    V O L U M E   XXX1                           MARCH  14,  1955-GRAND  RAPIDS, MICHIGAN                                 NUMBER 12

                                                                         sustenance, raimknt  and shelter. They are his -needs without
             M. E-D I T A  T,I 0 N                                       which he cannot be convenient. To go without them entirely
                                                                         or in part means poverty and, hence, suffering for man.
                  Prayer Day Thoughts                                        Let  us  emphasize however that  Gur  neec& are deter-
                                                                         mined according- to the law of our life which Gocl Himself
                "Give  me neither poverty nor riches ; feed  me with     has  set. It is also here the law of God. Not our. law. Were
             food convenient for  me : Lest I be full; and deny Thee,    we to attempt to determine the law of the needs of our life,
             and say, Who is the Lord?  or lest I be poor. and           we always would make these needs very great. And there-
             steal,  and  take the name of  my God in vain."             fore, let  us  remember that evidently radios, automobiles,
                                                      Prov.  30:8b, 9    pianos, pastries, beautiful and many changes of raiment,
   Agur asks the Lord for food that will be convenient for               costly and large houses etc., do not belong to our needs.
him. What does that mean ?               _                               Neither does' life-insurance or  `<a penny for a rainy day."
   An answer tb this question is possible, provided we are               No, for they are riches.
willing to be led by God's evaluation of things and relation-                                         4:     *     9,:
ships. And certainly this is not unseemly, if  we remember
that this God is  our GOD, Who created  us.  Therefore He
is the only Absolutely Competent One to judge of our                        Oh, we will admit that many of the above-cited things
convenience.                                                             are given to us, and--we also admit- that most of the time our .
                                                                         heavenly Father gives a hundred-fold more than` our needs,
   Generally speaking it must be evident to all that 0u.r con-           but that does not alter the fact that they are  very  cleter-
venience is that state where all our needs are fulfilled. This           minedly not our needs.        '           "
would give the general idea. Man. is a creature and hence,
dependent. From this  dependecy  spring  his needs. Are                     Ah! when only we see the true relationships that God
the'se  fulfilled. then 2 state of tranquility, of convenience is        made: how  hunible   --we become! Then our needs dwindle
born.                                                                    clown to the really fundamental and every crumb and luxury
                                                                         abpve  them heightens our song of praise to our bountiful
   However,  the test does not speak of this general idea                Father above.
but is narrowed clown considerably by the  word?  `~food."                  The Song of sweet m&elcness toward God dur Provider.
From this word food,, we note that Agur is seeking the state
of convenience for thk body. Because oftentimes this word                   TherefGre>  let us note also that `Agur says : Feed me !
food or bread is mentioned for all tlie needs of the bocly, We              Remember, dear people of God, that this feed `pwe belongs
all know that were the Lord to fulfil our prayer literally when          to the part that is convenient for me. It is a very integral
we say :"Give us this day our daily bread," tie would die of             part of the food convenient for me..
thirst, exposure alld general misery. Our body needs more                   The words feed  vie remind  us  of the bird in the cage
than bread if we are to be convenient. But bread, meat or                which received its convenient food: a little cup of water and
food is qientioned  as the more important of the species which           a little box with seed. That is all. Does the bird know
is mentioned as the representative need for all the wants of             whether or not it wiil receive many'more  cdps of water and
the body.                                                                                                                                 _
                                                                         many more boxes with  seed ? No,  belbved,  but listen. It is
   Now, according to God's ordinances of creation, there is a            fed for to-day and listen again: its warbling song is con-
certain, determined need for, every creature : man, animal,              demnation of either our anxiety for the morrow or our
herb and tree, yea, even of all the inanimate creation. And              murmurings of today, where we undervaluate God's gifts or
for man we might broadly speaking say that his bocly needs               overvaluate  oui-  needs.


                                                                                                                         .-
         266                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEA.RER

                Ah, let us learn the lesson of childlike trust and con-           A truly- wise man distrusts himself. Far be it from him
         fidence from the feathered singers and say: Father, Thou              therefore' to say in arrogant boldness : Let come what may ;
         knowest my needs for Thou art my Creator. Fulfill them                I  -shall  always in piety paise God, be it in `poverty or in
         to-day for I say unto Thee: Feed. me! I am helpless with-             prosperity. He knows his weakness.
         out Thee ; I acknowledge Thee as the mainspring also of my
         daily bread and of all my wants for to-day. Feed me and                                          :!c *  4:
         clothe me and take care of me for I am utterly dependent on
         The&.  And I trust Thee for Thou  hast given me Thy won-
         derful promise that my bread and water shall be sure. With ,             Therefore ,Agur  prays : `Father, give me neither poverty
         Thee and Thy care for me as mjr Provider I shall' sing my             nor riches !
         lifelong clay ! Hallelujah, praise the Lord !                            Poverty is that condition where the Lord places His
                Does this mean, beloved that we may sit and rest`and let       creature beneath and below the convenient part according to
         work be hanged ? Of course not. It belongs to the food and            His  owl? ordinances of creation. On the contrary, riches is
         the phrase: Feed me! It also includes that I work for my              ihe life that is above the standard of God's ordinances. These
         daily bread and that I plan for my daily bread. It includes           ordinances never niean that I must have two houses in orcler
         that the Lord would graciously strengthen me and give me              to be  -hapby.  I really need only one. Riches is the dollar
         all the necessary means for my daily task. But even here it           which we do not need. Poverty is the condition when we
         requires of us that we walk with God the lifelong clay in the         receive' barely enough to live and really too much to die.
         consciousnes  of utter dkpendency on our Creator. That is the         When God lowers His own standard for our creaturely life
         life that counts and that is also the only life that brings true      we experience poverty; when He heightens that standard we
         convenience, true tranquility.                                        are bathed in luxury and have riches.
                One more observance must be added, however. For it is             Here again it will be  aclvisable  to. emphasize that poverty
         posibie  that the Lord wants me to suffer. When I ask that            is not a lack in  OUI'  budget.  Poverty is not that we have to
         neither riches nor poverty be given me, it does not mean that         do without an auto, a radio or piano. Poverty is not even
         I will force my will upon the Lord. Neither does it mean              that we have to dc, without work and must receive our stis-
         that I have a right to my convenient food. And lastly, neither        tenance  through the deaconage. You have diligently sought
         is this always the way toward the coming of God's Kingdom.            for work and could not find it; you put your plight prayer-
                Therefore this must be added. When I have  finishred           fully before the deacons of Christ's Church and they provided
         with my prayer for food convenient for me, I must say also :          your  co&enient food. You ate and were satisfiecl. Hence,
         ,Not my will by Thy will be done. If it is necessary, Lord,           you are not in poverty.
         that I must lie at the rich man's door, full of sores and                 Poverty is when you shiver of the cold in threadbare
       . destitute of clothing and food : then give- me grace to bear it       garments. Poverty is when your cheeks become hollow from
         for Thy Name's sake.                                 3'               hunger and starvation; when your heart breaks when the
                                                                               children of your bosom cry for  food- and must go to bed
                                       1:    *     +                           hungry, for there is none. That is poverty. And,that  poverty
                                                                               Agur has in mind when he prays.
                Therefore we learn in the first place that this petition is
         an utterance of childlike trust and confidence.                          Is that not plain? Let us  -prove it from the text. Agur
                In the second place, the message of our text fells us that     describes poverty as that state where jrou are in danger of
         if we have seen the Lord and have been tought wisdom, we              stealing. He calls it  the state where you are in danger of
         also are aware of our own weakness. The man who is truly              taking God's Name in vain. The picture is clear. Poverty,
         wise does not say: Let things come as they may! I do not              beloved, is that state where you have exhausted all the means
         care ! I will praise God anyhow ! For that is not only foolish,       to acquire all you need for a bare existence and where all
         but also very decidedly superficial.           ~                      things failed you. Consequently you went and stole a loaf
. .             No, beloved, when heavenly wisdom has shined in our            for crying children and knowing that it is `against God's own
         hearts we have seen our sins and our weaknesses. Then we              law to steal you said in the bitterness of your h&art: There
         know how treacherous we are by nature, There are depths               is no knowledge with the Most High. He brought me into
         of sin and weakness in the heart of man that are positively           this miserable state. I now steal and do not care. It's God's
         staggeri*ng.  It reminds Us of the lament of Jeremiah when he         fault. And you are committin,m the clouble sin of taking what
         said : "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately      is not your own and abusing God's holy Name.
         wicked : whd can know it  ?"  Ter. 17  :9. Also David,  .when            And Agur knew the perfidy of his heart., He was aware
         the light of God's law had shined in his heart, beheld hidden         of this weakness in his nature. He knew he was able to fall
         corners of which he became suspicious, corners where sin              into these miserable, godless depths of despair where we
         lurked, so that it caused his outcry : "Who can understand his        do no longer reason with God's commandments, but where
         errors? Cleanse Thou me from secret faults !" Ps. 19 :12.             we run riot and fall into the snares of the devil.


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                   267

    The same is true of the state of riches.
    Agur knows that they are strong legs. that cat?' bear up                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
prosperity. He knows. beforehand that he will not be able to                   Semi-monthly, except monthly during J&y a& August
stand riches.                                                            Published by  %h.z REFORMED  FRF.E  PUBLISHING  ABOCIATION
    Father, he says, I am afraid that when Thou givest riches         P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand  Rapids 7,  Mich.
to me, I may become so full, that I will deny Thee, the                                  Editor-l&v.  HERMAN  HOEKSEMA
very Source of them, and say : Who is God anyhow ? Am I                Communiccltions  relative  to co&e&s  should be ad&ssed to Rev.
not the one who built all this Babe'1  ?                              H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin  St.,- S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
    Ah, beloved, is this not true of all of us ? When we have         All  matters  relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
everything our hearts desire, when want seems far from our             G. Pipe, 1463 Ardmore St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7, Michigan.
                                                                      Announcements and  Obitua.ries  mu& be mailed to the above
dwelling : how the- prayer of praise and adoration of God is          address and  till  lbe published at a fee of $1.00 for each notice.
stifled upon our frozen lips!  How cool we grow to the                RENEWALS  : Unless a  d&&e  requ=g=st  for discontinuance is re-
Almighty, Who is yet our Redeemer, We are so apt to then              ceived, it is assumed  &at the subscriber wishes the subscription
                                                                      to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
forget Him who giveth all this riches. So easily we become
proud and say that zoe were the source of our own prosperity.                              Subscripltian price: $4.00 per year
Then we say that O~LI' ingenuity and ow wisdom by far sur-             Elttered as Secowi Clam matter at Gmnd  Rapids, Michigan
passes the poor struggling of the brother: the stupid one.
Why do not people imitate our wisdom and  `our striving
and our industry? Then they also would be rich. Look me
over ! I am it. And where is God then ? He is far from our                                          C O N T E N T S
thoughts. So false we are and weak.                                 MEDIT ATION -
    And Agur knows `it. He knows himself a brute  and                    Prayer Day Thou&s.. . . . . . . . . . _. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .265
foolish. That is the appraisal of self when we have. seen the                    Rev. G. Vos
Lord.  -And  that is the reason why he also is afraid of            EDITORIALS-
riches. Allow me to remark at this stage that thanks to the              Prof. Deddens Inexcusable Ignorance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,268
Alnlighty we have not experienced poverty during our                              Rev. H. Hoeksema
time. It is necessary to remind ourselves of this. No one
has shivered of the cold or gone hungry. God provided our           OUR  DOCTRINE-
                                                                          The Triple Knowledge (Part III  - Of  Thankfuhles)  . . . . .  .271
bread every day and iaxe riches of extra dainties besides, all                   Rev. H.  Hceksema
                                                                          c
through these many years. The horror of China's terrible
famines were  absent from our shores, when thousands of little      THE DAY OF  SHADOWS-
corpses of children lined the roadways.                                   The Prophecy of Isaiah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .274
    No, we may say that the Lord has provided riches                FRCM HOLY WRIT  -
for  us  in the past. More than any country on earth is                   Exposition of Galatians 5 :22, 23. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27G
America the land of plenty.                                                      Rev. G. Lubbers
    Let  us remelnber  this prayer of Agur. Let us remember         IN HIS FEAR-
it especially now when prosperity is with us.                             "The Gate is Open". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
    A childlike trust and confidence in Father Bduntiful and                     Rev. J. A. Heys
a knowledge of our-own treacherous heart are comely in the          CONTENDING  FOR THE  FAITH-
child  of! God.                                                           The Churclh  and #he Sacraments.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .280
    Father, feed  us  with food convenient !  1                                  Rev. H.  yeldman
                                                           G.V.     Trm VOICE OF OUR FWHERS-
                                                                         The Canons of Do'rdreeht (Art. 16)`. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .282
                                                                                 Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
             REV. OPHOFF'S NEW ADDRESS
     1321 Sylvan Ave., S. E., Grand Rapids 7, Michigan              DECENCY AND ORDER-  -
                                                                          Students for tihe Ministry.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .260
                   Phone number:  GLendale  2-4324                               Rev. G.  Vanden Berg

                                                                    ALL  AROUND   Us-
                                                           ,-             Preview Next 25 Yeas : Progressive Calvinism. . . . . . . . . . .28S
    When in doubt about the Gospel, visit the sick and                           Rev. M.  Schipper
fatherless.  You  will return in faith, for such visits are acts
of faith.                                                           CONTRIBUTIONS -
                              *:    *  4:                                Kok a hopeless case. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .288
                                                                                 H. A. Van  Putten
    The Bible does not agree with us, but we may learn to
agree with it,

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

                                                                          our recent controversy. I would have  furnished*  him very
                 E D I T O R I A L S                                   II gladly` with all the material he needed. But even this he
                                                                          failed to do.
                                                                              And, therefore; the heading above this editorial is cer-
             Prof. Deddens' Inexcusable Ignorance                         tainly justified : "Prof. Deddens' Inexcusable Ignorance."
          In "De Reformatie," numbers  II and 19, occur several               That.he was ignorant about our case, I will show in these
      articles, penned by the hand of Prof. P. Deddens of the Lib-        editorials, and I will surely see to it that he receives a copy
      erated Iiampen  seminary, .about the opinion of Judge Taylor        of them.
      1:~  +e. the name, property and archives of the First Protes-           Perhaps, the best way `in which I can attain my purpose
      tant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Mich., and, in con-           is by briefly reviewing the history of our case and at the
      nection with this, about the church political way in which          same time, offering my comment in connection with the
      the case was treated by the consistory of the First Church          remarks of Prof. Decldens.
      and by Classis  East of the Protestant Reformed Churches.               I.will not relate the entire history from the beginning  ; but
          According to Prof. Deddens, the action by which  De             I rather confine myself, in connection with the remarks by
      Wolf and some of his elders were put out of office tias not         Prof. Dedclens, to relating how the matter came  fo  Classis
      only thoroughly hierarchical, but also really ridiculous in         East. Prof. Decldens is pf the opinion that in this matter we
.~    many respects. For instance, according to the professor, at         violated Art. 79 of the Church Order, because that article
      one and the same consistory"meeting,  eleven elders are pro-        states that when a minister is guilty of any gross sin he shall
      nounced to be under censure so that they cannot vote and            immediately be suspended, not by the  classis.  but by the
      immediately thereupon they are invited to vote and that,            consistory with the advice of the nearest  consistory.z  This,
      too, on what was virtually the same case. Mockingly,  the           according to Prof. Deddens, was violated in the case of the
      professor asks : "Ra, ra, hoe kan dat ?"- (Guess, guess, how        Rev. De Wolf.
      can that be?`).                                                         But what is the truth of this matter? I will quote a letter
        All that he writes, however, is based, partly, on igno-           which I sent to the consistory, and which is self-explanatory:
      rance and, partly, tool no doubt; on prejudice against us.              `rEsteemecl  Brethren :
          I am not concerned about the latter factor; that of preju-          "Enclosed 
      dice in favor of De. Wolf c. s. In fact, I can well understand                          you  find a copy of a protest which together
                                                                          with this letter, I will, the Lord willing, bring to the
      this for the simple reason that those who left  us  do not
      care for the Protestant Reformed truth and. perhaps,  can           attention of the next April session of Classis  East.
      very well ally themselves with the `Liberated.                          "None of the material of this protest is new to  you.  By
          However, I  `am concerned about Prof. Decldens' igno-           next April, it will be- two years that the material of the first
      rance. And I will try, at lea&, to set him straight on the          part of this protest has been before the consistory  ; while
      facts in the case.                                                  the second part has been in consideration for the last half
         In his articles he states that he really is not quite able       year. You still have ample time to prepare a motivated reply
      to judge, because he is not acquainted with our history and         to  classis.
      our controversy in all its implic%tions.                                "Last M.onday  you made, principally, your final decision
         But this is a poor excuse.                                       in the matter when, by a vote of 9 to 8 (I  being  absent)  )
         For, in the first place, he should not write and express         you decided to approve of the answers of the Reir. De Wolf
      judgment about a matter of which he knows so little, and            to the questions proposed to him by thk consistory. This
      about which he has, evidently, been informed very one-sid-          implies that you approve of the heresy taught publicly by the
      edly. Such tactics can, perhaps, be excused in a common             Rev. De Wolf that `God promises every one of  you that,  if
      layman, but certainly not in a scientific man as Prof. Ded-         you  believe, you shall be saved,' and that `Our act of con-
      dens is supposed to be.                                             version is a prerequisite to enter into the kingdom of God.'
                                  Suc11  a man is supposed to investi-
      gate a matter  thoroughy  before he expresses any opinion.          By this action:
      And this Prof. Deddens, evidently, failed to do. And, sec-              "1. You have forsaken and denied the Protestant Re-
      ondly, Prof. Deddens certainly was in a position to become          formed truth, and approved of the First Point of 1924 in its
      thoroughly acquainted with all the  faCts in the case before        worst form.
      he wrote. For, first of all he might have read the Sta.pzdnl-d          "2. You have, principally, cast me out, and must cer-
      Benl-es which is an eschange  paper with De Refowuatie, and         tainly censure me before the next celebration of the lord's
      in which the whole matter of our recent controversy is ex-          Supper, for I will never shake hands with one that pro-
      plained in detail, both from a doctrinal and church-political       claims such heresy. This implies, of course, that it is, from
      viewpoint. And, besides, even if he had not'been  in a posi-        your point of view, your calling to suspend me from office. ,,
      tion to secure ancl read the Standard Bgarep, he could have             "I protest :
      written me ancl asked for all the material in connection with           "1. Against the above mentibnecl action of the consistory


                                            THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   269
~-                                                                                            -
on the grounds which will become evident in the  accom-             not maintain that this action was in any way hierarchical.
panying  protests.                                                  The case had been pending with the consistory for two years.
 "2. Against the action of the consistory whereby they              Finally it had virtually proved to be deadlocked. It had
rode rough-shod over former decisions, without proving that         come to the  classis  in a perfectly legal way, that of a pro-
these decisions were contrary to the Word of  Gocl or  tp           test. Besides,  -classis  did not suspend the Rev. De Wolf or
Church Order, witliout even rescinding them. These deci-            de,pose the elders. Even this was left entirely up to the
sions, which are still settled and binding, are:                    consistory of the First Church. So that when Prof. Deddens
    "a. The sermon of the Rev. De Wolf, preached April,             writes that we  vi6lated  Art. 79 of the Church Order, he
195 1, is condemned.                                                simply does not know what he is talking about.
    "b. The same is true of the sermon preached by him                 The classis  $t the same  time appointed a delegation of 3
September, 1952.                                                    ministers and 2 elders~to serve the consistory with informa-
    "c. The Rev. De Wolf is asked to retract and %pologize.         tion concerning. this decision and with advice.
    "As soon as convenient for you, I  tiould  like to  ha;ve a        According to Prof.  Dedd&s,  the consistory of the First
copy of your reply to this protest."                                Church first censured the Rev.  De Wolf with the help of
    The question, how it was possible that the consistory           the classis? and on the next day deposed him. According to
could vote in favor of De Wolf by a vote of 9 to 8, is of           Prof. Deddens, suspension of a minister must be done with
minor importance. It is, however, easily explained by the           the help of  ,the neighboring, `or nearest, consistory. This,
following facts. One of our good elders, Mr. 0. van Ellen,          according to him, was never done, but on the contrary, the
died. I was absent. And the  Rev. Ophoff was  told that he          Rev. De Wolf was suspended with the help of the  classis
could not vote. And the Chairman did not vote. If it had            and deposed with the help of the nearest consistory.
not been for these facts, the  n?otion would have been de-             Worse nonsense I have never read.
feated by a vote of 12 to 9. But as I say, this is a minor             In the first place, the Rev. De Wolf was never deposed,
matter.                                                             but only suspended. Does not Prof. Deddens know that
    My purpose is to call the attention of Prof. Deddens to         according to Art. 79 a minister can be suspended with the
the fact that so far the procedure was certainy  perfecty legal.    advice of the nearest consistory, but that he cannot be de-
He cannot possibly deny me the right to protest against a           posed except with the adyice  of the classis and of the dele-
certain action of the consistory to  classis.                       gates ad examina of the neighboring classis ? Or does Prof.
    It stands to reason that I never received an answer to          Deddens perhaps have the idea that we are such babes in
my protest. The answer could not pass through the  con-             the woods that we  know  nothing about Reformed church
sistory, because those that had been in favor of the original       polity, and that we must be instructed by some conceited
motion were now in the minority.                                    professor in the old country.? We assure him that not "we
    Thus the matter came to classis, April, 1953.                   are guilty of misunderstanding, but that Prof. Deddens is
    Plfter  a very lengthy deliberatiqn, the classis finally de-    evidently totally ignorant of the facts in the case.
cided .as follows :                                                    We now come to the meetings of the consistory of June
    "Classis advises the Consistory of the First Church:            1, 15, 22, and 23, 1953, where the Rev. De Wolf was finally
                                                                    suspended (not deposed), and the elders following him were
    "a. To  denland that the Rev. De Wolf make a public             deposecl.  Also in regard to these meetings Prof. Deddens
apology for having made the two statements in question.             reveals his inexcusable ignorance. But .let me briefly relate
    "b. That the Consistory also publicly apologize for  having     what occurred at these metings.
supported the Rev. De Wolf with respect to the two state-              At the  melting  of June 1, which Prof. Dedclens con-
ments in question.                                                  veniently entirely ignores, a motion was made and adopted
    "Classis further advises the Consistory of First Church:        by the consistory by majority vote "to  adopt the advice of
    "a. That in case the Rev. De Wolf  -shoulcl  refuse to          the  classis and to act accordingly."
apologize, which our God graciously forbids, the Consistory            Mark you well that this decision is fundamental for the
proceed to suspend him from the office of the ministry of the       whole case,. For by this decision the consistory declared
Word and the Sacraments. according to the pertinent articles        that the Rev. De Wolf and the elders that followed him were
of the  D.K.O.                                                      declared guilty, and that. unless they apologized  f9r their
    "1). That in case any elder or elders should refuse to          sin they would be suspended and deposed. In other words,
submit to the proposed action as stipulated under number            by this decision the Rev. De Wolf "nd the elders that agreed
2-b, which God graciously forbid, such elder or elders should       with him were already declared to be worthy of suspension
be disciplined according to the articles of the  D.K.O.  per-       and deposition unless they apologized. They certainly were
taining thereto."                                                   in a state of guilt. In.other wor.ds,  after this decision, which
   Now Prof. Deddens may disagree with the contents of              was carried by a majority vote of the consistory, it could
this decision, as he undoubtedly does, but he certainly can-        never be said that De Wolf and his elclers  were suspended

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

  and deposed by a minority of the consistory, unless the               Perhaps I will write still more about the fodlishness and
  motion and decision of June 1 were first rescinded by a two-      ignorance of Prof. Deddens. But for the time being this
  thirds majority of the consistory. And the latter was never       must be- suffi&ent.  And I kindly ask Prof. Deddens to admit
  done.                                                             that he did not know anything about the,case,  that he did not
         At that meeting the Rev. De Wolf and the elders that       investigate it, and that therefore it was very foolish on his
 filowed  him asked for time to consider the matter, and they       part to write .about  it.
  even asked whether they might meet together for considera-                                                                  H. H.
 tion. This probably should never  hake been done: never-
 theless, the consistory granted them the privilege.
         At the June 15 meeting no important action was taken,
  but it appeared at that meeting that De Wolf and his guilty                                  Announcements
  elders had not yet met to consider whether they would
 apologize or- be suspended and cleposed. They played poli-             Classis  East of the Protestant Reformed Churches  will
 tics. They waited for the installation of another elder, that      meet on Wednesday morning, April.6. 1955, at 9 o'clock in
  would take the place of Mr. 0. van Ellen, who had died.           the Hope Protestant Reformed Church. Will the Consistories,
                                                                    resorting in Classis  East kindly take note.
 And they hoped that then they could still  h&e a majority                                               M.  Schipper,  Stated Clerk
 in the consistory, or at least draw a tie vote.
         The nest meeting was that of June 22. At that meeting          The Eastern League of Men's Societies will hold their
 all the elders were present, including fhe newly elected one.      Membership meeting March 17, at  8 o'clock in the Fourth
 The president was asked now to place the Rev. De Wolf and          Protestant Reformed Church. Rev. R.  Veldman  will speak.
 his accused elders before the question decided upon in the         Topic: "Women Suffrage in the Church."
 meeting of June 1. Then some more politics followed. One                                                                    The Board
 of the guilty elders remarked that before the chair asked the
 above mentioned question, a motion must be made to that
effect. Such a motion was, of course, entirely out of order
 because the matter had been decided at the June 1 meeting.                              TEACHERS WANTED
 The motion was made and carried. It was immediatey re-
 marked that on this motion the guilty officebearers could             Hull Christian School  - Four or more teachers September 1.
 not possibly vote. This was maintained not, as Prof.  Ded-         Openings.  iu kindergarten, grade one or two, two  in intermediate
 dens remarked, because they could not vote in their own            department. College trainiug and musical ability desired. For-
                                                                    ward references directly. Write Fred Van Engen or Principal
 `&se,  - which in itself is perfectly true,- but because they      Norman Vander Ark, Hull, Iowa.
 were declared-in a state of guilt. And I was taught at the
 seminary that no one, whether he be an officebearer or a
 common member, can ever vote in any case whatsoever while
 he is in a state of guilt. This,' I believe, is sound Reformed                                  IN MEMORIAM
 church polity, and is also maintained by the well-known
 Roberts' Rdes of Order. Prof. Deddens, however, seems to              On February 5, 1955 the Lord unexpectedly removed from
 be of the opinion, according to what he writes in De Refoma-       our midst our beloved husband, father and grand-father,
 die,  that this is nothing but a reign of terror,,- to use his
 own terminology. But we beg to differ with him? and main-                                     EMKO RUTGERS
 tain that he is utterly in error. We can truly say, there-
 fore, that the motion regarding the apology of the Rev. De . at the  age of 65 years. Although our  loss is deeply felt, we are
                                                                    comforted by His grace in the assurance that, "We know that
 Wolf was carried unanimously, even though it stodd at a            if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have
 vote of  ,11 to 11 if you count the guilty officebearers. And      a building of  God;an house not made with hands, eternal in the
 the vote regarding the apology of the guilty elders was also       heavens." H Cor. 5  :l.
 carried unanimously, even though, if you count the vote of                                         Mrs. Emko Rutgers
 the guilty elders. it stood as 12 in favor and 11 against. They                                    Mr.  aud Mrs. Harry Rutgers
 refused to apologize. And therefore according to the decision                                      Mr. and Mrs. Jacob. Fischer
                                                                                                    Mr. and Mrs. Henry Zandstra
 by the consistory at its June 1st meeting, it had already been                                     Rev. and Mrs. George  Lasting
 decided that the Rev. De Wolf should be-suspended and the                                          Mr. and Mrs. Jacob W. Regnerus
 elders should be deposed.                                                                          cornelia Rutgers
     For this purpose the June  23rd meeting was held. And                                          Emma Rutgers
                                                                                                    Joan Rutgers
 for the same purpose the consistory of the Fourth Protes-                                          and 19 grand-children
 tant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids was called ifi.'              Oak Lawn, Ill.


                                            - T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               271

II                                                                     sick, nor a promise of God that He will hear such a prayer.
            O U R   DOCT'RINE                                         And if our sickness is of such a nature that through it the
                                                                       Lord says to us, "Prepare thy house, for thou shalt die, and
                                                                      not live," it is not pious to turn  oui-  face to the wall and
               THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE                                   weep and to let the Lord know that we are neither pre-
                                                                      pared  nor willing to leave the earthly house of this taber-
       AN EXPOSITION OF THE HEIDELBERG  CATECSIISM                    nacle and move to our heavenly house of God. .In such cases
                PART  III  -  OF  THANKFULNESS                        we should answer: "Yes, Lord, I will be ready in a minute.
                                                                      It won't take me long to set my earthly house in order."
                         LORD'S DAY 45                                This applies to all ordinary circumstances. But the circum-
                                                                      stances under which Hezekiah prayed were quite extraordin-
                            Chapter 2                                 ary. In fact, they were such that he could plead on the basis of
                 The  Requi+ites  of True Prayer                      God's own  -sure promises against the Word of the Lord
                                                                      that now came unto him both through his sickness and by
      Let  us  consider just one of the several passages of  the      the mouth of Isaiah.
Word of God that are quoted in support of what neverthe-                 What were these circumstances ?
less must be considered a very corrupt and carnal conception
of prayer- a passage that is perhaps more often appealed                 They were, first of all, that Jerusalem `and Judah were
to than any other. Fan1  referring to the prayer of Hezekiah.         threatened with destruction by the world power of Assyria.
the king of Judah.                                                    It was evidently before Jerusalem had been delivered from
                       You  are all acquainted, no doubt, with
the incident in Hezekiah's  life that occasioned the prayer, as       -the. power of that mighty and ravening -enemy that Heze-
tie11 as with the prayer itself and its `result. The king  was-       kiah became sick, and that he felt that he could not set his
sick. And his sickness was unto death. Moreover, the Word             house in order and die. We cannot fail to notice that the
of the Lord came unto him by the mouth of the prophet                 promise he receives upon his prayer for recovery includes
Isaiah : "Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and           the assurance that Jerusalem shall be delivered out  of, the
not live." But Hezekiah was not ready to set his house in             hand of the king of Assyria.
order and to die. He, prayed earnestly to the Lord:  "I be-              But  this, is not all:
seech thee, 0 Lord, remember now how I have walked before               In the abstract it was quite conceivable that Hezekiah
thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that            should die, and that the Lord would deliver the city through
which is good in thy sight." And in answer to that prayer             his successor on the throne. But it is evident from the text
the prophet Isaiah was ordered to turn back to the king               in its context that when Hezekiah was stricken with this
at once with. this message : "Thus saith the Lord, the God            fatal disease, he had as yet no son. There was no seed of
of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen             David. And that made it absolutely impossible for the king
thy tears: behold, I will heal thee; on the third day thou            to set his house in order and die. It was exactly in this
shalt go up into the house of the Lord. And I will add unto           respect that he could base his plea for recovery on the sure
thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city         promise of God. Had not God established His- covenant
out of the hand of the king of Assyria ; and I will defend this       with the house of David ? He had. Definitely He had prom-
city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake."             ised His servant David, according to II Samuel 7:12-16:  "I
The king recovered from his fatal disease. Now there are              twill set up thy seed  aft&- thee, which shall proceed out of
especially two questions that are of interest and importance          thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall
in connection with our present discussion of the subject of           build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of
prayer. The first question is: did Hezekiah in this case not          his kingdom for ever. I shall be his father, and he shall be
pray directly against the will of the Lord ? And did he by            my -son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with
this prayer not change the mind of th& &lost High and God's           the rod of man, and with the stripes of the children of men:
way  with, him? And does, then, this prayer not furnish  us           but my mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from
with a firm ground for the view that we too do the same               Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and
thing, and expect the same result? Is it not a real proof of          thy kingdom shall be established for -ever before thee: thy
faith and piety, when we are sick, to turn in prayer to the           throne shall be established for ever." On the basis of this
Lord. and beseech Him  to heal  us,  that we may  ,not die?           promise Hezekiah could plead for recovery, even against
And the ,second  question, closely related to the first, is this :    the Word of the Lord that was sent to him at that moment.
do we not have here a clear illustration and proof that the           He could not possibly die, for he had no son. Had he died
L&-d does change His mind sometimes, upon  oui  request?              at that time, the seed of `David would have been cut off.
      Both these questions must be answered with a mosr em-           And that means that Christ would never have come.            -
phatic No. In ordinary circumstances we have no ground                  It is true that the king does not literally mention this
for the prayer that God may send recovery when we are                 ground in his prayer. But it is equally true that he  .cloes

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

plead not on the basis of a certain self-righteousness, but        change the will and mind of the absolute Sovereign of all
on the ground of the fact that he had walked in the way of         the universe, so that through our prayers not His will but
that covenant of God when he says : "I beseech thee.  0            our will is done, I must not only utterly disagree with such
Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in                a view of prayer, but I also wish to `state emphatically that I
truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is        must utterly abhor it. If ever I felt as if by my prayer I
good in  ;hy sight." There was no reason why God should            changed the mind of the ever-living and all-wise God, never
take the covenant of David  away from him, as it had been          would I have the courage to utter another petition. We do
removed from the house of Saul. And it is equally true that        not approach the overflowing fountain -of all `good in order
in God's answer to Hezekiah's prayer this ground of the            to pour anything of ourselves into it and to add to its spar-
Davidic covenant is plainly referred to: for Isaiah must           kling goodness, but with the empty cups of our existence,
answer the king: "Thus saith the Lord,  the  God of David          that they may be filled by Him.
thy  fatlwr,  I have seen thy tears; behold, I will heal thee."      But still mo.re follows from this fundamental principle of
The conclusion, therefore, which you may draw from this            all prayer, that it must be directed to the only true and living
incident of Hezekiah's prayer is not that when you are sick,       God, as He had revealed Himself in His Word. In this
the Lord will surely heal you if you only pray persistehtly,       consciousness. the sense of our real need ii quite different
but that fhe Lord will surely hear the prayer that is based        from what we usually in our earthly-mindedness and car-
upon  His own covenant and promise, no matter what may             nality conceive it to be. For as w'e present ourselves before
be the circumstances.                                              the face of the living God, as He has revealed Himself in
  And as to the second question, did God in this particular        His Word, we are impressed and overwhelmed with a sense
instance change His mind, our answer  mu& again be em-             of His holiness. In that sense many of our imagined needs
phatically negative. God never had in mind to let Hezekiah         begin to appear as the products- of our sinful desires. In
die, and to discontinue His covenant with David, ultimately        answer to Question 118, "What hath God commanded us to
with Christ. That would have been impossible. For God is           ask of him ?" the Catechism replies : "All things necessary
faithful and true: He certainly establishes His covenant for-      for soul and body." But do not forget that the Catechism
ever. What then? ,Did the Lord lie when He sent His Word           adds that all those needs for soul .and body are comprised in
to the king. "Thou shalt die, and not live ?" God forbid that      the Lord's Prayer:
we should ever entertain such a thought, even for a moment.
He merely dealt with Hezekiah as He often deals with                 ' What are our real needs ?
us and with all His children, pedagogically, that is, for his         0, perhaps before we stand really in prayer before the
instruction. And for the purpose of accomplishing this He          face of the living God, we had in mind to pray for many
revealed His complete will to the king piecemeal, bit by bit,      things. Perhaps we had it in our heart to pray for pros-
in order that he, and also Isaiah and the remnant according        perity, for meat and drink, for abundance of earthly things,
to the election of grace, might be tested, cry unto the Lord,      for health and joy, for peace and earthly happiness for
and thus be purified and strengthened in their faith in            ourselves and for our children. But when we really come to
Jehovah their God. For it was the Lord's full counsel in           stand face -to face with the Holy One of Israel,- we deeply
this case that He should test them by bringing the king to         realize that after all these desires are carnal and sinful, that
the edge of the grave and to the certainty of death, in order      they represent the things after which the Gentiles seek ; and
that thus He might teach them to cry unto the Lord, and in         our intended petitions die on our lips.  Perhaps~  there. is
the way of prayer might show them His mercy and deliver            sickness in our home, and we are not satisfied with God's
them. Often the Lord makes it dark and apparently hope-            way, and we-approach the throne of grace firmly determined
less for His cause and people in the world, in orderthat  they     to beseech the Lord  bf all to  femove  the sickness and to
may learn nbt to .put their confidence in princes, but to cry      restore the sick to health. But as we stand in the presence
to the Lord Sabaoth and to trust that salvation is of the          of the Most High, we realize that He knows better than we
Lord.                                                              what we really need, and  that He sends us all things in order
  Hence, I deny that prayer ever changes things, or changes        to prepare us for His eternal kingdom. And we change our
the mind of God.                                                   prayer into a petition for grace to will His will. Perhaps
  Or rather, let me put it this  iyay.  I can agree in a  sense    we thought, as Asaph, that we had reason to murmur and
that prayer certainly changes things, provided you mean            to criticize the ways of the Almighty because we  see the
that it pleases `God to execute His own unchangeable counsel       wicked prosper, while our own punishment is there every
and cause His own kingdom  to_ come in the way of the              morning. But in the sanctuary of God, face to face with the
prayers of His saints, which He Himself  .works in their           Holy One of Israel, the only true God, we see all things
hearts by His Spirit and instructs them to pray by His             in the light of the end. And shamefaced because of our
Word. But if  y$u should mean that by our prayers we               murmuring spirit, we now confess that it is good for us to
struction and madness, devastation and death. Our sons are         be near unto God. Perhaps there is war in the world,  de-


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                             2      7    3
                                                                                                    -.
                    -. -._ ___. -
called to battle. And quite thoughtlessly, even considering        conscious when we approach the throne of our Father in
it an act of piety, we hastened to the throne of the Almighty,     heaven. And the knowledge that we present ourselves be-
and earnestly meant to beseech Him to stop the war at once         fore' the living God, Who knows all our hearts and the
and to restore peace. But as soon as we are really and             secrets within, will also. impress upon us that we must come
consciously in  .the presence of His majesty, we hear Him          before Him with truth in the inmost heart. We cannot ap-
say : "I. the Lord, am he that  doetli all these things!  1        proach Him with a lie in our right hand. We must feel in
make peace, but I also cause war to come. And all -these           our hearts that we really desire the things we ask of Him,
things are subservient to the realization of My counsel and        that we really hunger and thirst after righteousness, that
the coming of My kingdom." And with fear and trembling             we really ask Him for the forgiveness -of sins,, and for the
we choke back our intended petition for peace, and say inA         deliverance from evil. And we must really have forgiven
stead: "Thy will be done, Our Father Who art in heaven."           one another before we can appear before Him with the
0, it is easy in our prayers to ask the questions of anxiety       prayer, "Forgive  us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."
and earthly-mindedness : "What shall we eat and what shall         We must really desire that His name be glorified, that His
we drink, and where withal shall we be clothed?" as long           kingdom may come, that His will may be done, and that too,
as we really pray to an  idol.. But as soon as our prayers         regardless of what may become of our name, of ourkingdom,
become petitions to the living and only true God, all these        of our will, in order to utter before Him the first three
carnal petitions die on our lips, and we begin to seek first       petitions of the Lord's Prayer. For He requires truth in our
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, confident that           i n m o s t   h e a r t s .                                               H.H.
all other things shall be added unto us.
   Indeed, this one  lx-inciple  determines the contents of                              WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
our prayer. Motivated by that fundamental principle, we               On March  10, 1955 our dear parents and grandparents
shall always ask for those things which God has commanded                             MR. and MRS. J. R. VANDERWAL
us  in His Word.                                                   celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary.
   The same fundamental principle, that we direct our                 We are thankful to our God who gave them to us and our
prayer to the one only true God, as He has revealed Himself        prayer is that He may bless them in the way that lies ahead and
in His Word in Christ Jesus our Lord, also determines the          that they may experience. that there is no peace apart from
                                                                   God.
spiritual attitude we assume in our prayers.                                                              Their grateful children
   Of this the Catechism speaks in the last part of Question                '                                       Mr. and Mrs. M. Gaastra
117 in the following words : "that so we may-deeply humble                                                          5 great  granchildren
ourselves in the presence of his divine majesty ; thirdly, that                                                  - 4 grandchildren
                                                                   308 W. Lugonia, Redlands, California
we be fully persuaded that he, notwithstanding -that we are
unworthy of it, will, for the sake of Christ our Lord, cer-
tainly hear our prayer, as he has promised                                                        IN MEMORIAM
                                               us in his word."
   In this answer I find especially three elements.                   The Ladies' Society of the Oak Lawn Protestant Reformed
                                                                   Church expresses its sympathy with two of its members, Mrs.
   First of all, there is the element of humility. Humility        E. Rutgers in the loss of her husband, and Mrs. J. W. Regnerus
will certainly characterize our attitude in prayer if we ap-       in the loss of her father,
proach Him in the consciousness of His glory and majesty.                                         EMKO RUTGERS
This means, first of all, that we know that He is the Lord,           May they find comfort in His grace by which we confess,
the fulness of all riches, the overflowing fountain of all         "In God is my salvation and my glory, the rock of my strength,
good, and that we are empty, always in need of Him. We             and my refuge, is in God."  Psahn  62:7
can never bring anything to Him, or add anything to His                                                   Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg, President
infinite fulness. We come then with our little empty cups                                                 Mrs. J. Buiter, Secretary
to the fountain, that- they may be filled. God is all: we are                                     IN, MEMORIAM
nothing. That is true humility. But this humility implies
more. For we are sinners, and have forfeited all things.             The Men's Society of the Protestant Reformed Church in Oak
                                                                   Lawn, Illinois, mourns the loss of one  o,f its members
True humility, therefore, also means that we approach Him                                         EMKO RUTGERS
with the confession of our utter unworthiness in ourselves
to receive ought from Him, yea, of our being worthy to be          whom, very suddenly, the Lord took home.
                                                                      To Mrs. Rutgers and the saddened family we express our
damnecl.                                                           deep sympathy and pray that they may be comforted by the
   Secondy,  and in connection with this true humility, and        Holy- Spirit in the assurance of faith that "All things work to-
motivated by it, we will realize that we can approach God          gether for good unto them that love God and are called accord-
only in Christ Jesus, and on the ground of His perfect right-      ing to His purpose." Rom.  8%
                                                                   Oak Lawn,  111.
eousness, and that we are above all in need of grace. Of this                                             Rev. G.  Vanden Berg, President
need of grace in Christ Jesus our Lord we must be clearly                                                 Mr. H.  .Ipema,  Ass? Secretary

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

II                                                                   of God the turning of Judah's captivity was the prophetic.
            THE DAY OF SHADOWS                                   II type.The promked md nccomplished snlantion the proof that
                                                                     He alone ,is God, xliii. 9-13
                   The Prophecy of Isaiah                                  9. Let all the nations be gathered together.
      5. Do not thou fear: for with thee - I : _                             ,And let the people be assembled:
        From the east will I bring thy  seed?                                Who among them can declare this,
         And from the west I will gather thee;                        .      And cause us to hear former things?
      6. I willsay  to the north, Give up ;                                  Let them. bring forth their witnesses, that they may be
         And to, the south, Keep not back                                         justified :
         Bring my sons from far,                                             And let them hear and say, It is truth.                  I
                                                                                                                             .
        And my daughters from the end of the earth :                        The "nations? are the Gentiles  ; the "people"  -is Israel.
      7. All that are called by my name:                             It is best to imagine that in the prophetic vision the ~LI~~II~~II~
         Because for my glory I have created  him? formed            was obeyed so that the prophet has before his eye two as-
             him, yea made him                                       semblies, one of Gentiles and` the other of God's people.
      8. Bring forth the people blind that have eyes,                Addressing the latter, the prophet declares, "Who among
         And the deaf that have ears.                                them can declare this . . . ?" The demonstrative "this" looks
       The subject addressed is still Jacob-Israel, the church       back to vss. 1-8. The meaning is: What man, heathen
of the elect. She possesses an innumerable seed seeing that          prophet, in all that vast assembly of Gentiles is able to fore-
by the Word of God to Abraham all the nations of the earth           tell the marvels that Jehovah has shown through me His
are blessed in  him, that is, in Christ. The Lord assures the        organ ? He cannot. The idol that he represents and for
church that he will surely gather her seed, from the re-             whom he speaks cannot (the two must be regarded as one  j .
motest ends of the earth. That is, without fail He will save         Both are vanity, nothingness.
His elect in every nation and as united by a common faith                   Or  come us to hew the former things? Cause us to hew,
in Christ make them to appear before His face in Zion as             that is,  slzew  US. If the reference is to past events, there
clothed with heavenly perfection and glory. God's people             would be no point to this challenge. For events of the past
need not fear that one of them will be lacking. The whole            are easily known from  histroy. By "former or first works"
house will be full. Not one place in the family of redeemed          must therefore be understood the works of the Lord of the
will be vacant.                                                      nearer future, the spoilation of the Babylon- empire by Cyrus
       How could He fail to gather this seed ? The gathered          and the turning of Judah's captivity in distinction from the
ones are His sons and daughters. By His own will He                  working .of the Lord of the far distant future from the point
begot them. They are called of Him by His name - holiness            of view of the prophet, the advent of Christ, His atonement,
to the Lord  - that they should be to His glory,  - His              the gathering of the church in the Gospel period, the final
people by nature blind and deaf but as His sons and daugh-           judgment and world catastrophe.
ters seeing and hearing.                                                   That by the expression "former or first events" is to be
       Yes He will gather them`by His Word and His Spirit.           understood world happenings of the future and not of the
He will say to the East, the West, the North and the South,          past is plain from xli. 21-23, were the expression also oc-
to the world-power of this earth and to every evil power             curs, "Produce your cause, saith the Lord ; bring forth your
that it represents  - death, hell and the grave  - He will           strong  ?-ecrsons,  saith the king of Jacob. Let them bring
say, * "Give up ; keep not back." And so it will be. The proof       forth, and show us what will happen: let them show the
is Cyrus the Mede. He iet the Jews in captivity ga `free that        former (first) things, what they be  (sJznl1 be), that we may
they might return to their own place. For His heart was `in          set our heart upon them, and know the latter end of them :
`the Lord's hand.                                                    and declare us things for to come. Show the things that are
       Such is here `the promise. And as always it is uncon-         to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea.
ditional. And it is given only to the elect, to the sons and         do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed. and behold
the daughters, to suc11  as are called by His name, to the blind     it together."
that have eyes and to the deaf that have ears. And though                   I quote the whole passage, because it is only when con-
coming first to Judah in the captivity of. the exile. it pertains    sidered in its setting that the expression can be understood.
to the whole church in every place. For it is a seed that is         We must take notice that the idols, to prove their divinity.
to be gathered from the ends of the earth. It is a mistake           must say what the future will be. This stands to reason,
to limit this word of the Lord to the Jews. What is here             since world happenings of the past are known from history.
promised is the gathering of the church as comprehending             The "first things" are therefore the happenings to come.
both the chosen Jews and the elect Gentiles. Of this working         These are the things that the idol must  ,show. This will


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   -                                       275

make it possible for their contemporaries to ponder these            being His servant chosen of Him that through the word of
happenings and thereby come to understand then! in their             prophecy and all His marvelous works of salvation in ful-
full potential for the ages posterior to them. The "first            fillment thereof  - words of prophecy that are with them
things" are the events to come in their inception or begin-          and in their hearts - they might know and belieGe  Him and
ning while their "latter end" is these same events in their          mlclerstand  that "I am He," that is, that He is the God and            '
bearing on the ages subsequent to them. Considered by it-            none else. And the evidence (valid only for faith)  ? Before
self, the expression "former or first things" may denote past        Him there was no god formed nor will be after Him, mean-
as well as future world happenings. But as proof for the             ing that as the eternal God He is the first and the last and
divinity of the idols the "first things" must necessarily be         that therefore the idols are less than nothing (10)
happenings that they foretold.                                           Truly He alone is the Lord; the only Saviour. And once
    Let  them  - the heathen prophets  -  lkng  forth  the&          more, the evidence ? He has declare!, prophesied, what He
witnesses,  that is, persons in whose hearing their predictions      will do, foretold the things first and last, and actually saved
of the "first things," workings of the Lord, world happen-           His people in the past over and over in fulfillment of His
ings to come, were made and who will testify to that effect.         promise (11). And His prophecies cannot be ascribed to
In this way the claim of the heathen that their gods are             the idols, because He  shewed.. when as yet there was no
divine will be .established  and they themselves justified.          strange god among them. Essentially there is but one prom-
    And  let  them  hear  nud  my, It is the  tmth,,  them,  .the    ise, prophecy, proclaimed immediately after the fall at the
witnesses. If there be heathen soothsayers, prophets, who            dawn of history, "I will set enmity etc."
say that all along they foretold the "first things," let them            Therefore His redeemed people are His witnesses that
produce witnesses who heard them prophesy, and who can               He is Goi (`11,  12), that before the .day He was -`that in a
therefore testify, It is truth. So they prophesied.                  word, He is from everlasting to everlasting God  - that there
   There could be no such witnesses. There could be no               is none than can deliver out of His hand and from His wrath
heathen soothsayers, prophets, who all along had been fore-          but He alone, and that He will surely work this deliverance
telling the (`first things," the overthrow of Babylon by Cyrus       and that none shall deter it (13).
and the turning of Judah's captivity. Here human foresight               His redeem&d  people are His witnesses because as expe-
failed. For at the time that the Lord foretold these "first          riencing His  salvati6n they taste that the Lord is gracious.
things" Babylon as a world power had not even begun to               And His word of prophecy dwells rightly in them. And so,
make its appearance.                                                 as activated by His love in them, they witness, bear witness
                                                                     for the truth that He is God, etc.                                 I
   10. Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lorcl.                             The Lord `s servant here is the church of the elect as is
            And niy servant whom I have chosen:                      evident from the expression, `?!e are my servant." -They  are
            That ye may know and believe me                          called witnesses because they see with their own eyes and
            Ancl understand that I am He:                            have personal knowledge of all His wonderful works.
            Before me there was no God formed,                           The delivemnce  mad ret& of Ismel fvom the' Babylonian
            Neither shall there be after me.                         captivity,  sliii. 14-17.
   11.  i CMP~, the Lord ;                                             14. Thus saith the Lord,
            And there is not beside me a saviour.                           Your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
   12. I have declared and saved,                                           For your sake I have sent to Babylon,
            And I have  causecl  to hear, when there was among              Ancl  have brought down their fugitives all,
                you no strange god :                                        Ancl'the Chalcleans whose cry is in their ships.
            Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord,                       15. I am the Lord, your Holy One,
            That I am God.                                                  The creator of Israel your king.
   13. Yea, before thk day was I am He ;                               16. Thus saith the Lord,
            And there is none that can deliver out of my hand :             That maketh  a way in the sea,
            I will work and who shall turn it back ?                        And in the waters a mighty path;
    The gods of the heathen had their witnesses. their proph-          17. Which bringeth forth the chariot and the horse,
ets that spoke in their name but that could not foretell the                The army and his power together;
former or first things to prove -thereby the divinity of their              They shall lie down and not rise
deities.                                                                    They are extinguished, they are quenched as tow.
    But in distinction from the gods of the heathen the Lord             The vanity of the idols has now again just been exposed.
knows all things because He works all things according to            They were asked to shew the "first things," not events of
the counsel of His will, the things that are first and the things    the past that could be known from history, nor future hap-
last. And therefore He alone can and does prophesy.                  pening near at hand that human foresight could conjecture?
    And His people, Jacob-Israel, are His witnesses, they                                 (Coltfilmed   on  jmgc  288)


2      7    6                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                     fruit, is. can there be joy and peace, and, again, only where
            F R O M   H O L Y   W R I T                              peace is  can we expect to find the spiritual-psychological
                                                                     disposition expressed in the "fruits" : longmferhg, useful-
                                                                     nncss,q goodness, tl,~~st-worthiness, meekness a:pLd selfcontrol!
Continuation of Expositon of Galatians 5:22, 23                          Let us briefly notice each of these virtues in their  as-
      In our former article on this text we noticed that the         cencling scale of spiritual fruits, most practical and most
chief subject of Paul in this passage is, that, since we.a,ye the    gratifying to all, who love the Lord in Spirit and in truth.
free-born sons in the Lord, we ought also to walk in this              The first of these virtues is :  Zo~~zgsL$t&ng.  We should
freedom, and not be ensnared in a yoke of bondage of the             bear in mind that longsuffering is a manifestation of love,
works of the law, For we have been powerfully and irre-              joy, and peace. For "peace" is indeed as an umpire in the
sistibly called to freedom.                                          games. It is the inward power of real, spiritual self-control.
     However, Paul here raises a warning finger. We are not          It is the peace of Christ that rules in our life. It insists that
to use our liberty as an occasion to the flesh, but by love we       we do not use odr liberty as if it were license. It only desires
are to serve one another. And this is fulfilling the law of          that each esteem the other greater than himself. Only where
Christ; it is walking according to the rule of the living faith      a man has great peace in his heart, the joy of love, can he be
in Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit in our hearts.                "longsuffering" toward his brother.
      When- this is not clone Satan has his "hour" in the               .What  is the meaning of being "longsuffering ?"
church.                                                                Literally this term means : to be long of breath, long of
      Then the fruits of the Holy Spirit of God, through whom        wrath. It means that there is such an inward spiritual self-
we are sealed unto the day of redemption, do not come to             control that we do not explode in wrath. Shall such a long-
manifestation. Then we walk so, that with a free and good            suffering be free from inward spiritual-psychological  tcnsiorz
conscience we do nbt fight against sin and unbelief, and             then it must be rooted deeply in the joy, peace and love of
with the joyful assurance of the final victory in the day oi         the Holy Spirit. Otherwise the longsuffering is impossible.
Christ.                                                              Without there, longsuff ering cannot possibly be exercizecl in
      Fact is, that then the church has the appearance of wild       a true and living faith. -Hence, we will have to study utlto
                                                                     salvation as new creatures. We will  nee&  have to crucify
animals who are at each otherfs  throats. Hear Paul's warn-          the flesh with the works thereof. Nay, we must not simply
ing: If ye bite and devour one another, beware lest ye be            crucify the o~utzuard ntanifesta.tiopz of the sin of "outburst of
consumed one of another.                                             wrath," but we shall have to crucify the very ntotives from'
      Such is the general subject here!                              which these spring in heartfelt conversion, and that, too, clay
      Now Paul shows how this life of the Spirit and the flesh       by day. Then we shall be longsuffering in very  cleecl to-
in us are constantly at warfare &thin us. The flesh lusts            wards each other and not simply in worcls. Then the song
against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh' so that         of love, as sung by Paul in I Cor. 13 will surely be in our
ye do not do the things ye would. Just hdw the flesh reveals         hearts, and we shall understand why the very "keynote" of,
itself we have seen in an earlier essay. And in the former           this love as it reveals itself among the brethren here in tba
essay we have begun to show something of the.positive  fruits        imperfect church will be : love is ZoH.qsQering. I  Car.. 13 :4
of the "Spirit" in our hearts.                                       where this longsuffering  is, should we, out of the great love
      Let us continue.                                               for God and His people, be willing to endure all things.
      We notice that. the first triad of fruits is: love, joy and        Blessed is the man who has this fruit of the Holy Spirit
peace. These are most emphatically the "fruits" of the Holy          in his life,
Spirit. They are in no sense of the word fruits which can                For such a man is full of "kindness  ;" he is spiritually
come up out of the natural man. They are the "good works             `ZUP~U~  in God's church. He is not a triangle in a square,
which God hath before prepared that we should walk  iti              a man that fits nowhere, a spiritual misfit. a self-centered
them." Eph.  2:lO. Hence, they are such fruits of the Spirit         egoist, who imagines that the whole of the life of the con-
which are indicative that we have a true and living faith in         gregation evolves about him rather than evolving around
Christ. And having this true and living faith it is impossible       God. Such a man is always ready when duty calls. Nothing
that we should not bring forth fruits unto thankfulness.             is too much. He can do all things through Christ who
     That these "fruits" may be evidenced in our lives the           strengthens him. Being very slow to wrath, since the peace
Scripture comes to us with "admonitions, threatenings and            of Christ reigns in his heart, he is not cast to and fro by
warnings." For God  co?zfel,s  grace through admonitions as          all kinds of selfish whims, but he is constant in purpose true.
these latter are "means of grace !"                                  He is "useful," denies himsdf,  takes up his Cross and follows
      Now it is spiritually-psychologically true that where the      Christ wherever he leads. Such' usefulness is awarded a
first triad of "fruits" are present, love, joy and peace, the        h&dred times in this life and .in the life to come.
other fruits will also needs be present; without the former              And this usefulness too is a "fruit" of the  Holy Spirit,
the latter are not possible. Only  where  love, as the. basic        which is the fulfillment of the law which saith: Thou shalt


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               277

love they neighbor as thyself! 0, where this "usefulness" as        faith without respect of persons. Only where this is present
a fruit of the Spirit manifests itself the godly will not need      will we be serving one another by love. And thus we will
to groan: every man seeketh his own! Here all will be               walk not as those  z~zdsv   In-d, but as such who are  W&Y
minding, setting their spiritual affections upon the  same' gmce !
thing. Here we will indeed see the striving to keep the unity           The fruits of the spirit are most practical. However, they
-of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Here the deep conscious-       are more than morality and legality. They are "fruits of the
ness of having one Lord, one faith, baptism, love, and one          Spirit." Let this sink deep into our hearts. And the Spirit
God, Who is above all, through all and  in all, will be the         brings forth these fruits in our hearts as a conscious reality
impulse to further blessed fruits of the Spirit. In the lives       by means of the preaching of the Word. Thus we are
of such there will be no "tensions" which drive to despair,         brought forth as "some firstfruits of the new creation."
but such will take all their burdens to the Lord and leave          James 1 :18.
them there. For here we see the love that is perfected. And
in this perfect love there is no fear. Would to God that                Behold the threefold strand  vvhich  is not easily broken:
all ministers and elders understood this spiritual secret in        longsuff ering, usefulness and goodness !
holy fear and trembling. Here we have the soul of the                   Nay, where these fruits are there will be other fruits
Christian analyzed. Let not any man say: you have no                also. Here are the many an much fruit in which the Father
right to judge me. I do not judge you, but the Word of              is glorified !
God which I here explain judges every one of  us in our                 For, notice, that there will be also the fruit called: faith-
conscience. It is sharper than any two-edged sword and              fulness, trustworthiness. The useful man, being longsuff er-
passes into the dividing asunder of the bone and marrow             ing, gains the confidence of all. None doubt his sincerity.
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the. heart.       When he speaks he speaks not lightly but with truth and
All things are naked and open with whom we have to do.              love sincere. Strictly speaking true faithfulness one never
    Hence, let Us crucify the flesh  v&h the passions and           finds in the world. It will surely fade away in the acid test
desires of the same. Why  ? Because such ,is a pre-requisite        of life when affliction  cometh.   Matt. 13  21. But those in
to enter into the Kingdom. Nay, but because it belongs to           whose heart love, joy and peace have been established as a '
our being free-born sons in Christ thus to crucify these            `Lfruit" of the Spirit and, therefore, have depth of earth; they
passions and to walk in a new and holy life. Such is the            shall never be moved. Their trustworthiness is proven
force of the phrase, "Now they who are of Christ Jesus . . ."       through affliction and  sut?ering.  They are the friends who
You say you belong to Christ in life and death for time and         are born in the time of need. They are the friends who
eternity? Well and good. "Only then walk worthy of the              sticketh closer than a brother, a Jonathan who loves David
calling wherewith ye have been called. Bring forth fruits           in righteousness.
meet for repentance, that is, walk in a true and living faith !"        Yes, here we will also see "meekness." Meekness is not
    Living faith reveals itself iii= "usefulness," in practical     weakness, a man who is cowardous and will, therefore, quail
kindness. Let  us show our living faith, which is energized         before the foe. Meekness is strength, the inward strength
by love, from our works. A good tree bringeth forth good            of the new man in Christ Jesus, whereby we are not sharp
fruits. Thus is the admonition here, whereby God confers            and harsh, but are mild in the knowledge that the Lord
grace to our hearts of this new obedience. Yes, admonitions         judges His people, and that He never puts to shame those
of the gospel, which must not be confused with the command          who place their trust in Him. The meek man knows that
of lair : the man that cloeth the same shall live thereby !         the Lord is His strength and protection, and that nothing
    Where such "usefulness" is present in our hearts and            can ever separate him from the love of God, which is in
life, we will surely also see the "fruit" of the Spirit called      Christ Jesus our Lord.
"goodness.." Here we will see good deeds. Here we will see              Such a man also has "self-control.!' Not the self-control
the practical manifestation of helping the neighbor. The            of the Stoic who stands in his own strength and wills to be
Parable of the "good  Samaritan'f  is a fine commentary on          the captain of his own soul, but the inner self control of the
this goodness. Such a useful man will surely know whose             man who wholly relies' upon God, as a child relies upon his
neighbor he is and will, therefore, not need to ask: Who is         father. It is the self-control, the "temperance" of the child
my neighbor? To him John will not have to write: "if- any           leaning upon its mother's breast. Here the child of  Gocl
man have the world's goods and seeth his neighbor having            sings: The Lord my Shepherd holds me within His tender
need, and shutteth  up his bowels from him, how dwelleth            care.
the love of God in him  ?" Of the contrary to such John
writes : "We know that we have passed out of death into                 Such are the fruits of the Spirit.
life, because we love the brethren." I John 3 :14.                      Against such there is no law. Only such walk in the
    Such a walk is a walk at liberty. He that so walks will         grace of Christ and true faith which establishes the law!
surely stand before the  rovnl  Znzv of  liberty,  not becoming         If we live by the Spirit let us also walk by the Spirit.
a forgetful hearer, and will have the love of God and the                                                                       G.L.


27s                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                   Rev. D. Walters and all those who with him hold to  at7
                 I N   H I S   F - E A R                           arminian view of missionary activity. You fought tooth and
                                                                   nail against a missionary program that was based on a
                                                                   "well meant offer of salvation to all who hear" ; you would
                       The Gate Is Open                            hive nothing of the view of evangelization that was based
                                                                   on that theory.
                            (Continued)                                Better brush up on that  quotation  from the Scriptures
       Time flies !                                                about the dog and the sow, Rev.  Ilok.  You  may have to
   And while it does, man has severe limitations.                  use it very much in the future  tlpon  your colleagues and
   As a result it often happens even .in a daily newspaper         address it ev_en to yourself.
that, before the  newsheet  reaches the streets, the things            Of course, the undersigned will be accused of condemning
written therein are outdated. New developments - as the            this speech of Rev. Walters before it is even delivered.
time sped by and limited men were setting type, runnnig the            We are not condemning his speech. Though it is  cliffi-
presses  &nd delivering the printed page - make what is read       cult for us to understand how he could ever deliver a Protes-
weak and lacking in interest because greater things are al-        tant Reformed missionary address. But before we are  accusecl
ready known,                                                       of judging that speech unheard, will those who hired him,
       It is to be expected then that when a semi-monthly          the "Mission Committee," assure us that they heard it and
publication such as the  .Standard  Bearer appears in  your        know the content of his speech to be Protestant Reformed?
mailbox with articles written a month before you read it.              How does it happen that they chose him ?
later developments take away some of the force of what is              What is wrong with this group of former ministers in
written.                                                           the Protestant Reformed churches that they must go to him?
   But it is also true that such later developments often          And that for  th&r FIRST step in preparing their churches
underscore and strongly substantiate what has been written         for mission work!
before.                                                                Well may those who follow them ask whether this is'
   For some time we have been writing ibout the open gate.         not a subtle way of saying that this is the first- step in pre-
   We put it rather mildly.                                        paring their people to return to the Christian Reformed
   Deeds perpetrated after we began this series show that          C h u r c h e s .
wt were very mild in our appraisal of what those who                   We are reminded of a pessimistic article written recently
schismatically left  us have done and are still doing.             by Rev. Howerzyl about the pathetic situation of their
   The gate IS -open.                                              churches in regard to training young men for preaching
   But observe once the rush of Arminianism through that           their conditional theology and schismatic church polity in
open gate and the bolcl eagerness of those who falsely call        their churches in the future. The best they could do was to
themselves Protestant Reformed to have it rush through             send them back  td the churches that put  us out and then
the open gates.!                                                   augment that with a little training in this conditional the-
   It cannot come through fast enough to please the leaders        ology df the Liberated which they could not get even in the.
of this evil movement. It DID, not come through fast enough.       churches that put us out. It would indeed be interesting to
They must help it along.                                           have those Christian Reformed ministers who have said that
 Thus on the bulletin of the group that illegally meets in         they would not dare preach those statements of Rev. De
the church building on the corner of Fuller and Franklin in        Wolf do so in print.
the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan - and most. likely on               But when you read sucl~  things as Rev. Howerzyl wrote
all the bulletins of those in that vicinity who are allied with    and this  annom~cement upon the bulletin of Rev. De Wolfs
them - on the Sunday of February 6, 1955, you may find             f&owing, then two things immediataly suggest themselves.
this astounding announcement:                                      The first is (as we wrote abovej  ; where did Rev.  Kok's
   "ARE YOU INTERESTED IN MISSION WORK?                            sick dog and very natural sow go? How come he cannot
- `And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and            find them now? The second is; what has happened since
preach the gospel -to every creature.' The Mission Commit-         that sinful and purely carnal'boast  of Rev. Kok about their
tee is making its first step in preparing our churches for         -groLip  having more ministers, more souls and more churches ?
mission work. On February 24 at 8 o'clock, Qev. D. Walters         I believe, if my memory does not fail me, that he  countecl
from the R.B.I. will be our speaker. His topic will be `The        their  l&-which  is only 3 more than our  13- to-be  two-
Call to Witness.' Keep this date open, it is important to          thirds of twenty-nine. Even his arithmetic is as disorganized
everyone."                                                         and loose as his church polity. But with their greater num-
   What about the sow and the dog now, Rev.  Iiok  ?               ber of ministers, churches and souls - one congregation even
   Who  ;`s going back to what he once  repudiatkd  ?              boasting carnally of having retainecl  in its group the "money
   And you, Rev. Kok, who were at one time a missionary            inen" (indeed but the ten tribes were greater in number ancl
in our churches, you vigorously opposed the philosophies of        had more land while the two tribes had Jerusalem and the


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             279

  temple-and we have the truth and God's favour, though               of those of the churches that cast us out because we would
  they have the number):how come they must send their                 not agree to their heresy.
  students back to those that  p>lt  us  out? How come their             The gate has been open for a long time in Marion County.
  FIRST step to prepare their churches for missionary activity           And such dare to clamor for the removal of the Revs.
  must be to call on help from those who differ doctrinally           Hoeksema and Ophoff from their offices as professors in
  from usLand  they did once claim also from them ?                   our Theological School.
      Are the former. missionaries of the Protestant Reformed            When .you remain loyal to the truth of your church, you
  Churches, Revs. Iiok, Hoffman, Knott and Cammenga  going            do not need to prepare  )rour  people for missionary work.
  to take lessons now to perform a different kind of missionary       But when YOLI want to branch out into a missionary activity
  work ?                                                              of which your denomination has never approved before and
      Those that left us are to be pitied.                            against which it has warned in the past, you need to pre-
      They need help.                                                 pare  your  people for that further step away from the
      They co~~lcl not even call on our former missionaries for       ."cloctrine taught here  .in this Christian Church."
  the FIRST step in preparing their churches for missionary              And then  you  have to get outsiders to help  you.
  work. At the very outset they express their helplessness.             Then  you go tb those who have that philosophy that you
      What is the nest step going to be?                              want to  in&lcate and sell to your people. You may give
      You  who blindly follow them. do  you  never. ask your-         him a few pointers and ask him not- to lay it on too thick.
  selves any questions as to the maneuvering, the playing of          And first of all- as has already been done in Concordia -
  politics of those  you  follow?                                     you slip with subtlety into the minds of your people the
      Indeed! Keep this date open. It is important to every-          idea that .we must be ecumenically minded and not simply see
one. It is to  us  too.                                               our own little denomination.
      0, they were not gding to follow a man!                            No, you must also see other denominations, so that you
      Rev. Hoeksema, Rev. Kok dared to say, is a man broken           can call in their most outspoken representatives to teach
  in mind and body. His leadership has bee!1 so. cbrrupt that         you a few things.
  no man can follow him.                                                 Walls  ?
      No, they are not going to follow 01 man.                           Denominational walls ?
      They are going to follow everybody, anybody, on the                Protestant Reformed walls ?
  condition that he is not Protestant Reformed. They drift               Forget the whole business. They take away Christian
  from here to there. They weave back and forth between the           liberty. So they say.- 0,  Chatham!  0, former Protestant
  Liberated and the Christian Reformed Churches. Rev. Hof-            Reformed ministers and members !
  man indicates in his pessimistic Concordia article that they           Forget these walls?
  have either tried to get into the Christian Reformed Churches          But, then,, Rev. Kok, do not forget the dog and the sow.
  already and found out that, they do not want their clergy,             How can anyone who loves the Protestant `Reformed
  or else  at the very least have seriously considered getting        truth be so foolish as to believe that this group is the con-
  into these churches. How do they know that the Christian            tinuation of the Protestant Reformed Churches ?
  Reformed Churches do not want their "uneducated and                    What deeds do those that oppose us perform that even
  uncultured" clergy ? These meetin&  in Grand Rapids with            begin to give-the appearance of being the continuation of  the
  certain Christian Reformed ministers and professors, were           Protestant Reformed Churches ?
  they ab0ut.a  fishing trip, a game of golf or better still about       Christian Reformed training for their "students." Chris-
  correcting some of the glaring errors in higher Christian           tian Reformed help in beginning "missionary work." Chris-
  education ? Surely it was not about the establishment and           tian Reformed catechism books. Christian Reformed speak-
  furtherance of Protestant Reformed Christian Schools, was           ers for their society meetings and Young People's Mass
  it, Rev. Blankespoor ? It, was not to discuss- your letter' Meetings.
  you  sent to your former congregation in regard to such                And these men who opposed the Declaration of Prin-
  schools. It really was a nice document. Too bad you cannot          ciples for which- our Mission Committee asked because, so
  publish it nest fall just before the school year begins. It         they claimed, it did not come into being in a legal way from
  would  look nice in print around that time. Don't you think  ?      local congregation through  Classis  to Synod, can they as-
      And why must these churches' be prepared for mission-           sure  us that their "Synod" has approved such a radically
  ary work ?                                                          new "mission  w&k" that requires  iristruction and prep-
      Thank `God we have a man already in the field. ogle who)        aration by Christian Reformecl  ministers ?
  loves the Protestant Reformed truth and who finds that a               Is that why J. D. (is that Rev. J. D. De  long?) in
  former congregation of his has? under the leadership of one         the Feb. 24 Concordia writes, after a similar notice of this
  who has not been faithful to his calling -before Gocl and to        "important" meeting of preparation for "mission work"
  the Protesfant  Ref&med  Churches, discarded more than a            appears in that paper, "Could someone write an article in
  year ago the Protestant Reformed catechism books in favor                                (Coxfimcd  ow  page  253)


  280                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                   ~-  - - -
  l                                                                   instruction than by fear of punishment or by pain. But be-
             Contending For The Faith                                 cause the former means are better, the latter must not there-
                                                                      fore be neglected . . . ; Many must often bc brought back to
                                                                      their Lord, like wicked servants, by the rod of temporal
              The Church and the Sacraments                           suffering before they -attain the highest grade of religious
                                                                      development . . . . The Lord Himself orders that the guests
         VIEWS DURING THE SECOND PERIOD  (300-750 A.D.)               be first invited, then compelled, to his great supper." This
                                                                      Church Father thought that, if the state be denied the right
                  TI-IE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH                        to punish religious error, it should also be denied the right to
                                                                      punish -any other crime, since P&c in Gal. 5 :19, attributes
  The do&vine  of the C?~~wclt  - the Cktc?clt ii&e.                  divisions and sects to the same source in the flesh. He charges
                                                                      his Donatist opponents with inconsistency in `seeming to ap-
         There was at this time a controversy about the purity ok     prove the emperors of prohibitions of idolatry, but con-
  the Church and the question of Church discipline between            demning their persecution of Christian heretics. It is to the
  the Donatists and the Church Catholic, whose view was re-           honour of Augustine, however, that in actual cases he earnest-
  presented and defended by Augustine. The Donatists were             ly urged upon the magistrates clemency and humanity, and
  a schismatic party in North Africa. When we speak here              thus in practice remained true to his noble maxim : "Nothing
  of the Church Catholic we must not  conflise  this with the         conquers but truth. The victory of the truth is love." But
  present Roman Catholic Church, but with the Old Catholic            it has been justly observed that his theory of the use of
  Church as it existed during and immediately upon  the age  of       temporal force when, other means fail contains the germ .of
  the apostles. The  wor;cl, Catholic, we all know, means uni-        the whole system of spiritual despotism, intolerance, and
  versal, and the Church of God was called either Catholic or         persecution, even to the court of the fearful Inquisition which
Old Catholic because the Churdh was not divided as, yet,              was instituted by the Roman Catholic Church during the
  split up into various denominations,, but one church and em-        piddle  Ages, that fearful instrument of unbelievable cruelty
  bracing several peoples of the earth. This also enables us          which was instituted by the Romish  Church to suppress and
  to understand why there were ecumenical  .or world-wide             root out heresy. We know that the great authority of his
  councils during the early centuries of the Church of God of         name was often afterwards made use of to justify cruelties
  the  new Dispensation, such as the Councils of Nicea,  Con-         from which he himself would have shrunk with horror. Soon
  stantinople. Ephesus,  ancl  C&lcedon.  These  `were  truly         after him, Leo the Great, the first representative of con-
  ecumenical church councils inasmuch as the Church of God            sistent, exclusive, universal papacy, advocated the penalty
  throughout the world was not as  yet divided during these           of death for heresy, and he found support in Augustine.
  early centuries.                                                       Donatism, we have already observed, was by far the
         Donatism was by far the  mos; important schism in the        most important schism in  the history of the  church during
  church of the period we are now discussing. Augustine, who          the period we are now discussing, 300-750 A.D. For an
  himself belonged nine years to the Manichaean sect (Mani-           entire century it divided the North African churches into two
  theism, the philosophical system of Manes,' a Persian, which        hostile camps. Like the schisms of the former period, it arose
  had many followers throughout the Persian Empire, was               from the conflict DE the .more  rigid and the more indulgent
  a strange mixture of some Christian thoughts and heathenism,        theories of discipline in reference to the restoration of the
  or heathen dualism), and was wonderfully converted by the           lapsed, or fallen, those who had lapsed or fallen, succumbed
  grace of God to the Catholic Church (not the Roman Catholic         in times of persecution. But through the intervention of the
  Church of today), without the slighest pressure from with-          Christianized state, it assumed at the same time an ecclesi-
  out, held at first the position that heretics and schismatics       astical-political character. The rigoristic penitential dis-
  should not be violently dealt with, but won by instruction          cipline had been represented in the previous period especially
  and conviction  ; but after the year, 400, he turned and re-        by the Motanists and Novatians who were still living (Mon-
  tracted his view, in consequence of his experience with the         tanism denied that the Holy Spirit had b&en poured out on
  Donatists whom he endeavored in vain to convert by disputa-         Pentecost, declaring that the coming of the Holy Spirit was
  tion and writing while many subwitted  to the imperial laws.        now at hand and that the end of the world was near. This
  Thenceforth he was led to advocate the persecution of -here-        implies that the Holy Spirit had not been poured out upon
  tics partly by his doctrine of the Christian state, partly by       the apostles and that what they wrote was therefore their
  the seditious excesses of fanatical heretics, partly by the hope    own work  and not the inspired work of the Lord. The Nova-
  of a wholesome effect of temporal punishments, and partly by        tians were a sect in .the early history of the Church who de-
  a false interpretation of a passage of Holy Writ which oc-          manded. that the Church be absolutely pure in the midst of
  curs in connection with the great supper, Luke  14:23:              the world, and thei-efore  were opposed to the return of the
  "Compel them to come in." "It is beter, indeed," said               lapsed or fallen to the Church ; while the milder principle
  Augustine, "that men should be  brought to serve God by             and practice  had found its most powerful support in the


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   -BEARER                                                           281

Roman church, and, since the time of Constantine, had                    Donatists hereupon, appealed from this ecclesiastical tribunal
  generally prevailed.                                                   to the judgment of the emperor himself, he likewise declared
     The beginnings of the  Donatist  schism appear in' the              against them at `Milan in 316, and soon afterward issued
  Dioclesian persecution  (303-311))  which revived that con-            penal laws against them, threatening them with the banish-
  troversy concerning church discipline  and'martyrdom.  The             ment of their bishops, and the confiscation of their churches.
  rigoristic party, favored by Secundus of Tigisis, at that time             Persecution made them enemies of the state. This we
  primate of Numidia, and led by the bishop, Donatus, of Casae           can readily understand. They had sought the help of the
  Nigrae, rushed to the martyr's crown with  fanatic%1  con-             state and now the state had turned against  ,them.  Hence, they
  tempt of death,, and saw in flight from danger, or in the              now became enemies of the state whose help they had invoked               _
  ,deliverance  of `the sacred bdoks (these lapsed or fallen had,        and fed the flame of their fanaticism. They made violent
  to escape martyrdom, delivered the sacred books to their               resistance to the imperial commissioner, Ursacius, and de-
 tormentors) only cowardice and treachery which should for-              clared that no power on earth could induce them to hold
  ever exclude from the fellowship of the church. The moder-             church fellwoship with the "rascal," Caecilian. Constantine
  ate party, at whose head stood the bishop, Mensurius, and              perceived the fruitlessness of the forcible restriction of religion
  his archdeacon and  &ccessor,  Caecilian, advocated the claims         and, by an edict of 321, granted the Donatists full liberty of
  of prudence and discretion, and cast suspicion on the motives          faith and worship. He remained faithful to this policy  of.
 of the forward confessors. and martyrs. So early as the year,           tbleration, and exhorted the Catholics (not, we understand,
  305, a schism was imminent, in the matter of an episcopal              the Roman Catholic Church of today) to patience and in-
  election for the city Cita. But no formal outbreak occured  un-        dulgence. At a council in 330 the Donatists numbered two
  til after the cessation of persecution in 311 : and then the diffi-    hundred ancl seventy bishops. The history of the church has
  culty arose in connection with the hasty election of Caecilian         revealed only too often that the use of the sword is wholly
  tom the bishopric of Carthage. The Donatists refused to ac-            powerless to suppress heresy and maintain the true religion.
  knowledge him, because in his ordination the Numidian                      The Lord willing, we will continue with this historical
  bishops were slighted, and the service was performed by the            survey of the Donatist Schism, which was by far the most
  bishop, Felix of Aptungis, or Aptunga, whom they declared              important schism in this early period of the Church in the
  to be a truditov; that is, one who had delivered up the sacred         New Dispensation. We also expect to call attention to the
  writings to the heathen persecutors. In Carthage itself he             role which Augustine later played in this important drama.
had many opponents, among whom were the elders of  ~the                  First, however. it is well to give our readers the historical
  congregation, and particularly a wealthy  ancl superstitious           background for the conflict between Augustine and the
  widow, Lucilla, who was accustomed to kiss certain relics              Donatist. Again we are indebted, for this historical material
  before her daily communion, and seemed to prefer them to               to Philip  SchaK's History of the Christian Church.  .Hence.
  the spiritual power of the sacrament. Secundus of Tigisis              the Lord willing, we will present this material in our  '
  and seventy Numidian bishops, mostly of the rigoristic school,         following article.                                            H . V .
  assembled at Carthage. deposed and excommunicated  Caeicil-
  an, who refusecl  to appear, and elected the  lector (a reader,                                I    N          MEMOkIAM
  specifically one who reads lessons in a church or lectures in             The Ladies' Society "Eunice" of the Second Protestant Re-
  a university)  Majorinus, a favorite of Lucilla, in his place.         formed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan, extends its sympathy
  After his cleath,  in the year, 315, Majorinus was succeeded           to Mrs. N.  Klaver, one of its members, in the death of her
  by Donatus, a gifted man, of fiery energy and eloquence,               mother
  revered by his admirers as a wonder worker, and styled THE                             MRS. AUGUSTA VANDER KLOK
  GREAT. From this name, and not from Donatus mentioned                     May our Covenant God give unto  her and her family to ex-
                                                                         perience the peace that surpasseth all understanding.
  above, the name of the party was derived.                                                                Rev. M.  Schipper,  Presihent
     Each party endeavored to gain churches abroad to its                                                  Mrs. Dick Eerdmans, Secretary
  side, and -thus the schism spread. The Donatists appealed
  to the emperor Constantine- the first instance of such ap-                                     IN MEMORIAM
  peal, and a step of which they afterward had to repent. The               The Young People's Society of the Oak Lawn Protestant Re-
  emperor, who was at that time in Gaul, referred the matter             formed Church expresses its sympathy with three of its members,
  to the Roman bishop, Melchiades  (Miltiades), and five                 Cornelia, Emma and Joan Rutgers, in the sudden loss of their
  Gallican bishops, before whom the accused Caecilian and ten            father,
  Africans bishops from each side were directed to appear. The                                  EMKO RUTGERS
  decision went in favor of Caecilian, and he was noiv, except           whom the Lord took unto Himself on February 5, 1955.
 in Africa, universally regarded as the legitimate bishop of                May their  co'mfort be in Him Who is the resurrection and the
  Carthage. The Donatists remonstrated. A second investiga-              life. John  11:25.
                                                                                                       Rev. G.  Vanden Berg, President  '
 tion, which Constantine entrusted to the council of  .Arles                                           Grace Ipema, Secretary
  (Arelate) in the year, 314, led to the same-result. When the           Oak Lawn, Ill.


252                                                                                                                    _-  -
                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
Ii                                                                         be -elect at one time and reprobate at another, or as though
            The Voice of Our Fathers                                       fhe reprobate can somehow be changed into elect, then, to he
                                                                           sure, there is nothing terrifying about reprobation. Then if
                                                                           only  you  plead long enough and persuasively enough,  you
                  The Canons of Dordrkht                                   can rescue any man from his reprobation. But the moment
                               PART TWO                                    you maintain that reprobation is eternal, unchangeable, and
                    E                                                      according to the sovereign good pleasure of the Most High,
                      XPOSITION OF THE CANONS                              and that therefore no amount of preaching of the gospel, be
                     FIRST HEAD OF DOCTKI&                                 it ever so pure and beautiful, and no amount of human
                    OF  DIVINE PREDESTINATION                              persuasion, be it ever so forceful and appealing, will ever
               Article  16.  Those* who do not yet experience a lively     bring a single reprobate soul into everlasting glory;- then;
               faith in Christ,. an assured confidence of soul, peace      then, I say, reprobation is indeed terrible to contemplate.
               of conscience, an earnest eudeavor after filial obe-        As terrible to contemplate it is, as the grace of election is
               dience, and glorying in  Go'd through Christ, efficaci-     wonderful.
               ously wrought in them, and do nevertheless persist in
               the use of the means which God hath  ,appointed  for            And it is such a conception of reprobation that lies at
               working these graces in us, ought not to be alarmed         the bottom of the 16th Article of  Cnxons  I. For it was s&11
               at the mention of reprobation, nor to rank themselves       a doctrine of reprobatio'n that the  Arminians hated and
               among the reprobate, but diligently to persevere in         opposed. They accused the fathers of proclaiming a dread-
               the use of means, and with ardent desires, devoutly         ful doctrine. They accused them of making God a terrible
               and humbly to wait  for a season of richer grace.  Much     despot, who arbitrarily sent men to destruction, and who
               less cause have they to be terrified by the doctrine of
               reprobation, who, though they seriously desire to be        delighted in arbitrarily destroying men. They accused them
               turned to God, to please him only, and  to, be delivered    of frightening and terrifying-the people of God and of robbing
               from the body of death,  canngt yet reach that mea-         them of any comfort and hope and assurance. They did
               sure of holiness and faith to which they aspire; since      their utmost to discredit the doctrine of sovereign predes-
               a merciful God has promised that he will not  quench        tination by all manner of such appeals to sinful reason and
               the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed. But this
               doctrine is justly terrible to those, who, regardless of    sinful emotion. And in this 16th article the fathers give
               God and of the Savior Jesus Christ, have wholly given       answer.
               themselves up to  the cares of the world, and the               And what, in general, is their answer? It is this. No
               pleasures of the flesh, so long as they are not serious-    true child of God, be he ever so weak and wavering, ought
               ly converted to God.                                        to be terrified, has any need to be terrified, by the doctrine;
       The above translation is substantially correct.                     of reprobation. But this doctrine is justly terrible  (hncc
       The present article is, like Article  13, really concerned          docttina  mwito  twrovi   at)  to the ungodly. And is  there
with the subjZct  of the assurance of our election. And, like              anything strange in this ? Would the  Arminian  change the
Article 12, it is of an intensely practical nature, - practical            very gospel itself? Is the gospel not ever thus : "There is no
in the true sense of that term. The difference between Article             peace, saith my God, for the wicked  ?" And objectively
16 and Article -12 is a difference of approach and of occa-                this truth is the foundation of the above answer of our
sion. Previously the viewpoint was that of election  ; here                fathers: while not one of the reprobate can ever be saved,
the viewpoint is `that of reprobation. In Article 12 the ques-             not one of God's dear elect will ever go lost. "All that the
tion was: How are the elect assured of their election? In,                 Father giveth me shall come to me  : and him that  comet11
Article 16 the question is: who should rightly be terrified                to me I will in no wise cast out." John 6:37..
by the doctrine of reprobation?                                              Let us notice, in the first place, that this article presup-
      In this light it will be seen also that  the. subject of this        poses -the  preaching  of reprobation. Literally the fathers
16th article is indeed practical. For reprobation is indeed                here speak of "the mention of reprobation," which perhaps
a terrible thing. To be  ,destined eternally unto damnation,               may be an indication of what  they conceived to be the proper
and to  l~~tow, or to imagine, or even to consider the possi-              place of the doctrine of reprobation in the preaching of the
bility that one is so clestined  unto damnation, is indeed awe-            Word. But at least this presupposes that, to an extent at
some to contemplate, and terrifying for any soul. One  can                 least, also the doctrine of reprobation has its proper place
surely never think or -speak of reprobation, whether it be the             in the preaching of the Word. This is noteworthy, espe-
reprobatiori  of himself or of his fellow  mall, coldly. And               cially in our time. For if, as we wrote in connection with
the terror of reprobation is increased when we remember                    Article II, it is true that the doctrine of election is frequently
that according to the Reformed view, the view of Scripture,                banned from the preaching, this is much more true of  the
that reprobation is sovereign, unchangeable, inflexible. 0,                doctrine of sovereign reprobation. In fact, we may probably
as long as  you  play around with the truth of reprobation,                say that the root of this  negl&t  of the truth of sovereign
and present the matter as though man has a decisive vote in                election in the preaching of the Word may be found in
his own reprobation or election, and as though a  man can                  this, that lilen do not want sovereign reprobation. However


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              253

this may be, we may also notice that the fathers do not              .to the three classes mentioned in this article, that these
expound the place of reprobation in the preaching of the             various reactions to the mention of reprobation are by no
Word as they did (in Article 14) with the doctrine of                means to be construed as reasons to silence the doctrine of
election. No separate article is devoted to the subject. And         reprobation in the preaching of the Word. As we indicated
therefore, although the Subject is in itself well worthy of          above, the Arminian  would draw such a conclusion. But the
discussion, we do not at this juncture  devote special attention     Reformed man would draw the very opposite  .conclusion,
to it. We merely take cognizance of the fact that the Canons         namely, that also the proper preaching of reprobation must
do presuppose the preaching of reprobation.                          serve as a means of grace. And if the question be asked as
    Now just as there  .is a reaction on the part of the             to the purpose of the preaching of reprobation, then we may
hearers to the preaching of election, so there is always a           answer in general as follows :
reaction on the part of the hearers to the preaching of                1) The preaching of reprobation must serve the main-
reprobation. And this article makes the following  `dis-             tenance of God's sovereign power and authority over all
tin&on among the hearers of the doctrine of reprobation:             things. Nothing depends upon the free will of the creature.
1) Those who do not yet experience a lively faith in Christ,         And  -even  the reprobate himself must be convinced under
an assured confidence of soul, peace of conscience,  bn              the preaching of the Word that not he, but God, is  sover-
earnest endeavor after filial obedience, and glorying in God ; eign also in the ungodliness of the ungodly.
through Christ, efficaciously wrought in them. and do never-            3) It must serve unto the comfort of the believers, in
theless  persist in the use of the means which God hath              this way, that they must understand that  21~0 the  ungo,dly
appointed for working these graces in us. These ought not            ultimately must serve the purpose of the realization of God's
to be alarmed at the mention of reprobation, nor to rank             counsel.
themselves among the reprobate. 2) Those who, though                    3) It must serve the purpose of their greater humilia-
they seriously desire to be turned to God, to please him only,       tion and increasing thankfulness, when they beholcl  the free
and to be delivered from the body of death, cannot yet reach         and eternal grace of election next to the terrible wonder of
that measure of  hbliness  and faith  .to which they aspire.         reprobation.
These have "much less cause" to be terrified -by the doctrine
of reprobation.  3)  Those who, not regarding God and the               4)  And it must serve the purpose of the hardening of
Savior- Jesus Christ have wholly given themselves up to the          the reprobate themselves, when, beholding the wonder of
cares of the world and the pleasures of the flesh. These have        divine predestination, they go on ,in their ungodly way, and
good reason to be alarmed at the doctrine of reprobation,            hasten unto destruction, and thus unto the goal that was
"so long as they are not seriously converted to God."                eternally and sovereignly fore-ordained for them. H. C. H.
   A few general remarks may be made concerning this
three-fold distinction. Notice, first of all, concerning the two
classes  mentioned  above, that  the presupposition is that there                          I N   H I S   F E A R
are times when they are indeed alarmed at the m&tion of                                 (Coittimretl  from  Page 279)
reprobation, and may even rank themselves among the
reprobate. They o`ught not'to do so, and they have not good          Concordia about this Mission Society  .and tell our people
reason to. do so ; but they do so nevertheless. Notice, in the       .a little more about the purpose and aims of the Society?'
second place, that about none of these classes does the article         It seems as though J. D. knows nothing of this first step
make a flat and unqualified statement. The first class is            of mission worl: which the "Mission Committee" is foisting
admonished diligently to persevere in .the use of the means          on the membership of their group. So Synod did not ap-
and to wait' for a season of richer grace. The second class          prove of such a thing.  And no local church brought it to
is pointed to the promise of a merciful God that He will not         Synod by way of Classis.
quench the smoking flax. And even concerning the third                  But then, in Rev. Kok's disorganized and loosely bound
class the qualifying statement is added: "so long as they            church political set-up anything goes. You can even become
are not seriously converted to God." In the third place, this        Catholic and still say you belong to the Protestant Reformed
classification is not exhaustive, and undoubtedly not intended       Churches, if your Consistory will sustain you.
to be. For example, one could properly add at least two -               That  is the continuation of the Protestant Reformed
classes: 1) Those who are assured of their election to that          Churches ?             *
degree that the mention of reprobation tends for them per-
sonally to illustrate the eternal and unmerited grace of                Don't  you  believe it!
                                                                                                                          `J. A. H.
election. 2) Those who are not alarmed at the mention of
reprobation because they are  cn.r~Q  secure, and rashly
presumptuous. The latter can, of course, not ultimately re-             Many people believe they own what, they have, while
main unalarmed.                                                      they merely posses them. God owns in the full sense of
  Finally, we may  remark? before we go into detail'in regard        the word. We possess for as long as God wills it.

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

                                                                          order speaks also of "supporting them to be trained for the
              DECEN'CY and ORDER                                          ministry," and to this is added the limiting phrase which
                                                                       II allows considerable flexibility. "as far as necessary." All
                                                                          agree that it is proper for the church to "aid her needy stu-
                  Students for the Ministry                               dents but the disagreements and problems arise in deter-
                                                                          mining the extent to which such aid should be given and
                          T h e i r   S u p p o r t                       what' circumstances merit assistance. These problems our
    The last time we emphasized the duty. of the churches to              coming Synod will also have to take into consideration and
 exert themselves toward obtaining suitable men for the                   study when she is asked to review our former position oti
  ministry of. the Word. This necessity arises from the                   this matter.  -
 churches constant need of more ministers. Through sickness,                  In determining this matter there are two extreme posi-
 emeritation,  apostacy,  and death her number is constantly              tions that ought to be carefully- avoided. First, the church
 deminished. In addition the establishment of new congre-                 must guard against the danger of becoming a hand-out
 gations increases the demand for more ministers and unless               society. Secondly, she must not make such rigid require-
 this demand is supplied the future of the church is jeop-                ments that those wha really need and are entitled to support
 ardized. -Further, the office of Professors of Theology                  cannot obtain it. To safe-guard against the first  clatiger.  a
 cannot. be-. retained without students fo be instructed. The             rule such as the Christian Reformed Churches have is
 church is built about the ministry of the word, which is the             advised. In those churches the individual Classes take care
 chief means used by the Son of God in gathering, defending               of this matter instead of the Synod and each Classes re-
 and preserving her in the midst of the world. Only then, by              quire a written promise that students receiving financial aid
 the perpetuation of the faithful ministry does the church                from the churches will repay the full amount received in
 continue. Just as in any given profession, new recruits are              case they do not enter the ministry. History has shown that
 needed, so the church must be supplied with men who are                  there have been many who have used the churches funds
 called and equipped for the ministry of the Word.                        for their training and then turned- their backs upon the
        In obtaining these men, there are frequently practical            churches that aided them. This should be prevented. Funds
 ,problems  to be faced. To be prepared for the ministry of               of the churches are not to be so misused. Those who do
 the Word involves a period of several years and in justice               not enter the ministry and' render their services to the
 to the importance of this work, one who is engaged in this               churches should be compelled to return any ancl-  all funds
 work should  ndt, in addition to his  s&dies, be required to             given them to aid them in their schooling.
 spend a large share of his time in other employment. On the                  On the other  hancl we must not make too many rules.
 other hand students also need a livelihood which consists of             Neither should the rules we do make be ,so rigid that none
 more than bread and butter. They need to meet the costs                  dare apply for support. It is very difficult to make general
 of their schooling. They have to obtain a library or at least            rules which will justly fit every case that may possibly arise.
 the  beginriings. of one. Their needs are such that unless               For this reason, it seems advisable with a matter of this
 they belong to the class of the "rich" or can be almost fully            nature to permit room for every case to be judged on the
 employed while attending school, the way into the ministry               basis of its own merits. No two cases are ever exactly alike.
 is closed for them. This is not as it should be. It is  not              In order then that the Synod or the E.B.P. Committee may
 consistent with the position the church has correctly taken              be able to have a complete picture of each case so that it may
 with respect to the importance of the work of the ministry.              be judged competently, -another provision ought to be made.
 This work is of such importance that, according to Article               Synod is in no position to know all the circumstances, past
 12 of the D.R.O., no bne who is engaged therein may enter                and present, that they may have bearing upon the need.
 upon a secular vocation except for such weighty reasons as               Each request for aid ought to be made upon the recom-
 shall receive. the approval of the  Classis.  And  it! the  call-        mendation of the Consistory of the church to which the
 letter the churches promise to pay the minister they call a              student seeking assistance belongs. This consistory is in a
 certain annual salary "in order that he may be free from all             position to perform the necessary investigation, to know the
 worldly carts and avocations" while attending the work of                facts, and is best able to determine whether or not the case
the ministry. If such provisions are necessary for those al-              is one that merits support. It can then recommend to the
 ready in the ministry, are they not equally imperative for               committee what should be done. Further, the Synod, meet-
 those who prepare themselves for this labor? Why should                  ing  .otily once a year, or the E.B.P. Comimttee, located
 the students for the ministry be perplexed with worldly                  perhaps in another -part of the country, may know nothing
 cares and be compelled to labor in other occupations to make             of the individual's circumstances and, in cases where  sup-
 ends meet? These things infringe upon their studies  &cl                 port is granted, things may arise where it is advisable that
 are detrimenta]>  to their preparation for the ministry.                 the support that is being given be withdrawn. The  consis-
    Realizing this the churches  have made provisions to                  tory would undoubtedly first be aware of such things and
 assist these. students To. do this Article 19 of the church              upon  its recommendation either the aid would be  imme-


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                       285
v-- ._ ---
diately discontinued or an investigation conducted. Hence,         this is undoubtedly not the normal way in which the Lord
if each request for aid was processed through the  consis-         works, yet, its possibility cannot be entirely ruled out. Should
tories, much of the danger of  wrbng-doing  and misuse             such men be given help or if  non help is available should
would be avoided.                                                  they conclude from that that the call to the ministry is not
    Then there are two other matters of a general nature           real ?
which must be considered in determining the  ex,tent to                Or, the  case of the three who were in the ministry in
which help shbuld be given. The first is whether a student         other churches and who were br,rought  by the. Lord to seek
should receive assistance only during the time that he is          admission into the ministry in our churches may be cited.
in the seminary or whether he should also be helped, if            They were married: They had families. Still they desired
necessary, during high school and college and in some in-          and needed the training that only our school could give
stances while he is engaged in post-graduate work? In our          them. Without support for themselves and their families
churches, I do not think that aid has ever been given from         this could not be obtained. Must they conclude then that
the E.B.P.  Fund to others than those in the seminary. Nor         because of the rule that says, "No support for married stu-
has there ever been a request from others: If such instances       dents," that the way is closed for them or is it the duty of
should arise help should not be denied if circumstances really     the churches to exert themselves, as far as necessary., that
require it for it is imperative for the welfare of the churches    there may be students supported by them ? We believe the
that those who are prepared for the ministry receive a             latter to be the case  ind that provisions under the rules
complete as well as thorough training. . This would not            should be made to allow for such instances. Marriage as
apply in every case but the rule should be broad enough as         such should not determine one's eligibility for support.
to allow the possibility. of it. The rule should not be so         Rather other factors such as the time and circumstances of
limited as to make it impossible for a promising young man         marriage should be the determining factors and, therefore,
who may have been the victim of some unfortunate circum-           each applicant should receive individual consideration and
stances to finish his preparatory work in order to enter the       have his c&e determined on the basis of its own merits.
seminary adequately equipped.                                                                                                    G . v . d . B .
  Another matter of interest and concern is whether or not
the practice of our churches according to which all married
students, as a class, are refused support from the E.B.P.                                    IN MEMORIAM
Fund is a correct one ? In considering a possible revision            The Consistory  of the Protestant Reformed Church of Grand
of this matter several things will have. to be taken  into         Haven,  Mich., in conjunction with our local Men's Bible Class  am!
consideration. On the one hand a rule-of such long standing        Ladies' Bible Class, desire to express our sincere sympathy to
ought not to be quickly abrogated. There is undoubtedly            the family of our Pastor, Rev. and Mrs. George Lanting, and
good reason behind its adoption as is evidenced by its having      family, with the recent and sudden loss through death of their
stood for so long a time. It is not a thing that has been          beloved father,
enacted out of antipathy toward married men. There is                                        MR. E. RUTGERS  _
principle in the matter which is that the churches are neither     of Chicago Ridge, Ill.
obligated nor do they-have the right to hand out support to           We commend them, together with the entire family, to the
wives and children of the students. The Synod -may not             comfort and love of our Heavenly Father.
take upon itself the duties of husbands and fathers nor may                                       By Order of the Consistory,
it infringe upon the office of the deacons. There is nothing                                                  Mr; A. Peterson, Clerk
in the church order that speaks of this. One may get mar-
ried while attending school, raise a family and let the
churches support him. This is not right. It is not according                                 IN MEMORIAM
to the idea nor the intention of E.B.P. assistance. To                On Saturday morning, February 5,  19S5, the  labqrs of  one of
prevent  ~.this abuse the rule serves a good purpose and           our faithful office-bearers
should, therefore, not be revoked without some safe-guard
to this effect retained.                                                              DEACON  EMKO  RUTGERS
  This would then allow for some revision to be made which         came to a sudden end  when- the Lord removed him from this
history has also shown is necessary, It happens sometimes          earthly scene. The Consistory of the Oak Lawn Protestant
that a man is already married and has a family  when- he           Reformed Church mourns this loss and expresses its sympathy
                                                                   to the bereaved widow and family of our departed brother.
receives the desire to enter the ministry. Now it might be            "Happy is he who hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose
objected that the Lord does not call men to the ministry           hope is in Jehovah, his God." Psalm 1465
after permitting them to be engaged in other employment                                           Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg, President
for a number of years. This contention would be rather                                            Mr. J. Polstra, Clerk
difficult to prove and, although it may be admitted that           Oak Lawn, Ill.

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

                                                                           nourish the erstwhile valleys of death. As the farmer now
                   A L L   A R O U N D   U S                               harvests his fielclp. to gather the ripened grain, so science `is
     I'                                                                    going to harvest the'; bottoin  of the seas of all the chemical
     Preview of the Nc.yt 25 Yews.                                         and food resources they contain.
            One of the most b?illiant scientific intellects of our clay        The sciences of medicine too is going to develop so fast
     ;e?eals in prophetic tones what we may expect in the nest             with the aid of nuclear and electronic devices that all the
     25 years in the way of material progress . In the March issue         dread diseases of cancer, poliot  etc., will all be removed. We
     of Reader's Digest, David Sarnoff, chairman-of Radio Cor-             are going to add from 10 to 15 years to our life's span, ax1
     poration of America, in a condensed article taken from                we're going to -have more time to enjoy it. Mr. `SarnoE  tells
     Fortune Magazine discloses the things that lie in the offing.         us  that the one great problem we will face is not labor but
           When Mr. Sarnoff speaks of the last hundred years as            leisure. There is going to have to .be a considerable adjust-
     being no more than a split second in human history, and that          ment made in order to keep up with the progress.
     the production of the next ten years will be more than all                Even the class distinctions of poor and rich will steadily
     the pervious 75 years has produced, one almost begins to lose         disappear. Social injustices will be rectified, and evil social
     his sense of proportions. And yet one who has lived through           conditions will be eradicated. Yes, even the age-old battle
     and seen the developments of the last 50 years and especially         between science and religion will cease. Mr. Sarnoff hints
     the last 25 years cannot relegate his predictions to the              that the scientist of the past, who ignored God, is fast waking
     fantastic and incredible.                                             up to the fact that with all his progress he cannot reach the
           The pith of his article may be expressed in  the single         Infinite. Wars will cease from the earth because all the na-
     statement in which he tells                                           tions will realize that war-will be suicide. Indeed? according
                                     us that there is no longer margin
     for doubt that whatever -the mind of man visualizes, the              to Mr. Sarnoff,  we are going to the reality of one world.
     genius of modern science can turn into fact. Mr. Sarnoff, of          He refers, no doubt, to Wendell Wilkie's "One World."
     course, is primarily interested in electronics, for that is his           And what shall we say about all this ? I for one do not
     business ; but his scope of vision reaches out into every field       believe it is impossible. In fact, I am looking for just such
     of science and industry.                                              a world. `And I am inclined to believe that it is coming II~LI~~I
           In his own field he gives us a glimpse of what his tech-        faster than we  can even imagine. However, of this I am
     nicians are working on at present. He tells  `us that they            assured in Scripture that it cannot come until the kingdom
     are developing a new' form of light. He calls it "electronic          of Christ has first been realized. Until then, the nations
     light." When this is perfected, it will free electric light from      must be divided. Racial and class distinctions  must continue.
     the prison of a vacuum bulb. It will, he tells us, change the         But when all the elect have been born and saved universal
     appearance of our homes, stores, factories and streets.. Yes,. peace will for a short time be established and the worlcl  will
     in a short while we will even be able to have devices that will       see a prosperity it has never dreamed could be possible. This
     make vision possible in darkness, and it will immensely en-           will be the time of tribulatidn  for the children of God. The
     large our visual-penetration of outer space. Before 1980, so          only religion that shall "flourish" will be that of antichrist.
     we are told, we are going to have atomic batteries, and- small        There will be no room in that universal prosperity for the
     atomic generators, installed in homes and industrial plants, children of `God. Our consolation is- that that world with all
     will provide power for years without recharging. Before               its pomp and glory, with all its power and beauty, will soon
     19S0,  ships, aircraft, locomotives, and even automobiles will        be destroyed to make room for the New Jerusalem that must
     be atomically fueled. Guided missiles, transcontinental and           come down from  Gocl out of heaven in which He shall
     transoceanic, will find vital civilian uses. They will transport.     tabernacle with us in the new creation forever.
     mail and freight over great distances, be guided into terminal
     hangars within minutes after their takeoff.                           "Progressive  Calvin&r."
           Mr. Sarnoff sees the skyways as densely traversed as                Such is the title of a little booklet I received recently in
     the highways on the ground. The air will be filled with pilo-t-       the mail which was sent to me by one of the authors who is
     less aircraft, with privately owned helicopters and other             a friend and acquaintance of mine. The booklet is dated
     planes. With just a little more vision than Mr.  -Sarioff  I          January, 1955, and purposes to be the first issue of a publica-
     began to see-myself setting my-helicopter down in the church-         tion emanating from a newly formed organization which calls
     yard of one of our churches where I have to keep a Classical          itself the "Progressive Calvinism League."
     appointment. When I think of this I get goose-pimples per-               On the first page of this 24 page booklet appears an an-
     haps as big as my grandfather's when he saw his first auto-           nouncement concerning the organization of this league. It
     mobile.                                                               reads as follows :
           0, but you haven't seen anything yet! Why, they are                "We are organizing the Progressive Calvinism League.
     going to take hold of the sun, the tides and the winds, and           We shall be pleased if you will give serious thought to our
     make the deserts to bloom as the rose. The briny waters               program as outlined in this issue. We hope you will be in
     of the seas are going to be converted into fresh waters to            agreement with  us  and will join the League. Joining the



I                                                                                                                                               1


                                         - `T H E   STANDcARD   B E A R E R                      . .                          287

League automatically puts you on the list to receive for one        From this brief statement one can quite readily surmise the
year, from January. 1955 through  Decembkr,  the League's           promotors of this new organization intend to pull no punches
publication, Progressive Calvinism. This League is different        and allow no friendly relationships to -interfere with the ex-
from anything of which you are a member now. The League             pressions of their minds. That, to my mind, is commendable.
will be a pioneer in.social  thought and research. To belong            Then follows a Declaration of Basic Principles. Pros-
will be interesting and profitable. A membership blank is           pective members of the League are required to signify their
enclosed. Join at once  2nd be a charter member." This an-          assent to them before becoming members.
nouncement is signed by three laymen : Frederick Nymeyer,               "I hereby declare that  as a member of the Progressive
John Van Mouwerik,  and Martin B. Nymeyer. With the first           Calvinism League, I will boldly and steadfastly
named I became acquainted while I was serving our church                1. (a) Promote brotherly`love as required by the Chris-
in South Holland. Though I did not always agree with him            tian religion ; and (b) attack all "extensions" of the Script-
on every issue we discussed, I have nevertheless learned to         ural rule which extensions make the rule sanctimonipus.
respect him for his sincerity and independent thinking and              2. (a) Promote the further discovery of the greatness-of
intelligent grasp of the problems which were at issue. And I        God, as revealed in nature and in Scripture, by (1) promot-
can vouch for it that  anythin,u that comes from his. rather        ing an attitude toward research in the sciknces  which will be
prolific pen will demand one's most serious study and con-          fruitful in results and will inspire men with humility and
sideration.                                                         awe; and by (2) rejecting the idea that the comprehension of
      Under the title "The Character of the Progressive Cal-        special revelation has been completed; the Scriptures must
vinism League," the  ljooklet presents briefly the "General         be reapplied to changing circumstances.
Aims of the  P.C.T,." We are  tplcl among other things that             3.  -(a)  .Promote awareness of the limitations of the
"The P.C.L. has been  organizecl  to promote in particular `human  niincl, that is, promote true humility ; and  (b) resist
one phase of Christian doctrine and living, namely, the             the arrogance of all attempt's at universal planning, that is,
practical, everyday phase which is concerned about two  r'ela-      all attempts at pretending we are as God, ancl all Comitian
tionships,  namely,                                                 Positivism.
       (1) the relationship of men to men, and                          4. (a)  ~Promote a single rule of morality; and (b) reject
       (2) the relationship `of men to things.                      a dual rule, namely, one rule for  indivicluals  and a -con-
We should add that there is the still mdre inlportant matter        flicting rule for groups.
of                                                                      5. [a) Promote confidence that prosperity obtained in
       (3) the relationship of men to God.                          a free market society is the result of obedience to the law of
But we are not theologians, and although we shall take item         God  ; and (b) discontinue all apologies for that prosperity
(3) very much into account, it is a phase of Christian doc-         and all policies which will undermine that prosperity.
trine and living which we leave primarily to the experts in             6. (a) Piomote a program for this life (1) which will be
theology. We are neither theologians nor philosophers."             distinguishable (antithetical) from a non-faith program, (2)
      A little later the pamphlet asks the question: "What is       which will bring good temporal results, and (3)  lyhich,
dur aim.?`. And the answer: "To be  successf.ul in this  lifk       therefore, cannot discredit Christianity's message in matters
and to  p&mote  the  sudcess  of others. (1) That requires          beyond this life; and (b) resist all programs borrowed from
sound social science ideas. (2) That means that. some ideas         non-Christian sources which science and experience will
of modern so-called social science must be rejected. (3) That       reveql  as unsound for this life, and which will consequently
means that Biblical ideas on successful living are right and        discredit Christianity's supernatural message."
should be practiced and promoted. (4)" That means that the             Following this Declaration of Principles is a brief ex-
identity of true social science and Biblical ethics, without        planation of each of the six statements which we cannot quote
any fantastic interpretations being required, can and should        for lack of space, but which clarify to some extent the
be established.  (5) And finally, that also means. because          questions' the reader may raise relative to them.
the understanding of the general revelation of God should be           On page 15 of the booklet is a list of subjects the League
progressive, that true modern social science has considerable       plans to discuss in the future, some of which appear to be
light to throw on Biblical ethics."                                 very interesting. Here is the list :
      Under the title "Our Methods" I quote only one brief             "1. The difference between the Christian  and the  Com-
paragraph. "In short, our method will be to work over                       .munist Laws of Love.
debated question, or over questions which  should be debated.            2. The Causes of Prosperity.
There are plenty of them. In the interest of truth, we shall         3. The Legitimate Authority of Government.
neither give nor expect quarter. In the discovery of truth               4 .   U n i o n i s m .
we shall  .not exercise "love" so-called. We shall  ,esercise            5. Discrimination.
love only in the form of patience and forebearance.  To con-             6., Inflation.
sider love (so-called, but what is really a toleration of error)         7. Common Grace and -Social Science.
as a  substitute for probing for the truth is a vicious idea."           S. Birth Control and Migrations,


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25s                                           THE'STAN..`&&D   B                      E      A    R    E    R      -

        9. The Introduction of the Doctrine of the French  Re-           Ophof are Antinomian. Thus this deception of  Iiok  con-
          .volution into Present-Day American Society.                   tinu&cl unabated  ullcler  the Reformed flag. But: If  wit only
       10. The Foundations of Society- What  Holds it To-                publish  Kok's reply to that letter which Dr. Hoiwerda sent
           gether.`.                                                     to Canada, then (I believe) we shall also be able to judge
       11, The Pre-Fall World a la Moses.                                Kok's ethical position once  ancl for all. This  letter is the
       12. The Parallelism between Biblical Morality and                 property of the Prot. Reformed Churches and not of  Kok!
           Sound Social Science.                                         It therefore should be published ,and  then we can close the
       13. The so-called. Neo&lvinism  of Karl Barth and Emil            question in everyone's mind, as a settled issue.
         B r u n n e r .                                                                               Yours in Christ for the Truth
                                                                           .
       14. The Social `Ideas of Reinhold Niebuhr.                ..`.                                                      H. A. Van Putten.
       15. The Advance of Positivism- the Introduction of
           Comitian Epistemology into the Christian Churches."                                    THE DAY OF SHADOWS
       Annual memberships in the League, or subscriptions only                                    (Coutimwd  from  page 275)
to Progressive Calvinism, are $2.00. For students,  ,$l.OO:              but the "first things," the fall of Babylon of the Euphrates
The Address is : Progressive Calvinism League, 366  East                 valley and the redemption of captive Judah. These things
166 th Street, South Holland, Illinois, U.S.A.                           %o man, no idol, no heathen soothsayer could possibly foresee.
       Since our space is  &ore  -than filled we will have to re-        What human coulcl call Cyrus, by name; a spoiler of nations
frain from any other comment at ~this time. But we promise               that was not tb appear upon the historical horizon until two
to  inforn? our readers of any new developments  ancl offer              hundred years later? These were happenings of a future far
comment and criticism from time to time as the need  re-                 too remote. The challenge put to the idols was therefore not
q u i r e s :                                                M.S.        met,. But it assuredly could  have been met, if these final
                    C O N T R I B U T I O N S   . twenty six chapters of the prophecy, of Isaiah originatecl with
                                                                         a so-called second Isaiah, a contemporary of Cyrus. This
I!.                                                              1 is a view therefore to- which rio place must be given.
                                    Holland, Mich.                              The Lord now does the thing of which the idols are
                                     168 Reed Ave.                       incapable, they being nothingness. Through His prophet as
                                     February 25, 1955                   His organ He shews the  `?irst  -things"   ancl also in the
Dear Editor of the Standard Bearer:                                      sequel the last things as we shall see. As always His proph-
       Your Editorial  ;n the February 15th Standard Bearer              esying consists in, His declaring what He will do for the sake
"I<ok is A Hopeless Case," touched my heart (as a matter of              of His people. He will send to Babylon the capital of the
fact only) for several reasons: Iiok `has exposed himself as             Babylonian world-power, that is, He will send Cyrus against
to what he is, both Doctrinally and Church Politically. How-             the impregnable city, humanly speaking,. and it shall fall.
ever, there are those who will still maintain that  I.ok is              That the Lord's messenger is Cyrus appears from xli. 2, 3,
ethically true blue; atid that we here `in Holland, and also             25 . The inhabitants of the city, the Chaldeans of our pas-
yourself and others, have not understool .I<ok  -for he means            sage, will take to flight in ships  in;o the tributaries of the
well. Naturally, none of us wish to judge motives, which                 lower  Euphrate?  and  rettirn to their original home. So will
alone belongs to God, Who can judge the heart. But when                  the Lord bring clown the fugitives, the Chaldeans. whose
I judge the matters in the light of historical facts, then, I            cry is in their ships (vs. 14) that is, who put'their  confidence
(we) feel the same as what you express when  YOLI  write:                in ships.         And it will surely come to pass.
"Even now, I would not deny that there is  an element of                        For He is. Jehovah, the I Am, whose promises  camlot
truth in this impression of him." But let  us not for onk                fail. He is the Holy One of Israel. As the wholly other,
moment think that  Kok's followers agree with  us!  And                  wholly con&crated to Himself, He is the consecrator of His
naturally, there is a reason! They have been deceived!                   people, their creator and king. And- He  does all  His good
Sclaemted into  belieaing   f&ties;  such as :  TLat  Declarations.      pleasure. Seas and mighty waters do not deter Him. In
-no need for it. Why? Hoeksema, and those Liberated                      the sea He makes a way and in the water a path for His
Professors agree perfectly  (  ?  ?  ?) That Standard Bearer  ?          people. The chariot and the horse, the army and the &ght
Bah! The hate Hoeksema-Ophof campaign came next  -                       thereof exists. by His power : move, live, ancl have their being
"Conditions in the Reformed "sense". Hush ! Hush! Hol-                   in Him, wherefore also it is He that brings them forth. And
land's  cofigregation:  You may not discuss your pastor's                when they have served. His purpose, they lie down together
teaching and preaching. If you have any difference of opini-             never again to rise. They are extinguished and quenched as
ons, then you must first talk with him, beware! Your pastor              tow by the breath of His mouth.
is reformed! But, some make  i: so miserable for him,  they-                    This is an allusion to the wonderful deliverance of Israel
are wolves, and disturb the peace. -(What a lie ! No one knew.           at the Red Sea. In it the Lord made a way for His people
the contents of  our  protests H.V.P.) and Hoeksema and                  and  overthrew.Phara&  and His host in its midst.           G.M.O.


