 VOLUME              XXX1        (              FEBRUARY  1, 1955  - GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN                                                                          NUMBER 9

                                                                        c o u n s e l .   I n   i t s   e n t i r e t y ,   a s   i t   w i l l   s h i n e   a n d   g l i t t e r   e v e r -
                 M E D I  .T  A.,`T I 0 N                               lastingly. Its origin is entirely heavenly.
                                                                              Therefore its character is also heavenly. It is true that
                                                                        in creation we have many pictures, symbols of many phases
                     Entrance Into The Kingdom                          of that Kingdom, but a picture and a symbol are no char-
                                                                        acteristics. Its flavor and taste, its dimensions and laws are
                     "Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord,
                 shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that    purely heavenly. Therefore the earthy eye cannot see it. It
            _    doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven."       may come very nigh unto that earthly eye in the days of
                                        !             Matthew 7  21     John the Baptist and nearer still in  the days of Jesus, still,
       There will  be  many  thousands of miserable men and wo-         the human, earthy eye cannot see  it: And only `because it
 men in the Day of Judgment who will clamor and wail                    is heavenly in character. The human, earthly ear cannot
 when they see the door of heaven shut in their faces. And              hear one single stanza of the heavenly songs that are sung
-a that time they will begin to say: "Lord, Lord, do open               in the midst of that heavenly Kingdom, even though these
 LI to  us! We cannot understand that Thou would thrust                 songs may resound and do resound around about that earthly
  %
 LX out !. Just outside the door ; so near and yet so. everlastingly    ear. You  may sing of that Kingdom for 6000 years and
 liar !" these people will at that time recall that they said very      never will the earthly ear know it. It is folly to the mind
 often : Lord, Lord ! thinking that such pious exercise would           that is earthly. The reason is that this Kingdom in its flavor.,
 assure them an entrance into the Kingdom of heaven. But                taste, and all characteristics is only and entirely heavenly.
 they shall experience too late that the real entrance into that        It belongs entirely to other worldly spheres. It belongs to
 Kingdom is :, "to do the will of Christ's Father which is in           spheres that are `not as yet revealed on earth. Not so that
 Heaven." They shall be people who lived among God's                    the earth can see it. It is revealed on earth, but with the
 people, for they will say at that dreadful day: "We have               revelation of it you must receive Kingdom ears, eyes, hearts,
 eaten and drunk in Thy Presence, Lord! Thou hast taught                minds and  souls  in order to perceive it. Except a man be
 in our streets! And yet:  lye shall see Abraham and Isaac              born again he cannot see the Kingdom of heaven.
 and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God and                     That leads  us to the third qualification. This Kingdom
 you yourselves thrust out !"            i                              is heavenly in its King and subjects.
       Dreadful !                                                             Christ Jesus, the Son of God is the heavenly ordained.
       But oh so true !                                                 King and the Christians are its subjects.
                                                                              And Christ Jesus is heavenly. Why, Is He called the
                                                                        Lord of heaven? It is because His blessed life  -from all
       For it is the Kingdom of Heaven !                                eternity is only heavenly. He is the essential Son of God,
       Which means first of all that it is not in any sense of the      Second Blessed Person of the everblessed heavenly Trinity.
 earth earthy. It came forth from, the bosom of the holy                And for that Son heaven is His throne.
 Triune God Himself. He thought of it eternally in His
 Counsel, He saw that  Kingdom from everlasting to ever-                      Moreover, that Christ as to His humanity is ordained
 lasting. Thinking of  -it, He determined it in all its phases,         from eternity by the father to be the King of that heavenly
 with all its subjects, with all its enemies, with its entire           Kingdom. Of that Son the Father  bath said: Yet have I
 history. No one appeared to become His  counsellor.  There             set  Ic9y King' upon My holy hill of Zion! And that holy
 is not anything in that Kingdom that is human, earthy  or' hill of Zion is but another name for the heavenly Kingdom.
 temporal in its origin. Before time, space, `earth, heavens                  And the Christians are also heavenly. They hail from.
 and man were created, that Kingdom existed really in God's             heaven because they are eternal thoughts of the heavenly

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

God. From all eternity the Lord God thought of them in               the Blood that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel.
thoughts of heavenly peace. They are thoughts of the  Al-               And this Kingdom is still future in the days of Jesus.
mighty. Their birth as Christians is from the heavens. They          True, its foundation, its `basis  He laid,  b& it is still future
are born not by the will of man, but by the Spirit of Christ         as to its full realization. He builds on the foundation of His
that is heavenly. Therefore their life, their aspirations, their-    blood throughout the ages. And its principle is in our hearts.
longings and yearnings are all heavenward. And when they             The  I,ingdonl  of heaven is within you.
look around them they  &y : Father which art in heaven,                 You,  must enter into that Kingdom  ii it is going to be
give that Thy will be done here on earth as`it is done in            well with you and me.
heaven. They would never be satisfied except heaven appears             You must enter it. What does that mean ?
-around them and entirely within them. Their Lord is in
heaven and so their walk is in heaven. Their brethren, very             Its entrance does not consist of outward things in the
many  bf them, are in heaven and so they are entirely, as to         first place, and as to its idea it is spiritual, invisible, of the
the new man heavenly creatures.                                      inmost heart.
       And finally, that kingdom is heavenly in its obligations.        The text says that its entrance does not consist of saying
In all of them. For the body and for the soul and for all            Lord, Lord. And when you read the same history in Luke
the time we spend in this miserable world, in connection             13  26-28,  I you hear the very same thing.  There will be
with our dear ones and friends, but also in connection with          people in the Judgment Day who will say to the heavenly
our enemies, in connection with the Law of God and all His           King ; Sire have eaten and drunk in Thy presence and Thou
statutes, in connection with the devil and his angels, but also      hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I
in connection with the holy angels of God-in all the                 know not whence ye are, depart from Me, all ye workers of
ramifications. of our entire life, the call is to  .be heavenly      iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when
throughout. Never may we assume the viewpoint of the                 ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the pro-
earth. Always we hear. the resounding cry from the heavenly          phets in.the  Kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out.
Lord : Set your affections on the things above and not on the           Also from that Scripture we learn that entrance into
.things  below. Quit yourself as heavenly soldiers, fighting         that heavenly Kingdom does not consist of external observ-
the. heavenly battle till the very end, so` that you  may be         antes. True, we cannot do without externals. But Jesus does
worthy citizens of the heavenly kingdom.                             not condemn externals as such, nay, He condemns it when
                                                                     you have nothing but extef*sals.  Externals are good when they
                             + *  Q                                  reveal what lives in the heart.
    That Kingdom  nlade history. and its history  is not yet            Therefore birth in the line of the Covenant, to have God-
                                                       z.
finished.                                                            fearing parents, church attendance, catechism teaching, con-
    It was announced by God in very creation, so that Para-          fessing the Name of -God, partaking of Christ's Supper -
disc was `a picture, a visible symbol of that Kingdom. The           all these things are nothing but terrible  condemnation if they
first page of Genesis and the last page of Revelations fit.          are all you possess. Then you surely will not enter the
The one is the picture and the other is the spiritual, eternal,      blessed Kingdom of heaven.
glorious, heavenly realization of it. And between these two                                      *  *  *
you have the history of its coming.
    After the announcement in creation and the earthly                  What then is the entrance ?
Adam we have the fall. But immediately we see the unfold-.              Doing the will of  Godsconstitutes  the entrance according
ing of the same Kingdom in types throughout the Old                  to the text. And we realize that this answer has a pelagian
Dispensation.                                                        sound, as though after all man by  hisown  work of obedience
    And we learn ever clearer that its foundation is blood.          could enter the Kingdom of heaven. And I would  inake
For a while, it is true, we only see the blood of lambs and          answer that I do not c&-e how much it sounds like pelagian-
goati, but finally we see the heavenly blood, as it were. And        ism, that obedience to the will of God is the only door heaven
Hebrews tells us that Christ went into the heavenly sanctu-          possesses. There is no other entrance. And the door to hell
ary with His precious blood.                                         is the door of disobedience to God's will. That is the truth
                                                                     which you will find on every page of the Bible.        .
   The Kingdom, that is, the realization of God dwelling                But let us explain.
with us in His eternal palaces as friends, is founded in the
blood of Jesus. And that blood `spells obedience to God's               We find the whole matter  beautiftilly  stated in Psalm
will from the motive of purest love. When the elect of God.          24  :3-6. There we read: "Who shall ascend into the hill  of
elect to become citizens, became sinners and worthy unto             the Lord? or who shall stand at His holy place? He that
death,  Jesus  came, the heavenly King, in order that He             hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath  not lifted up
might liberate them from the prison`of sin, guilt  and death his soul unto vinity nor sworn deceitfully."
and bring them into the Kingdom. That is the meaning of                 There is the answer. And you have noticed that also


                                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                            195

 there we have the matter of entrance into the .I<ingdom, that
 is, the holy hill of Zion. The only answer is purest obedience;                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
 from the love of God.                                                                   Semi-monthly, except monthly during July and  August
     .But then I hear you make answer and. say: Who can                                Published  by  the  REFORMS   FREE  PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
 then be saved ? For we have very filthy hands ; our hearts                          P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
 are cesspools of unholiness ; continually  I  lift up my soul                                          Editor  -bv.  HERMAN  HOEKSEMA   -
 unto vanity ; and as for truth in the inward parts : All men                        C&munications relative to o&&s should be addressed to Rev.
 are liars and I am one of them !  And we would say: that                            H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
 is true of all natural men. But there is one man among men                          All matters relative to  subsoriptions  should be addressed  to;Mr.
                                                                                     G. Pipe, 1463 Ardmore St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Michigan.
 who is not so. He fulfills the requirements of the heavenly                         Announcements  and Obituaries  mu&  be mailed to the  aboye
  entrance to the very last and minutest detail. And that Mati                       address and  till1  lbe published at a fee  .of $1.00 for  each  notice.
 is the God-Man, the  Immanuel.  It is Jesus Christ, the Son                         RENEWALS:  Unless a definite  requ& for  discontinuance  is re-
                                                                                     ceived it is assumed  &at the subscriber wishes  the  suh%ription
 of God.                                                                             to  co&inue without the formality of a renewal order.
     And here is the blessedness of the Gospel: He  ascendg                                               Subscriptian  price: $4.00 per year
 the holy hill of Zion in purest obedience substitutionally for                       Elstered 
  you and me. For all the elect of God.  He pays the awful                                         as Second Class matter  at Grand Raptis, Michigan
 price for all your and my disobedience and that is the stoiy
  of His Blood. That is shed for me, even for me!
     When He became obedient unto the death of the cross,
  He did it in my stead. And when He has finished all the                                                       \ C O N T E N T S
  labor of His soul, it is as though I have done it. That is the               MIIDITATION  -
  sweetest strain of the Gospel.  Henceforward  Paul deter-                             "Entrance `Into the Kingdom:`. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I93
 mines not to know  anything but Christ and Him crucified.                                    -Rev. G. Vos
  Do you see the blessed reason ? The ,poss of Christ is the
  entrance. Hallelujah !                                                       EDITORIALS -
     But this is not ill.                                                               The Future of Our Churches.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .196 ~
     Because, even if Christ is the Obedient One, we are on                             Poolr Kok . .._....................... . . . . . . . . . :`.......... 206
                                                                                              Rev. H. Hoeksema
  the contrary very disobedient ,by nature. And ,so He comes
 by His Holy Spirit and regenerates us so that His life of                     OUR DOCTRINE  -
  perfect obedience enters us and recreates us unto new cre-                            The Triple Knowledge (Part III  - Of  T'hankfulness) .  .`.  .198
  atures. And through daily conversion we are taught  -by the                                 Rev. H. Hoeksema
  Selfsame Spirit to be sorry for our sins and to fight the,
 fight of faith against all unrighteousness. Instead of lifting                THE  DAY  OF   SHADOWS-
 up our  sduls   unto vanity we- receive the wisdom  from heaven                        Expo`sition  of Isaiah.. . . : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ! . . . . . .204
  so that  ye may walk in the right direction, having our.                                    Rev. G. M. Ophoff
 .reborn  souls filled with the sweet med&tions of righteous-
 ness, holiness and spiritual knowledge. And we become                         FROM  HOLY WRIT  -
                                                                                        Expusftion of Galatians 5 : 16-26. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207
  lovers and speakers of the truth, every one with his neigh-                                 Rev. G. Lubbers
  b o r .
     And this is principally true of every child of God.  AS                   IN  HIS  FEAR-
  to the new man he sinneth not, but doeth the will of Christ's                         "The Gate is Open". . . . . .`. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                . . . . . . . . 209
  Father in heaven. As to the old man, we fight against him                                   Rev. J. A. Heys
  every day and mortify him, so that haply we may enter into
  the Kingdom of heavep.                                                       CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH  -
     For Jesus' sake.                                                  G.V.             Tlhe Church `and the Sacraments.. . . . . . . . . . . . .                          . . . . , . . .211
                                                                                              Rev. H.  Veldman

                             IN MEMORIAM                                       THE VOICE OF  OUR  F.4THERS;
    The consistory of the Fourth Protestant Reformed Church                             The Canons of Dordrecht (Art: 15). . . . .                                         ,..... :.213
  extends its sincere sympathy to its fellow  bfother and consistory                          Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
member, John Hager; in the loss of his mother,
                                                                               A
                      M R S .   J E N N I E   H A G E R                             LL AROUND  Us  -
                                                                                         "What Really Happened In Our Churches". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
    Ps. 4:  8 : "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep : for                            Rev.. M.  Schipper
  thou, Lord, only  makest  ,me dwell in safety."
                                              R. Veldman, President
                                              J. Veltman, Secretary

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

-  I                                                                                     That is translated:
          "      E D  I-, T  0. R  1~ A  L  S
                           -/.                           .-,    .'                                    "In the past  lies the present,
                                                                                                       In the now what will be."
                                                                                         In other  `words, the past ought to determine  in- what
                  "The -Future Of Our Churches                                     direction our churches ought  t? develop if they wish to
                                                                                   maintaiti  theii- raison detre, their reason for existence. And,
          .,                     I. .        i-                                    secondiy,  the promises of God to His church are always for
          A few years ago' I delivered a speech on the above men-                  those that are faithful to His truth, and those promises relate
   tioned subject. It  was, I think' on the occasion of a young                    to the future of our churches.
   people's  .conv.ention.   _                     .,           -. . .                   The  begimiing  of our history lies, of course, in the  yea14
          It iS not my purpose, in this editorial to give: a resume or              1      9     2        4     .
   recabtitulation   o      f              this-  speech::                               In that year, the Synod of the Christian Reformed
          But  it<  s"eems  to me . that' the question concerning the              Churches adopted the notorious Three Points.
   future of our churches, has,  in,  the. light of our history of                       In these Three Points they attempted to express and
   the last few years, become  more urgent and also, for all of                    officially td adopt the theory of common grace. But actually
   usj become more concretely  interesfing. What is going to                       they did n&h more than set their stamp of approval upon
   become  of the Protestant  ,Reformed  Churches?  In. 1924 we                    what was, before 1924, known as "common grace." They
   were small. Our beginning was with  ,only three  congi-ega-                     really adopted, especially in the first point of the three; the
   tions, the present  .FiFst  church of Grand Rapids, the                         Arminian view of grace for all.
   churches of Kalamazoo and Hope.  Sin& then, till recently                             It may be well, especially in the light of our recent his-
   we enjoyed a rather healthy growth. But now our outward                         tory,  tb refresh our  niemory  on this first point and the  so-
   growth has been rather seriously stunted. We formerly                           called proof for it,which the Synod of Kalamazoo adopted.
   consisted of twenty-four churches, now we have only seven-                            That first point reads literally as follotis:
   teen left, with the prospect of two more coming. The mem-                             "Relative to the first point which concerns the favorable
   bership has, however, just about split in half, chiefly becausal                attitude of God to humanity in general and not only to-
  a large  con,$ingent  of the membership of the First Church                      wards the elect, synod declares it to be established according
   has becorn!: apostate from the truth under the leadership of                    to Scripture and the Confessions that, apart from the saving
   DeWolf and some of  Jlis former consistory members. In                          grace of God shown only to those that are elect unto eternal
   Classis  East we still have twelve churches as formerly, most                   life, there is also a certain favor-or grace of God which He;
   of them quite intact, the exceptions being those under the                      shows to His creatures in general. This is evident from the
   leadership of  DeWolf,   Blankespoo;,  Knott, and  Kok. In                      Scriptural passages quoted and from the Canons of Dordrecht
   Classis  West, however, we  .have only five congregations!                      II, 5, III, IV,  8 and 9, which deal with the general offer .of
   left, with the possibility of one or two more coming. Of                        the gospel, while it also appears from the citations made
   ministers we have, at present fifteen, one of whom has ac-                      from Reformed writers of the most flourishing period of
   cepted the call as home missionary, and two of  whom are                        Reformed Theology: `that our Reformed writers from the
   professors at the seminary in Grand Rapids. The result is                       past favored this view."
   that we have five vacant churches, Creston, Hope, Kalama-                             Now, in the present editorial we are not concerned with
   zoo, South Holland,  and Lynden. The theological school,                        a criticism of the whole of the First Point. It evidently
  , however, and every one of the students remained with us.                       adopts two doctrines which we may well distinguish as the
          Such is the situation at present.                                        doctrine of common grace and that of general grace. By the
         Apd it is with a view to that situation and to our recent                 former is meant the grace of God, not saving, that is com-
   history that we ask the question: what is the future of our                     mon both to the elect and to the reprobate without distinction,
   churches ?                                                                      alleged to be manifest in all the things of this present time as
                                                                                   they are common to all men. By the latter is meant the
        -. You understand, of course, that in the absolute sense of                theory that the saving grace of God is general. that is that it
   the word, I cannot answer that question. For the future of                      is intended for all men individually The latter theory is a
   our churches is determined, even. before the foundation of                      denial of sovereign election and reprobation, of particular
   the world, by the counsel of God, and that counsel of the                       atonement and of the application of all the blessings of sal-
   Most High is hid from us.' We catmot  read it.                                  vation only to the,el&t, and holds that Christ diecl for all and
         Yet, I can certainly say  something  about our future for                 that the receiving of the blessings of salvation depends on
   two reasons. In the first place, our future is certainly related                the free will of the sinner.
   to our past as is always the case. As one of the Dutch                                The later theory, which is that of the Arminians, is im-
   poets had it:                                                                   plied in the latter part of the first point especially when taken
                   "In `t verleden` ligt het  heden,                               in connection with its alleged proof.
                    In  bet  nu  wat  worden  zal;"                                      It teaches that it is evident from the general offer of the


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             197

gospel that  God is gracious to all men, particularly to all       and blemish to the enjoynient  of glory in his own presence
that hear  the gospel.                                             forever."
   This is not Reformed but Armini&.                                   This is the very heart of the Reformed truth.
   Reformed it is to maintain that the preaching of the gos-           Nor s this contradicted by those parts of the Canons -to
pel is, both in God's intention as  well as in respect to its      which the Synpd of 1924 referred in support of their  Ar-
actual application,, not grace to all men, but grace only  to      minian  theory that the preaching of the gospel is well-meant
the elect,  while it is a savor of death unto death for the        offer of salvation, on the part of God well-meant, by .which
reprobate.                                                         He shows grace to all that hear.
   It is purely Reformed to teach that,  fzom all eternity,            Let me quote just one of their references, Canons II, 5 :
God sovereignly loved and chose a people in Christ, and                "Moreover the promise of the gospel is that whosoever
ordained them unto the glory of eternal life in the deep way       believeth in Christ crucified, shall not perish but ,have ever-
of sin and grace.                                                  lasfing  life. This promise, together with the command to
   It is Reformed to maintain that Christ died and  rdse           repent and believe, ought to be declared and published to
again only for the elect, and not for all men, and thus            all nations and persons promiscuously and without distinc-
merited for them and for them -alone all the blessings of tion, to whom God out of His good pleasure sends the gos-
salvation.                                                         pel."
   It is Reformed to teach that only upon the elect the                Does this, as the Synod of 1924 would have it, teach a.
Spirit of grace is bestowed, sd that they and they only are        general grace of God to  all that hear the gospel, and thus
regenerated, are called into the fellowship of Christ, receive     contradict the rest of the Canons ?
the true faith through the preaching of the gospel. so that:        By no means.
they are justified, sanctified and finally glorified.                  It teaches, indeed, that  the'command  to repent and be-
   It is Reformed to maintain that the elect and they only         live,  must. be published to all that hear the gospel. But a
are surely preserved unto the end by God's sovereign and           command is no grace; Moreover, this command can be
efficiacious  grace, so that, they can never fall away but will    obeyecl  only by those whom God efficaciously calls, that is,
surely inherit eternal glory.                                      the elect.
   Hence, it is Reformed to hold  that the preaching of the            Iti further teaches th& the course of the gospel is directed
gospel is surely no gracious offer of salvation to all men,        by the goocl pleasure of God for the positive purpose, evi-
but it is the means whereby God  dalls the elect, and them
                                                           .       dently, that all the elect might hear it.
only, to faith, and salvation in Christ.                               Further, it declares that the promise of the gospel must
   It is a very serious error to teach that the `preaching of      be proclaimecl  to $11 nations and persons promiscuously with-
the gospel is a gracious offer of salvation, on the part of God    out distinction.
well-meant, to  `all without distinction.                              Nevertheless, the $romise of the gospel is presented, not
   That is the teaching of the First Point.                        as general and, on the part of God, well-meant for all but
 . And that this teaching of the First Point is not Reformed       as only for those that, by the grace of God believe and,
but condemned by the confessions of  the Reformed Churches         therefore, only for the elect.
you may verify by reading those confessions. I refer  you              This doctrine of general .grace, as well as that of common
especially to Canons of Dordrecht 1, A? 6 ; II, A, 8 ; III, IV,    grace? we rejected in 1924.
A, 10; V, A, 8.                                                        Instead we  niaintained,  and still do, that the grace of
   Let me quote just one article, namely II1 A, S:                 God, whether as revealed in the preaching. of the gospel or
   "For this was the sovereign counsel and most gracious           in the things of this present life, is always particular and
Fvill and purpose of God the Father that the quickening and for the elect only. -
saving efficacy of the most precious death of His Son should           Because we taught and  maintaine`d  this truth  we were
extend to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the         ejected from `the Christian Reformed Church in 1924, even
gift of justifying faith, thereby to bring them- infallibly to     though the Synod of Kalamazoo gave us the testimony along
salvation; that is, it was the will of God, that Christ, by        that we are confessionally Reformed.
the blood of the cross, whereby He confirmed the new cov-              This is the origin of the Protestant Reformed Churches.
enant, should effectually redeem out of every people, tribe,           And the answer to the question as to our future stands
nation and language, all those and thdse only, who were            inseparably connected, not with the question whether we
from eternity chosen to salvation, and given to Him by the.        grow in numbers (this is entirely irrelevant), but whether
father; that He should confer upon them faith, which to-           we still maintain this definite truth and are developing along
gether with all the other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, He      its line.
purchased for them by His death ; should purge -them from              For. upon `this depends our very reason for existence as
all sin, both original and actual, whether committed before        Protestant Reformed Churches.
or after believing ; and having faithfully preserved them even:        But about this next time, the Lord willing..          H.H.
to  the end, should at last bring them free from ever) spot                             (Coutimed  0% page 206)


           19s                                           THI?   S T A N D A R D   BEA.RER

           II                                                                     attain to this perfection. But nevertheless, as far as his
                        O U R   D,OCTRIN&E                                        spiritual condition is concerned, the Christian is able to
                                                                                  attain to a- perfect keeping of the law of God. He even as-
                                                                                  serts that "sevei-al  persons have enjoyed this blessing, with-'
                        THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE                                      out interruption, for many years, several enjoy it at this day,
                                                                                  and not a few have enjoyed it unto their death, as they have
                   ANT  EXPOSITION   OF THE HEIDELBERG  CATECFIISM
.                                                                                 declared_ with their latest breath, calmly witnessing that God
                            APART   III  - O                                      had saved them from all sin, till their spirit returned to God."
                                                F THANKFULNESS                    Does the Christian, then, in this life no longer have need of
                                     LORD'S DAY  44                               the atoning blood of Christ and the forgiveness of sins? To
                                                                                  this question Wesley answers as follows: Christians are not
                                        Chapter 2                                 in the state of angelic or adamic perfection. They are not
                                                                                  free from ignorance or from making mistakes. We  can no
                            The Imperfect Perfect Christian                       more espect  any man to be infallible than to be omniscient.
                  And as soon as any evil. thought enters  .into our mitid,       From infirmities none. are perfectly freed till their  .spirits
           and as soon as any evil inclination or desire enters into oup          return to God. Till then no one is wholly freed from tempta-
           soul,' it is present before God, even though by grace we               tion. In this angelic or adamic sense of the word there is
           immediately fought against it. The  question  is not whether           no absolute perfection on earth. There is no perfection
           you are fighting the thoughts +d desires that arise in youl?           which does not admit of a continual increase. Writes Wesley :
           soul.  .Thk question is whether they were there at all. And            "The proposition which I will hold is this : `Any person may
           if they were, we  certainly-  have not kept the law of  dTod           be  cleBnsed from all sinful tempers,  an< yet need the
           perfectly, but have sinned."                                           atoning blood.' For what? For negligence and ignorances  ;
                  C~:B. you,  - not: do you,  - keep the  law perfectly? In       for both words and actions as well as omissions, which are,
           othei words, is, the spiritual condition of the Christian in this      in a, sense, transgressions of the perfect law. And I believe
     -     ,life,  as long as he is in this world, such, that he -at least is     no one is clear from these till he lays down this dorruptible
           able to keep the law of God perfectly ? Perhaps he does not            body." But he is certainly capable in this life of loving the
           always keep it perfectly.. Perhaps he. sins often actually.            Lord his God with all his heart, with all his mind, with all
           But nevertheless, is his spiritual state such that'he is able to       his soul, and with all his strength. And this is really the
           keep all the commandments of God perfectly? When a man                 docfrine  of the perfectionist. A Christian is able in this life
           `is regenerated, so that he has a new heart ; when he is called        to attain to the perfection in which he no longer sins, but
           by the efficacious calling  of God through the gospel ; when           keeps the law of God perfectly. And often he appeals to the
           he is converted, and lives from faith ; `when he is sanctified, - text in I John 3  :9: "Whosoever is born of God doth not
           so that he' lives from Christ, and his life is hid with Christ         commit sin  ; for his seed  remaineth  in him : and he cannoti
           .in God ; -is he then able to live in perfection.?                     sin, because he is born of God."
                  To this question the perfectionist,  - at least, a certain         Nevertheless, Scripture gives quite a different picture of
           class of them ; for they do not all.agree  among themselves, -         the present state and condition of the believer in Christ.
           gives  a, positive  answ'er.  That such' perfection is attainable      And the experience of the Christian himself agrees with this.
           in this life, was taught already by certain Roman Catholics,           And in harmony  TiTith Holy Writ, the Catechism replies in
           such as the Franciscans, the Jesuits, and the Molinists. But           answer to the question, "But can those who are converted to
           is it Preeminently the teaching of the Methodists. They teach          God perfectly keep these commandments  ?" with an em-
           not only the perfection `in Christ, juridically, by imputation.        phatic, "No."
           But  thei also teach the spiritual, ethical perfection of sanctifi-       That this answer is the answer of Holy Writ there can
           cation. As. far as his spiritual condition is concerned, ac-           be no doubt. Just turn to the inspired record of the  ex:
           cording to them, the Christian can keep the' law of God                gerience  of the apostle Paul, preserved for the benefit of all
           perfectly. This was the doctrine of John Wesley himself.               believers in Romans 7  :14, ff : "For we know that the law
           That complete perfection is attainable in this life he maintains       is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which
           in a sermon preached by him `on Hebrews G :l : "Let us go              I do I allow not : for what I would, that do I pot ; but what
           on to perfection." i-le contends for this chiefly by arguments         I  .hate,  that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I
           based on the commandments and promises of God in Scrip-                consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more
           ture concerning sanctification. He indeed makes a distinction          I that do it,. but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in
           there between angelic and adamic perfection,  on the one               me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to
           hand, and evangelical or Christian perfection, on the other            will is present with me; but how to perform that which is
           hand. The perfection of the Christian does not exclude                 good  I  find not. For the good that I would I do not: but
           igndrance  and error of judgment, with consequent wrong                the evil which  I would not that I do. Now if I do that I
          . affections. He  .also admits that not all believers actually' would not, it is  .no more I that clo it. but sin that  clwel!eth


                                              T H E   STANUARD   BEAtiFR                                                          199

 in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil          liberated from sin,  and has been granted perfect liberty in
 is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after           Christ Jesus according to his  inmost heart. But this is not
 the inward man: But I see another law in my members,                the last word Concerning the Christian as he lives in this
 \yarring  against the law of my mind, and bringing me into          life and in this world. If it were so,  then the perfectionist
 captivity to the law of sin which is in my. members., 0             would indeed be right. If nothing else were to be said about
 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body         the Christian but that he has a new heart, and that in that
 of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.           heart is the .principle  of perfection, `then indeed we could say
 ,So then with the mind I lliyself  serve the law of God ; but       that he is able to keep the law of God perfectly. But this is
 with the flesh the law of sin." With this the emphatic "No"         not the case. That small beginning, that seed of regeneration,
 of the Heidelberg Catechism is quite in harmony.                    ieven when it is quickened through the Word of God, that
    And with' this is also in accord the explanation which           liveth and abideth forever, still dwells in the old nature, .in
 the Catechism offers for this .negaitve answer. It explains         the old soul and in the  .old body. And in that  .old nature,
 that "even the holiest men, while in this life, have only a         which Scripture calls,the  flesh of the Christian, there are the
 small beginning of this obedience." Let us understand this          old operations of sin. And as soon as the thoughts, inclina-
 answer. It means, in the first plade, that according to the         tions, the plans, aspirations, and desires that are born from
 inmost principle of our regenerated heart we are perfect,           that new, regenerated heart of the Christian enter into that
 and can no more sin. To this principle the Catechism refers         flesh, into that old mind, that old will, that old soul and
 when it speaks of a small beginning. It is a beginning of -body of the Christian, in which there are the operations of
perfection. It is small, but it is a beginning nevertheless.         sin, they are defied and corrupted by these. They are takeni
 And let us understand that this beginning is not  !nerely  a        captive by them, and often twisted into a totally different  '
 start to perfection.  It is not the beginning in the sense of       direction. And thus we can indeed speak, as we did in the
 the start of a series, or the beginning of 2 ball of. twine. But    heading of this chapter, of the imperfect perfect Christian.
 rather it is the beginning in the sense of a seed, or of a prin-    The Christian is perfect in principle. Nor are there two'
 ciple. The Christian has a new heart, regenerated by the            principles in him, the principle of holiness and the principle of
 Holy Spirit, principally sanctified in Christ, And in that new      sin. Principally he is holy. But that principle of holiness still
 heart: is the seed the principle, the root of all perfection.       dwells in the flesh, in his unholy nature, soul and body. And
 In this lies the principal difference between all mere, moral       with that unholy nature he dwells in the midst of a world
 reformatory work and the work of the grace of God in the            of sin, surrounding him on every side. And thus it happens
 heart of the sinner. All moral,, reformatory work is after all      that not  dnly for certain mistakes. and sins of ignorance,
 superficial and outward. The work of grace is inward, con-          but for all his works, even th ebest df them, the Christian has
 cerns the deepest heart. Reformation begins by amending             need of forgiveness, and always he cries out: "0 God, be
 certain bad habits ; the work of grace begins by cutting out        merciful to me, a  .sinner." If it were not for the atoning
 sin itself. Moral reform is'after all nothing but a superficial     blood of Christ, there *would be no good work left, ,performed
`start'; all work of grace is a principle.        _ ..               by the Christian.
    This is what the Catechism means when it says &at the               And notice too .that the Catechism tells us that the very
 holiest of men have but a small beginning. It is not so that        holiest of the children of God have but a'small  beginning of
 the Christian has two hearts, a new and an bld. But he has          the new obedience in this life. Even he that is farthest ad-
 one heart. And that one heart is regenerated. And that one          vanced on the way pf sanctification, and is most consecrated
 regenerated heart is the beginning, the principle, -of all per-     to God and to His service, still has but a small beginning.
fection and of all good works. In that new heart is. the be-         There is, therefore, principally no difference, according to
 ginning to live with a sincere resoluti&, not only according        the Catechism, between the holiest and the less holy, be-
to some, but according to all the commandments of  G6.d.             tween  the beginner and the advanced Christian. It is not
 The beginning of all true, spiritual obedience is in that new       true that there are believers who have a very small beginning
heart. It is the beginning of perfect conformation to the            of the new obedience, and people that have a bigger begin-
 whole law of God. Such is the power of the seed of regenera-        ning. On the contrary  ; according to the Catechism, evi-
 tion implanted in the heart of the Christian.                       dently, all believers, no matter how far they ate advanced,
    Nevertheless, we must not deceive ourselves. After all,          are `alike in this respect. All have but a small beginning of
it is only a beginning, though the beginning be a principle.         the new obedience, until the day  of their death. It also
According to that principle of new life in the heart of the          nieans  that sanctification does not consist in this, that that
 Christian, he cannot sin: "Whosoever is born of God doth            principle, that small beginning, `gradually develops and -in-
not commit sin." God's seed remaineth  in him, and he can-           creases. It remains a beginning. It remains a principle. It
not sin because he is born of God. Princifially,  therefore, it      remains small until the day that we put off the earthy taber-
is impossibe for the Christian to, sin. It is not a question of      nacle, and enter into the house of God in heaven. Safictifica-
,his free will, but it is a question of the grace of God that        tion consists in this, that through the power of the Holy
`has  complete!y  changed his will. The Christian has been           Spirit and the gospel  6f our Lord Jesus Christ that new


      200                                          THE   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

      principle of life in the  heati of the believer, that small  be-     Christian  ? If it is impossible for any Christian to keep the
      ginnipg,  fights the good fig+ of faith, and more and- more          law perfectly, why must it be preached in the church ? Or,
      overcomes the operations and the power of sin that is in our         as the Catechism has it in  Qu: 11.5 : "Why will God then
      members.                                                             have the ten commandments so  strictly  preached, since no
         And therefore, it is certainly true that the believer whole-      man in this life can keep them  ?" And to this question the
      heartedly subscribes to what the Scriptures teach us in I            Catechism gives a three-fold answer. First of all, the preach-
      John 153, 9 : "If we say that we have no siti, we deceive our-       ing of the law in the church must have the fruit that it
      selves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he       deepens the knowledge of sin: "First, that all our lifetime
      is faithful and just to forgive  our sins, and to cleanse us         we may learn more and more to know our sinful nature, and
      from all unrighteousness If we say that we have not sinned,          thus become the more earnest in seeking the remission of
      we make him a liar, and his word is, not in us."                     sin; and  nghteousness  in Christ." Secondly, the  Heidel-
         It is in this  deception'that  the perfectionist  !ives. 0, it    berger teaches us that the preaching of the law, provided it
      is true, even the perfectionist does  not say that he never          is done properly, must have the fruit of sanctification: "like-
      has any sin, that he always lives perfectly. Nevertheless, in        wise, that we constantly endeavor and pray to God for the
      actual life he assumes that attitude. His view, that it is           grace of the Holy Spirit, that we may become more and
-     possible for the Christian in this life to attain to perfection,     more  ,conformable   to the image of God." And finally, the
      leads to the conclusion that he often lives a sinless life. Did      answer to Qu 115 teaches us that the preaching of tlie law
      you nevei-  hear them say that he has not sinned for a .week,        must have the fruit  6f strengthening in the heart of the
      that he lived perfectly for a whole year, for several years?         Christian the hope of perfection in the life to come: "till we
     .' In this he deceives himself. In not recognizing and  s'eeing       arrive at,the  perfection proposed to us. in a life to come.
      sin in his own heart and mind, in being satisfied with a                There are indeed those who  ai-e opposed to  +he preaching
      superfiicial,  outward. righteousness, he deceived himself in        of. the law in the- church in any sense of the word. In this
      imagining that he has no need of the forgiveness sf sins in          respect, although in other respects they are entirely opposites,
      the. blood of Christ. And therefore he does not' lay hold on         they are like the perfectionists. Both are opposed to the law,
      the promise contained in I John l-:9 : "If we confess our sins,      or to the preaching of the law, although from different.
      he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse       motives, and although the perfectionist wtiuld  probably not
     -us from all unrighteousness."                                        admit it. -The' one, the antinomian, positively does not want
             Mark you well, the believer does not refer to this smail      the preaching of the law. because, according to him, it is not
      beginning of the new obedience  in. his heart  iti order to          only of no value, but it is also dangerous. The perfectionist
      excuse himself. He does not speak of that small beginning in         is really against the preaching of the law because he claims
      order to cover up his sins, or to find an excuse for hiswalk-        that he does not need it. The  antin'omian claims that the
      ing in the way of sin. God forbid! Although the Christian            preaching of the law is dangeroils because, atcording  to him.
      certainly sins,' he does not deliberately walk in sin. .And if       it tends to create a certain superficial:idea  of righteousnesss.
     any man would appeal to that small beginning in order to              and must inevitably leave the impression with the people of
      cover up his sinful walk,. he would thereby reveal that he           God that they can keep the law perfectly. It is dangerous
      has not even begun to understand the experience of the               too, .because  it tends to leave the impression that somehow
      believer. For although the believer confesses that he has but        we must be saved by -our works, rather than only by the
      a small beginning of the new obedience in this life, he  ai          blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.. According  tb them, the
      once adds that because of that same small beginning, or prin-        preaching of the law implies a denial of the cross of Christ.
      ciple, of new life in his heart, he finds in himself a sincere       And of &u-se, we must all admit that if such should be the
      resolution to begin to live not only according to some, but          fruit of the preaching- of the law, it should never be pro-
      all the commandments of God. And he hears  the truth in              claimed again. If the preaching., of the law- would leave the
      Jesus : "Thai: ye put off concerning the former conversation. `impression. with the church of Jesus Christ that,somehow  w6
      the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts ;     must add to the righteousness  that is  in Christ our Lord,
      And  b,e renewed in the spirit  df your mind; And that  ye           then, of course, it would be far better that we never heard
      put on the new  man, which after God is created in right-            at all of the law again.
      eousness, and true holiness?' He fights the good fight of               Antinomians existed in the church-in a very early age.
      faith. that no one may take his crown.                               Even the epistle of James is apparently directed against those
                                                                           that revealed antinomian tendencies. And some of the writ-
                                  Chapter 3 '                              ings of Augustine indicate the existence of antinomian opin-
                     The Preaching of the Perfect Law                      ions in the  fourth'century.  Yet, the complete development
                                                                           of the antinomian doctrine was not effected till the time of
         `The final question  which the Heidelberg Catechism dis-          the Reformation. It is connected with the name of Agricola.
      cusses is that of the value  .of the preaching of the law  in        Luther. and also Melanchton, used  son15   iery strong  es-
      the church. Is  there any use in preaching the law of  the           pressions. which, if interpreted apart from their context,  '


                                                 T H 'E   S T A N D A R D   J~EARER.                                                     201
                                                                                                            -._  - __-
                                                        r
     might very well be taken as the expressions of  antitiomian          certainly be interpreted in a sound sense.  fin fact for the
     doctrine. These expressions concerned especially the truth           Reformed Christian there is nothing wrong in them.
     of justification over against the law. Thus, Luther declared            We feel however, that the' following criticism of the so-
that "in the new covenant there is no longer a constraining               called high Calvinists in England that occurs in the  Life of
     and forcing law; and those who must be sacred and driven             Bniter,  by  Orme, is certainly entirely unfair, and undoubted-
     by laws are unworthy of the name of Christians." Opposing            ly inspired by a hatred of all Calvinism:  "It withers and
     the Zwickau enthusiasts, he did not hesitate to say: "These          destroys the consciousness of human responsibility. It con-
     teachers of sin annoy us with Moses ; we do not wish to see          founds , moral with .natural  impotency, forgetting that the
     or hear Moses ; for Mo.ses  was given to the Jews, not to us         former is a crime, fhe latter only a misfortune  ; and thus
     Gentiles and Christians  ; we have  our gospel and New Testa-        treats the man dead `in trespasses and sins as if he were
     ment  : they wish to make Jews of us through Moses  ; but            already in his  grave. `It prophesies smooth things to  thd
     they shall not." Nevertheless, it is a well  kriown  fac't that:     sinner going on in his transgressions, and soothes to slumber
     Luther certainly was not opposed to the preaching of the             and the repose of death the souls of  such  & are at ease in
     law to the church. But when in -his "Instructions to the             Zion. It assumes that, because men can neither believe, re-
     Pastors of the Saxon Electorate" he enjoined that "all pastors       pent, nor pray  acceptably, unless aided by the grace of God,
     must teach and enforce diligently the ten commandments,"             it is useless  -to call upon them to do  sb. It inaintains that
     it was Agricola who disagreed emphatically. He saw in                the gospel is only intended for elect sinners, and therefore
     these instructions nothing but a backsliding  from  the true         it ought to be preached to none; but such.. In defiance, there-
     doctrine of justification by faith only. He affirmed that the        fore, of the command of God, it refuses to preach the glad
     Decalogue is not binding on Christians, and that true  re-           tidings of inercy to every sinner. In opposition to Scripturi
     pentance~comes  not from preaching of the law, but.by  faith.        and-to every rational consideration, it contends that it is not:
     And although later Agricola recanted his views, he really            man's duty to believe the truth of God- justifying the ob-
     was never changed. And after his death  antinomian  opinions         vious inference that it is not a sin to reject it. In short, its
_ were advocated  iri Germany by other Lutheran pastors.                  whole tendency is to produce an impression on the sinner's
        -Although  no Reformed man can agree with the  antino-            mind that, if he is not saved it is snot his fault, but God's ;
     mians as they are represented, and although in the  Re-              that, if he is condemned, it is more for the glory of -the'
     iormed churches it was always held that the law is related           divine sovereignty than as the punishment of his guilt. So
     to the gospel as a rule of gratitude, nevertheless I am afmid        far from regarding the moral cure of `human nature as the
      that the so-called antinomians were frequently unfairly             great object and design of the gospel, antinomianism does not
     criticizecl  and misrepresented. This is especially true of the      take it in at a", but as it exists in_ Christ, and becomes ours
     Calvinists that were considered  antinoinians  in England in         by a figure of speech. It regards the grace and the pardon
     the seventeenth century. Their critics were usually those that       as everything the spiritual design or effect as nothing. Hence,
     denied the doctrine of election and of sovereign grace. Many         its opposition to progressive, and its zeal f&- imputed sanctifi-
     of their expressions, even when isolated  frpm the  .rest of         cation: the fortiler IS intelligible and tangible, but the latter
     their writings, can very well be interpreted in  a sound sense.      a mere figment of the imagination. Hence, its delight in
     Thus, for `instance, Dr. Crisp, who was a Calvinist of the           expatiating' on the eternity of the divine decrees, which it
seventeenth century, was criticized for his ~antinomianism.               does not understand, but which serve to amuse and to de-
     Some of the following extracts are .taken  from his sermons          ceive, and its dislike to all ,the `sober realities of God's present
     to' prove this contention : "The law is cruel and tyrannical,        dealings and commands. It exults in the contemplation of
     requiring what is naturally impossible." But this is perfectly       a Christ who is a kind of concretion of all the moral attri-
     true: for the natural man it is impossible to keep, the law of       butes of his people ; to the overlooking of that Christ who is
     God. Again-  he writes : "The sins  or the elect were so  im-        the head of all that in heaven and on earth bear his likeness,
     -puted  to Christ, as that,  though  He did not commit them,         and while unconscious of possessing it. It boasts in the doc-
     yet they became actually His tralisgressions,  and ceased to         trine of the perseverance of the saints, while it believes in no
     be theirs." Even this is  .undoubtedly  true : the elect  wei-e      saint but one, that is Jesus, and neglects to perstivere."
     certainly in Christ at the cross. He'died for them, and His           That, although we do not deny that with those higher
     righteousnesi  is freely imputed to them, so that their sins         Calvini$s,  as they are called, there were indeed antinomian
     juridically are no more in existence before the face of God.         tendencies, the above criticism is more one-sided and false
     Once more he writes : "It is but the voice of a lying spirit in      than antinomianism itsdlf, and is inspired by a hatred of all
     the hearts of believers that saith they have yet sin, wasting        that Calvinism stands for; is evident on the very face of it.
     their consciences, and lying as burden too heavy for them            Besides, in the writings of Dr. Crisp, whom we quoted above,
     to bear." And again: "Christ's righteousness is so imputed           also the following sentiments are expressed: "In respect of.
     to. the elect, that they, ceasing to -be sinners are as righteous    the rules of righteousness, or the matter of obedience, we:
     as He was and all that He was."  All these expressions can           are under the law still, or else we are lawless, to live every


                 . .
_


 202                                            T H E   S T A N D

 man as seems good in his own eyes, which no true Christian
 dares so much as to think,of."
        Sentiments like these, though perhaps in other respects
the so-called higher Calvinists may have revealed  Antinom-
 ian tendencies, certainly are not apt to destroy the consci-
 ousness of human responsibility. They do not prophesy
 smooth things to the sinner or soothe to slumber and the
 repose of them that are at ease in Zion. Although "Higher
 Calvinism". does not agree with the Arminians that God,
 on ,His part is willing'to save every sinner and that, there-
 fore, the gospel is a mere well-meaning offer of salvation
 on the part of God to all, yet it is an error to maintain
 that it refuses to preach the gospel of mercy to all. It is
 certainly  Arminian slander that those "Higher Calvinists"
 should ever contend that it.-is not man's duty to believe the
 truth of God and that it is no sin to reject it. In short, the
 evaluation of the Antinomians by the Arminians cannot be
 trusted.            .
Nevertheless, it cannot be denied. that  Antinomians of
 every shade are inclined to -minimize. to say the least, the
 -significance  of the law of God for the Christian, and the
_ calling of the people of God to walk in. sanctification of life:
        It is well, therefore, that we never forget the proper place
 of the law in Reformed preaching. It always must serve only
 as a rule for a life of thankfulness to God for the  greatl
 salvation.which  He has sovereignly wrought in Christ Jesus,
 and equally `sovereignly bestowed upon His people. The ef-
 fect of the preaching of the law may never be that the people
 of God attempt to add to the righteousness which they have
 in Christ, and that they- begin to imagine that their own good
 works have anything to do with their salvation, except as. a
 fruit of thankfulness, wrought by the grace of God in their
 hearts. The righteousness of Christ is perfect. No one can
 ever add to it. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and ye
 shall be saved. Such is the truth. No preaching of the law
 can or ever may detract from that truth. In the sight of God,
 and as far as our juridical state before-Him is concerned, we
 are forever perfectly righteous through Jesus Christ our
 Lord.  '
  But, as I remarked before, this is not the effect of the
`proper preaching of the law of God in the church upon the
 Christian. The fruit of such preaching is rather, in the first
 place, a deepening of the knowledge. of sin and more earnest
 appreciation by faith of the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord,
 in Whom we-shave  reconciliation and the forgiveness of sin
 and perfect righteousness. As the Catechism has it: "First,
 that all our lifetime we learn more and more to know
 our sinful nature, and thus become the more earnest in seek-
 ing the remission of sin, and righteousness in Christ." The
 order of-the Heidelberg Catechism is that of sin, redemption,
 and gratitude, which is not the objective and logical order
 of the truth of salvation, but rather the order of the exper-
ience of the Christian. But we must never conceive of this
 order as merely chronological, as merely an order in time,


                                                                                      t


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                             203

fight that battle and to overcome and -have the victory: And                                        IN MEMORIAM
 therefore, the preaching of the law, through the grace of OUT                On January  20, 1955, it pleased the Lord to take unto Himself
 Lord Jesus Christ, bears the fruit that the Christian daily           `our beloved husband, father and grandfather,
 seeks the grace of the Holy Spirit. He prays for grace  toa                                     MR. JOHN R. EZINGA             '
.strive and to fight the battle. And thus the preaching of the                Although his loss is felt keenly by the family, we know that
 law, through the-grace of the Holy Spirit, has a sanctifying          our loss is his gain.. Our earnest prayer is that the Lord will
 influence upon the believer, the child of God.                        supply our every need for comfort in the hours of loneliness and
   And so, finally, through the preaching of the law the               that He will be our constant aid.
                                                                                                                 Mrs. John Ezinga
 Christian will be quickened and strengthened in the hope                                                        `Children and Grandchildren
 of, everlasting life and glory. The Catechism does not men-
 tion this directly. But it nevertheless suggests it. when it
 holds before the Christian the final goal of perfection in the                                     IN MEMORIAM
words : "till we arrive at the perfection proposed to  US, in                `The Sr. Young, People's Society of -the First Protestant  Re-
 a life to come." This stands to reason. In this life the              formed Church in Grand Rapids,  Mich.,  desires hereby to express
 Christian is never perfectly sanctified. Sin always  c,leaves         their sympathy to Joanne Ezinga in the loss of her father,
 unto him. He is very imperfectly perfect. Forevermore he                                          MR. JOHN EZINGA
has to struggle  5th his sinful nature in  soul  and body. On                 May our  covenat God, Whose ways are higher than our
 this side of the grave there is no perfection. And for that           ways, comfort her with His Word and Spirit.
 perfection he nevertheless longs. In this life there is always                                                  Rev. C. Hanko, President
 a tension between perfection and imperfection, between  -                                                       Jeannette Faber, Secretary
 holiness and corruption. And this tension is the tension of
 hope. In that hope he becomes prepared and willing to lay                                          IN MEMORIAM
 down the earthly house of this tabernacle. For in faith he                   The English Men's Society of the First Prot. Ref. Church
 c r i e s   o u t : "Who shall deliver me from the body of this       hereby expresses its. sympathy with hope that God will be graci-
 death ?" And visualizing the perfection that is on the other          ous toward the wife and family of
 side-of the grave in life everlasting, he longs for it in hope. -                                   JOHN EZINGA
 That hope will surely be realized: he shall never be put to                  Ps;  12:28, "In the way of righteousness is life: and in the
 shame. For in that life to come he shall be clothed with              pathway thereof there is no death."
 perfect righteousness and holiness, and enjoy the ever-                                                         Rev. G. M. Ophoff, President
 lasting fellowship with God in His tabernacle forevermore.                                                      Richard Teitsma, Secretary
                                                               H.H.                                                        $
                                                                                                    IN MEMORIAM
                            IN MEMORIAM                                       The Mr. and Mrs. Society of the First Protestant Reformed
                                                                       Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan, hereby expresses their.  sin-
    On December 11, 1954 it pleased the Lord to take from our          cere sympathy with one of their members, Mrs. R.  Dyks,tra,.  in
 family circle our beloved wife, daughter, and sister,                 the loss of her husband,
                      MRS. JOAN VROOM                                                            MR. RICHARD DYKSTRA
 at the age of 24 years.                                                      May our gracious God comfort and sustain her in the  con-
                                                                       viction that when God  is,for us, nothing can be against us. But
    We miss her so, but in our sorrow we -know and experience          also in all these things, though they are grievous according to
 that our God causes all things to work together for good unto         the flesh, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved
 thern.that love Him, who are the called according to His purpose.     'us.  Ram.   8:31, 37.
                                                                                                       The Mr. and Mrs. Society,
 Rom.  ,8 23.
                               Pvt. George  Vroom                                                                Rev. C. Hanko, President
                                                                                                                 Mrs. C. Jonker, Secretary
                               Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Van  Baren         .
                               Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Zandstra
                              Mr. and Mrs. Anthony De Young                                         IN MEMORIAM
                               Mr. and Mrs. Seymour Vroegh                    -The members of the Mr. and Mrs. Society of Hope hereby
                               Agnes Van  Baren                             express their desire and sympathy to Mr. and Mrs. John  Dyk-
                               Gertrude Van  .Baren                         stra in the death of their son,
                               Gise Van  Baren                                                    RICHARD DYKSTRA
                               Mr. and Mrs. Melvin  Hugen       -              Ps.  27:14, "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he
                               Gilbert Van Barkn, Jr.                       shall strengthen thine heart; wait I say, on the Lord."
                               Frank Van  Baren           F                                                    Rev. J. A.  -Heys, President
                               Anna Mae Van  Baren                                                             Mrs. Arie Griffioen, Secretary


2        0    4                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

Ii-.                                                                   ted. But the servant of the Lord is of's different mould. He
              THE DAY OF  SH.ADOjVS                               II is the Lord from Heaven. That this is the -idea is plain from
                                                                       the fact that Matthew saw in Christ's mandate that those
                                                                       ,healed  by Him  .refrain  from  makirig  Him known the  fulfil-
                   The  l?rdphecy of  Is&ah                            ment of our prophecy (He shall not cry, etc.).
2. He shall not cry, nor lift up,                                          By the "broken reed" and the "faintly burning" and
        Nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.                 thus smoldering, smoking, stinking wick the prophet is held
3. A broken,:reed  shall .he not break in pieces,                      by commenators  in general to mean the weak and dying Sick
        And the dim bzbyning  wick shall he not extinguish             and lastly God's believing people of little faith.. The thought
        According to truth shall he bring forth judgment.              conveyed by this imagery is then taken to bk that so far is
                                                                       then  "Serv&t"  from destroying, making an end, of these weak
4. Not shall he be weak -nor shall he be crushed,                      and l)ing ones, that in His mercy He heals them. And ii! His
        Till he have set judgment in the earth:                        pity of His. believing people, He causes their faith to blos,
And,  the isles shall wait for his law.            ""                  som instead of extinguishing it.
        The task of the servant of the Lord is to  .bring forth           But this does not seem to me to be the meaning. For both
judgment to the  gentile's.  Our prophecy describes how he             figures are used by Isaiah also of the Egyptians. XXXVI 6,
performs his task, his manner of, working. He cries not .and           "Lo, thou trustest  in, the staff of the broken reed, in
raises not his voice'and lets it not be heard upon the street.         Egypt , , ,  ?"  XL11  :17, "which (the Egyptians) bringeth
Matthew quotes these lines to show  thit Chirst's methods              forth the chariot and the horse . . . they shall not rise:
were as .here' described and foretold and that therefore He            they are extinct, they are quenched as tow," that is, as a
was the Christ (Matt. XII :14-21).                                     smoking, stinking wick.
        He shall not cry . . . (7s 2).  .To rightly understand this        We must take notice of the setting in which our prophecy
prophetic description of the conduct of Christ we must have            appears.-in Mattew's Gospel. -This will help  us-. to under-
-regard to the fact of His sinlessness.  Being  pure of heart,         stand it. Jesus had healed the man with the withered'hand.
loving God perfectly, He was. not activated by' sinful  am:            It  .embittered  the Pharisees. Going out, they took counsel
bition.  He sought not Himself. He had no cause to promote             together how, they might destroy Him. Knowing about it,
other than that of His Father He was wholly absorbed in                Jesus withdrew Himself from thence  (12:10-15).  In this
&ing His will, which was th& He redeem His peohle from                 retreat of Jesus from before His enemies, Matthew saw the
all their sins by His suffering and death on the cross. To             fulfilment  of our prophecy (see 12  20 where it is quoted).
that work,  gh,en Him of the Father, He was consecrated                If so, the "broken reed" and the "smoking, ill-smelling wick
with all His heart. For He had His affections set upon  the1           dr tow" are the Pharisees, the adversaries of the "Servant"
heavenly, heavenly  city, people, glory that could only become         (lastly the reprobated world, the  anti-Christian  world-power).
His in the way of obedience unto death-death of the cross.             He could have destroyed them in a moment;  for He had the
 Such  being: the posture of His heart,  He behaved alto-              ,power.  But then He would have made impossible His cross.
gether different from ordinari  meti in quest of earthly power,        He would have been aligning Himself with Satan, who had
f&.e  and. glory. He did not advertise Himself. He per-                said that he would give Him all his kingdoms, should He
formed miracles but always to. God's glory and never to                worship him. But the L.srd, the triune Jehovah was uphold-
promote His own  inteiests,  for He had none. Hence,  .HQ              ing His servant.  tie being His elect (see vs. 1). The
`was not found going  LIP  and down the land making speedhes,          "servant" was therefore infallible. He could be tempted but
in  ,tel$f of Himself to get the, Jews to  crowri Him king.            without sin. So, He did not destroy the "broken reed." He
.He  .did;not heatedly wrangle with His opponents that denied          did not extinguish the sm&ing-tow or wick. But He forbore
His divine mission. But always He was calm, quit,  serene;             and withdrew Himself  from thence. He persisted in His
and self-possessed in replying'to His critics as resting in the        choice to bring, forth judgment according to truth  (vs. 3b)
firm dbnviction  that all that the Father had given Him would          by His suffering and death on the cross.
corn& to' kim. He forbad `those whom He healed to publish                  ,And He shall not be. weak nor shall He be crushed while
who `it was that had healed them. It would only incite the             engaged in establishing judgment in the earth (vs. 4). The
false messianic hopes of the  .people, should they come to             task was not interrupted by His expiring on the cross but
knpw.  He was retiring and elusive. When they would make               finished. And therefore the Lord also `raised up His
$Iim  .forcibly  king,  .He would go into hiding, so that He           "Servant" and set Him at His own right hand to make the
was then nowhere to be found. In a word, He .did not cry.,             judgment actual in the earth on the ground of His atonement.
He did not cause His voice to be heard in the streets. So                  But what is to be understood by "judgment?" The word
does `the c+nagogue.  In his lust fo,q.power and political in-         used in the original has the following meanings : judgment,
`fluence,  he causes his voice to be heard in. the streets, orates,    the act of judging, the, place of judgment, justice, right,
in the public squares of the cities, making promises that he           privilege,  iaw,  institution, usage, custom.
cloes.not intend to keep, all in an effort to get himself elec-            Here judgment is  the. reprobated as judged, sentenced


                                                                                                      _

                                                     T H E   STANDAKI-,   B E A R E R                                 1  3                  205               ,.
     ~ __.. __.---

     and cast into the abyss. It  is the elect of God justified at            Prophecy here makes a new beginning to introduce the
     Christ's appearing. Thus it is the new earth as cleansed from         words that the Lord has spoken to His servant, here again
     the race of men that now corrupt it and as peopled by the             the personal servant of Jehovah. The Lord has assigned to                                .
     redeemed and glorified saints. And so it is the earth on which        Him. an amazing task. He will open the eyes of the blind, etc.
     righteousness dwells and that accordingly is covered with             But it `shall tiome to pass on the following grounds.
     the k-owledge  df God.                                                   First, the Lord that calls Him is the God. His aloneness
        The "servant" shall bring forth this "judgment," that is,          is absolute. To His power there is no limit. And -the  evi-
     He shall reveal-it, implying that it is hidden in the counsel         dence?  He created the heavens and the earth and the fulness
     of God its fountain and cause: And He shall establish it. in          thereof. He giveth breath to its inhabitants. By His power
     the earth so securely that it will endure forever, Never will         they exist.
     its sun set as it did in the first paradise.                             Second, it is He that called His servant. It implies that
        He will bring forth judgment according to tmfh. It will            by His will He formed Him, brought .Him into being'- the
     be true judgment, right,  g&mine,  characterized by strictest man Jesus- and further that He directed to His mind and
     veracity. For its stanclard is the only true God, His will alid       spake in His heart the  ivord that set forth His whole task,
     good pleasure.                                                        so that He responded  with, "I come to do thy will." And
        `Ancl the isles shall wait for His law. The isles, signified is    He called Him in righteousness. The calling was a rigl?eous.
     Gentile-nations. Law here is the Gospel of Christ as  com-            doing. Its standard was the goodness. of His `own blessed
     prehending His commandments. The Gentiles will wait for               being And the task assigned-the work of redemption  -
     it, meaning that they will put their trust in the Christ that it      is, will  be? to the praise of His righteousness in all its
     sets forth.and  expect all their salvation from His as keeping ,phases.  For it will be the accomplishment of His righteous
     His commandments by His grace, -the Gentiles, the church              servant, who will love and do righteousness and thereby save
     of the elect in the Gentile world that the "servant" will gather      His people.
     Him by His -Spirit and  His word. They will wait for His                 Third?  He the  truine  Jehovah will hold  thehand  of His
law as His gathered ones. This must be emphasized. The                     servant and keep Him, meaning that He will sustain and
     text lends no support to the view that unregenerated men              preserve. Him always by the power of His grace..            '
     wait for the Gospel nor to the view that there was always                For these  reascing  -the task shall be accomplished.
     present in the Gentile world heathen men, a spiritual Israel,            And the Lord Will give His servant for a covenant of
     with  hearts prepared for Christ not by the Gospel- but by the        the people. By this statement the covenant is identified with
     light of the Logos that shone also in their darknes  ancl that        the servant. There is reason. First, He is .tlze seed to whom            -
     therefore they were waiting for Christ so that when He                are all the promises of the covenant and in. w&m;  they are
     finally appeared and  &as presented to them by the preaching          yea and amen. Second, all the blessings of the covenant -
     of the Gospel they received Him with open arms, so to say.            the virtues of His cross - are comprehended in Him sf, that
        The- term law as a designation -of the Gospel was taken            He is the true bread. Third, the Scriptures indentify these
     over  frqm  the revelations of God to Moses at Mt. Sinai. It          blessings with His very person. They declare not alofie that
     can be explained. This revelation in part was Gospel. It He sanctifies, justifies and  qdeems us, gives  us life and
     contained the promises of the. Gospel. In the institutions'and        enlightens  us' His people, but that He is our sanctification,
     ritual that is prescribed it reflected the glory of Christ.           justification  .and redemption, our life  and light. He is the
                                                                           covenant personified, so to say. Hence, in the language of
         Th.e  pcl-sonnl  swvmt of God  given  for  n covenant  of the     dur prophecy,  He  H~in~self  is  given  for a covenant of the
     people, vss. 5-7.                                                     people (the Jews) and for a light of the Gentiles. For a
     5. Thus saith the Lord God,                                           covenant of tile i)eo$e is He given. This.can only mean that
         He that created the heavens, and Stretched thjem out;             the servant` and the covenant, its promises and blessings
        He that stretched forth the earth,  and the products `there-       belong to the people as the Lord's gift to them. The "pepple"
        of;                                                                and the "Gentiles" are thus the church, of the elect and not
,        He that giveth breath to the people upon it,                      the Gentiles head for head. By nature these chosen ones are
        And spirit to them that waik thereon:                              blind. and therefore they sit in darkness-of the prison
                                                                           house of spiritual death. But the covenant and the servant                    _
     6. I have called thee in righteousness,                               it theirs to bring them salvation, open the eyes of the blind,
        And I will hold thine hand,                                        etc;, This is the purpose which is always achieved.
        And will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the.c              The initial  fulfilment  of  these.promises  was the  deliver-
        people,                                                            ante  from the captivity of the exile. That, too, was the work
         And for a light of the Gentiles ;                                 of the servant, the Christ But only a small number of  the
     7. To open the blind eyes,                                            J ews, a "remnant,).' received from Him the grace to  hate
        To bring out the prisoners from the prison,                        their prison and return. The others chose to live out their                                   "
         And them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.            Jives in Babylon. For in their blindness they loved their


 206                                                   THE  STANDARD   BEARER

 prison house. The turning of Judah's captivity was a work               These verses are a song that exalts the Lord because of
 of the Lord that He wrought largly on a spiritual plain.             the great things that  H.e will perform,  - things new, that
 The liberation that resulted from the overthrow of Babylon           eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither. have entered into
 as a world power .was outward and physical as to its char-           the heart of man. Accordingly the song is new, seeing that
 acter. It consisted in the right to remove  to Jerusalem that        it will treat of these things. Summoned is the entire human-
 was granted to the exiles by Cyrus. The true liberation was          ity,  sea and earth They that sail the sea shall sing His
 the work of Christ by which He gave unto His people the              praise as also the fulness of the sea, the fishes, etc., the in-
 redeeming grace to avail themselves of that right.                   habitants of the  islands  the wilderness and their cities the
        It is already plain that the "servant" is also God and not    villages of Kedar the rock and the top of the mountains  in
 a mere man.                                                          a. word all men and the creatures from one end of the earth
                                                                      to the other.
        The  Lord  set on  H,is glory  ad  @T&,  vss.  S, 9.             Kedar was one of the  s&s of Ishmael. Indicated there-
 8.  ~1 a:m  the Lord  : that is my name :                            fore are the Arabians. It is doubtful whether by "the  in-
        And my glory to andiher  not will I give,                     hzbitants  of the rock" is to be understood the Edomites,
        Neither my praise to graven images.                           seeing that they were a people against whom the Lord had
 9. The former things, behold they are come to pass,                  indignation forever.
        And new things do I declare.                                      That the whole creation is summoned to praise the Lord
        Before they spring forth, I make you to hear them.            is indicative of the universality of His salvation.
                                                                                                                                   G.M.O.
        The Lord is-what His name denotes, the I mlt who keep-,
 eth covenant trust. He will not give His glory -it belongs
 to Hi& aldne, He being the God - to another, to the world-                                         EDITORIALS
 power of which Satan is the prince, by leaving His people                                  (Codmud  from page 197)
 in  .their clutch. Then He would make it appear as if these
 evil ljowers were stronger than He and as `if they were the                                        Poor Kok!
 God and  not He. Then He would  be'giving  them ground                  I sincerely `pity him.
 for their vile doing of deriying His. divinity atid of deifying          Evidently, he is so raving mad at having lost the case
 th&nselves  Then, in a word, He would be giving His glory            of the First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids,
-to them. But this He cannot do. And therefore He will                that he vents his wrath upon the Rev. Ophoff and myself
 send salvation and-thereby show that He is the God and that          by heaping upon their heads all kinds of terrible `slander.
 they are as nothing before. Him. Then every tongue will                 I will not consider his ravings worthy of a reply.
 give Him the glory.                                                     Let him, however, consider that he himself was by  fag
        Nor will He give His praise- to idols by not exposing         the poorest witness in court by denying the Church Order
 them as vain and by not proving that He is God and none              and consistently defending the independentistic form of
 else. This proof is His ability to declare things that are           church government as the records, when they are published,
 new-the salvation of the church as preindicated by the               will clearly show.
 turning of' Judah's captivity. They spring  forth from His              I will not sue him for libel.
 counsel,. as do all things, and are His  werk.  Therefore He            Nor can I appeal to his consistory to bring him to re-
 can declare them before they spring forth. And the proof             pentance, for he haS no consistory.
 that they shall surely come to pass is His prophecies as                But if the fear `of God is in his  hea&  I would urge him
 already fulfilled. In the language of the. text : The former         to repent of this terrible sin.
 things, behold they are come to pass.                                   Remember, Kok, lying and slander are `the very works
    A s26omon~s  to sing .unto the Lo& cI nczv song, vsi. 10-12.      of the devil !                                                H;H.
10. Sing unto the Lord a new song,
        And His. praise from the end of the earth,                                               I N   M E M O R I A M
        Ye that go down on the sea, and the fultiess  thereof a;        The Eunice Society of First Protestant Reformed Church
         The isles and the inhabitants thereof .                      of' Grand Rapids expresses its sincere sympathy to its President,
 11.  Let the wilderness. and the cities thereof  Zift  UP  their     Mrs. D. Jonker, in the loss of her Mother,
        voice,. The villages that Kedar doth inhabit;                                       M R S .   J O H N   F L O K S T R A
        Let. the inhabitants of the rock sing,                        age  88 years. May our God of grace abundantly comfort her by
         Let them shout from the top of the mountains.
                                                  *                   His Word and Spirit.
 12. Let them give glory unto the Lord,                                                                  Mrs. R. H. Meyer, Vice President
        And declare His praise in the islands.                                                           Mrs. George Spruyt,  Secretxy


                                             T H E   STAN,DARD   B E A R E R                                                              207

                                                                      Vine, and is  nothing,  having no love Energizing his faith,
/  - F R O M   HOiY.W.RlT.  1) he is nothing! Such unfruitful branches are cast out and
                                                                      trodden under foot of -men. They do not "inherit" the Iiing-
                                                                      dom of God !  -Why  not ? Because they did not perform
            Expdsition of Galatians  516-26                  -        "prerequisite acts ?" God forbid, ,lest the Cross be made of
                                                                      none  effect ! What then ? They do not "inherit" because
                                I.                                    in the Testament of. God to Abraham they are. not included
    If there is one thing that the great Apostle Paul  iilsists       amongst the children.. In Isaac shall the seed be called. And
on in this letter to the Galatians, it is this : as the believers     these reveal themselves as "new creatures !" Such heirs the
in Christ, the Church in the New Testament Dispensation,              unfruitful are not !
we are free. We are no longer "under law" but we are                      Wherefore our Reformed Fathers state S;O beautifully in
"under grace  !"                                                      the Belgic Confession, "We believe that this true faith being
    That we are under grace brings with it a certain  nc~ie,          wrought in man by.the hearing of the Word of God, and the
obligation for the saints. It is: that we walk in the nezelness       operation of the Holy Ghost, doth regenerate and make him
of life in Christ Jesus. For, mark well, Paul says : ye have          a  `new  ,1~n12,   cRr&g  ITi,kpc to live a  ItetU  life, and freeing him
been  cnlled  unto liberty. Efficaciously the Holy  ,Ghost has        from the bqnclage of sin. Therefore it is so far from being
called us out of the darkness and "dominion of sin" (Canons           true,. that this justifying faith niakes men remiss in a pious
V :l) and from its "slavery," -yea, from its terrible bondage!        and holy life, that on the contrary without it they would
For Jehovah is our God, who bath  delivered us dut of this            never do anything out. of love to God, b& only out of self-
present evil world. Gal. 1  :4. It is, therefore,-of the utmost       love and fear of condemnation. Therefore it is  intpossih~e
importance that we be constantly spiritually sensitive to the         that this holy `faith can be unfruitful in man : for we db not
truth that we have "liberty" without having "licence  !" These        speak of a vain faith, but of such a faith, which is called in
ma) be neither identified not  confilseX.   --They  are  a$ far       Sdipture, a  faitlc  tht  workath  .by-  tove,  which excites man
apart as light from darkness, as distant as the poles ! There         to the practice of, those works, which God has commanded
is no need that  these  two be confused. When this is the             in Ris Worcl!" (Italics of me).
case, it is simply due to the blindness of sin's folly; to being          The central and all inclusive expression of the "good
taken "captive" by the flesh. Rom. 7 :23. It is the law of sin        works unto which we have been created in Christ Jesus"
in our members that then. takes us captive. And these must            (Eph. 2  :lO) is that. given in  Lev.. 19 :lS where we read:
be crucified !                                                        "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." True faith mani-
    True faith is always such that it is  cnergi:ed   11~  lotlc      fests itself in perfect love, which  casts out all fear! Here is
through the power of the Holy Spirit of Christ, and, there-           the deepest principle of the spiritual-ethical psychology  of. the
fore, such faith will always Jnanifest itself as a living  f&lz!      redeemed .soul. And all pedagogical approach must- be ac-
And such living faith manif&ts  itself in the pleroma of Ibve,        cordirigfy.  Let those who would-practice Christian -"psychia-
briefly summed up in one word : Thou shalt love Thy neigh-            try" take notice, lest they place  the burdens  and:  t-rammels
bor as thyself ! Thus alone shall we be perfect even as our           of `psychosomatic medicine" upon the souls of men, which
Father in heaven is perfect, manifesting that we are free-            conflicts with the true nature of faith, which .is energized by
born sons from the Seed; in Sarah.                                    love. Would to God that all ministers and elders would
   ThiS is the truth of the Gospel  which our fathers from            under&and this nature of faith, and the corresponding peda-
the "most flourishing period of Reformed Confession's" state          gogy'that  is necessary to help those who are bewildered or
so beautifully, when they speak of the .nntwe of true faith.          have fallen into melancholy falls of sin and littleness of faith.
In Question 64 of the Heidelberg Catechism they confess               Men talk very sanctimoniously about the science of soul-care,
`for it is impossible that those, who are implanted into Christ       while, they themselves seem to not understand the mystery
by a true faith, shoulcl  not bring forth fruits of thankfulness."    of faith by which the healing qf Christ's wings is experienced.
Why impossible  ? Because' the "faith,"  just~ifying  faith is        Small wonder that these' learned ( ?> doctors are themselves
such, that it is energized by the love of God, and this love          like men seking from afar or groping in perplexity! When
is the fulfilment of the law. it. is the. Kew Testament written       the "first priticiples"  of Christ are trodden underfoot or.mis-
in our hearts, making. us very willing in the clay of God's           appehended,  how shall there be a dawning of the day in the
power ! Such is the "mystery of faith" which is to be kept            night of despair?
in a pure conscience!                            ~  *                     At bottom all perpexity of the souls of God's children
   Let every  +an try his works  acq-ding to this touch-              it. clue to a littleness of faith, or due to the interruption of
stone and see whether his works stands approved? Do-you               `the exercise of faith, to a wounded conscience,, and to the
with holy pleasure and spiritual joy `observe in yourself this        loss of the sense of God's favor for a time, until on their
infallible fruit of election pointed out in God's' Word con-          returning to the right way of serious repentance the light
cerning the nature of faith ? If any man think to be some-            of  God's fatherly countenance again shines upon them.
thing, that is, if he think that he is a fruitful branch  in the      Canons V, Art. 5.


205                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        _  ..-,__-
       But true faith which is energized by  love casts out all        love serve- one another! Such is the true faith that is
fear; it is the manifestation of the pleroma  of love !                energized by love. There was room for this exhortation in
       God is not mocked. Let us, therefore, as the free-born          the churches of Galatia.
sons stand in our freedom. This means that we believe that                                               `.
                                                                          There was a certain disunity in the congregation  ; the
we are justified freely by God's grace and in the joy of this          striving to keep the unity, wrought by the Spirit in one faith
justification now say : I am free from sin. I  pfihay  walk at         and love, was on l&w par. The necessary meekness and long-
liberty and I "ought" to walk thus too. Thus faith speaks !            suffering was not in evidence. Faith  ivorking  by love was
0, how "faith" understands the secret of godliness !  Oul;             not being ."exercized  !" What then ?
fathers express this in Canons V, Art. 13, "Neither does                  There was a very present "biting and devouring one,
renewed confidence of persevering produce  bwztiotwncss,               another." That is was not simply a possible disunity,, but a
or a disregard to piety in those who are recovering from               very actual one, is evident from the fact that Paul employs a
backsliding  ; but it renders them much more careful and               conditional sentence of the "First Class," expressing deter-'
solicitous to continue in the ways of the Lord, which  the!            mined reality. There was a  &-ping fault-fincling of one
bath  .ordained,  that they r&o z&k therein may maintain an            another. Paul characterizes it as being a clog fight. "Biting
asurance of persevering, lest by abusing his fatherly kind-            and devouring" are strong terms, a mettiphor  taken from the
ness, God should turn away his gracious countenance from               conduct of wolves and clogs. It is then a do or die proposi-
them,  to behold which is to the godly deare;  than life: the:         tion. Paul's irony is beautiful and cutting: Beware lest ye
withdrawing whereof is more bitter than death, and they                be consumed of  e&ch-other !  There  might  noi be anything
in consequence. hereof should fall into more  g;ie+ous tor-            left of either beast in such a fight !
ments of consicence."                                                     Keeping such clogs tied on a chain of being "under law"
       Here we have the believers,  the church, expressing their       would not cause the "beast" in them to die. Nor would
need of a circumspect walk, fearing to use -their liberty as           letting these dogs at each other change the "wolf" in them.
an occasion to the flesh, but rather by loye serve one another.        It might make a lonesome wolf if he were the only one left
And unto this serving of one another Paul admonishes in                of the pack. If you can kill the "wolf" in the wolf aricl make
tllis entire section of verses 16-26. On the one hand Paul             him live peaceably with the little child then the wolf is no
does not say: that this walk is a "prerequisite" for entering          lpnger  "under law" but  urider  a miracle of God. Such are
into the Kingdom. God forbid. Nor does he say : 1' need not            they, who do not walk according to the "flesh," the "wolf)`.
tell you what to do,, ye are Christians, ye are Sons of Sarah,         in them, but who walk in the Spirit and do not bring to com-
and have the law so written in your hearts that no one need            pletion the works of the flesh. What is that wolf in us?           ;
-to  teach' you or admonish you. Paul is writing a letter of              His name is "being full of vain-glory." Verse 26. Their;
admonition that Christ be formed in them, is he not? (Gal.             pride,  their prestige, their position and honor amongst the
4  :19) What is. the purpose of this writing in relationship           brethren was  `(at stake" Of course this was all nonsense:
to this their walking in the love, serving one another  ?-       ~'    The humble are raised up by the Lord. You want to teach
       It  is that Christ may  thus be formed in them through          this? Well, brethren, don't let your insistence on teaching
the Holy Spirit and they walk in their liberty. How clearly            this be so done that  YO-L~ fall into temptation of defending
the fathers of Dort saw this use of the precepts of the Gospel         your "honor" and prestige! This folly and sin lies very
(not .to be indentified  with conmmnd of Zn%w) is evident from         near to our door. Let  LIS not be ignorant of Satan's wiles.
Canons V, 14 where we read: "And as it hath pleased God,               Rather let us truly pray for humility lest be  wall; heacllong:
by the preaching of the Gospel, to begin this work of grace            into temptation.
in us, so he preserves, continues and perfects it by the hear-            Where this being vain-glorious is  nlanifested  you  will:
ing and reading of His Word, by meditation thereon, and by             surely have the great "wolf" in  us growl challenges at  the,;-
exhortations, threatenings  and the promises thereof, as weli          other. imaginary great ".wolf."  Then  there is provocating of-
as by the use of thk sacraments.",                                     one another to- further evil. We then hear snorting  chal-,
       Go< thus  preserbes  his  own..work.                            lepges  at one another!                                            1
       Thus he causes us to walk in the  "ways of the Lord,               And thus we would become sick with the health of our
which he hath ordained, that they who walk therein may                 neighbor.  A. strange sickness is malice. It is rotteness of
maintain an assurance of persevering." It is  the way of:              the bones. It is the  green  eyed monster. Destruction and
the Lord, His means of grace to cause us, who are "under               misery is in his way and the way of the unity of the Spirit
grace," to walk in this grace of election, calling, justification      in.the bond of peace it doth not know !
and sanctification.                                                       How timely and fitting is this ~exhortation~  of Paul: only
       It is the admonition of the Gospel to those who have been       use no liberty as an occasion of the flesh, but by love serve -
translated out of the power of Satan into the  Kingdoms  of            one the other. Whe're this is lacking there is confusion  ancl
Christ.                                                                every evil  work.. But the fruit of righteousness is sown  in
       Such  are  we ; we are  free.  Only, let  us  not use  0~11~    peace of those making peace.
liberty as an' occasion to the flesh to serve the flksh,  but by          That is truly being free "under giace  !"            G.C.L.

                                                                                            L                     .


                                             T H E   S'I'ANUARD   B E A K 'E R                                                    209

                                                                     sicledness. 0, you agreed with its contents, but it did not
              I N   H I S   F E A R                                  say enough: You wanted the whole Word of God. That:
                                                                     does sound p&s and God-glorifying. But why, Rev. Blan-
                                                                     kespoor, do you not tell us then what in that  wJzole  Word
                      The Gate Is Open                               of God, you want ?hat we clo not want ? Admonitions ? YOU
                                                                     know better. We have been rebuking, admonishing and ex-
                           (Continued)                               horting you all these months  since the `fsplit" to forsake your
     The more that is written by those who deceived countless!       evil way, your walk of error, your. schismatic action. You
 hundreds to follow  then; out of the Protestant Reformed            do not want admonitions. Nor do you really in the depth of
 Churches the clearer it becomes that they have no moral right       your soul believe that we do not want that part of the whole
- to refuse the congregations of Chatham  and Hamilton,  On-         Word of God. You know that we can admonish, rebuke and
 ta?-io -and, those affiliated with them-the right to  joiti         exhort. You know that we believe that God works faith
 with them as sister churches of one denomination.                   and repentance in  us by these admonitions which He applies
                                                                                                    .
     Let us have more of those "fine" essays delivered at the        by His Spirit.
 "ministers' conference" - (and why were elders excluded                 But be honest.  You want  prere&isites.  You  want our
 from some of these meetings and allowed to attend others ?)         act of conversion as a prerequisite to entering the kingdom.
 -held at Oskaloosa, Iowa. It does a truly Protestant Re-                And, by talking about the "whole Word of God" you can
 formed` man a tremendous amount of good to read them.               come LIP w.ith  texts that seem to teach this when looked at by
 For it encourages us in our conviction that our cause is God's      the&selves without letting Scripture interpret Scripture.
 cause. Let them write their convictions.' Let them try to               Walls have a purpose, you know.
 defend their impossible stand. Let them continue to con-                And they are built high for a reason.
 tradict themselves and each other. They only reveal the                 Denoniinational walls also have a purpose. And they are
 more clearly that the gate is open and that they  q-e  in-          built high for a reason, for a good reason.-
 ctipable of closing it and are becoming increasingly opposed            Confessions have a definite purpose.
 to closing it. It is the only avenue left for them.                     Doctrinal standards are therefore always in the way of
    Whether you lo& at it from a church political viewpoint          those that want to bring into the denomination that which the
 or from a doctrinal viewpoint, they have no moral right to          confessions of the church f&bid.
 refuse  Chatham  and Hamilton a place in  their denomination.           That is why we had s&h a prolonged battle to get the
 What  is more, they have no moral right to  l&e separately          Declaration of Principles adopted. The interpretation of the
 from each other as two denominations.                               Confessions that the De&ration gives is too onesided, so
    Doctrinally they are of the same opinion: The  wlzole            they said. But until the heretical statements of Rev. De Wolf
~-Word of God teaches a promise to every baptized child on           were  cLefendecl,.no  one dared to revenl  that he thought that-
 the condition of faith. "God promises every one of you that         the `Declaration was false doctrine. Rev. De Wolf put tliem
if you believe you will be saved."                                   all on the spot - and they must see that now. They must
    By the way, Rev. Blank&poor, you strike the same note            see that he turned things into a different channel from the
 in your "fine" essay that the Liberated send forth. That, one  into~ which  t`hey were engineering things. But the  mo-
 phrase of yours "the whole Word of God" which you care-             men they went on record as defending Rev. De Wolf's state-
 fully and deliberately presented as your "conviction" of what       ments, that moment they con.dellaned the Declaration which
 really happened in our churches is so very revealing. It is         dcelares  that the promise is unconditional. That moment
 so characteristic of those who want something more than the         they said that the Declaration was false doctrine. They did
 stand that their churches have taken and that want, to bring        not simply reject it. They condemned it.
 in some new theor;.                                                    And so the gate must be opened somehow, somewhere.
    That was 1924.                                                      We ask once again : Do people inside the walls ever com-
    Did you forget that the cry then was that we were one-           plain that the walls are too high? Does a man ever  complain
 sided ? They wanted, so tl;ey said, the whole Word ,of God          that his life is tdo safe ?
 and not this emphasis upon election and reprobation. No,               But as soon as those inside the walls want to bring in
 so they said, you must preach the wltole Word of God, and           thosk who do nbt belong theie,  then they begin to call the
 then you will find that there are invitations, offers .of salva-    Confessions onesided. Then they begin to talk about the
 tion to all who hear on the condition that they believe. Sounds     whole Word of God. When those brought  up in Reformed
 rather familiar does it not, Rev.  Blankespoor  ? It is your        circles want to introduce the "altar call," the  "itivitation,!'
 argument. It `is your chief argument, your  ronviction as           the "offer and promise to everyone who hears on the con-
 to what really happened in our churches.  You and your              dition of faith" they always set the Confessions aside and
 constituency you say, sincerely attempted to live out of the        speak about the  whole  Word of God. And before long they
 zfrholc Worcl of God. The Declaration  was inclined to  one-        have the creed  ; No creed but Christ. Their very slogan is


 210                                           T H E   S"TAN   L)ARD  B E A R E R

 tdeir creed. And by that creed they can believe  anythtng             God you may not be separate denominations when  your;
 about Christ that they please. That is mighty broad!                  doctrine is so similar.
        Indeed, Rev. Blankespoor says that' they sincerely at-              Let me prove -that to you from another angle.
 tempted to "live out of and accor'ding to the w?zole Word of          '    I have here the advice of Chatham  in re the adoption of
 God as interpreted in the Three Forms of Unity." He has,              the Declaration. It speaks Rev. Blankespoor's language.
 regard for the'Confessions,  so it seems But why that straqge              $Ve translate freely and quote from it :
 emphasis upon the  Wlzole  Word  of God. And remember                      The Consistory. of the  Chatham  Protestant Reformed
 that in that  `c~~~J~ol~`J  Word of God he finds the promise to       Church . . . declares herewith that she has  seriouS  ,grievances
 all who. heai- on the condition of faith and the prerequisite         against  the above mentioned `Declaration,' and that :
 man fulfills to enter the kingdom.  Hk finds in that whole                 A. church politically : . . . . .
 Word of God defense for Rev. De Wolf's statements. He
 finds in the  wlzole Word of God a defense for that which                  B. Doctrinally:
 thk Three -Forms of Unity. our Confessions co&ippwn.                       1. because she cannot escape the conclusion that the
        In this connection let it escape no one's attention that by          `Declaration' is characterized by a onesided  presentation
 synodical  decision those who left Us rejected that Declara-                    of the Scriptures and the confessions.
 tion, stating that the Three Forms of Unity express "more                  2. because according to the Scriptures the promise comes
 $~1!1y  afld. better" the doctrines which the Declaration treats.               to us also conditionally."
 That is so much nonesense again and deceptive propaganda                   That is far enough in the advice of  Chatham  to our
 for an open gate, for lower walls. And anyone who takes               Classis  for the time being. As you read along the case only
 the time to think about it will realize that.                         builds up to a stronger evidence that. the gate is open ; and
        They  dg not need the Declaration to defend these doc-         Rev. Blankespoor' must in  all honesty say that the sentiments
 trines? They can defend themselves over against the Liber-            of these Liberated are exactly his. We will continue with
 ated Conditional theology without the Declaration  ?                  this document next time in the light of Rev. Blankespoor's
        Listen! Had  we said that, had we who were spiritually         appeal to the  "who16 Word of God." Space permits only a
 and doctrinally strong enough by God's grace to condemn the           few remarks about Chatham's advice as far as we quoted it
 statements of .Rev. De Wolf without the Declaration, if we            and Rev. Blankespoor's conviction as to what really happened
 had said we did  ndt need it, that would, have been an                in our churches.
 entirely different story. But these men who can see no evil                Note the same sentiment that the Declaration is  one-
in those statements of Rev. De Wolf and who will defend                sided. Of course it is! It is  God-zentered.  It is God-glorify-
him with them tooth and nail. they can defend themselves               ing. It puts man on the side and confesses God always to
over `against the Liberated conditional theology? Let any              be first. It `denies prerequisites. And point 2 indicates what
one of them or all of them together show us. one slightest             the other side must be: a conditional promise. Unless you
difference between those statements of Rev. De Wolf and                have a conditional promise as well as an unconditional prom-,
Prof. Veenhof's promise to every baptized child.. ~They can-           ise you do not have the whole Word of God according to the
not do it.                                                             Liberated in  Chatham.  You are onesided, if you do not
    And, Rev. Howerzyl, do not deliberately mislead God's              have a conditional promise.
people by making them think that we used the Declaration                    Rev.  -Blankespo6r   atid  Chatham  see eye to eye on that
to condemn Rev. Kok's and Rev. De  Wolf?s  heretical state-            score.
ments. -Just  because  one man in our whole denomination                    The only difference is that  Chathan;  says that we are
referred to it in his protest does not mean that the  Classis          onesided,  as did the Christian Reformed Churches in 1924.
and Synod referred to it. Give us proof. We condemned that             So we did not change after all, did we ? , And Rev. Blanke-
heresy without even mentioning the Declaration. And with               spoor says that we do not have the whole Word of God.
those same Confessions which we used  _vot~ were not able              Both ascribe a lack to-us. And although Rev.  Blankespqor
to see the evil of those statements. We must not have any              does not dare to reveal what that lack is for fear that truly
of that talk, then, of the zuhole Word of God as interpreted           Protestant Reformed people will cease to follow him,
                                                                       Chatham  which has no SLICK  scruhles  declares that the thing
-in the Three Forms of Unity. If you cannot interpret,, and            which we leave out of the word of God is the conditional
cannot see that the Three forms of Unity interpret the W&d             promise, the-prerequisite of man for entering the kingdom,
of God in any other way than   that they set the seal of ap-           the  fulfulling  of the condition of  -faith that the covenant
proval  @on the  lit6ral  statements of Rev. De Wolf, then it          promise of baptism may be obtained.
is high time that you approach Chatham  and Hamilton and                    Sister churches they surely can be !             .
tell them that before God you may not remain separate                       Before God, they have no right to be separate when they
denominations because you both interpret Scripture and the             believe the same conditional theology.
Confessions as the statements of Rev. De Wolf do. Before                                                                          J.A.H.


                                              T H E   STANUAKD   B E A R E R                                                             211
- . -                                                                                                                                     -
II                                                                    The  dochine of  the  `~Cliuitrcld~  dwing  this second  pwiod,
            Contending. For `The Faith                           II 300~7.50.8.0.
                                                                         It is at this--time that we would present our readers with
             The Church and the Sacraments  '                         a sketch of the life of Augustine. It  is said that Augustine
                                                                      is the first ecclesiastical author the whole course of whose
       VIEWS DURING THE SECOND PERIOD  (300-750 A.D.)                 development can be clearly traced. as well as the first  in!
                                                                      whose.case we are able to determine the exact period covered
                           THE CHURCH                                 by his career, to this very day. The influence which he has.
How the position of the Chwcla  clwnged!                              exerted upon the Church, not only in the period, 300-750
                                                                      A.D., but throughout the Alew Dispensatios,  is tremendous.
       Prior to Constantine the Great the "pow&s that be" were        And it may be of interest to present. to our readers a sketch
pagan and Christianity was outlawed and the bbject  of relent-        of the life of this famous Church Father. In presenting this
less persecution. The world-empire during the early centuries         sketch we  qilote   frdm the History of the Christian  Chur&
of the New Dispensation was the Roman  empi?e. It was                 by Philip  Schaff.           .
thoroilghly pagan. And it exerted every effort, during these
&-ee early centuries of the New Dispensation, to destroy the                                  AUGUS'i'INE.
Cause of Christ in the midst of the world.                -              It is a venturesome and delicate imdertaking to write
      * The entire picture changes, however, `with the ascendancy     one's own life,  even=  though that life be a  masterpice of .
to the throne of Constantine the Great. His Edict of Milan,           nature or of the  graces  of God, and therefore most worthy
issued in the year, 313, placed Christianity on an equal .foot-       to be described. Of all autobiographies none has so happily
itig with heathen religions before the law. Constantine was           avoided the reef pf vanity and self-praise, and none has won
sufficiently shrewd to recognize the value of Christianity to         so much esteem and love throug.6, its honesty and humility
his empire. It was to his advantage rather than to his dis-           as that of St. Augustine.
advantage to recognize and encourage the Christian religion.             The "Confessions," which he wrote in the forty-sixth  -
Having formally embraced it he is known as the first Chris-           year of his life, still burning in the ardor'of his first love,
tian emperor.                                                         are full of he tie and unction of the Holy Ghost. They are a
       Julian made a final desperate effort to destroy Chris-         sublime effusion, in -which Augustine, like David in the
tianity. This effort, we have seen, ended in dismal failure.          fifty-first Psalm, confesses to God, in view of his awn and of
       From now on.the position of the Church in the midst .of        succeedirig generations, without  reserve the sins of his youth ;
the world undergoes a radical change. It becomes an institu-          and they are at the same time a hymn of praise to the grace
tion of power and glory in the world. Whereas until now the           of .God,  which led him out of darkness into light, and called
powers of the world had ruled over the Church and sought              him to service  i.n the kingdom of Christ. Here we see the
to destroy it, the situation now is exactly reversed. The             great church teacher at all times "prostrate in the dust, con-
Church, more and more, began to rule over the world. And              versing with God, basking- in His love ; his readers hovering
the leader in this new set-up of things w;ts, as we may con-          before him only as a shadow." He puts away from himself
jecture, the bishop of Rome. It  is  true that the barbarians         all honor, all greatness; all beauty, and lays them gratefully
later seek to destroy all civilization of the old Roman  em-          at the feet  .of the All-merciful. The reader feels on every
pi& First, it was the terrible Attila, leading the Huns, who          hand `that Christianity is no dream nor. illusion, but truth
sought the overthrow of the empire. Other barbarians also             and life, and he is carried along in adoration of the wonderful
invaded Italy and the West, and were undeniably successful            grace of God.
to a large extent. In the seventh  and early part of the eighth          Aurelius Augustine, born on the 13th  of November, 354,
century the Mohammedans swept in from the East, con-                  at Tagaste, an unimportant village of the fertile province
quered North Africa, Spain, and swept in France. However,             Numidia in North Africa, not far  fro& Hippo Regius, in-
this mad onrush was checked in the year, 732, at the famous           herited from heathen father, Patricius, a passionate sensiblity,
battle of Tours And ultimately  - these barbarian  aiiaclts           from his Christian mother, Monica (one of the noblest                     .
{llerely.  served. to strengthen the position of the bishop of        women in the history of Christianity, of a highly intellectual
Rome, who emerged out of all these terrible. wars with un-            ancl spiritual cast, of fervent piety, most tender `affection,
believable power and authority. ?Ve will have opportunity,            and all-conquering love), the deep yearning towards God so
later, to call attention to this in greater detail. The Church be-    grandly  expreSsed  in his sentence: "Thou hast made us for
came the dominating factor in the history of the world, and           Thee, and our heart is restless till it rest in Thee" (one may
it continued as such well into the period of the Reformation.         well question this  r+nark of the learned historian that
Historically, during this period, the Church developed in             Augustine  inheritecl  his yearning towards God from his.
external  pbwer  ancl glory. It assumed more and more the             mother.  - H.V.) This yearning;, and his reverence for the
form of a kingdom of this world.                                      sweet and holy name of Jesus, though crowded into the

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

 background, attended him in his studies at the schools of             Sunday, 387, in company with his friend and fellow-convert,
 Madaura and Carthage, on his journeys to Rome and Milan,              Alypius, and his natural son Adeodatus (given by God).
 and on his tedious wanderings' through the labyrinth of               It impressed the divine seal upon the inward transformation.
 carnal pleasures, Manicheaean mock-wisdom, Academic                   He. broke radically with the world ; abandoned the brilliant
skepticism, and Platonic idealism  ; till at last the prayers of       and lucrative vocation of a teacher of rhetoric, which he had
 his mother, the sermons of Ambrose, the biography of St.              followed in Rome and Milan ; sold his goods for the benefit
 Anthony, and, above all, the Epistle of Paul, as so many              of the poor : and thenceforth devoted his rare gifts exclusively
 instruments in the hand of the Holy Ghost, wrought in -the            to the service. of Christ, and to that service he continued
 man of three and thirty years that wonderful change which             faithful to his latest breath. After the death of his mother,
 made him an incalculable blessing to the whole Christian              whom, he revered and loved with the most tender affection,
 world, and brought even the sins and errors of his youth              he went a second time to Rome for several months, and
 into the service of the truth.                                        wrote books in `defense of true Christianity against false
        A son of so many prayers and tears could not be lost,          philosophy and the Manichaean heresy. Returning to Africa,
 and the faithful mother who travailed with him in spirit with         he spent three years, with his friend Alypius and Evodius,
 greater pain than her body had in bringing him into the               on an estate in his native Tagaste, in contemplative and
`world, was permitted for the encouragement of future                  literary retirement.
 mothers, to receive shortly before her death an answer to                 Then, in 391, he was chosen presbyter against his will,
 her prayers and expectations, and was able to leave this              by the, voice of the people, which, as in the similar cases
 world with joy without revisiting her earthly home.. For              of Cyprian and Ambrose, proved. to be the voice of God, in
 Monica died on a homeward journey, in Ostia at the mouth              the  Numidian   .maritime  city of Hippo Regius (now Bona)  ;
 of the Tiber in her fifty-sixth year in the arms of her son,          and in 395 he was elected bishop in the same city. For eight
 after enjoying with him a.glorious  conversation that soared          and thirty years, until his death, he labored in this place,
 above the confines of space and time, and was a foretaste of          and made it the intellectual centre of Western Christendom.
 the eternal Sabbathrest of the saints. She  regreted not to               His outward mode of life was extremely simple, and
 die in a -foreign land, because she was not far from God,             mildly ascetic. He lived with his clergy in one house in
 Who would raise her LIP at the last day. "Bury my' body any-          an apostolic community of goods, and made this house a
 where," was her last request, "and trouble not yourselves for         seminary of theology, out of which ten bishops and many
 it ; only this one thing I ask, .that you remember me at the          lower clergy went forth. Females. even his  sister,~  were
 altar of my God, wherever you may be." Augustine,. in his             excluded from his house, and could see him only in the
 Confessions, has erected to. Monica the noblest monument              presence of others. But he founded religious societies  of
 that can never perish.                                                women; and over one of these his sister, a saintly widow,
        If ever there was a thorough and fruitful conversion,, next    presided. He once said in a sermon, that he had nowhere
 to that of  Paul- on- the way to Damascus, it was that of             found better men, and he had nowhere found worse, than
 Augustine, when, in a garden of the Villa. Cassiciacum, noti          in monasteries. Combining, as he did, the clerical life with
 far from Milan, in September of the year 386, amidst the              the monastic, he became unwittingly the founder of the
 most violent struggles of mind and heart-the birth-throes             Augustinian order, which gave the reformer, Luther to the
 of the new `life-he heard that divine voice  .of a child:             world.
 f`Take,  read !" and he "put on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Ram.              The Lord willing, we will continue with this sketch
 13  :14). It is a touching lamentation of his : "I have loved         of Augustine's life the next time.
 Thee late,' Thou- Beauty, so old and so new ; I have loved                                                                                       H.V.
 Thee late ! And lo ! Thou was within, but I was without,
 and was seeking Thee there. And into Thy fair creation I.
 plunged myself in my ugliness; for Thou wast with me, and
 I was not with Thee ! Those things kept me away from                                           IN MEMORIAM
 Thee, .which  had not been!' except they had, been in Thee !             The Senior Young People's Society of the First Protestant
 Thou didst call, and didst cry aloud, and break through my            Reformed Church in Grand Rapids hereby expresses its sym-
 deafness. Thou didst glimmer,. Thou didst shine, and didst            pathy with two members, Ruth and Shirley Dykstra, in the  loss
 drive away' my. blindness. Thou didst breathe, and I drew             of their sister
 breath, and breathed in Thee. I tasted Thee; and .I hunger                                    B E T T Y   D Y K S T R A
 and thirst. Thou didst touch me, and I burn for Thy peace.
 If I, with all that is within me, may once live in Thee, then            May our God comfort them with his abiding grace and the
 shall pain and trouble forsake me; entirely filled with Thee,         blessed assurance that there remaineth a rest for the people
 all shall be life to me."                                             of God.
                                                                                                         '  Jeannettef  F a b e r ,   S e c r e t a r y
   ,.He received baptism from Ambrose in Milan on Easter                                                       Rev. C. Hanko, President


                                            T H E   S T A . N D A R D   BEAR.ER   -,                                             213

                                                                    well-meaningly to all, while His good pleasure is that the
        The Voice of Our Fathers                                    reprobate shall be .damned  forever? How can God promise,
                                                                    mark  youI swear an oath, an immutable oath, that He will
                                                                    save all, while it is His equally immutable good pleasure
              The Canons of Dordrecht                               that some shall be forever lost? Or, to phrase it-somewhat
                          . PARTTWO                                 differently, how can the contents of the gospel, the good
                EXPOSITION OF THE CANONS                            tidings,  ever be  anythin,m else than the contents of His
                  FIRST HEAD OF DOCTRINE                            clecree, His good  pleaswe?  -
            OF DIVINE PREDESTINATION                                  In the second place, this good pleasure of God concern-
                   Article 15 (continued)                           ing reprobation is marked by the following characteristics :
   Let us briefly take note of each of these attributes of the         1) It is  sovereign,  or, as the original has it,  most free.
decree of reprobation.                                              This means, as it did in the case of the decree of election,
   First of all, let us not overlook the most important!            that it is neither determined nor limited by anything outside
thought in this expression of `the Canons, namely, that this        of God Himself. The reason for reprobation is not to be
decree of God proceeds "out of his . . . . good pleasure." A        sought or found outside' of God, - for example, in the devil,
truly Reformed man may be inclined to say that this is a            or in sin. Nor does the devil or sin, -not even the sin of
mere platitude, that it is simply an axiom of the truth of          the reprobate persons themselves, - in any way determine,
Scripture that God's decree proceeds out of His good pleas-         limit, or necessitate the divine decree of reprobation. God
ure. Nevertheless, this can well stand emphasis. especially         is, absoutely free  ancl sovereign in all His doings, also  m
in regard to the decree of reprobation. This means that it          the act of reprobation. It is certainly incorrect and not Re-
was God's good pleasure, that it seemed good to Him, that           formed to say that the wicked are reprobated on account of
He eternally should decree to damn some forever. It means           their sin, whether that be sin in general or the particular
that the Holy One of Israel eternally took pleasure in this.        sin of unbelief. The' latter is the Arminian position. And
This is not a  deducation  which may be drawn or may not            when the  Ca,nons  emphasize that God's decree of reprobation
be drawn from this article. But it is the statement, -plain         proceeds out of His  soveyeigrz  good pleasure, they `exactly
for all who can read, -of the fathers themselves. Whether           contradict that Arminian position.
one agrees with the statement or not, whether one likes the            It is well that we- understand the above truth, especially
statement or not, it stands.there.  If you do not like it and do    in view of the fact that there are those who present' this as
not agree with .it, that may be your privilege. But you must        being peculiarly supralapsarian, and who like to pretend that
not corrupt the Reformed truth. And you must not attribute          infralapsarianism really teaches that reprobation finds its
that view merely to some "super  supralapsarians," who do           reason in sin and unbelief. The latter is neither supra nor
not really represent  the.main line of Reformed truth. The          infra, but Arminian. And  .-while we freely admit that the
statement' stands there in all its naked factualness. It is as      Ca.9zon.r  are infralapsarian in their view of the decrees, we
Reformed as the fathers of Dordrecht were. It is their own          at the same time must insist that it is characteristic of genuine
confession. And all who do not agree with it simply are not         infralapsarianism, as well as of the supra view, that the
Reformed. For who, pray, is Reformed that does not agree            decree of reprobation is absolutely sovereign, and finds its
with the literal expressions of Dordt 7~                            reason nowhere else than in God's .free  good pleasure. And it
   But now compare with this the proposition of a general           is indeed striking that even as this truth is maintained by
offer of grace and salvation that is well-meant on the part         genuine infralapsarianism, there are few today who will'as-
of God also for the reprobate. Compare with this the con-           sume this position and consistently maintain it. The very
tention that God also intends the salvation of the reprobate.       men who are supposed to subscribe to the Canons  literally
Compare with this the proposition that, according to Ezekiel        contradict them. Thus, for example, under the binding in-
33  :ll,  `G&l does not, in the view of some, desire or  takee      fluence of the First Point of 1924, and logically forced to
pleasure in the death of a~~11  wicked, but takes pleasure in       make a choice between two obviously contradictory dogmas,
this, that  alb wicked shall live. Compare with this the pro-       the Rev.  A. C. De Jong, in-his  book"`The Well-Meant Gos-
position that God's promise, which is His oath, is general,         pel Offer -The Views of H.  Hoeksema  and Ii. Schilder,"
comes to all, elect and reprobate alike, upon condition of          chooses for Kalamazoo rather than for Dordrecht, when he
faith. Compare with this the contention that in the sacra-          writes : "No one disbelieves because he is a reprobate. He
ment of holy baptism God declares His love to everyone              is a reprobate because he does not want to believe." And to
that is baptized ! And take no refuge, then, in the claim that      choose for Kalamazoo is principally the same as choosing
this matter belongs to the sphere of the mystery. For there         for Gouda. The same must be said of the following statement
is. nothing mysterious about this at all i it is very obviously     from the pen of Ds. T. Bos, in his explanation of the Canons,
not a mystery, but a contradiction. The very' thought of            page 60, who in his explanation of this very, article on re-
crediting the divine mind with such obvious contradictions          probation writes : ,,De  mensch  wordt  alzoo niet verworpen,
is blasphemous. How can God offer grace and salvation               omdat God dat zoo Wilde, zonder daarvbor rechtvaardige re-


  214                                          THE   S T A N D A R D   BEAREk

  denen te hebben ; neen hij wprdt vemorpefz, owzdat hij rich-          purtished  on account of their own unbelief and/or all their
  zelzren  verdoemielijk  gewzahkt   laeeft,  en nu niets en niemand    other sins is simply to maintain the Reformed and Scriptural
  God ken beletten, te besluiten, hem the verdoemen,  in onder-         truth of divinely just retribution. This latter truth the
  scheiding  van sommigen, die Hij besloot, uit den verdbeme-           Cnnons here maintain. Only they insert this truth intb the
  lijken  staat te redden" (Italics mine,  H.C.H.).  Hetice, let        divine decree of reprobation, as its contents. The terminal
  the Reformed believer beware such open denials of the spirit          of reprobation, the goal at which it points, is the damnation
  and letter of Dordrecht!                                              of the reprobate. But to that decree of reprobation belongs
         2) It is righteous, or, "most just." This must be main-        the fact that this is a damnation to be reached in the way of
  tained  ai an a  @iol-i truth, of  coilrse. That is,  we may not      ,willful sin and to be wreaked on account of willful sin. And
  apprdach  the subject of sovereign reprobation with the               to safeguard the  .truth of  the. sovereignty of the  deciee of
  question in our soul, `whether there is unrighteousness with          r6probat?on.  let  us  remind  ourselires  once more that also
  God. To do so is nothing short of `blasphemous.  Wl;lether            infralapsarianism does not by any means place this sin, on
we can understand the relation between God's  i-ighteousness            account of which the reprobate are damned and punished,
  and His sovereign decree, or-not, makes absolutely no differ-         d&side  of the hecree of God, even if it be- by means of the
  ence:  the Most High is righteous in all His ways. And this           weak expression, ,"permissive  will."
  is certainly the spirit of the apostle Paul in Romans 9 :14, in          3) Again in close connection with the preceding attribute
  dealing with this very subject of sovereign election and re-          of righteousness, the Canons characterize this sovereign de-
  probation : "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteous-            cree of reprobation as being `irreprehensible,  (orzberispelijk
  ness  with God  ? God forbid." Only then may we go on,                in the Dutch). Also this, of course, can be understood in
  and say, in the first place, that it is impossible to charge the      a two-fold sense. In'the first place, it must surely be main-
  Sovereign Potter with unrighteousness when He exercises               tained that God is a. pvio&  irreprehensible, that is, whether
  His power to. make of the same lump of clay one vessel unto           we can fathom this irreprehensibility or not. God is never
  honor, and another unto dishonor. In the second place, how-           to be blamed or charged by the creature.  And let us note,
ever, we find in the C~FZOFU  a slightly different viewpoint in         once again, that this is the viewpoint of the apostle Paul in
  regard to this subject. This view is perfectly legitimate.            Rqmans  9:19, 20, where the apostle treats an objection to
  Only it must be carefully understood. The  Caxons  really             the truth that God has mercy on whom He will have mercy,
  view this attribute of the righteousness of reprobation not           and  hardetis  whom He will. There we read: "Thou wilt
  from the point of view of the righteousness  of.  the  act of         say theri unto me, Why doth he yet find  ,fault ? For who
  sovwe~gnly   decreeing, but. from the point of view of the            hath resisted his  .tiill? Nay but, 0 man, whd art thou that
  righteousness  of  the  co,ntents  of the decree of reprobation.      repliest against God ? Shall the thing formed say to him that
  And therefore, they emphasize: a) That the reprobate have             formed it, Why hast thou made me thus ?" And following
  zPnl@lLy  pI,u.nged tltewwelves into the common misery in which       this we find the`example  of the potter's power over the clay
  they are left. This is, of course? a  characferistically  infra-      to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor.
  lapsarian statement. But do not forget that this is, in  the          God is God.. And He does all His good pleasure. And man
  first place, not a judicial reason for God's sovereign decree         can certainly not reprehend Him. Mark you well, while it
  as  suclt, for then the decree would no more be sovereign.            is true that the &&er cannot reprehend Gdd, the apostle in
  But it is a judical reason for the contents of the decree,            Romans 9 does not speak of the  si?zner, but of  `wan.  Even
 namely, that they should be left in the common misery. Norm            apart, therefore, from the matter of sin and from the truth
  should we forget, in the second place; that, also according to        that the reprobate is damned on account of his own sin, it
  the infra view, which, of  co&se, places the fall and sin             must be' maintained that man can never reply against God.
  logically before predestination in the counsel of God, the fact       We may safely say, however, in the second place, that the
  that the reprobate are in the common misery is not to be              Ctiftions  view this irreprehensibility of the divine decree of
  separated from the sovereign  decree.of God. And no genuine           reprobation in the &me  way that they speak of its righteous-
  infra, whether he likes to speak of a "permissive" will of            ness. In the light of the fact that ethically sin is man's own
  God, or-not, will deny this. b)_ In close connection with thd         fault, and in the light of the fact that man's damnation aficl
  preceding, that they are left in their own ways "under, his           punishment are visited qon him according to strictest just-
  just judgment." See  OUT  remarks  coticerning the transla-           ice. the reprobate can never bhtze God when their rep?oba-
  tion made in the beginning of this chapter c) That they are           tion reaches its, terminal in the day of judgment, but will-
  damned and punished both on account of "their own unbelief,           surely have to admit the justice of their lot.
  but also for all their other sins." And here it is of crucial            4) Finally, this decree is characterized as unchangeable.
  importance once more that we clearly understand that this             About this we may be brief. - God is eternally unchangeable.
  is not a judical ground for the sovereign decree, but a judicial      And therefore His decree, also of reprobation, is as eternally
  ground for the contents of that decree. To say that men are           unchangeable as Himself. And this the fathers of Dordt
  reprobated  on account of their sins and unbelief is to sail          maintain in opposition. to Arminianism, which really teaches
  in  Arminian waters. To say that men are  damned  and                 a constant flux between election and reprobation.      H.C.H.


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               215
-                    .  -.-.  .._  .--.
                                                                      deavored sincerely f`to live out of and according to the
            A L L   A R O U N D   U S                                 wlzole Word of God, as explained in our Three Forms of
                                                                      Unity." The word "whole" is underscored by the Rev.
                                                                      Blankespoor. He means to tell us that they, the schismatics,
What Really Happerl.ed In Ow Ckwches.                                 want the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, while at!
     The reader will remember that in the last two issues of          the same time he means to show that those who remained
the Standard Bearer I have been quoting  aid commenting               faithful to our Protestant Reformed doctrine do not and did
on an essay' of the Rev. J. Blankespoor which he delivered            not endeavor to live sincerely out of and according to the
at a conference of schismatic ministers and appearing in  Con-        WHOLE Word of God as explained in our Three Forms of
cordia of December 2, 1954;                                           Unity. That this is what he means is evident from what he
     I now wish to continue the quotation  apd make a  f,ew           further says in this paragraph, namely, "I realize that this
pertinent remarks. Rev. Blankespoor now begins to present             is a tremendous accusation of those who no longer wished
his positive answer to the question: What really happened             to live with us under one ecclesiastical roof." Indeed, this
in our Churches ? - I quote him :                                     is  not only a "tremendous accusation",  it  is  also a  most
     "Kow I will be positive. Personally I would answer this          ridiculous lie ! Blankespoor makes accusation again without
important question as to what really happened in our circles          an atom of proof.
with the following sentence : On our part it was and is a                But let me show you what Rev. Blankespoor really
sincere attempt to live out of and according to the whole             means. He means that they do not want the Declaration of
Word of God, as  explined  in our Three Forms of Unity.               Principles. Because we want  that Declaration, and believe
This we tried. to do with the doctrinal difficulties but also         now that we should have bad *it many years ago, according
with the church-political issues. I realize that this is a tre-       to Blankespoor we want more than the Three Forms of
mendous accusation of those who no longer wished to live              T;nity. This latter is also a perversion of the truth. The only
with us under one ecclesiastical roof, but it is my conviction,       grain of truth in the entire first paragraph of the quotation
nevertheless.                                                         above is the fact that we did not wish  to live under -one
     "The underlying causes of this sad history are much              eccesiastical  roof with them. And the only reason  why we
greater than a difference of opinion on conditions, and some          did not wish to do this is because they subscribed to-  the:
phase of the promise, etc.                                            heretical doctrine condemned by  Classis  East and the
     "Let n!e first of all delineate on this subject in connection    Church-political error of what was formerly  Classis West,
with the doctrinal difficulties.                                      as well as the false church polity of Rev. Kok, which allows
     "I am convinced that everyone of our leaders to this clay        ministers and churches to do as they please, to live as
wants to live out of and preach only the Word, of God as              revolutionists in the Church of Christ.
explained by our Three Forms of Unity. And if any of us                  In the second place, when the Rev.  ,Blankespoor  writes
is to be examined, or when we were approached on the                  that "the underlying causes of this sad history are much
matter or actually were examined we gladly submitted to be            greater than a difference of opinion  on conditions, and some
examined in re these Standards. But we would not be                   pha'se  of fhe promise, etc.", I agree with him. We have al-
examined whether we agreed with-some personal opinions,               ways said, and we say it again, that the fundamental and
or ideas, of some individuals. I am convinced that we all             historical reason for the schismatics having left us is their
want all of our Standards, which speak of the cardinal truths         infatuation for the Liberated' Churches of the Netherlands
of Scripture, reprobation as  ~$1 as election, the unconditional      and Canada, upon tvhom the schismatics even now, accord-
election and salvation of Gad's people as well as some phase' ing to Rev. Howerzyl in the latest Concordia, are setting
of conditions in a Reformed sense. Perhaps some of us are             their eyes in the hope of becoming sister churches with them.
weak on some points of these Standards, and if we are we              Nothing but the Word of God and the Three Forms of
do well to take inventory of ourselves. I think it is  true           Unity as the Liberated interpret them, and a Church Polity
that the church often goes astray not because of what she             in which everyone can do what is right in his own eyes, that
says, but because of what she doesn't say. But all of our             is what Blankespoor et al want, and th& is what they had
history, with all the literature that has been published has          their mind set on for a long time. The controversy re con-
not proven that anyone of us disagrees with these Standards,          ditions and the promise, etc., was, as far as they were con-
and it surely is our sincere desire, I repeat to live and preach      derned, only a stick to hit with.
everything they teach."                                                  And, relative to the last paragraph of the above quotation
     Before I proceed to quote any more let me call your at-          where Rev. Blankespoor again asserts that he wants only the
tention to two or three `things r"elative  to the above quotation.    Word of God as interpreted in the Three Forms of Unity,
     In the first place the reader should take particular notice      I have only one question: Where in the Scriptures and the
of what Rev. Blanlespoor says in the first paragraph, as              Three Forms does onk  fmd the two statements of the Rev.
well as how he says it. .Blankespoor is convinced that on the         De Wolf? I  realize  that Rev. Blankespoor admits that some
part of the schismatic. leaders, himself included, they  -en-         of their men may .be "weak" on some points of these Stand-

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

ards, and perhaps he is one of these -weak ones so that he          Blankespoor et al leave us ? Because we departed from the
cannot answer my question. But I do believe, however, that          Scriptures and the Three Forms of Unity ? Nonsense ! This
he is a master at hokum. So maybe he can fish out a few             is why they left us, because we would not budge an inch to
articles of our Confessions where the "two statements" will         allow them. to `introduce their. Liberated conceptions in our
nicely fit in? Rev. Blankespoor must not try to make  .LIS          churches. 0, there is more, of course, and now Blankespoor
believe that. it was a question whether he or anyone else           admits it. `He tells us that they, the  schismatics, have be-
could pass an examination on our' Standards. It was solely          come "ecumenically  minde-d." They were not satisfied, to
the question : Are the two statements of De Wolf Scriptural         borrow and expression that appeared in the Standard Bearer
and Cqnfessional  ? Blankespoor and his colleagues said they        several years ago, `to be  big~ frogs in' a little pond. They
w,ere, and that, too, w-ithout a grain of proof or proof enough     desired no longer to think only  "of our little churches."
to satisfy  ,our churches  ; while the  Classis  by  a. majority    They had bigger aspirations. As one of their. ministers told
decision declared that the two statements were per se here-         me in the year 1951, "there are a hundred thousand dutch-
tical. If Blankespoor. et al have gone astray "because of           men across the pond that we ought to seek union with. See
what he did not say," why doesn't he say-it now?                    what we could do if we became sister churches with them:
       But the Rev. Blankespoor has more to say about this          Why, we wo~~lcl  have a Foreign Mission `field dumped right
holding only to the' Scriptures and the Standards. "Let me          in our lap. All we would have to do is take up the col-
insert here, before I go further, that due' to this desire we       lections for it." .O, indeed, they were ecumenically minded.
also of late have become more ecumenically minded, and              So much so that they began to see visions and dream dreams.
think not only of our little churches; but of the one mighty        They `dreamt how nice it would be if our two professors
church of Christ. In connection with this one cannot help           could be kicked out of their chair in our Seminary, and some
but think about the history of the Reformed Churches in             of these Dutch professors `from the Liberated come over and
the past, since the days of the Reformation. For some time          take their place, maybe a Dr. Schilder, Holwerda, or Veen-
Calvinism and Reformed truth were strong in several coun-           hof or others. Yes, they were -ecumenically minded  alright,
tries, in Calvin's adopted country, Switzerland, and in Ger-        but I make bold to say, not in the true Reformed sense of
many, France, England, and of course the Netherlands. But           the word. Blankespoor speaks the truth when he tells  US
where are they all today ? History teaches that the Nether-         that he and others were no longer satisfied to "think only of
lands remained the stronghold for this precious heritage.           our little churches." Fact is, he and others thought nothing
And what was it that this church confessed during all these         of them, nor .of the truth they maintain. If he did, he co~dci
years ? Ever since 1618, i.e. for more than three hundred           not possibly have desired to see them torn apart by an act
years, it was the Standard of the Three Forms of Unity.             of schism. If. he had any thought at all for these little
This teaches us that with this truth God has gathered and           churches, he would have stood with us and helped to ban
defended the one church of our Savior. And we with our              out of our midst the false doctrine of  conditionalism.  He
children surely desire to be found in this one line."               would have insisted with us that the Declaration of Principles
       Now what does `Blankespoor mean to tell us ? That we         was absolutely necessary to keep our denominational walls
have those Standards no more ? That is evidently what is            so high that our purity of doctrine be maintained. But he
implied in this paragraph. He means to say that they still          was a big frog in a little pool, and. he needed more water.
want them.and have them only, while we do not. What Rev.                  That this is the viewpoint of the Rev. Blankespoor and
Blankespoor really implies is that because we have adopted          those who `are with him, is established by what he writes in
the Declaration of Principles we either have more than the          the sequence of his essay. There he accuses us of being
Three Forms of Unity, or, by giving them our own inter-             sectarian. But of this we will have more to say next time,,
pretation we have departed from these Standards. If this is         D      .    V    .                                          \ M.S.
not his meaning, the .entire paragraph has little or no sign-
ifiance.  In the past we have been accused by some of manu-                                  IN MEMORIAM
facturing a Fourth Form, by others of reading into the
Three Forms what they do not contain, or of neglecting to                The English Men's Society of the First Protestant Reformed
say all that they contain. Nothing, of course, could be farther     Church hereby expresses its heartfelt sympathy to its fellow
                                                                    member, John Dykstra, and family in the loss of his son and
from the truth. Let our opponents show wherein the De-              daughter
claration of Principles is not a true interpretation of the                               R;CHARD  D Y K S T R A
Three Forms, or that the principles which the Declaration                                   B E T T Y   D Y K S T R A
sets forth are not in harmony with the truth expressed in the            Isaiah 41  :lO:  `fFear thou not, for I am with thee; be not
Three Forms of Unity. Let Blankespoor show us where the             dismayed, for I am thy God;  ~1 will strengthen thee, yea, I will
Confessions teach the conditional doctrine of the Liberated         help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My
or the common grace theory of the Christian Reformed.               righteokkss."
                                                                                                            G. M. Ophoff, President
Neither he nor any one else is able to do this. Why did                                                     Richard Teitsma. Secretary


