev: G.  Vanden Berg.


174                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   _

                                                                     heavenly things, on things that are above, but on earthy
If                                                             II
II O U R   ,DOCTRINE things, on things that are below, on the things of this world.
                                                               II The tenth commandment expresses this by forbidding to covet
                                                                     anything that is our neighbor's  - his house, his wife, his
                                                                     manservant or maidservant, his ox or ass, or anything else.
               THE TFDPLE KNOWLEDGE                                  Of course, that sin of covetousness, of desiring to have that
                                                                     which is my neighbor's, is to long  for_ something that is
       AN  EXPOSITION OF THE  HEIDELBERG   CATIXI-IISM               contrary to the will of God. If there is anything which is in
                PART  III  -  OF  THANKFULNESS                       the possession of my neighbor, - whether I have something
                                                                     similar or not, that does not make any difference, - and I
                         LORD'S  DAY  44                             set my heart upon it, I commit the sin against the tenth
                                                                     commandment. If my neighbor possesses a house, I shall not
                        C h a p t e r   1                            covet it, whether I too have a house, -or a house similar to
          The Perfection of the Law, Preached (cont'd)               his, or not. If my neighbor has a wife, I shall not covet her,
       Thus the apostle writes in I Cor.  6:9, 10: "Know ye          whether I am married or single. Principally the sin of covet-
not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdoni of           ousness has nothing-to do with the extent of my own pos-
God  ? Be not deceived : neither fornicators, nor idolaters, non     sessions. It is not true that the poor covets that which the
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with           rich man has. By nature the rich man is just as covetous as
mankind, Nor thieves, nor  covefoats,  nor drunkards, nor            the poor man. You have a strong example of this in Ahab's
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."       coveting the vineyard of Naboth.  The--poor man probably
The same we read in Eph. 5 :5 : "For this ye know, that no           covets small things, because he is poor. And the rich man
whoremonger;  nor unclean person, nor  coveto,u.s   man,  who        covets big things, because he is rich. But both are covetous
is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ        by nature. If the sin of covetousness could be rooted out of
and of God." And the apostle admonishes the church at                society, most of our economic problems would be solved.
Colosse : "Mortify therefore your members which are upon             `Covetousness is the root of all the sinful unrest in society.,
the earth ; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil     The same is true of international life and relationships: if
concupiscence, and  cozktozt.sness,  which is idolatry." And         the sin of covetousness were not so deeply rooted in  the
the Lord tells Ezekiel that a covetous heart is the. reason why      heart of the depraved man, most wars, if ,not all, would be
the people of Israel indeed listen to the word of the prophet        eliminated. Take covetousness away, and there would be no
as if they long for the Word of the  Lord> but nevertheless          reason for men to fly at one another's throats, and you could
hypocritically refuse to do it: "And they come unto thee             hardly conceive of the possibility of war. Covetousness, in
as the people cometh,  and they sit before thee as my people,        Scripture, is a root of all evil,  L of malice and envy  and
and as they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for           hatred and enmity against one another, of adultery and un-
with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth          cleanness and all kinds of corruption. The reference is to
after their covetousness." Ezek. 33 :31. To one whose heart          this when the tenth commandment comes to us with the in-
is full of covetousness, so that the Word of' the gospel can-        junction, "Thou .shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou
not strike root in it, the Lord Jesus refers in the parable of       shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor
the sower, Matt. 13 :22 : "He also that received seed among          his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that
the thorns is he that heareth the word ; .and the care of this       is thy neighbor's" Thou shalt not for a moment put an ob-
world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and          ject that is in the possession of thy neighbor before thy mind,
he becometh unfruitful." Covetousness is the sin of being            to set thy heart on it and long to possess it. Positively, this
rich in the things of this world, and not rich toward God,           means, of course, -that the tenth commandment enjoins US
Luke 12 :15, 21: "And. he said unto them, Take heed, and             to be content with what we have. Christian contentment is
beware of covetousness  i for a man's life consisteth not in         perfect satisfaction with what one has, for the sake of God
the abundance of the-things which he possesseth . . . So is          in Christ Jesus our Lord, and that too, in the midst of a
he that layeth up treasure for `himself,. and is not rich to-        corrupt and covetous world. It means that we hear and heed
ward God." Moreover, according to Scripture, covetousness            the injunction of Scripture when it tells us : "Fret not thyself
leads to many other sins, and is a root of all evil. Tim. 6 :lO.     because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious against the
      The sin of covetousness is the desire to possess anything      workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like
apart from God, against His will ; anything that He does not         the grass, and wither as the green herb.. Trust in the Lord,
give me and that evidently He does not want me -to have.             and do good ; so shalt thou dwell in the land, .and verily thou
Moreover, in close connection with this, the sin of covetous-        shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall
ness implies the longing for mere material things, apart and!
divorced from things spiritual. It implies that we set our           give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto
hearts not on the things of the kingdom of God, not on               the Lord ; trust also in him ; and he shall bring it to pass."


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                175

 P.S.  3f:l-5.  And again: "Fret not thyself because of him       of the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all other
 who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth       things shall be added unto me.
 wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath :       But even this is not the final and the deepest meaning of
fret not thyself in any wise to  -do evil. For evildoers shall    the tenth commandment according to the Heidelberg Cate-
 be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall in-    chism. The commandment in its deepest and real sense
herit the earth." It means that we listen to and heed the         means, thus the Catechism instru_cts  us, that we shall never
 admonition of the Lord Jesus which is joined with the in-        think, conceive, or imagine, or desire anything in the smal-
junction that we cannot serve God and  Mammon:  "There-           lest degree, that is contrary to any of the commandments of
fore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye       God. Or, as' the Catechism has it literally : "That even the
shall eat, or what' ye shall drink; nor yet for your body,        smallest inclination or thought,. contrary to any of  God's-
what ye shall put on. .Is not the life more than meat, and        comandments,  never rise in our hearts." And, on the other
the body than  raiment?  Behold the fowls of the air: they        hand, thus the Catechism instructs us, the tenth cotnmand-
sow not, neither do `they reap, nor gather into barns  ; yet      ment.  requires that in our deepest heart we always and con-
your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better         stantly assume the attitude  ,of hatred over against all sin,
than they  ? Which of you by taking thought can add one           and that we have it' heart fully of delight in, all righteousness.
cubit unto his stature  ? And why take ye thought for  rai-       The condition of our heart must be such that we can say
ment ? Consider the lilies of the field, how. they grow ; they    with the psalmist of Psalm 19, vs. S: "The statutes of the
toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, That      Lord are right, rejoicing the heart," Or with the psalmist of
even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of         Ps: 119: "0, how love I thy law! It is my meditation all
these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field,        the day." vs. 97. It must be such, at least, that even in our
which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven,, shall he     imperfect state we can utter  the~prayer:  "Let the words of
not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little faith? Therefore         my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in
take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall        thy sight, 0 Lord,, my strength,`and  my redeemer." Ps. 19 :14.
we drink ? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed ?. For after          The meaning is plain. As always is the Word of God,
all these things do the Gentiles seek: for your heavenly          so also the Heidelberg Catechism proceeds from the correct
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But         conception that no deed or work of man is good unless it is
seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and     good from top to bottom, or from its root to its fruit. And any
all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no       work of man is good in the sight of God only when it is
thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought         perfect all the way from the heart to its outward manifesta-
for- the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil    tion. Unless this is true, no work of man can possibly be
thereof." It is the state of which the apostle Paul speaks in     called good. A mere outward show of  .goodness while the
Philippians 4 :ll-13  : "Not that I speak in respect of want:     heart is full of corruption is abominable in the sight of God.
for I have learned, in whatsoever -state I  am! therewith to      Just as, when you see a tree, you. behold only that part of it
be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how          which is above the surface of the ground, yet that which
to abound? every where and in  all things I am instructed         you see is not the whole tree; often there is just as much
both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to           below the surface of the ground as that which is above, and
suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which             that which is below the. surface belongs very essentially to
strengtheneth me." Moreover, contentment, `in opposition to       the tree ; -- the same is true with any deed or act of man.
covetousness, is, as already evident from all the passages 05     We see only part of it. We perceive it in the words of his
Scripture we just quoted, the Christian virtue and attitude       mouth, in the activity of his body, and perhaps in the ex-
whereby one seeks the things that are above, not the things       pression of his face. All this appears only above the surface.
that are on the earth. It is the spiritual state of him who       But that which is below the surface of the appearance be-
hears and obeys the admonition of the apostle Paul in Cal.        longs to the work or act or deed of man before God just as
3 :l-4: "If ye then. be risen with Christ, seek those things      well as that which is above the surface. Below the outward
which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of        appearance is the mind, the thought, the conception, the
God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on imagination in which the deed is conceived. Besides, below
the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is .hid with Christ     the surface of the appearance of the deed there is the will,
in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall    the desire, the emotions, the inclination, the purpose and the
ye also appear with him in glory." This also is implied in        motive of the deed. And back of it all lies the deepest heart
the injunction of the tenth  comandment.   I I shall never set    of man. The heart in the Scriptural sense of the word is the
my heart on anything as an object of my desire that  is-          spiritual, ethical center and source and root of all the deeds
merely earthy, and that has no connection with the kingdom        of man: "For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit;
of God, or stands opposed to it.- I shall never long for any      neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every
object that is merely temporal, divorced from things eternal.     tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not
I shall set my heart on heavenly things, and~seek  the things     gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A


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  good man out! of the good treasure of his heart bringeth-forth       And therefore the answer was : "In no wise ; for I am' prone
  that which is good ; and an evil man out of the evil treasure        by nature to hate God and .my neighbor." But that natural
  of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil  ; for of the         man was redeemed by the blood of Christ. Besides, he was
  abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh."  Lu,  6;42-45.           delivered not only from the guilt, but also principally from
) And again : "And he said, That which cometh  out of the man          the power of sin and death. He has a new life, and is sancti-
  defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men,          fied in. Christ. And now that Christian, so redeemed and
  proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,  fornications,  murders,          sanctified, is confronted with the question whether he can
  thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an         keep the law of God perfectly. And the answer of the Cate-
  evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness : All these evil things      chism is two-fold. The first part is negative, and at the
  come from within, and defile the man." Mk. 7:20-23. There            same time it gives the reason for this negative answer : "NO :
  is, therefore, a veritable life of man below the surface which       but even the holiest men, while in this life, have only a small
  is in itself invisible, but which belongs  to the life of man        beginning of this obedience." And the second part of the
  before God just as really as that which appears. God does            answer is positive: "Yet so, that with a sincere resolution
  not look only upon the outward act, but upon the inward life,        they begin to live, not only according to some, but all the
  upon the heart of, man.                     0                        commandments of ;God."
         And when this tenth  comandment  comes -with the re-              Let us be sure that we understand this important question
  quirement. "Thou shalt not covet," it simply, `according to          correctly. The -question is not whether the Christian actually
 the interpretation of the Heidelberg Catechism takes hold of          does keep the commandments of God perfectly, but whether
  that part of .our life .that lies below the surface. It points to    he  can do so. We often have an idea `that the perfectionist
  our thinking, our willing, our desiring, our inclination. It         teaches that the Christian actually does keep the law of God
  points to our deepest heart and requires of us: "Thou shalt          perfectly. But that is not his contention. And- this is cer-
  be perfect, be perfect even as the Lord your God is perfect."        tainly not the meaning `of Question 14 of the Heidelberg
  And so the Heidelberg Catechism is undoubtedly correct in            Catechism. Once, when I preached on this Lord's Day, I
  its interpretation. The tenth commandment covers really the          spoke, according to a stenographic record of the sermon, as
  whole of the law, in all its separate commandments. And it           follows :
  goes into our deepest heart. We shall not desire any other               "If we ask the question whether we do actually keep the
  god, but love the Lord our God with all our heart and mind           law of God perfectly, we do not have to go very far, do we?
  and soul and strength. We shall not conceive or think or             Let us ask the question of ourselves as we are gathered here
  will or desire anything against any of the commandments of           for  .public worship this morning. Suppose we would examine
  God. But we shall have our delight in the law of our God             ourselves before. the face, of God, and ask the question: did
  with our whole heart. Such is the'meaning of the tenth com-          we keep the law of God perfectly this morning, since we
  mandment. Be ye therefore perfect, even as the Lord your             opened our eyes ? One and all, you and I will have to answer
  God is perfect.                                           _  '       undoubtedly: we did not. We do not even have to go as far
                                                                       back as the time when we first awoke this morning. Let
                             Chapter 2                                 us go back to the moment when we entered the church, when
                  The Imperfect Perfect Christian                      we .began  our worship: Was even our worship perfect? Did
                                                                       we keep the law of God perfectly while we sang and prayed.
     We are not surprised that especially in  oonnection  with         as we sat and listened to the reading of Holy Writ and to
  the tenth commandment the Heidelberg Catechism con-                  the perfect law ? Was even that worship perfect ? Was there
  cludes the discussion of the law first of all with the question:     since.the  beginning of our worship not the smallest thought
  "But can those who are converted to God perfectly keep               in our mind contrary to the holiness of that worship ? Is
  these commandments  ?" The whole law is perfect: as it is            there anyone here that would dare to say no to that question?
  reflected in the tenth commandment it demands nothing less           Was there since the beginning of our worship not the smal-
  of the Christian than inward and outward perfection. And             lest inclination to sin ? Is there anyone here that would dare
  therefore, the question is quite proper, not ,whether man by         to maintain that he could pass through one hour and a half
  nature, but whether the Christian can keep the law perfectly.        of worship before the face of God without sin ? My answer
  That the natural man, apart from the grace of God, can keep          to that question is negative. And so is yours, if you only
  the law perfectly is, of course, out of the question. A similar      examine yourselves properly before the face .of. God. Per-
  question was asked in the very beginning of the Heidelberg           haps you will say that there arose before your mind a sinful
  Catechism in Lord's Day 2. There the question was whether            thought, but you suppressed it. There was in your soul a
  man by nature can keep all the commandments of the law of            sinful inclination, but you put it down and fought against it.
  God, expressed in the principle of the love of God and of            But even though this was the case, the sinful thought and
  the neighbor, perfectly. And there the answer was that this          the sinful inclination were there. They were before your
  is absolutely impossible. The natural man stands opposed to          mind and they were in your soul, were they not?"
  the law with all his heart and mind and soul and strength.                                                                    H.H.


                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             177

                                                                        Also the wicked who perish intheir sins shall see and know.
11 THE DAY OF SHADOWS  11 In that clay all idolatry shall ceas.e also on the part of the
I'                                                                rl    reprobated. Ezrery tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Lord
                                                                        to the glory-of the Father.
                  The Prophecy of Isaiah                                     I am not indulging in unwarranted spiritualizing in ex-
17. When the poor and the needy seek water and there is                 plaining this passage as I do. The promise that God for the
       none,                                                            benefit of His people will convert the wilderness into a land
       And their tongue is parched for thirst,                          of springs of water and abundant vegetation is not mere
       I the Lord will hear them,                                       literary ornamentation. What disproves this is the affirma-
1s. I will open in elevated places-rivers,                              tion of the prophet that God's people will understand that
       And in the midst of valleys fountains :                          the hand of the Lord has done it. Being earthy men,  the.
       And I will make the wilderness a' pool of water,                 organs of revelation could not do otherwise but set forth the
       And the dry land springs of water.                               heavenly by earthy imagery. It was the only language they
19. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar? the accasia tree.         knew. It was the language that God in creating the -earthy
       And the myrtle and the wild olive ;                              had prepared for Himself for communicating the thoughts
       And will set in the desert the fir tree,        I                of His heart to them.
       And the elm and the box tree together:
20. That they may see, and know,                                        _     The chnlleng~?  to the idols, iYLI:21-29.
       And consider and understand together,                            21. Draw nearand  plead your cause, saith the Lord ;
       That the hand of the Lord has done this,                               Bring forth your arguments, saith the king of Jacob.
      And the  .Holy  One of Israel hath created `it.                   22. Let them bring them forth and show us what will be.
      The poor and needy are God's believing people and not                   Behold, let them show the first things, what they were,
the indigent in general. In our passage we see them in a                      That we may set our heart upon them and know their
parched and barren wilderness vainly seeking water. In their.                 latter end  ;
need they cry unto the Lord and He hears them by chang-                       Or declare us things to come.
ing the wilderness into a land of brooks of water, of foun-             23. Show `the things that are to come hereafter,
tains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, and a                  That' we may know that ye are gods.
land of abundant vegetation.                                                  Yea do good or do evil;
      .This wonderful work of the Lord reminds of His. doing                  That we may be amazed and see together..
with regard to the people of Israel during the period of the
wanderings. He fed them with manna from heaven and from                 24. Lo, ye are worse than nothing.
the rocks of the desert fetched them streams of water that                    An abomination is he that chooseth you.
followed them on their  .journey (I Cor. 10  :4). And so the                 In this section the prophet returns to the controversy
Lord will again surely provide in all. the needs of His                 between the Lord and the heathen and their idols (see vss.
people, the captives in Babylon, on their journey homeward.             l-7). The pretention of the idols is that they are gods. The
But the Lord did not again fetch them water out of `the                 Lord summons them to plead their cause, to produce their
rock. They did not pass through wildernesses that for their             arguments, that is, to  prove'their pretention. Let them re-
benefit had been converted into gardens of delight by the               veal the future, say what shall be. Doing that, they prove
power of their God. And so it is plain that the promise of our          their divinity. For then they show that the destinies of
passage calls for a final and more comprehensive fulfilment. In         things have been determined by them and that there is in
the final instance it is a good tiding in earthy language of the        them a will, a sovereignly determining will, according to the
complete salvation of God's people, first of His care of them           counsel of which they work all things. The mark of divinity
as they pursue their way through the world, this wilderness             is the ability not alone to foretell the event but also to
of woe, to their eternal home, the Father's house. They seek            determine it and to bring it to pass. The real proof of divinity
water but there is none. Their tongue is parched with thirst.           is the latter two abilities. Just because the Lord determines
And their thirsting is after God. And He fetches them water             and does all things, is He capable of foretelling the future-?
out of the rock. And the rock is Christ. And-they drink and             He delivers His people always in fulfilment of His promises.
are satisfied.                                                          He is a God not only of words but also of action.
      But this is not all. Through Christ He will purge and                  And, if they be gods, let them show the "first, beginning,
make new this sin cursed earth at His appearing and cause               original things." This is the proper meaning of the expres-
His poor and needy to appear in glory upon it. And their                sion found in the original text. In our passage the term
thirst after Him will be fully satisfied through their drinking         seems to denote the past in contrast to the future. The
from the rivers of grace that flow from the Throne. And they            mandate seems to be that the idols give a correct analysis of
will see and know and consider and understand that it is all            the past in order that one may infer what the future shall
the Lord's work, the creation of the Holy One of Israel.                be. that is, in the words of the text, in order that "we," the


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Lord and His people, may set their -hearts  upon the, event           Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath Jehovah, the God
explained and `interpreted and know. the end thereof from its         of heaven, given me ; and he hath charged me to build him
beginning. But .the thought conveyed may also be that the             a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whosoever `there
idols point to definite events of the past that they had brought!     is among you of all his people, his God be with him, and let
to pass in  fulfilment  of their prophecy regarding it. Doing         him go up to Jerusalem,' which is in Judah, and build the
that, the Lord and His people will know that they be gods.            house of Jehovah, the God of Israel (He is God), which is
Yea; the prophet continues, let them do good or evil, that is,        in Jerusalem" (Ez. 1  :2, 3).
let them do something, whatever it may be. As it is, they                It would be a mistake to `conclude that Cyrus was a true
do nothing. Yet they say, such is the contention of their             worshipper of the Lord. He was not. But the Lord had
worshippers, that they are gods. Words, prophecy alone                bound the prophecies `concerning him upon his heart. What
prove nothing. There is much false prophecy. It does not              must have impressed him is that his appearance in history
come to pass. The idols must show that they are capable of            had been foretold so long'a time. It could not be ascribed to
action and of such action, of course, of which no mere human          human foresight. God must have spoken. It, was He by
is capable.. They must show that they are vested  with a              whom he was being mandated. Such seems to have  been.
might to which there is no limit and that therefore they can          his belief. He may have prayed for the victories that were
foretell things of which only a being that is -divine can have        to be, his. He was to press on irresistably, treading upon the
any knowledge.                                                        satraps  of- the Babylonian provinces as upon mire.          The
       Of course, the whole purpose of the prophet in thus            purpose of the prophecy is to bring out that the Lord, in
mandating the idols is to make impressive the fact that they          contradistinction to the idols that are nothing, does great
are worse than nothing and that therefore their worshippers           things. For Cyrus will be active as His agent. The Lord
are, an abomination.                                                  will raise him up. He, himself,. declared that the Lord sent
25. I have raised up otti from'the north, and he shall come ;         him, and his confession was that the Lord is God. Yet he
        From the rising of the sun he shall call upon my name,        was not a true believer. What activated him was a super-
        And he shall come upon governors as upon mire,                stitious dread of the Almighty. The Lord put His fear in
        And as the potter treadeth clay.                              the conqueror's heart-a fear that as to its essence was
26. Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may                 hatred of God. It was as moved by this type of fear that
        know ?                                                        the wicked king Ahab. repented. in dust and ashes and that
        And before time, that we may say,                             the Pharaoh of the oppression went so far as to confess that
                                              He is righteous ?
        Yea, there is none that revealeth, yea. there is none that    the Lord is righteous and that he and his people were,
        causeth to hear,                                              wicked. It shows how that also the hearts of wicked men
        Yea, there is none that hear&h your words.                    are in God's hand.
27. The first to  sny to Zion, behold, behold them!                      Next the Lord poses, the question, who among the idols
  And to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings I will              hath declared. The forms of the verbs in the original text
       give.                                                          (the Hebrew participle) can better be rendered, Who among
28. For I beheld and there was no man ;                               the idols is declaring, making known, speaking? Making
        Even among them and there was no counsellor,                  known  what?  The prophet does not say. But it is plain
        That, when I asked, they could return a word.                 that he means to be asking, Who among the idols is now
                                                                      foretelling the appearance of Cyrus that, .so the prophet con-
29. Behold, all of them are vanity:                                   tinues, we may know of the thing beforehand in order that
        Nothing are their. works  ;                                   we may say, He (the idol) is righteous, that is, that we may
        Wind and vanity are their molten images.                      be able to say that this claim to divinity is not false pretention
       The idols cannot say what the future shall be, but  the!       but morally right?
Lord produces a prophecy by proclaiming what He will do.
He knows what will be because He brings it to pass ; it is               Of course, there is none of them that makes known, is
His doing: And the proof of the latter is that He foretold            causing to hear. There is none that hears them speak.  All.
the thing.  Also this prophecy is occupied with Cyrus; it             are silent. For they are less than nothing.
repeats the former utterance, that the Lord has raised him               The first and only one to say to Zion, Behold, behold
up: Here it is stated that he comes from the north and                them ! is the -Lord. He alone can say what the future shall
from the rising of the sun, thus from the east. This is a             be, seeing that He is God and none else. Such is here the
detail that points to Cyrus: He came against Babylon as               reasoning. Hence He gives to Jerusalem a messenger of
ruler of Media and Persia,' the former of which lay north and         good tidings such as Isaiah. To Zion this messenger of good
the latter east of that  ,city. He shall call upon the Lord's         news is given and to none else. For Zion is the chosen of
name. The  fulfihnent  of this prophecy -is the command of            the Lord. And the good news is that the captivity of Zion
Cyrus that the temple of the Lord be rebuilt and its service          shall be turned.
re-established. It reads in part., "Thus saith Cyrus king of                                (Co?ztimed  on page  191)


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 179
                                                                                                                     ,
II                                                                     thereon,, and by exhortation, threatenings and promises there-
           F R O M   H O L Y   WRIT                               il of, as well as by'the use of the Sacraments!
                                                                         This exhortation. and warning cannot too seriously be
                                                                       taken to heart. For did not Jesus -Himself warn His dis-
             Exposition of Galatians 5: 13-15                          ciples against this "doctrine" of the Pharisees, speaking of
      This passage in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians reads as         it as the "leaven of the Pharisees," which corrupts all sound
follows  :  "For,, brethren, ye have  beeiz called unto liberty;       doctrine ?
only (use) not liberty  f01*  a,n occasion to the  flesh,,  hut by         But Paul is not onesided  !
love  seme one another.  FOT all the law is fulfilled  ,in  one            Did I say ."onesided  ?" Let us use that term guardedly
woyd,. (even) in this: thou shplt love thy neighbor as thyself.        and with discretion. The truth of the salvation by grace is
Wu.t  if. ye bite  an.d  devoat-u one  a.nothr,  take heed  that we    not simply a "middle-in-the-road" position between  Pharisee-
be not consqwaed one of a.nother."                                     ism and Anti-nomism, between legalism and anti-legalism, so
      For a proper and correct understanding of this Scripture         that he would become a semi-legalist! ! No. the truth is
passage it is of the utmost importance that we understand              that it is either. the position of the true liberty in Christ or
the context in which these words were written and thus un-             the bondage of sin under law in earnest, or walking in sin
-derstancl their proper background and limitation. It should           as a slave of sin ! The position of salvation by faith alone
be borne in mind that the great issue in this letter of Paul ig        is that of being a "new creature" where old things have
whether works of law must be performed  ins order to be                passed away and all things have become new. In this  "new-
saved, or whether we are simply justified out of faith that is         ness of life" there is place neither for legalism nor for anti-
energized by love through the Holy Spirit. That is the is-             nomism  ! Both are out of the Evil one, setting on fire man's
sue. Paul takes the stand that it is "either-or." It cannot            sinful passions out of hell, constituting total bondage!
possibly be both by works of law `and out of faith that we                 It is good, therefore, to give account of this "lack of one-
are justified. It is either grace? the free gift of God, or it is      sidedness" of Paul and listen to `his warning against either
of merit of works. In the former we have boast with God,               form of bondage, whether this be legalism or antinomism !
in the latter we boast in man's achievement and deny the                   This means that all of the exhortations, admonitions and
very Cross of Christ! So serious is this matter. And well              threatenings are directed to the church on the basis of what
may we, therefore,, beware ! For, mark you well, a little              she really possesses by faith in Christ. And these exhorta-
leaven leaverieth the whole lump. Grace and works will not             tions are preached to all from the viewpoint. of the living
be commingled. For if justification (the subjective entering           Vine and branches. Thus it is here!
into the Kingdom ?) is by grace then it is no more of works,              Hence, Paul's warning note to the Galatians: "For,
otherwise grace has become no longer grace! Grace has then             brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only (use) not
been denatured into works ! Remans  11 :`5.                            liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve  .one
      Such is the serious departure from the grace in Christ!          another."
implicit in this returning to the keeping, of days, months,               What does Paul have in mind when he speaks of using
seasons and years, the return to weak and beggarly principles:         our "liberty'" as an "occasior?' to the flesh ? We should know
Gal. 4  :8-l 1. For if one must even as much as be  circum-            that the term in the Greek of which "occasion" is a transla-
cized in order to be saved, then one is a debtor to go all the         tion into English means : 1. Properly : a place from which a
way and keep the whole law. But such a return is fatal.                movement or attack is made, a base of operations.  Thud
Such a one is fallen from grace and from Him who called                Thuloch writes "the Pelloponnesians all withdrew and thus           ~
in the hope of the Gospel. Woe to one who returns to these             to have a  fit  phce  of attack. (aph-ormee). 2. And thus
weak and beggarly principles; principles which are weak                figuratively it means : that by which endeavor is excited and
because they have no power to make the dead sinner alive,              from which it goes forth; that which gives occasion and
and are beggarly because they cannot make the poor sinner              supplies matter for an undertaking, the incentive  ; the  re-
rich with all the joys and graces of a free and good con-              sourses  we avail ourselves of in attempting or performing
science whereby we fight against sin. Oh, the folly of it.             anything !
For that is to become ensnared with a yoke of bondage once                This is the sense of the term also in the New Testament
more. Then all the joy of salvation is gone. The quiet                 Scriptures where it is, a term peculiar to Paul among the
waters of joy and peace in the Cross become-troubles with              New Testament writers.
anxiety and stark despair ! For everyone that is under law                In our liberty in Christ, unto which God has efficaciously
is under the curse!                                                    and powerfully called us, there lies .the real starting point of
      Such is the context..                                            all "loving service toward our neighbor." We have been
      Paul, in this context, exhibits masterfully what our             called unto good works of faith that worketh by love. Such
fathers so succinctly express in the Canons of Dort, V, 14 L           a starting point of Christian conduct cannot possibly be
God preserves,  bcontimtes and  fierfects   rlze  ZVOI-k of grace      found in the being "under law" of works. The law is the
in us by the hearing and reading of His ijTord,  by meditation         "starting point" of sin, working all manner of concupiscence

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

from a spiritual-psychological viewpoint. The law is the             cation can be stressed too much as being by faith. We must
"power," the dynamic of sin. Not because the "law" is evil:          not say: yes, but there must be works  too,  if we have in
It is, indeed, spiritual, good, holy and righteous. But it is        mind to place sanctification rzext to justification! But when
"weak)' to incite unto good works. Those, who are under              we insist with Paul that there be works as manifestation of
the curse, cannot find any incentive anywhere to do good             justifying faith, then, to be sure, we say "too" and "but";
works, which are born only out  ~of the expectation of the           however, then it is not placed over-against, our being "under
"hope of righteousness. This hope of righteousness has in it         grace" but it is then placed over against the  "antinomian"
the resourses from which all good works spring forth as a            as does James when he says that we are not justified by
spring-board in our soul!                                            "faith alone."
       Now the passionate exhortation of Paul comes to stand            In this passage Paul and James meet, or better. stated:
before us in bold relief, does it .not?                              James speaks of the same aspect of faith in James 2 as
       Hear the earnest plea: only use not the liberty in Christ     does Paul in Galatians 5. James 2 presupposes Romans 5 :l.
as the place of operation of the flesh ! God forbid! 0, the             We should, therefore, use great discretion when we warn
depths of iniquity in thus doing ! 0, the sorrow and contrition      against saying there must be works "too !" Also we should
of the. repenting saint for such conduct ! Is there anything         be very careful that we do not say too little and therefore
so abominable as this? Yes, and this is the abomination of           say too much, when we say: God elected  LE. Now `do not
iniquity that lies ready in our 3esh to reveal its foulness at       say: But we must .belietie! It depends whether we are con-
every moment. The heart of man is deep, yea, deadly it is:           tending with the fathers of Dort or whether we are contend-
who can know it! And the child of God, who walks accord-             ing with that nefarious offshoot of the Reformation known
ing to the Spirit, even as he lives by the Spirit, sighs and         as Anabaptism. In the case of the former we say: God
confesses : "Who can understand his errors ? Cleanse thou            elected and,  tlaevefore,v   we  be&eve  and are  ,admonislzed   to
me from secret faults. Keep. back thy servant also from              walk in this faith, which is energized by the love of the
presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me, then          Holy Spirit. In the latter case we say, standing in this faith
I. shall be upright and free from the great transgression."          energized by love, having its fountain and cause in electing
       The Psalmist speaks here of the true "freedom,"  which        love: but there must be the works of faith too, lest we walk
does not want to be a servant of sin!                                unworthily of the saints who are called unto  spiritual-
 It is of this "liberty" that Paul here speaks in these              ethical freedom! Then we answer the antinomian.
verses. And this liberty is that we are free in serving God             Since a good part of our .serving  one another in love is
in a free and good conscience and manfully fight against and         the accurate instructing of one another and so keep and re-
overcome sin, the devil and his whole dominion as part in            move offense from out of the church of Christ I have
the New Covenant, the law written upon the tables of our             delineated just a bit about these important distinctions.
heart! May  .this faith then be the spring-board, be the                The word of Paul is still true that if we bite and devour
Spiritual resourses of a godly walk at liberty!        '             one another we should beware lest we consume one the
       These resourses of a faith  .that is energized by love        other ! That would be water on  the.mill  of Satan. But  such
(verse 6) will surely never be lawless. The fact that we are         is not the law of faith which is `energized by the Love of
not  "under  law"' but rather "under grace" is such that by          God shed abroad in our hearts., It is the principle of the Old
the law of the "Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" we do not            Serpent the Dragon from the beginning ! There is a famous
walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. And        story of two snakes that grabbed each other by the'tail' and
this walk, we repeat, is not the half-way position between           each swallowed the other. Such is the case when we do not
legalism and antinomism,  but it is wholly different. It is the      walk in the true and living faith which reveals itself in the
manifestation of the New Testament in the latter days, which         pleroma of the law : love thy neighbor as thyself !
God made through the Spirit of the Risen Lord, shedding                                                                             G . L .
His Spirit abroad in our hearts, the pleroma of the law!
       Of this "pleroma" of the law the apostle writes as to its
manifestation in our lives in the church. The sons of Sarah,
the Jerusalem in heaven, must have a corresponding walk,                                    I N   M E M O R I A M
walking "even as in that Day." Love must be-perfected in
our lives, come to full fruition. That is only. a reality when          The consistory of the Protestant Reformed Church of South
we do not serve sin, but when by love we serve one another.          Holland expresses sympathy for our brother Elder G. Van  Btaren
                                                                     and family in the death of his daughter,
Such service is the service of a true and living faith. For
the same love which prompts us to serve one another is the                                   MRS. G. VROOM
love that energizes our faith. Only where such love, energizing      May the God of all grace comfort. them with His Holy Spirit.
faith is, is there a service of one another. Justifying faith is                                          The  Consistory  :
therefore at once sanctifying faith. Only the  jztst,ified  saint                                       L. Lanting,  Vice,  President
will walk truly in sacntification. We must never say : justifi-                                           N. T. Terpstra, Clerk.


                                                    T H E   S'I'ANDARD   B E A K E R                                                     1+1                    0

                                                                      on this "fine" essay of Rev. Blankespoor. We only intend
               I N                HIIS  lFEA,R                       b to show, as we wrote before, that the gate is wide open, We
                                                                      did not expect this unsolicited help from Rev. Blankespoor
                                                                      when we began this series of articles. But he surely helps to
                     The Gate Iis Open                               make it plain to anyone who loves the Protestant Reformed
                                (Continued                            truth that the gate is wide open.
                                               j                         He misleads in this "fine" essay and he confesses no sin in
     A change -of mind is not necessarily sinful.                     having misled in the past by taking the extremely opposite
    -It can be sinful.                                                position that it was solely a church political issue. He deems
     It can be the casting out of the truth in order to `receive      it sufficient simply to tell his readers that now he is going to
 and embrace the lie;                                                 tell them what  ~enlly happened. If they forget that he had
     But it can also be the casting out of the lie to  receivel       said it was solely a church political issue, so much the`better.
 and embrace the truth.                                              Otherwise he can cover it up with that word "really."
     We were, therefore, at first encouraged and hopeful                 We are grateful for the growing willingness of those
 when we began to read the "fine" essay of Rev. Blankespoor          that left us to admit that fundamentally it is a doctrinal issue,
 which he delivered in Oskaloosa.  Iowa and which was pub-           that there is a deep doctrinal difference between them and us.
 lished in a recent copy of Concordia.                                   We are grateful to God for this.
     For he definitely changed his mind about the cause of the         `- We are grateful because we believe that there are many
 "split" in our churches He changed his mind.in  the matter          people who still love the Protestant Reformed truth, the
of' only a few months. And he went from one extreme to                doctrinal position which we by God's grace have continued
 the other.                                                          to maintain faithfully, and that. these people have been-de-
     In August he could with emphasis state in the Reformed           ceived  by all this misleading, distorted propaganda of "solely
 .Guardian, Vol. II, No. 3, that "First of all we must realize        a  cllL,rch   political  issue," of Rev. De Boer's "a moral ,issue"
 .that our churches did not "split" on ony doctrinal issues,          and the brazen lie of today that we owe the Christian Re-
 that of conditions or any other point of doctrine, but solely        farmed Churches an apology for our stand in re the authority
 on  ch~ch  political  issues." (The italics are his.  j              of Classis  and Synod in the court trial and that we deceived.
     We told him in a  recent  Standard Bearer article that           Judge  Taylor into  believing  that  our  stand today is that
 he was wrong. We showed with proof from several aspects              which we did not believe in 1924.
 how wrong he was.                                                       We still maintain what we said at that time: Classis  and
     He must have read that artic'e.                                  Synod have no authority to exercise the keys of the kingdom
     And now, realizing that he was wrong and that  .he can That belongs solely to the local consistory. And in 1924 it
 never defend that position, having, undoubtedly also noted           was the Classis  that deposed and so set itself up to exercise
 that  .several  of his colleagues-- thus Rev. Howerzyl in a         the keys of the kingdom upon the Rev. Hoeksema and his
 Concordia article of recent date, Oct. 21,  ~1954-  take  an-        Consistory. No such thing happened to Rev. De Wolf and
 other position, he has also changed his mind and agreed             his deposed elders. The Consistory  supended and deposed
 with them that  it,is fundamentally a doctrinal issue.              them, not the  Classis.  And the  Classis  in October simply
     With a view to their ministers' conference Rev. Blanke-         recognized the suspension and exercised the authority which                           a
 spoor drew up a paper in which he takes that opposite posi-         we never denied that the Classis possessed, namely the au-
 tion that is fundamentally a docrtinal issue.                  _    thority to set outside the denomination. Let anyone prove that
     And in his title already he makes plain that he has              Class&  East did any more than that ! And if they try, let them            .
 changed his mind. For, in that Reformed Guardian article            remember that before October comes September. It does!
 he told us what he thought was the sole' ,issue. Emphatically       And in September a Classis that had no right&meddle with
 he said that our churches "split" solely on church political        the case declared the Rev. Hoeksema and the Rev. Hanko
 issues.                                                             and their elders and deacons to be outside the Protestant
     Now with new light and to correct himself he prepares a         Reformed Churches; We, they claim, might not do that to
 paper to tell those who have followed him in this way of            Rev. De Wolf, but they had already in a schismatic way don@
 error what  ,yeally  happened- in our churches. Thus  what!         it to the Rev. Hoeksema and the Rev., Hanko. We never
 he wrote in August in that Reformed Guardian was not                denied that  Classis  and Synod have authority over the
 renlly the thing after all.                                         denominational life of the churches and that it is called upon  '
     Plainly he had misled his followers when he convinced           to decide whether teachings are heretical or not.             `_                 _
 them to follow him and his colleagues because our churches              But as we said, gradually now, and of late more rapidly
 "split" solely on a church political issue. -Now he must tell       than in the past, the truth comes to the fore, even though  `
 them what rea,lly happened in our churches.                         grudgingly admitted, that there is a fundamental doctrinal
     But he misleads again!                                          difference between us and those who left us.
    We are not going to duplicate the Rev. Schipper's article            Rev. Blankespoor is right that far.


  182                                           T H E   STANDAkD   BEARE'R

         But the doctrinal difference which he presents is so de-       prepared in his opposition to the Declaration, 1'11 never b$
  ceptively presented and so utterly wrong that it may not go           God's grace exchange our beautiful Declaration of Principle4;
  unchallenged. He admits himself that it is a "tremendous              for them!                                                  ,
accusation of those  who no longer wished to live with us                  You see ,how wide the gate is !                              h
  under. one ecclesiastical roof." And he adds, "but that is my            To strive to live out of and according to the whole Word
  conviction, nevertheless."                                            of God as explained in the. Three Forms of Unity you ha&
         What assurance can his followers have that he will not         to use Liberated terminology. You have to have a  prom6
  change his position once again  ?  He has  t1za.t  conviction now.    to everyone on the condition of faith ; you have to have OLK
  In August he had the very opposite convictidn. Will he next           works as prerequisites to the enjoying of God's works. 0, w$
  month make another about-face ? Can you depend upon the,              were in  Chatham  and in Hamilton! And there you heard
  judgment and opinion of one who can make such contradic-              that `same strange sound. The walls of our denomination.
  tory stands in so short a time ? Does he tell his followers           must not be so high that. they keep out that heresy, for  ii
  this time what ,venlly happened in our churches ?                     belongs to an attempt to live  dut of and according to the
         Rev. Blankespoor we hope and pray that you will tell the       whole Word of God!
  whole world what really happened. We hope and pray that                  And I hear a refrain coming back and back, echoing out
  you will make one more about-face and that this time it is            of the past. Listen ! It sounds like the voice -of Rev. Petter :
  the. correct one. In the mercy of Christ which constrains us          "A full orbed gospel! Conditions are needed, faith as a con-
  in the love of God, the love of His Church, the love of His           dition is needed for a full orbed gospel."
  Truth and of His children we plead with you to consider                  An attempt, a sincere attempt to live out of and accord-
  what we write and not to harden yourself in a stand which             ing to the  z&ole Word of God  ? Listen, Rev. Blankespoor  1 .
  can  %ever  receive God's blessing no matter-as Rev. Lub-             You tell  us what there is in the Word of God that we  d$
  bers so beautifully put it-though you may have at the                 not and  canriot  And  will  not preach. I'll tell you what you
  moment a "seeming success." Numbers and a following does              cannot and do not preach and that shows that therefore you
  not necessarily mean God's blessing. You nlust prove to the           do not preach the whole Word of God!                             I
  All-Seeing and All-Knowing God that this is true of us and               Get.on  the pulpit Sunday. Tell your people that there is
 .not to man. You can never convince Him -of that.                      no promise to the reprobate  ; that God neither offers  no{
         The awful indictment is : "On our part (He- means their        promises salvation to them, neither conditionally nor  unf
  part) it was and is a sincere attempt to live out of and              conditionally. Tell them that Prof. Veenhof is heretical  it!
  according to the  whole  Word of God, as explained in our             his teachings when he speaks of a promise to every baptized
  Three Forms of Unity." The italics are Rev. Blankespoor's.            child and that you will maintain with the  wltole Word of
         The. implication of this is that we do not sincerely  ~try     God that God's promises are for the elect only. T&II them, if
  to live out of and according to the whole Word of God. If             you d&-e,  and you have to in order to preach the whole War+
 you please, we do `not even  try!  And there is part of the            of God, that Rev. De Wolf's first statement is  IiterallF
  Word of God as explained in the Three Forms of Unity that             heretical. If you do not do that YOU are not even attempt-
  we deliberately- because we do not sincerely attempt it -             ing to live out of and according to the whole Word of God
  set aside and refuse to treat. What a "fine" essay that turned        as explained in the Three Forms of `Unity.
  out to be. And Rev. Howerzyl is to be complimented on                    Let us not have awful indictments without proof !
 being able to attach that label of "fine" on a piece that                 Tell us and prove it from all our writings and preaching
 attributes so much devilishness to us !                                that we are not sincerely attempting to live out -of and ac-
         But let us examine the matter once. We do not sincerely        cording to the whole  Word of God.                              ;
 attempt to live out of and according to the whole  Word of                Rev. Blankespoor, shall I publish a document you corn;
  God ? Let us ask once, what did we reject and what do they            posed in regard to our calling to send our children to Prot-:
 reject? We adopted the Detlaration of Principles. They                 estant Reformed Christian Schools? YOU cannot publish
 adopted the heresy of Rev. De  Wolf. We rejected that heresy.          that anymore. For you are not attempting to live out of
 They rejected the truth of the Declaration. To live out of             and according to the whole Word of God as explained in the
 and according to the whole  Word of God, they say, you must            Three Forms of Unity. You wrote that document and sent,
 preach Rev. De Wolf's statements. We say, you must preach              it to the members of your congregation at a time when YOL;
 according to the Declaration of Principles. We always main-            were sincerely atempting to live out of and according to that
 tained that the Declaration was an explanation of what the             whole  Word of God. Would to God you had not  change{
 whole  Word of God and the Three Forms of Unity declare                .and could publish that document yourself without blushing
 concerning the covenant promises. Rev. Blankespoor says                and without excuses.                                             ile
 that the statements of Rev. De Wolf are the Word of God as                Now you tell Us what there is in +he Word of God thai
 explained in our Three Forms of Unity.                                 we cannot and deliberately refuse to preach and maintain.
     Rev. Blankespoor 1'11 never exchange with you those                Sustain  what you yourself call a "tremendous accusation.`;
 insults to the Living God which Rev. De Wolf deliberately                                  (Comt~hzred  OX  #age 184)


                                              T H E   S'I`ANDARD'BEARER                                                             183

                                                                       especially the learned church teachers, Basil, Gregory of
         Contending For The Faith                                      Nazianzen,  Apollinaris of Laodicea, who applied.. the clas-
                                                                       sical culture to the refutation of heathenism and the defense
                                                                       of Christianity. To evade his interdict, the two Apollinaris
          The Church and the Sacraments                                produced with all haste Christian imitations of Homer, Pin-
                                                                       dar, Euripides, and Menander, which were considered by
   VIEWS  DURING   THE SECOND  PERIOD   (300-750  A.D.)                Sozomen equal to the originals, but soon passed into oblivion.
                         T     H     E       CHURCH                    Gregory also wrote the tragedy of "The Suffering Christ,"
   Continuing with Philip Schaff's description of Julian's             and several hymns, which still exist. .Thtis these fathers bore:
ruthless  ~attempt  to destroy Christianity, we quote the fol-         witness to the indispensableness of classical literature for a
lowing;. vol. III, 52, ff.                                             higher Christi,an  education, and the church has ever since
   "This appears in his open partiality and injustice against          maintained the same view..
the Christians. His liberal patronage of heathenism was in                Julian further sought to promote his cause by literary
itself an injury to Christianity. Nothing gave him greater             assaults upon the Christian religion  ; himself writing, shortly
joy than an apostasy, and he held out the temptation of                before his death, and in the midst of his preparations for `the
splendid reward  ; thus himself, employing the impure means            `Persian campaign, a bitter work against it, of which we shall
of proselyting, for which he reproached -the Christians. Once          speak more fully in a subsequent section.
he even advocated conversion by violent measures. While                   3. To the same hostile design against Christianity is to
he called heathens to all the higher offices, and, in case of          be referred the favor of Julian. to its old hereditary enemy,
their palpable disobedience, inflicted very mild punishment, if        Judaism.
any at all, the Christians came to be everywhere disregarded,             The emperor, in an official document, affected reverence
and their complaints dismissed  from- the tribunal  with a             for that ancient popular religion, and sympathy with its ad-
mocking reference to their Master's precept, to give their ene-        herents, praised their firmness under misfortune, and con-
my their cloak also with their coat, and turn the other cheek          demned their  oppr&sors.  He exempted the Jews from
to his blows. They were removed from military and civil                burdensome taxation, and encouraged them even to return
office,, deprived of all their former privileges, oppressed with       to the holy land and to rebuild the temple on Moriah in its
taxes, and compelled to restore without indemnity the temple           original splendor. He appropriated considerable sums to this!
property, with all their own improvements on it, and to con-           object from the public treasury, intrusted his accomplished
tribute to the support of the public idolatry. Upon occasion:          minister Alypius with the supervision of the building, and
of a controversy between  the Arians and the orthodox at               promised, if he should return victorious from the Persian
Edessa, Julian confiscated the church property and distributed         War, to honor with his own presence the solemnities of
it among his soldiers, under the sarcastic  pretence  of facilitat-    reconsecration and the restoration of the Mosaic sacrificial
ing the Christians" entrance into the kingdom of heaven, from          worship.
which, according to the doctrine of their religion (compare               His real purpose in t.his undertaking was certainly not!
Matt. 19  :23, 24  j,  riches might exclude them.                      to advance the Jewish religion ; for in his work against the
   E&ally  unjust and tyrannical was the law, which placed             Christians he speaks with great contempt of the Old Testa-
all the state schools under the direction of heathens, and             ment, and ranks  Moses and Solomon far below the pagan
prohibited the Christians teaching the sciences and the arts.          lawgivers and philosophers. His object in the rebuilding of
J&an  would thus deny Christian youth the advantage of                 the  tiemple was rather. in the first place, to enhance the
education, and compel them either to sink in ignorance and             splendor  of his' reign, and thus gratify his personal vanity ;
barbarism, or to imbibe with the study of the classics in the          and then most probably  .to put  to. shame the prophecy of
heathen schools the principle of idolatry. In his view the             Jesus respecting the destruction of the temple (which, how-
Hellenic writings, especially the works of the poets, were not         ever, was actually fulfilled three hundred years before once
only literary, but also religious documents to which the               for all), to deprive the Christians of their most popular
heathens had an exclusive claim, and he regarded Chris-                argument against the Jews, arid to break the  power  of the
tianity irreconcilable with genuine human culture. The Gali-           new religion in Jerusalem.
leans, says he in ridicule, should content themselves with ex-            The Jews now  poure$ from east and west  into-the  holy
pounding Matthew and Luke in their churches, instead of                city of their fathers, which from the time of Hadrian they
profaning the :glorious Greek authors. For it is preposterous          had been forbidden to visit, and entered with fanatical zeal
and ungrateful, that they should study the writings of the             upon the great  national religious work, in hope of the speedy
classics, and yet despise the gods, whom the authors Fevered;          irruption of the Messianic reign and the fulfilment of all the
since the gods were in fact. the authors and guides of the             prophecies. Women, we are told, brought their costly orna-
minds of a Homer, a Hesiod, a Demosthenes, a Thucydides,               ments, turned them. into silver shovels and spades; and car-
an Isocrates, and a Lysias, and these writers  conseciated             ried even the earth and stones of the. holy spot in theii- silken
their works to Mercury or the muses. Hence, he hated                   aprons. But the united power of heathen emperor and Jew-


184                                            T H E   STAN-L)ARL)   B E A R E R

ish nation was i&fficient to restore a work which had been             (church  of God and the work of salvation- H.V.). Had
ovlrthrown  by the judgment of God. Repeated attempts at               he lived longer, he would probably have plunged the empire
the building were utterly frustrated, as even a contemporary           into the sad distraction of a religious Civil war. The Chris-
heathen historian of conceded credibility relates, by fiery            tians were generally expecting a bloody persecution in case
eruptions from subterranean vaults; and, perhaps, as Chris-            of his successful return from the Persian war. We need,
tian writers add, by a violent whirlwind, lightning, earth-            therefore, the less wonder that they  abhoired  his memory.
quake, and miraculous signs, especially a luminous cross, in           At Antioch they celebrated his death by festal  dalicings  in
the heavens, so that the workmen either perished in the                the churches and theatres. Even the celebrated divine and
flames, or fled froni the devoted spot in terror and despair.          orator, Gregory  Nazianzeh,  compared him to Pharaoh, Ahab,
Thus, instead of depriving the Christians of a support of              and Nebuchadnezzar. It has been reserved for the more
their faith, Julian only furnished them a new argument in the          impartial historiography of modern times to do justice to his
ruins of this fruitless labor.                                         nobler qualities, and to endeavor to excuse, or at least to
       The providential frustration of this project is a  symbol       account .for his utterly false position toward Christianity, by
of the whole reign of Julian, which soon afterward sank into           his perverted education, the despotism of his predecessor, and
an' early grave. As Caesar he had conquered the barbarian              the imperfections of the church in his day (when Philip
enemies of the Roman empire in the West; and now he                    Schaff speaks in the foregding of Julian's "nobler qualities"
proposed, as ruler of the world, to humble its enemies,  in the        we may take that for. what it is worth - H.V. j .
East, and by the conquest of Persia to-win the renown of a                 With Julian himself fell also his artificial, galvanized
second Alexander. He proudly rejected all proposals of                 heathenism, "like the baseless fabric of a vision, leaving no
peace  ; crossed the Tigris at the head of an  arniy of  sixty-        wreck behind," save the great doctrine, that it is impossible
five thousand men, after wintering in Antioch, and after               to swim against the stream of history or to stop the progress
solemn consultation of the oracle ; took several fortified towns       of' Christianity. The  heatheti  philosophers and soothsayers,
in Mesopotamia ; exposed himself to every hardship and                 who had basked .in his favor, fell back into obscurity. In the
peril of war; restored at the same tin+, wherever he could,            dispersion of their dream they. found no comfort from their
the worship of the heathen' gods ; but brought the army into           superstition. Libanius charges the guilt upon his own gods,
a most critical position, and, in an unimportant nocturnal             who suffered Constantius to reign twenty years, and Julian
skirmish, received from a hostile arrow a mortal wound. He             hardly twenty months. - But the Christians could learn from
died soon after, on the 27th of June, 363, in the thirty-second        it,  what Gregory Nazianzkn had said in the beginning of this
year of his life  ; according to heathen testimony, in the proud       reign, that the church had far more to fear from enemies
repose and dignity of a Stoic.philosopher,  conversing of the          within, than from without."
glory of the  -soul (the  immortality of which, however, he                This. concludes our lengthy quotation from Philip Schaff
considered at best an uncertain opinion j ; but according to           in which he describes,~  vividly, the fanatical and desperate'
later and somewhat doubtful Christian  accounts,  with tha             attempt of the able but also wicked Julian to destroy the
hopeless exclamation : "Galilean,  thou hast conquered !" The          religion of the Christ Whom he hated with all his heart and
parting address to his friends, which Ammianus puts  into              mind and  soul.  It  was surely a desperate effort. But, of
his mouth, is altogether characteristic. It reminds one of tha         course, it was a hopeless effort. This effort of Julian marks
last hours of Socrates, without the natural simplicity of the          the final attempt of heathenism to crush Christianity. How-
original, and with a strong admixture  of self-complacence             ever, as Gregory once wrote: the church has more to fear
and theatrical affectation. His body was taken, at his own             from enemies within than from enemies without. How true
direction, to Tarsus, the birthplace of the apostle Paul, whom         this is!                                                   H.V.
he hated more than any other apostle, and a monument was
erected to him there, with a simple inscription, which calls                                   IN HIS FEAR
him a good' ruler and a brave warrior, but says nothing of                                (Contimed   from  &a.ge 182)
his religion.                                                          Sustain it so that you can stand before God and assure Him
       So he died, in the prime of life: a prince, who darkened his    that you are declaring what  ,ueally  happened in our churches.
brilliant, military, executive, and literary talents, and a rare                                                                J.A.H.
energy, by fanatical zeal for a false religion and opposition              P. S. It is sinful for a church to go to the civil courts to
to the true; perverted them to a useless and wicked  end;              get justice done, that is, it is sinful to go to a lower civil
and earned, instead of immortal honor, the same of an un-              court. But it is not sinful for a church that the lower civil
successful apostate (the reader  yill understand that when             court has accused of unjust dealings to appeal to a higher
Philip Schaff uses the word "immortal" in these writings, he           court. Another  ixample  of the deceptive and misleading pro-
is using it in the current sense of "endless," which is  not           paganda the engineers of the schism of 1953 present and then
the Scriptural significance of  / the  tern; whatsoever  ; "im-        abandon without an apology or explanation.
mortality" in the Scriptures refers to the life of .ev&-lasting,          How long will truly Protestant Reformed people let theIll
heavenly perfection, and is therefore applicable only to the           pull the wool over their eyes?                           J.A.H.


                                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                            185

 II                                                                                word in- the entire article that ,could  be rendered "permit."
              The Voice of Our Fathers                                             And in the second place, it may well be questioned whether
                                                                              II the fathers had quite such a passive and weak view of the
                                                                                   decree of' reprobation as they are sometimes presented  to,
                       The Canons of Dordrecht                                     have, had. After all, both the terms "pass by" and "relin-
                                                                                   quish," whether the latter be understood in the sense of
                                          PART  TWO                                "leave" or in  the sense of "abandon, forsake," have an active
                                                                                   element which  n&St not be ignored. And besides, the fathers
                          EXPOSITION  OF   THE  CANONS                             sptak  here very definitely of an act of God in His unchange-
                                                                                   able good pleasure whereby He decreed.
                            FIRST  HEAD  OF   DOCTKINE                                 However, the seriousness of our first correction must also
       .                  OF  DIVINE PREDESTINATION                                not be overlooked. First of all, there is an evident'confusion
                                                                                   of the language of the original which is plain when we
                   Article 15. What peculiarly tends to illustrate and             compare the two versions. Qur English rendering has:
                   recommend to us `the eternal and unmerited grace of             `<. . . that not all,. but some only are elected . .  ."  ,The
                   election, is the express testimony of sacred Scripture,         original has : ". . . that not all men are elect, but some are
                   that not all,  but some only are elected, while others
                   are  bassed by in the eternal decree; whom God, out             not elect." The latter is quite different. The first version
                   of his sovereign, most just, irreprehensible and  un-           says nothing about those who are not elect, while the second
       %           changeable good pleasure, hath decreed to leave in              version says definitely tliat they are not eject. In the second
                   the common misery into -which they have wilfully                place, -and this is more serious,  - the English version
                   plunged themselves, and not to bestow upon them                 says something which cannot possibly have been in the minds
                   saving faith and the grace of  conversion;~  but per-
                   mitting them in his just judgment to follow their own           of the f&hers. It states that "others are passed by  in the
                   ways, at last for the  declaratio'n  of his justice, to con-    eternal decree." If we take this language at face value, it'
                   demn and punish them forever, not  only.on  account             means~  that the eternal decree of God says nothing about the
                   of their unbelief, but-also for all their other sins.           non-elect: the eternal decree simply passed them by. And
                   And this is the decree of reprobation, which by no              then, of course, you have a contradiction in the article. For
                   means makes God the  auth0.r  of sin (the very  thought
                   cf which is blasphemy), but declares him to be an               later the article definitely speaks of God's  decretive  act in
                   awful, irreprehensible, and righteous judge and av-             respect to the non-elect, and it literally mentions the decree
                   e n g e r   t h e r e o f .                                     of reprobation. But  let  us understand what this erroneous
                                                                                   translation implies. It  m.eans single predestination, that is,
            The English translation of this article is inaccurate and              election without reprobatidn, instead of double predestination,
 rather weak. The first inaccuracy is found in the opening                         that is, election. and reprobation. And not only does the
 clause, which should read as follows (as the Dutch also                           article itself contradict any notion of single predestination by
 rend&s it) : "Moreover, the Holy Scripture especially il-                         its later statements. But the fathers make no such statement
 lustrates and commends to us this eternal and free grace of                       as  our English version`attributes to them. For the  brigixial
 our election, because it further testifies that not all men are                   has : ".siz~i: in  aeterna  Qei  electione   praeteritos,":  that is, `for
 elect, but that some certain ones are not elect, or in the                        in the eternal election of God passed by." Also this is
 eternal election of God passed by." The -second inaccuracy is                     rendered correctly in the Dutch.- And this is surely a cor-
 perhaps more serious, because it inserts the word "permit-                        rection that should be officially made by the various English
ting," which dQes not at all occur in the originals  Latin ver-                    speaking Reformed denominations.
sion. Correctly translated, this part of the article reads as                          The above remarks, in connection with the suggested cor-
follows: "whom namely God out of his most free, most just,                         rections, we make, not in order to deny that the  Canopts
irreprehensible; and unchangeable good pleasure decreed to                         are definitely infralapsarian  in their conception of God's de-
relinquish (the -Latin  relin&rere  means "to leave," but  alsti                   crees, and especially in their conception of reprobation. We
"to abandon, to forsake") in the common misery, into which                         freely grant that they art infra. And about this we will say
they have by their own fault plunged themselves, and not to' more presently. But we want to insist that this irifralapsarian
give them the grace of saving faith and conversion, but in                         conception also be correctly presented and understood, and
their own ways, and under his just judgment having been
left (abandoned, forsaken), finally not only on account of                         not be so corrupted as to deny or leave the impression of
their unbelief,  `but also on account of all the rest of their                     denying that infralapsarianism maintains the absolute sover-
sins, .for the declaration of his own justice to damn and to                       eignty of God both in election and reprobation. For also
punish them forever." This later correction we make for two                        infralapsarianism, correctly understood, grants no quarter,
reasons. In the first place, we want to remove the impression                      and certainly no  aid. and comfort, to the  Arminiari  enemy.
that the Canons here speak at all of a permission, or of a                         Let us by all means understand this. It' stands diametrically
permissive will, of God. This is not the case. There is no                         opposed to the Arminian presentation of reprobatibn,-  so


186                                         T H E   STAN~DARD   B E A R E R

opposed  that no Arminian would ever subscribe to Canons I,         Mark you well, it is -not said that the non-elect are not
A r t i c l e   1 5 .                                               concerned in God's eternal decree; that the decree says noth-
 In order to understand the teachings of this article, and          ing about them, does not touch them. Then there would be
to see that they are definitely anti-Arminian, it may be well       no reprobation at  `all: And if there is no reprobation, then
to recall the Arminian view of reprobation, first of all.           there is no election. But the fathers state that the non-elect
       Technically the Arclinian  does not deny reprobation. He     are  passed  by in God's elecfiion.  The decree of electiprt says
cannot deny the term reprobahon,,  although he does not like        nothing about them. This indeed already implies sovereign
to use it. And he cannot deny that the Scriptures teach re-         reprobation. For bear in mind that when the term election
probation, because it is too plairi that they do. And so, when      is taken in its context in the Ca.nons, it means : 1) .an election
the Arminian comes with the lie, he does not come "with the         "out of mere grace, according to the sovereign good pleasure
wdoden shoes on." He must speak softly and deceitfully, must        of his own will ;" 2) an election unto final salvation, and to
play with words, and wrest the Scriptures. Especially must          all the blessings of grace necessary to reach that final salva-
he act thus. when he `wants to' introduce his error among           tion ; 3) an election that is the one and only decree respect-
Reformed people. This is the policy followed already in the         ing all that shall be saved; 4) an election not founded upon
Articles of the  Reuronzstmnce.  All mention of the terms           foreseen faith, etc., as the pre-requisite, cause or condition
elechon,   repro&ion,   and Sovereign is carefully avoided. The     upon which it depended; 5) an election that cannot be inter-
article speaks instead of "those who, through the grace of          rupted, changed, recalled, or annulled. That the non-elect
the Holy Ghost, shall believe," and of "the incorrigible and' are passed by in God's election, therefore, in the language
unbelieving." And it apparently makes a legitimate quota&~          of the  Caznons  means that they  .are eternally, sovereignly,
tion. of John 3  :36 to support its teaching. In fact, it  even!    unchangeabl),  irrevocably, unconditionally passed by in the
makes a fine Reformed impression by speaking of God's               one and only decree of God both to grace and glory. to salva-
"&e&al, unchangeable purpose in Jesus Christ his Son,               tion and the way of salvation. This already shuts, the door
before the foundation of the world." All this is carefully cal-     on all Arminianism.
culated to deceive the simple. If only the enemy had come              But there is more. God's election is not His only decree.
out' in the open with his iniquitous error, and had said :          There is, positively speaking, also a- decree of God that in-
"God's- election is based on foreseen faith and repentance ;        deed conkerns  the non-elect. and that touches them in a most
atid His reprobation is based on foreseen incorrigibility and       fearful manner. Note this : God act,ually a,nd actively decrees
unbelief," then, many a soul would not have been deceived.          sombetlzing  of the non-elect. And what is the contents of this
For indeecl,  such is the teaching of Arminianism. And there-       decree,  accokding  to the fathers ? The following : 1) God
foi-e, while technically the Arminian does not deny reproba-        decreed to leave, abandon, them in the common misery into
tion, actually and essentially he does. For he denies that          which  they have wilfully plunged themselves. 2) God de-
both election and reprobation are sovereign, having  thein          creed not to give them saving faith and the grace of con-
source only in God's -gocid pleasure ; and he posits instead        version. 3) God decreed to damn them and punish them
an election and reprobation based on foreseen faith and  fore-      forever. And mark well,` the phrases, "not only on account
seefi unbelief respectively. And the above policy, but also         of their unbelief, but also for all their other sins," do not
the above  eri;or;.carry through in the rest of  the Arminian       modify the verb "hath decreed  ;" but they modify the in-
teachings. They explain the fact that the Arminian teaches          finitives "to damn and to punish."
general atonement. They explain the fact- that in Article 4            This, then, is the content of the decree of reprobation.
he teaches resistible grace. And  ,they explain his veiled             And what, according to Article 15, are the attributes of
refusal to maintain the certain perseverance of the saints.         this decree  ? The answer to this question settles the whole
The Arminian maintains that the cause of the decree of              matter as far as the Arminian is concerned. For this decree
reprobation lies in man's refusal to accept divine grace?  his      ,of God proceeds "out of his sovereign, most just,  irrepre-
refusal to believe, and his unfitness for glory. God has seen       hensible and unchangeable good pleasure."                  H.C.H.
beforehand that the reprobate will  not accept the offer of
grace,. and therefore they are reprobated. Even as election is                            MEMORY GEMS
for those of whom- God saw beforehand that they would
believe,  so reprobation is for them of whom God sees before-              "He shall be like a tree that grows
hand that they will not believe. The  decretive  power is                          Set by the waterside,
                                                                                Which in its season yields its fruit?
actually removed from the hand of God and placed in the                            And green its leaves abide ;
hands of men.
   Now what do the Canorts teach! over against this ?                          "And all he does shall prosper well.
   In the very opening clause of this article, when taken in                       The wicked are not so,
the entire  context  of this First. Head of Doctrine, they say                  But are like chaff which by the wind
something about the' non-elect which  DO Arminian would                           Is driven to and fro."                                   I
ever say, namely, that they  `<are passed by in God's election."                                                         Psalm 1  :3, 4


                                                                                                                   .
                                            .THE  S T A N D A R D   BEARE-R                                                       187

                                                                      Each rank is higher than the preceeding  and, consequently,
           DECEN Ch/, and QRDER                            \          vekted  with higher authority. There is no equality here. Alsd
                                                                      in the Lutheran Churches we find. superintendents over the
                                                                      clergy.  Yl%s, too, is one of the:remnants  of Roman Catholi-
               Equa1it.y of Office-Bearers -                          cism retained by that church. When, therefore, the Reformed
                                                                      Synod of Middelburg in 1581 considered the overture of
    "Among the ministers of the Word equality shall be                delegates from Zeeland, East  Vlaanderi  and England  tcr
maintained with respect to the duties of their office, and also       appoint Inspectors or Superintendents to take oversight of
in other matters as far as possible, according to the judg-           the churches of their respective locality, the Synod declined
ment of the consistory, and if necessary, of the classis ; which      to do so, considering this was an unnecessary and dangerous
equality shall. also be maintained in  t.he case of the elders        practice, and instead adopted the above cited article of our
and deacons." Art. 17,  D.K.O.                                        church order. In  doipg so they acted wisely and in accord
    Among office bearers in the church equality shall be              with the expressions of several other Reformed Confessions
!il.aintained  as far as possible. If the church in the world was     and Church Orders. For example in the Second .Helvetic
perfectly free from sin and if the office bearers in the church       Confession of 1562 we read : "To all ministers in one
would always conduct themselves according tq the Word of              church is given one and the same authority and office." In the
God, it would be unnecessary to express a rule such as this.          French Confession of Faith of 1559, which agrees with our
However, the reality in the church in the world is that there         own Belgic or Netherlands Confession, Art. 31, we read:
Is still a great deal of the spirit of James and John found           "As for the ministers of God's Word, they have equally the
among the disciples of our Lord. Each seeks to be the                 same power and authority wheresoever they are, as they are
greatest and the words of Christ, "But,  it shall not be so           all ministers of Christ, the. only universal Bishop, and the
among you, but whosoever will be great among you, let him             only head of the church.`? And the Scbtch  Church Order of
be your minister, and whosoever will be chief among you, let          15Sl  states:  ,,En  om weg  tk  nemen  alle gelegenheid voor
him be your servant," are frequently forgotten. -(Matt.  20 :26,      tirannie, wil Hij  (Christus   j  dat iij zouden regeeren met
27) Each one seeks too often the things of self instead of            wederzijdsche goedkeuring  der broederen en gelijkheid van
looking upon the things. of others. (Phil. 2  :4) Jealousies          macht,   alles in  overeenstemming  met hunne functies."
and envies which are rooted in the flesh are lpanifest  among            The article speaks first of equality.  w;th respect to the
those who ought to co-iahor  together. It requires an abund-          duties of the  office.  This is not the same as speaking of
ance of grace always' to maintain the Scriptural rule of              equality with respect to the  person  or gifts of the office
equality. Without this order and  decendy  cannot prevail in          bearers. A rule concerning the latter could not possibly be
the congregation.                                                     made. Each office bearer does not conduct himself in his
    The- first part of this- article applies to the larger congre-    oflice in the same .manner  so as tci merit equality of honor       '
gations which have more than one minister. This does not              and respect. Some are more zealous' than othersj more faith-
imply that equality is  not. also to be maintained among              ful in the performance of the duties that belong to the office,
ministers, elders and deacons denominationally but  ,only that        more devoted to their calling, more godly in their conversa-
this is not included in the scope of the present article.             tion. Others sometimes do things that cause them the loss
Articles 41 and  54 of the Church  0l;der  cqver  that matter.        of all respect. We  .do not refer to censurable sins that in
The present article has its origin in the Netherlands lvhere,         `themselves would deprive them of the office  but rather of
it  musf be remembered, it is not uncommon to find one                those things which in themselves are not transgressions but
church in the larger cities, governed by -one consistory but          which, nevertheless, are not expected of the office bearer.
having several ministers and church buildings. We have                A minister, for example, who spends half of the week on `a
only one congregation that has more than one minister so              golf-course or at the lake or sitting in front of the television
that throughout our denomination the need and practice of             set instead of performing the duties of his office cannot ex-
this rule as applying to the ministers of the Word is hardly          pect to receive the same respect of the people of God as one
felt. We should not forget, however, that the article also            who labors faithfully in his calling. Nor can  we speak of
speaks of the elders and deacons and this phase touches               equality of gifts and talents. God has not made His servants
every congregation. This is a rule that everyone privileged           thus. To one He gives more than to another. All do not
to serve in those offices does well to constantly bear in mind.       have the same ability and no rule could possibly legislate that
Doing this much offense will be removed from the church of            equality shall be lllaintained  with respect to these.
Christ.                                                                  With respect to the duties of the office, however, this rule
   The occasion of the present article is an attempt to avoid         must be applied. This means that in a congregation each
the  hierachical error of the church of Rome. In the  Romish          elder and each deacon shall share equally the labors peculiar
Church we find various ranks among the clergy which are               to their office. The mere fact that there may be one elder
arranged in an ascending scale from priests, bishops, arch-           in a congregation who is especially gifted does not mean that
bishops, cardinals, to the office of the pope which is over all.      he shall do all the work. And, when there is more than bne


                      .
188                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
-      -
minister in a congregation the work shall also be equally              the latter will carry a greater share of the work of the con-
distributed. One is not to do all the preaching and another            gregation. One elder may be in ill health,. justifying his being
all the sick visiting or catechetical work. Both shall  dd             i-eleased  from a certain amount of labor that otherwise would
some of each. In as  far as possible it shall be apportioned           be apportioned to him. If there is an occasion for several
and divided equally.                                                   reading seryices in a church and there is one elder of excep-
       There are also other matters concerning which equality          tional reading ability, should not his services be sought for
is to be maintained that do not belong to the functions  03            this work instead of having another elder do this who, in
the office as such. Such matters as vacations, salary, housing,        a stammering manner, would fail to edify the congregation ?
etc. no doubt may be included in this cateiory..  This does            And so there is more. Rules of order are certainly  neces-'
not mean'that e&h minister is to be paid exactly the same              sary and will be most effective toward the maintenance of
amount and that they are  to- live in id&tical houses but it           good order in the church when applied with wisdom and
does meant that there shall be no partiality shown by  the             sanctified thinking.
consistory in dealing with these matters and each minister                                                                   G . v . d . B .
shall be treated fairly and honorably. It may appear super:
fluous to even mention these things as they are of irrelevent
importance and, yet, it is because of the flesh that these things
have in many instances become the occasion of jealousies                        PRAYER ANSWERED  Sir CROSSES
dausing no small trouble in the church. Things like these
cotild create quite a disturbance in a consistory and even.                     I ask'd the Lord that I might grow
cause a marked division. If ever there is a place where these                   In faith and love, and every grace ;
troubles are obnoxious it is in the church of Christ tihere it                  Might more of His salvation know,
is expected that we live by the rule of faith and seek the                     And seek more earnestly His face.
things above where, Christ, our Lord, sits at the right hand
of God. Fight the church must but then let her warfare al-
ways be spiritual and let- her rise valiantly in defense .of the                `Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
Truth and let her never quibble about insignificant things.                    And He, I trust, has  answer'd  prayer:
       The Consist&-y  ,is the proper body that is to regulate                 But it has been in such a way,
.these things and see that equality is maintained. Not to the                  As almost drove me to despair.
ministers, nor to the congregation but to the ruling body of
the church this function belongs. If agreement on certain                      I hop'd that in some favour'd hour,
matters cannot be reached in the consistory, the matter neces-              ' At once He'd answer my request,
sarily goes to the  Class&.  The  Classis  in that case has the                And by His love's constraining power
authority to pass a judgment which then becomes binding.                       Subdue my sins, and give me rest.
This is in accord with Art. 41. where the question is asked
of each consistory : "DO you need the judgment and help of                     Instead of this, He made me feel
the  Classis  for the proper government of your church  ?"                     The hidden evils of my heart;
Suppose that there are two ministers in.a congregation. The                    And let the angry powers of hell
consistory fails to find a satisfactory way in which the labors                Assault my soul in ev'ry part.
are to be distributed between them. They request the Clas-
sis to express a judgment which it does. Do you  sippose                       Yea, more, with His oivn hand he seem'd
that the decision of the Classis  is just some brotherly advice                Intent to aggravate my woe ;
that may be accepted or rejected according to the desire of                    Cross'd all the fair designs I schem'd.
those involved or is it %n authorative judgment according to                   Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.
which the labors of the ministers involved are to be distri-
buted ? One feels the complete inability of a Classis  to help
in,a situation such as this if its decisions are to be taken only              Lord, why is this ? I trembling cried,
advisedly.                                                                     Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death ?
       Finally, the article says, "As far as possible." This phrase            " `Tis in this wayi' the Lord replied,
qualifies' bath "the duties of the office" and "the other mat-               "I answer prayer for grace and faith.
ters." ?r Bouwman says, ,,Men kan het leven niet- ophangen
aan de letter van eene bepaling." You cannot suspend life on                   "Those inward trials I employ,
the letter of a rule. Life is broader than any set of rules and                From  ielf and pride to set thee free;  i'
circumstances frequently not only allow for but even demand                    And break the schemes of earthly joy,
an exception. One minister may be advanced in years while                      That thou may'st seek thy all in me." _
andther  is at the prime of life. Common sense dictates that                                                            - John' Newton


                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            189
                        _  ..-  _.---
                                                                      going to come back to us in deep sorrow for having listened
                   A L L   AROUND  U S                                to these "ecumenically" minded. leaders.
                                                                        -Finally, Rev. Blankespoor, in close connection with the
                                                                      foregoing, makes much of what the common' people think.
   V71zat  Really  Hapficned   In  OW  Claz,&rches.                   This is also. a part of his deceptive strategy. He knows that
       Such was the subject of the essay delivered' by the Rev.       people like to be catered to, to be acknowledged, even when
   J. Blankespoor at a conference of schismatic ministers held        they are wrong. The people who are not aware of his tactics .'
   recently in Oskaloosa, Ia., and occupying the editorial space      and are gullible for this kind of talk, when they read. his
   of Concordia of December 2. 1954. In the last issue of the         essay in Concordia are going to say, "Blankespoor is the
   Standard Bearer we quoted the introduction to this essay and       man; he is so humble. Look how he recognizes  us."  They
 made a few remarks. However, due to the fact that our                will forget, or remain ignorant of the fact that almost  al!
   space was limited by the transcription of the decision of the      that really happened in our churches began with and ended
   Superior Court Judge, Honorable Thaddeus Taylor, of the            in their ministers and elders who have led them. To be sure
   case of First Protestant Reformed Church versus the De             the people are responsible for what their ministers do, espe-
   Wolf group, my article was cut short. I now wish to finish         cially when they are told what they did. But the heresy and
   my remarks on the introduction and continue my quotation           schism did not begin with the "common people." It usually
   of Blankespoor's essay inserting here and there a few re-          does not begin there. It began with and stayed with the
   marks of my own.           .'                                      leaders who succeeded in carrying along the people by con-
      In reply to his introduction I offered five remarks. I          fusing, mis-leading, deceiving, the majority of "them. Of this
   was busy with the fourth which had to do with Blankespoor's        I have no doubt. So Blankespoor must not say `(we .did not
   insistence that the schismatics had "the majority of our           foster nor actually bring about a split. They became schism-
   people" with them, who also were ready for the split. I wrote      atic." Neither should he say that they, the leaders of their
   as follows :                                                       group, were guided to an extent by the will of the common
       In the fourth place, Rev. Blankespoor talks about "the         people, who were so convinced of what was wrong in the
   majority of our people" who were ready for the split. I am         Protestant Reformed Churches that they were ready for the
   not going to dispute about numbers. This makes very little         split. This I could never believe!
   difference to me. A majority in respect to'matters  of doctrine       Now let  us  attend to what Blankespoor has to say in
   is not always correct, and generally wrong. That's history.        answer to the question: "What then really happened and
   It may even be true that a majority of our people were ready       why did we (the schismatics - M.S.) follow, this, course ?"          ;
   to step out with the schismatics. That is nothing new either.      Here is what Rev. Blankespoor writes:
   And I may add that it was the secret hope of the schismatic           "Let me first of all state what I do not consider to be
   leaders that they would take along with them the entire            the cause of the schism.
   denomination. The Lord, however, spoiled their plans. He              1. That the whole thing is &wZ~  a matter of personal-
   preserved His remnant. This He always does. No question            ities, and that our pepole no longer could possibly digest the
   about that. But if it is true that the majority were ready         behavior of some of them. No doubt this is true of some of
   to go along with the schismatics, how is that to be explained ?    them, but not of all our people, nor as 1, see it of the majority
   In his case it is fast becoming evident that many of them          of them. No doubt with some of them there was a climax in
  have been mis-led, they have been told the lie. Just                `bearing up' with personalities. In simple language they
  as the essay of Rev. Blankespoor presents the matter,               couldn't take it any longer. Others, however, and many of
  very piously they first created a dislike for the Standard          them, for the sake of the truth were able and willing to
   Bearer so that people ceased to read it. They then came            tolerate much more. I don't think that it ever is possible
  with a lot of talk about Hoeksema changing. They tried des-         to say regarding a church difficulty that it exclusively is a
  perately to discredit him with talk `that he is broken in mind      matter of theology or exclusively a matter of personalities.
  and body, a man too old and set in his ways to change, a man        It is most natural for everybody to project his personality
  who is seeking only himself at the expense of the church and        into the foreground, to some extent, regardless how humble
  the truth. All this talk of Blankespoor .about  how once these      he may be. A church split brought about solely because of
  people almost worshipped the ground Hoeksema stood on,              an unbearable attitude towards individuals to my mind is
  but now that they have their eyes opened they repudiate him,        most deplorable and cannot receive the Lord's blessing..
  that is what changed the minds and attitudes of our people             3 Neither did the split come about because of a rejec-
                                                                         I,.
  if they have changed. But I'm not so sure as Blankespoor            tion of the denial of common grace, which of course is the
  that the majority of our people, even those in the west `who        reason for our existence since 1924. Of course, we all know
  have gone along with the schismatic leaders, wo~~lcl feel this      that we are commonly accused of such things and much
  way if they really knew the truth. In fact, I have objective        worse things. For such contentions the accusers surely have
reasons  for. believing that several are already getting their        not been able to find any proof.
  eyes open to what has been going on of late, and they are              3. Neither do I think that the deepest cause of the split

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

     is to be found in the fact that some of the leaders were too          maintained  in. the first statement of De Wolf is worse than
     one-sided in their presentation of the truth. Again, this is          the First Point of 1924. It not  onIy teaches common grace,
     how some of us view the matter, .and perhaps not a few lay-           but developed the dogma further. This not only I but others
     men. There was not enough emphasis on the matter  .of man's           of our ministers have often said. As Rev. Blankespoor and
     responsibility, they say. And a few went so far as to say             all who were formerly in  Classis  East well know, both the
"    that  ther.e was too much emphasis on God's sovereignty. Both         Revs. Vos and Hoeksema have publicly declared this on the
     evaluations of course are terrible, to say the least. Neither
     should we say that the preaching was unbalanced. I certainly          floor of Classis.  The Rev. Vos even wrote the statement on
     think that Dr. Daane is right when he says that such tei-min-         the blackboard to show up the fallacy of that first statement.
     ology is improper. Never can we say too much that God is              He said "that God promises every one. of you that if you be-
     sovereign, and on the other hand- we can never preach too             lieve you will be saved," is far worse than the First Point
     much the responsibility of man and the Christian. Can one             which said, `God offers'. Blankespoor knows this full well,
     ever -exhort too much, preach too often and too much.too the          but-he denies this without a ray of proof. Besides, the Rev.
     saints living in this sinful world that they must serve God 7         Daane,  with, whom Blankespoor agrees in another part of his
     Of course not. The proper thing to do is to show the rela-            essay, boldly declared in the Reformed Journal that the
     tionship between these two important truths." So far Rev.             schismatics had taken a step in the direction of the Christian
     Blankespoor.                                                          Reformed Churches. Blankespoor may deny this, but he
      I would call  your   attention to a few, things in  Blanke-          knows this too. Until he shows us that this accusation is
     spoor's negative answer to `the question : What really hap-           not true, I am continuing  to. accuse the schismatics of re-
     pened in our churches  ?                                              pudiating their denial of common grace, and I am going to
            In the first place, I am glad that Rev. Blankespoor denies     continue to say that they walk in a worse error than the
     that the cause .of the schism "is p,Lcrel_v  a matter of personal-    Christian Reformed Churches which embrace the error of
     ities." And I believe him when he says (`no doubt this is true        common grace.
     of some of them, but not all our people, nor as I see it of              In the third place, what Rev. Blankespoor writes about
     the majority of them." Of. course, the actual cause of the            his denial that the "deQxnt. cause of the split is to be found
     schism, as I will point  out- more particularly later, is the         in the fact that some of the leaders were too one-sided in
     doctrinal issue involved. As far as we are concerned there            their presentation of the truth" is perhaps the biggest hum-
     was no other issue in our recent controversy. The sole issue          bug of all. Here is an example of some more double-talk.
     was the two statements of the Rev. De Wolf and the doctrine           The double-talk consists in this that, on the one hand, he
     they set forth. More of this later. But will the reader               denies that the presentation of the truth on the part'of some
     please notice the italicized word "purely': in the above quota-       of the leaders was too one-sided, while on the other hand he
     tion. Blankespoor meant thereby that it is his conviction that        and his colleagues are guilty-of charging us with being one-
     though the cause of the schism was not "purely" a matter              sided. Did he not virtually do this, as I will comment later
     of personalities, it nevertheless had much to do with mold-           when I show how he charges us with being sectarian, or
     ing the minds and hearts of the schismatics into wanting the          with  "a tendency towards sectarianism." A sect, according
     split. He admits` that, thought it is most deplorable that            to Blankespoor, in the first place, "denotes the action of tak-
     churches should split. on account of an unbearable attitude           ing or capturing a chosen course of thought or action. They
     towards individuals, it nevertheless had much to do with              always have a certain banner, motto, a pet notion or doctrine
     their act of schism. He knew it was not right what many               by which they swear, and this becomes their slogan." What
     of his people and colleagues were doing and yet, like Eli,            this slogan is that we are supposed to have, he does not say,
     he allowed it all to go on, never protesting against it, and          but he believes that we have one. And so we have here
     worse yet, almost patting them on the back for doing it.              some of his double-talk. It is true that Blankespoor does not
     What we really have here is some more of his "pious" talk             consider this the deepest cause of the split, but he must not
     intended to set forth a pious principle, namely, that the mat-        leave the impression that he doesn't believe this to be the
     ter of personalities should never be the cause of schism, while       cause at all. And that is what he tries'to do with his third
     at the same time almost praising those who made personal-             negative point above. In plain words he says in the negative
     ities an issue.                                                       answer to the question : What really happened in  our.
      . In the second place, Rev. Blankespoor denies the cause             churches ? that he does not believe we are a sect, but in the
     of the split was due to the fact that he and his schismatic           positive answer to the above question, to which I call atten-
     brethren repudiated their denial of common grace. He asserts          tion next time, D.V., he does not hesitate to call us a sect
     that they have been accused of- this but without any proof.           or at least with tendencies toward sectarianism. Now just
     Now it is deplorable that Blankespoor passes over this ac-            what do yo,u mean, Rev. Blankespoor ? Let's not beat about
     cusation with a mere shrug of his shoulder and makes no               the bush. Say what you mean, and mean what  you say !
     attempt to disprove it. A blanket denial is no proof. I would         That is at least being honest.
     insist upon it that their doctrinal position implied and                                                                        M.S.
                                                                                .--


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                                                                     T H E   STANDARD,`BEARER                                                                                                           1    9    1
                                                                                                                                                                           -_- -___.
                                                              ,..
          I                    CBNTRIIBUTIQNS                                                                    I                                         T H E   D A Y   O F   SHADO,WS
                                                                                                                                         -.-                 (Coutiwled  from  -jmge  178)
                                                                                                                 r .                    The -"Lord beheld (among the priests of the idols) and
                                                                                                                                 there was no man that could say, Behold them ! no counsellor
                                     . A R M I N I A N I S M   1,                                                                who could return a word when asked. For all are vanity.
               In the  statements  of the  Arminians man is always first                                                         Their works are nothing and their gods wind..  ^
          and God always comes trailing behind to assist man by His                                                                     The  Ser&nt of Jehovah, Chapter  kLIi:I, 2.
          grace to get to heaven.           ,. .    :  -,,                                                                        1. Behold my servant, whom I uphold ;
               1. Man's believing is the cause of his justification.                                                                          Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth ;             1
               2.    Our obeying Christ -is the cause of Him giving us                                                           2. I have put my Spirit upon him ;
                     eternal life and that our obedience to Christ is the                                                                     He shall bring forth right to the gentiles.
                     cause of Him becoming the author- of eternal salva-                                                                Who is meant by the "servant  of. the Lord  7" The ques-
                     tion to us.                                                                                                 tion is pertinent as the expression often occurs in the Bible.
               3.  .God the Son, they tell us  "bath  redeemed us only                                                           It is used to denote the saints in general? Ps. 35 :23 ; men of
                     on the condition of our concurrence and compliance."                                                        God as Moses (Ex. 14  :31), Joshua (Judges 2  :S), Job (Job
                                                                                                                                 1:  S), David (Ps. 89  :4) etc., and the prophets in general.
     i         4.    Our act of conversion is a prerequisite to enter the                                                        In Isa. it denotes the true w&-shippers- of the Lord, the
                     Kingdom of  God:                                                                                            people of Israel, and, the prophets in general,
                                                                                                                                              In the above and related .pr.ophecies the expression, is
                             PROTESTANT REFORMED                                                                                 understood in various ways.  .But the literal testimony of
               In the statements of the Protestants Reformed, God is al-                                                         the New Testament Scriptures is, that the "servant of the
          ways first and man is .nothing.                                                                                        Lord" of our prophecies in Christ. Matt. 12  :15 sq., "And
                                                                                                                                 Jesus perceiving itwithdrew from thence : and many followed
               ..l.  -Our Lord doth not say, "there are some-things you                                                          him ; and he healed them all, and charged that they should
                     can do without  me.`! But "Without me ye can do                                                             not make him known: that `it might be fulfilled which was
                     nothing.;" nothing good, nothing. pleasing and ac-                                                          spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,
                     ceptable unto God; whereas if we could either pre-                                                                       Behold my servant whom 1~ havechosen :          _
                     pare  ourselves.to  turn, or turn ourselves when pre-                                                                    My beloved in whom my soul is well pleased :" etc..
                     pared, we should do much.                                                                                                This witness is conclusive for faith. Many hold the view
                                                                                                                                 that the expression is used directly of some typical personage
               3     But 
               I.            the" Spirit. tells  us  elsewhere "it is God that
                     worketh in youboth  to will and to do of His good                                                           of Isaiah's day and only indirectly of the Messiah:" 6pinions
                     pleasure:" It is He who first enables us to will what                                                       differ regarding who the person directly indicated was. Some
                     we ought `to' do, and then to do what we will.                                                             think .of Uzziah or Hezekiah, others of Josiah, Jeremiah or
                     Both the grace we desire -and `our desire of grace                                                          Zerubbabel. But the view must be held untenable on the
                     proceeds from Him..                                                                                        ground that the entire description of `the "servant" of our
                                                                                                                                prophecies is of such a character of some typical person.
               3. In the work of conversion and sanctification, all is                                                          This will become plain as we proceed with our exposition.
                     to be ascribed.!0  grace and nothing to human nature.                                                                    In all there are five such prophecies regarding the
                     The prophet. Jeremiah saith: `ITurn thou me and I                                                          "servant of the Lord." They are  42:1-7;   49:1-9a;  1:4-9;
                     shall be turned ; healthou me and I shall be healed."                                                       52  :13 ; 53 :12. It is said that there is little if any connection
                     And therefore' it is requisite in order to our con-                                                        between these prophecies and those-. surrounding  theni,  and
                     version that the understanding be -not only so en-                                                         that therefore they cannot be of the same author. But this is.
                     lightened, as to discern the evil from the good ; but "a mistaken idea. The two series of prophecies do constitute
                     that our wills be also so rectified as to prefer the good                                                  a unity. In both occur the expression "servant of Jehovah,"
                     before `the evil.                                                                                          here for the Christ, there for His people, the. true Israel for
                     By this rectifying or bringing of the will into its                                                        whom He laid down His life (Chap. 53), and who therefore                          r
                     right order again, its liberty is not destroyed, but                                                       are conformed according to His likeness.
                     healed: so that it is free, after, as well. as before                                                                    Behold!  &iy servant. It is the Lord speaking. The appel-
                     conversion;,free to God and holiness, as it was be-                                                        lative "my servant" indicates the relation that the Messiah
                     fore free only to sin and wickedness.                                                                      obtains to His Lord. In virtue of His having chosen Him,
                                                                                                                          He is His servant. He thus has a task to perform given Him
               And this was not only the,doctrine  of.the Rev. H. Hoek-                                                         of His Lord, the triune Jehovah. And it shall be accomplished
          sema but also of the primitive church.                                                                                for the Lord upholds Him, is His strength.
                                                                            Thys Feenstra                                                     The word in the original rendered behold is not a verb


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                                                                                                  _..          1      .     ..-

       192..                                              `?I?-HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   -.  ~

       but an exclamation here expressive of the infinite. ardor of                                                    I N   MEMORIAM-
       the Lord's love of His servant. His soul delights in Him,                     The `Ladies Society of the Protestant Reformed Church o
       meaning that He loves him with.all  His heart. He puts His                  South Holland, Illinois; hereby wishes to express sympathy  tc
       Spirit upon Him and thereby qualifies Him for His task,                     our fellow-inembers, Mrs.  Gilb,ert  Van  Baren, Mrs. A. Zandstra
       which is to bring forth right to the gentiles, -right, that- is,.           Mrs. A. De Young, and Mrs. S. Vroegh in the loss of
       the true knowledge of. God, God as revealed in the face of                                            -.MRS.  GEORGE VROOM
     Christ. He `will bring- it forth, publish that which hitherto                    May the Lord comfort the bereaved with the assurance tha
       was hid.                                                                    all things work together for good to them that love God.
                                                                         G.M.O.                                                     Mr. John Van  Baren, Presiden
                                                                                             '                                      Mrs. J. Van  Baren, Secretary


                                  IN MEMORIAM                                                               WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
              The Men's Society of the Hope Protestant Reformed Church
       hereby expresses its sincere sympathy with its fellow member,                  On December 18, 1954, our dear parents
       Mr. John Dykstra, in the loss of his sister,                                                                  WILLIAM JANSMA
                             M I S S   B E T T Y   D Y K S T R A                                                                   and
                                                                                                            ALICE JANSMA-VAN DYK
              May the God of all grace bring this comfort to his heart that
       his loss here on earth is her heavenly gain and may we all set              celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary.
       our hearts on wisdom's way and look for His coming.                            We are thankful  to, our God for having them spared for  eacl
                                                                                   other and for us, and we pray that God may bless them  furthe
                                                  Rev. J. A. Heys, President       in the way that lies ahead; and as the days approach when  thei
                                                  G. Korhorn, Secretary
        --                                                                         earthly pilgrimage shall end, may they enjoy the peace  whicl
                                                                                   alone can be found in Him.

                                  I N   M E M O R I A M                                                             Their grateful children :
              Consist&y of the First Protestant Reformed Church of  Grand                                                           Mr. and Mrs. Tunis  Jansma
       Rapids hereby expresses sincere sympathy to elder John Dykstra                                                               Mr. and Mrs. James De Boer
       in the sudden death of his daughter,                                                                                         Mr. and Mrs.  .Peter  De Boer
                                                                                                                                    William, Jr.
                                BETTIE  DYKSTRA                                                                                     Barteld
                                                                                                                                    and 3 grandchildren.
              Our prayer is that our Heavenly Father may comfort the
       bereaved with His all-sufficient grace.

                                                  Rev. C.  Hanko,  President
                                                  J. M. Faber,  Clerk                     0 GOD OF HOSTS, 0 GOD OF GRACE
                                                                                                          0 God of hosts, 0 God of grace
                                  IN MEMORIAM                                                             HOW  lovely is Thy holy place,
              May the God of all grace who is our fulness, comfort the                                    How good and pleasant is Thy dwelling !
       bereaved in the death of                                                                    My thirsty soul longs earnestly,
                              MRS. GEORGE VROOM                                                           Yea, faints Thy holy courts to see
        -  J o h n   X:33,: "These things I  .have  spoken unto you, that in                              `Mid festal throngs and music swelling.
       Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation:                                    My heart and flesh cry out to God, . . .
       but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world."                                                  To Him I spread my hands abroad..
                                        Pvt. George Vroom
                                       Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Van  Baren                                    The sparrow finds a house to rest,
                                        Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Zandstra
.                                    Mr. and Mrs.' Anthony De Young                                       The swallow deftly builds her nest,                        -
                                        Mr. and Mrs. Seymour Vroegh                                       And'broods her young hard by Thine altar.
                                        Agnes Van  Baren
                                        Gertrude  Vap  Baren                                         .O Lord of hosts, my God, my King,
                                        Gise Van  Baren                                                   With all my soul to Thee I cling!
                                        Mr. and Mrs. Melvin  Hugen                                        Hold  Thou:My hand, lest I should falter.
                                       Gilbert Van  Baren, Jr.
                                        Frank Van  Baren                                          : How blest are they that dwell with Thee ! . . .
                                        Anna Mae Van  Baren                                               They praise Thy Name continually.
       South.Holland,  Ill., December 23, 1954                                                                                                       Psalm  84:li  :


