       VOLUME  XXX1                               APRIL  15,  1955-GRAND   RAPIDS, MICHIGAN                                      NIJXBER  14

I                                                                          prohibition! "For I am not yet ascended to My Father ?"
              M .E D I T A T I 0 N                                             Could the Magdalene understand such language from the
                                                                           lips of her beloved "Rabboni ?"
                         Mot Yet Ascended                                      Why, Rabboni, may I not touch Thee? I love Thee! For
                   "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not       well-nigh three years ever since Thou didst break `the
             ., yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren,          bonds of the power of darkness that held me captive and
               and say unto them,  i ascend unto my Father, and            didst set me free from the seven-fold chain of the Evil One,
               your Father; and to my God, and your God."                  whose cruel torments I suffered, 1,might touch Thee. When
                                                          John 20  :.I7    Thou castedst out of me the. seven devils, I was transformed
       Risen indeed !                                                      into a loving and devoted disciple. Never could I express
       But not to be touched . . . . . .     _                             enough my gratitude to Thee for that wonderful deliverance.
       For He is not yet ascended to His Father!                           And as I contemplated its wonder, as who would not when
       But He does ascend! To His Father and our Father!                   she was so graphically set free from the awful torments of
To His God and our God !                                                   one who is literally possessed of seven devils, my devotion
     ' Mary Magdalene, she out of whom the Savior had cast                 to Thee ever grew. I wanted to follow Thee  ~withersoever
seven devils, was witness to these words. And she "came                    Thy- wonderful mission of preaching and healing took Thee,
and told the disciples . . . , that he had spoken these things             -throughout Galilee and  Judea. To express in'some small
unto her."                                                                 way my undying devotion and thankfulness I sought to
      And John, the profound, who with the impulsive Peter                 minister to Thy physical wants while Thou wast yet amongst
had run that memorable foot-race to the sepulchre of Joseph                us, before that awful cross. And never then didst Thou
of Arimathea on resurrection-morn, has recorded this as-                   forbid my attentions. Why, Rabboni, may I not touch Thee
pect of the resurrection of the Crucified One, being inspired              now?
inerrantly by the Spirit of the Risen Lord.                                    Besides, is there not more reason than ever before why
      For do these words not belong to, do they not espress,               now I should touch Thee, why now I should fall down be-
the deeper, the more profound aspect of that blessed and                   fore Thee and embrace Thy feet?~  For my sorrow has turned
unspeakable mysterious wonder of the resurrection ? Do they                into gladness. My grief has been transformed into unspeak-
not point to its "otherness ?" Do they not indicate that be-               able. joy. All this time, ever since Thou didst commend Thy
sides the blessedness of the simple fact that "the Lord is risen           spirit into the Father's hands, since I saw Joseph and Nico-
indeed," -a fact which Mary  of- Magdala joyously appre-                   demus lovingly remove Thy dead form from that accursed
hended, though she did not comprehend it, - there is a more                tree and .bear Thy body to. Joseph's garden, my `heart has
profound, abiding, saving significance attached to His resur-              been stricken with unutterable grief. My Master, He Who
rection ?                                                                  had all the love and devotion of my delivered heart, was
      Touch Me not . . . . .'                                              dead  _ . . . gone . . . . , never to be ministered unto again
      For I am not yet ascended . . . . .                                  in the land of the living ,. . . . never again to be followed . . . .
      Say unto My brethren: "I do ascend . . . . ."                        never again to be listened to . . . . never again to go up and
                                 *  *  *                                   down through the land teaching the.wonderful  words of life
                                                                           and working those miracles which no man could do except
      "Touch Me not !"                                                     God were with him. And my heart was bleeding with grief!
      How strange, how apparently -cruel even, those words                 And the wound in my heart was torn afresh in the early
sound at first!                                                            hours of this morning when, with the other women, I came
     And how strange a reason the Savior supplies for His                  to do a last service of love upon Thy physical remains and


 314                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER

 to pour out my tears over Thy grave, and when I mistakenly         would appear to them in that fashion occasionally for forty
 concluded at the sight of the stone that was rolled away that      days, And .then He would ascend. And Mary and all others
 Thy body, - all that was left of my beloved Master, - was          who are of the earth, earthy, will then nevermore be able to
 stolen, probably by the same bitter enemies who nailed Thee        see Him until they themselves are translated from the earthy
 to the cross and who would not let Thee rest even in the           to the  heavenly  through the wonder of the resurrection of
 grave. Must even that be taken away from me; I mourned.            the body. But &en then that former fellowship will not be
 And now' I had returned to th,e sepulchre to find out, if pos-     re-established. For it will be the higher, more glorious, per-
sible, where Thy body had been taken. And I did not know            fect, purely spiritual fellowship of life eternal.
 Thee, though Thou wast standing right there. I supposed                Therefore He says: "Touch Me not."
 Thee to be the gardener ; and I was beside myself with grief.        He is risen . . . . but not yet ascended.
 And suddenly Thou didst with that one word, "Mary,"
 change my  sorrov and grief of heart into unspeakable joy!             And that He is risen means, to be  -sure, that the very
                                                                    sanie Lord Jesus Who had fellowship with Mary for three
        And now : may I not touch Thee ?                            years on earth, Who had died on' Golgotha's tree, and Who
        0, to be sure;1  will heed Thy command. I will not touch    had been laid in Joseph's tomb, was now alive,, and not lying
 Thee, if Thou sayest so.                                           dead in the`grave. But it means more. While He is alive,
        But why, Rabboni ? I long to touch Thee ! I would em-       and that too, according to body. and soul, His resurrection
 brace Thee! For my heart is now as overflowing with joy            means'not  that He has returned from death and the grave!
 as a moment ago it was filled with grief !                         but that He has gone through death and on into the sphere of
        Thou art not yet ascended  ?        '                       immortality, the sphere of the heavenljr,  the sphere of eternal
        Dost Thou then -ascend ? Why? What does it mean ? Is        life. His resurrection is the victory over death! And there-
 it, perhaps, so, that Thou art going to leave me, that though      fore, while at the moment Mary can see Him and would be
 Thou hast returned from the grave,  Thoil wilt not remain          able- to touch Him, she must understand that her Lord is
 with  us  ? Can it be that Thou art going away, and that I
shall not see Thee any more ?                                       diiit'erenf. That He stands before her near Joseph's tomb
                                                                    has its purpose: the fact of the resurrection must be esta-
        And how can that be a reason  why. I may not touch Thee     blished and thoroughly attested. And Mary must be one bf
 now? Surely, if Thou dost ascend, then I shall not be able         the witnesses thereof. But it does not mean that He has
 to minister unto Thee. Then that source of unspeakable joy,        returned. That He stands before her is due to the fact that;
 just to bask in Thy presence, to be near Thee, Rabboni, will       He  appears,  He Who in His heavenly resurrection-body
 be gone. But then, surely, there would  seek11  to be all the      could not ordinarily be seen by earthly eyes, nor touched by
 more reason to touch Thee, and no reason  at all not to touch      earthly hands.
 T h e e .
        I will heed Thy word, Rabboni . . : ,. .                       .He is risen,. . . . but not yet ascended!
    .But I profess: I do not understand.                                He could be touched, because He is not yet ascended.
                                                                    But He must not be the object of the touch of that former
                               *  *  *                              earthly fellowship, because He is risen indeed !

                                                                                               3 *  *
    Ah, how those mysterious words must have become  plain
 to Mary after her Lord had ascende'd,  and after her exalted           And He does ascend to His Father !
 Savior had poured out His Spirit on the day of Pentecost!
 Then she understood, just as we, who still have the fuller             That must follow inevitably. Heaven is His proper sphere
 light of revelation that began to shine when the Spirit was        now that He has risen  from  the dead. And the right hand
 poured out. Then she advanced from the apprehension of             of the Father Almighty is His rightful place. He could not
 the simple fact, of the resurrection of Jesus to the deeper        possibly remain below. .It is essentially impossible now that
 and more profound kndwledge  of it and its significance for        that former fellowship should ever be re-established. The
 His people.                                                        resurrection is but one step, the first step, in the esaltation.
 ~ Touch Me not . . . . .                                           of the Son of God in the flesh. It is the first of a series of
    That prohibition" conveyed the thought that the former          steps.
 fellowship, the earthly fellowship, the fellowship that `in-           And the next stage is the ascension. I ascend to my
 volved physical, bodily presence, the fellowship in which          Father . . . .
 Mary could embrace the Savior, follow Him about on earth,              And that ascension holds promise. The blessedness of the
 minister to His needs, -that fellowship was gone, never to         resurrection does not lie in any possible return to the old
 return. 0 yes, He would appear to them in earthly form,            life. It lies exactly in the Savior's advance into the glory of
 in the form which they who were of the earth, earthy, could        His  esaltation.
 touch Him,  - so that He could invite Thomas to  `(reach               For, first of  all,.~ when He ascends, He will receive the
 hither thy finger . ,  : . and reach hither thy hand ;" i He       promised Spirit as His very own. And that Spirit He will


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   - B E A R E R                                                                                         ,315

pour out into the church, Mary Magdalene included. And
through the outpouring of the Fpirit  a new and altogether                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
higher and glorious and more blessed fellowship will be                       Semi-monthly, excefit monthly durkg July and August
established, the fellowship of our heavenly citizenship, the                Published by the  RJXFOBX~  FREE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
fellowship of the Word of Him Who is the resurrection and                 P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
the life, -a fellowship so blessed that none of the disciples                                 Editor  - REV. HERMAN  HOEKSEMA
will ever again long for the time when the Savior sojourned               Communications relative to contents should be addressed to Rev.
on earth.                                                                 H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St.,  S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
    And secondly, when He ascends to His Father,  He enters              All matters relative to subscriptions shoild be addressed to Mr.
                                                                          G. Pipe, 1463 Ardmore St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7, Michigan.
into that which is within the veil. And there He appears as               Announcements and  Olbituaries   must  be mailed to the above
our forerunner and our intercessor, the Priest forever after             address and will be published at a fee of $1.00 for each notice.
the order of Melchisedec. And He prays: "Father, I will                   RENEWALS:  Unless a definite  request'for  discontinuance is re-
                                                                          ceived, it is assumed Ithat  the subscriber wishes the subscription
that those whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me, where                  to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
I am."                                                                                          Subscriptian price: $4.00  per year
    And His prayer -is heard: for He prays to His Father                   Entered as Second Class matter at Graatd Rapids, Michigan
and ours.
    And presently we shall be with Him . . . . .
    That will be glory!      *  * *                                                                       C O N T E N T S
                                                                       MEDITATION -
   And the guarantee  ?                                                      Not  Yelet   Ascended.......................................313
    He ascends  to. His Father and our Father. And that                             Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
Father is God.                                                         EDITORIALS -
    His Father and ours He is, by eternal election.                          Schism in History.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .             .316
                                                                                    Rev. H. Hoeksema
    Our Father, because Christ is our Head and Elder
Brother !                                                              As  TO  BOOKS-
                                                                             Expositilry  Outlines on *&he  whole Bible.. . . . . . . . . . . . .                              .318
    And His Father, because He is the only begotten Son in                   De Boodschap der  Genezing.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                      .318
the flesh; in Whom is all, God's good pleasure.                              De Dienst der Prdiking..  . . $.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                     .318
                                                                                   Rev. H. Hoeksema
    He died, . . . and we died in Him.                                 OUR DOIZTRINE  -
   -He arose, . . . . and we are alive with Him.                             The Triple Knowledge (Part III  - Of Thankfulness)                                                .319
    He ascended, . . . . and He shall come again . . . . to take                    Rev. H. Hoeksema
us. to Himself !                                                       THE  DAY  OF  SHADOWS-
    The glory be to God alone!                                               The prophecy of Malachi.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                   .321
                                                             &.C.H.    FROM  HOLY  WRIT-
                                                                             Exposition of John 3 :14-16.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                 .324
                                                                                    Rev.. G. Lubbers
                                                                              .
                                                                       IN  HIS  &AR-
                                                                             The Gate Is Open (Cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ::
                    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                                                                                                        .326
                                                                                   Rev. J. A. Heys
   On April 10, 1955, our beloved parents                              CONTENDING  FOR  THE FAITH -
             MR. and MRS. GERRIT B. LUBBERS                                  The Church and the Sacraments.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                            ,.328
                                                                                   R e v .   H .   V & m a n
celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.
   We thank our Covenant God both for the gift of  kthese  our         THE VOICE OF  OUR  FATHERS-
parents, as also that we might have, cherish and love them for               The Canons of Dordrecht  (Art. 16, cont.). . . . . . . . . . . . .                               .330
all these years.                                                                    Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
   And now we ask the Lord to spare them for us for many               DECENCY AND  ORDER-
more years, in subservience to His holy will. May we all follow              Student-Preaching (Cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                   .332
their footsteps on our journey to everlasting perfection.                          Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg

                                 Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Lubbers          ALL  AROUND  Us-
                                 Mr. and Mrs. Jay Lubbers                    Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...334
                                 Carolyn Ann                                       Rev. M.  Schipper
                                 Glenn
                                 Gloria Jean                           CONTRIBUTIONS  -
                                 Marcia Fay                                 Regurgitation             . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..>.................. 336
                                                                                   George Ten  El&of
                                 3 grandchildren
Byron Center, Michigan


 316                                           TtiE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R .

II                                                                           the bodily resurrection of Christ as a theory of the
              E D I T  0. R I A L S                               11        Resurrection. Apd liberty is claimed for other theories."
                                                                              (Ibid., pp. 364-65)                 \
                        Schism in History                                  Of course, in our recent controversy, such serious errors
                                                                        as are mentioned above had no place at all. No one denied
                  HISTORY  REPEATS  ITSELF                              the infallibility of Holy Writ, the Virgin Birth or the bodily
        Under the above quoted title,, I received  se&era1  quota-      resurrection of Christ.
 tions from candidate `Robert C. Harbach  whicb;.?,are  very               It is interesting to note, however, that heresy in the
interesting, indeed, in view of our recent history. t'  :`I             Presbyterian' Church did not begin here. Already in 1829
        At- first, I considered the possibility of  hatiding-  them     the Cumberland Confession was adopted which was a gross
 down to our readers in.the form of a contribution,. But for            corruption of the Westminster Confession of 1647. In this
 this they are too long. Then I thought that I could possibly           Cumberlancl.Confession  the doctrine of election (and especial-
 use them to fill open spaces in our Stan&& Bearer, but this            ly of reprobation) is denied. It is a striking fact that, once
 I concluded would more or less destroy the total effect of             the church leaves the basis of absolute predestination, Soon
 these quotations the purpose of which is, expressed in: the            all related doctrines, such as total depravity, vicarious atone-
 above title, viz. that history repeats itself, also in our recent      ment, sovereign grace, faith, the church, etc. must follow in
schism.                                                                 its wake. This is inevitable. Viewed in this light, it is not
        Hence, I considered it -most profitable for our readers to' exactly surprising that in 1924 the Auburn Affirmation was
 cast them into the form of an editorial and add my comments            adoptecl  and that it claims liberty to teach whatever one
 to them.                                                               pleases concerning the infallibility of Scripture, the Incarna-
        The first set of quotations concerns the history of the         tion and the bodily resurrection of Christ.
 rather recent schism in the Presbyterian Church which, under              That our recent controversy concerns exactly the heart
 the leadership of Dr. Gresham  Machen,  gave to rise to the            of the truth, the doctiine  of unconditional election, there can
 present Orthodox Presbyterian Church.                                  be no doubt. Those that departed from us stand on the basis
        They are the following:                                         of a general promise fdr all that hear the gospel on condition
                                                                        of faith and of the act of man's conversion as a prerequisite
            "In the midst of Machen's  (Dr. J. Gresham Machen)          to enter into the kingdom of God. They certainly deliberately
      year as preacher at First Church in  Princeton  there             left the basis of the Protestant Reformed position. What will
         emerged a new development oi overwhelming propor-              become  of them is a question. But they certainly have no
          tion's and scope. This was the publication on the 9th         basis for a distinct and separate existence as a church. And
          of January, 1924, of a statement of 150 Presbyterian          who can say how far they will ultimately depart from the
          clergymen entitled: `An Affirmation Designed to Safe-         truth. The path of schism and heresy is very slippery, in-
          guard the Unity and Liberty of the Presbyterian Church        d e e d !
          in the U.S.A.' Because of its origin at Auburn Semi-
         nary it came generally to be known as the Auburn Af-              We continue the quotation from the same source:
         firmation . .  : (From J.  GRESBAM   MACHEN,  A  Bio-                 "It was clear to all, following the publication of the
         graphical Melnoi?,, by Ned B. Stonehouse, p. 364, Wm.               Affirmation . . . that the Assembly (Synod) of 1924
          B.  Eerdmans  Publg: Co., 1955)                                    would be a-s;itical one. During those tense months be-
             "The radical significance of the Affirmatidn is not             fore  the Assembly zvas to mconvene in Grand Rapids,
         immediately apparent for it states at the outset that the            (ital., RCH j Machen contributed no fewer than three
          signers are loyal. to their ordination vows and the doc-           articles-to The Presbyterian, one being a two-part ar-
         trines of evangelical  Chyistianity.  Moreover, it takes            ticle on `The Parting of the Ways' which appeared in
         the form, to a large extent, of pleading for the main-              April. In this article he analyzed at length the situation
         tenance of` constitutional liberties in the face of `per-           with which the church was confronted as the result of,
         sistent attempts to divide the Church and to abridge its            the revelations-of the unwillingness of large elements
         freedom. In support of its plea it enjoy'ed  a measure of           of the Church to submit to the last Assembly's decision.
         plausibility from . . . finding allowance for diverse in-           `The  .Presbyterian  Church in the United States of
        terpretations in the  terms of the formula. of subscrip-             America,' he declared, `has apparently come to the
         tion . . .  (I?&.)                                                  parting of the ways. It may stand for Christ, or it may
             "Further analysis discloses, however, that the Af-              stand against him, but it can hardly halt between two
         firmation contains a bold and thoroughgbing attack                  opiniotis.' In the course of the article he also corrected
         upon the doctrines of the Confession. It  was~most  forth-          certain  misapprehensibns  as to the aims of the conser-
         right in opposing the doctrine of the inerrancy of the              vatives. `We do not wish to split the church ; on the
          Scriptures . . . Thus, the `Virgin Birth of Christ, for            contrary we  are, working for the unity of the church
         example, is viewed as a theory of the Incarnation and               with all our might. But in order that there should be


                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEA-RER                                                       317

           unity within the church, it is necessary above all that                So far as  Machen's  own desires were concerned, he had
           there should be sharp separation of the church from the                no zeal for leadership. Frequently even against better
         world. The carrying out of that separation is  .a prime                  judgment he held back whtn older men in the Directors
           duty of the hour." (Lbid., p.-568)                                     seemed to be taking the reigns of leadership. In the last
                                                                                  analysis, however, he was as prominent as he was be-.
         I still consider it deplorable that this "parting of the                 cause he was the most effective  spoke&an  for this
 ways" in the Presbyterian Church came- so  l&e. I think                          position and was willing to labor in season and out of
1 it was on the occasion of Dr.  Machen's delivering a lecture                    season regardless of personal cost. He was bound there-
 in Grand Rapids (about 1918 ?) that he was asked the ques-                       fore to be identified prominently with that cause, and
 tion whether there would be a split in the Presbyterian                          to be attacked by those who were attacking- it. But
 Church and that his answer was: "No.; you cannot split                           there were also several times when he became the victim
 rotten wood." The choice of being for or against Christ,                         of false charge5  and rumors that were widely circulated,
 though principally correct, is, nevertheless, hardly definite                    and so  his good name  was besmirched:"  (Ibid.,,  pp.
 enough as a basis for the "parting of the ways" in any                           371-72')
 -church. It is too broad.                                                            Machen "is reported to have said: `Defenders of
         Iti one of our classical meetings, I, too, spoke of the                  the Bible are- called extreme and bitter men ; their op-
 parting of our ways. This was after it had become very                           ponents usually are called kind and tolerant _ . .' (Ibid.,
 evident, not that some were for and others were against                          p. 372) "Erdman  . . . in . . a blistering repudiation . . `.
 Christ, though principally this is always the case, but that
    .                                                                             stated that `the only division I have observed is as to
 many were  o'pposed to the Protestant Reformed truth, and                      " spirit, methods or policies. This division would be of no
 secretly as well as openly, attempted already for some time                      consequence were it not for the unkindness, suspici&,
 in the past to corrupt our churches. And I consider it a                         bitterness and intolerance of those members of the facul-
 blessing of our God that the split &me  when it did, and not                     ty who are also editors of The Presbyterian."' .(fbiil.,
 later. Though a split in the church of Christ in the world is
 a!ways deplorable, -and though we, too, aim at unity, yet it                     p. 375) Consequently there were "widely publicized
 is to be far preferred to a false and outward unity which is                     and misrepresented" charges "given widespread circula-
 not based on the truth of the Word of God and our Confe;-                        tion in the Church and before the general public that
 sions. If such a false unity is maintained it is not long before                 Machen was *engaging  in a personal campaign against
 the condition is reached~  of which one must say : "You cannot                   Erdman." And this "to undermine confidence in Dr.
 split rotten wood."                                                              Erdman." (Ibid.,  p. 377) Moreover,  Machen "was
         For this reason I am glad that the split in our churches                 charged with `temperamental idiosyncrasies,' though no
 did not come later than it did.                                                  particulars were given."  "f&d . . . Dr. Erdman said
         The recent schism was the best thing that could ever                     that `what is questioned is whether I%. Machen's  tem-
 have happened to our Protestant Reformed Churches !                              per and methods of defense are such as to qualify him
         The quotations from the same  source  continue to state                for a chair in which his whole time will be devoted to
 that,. according  to many in. the Presbyterian Church, the                       defending the faith.  `. .  .' " (Ibid.,  p. 389) But : "The
 controversy  was  ,largely  a matter of personalities and that the               issue was not `fundamentally personal but doctrinal, and
 good name of Dr. Machen  was defamed:                                            was `a revealing aspect of the struggle between the up-
                                                                                  holders of constitutional orthodoxy and a coalition of
          `I    . . . As we have observed, however, such unity had                modernists and others who above all wanted tolerance."
           been la.ckinng  for many years . . .To persons who analyze             (Ibid.,  p. 390) "It has indeed been a sordid piece of
          history in terms of persons rather than principles, the                 busines that, in the name of religion, men have  iesorted
           Princeton (Seminary and Church  -.RCH) conflict                        to the spread of false rumors in order  .to weaken
           sekmed  to be largely a matter of personalities- the                   Machen's  testimony and to belittle the cause for which
           p&%onalities  of Erdman or Stevenson on the one hand                   he suffered-and toiled."  (Ibid., p. 393)
           and that of Machen on the other. Such elements were                  Is it necessary for me to point out that also in this respect
           no doubt involved but they were actually subsidiary and          history repeats itself  ?
           superficial aspects of the struggle. The issue turned                Must I call attention to  all the slanderous remarks and
          ,' about the larger questions of the nature of Christianity       misquotations that are addressed to the Rev. Ophoff and the
           and the meaning of the modern religious situation. And           undersigned ? Or  must I quote from the "Cross Bill" in
           so far as Princeton was concerned, it is plain that the          which  DeWolf  C.S. literally besmirched my name and became
           defense of orthodoxy was far  frbm  being identified             guilty of perjury?
   .`. :.simply  with Machen's  activity. Throughout most of the                I will refrain from quoting. The Lord will judge. the
           struggle, if not all of it, the traditional orthodox position    evil slanderers !
           was supported vigorously by' the overwhelming major-                 I still have more quotations from candidate Harbach.
   ..::ity both of the Board of Directors and of the Faculty.               These must wait till our next issue.                         H.H.

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

                                                                         seen too much of this healing upon the prayer of faith, for
                       AS. TO BOOKS                                      instance, of the late Aimee McPherson in Los' Angeles, Calif.,
                                                                    II t&an that I could ever believe in it, or even in the sincerity
         Expository Outlines  on  the  Wlzole   Bible,  Vol. XI, Mat-    of those who practice it. And, therefore, Dr. Koole com-
  thew, by Charles Simeon; published by Zondervan Publish-               promises too  "ch, according to my judgment, when he
  ing House, Grand Rapids,  Mich. Price $3.95.                           writes on p. 99 : "By this we do not mean to  expkess  any
                                                                         doubt concerning these healers themselves. Let  u's establish
         This book is part of a set of twenty-one volumes that,          emphatically that men like Herman Zaiss want to give glory
  judging by this one volume, appear to be exactly what the              to themselves wl%ch belongs only to ,God: We are only con-
  title expresses: "Expository Outlines on the Whole Bible."             cerned with this that  the'honor which our age has for the
  It is not a regular commentary for the simple reason that it           physician may not at any price be transferred to any other
  is not a consecutive interpretation of the Gospel according            healer. and that, also over against the "healer by prayer,"
  to Matthew. verse by, verse, but it treats. a part of each             one can .only say : (God must do it, the Lord is the strength
  chapter and the exposition of the portions treated are usually         of my life, and, perhaps, you may be the means." Besides,
  quite sound. The chief value of the book, however,' lies in            the "Message of Healing" is also based on what I cor&der
the fact that the expositions of the various passages are                an erroneous interpretation of Jas. 5 :14, 15.
  offered in the form of sermon outlines.  .This ought to be                By this I do not wish to detract from the good the+' is
  quite a help to many a preacher.                       i               in this book. Let the reader judge for himself.           n
         Having perused this volume, I subscribe to the opinion                                                                         H.H.
  of Bishop Moule quoted in the introduction : "it was a literary
  achievement of his life, and no unworthy one. These volumes,              De  Dieast der  Prediking (The Ministry of Preaching)
  now long out of print, contain may discourses fully written,           by Dr.  1~. Dijk. Published by J. H. Kok, Kampen, the
  among them the several sets of -University Sermons ; but the           Netherlands. Price f 13.50.
  large majority of the more than two thousand compositions                 This book is a homiletical work, or, better still, a text-
  are p?-ecis  of parochial sermons, well ordered outlines of ex-        book on homiletics especially designed for students. As such
  position, arranged according to the books of the Holy Scrip-           I recommend it to our students. It ought to have a place in
  tures. The reader will seldom fail to gather excellent sug-            our theological school library.
  gestions on how to explain and arr'ange,  and how to carry                I am somewhat surprised that the book bears the title "The
  messages home from the Word of God to the life of man.                 Ministry of .Preaching"  while in the body of the book Prof.
  They were bone systems of sermons which he himself  made               Dijk emphasizes that he prefers the name "ministry of the
  to live, and speak, and work; and he did his utn?ost`*to  teach        Wor_d" which I`would also prefer, but which is not the same.
  his young men how to  .do  the,.s.amk.`!  If I  itiay judge the           After a general introduction,,  ?he author treats the preach-
  whole set by this one volume, I would subscribe this opinion.          ing of the Word according to Scripture and according to
         The author, Charles Simeon, lived in  the latter part of        the testimony of  history: In this' connection he also briefly
  the eighteenth .and the first part of the nineteenth century.          treats Barth's conception of the Word of God. Further, he
  The set was long out of print. The Zondervan Publishing                speaks of the preaching as ministry of the Church and of
  House rendered a very valuable service by re-publishing this           preaching in various connections, as, for instance, in connec-
  set of outlines.                                                       tion with exegesis, with the Confession, etc. In chapter -VI
   , I would recommend it to every student of Holy Writ:                 he discusses the sermon as such, the preparation for it, its
                                                               H.H.      form and contents.
                                                                            What interested me most, however, is the treatment of
         De  Boodscha# der  Gen.&vhg (The Message of Hdaling),           the various materials Scripture presents for the sermon, es-
  by, Prof. Dr. J. L. Koole. Published by J. H. Kok, N. V.,              pecially because Dr.  Dijk offers various propositions, themes
  Kampen, the Netherlands. Price f 4.90.                                 and divisions for sermons. It is interesting to know how, in
         In a foreword, Dr. Koole writes: "The danger even               the old country, they form their propositions, especially be-
  threatens very definitely that a calm study of the facts (an           cause in our,own  school we, of course., als6 teach homiletics.
  attempt to which is risked in the following pages) will im-            In this co&ection, I would say that, if ever we should treat
  mediately be characterized as an unfair criticism by those             some of Dr. Dijk's propositions in class, we would criticise
  who favor the "Message of Healing," while from the op-                 many of them as being too long, especially as far as the
 posite side immediately such criticism will be considered as            themes are concerned, and that the divisions are often too
  far from decisive."                                                    analytical and also fail to follow the logical order.
         To the latter class I wish to belong.                              However, the book is very sound and thorough, as we
         The book of Dr.. Koole, no doubt, contains much,  that is       would expect it of Dr. Dijk. And I highly recommend it to
  good, but personally I would .have been much more severe               students and preachers.
  in my criticism of the "Message of Healing" than he. I have                                                                           H.H.


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               319
II  .                                                                            Q. 121. Why is it here added, "Which art in heaven"?
            O U R   D O C T R I N E                                              A. Lest we should form any earthly conceptions of
                                                                                 God's heavenly majesty,  -and that we may expect
                                                                                 from his almighty power all things necessary for
                                                                                 soul and body.
               THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE                                                                Chapter  1
        AN  EXPOSITION  OF  THE HEIDELBERG  CATECEIISM                               Addressing God as. our Father

                PART  III  --OF  THANKFULNESS                            The Lord's Prayer, as it occurs in Matthew 6, appears
                                                                      in a very beautiful and significant context, a context that
                          LORD'S DAY 45                               enunciates several important principles of prayer. First of
                                                                      all, it is emphasized that prayer must not be a mere out-
                             Chapter 3                                ward  shover,  but must be from the heart. Thus we read in
              The Perfection of the Lord's Prayer                     vss. 5 and 6: "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as
                                                                      the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the
    In conclusion, let us notice that in this prayei-  the Lord       synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may
teaches us throughout to use the plural,,and  no't the singular.      be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their
0~ Father, we pray that Thy name be hallowed, Thy king-               reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,
dom come, Thy will be done. We pray for ow daily bread.               and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which
We pray that Thou wilt forgive o'ur debts, as eve forgive our         is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall re-
debtors; and that Thou wilt not lead US into temptation, but          ward thee openly." In this connection we may also apply
deliver us from evil. And this does not .mean that we may             the words of John 4  124: "God is a Spirit*: and they that
only .pray in unison with all the people of God; For indeed           worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." These
we are admonished that we shall enter into our inner cham-            words of our Lord must always be applied in our prayers.
ber, shut the door, and pray to  ou,r Father Who seeth in             It means that we cannot please the living God, Who is a
secret. Nor does it mean that we cannot have very urgent              Spirit, by mere outward form, and that our prayer must be
and pressing personal needs that impel us to cry to Jehovah           a matter of the heart, not an outward show. As we pray,
very emphatically in the singular. The prayer of the publican         there must live in our inmost mind and heart that which we
must needs be in the singular, "God, be merciful to me a sin-         express by the words of our mouth. We may flatter a man
ner." But it certainly signifies that true prayer presupposes         by vain words, while our heart is far from him ; but this is
love to the brethren and fellowship with all the people of God.       impossible with God. He looks at the heart.
Your prayer must needs die on your lips if you should ap-                In vss. 7 and S of Matthew 6 the principle is announced
pear in the sanctuary of God with hatred, against the brethren,       that in our prayers we must not act as if it is necessary `for
or  even against one brother, in your heart. What the Lord            us to persuade God to give us what we ask of Him. We need
Jesus once said with reference to offering  onefs  gift on the        not use vain repetitions, "But when ye pray, use not. vain
altar applies with-double force to the holy art of prayer, so         repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they
that we may surely paraphrase His words thus : "If therefore          shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore
thou art drawing near unto God in the sanctuary, and there            like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye
rememberest that thy' brother hath ought against thee, leave          have need of, before ye ask him." You therefore are not heard
thy prayer unuttered,  f&t go and reconcile with thy brother,         because yo; pray, but ,fundamentally  you pray because you
and then  return to offer thy prayer." Matt. 5 :23, 24. May the       want to worship God, and acknowledge Him only as the
Spirit of prayer and supplication give us grace to obey the           giver of all good things.
-injunction of our Lord, "After this manner therefore pray               Further, it is emphasized that in your prayer you must
ye."                                                                  take your brethren along, and that too, without exception.
                                                                      Love of the brethren and the spirit of forgiveness must be in
                           LORD'S  DAY  46                            your hearts. This is the principle announced in vss. 14 and
                                                                      15 of the same chapter: "For if ye forgive men their tres-
              Q. 120. Why hath Christ commanded us to address         passes, your heavenly Father will also forgive-you: But if ye
              God thus: "Our Father"?                                 forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father
             A. That immediately, in the very beginning of  .our      forgive your trespasses." And, it stands to reason that if
              prayer, he might excite in  I& a childlike reverence    our heavenly Father does not hear our prayer for the for-
             for, and confidence in God, which are the foundation     giveness of sins, nb other petition can possibly be acceptable
              of our prayer: namely, that God  is become our
             Father in Christ, and will  huch less deny us what       to Him.
              we ask of him in true faith, than our parents will         Finally, in the same chapter it is emphasized that  we
              refuse us earthly things.                               certainly shall not be motivated by anxiety for earthly things

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

in our  prayey, but that we shall chiefly be concerned with          gently and that the spiritual condition of our heart must be
God's cause and His kingdom. This is emphasized in that              such  that we can utter this address in spirit and  in truth.
beautiful last part of Matthew 6, from vs. 25 to the end. The        Then  it will be clear that in this address we approach the
question what we shall eat or what we shall drink certainly          true God. We come to stand before His face in the sanctuary.
need not be an object of our anxiety and care in our prayers.        Then this address is not the thoughtless expression of what
For these things we shall take no thought. Life is more than         we have learned by heart, but the conscious effort to con-
meat, and the body is more than raiment. The fowls of the            ceive of Him as He is, as He revealed Himself to us in His
air neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns; but our             Word, and of  His relation to us. It is the spiritual exercise
heavenly Father never forgets them. The lilies of the field          of faith, whereby we seek and find Him, or rather, whereby
toil not, neither do they spin ; yet our heavenly Father clothes     we sought and found Him, that is expressed in this address.
them with the most beautiful garments, more beautiful than           It is the expression of that spiritual activity of the mind and
those with which Solomon in all his glory was adorned.               heart and soul whereby we are absorbed in profound con-
Therefore, we shall surely take no thought for  the. things          templation of the living God, and try to penetrate the dark-
after which the Gentiles seek, eating and drinking ahd cloth-        ness that envelops us, until we gaze with.adoration  and won-
ing. But  "seek  ye first the kingdom of God, and his right-         der upon His face and all our attention is concentrated upon
eousness : and all these things shall be added unto YOU."            His glorious majesty. And thus this act of addressing God
       These principles are certainly embodied in that most          determines our whole attitude through our entire prayer. It
perfect prayer which the Lord taught us to pray. This prayer         is because He is what we declare Him to be in this ad&-&s
is certainly not a vain repetition of words. It is so brief that     that we direct our prayer to Him, that we dare to approach
we could not possibly eliminate one word without marring             Him, that we are confident that He will hear us. And it is
the whole. It places at once not before men, but before the          because we gaze upon Him and keep the spiritual eyes of
face of our Father Which is in heaven. And the plural that           our faith fixed upon Him throughout our prayer that we
is used throughout this prayer, as well as the fifth petition,       pray as we do, and ask for the things which are briefly en-
for the forgiveness of sins, presupposes that we pray in the         umerated in the Lord's Prayer. The address, therefore, re-
communion of saints, in the fellowship of all our brethren,          presents the indispensable- preliminary of all true prayer.
without exception. The fourth petition leaves no room for            Expressed in spirit and in truth, it signifies that we have
anxiety for the morrow. And the whole prayer certainly               entered into the sanctuary of God and that we have found
emphasizes that the kingdom of God is first, and that all            Him for Whom our soul is yearning.
other things shall be added unto us.                                    Simple, yet very profound ; brief, yet all-comprehens)ve,
       In our discussion of the.contents  of the Lord's Prayer we    is the address of the Lord's Prayer: "Our Father. Who art
are constantly confronted by and must attempt to answer              in heaven." Of course, the purpose of this alocution, is not
two questions. The first of these is, of course: what is the         to impress upon our minds that we may never employ other
meaning of each petition and of each part of this `prayer?           words and other names of God than those of this particular
For we .must pray intelligently, understanding what we say,          ,address  in our approach to the throne of grace. The Saints
and must not utter mere words, that have no meaning for us.          on earth in the past, as well as the saints in heaven, employ
And the second question .we must seek to answer is : what            various names to address the Lord God. When King Solo-
is the spiritual attitude or disposition of the heart that is        mon stood before the Lord at the occasion of the dedication
required in order to utter each petition in spirit and in truth ?    of the temple, he addressed God as follows : "Lord God of
For if our spiritual disposition is not in harmony  with the         Israel, there is no god like thee, in heaven above, "or on
meaning of our petitions,' we become' hypocrites, abominable         earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy
in the sight of God.                                                 servanth that walk before Thee with all their heart : Who hast
       With these two questions in mind we now, first of  all?       kept with thy servant David my fathe? that thou promised&
approach the address, or alocution, of this model prayer of          him: thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it
the Lord: "Our Father Who  art in heaven." Let  us  take             with thine hand, as it is this day." In this address the sover-
note, first of all, that these introductory words form no peti-      eignty and glory and power of God, as well as His faithful-
tion, but are  th-e address of the whole prayer. Before we           ness in keeping His covenant, are emphasized. I Kings S :23,
bring our requests to the throne of grace, we are taught to          24. Thus also in the prayer which  Hezekiah  uttered over
address, to speak to God directly, and, as it were, face to          against the blasphemous words of Rabshakeh the power and
face. What is the meaning of this ? What is the significance         sovereignty of God is emphasized in these words: "Now
of addressing God in our prayers ? Is this address intended          therefore, 0 Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out
as a mere form of politeness ? Or does it serve some such            of his hand, that all  the. kingdoms of the earth  may know
purpose as the superscription of a letter? It will be evident
a$ once that it must have a much richer and deeper signifi-          ?hat thou art the Lord God, even thou only." II Kings 19:19.
cance, especially if we remember that we must pray intelli-                                                                   H.H.



                                  i


                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  321

                                                                             fathers. Indicated is the covenant of life and peace with Levi.
11             THE DAY OF SHADOWS  11 The "fathers" are  ,Abraham,  Isaac and  Jacob and their
I'                                                                      `I ancesters at Sinai.
                                                                                This verse (10) repeats the general accusation of verse 8.
                    The Prophecy of Malachi                                  Vss. 11, 12 name the offense to which it is next applied.
                                                                             Judah  - the freed exiles that settled in the territory formerly
        III. Condemnation of mixed marriages and Divorce,                    occupied by the tribe of Judah. Hath dealt treachemusly-
2 :lO-16.                                                                    repeated from vs. 10 to accentuate the charge that is about
                                                                             to be made. An abominatiion  is contwitted  - any doing that
       1 0 . Is there not one-father to m all? Hath not one God
created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against                   contradicts the covenant with Levi, its life and peace, is an
his  brother  by profaning  the  covenant of our fathers?                    abomination in the eyes of Jehovah.  In Israel  - Israel is
                                                                             not any longer the northern tribes in distinction from Judah ;
        11: Hath dealt treacherously Judaah,  and an aboutzination           Israel is Judah. The prophet uses the names interchange-
was committed in Isra`el and in Jemmlevtt;  for hath pvofa`ned               ably.  Profaned the holiness of Jehovah-the  personal holi-
Judah the holy place-of Ieh0va.h which He loved, and hath                    ness of Jehovah as reflected in the true Israel. Denoted fur-
married the daughter. of a strange god.                                      ther is the temple of Jehovah and the symbolical typical
        12.    Will  cwt off  Jeho&h the  ma.n that doeth this, root         worship connected wit6 the temple, in a word, the true reli-
and branch,  from. the  tnbevnacle of Jacob, and  him that                   gion of Jehovah.  That  Ne  loved  -It showed forth His
offereth  a.n  ofiering   ,unto the Lord of hosts, . .  ._.. . . ___.,_..    glory. How the holiness of Jehovah is being profaned is
        13. And .secondly this ye &ve done covering z&h tears                Stated in the last clause.  Hath  mawied the daughter of a
the  altajr of Jehovah,  zwit!z   weeping and  &enting  in so                stra,nge god  - the offenders marry women who are  wor-
,mudh  tha,t  H.e regardeth  not the offering  a?symore  or  re-             shippers of heathen deities. Thereby they introduce pagan
ceiveth it with ple~amre from your hand.                                     ideas into the holy nation. Besides by its mixing itself with
                                                                             the seed. of the land. Israel is losing its identity.
        14. Yet ye say, wherefore? Because the Lord hath been
a,  wifiness between thee and the  wife  of thy youth  aga.inst;                The abomination is committed particularly in Jerusalem.
whom thou  ha,rt dealt  treacherously. Yet is she thy  cow-                  Here is located the temple, Jehovah's habitation. Here
panion, a-nd the wife of thy covena,ni.                                      burned God's altars. The majority of offenders is comprised
                                                                             of priests and Levites, rulers and princes. On the ,prevalence
        1.5.  ,And did He not make on.e? Yet 1za.d He the residue            of mixed marriage amdng these classes see Ezra 9 :lff ; 10,
of the  @&it. And  zvhel-efore one? That He might seek a                     117; Neh. 13, 23ff.
godly seed. Therefore take  heed  to- thy  spirit,  and against                 Jehovah must destroy all such desecrators of His cov-
the zwiie of his youth let none deal treacherously.                          enant and temple. And that He shall. He will cut off the
        16.  For  Jeh0va.h God of  I-srael said that He  hate&               man that doeth this root and branch, the offender himself
putting  a.zvay:-for  one  covereth with  tiiolence   his garment;           and his seed.  He that offereth  an offering-either him that
therefore tuke laced fo your spi&t t1za.t ye deal not treacherous-           offers the blind, lame and sick or the priest that makes
ly-                                                                          atonement for any of the offenders of vss. 11, 12.
        The questions of verse 10 are put by the  .prophet  as                  And secondly  t&s have  ye done -These words point to
representing the spiritual Israel. The prophet is not  per--                 the next charge. Covering  - they continually cover. Tears,
sonally  guilty of the sins at which he strikes. Yet as appears              weeping,  la.ment&g  -the crying of the treacherous persons.
from his using the pronoun "we" he holds himself responsible                 Though their hearts condemn them, they shed copious tears
for them. For they are sins committed by the post-exilic                     over the altar because the Lord takes no delight in their
community to which he belongs. Besides he wants the sinners                  offering-  (vs.  13)1    Whewfore  - Why does not Jehovah
whom he must admonish to know that he is not assuming to                     iegard  dur offerings ? So they lament. It gives the prophet
them a holier-than-thou attitude.                                            an opening for stating his accusation. Became Jehovah hatk
      -`. HqJe zwe not one father? - it is God of whom the prophet           been witness' between  thee and the wife of thy youth-the
speaks. This is evident from his next question, Hath not oize                wife had been sent away, divorced. The Lord saw the mar-
`God created us? The prologue tells us that the prophet has                  riage and the putting away,- and as righteous judge He will
in mind the `fatherhood .of God with respect to Jacob-Israel                 avenge the wrong.  Dealt treacherously-in  sending her
whom He loved. One God brought them into being a family                      away. He should have cleaved to her until death parted
of saints in Christ. This makes them brothers and sisters in                 them.  Thy  cov@anion -in joy and sorrow. This com-
the Lord obligated to love each other and so to order their                  panionship should have strengthened the bond between them.
lives that the one be a blessing to the other. But they do not               The wife  of  t/Ly  coven+  - the covenant of Jehovah with
meet their obligations. They deal treacherously every man                    the fathers under which the offender and his wife were born.
against his brother by profaning the covenant of their                       In contrast to the daughter of the  strangd  god, she was a

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

member of the community of God's believing people. In                     2.  But who  will  endzcre   the, day--of  H,is  co,lGng,   and
sending her away he profaned the covenant (vss. 13, 14).              zoho shqll stand when He appeareth?  For He <is like the fire
       And did He,  Jehova,h,  not  ma.ke  one?---  He did make       of h. refiner, a:nd as tlae soap of a fuller.
one-Adam and out of him one woman, bone of his bones                      3. And He shall sit as a refiner and a pztrifier of silver.
and flesh of his flesh. So did Jehovah. And therefore shall           And He shall  p,uri)y  the sons of  Levi> and refine them as
a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife,           gold and silver, and they slaall be unto the Lord sac+cers
and the twain shall be one flesh in communion of nature,              of offering in ,righteousness,
life and love. God .could have done otherwise. For He -yet
had the remainder of the spirit-the breath of life by which               4. And  fleasant  to Jehovah shall be the offerings of
man became a living soul. This He possessed in infinite               Juda.11,  and Jemsalem  as in the days of old and as in for?%er
abundance. This being so, He could have made one man                  years.         `
and from him many women, or many men and from each a                      5. And I z&l draw near to you for judgment, a.nd z&l
woman. But the Lord chose the other way. He made one,                 be a. witness swift aga.inst sorcerers, and against the adztlt-
the one woman from the one, the_ twain to be one, the one             erms, a.nd gainst false .swearers,  avid against the oppressors
human family from the one as its root. Why  did He make               of theSwages of the hCel,ing, the zoidom and the orphan, and
one? Because it was His purpose to seek from the one a                he that leads astray the stranger and fears WLe not, said Je-
godly seed, to gather out of the whole human race from the            hovah. Sebaoth.
one a church chosen to everlasting life. If so, how a man
profanes the covenant, who, as driven by sinful lust, sends               6. For I a  WL the Lord, Not do I change; therefore ye
away the  wife  of his youth, a daughter of the covenant.             som of Jacob are not consumed.
What greatly aggrevated the sin was that doubtless in most                7. From the days of your fathers ye have turned atway
cases the.wife was put away because marriage with a heathen           fr0.m `my &u&s, atid not have ye kept t h e VS. Return unto
woman was being contemplated. How indifferent the of-                 me nnd I will return unto you, said Jehovah of hosts. But
fenders shew themselves to be to the purpose of God to seek           ye say, Wherin  shall we turn?
a godly seed. For Christ does not gather His church from
the offspring of remarrikd  diyorced  persons, corrupters of              Ye (vs. 17) -the  sceptics  in the postexilic community
Jehovah's holiness, and women who are worshippers of                  to whose reckless and impious reasonings the prophet next
strange gods. But He cuts off the man that doeth this root            gives attention, have wearied Jehovah with your  words-
and branch,, meaning that He visits the sins of the fathers           The accusation. is general and causes the hearers to reply,
unto the children.       2                                            wherein have we wearied  Him ? The prophet promptly gives
       There are several other interpretations and explanations       answer. Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of
of our passage (vs.  15), but to my mind the one here                 Jehovah-So it seemed to them. It can be explained. A
given is closest to the text and is best suited to the context.       class of nobles `had sprung. up in the postexilic community
       Take heed to thy spirit -and admonition to the hearers.        that had grown rich by oppressing their brethren, the .hire-
that iach and every one of them had better see to it that he          lings, orphans and widows of vs. 5. (See also Neh.  5).
does not deal tracherously  with the wife of his youth. -Verse        Doubtless the complainers of our verse belonged to the vic-
16 states the reason why the admonition had better be taken           timized. They saw  the prosperity of the unscrupulous nobles,
~to heart. 1) Jehovah God of Israel hates their doing. 2) They        and, being addicted to the thought that properity is a sign
cover their garments with violence. By putting away  &eir             of Jehovah's favor, they concluded that He must love evil-
wives and marrying woman who worship idols they commit                doers.  Or, where is the God of judgment?-if wicked men
a heinous sin. In conclusion the prophet warns them  on&              are  not good in His  sight? why does He not come in judg-
more not to put away the wife of their youth.                         ment over them ? But no, He sends them prosperity. And
                                                                      thy, hirelings, widows and orphans that put their trust in
       IV. Jehovah's coming in judgment, 2 :17, 3 :1-T.               Him, are poor and oppressed.
       17. Ye  hafue wearied  JehozJah  with  your words. Yet ye          The same complaint was expressed by the otherwise
.sa.y, zvlaercin have zvc belabored Him? In yozbr sa.ying, Every      Godfearing Aseph (Ps. 73), Behold, these are the ungodly,
one  tlaa,t doeth evil is good  ix the eyes of  tlae Lord, and  im    who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily, 1
them He delights; or, Wlaere is the God of judgment?                  have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in
                              Chapter 3                               innocency.
       1. Behold, I  am sending my `messenger,  a.nd he  shall            The prophet is quick to meet the challenge of the com-
prepare the zvay before me; suddenly he shall come to his             plainers of our verse. He will appear suddenly in terrible
temple, the Lord whom ye a~ye seeking, and _the angel of the          judgment that will result in the destruction of all that is of
cozJenant  who2x ye  deligkt in., behdld he shall  come> said         sin. Eut first He will send a messenger to prepare the way.
Jehova,h  Sebaokh.                                                        Behold, I am sending- such is the Hebrew construction,


   L                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   -323

  for the event is imminent. My messenger - Elijah of whom               &ind and heart and life. As in the days of old- When God-
  mention is made in 4, 5, As in Isa. 11:3 the name df Elijah            fearing priests served Jehovah's altars.
  is here used as a designation of John the Baptist.. This is               And I will draw near to you - Israe;, all that is called
  plain from the fact that .Christ, speaking of John, declares,          church. For judgment -for acquittal or sentence and
  "This is he of whom it is written, Behold? I send my mes-              punishment. The purged sons of Levi will be absolved in
  senger before my face, which shall prepare the way before              Christ but all the evil-doers that repent not of their sins .
  thee"  (Matt. 11  :lO  ; Luke 7  :27), and that Mark cites this        shall be sentenced and swept away. Will be swift witness -
  prophecy as reaching its fulfilment.in,the  Baptist, Mark- 1 :2.       He is both judge and witness. And the witness will be swift
  The messenger of the covenant- That the messenger id                   because He knows all the facts and therefore needs no time
  Christ follows from the fact that the prophecy of Mal. 4, 5            for securing the evidence. Adulterers- All such that put
  was fulfilled in John and in none other besides him. Prepare           away the wife of their youth, and they who marry woman
  the way- Preaching repentance, John instrumentally "turn-              that worship strange gods whether or not they divorced the
  ed the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobe-          wife of their youth. Sorcerers-all persons who claimed to
  dient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people                possess power over evil spirits or to consult the dead (Exod.
  prepared for the Lord," that is Christ. Many were converted            22  :18). False swearers-they that swear by the name
by John's preaching, so that when Christ entered upon His                of Jehovah falsely (Lev.  19:12).  The oppressor of the hire-
  public ministry, there was a people prepared to receive Him.           ling (compare Lev. 19  :13  ; Deut. 24  :14, 15). Widow and
  And the Lord . . . even the messenger of the covenant -                fatherless-If they were godfearing, they were abject of
  The messenger is identical with the Lord and the latter with           Jehovah's special care (Exod. 22 :22-24). Lead estray the
  Jehovah. This places us before the mystery of the incarna-             strangerL Better sojouner. Denoted is a foreigner that
  tion of the Son of God. Shall come to his temple-the                   settled temporarily in Israel. And fears me not - It was the
  church of the elect to which the resurrected and glorified             lack of this fear in which all other transgressions rooted.
  Christ came in His Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Here in                For I  ani Jehovah (vs. 6) -He is Israel's ever faithful
  the church in heaven, typified by the earthly Zion, is God's           God who keepeth covenant trust. Not do I change -For He
  throne so that from the temple all activities will proceed.            cannot deny Himself. Sons of Jacob- Identical with the
  Whom ye seek . . .  _ who ye delight in -This is not irony.            purged sons of Levi, His elect. Are not consumed-That
  God's bitter and ill-deserving people, the true Israel-had             they are not swept away with the others is only due to His
  expressed a genuine desire for'the  appearance of Jehovah.             unchanging mercy. For apart from His grace they are as ill-
  They were in need of Him to rebuke, admonish, instruct and             deserving as the others.
  comfort them by His Word and Gospel. Behold, He shall                     From the days of your fathers (vs. 7) - From the time
  come-the  triufie  Jehovah through the messenger of the                of their inception as a people. Ye have turned -The indict-
  covenant, Christ the Lord. The pronoun he looks back to                ment must not be limited to the carnal Israel. The believers
  the messenger of the covenant. But who can endure the day              are by nature no better. Besides they have  but a small be-
  of His coming (vs. 2) 7 - The sequel reveals that this calls           ginning of true obedience. As  chairned  to the body of this
  for a negative answer. No one can eridure  His coming. This            death they pollute their way before God in word, deed and
  applies with equal force to God's belieiiing  people, should i-Ie      thdught  continually: Return unto me and I will return unto
  mark their transgressions. Therefore He sends before them              you - God is always first. The point to this statement is that
  His messenger. They weary Jehovah with their viler words               without exception the Lord is gracious to the penitent. But
  for one thing. They must repent and thereby make sure their            ye say. Wherein shall we return -This continues to be the
  calling and election, be assured of Chi-ist's Spirit that, how-        reply of the impenitent who parish in their sins.
  ever ill-deserving, they nevertheless are pure gold as to the                                                               G . M . O .
  heart of their  disposi`tions and not reprobate. Refiner's
  fire . . . fuller's soap -The fire of the refiner is a fierce heat.
  It will consume them utterly, if they are sheer dross. The
  proces  of fulling consisted in washing the material with lye,                                 Annoluncements
  beating it, and expdsing  it to the rays of the sun.                      The Eastern Ladies League Meeting will be held at the
        He shall sit  - This looks to the activity of the exalted        Fourth Protestant Reformed Church, Wednesday, May 11,
  Christ through the centuries of the Gospel period (vs. 3).             at 8 P. M.
  The sons of Levi- The elect in every nation of the earth.
  He brings them into being as saints of  -God by His own                   Mr. Herman Hanko will be the speaker. A timely sub-
  Word  ; He efficaciously calls them by His Gospel ; He refines         ject, beneficial to all, has been prepared.
  and purifies them in the fires of persecution and the suffer-             Ladies, take note of this date that plans may be made to
  ings of his present time. Having burnt the dross out of them           attend this meeting.
/ He gives them eternal life in glory. Sacrifices of offering                                             Mrs. G. Pipe
  in righteousness  - They shall serve Him in a perfect state of                                          Vice Secretary

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

                                                                         God : to the law and the prophets else there will be no dawn ?
11  F R O M   H O L Y   W R I T   11 Is.  8:20.                                                   *  6 :k  *
1'                                                                 `I       Since I daily come into contact with those, who subscribe
                 Exposition of John 3:14-16                              to the "testimony" of  "Classis West," as issued on their
       It is the purpose of the undersigned to write a feti articles     March 1954 gathering, I am constrained by the love of
-of an exegetical-nature on some passages quoted by "Classis             Christ, which knows no one after the flesh, to know it my
West" in their missive to Classis  East, which must serve as             duty to be a faithful watchman on the walls of Zion to.warn
a basis atid `proof of their "testimony" that the Statements             God's children of the untenable and unscriptural and  uncon-
condemned by  Classis  East are not per se heretical. These              fessional position (chosen in this "testimony" of  "Classis
passages are "like statements in Scripture" which prove that,            West." 1. ask of no one to bow before me, neither do I
although these "statements" are not a concise statement of               desire "to push this down  zi brother's  throat."  But- I do
doctrine,, they are not what  Classis  East  saicl they were, to         demand in the Name of the King, who called me to this holy
wit; per se heretical !                                                  office, that everyone submit his every  thought to Christ. This
       There is a challenge in this enunciation of "Classis  West.j' means that he crucify his flesh and all evil sins of zalse pre-
       This challenge we will meet here in these articles. It is         judice, and be as the "noble" Bereans, who searched the
far from the writer of this rubric to have delight in engaging           Scriptures whether these things were true.
in and prolonging a debate. Our purpose, however, is not                    Merely saying, "I have made up my m&l" is no virtue.
simply to be.polemical,  but rather to continue to build up the          That the wicked in hell will also have to say, to.their regret
church in the most holy faith. But shall this be done then               and everlasting consternation and anguish of heart, where
our calling is  .to "reject all errors that militate against this        the worm does not die. I am fully aware that this is a two-
doctrine and particularly those whidh were condemned by the              edged statement of God's justice. And I bow before it. It
above mentioned Synod (National Synod of Dordrecht,  161%                makes no difference* whether the undersigned has made up
19) but that we are disposed to refute and contradict these,             his puny mind when God speaks, does it. Come, then, .and
and to exert ourselves in keeping the Church  free from such             let us bow together before the Scriptures. Then we will not
errors." And this we are to do since "we promise therefore               be "victims'f  of our own stubborn disobedience, our clinging
diligently to teach and faithfully to defend the aforesaid doc-          to doctrinally positions that bring us to Church Political im-
trine, without either  difrectly  or  indirettly   contradicting the     passes! On the contrary we will dare to speak with con-
same; by our public preaching or writing." (italics of us]               viction. We will then not speak in the veiled language  %3,f
Formula of Subscription.' Compare Articles 53, 54 and 55                 those who mutter and peep,  btit we will show from the
of the Church Order.. In the latter Article we read, "to ward            Scriptures things which `<are most surely believed amongst
off false doctrines and  eriors that multiply exceedingly                us !" We then don't speak of "like statements:' but we shall
through heretical writings, the ministers and elders shall use           have the courage to say: as is clearly and uncontradictahly
the means of teaching, of refutation, or warning, and of ad-             taught in the following passages !
monition, as well in the ministry of the Word as in Christian               Uriless  I can say the latter the ink will dry in my pen
teaching and family-visiting."                                           and my preaching will not emit a clear sound and I shall
       Such is our God-appointed mandate!                                have to stand on the pulpit and tell the coggregation  rather
       Thus we have vowed before the face of God we would                apologetically what I do not believe. When -we say clearly
conduct ourselves in this holy ministry of the Word.                     what we believe and interpret the Scriptures according to
       We are called upon to diligently and accurately preach            sound rules of exegesis, which is void'of  all human philo&
the Word of God. Woe to the preacher, writer, be he min-                 phy and interpolation, we will not need to defend ourselves
ister or elder, who is derelict in this sacred matter of preach-         and try to convince our flock that "are not so bad after all.?
ing the Holy Gospel.                                                        I once stood at those cross-roads. That was when I
       Meeting the challenge of the "enunciation" of  "Classis           defended  Statemelit  II. The Lord was merciful to me that I
West" can, therefore, be very simply stated. It is : obedience           did not fall head-long into the pitfall of having to speak the
of an ambassador to his Sender! One takes the shoes from                 language of those, who must convince their congregation that
his feet here. Here the faithful witnesses say: Here I stand,            they are "not so bad," that they really mean and intend their
I cannot do ought else, so help me God!                                  instruction in the right sense.- The Lord counted me worthy ;
       That makes an obedient preacher breathe easily.                   he was merciful to me. I take no credit for my present
       Here is the strength of meekness; in this strength the            happy position of being able to breathe freely in the "strait-
undersigned stands running  -the race with patience. Looking             jacket" of Reformed truth as based upon sound and correct
neither to the right or to the left we begin this study. We              exegesis of Scripture. He has caused the lines to fall unto
will rather give heed unto the more sure Word of God,                    me in pleasant places and has set me in a broad place.
which shines as a light in a dark place? until the day dawn                 I am fully aware that this is a digression ffom my sub-
and the daystar  arise in our hearts. For is not the Word of             ject. I shall come to it presently. But may all those, who


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R - E R                                                325
                        - -.- " - _--
 read these lines, know that I am happy that I am not in             haphazardly, that one, who is not acquainted with the "State-
 need of that, imaginary d&ense  of "well-meaning" brethren,         ments," will have to venture a guess as to which quotations
 who benignly ( ?). say : he means it in a good sense. I desire      are to prove which point. It smacks of haste and lack of
 neither their sympathy nor their support.. What will it profit      citation.
 me in .that day when the Lord shall judge me to find me a               we must do more than merely quote, we said !
 faithful servant, a~workman  that needeth nbt to be ashamed,            Hence, we call attention to the following elements in the
 if mere tien have judged me faithful. Rather will I give all        text in John  3:14-16.
 diligence to rightly divide the Word. Then I know that I                1. That for the correct understanding of this Scripture-
 wield the sword of the Spirit, standing in the ministry which       passage, we must bear in mind the t&e element in the history
 is not one of cowardly weakness, seeking the approval of            of salvation. (Heils-geschiedenis) This is here of exegetical
 man, but in such a ministry which is one of power and ieal          moment. We do not have in mind the "time" of a certain
 s o b r i e t y   !                                                 day in history of twenty four hours, limited by morning and
                                * *  *  *                            evening. We ha% in mind. the time, the seasons of history
                                                                     as they are in the Father's hand. In the plan. and purpose of
     "Classis West" cited various passages of Scripture, which       God all things are wrought according to His eternal good-
 they alleged supported their  cpntention  that the "Statements"     pleasure. Eph. 1  :ll. And in this good-pleasure God has
 condemned by  Classis  East were not per se heretical. We           appointed a certain "time" for everything. There was a
 now make a beginning of studying these Scripture passages.          "time" for everything. There was a "time"  for Abraham to
     We call attention John 3 :14-16.                                live as a pilgrim in a strange land. And, again, there was a
     This passage, which is well-known, reads as follows:            "time" set for Moses to deliver Israel out of the land of
 `Qlnd as Moses lifted ,up the serpent in the ~zw'lderness,  even    Egypt. Thus also there is a "time" for the Son of God to be
 so  must  the Son of Man be  Jifted  ,L@; that whosoever  be-       born, to labor, suffer and die for His people, and to be
 Eeveth in Him should not perish but have `everlasting life.         raised the third day and to ascend up on high. This "time"
 For God so loved the wof*ld that He gave His only begotten          elemerit is definitely underscored by John, the Evangelist.
 Son, that whosoever bclievcth in Him, shou,ld' not perish but           a. It was the "time" when the Word, the Son of God,
 have evel-lasting  life."                                           was made flesh and dwelt among us, so that we might see His
     We will notice the various exegetical considerations  here      glory,  gldry  as of the only begotten of the Father, full of
 in the text and in the contexts and try to ascertain the ,grace and truth. John 1  :14
 eT?ct teaching of Christ here. If such a study of this text             b. It was the "time" when the Son of God came unto
 leads us to the conclusion of "Classis West" then I shall. not      His own things in Israel, His own types and shadows, and
 @y concede the point, but will insist that they are wholly          the law-giving, as they all testified of Him, even as the
 <indicated by the Word of ,God. God does not'desire small           shadow speaks of the body and reality. Hepce,  he came to
- peevishness that simply continues to maintain a position be-       the temple and cleansed it from evil-doers, giving them tlie
 cause it has once been taken. I will not deny that a position       "sign" of the breaking down of the temple of His flesh, and
 is wrong because  "Classis West" took it. That would be             the rending of the veil, and of His building the same in three
 iatal to real sobriety in studying the Word of God as the           days. John 2 :13-22. And in so doing He gives them a sign
 rule. of faith and life  ; that would be moral and doctrinal        of the great Passover Lamb, of the liberation of His people
 suicide. Here  Baliam's ass would be our instructor. And I          from sin and shame into the glory of heaven.
 desire to  be no Balaam. Nor is a, position right because             c . It was the "time" when there would be a "sign" that
 "Classis West" took it. And what we have said here of               is contradicted and when the thoughts of many hearts are
 "Classis West" is also true of  Classis  East, as it is of any      being revealed, for a falling and rising again of many in
 mortal under the sun! Wherefore, should this Word of                Israel. Men would believe in Him because of the signs which
 Christ  vindicte   "Classis West?" I will walk at liberty and       He was doing, but cease believing when they saw no more
 insist in  Classis  East through my Consistory that the de-         -"signs." John 2 ~23-25.    -
 cisions taken be reversed or altered.                                   d. It was a "time" when the remnant according to elec-
     Hence, we will needs have to do more than merely                tion would come to Jesus, believe upon Him, even though
 "quote" the text here together with other passages and              they were "teachers in Israel," as was Nicodemus, who came            '
 simply presuppose that our position is thus established by          to Jesus by night, because he had sensed in Him the Prophet
 Holy Writ. This is such a rudimentary fact that it scarcely         which was foretold already by Moses. Deut. 18:15. It is the
 needs reiteration. But since it is the indispensible requisite      "time" when the "Chief prophet" who reveals unto His
 of good Bible study, that will yield proper and valid con-          church the "secret counsel and will of God con&erning our
 clusions in dogmatics and confessions, we call attention to it      redemption will teach a "leader in Israel."
 nonetheless. And, what is here to the point, "Classis West"             Well may we, therefore; put the shoes from our feet as
 offers no exegesis whatsoever of  the texts quoted. Fact is,        did Moses, and come near and say: speak Lord, Jesus, for
 that from a formal viewpoint, these passages are -quoted so         Thy servant heareth !                                     G.L.


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II                                                                      that  Classis  and Synod have  rio power  .whatsoever  of any
                 I N  -H-l S F  E.A R                                   kind. (That they have no key power  `we never denied. And
II                                                              -  `I let -Rev.. Kok in honesty  before God, Who sees all his deliber-
                                                                        ate and sinful maneuvers of misquoting .and slander, show
                       The Gate Is Open                                 ONE sentence of one speech or writings since 1924 wherein
                              (Continued)                               we deny,that.)  But who appoints the professors of the deno-
                                                                        mination's theological  school,:  who decides for the  denomina-
        "Solely a church political issue."                              tioh what is false doctrine, who determines the forms for
        So Rev. Blankespoor once maintained.                            Baptism, Lord's Supper, installation of office bearers and the
        Let us, for the sake of argument, assume that such is the       like, Rev. Kok does not dare to try to explain.
case in the struggle of our  churdhes to remain Protestant                 And Rev.  Kok was not in Pipestone, Minnesota, the
R e f o r m e d .                                                       afternoon of March 1, when the court case of Edgerton  was
        Actually this cannot be the- case, And the very slogan of       being tried before Judge Flinn. He did not hear the testi-
the pamphlet wherein Rev. Blankespoor published this falsi-             mony of Rev. Gritters that the decisions of the  Classis  are
fication  bf the facts shows that his colleagues do not agree           binding on the local consistory.
with him. The slogan is : "Defending truth and justice." So                H&e  these men no conscience anymore before God?
truth,  doctrine, &as also in danger and is very really an is-             When they appear in the Superior Court of the city of
sue in this struggle.                                                   Grand Rapids, Michigan, to try to depend  the hopeless case
        But we are willing for the sake of argument to assume           of Rev. De Wolf, they must maintain that  the decisions of
for a few moments that the issue is solely a church political           the broader assembly are only advisory, that  Classis  and
one to show that then, by all means, the gate is open. And              Synod have no power and no authority whatsoever.  `And
then the gate is not open simply to Arminianism but to every            Classis  East - whose case it was - they accuse unjustly and
.possible  kind of false doctrine.                                      very sinfully, for they know better, of "initiating discipline."
        Strong language  ?                              _                  But when the evil work of Classis  West, perpetrated in
        You have the witnesses who tried to defend Rev. De              September-of 1953, comes under the scrutiny of an unbiased
Wolf in the Superior Court of the city of Grand Rapids,                 judge of a civil court, the decisions of that  Classis  all of a
Michigan, to -thank  (blan%e?)  for that fact.  Under-,oath  -          sudden become binding upon local  consistories  ; so that those
and notably Rev. Kok - they testified that they believed in             truly Protestant Reformed people who came to their  con-
a church polity that must leave. the gate open to every  sjngle         sistorie.4  to urge them to repudiate this evil stand of the
false doctrine that is conceivable.                                     Classis  are  presente?  as going way  beyond their hounds.
        Did Rev. Kok not testify under `oath - and others with
him, which the published court records will show L that if                 In Grand Rapids. Michigan, they rush to the defense of
his consistory sustained him, he could preach Roman Catholic            Rev. De WoiJ,,,`maintaining  that he did not, on, ;hei; perve-
doctrine in his church and still retain the name Protestant             sion of,. the Cl$rch Order; need to abide by the +.cisioris' of
Reformed ? He maintained, that he could stay in the deno-               the  Classis,zince  it has only advisory  power.~
mination and that no  one could take away from his local,                  In Pipestone, .,Minies&a,  they rush to the defense of those
autonomous church the name Protestant Reformed if his                   who were former<) consistory members of the church where
consistory sustained him in preaching Roman Catholic doc-               Rev. De Boer. once was minister, by maintaining that this
trine.                                                                  same Church Order teaches that the decisions of  Classis
        So loose, so disorganized, so utterly useless  is the church    West taken in September of 1953 in re Rev. De Wolf are
order of Rev. Kok that a denomination that adopts it -and               binding upon all the  con&tories  and that therefore all the
he claims to belong to such a denomination-is helpless to               members must aiso abide by what the Classis  said. And those
expel from it any false doctrine that might be introduced by            who would not go along with that evil decision are considered
a local, autonomous consistory. If only the majority of a               to be outside of the Protestant Reformed Churches.
iocal,  autonomous consistory upholds its minister in heresy,              Have these men no principle left at all ?
the rest of the churches can do nothing to take the `name of               And this Rev. De Boer who wrote about a "moral issue,"
that denomination away from it.                                         nothing but a moral issue, how could he who is so concern-
        In this Kekistic form of church governnlent   - which is        ed( ?) with the moral aspect of the struggle in our churches
far more hybrid than a crossbreed of the Presbyterian and               sit there coaching his former consistory's lawyer about doing
the Congregational forms of church government i the pttaior-            the immoral thing of corrupting the plain teaching of the
ity  of the churches in a given denomination are helpless when          Church Order?
one consistory drags the name of that denomination in the                  And when it was pointed out that  Classis  West had made
mud, defames it and under it pi-opogates a doctrine that is             another decision in the past concerning what should appear
directly and clearly opposed to its teachings.                          one the agenda and what the' local, autonomous consistories
      : The Church Order, so Rev.  Kok et al maintain, teaches          had to do in order to get matters on the agenda, Rev. Gritters


                                          .   TH-E  S T A N D A R D   B E A K E R                                                    327

  could-freely testify that these decisions. were very "flexible."     that they think that Rev. Kok's confusion is what the Spirit-
      Indeed, they were flexible enough to let him, who was            guided Fathers adopted at the Synod of Dordrecht? The
  the Stated Clerk and who of all the members of that Cla&s            men  +&o-adopted  the Canons of Dordrecht, did they mean
  ought to know the rules, might break this one to get this evil       such nonsense by the Church Order?
  instruction- which was so plainly contrary to the Church                 As a postscript we want to add just one more thought in
  Order of one Classis  lording it'over another - on the agenda.       regard to that trial in Pipestone, Minnesota. The main argu-
      But these decisions about Rev. De Wolf, were they not            ment, in fact the whole case of what was formerly the con-
  also flexibie, Rev. Gritters? You fell free before God about         sistory of Rev. De Boer, was that in June of 1953 the Synod
  your testimony ? And about your reversal  df testimony in            decided to meet  ,March 10 in First Church. Since they did
  Grand Rapids and in Pipestone  ? Before HIM you can ex-              meet there, Rev. Howerzyl testified-as though he was
  ,plain  your change to defend the one and the same case of           making a very wonderful and stupenduous revelation - they
  schism isi our denomination? .`?low do you square it before          were the legal Synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches.
  Him that you could violate the law that deals with matters           And, if you please, -he followed  on the stand so shortly upon
  appearing upon the agenda, and then insists that the decision        the testimony of his colleague and right hand man from
  of your Classis  on' that thing brought up by' a violation of        Marion County, Rev. Gritters, that rules were "fiexible" and
  the law was binding upon all the members in-all  the churches        that if you tried to keep them all yoti could not live.
  in  Classis  West? Why was that decision not just as "flex-              First church's property was taken away from  it. by a
  ible" as the decision you violated ?                                 suspended minister and eleven deposed elders and its doors
      But why go into those things ? As we wrote before the            were locked to First church between June of 1953 and
  evil and sinfulness of this whole movement is evident from           March 10, 1954. But now, of course,  SO radical a change
  the fact that- they are constantly changing their tactics with       in the picture of the calling church did not warrant "flexible"
  each new emergency. There is always something wrong with             laws. 0; no ! The schismatics may stretch laws, distort them,        -
  people who have td do that.                                          bend them back and forth, discard them for convenience sake
      What we want to point out now-is that there is absolutely        and then when such a law cannot be kept by us because they
  no reason from a church political viewpoint why those who            stole the church property at Grand Rapids and  lorded  it
  left us should not and cannot link up with any group of              over Classis' East and First Church in their meeting of Clas-.
  churches regardless of their heresies and doctrinal standards.       sis West of September  1953,  those laws become as firm  as
     Rev. Blankespoor is very "ecumenically minded."  He               concrete, as rigid as steel. Then it becomes a matter
  sees much more than their little denomination. Rev. Kok con-         of tremendous principle that the Synod HAS to meet in one
  cocts and propogates a church polity that allows any and             definite locality.
  every teaching under one name.                                           It is far more important that Synod meet in certain scats,
     Why should they then not link up with Hamilton and                in a certain room and in a certain building. THAT is what
  Chatham  again. If Roman Catholic doctrine can be taught             makes it a Synod. Sitting in a room of, a certain building at
  in a Protestant Reformed Church, as Rev. Kok testified un-           a certain time makes it a PROTESTANT REFORMED
_  ,der oath, when the local consistory upholds it, why cannot         SYNOD.
  the Liberated doctrine be taught in the congregation of                 Heeding the Church Order of the Protestant Reformed
  Chatham  and Hamilton and their sister churches under the            Synod which forbids one Classis  to meddle in the affairs of
  name Protestant Reformed ? *It just does not make sense to           another, forbids one Classis  to reverse a decision in a disci-
  bar them from the Protestant Reformed denomination. if you           pline case in a consistory of another, Classis  is a minor mgtter
  concede that thei-e is room in that denomination for Roman           and pertains to "flexible" rules. Rev.  Howerzyl had a BIG
  Catholic doctrine.                                                   point. He and  Rev.-  Gritters had to be shipped in to put
     The gate is open !                                                across such a wonderful contribution to the Kokistic form of
     It is open to whatever heresy, false doctrine, evil practice,     church government.
  Union membership, Lodge membership, divorce or any other                They are developing this new form a church government
  thing now frowned upon by the truly Protestant Reformed              with leaps and bounds.
  consistories,  Classis  and Synod, that any one local schismatic,       The gate is open ?
  apostate consistory might in the future or at present want              Listen ! They  ,have  rushed through it already so that
  to maintain and defend.                                              their church political stand is already liberated.
                                                                          Together with the Liberated they have liberated them-
     The church polity of Rev. Kok opens the gate of the               selves from the Presbyterian form of church government
  denomination of all who adhere to this Kokistic church con-          and from the Church Order of Dordrecht.
  fusion to anything that any one consistory ( ?) might get into          They want freedom to move about as they please.
  its head to defend.                                                     They  aYe liberated.
     How foolish can a man get to defend such nonsense ?                  Why hesitate in joining the Liberated?
     How can  qReformed  people ever be deceived so utterly                                                                       J.A.H.


328                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E 'A R E R                      ~_ -_-
 t                                                                        I her holiness, and ceases to be church. Unholy priests are
II           Contending For The Faith                                        incapable of administering sacraments  ; for how can regenera-
                                                                             tion proceed from the unregenerate, holiness from the un-
                                                                             holy ? No one can give what he does not himself possess. He
              The Church and the Sacraments                                  who would receive faith from a faithless man, receives not
                                                                             faith, but guilt.  ,It was on this ground, in fact, that they
        VIEWS DURING THE SECOND PERIOD  (300-750 A.D.)                       rejected the election of Caecilian: that he had been ordained
                                                                             bishop by an unworthy person. On this ground they refused
                   THE- DOCTRINE,  OF THE CHURCH                             to recognize the Catholic baptism as baptism at all. On this
                                                                             point they had some support ,in Cyprian, who likewise re-
        We noted toward  thk end of our preceding article that               jected the validity of heretical baptism, though not from the
Augustine  Burely  advocated church discipline but was not                   separatist, but-from the catholic point of view, and who came
in sympathy with the Donatist movement. He lamented the                      into collision, upon this question, with a man like  Stlphen
fact that the Donatists  had separated themselves, not only                  of Rome.
from those who had been justly accused of being traitors                        Hence, like the Montanists and Novatians( they insisted
to their faith during the persecutions, but also from those                  on vigorous church discipline, and demanded the excom-
who had been unjustly &ccused and that they had therefore                    munication of all unworthy members, especially as such as
separated themselves from the good and faithful in all the                   had denied their faith or given up the Holy Scriptures under
nations of the world.                                                        persecution. They resiste'd,  moreover, all interference of the
        Continuing with our discussion of the Donatist controv-              civil power in church affairs  ; though they themselves at first
ersy and the conception of the church visible is entertained                 had solicited the help of Constantine. In the great imperial
by Augustine over against the Donatists  controSersy  and                    church, embracing the people in a mass, they saw a secular--
the conception of the church visible as entertained by Augus-                ized Babylon, against which they set themselves off, in
tine over against the Donatists we wish to quote at length                   separatistic arrogance, as the only true and pure church. In
from two recognized authorities. We do well to bear  in mind                 support their views, they appealed to the passages of the Old
that, according to this great Church Father of the fourth and                Testament, which speak of the external holiness of the people
fifth centuries, the true distinguishing marks of the Church                 of God, and to the procedure of Paul with respect to the
are : Catholicity (the true, Church is spread through all lands)             fornicator at Corinth.
anil apostolic connections (connections with churches founded                   In opposition to this subjective and. spiritualistic theory
by the apostles).                                                            of the church, Augustine, as champion of tlie Catholics, de-
      Internal History of the Dona  tist- Sc'zis~~~ Ey PtUip sScha.ff,       veloped the objective, r'ealistic theory, which has since been
                                                                             repeatedly asserted, though with various modifications, not
        The Donatist controversy was a conflict. between complete            only in the Roman church, but also in the Protestant against
separatism and catholicism  ; between ecclesiastical purism and              separatistic and schismatic sects. He lays chief stress on
ecclesiastical eclecticism ; between the idea of the church as               the catholicity  of the church, and derives the holiness of in-
an exclusive community of regenerate saints and the idea of                  dividual members and the validity of ecclesiastical functions
the church as the general Christendom of state and people. It                from it. He finds the essence of the church, not in the per-
re'volved  around the doctrine of the essence of the Christian               sonal character&tics of several .Christians,  but in the union
chufch, and, in particular, of  the predicate of holiness. It                of the whole church with Christ. Taking the historical point
resulted in the completion by Augustine of the catholic dogma                of view, he goes back to the founding of the church, which
of the church, which had been partly developed by Cyprian                    may be seen in the New Testament, which has spread over
in his conflict with a similar schism.                                       all the world, and which is connected through the unbroken
        The Donatists, like Tertullian in his Montanistic writings,          succession of bishops with the apostles and with Christ. This
started from an ideal and  spiriiualistic  conception of the                 alone can be the true church. It is impossible that she should
church as a fellowship of saints, which in a sinful world could              all at once disappear from the earth, or should exist only in
only be imperfectly realized. They laid chief stress on the                  the African sect of the Donatists. What is all that they may
predicate of the subjective holin&s or personal worthiness of                say of their little heap, in comparison with the great catholic
the several members, and made the catholicity of the church                  Christendom of all lands (reading this particular statement
and the efficacy of the sacraments dependent upon that. The                  of the great Church Father it is not difficult to undkrstand
true church, therefore, is not so much a school. of holiness, as             why the Roman Catholic Church of today would seize upon
a society of those who are already holy; or at least of thqse                a passage of this nature in support of themselves as the true
who appear so; for that. there are hypocrites not even the                   church in distinction from all the Protestant churches which
Donatists could deny, and  -as little could they in earnest                  lie as so many broken remnants throughout the world. We
claim infallibility in their bwn discernment of men. By the                  know that the Romish church of today proudly points to its
 toleration of those who are openly sinful, the church loses                 oneness, which we know to exist merely in the outward and


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               329

 external sense of the world, but to which that church points        parable of the net referred, and notorious sinners. But this
 with pride as a mark of the true church. And it is surely           did not gain them much; for if the church compromises her
 not difficult to understand why that church should point to         character, her holiness by contact with unworthy persons at
 a passage such as this from the- eminent Church Father in           all, it matters not whether they be openly unworthy before
 support of their claim  - H.V.) ? Thus even numerial                men  oi- not, and no church whatever would be left on earth.
 preponderance here enters as an argument; though under                  On the other  hand, however, Augustine, who, no more
 other circumstances it may prove too much, and would place          than the Donatists, could relinquish the predicate of holihess
 the primitive church at a clear disadvantage in comparision         for the church, found himself compelled to distinguish be-
 with the prevailing Jewish and heathen masses, and the              tween a tijn!e and a &zed,, or merely apparent body of Chkt;
 Evangelical church in its controversy with the Roman  Ca-           forasmuch as hypocrites, even in this world, are not in and
 tholic (how true this is ! - H.V.) .                                with Christ, but only appear to be. And yet he repelled the
    From the objective character of the church as a divine           Donatist charge of making two churches. In his view it is
 institution flows, according to the catholic view, the efficacy     one and the same church, which is now mixed with the un-
 of all her functions, the sacraments in particular. When            godly, and will hereafter be pure, as it is the same Christ who
 Petiliati  once said : "He who receives the faith from a faith-     once died, and now lives forever, and the same believers,
 less priest, receives not faith, but guilt," Augustine answered.    who are now mortal and will one day put on immortality.
 "But Christ is not unfaithful, from Whoin  I receive faith, not         With some modification we may find here the germ of the
 guilt. Christ, therefore, is'properly  the functionary and the      subsequent ProtestaAt distinction of the visible and. invisible
 priest is simply His organ." "6Iy origin,," said Augustine on       church ; which regards the invisible, not as -another church,
 the same occasion, "is Christ, my root is Christ, my head is        but as the smaller communion of true believers among profes-
 Christ. The seed, of which I was born, is the Word of God,          sors, and thus as the true substance bf the visible church, and
 which I must obey even though the preacher himself  practise        as contained with% its limits, like the soul in the body, or the
 not what he preaches. I believe not in the minister by whom         kernel in the shell. Here the moderate Donatist and scholarly
 I am baptized, but in Christ, Who alone justifies the simier        1 theologian, Tychonius, approached Augustine, calling the
 and can forgives guilt."                                            church a twofold body of Christ,, of which the one part em-
    Lastly, in regard to church discipline, the opponents of         braces the true Christians, and the other the apparent. In
 the Dcnatists  agreed with them in considering it wholesome         this, as also in acknowledgment of the validity of the Catholic
 and necessary, but would keep it within the limits fixed for        baptism, Tychonius departed from the Donatists, while he
 it by the circumstances of the time and the fallibility of men      adhered to their views on discipline  and opposed the Catholic
 (the reader will recall that, in our preceding article, we          mixture of the church and  the world. But neither he nor
 quoted from Augustine to show that the Church Father                Augustine  purgued  this distinction to any clearer develop-
 certainly advocated church discipline  - H.V.) . A perfect          ment. Both werk involved, at bottom, in the confusion of
 separation of sinners from saints is imhracticable  before the      Christianity with the church, and of the church with a
 final judgment (however, it should be impracticable only            particular outward organization. This c&cludes our quota-
from  the viewpoint that we cannot make separation between           tion from the History of the Christian Church by Pihlip
 the. wheat and the chaff, and not froni the viewpoint that we       Schaff.                                                   H.V.
 do not exercise Christian discipline - H.V.) . Many things
 must be patiently borne, that greater evil may be' averted,
 and that those still capable of improvement may be improved,                      Unto me, 0 Lord Jehovah,
 especially where the offender has too many adlierents. "Man,"                     Show Thy ways and teach Thou me ;
_ says Augustine, "should punish in- the spirit of love, until                     So that, by Thy Spirit guided,
 either the discipline and correction come from above, or the                      Clearly I Thy paths may. see.
 tares are pulled up in the universal harvest." In support of                      In Thy truth wilt Thou me guide
 this view appeal was made to the Lord's parables of the tares                     Teach me God of my salvation ;
 among the wheat, and .of the net which gathered together of                       All the day for Thee I bide,
 every kind (Matt. 13). These two parables were the chief                          Lord, with eager expectation.
 exegetical battle ground of the two parties. The Donatists                        Call to mind, 0 Lord Jehovah ,
 understood by the field, not the church, but the world, ac-                       Tender mercies manifold,
 cording to the Saviour's own exposition of the parable of the                     And Thy store of lovingkindness
 tares ; the Catholics replied that ?t was the kingdom of heaven                   Which has ever been of old.
 or the church to which the parable referred as a whole, and                       Sins of youth remember not,
 pressed especially the warning of the Saviour not to gather                       Nor recall my hid' transgression  ;
 up the tares before the final harvest, lest they root up also.                    For Thy goodness' sake, 0 God,
the wheat with them. The Donatists, moreover, made a dis-                          Think -of me in Thy' compassion.'
tinction between unknown offenders, to whom alone the                                                                 Psalm 25 :2, 3

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

                                                                       seem to be reason for them to doubt, therefore. But here
             The Voice of Our Fathers                                  the situation is entirely different. These people have all the
                                                                  / essential marks of a true Christian: conversion, longing to
                                                                       be delivered from the body of this death (which is the same
                  The Canons of. Dordrecht                             as the longing for the heavenly home, the hope of life eternal)
                              PART TWO                                 and godliness and faith. Now, we must be careful to note
                                                                       that these are the marks of the normal Christian, and that
                    EXPOSITION OF THE CANONS                           too, the most fundamental marks. If you look for a normal
                      FIRST HEAD OF DOCTRINE                           child of God in this world, he will be characterized exactly
                    OF  DIVINE PREDESTINATION                          by these elements. In regard to the first element, that of con-
                          Article 16 (cont.)                           version, consider how thoroughly in harmony with Lord's
                                                                       Day 33 of the Heidelberg Catechism such a person is. Con-
        The second class of Christians which the article mentions      version, according to the  Ca.techism  does not consist in migh-
 may be called the class of the "imperfect believers." They            ty good works in the outward sense, but exactly in that
 are characterized by the following: 1) They seriously desire          "desire to be converted to God." For the  Ca.techism speaks
 to be turned to God, and to please Him only. (The Dutch has           in Question 89 of "a sincere sorrow of heart, that we have
 here: "They earnestly desire to convert themselves to God."           provoked God by our sins," and in Question 90 of "a sincere
 It makes no essential difference, however. 2) They earnestly          joy of heart in God, through Christ, and with love and de-
 desire to be delivered from. the body of death. And, 3) They          light to live according to the .will of God in all good works."
 cannot yet reach that measure of holiness and faith to which          In this respect, therefore, the Christian of Article 16 is one
 they aspire. These characteristics are summed up by the               hundred percent normal. Also in regard to that longing to
 fathers in the figurative terms "smoking flax" and "bruised           be delivered from the body of death he is normal. In fact,
 reed;" terms that are borrowed from Isaiah 42 :l-3 and Mat-           if he did not have that longing, he would be an abnormal
 thew 12 :lS-20.                                                       Christian. For who could be a more normal Christian than
        The language of Article 16 implies undoubtedly that there      the apostle Paul ? And that apostle is heard to cry out,
 are Christians with the above characteristics who are terrified       Remans 7 ~24 : "0 wretched man that I am! who shall de-
 by the doctrine of reprobation. For the fathers are emphatic          liver me from the body of this death?" And in II Cor. 5 :2,
 in asserting that they need not be so terrified: "Much less           ff., he writes : "For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to
 cause have they to be terrified by the doctrine of reproba-           be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven . . . .
 tion . . .  ." This implies that these Christians are at least        For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened:
 inclined to be terrified by the preaching of reprobation. We          not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that
 may, therefore, add a fourth characteristic, `namely : they lack      mortality might be swallowed up of life. . . . . Therefore we
 an assured confidence of soul, especially the assurance of            are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home
 their own election.' They are' indeed elect, but they have not        in the body, we are absent from the Lord . . . . We are
 the assurance, or at least the degree of assurance to which           confident, I say, and willing rather to- be absent from the
 they aspire.                                                          `body, and to be present with the.Lord." Also on this score,
        Now let us note, first :of all, that the boundaries of this    therefore, the Christian described here is one hundred percent
 classification are not rigid, but flexible. It is not necessarily     normal. And in the third place, it is plain that the Christian
so that every confirmed child of God can be put either in              here described is possessed of the virtues of holiness, or
 this class or in the class of those that do have the assurance        godliness, and saving faith, even though it be that he does
 of election. Rather is the situation thus, that one and the           not have the  ~~~easz~~e  of holiness and faith to which  he-
 same Christian may at various times fall into either of these         aspires.  In, fact, even the fact that he does not have the
 two classifications. There may be times when he has the               desired measure of faith and holiness is not to be construed
 assurance of election, and other times when it is necessary           as something abnormal, but, on the contrary, as being en-
 that he be pointed to this second sentence of Article 16,             tirely normal. The normal Christian is certainly one who
 Canons I.                                                             recognizes the fact that his faith and holiness are not what
    And the reason why this is true will become clear if only          they should be. In fact, he will realize and confess that he
 we stop to consider the three characteristics which the               has only a small beginning of the new obedience, and that
 fathers mention here. The trouble does not lie in the fact            the small beginning never becomes in this life any more than
 that those who are here mentioned are not actually children           a beginning. All this is entirely normal of a Christian.
 of God. That might conceivably be the case with those &ho                And the  Canons  are entirely correct, therefore, when they
 are mentioned in the first part of this 16th Article. They do         make here the emphatic statement that such Christians
 not yet experience a lively faith, assured confidence of soul,        have "much less cause to be terrified by the doctrine of
 peace of conscience, and earnest endeavor. after fiilial obe-         reprobation." For if it be true that the class first mentioned
 dience, and glorying in God through Christ. There would               in this article- ought not to be alarmed at the mention of


                                              T H E   S T - A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                3.31

 reprobation, it is certainly true of these normal Christians              Notice, however, that concerning them the fathers do not
 that are mentioned here.                                               make the flat statement that they `are reprobate. This is
     And yet one will discover such children of God.                    impossible. Rather do they make a statement which estab-             -
     What is their trouble  7 It consists not in the fact that          lishes  the connection between their godless life and their being
 they lack the marks of a Christian. It consists not in the             terrified by the doctrine of reprobation. As long as they
 objective fact of their present imperfection. In both these            are not seriously converted to God, -a possibility which is
 respects they are normal. But the trouble lies in the fact that        always present, - they cannot possibly have the real, spirit-
 they make the wrong judgment of their imperfection. When               ual, living assurance of  the!favor of God. That is possible
 they hear of reprobation and then stare themselves blind at            only in the way of sanctification. The preaching of the gospel,      .
 their own imperfection, and forget that the normal Christian           therefore, holds no comfort for them. It leaves them cold,
 in this life is an imperfectly perfect Christian, then they be-        and has the effect of hardening them. -They walk in the
 come terrified. They do not live out of their faith, even              world. They have their part in the world and in the things
 though it is an imperfect faith. And not living out of faith           of this present time. And they therefore can only have their
 in regard to this question, that .is, looking away from Christ,        comfort in this world also, not in Christ. That is according to
 in Whom is all their salvation, they lack assurance. They              the justice of God. Terrible indeed is the doctrine of reproba-
 fail. to see that that serious desire for conversion, earnest          tion for them. But it is  justly  terrible. For reprobation is
 longing to be delivered, and that measure of faith and god-            the sovereign decree of God whereby He ordains some to
 liness which they do have is already the work of the God               everlasting destruction in the way of their own sin. And in
 of election operating through the Spirit of Christ and the             the way of sin and unbelief, therefore, one can have no other        -
 Word.                                                                  consciousness than that he is on the way to destruction.
   And the cure, therefore, of their fright is very simple. It                                                                   H.C.H.
 is essentially the same cure as that mentioned before: the
 means of grace. They must be pointed to the promise of God.
 And they must be pointed to the fact that those promises of               Hull Christian School will be in need of  two teachers,
 God are for the elect, and that the elect in this present life         one for one half of grades four and five ; and one for. grades
 are exactly characterized as smoking flax and bruised reeds.           six and seven. Some college training required. Send refer-
 Such smoking flax and bruised  creeds may rest assured of              ences. Write Fred Van Engen or N. Vander Ark, Principal,
 their election, and of the fact that God will not quench the           H u l l ,   I o w a .
 smoking flax nor break the bruised reed, but will finish the
 good work which He has begun in us until the day of Jesus                    I LOVE THE LORD, FOR MY REQUEST
 Christ.
     And when that promise they hear, they will be able to                       I love the Lord, for'my request
 say, in the language of our Form for the Lord's Supper:                           And humble plea He makes His care;
 "Therefore, notwithstanding we feel many infirmities and                        In Him through. life my faith shall rest,
 miseries:.:in  ourselves, as namely, that we have not perfect                     For He both hears and answers prayer.
 faith, and that we do not give ourselves to serve God with
 that zeal as we are bound, but have daily to strive with the                    Brought nigh to death and full of grief,
 weakness of our faith, and the evil. lusts of our flesh ; yet,                    The Lord's salvation I besought;
 since we are (by the grace of the Holy Spirit) sorry for                        He heard my cry, He sent relief,
                                                                                   My soul from depths of woe He brought.
 these weaknesses, and earnestly desirous to fight against our
 unbelief, and to live according to all the commandments of                      Most kind and righteous is the Lord,
 God : therefore we rest assured that no sin or infirmity, which                 Our God is merciful indeed,
 still remaineth against our will, in us, can hinder us from                     Delighting ever to afford
 being received of God in mercy, and from being made worthy                        His help to me in time of need.
 partakers of this heavenly meat and drink."
     The third classification made by the fathers in this                        Return unto thy rest, my soul,
 article is the only one which ought to be terrified by the                        The Lord has richly dealt with thee,
 doctrine of reprobation: ". . . . this doctrine `is justly terrible             Delivered thee from death's control,
' to those , . .  ." This class has the following characteristics :                From sin and sorrow set thee free.
 1) They come into contact with God and the Saviour Jesus
 Christ. 2)  They.disregard  God and the Saviour. 3) They                        Since He has freed my eyes from tears
 wholly- give themselves up to  the-  cares of the world and the                   And kept my feet from evil ways,
 pleasures of the flesh. They are a class of people, therefore,                  Redeemed from life's distressing fears,
 who not only are  .godless,  but who are godless under the                        With Him I walk, and Him I praise.
 preaching of the gospel.                                                                                                     Psalm  116


332                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
.-                                                                        ..-.

II                                                                  those who have completed their theological studies `but have
              DECENCY. and ORDER .._                           11 failed to take steps to enter into the sacred ministry of -the
                                                                    Word ; (2) Of those undergraduate students who neither: dis-
                                                                    continue their studies or fail to enroll again at the Seminary."
                      Studentbreaching                              Also at this Synod the following decision was made: "The
                            (Continued)                             Board shall not grant licensure to such students till it has
                                                                    made sure of the following with respect to each applicant:
                     An  Esta,bW~ed   Pmctice                       (1.) That he is a member in good standing in our churches ;
       We have seen that during the past four hundred years         (2) That he has the spiritual qualifications necessary for the
various Synods of Reformed Churches in the Netherlands              ministry, and that. he considers himself called of God to
both favored and disfavored the practice of student preach-         prepare himself for the office of ministering the Gospel of
ing. These alternating positions of the Synods were fre-            Jesus Christ  ; (3) That he intends to enter the ministry of
quently determined by circumstances peculiar .to the times.         the Christian Reformed Church ; (4) That he has sufficient
and influenced more- by practical considerations than by            knowledge of the Bible, and especially of our Reformed prin-
principle. The question as to whether or not a student has          ciples to act as a guide to others; (5) That he can speak
the right to preach according to Scripture was not faced. In        acceptably and to' the edification of the churches. It is left to
1914 this matter was conveniently camouflaged by the inser-' the discretion of the Board, however, whether it will obtain
tion in -Article 20 of the Church Order of that ambiguous           this information by consulting the Seminary Faculty or by
expression "Students shall be allowed to  spea.k  n! word of        examining the applicants."
edifi~cntion   in the meetings for public worship." We shall            One wonders somewhat what was the occasion' that
come back to that later but since this revision has been            necessitated these-  Synodical  decisions. It is not that these
adopted, this has been an uncontested established practice in       decisions are in themselves objectionable but they seem to be
the Christian Reformed Church,  .and also in our Churches, so       entirely redundant. They are insulting to the judgment of
that students are permitted to occupy the pulpits.                  the Board. Could it be that the Synod had no confidenc'e  in
       Since 1914 various Synods of the Christian Reformed          the ability of the Board of Trustees to judge who should be
Church have spoken anent this matter in order to define             licensed ? Does Synod, perhaps, suspicion that the Board
further the limitations of `this permission to speak in the         will license those who are not members in good standing in
churches. We will not weary the reader with the quotations-~ the churches or who lack spiritual qualities, etc.? It appears
of all of these decisions. They may be found in `iThe Chris-        quite inane to tell a group of intelligent men that they are
tian Reformed Church Order" written by J. L. Schaver. From          not to license men to preach in the churches who do not have
them we learn that licensure is granted by the Board of             sufficient knowledge of the Bible and Reformed principles
Trustees and not by the Faculty as in our churches although         to guide others.
the regulation of the preaching of students .is the task of the        Or, then again, were there perhaps other- dangers the
rector and the frequency of student preaching is to be deter-       Synod feared ? Was the decision of 1924 made because .Synod
mined by the faculty. Upon the request of the Board of              feared the possibility of some of the churches admitting into
Trustees, the Synod in 1924, emphatically called the atten-         their pulpits those who were not studying at Calvin Semi-
tion of the Consistories to the fact that they should not           nary ? We wonder ! Rules are generally made with a view to
permit students who have not been  iicensed  to preach to           concrete cases or circumstances. We wonder, therefore, what
speak in public worship and then, at the same time the Synod        was the occasion for some of these decisions. The Church
ruled, "Although the `Classes have the right to license per-        Order we consulted does not inform us of this. Perhaps the
sons to speak within their respective confines, it should be        Acts of Synod would, but these we do not have in our pos-
observed that it is in the interest of good order for Classes       session. At any rate, it appears safe to draw one conclusion
not to license such as are not studying at our Seminary." It        and this is that there is evidence here of a lack of clarity or
appears from this that both the Board of Trustees and the           something inadequate in Article 20 of the Church Order.
Classes grant this licensure in the Christian Reformed              Otherwise an appendage of so mny rules would hardly seem
Church.                                                             necessary.
       In 1936, it was further ruled by that Synod, "The Board         In our churches we have but one rule governing this
of Trustees may grant licensure to conduct religious services       matter. That rule is found in the 14th Article of the Consti-
only to such as : ( 1) Are- enrolled as regular students in our     tution of the Theological School. It reads:
Seminary ; (2) Have successfully passed the final examina-             "The Faculty shall license a student to preach a word
tions of the Junior year in the Seminary."                          of edification in the meetings for public worship, when it
       It would seem equitable that if the Classes would grant a    deems him ready."
person licensure to speak, they would be bound by these                The matter' of spiritual qualifications, ability, and other
same rules or limitations. The same year the Synod decided          requirements on the part of the student is left to the .judg-
that, "The Board is obligated to revoke the licensure, (1) Of       ment of the faculty who are best able to. .ju-dge,  having these


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              333

 students before them in school each day. This is a good rule.        ing and when we can no longer speak of things edifying we
 It treats each student by himself. His own ability and readi-        rather not speak at all.  (E Cor. 14  :26) When this cannot
 ness determines when he shall beg+ to speak in the churches:         be accomplished  there is no more incentive for social visiting.
 Some students are ready for this before others. This, there-            As we use this expression in connection.with this article,
 fore, together with Art. 20 which states that only those who         however, it refers to the unofficial expression by the student
 have received permission according to the rule in this matter        in the church and through which the saints are instructed and
 shall be allowed to speak is quite adequate. It is not neces-        built  up in the knowledge of God. It is meant to be distin-
 sary to inform the churches by Synodical decision that they          quished from the "official preaching."
 are to admit none others to their pulpits.                              The latter means that one speaks of the things  of God
     Of significance in this connection is the fact that this rule    upon the authority of Christ Himself. The preacher is an
 of our churches speaks of "`preaching and edifying word"             official ambassador. He is called and appointed by Christ
 whereas Article 20 of the Church Order states, "speaking an          to proclaim glad tidings of salvation. Externally, as far as
 edifying, word." This is-interesting because if this rule is  un-    the content of the message is concerned, there  m%y be no
 derstoo&in  its literal meaning,.we could surely not subscribe       difference between that which the "preacher" and the "stu-
 to a decsion  ,tiade  by the Christian Reformed Church in 1926       dent" proclaim. Yet, there is a vast difference as far as the
 which reads as follows:.                                             distinction between "preac'hing" and "speaking and edifying
   -  ."With respect to the privilege granted to students to          word" is concerned.
 speak in our churches, it is declared that there is no principle         This we will have to `consider next time, D.V., as our
 at stake, inasmuch as students `are  not granted license to          space for this issue is filled.                        G.V.d.B.
 prenclz but to sbeak in our churches, and that this privilege
 `is beneficial as well for the student as for the churches, es-                                   NOTICE
 pecially for our smaller churches."                                     The following volumes are missing from the library of
     However, in actual practice we do  obs'erve  the distinction     the Theological School. Since many sets are broken and
 between "preaching" and "speaking" in the worship services           -many valuable books are `missing we urgently request all who
 of  the. churches even though the rule states plainly that           might have books to check their libraries and return them as
 students may "pyeach  an edifying word" &d not "speak it."           soon as poosible.
 Students in our churches do not pronounce the benediction,           Vol.  1, Reformed Dogmatics, Louis  Berkhof..
 do not administer the sacraments, do not ordain office bearers,      Vol. I, Institutes, John Calvin.
 etc. In -practice they are limited to "speaking an edifying          Vol. I, Creeds  df  Christ&.dom,  Philip  Schaff.
 word." Why ? Is the formulation of the rule  .a slip or is           Vol. II, Commentary on John, Codet.
"preaching" intended and, if so, why isn't practice brought           Cm 16, 17, Commentary on Matthew, Mark Luke and John,
 into conformity with the rule? Is there a principle involved                 Codet ( ?)
 here or not?                                                         Vol. I, Commentary on I Corinthians, Codet.
                                                                      Vol. IV, Jeremiah, Calvin.
        P            The  Principle  Involved                         Vol. I, John, Calvin.              _
     In discussing this matter we must, first- of all, define the     Remans,  Calvin.
 terms' with which we are  concern&d.  What is "speaking an           Vol. II, Corinthians, Calvin.
 edifying word  ?" An edifying word is a word that is in-             Galatians, Ephesians, Calvin.
 strumental in building one up in faith and providing spiritual       Cm 74, Calvin.
 nourishment. To speak such a word means that one declares            Cm 85,  86, 87, Introduction I and II, Pentatuch I and II,
 things pertaining to God and His Truth in the presence of                   Keil.
 others and that in such' a way that the hearers of that word         Cm 90, Samuel,  Keil.                   .
 are spiritually benefited. Every believer can and must al-           Cm 101, Vol. I, Isaiah, Keil.
 ways do this although not in the meetings of public worship.         Cm 104, Vol. I, Jeremiah, Keil.
 Our speech should be seasoned with grace and never ought             Cm 111, 112 (Not known).
 we to engage in foolish talking.. In the societies of the church,    Cm 117, Expositor's Bible, Vol. V, Luke through Galatians,
 for example, where each member takes part in discussing the                 Robertson, Nicoll.
 Word of God and related things, an excellent opportunity is          Rf. 3, Standard Bearer, Vol. 3.
 afforded to speak to one another edifying words. If the              Rf. 28, Standard Bearer, Vol. 28.
 societies. of the church do not realize this objective, they do      Misc. 3, 6, Vol. I, III, Uit het Woord, Abraham Kuiper, Sr.
 not: d&serve to exist. In social visits the members of the           Ch. 11, 12, Ante Nicene Fathers ( ?)
 church talk `over the things of God's Kingdom' for each              Ch. 38, Vol. IV, Post Nicene Fathers, First Series.
 others edification and when, for various reasons, this can no        Ch. 49, 50,  57,  Vol. I, II, IX, Post Nicene Fathers, Second
 longer -be done, the point of social visiting is lost for the              Series.
 people of God. For them all things. must be done for edify-                                                           The Seminary


334 .                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
I/                                                                     was that he was willing to come out publicly with a state-
              A L L   A R O U N D   U S                           iII ment which was a frontal assault on basic elements of Roman-
                                                                       ism.
CriCicism.                                                                 "When we say that we find this general development to
                                                                       be a hopeful sign of a more healthy religious environment,
       The editor of, The Presbyterian Guardian, the Rev. Leslie       we would not be misunderstood. We do not believe, for
W. Sloat, in the March 15th issue of this periodical, writes           example, that the criticisms of MRA or of Norman Vincent
a brief editorial on the above named subject which is both             Peale or of Roman Catholicism to which- we have referred
interesting and thought-provoking.                                     come forth from a position of solid committment to historic
       With the general tenor of his editorial we can agree.           Christianity. Though  the. positions criticized are certainly
However, due no doubt to its thought-provoking, nature, we             vulnerable, the criticisms are likewise not necessarily valid
could wish he had been a little more explicit and not quite so         in their own right.
general. .                                                                 "It is not the specific criticism which we find encouraging,
       The editor notes a recent change in policy in religious         but the general atmosphere in which public criticism can be
circles according to which churches and religious leaders are          made. ?t would be a wonderful thing for the whole of Chris-
shying away from that erstwhile tolerant attitude that sought          tendom were we to'return once again  to that state of things
"peaceful coexistence in the religious field," and are be-             in which every man who dared to raise his voice in expres-
coming more bold to offer criticisms, thus creating an  at-            sion of religious views would be compelled to give answer to
,mosphere in which public criticism of others is possible not          those who asked of him the basis for the position he ex-
only but even salutary. Writes he:                                     pounds.
       "For some years we have been experiencing a condition               "So `tolerant' has religion become in recent years, that the.
of peaceful coexistence in the religious field. Whatever may           view is more widespread than we like to admit that .one re-
have been true in private, it has not been proper  to come out         ligion is as satisfactory as another, and that we have no real
publicly and criticize the religious views and predilections           reason for engaging in mission work, since one person's be-
of others. Those who engaged in such a practice, notably the           lief is as good as another's, and all we accomplish through
`Fundamentalists, were roundly condemned for holding  `un-             missionary endkavor is to get people disturbed and upset.
ChriStian' attitudes. We must have respect for every man's             So Life magazine can present its pictorial series on `great
religious position, regardless of what we privately think of           religi6ti.s' and hope that we will ail benefit through a wider
it:                                                                    knotirledge  and appreciation of the great  ideas of all religions.
       "Recently, however, there is some evidence that this               "But in religion, as in other areas, there is truth and there
condition of deadening and deadly inclusivism and tolerance            is falsehood.  Andy  the truth is not vague and inclusive -it
may have reached an end. Not too long ago a subcommittee               is specific and exclusive. There is only one true religion, and
of the Church of England came out with a report denouncing             that is historic Christianity as set forth in Holy Scripture.
the Moral Rearmament Movenient  Gf Frank  Buchman. Al-                 Moreover, there are not many religions set  faith in Scrip-
though attempts were made to return the report td Commit-              ture, but only one. And that one religion set forth in Scrip-
tee, these efforts were not successful, though the report was          ture is not modernism, nor secularism, nor Catholicism, nor
not officially adopted by the larger  ,body to which it was sub-       Barthianism, nor any other `ism.' It is the religion of historic
mitted.                                                                redemption in Christ Jesus the Son of God and Saviour of
       "In this country we reported earlier that Dr. Payne of          sinners.                  .
the Presbyterian Church in the  -U.S.A. had publicly criticized           "If  the_ new critical spirit that is abroad leads men to
the `positive thinking' of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. More              re-examine their o\+n religious foundations, it may prove an
recently Dean Pope of Yale Divinity School has criticized              opening wedge for a really  effectiire  proclamation of the
not only Peale but many  of, the religious radio and television        truth." So far the editorial.
programs of the present time. Those which hold to the                   Of course "the general atmosphere in which public critic-
traditional presentation of the gospel are unable to teach the         ism can be made" to which Rev. Sloat refers is so far re-
people, he said, while those which adopt modern techniques             moved from his own churches (The Orthodox Presbyterian)
to reach the people falsify or ignore the gospel.                      that it appears he is talking about something that  is hap-
       "Not long back Vice-President Nixon had  sotie worhs            pening on another planet. It is true that he also says  "it
of praise for Roman Catholicism as a bulwark against Com-              would be a wonderful thing for the whole of Christendoin
munism. But then President John Mackay of Princeton                    were we to return once again to that state of things in which
Seminary came out and bluntly declared the Vice-President              every man who dared to raise his voice in expression of
to be completely ,, wrong. Communism, he declared, has                 religious views would be compelled to give answer ta those
found a far easier road to power in Catholic countries than            who asked of him the basis for the position he expounds.`"
in- lands where  Protestantism  is dominant. `He expressed             But is this not a little bit of wishful thinking?  :Is Rev.
several reasons for this historical fact, but the significant point    Sl6at   also advocating  that his church leaders become more


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                        335
 - - - -

outspoken in their criticisms of the errors in doctrine and          the Standard Bearer because o;f its boldness in showing up
practise in his  otin. churches, or in the  chuiches  closest to     the errors. They did this by advising their willing listeners
them, say, the Christian Reformed or Reformed, or  even              not to read this "slander sheet."
 Protestant Reformed ? If that is the implication of his edi-           Always this attempt to squelch criticism and establish a
torial, then I am all for it. We welcome criticism. And we           false peace has a corrupt motive. It is the dishonest attempt
 would welcome the opportunity to reciprocate, so that they          to avoid difficulty, strife, and an attempt to establish the
 would `allow us to tell them what is wrong with them. That          peace of -the cemetery.
would be a healthy atmosphere indeed!                                   We believe that  solong as the Church is in  the, world
    We agree that in the last quarter of a century or more           she is militant. And a militant Church always assumes a
there has been a studied attempt to avoid criticisms publicly.       critical attitude over against false doctrine and practice first
With very few exceptions in our relation with the Christian          of all within her own borders and then outside her borders,
 Reformed Churches the latei have  scrupulo&ly  held to the          beginning tiith those who are closest to her..
 rule to keep still. Almost all of the criticism we have offered        We agree with Rev. Sloat that "the truth is not vague
 on their doctrinal stand on the "common &-ace" issue have           and inclusive - it is specific and exclusive." And, "there is
 been almost wholly ignored by -them. Why? The answer,               only one true religion . . ; . set forth in Holy Scriptures." If
 as I see it, is that they were afraid to stir up their people.      he thinks his church, comes closest to this &and&d, let him
 Only of late there have been a few voices raised relative to        show it. This is what we believe with respect to our church
 their doctrinal errors but they have been only fekble  attempts,    as we have always declared,  and are still doing.
 and none of them who are convinced of the error of, "com-                                                                          M.S
mon grace" has the courage to publicly condemn his churches'
 stand, If any of their  men take notice of, our criticism of
their doctrine and reply, it is not with a view to actually de-      HOW BLESSED ARE THE PERFECT IN THE WAY
 bating the issues involved with the hope of coming to a               How blessed are the perfect in the way
 Scriptural or Confessional solutiqn, but generally it turns           Whq, walking in. Jehovah's law with pleasure,
 out to be a blunt accusation of us that we are one-sided,             Preserve their piety from day to day.
Anabaptistic, or &learned, and that without a grain of proof.          How blest are they who make His Word their treasure,
    Within the last two years we have had- the privilege of            Who keep His testimonies and display
coming into various widespread sectors of the Christian Re-            Their love for Him whose goodness none can measure. `.
formed Church and have had opportunity to talk with various             0 let Thy Spirit be my constant aid,
 members of that church also about this doctrine of "common            That, all my ways Aay ever be directed
grace" as well as other doctrines. The ignorance of the                T$,keep  Thy statues, so to be  ,obeyed,
majority of -these people on these matters is astounding. And          That .from all error I may be protected.
our observation has been that the clergy has purposely kept            I shall not be ashamed then,or afraid,
their people in the dark. Was ,it for fear that if their people        When Thy commandments I have e'er respected.
should investigate or listen to us, they might be converted
and turn to us ?                                                       0 Lord, how shall a youth pre'serve  his. way, .
 - But we need not go'outside of our own churches to critic-           At every turn by vanity surrounded ?               -
ize. There has  been and perhaps is even now among us                  In truth, if -he Thy statutes will obey,
some who have the attitude of "peace at any cost." Some                If on Thy Word his attitudes  ai-e founded.
 of our leaders have been severely condemned because they              Thou whom I've sought, 0 let me never stray
had tlie courage to pgblicly  debate certain issues among us.          From Thy commandments, lest I be confounded.
For instance, when the matter of a Declaration of Principles           Thy precepts .have I hid within my heart,
was before. our churches there were many who had no                    Lest I should stray and fall into transgression ;       *
criticism of its contents but they did not like its intention. It
was intended to be as a wall that would bar entrance into our          0 teach Thou me and unto me impart
churches of those who advocated "conditions" in the matter             Thy statutes for a permanent. possession.
of salvation. The opponents of the Declaration said we must            In all Thy judgments Thou most righteous art ;
not have it because we will chase people away from us in-              Thy truth I praise in rapturous confession.
stead  of winning them. We should let down the bars a bit              Grant life unto &y soul, 0 Lord, I pray ;
and not be so narrow at the doctrinal gate of entrance. We             Shed still the brightness of Thy presence o'er me ;
have even hearcl  of some of these schismatic leaders who said         `Then shall I praise Thee in a perfect way,
that if we had not been so stiff-headed in 1924 we might               Yea, let Thy, judgments quicken and restore me.
easily have won over the  Aiajority  of the Christian Reformed         Thy servant like a sheep has gone astray,
Churches or at least the split might probably never have               Yet Thy commandments I will keep before me.
occurred. These same men have purposely striven t? silence                                                 Psalm  119:1, 2, 3, 4, 10


336                                           T H E   STANDARD   B E A R E R

II  -                                                            II material can be printed tiithout protest. We sincerely hope
                                                                      that such a Christ is. not preached bn your foreign mission
                                                                      fields nor much less in your home pulpita
                                                                                                    Sincerely, George Ten  Elshoi."
                          Regurgitation
                                                                           In conclusion; we wonder how many rows of blocks the
       A very small dose of copper sulphate, which althdugh.  in      schismatics  would have to knock off their "tdo-high ecclesi-
itself is poisonous, serve`s as a powerful emetic.                    astical  walls': before this type  df copper  sulphate  could be
       Such a dose appeared in -the March 25th issue  of The          admitted and mixed with "in the Reformed sense" nonsense
Church Heiald in a short bold-faced type- article entitled,           be made palatable to their. followers.
"Are You  ?" by Rev. Wm. R. Buitendorp. Repeatedly we                      Already we find them "hob-nobbing" with the Chris-
tried.to digest it and just as often, we regurgitated.                tian Reformed clergy and using the Christian Reformed
   .Finally,  tie wrote the editor of said publication. For           Sunday school papers; and-in turn the Christian "hob-nob"
those who do not read The Church Herald, we will quote                with the Reformed and pernlit their clergy to preach in t'heir
the nauseating portion of the article together with ou; letter        pulpits and, whom the Reformed fraternize with is, well, you
to the editor:              ,.                                        name them! Or are they going to piously tell us that they
                          "ARE YOU  ?"                                are associating to lay down their distinct testimony. If they
       "The most subtle doubt that comes into our minds is to         do, and I don't believe it, they will as surely be ousted as
question the truth about ourselves. Twice in the wilderness           we were in 1924.
temptations, and it lingered with Him even to the cross, this              Rather, I think this is the case: They're lonesome and
doubt haunted Jesus. `If thou'be the Son of God . . .' Jesus          afraid to be alone in the  ecclesiatical  darkness which they
presumed that He was. At the time of His baptism He was               themselves have created.. Not adult enough to stand alone
assured that He was. But was He ?"                                    and furtively clinging to apron strings of their former mother.
       Our response to this dose of copper sulphate was as fol-                                                    George Ten Elshof
lows :
       ."Dear Editor :
  Witli amazement we read the short article in bold type                    LET ALL EXALT JEHOVAH'S GOODNESS
by Wm. R.  Btiitendorp  entitled `Are You? -pg. 3 of the                           The stone the builders had rejected,
March 25th issue of The Church Herald:                                             And'in contempt refused to own,
       And, unless we completely misunder$tand  the writer, we                     To their dismay has been selected
conclude that he tea&es that  Je+i do&ted if He were the                           To be the foremost cornerstone.
Son of God. And, I say it regretfully, that is blasphemy!                          This thing is from the Lord Almighty,  ".-'
       Jesus  do`ubted ? He, who at the-tender age of twelve could                 It is a marvel in our eyes ;
rhetoi-ically  ask His mother if she did not know that `I must                     Man cannot understand it rightly  I'
be about My Father's business ? Space would prohibit the                           Nor fathom it any wise.
quotation of text upon text as proof.
       And, is it not accepted among all nominal Christians that                   This is the day of full salvation
`He was like unto us it_l all things - sin excepted ?' And is                      That God has made and sanctified  ;               1
not doubt` a sin ?                                                                Come, let us voice our jubilation,
       To whom can we cling? To whom can we look  ? Who                            And triumph in the grace supplied.          ..
shall be our Deliverer? A doubter.? One who  `presuined                            Save, 0 Jehovah, tie implore Thee,
he was The Son of God ?                 ~                                          Save now Thy people, e'en today  ;
       Had the article in question been-i contribution -by an in-                  Prosperity send Thou in mercy,
dividual, we might not have attached' as much significance to                      And favor us upon our way.
it. Also, had it be& signed by one `Buitenkeyk' rather than           -
`Buitendorp.' But, we note that Wm. R. Buitendorp, is a                            Thou art my God, I will extol Thee,
member of'your  editoiial  council and is a regular contributor                    And magnify Thy majesty ;
and the article was accepted for publicatibn.                                      My God, in glory none excel Thee,
       Perhaps the writer will  be, so kind as to explain  a&d                     Thy praise be to eternity.
clarify and give positive Scriptural proof before he brings dur                    Let all exalt Jehovah's goodness,
Lord down to the level of you and me who may som&imes                              For most compassionate is He ;
doubt and question when our faith grows dim..                                      His mercy,  excellent in fulness,
       Personally we are not much impressed with a denoniina-                      Endureth to eternity.
tional claim to being  either the oldest or the largest if such                                                     Psalm  llS:5, 6 8


