    VOLUME   xxx1                                  AUGUST   1, 1955 - GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN                                NUMBER' 19 '

                                                                              Oh yes, Thessalonica is your proof.
           `M E D  I T A T I 0 N                                              And the best proof of all are you and your heart, my
                                                                          brother.
                                                                              There is the beginning of this most beautiful picture at
                        Heaven on Earth                                   Thessalonica. If that were not so, I would stop writing. If
                                                                          the beginning were not there, I would despair of ever getting
               "We are bound to thank God always for you, breth-
               ren, as it is meet,  be&se  that your faith groweth        results such as I envisioned in the above paragraph. If the
               exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you  ai!      Holy Ghost is not already present in you and ,in. me ,and  the
               toward each other  aboun$eth  . . .  ." II  Thess.  113    brethren, there is no use in admonition.
                                                                              Do you remember the chain I saw? First, yearning, then
    It is not so easy to write on this most beautiful text.               prayer, supplication, the Holy Ghost.
    Absent yourself; sit alone for a few moments; read the                    Well, no one will yearn after heaven on earth, except
text carefully, slowly, and let it sink in ; see the wondrous             the Holy Ghost is present in his or her heart. That's fun-
condition of this church, and weep.                                       damental.
    What a church!
    Some time before this epistle was written, Paul had al-                   Oh yes, it is possible. God be praised!
ready thanked God for their work of faith, labor of love, and                 And if a little harvest be reaped we will do as Paul did:
patience of hope. I, 1 5.  Subsequentlyj  he had admonished               we will be bound to thank God, and we will feel it meet to
them to continue in that estate and to abound more `and break forth in singing.
more.                                                                         "We are bound to thank God always: for you, breth-
    This admonition was heeded, for he writes in this text                ren . . . .  ."
that their faith groweth exceedingly and that their charity                   The word which the Holy Ghost uses for the giving of            .
aboundeth.                                                                thanks is a word that means grace, strengthened by a prefix,
    I am jealous of the Thessalonians, jealous for myself, my             which means well, plea&g, heaattifd.
congregation, our denomination, for the church universal in                   You might translate it to WOKS~~~.
`the world.                                                                   It is when you have seen visions of splendour,  fanastic
    A wise man wrote once. when deploring the miserable                   beauty, heart caressing sights of loveliness.
condition of the church of Christ: Twenty centuries of the                    It means  `that  you  look upon the Face of God and tell
development of dogma piled up a mountainous debt of rk-                   Him: Oh God, I have seen Thee, reflected in Thy people!
sponsibility !                                                            And I have seen that Thou art gracious.. I, have been warmed
    Let  us  listen to Paul for a little while. Perchance our             by the sight of the works of faith, the expression of love and
jealousy will engender yearning, and yearning prayer, and                 lovingkindness. And I realize that their origin is found in
prayer supplication, and supplication the Holy Ghost.                     Thee. I tasted that Thou art good, everlastingly good. I
   And if you have the Holy Ghost in your inmost `heart and               saw a glimpse of heaven, reflected in .the behaviour of Thy
mind and soul, you will have an abounding love, and an                    saints, and it caused my heart to sing. It made me. still looser
exceedingly  gro&ng  faith.                                               from this earth, and it made me yearn for more of that life
   And that is heaven on earth.                                           of the heavenly Paradise. How long, 0 Lord!
                               *  *  *                                        That is the giving of thanks !
                                                                             That is the experience of a little bit of heaven here on
   Heaven on earth!                                                       earth.
   Is it possible ?                                                                                  *  *  *


       434                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                                                                                                     I
              Heaven on earth.                                                    And we would like to taste somewhat of the table of the            1
              Experienced first by the church of Thessalonica. And             Lord.
       then by Paul. Are we next?                                                 Well, let us watch the saints of Thessalonica.
              Note the urgency of Paul's worship. `He feels himself                It may help.
       bound to sing unto the Face of God. Later in the -sentence                 All the bounties they exhibited unto Paul's thanksgiving
       he calls such worship  meet. It was  ,meet that Paul gave               were after all given by God. They had nothing of themselves.
       thanks.                                                                 They and we start alike: empty of goodness and loveliness,
              It shows that you do not need revival meetings in heaven.        but full of sin.
       `This urgency of Paul shall grow and grow, and come to                      Except for that little principle. Oh, yes, that little prin-
       perfect fruition in heaven when time is ended and when we               ciple. God be thanked for it. It shall remain to the end of
       all shall be safely with God. .                                         time.         '
              Oh, for this  must  and this  meet  of worship. Then you             These blessed saints of Thessalonica had faith and charity.
       need no bell to chime and call you sweetly to worship in                    Faith, what is it?
       the morning to the house of God. Then you need no com-                      Faith is the living bond of fellowship between you and
       mittee of two sad and downcast elders that call on you and              Jesus Christ, your Lord.
       say: Brother, why so far, so very far away from the house                   Faith is the knowledge of God and His ways.
       of  ,God  ? We can hardly reach you anymore. And your                       Faith is reliance, trust in  %God.  It is the capacity to rest
       voice sounds faint to our spiritual sense organs.                       in Him, to build on Him as the everlasting Rock of your
              That  mtst,  that being  bozLnd,  and that  meet  is the ur-     salvation.
       gency, is the flood of the work of  the- Holy Ghost in your                 Faith or unbelief spells the difference between a dear
       soul.                                                                   child of God and a child of the devil.
              That  being  bo,und   and that feeling, that conviction that         Faith gives you the capacity to see God through the Spirit
       your worship is  meet  is the same thing as to its character,           of the glorified Christ which is given to you.
       flavor and taste as the sound of the rushing mighty wind of                 Faith, the spiritual, material entity is akin to the new
       Pentecost.                                                              heaven and the new earth, to the revelation of God in the
              When you see and experience the wonderful works of               new commonwealth; it is part and parcel of the full life of
       God Triune, you grow fervent, you are in a hurry, even as               God's Covenant such as we shall exhibit in the age to come.
       God was in a hurry on Pentecost. God had waited so very                 It is the life of the renewed creature in Jesus Christ. When
       long. And when the hour of His counsel arrived He was in                you finally shall arrive in heaven, and when after the parousia
       a hurry to go to His bride and give her the Holy Ghost.                 you all of a sudden shall be overwhelmed by the influx of
              That is the bound and the meet of my text.                       this Paradise life with God, `His Christ, the perfected church
              Watch Paul! He is kneeling at the Footstool of the               and the hosts of heaven and earth, then, then you shall say:
       Almighty.                                                               I have had a taste of all this all along on earth, and  .we
              He smiles as he prays, nay, worships.                            called it f&h!  It is much, oh so much, more than we ever had
                                                                               on earth, but the taste is the same, the flavor is the same as
. .           .He has seen heaven opened in the hearts and the works
       of  t.he church of Thessalonica.                                        we had in our little church on earth.
                                                                                                           :t * *
              No, let us not disturb him. Such moments are golden.                 Faith is the life of `God and His Christ.
              But what do I say ? He is in heaven at this time of my               To have and to live the life of faith is essentially heaven
       writing. And he is still thanking, praising, singing. He still          on earth.
       looks on that Face and beholds all manner' of reflections in                And it is fed by the Bible. And it is alive through the
       Abraham, David, and the prophets.                                       Holy Ghost.
              Yes, and also the angels,. Paul has a good view of Mi-               And in the church of the Thessalonians this faith did
       chael. What a name! Michael. That means : Who is like                   grow exceedingly.  "
       unto Jehovah God? And the name is the essence. It means                     That ezrceedingly,  that is what makes me jealous of them.
       that Michael flies around in heaven, and his inmost heart                   You see, these men and. women acted very much as
       keeps on asking unto all eternity: Who in the wide, wide                though they were in heaven already. They knew God and
       world is so lovely, so wonderfully lovely as my Jehovah, and            His Christ, and they talked to Him, to Them.
       my..God ?                                                                   They knew their brethren and sisters in Christ, and be-
              And Paul has an unobstructed view of all such loveliness.        haved as such to them. They knew God and His ways, and
              And he is still bound, and it is his conviction still that to    they walked on those ways of God. There is the difference
       worship is ,meet.                                                       between a little faith and an exceedingly growing faith.
                                                                                   Little faith stumbles and grumbles along.
                                                                                   An exceedingly growing faith walks with God. They
              But we are on the earth, and so very-far from heaven.            are the Noahs and the Enochs.


                                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                                           435

        And to make the cup  .full to overflowing, listen to this
     testimony: "and the charity of every one of you all towards                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARE.R
     each other aboundeth !"                                                         Senuko~tfhly,   excep  nz.owtkly   dwi~zg   Jwte,  Jlrly  awl  A~ngrtst
        Remember that chwity  is the love of God in our hearts.                        Published by  tihe  REFORMED   FREE  PUBLISHING ASOCIATION
     Just forget for a moment the charity bazaars, etc.                              P. 0. Box 881,  Madison  Square Station, Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
        It is the love wherewith God loves Himself.                                                       Editor  -  REV. HERMAN  HOEKSEMA
        And that love abounded in the Thessalonians. They                            Communications relative to contents should be addressed to Rev.
     looked at God-.and the church, at the world and its host                        H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
through the `eyesight of God. And they lived that love.                              All matters  relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
        Just imagine such a life for a minute. You know how                          G. Pipe, 1463  Ardmore St., S. E.,  md Rapids 7, Michigan.
                                                                                     Announcements and  Olbituaries  must  ,be mailed to the above
     God looks at you, don't you ?                                                   address and will be published at a fee of $1.00 for  eaoh  notice.
        You lie on your knees and bewail your sins. And He                           RENEWALS  i Unless a definite request for discontinuance is re-
     says -to you in tones of lovingkindness : Be of good courage,                   ceived, it is assumed &at the subscriber wishes the subscription
                                                                                     to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
     My son, thy sins are forgiven thee. And you arise and smile
through your tears. And you walk in the smiles of God.                                                      Subscription price : $4.00 per year
        And thus they looked at one another. They all looked                          Entered as Seco& Clam matter at GrMld  Rajids, Michigatr
that way towards every member of that church.
        What a church-life!
\       Describing such life I can use another word of Paul.                                                            COPTTENTS
Here it is: being kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiv-                 MEDITATIO,K  -
ing one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven                            Heaven on  Earth.........................................433
                                                                                               Rev. G. Vos
us. I have changed the text a little in order to have it apply
in this case.                                                                 EDITORIALS -
                                                                                        Synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches, 1955.. . . . . .  .436
        It is a little bit of heaven.                                                          Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
        Heaven on earth !                                                     As 
        Oh God, give it!                                                             TO  BOOKS-
                                                                                        The Epistles of Paul to the Philippians and to  P,hilemon.   .438
                                                                   G. Vos               General  Revelation......................................~~~
                                                                                        Expository on the Whole Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                                                                                        De Psalmen  (The Psalms) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .439
                                                                                        Beslagen Vensters (Dimmed Windows) . . . . . . . . . . ! . . . . . . .439
                      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                      Rev. H. Hoeksema
       On Wednesday, August 17, our dear parents                              OUR DOCTRINE -
                    REV. AND MRS. G. LUBBERS                                            The. Triple Knowledge (Pant III  - Of Thankfulness) . . .  .440
                                                                                               R e v .   H .   H o e k s e m a
hope to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.
       We join them in this celebration in `giving thanks to our              THE  D.~Y  OF  SHADCWS-
covenant God Who in His mercy has led us together in the                                The Covenant of Sinai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442'
path of His truth.                                                                             Rev. G. M. Ophoff
       May God richly bless them in the time in which He has                  FROM  HOLY  WRIT-
ordained that we should remain together.                                                Exposition of Hebrews 112426  (Cont.) . . . . . . .`. . . . . . . . . .445
       "We will lift up our eyes unto the hills, from whence  cometh                          Rev. G. Lubbers
our help." Psalm 1'21  :l.                                                    IN HIS  FEAR-
                                                Agatha                                  A Snare for Our Children.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .447
                                                Garretta                                      Rev. J. A.  Heys
                                                Cornelius G.
                                                Lammert J.                   CONTENDING FOB TEE FAITH  -
                                                                                        The Church and the Sacraments.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . .449
                             IN MEMORIAM                                                       Rev. H.  Veldman
       In His infinite wisdom it pleased the Lord on May 19, -1955,           THE VOICE OF  OUR  FATHERS-
to take out of our midst our brother and fellow-consistory                              The Canons  od Dordrecht  (Rejeotion  <of Errors). . . . . .  .`. . .451
member :                                                                                       Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
                        NICHOLAS J. YONRER                                    ALL  AROUND  Us-
who, during many of his 76 years, was highly privileged in faith-                       Liberated Protestant Reformed Churches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .453
fully serving the congregation and the cause of our Lord Jesus                          The Ref~ormed  Guardian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . *.. . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Christ in the midst of the world in the capacity of elder.                                    Rev. M.  Schipper
       May the Lord comfort the widow and family through His
Word and Spirit.                                                              CONTRIBUTIONS  -
                                                                                       M i s s i o n a r y   N o t e s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5 5
                   The Consistory  .Prot. Ref. Church                                         Rev. G. Lubbers
                          of Grand Haven,  Mich.                                        Recent History  od the Hull Protestant Reformed Church.  .456
                                         Rep. G. Lanting, Pres.                               Peter Jansma
                                         A. Peterson, Vice  &-es-Clerk

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

-Ii                                                                  the decision of Synod to abandon its plan to purchase
           `EDIT,ORIIALS                                             property for a school building for the time being. Our notes
                                                                     .show,  however, that with a view to the future the committee
                                                                     of pre-advice advised, and synod decided, to continue col-
       Synod of the Protestant  W@formed  `Churches,                 lections for a Theol. School Building Fund. But unless I
                                 1955               `;i              am entirely mistaken, the Synod made no provision for this
                                                                     when it passed on the matter of synodical assessments.
                            ( C o n t i n u e d )   :  i              It is possible, of course, that the' Synod had in mind only
        The remainder of the business' of our 1955 Synod we          free will offerings by the churches ; and in that case I
 report under the following  ,headings :                             presume our Stated Clerk will so notify the churches.
                                                                         Another rather important  item in connection with the
 Protest .                                                           `school was the matter of two aspirants seeking entrance to
        Fortunately there were no protests on the table of Synod      our school from one of our churches. The School Commit-
 that made the work. unpleasant, as in the recent past. The          tee referred this matter to our Synod, and the Synod de-
 protest to which we refer, - the only one, by the way, that         cided, in the main, to  abide~by  the rules concerning academic
 appeared on Synod's agenda, -was by the Rev. G.  Vanden              requirements for entrance. We have a bit of criticism in
 Berg against his appointment to the Theological School -this regard on the procedure followed by the School Com-
  Committee. We mention it at this time because it points up          mittee. We believe that it was neither necessary nor
 one of the issues involved, -perhaps the main issue, -in             correct for the School Committee to refer this matter to
 the matter of spreading the membership of. the Theological           Synod, -not even on the ground that it was an eiceptional
  School Committee and the Mission Committee over our en-             case.  The rules were there; and all the School Committee
 tire denomination! (the last item mentioned in our previous          had to do was apply the rules. And in the opinion of the
 editorial). The Rev.  Vanden Berg, pastor of Oak  Lawlz,             undersigned, the action of referral to Synod should have
 Illinois, protested his appointment chiefly on the ground of         come not from the Committee, but by way of appeal on
 Article 2 of the Constitution of the T.heological  School Com-       the part of the men involved.
 mittee, which states in part: "Brethren `shall  bi chosen from          A third important item in this connection was the
  the midst of those that live within a reasonably short  dis-        matter of proposed support for married students. As 
 -tance  from the school." And the Synod sustained his protest.                                                                  you
                                                                      know, our churches have always had a strict rule against
  This means, therefore, that by synodical precedent the rules        such support. A suggestion to change the rule appeared in
 of the two above-mentioned committees are so interpreted             the report of the School Committee. This suggestion was
 as to limit the member&p of these  commi&ees  strictly to            that exception be allowed in special cases, according to the
 our Michigan  chui-ches.  And in the light of  the fact that         judgment of the Theological School Committee and ultimately
 these are two very important standing committees, which              Synod. The feeling  pf Synod was apparently that such an
 deal with matters pertaining to the churches .in general, we        afnendment  would actually have the effect of destroying the
 urge  once'more  that this situation be thoroughly re-examined,      rule itself. There was also an overture from the Consistory
 and, if at all possible, corrected.                                  of First Church, supported by  Classis  East, asking Synod
  Theologica.1  Sclaool                                               "to review its position on student help from the E.B.P. fund
        From all reports, namely, that of the School Committee,       to help married men attending our Theological School." It
 that of the School Rector for the past year, and the report          was rather strange that Synod did not pay much attention
 of the students' standings, it appears that our small and fre-      to this overture as such, probably because the question came
 quently forgotten Seminary is flourishing: The school now           up rather  fiaturally  in the report of the School Committee:
 holds its sessions in a spare room of the Adams Street Prot-         Incidentally, we may remark that from a procedural view-
 estant Reformed Christian School, which location is a vast          point the overture of First Church was not above criticism,
 improvement over the quarters it previously occupied. Har-          since it was simply a request to review, without any groztnds
 mony, love, and progress characterized the work of the past          bslng  offered.  For this reason the Synod might well have
 year. With the graduation of Student Hanko, we have, I               flatly rejected the overture of First Church. It is well to
 believe, three regular students left, two of whom should            rem&nber  that it is not the duty of Synod to produce
 graduate next June, D.V., and one of whom has two more              grounds for overtures, but the duty of those who bring the
 years of instruction ahead of him. A little reckoning will          overtures. As to the outcome of this matter, Synod finally
 show, therefore, that our churches will not have a sufficient       appointed a study committee to report at the next synod.
nuiiiber  of ministers for some years to come. And although          This committee is to study the grounds of the existing rule
 vacant congregations may not fully agree, we believe that this      and also the usage in other churches. The matter is post-
 situation is nevertheless not without salutary aspects for both     poned, therefore, undoubtedly to the disappointment of the
 our school and our churches.                                        married students. In conclusion, we offer the following com-
        One item of special interest in regard to our school is      ment : 1) This delay might'have  been avoided if either the


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              437
---                                                         -

Consistory of First Church, which brought an overture on          Reformed Churches of the Netherlands to appoint deputies
the subject, or the School Committee, which knew the ques-        for Revision of the Church Order was entertained, and the
tion would come up, had made a preliminary investigation          undersigned were appointed as deputies to study revision
and had allowed the Synod to benefit  frolii such a study.        `and to maintain contact with the deputies of the Netherlands.
2) The decision of Synod does not limit the study to the          See: Acts 1950, Articles 81,  52 and  54. The committee met
committee. Let our churches also give attention to the            several tim&,  and studied and deliberated on work. done by
question. 3)  We refer the reader to some recent comment          the committee members separately. The Committee also
on this subject in thk Rev. G.  Vanden Berg's  artidles  on       maintained contact with the deputies in the Netherlands.
our Church Order.                                                 However, recently we received a complete concept of a re-
Mission Matters                                                   vised Church Order which was presented to the last Synod
    The Synod made no weighty decisions concerning our            in the Netherlands, or will be presented to that body in the
mission work, although a good deal of attention was paid to       future, without our committee's advice or criticism. We as
our &ssion work. Apart from approving the annual report           committee, and you as Synod no doubt realize that this
of the Mission Committee, the Synod made only one positive        procedure is not  cprrect, both as to the principle that the
decision in this connection, namely, to grant approval  for       Church Order belongs to all the Reformed Churches in the
supplementing the work of our missionary with radio broad-        world, and therefore ought to be revised only after thorough
casting when this .is practicable. We were favored at Synod       cpnsultaiion  with each other ; and as a matter of consistency :
by a personal report by our new missionary, the Rev. G.           they requested us to appoint deputies, but without consulting
Lubbers, concerning his labors. And the readers of the            our deputation, they proceed to offer a completely revised
Standard  `Bearer may look for an occasional written report       concept of the Church Order to their Synod . . . .  "
fom the Rev. Lubbers also. From the report of the Mission             The undersigned had opportunity to read the concept
Committee we may glean the following: 1) Our mission              revision mentioned above. And, to say the least, they are
work, after being interrupted by the schism, and after having     indeed proposing sweeping changes  ,in the Netherlands, both
long suffered because of the false tactics of those who were      as to the form and the principle of our Church Order. This
formerly our missionaries, is now going forward once again.       revision has also occasioned much comment in the Dutch
2) The Rev. Lubbers, after laboring briefly in the Pella area,    papers. It is to be hoped that final action is postponed.
after a cry for help from some who could not go along with        And our deputies, the Revs. H.  Hoeksema, G. M. Ophoff,
the  schismatics, is now laboring among some German Re-           and G. Vos, are writing the Netherlands deputies to that end.
formed brethren in Loveland, Colorado. The Rev. Herman            Fimncia~l  Matters
Mensch,.  a faithful servant of the Lord whom many of you             Concerning this subject we report briefly : 1) That the
know, was instrumental in making the contact in the               Synod, in view of our limited financial power as churches,
Colorado field. We urge our people to remember the labors         gave careful attention to financial matters. 2) That the
of our missionary both privately and in congregational            treasurer reported that in general our  ,churches gave won-
prayer.                                                           derful cooperation in bringing up last year's assessments.
    We cannot refrain from the observation that our churches      3) That  our new treasurer, Mr. A.  Haan, was commended
do not judge their mission mandate or their mission labors        by Synod for his excellent and carefully worked out financial
by the unprincipled and utilitarian standards suggested by        report. 4) That our assessments will continue for the
the articles of the Rev. J. D. de Jong in a recent  Refor+tied    coming year at approximately $80 per family. We urge that
Gztardiart and cited with approval by the Rev. W.  Haver-         our people view this not as a heavy burden, but as a God-
kamp in a recent number of  De  Wa.chter.   Our home mis-         given privilege.
sionary will continue, as in the past, to go wherever there       l/a.ria
is a cry for help and wherever the Lord opens a field. And
our home mission efforts will not be judged by their cost             A few items remain to be mentioned: 1)  The Synod
or their tangible results. The cause of the church and of the     appointed a committee of five to work on the production
truth transcends both.                                            of new catechism books for our children. 2). The committee
                                                                  for emeritus study and the committee for re-editing our
Foreign, Correspondence                                           Church Order had not finished their work, and were re-
   The standing committee for foreign correspondence had          appointed by Synod. 3 j South Holland was appointed the
nothing to report this year.                                      calling church for the Synod of 1956, D.V.
   There was, however, an interesting report from the com-            This marks the end of our report. The Lord has given
mittee for revision of the Church Order. To enlighten the         us as churches' abundant reason for joy and for hope with
reader we can probably do no better than to quote the brief       respect  -to the future. And we hope and  pray  for the con-
report of these deputies :                                        tinued  .blessing  of our God upon our Protestant Reformed
"Esteemed Brethren :                                              Churches.
   "At our Synod of 1950 a request by the Synod of the                                                                   H.C.H.


       `.'

4 3 s                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

 I.                                                                              and who also must have nothing of a so-called general
                             AS TO BOOKS                                    I,i revelation. His own conception the author offers especially
                                                                                 in chapters seven to nine under the headings : Revelation and
                                                                                 Knowledge, Revelation and Fulfillment of the Law, Revela-
              The Epistles of Paul to  the  g,%lippians   and to  Pkilettzon,    tion and Illumination,
by Jac. J. Muller. Published by Wm. B.  Eerdmans  Pub-                               Although, as is well-known, I do not agree with Dr.
lishing Co., Grand Rapids,  Mich.  Price $3.50.                                  Berlhouwer, especially with regard to his view on common
              This is one of the volumes of  .the New International              grace, I heartily recommend this book to all that are in-
Commentary on the New Testament which is being published                         terested in the question concerning general revelation. The
by the Eerdmans Publishing Co: Except for the notes on                           author is a man of study and wide reading. Any theologian
the bottom of each page, it is easily accessible to the general                  ought to find a good deal in this particular product of the
public and as such we gladly recommend to our readers.                           author's pen that is worthy of his attention. Even the ,views
Those who wish to prepare themselves for a Sunday school                         of others which Dr. Berkhouwer discusses in this book are
lesson or for a discussion in a society, can pery well make                      of great interest to any student of dogmatical subjects.
use of this volume. It is written in a very clear style and                          Hence, I recommend this book to all that are interested
the author emphasizes the truth that the work of-salvation                       in subjects of this kind. I recommend it for intelligent and
is throughout to be attributed to the sovereign grace  of                        serious study. The last word has not been said about this
God.                                                                             subject anymore than about that of "common grace" to
         A few minor comments we wish to make.                                   which that of "general revelation" stands closely related.
              First of all, we wish to remarl;,that  we cannot agree with        Dr. Berkhouwer, in connection with his discussion of Rom.
the author's interpretation of the phrase "all the saints in `2 :14, 15, writes on 1~. 184 that `<Hoeksema also lost the right
Christ Jesus,," in vs. 1 of ch. I. He explains that they are                     path on account of his a pl-iorvi opposition to commoUn  grace."
saints, not subjectively, `but only objectively. Cf. p. 34-35. In                I could not help but smile a moment when I read this. But
this he is probably influenced by Barth, to whom he also                         surely, I cannot possibly agree with the author's interpreta-
refers. But the saints, though objectively they are holy in                      tion of the above mentioned passage from Romans. When
Christ, are, nevertheless, also subjectively holy in virtue of                   he paraphrases or translates ta to*u nomo'u, the things of the
`the principle of the new life that is in them.                                  law, or to ergon tozc nowou,  the work of the law, simply by
         A second observation concerns the important passage of                  "the doing of the works of the la!v," I do not agree with him,
Ch. II  :5-S. We refer particularly to  the phrase in vs. 6:                     for the simple reason that it is very evident from the preced-
"being in the form of God," which is the key to the entire                       ing and following context as well as from Rom. 1 :lS-32 that
passage. The author explains the participle "being"  (hup-                       this cannot be the meaning of the apostle. Besides, of the work
archoon) as being "an imperfect participle." This is an,error.                   of the law,  to ergon  to`tt  no'wamt,  the apostle writes that it is
There is no imperfect participle and "huparchoon" is present.                    written in their hearts. Unless you interpret the genitive
And it is very essential that the present tense should be                        nolg,zo~- as a  genitivzls   mbjectivus   (the work which the law
maintained in the interpretation for it refers to an eternal                     does in the hearts of the heathen) you make the apostle say
present. Christ eternally IS in the form of God even while                       that the heathen have the law written in their hearts.
He emptied Himself in the human nature.                                             But I better not criticize any further in this book review.
         But we gladly recommend this commentary to our                          I heartily recommend the book. to the intelligent and critical
readers.                                                                         student.
                                                                       H.H.                                                                     H.H.

         Gene&   Revela.tion  by Dr. G. C. Berkhouwer. Published                    ExpositQry  O&nes on  the Whole Bible,  by Charles
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Price $4.00.                                   Simeon. PublishTed  by Zondervan Publishing House, Grand
        This book -is a  transla!ion  from the Dutch. I read the                 Rapids,  Mich.  Price per vol. $3.95.
book in the. Holland language and reviewed in the Standwd                          The Zondervans sent me a few more vqlumes' of the Ex-
Bearer  several years ago. Cf. Vol. 28 of the S.B. This time                     pository Outlines. It is impossible for me to review them all
I read it again, partly to check up on the translation. The                      in detail. But I perused them rather carefully and the more
                                                                           h
latter is very good.                                                             I examine them the more I come to the conclusion that this
        As to the contents of the book, in eleven chapters the                   is, indeed, a very excellent work. In proof of this  `jet me
author, Dr. Berkhouwer, who by this time  -is rather  well-                      furnish the reader with one or two illustrations. In the
known among us, discusses the theme of general revelation                        commentary on the Romans, the author explains vs. 6 of
from various viewpoints. First he considers the different                        chapter 9 as follows:
views of various thkologians,  especially of Barth who, as is                       "In the chapter we are about to consider, the Apostle
well-known is a determined opponent of a "natural theology"                      begins with expressing his deep and continual sorrow on


                                           T H E   STANDARD~BEARER                                                                439

account of the judgments impending over the Jews for their          the contents, the motives, the limitations of prayer, etc.
obstinate rejection of their Messiah. He then anticipates              I read this little book with a mixed impression. On the
an objection which would be brought against him; namely             one hand, I found many beautiful thoughts in the book,
that if, as he had supposed, the Jews were to be cast off, the      beautifully expressed  in the characteristic style of the author.
Word bf God, which had promised all manner of blessing to           On the &her  hand, I feel that I cannot subscribe to all that
Abraham and his seed, would be made void. But to this he            the author writes concerning prayer. He leaves the impression
replies, that the promises were made to Abraham and his             with the readers that the believer may and can pray for any-.
spiritual  seed : and that all others, however they might be        thing he desires, when he "prays  in faith," and may expect the
descended from him after the flesh., would assuredly be cast        positive answer to his prayer. This is true, not only in regard
off, since they were not "all Israel, who were of Israel.;          to his spiritual, but also with respect to his earthly and bodily
neither, because they were natural seed of Abraham, were            needs. When he prays for prosperity in his business, if his
they necessarily to be numbered amongst the children to             motive is only the glory of God, his prayer will be heard.
whom the promises `were made."                                      When he is sick or his wife is sick, and he prays for healing
   This is sound esegesis. Again he wl'ites:                        and  for the lengthening of his. life or the life of his wife, if
. "It is here supposed that the whole nation of Israel `only the purpose in his heart is that he may glorify God a                            -
possessed the same advantages, and, in appearance, enjoyed          little longer on the earth, he must expect that his prayer
the same blessings. Yet the Apostle distinguishes between           will be answered. He criticizes Landwehr when he says'
some of them and others; and affirms, that some had claims          that in many cases the believer must add to his prayer : "Not
and privileges, to which the others were not entitled. This         my will, but Thy will be done."
was true respecting them. And it is true at this time, also,           With this rather emphatic tendency of the book we can-
in relation to ourselves. For as then, so now also all not          not agree. Do not forget that, in the fourth petition of the
objects of electing love."                                          Lord's Prayer, the Lord teaches us a very simple and ex-
   Throughout the author emphasizes God's absolute sover-           tremely limited prayer for our earthly and physical needs.
eignty in the matter of salvation and his electing lode.            When we are sick, it is of the Lord, and we must learn to
    Not only because of his correct emphasis on the truth of        be willing to walk in the way of the Lord. If it appears that
predestination, but also because of the rest of the exegesis        the Lord leads us in the way to the end of our earthly life,
and application in this commentary, I would heartily rec-           we must be willing to die and become prepared for our enter-
ommend it to the reader.                                            ing into the house of many mansions and not ask for the
                                                            H.H.    prolongation, of our life.
   De  Psahen   (The  Psahns),  by  Dr. J. Ridderbos. Pub-             This means,  not that I advise our -readers that can read
lished by  J.. H.  Rok, N.V.,  Kampen,  the Netherlands. Price      Dutch not to read the book, but to read it and judge for
f 18.50.                                                            themselves.
                                                                                                                               H.H.
   This is the first volume of a series of three by the same
author. The present volume contains a commentary on
psalms l-41:  At the end of this volume we find an appendix
in which are `discussed the questions of the superscription of                       Notice for Classis West
le-David in'many of the psalms ; that of recent opinions about         Classis  West will convene, the Lord willing, Sept. 14,
the Psalms ; that of the `enemies mentioned in many of the          1955, at the  Doon Protestant Reformed Church. The  con-
psalms; and that of the cursing prayers in the psalms.              sistories are reminded that matters for the  classis must be         -
   In this cbmmentary  the author characterizes himself, as         in the hands of the stated clerk not later than thirty days
we would expect of him, as a sound exegete, as believer in          before the convening of the classis. Inasmuch as Candidate
Holy Writ,  as` one that throughout accepts the Scriptures          R. Harbach will be examined at this classis, the Deputies Ad
as the inspired Canon, and as a thorough scholar.                   Examina of  Classis  East are, expected  tb be present at the
   Without further' comment this ought to be sufficient as a        meeting of  Classis  West.
ground for my recomm&dation  of this commentary to those                                          Rev. H. Veldman, Stated Clerk.
that are interested in the study of the Word of God and
who, moreover, are still master of the Dutch language.
                                                            H.H.

   Beslagen  Vensteys  (Dimmed Windows), by Rev. H.                    "General revelation can at best only give  us to have some
Veldkamp.  Published by J. H.  Kok, N.V., Kampen, the               knowledge of certain truths but it can bring about no facts,
Netherlands. Price f 3.90.                                          nor history, and brings about no  changk in the world of
   In this little book of 110 pages, the author discusses in a      being. It can create fear in us but no confidence and love."
popular way' the important subject of prayer, the purpose,                                             H. Bavinck quoting Shedd.

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

                                                                       whole  life and walk. To glorify God in our speech and to
           O U R   D,OCTRINE                                        II hallow His name with our mouth, and not to sanctify the
                                                                       Lord God in our walk, is worse than not to glorify Him at
                                                                       all. To praise God with our mouth, and to walk in darkness,
              THE  TRIPLE  KNOWLEDGE                                   is of the devil. For then we are like those of whom the
                                                                       apostle Peter writes that by reason of them the way of truth
       AN EXPOSITION OF THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM                       is evil spoken of, or blasphemed. II Peter `2  2. And according
                                                                       to the apostle John, "If we say that we have fellowship with
               PART   III-O F  THANKFULNESS                            him; and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth."
                                                                       I John  1:6. The more piously we talk  .about   .God with our
                        Low's  DAY 47                                  mouth, while we commit iniquity and walk in darkness, the
                           Chapter II                                  more abominable we become in the sight of God. The reason
                                                                       for this is not difficult to discern. Do we not confess that we
            The Implications of the First Petition                     are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus ? And does
   And remember that we must glorify Him as God ! we must              not the workmanship reflect the character of its author? Do
not merely say some good things about Him, as if He were               we not confess that God is our Father? And do not the chil-
some man of renown. But we must confess and proclaim His               dren reflect the image of their father? If then we call Him
.infinite  goodness, all His glorious and adorable virtues, His        our Father, while reflecting the image of the devil, do we
infinite power and wisdom, His glorious majesty and sover-             not blaspheme His holy name, and become occasion for the
eignty, His righteousness and holiness, Hi's justice and truth.        world to blaspheme it ? The prayer, "Hallowed be thy name,"
We must praise Him as He revealed Himself to us as the                 therefore, does not only ask for grace that we may always
God that calleth the things that are not as if they were, and          glorify Him in our speech, but also for His sanctifying Spirit,
that quickeneth the dead. We must adore His glorious vir-              that He may lead us in the way of His good commandments,
tues as they shine forth to us in the face of Jesus Christ our         so that our walk may be a reflection and manifestation
Lord, His unfathomable love, His abundant mercy, His                   of His glorious grace: "Let your light so shine before men,
sovereign grace. And mark you well, that to  .hallow His               that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father
name, His holy name that stands apart from all other names,            which is in heaven." Matt. 5 :16.
we must give Him all the glory and praise Him in all His                  The Lord enjoins us in Matt.  6:9: "After this manner
works. We must beware, lest we divide the glory that is due            therefore-pray ye." And then follows' the Lord's Prayer.
unto His name between Him and ourselves. For He is God!                   Let us examine ourselves, and ask the question : "Are we
We never do anything for Him ; He always does all things               ready to pray in this manner ?"
for us. His is all the glory of creation, of the government of            After we have somewhat discussed the meaning and the
all  things, of salvation. Of Him,  Bnd through Him, and to            implications of this first petition, it should have  be&me
Him are all things, nothing excluded. Nor must we glorify              abundantly evident that this perfect model df prayer is cer-
Him and praise Him for some things which He does, while                tainly not adapted for general use in public assemblies and
in other things we fail to see and acknowledge His infinite            mixed gatherings, as it is often supposed to be. It is only
goodness. For His work is always perfect. And in our whole             the redeemed and sanctified children of God that can even
life, with all its vicissitudes, as well as in the whole course of     begin to stammer it.
the world's history and of the history of the church, we must            -But even  so; the  questiori still is: are we always ready
see His work and adore His name. He sends prosperity, but              to say, "Hallowed be thy name?' Ai-e we really earnestly
51~0 adversity. He  mikes  peace, but war is also His work.            desirous that -He hear us and grant us our petition when we
He gives health, but He also lays us on our sick-bed. He               ask this of -Him? Suppose He hears us : are we ready to re-
maketh  alive, but He also kills. And many of the details of          ceive this grace from Hiin ? Are we prepared to say : "Our
His work we cannot now understand: for.we  are children of             Father Who art in heaven, glorify Thou Thy name in and
the moment, and from the viewpoint of our passing existence            through me, even though this should require that my name in
we cannot see the perfection of the whole of God's work. But           this world should be completely eclipsed  ?' Do we really
believing His Word, we know that He doeth all things                   desire that He so instructs us by His Word and Spirit
well, and that He is always worthy of all praise and honor            in the knowledge of His name that the zeal for its glory may
and glory forever. And to hallow His name means that we               consume us, and that His glory becomes our highest and only
express His praise,  rejoicin,CJ` in the God of our salvation  ;      purpose in life?. Do we really venture to ask Him for grace
that we declare His glory to Him in prayer and adoration,             that we may always and everywhere confess and praise  Him
in speech and song ; and that we profess and proclaim His             with our lips, that we may always and constantly maintain
adorable  vi&es before one another and before the whole               this confession in our walk and life, and walk as children of
world.                                                                light? Do we deeply and clearly realize that if God should
   But finally, it also implies that we glorify God in our            hear this prayer, we may  have to suffer reproach for His


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  441

name's sake in the world, that it may cost us our job, our           able before-God. It speaks`of Christ, but not of the Christ
position, our very life ? If we are really children of God, we       of the Scriptures, Who was delivered for our transgressions
will answer : "Yes, I am ready to pray this petition, but            and raised for our justification. It speaks of righteousness,
with fear and trembling. Lord, .I believe. Help Thou mine            but not-of the righteousness which is of God by faith in Jesus
unbelief." For remember that we have but a small beginning           Christ. It sp6aks of regeneration, but not of a radical change         *
of the new obedience by virtue of which we can pray this             of the heart, wrought by the Spirit of Christ. Over against
petition. And as we presented this first petition before the         this beautiful and appealing, yet very deceiving and vain
face of our Father in heaven, and somewhat realized its              philosophy, it is well to state definitely the truth  of. Scripture
depth of meaning and tremendous significance, we probably            and the faith of the church concerning the kingdom of God.
feel that for the time being we have prayed quite enough,            It is well to remind our'selves that the kingdom of God is
and that we may now properly close with the prayer: "Our             emphatically a kingdom of God, not of man. It is well to
Father Who art in. heaven, give us grace to pray, `Hallowed          emphasize that the kingdom of God is based on the right-
be thy name.' "                                           . .        eousness of God which is in Christ Jesus,  not on the right-
                                                                     eousness of man. It is absolutely necessary that we realize
                        LORD'S DAY 48          ~                     that the kingdom of God is principally established not by a
                                                                     man made change in human relationships, but by a divinely
            Q. 123. Which is the second petition?
           ' A. "Thy kingdom come"  ; that is, rule us so by thy     wrought redemption and regeneration of the individual sin-.
            word  ,and Spirit, that we may submit ourselves more     ner. And therefore, the Heidelberg Catechism- is principally
            and more to thee; preserve and increase thy church;      correct when it presents the idea of the kingdom of God first
            destroy the works of the devil, and all violence         of all as personal matter : "Rule us so by thy word and
            which would exalt itself against thee; and also, all     Spirit, that we may submit ourselves more and more to thee."
            wicked counsels devised against thy holy word; till      The petition, "Thy kingdom come," means primarily and
            the full perfection of thy kingdom take place, where-
            in thou shalt be all in all.                             principally: let Thy kingdom come in our hearts.
                                                                         Secondly, and it is also necessary to emphasize this ele-
                              Chapter I                              ment, you may notice, that when the Catechism broadens out,
             The Idea of the Kingdom of -God                         it does not include the w'hole  world, it does not speak of a
                                                                     universal brotherhood of man, but it explains this petition as
   You may notice that in the Heidelberg Catechism in the            a prayer for the church. And therefore it limits it to the
48th Lord's Day the second petition of the Lord's Prayer,            communion of Saints in Christ Jesus. You can never make
"Thy kingdom come," is so interpreted that it implies                the scope and the sphere of the kingdom of God, as far as
especially three elements.                                           its subjects are concerned, any broader than this. It is al-
   The first element is that God may more and more so rule           ways limited to the church.
over us by His Word and Spirit that  w.e may submit our-                And finally, the Catechism explains the kingdom of God
selves more and more to Him. This we might call the                  as principally eschatological. Its perfect realization and final
personal, individual element in this petition, accoi-ding to the     manifestation must never be expected in this world, nor by
Heidelberg Catechism. And it is very necessary, especially in        way of gradual development, but by the final wonder of the
our day that this personal element have all the emphasis.            appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven'in the day
   Over against many voices that clamor for the kingdom of           of His coming. To this the Heidelberg Catechism refers in
God as if it were a kingdom of this world, it is urgent that         the last clause: "till the full perfection of thy kingdom take
the church loudly and emphatically proclaim the testimony            place, wherein thou shall be all in all."
of the Word of God : the kingdom of God is not of this world.           The kingdom of God as to its main idea is the common-
Nothing is more common in our day than to speak of  t'he             wealth in which God is king, in which He is known and
establishment of the kingdom of God in every domain of               acknowledged, loved and freely obeyed, by willing subjects
human life. The kingdom of God must come in the state, in            as the only Sovereign of all, Whose Word is law, written in
the domain of politics, in society, in national and international    the hearts of all the citizens of the kingdom. It is such a
spheres. Its fundamental idea is that of righteousness among         rule of God as finds free -and_ willing response in the hearts
men, -political righteousness, social righteousness, industri-       of the subjects of this kingdom. Hence, as the Catechism
al righteousness, national and international righteousness.          explains, the second petition means that we pray that God
The possibility of its realization is given with the fun-            may so rule us by His Word and Spirit, that we may submit
damental soundness of human nature and the universal                 ourselves more and more to Him. Upon this element the
brotherhood of man. This social kingdom gospel is a philos-          emphasis must be placed. God is, of course, always King.
ophy that has borrowed almost all its terms from Scripture           His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom
and from'the  faith of the church, without adopting their es-        ruleth over all. He rules over all the wide creation, and over
sential meaning. It speaks of sin, but not as corruption of          every creature in heaven, on earth, and in hell.
the whole humati nature, nor as guilt that makes us damn-                                                                        H.H.

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

                                                                           we shall see, He did not pivot the fulfilment of His prom-.
11 THE DAY OF SHADOWS  11 ises to Israel on Israel's willingness to obey Him, but despite
I'-                                                                  `I    Israel's apostasy, He entered with him into the rest of
                                                                           Canaan in fulfilment of His promise.
                   The Covenant of Sinai*  -                                   This shuts us up to the view that the covenant of Sinai
                                                                           was a covenant of grace. That the covenant of Sinai was a
       The Covenant of Sinai, as this expression indicates, is             covenant of grace  .is clear from the transactions there at
the covenant that the Lord instituted with His people at                   Sinai reported in the book of Exodus (Chapter 20-23). The
Sinai. There is no agreement as what this covenant was  as                 people of Israel were encamped at the base of M6unt  Sinai.
to its character, whether a covenant of works, a contract                  Moses was with the Lord in the Mount, Here the Lord was
between God and Israel with conditional promises, or  .a                   communicating to him the ten commandments and some
covenant of grace. The question is then, what was this cov-                additional legislation. This was followed-by the promise of
enant as to its character. Then there is also the' question,               the Lord that He would send His angel to lead His people
who did this covenant include, only the Israel according to                on their journey to Canaan and that He would surely drive
the election or both the reprobated and the elect Israel?                  out the  Canaani$es  before them. Thereupon Moses left the
Finally there is also the question, why in the epistle to the              presence of the Lord and returned to the people. He wrote
Hebrews is this covenant called the @.st covenant, and why                 down all the words of the Lord and called the writing "the.
does the inspired writer say of this covenant that it waxed                book of the covenant." The following morning he rose up
old and vanished away. And why did it wax old and vanish                   early, and builded  an altar and erected twelve pillars accord-
away ? And what does it mean that it waxed old and vanished                ing to the twelve tribes of Israel. As Aaron and his sons
away ?,                                                                    had not yet been appointed to the priesthood, Moses sent
       These are the questions for which I ask your attention              young men, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace
and with which I wish to be occupied with you for a while.                 offerings of oxen unto the Lord. Then he took half of the
I have arranged my material under the following four points :              blood and sprinkled it upon the altar. Taking the "book of
The covenant of Sinai: 1) Its character; 2) Its promises;                  the covenant" he read it in the audience of the people. And
3) Its members; 4) Its being called the first covenant and                 they said, "All that the Lord has said we will do and be
why.                                                                       obedient." -Then Moses took the blood and sprinkled it upon
       I.  The  covencr.nt  of  Sinai as to  sits  chnmcter.  The fact     the people, and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant
that Israel could not merit with God, was creature, moving,                which the Lord hath made with you concerning  all these
living and having his being in God, and therefore less than                words."
nothing in comparison with God must, to my mind, exclude                      The thing to observe here is that the covenant of Sinai
the idea that the covenant of Sinai was a covenant of works,               was confirmed in blood, in the final instance the blood  of
a sort of contract between God and Israel. There is no room                Christ. The law of this cbvenant  called for the sacrifices by
for argument here. The point is undebatable, it seems to me.               blood by which the sins of the people were covered before
For a covenant in the sense of a contract is only possible                 the face of God-covered,  that is cancelled, obliterated (sym-
between man and man, but never between Man and God.                        bolically). This shows that the covenant of Sinai was, must
For over against God, man has nothing to say. His sole                     have been, a covenant of grace, the very covenant first re-
obligation and duty with respect to God is to hear and obey.               vealed in paradise immediately after the fall and later in-
And his obedience is God's gift in him. And when he dis-                   stituted with Noah and Abraham. But one will say, The law
obeys, it is because God sovereignly hardens him. How can-                 entered in there at Sinai, the law, "Thou shalt keep all my
there then be such a thing as a covenant, in the sense of a                statutes and my ordinances, which if man doeth he shall live
contract between God and His creature. This cannot be. For                 by or in them,`" that is, live by the deeds of the law, and
if the covenant is a contract, the two parties to the contract             further, "Cursed is every one that confirmeth not all the
do have the right to speak up to each' other. They deliberate              words of this law to do them." Thus speaks the law. And
together. They bargain together, and if successfully, they                 the law was added to the promise. This, one will say, shuts
reach  an agreement as to what the articles of the covenant                us up to the view that the covenant of Sinai was a covenant
are to be. And this agreement is the covenant. But certainly               of works with conditional threats and promises. "If thou
God was not bargaining with Israel there at Sinai. He did                  keepest me, thou shalt live by me. If thou transgresseth me,
not ask Israel, if he would agree to be His people, but He                 cursed art thou." Thus threatens and promises the law. Let
let it be known that Israel was His people and that settled                me tender my reply. In the first place, the "if" clause, "which,
the matter for Israel.  And. He did not submit His law to                  if a man doeth," is not a condition, but the idea is that keep-
Israel for approbation, but He came to him with His "thou                  ing the law and life go hand in hand, and likewise transgres-
shalt" and that again settled the matter for Israel. And, as               sion of the law and death. We see it in Adam our common
-           -                                                              parent who had left God's hand a sinless man, and who there-
V%nmencement  address.                                                     fore. how long we  knokv  -not, was living, bq' the law, com-


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 443
                    _ ._ --__
mandment.  As long as he continued obedient to the law,            people there at Sinai made them gods of gold, the Lord for-
he lived. Disobeying the command; he died. Second, we must         gave them, and despite their great sin vowed that "Behold,
consider God's purpose,in bringing in the law. His purpose         I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do wonders,
was not to place His chosen people under the necessity of          such as have not been clone in all the earth, nor in any nation :
keeping the law in order that He might destroy them for            and all the people among which thou art shall see the work
transgressing the law, which they did, seeing `that they were      of the Lord: for it is a terrible thing that I will'do with thee.
dead in sin. Only if that had been true, could it be said that     Observe that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive
the covenant He established with them there at Sinai was a         out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hit-
cove'nant  of works. His purpose was to put them under the         tite, and the Perrizite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite."
necessity of keeping the law indeed but only that they might          III. And this brings  us to the question:  W'hom did the
be brought under the conviction of sin and that, as so con-        Covenant of Sinai include? To whom was  the, promise of
victed, they might be driven into the arms of Christ by the        the earthly Canaan given  ? Also to the Israel according to
curses of the law. No more, than we, did the saints of the         reprobation, or to the Israel according to the election only ?
Old covenant imagine that they were living by the deeds of         According to one view the promise of the covenant of Sinai
the law. They were hiding themselves in Christ, and they           was also unto the reprobated Israel, and this Israel, too
knew that it was by His mercies-alone that they lived. The         was included in this covenant. And then it is concluded that,
law entered in four hundred years after, but, in the words of      seeing that the earthly Canaan was a prophetic type of the
Paul, it did not disannul the covenant that was confirmed          heavenly, the promise of the heavenly kingdom -the  promist-
before of God in Christ, the covenant of grace. It means           of Christ and all His benefits-is likewise given to all the
that, despite the entering in of the law, the covenant of grace    baptized, soul for soul. However, the view that the promise
abided. It abided there at Sinai. (see Gal. iii, 17).              of the earthly Canaan was given also to the Israel according
   We were delivered from the law by Christ who fulfilled          to, the reprobation and that thus also this Israel was in-
all its requirements, doing so, according to the Hebrews, as       cluded in the covenant of Sinai can be proved wrong. True
the Mediator of the covenant. . The only question is whether       it is that the earthly Canaan was a type of the heavenly. In
the covenant of Sinai was that covenant that abided. It was,       the covenant of Sinai all was type : the deliverance from the
must have been, seeing that it, too, was confirmed in blood.       bondage of Egypt, the ten plagues, the passage through the
  II. That this is so, is also clear from what was the prom-       Red Sea, and later through the Jordan, Israel's warfare with
ise of this covenant (my second point). The promise as it          the Canaanites, and the conquest of Canaan, the  sacriiices
first came to God's afflicted people in Egypt is contained in      by blood and the priesthood, etc: All was type of the realities
Ex. iii,  7, 8, "And the Lord said, I have surely seen the         of Christ's heavenly kingdom. What this means is; that in
affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard         promising His people there at Sinai the earthly,  the Lord
their cry, by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their        was at once promising them the heavenly. Thus in saying to
sorrows  ; and I am come down to deliver them out of the           Israel, "I will bring you unto the land concerning which I
hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land       swear to give it unto Abraham, and I will give it to you for
unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk        a heritage," He was at once promising them that "I will bring
and honey ; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites,    you, my people unto the heavenly iand, concerning which I
and the Perizzites, and the Hevites, and the Jebusites."  And      swear to give it unto .Abraham,-  that is, unto Christ, and 1.
again in the same vein in Ex. VI, 6-8, "Wherefore say unto         will give it to you for a heritage." Seeing that the earthly
the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out    was a type of the heavenly, God could not be promising His
from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you        people the earthly without at once promising the heavenly. So
out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched       in saying to His people there at Sinai, "I am the  L&d thy
out arm, and with great judgments : and I will take you to         God, which have brought thee out df the land of Egypt, out of
me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall          the house of bondage," and by implication, "I will bring you
know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out           into the land, concerning the whic& I did swear to give it to
from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring          Abrahani." What the Lord on that occasion was, in the final.
you into the land, concerning the which I did swear to give        instarice, saying to His people is this: "I am the Lord thy
it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you      God, the God of thy salvation, which have brought thee out
for a heritage: I am the Lord."                                    of the house of thy spiwhnl bbndage,  the bondage of sin and
   This was the promise of the covenant of Sinai. It was           of the devil, and I will give thee rest, the rest of the heavenly.
the very promise that the Lord had given to the Fathers, to           Let us consider that Abraham was expecting a heavenly
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And it was unconditional. Had           country. And his expectation was well grounded. It was
it been conditional, had it hinged for its fulfillment on Is-      grounded on the promise of. God to him that he would give
rael's willingness, to keep the covenant, it would never have      him the heavenly. Yet, if we examine the promises of God
been realized. For Israel was a stiffnecked people. But God        as they came to Abraham, we discover that not once did the
continued faithful to His promise. When, shortly after, the        Lord say to him in just these words, "I will give you the

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

.heavenly,"  but always, "I will give to you and to your seed           plundered of them. And finally, when the measure of iniquity
this land where thou art a stranger-the earthly Canaan."                was filled up, the Israel of the ten tribes was. uprooted from
This is the only promise that Abraham ever received as to               the land and scattered among the nations never to return,
the form of words. That Abraham was nevertheless ex-                    and Judah was exiled to Babylon. And after the seventy
pecting the heavenly- can only be because the earthly was a             years only a remnant returned. It all goes to  shbw that
type of the heavenly, so that in promising him the earthly the          Canaan was not for the wicked, that it had not been given
Lord was at once promising him the heavenly. And Abraham                by promise to the reprobated Israel. Canaan was God's
,had  understanding of this as taught by the Spirit of Christ.          country, the land -of the living, type of the new earth. The
And so, too, God's people in general.                                   reprobated had no more rig& to it than they have to heaven.
      This, it seems to me, proves conclusively that the cov-           They ivere as out of place in the earthly Canaan as they would
enant of Sinai was indeed a covenant of grace, the very                 be in Heaven. The covenant did not include them. We
covenant that God gave to Abraham. For the promises also                must break off here to complete this exposition in a following
of this covenant were in' the final instance  prom&es  of the           artitile.
heavenly and not of the earthly.                                                                                                   G.M.O.
     And therefore the promises of the covenant of Sinai were
given, could have been given, only to the'.Isr&l according to
the election of grace, and the covenant of Sinai included,
could have included, only the elect Israel. For the promise                                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
of this covenant, the unconditional promise of the heavenly
in the final instance, was for the elect only.                              On August 17th our beloved parents
      That the promise of Canaan was given- only to the' elect,         PETER SCHIPPER and GRACE SCHIPPER-nee De Bruyn
is strictly according to the teachings of Paul in his epistle           hope to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
to the Galatians, where the statement occurs, "Now to
Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith  not,                 We are deeply grateful to our `Covenant God for all the
                                                                        blessings He has bestowed  upori  them and us; and we trust and
And to thy seeds as of many, but as of one, And to thy seed,            pray that according to His will they may be spared for each
which is Christ."                                                       other and for us unto fulness of years, and that they may con-
      It is true, of course, that also reprobated Israelites entered    tinue to experience Jehovah's loving kindness all the days of
Canaan, and that they multiplied in Canaan until their num-             their pilgrimage.`
ber far exceeded the number of true worshipper of God, the                                          Their children :
remnant according to the election,  .Christ's little flock. But                                     Rev. and Mrs. Marinus Schipper
it can be shown that it is just as true that the reprobated Is-                                     Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Westenbroek
rael had no right to Canaan and were out of place in  the                                           Mr. and Mrs. Donald Schipper
Holy Land. First to be considered is the generation of Jews                                         Mr. and Mrs. Edward Borst
                                                                                                    Mr. and Mrs. William Dykstra
whose carcasses fell in the wilderness. They are described                                          Mr.  ,and Mrs. Harvey Kronemeyer
(see Hebrews -3:9-19)  as` men that hardened their hearts,                                          Mr. and Mrs. Herman Schipper
tempted Gdd, proved Him and saw His works forty years.                                              Mr. and Mrs. Harold Schipper
Wherefore "I was grieved with that generation, and said,                                            19 grandchildren and 4 great-grand-
They do always err in their heart; and they have not known                                          children.
my ways. So I  sware  in my wrath, They shall not enter                 Holland, Michigan.
into my rest." They could not enter. The supreme reason
was  the oath of God. The secondary reason was their un-                                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                                                                              _.
belief (see verses 18, 19). The conclusion is warranted that
they were reprobated. Canaan was not for them.                             On July 22, 1955, our beloved parents and grandparents
      Next to bk considered is that all gross sinners in Israel,        LAMMERT LANTING and MINKE LANTING (nee Boersma)
such as murderers, adulterers, blasphemers, wors&ppers of               commemorated the 35th anniversary of their marriage.
strange gods, had to be put to death. The law demanded                     We thank our Heavenly Father with them for having kept
that this class of persons be extirpated. They were corrupting          and sustained them `together through the years, and pray that
the land. God's country  was not meant for them. But, as                the Lord may grant them His peace in their remaining years.
could be expected, despite this demand of the law, the carnal                         Their grateful children:
seed in Israel was permitted to live and the result was that                                              Mr. and Mrs. Peter  Koole
eventually the land would be filled with their abominations.                                              Rev. and Mrs. George Lanting
As often as this happened the Lord would take away from                                                   Mr. and Mrs. Peter Knott
Israel the land either by withholding the seasonal rains and                                              Gertie
then there would be no harvest, or by selling land and                                                    Jeanette
                                                                                                          Twelve grandchildren.
people  intb the hand of their enemies to be spoiled  and               South Holland, Illinois.


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 445
                                                                                                                                  --  --_.-
I t                                                                  <1
 II                                                                            When this reproach of which Christ complains falls upon
             F R O M   ~H0l.Y WRIT                                   II the children of God then Jesus says: "Blessed are ye when
 I'                                                                  `I     men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from
                                                                            their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your
                Exposition of  Hebremk  11:22-26                           name as evil,, for the Son of Man's sake." Luke 6:22.
                               Continued
        Of this one who is great in the annals of the history of               Such as the evil that had come upon Israel in the desert.
                                                                           Their lot and plight in Egypt was one simply of suffering
 Israel we must say just a word more. It is demanded by                    for righteousness' sake. They are the children of God by His
 the text in question, for it says of this Moses that he so
 very clearly saw the underlying issue in his decision to refuse           free choice. According to the prophetic Word, which is more
                                                                           sure and shines as a light in a dark place, Israel had come
 to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. It was the                    down into Egypt. It was the Word spoken to Abram by the
 "pleasures of sin for a season" or it was "suffer the reproach            Lord as recorded in Genesis 15:12-14, "And when the sun
 of Christ."                                                               was going down a deep sleep fell upon Abram ; and, lo, an
       Now such an example is very much to the point in the                horror of great darkness fell upon him, and He said unto
 letter to the Hebrews. These were exactly in danger to fall               Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger
 back for the sake of the reproach of the word of the Cross.               in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they
 And their courage of faith must be bolstered by citing the                shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation
 example of Moses in his day and hour. They must hear this
 testimony concerning Moses from the pages of Scripture. It                whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterwards they
 is a voice from one of the cloud of witnesses ; a voice of one            shall come out with great substance."
 of the elders who obtained a good report.                                     Thus is the nature of Israel's suffering !
       It is, therefore, of importance to take a li,ttle better notice         It was clearly a suffering because they were accounted
 of this determination of Moses to suffer the lot of all God's             a righteous and holy people unto the Lord. That was the
 people and of all of God's prophets.                                      sole reason. Thus it was clearly intended to be, according to
       The Bible often speaks of the reproach of Christ.                   the prophetic word, spoken to Abram. And thus it was also
       We think in this connection of such a passage as Matthew            realized at the time of the Pharaoh, who forgot about the
 5:11, 12 where we read: "Blessed are ye when men shall                    greatness of Joseph. For this king's evil policy was not
 revile you, and persecute you, .and shall say all manner of               against a rebellious people who were increasingly becoming
 evil against  you  falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be ex-                a dangerous menace to the land of Egypt, intending to over-
 ceeding glad  ; for great is your reward in heaven for so                 throw the throne of the King of Egypt, but it was clearly a
 persecuted they the prophets that were `before you." We                   policy and program intending the massacre of a people who
 should notice in this passage that here is spoken of a reproach           had one desire in life, namely, to serve the Lord their God
 which the meek, the poor in spirit endure, for the sake of                in the land of their fathers. There they should be a peculiar
 Christ, His kingdom, His Word in the midst of the world                   people unto God in all the earth. Read, therefore, the very
of evil men, who are the haters -of God ! And because they                 evil strategy on the part of the king of Egypt. "Now there
hate God and all His perfections, particularly His love and                arose up a new. king over Egypt which knew not Joseph.
grace revealed to the elect people of God, as they are con-                And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the chil-
stituted of God an elect nation, a holy people, a royal priest-            dren of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let
hood, they also hate this people. The seed of the serpent. us deal wisely with them ; lest- they multiply, and it come to
hates the Seed of the woman: But when this hatred reveals                  pass, that,, when there falleth out a war, they join also unto
itself in "reviling," and "speaking of all manner of evil false-           our enemies, and fight against us, and so' get them U$ out of
ly" for the sake of the Son of God, then we must be inwardly               `the land ." Exodus 1 :8-10.
full of deep and abiding satisfaction and blessedness. For                    From the foregoing. it is quite evident that the subjuga-
then the reward is great in heaven.                                        tion of Israel was inspired by the forces of hell against God
       Or we think of the reproach which Christ had to endure              and His anointed Son as He revealed Himself in His people.
on the Cross even by those who were crucified with Him.                    The prophetic Word spoken to Abram must be made of
When others about the Cross jeer at Christ and say:  "I,et                 none effect. ,The Satanic element in Pharaoh's decision must
Christ the King of Israel now descend from the Cross, that                 not be overlooked. We must not be ignorant of the Devil's
we may see and believe" then the two malefactors too joined                wiles in this strategy and policy of the king of Egypt.
in as we read, "And they that were crucified with him reviled                 Oh, Moses saw this plan of Satan. And he had but one
him." Mark 15 :32. Such was the reproach wherewith Christ                  thing burning in his soul. The zeal of God's house consumed
was reproached. Thus we read in Romans 15 13 where Psalm                   him. It was to deliver the people of Israel that they might
69 :9 is quoted : "The zeal of thine  house hath eaten me. up ;            return unto the land of their fathers as pilgrims on the earth,
the reproaches `of them that reproach thee are fallen upon                 seeking the city which has foundations, whose Builder and
me."                                                                       Maker is God!


4       4     6                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
 -
      And he sallies forth to perform this great work in faith.        pany, for "in like manner did their fathers unto the prophets."
While he ponders this question he looks not merely at the              Luke 6 :23.
things that are in the present, the great power and riches and            It is only "the reward" which God holds before our be-
treasures of Egypt, but he looks away from all this to greater         lieving eyes that makes us strong and courageous in the tight.
 riches, to abiding and lasting treasures and reward. And in           Only in view of this reward will we stand unmoveable, never
 the Spirit of God and in the power of faith he refuses to be          back-sliding, falling back into perdition, but believing unto
 called a son of Pharaoh's daughter.                                   the salvation of the soul.
      And so the reproach of Christ is his choice.                        Thus did Moses.
      His choice was such that he immediately would be re-                He did some "accounting" in faith!
proached for the sake of Christ's cause in this world.                    He began to compare the "treasures" of Egypt, the ac-
      In the first place he is greatly reproached by the Israelite,    cumulation of all the wealth and power, the glory and honor
 who reproachingly said to him: "Who made thee a prince                of Egypt with what God promises to His servants. No, he
and judge over us ? intendest thou to kill me as thou killedst         did no compare the "treasures" of Egypt with the "reward"
 the Egyptian ?" Oh, what a stinging reproach this was to thT$         but with the "affliction of Christ." As far as the natural eye
 "man of God" who loved the people of God ! He thought that            could see such were the alternatives. For all who will to live
 Israel would understand. He lived in naive and youthful en-           godly in this world must suffer affliction. But such affliction
 thusiasm. But he immediately suffers a great disillusion-             works patience in the believer, and patience works  approved-
 ment which must have been a bitter disappointment to him              ness and approvedness hope, because the love of God is shed
 for forty years. He tasted the reproach of all those who are          abroad in our hearts. He looked in faith for the promised re-
 eaten up with the zeal of God's house. The fleshly element in         ward while in the midst of the affliction for Christ.
 Israel did not understand. Always they resisted the Holy                 And he did not falter.
 Ghost as He spoke to Israel through the prophetic Word,                  Faith has a better and abiding treasure in heaven.
 shining in the darkness of Egypt's bondage. Small wonder                 When the road is hardest and the night  seeins  darkest,
 that the great objection of Moses to the Lord at the burning          faith burns the more warmly in our hearts and glows with
 bush is : but what shall I say to the people. The people will         spiritual warmth and profound convictions.
not understand ! Oh, what a bitterness for Moses' soul.  Hated            Such must be the faith of the Hebrew Christians.
 really without a cause. Hated by the fleshly Israel. Moses               They must indeed not look to Moses. That would be fate-
 has' only said to them what was the law and the prophets :            fully wrong. That is the error of all "hero of faith" worship.
"Wherefore  smitest thou thy fellow?"                                  Nay, we must look where Moses looked. In faith we must
      God surely used this incident to cast Moses once and fo:         look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for
all time out of the house of Pharaoh. Moses' bridges were              the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross and
burned. He in `faith learned that he could not possibly                despised the same and is set donw on the right hand of the
ever go back. He could only press forward. Having put                  F a t h e r .
his hand to the plow he could not look back. Through forty                Faithful is the saying: For if we be dead with him we
years of loneliness he endures as seeing the unseen God in             shall also live with him. If we suffer we shall also reign with
the heat of the desert day and the cold of the mountain by             him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we believe not,
n i g h t .                                                            yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
      But he has one great and all-embracing consolation.                                                                        G.L.
      It is that this is not simply a suffering and being re-
proached for a rash deed in killing an Egyptian, but that it
was, indeed, a suffering for the cause of the Son of God, for
the cause of Christ, the Redeemer of Israel from the house of             "Pelagianism avows, indeed, that its main interest is in
bondage into the glorious liberty of Canaan, the land of               defending the holiness of God and that their position main-
promise.                                                               tains this better than Paul and Augustine or Thomas and
      What an identity, therefore, between the suffering of            Calvin ; because God in the thought-structure of the latter is
the Hebrew believers and that of Moses. They sufier in the             made the author of sin. However, this is nothing more than
same cause and from the same motive, be it then in a dif-              a fiction ; on the basis of Pelagianism sin remains as unex-
ferent historical setting. And also what an identity even              plained as on the standpoint of Augustine ; yea, in the case
today. How the righteous today are always cast out without             of the latter the holiness of God is better accounted for. For
a cause. How in our day those who would  m.aintain  the                it is more in harmony with Scripture and the entire Christian
faith are cast out by those who hate doctrinal clarity and             faith to confess that God in a certain sense willed sin for
distinctiveness that Christ, our Lord, may receive all the             wise reasons, be it then not known to us, than to teach that
glory. Well may we claim these promises in faith and "in               He in no wise willed sin and yet tolerates sin and permits it.
this evil day" .do as Jesus instructs us to "leap for joy," for        This latter element exactly is doing injustice to God's holi-
behold our, reward is great in heaven. We are in good com-             ness and almight."            - H. Bavinck, Geref.  Dogmatiek


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 447

                                                                          Somewhat later in verse 25 we read : "The graven images
            I     N            HIS  F           E      A            R of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire
                                                                       the silver. or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest
                                                                       thou be snared therein : for it  is. an abomination unto the
                 A Snare  for Our Children                             Lord thy God."
                                                                          Turning to the Book of Judges we see the truth of these
            When a new vaccine which will protect our children         words and Israel ensnared in the idolatry of the heathen
against the dreadful Polio germ is discovered and made                 whom they left in the land. We read in Judges 2 :l-3: "And
available, we rush our children off to the doctor to give              an angel of the Lord came up from  Gilgal  to  Bochim  and
them the benefit of this preventative measure.                         said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought
    But many of us persist in leaving a snare for our children.        you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers ; and I
    When firemen, auxiliary policemen or even trustworthy              said, I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall
senior students are placed on street corners to insure the             make no league with the inhabitants of this land ; ye shall
safe passage of our children from one side of the busy thor-           throw down their altars : but ye have not obeyed my voice :
oughfare to the other, we hail it as a wonderful safety                why have  .ye done this  7 Wherefore I also said, I will not
measure.                                                               drive them out from before you ; but they shall be as thorns
    Yet, we often place a snare for our children.                      in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you."
    We provi,de  the best and most nourishing foods for them.             And these things were written, not to fill the pages. of
We buy the warmest clothing we can afford. We make                     Holy Writ, but for the warning and instruction'of the New
sure that`their shoes fit properly so as not to injure their           Testament Church ; for YOLI and for me and for our children.
feet. We see to it that their teeth are promptly filled when              Verv  correctlv  we sine in  ours Psalter  versification of
cavities appear. We see that their eyes receive the best of care       Psalm       78:      I     *      v
at the hands of those who have been trained in the best of
schools.                                                                "My people, give ear, attend- to my word,
    However, we sometimes fight to keep a snare that others              In parables new deep truths shall be heard ;
have placed before our children.                                         The wonderful story our fathers made known
    Every physical danger to our children frightens us. We               To children succeeding by us must be shown.
strive to do our utmost to see to it that their earthly life is          Instructing our sons we gladly record
not injured or abruptly ended. Every trap, every  snare-                 The praises, the works, the  ~might  of the Lord,
whether it be an abandoned refrigerator door or uncovered                For He hath commanded that what He hath done
cistern  - every threat to their physical wellbeing  - whether           Be passed in tradition from father to son.
it be an exposed electrical wire with its fatal "shock" or an
unshielded electric fan with it maiming power-we rec-                    Let children thus learn from history's light
ognize as a threat to their physical life and wellbeing.                 To hope in our God and walk in His sight,
   But spiritual snares we tolerate, even help to build and              The God of their fathers to fear and obey,
often fight to retain.                                                   And ne'er like their fathers to turn from His way.
   There is nothing new about this.
   The Church- that is, that which was called the Church                 The story be told, to warn and restrain,
- in the Old Testament dispensation manifested such  be-                 Of hearts that were hard, rebellious and vain,
haviour long before the New Testament Church appeared                    Of soldiers who faltered when battle was near,
upon the pages of Holy Writ.                                             Who kept not God's covenant nor walked in His fear."
   Our theme is actually borrowed from the Word of God                    That truth the New Testament Church also can and
.which in several passages speaks of a snare unto Israel. And         ought to sing today. The New Testament Church too must
the whole Book of Judges is written and included in the               beware of leaving or placing snares for her children and
canon of the Word of God because Israel allowed, kept and             ought the rather to teach her children the lessons that are
defended a snare for the children of the church of that day.          taught in the history of, the Old Testament Church.
   Deuteronomy 7 speaks repeatedly of that snare. Israel                  Things have changed. We do not live in the land of
is told that when the promised land is reached Israel must             Canaan. Our land is not and was never meant by God to
kill all the heathen that dwell there and break down all their        be a type of the Heavenly Canaan that comes in the day of            .
idols. Israel must "utterly destroy them" and "shall burn             Christ at the end of time. We have, therefore, no calling to
with fire" their idols. Thus in verse 16  you  read these un-         consume and destroy all the unbelievers out of the land. We
equivocal words of God: "And thou shalt consume all the               are not called to wage physical warfare with all who serve
people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee ; thine eye          another god besides Jehovah. The citizens of. the kingdom of
shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their          heaven inherit the earth as the meek, as the pure in heart,
gods; for that will be a snare unto thee."                            as the poor in spirit, as the peacemakers. And the same

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

       Israel after the Babylonian Captivity, when Israel' entered.            That is also why the Church that walks in His fear still
       a period that illustrated a new phase of the truth, had not the      demands public confession of public sins. Also in this respect
       calling to destroy and consume the oppressors but instead to         a snare for future generations may not be placed by the
       wait patiently for the Messiah. It is her calling to come out        Church. Only by demanding confession and by public an-
       from among the heathen and be a separate people, II Cor.             nouncement  .that confession has been made of those sins
       G :17.                                                               which by their public practice or by their very nature become
              The calling of Israel did remain and still remains for the    known to the congregation does the Church continue to
       New Testament Church to remove out of its own midst the              break down before the eyes of its youth this form of idolatry,
       idols of the heathen. She has the calling, therefore, to dis-        these heathenish practices in our land. And, we may say in
       cipline  leer own members whose walk is not in His fear.             parenthesis, we have great difficulty in understanding the
       For all sin' is idolatry in that it is rooted in unbelief rather     inconsistency of making public the confession of those who
       than in faith in God and is -serving that which is not God.          have sinned against the seventh commandment and then do
              The Church today that fails to discipline always leaves       not even demand a confession of those who break the third
       a snare for her children. It does this as surely as it was a         commandment. Lest we be misunderstood, in the lines above
       snare for Israel to leave the. idols in the land for their chil-     we exactly maintain that there shall be public announcement
       dren to see and to worship. For, leaving the idols in Canaan         of the confession of those whose sin against the seventh com-
       and leaving sinful practices today is to put the stamp of ap-        mandment becomes public because of the very nature and out-
       proval upon them. It encourages sin. It leaves it to tempt           come of the sin.. But why are those who curse and swear
       our children. It provides the opportunity for their flesh to         and are caught lying publicly or even are found .guilty by
       copy it and enjoy it. And these churches find in generations         the courts of having disobeyed the authorities in one way or
        (and more rapidly with each generation) that their children         another measured with another  .rod  ? Are we not laying a
       do not learn from history's light (the history of their  con         snare for our children also in that respect? Are we maybe
     gregation's and  denomination"s light) to trust in our God             busy breaking down the one idol everytime it appears once
-      and walk in His sight, but rather to turn from Him and to            again in our midst and then busy laughing at other idols of
       walk so that they are indistinguishable from the world.              a different sort and shape but which deny Jehovah the Living
              Denominations and congregations must be careful not           God as well as the idol we set out to crush in pieces ?
       to place snares in front of their children and not to defend            It might be well for us to look around a little bit and see
       these snares when their members have introduced them. Their          if we can recognize the idols that we cherish and even defend.
       calling before God is always - even as with Israel- to de-           There are some that we will even fight to preserve.          -
       stroy oztt of nnd in their own ci+cle the idols that from time          Is it that we are so steeped in idolatry ourselves that we
       to time are raised up.                                               do not recognize them as idols ? Does it have to be as big as
              The Church that sets its stamp of approval upondivorce,       the image of Nebuchadnezzar in the plain of Dura before we
       membership in secret societies and in worldly unions is reach-       will see it? Do we think that an idol that stands only two
       ing out into the heathen world to bring into its own circle          inches high - purposely to deceive - is less of a snare to us
       the idols that appeal to its flesh. And in this way they             and to our children than Baa1  and Ashteroth ?
       deliberately set a snare for their children. Those who sit              The Lord willing we hope to continue our discussion of
       down and draw up carefully worked out documents to in-               this matter next time:
       troduce or defend these things that have already crept in                                                                   J. A. H.
       manifest in that deed no love to God. 0, it may be love to
       brother or siter so-and-so who has succumbed to these evils.
       It may be the result of a tender spot in the heart for these,           "The real will in God is the will of well-doing (voluntas
       perhaps because of former friendships, perhaps because of            beneplacitys) and this (will) is one with God's being, is
       blood ties, perhaps because he was formerly your pastor;             unchangeable and is always fulfilled. Pelagianism has errone-
       but it is not love to  ,God. It is a carnal, sinful, fleshly love    ously left this line of thought, and has posited a powerless
       which may be found also in idolaters. But the word of God            desire and an unfulfilled wish in G.od as being the will of God.
       still stands! In this respect  Dem.  7:$6 is still true: "Thine      This is doing injustice to God's essence and all His virtues."
       eye shall have no pity upon them." To be sure, we must                                         - H. Bavinck, quoting Lombardus
       deal with such in love ; but it must be in the love of God.
       And the love of God will never allow us to defend their sin.            "Pelagius admitted that man in his moral efforts stands in
       When it becomes a matter of choosing between defending               need of Divine aid, and, therefore, spoke of the grace of God
       them in their "idolatry" and obeying the Living God Who              as assisting the imperfections of man by a variety of means.
       forbids having other gods besides Himself, then in that re-          He supposed, however, that this grace  is something external,
       spect our eye may not have pity upon them so that we let             and added to the efforts put forth by the free will of man; it
       the snare remain for future generations because brother so-          must therefore be deserved by virtuous inclinations."
       and-so practices this or that sin.                                                       -  I(. R. Hagenbach, History of Dogma.


                                                  T H E   STANDAR.D   B E A R E R                                                        449

   II                                                                      selves. Is it surprising, then, that the churches should regard
             Contending For The Faith                                II these men (such as Polycarp) with a tremendous amount of
   I'                                                                `1    respect. and veneration  ? Indeed, this episcopal development
                                                                           was very natural. This, then, is the historical background for
              The Church and  then Sacraments                              this episcopal development in church government.
                                                                               The belief that the episcopacy was the principal bond of
         VIEWS DURING THE SECOND PERIOD  (300-750 A.D.)                    -the Church, presenting its unity, did not decrease, but it in-
                                                                           creased. Salvation was inseparably connected with the
                              %`HE EPISCOPACY.                             Church and the bishop. Ignatius, we may possibly recall, hacl
                                                                           once written  : "Do ye all follow your bishop as Jesus Christ
         We concluded our preceding article with the observation           followed the Father. Do nothing without the bishop."  Cy-
   that it is truly a remarkable phenomenon that the episcopal             prian is known for his emphasis upon the unity of the Church
   form of church government should characterize the Church of             as revolving about the authority of the bishop. This Church
   God for about fifteen hundred years, from the time of the               Father wrote once: "There is one God, and Christ is one;
   apostles to the Reformation. It is-a  truly~  remarkable  phe-          and there is one Church and one Chair (by  ose  clzaiv  he
nomenon  because it is undoubtedly true that the Word of                   meant "one center of authority") ." He continued : "He who
   God supports the Presbyterian form of church government.                is not in the Church of Christ is not a Christian. He can no
   And one can hardly deny that this phenomenon is worthy of               longer `have God for his Father who has not the Church for
   a little investigation.                                                 his mother. There is no salvation out of the Church. The
         This phenomenon is easily understandable. In the early            Church is based on the unity of the bishops. The bishop is in
   Church, we understand, the presbyters or elders were all of             the Church, and the Church is in the bishop. If anyone is
 the same rank. There is certainly nothing in Holy Writ to                 not with the bishop, he is not in the Church." In fact, of
   deny the truth of this observation. It was natural, however,            Cyprian and his emphasis upon the episcopacy Philip  Schaff
  that in each congregation one of the elders should assume                writes as follows: "He represents the claims of the episco-
   leadership. He would preside at the meetings of the elders              pacy in close connection with the idea of a special priesthood
  and lead the congregation in worship. We have the same                   and sacrifice. He is the typical high-churchman of .the ante-
   situation in many vacant churches today. These churches,                Nicene age. He vigorously put into practice what he honestly
  without the services of a regular pastor, are very easily led to         believed. He had a good opportunity to assert his authority
  look up with esteem to an elder that has received talents froin          in several controversies in which he was involved. Cyprian
  the Lord above many in the congregation. Now these pres-                 considers the bishops as the bearers of the Holy Spirit, who
  byters or elders are also called overseers in the Word of God,           passed from Christ to the apostles, from them by ordination
  inasmuch as they were called of God to have the oversight                to the bishops, propagates himself in an unbroken line of
  over the church. And the word "overseer" in the Greek is                 succession and gives  efficacy  to all religious exercises. Hence,
  the same word as our word "episcopal," from which we also                they are also the pillars of the unity of the church ; nay, in
  get our word, bishop. The transition, therefore, from the                a certain sense they are the church itself. Cyprian is thor-
  presbyterian form of church government to the episcopal form             oughly imbued with the idea of the solidary unity of the
  of church government is easily understandable  in.the  infancy.          episcopate,  - of many bishops exercising only one office,
  of the New Testament Church.                                             each within his diocese, and each at the same time represent-
         With the death of the apostles the rapid development of           ing in himself the whole office. But with all this, the bishop
  this episcopal form of church government is also easily un-              still appears in Cyprian in the closest connection with the
  derstandable. Churches, of course, were first established in             presbyters. He undertook no important matter without the
  the cities. From the cities Christianity spread out into the             presbyters. The fourth general council, at Carthage, A.D.
  surrounding country or rural districts. Other congregations              395, even declared the sentence of a bishop, without the con-
  were organized. The city with its surrounding territory was              currence of the lower clergy, void, and decreed that in the
  known as a diocese, and its bishop was called a diocesan                 ordination of a presbyter, all the presbyters with the bishop,
  bishop. Formerly there were merely monarchical bishops,                  should lay their hands on the candidate. The ordination of a
  bishops of city churches. Now we have, besides these mon-                bishop was performed by the neighboring bishops, requiring
  archical bishops, also diocesan bishops, bishops that were               at least three in number. In Egypt, however, so long as
  in charge of large districts. And it is surely not difficult to          there was but one bishop there, presbyters must have per-
  understand that a bishop of a large city should be regarded              formed the consecration, which Eutychius and Hilary the
  with greater esteem and respect than the bishop of a small               Deacon expressly assert was the' case." -end of quote. It
  rural church. The growth of episcopal authority is therefore             is interesting, in this quotation from Cyprian, what that
  understandable. This, however, is not all. There were-bishops            Church Father has to say of the close connection between the
  during those early days of the New Testament infancy of the              bishop and the presbyters. Cyprian himself undertook no
  Church who had enjoyed instruction from the apostles them-               important decisions without the presbyters. In fact, the


   450                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
   _~

   fourth general council at Carthage, 398, even declared the               the fifth century, the exclusive prerogatives of confirming the
   sentence of a bishop, without the concurrence of the' lower              baptized and consecrating the chrism or holy ointment in
   clergy, to be void. This is surely a far cry from the position           baptism. In  the, East, on the contrary, confirmation (the
   of the Roman Catholic Church today as far. as its conception             chrisln)  is performed also by the .presbyters,  and, according'
   is concerned with r,espect  to the infallibility of the pope. How-       to the ancient custom, immediately follows baptism . . . .
   ever, we will have more to say about this in due time,                   As the bishop united in himself all the rights and privileges
          Seeberg  describes the episcopacy in this period, 300-750         of the clerical office, so he was expected to show himself a
   A.D., as follows (this quotation has been  quoted before  ill            model in the discharge of its duties and a follower of the
  .our discussion of the &-eat Donatist controversy) : "August-             great Archbishop and Archshepherd of the sheep. He was
   ine holds that the great church is the one Catholic church by.           expected to exhibit in a high degree the ascetic virtues, especi-
   virtue of the distribution of the latter throughout the whole            ally that of virginity, which, according to Catholic ethics,
   world and by virtue `of its connections with the church of               belongs to the idea of moral perfection. Many a bishop, like
   the apostles, whose  sz~cces.so~s  the  bis1aofi.s  are (italics mine    Athanasius, Basil, Ambrose, Augustine, Chrysostom, Martin
   - H.V.) ." However, Seeberg  continues and maintains that                of Tours, lived in rigid abstinence and poverty, and devoted
   the idea of the Roman Primacy receives no special elucida-               his' income to religious 2nd charitable -objects." Hereupon
   tibn at the handS  of Augustine. We find a general acknowl-
                         .                                                  Philip Schaff describes how the bishops departed from this
   edgment of the  "prmlacy  of the apostolic chair," but Au-               rule of ethical conduct, and that their very power and the
   gustine knows nothing of any special authority vested in                 temporal advantage of the episcopate (the' bishops were'
   Peter or his successors. Peter is a "figure of the church," or           granted temporal advantages) became also a lure for avarice
   of the "good pastors," and represents  #the unity of the                 and ambition, `and a temptation to the lordly and secular
   church. In this consists the significance of his position and            spirit. From all this, however, we may be able to gain an
   that of his successors (thus also Cyprian) . As all bishops              idea of the rise of the episcopate and the development of the
   (in contradistinction from the Scriptures) may err, so also              episcopacy in the early centuries of the New Testament
   the Roman bishop. This view is  plaiply  manifest from the               Church. The unity of the Church and salvation within the
   bearing of Augustine and his colleagues in the Pelagian con-             Church were inseparably connected with the bishop. He
   troversy.. The infallible authority of the pope in the church            was the principal bond of the Church, preserving its unity.
   at large was a dogma in which only the popes believed. Dog-              He was indispensable as far as the salvation'of the child of the
   matically, there had been no advance from the position of                Lord was concerned. He was the successor of the apostles
   Cyprian -thus far  Seeberg. To say that all bishops may err,             and the gifts of the Holy Spirit were inseparably connected
   including the Roman bishop, is also a far cry from the posi-             with him. And we may also remark that the bishop of Ron&
   tion of the Roman Catholic Church of today as it maintains               at this time held the leading position in the whole Church.
   the infallibility of the pope at Rome.  Seeberg  declares that           This, as we shall presently see when we trace the amazing
" Augustine knows nothing of any special authority vested  in               rise of the papacy, is not difficult to understand. Various
   Peter or in his successors.                                              circumstances united to bring this to pass, not the least of
          Concerning the bishops and their power during this                which was Rome's position in the midst of the world at that
   period, 300-750 A.D., the following quotation from Philip                time and the role' which Rome's bishop played in its defknse`
   Schaff is surely interesting: "The bishops now stood with                over  against.the  heathen invasions. To this, however, and the
   sovereign power at the head of the clergy and of their dio-              rise of the Papacy we wish to call attention in subsequent
   ceses. They had come to be universally regarded as the                   articles.
   vehicles and propagators of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and                                                                        H.V.
   the teachers and the lawgivers of the church in all matters
   of faith and discipline. The specific distinction between them
   and the presbyters was carried into everything ; while yet it
   is worthy of remark, that Jerome,  Chrysosto&,  and  Theo-
   doret, just the most eminent exegetes of the ancient church,
   expressly  acl&owledge  the original identity of the two offices             "Augustine on the other hand looked upon it (grace) as
   in the New Testament, and consequently derive the proper                 the created prinbiple  of like, which produces out of itself the
   episcopate, not from divine institution, but only from church            liberty of the will, which is entirely lost by the natural man.
   usage. .The traditional participation of the people in the               In the power of the natural man to choose between the goocl
   election, which attested the popular origin of the episcopal             and the evil, to which great importance was attached by
   office, still continued, but gradually sank to a mere formality,         Pelagius, as well as by the earlier church, he saw only a
   and at last became entirely extinct. The bishops filled their
   own vacancies, and elected and ordained the clergy. Besides              liberty to do evil, since the regenerate man alone can will
   ordination, as the medium for communicating the official                 the good."
   gifts, they also claimed from the presbyters in the West, after                              -I<. R.  Hagenbach,  History of Dogma.


         F


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R - D   B E A R E R                                                      451

I                                                                                          save  tho,se  who will believe, but that he  has also
              The Voice of Ok Fathers                                    /I                from eternity chosen certain particular persons to
                                                                                           whom above others he in time will grant both faith
                                                                                           in Christ  .and perseverance; as it is written: "I
                  The Canons of  Dor$recht                                                 manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest
                                                                                           me out of the world." John  17:6. `And as many as
                                    PART TWO                                               were ordained to eternal life believed," Acts  13:48.
                                                                                           And: "Even as he chose us in him before the  foundk-
                    EXPOSITION OF  THE CANONS                                              tion of the world, that we should be holy and with-
                      FIRST  HEAD  OF DOCTRINE                                             out blemish before him in love." Eph.  1:4.
                    OF  DIVINE PREDESTINATION                                     The meaning of this article is so plain that it scarcely
                                                                               needs any explanation. The emphasis in the  .statement  of
                   REJECTION OF ERRORS                        -'               the error rejected falls, of course, on the words : ". . . . is the
A  Word  of  Introdz&on                                                        whole and entire decree of election unto salvation, and that
                                                                               nothing else concerning this decree has been revealed in
     A few prefatory remarks may not be amiss as we begin                      God's Word." That it is the will. of God to save those who
our discussion of the Rejection of Ewors  which is appended                    believe and who persevere in faith and in the obedience of
to this First Head  of-Doctrine.  For a more detailed discus-                  faith is, of course, a thoroughly Scriptural idea, Without
sion of this peculiar aspect of the Cunons we refer the reader                 faith and without perseverance there is no salvation. Further-
to Chapter 3, Part  I? "The Confessional Status of the                         more, it belongs also to the decree of election that God de-
Canons." Let it suffice at present to remind ourselves that
historically this phenomenon had its origin in the fact that                   creed  -to save those who would believe and who would
                                                                               persevere in faith and faith's obedience. There is no dispute
the Synod of Dordrecht was called to pass judgment over
the Arminians and their teachings, that as to both the idea                    about that. This is also the plain teaching of the  Canons
and the method of this rejection of errors the Canons are                      in the positive section of this first chapter. Cf. Articles 7 and
                                                                               8, But the insidious error  of. the Arminians was that they                 :  -,
thoroughly Scriptural, and that as to their significance these
negative articles are indispensable to the maintenance and                     taught that this was the soke content of the decree of election
defense of the truth and binding upon every truly Reformed                     unto salvation. And this error  ~made room for the next
man to the extent that he must be disposed to refute and                       erroneous step, namely, that divine election was conditioned
contradict especially these errors and must exert himself to                   by human faith or unbelief.
keep the church from such errors.                                                 Notice how crafty the Arminians were. In the first place,
     In each chapter of the Canons this negative section, usu-                 observe that this error left them apparently free from blame
ally denoted for reference "B," is introduced by the words:                    in that they could still employ Scriptural language con-               .
"The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod rejects                    cerning election  -and  salvation. In the second place, the
the errors of those . .  ." In the first chapter of the Canons                 Arminian could apparently place a strong emphasis on one
this introductory formula, which must be understood as                         of the cardinal truths of Holy Writ, the truth of salvation
prefacing each of the negative articles, contains the words                    by faith only. And thus, in the third place, he could with a
"concerning Election and Rejection." We shall not repeat                       semblance of truth cast the accusation in the teeth of
                                                                                                                          ._                   Re-
this formula each time we quote an article of the Reject&                      formed men that they falsely accused the Arminians, arid
of EVWS, but ask the reader to bear in mind that this formula                  that it was instead the Reformed men who were in error
belongs with all the negative articles. Incidentally, the his-' because they did not want the doctrine of salvation by faith
torical  reason  for this negative section of the  Ca.pLons                    and did not want to stress the necessity of perseverance.
                                                                    is in-
dicated by the original Latin version of the introductory                         I say "apparently," because, as  the-  CalJons  also point
formula in Chapter I, which reads: "A Rejection of the Er-                     out, the Arminian was really in error. By this teaching he
rors by Which the Belgic Churches have been for some time                      denied the real nature of faith and perseverance, as does
greatly disturbed. The Orthodox' Doctririe concerning Elec-                    anyone who fails to. place faith and perseverance themselves
tion and Reprobation having been expounded, the Synod                          in the decree of election. And it is indeed possible to fall
rejects the Errors of those . . ."                                             into the same error of the Arminians which  i's mentioned
                                                                               in this article without literally stating that nothing else con-
                               * *'  1: *                                      cerning this  de&ee  of election has been revealed in God's
               Article I. Who teach: That the  wilJ of God to save             Word. This is frequently done, in fact, by those who deliber-
               those who would believe and would persevere in                  ately keep silence- about the decree of election or who fail
               faith  and in the obedience of faith, is the whole and          to relate the gift of faith to the decree of election as effect
               entire decree of election unto salvation, and that              and cause. In other words, their error is often not in what
               nothing else  cdncerning  this decree has been revealed         they say, but in what they leave unsaid. And by leaving
               in,  Godls  Word.
                  For these deceive the simple and plainly contradict          unsaid what they ought to  Say, namely that faith and
               the Scriptures, which declare that God will not only            perseverance in faith are blessings of salvation which flow

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

  to the elect from the fountain of divine election, they give aid        the decree of election is at once the divine limitation and
  and comfort to the Arminian enemy of the truth.                         the divine origin of faith. Hence, when Paul and Barnabas
         By this means, the fathers say, these heretics deceive the       preached to the Gentiles in Antioch in Pisidia, only those,
  simple. By "the simple" is undoubtedly meant not so much                but then surely those, who were divinely predestinated unto
  those who are intellectually simple, who do not have any                eternal life responded in faith, were glad, and glorified the
  power of discernment, who lack the necessary mental power               word of the Lord. And the text in Ephesians  1:4, quoted
  to understand and to oppose this error. Rather are "the                 and explained already in Article 9 of the positive section of
  simple" those who are ethically upright and guileless, and              this first chapter, obviously teaches that the obedience of faith
 who are for the very reason of their own guilelessness easily            (the being holy and w-ithout  blemish before him in love) is
  deceived into believing that the Arminians are "not so bad,"            one of the.very  purposes of eternal election. Also here, there-
  are "sincere,," after all do preach of election and do proclaim         fore, the Scriptures plainly teach that eternal election is the
  the gospel of salvation by faith only. This deception can               fountain and. cause and at once the limitation of that blessing
  be, readily understood. These "simple" believers have a cer-            of salvation which is denoted "the obedience of faith."
  tain `respect for ministers of the gospel: They look to them                In the light of all this, it must be granted that the
  for instruction. And they expect their ministers and profes-            fathers are not at all too severe in their judgmnt that the
  sors to be honest, straightforward, and guileless. They have            Arminians are guilty of deceiving the-simple and contradict-
  a right to expect this. Besides, the speech of these heretics           ing the Scriptures. And if in our day Reformed men would
  is deceptive: they apparently speak the truth, while actually           be a little less disposed to tolerate error and a little more
  they proclaim the lie. And thus they deceive guileless people           disposed to refute and contradict the errors rejected by our
  of God ; they gain sympathy, and they gain sympathetic ad-              fathers, Reformed churches in general would be doctrinally
  herents; and they in a measure succeed in casting their truly           more vigorous and spiritually more healthy.
  Reformed opponents in the role of theological hairsplitters
  and false accusers and heresy hunters. In the meantime, this                                      *  *  * *
  deception is very wicked and unethical ; and the fathers do                        Article II. Who teach': That there are various kinds
  not hesitate to call it by its right name: "deception." For                        of election of God unto eternal life: the one general
  they lead these simple people of God away from the truth,                           and indefinite, the other particular and definite;
  not toward it. And they deprive them of the real ground                            and that the latter in turn is either incomplete, revoc-
                                                                                     able, non-decisive and conditional, or complete, ir-
  of their comfort and their assurance.                            ,fl                revocable, decisive and  absoluteL     Likewise : that
         Nor do the fathers leave this accusation without. objective                 there is one election unto faith, and another unto
  grounds. The real nature of this deception of the Arminians                        salvation, so that election can be unto justifying faith,
  consists, according to this article, in a plain contradiction of                   without being a decisive election unto salvation. For
  the Scriptures..The Arminian, in other words, comes with the                       this is a fancy of men's minds, invented regardless of
                                                                                     the Scriptures, whereby the doctrine of election is
  Scriptures in hand, but actually contradicts them. He comes                        corrupted, and this golden chain of our salvation is
  with "a word" out of the Scriptures, rather than with "the                         broken:. "And whom he foreordained, them he also
  Word" of the Scriptures. For the Scriptures do not merely                          called; and whom he called, them he also justified;
  declare that God will save those. who will believe. The latter                     and whom he justified, them he also glorified."
                                                                                                                                   Rom.  S:SO
  is true, but it is only one element of tlze tmth. And if stands
  alone, then it is basically a contradiction of the truth. For              Here again we find an example of the fact that the fathers
  then the question remains : whence is faith and perseverance 7          do not hesitate to call the Arminian heresy by its right name.
  And to the gospel belongs also this, that God has from                  They note here concerning this particular error: 1) That it
  eternity chosen certain definite persons to whom, in distinc-           is not Scriptural, but a fancy of men's minds, invented re-'
tion from others, He grants both faith and perseverance.                  gardless of the Scriptures. 2) That it is not the doctrine of
     The three quotations from Scripture speak for themselves.            election, but a corruption thereof. 3) That it doctrinally
  The text in John  17:G plainly teaches : 1) That God has                breaks the golden,chain of our salvation, described in Rom.
  given certain men (not: men who will believe, or: men who               8  :30. At the same time we may note that in this article is
  will persevere, but: men) to Christ. 2) That it is to these             an example of the fact that' the Arminians themselves were
  men that Christ has manifested His Father's name. Hence,                often guilty of the very thing with which they charged the
  the manifestation of the Father's name has both its  origin             Reformed. The accusation is.often made that the Reformed
  and its limitation in the, fact that the Father gave to Christ          system  .of doctrine is so intricate and involved that only a
  certain men. The text in Acts 13 :4-S would have to be just             theologian can understand its many ramifications. If any
  changed about if it were to harmonize with the Arminian                 doctrine is  worthy of this accusation, however, it is this
  teaching. The Arminian must read this passage  as follows :             Arminian doctrine of various decrees of election which is fully
  "And as many as believed were ordained to eternal life."                qualified in every respect to befuddle and confuse men's
 But the Scriptures very plainly place the `ordination unto               minds.                                                     H . C . H .
 eternal life prior to the. act of faith, and therefore teach that                              (to be continued)


                                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              453

                                                                           flock together, you know. It is quite impossible for us to
                    ALL  AROUNb  US                                        believe that the Canadian Liberated would call the United
                                                                           States Liberated "Liberated" if they did not `recognize any-
                                                                           similarity.
      Liberated  ProteSta&  Reformed Churches.                                 Now Rev. Van Dooren does not want his critics, on the
             Two clippings from two issues of the Canadian Reformed        one hand, to criticize his article in which he spoke of the
      Magazine (Liberated) were sent to me recently by a friend            possible organization of this group into a Liberated Church as
      and brother who suggested that we might like to make a few           "happy growth." On the other hand, he. does not want his
      comments in our department of the  Standard   Bea:re-er.  This       critics to conclude from his article that it would be sin for
      we gladly do because both of the clippings will be of interest       this group to join with the Liberated P. R. C. Lest they
      to our P. R. people since they not only reflect on our               come to the latter conclusion, the Reverend would remind
      churches, but also on the schismatic group that recently left        his critics of two things. And'now I translate freely.       '
      us.                                                                     "In the first place, that group, (of Liberated in Grand
             Und,er  the above title we treat the material contained in    Rapids who left the P. R. C. before the split-MS.) as
      the first clipping which was taken from the May 3rd issue of         was said, is to be seen as- a projection of what earlier was un-
      the Canadian Reformed Magazine and which was an editorial            dertaken in Grand Rapids, and already since May 1953 had
      in that issue, written by the Rev. G. Van Dooren,. minister          convened regularly their own meetings. That means to say:
      in the Canadian Reformed Church (Liberated).                         what happened in Grand Rapids dates `back to before the
             We shall not translate verbatim his entire article but        split in the P.R.C., it dates from the time when, first semi-
      merely give the reader the gist of the editorial and then            officially and then officially the P.R.C. accepted the Declara-
      translate only that part which, we deem pertinent to our             tion of Principles, by. which they bound where God did not
      purpose.                                                             bind, and cast out those who would live holily  according to
             It appears that the Rev. G. Van  Dooren had written in        God's Word. Thereby the P.R.C. scattered the sheep of
      an -earlier issue of his magazine (April 6, `55  j concerning        Christ and gave evidence therein of the ear marks of -the
      the request of a group of Liberated people living in Grand           false church. It was at once impossible for brothers and
      Rapids, Michigan, who had requested the Canadian Liber-              sisters who would remain Reformed and who hungered after
      ated to organize them into a Liberated church. In his previ-         the lively preaching of God's Word there to keep company.
      ous article the Reverend had spoken of this request as a sign           "And in the second place: really since that time there
      of happy growth. In fact he had titled his article ,,Verblij-        has been some change. In the P.R.C. a separation has taken
      dende Groei !" which title was concluded with an exclama-            place. And our sympathy is with those who have set them-
      tion  point(   !). However, evidently some of his readers, it        selves against the pressure of Rev. Hoeksema and his associ-
      appears, criticized that ( !) and asked whether it would not         ates. And' our Synod (Liberated of- Canada- M.S.) de-
      have been more proper to have used a question mark ( ? j             cided to give deputies a mandate to investigate the possibility
      instead. The critics were wondering whether it was neces-            of correspondence, i.e., an acknowledgment on our part of
      sary or even possible for this group of Liberated people in          the Liberated P.R.C. as the true churches of Christ. And
* Grand Rapids to be organized into a Liberated church. It                 we gladly agree, it can have the appearance that the one does
      should not be necessary, so the critics concluded, because           not jibe with the other. But more than appearance, accord-
      there is a Liberated Protestant Reformed Church in Grand             ing to our way of thinking, it is not. Because no one caniat
      Rapids, and it should not be permissible since not to rec-           present run ahead of the matter of correspondence. That
      ognize the Liberated P. R. C. is not to gather with Christ,          will take a few years before the matter is settled, however it
-' but would be a scattering of the sheep.                                 may be. That the Synod (Liberated of Canada-M.S.) ex-
             In the May 3rd issue of the C. R. M. the editor comes         pressed it thus, namely, to investigate the possibility of COY-
      to the defense of his exclamation point. In our opinion he           respondence (italics mine - M.S.) (and thus not : to effect
      offers a rather weak defense. He seems to agree with his             correspondence) says plainly that the churches are not -yet
      critics, while at the same time he attempts to defend his            finished with this matter. Some of the brothers perhaps have
  former article.                                                          already done this (i.e., in their own mind -M.S.). Now
 .           The Rev. Van Dooren writes that he is in sympathy with        that is their personal conviction which I understand and re-
      the "Vrijgemaakte P. R. C." i.e., Liberated Protestant Re-           spect. But an official ecclesiastical decision it is not. And so
  formed Church. By the latter he refers no doubt to the                   long as there is no such decision, no one can build on a
      schismatic group in Grand Rapids that left First Church              decision which does not exist:
      under the leadership of H. De Wolf. That he calls them                  "Well then, we cannot require of the brothers and sisters
      "Vrijgemaakten" is quite significant. Whether the De Wolf            in Grand Rapids that they wait for that decision. They are
 group will be pleased with this appellation, ,we do not know,             brothers and sisters  .of us, who with  us in every respect
  but it is significant that the Liberated in Canada recognize             would  esercise communion. `Of one Spirit' are they in the
  their kind in the United States. Birds of a feather will                 good sense of the word. But -apart from that-they are


   4 5 4                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

   sheep, which must be bound together to the sheep-fold. They           and maintained by the Protestant Reformed Churches of
   cannot, seeing that it may take years, wait still a couple of         America! It appears every two weeks, costs 3 dollars per
   years for the official service, the administration of the Word        year, and is to be ordered at box M-931, Grand Rapids,
   and Sacraments.                                                       Michigan, U.S.A.'
       "I have well-founded hope that those in the cirdle of the             "Without entering into the contents itself, we could
    P.R.C. understand all this, and I would deduce from this             leave it with. this announcement. Only we note that the
   that they will not qualify this as contradictory : namely, while      contents is embracive : editorials, Scripture interpretation,
   we investigate the possibility of correspondence and at the           political observations, a youth corner, a small child's corner,
   same time say to our brothers and sisters there: Go forth in          an article respecting the question `Is Preaching effective  1
   the work of the Lord.                                                 and a serial on dogmatic subjects.
       "Therefore I would maintain the exclamation point, and                "Whoever follows closely what moves and develops in
   not exchange it for a.question  mark."                                the circle of these PRC'S can for a small sum do himself this
       In answer to the question, whether the establishment of a         service (namely, to subscribe  - M.S.  j. According to our
   Liberated church composed of immigrants will make the                 way of thinking it is a duty, to have and to show this in-
   matter of correspondence with the Liberated P.R.C. difficult          terest.
   to carry out, the editor writes as follows:
       "I believe this : if a true unity of faith comes to revelation        "The more so because in this periodical a departure has
   between the Liberated P.R.C. and our churches, then that              been taken from the well known (and now famous !) speech
   unity of faith also in Grand Rapids will lead to a joyous             about `our beloved Protestant Reformed truth', and in place
   amalgamation of two churches which have learned to know               of this again and again `Reformed' without more is spoken
   each other as true churches of the Lord." So far Rev. Van             of. This comes out plainly in this part of the editorial in this
   Dooren.                                                               first issue.
       I call attention to two or three things. In the first place,          `The Reformed Guardian stands committed to complete
   it nauseates me to see how those Liberated like to prate                  loyalty to the inspired Word of God as authoritative and
   about themselves being the true church, while they are so                 normative for our faith and practice. We also stand com-
   ready to condemn our churches as false.            '                      mitted to the Three Forms of Unity: the Heidelberg
    In the second place, I believe it should be  understoocl                 Catechism, the Confession of Faith, and the Canons of
   clearly by this time how potently that Declaration of Prin-               Dordt. We shall seek to take cognizance of all that the
   ciples has done its intended work. It not only delivered                  Reformed fathers from Calvin on have written and
                                                                  us
   from those who never were Protestant Reformed,`but  it also               thought. Personally I hope we do more justice than in
   spared us from the misery we surely would have experienced                the past to the writings of the heyday of the  Reforma-
   if those Liberated immigrants had come into our churches                 - tion, particularly to Calvin's. Of course, we shall also
   and  take-n  over, as they do everywhere.                                 carefully note what Reformed thinkers have thought and
                                                                             written during the past half century and more, as well as
       In the third place, I believe `that the Rev. Van  Dooren has          to what those. true to the Reformed heritage in our own
   inventoried the schismatic group that left us correctly. That's           day are saying and writing. But we shall acknowledge
   exactly what they are: <`Liberated", i.e., liberated from the             the opinion of no theologian, living or dead, as binding.
   Protestant Reformed truth. In that respect, they are to be                Binding shall only be what the Scriptures teach and our
   pitied.                                                                   Confessions express either directly or by implication.
   "The Reformed  Gwrdian." .                                                Whoever starts out thus, starts out well!
       The other clipping from the Canadian Reformed Maga-                   "Format and execution is easy and exquisite." So far
   zine, above referred to, appears in the June 1st issue of this        the quote.
   magazine under the above title. In this brief article the Rev.            The reader will note:
   Van  Dooren reflects on "The Reformed Guardian" the first                 1. The editor of the  R.C.MI is happy that the group
   issue of which he had just received. I translate his article          that left the Protestant Reformed Churches has repudiated
   as follows :                                                          "our beloved Protestant Reformed truth." Evidently he as
       "The paper `Concordia' (of the Liberated P.R.C.) has              well Bs the schismatics has felt nauseated by this expression
   made room for another paper the first issue of which we re-. whereby we have always designated our peculiar distinctive-
   ceived  today. `The Reformed Guardian', published by `the             ness. In other words, he is glad that the schismatics have
   Reformed Guardian Publishing Ass'n, pres. Rev. H.  Pe                 demoted themselves to just plain "Reformed."
W o l f .                                                                   2. It is to be noted, however, that the editor's rejoicing
       "We quote: `This magazine is dedicated to disseminate,            in the schismatics' demotion was occasioned by what the
   guard and apply the Reformed Principles of Faith as set forth         editor of the Reformed Guardian himself had declared con-
   in the Scriptures, summarized in the Reformed Standards,              cerning their relation to the Protestant Reformed truth. The


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   455

  editor of the R.C.M. is therefore not to be so  severely  cri-       tions from out of the heiglnts  in the.tone  of voice of a lawyer
  ticized for his evil joy as the Rev. P. De Boer who gave him         attempting to trap a man in cross-examination. It apljeared
  occasion to so sneer at the Protestant Reformed truth.               v&-y soon that the "invitation" I had received to meet with
     3. Moreover, it is to be noted also that both the Rev.            them was not at all to discuss matters, but was meant as a
  Van  Dooren (Liberated) and the Rev. P. De- Boer (Liber-             "summons.". Of course, I could not allow myself to be sum-
  ated P.R.C.) and their papers, both want generalities. They          moned. What I desired was simply a'brotherly and factual
  must have nothing of peculiarities. Well, I guess that is            discussion of the issues. I desired a heart-to-heart talk about
  peculiar, i.e., peculiar to those who leave the sound basis of       the  very grave injustice which Pella's "Consistory" had
  the truth to embrace the error of  Arminianism. Arminius             perpetrated in the church of God. However, the same ruth-
  said he was Reformed too, just plain Reformed ( ?) .                 less injustice that had driven them to declare Rev. C. Hanko,
                                                            M . S .    H.  Hoeksema and others outside of the Denomination was
                                                                       driving them in this meeting also to the bitter end.
                                                                           And, let me add, this was the attitude manifested also at
                    CQNTRIBUTIONS                                      a later meeting when ReT;. Hanko was "summoned" to ap-
                                                                       pear before the schismatic Consistory. The Rev. C. Hanko
                                                                       could not believe, in utter amazement, the attitude revealed
                     Missionary Notes                                  on that gathering- where the undersigned too was present.
                                                                           The Scriptures do not vainly say: he, that hateth his
     There is a~general  sentiment amongst the readers of the          brother, walks in darkness and  knoweth  not whither he is
 Standard   Benrer,   that they would like to hear  somethinK          going. That there is a difference as wide as the poles  betweeh
 from the Home Missionary concerning his labors during the             "steadfastness"  and "stubbornness" became evident on those
 past four months in the field. At least if I have correctly           meetings with the "Consistory." May the Lord reward them
 interpreted a cross-section of such opinion expressed to me           according to their evil doing ! For He judges with a righteous
  during the past few days here in Grand Rapids? Mich.                 j udgement.
     Gladly do I relate a few of my  e?periences  as a novice              But there is also a more pleasant side to be remembered
 in the field of Missionary endeavors.                                 of our labors in Pella.
     It was on January 24 that the undersigned first drove by              First of all there was the pleasant fellowship with the
 car to the Oskaloosa-Pella community to begin the labors of           brethren and sisters, who could not follow the "Consistory"
 visiting with some of the families of that community, especi-         in their mutiny and denominational schism, nor the under-
 ally in Pella, and also of paying a visit to the "Consistory" of      writing of the "Statements" of Rev. De Wolf. That fellow-
 the Pella Church. With the fond memories cherished in his             ship with the brethren will not be forgotten. How could I
 heart of seven years of labors of love in that congregation he        forget the fellowship in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Cecil
 went forfh. With all the_lpve  of his heart he went first of all      Vander Molen. It was like-being in the home qf Aquila and
 to  Visit the individuals of the Consistory  - only to find           Priscilla.
 that their attitude had radically changed. toward the under-              `How shall I forget the great power of God tihereby  I was
 signed. They had closed the bowels of their affection for             strengthened in Pella to preach the Word even for as few as
 him-and they have not opened their hearts toward him  up              two people in the audience. How marvelously the Lord
 till this day !                                                       strengthened me in that task. With what joy I preached the
     It will be a long remembered experience for me what I             Word even for so few I shall never forget. The Lord caused
 particularly experienced on the meeting with the  "Consis-            us to taste richly that where two or three are gathered in  o
 tory" on the evening of February,  the first Wednesday of             Christ's Name-there He is in their midst !
 that month. When entering the place of meeting, instead
 of being treated as a brother, I was placed under a veritable             Before the undersigned left Pella, Ia., arrangements were
 inquisition. The Rev. Gritters had evidently prepared "ques-          made with Radio Station IQOE,  Oskaloosa, Iowa, to have
 tions," had written these out in duplicate forms for all the          our Reformed Witness Hour Program on the air there on
 members of the "Consistory," and refused to give the under-           Sunday morning from' 7 till 7 :30 o'clock. May this ministry
 signed a copy `of these questions.                                    be instrumental that many hear the clear and distinctive
                                          Five men sat with            witness of the Reformed faith.
 their  pencils  ready to jot down the answers of the under-
 signed to the  .questions.  What they actually wrote down I               It was during these days of labor at Pella,  Ia., that a
have never learned, even though at a later meeting I was               voice came to the undersigned from out of Loveland, Colo-
 promised a copy of these questions and with their "record"            rado: "Come over, and help US.>'
 of my answers.                                                            Of this we will have something to report in the next issue
     What struck me as being unbrotherly was not at all-that           of the  Stapadard   Bearer,  D.V.
 they asked questions of me, but that they asked these ques-                                                               G. Lubbers

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

                      Recent His;bry  of the Hull                         our services at this time. We cannot use this building for
                    Protestant Reformed Church                            our catechism classes, so we asked for the use of the Town-
                                                                          ship Hall. It is a very old and small building, but the in-
     Dear Editor:                                                         struction and the Word of God taught our children is not
       May we at this  time ask you for a little space in the             harmed by this.
     Shndaf*d  Beayer please ?                                                In November of 1953 we made a trio and called the Rev.
            It is now neai-ly  one year and eight months since  we met    M. Schipper, who after prayerful consideration had to decline
     in  our church building. It was on September 20, 1953 that           our call. After this we extended four more calls which were
     we as  the continuation of the Protestant Reformed Church of         also declined. In December of 1954 we extended our sixth
     Hull,  Ibwa had to find a meeting place for our services.            call,~ this time to the  Rev. John A. Heys, who the Lord at
            For some weeks we met in Western Christian High               His appointed time gave us as a shepherd of our own, who
     School. It was at that time that we asked the Rev. M.                also faithfhlly serves us with the truth which we missed for
     Schipper who was then pastor of our church at South Hol-             so long a time.
     land, Illinois to labor with us and for us.                              We are thankful to our God that He made all things well
            Our separation from the other members of what was at          with us, although at times it did look dark to us.
     that time the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa was               May He give us grace to continue to ptit our trust and
     due to the fact that the delegates of  Classis  West decided         our hope in Him and continue to give us the truth of the
     to recognize Rev. De Wolf and not to recognize Rev. Hoek-            Protestant Reformed doctrine in the preaching on the Sab-
     sema and Rev. Hanko. When they decided to go along with              bath and in the instruction our children receive in the cate-
     Rev. De Wolf, they made themselves guilty of schism.                 chism room.
            Some of our members went to what was our consistory               Our congregation at present numbers 33 families and 151
     at that time and asked for a hearing about these matters.            souls.
     The Consistory said that it would not give them a hearing.               We wish to thank the Rev. H. C. Hoeksema for all his
     They would not set a date for the hearing. Instead they put          labors in our behalf.
     `an announcement on the bulletin that at an indefinite time              We likewise wish to thank all the ministers and students
     they would decide about these things for the congregation.           who preached for us during our vacancy and also the various
            One of the  con'sistory members could see that the  con-      churches who gave us  ,the services of their ministers when tie
     sistory was .doing  wrong. All we could do was to separate           needed the assistance of their pastors.
     from that part of the consistory and recognize only that con-            May the Lord bless us richly as a congregation and
     sistory  member  who  .wanted to stay with the Protestant            Minister that we may fight the good fight of faith and be
     Reformed Churches.                                                   faithful unto Him Who  hasp called us with an Holy calling.
            A committee of three was appointed together with this                     In the name of the Consistory of the
     one consistory member who remained faithful. They met                           Hull Protestant Reformed Church
     from time to time and decided that a congregational meeting                                                   Peter Jansma, Clerk
     should be held so that we could elect more office-bearers and
     have a complete consistory again. This was announced from
     our pulpit two successive Sundays. The meeting was held                                 0   GOD, BE MERCIFUL
at'our  Doon,  Iowa church. And a complete consistory was                                0 God be merciful,
     elected.                                                                                Be merciful to me,
a           The consistory then decided to ask the Rev. H. C. Hoek-                      For man, with constant hate,
     sema of our Doon  church to serve us with advice. The Rev.                          Would fain my ruin see.
Hoeksema was the  only minister in  Classis  West who re-                                My many enemies
     mained with the Protestant Reformed Churches and who did                             Against me proudly fight;
     not leave to- side with Rev. De Wolf - who himself left the                         To overwhelm my soul
     Protestant Reformed Churches by his act of schism and of                                They watch from morn to night.
     refusing io abide by the decisions of Classis  East and of the                      What time I am afraid
     First Protestant Reformed Church at Grand Rapids, Michi-                                I put my trust in Thee ;
     gan. By refusing to take the matter on which he could not                           In  ,God I rest, and praise
     agree with his consistory and Classis  to the next Synod and                            His word, so rich and free.
     by setting himself up as a separate consistory, he `left that                       In God I put my trust,
     Protestant Reformed Churches.                                                           I neither doubt nor fear,
            For six weeks we held services in the Western Christian                      For man can never harm,
     High School building. We then rented the basement of the                                With God my Helper near.
     Community .Building  in -Hull. Here we still are conducting                                                             Psalm 56 :1-z


