      VOLUME xxx11                                JANUARY  1, 1956  - GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN                                   NULXBER   7

II                                                                      II        God's Pillar is ever before us, whether it be day  or
            M  E  D  [  T  -A'  T  1  0  N  /( whether it be night.
                                                                                  And God's people are safe, beautifully safe!
                       The Pillar of the Lord                                                          *  *  *  *
              "And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar                   Even the world ~feels that the changing of the one year
              of a cloud, to lead them the way; and  by night in              into the other is something special.
              a pillar of fire, to give them light  ;  to go by  .day and         God has laid the speech of the Old and of the New in
              night. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by              creation.
              day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the
              people."                                Exodus  13521, 22           Attend to this word of God Triune:`"And  God said, Let
                                                                              there be lights in the, firmament of the heaven to divide the
      How empty is the well-wishing of the world!                             day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for sea-
      "I wish you a very, very happy Christmas and a very,                    sons, and for days, and yeaIrs."
very happy New Year !"                                                            They are for signs, and for years.
      In the various cartoons we see a very, very old man,                        There is a sign from God in the ending of one year and
stooped and bent,' a longs  grey beard, his face all wrinkled                 the beginning of a new year.
`and drawn: he came to the end of a long, weary journey.                           And the world has heard the speech, of God.
It is the Old Year.                                                               And they at once began to corrupt that speech. They
      And a little boy, attractive and sweet:  .there is a laugh              held its truth under in unrighteousness.
on his mouth. He is the New Year.                                                They; said: "Boy, oh boy, are zote going to have an Old
      Oh yes, I wish you a very, very happy and prosperous                    Year's party !" You bring the liquor, and we shall take-care
New Year. The least said about the Old Year the better.                       of the music. We -will dance and sing and drink the  fold
      And we, the people of God, join in to some extent. We                   Year out and the New Year in  !" And the wiser segment
send our cards with like sentiments. Sometimes we find a                      added : "Yes, boys, but let the last one for the road be cof-
beautiful text engraved on the cards. And that is good and                    fee !" Don't be too righteous, and don't be too godless; The
praiseworthy.                                                                 life you save ( !) may be your own !"
      But the world ? They are vainer than vanity itself. They                    It is said in Egyptian darkness and lived in wicked ob-
are such with regard to our wondrous Christmas. They are                      scurity.
such -with regard to the ending of the Old and the begin-                         But God listened and wrote, and wrote and wrote. There
ning of the New Year.                                                         is a book of remembrance before His countenance.                   .--,
      I remember vividly how' the people of God in the old                        Instead of that they should have said: The way is dark
country would visit one another on New Year's Eve (which                      and I am  far from Home, 0 my God! Send out Thy light
means the last evening of the Old Year), and (or) on the                      and Thy truth. Let them lead me to Thy Holy Hill and to
first day of the New Year. And we, little ones, were taught                   Thy Tabernacles. Then shall I enter with joy and thanks-
to  say. with regard to the first occasion : "We wish you a                   giving. Upon the harp shall I play songs to Thy praises, 0
blessed conclusion  !" (Wij wenschen U een zalig uiteinde  !"),               God, my `God !
or, with regard to the second occasion "We wish you much                          But no, they do not. They live as the title, of a godless
salvation  ,and blessedness for the New Year  1" (Wij  wen-                   movie read : "Merrily we go to hell !" On the billboard such
schen U veel heil en zegen voor het Nieuwe-  Jaar 1")                         a title was embellished (  !) with an old, old man in a tux-
      Oh, but that sounds beautiful!                                          edo ; a glass of spirits in, his hand, and waltzing to the tune
      For so it is.                                                           of sweet music.

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

        And we live in the midst of such darkness of sin.                      What a combination! The wilderness, barren and dry.
        And our foolish heart would fain. join in and corrupt              -The Egyptians, mighty and wicked.. And a slave people,
     ourselves with them.                                                  cumbered  by women and the little ones, and much cattle.
            Far from the pillar of God.                                    And they have no weapons.
                                                                               But wait! They have God.
                                   -* *  *  *                                  Three months later they shall hear The Voice ! I am the
        Yes, far, very far from the wondrous pillar by day and             Lord thy God who led thee out of Egypt, out of the house of
     by night.                                                             bondage. Yes, you are black with service of sin and cor-
            No, we are not a bit better than the' world. Not by            ruption, but I have found a ransom for thee!
     nature.                                                                   And here is My Sign. It is a Sign of salvation. It is My
            For proof I would ask you to read the book of your             pillar `by day and My pillar by night.
     heart, such as that heart has written in the year that went               Trust and obey.
     past. Yes, we better read that book when the shadows of                   Moses said :` The Lord shall fight for .you and you shall
     life's sun lengthen at the evening of 1955.                           be still.
            Read that book! Read it and your tears will flow. Per-             And later: the Manna came and the Quails and the
     haps they will be tears such as only God can see: tears of            Water.
     the heart, flowing from the eyes of the heart.                            And still later : -Canaan, the land flowing with milk and
            Read that book in the light of the Bible, having Christ's      honey.
     testimony in the heart. .And it will be bitter.                           And it all came because of the Pillar of Jehovah.
            But that is good and comely.                                                             *    .4:     * *
            Such tears are unto rejoicing in heaven.
            The book of your heart!                                            Ah, yes, the Pillar of Jehovah !
            The book, or rather, -the chapter of that book which is            That is Jehovah Himself, revealed in Old Testament
     numbered : 1955.                                                      signs and wonders.
            It is enough for this once.                                        That is Jesus Christ, Whose  ,birthday  we celebrated a
            What corruption, what sins, what hard-heartedness, what        few days ago.
     indifference, what evil, what filth ! Imagine, my dear reader,            Blessed Pillar of Jehovah.
     a talking movie of the thoughts and the words and the deeds               The text tells us that this pillar was a pillar of cloud by
     of your heart, to be read by all the world, all the church, all       day and a pillar of fire by night. But I am persuaded to
     the angels of God, read also by Christ and by God !                   believe that it was the self-same. pillar whether it appeared
            Its sound and its scenes stepped up, amplified, so that        by day or by night. It was  thq cloud of the glory of God.
     the whole Universe- can hear and see your whole life from             You read of that more. F. i., when the temple was dedi-
     the cradle to the grave !                                             cated by Solomon, on Mount Olivet at the occasion of Jesus'
            Stop ! Wait ! Do not run to yonder cave !          1           ascension, and the cloud which shall be. His chariot at His
            The Bible has another version of such conduct.. The            final coming.
     world shall cry: "Then shall they begin to say to the moun-
     tains, Fall on us ; and to the hills, Cover                               The cloud is the glory of `God.
                                                     us."  Luke 23 :30.
            Y e s ,   t h e n .                                                And His glory is the radiation of His virtues. It  is. the
            But God's people say that now! That is, when they see          shining God.
     their sins and guilt. _ For their little book is also very dirty.         That was seen also in the fiery cloud at night. That fire
                                   * *  9  *                               was also hidden in that cloud by day. It is the fire of His
                                                                           holiness, righteousness and -truth.
            But, God be thanked, they say more.  ~                             But it is also the radiation of a goodness that shall make
            They do not only say: 0 God! I am worthy of dam-               you smile and laugh and dance and sing unto everlasting.
     nation and hell ! But they also say : 0 God ! Let Thy pillar              The cloud said to Israel : I love you, Jacob ; I adore you,
     lead me all the day and all the night !                               Israel !
            Let that pillar cleanse me and redeem me, and make me
     blessed everlastingly !                                                   I love you, My People;although  you agree with Me that
            For the Pillar that leads- Israel in deepest night and in      you have forfeited all right to My communion.
     the light of God is God in Christ.                                        But this My Pillar tells you in a sign that I will cast My
            The pillar of God which leads God's church is salvation,       Shadow over you, My Shadow of glory such as this sorry
     eternal salvation through the mystery of His love in Jesus.           earth hath never seen.
            Israel was at the very edge of the wilderness. (vs. 20b )          I will show My Pillar many years hence, and it shall be
:           And they were still within reach of the godless Egyp-          to the cleansing of the people.
     tians.                                                                    At that time, the  fulness  of time, I will exegete My


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   BGARER                                                                                                           147

Pillar, and you will hear  the groaning of a ii!Ian of Sorrows.
I will show you Golgotha. And that cloud and that fire shall                            THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
be glorious.                                                            Semi-nzonthly,   except  vnowthly   durivtg   Jwe,  July  and  August
    That Pillar of Mine shall lead you through the wilder-                Published by the REFORMED FREE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
ness of snakes and serpents and adders, and bring  you to               P. 0.  Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
the Canaan of Rest.                                                                        Editor  -  REV.  HERMAN  HOEKSEMA
   And that will be a New earth and a New-heaven where                  Communications relative to  contats  should be addressed to Rev.
righteousness shall dwell.                                              H. Hceksema;  1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7, Mi&.
    dh no,, I will "not take away the pillar of cloud by day,           All matters relative  to subscriptions should be  ad&ased  to Mr.
                                                                        G. Pipe, 1463 Ardmore St.,  SI E., Grand Rapids 7, Michigan.
nor the pillar of fire by night, from before you, My people !"          Announcements and  Olbituaries   mu& be mailed  to. the above
   Jesus is always with us, dear reader.                                address and will be published at a fee of $1.00 for each notice.
    And we follow Him step by step through this desert of               RENEWALS:  Unless a definite request for discontinuance is re-
                                                                        ceived, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription
sin, this wilderness of fiery serpents.                                 to  ccmtinue  without the formality of a renewal order.
   The hills of the heavenly Judah beckon.                                                  Subscription price : $4.00 per year
    Methinks  I hear the singing of angels and of souls made
perfect. ,                                                               Evttev-ed   ai  Second   Cla.ss  matter  at  Grand  Rapids,  Michigan
                           *r**                    A

    Yes, when it is Old Year's evening, I tremble when I                                               C O N T E N T S
page in my little book of life.
   And I look with tearstained cheeks up to the  Counten-            MEDIT~~p;las   of  the.  Lord. . . ..i.....................                                                          145
ante of my heavenly Father, and I stammer: Oh God, lead                          Rev. G. Vos
me, lead me and I will follow.
    And let the blood of Jesus cover me and my children and          EDITIJRIALS  -
their little ones.                                                         The Apostates of 1953 and the Three Points.. . . . . . . . . . . .148
                                                                                 Rev. H. Hoeksema
    Let me experience, 0  my- God, that my name and the
name of the little ones are written in Thy Book of Life              OUR  DOCTRINE  -
which was written from the ,beginning  of the world.                       The Triple  Kn&ledge  (Part III  -'
                                                                                                                                        Of Thankfulness) . . . .  .150
    And I rest in prospect!                                                      Rev. H. Hoeksema  a
    It is New!                                                       THE  DAY  OF  SHADOWS-
    Everlasting New !                                                      Tche  Prophecy of Zechariah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
                                                           G. Vos                Rev. G. M. Ophoff
                                                                     FROM. HOLY  WRIT-
                                                                           Expositions of I Corinthians- l-4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
                  Notice for  Classis  West                                     Rev. G: Lubbers
    Classis   We.& of the Protestant Reformed Churches will          IN HIS  FEAR-
meet, the Lord willing, Wednesday, March 7,. 1956, at                      The Sabbath in His Fear.. . _. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .`. . . . . . . . . . . . .I57
Edgerton, Minnesota. .                                                           Rev. J. A. Heys
    The consistories are reniinded that all matters for the          CONTENDING  I;OR THE FAITH  -
classical agenda must be in the, hands of -the stated clerk                The Church and the Sacraments.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I59
not later than thirty days before the date of Classis.                           J3e.v.  H .   Veldman
                                    The Stated Clerk,                FEATURE ARTICLE  -
                                                Rev. H. Veldman             Should Article 31 be Revised and/or Clarified?. . . . . . . . . . . .161
                                                                                  Rev. C. Hanko
                         IN MEMORIAM                                 DECENCY AND  ORDER-
   The Ladies' Aid of' the Protestant Reformed Church of  Ed-              II. The Elder's Task                                                                                . 164
                                                                                                             . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                                                                                 Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg
gerton, Minnesota, hereby wishes to express its sincere sym-
pathy to one of its members, Mrs. Gerrit Gunnink, in the loss        ALL  AROVND  Us-
of her son, and to our former member, Mrs. Arthur Gunnink,                  "Would You Dave to Pray Thus?". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166
iti the loss of her husband,                                               The Evils of Calvinism.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167
                       ARTHUR GUNNINK.                                           Rev. M.  Sapper

   May the Lord sustain and strengthen them, and comfort             CONTRIBUTIONS  -
them with the blessed assurance that his work is perfect and               Antithesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...168
is done in love to his children.                                                  Harol'd   Tilma
                                    Rev. H. Veldman, President
                                    Mrs. J. Brummel, Secretary

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

                                                                       of him that dieth, saith the Lord God  ; wherefore turn ye
               E D I T O R I A L S                                     yourselves and live ye.' These passages. tell us as clearly as
                                                            II         is possible to express in words that Go% has),no pleasure in
                                                                       the death of the wicked (note that he does not `say `of the
   The Apostates of .X353  and the Three Points                        elect sinner,' but `of the wicked' entirely in general) ; and
                                                                       the tender call which we hear in this witness of His ever
         In my former article I mentioned that, although the           so great love to sinners and of His pleasure in the salvation
 synod of 1924 originally meant to maintain so-called common           of the wicked."
 grace in the Kuyperian  sense of the word, they ended up by              .A little farther in the same pamphlet Berkhof writes :
 defending Arminianism in the Three Points.                               "There is still another place in the prophecy of Ezekiel,
     The trouble was that they had to find something in the            where the Lord expresses the same thought in still stronger
 confessions to support their contentions and, seeing that they        language, wherein He confirms it with an oath, viz,  Ez:
 never mention "common grace" escept  once and then in a               33 :11 : `As I live saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in
 condemnatory way (Canons III, IV, the rejection of errors             the death of the wicked ; but that the wicked return from his
 V) but always speak of the sovereign grace of God unto                way and live: turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways; for
 salvation, it was but-natural that the synod committed the            why will ye die, 0 house of Israel ?' Are these not words of
 -error of presenting the latter as common.                            tender mercy (to every wicked that hears the gospel, H.H.),
         They did so, not only by distorting the meaning of the        in which a Father implores his deviating children (all the
 confessions some passages of which they quoted, but also              wicked are children of God and He is Father of them all,
 by suggesting an Arminian sense of some texts of Scripture            H. H.) to return to the house and heart of the Father. Do
which they also quoted as proof of "common grace.                      you listen here, in any way the voice of hatred ? . . .
         One of these passages is Ez. 33  :ll. : "Say unto them,          We will: quote no more.
 As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the                 This, according to the professor, is "common grace."
 death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn from his way              This is the teaching of the Three Points of 1924.          .
 and live : turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways ; for why will          This is the meaning of the well meant offer of salvation,
 ye die, 0 house of Israel?'                                           on the part. of God, to all that hear the gospel.
         This is quoted, not in proof of any Kuyperian common             This is no Arminianism ?
 grace but to support a well meant offer of grace and salva-              Do you really imagine that if this were the Reformed
 tion to all in the preaching of The gospel, just as those that        faith, which teaches a universal love and mercy to all that
  recently left us now again maintain. Prof. L. Berkhof writes         hear the gospel, which teaches a universal Fatherhood of
 in `his pamphlet "The, Three Points Reformed `in every part"          God and a universal  sonship  of men, which plainly pre-
  in connection `with this text : with this passage as follows :       supposes that God stands powerless over against the wicked
         "`The next link in the argument of the synod is this : The    if he will not return from his evil ways and which, by
 general and well meant offer, of salvation is a sign of God's         implication denies sovereign and efficacious grace,  - do you
 favor toward sinners, is for these a blessing from the Lord.          really imagine that our fathers would ever have convened
  On this must fall all the emphasis, because those that cannot        the synod of Dordrecht and compose the Canons?
  agree with this declaration of synod maintain tliat the                 Don't you ever believe it!
  preaching of the Word is meant only as a curse for the                  Our fathers insisted on and contended for the faith of
  reprobate that hear it. He does not bless but curse them             election and reprobation. They taught in Canons I, 7:
 thereby. He uses this preaching in as far as it concerns them           "Election is the unchangeable purpose of God, whereby,
  only as means to cast them more deeply into perdition and,           before the foundation of the world, he hath, out of mere
 therefore, as an instrument of His hatred. This is definitely         grace, according to the sovereign good pleasure of .his own
 an unscriptural thought. The Scripture teaches very defi-             will, chosen, from the whole human race, which had fallen
  nitely that in the offer of salvation we must -see a. temporal       through their own fault, from their primative state of rec-
  blessing also for those ~that do not follow up the invitation.       titude into sin and destruction, a certain number of persons
  The following considerations serve as proof for this:                to redemption in Christ, whom he from eternity appointed
    (1) That God calls sinners to repentance is presented              the Mediator and Head of the elect; and the foundation of
  in Holy Writ as desiring their salvation. (Who would deny            salvation.
  this as long as you speak of sinners in general, and.not of            "This elect number, though `by nature neither better nor
  elect and reprobate, as was the definite question before the         more deserving than others, but with them involved in one
  synod of  1924?  H. H.). In the prophecy of Ezekiel we               common misery, God hath decreed to give to Christ, to be
  hear the voice of the Lord in words,. that witness of mercy :        saved by him, and effectually to call and draw them to his
  "Have I any pleasure at all the wicked should die ? saith the        communion by his Word and Spirit, to bestow upon. them
  Lord God ; and not that he should return from his ways,              true faith, justification and sanctification ; and having pow-
  and live ? And again : `For I -have no- pleasure: in the death       erfully preserved them in the fellowship of his Son, finally,


                                      0                                                                                         149

to glorify them for the demonstration of his mercy, and for           Nor is this Scripture, for it teaches very plainly that
the praise of his glorious grace."                                 God hates the wicked every  day, that He is merciful to
   According to this article God's love, mercy and grace are       whom He will be mercifm and whom He will He hardens
particular, and He reveals this in the gospel. According `to       and that, too, even under and through the preaching of the
Berkhof and the Three Points; however, in the preaching            gospel.
of the gospel, which is supposed to be a well meant offer of           It is not my purpose to discuss the Three Points in de-
mercy and salvation to everybody, God wants to assure  US          tail, although it may well be salutary even for our own peo-
that His love and mercy are universal and that they are not        ple to be reminded of these three fundamental errors and
limited to anyone in particular.                                   departures from the Reformed faith.
   Berkhof and the Three Points simply make God a liar !               My purpose is rather to demonstrate that those that have
   Again in Canons II, 8 our fathers teach as follows:             recently departed from us certainly have no difficulty to sub-
   "For this was the sovereign counsel, and most gracious          scribe to these errors, for they teach the same thing.
will and purpose of God the Father, that the quickening and            This, however, I must postpone till the next number of
saving efficacy of the most precious death of his Son should       our magazine, the Lord willing.
extend to the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the gift            This article I will conclude by noting that I received
of justifying faith, thereby to bring them infallibly to sal-      entirely unexpected support from a presbyterian minister of
vation:  that is, it was the will of God that Christ, by the       New Glasgow in Nova Scotia, who devotes almost an entire
blood of the cross, whereby he confirmed the new covenant,         article to the subject of the Three Points in his paper "The
should effectually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation       Contender" on the basis of my pamphlet A Triple  Byeach.
and language, all those and those only, who were from eter-        He writes :
nity chosen unto salvation, and given to him by the Father;            "Before referring again to the  ,Artninianzing  leaven
that he should confer upon them faith, which together with         which is at work in TAe FICC  Offer Of The Gospel by Pro-
-all the other saving. gifts of the Holy Spirit, he purchased      fessors Murray and Stonehouse, let us notice another and
for them by his death ; should purge them from all sin, both       very important document which was drawn up by ministers
original and actual. Whether committed before or after be-         of the Christian- Reformed Church in the United States and
lieving  ; and having faithfully preserved them even. to the       accepted by that church's highest body, the Synod at Kala-
end, should at last bring them free from every spot and            mazoo, Michigan in 1924 . . . . The reason we are bringing
blemish to the enjoyment of glory in his own presence for-         up the declaration of the Synod of Kalamazoo is that its
ever."                                                             (false) doctrinal teaching and influence is not a local issue
    This is Reformed.                                              but goes far beyond the borders of'the Christian Reformed
    To this confession also Berkhof is supposed to subscribe.      Church. We would say that every true Christian believer
                                                                   ought to be concerned  with_ it for it has to do with the
    No doubt, He will say that he does subscribe to this,          tremendous issues of the sovereignty of God and heaven and
too, as well as to the. First Point of 1924 as it was explained    hell. It concerns the dealings of God with the elect or re-
by him above.                                                      deemed whose destiny is heaven, and with the non-elect or
   `But this is absolutely impossible. For the two con-            reprobate whose destiny is hell. This is what is at stake in
stitute a flagrant contradiction.                                  the Christian Reformed Church's declaration and what is at
    Notice, that in the above quotations from the Canons it        stake in "The Free Offer Of The Gospel" and other such
is strongly emphasized that God loves and is merciful to the       like writings. It is no exaggeration to say that the present
elect and to them only.                                            writer considers that material on this subject which has
    But according to Berkhof and the First Point God's love        come into his hand is as significant'as  anything which he has
and mercy are universal and, as far as God is concerned,           ever read. This material, both pro and con, has been pub-
for all men, at least, for all that hear the gospel.               lished at various times during the past thirty years, begin-
    According to the Canons of Dort God wills that only the        ning with the declaration itself in 1924, and followed by
elect shall be saved and He also wills that the reprobate          various writings against the declaration by the Rev. Her-
shall be left in their sin unto eternal perdition.                 man Hoeksema especially A Triple Breach in the Foztnda-
    But according to the First Point as interpreted by             tion of the Reformed Truth."
Berkhof, God reveals in the preaching of the gospel that he            After this the author goes on to discuss A Triple Breach.
hates no one, that He does not want anyone to be lost but              It is, indeed, refreshing to note that there are still seven
that He would like all men to be saved. He even implores           thousand that have not bowed their knee to Baal.
them all, every single individual, in His tender mercy to                                                                    H. H.
return to His Father's heart and house.
    Perhaps, he will say that we must have both and that               "A man's free-will cannot cure him even of the tooth-
this is `a deep mystery.                                           ache, or of a sore finger; and yet he madly thinks it is in his
    But this is no mystery, it is sheer nonsense.                  power to cure his soul." Toplady


 159                                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R              0

                                                                                                               C h a p t e r   I
            0 U R D 0 C T R I N- E,.                                             _  _      .I.:      The Prayer for Forgiveness
                                                                                  .
                                                                                         The perfection of the Lord's Prayer appears very plainly
                   THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE                                          in the order in which the various petitions occur. Also this
        AN  E                                                                    fifth petition occupies a perfect position in the whole of the
                 XPOSITION  OF  THE HEIDELBERG  CATECEIISM                       prayer.
            P A R T   I I I - O F   T H A N K F U L N E S S                              We may well consider this position of the petition for
                                                                                 the forgiveness of sins for a moment;
                             L O R D 'S   D A Y   50:                                    If we have understood the real meaning. and implications
                                     Chapter Three                               of all the preceding petitions, the very exercise of sending
                                                                                 them to the throne of grace must have awakened within us
            The Implications of the Fourth Petition                              a deep  sense  of our imperfections and sins, and therefore
 Secondly, having been translated into the kingdom of  God's                     must have deepened our feeling of need for the forgiveness
 dear Son, he seeks the kingdom of God, the things which                         of our sinful condition and of our actual transgressions.
 are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. He                            This was true emphatically when we prayed the first
knows that God is not ashamed to be called-his God: for He                       three petitions  .of the Lord's Prayer: "Hallowed be Thy
 has prepared for him a city, the heavenly city, that has                        name ; Thy Kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth as it
 foundations. Here he knows he lies in the midst of death.                       is in heaven." As we were praying, we felt deeply in our
 And in the midst of death he eats his bread. But he looks                       hearts that often we do seek things quite different from
 forward to the glory of his risen and exalted Lord, the                         those we professed. to seek in the first three petitions of the
 heavenly Jerusalem, that shall come down out of heaven                          Lord's Prayer, and we realized that there is but a small
 from his God. In that faith he knows himself to be only a                       beginning of the new  obedence  within us, and that all the
 sojourner, a stranger and a a pilgrim in this world. He is                      rest is still  sinful.  How small is the principle of perfection
 content to live in tents. He does not lay his foundation deep                   within us, by virtue of which we also seek the giory of God's
 and strong, and build magnificent houses in this world. He                      name first and above  all: How frequently we are seeking
 must travel. He cannot tarry. And living in tents, and hav-                     the things that are below and the things of the flesh, rather
 ing his eye fixed on the `city that has foundations, he is                      than the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And how
 satisfied day by day to receive that portion of his daily bread                 we are inclined to rebel against and transgress the will of our
 which is sufficient for him to continue hisi journey. And so                    heavenly Father, rather than keep it perfectly.
 he prays every morning, as he pulls up'his stakes to resume                             But this does not only apply to the first three petitions.
 his journey : "Our Father in -heaven, give us this day our                      Also while we stammered the prayer for bread, we felt our
 daily bread."                                                                   lack of faith and confidence, our sinful .anxiety for the mor-
    Realizing, however, that this is the spiritual dispensation                  row, as well as our lusting after the things of this present
 required to utter this petition in spirit and in truth, we at                   world. We felt indeed that if our Father in heaven would
 the same time feel that we are still far from the spiritual                     literally hear our prayer and give us nothing but bread for
 perfection. How carnal we often are! How we too are in-                         this day, we1 would not be content, but rather be filled -with
 clined to seek the, things that are below! How little of the                    anxiety.
 pilgrim's attitude becomes manifest in our lives ! How often                            And therefore, if we have uttered these petitions in the
 we murmur against the will and the way of the Lord! And                         sanctuary before the face of God in spirit and in truth, we
 how little do we evince of that spirit of child-like confidence                 should be quite ready now to pray: "And forgive us our
 that expects all good things from the God of our salvation.                     debts." Do not remember, our Father in heaven, even the
 Well, therefore, we may conclude also this meditation on                        sins that characterized and marred my prayer before Thy
 the prayer.  of.the Lord with the humble request : "Lord, give                  face.
 us  grace to pray, Give us this day our daily bread."                                   Let us note too that the petition for the forgiveness of
                                                                                 sins follows the prayer for our daily bread. This is quite in
                                    Loao's DAY 51                                accord with the principle that the natural is first, afterward
                 Q. 126. Which is the fifth petition?                            that ,which. is spiritual. I Cor. 15. :46. Our daily bread is not
                 A. "And forgive us our debts as we forgive our                  more important than the forgiveness of sins, but it is never-
                 debtors;" that is, be pleased for the sake of Christ's          theless first in order of time. Only in this world, and there-
                 blood, not to impute to us poor sinners, our trans-             fore only as long as we need bread, are we in need of for-
                 gressions, nor that depravity, which always cleaves             giveness. In heavenly perfection we shall never utter this
                 to us; even as we feel this evidence of thy grace               fifth petition any more. In the tabernacle of God with men
                 in us, that it is our firm resolution from the heart to         we shall be perfectly delivered from sin and corruption, and
                 f o r g i v e   o u r   n e i g h b o r .                       walk in the light forever. Secondly, this prayer for forgive-


                                                             :  -,.:                   .
                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                151
                                                                                                           .

ness precedes the petition for grace against temptation and             the doctrinal error in this conception is very evident. It
for deliverance from evil. This too is quite in harmony with            confuses atonement with the forgiveness: of sins. It does not
the important truth that justification must needs precede               distinguish between. the objective blotting out of all our
 sanctification. We must be justified before we can, be sanc-           transgressions on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and the
 tified. We must have the forgiveness of sins before we can             application of that atoning blood in the forgiveness of our
 even have the right to be delivered from the bondage of sin            sins to the heart of the believer. The fifth  p'etition  does not
 and from the dominion of the evil one. On the other hand,              pray for atonement or for satisfaction or for the blotting out`
 even while we pray for forgiveness, we already have in mind            of sins, but. simply for the forgiveness of all our transgres-
 the petition for deliverance from sin that immediately fol-            sions. The atonement is finished for ever. It  is an accom-
 lows. We could not possibly pray sincerely for remission of            plished fact. In God's counsel it is eternally real. For "he
 our transgressions unless there were in our hearts the siri-           hath not. beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither bath) he seen `per-
 cere longing for complete deliverance from all evil and for            verseness in Israel." Numbers 23 :21. But that eternal coun-
 spiritual perfection.                                                  sel God also realized in time in the cross and resurrection of
    This petition, we must remember, is not  a prayer for               our Lord Jesus Christ. For "he was delivered for our  of-
 atonement or for satisfaction or r&conciliation with God. The          fences, and was raised again  .for our justification." Rom.
 prayer for forgiveness is based on the faith in the atonement          4:25. And "he  bath made  him to be sin for us, who knew
 of Christ. This must be remembered over against those that             no sin ; that we might be made the righteousness of God in
 claim that this particular petition for the forgiveness of sins        him." II Cor. 5  :21. And this  atoneinent  of Christ on the
 is obsolete, is antiquated, is out of date. It was quite proper        cross is also realized in the heart of him who prays for the
 in the old dispensation to seek forgiveness and to ask for the         forgiveness of sins. through the faith which God has given
 remission of sins. For in those days the people of God still           `him. For do not forget- that all prayer is an expression
 lived in the shadows, and sin offerings had to be repeatedly           `of faith, not of doubt or of unbelief. And this is also true of
 presented in the temple. Tha prayer for the forgiveness of             the prayer for the forgiveness of sins. It is an `expression
 sins at that time" meant the expression of  earnest longing            of the faith  that there is forgiveness and that there is for-
 for Him that was to come and that would blot out their sins            giveness for him that prays. Once more, therefore, this fifth
 forever. Now, however, Christ has come, and He has fin-                petition does not pray for atonement or satisfaction, but
 ished all.' In the old dispensation "every priest standeth             simply for the application of this atonement in the forgive-
 daily  ministerifig  &l offering often times the same  sacri-          ness of sins to the heart of the believer that lives in the
_  fices, which can never take away sins." Heb. 10  :ll. But            midst of the world and that is still conscious of violating all
 now Christ is come. And "after he had offered one sacrifice            God's commandments, even though he has a. beginning of
 for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God ; From            the new obedience in his heart.
 henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.              Various questions present themselves when we contem-
 For by one offering he hath perfected forever those that are           plate the meaning of this` fifth petition. The first question
 sanctified.`.' And therefore, according to them, in the new            is, of course : what is sin  ? The Catechism speaks of "our
 dispensation we can no longer pray for the forgiveness of              transgressions, nor that depravity, which always cleaves to
 sins: for our sins are forever blotted out.                            us.' It therefore includes in this petition not only our actual
     Over against this we may remark, in the first place, that          sins and transgressions, but also  the corruption of our nature,
 it is rather impossible to understand how there can be true            from which we are not delivered as yet, and for which we
 Christians, or those thaq profess to be such, who claim that           are responsible before God. In the second place, the ques-
 there is no longer any place for this prayer for the forgive-          tion is: what is  .forgiveness,  and how is forgiveness of sins
 ness of sins in the life of the child of God, and that to pray         possible ? The Catechism teaches us that in this petition we
 this is a manifestation of ignorance or an expression, of un-          pray to our Father in heaven "not to impute to us poor
 belief. Even apart from the doctrinal error implied in such            sinners our transgressions." In the third place, the question
 a conception, it is rather difficult to understand how a true          arises as to the ground of this forgiveness. And this too is
 child of God, who knows himself, is able not only to make              indicated in the Heidelberg Catechism when it teaches us
 such statements, but to live according to them, ,that is, with-        that in  this prayer for forgivenes; we ask: "be pleased for
 out the prayer for forgiveness. To us it rather seems that             the sake of Christ's blood not to impute to us our trans-
 every day and every moment the believer must feel  tl+e need           gressions." And finally, the question is : what is the mean-
 exactly of this prayer in his heart, and that, as he grows in          ing of that significant limiting clause, "as we forgive our
 the grace and knowledge of Sesus  Christ, this need will be-           debtors ?" This the Catechism interprets in the words,
 come deeper and this prayer will grow more intense. Even               "even as we feel this evidence of thy grace' in us, that it is
 in those times when his spiritual life is at low tide and when         our firm resolution from the heart to forgive our neighbor."
 he does not feel much need of prayer, it would seem that                   These questions we shall now attempt to answer.
 the burden of this petition still lies heavily upon his heart,
 "And  forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." But                                                                        H.H.


152                                                        T H E   ST.ANDAR-D   B E A R E R
                   -

                                                                                                9 .   Then said I, 0   my  Lord,  w h a t   a1.e  t h e s e ?   And  the
            THE DAY OF SHADOWS                                                       I 1angel  that  talked  with  me said unto  v~te.~ I will  skew thee
                                                                                          :what   t h e s e   ( b e ) .
-                                                                                               .My  Lord, what  aYe  these?-  The prophet addresses his
                  The Prophecy of Zechariah                                               request to the interpreting angel. He is the prophet's con-
       8.  A n d   I   s a w   b y   night, and behold a   man  ,v,iding   z@om           stant companion throughout all the visions. His task is to
a  red  horse,  avtd  he stood  a.mong the  myrtle  shd's  tht                            explain to Zechariah  what he sees and hears. I will  sl%ew
wem  i n   a   d e e p   p l a c e   a n d   b e h i n d   hi~m  (there   were)   hmes    thee what these  be-  Reply of the interpreting angel..  He
red,  bay  and  white.                                                                    will explain the vision.
     Behold  - Literally not a verb  - see, look  - but an                                      10. And  avwzvewd   the  man standing among  the myrtle
interjection, lo. The novelty and strangeness of the vision                               shubs and  sa`id, These  av-e they  whom the Lord  Izath-sent
caused astonishment on the part of the prophet. The beings                                to walk to alzd ~YO &ough the ecu-th. The interpreting angel
appearing in this first vision are the following : 1) The proph-                          explained  the vision. He did so, however, not personally,
et; 2) The  iliterpreting  angel; 3)  The man riding upon' the                            but through the agency of the leading horseman, the man
red horse ; 4) The men riding  uponi the red, bay and white                               seated upon the red horse. kind the vvmn . . . answered and
horses ; 5) The angel of Jebovah ; 6) Jehovah Himself.                                    sa.id  - He replied to the prophet's request for an explanation
       &tart - probably an angel in the form of a man. Rdding                             of `the vision.  These-The  mounted horsemen that stood
- the thought is that the man was mounted upon a horse back of him. His answer to the prophet was that they were
and not that the horse with its rider was in motion.  Red                                 messengers of Jehovah, sent of Him to walk to and fro
horse  - Red is the color of blood. In Rev. vi, 4 it is the                               through the earth. From the succeeding verse it appears
rider upon the red horse that is given a great sword and                                  that they had been sent to observe  conditio.ns on the earth
authority to take peace from the earth that men may kill one                              and to report on them.
another. The color of the horse then symbolizes war and                                         II. And they answered the angel of the Loyd tha.t stood
bloodshed.  And  he was  staxding  among   the  1:Kyrtle  shtcbs                          among the myrtle shmbs., and sa.id; We have walked to and
- The pronoun looks back to the rider.  The horse upon                                    fro  throa~ggh the  em%%, and, behold,  a~11 the  ea?th  sitteth still
which he was seated was standing. Hence it is said that he                                ,and  ,is at rest.  Having. been presented by their leader, the
was standing. He was standing in the grove of myrtles,                                    horsemefi   made their report. And  they  a.nswered-  Their
because there was waiting the angel of the Lord to whom                                   report was in reply to the question implicit in their mission,
report had to be made. My&le  - Not a mighty and stately                                  namely what they had found conditions on the earth to be.
tree but a lowly shrub that, in the vision,. symbolizes the                               Hence, it is said that they answered, though no question
church. As she exists on this earth she is always a little                                was put to them orally. Whether they answered in unison
flock, weak, afflicted and despised as was the case with                                  or through a spokesman is not stated. The angel of the Lord
her Lord and Saviour in His state of humiliation.  Deep                                   -To the angel,  tiho is now introduced for the first time
place  - Abyss. A symbolical designation of the diabolical                                and of whom it is stated that he, too, stood among the
world-power in which the church stands  as a lowly shrub                                  myrtles, the `horsemen report. Who is this angel? In chap-
by which she is held captive and oppressed.  Artd  behind                                 ter 2:1-5 he is identified with Jehovah (see also Gen. 16:1-
hilvt  hovses-The man riding upon the red horse was not                                   10; 31  :ll-13;   j2 :25-31). On the other hand, in the same
alone. Behind him stood an unnamed number of horses of                                    passage (chapter 2 :l-5) he is discriminated from Jehovah
which some were red, some bay, and the rest white. It                                      (see also Ex. 33 :20-23).  Thus he is discriminated from and
must be imagined that a horseman sat upon each of them.                                   at the same time identified with Jehovah, that is, rightly
That this is not stated is owing to the fact that the emphasis                            considered, called Jehovah. `This angel, therefore, is not a cre-
rests upon the color of the hors&. Red - (explained above)                                ated angel but the second person in the Godhead, the same
The same color as that of the horse upon which sat the                                    divine person that in the New Testament Scriptures is pre-
leading horseman. Bay - reddish brown and symbolizing                                     sented to us as the incarnate word, the Christ of God, in
doubtless the working of God's wrath in destruction by fire.                              whose face shines God's glory, and in whom the fulness  of
Wlh-   The symbol of the heavenly glory of Christ and                                     the Godhead dwells bodily. It explains why the horsemen
therefore also of His victory over all the enemies of the church                          report to Him. They were sent also of Him.  Behold! All
(Matt. 27 :2 ; Rev. 6 :2). Thus the office of the horsemen is                             `the  earth  sittsth. still  a.nd is quiet  -The horsemen report
to plague the nations bf the earth with war and bloodshed                                 that they have gone through the earth and find that all is
and destruction by fire and thereby to pave the w$y for the                               tranquil, undisturbed by war  and revolution. This was sad
victorious appearance of the church in glory.                                             news, utterly discouraging. For by the former prophets and
       According to some, the colors are without symbolic                                 only recently by Haggai (2 6, 7, 21, 22),  Jehovah had prom-
meaning  ; they are only incidents introduced to `make the                                ised that He would shake the heavens, and the earth, and
picture complete. But this is a mistaken view, as will be-                                the sea, and the dry land, and the nations'. He had vowed
come clear as I proceed with my exposition.                                               `that He would overthrow the kingdoms of the nations


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   153
                                                                                   i.
through war in which they would destroy themselves- and                 His' cry it availed already then, being the cry of the Lamb
each other; and all this not alone preliminary to the salva-            that was slain before the foundation of the world.       *
tion of Israel but also to secure Israel's salvation.  sb  th&             PVilt  thou  ii.&  lmve  mercy on Jerusalem-The  reference
if the desirable things of the nations were to come and God's           is not to Jehovah's mercies- as such, which is His will to
house built, if the church was to be gathered and Je,rusalem            bless and His actually blessing His people always, but to  -
esalted and the cities of Judah were to overflow with good              that working of His mercy that resulted in the temple being
(s$e the following verses) - if, in a word, these promised              built and Jerusalem delivered, rehabilitated and exalted.
things were to become an accomplished fact, the heavens                 Against  whick tho;ct kast beew axgry   - With respect to His
had to be shaken, the nations shaken and the kingdoms of                chosen people the anger of His  love by which they were
the heathen had to be overthrown in order that they in their            brought to repentance and driven into the arms of Christ.
totality might pass away forever.                                       These thl-ee scow-e  and ten years - The seventy years of the
   Yet the horsemen report that the nations were not being              Babylonian captivity. These years had been predicted by
shaken. The whole earth was still. Seemingly sad news.                  Jeremiah (25  :12), "And it shall come to pass, when sev-
True, Jehovah had turned  ihe captivity of His people. The              enty years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of
church was back in God's country. But she was still in a                Babylon . . ." This period had expired about fourteen years
sad state. -Jerusalem for the greater' part rubble, her gates           prior to the date of this vision. .Though  the Lord had turned
burnt, her walls broken down, the remnant small and poor                the captivity of His people, the condition of the remnant in
and under the dominion of the heathen, and the kingdoms of              Jerusalem was still hopeless from a human standpoint (see
the heathen established, strong and prosperous with no sign             above).
of their being  ,shaken.  When would their troubles end ?                  13. And  Jehovah  answered  the  angel-  tlzat talked with
where  was the coming of His promise ? Would His mercies                me witla -words good and comjortable.
never return ? These questions were present in the souls of                And  Jehomla   answered  - Jehovah-addressed His answer
His people and bespoke their despondency and discourage-                not to the questioner, the angel of Jehovah, but to the inter-
ment, which the angel  and Jehovah would now remove.                    preting angel, the  cons&t  companion of the prophet. But
    12.  Tlten  a&wev+ed   tlze angel of  tlze  Lovrd and said, 0       why should Jehovah ignore the angel of Jehovah in replying
Jehoz1a.l~ of hosts, kow long wilt tho,tc not have v4ercy  upon         to His question  ? According to some, the angel of Jehovah
Je+salem   and  ztpon  the ~cities of Judak against z&i&z thou,         had no need of the comfort of the answer. But being afflicted
lmt been  a.ngry  tlzese  tlzve'e-score  a~nd ten years?  The horse-    in all the afflictions of His. people, he did have need of the
men had done reporting. The one to speak next was the                   comfort of the answer. to His question as well as they. May
angel of Jehovah. He answered, replied to the report. But               it not be, therefore, that the fact that Jehovah passes by the
His reply was a question that He addressed not to the                   angel of Jehovah in replying to His question must be taken
horsemen but to Jehovah Himself. And with reason. In                    as an indication of the identification of the two -Jehovah
merely observing conditions on the earth instead of having              and the angel of Jehovah - also here, so that the speaker -is
stirred up the nations by war, which was properly their                 again the angel of Jehovah here, too, designated by the name
office, the horsemen had acted under the instruction of Jeho-.          Jehovah, which, as was said, is proper, seeing that He is the
vah, it must be assumed. It was therefore to Jehovah that               second person in the Godhead. Through Him in His office
the angel put his question. How long wilt  t&t not have                 of mediator of God and of man the triune Jehovah answers
mercy . . .? It was like asking how long before Jehovah tas addressing His reply to the interpreting angel.  Words
.would  send forth His ministers - the horsemen - to plague             good and  covxfortable  - The prophet's characterization of
the nations with war.                                                   the answer. For it was the Gospel of Christ and of God, the
    What the church at that moment was made to behold, in               glad promises of salvation by which Jehovah, its author and
the vision, was a wonderful thing. - The Son of God inter-              true preacher, lifted up the drooping spirits of His afflicted
ceding for His chosen people before thk face of Jehovah all             and despondent people and  made them to shout with joy:
those years before His incarnation, actually functioning as             And so a word good and comfortable, literally consolation.
their great priest touched by their infirmities. "For," so it           The prophet could say that as he, himself, tasted its good-
is written of Him, "In all their afflictions he was afflicted,          ness and experienced its power to comfort.
and the angel of His presence saved them ; in his love and                  14. So the angel that  talked with me said  unto me, Cry
in his mercy he redeemed them, and carried them  $1 the                 &ozt  saying, Tjmts saith Jehovak of hosts; I avvz jealous for
days of old" (Isa. 63 :9>.                                              Jemsalem  and for Zion with a great jealousy.
    0,  JelLovah of  kosts,  Izozv long -This was the cry of               `The angel that ta,lked wit13 ?pce- Is the angel that talked
every distressed believer. It is the cry of all the saints of all       with the prophet the angel of Jehovah ? This is rather diffi-
the ages (Rev. 6  30).  In the vision the angel is presented            cult to determine. What is in favor of identifying the two
a;s making this cry his own. As his cry it was a sinless and            are the following : 1) The interpreting angel explained the
 calm reminder -to Jehovah's face of His promises to His                visions to the prophet so that he had spiritual understanding
 people and of His eternal purposes regarding them. And as              of them and believed and was comforted. 2) The interpret-


154                                         T H E   S~T:ANDARmD   B-EAREfi

ing angel explained the visions and thus seemed to be gifted        the heathen as His organs, that He had' prepared for Him-
tiith  ari insight into the meaning of the Word of God to           self and raised up for that very hour, "He. had swallowed
which no mere  hutian could attain unless instructed by             up all the inhabitants of Jacob . . . thrown down the strong-
Him. 3) Though the preceding verse states that Jehovah              hold of Judah . . . cut off the horn of Israel . . . swallowed
answered, it is the angel that talked with the prophet that         up  Israel" (quotations from Jeremiah  2);  All was Jehovah's
did the answering. 4) It was the angel that talked with the         work and at once the act of the heathen as His agents. So,
prophet, the interpreting angel, that commanded the prophet         in this sense they had helped. They had helped for evil -
to cry -cry the answer - and the prophet did so as mdved            So the text here reads literally.  For  evil-as the act of the
and inspired by. that command of the interpreting angel. All        heathen it was evil work in every point of view. What had
this would seem clearly to indicate that the angel that talked      moved the heathen was hatred of Israel and carnal ambi-
with the prophet was the angel of Jehdvah.                          tion. Their design was to destroy the church from the face
       Thus saitla Jehovah of hosts; I avtz jealous for Jmualem     of the earth (Ps. 74 :S). Though but rods of Jehovah's
and for Zion  atith  a  great  jealo`usy. The Scriptures ascribe    anger, they gave Him not the glory but boasted in their
to Jehovah jealousy. As jealousy is adopted from marriage,          own wisdom and power (Isa. 10:13),  and delighted in the
it means that the relation that obtains between Jehovah and         afflictions and sorrows  of  G&l's  captive people. Therefore
Israel is that of spiritual marriage. Jehovah's jealousy then       Jehovah was angry with the .heathen  with a great anger.
is His zeal for Israel as His spouse, -a zeal that rises from           16.  Therefore,  thus  saitlz Jehovah, I  avvt  retm-ned  t-0  Je-
His love of His people. In His jealousy for His people as           msalem with  mercies,  my house shall be  bklt in it, saith
their husband He insists that they love and serve Him alone         Jehvah  of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth  upon
in `rejection of all other gods. His jealousy burns, therefore,     Jel-ttsalem.
when His people become unfaithful to Him as His spouse
and also when, as a result of His having sold His people into           Therefore-the thought is that, because of His jealousy
the hands of their enemies in punishment of their adulteries,       for Jerusalem, fie was returned to her with mercies and im-
they find themselves  under the dominion of strange masters         plying that He would surely punish the  .heathen for their
that, as activated by hatred and malice, oppress and afflict        ill-treatment of His people. The mercies wherewith Jeho-
them in the attempt to destroy them from the face of the            vah was returned to Jerusalem can be named. He had
earth.                                                              returned the captivity of His people. They were back again
   Jerztsaletn  -The church as the capital of Christ's king-        in God's own city. His house was in process of being built.
dom but in the first instance the earthly Jerusalem of our          But this was not all. My house shall be! built in it, saith the
prophet's day. Zion-Jerusalem  aid Zion were identical.             Lord 1 Building operations would continue uninterrupted
Despite all her sins and backslidings  Jerusalem is Jehovah's       until His house was completed. And with His house com-
beloved spouse by virtue of His having chosen her in Christ.        pleted, He would again be dwelling in their midst. Amazing
Hence, His great jealousy for Jerusalem and Zion and for            mercy. And a line will &e stretched forth alpon Jerztsale~  -
the cities of Judah.                                                The measuring line that was to be used in marking off the
                                                                    space upon which the city was to stand and implying that
       15, And with great anger I am angry z&h the heathen          the c'ity was to be built according to a fixed plan (2 :2 ; Jer.
that are at `ease; for I  wa:s but a little angry,  a,nd they       31:39).  So, not only His house but also  ~thc city was to be
helped fov- evil.                                                   rebuilt.
   And  z&h great anger I was  angl-y with the heathen-                 17. Cry yet saying, For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, my
A participial construction expressing the idea that Jehovah's       cities shall yet  overflozel z&h good; ,avbd the Lord shall yet
anger with the heathen was permanent, an enduring fire that         cow&+-t Zion, and slmll yet choose J~msalem.
burned with steady flame and with fierce and undiminished
heat. Here the heathen, therefore, are the reprobated hea-              Cry  yet-Still  other mercies to be announced. My
then. Implied is the thought that in due time Jehovah, with-        cities-  The cities of Judah that were scattered throughout
out fail, would also reveal His anger over the heathen.             the land of Jehovah and that were in a state just as sad as
That  aye  at  ease -Though Jehovah was angry with the              that of Jerusalem. Shall yet  overflow with good-So reads
heathen, they were tranquil, in a state of carnal security,         the text literally. Everywhere in the land is distress, but
confident in their power and prosperity.  For I was  b*ltt a        when Jehovah has returned to His holy temple the whole
little a.ngry - Jehovah was but a little angry with His peo-        land and every place in it shall be filled to overflowing with
ple. Indicated is not the degree but the duration of Jeho-          goodnesses all the fountains of which are in Him. Jehovah.
vah's anger regarding Jerusalem. It had lasted but a little         This  is  the  idea,  And Jehovah shall yet comfort  Zion-
while comparatively speaking. The reference is in the first         Doing So by returning to Jerusalem with these His mercies.
instance to the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity of        And  .&all  yet choose  Jmualem  - As His abode that she
Judah  into which the church had been led by Jehovah. They          might be to the praise of His grace. Yet - that is, despite
had  helped-The  heathen had helped not certainly as  co-           the fact that from a human standpoint Jerusalem's condition
laborers with Jehovah but as the rods of His anger. Through                               (Cohnzled  on  page  163)


                                                                                     .
                                                                                  __  -'
                                                                             .

                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R '                                             155

                                                                   by no means viewed as equals in their relationship to the
I/  F R O M   H O L Y   W R I T   -./I Word of, the Cress. Both come under the preaching `of the
                                                                   same,/&  the? `are by no means in the same state and coti-
                                                                   difion. The one is in a constant state and condition of
            Exposition of I Corinthians 1-4                        "perishing," of being inwardly and outwardly destroyed in
                              6.                                   body and soul, while the other is; in the state and condition
                                                                   of being lifted up in body and soul out of the deepest death
   We will now begin our expository observations on the            and hell and raised to the "glory which shall be Ours." (Cf.
next section of the first Chapter of Paul's Epistle to the         2 :7b)
Corinthians, which we have been considering.                           The group that "are perishing" are in this state of doom
   We call attention to the verses 18-25.                          while the3 hear the Word of the Cross proclaimed.
   Befoie we quote this passage in part we feel we ought               While the only Word of hope and salvation in Christ
to make a few introductory observations concerning this part       is preached, the Word that ,speaks of the Son of God having
of Chapter 1, the verses  lS-25. We shall attend to the fol-       become a "curs&' for all those who believe in him; whether
lowing :                                                           Jew or Greek, they perish under  the curse and the wrath
   We ought to notice that Paul is here not beginning with         of almighty God, which destroys them in their life and
a new  subj~ect  in the proper  sens'e  of the word. What Paul     thinking, their striving and evil aspirations, casting them
is here doing is continz&g  with his polemic against schism        down from their imaginary heights and their proud and
and party-strife in the church of God at Corinth. Fact is, that    haughty attitude toward the Word of the Cross, which is
he will continue with this through chapter 4.                      to them "foolishness."
   It has been said that we here deal with the doctrinal part          Such the Word of the Cross is "indeed!' @Zen  in greek)
of Paul's letter. With this observation we can agree, provided     to those perishing.
that we do not understand this to be pure and simple sys-              Now Paul contrasts with these who thus perish "us, who
tematic dogmatics! This latter we surely do not have here.         are being saved." Paul here includes himself with the church
We do have here soztnd do&vine. But we have doctrine here          which is sanctified in Christ and which will be presented
as it makes an appeal to the reality of the power of the           blameless in that day. He places  liiitnself here not as an
Word of.the  Cross in the' sanctified conscience of the church     alleged leader in the church,  btit  he here places himself in
of the living God at Corinth, so that they may see the             the midst of the  sailits, a poor sinner, the chief of  siriners,
ludicrous incongruity of the party-strife and schism in which      being saved by gr+%. Here  .Paul ivzplicitly  say "follow my
they are engaged.                                                  example," without becoming involved in the brawl over his
   Paul so employs the Word of God here, that with the             own person as a preacher. He here walks in the wisdom
Sword of the Spirit he deals the `death-blow to all  party-        of the- just which is always justified in the children of
strife in the church at all times. He leads the church at          wisdom !
Corinth in a masterful way to higher- and holier ground !              Paul a great preacher, saved by grace!
   He points away from man-made divisions to the  God-
made division between the seed of the woman and the seed               Here is godliness in evidence that protects them from the
of the Serpent, that is, between "those perishing" and be-         wiles of the Devil.
tween "US, who are being saved," as this historically is man-          Well may every preacher see this fine touch of Paul in
ifested in the attitude of the former toward the Word of the       his masterful polemic, which breathes childlike godliness on
Cross, and in the renewed lives of "us who are being saved".       the part of this preacher. Here the party-strife is stopped in
Thus the church is called to the sobering and wonderful            its tracks, by giving -leadership, which is of such a nature,
reality of what she has become in Christ, and of what she          that there is only one fl&+y.  It is : $1~ who are being saved !
experiences under the preaching of the Word of the Cross.          It is the party of the living God!
   Here Paul cuts at the very heart of the real issue of life          And what does not belong to this party, this church of
under the preaching of the Cross and, at once, cuts out the        the living God, is the party of the Prince of this world,
festeiing  boil of party-strife, which is, sad to say, present     ,which  is perishi,ng.
in this church of God. He, indeed touches upon the quint-              A schism between the twofold seeds.
essence of the issue !                                                 It is the only "schism" which has the sanction from God,
   Well may we take the shoes from off our feet and listen         being "established" by the Lord Himself !
attentively to this masterful refutation of such sinful effron-        The party-strife in Corinth was such that the "Word of
tery in God's  churdh!                                             the Cross" would be made "empty" of its power to save,
   Writes Paul in verse 1s "For the Word of the Cross is,          not being proclaimed purely, and would lose its power of
indeed, to those who a,re perishing foolishness, but mzto u.s,     excluding the unbelievers, and of actually bringing the chil-
who are being' saved, it is the pow@?' of God."                    dren into the everlasting Kingdom of glory. And such was
   `In this verse it becomes evident that the two groups are       the temptation of Satan.                           .


1 5 6                                       THE  STANDAVD   B E A R E R

  In the stead of the "Word of the wisdom of God of the             Stop preaching this Word to us; you will bring the blood of
Cross`" would come the would-be substitution of the "wisdom         this man upon us ? (Acts 5 :28)
of words"`!                                                            Where is the disputer of the Scriptures. He misunder-
  Not for one minute does Paul, however, fall into this error       stood the entire Bible since it was foolishness  to them. They
of substituting the "wisdom of  WOI~S"  for the "Word of            may say when you speak to them of the Wsrd of the Cross
wisdom." He will  &aintain  the canonical Scriptures of the         being a power unto salvation, and that without man ful-
Old Testament as the rule and standard whereby the hearts           filling conditions "I cannot see it that way," but that is no
of .unbelievers  must be judged in their attitude toward the        argument, it is merely an admission of *`inability" ! And God
Word of the Cross.                                                  in heaven makes them foolish.
  To demonstrate the inner  pasture  of this group that "are           Oh the Jew with his proud pretense of possessing the
perishing," and to whom the Word of the Cross is folly, Paul        truth may "ask," that is, "demand" a sign but the sign he
quotes certain passages of the Old Testament Scriptures.            gets is one in which it is clearly, demonstrated that in the
These Scriptures are the last word with Paul, and Paul main-        wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know -God.
tains it as the end of all argument also for the Corinthian         And God's .wisdom sets all this worldly wisdom at nought
b e l i e v e r s .                                                 by saving "those believing" (not "everyone, if  they believe")
   Writes Paul, quoting Isaiah 29  :14; Job.  12:17;  Isaiah        by the foolishness of preaching.
19  :12; 33  :13, in verses 19 and 20 as follows: "For it is           The greek may "seek for wisdom," but  he-  only. does
written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the dis-        this because he first closes his eyes to the -true "wisdom of
cernment of the discerning will I bring to nought. Where is         the Cross," and he too in all his search for wisdom is made
the wise ? where is the Scribe ? where is the disputer of this      foolish by God ; `he goes down under the wrath of almighty
world."                                                             God.
   The passage from Isaiah 29  :14 refers particularly to              Where is the Scribe? Where is the seeking Greek? Has
those under the Old Testament Dispensation, who speak               "common grace" in him not been made foolish, and all the
highly of God with their lips, but whose heart is far from          "civil" righteousness he practiced in this "wisdom of the
the  Zord (Matt. 15 :S, 9) and who institute the command-           world," since it is no rigl&owneL in civil affairs, but rather
ments of men in the stead of living Word of God. In their           a  keeping down of the truth in unrighteousness.
not bowing before the Word of God,. but rather before their            Has God not made also the "common grace" in the'ivis-
own word; their owvt conscience, it becomes evident that it         dom of the world foolishness  ? And does God not  do. this
is no service of the living God;. but it is but lip service that    with all attempts to join "Athens" and "Jerusalem"?
they pay to Gbd. They layed down their own conditions for              Did Isaiah write vainly "The princes of Zoan are utterly
joy, while not knowing that the Word of the Cross is the            foolish  ; the counselor of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh
central truth in the Scriptures.                                    is become brutish . . . Where then are the wise-men ? And
   Hence, to them the Scriptures are a closed book. The             let them tell thee now !"
words of the vision of God had become unto them as a book              If such is the case with all "wisdom of words," well may
that is sealed, which one delivers to one that is learned, say-     our only concern be with the Word of the wisdom of God
ing, Read this I pray thee, and he saith, I cannot for it is        iri the Cross, which is to MS the power of God - whether it
sealed. Or the book is delivered to one that is not learned,        be Paul, or Afiollos  or Peter.
saying, Read this, I pray thee ; and he saith I am not learned.        And let him, therefore, that glorieth glory in the Cross.
Isaiah  29:11, 12.                                                     And let him that preacheth preach nought else but Jesus
   Thus it was with the Jews in Jesus day when they spoke           Christ and Him crucified.
with him. He told them that Moses, in all of his writings,             It is the only foundation besides which there is none
wrote' of Him, the Christ, as He now stands in their.midst.         other.
He is the Christ to be crucified. And with this Word of the                                                                  G. L.
Cross in their hands they cannot read its content, demand a
sign of Jesus. And to them is given no other sign than that
of Jonas the Prophet; they receive the sign of the death and
resurrection of Christ, the Word of the Cross. But this-is             Knowledge of sins still loved, beckons perdition ; knowl-
foolishness to them. God thus destroys their wisdom, by             edge of sins hated arouses battlelust  ; knowledge of sins
making the Stone rejected of the builders the chief of the          atoned, assures eternal and perfect peace. H. H. K.
Corner.
   Where are now these Scribes? What has become of
them  ? Did God not destroy them in their very heart and                The- storehouse of God's infinite love would forever
mind so that, they, under the hammers blows of Peter's              remain locked, if man's desire for it must serve as a key. to
preaching  of. this Word of the Cross, in cringing fear say:        open-it.  H. H. K.


                                                                            . .



                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B - E A R E R                                         157
                       - -

II                                                                 that speaks of His glorious victory over sin and death. It
               I N   H I S   F E A R , - -                         observes the Lord's Day to observe the Sabbath  ; the rest
                                                                   that remaineth  for the children of God. The New Testament
                                                                   Church rejoicing-in the salvation of which that first day of
                The Sabbath In His Fear                            the week testifies - for as Paul writes : "He was raised for
       Saturday or Sunday ?                                        our justification"-and does not want to remain at Mt. Sinai.
      That is not the problem we propose to discuss at this        But in His fear, heeding the instruction of the Lord Him-
time.                                                              self, the Church rejoices in the beauty and glory of Mt. Zion,
      However, it must  be. conceded that even that matter         the mount unto which Christ has now ascended.
must be settled in His Fear. We may not arbitrarily chose              But observing the Sabbath in His fear is not simply a         .
the one day or the other for our.Sabbath  worship. It-is not       matter of designating a day wherein we ought to worship
a matter of individual choice. It is not for us to decide which    Him. It means that we do worship Him on that day in a
day we wouId  like to set aside for our Sabbath worship. It        special way and even to a special degree.
is a matter of determining in His Fear what day God has               We stand, today, greatly in danger of being-a people that
chosen for us to observe.                                          rapidly is coming to the point where we will have to confess
      All things must be done in His fear.                         that there are but nine commandments and that one has
      Therefore the day which we set aside for Sabbath wor-        fallen away ! We will frown upon the breaking of these nine
ship also must be chosen in the fear of the Lord.                  and smile at the old-fashioned idea of observing or even
      That means, of course, that we let Hun speak. That we        thinking of observing the Sabbath, even of observing it on
humble ourselves before Him and turn to His Word to learn          the first day of the week.
what He has to say concerning this matter. That is the fear            Go back to Sinai ?
of the Lord. It never behaves any other way than to bow                Never !
before Him and to be willing to be taught by Him.                      That, as we have already suggested is not in- His fe.ar.
      Then there can be no question either as to the- day that         But neither must we behave as though God has erased
He has designated for us to observe. In His fear we will ob-       for the New Testament Church what He wrote for the Old                 '
serve the first day of the week and no longer hold on to the       Testament Church. We may not with cement and mortar
seventh day to which the Jewish race that crucified Christ         and perhaps twentieth century plastics and manufacturing
and still continues to deny His resurrection in unbelief           methods try to fill in that which God had engraven  into the
clings. The fear of the Lord is faith in Him. And faith takes      two tables of stone and so try to make for man today a little
hold. of all the truth in Christ and therefore observes the        more freedom to sin.
first day, of the week.                                                The inner principle of the law is love to God,
      In His fear we do not discount the importance of His             That inner principle of love to God is expressed in the
resurrection on the first day of the  ,week.  In His fear we       fourth commandment as well as in the other nine.
dare not say that this has no significance1 for the New Tes-
tament Church.                                                         And God does not excuse the New Testament Church
      In His fear we do not set aside as unimportant the'fact      of that obligation to love Him and to show that love in one
that the inspired writers of Holy Writ after His resurrec-         phase of its life. From Mt. Sinai He spoke and instructed
tion call that first day of the week the Lads Day. Nor do          the Church in her calling to love Him in His works as well
we overlook the fact that the New Testament church did             as in His  nanret in His revelation and in His divinity. He
meet on that first day of the week, Acts 20:7  and I Corin-        has not excused the New Testament Church of this obliga-
thians  162.  And in His fear we cannot overlook the fact          tion.
that there is here in the wisdom of the Lord a development             He has glorified it. He has enriched it.
of the truth of His covenant in this new thing as it points            He has performed a new, a more glorious, a more won-
to a new and eternal Sabbath which is commemorative not            derful work.
simply of His glorious work of creation but of that work of            And He has set aside a new day of the week to observe
surpassing beauty and glory: The work of salvation and re-         properly this wonderful, new work.
creation in Christ.                                                    But He has not filled up the bold lines of that command-
      The New Testament Church stands before the. cross, the       ment which He with His own finger had engraven  into the
open grave and on the mount of Ascension. And in His fear          tables of stone. And when He cut out of the rock and spelled
it worships Him for the wonder of all this work for which          in words His unchangeable will concerning His works, no
God set aside the day when He arose from the dead. With            man can fill up those grooves, cut into the rock of the two
the Psalmist it sings a new song to Jehovah for the wonders        tables and make this will of God silent and of none effect for
He has wrought. And to do so it gathers on this new day            man !


158                                           T H E   STANDAKD.gEAKER
                                                           ~.
       And He carved into solid rock the letters that declared         to be put back into the law again when time-shall be no more.
His unchangeable will exactly because He would have the                   Such is not the case.
Church learn that as the granite rock abides thru all time                The will of God is as unchangeable as God is.
till He will cause the very elements to burn with a fervent               Jesus Himself made plain that such was not the case. He
heat, so through all time this will of His stands. It stands           kept the Sabbath and was seen in the synagogue.
not simply until Christ comes in the flesh.  -It stands after             He did not in anyway by any of His deeds indicate that
His resurrection and exaltation. He Himself testifies to us            now this commandment was to be erased from the Decalogue.
that He came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it. Not one         Never did He in any way indicate that it was now about to
jot - the smallest letter of the alphabet - nor one tittle -           be outmoded.
the little part of a letter - will pass away till all be fulfilled.       He healed on the Sabbath
       And listen! Jesus adds in Matthew 5  :19, "Whosoever,              He told the sick to take up their beds and walk to their
therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and            homes with them.
shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the king-             He did many good things upon the Sabbath.
dom: but whosoever shall teach and do them shall be called               He declared that the Sabbath was made for man and
great in the kingdom of heaven."                                       not men for the Sabbath.
       Understand that Christ is speaking of the kingdom of               Eut that very fact that it was made for man indicates
heaven and`not the kingdom of Israel. He is speaking unto              that it must still be observed today.
and of the New Testament Church.                                          He said that in the New Testament dispensation !
       What is more, we surely are agreed, are we not, that in            It was made not simply for man in the Old Testament
the New Creation when God shall be all in all, it shall be             times. It was also made for the New Testament Church.
one endless day of rest? The rest that remaineth for the               And it was made especially for the redeemed and glorified
p.eople of God remaineth ! And it is not interrupted by six            man in the New Creation.
days of secular work.                                                     And Christ observed it.
       To be sure, in the New Jerusalem there will no longer              He observed it even in His resurrection from the dead.
be time as we now know it. We will not speak of years,                 And upon it He brought to His Church the- joy of victory
months, weeks, days, hours and minutes. Nevertheless,- be-             over sin and death, the joy of a wonderful work of God.
ing creatures we will always be, even in everlasting glory,            He brought the joy of salvation of deliverance according to
subject to time and space: There will be a succession of               body as well as to soul from out of sin and death!
moments in the everlasting life that God has prepared for                 In His fear we do not ignore all this. But especially in
us. In fact that very word "everlasting" indicates a succession        all this we stand in awe before Him. With true reverence
of moments that never ceases. But each moment of conscious             and humility we take note of all this wonderful work be-
service and praise of God shall be followed by another mo-             cause in His fear we believe. it is all accomplished for us
ment  of conscious praise and service unto Him. He will be             personally.
all in all our thoughts. He will be all in all our desires. He            In His fear, then, we do not eagerly look-forward to a
will be all in all our lives.                                          week-end which we can turn into a holiday for our flesh.
       That rest shall neither be idleness nor the seeking of          In His fear we look with eager expectation for the Sabbath
that which the ,flesh craves of the pleasures and treasures of         as an holy day.
this world. Nor will the worship of God in that everlasting               It is for us an holy day not an holiday!
day of rest weary us and make a rest of idleness look good                And there is abundant room for us to consider further:
to us or even necessary.                                               The Sabbath in His Fear.
       Did you ever hear or, read in the Scriptures of an angel
sleeping before God's face ? Adam in the state of perfection              Come let us sing:              -
in Paradise, created with a body of flesh and blood and                               "With joy and gladness in my soul
created out of the dust of the earth was so made that apart                            I hear the call to prayer;
from sin he needed sleep. The angels as heavenly, spiritual                            Let us go up to God's own house
beings are ceaselessly busy before God's face in adoring and
extolling Him for His mighty works and majesty. To that                                And bow before Him there.
we shall also attain. There is no night there.                                                                               J.  .A. H.
       Seeing these things shall be, according to Holy Writ,
  __
how dare we take the stand that in the period of time between
the coming of Christ in the flesh and between His coming                 -Humility is fruit of that grace whereby we unflinchingly
again in power and glory at the end of time there is a pe-             apply the same rigid standards to our own lives, as those
riod when the Fourth Commandment is .erased from the law               by which we so eagerly judge others by nature. HHR


                                                                                          .     .





                                                                                    .-





                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   I$EAriER                                                    159

  I                                                                    the  roc&.upon.which also Peter himself was built; for other
 II          Contending For The Faith                            II foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus
                                                                 `I    Christ. Thus the church, which is built upon Christ, has
                                                                       ret-eiv<Fd  from him, in the person of Peter, the keys of heaven ;
             The Church and the Sacraments                             that is, the power of binding and loosing sins." This August-
                                                                       inian  interpretation of petva has since been revived by some
       VIEWS DURING THE SECOND PERIOD  (300-750 A.D.)                  Protestant  theologans in the cause of anti-Romanism. Au-
                 THE  `DOCTRINE   OF THE CHURCH                        gustine, it is true, unquestionably understood by the church
                                                                       the visible Catholic church, descended from the apostles,
                 THE PAPACY  (by Philip  Schaff   ) .                  especially from Peter, through the succession of bishops  ; and
                                                                       according to the usage of his time he called the Roman church
                            (Continued)                                by eminence the  sedos  apostol,ica.   But on  the. other hand,
       Augustine (died in the year  430)) the greatest theological     like Cyprian and Jerome, he lays stress upon the essential
  authority of the Latin church, at first referred the words,          unity of the episcopate, and insists that the keys of the king-
  "On this rock I will build my church," to the person of              dom of heaven were committed not to a single man, but to
  Peter, but afterward expressly retracted this interpretation,        the whole church, which Peter was only set to represent.
  and considered the  petjpa (rock, H.V.) to be Christ, on the         With this view agrees the independent position of the North
  ground of a distinction between petva (upon this rock) and           African church  in the time of Augustine toward Rome, as
  Petrus (thou art Peter)  ; a distinction which Jerome also           we have already observed it in the case of the appeal of
  makes, though with the intimation that it is not properly            Apiarus, and as it appears in the Pelagian controversy, of
  applicable to the Hebrew and Syriac  Cephas. "I have some-           which Augustine was the leader. This father, therefore, can
  where said of St. Peter" -thus Augustine corrects himself            at all events be cited only as a witness to the limited author-
  in his Retractations at the close of his life -"that the             &y of the Roman chair. And it should also, in justice, be
  church is built upon him as the rock  ; a thought which is           observed, that in his numerous writings he very rarely
  sung by many in the verses of St. Ambrose:                           speaks of that authority at all, and then for the most part
                      `Hoc ipsa petra ecclesiae                        incidentally  ; showing that he attached far  iess importance
       -'             canente, culpam diluit.'                         to this matter than the Roman divines.
                 (The Rock of the church himself                          The later Latin fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries
              In the cock-crowing atones his guilt).                   prefer the reference of the pebl'a  to Peter and his confession,
  But I know that I have since frequently said, that the word          and transfer his prerogatives to the Roman bishops as his
  of the Lord, "Thou art Petrus, ind and on this petra I will          successors, but produce no new arguments. Among them
  build my church," must be understood of him, whom Peter              we mention MAXIMUS  of Turin (About 450),  who, how-
confessed as Son of the living God.; and Peter, so named               ever, like Ambrose, places Paul on a leirel with Peter; then
  after this rock, represents the person of the church, which          ORISIUS, and several popes; above all LEO, of whom we
  is founded on this rock and has  receiied the keys of the            shall speak more fully in the following section.
  kingdom of heaven. For it was not said to him: `Thou art                2. As to the Greek fathers: EUSEBIUS, CYRIL of
  a rock' (Petra),  but, `Thou art Peter' (Petrus  j  ; and the        Jerusalem, BASIL, the two GREGORIES, EPHRAIM,
  rock was Christ, through confession of whom Simon received           Syrus, ASTERIUS, CYRIL of Alexandria,  CHRYSOS-
  the name of Peter. Yet the reader may decide which of the            TOM, and THEODORET refer the  peh'a  now to the con-
  two interpretations is the more probable." In the same               fession, now to the person, of Peter;  ,sometimes  to both.
_ strain he says, in another place: "Peter, in virtue of the           They speak of this apostle uniformly in very lofty terms,
  primacy of his apostolate, stands, by a figurative generaliza-       at times in rhetorical extravagance, calling him the "Gory-
  tion, for the church . . . . When it said to him, `I will give       phaeus of the choir of apostles," the "prince of the apostles,"
  unto thee the keys of the kingdom of  heaveri,' etc., he re-         the "tongue of the apostles," the "bearer of the keys," the
  presented the whole church, which -in this world is assailed         "keeper of the kingdom of heaven," the "pillar," the "rock,"
  by various temptations, as if by floods and storms, yet does         the "firm foundation ,of the church." But, in the first place,
  not fall, because it is founded upon a rock, from which Peter        they understand by all this simply an honorary primacy of
  received his name. For the rock is not so named from                 Peter, to whom that power was but first committed, which
  Peter, but Peter from the rock, even as Christ is not so             the Lord afterward conferred on all the! apostles alike ; and,
  called after the Christian, but the Christian after Christ.          in the second place, they by no means favor an  ex-c&&e
  For the reason why the Lord says, `On this rock I will               transfer of this prerogative to the bishop of Rome, but claim
  build my church,' is that Peter had said : `Thou art the Christ,     it also for the bishops of .Antioch, where Peter, according to
  the Son of the living God.' On this rock, which thou hast            Gal. II, sojourned a long time, and where, according to
  confessed, says he, I will build my church. For Christ was           tradition, he was bishop, and appointed a successor.


-160                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

        So CHRYSOSTOM, for instance, calls Ignatius of  An-           may, according to his best judgment, either institute a new
tioch a `isuccessor  of Peter, on whom, after Peter, the govern-      trial by the bishops of an neighboring province, or send
ment of the church devolved," and in another place says still         delegates to the spot with full power to decide the matter
more distinctly: "Since I have named Peter, I am reminded             with the bishops.
of another Peter (Flavian, bishop of Antioch), our common
father and teacher, who has inherited. as well the virtues as            Thus was plainly committed to the Roman bishops an
the chair of Peter. Yea, for this is the privilege of this city       appellate and revisory jurisdiction in the case of a con-
of ours (Antioch) , to have first had the coryphaeus (the             demned or deposed bishop even of  the East. But in the
chorus-leader in the ancient Greek drama ; hence, in modern           first place this authority is not here acknowledged as a
usage, the leader of a chorus  ; any leader  - H.V.) of the           right already existing in practice. It is conferred as a new
apostles for its teacher. For it was proper that the city, where      power, and that merely as  !an honorary right,  iand  2s
the Christian name originated, should receive the first of            pertaining only to the bishop Julius in person. Otherwise,
the apostles for its pastor. But after we had him for our             either this bishop would not be  kxpressly  named, or his
teacher, we did not retain him, but transferred him to im-            successors would be named with him. Furthermore, the
perial Rome."                                                         canons limit the appeal to the case of a bishop deposed by
        THEODORET also, who, like Chrysostom, proceeded               his cornprovincials,.  and say nothing o$ other cases. Finally,
from the Antichian school, says of the "great city of Antioch,"       the council of Sardica was not a general council, but only a
that it has the "throne of Peter." In a letter to Pope Leo            local synod of the West, and could therefore establish no
he speaks, it is true, in very extravagant terms of Peter and         law for the whole church. For the Eastern bishops with-
his successors at Rome, in whom all the conditions, external          drew at ths very beginning, and held an opposition council
and internal, of the highest eminence and control in the              in the neighboring town of Philippopolis  ;  .and the dity of
church are combined. But in the same epistle he remarks,              Sardica, too, with the praefecture  of Illyricum, at that time
that the "thrice blessed and divine double star of Peter and          belonged to the Western empire and the Roman patriarchate :
Paul rose in the East and shed its rays in every direction ;"         it was not detached from them till 379.  ,, The council was
in connection  with which it must be remembered that he was           intended, indeed, to be ecumenical ; but it consisted at first
at that time seeking protection in Leo against the Eutychian          of .only a hundred and seventy bishops, and after the succes-
robber-council of Ephesus  (449))  which had unjustly deposed         sion of the seventy-six orientals, it had only ninety-four ; and
both himself and Flavian of Constantinople.                           even by the two hundred signatures of absent bishops, mostly
        His bitter antagonist also, the arrogant and overbearing      Egyptian, to whom the acts were sent for their approval, the
Cyril of Alexandria, descended some years before, in his              East, and even  the Latin Africa, with its three hundred
battle against Nestorius, to unworthy flattery, and called            bishoprics, were very feebly represented. It was not sanc-
Pope Coelestine "the archbishop of the whole (Roman)                  tioned by the emperor Constantius, and has by no subse-
world." The same prelates, under other' circumstances, re-            quent authority been declared ecumenical.  `Accordin&ly its
pelled with proud indignation the encroachments of Rome               decrees soon fell into oblivion, and in the further course of
on their jurisdiction.                                                the Arian controversy, and. even throughout the Nestorian,
                                                                      where the bishops of Alexandria, and not those of Rome,
          THE DECREES  OF COUNCILS ON THE                             were evidently at the head of the orthodox .sentiment,  they
                                                                      were utterly unnoticed. The general councils of 381, 451, and
                      PAPAL AUTHORITY.                                6S0 know nothing of such a supreme' appellate tribunal, but
        Much more important than the opinions of individual           unanimously enacted, that all ecclesiastical matters, without
fathers are the formal decrees of the councils.                       exception, should first be decided in the provincial councils,
 First mention here belongs to the council of SARDICA                 with the right of appeal-not to the bishop of Rome, but
in Illyria (now Sofia in Bulgaria) in 343, during the  Arian          to the patriarch of the proper diocese. Rome alone did not
controversy. This council is the most favorable of all- to the        forget the Sardican decrees, but built on this single prece-
Roman claims. In the interest of the deposed Athanasius               dent a universal right. Pope  Zosimus,  in the  case'; of the
and of the Nicene orthodoxy it decreed:                               deposed presbyter Apiarius of Sicca (A.D. 417-318),  made
                                                                      the significant mistake of taking the Sardican decrees for
        (1) That a deposed bishop, who feels he has a good            Nicene,  and thus giving them greater weight than they
cause, may apply, out of reverence to the memory of the               really possessed ; but he was referred by the Africans to the
apostle Peter,  to the Roman bishop Julius, and shall leave           genuine text of the Nicene canon. .The later popes, however,
it with him to either ratify the deposition or to summon              transcended the Sardican decrees, withdrawing from the
a new council.                                                        provincial council, according to the pseudo-Isidorian  Decre-
        (2) That the vacant bishopric shall not be filled till the    tals, the riiht of deposing a bishop, which had been allowed
decision of Rome bd received.                                         by Sardica, and vesting it, as a  causa   qzujor, exclusively in
        ,(3) That the Roman bishop, in such a case of appeal,         themselves.                                               H.V.


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER                                                       161

            SHOULD ARTICLE 31 BE REVISED                                 of the major assemblies does imply a certain power or juris-
                   AND/OR CLARIFIED?                       ,.      .,    diction of the major assembly over the minor assembly. This
                                                                         is entirely in -harmony. with article 36, which speaks of the
     As must be obvious to the reader, the above caption                 jurisdiction of the major assemblies, as well as with other
 refers to the well-known and much discussed article 31 of               articles in our church order. Appeal is generally made to
 our church order. Therefore the question whether this                   such passages of Scripture as M&hh. 18 :20, Acts 15 :22-29.
 particular article should be revised naturally falls under the              4. There is, nevertheless, one exception to the statement,
 much broader question of the revision of the entire church              "whatever may be agreed  upon. by majority vote shall be
 order. This matter was before our synod in 1950, occasioned             considered settled and binding." The article adds, "unless it
 by a letter addressed to our synod by the synod of  the                 be proved to conflict with the Word of God or with the
 Reformed Churches of the Netherlands, in which coopera-                 articles of the church order."
 tion was sought in the study of a possible revision of the                  The  difficulty  obviously arises in connection with this
 church order, and grounds were adduced for the necessity of             last statement. At this point three questions are raised:
 such a proposed study. At that time our synod appointed a                   1. To whom must it be proved that the decision is in
 committee, consisting of the Revs. H. Hoeksema, G. M.                   conflict with the Word of God or with the articles of the
 Ophoff and G. Vos to make a "preliminary study- of the                  church order? Must this be proved to the ecclesiastical  as:
 church order revision." (See Acts of Synod, 1950,  cages 64             semblies ? Or to the person himself, so that it is his sincere
to 70.) This work is still in progress, although a short                 and considered conviction that for conscience sake he can not
time ago, entirely independent from any other churches, the              agree ?
committee of the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands                       2. What is the import of this "unless."  Does this mean
 (Synodical)  presented a proposed change to their synod. As             that, in. case the appellant does not agree with the decision;
far as I know, this proposed revision is still under discussion          the case is not closed nor is the decision binding upon him?
there.                                                                   Or does the "unless" imply an ."until ?' Is this the meaning :
    But apart from the entire question, we may well place                The case is not settled, but the decision stands until  -it is
ourselves before the question whether this particular article,           reversed by a major assembly?
namely, article 31; should be revised and/or clarified. That              3. And that raises a third, related question: Is the in-
is, is the article & it now appears in our church order am-              dividual obligated to submit to the decision while he is
biguous, so that the interpretation is not entirely obvious              appealing his case, or not?
from the text, and the possibility of more than one inter-                  A few quotations from various writers on this subject
pretation actually exists ?                                              will show these questions have been raised and variously
    This article states: "If  a.nyone complaz"n that he has been         answered.
wronged by the decision of a minor assembly, he shall have                  Prof. H. Bouwman writes in his  ,,Gereformeerde   Kerk-
the right to appeal to a major ecclesiastical assembly, and              recht" under the heading  ,,Bindende   `Kracht der Meerdere
wlmtever   way  be  akveed  ztfon  by a  qH.ajority   vote shall be      Vergaderingen,`:  (The Binding Power of the Major As-
considmed  settled and binding,  unless it be proved to con-             semblies) pages 47-93, the following: "Although in general
. flict with the Word of God or the a,rhicles of the chu;vch  order,     it is true that it is necessary to submit to the major gathering,
as long as they have not been chnged by a general synod."                this  submis,sion  is not possible  vhen a person deems it
   The main thrust of the article is clear. Plainly, the sub-            proven for himself that the Word of God prohibits him
ject that is being treated is the matter of appea.1. The article         from carrying out the decision. It lies in the nature of the
states :                                                                 case, as Voetius states, (Pol. Eccl. IV, 122, 123) that the
    1. That every person in the church has the right of                  church or the person appealing must show' that the decision
appeal.                                                                  of the major assembly is not in harmony with Scripture.
 2. That he must appeal from a minor to a major as-                      If the appellant convinces the assembly the difficulty is re-
sembly. If he is aggrieved by the action of B consistory, he             moved, but if he does not convince them, and the assembly
can appeal to  classis.  And if he complains that he is wronged          to which he appeals, declares that it has not been prov,ed  to
by the classis,  he can appeal to synod.                                 &em  that their decision is in conflict with the Word of God,
    3. The decision reached by majority  vote shall be con-              and the appellant maintains his  convictiqns, and  iq convinced
sidered settled and binding. That decision is final, closes the          that he cannot submit, and the synod insists that its decisions
case. It shall also be considered binding for all persons                be carried out, then a conflict is bound to' arise . . . .
concerned, that is, also for the r&x&-ity  in the assembly, as              "If, according to the judgment of a certain church, a
well as for the appellant.                                               major assembly reaches beyond her jurisdiction and her
    It may be well to add at this point that this article pro-           decisions are `found to be in conflict with the Word of God,
ceeds from the assumption that the  ad&ice of a major as-                and this major assembly demands that her decisions be car-
sembly is not advice in the sense that all parties concerned             ried  out, then such a church will be compelled, Voetius
can take it or leave  it,  as fancy may  ,dictate.  The advice           states, rather to withdraw from the communion of churches


162                                     T H E   STANDARID   B E A R E R

than to act contrary to Scripture and conscience. On the            the church order; and in case they cannot refute his argu-
contrary, -however, when it becomes evident that a church           ments, they must retract their decision and declare it null
claims to be wronged only to escape the demand of the               and void. But as long  .as this has not taken place the ap-
Scriptures, the confessions, and the church order, the major        pellant must submit to the decision, if he wishes to remain
assembly is duty bound to exercise discipline. If the con-          within the denomination."
gregation takes a stand with the consistory, then the ec-                The position of  Dr.. Ridderbos is quite evident: First,
clesiastical fellowship is broken, but if objection is raised in    the decision shall be considered settled, and binding until
the congregation against the consistory, and the aid of the         the time that it is proven to be in conflict with Scripture or
major assembly is called in; the assembly must help these           the church order. Secondly.' that the proof must be rendered
appellants, and maintain their right overagainst the depart-        to the major assemblies, not to the individual. And finally,
ing consistory."                                                    that the appellant must submit as long as his appeal is pend;
       According to this rather lengthy quotation,- the proof       ing. His only other alternative is to break with the denom-
must be rendered, not to the individual conscience, but to          i n a t i o n .     .
the the-major #assembly. Moreover, the matter shall be con-.             In the "Church Order Commentary" of the Revs. Van
sidered  binding until it is reversed by a major assembly.          Dellen  and Monsma,` we find the following : "The question :
And finally, the appellant shall in all cases submit. There         To whom proved  7 Must the ecclesiastical assembly first
is only one possible exception, and that is, when it proves         declare that the unbiblical nature of the decision has been
impossible for him to do so for conscience sake. In that case,      proven, before any one may withhold submission? Or may
it will be necessary for him to withdraw from the denomina-         a church  or- an individual withhold submission when that
tion.                                                               church or individual is fully convinced that the conclusion
       Another authority in the Netherlands, Joh. Jansen, writes    reached is unbiblical, even before the assembly has reversed
in his  "Korte Verklaring," "Does this mean that the prot-          its conclusion ? The latter by all means. The church cannot
estant must give proof to the major gathering, and when he          bind the conscience. The Bible only, as God's infallible and
has convinced them with his arguments he may consider his           authoritative Word, can do this. If one is convinced that the
task completed ? Or does this mean, that we are bound to            Churches bid him contrary to Scripture, he must follow
the decisions of the majority, unless a person regards a            what- he believes to be Scripture. He should try to prove
certain decision as proven to  lzinzself  to be in conflict with    this to the assemblies. If he fails the churches should try to
the Word `of God? The latter is the.proper answer."                 bear with him. If not, he must get out."
       This particular writer maintains that  .we need consider          These writers take the position with Joh. Jansen, that
a decision binding only when we agree with it. Moreover,            the matter is not binding upon the individual as long as! he
the proof that it is in conflict with the Word of God or the        objects on the basis of Scripture and the church order.
church order must be rendered to himself. And the evident           Moreover, the proof must be to his own conscience. Nor
implication is, that in case he is convinced of this he need        need he submit while his case is pending; but the churches
not submit, nor can it be demanded of him. The conscience           must bear with him.
is the last court of appeal. This is the view defended by                In that case, we cannot help but ask, first of all, whether
the Liberated in the Netherlands, and also driven to an             the conscience of the churches should not be considered. If
extreme by the Rev. Kok in the recent court trial in Grand          the churches are convinced that the decision is according to
Rapids.                                                             the Scriptures, can they bear with an individual who ignores
       There is one question that cannot be suppressed in this      that decision and refuses to submit to it? If the churches
connection: If this were the intention of the composers of          can bear with him, why cannot he bear with the churches ?
the church order, why didn't they  -say so  ? It would have         Or put it this  -way,  can many individuals bear with one,
been quite simple for them to write: "Unless a person is            while one cannot bear with the many? And is it not fully
convinced before his own conscience that the decision is            as important that one bear with `the many, rather than that
contrary to Scripture and the Church order. In that case            the many are forced to bear with one?
he need not submit." That language would at least be free                Or again we ask, what happens to the authority of
from all ambiguity.                                                 Christ in His Church if these decisions can be completely
       Dr. J. Ridderbos writes in  "Kerkscheuring,"  page 21,       ignored.  Classis  and synod are not an informal and unof-
"The question is now : to whom it be proved ? We say : of           ficial, convention. The various consistories send their dele-
course, to the ecclesiastical assembly which must judge on          gates to  classis with the credentials, signed by the  consis-
this matter. Anyone who has any objection against a de-             tory, which states, "We hereby instruct and authorize them
cision that has been made, must do so in an ecclesiastical          tom take part in all the deliberations and transactions of  classis
manner, that is, he must present his objections to the proper       regarding all matters legally coming before tha meeting and
ecclesiastical gathering. This assembly is obligated to give        transacted in agreement with the Word of God according to
him a hearing, and to give him an opportunity to produce his        the conception of it embodied in the doctrinal standards of
evidence, that the decision is in conflict with Scripture or        the Protestant Reformed Churches, as well as in harmony


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 163

with our church order." Can the decisions of those` author-             "5. An assembly can, in case of appeal, postpone the
ized by their consistories, and, in turn, authorized by the          carrying out of her decision."
Classis,  be completely ignored while the appeal is pending?            Although this'article  is rather verbose, and has lost prac-
Does that allow for law and order in the church of Christ?           tically every semblance of the original, it contains elements
Or does this not tend toward anarchy ?                               worthy of closer consideration. Undoubtedly some of the
    Thirdly, we also face this question: Why should matters          elements could be relegated to a foot note, since they do `not
of doctrine require submission, while, other decisions of a          apply to all Reformed Churches. I have in mind particularly
major assembly may be ignored ? The Formula Of Sub-                  point 3, which speaks of a particular synod in distinction
scription declares : "And further, if at any time the  consis-       from a general synod. BuQ this applies also to point 4.
tory, classis or synod, upon sufficient grounds of suspicion            For that matter, in many instances the articles of the
and to preserve the uniformity and purity of doctrine, may           church order could far better be clarified by a foot note than
deem it proper to require of us a further explanation of our         be subjected to a radical change. This has many arguments
sentiments respecting any particular article of the Confes-          in its favor. And since the entire matter of church order
sion of Faith, the Catechism, or the explanation of the Na-          revision is still under consideration, we could very well clarify
tional Synod, we do hereby promise to be always willing              article 31 to our own satisfaction by adding a supplement in
and ready to comply with such requisition, under the penalty         our own manual of the church order.
above mentioned, reserving for ourselves, however, the right            And although this lies beyond the scope of our caption,
of an appeal, whenever we shall believe ourselves aggrieved          the following foot .note, or supplement, might well be con-
by the sentence of the consistory, the  classis or the synod,        sidered :
and  until a decision is made upon sztch a.n a.ppeasl, we will           "The appellant must present his appeal with proof to the
acquiesce ,in the `detm&na.fiion and judgment already passed.`>      next major assembly, and while his appeal is pending he
    Here is a case where the office bearer promises to ac-           must submit to the decision of the minor assembly. When-
quiesce in the determination and judgment already passed.            ever it is deemed feasible and advisable, an assembly may
If he can do so in one matter, ,why not in others ? And if he        postpone carrying out her decision until the broadest gather-
can do so in a weighty matter like doctrine, why can he              ing has decided on the matter."                          C .   H .
not acquiesce, 0.r submit, in other, often less weighty matters ?
    But from all these references one thing is obvious. There.                         THE DAY OF SHADOWS  3
                                                                                         (CoAizred   fr-OWL  Page   154)
is no consensus of opinion in the Reformed church world              is hopeless and also despite the fact that the city deserved
in regard to this article. Nor has there been for decades.           to be obliterated forever on account of her sins.
There is, therefore, abundant reason to plead for a revision             However, eventually Zerubbabel's temple was destroyed
of this article in our church order. Any committee engaged           and Jerusalem overthrown `by the heathen and permanently
in studying a proposed revision must certainly take this             forsaken by Jehovah, when the city had filled  up  her measure
article into consi,deration.                                         of iniquity. So Jehovah had sovereignly willed. For Zerub-
    It is interesting to note, that the Reformed Church of the       babel's temple was but a shadow the body of which is the
 Netherlands  (Synodical)  has had the following proposed            church of the redeemed. It is, obviously, with this house of
 revision of this article before its assembly. First of all, that    God, founded by Christ in righteousness by His suffering
 since other new articles were suggested to precede this one,        and death upon the cross and of which therefore He is also
 article  31. should become article 35. Secondly, that. the          the builder, that our prophet in the final instance is occupied.
 article should be revised to read:                                  This being true, his gospel is also and especially for us, God's
    "1. The decisions of the assemblies are always taken             afflicted people of this -present hour. It is a gospel the reach
 after -a general discussion, and as much as possible by un-         of which extends to the end of time and beyond. And its
 animous vote. If entire agreement proves unattainable, the          glad message is, that, however impossible from a human-
 assembly shall submit to the sentiment of the majority. The         standpoint, because of the, machinations of the wicked,
decision of the assemblies have a binding character.                 heathen in the text, who are always destroying God's temple,
    "2. Those who have objections to submit to the senti-            this temple, God's, house; shall be built, the church shall be
 ment of the majority, because they deem them in conflict            gathered, so that, when,, at Christ's appearing, the church
 with  the. Word of God or with the articles of the church           with Him appears in glory, not one place in the family
 order, can make their appeal to the next broader gathering.         of redeemed shall be vacant, not one stone in God's temple
    "3. In consideration of the differences in boundary be-          will be missing. And the whole earth, the new earth, and
 tween the various churches, in as far as not more than one          every place in it, will be filled to overflowing with the fulness
 particular synod is involved, the right of appeal to a broader      of the blessings of Jehovah, dwelling bodily in Christ. And
 gathering does not extend beyond the particular synod.              the heathen with whom He is angry always He shall judge.
     "4. Those who appeal to a. broader gathering are duty           And the. sure pledge that all shall come to pass is the fact.
 bound also to consider the regulations established by the           that  Zerubbabd's  temple -was indeed completed and the
 general synod in regard to form and time limit of the appeal.       earthly Jerusalem rebuilt, as He had promised.         ,G. M. 0.


     164                                         THE%T-ANDARD'  BEARER
Ii                                                                      order.  Further,  this whole matter can be properly and  es-
                   DECENCY and 0-1 tensively treated in connection with Articles 71' to SO which..
                                                                        deal with the subject of censure and ecclesiastical admonition:
                                                                        It is through these means that. the church is ruled by the
                      I I .    The Elder's Task                         elders. Nevertheless, since this is a very important part of
            The church order speaks of the duties of the elders in      the office of the elders, it is necessary to briefly describe the
.more than one place. In the sixteenth article it is stated that        nature of this work here.
their task is, together with the minister of the Word, to                   Firstly, it may never be forgotten that the sole authority
     exercise church discipline and to see to it that everything is     and power to rule in the church is Christ. He is the Head
     done decently and in good order. To this is added in the           of the church. His Word is binding upon the office bearers
     twenty-third article that elders are called upon to exercise       and members of the church alike. Everything  .must be
     supervision or oversight over their fellow office-bearers, the     brought into subjection and obedience to His will or there
ministers and deacons, and to properly engage in the work               is no order. And, the church is no democracy nor may she
     of family visitation. Then in the fifty-fifth article they are     be governed by mob-rule. Such is contrary to every ordi-
     called "to ward off false doctrines and errors that multiply       nance of God. The church has one-man rule. She is ruled
exceedingly through heretical writings." Article sixty-four             by her Lord Jesus Christ and by Him alone. `Christ has been
     speaks of their `exercising supervision over the administration    appointed sole Head of the body, His church. His Word is
of the sacraments. And, finally, in the eighty-first article,           law and all that refuses to be bound by that Word is dis-
     the matter of censura-morum is mentioned as a duty which           order.
the elders, together with the other office bearers, are called           Furthermore, Christ has purchased His own with His
to exercise before each celebration of the Lord's Supper.               blood and has delivered them from the guilt and dominion.
            To all of this may still be added other duties which are    of sin in order that they might be to the praise of His grace
not specifically mentioned in the church order but which are            and serve Him without fear in righteousness and holiness
nonetheless expected of the elders. They must visit the sick            all the days of their life. (Luke  1:75)  Such is the order of
and comfort those in distress. They must serve with counsel             the church and to bring this to manifestation Christ has
and advice when needed. They are required to periodically               ordained elders therein whom He mandates to maintain this
attend the classes for catechetical instruction in order that           order. Theirs is the responsibility to see to it that the
there also the office of supervision may be maintained.                 church -becomes manifest in the world as the holy people of
Ready they must always be to assist the minister in the                 God.
labor of teaching and, when the occasion may arise, they are               In the second place, therefore, the elder must constantly
expected to lead the congregation in their worship services.            be mindful of this limitation of his  authorty. to rule the:;
In addition to this they have many other labors that pertain            congregation. He may not "lord it over the church." He
to the administrative affairs of the church. In short, the task         has no right to impose himself and his own personal am-
of the elder is to see to it that everything in the church is           bitions upon- the congregation. It may appear a bit con-
kept in proper subjection to the Word of God and that thus              tradictory but it is nevertheless true that the ruling office
all things are done in good order.                                      of the elder is at the same time the office of a servant. Such
        Dr. Bouwman, in his "Kerkrecht,"  writes concerning the         is also the case with virtually every public office among men.
office of the elder as follows : "Drie zaken behooren dus tot           However, the difference is that in the latter men serve men
het werk der ouderlingen: a. de regeering der gemeente met              but the elder is called to be the servant of Christ. His task
de dienaren des Woords waarin opgesloten ligt het houden                is to maintain and enforce the rule of Christ in the church.
van opzicht en tucht over de gemeente ; b. het houden van               He may be no men-pleaser but must rather expect the dis-
opzicht over hunne  medeambtsdragers,  de Dienaren des                  pleasure of many as he ~faithfully  administers the will of his
Woords en de Diakenen  en c.' het huisbezoek."  Freely trans-           Lord. The elder that does this rules well. To do this im-
lated this is: Three things belong to the work of the elders:           plies,, of course, that the elder is  .the administrator of the
a. Ruling the congregation with the minister of the Word                Word for it is through the Word that Christ speaks and
in which is implied the exercise of oversight and discipline            rules. Needless to say, the elder must know the Word,
in the congregation ; b. Exercising oversight .over their fel-          thoroughly understand it and only then is he able to direct
low office-bearers, the minister of the Word and the Deacons            the congregation in the way of the truth in which they are
and, c. Family visitation.'                                             called to walk. He must demand this of the church in such
                                                                        a way that she feels the fulfillment of the word of Christ
                       A. Ruling the Congregation                       which He spoke to the seventy when He said, "He that
.      Article 23 refers this part of the elder's task to what was      heareth you, heareth ME  ; and he that. despiseth you,  de-
said in tlie sixteenth article of the church order where we             spiseth Me ; and he that despiseth Me despiseth Him that
find reference to the work of esercising  Christian discipline' sent me." (Luke 10 :16)
and seeing to it that everything is done decently  -and  in good           Consequently, to the rule of the elder belongs  also- the


         e.                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER                                                 165

unpleasant task of punishing those members  virho are dis-         in either doctrine or life. They are fallible and earthly crea-
obedient unto the gospel of Christ. Unpleasant is this task        tures whd by nature are also depraved. The  ,treasure  of the
only to the flesh. When the elder views his calling, as  he        Lord they carry in earthen vessels. And, -on il~e other hand,
should in the light of the Word of God, he finds it: neither       there is always the danger and possibility of wolves (false
difficult. nor unpleasant to ,put out of the kingdom of God        teachers) creeping into the church in the guise of sheep's
that which does not belong within and reveals itself as such.      clothing. They appear for a time to be shepherds-  butSare
In this line of duty, too, the elder must understand that he       not. For this the elders  m&t constantly be on guard. Let
has no authority to inflict physical punishment but bears          them beware and watch the house of God with vigilence  as.
only the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God and,         faithful watchmen of Zion. Surely the warning of Ezekiel 34
therefore, must administer a spiritual punishment upon the         is very much needed today. And, accordingly, the task  bf
evil doer. In the final analysis, it is again Christ Himself       the real and faithful elder becomes more and more  necess&ry.
Who does this through `His office-bearers.                            Finally, we would ask, "What should be done if and
               B. Oversight  of. Fellow Office-Bearers             when an elder finds  on& of his fellow office-bearers, min-
                                                                   ister, elder or deacon, to be unfaithful in life, doctrine, or
    Also this duty must be distinguished from  "larding  it        in the discharge of his duty ?  ,If the matter is of a public
over one another." There is a marked difference. The latter        character and of extreme seriousness, it is best that it be
is forbidden and condemned by the church order while the           reported at once to the entire consistory for its considera-
exercise of proper oversight: by the elder over the minister,      tion  .and decision. If not, however, let the elder approach
deacons and fellow-elders is enjoined. The very nature of          his' fellow office-bear& in  a friendly way and admonish him
things in the church on earth makes this a very necessary          concerning his error. He must guard  agsinst  a haughty or
duty and when properly performed will prove beneficial not         self-exaltant  attitude which may be more damaging than
only to the individuals concerned but to the entire congrega-      saving. Let him walk with his brother  hatiently,  in the
tion.                                                              spirit of true Christian love, seeking sincerely to correct the
    This can and should be done in more than one way. First        fault that may exist. If all efforts then fail the matter Will
.of all, the elders control the election of the office-bearers.    have to be brought! to the attention of the consistory, either
Upon them, therefore, rests the responsibility to keep the         in connection with  "censura  morum'? (Act. 81) or at an
office from unworthy and unscrupulous- men as much as              earlier time depending on the seriousness of the matter.
possible. If this preventive work is seriously and rightly            Next time, D. V., we will consider the  elder's- work of
done, the actual performance of this duty will be simplified       f a m i l y   v i s i t a t i o n   !
greatly although never entirely eliminated. It should be re-                                                       G.  Vanden Berg
membered that in former times the elders liad to also con-
tend with the interference of the state which often sought
to impose a `minister upon the congregation or place certain       Q u o t a b l e   Q u o t e :
men of their preference in the other offices. And, of course,         ". . . if any one attack us with such an inquiry as this,
the state had no regard for spiritual `qualifications. This        why God has  from the beginning predestinated  &me men
difficulty we do not .have today.                                  to death, who, not yet being brought into existence ; could
    Secondly, the elders must have oversight over the life and     not yet deskrve the sentence of death, - we will reply by
doctrine" of the minister. This is very essential for the wel-     asking them, in  return, what they suppose God owes to man,
,fare of-the &tire congregatioii. And it may be emphasized         if he chooses to judge of him from his own nature. As we
that-this oversight must include both the life and doctrine.       are all corrupted by sin, we must necessarily be odious to
The minister is the servant of Christ, called and sent to feed     God, and that not from tyrannical  cfuelty,  but in the most
the flock' and must, therefore, also conduct himself as a          equitable estimation of justice. If all whom the Lord- pre-
worthy example. And his doctrine and teaching must be              destinates to death are in their natural condition liable to
pure so that by it the church may be built up in the faith.        the sentence of death, what injustice do they complain of
The elders, to see to this, attend to the preaching of the         receiving from him  ? Let all the sons of Adam come for-
Word but this is not the extent of their duty here. They           ward ; let them  all contend and dispute with their Creator,
must also watch over, and see to it that the catechetical in-      because by his. eternal providence they were previously to
struction is what it ought to be.-They  serve Christ aqd His       their birth adjudged to endless misery. What murmur will
church by seeing to it that the whole church, including            they be able to raise against this vindication, when; God, on
young and old, is properly fed and spiritually nourished with      the' other hand, shall call them to a review of themselves. If
nothing but the Bread of Life.                                     they have all been taken from a corrupt  .mass,  it is no
    This work is very essential.  ,There is often a tendency       wonder that they are subject to condemnation. Let them
where all things aye harmonious in a congregation JO mini-         therefore not accuse God of injusiice . . ."
mize this but this  +s not right. On the one hand it should                                   Book III, Chapter XXIII, Par.  .3.
not be overlooked that the best ministers are prone to err                                    Calvin's Institutes


                                                                                                                          0
166                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   BE,ARER

II                                                                  Your command,' 'We must obey God rather than man.' `May
               A - L L   A R O U N D   U S .   j( we always be ready with Your sustaining grace to stand
                                                                    up -and fight and sacrifice for right, against wrong.' "
 "Wodd  You  Daye to Pray Thus?"                                        Never have. I read anything purporting to be in the
                                                                    name of religion that is so thoroughly ungodly as this. You
       We appreciate deeply the interest the readers of this        can almost hear Satan breathe in it.
department have and are showing respecting what we have                 We can well understand how the editor of The-Christian
 to say in it. This interest is evidenced both in the letters we    Labor Herald is irked by the fact that members of the
 receive and in the clippings, etc., sent to us asking for our      Christian Reformed and Reformed Churches who are ad-
 comment. That all the material does not find a place in our        vised so to be by their leaders, are members. of an organiza-
 department is, of course, left to our judgment. I trust that       tion which condones such ungodliness. He calls them
 my refusal to put everything I receive in this department          "Christian workers" and "Christian leaders." I confess he
-will not discourage those who send it.                             is more gracious than I am. I hesitate to call them that who
       Recently we received a page from the Christian Labor         would defend an organization which sponsors such corrup-
 Herald of December, 1955, sent by a reader who called our          tion.
 attention to a brief article with the title stated above. We           I also have a question for the editor of The Christian
 fear that when you read it you will be affected as we were,        Labor Herald. Where is Christian Discipline in your
 namely, with a series of chills and- goose-pimples. We refer,      Churches  ?
 of  course,`to the prayer which this article quoted. Here is
 the article :                                                          Only recently we were told how, mark you, an elder in
                                                                    your churches, a member. and steward of the CIO, literally
       "We are publishing below a prayer'taken from a leaflet       persecuted another member of your churches, in fact a mem-
 distributed by the Religion and Labor Committee of the             ber of the same church in which the office-bearer resided.
 CIO. The prayer was offered by Father Jerome A. Drolet,            What happened  ? The non-union Christian Reformed worker,,
 pastor of the St. Charles Catholic Church of Thibodaux,            who came to this country some five or six years ago from
 Louisiana, and was given at a strike meeting of CIO Pack-          the, Netherlands, unwittingly sought and found work in a
 inghouse Workers. A friend of the CLA forwarded this to            so-called closed shop. The elder of his .church,  also a worker
 us with the suggestion that it be printed with appropriate         in this shop, gave the immigrant the idea that it ought to be
 remarks.                                                           a good place to work.  .However,  shortly after he began
       "There are not many remarks to be made. We would,            working there, the union  (CIO)  began to pester the im-
 however, like to ask sincere Christian workers who are             migrant into joining the union. The immigrant refused.
 members of the CIO whether they would dare to pray this            Soon the elder, who as I said was steward in the union,
 prayer, which met with great approval and was therefore            began to take the immigrant to task. He ordered his men
 given wide publicity. We wonder, too, what their Christian         to meet the immigrant at the gate one morning and threaten
 leaders, who justify such membership on the basis of the call      to tip his car over if he did not join. The immigrant re-
 to Christian witnessing, think of. such a prayer, and what         mained adamant. So the elder. and his CIO henchmen tipped
 results can be expected from Christian testimony within such       the `imigrants car upside down. The next Sunday was
 a n   o r g a n i z a t i o n .                                    Lord's Supper. The immigrant felt that he could not have
       "This is the ,prayer :                                       Lord's Supper with that elder. So he went to the  con-
       `0 God of infinite Justice and Love, we adore You as our     sistory to signify his intention of absenting himself next
 Father in Heaven. Help us by your grace to build the kind          Lord's Day from the Table, and stated his reason. What
 of community and world in which men will more easily love          answer did the immigrant re.ceive  from his minister? "Bro-
 You and Keep Your Commandments thus saving their im-               ther, we are sorry about all this, but there is not much we
 mortal souls. Deliver us from the evils of war, and of any         can do about it, for if we should begin discipline with this
 economic or political system which places profit or power          elder there would be no end to the trouble. And we cannot
 above the dignity and sacredness of human persons.                 afford trouble`now since we are deeply in debt for our new
       `Teach us all, Almighty God, whether we be college           church edifice."
 students, school, teachers, or those less privileged educa-            If this story is true, and I have reason to believe that it
 tionally, to realize that the sin of Strikebreaking is just as     is, I ask you Mr. Editor : What good are all your pleadings ?
 immoral and hateful to You as other sins such.as adultery          Whether the Protestant Reformed Churches will be able
 and theft, drunkenness and narcotics-peddling, white-slavery       to maintain their stand that membership in the so-called
 and blasphemy..                                                    neutral unions and in our churches is incompatible, I cannot
       `May we always obey all just laws. Give us the courage       predict. But I assure you; Mr. Editor, that if the time ever
 to. oppose unjust and immoral. laws such as the compulsory         comes that they alter their position, they will do so over my
 open-shop laws in various states. May we always obey               dead body.


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 167

T h e   !Evils  of  Calvinis?%..                                       thing.  He cannot hear, will, repent, or believe. This is  an-
    This is the title of a little booklet we received from.  the. `other `evil' of. Calvinism. Man likes to think that he has
author, Mr. Frank B. Beck, sometime ago. We neglected to               so*tze part in his salvation. But Calvinism gives all the
comment on it at the time, and it was lost in the pile of              glory to the Holy Ghost . . . .
other literature we received from different sources. Having                "Fifthly, Calvinism magnifies the grace of God . . . zvhat
found it again, we thought it well to call it to your attention.       great grace  that God should elect some of us to eternal
    The booklet is small, only twelve pages, but too long to           life and saving faith . . . . That He should send His only
quote in its entirety. Mr. Beck, with whom we have had                 begotten Son to take our sins in His own body on-the tree
some correspondence in the past and who purports himself               (Isa. 53.:69 ; in due time send His Holy Spirit to regenerate
to be an independent evangelist, calls attention in the  in-           us; and fully, freely, and forever forgive us of all our guilt
troduction that "in recent years there has been an increasing          and sin . . . .
emphasis on Calvinistic theology." He then develops his                   "Sixthly, Calvinism gives  etemal  asmrame  to believers.
theme `under three headings.                                           This is an enormous evil ! It is called a `dangerous doctrine'
    Under the first, he answers the question: "What is Cal-            by  many . . . .
vinis~~t?  Calvinism is a belief. It is a system of truth. It is           "Seventhly, Calvinism gives the  right  `enthztsiasm  to
a form of Bible teaching made popular by John Calvin, the              evangelism. If I know that God has a people who will be
great Reformer. Hence it is called Calvinism . . . ."                  saved . . . . and that there is a certain number whom God
    "Calvinism declares  .that the sinner is `dead in trespasses       the Father has given to God the Son, and that all  of them
and sins' (Eph. 2 :l>, and therefore can do not?zing  toward           shll  come to the Son of God . . . and that the sheep . . .
the saving of his soul. It- declares that man has a will and           hear His voice and follow Him, and that God's Word will
therefore-is not a machine, but not a free will in spiritual           not return unto' Him void f . . should this cause me to ask,
matters. He is bound captive by  the, Devil (II Tim. 2  269            `Well, why preach then  ? Why send missionaries.' No ! There
and does not seek after God (Rom. 3 :ll).                              is every reason for preaching-and for missions . . . ."
    "It believes that Christ died only for the elect, in a                Under the third heading, Mr. Beck presents "some evils
saving sense (John  10115;  I Pet. 2  :24, 25). It believes that       that can never be laid at the door of Calvinism. -Among these
Christ -saves  whom He  will  (John 5  :21; Rom. 9  :189  ; that       he mentions the denial of, responsibility, and the objection,
the regenerating -Holy Spirit  creates  real repentance and            If I believed that, I would lose all my zeal to win souls to
saving faith in the hearts of those` for whom Christ -died             Christ. Of course, if that would make you lose such zeal we
(II Tim. 2 :25 and Heb. 12 :2);                                        can do nothing else but thank God for that! If believing the
    "It declares that God's purposes can  ne&& be defeated             truth of  {the sacred Scriptures causes you to lose zeal for
(Isa.  46:,10; Psa.  115:3).                                           souls, praise be to God. You ought to lose that kind of
    "What shocking belief! This is the faith dear to these             zeal! It was `evidently not the right kind of zeal in the
Calvinists. It is an error to call any who hold these views            first place. It could not have been created and controlled
just mentioned  hypes  Calvinists.  - They are not  hyperXal-          by the truth of God, but must  .have sprung from fleshly,
vinists, but  Calvinists!"                                             emotionalism and sentimentality . . . .
   Under the second heading, Mr. Beck  treats"`some  of the               "But these so-called evils, we who are Calvinists gladly
"evils" of Calvinism."                                                 plead guilty of believing and preaching:
    "First, Calvinism  abases   ppzttn-n,  and that is a great evil       Man  is not&g apart  front God's grace, but sin.
indeed, in the eyes of carnal men . . . . It never speaks good            God does a.s He pleases.
of them, but always evil . . . Because of the total depravity             Chist saves all  fog  whom He died.
and inability  of. man, Calvinism declares that man has a                 The  Holy Spirit regerzerates, Z&OWL  He will.
free will only  to  ch-oose  sin . . . . This is a great evil! Man        We are saved altogether by God's sovet'eign  grace.
does not like to be told he cannot do anything he wills . . . .           A scl-iptzml  and sensible evungeiisvuc.    _
   "Secondly, Calvinism  exalts God.  It not only lowers                  Blessed  assztran~e that  born--again   belz'evers will  never
man and his will and works and worth into the. dust, but it            be lost:      _
presents God as God!  .It places God upon the throne. It                  Of these `evils' we are guilty ! Amen !"
says, God can and does do as He pleases ; God is altogether               Space will not allow. us to offer comment except to say
free and independent . . . .                               r           that with most of this we can agree.                       M.S.
   "Thirdly, Calvinism honors  Clhst's death.  It says that
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ jreally su.ves!  That Christ                             Announcement
actually died in the  beheve+s place! . . . .  Those for whom ,           Notice change of address :
Christ died are saved. He saved them by His death in their                      Rev. Marinus  Schipper
place. He did not die in vain.                                                   1636 Martindale Ave., S. W.
   "Fourthly. Calvinism recognizes the power of the Holy                        Grand Rapids 9, Michigan
Ghost. The sinner is `dead' spiritually. He cannot do  any-                     Phone : GLendale  2-1945.


 1 6 8                                       T-HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R - E - R                                          . .

                                                                       in the world, otherwise they will prove to be non-Christian
                CONTRIBUTIONS  '                                       and fall away in the great tribulation, but the elect of God
                                                                   il .will be.given grace to differentiate between right and wrong.
    Dear Rev. Hoeksema: Please accept the following for                   When we begin to, speak of relativity concerning the anti-
 Contribution coiumn. This is now the second letter which is           thesis, then we will erroneously say tha$ the good works of
 thoroughly Reformed that the Editor of The Banner has                the ungodly are  not. sin and then what will the end be?
 refused to accept. As we' talked before, we make it many             We will-have lost our moorings and will be tossed on the
 times a matter of  .prayer  that the Chr. Ref. Church may            sea of doubt and despair. We will not know what is ab-
 repent and that the -Protestant, Reformed and Chr. Ref.              solute and what is relative in relation to the antithesis. Re-
 churches may come together again. Let us continue to pray            sult? Chaos and destruction!
 our Heavenly Father to break the strong bands `of blindness,             Please let us have the only and the true Gospel of salva-
 hatred, prejudice and unbelief and that those who' are truly         tion and whatever we do in prayer, word or in deed, let us
 and really Christ's may be so' manifested by lives of faith          do it all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 with love.         _.                                                                                                   Harold Tilma

                                   Grand Rapids,  Mich.  .'
                                   November 6, 1955                      The reformed Synod of Dort rejects the error of those
 Rev. H. J.  Kuiper                                                   who teach : "That without  special  revelation we have no cer-
 Banner City                                                          tainty of future perseverance in this life. For by this doctrine
                                                                      the sure comfort of the true believers is taken away in this
 Please accept for Voices L                                           life, and the doubts of the papist are again introduced into
    This is in regard to what was written by Rev. John                the church, while the Holy Scriptures  consistantly  deduce
 Vander-  Ploeg, Banner, Sept. 30, 1955, that the antithesis is       this assurance, not from a special and extraordinary revela-
 absolute and also relative. If this is a new teaching or an-         tion, but from the marks proper to the children of God and
 other interpretation of our confessions, it seems such should        from the  constant.promises  of God . . . And John declares
 be given adequate notice and ample clarification. To state           "and he that keepeth his commandments abideth in him, and
 the idea of a relative antithesis and then to pass it off in a       he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by
 few sentences is a dangerous procedure.                              the Spirit which he gave us." I John 3 :24.
    We -well  know that the- practise of present day Christians                          Canons of  Dart, Fifth Head of Doctrine,
 just about wipes out the antithesis in the  .lives  of God's                           Rejection of Errors, Article V.
 people. They may go to church on Sunday but for. the rest
 they live -as does the world. Many avidly absorb the Devil's             On the question how good works may be performed
 socialistic utopia of government. totalitarianism and depend         Ursinus writes on Question 91 of the Heidelberg Catechism
 upon government hand-out just as does the world. Many                as follows :
 send their children to Christ-less Public Schools as does the            `"The explanation' of this question is necessary on ac-
 world and if the Public School in this world is not the              count of the  -Pelagians,  who affirm that the unregenerate
world's plan of instruction, what is it? Many are members             may also as well as the regenerate, perform good works  ;  ancl
 of Christless Labor Unions and declare they would have               also on account of the Papists and semi-Pelagians who imag-
to starve if they did not become members. Many see no                 ine certain preparatory works of free-will. Good works are
wrong in non-Christian  television shows with its lust of the         possible only by the grace and the assistance of the Holy
flesh and the lust of .the eyes and the vainglory of life which       Spirit, and that by the regenerate alone, whose hearts have
is not from the Father but is of the. world. Many now                 truly been regenerated by the Spirit of God, through the
evidently do not have enough faith in Christ and in the               preaching. of the gospel, and that not only in their first
Almighty power of the Holy Spirit to finance adequately our           conversion and regeneration, but also  -by the constant and
schools of Christ but have strong desire to have  taxmoney            perpetual influence and direction of the same Spirit, who
of the world to support their religious' privilege. _                 works ,in them the knowledge -of sin, faith and a desire of
' `Must we maintain that the antifhesis  is relative because          new obedience, and'also  daily increases and confirms more
:man in his miserable sin has made it so ? Surely the im- and more the same gifts in them."
portant truth of the absolute antithesis will need more study                                                    Ursinus, Page 479
and more earnest preaching especially since Scripture warns
us concerning the world under domination of the Prince of                "For wolves to ..devour  sheep is no wonder : but for, sheep
this world who will show great wonders - great things in              to devour one another, is monstrous and astonishing." Anon.
the scientific; economic and `political spheres. Men will need           "To a true believer death is but going to church: from
to know something about this complete and only antithesis             the church below to the church above." Toplady.


