        voLunrE   x x x 1 1                              MAY  1,  ~~~~-GRAND  RAPIDS,   MICHIGAN                                        NU?V~BER   15

                                                                                     chapter  17 2-5 : "And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, be-
              MEDITA=fION                                                            cause he walked in the first ways of his..father David, and
                                                                                     sought. not unto Baalim; l&t sought to the Lord God of his
                                                                                     father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the
                 &XIMG HELP OF THE iORD:                                             doings of Israel. Therefore the Lord stablished the king-
  1                                                                                  dom in his hand',' ; and we see the wondrous manifestation
         .--'    "And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the                of God's grace in this man Jehoshaphat.
                 Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
                 And Judah gathered  the&selves  together, to  ask  help                                      *      :k     -*'
                                                                                                                                   *

                 of the Lord: even  out of all the cities of Judah they
                 catlie  to seek the Lord.                                               Well, it came to-pass after  this'also that the Moabites,
                 And all Judah  ,stood  b,efore   the Lord,  whh their little        Ammonites and the Edomites came against Jehoshaphat to
                 ones, their wives,  .and their children."                           battle.
                                                       II  C'hron.   20:3, 4, 13         And that was a very mean thing to do, as we can see from
                                                                                     Jehoshaphat's prayer, where he rehearsed in God's ears the
       The things which happened to  God"s people in the old                         history of God's people when ,sojourning from the .Red Sea
 dispensation. are types; those things happened unto them for                        to the promised land. Israel had-not invaded their borders
 ensamples; and they are written for our, ad-monition, upon                          but turned aside from them. And see now, says Jehoshaphat,
 whom the ends of the world are come.                                         . .    how they reward us, 0 God!
        So wrote the Holy Spirit through Paul in, I Cor. 10 :ll.
        I have chosen one of those things which happened unto:                           Arid he feared exceedingly.
 Judah during the days of king Jehoshapliat.                                             And under these circumstances Jehoshaphat seeks the  .*
        That king is a lovely person.. I am attracted to him.                        -Lord for help against this-great multitude of enemies.
       "To be sure, he was a sinful person, even as we all. But                          According to the measure of the flesh there was no might
.- by and large, he was a lovely person.                                             in Judah against this great host. They must have been far
        Note the context of my text.                                                 superior to Judah's and Benjamin's armies?  both in number
        He appointed judges-in Judah, and gave them a charge.                        and weapons. Otherwise it is difficult to interpret Jehosha-
        Thus : "And said to the judges, Take heed what ye do :                       phat's fear. It says in the text: "And Jehoshaphat'feared."
 for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with                             He was not mlusecl  to war, and appears a man of valour.
 you in the judgment. Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord                             And under these circumstances we read that he sought
 be upon you ; take heed and do it c for there is no iniquity                        the Lord.
 with the Lord our God, not respect of persons, not taking                               And his commandment went out toall Juclah  ancl Benja-
 of gifts."                                       ,                                  min to gather themselves in Jerusalem. to also seek the Lord
        And also this: "And he charged them, saying, Thus shall                      for help against this great multitude.
 ye do in the fear of the ~Lord,  faithfully, and with a perfect
 heart. And what cause  soever  shall come to you of your                                                          4: :b  * :;:
 brethren that dwell in their cities, between blood .and blood,
 between law and commandment, statutes and judgments, ye                                 Now all this has typical significance for us upon  whom
 shall even warn them that they trespass not against the Lord,                       the ends of the world have come.
 and so wrath come upon you, and upon your brethren: this                                We may -safely  -forget  about these. Moabites, Ammonites
 do, and  -ye  ,shall not trespass."  c                                              and Edomites, and concentrate on `their New Testament
        Add to this the testimony of the Holy Spirit found in                        equivalent.
         ^                                                                                      I


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                                                                                   :
      338                                                                    T H E   ST-A.NDARD   B E A R E R                                      ?

         Such is often the  case'with  Judah  ,and Benjamin of our                                   and more particularly, His -promise in the forefront of the
 day.                                                                                                valiant men of Judah : God's mercy endureth forever !
      - We are surrounded by the hosts of the  .devil who have                                             And they imagine themselves already the victor, for they
 just- one urg.e, and that urge is to' destroy the church from                                       say and -sing : Praise the Lord !
 the face of the earth.                                            _                                       Here you have a' concrete, -historical example of. what
                                                                                         _( .
         This urge is devilish.              -                                                       Paul would teach so many' years later: We- are more, than
       +In his own name he -is against the church, and he is                                        `conquerors through Jesus Christ. who loved us.
 against the church because of the fact that Jesus has His                                                 Oh yes, we will find Jesus in this text. Later.
 abode in the heart of that church, and he is against the                                                  But note here how Jehoshaphat and Judah go to the Lord
     Christ of God because he hates God above all.                                                 .Jehovah  for help.
         And this murderous hatred he translates into the heart of                                                                  *  .%  *  6
 the world, both as to the heart of the reprobates, and to an
 extent, into the flesh-of ,God's.own  elect church.                                                       And so does the church of all the ages.
         And so the church is in danger oft.                                                         .     No, we are not fighting the Moabites and their ilk. .They
         And the greatest danger of all is sin.                                                      are gone forever.
         You remember the counsel of .Bileam: make God's Israel                                            But we need help against their New Testament equivalent.
 sin, and the wrath of God will come as a matter of course.                                                And we go to the same God.
         And the reason ?                                                                                  We sing to G8d : "My lowly state and bitter need !"
         Sin incurs guilt; and guilt is liability to punishment ; and                                      Sinners, worthy of hell and damnation, every day and
 the punishment of guilt is death, everlasting death.                                                night.
         There is an eternal tornado of the wrath of God against                                           The devil going about in Hudsonville and Grand Rapids,
 sin and guilt of man.                                                                               seeking whom he may destroy.
         Hence, the greatest enemy against the church of God is                                            The God-hating world round about us, always watching,
 sin.                                                                   0                            watching, waiting for an opening to lay us low.
                                    * 1:          *           *                                            And so we go to God, just as Jehoshaphat and Judah.
                                                                                                           And through faith, born of the grace of God, .we say to
         In such a situation the church seeks for God, the Lord.                                     one .anothei--: "Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set
         Look at Jehoshaphat, and with him, Judah and Benjamin.                                      yourselves, stand ye. still, and see the salvation of the Lord
         They gathered together for to seek help of the Lord.                                 .      with you, 0 Judah and Jerusalem : fear not, nor be dismayed ;
         And that is the right place for help.                                                       tomorrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with
         His name is Jehovah, that is, the faithful Covenant God you."                                                         I
 who created the heavens `and the earth, who had redeemed                                                 ' Concretely, the last clause: THE LORD WILL BE
     Israel out of Egyptian bondage. That speech was before                                          WITH YOU! is Jesus Christ, assuming the whole battle.
 the face of pious king Jehoshaphat. Oh, how he must have .--alone! Imiflanzcel! Jehovah with us!
 thought of that faithful Covenant- Jehovah when the mes-                                                                           * +  * *
 sengers came to tell him of the great multitude of enemies'                                                             .-
 that gathered at his borders.                                                                             The iast question approaches : Help : `how ?
      This Jehovah had given great and  gloriousapromises.                                                 Well, Jehoshaphat, that lovely person will tell you.
         Let me tell you in a few little words. He had said to                                             They sought the Lord ; he proclaimed a fast; they asked
 the father of Israel : I am thy God and the God of thy seed.                                        help of the Lord.
 That's all, and it is enough.                                                                             And they did so  asa Covenant people.
         Help from God they sought.                                                                  ,     Allow me to point this out to you.
         Well, that help is God Himself.                                                                  First, "they gathered themselves. together.`:
`.       Listen! You sing of it often: "Thou art my Saviour and                                            Second, they came "even out of all the cities of Judah."
 my Help ; Come Lord,,and  tarry not !"                                                                    Third, "all Judah stood before the. Lord."
         God is the help of Israel.                                                     _-                 Fourth, "with their little ones, their wives, and their
         Well, Jehoshaphat believed in the help he sought as is                                      children."
 shown conclusively when- they gather themselves to go up to                                               This last point is pathetic : their ~little ones !
 that great host of the children of the-devil.                                                             That is Covenant endeavour. God's people are not an
         Imagine: they set in the forefront of the army a company                                    aggregation of individuals ; oh no, they are a "chosen  genera-
 of singers, and this is their song: "Praise the Lord, for His                                       tiorr.5. royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people."
                                                        --
 mercy endureth forever  !"                                                                                I glean this from the New Testament. Things  did, not
         Ho-w  the strategists, the genera1.s  and the captains of the _ change essentially in this New Dispensation.
 world must have laughed!                                                                                  And they approach the living God Jehovah as a nation,
         But notice, dear reader, how the king really set, Jehovah,                                  according to the style of the Covenant which is made with
                         *                                                                                                                                         `a


                              .


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                                                            T H E   STAND.ARD   B E A R E R                                                                                                339

     believers and their seed, because they are going to plead
     on the Covenant promises. Listen to them: "Art Thou not                                               THE   STANDARD   BEARER
     our God, who didst `drive out the inhabitant of this land                               Sc~ni-~vlo~ltlt~~~,  erscep t  monthly  during  Jzcw,   J,uly  a,nd  .&gust
     before Thy people Israel and gavest it to the seed of Abraham                             Published by the REX~RMED  FREE PUBLISHING  ASSOL-IATI~N
     thy friend forever  ?'                                                                  P. 0. Box  SSI, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
           Therefore the little ones too, and their wives and children.                                      Ed&w  -  REV.  HERMAN  HOEKSEMA
           Thus  we-see  Judah before the Lord in Jerusalem.                                 Communications relative to contents should Be addressed to Rev.
                                                                                             H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
                                  .*     *    :k      *                                      All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
                                                                   "
                                                                        -                    G. Pipe, 1463 Ardmore St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mi.chigan.
           Instinctively, spiritually, the Church of God has always                          Announcements- and Obituaries must `be mailed to the above
     known this : it was taught them by the Word of God. Do we                               address and Will be'published at a fee of $1.00 for each notice.
     not read that in the days of Enos: then began men to call                               RENEWALS   : Unless a definite request  fomr  discontinuance is re-
     upon  -theAname  of the Lord.? And that name of all names                               ceived, it is assusmed  that the subscriber wishes the subscription
                                                                                             to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
     is Jehovah ! Hallelujah !.
           Yes, we also seek the Lord. We have.our Jehoshaphats;                                                  Subscription price: $4.00 per year
           First, it shows that we lost Him. By nature we also are                           Entered as  Secoltd  Class  matter `at  Graltd   RasfGds,  Michigafc
     children of wrath.                                                              I
           Second, it shows that principally the Church was found
     of Him already ; for we are His .Covenant  people.                                                                     C O N T E N T S
           Third, it shows that the church realizes that their. ally is
     in Him. We manifest in our hearts that food, comfort, the MEDITATION   -
     earth and the flesh, is nothing to us. "There  is none' upon                               Asking-Help of the Lord. _ : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : .337
     earth that I desire beside Thee." ,We have our fasts.                                             Rev. G. Vos
           Fourth, it shows that the highest and the deepest source                        EDITORIALS  -
     of our seeking is the love of God.                                                          The Election of -God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
           Fifth, it shows Covenant. life: the' streams of love and                                    Rev. H. Hoeksema
                                                                                                    ._
     friendship seek  .their source upon the mountains of God's                            OUR  DOCIXINE-
     holiness together. Amen.                                                      G.V.          The Triple Knowledge- (Part III  _ Of Thankfulness) . . . . .342
                =.                                                                                     R e v .   H .   H o e k s e m a

                             CALL TO SYNOD                                                 THE. DAY CW'SH.&OWS  -
                                                                   .                             The  Propf%cy  of Zechariah.. . . .l................... . . . . . . . 346
           Pursuant to the decision of the last Synod, the Consistory                                  Rev. G. M. Ophoff
      of the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland,  Il-x
      linois, -her&by notifies the churches  that the 1956 Synod -of                       FROM   HOLY   WRIT-
      the Protestant Reformed Churches will convene on-wednes-                                   Exposition of I Corinthians 1-4 (14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .349
      day, June 6, D.V., at 9 a. m. in the above-mentioned church.                                     Rev. G. Lubbers
           The pre-synodical service will be held .on Tuesday eve-                         IN HIS   FEAR -
      ning, June 5, at  7:30 p.m., in the South Holland Church.                                  The Godless "Lucky Number" Craze.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .351
      The Rev. C.  Hanko, president of -the previous synod, is  '                                    Rev.   J.  A.  Heys
      scheduled to preach at this service.
           Synodical  delegates are requested to gather with the CONTENDING  FOR THE FAITH  -
                                                                                                 The Church and the Sacraments (Baptism 4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .353
     \ Consistory before the service.                                                                  Rev. H. Veldman
                      Consistorv of the Prot. Ref. Church
                      of South Holland, Illinois,             -                            THE   VOICE   OF  OUR   FATHERS-
                                                     H.  C Hoeksema; President.                  The Exposition of the Canons of Dohdrecht.. . . . .`. . . . . . . . .355
                                                Wm. T. Terpstra, Clerk                                    Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
                                                                                           DECENCY   AND   ORDER-
                                   NOTICE!                                                       The Office of the  Deacon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
                                                                                                    R e v .   ,G.  VandenBerg
           The Editorial Staff -of the Sturtdard Bearer will meet, the
     -Lord willing, in South Holland, Illinois, at the home of Rev.                        ALL   AROUND  Us -
      H. C. Hoeksema, on Thursday evening, June 7,. 1956. The                                    Lotve  thy Neighbor fosr God's Sake;. . . . . :. . . . . . . ._. . . . . . . .359
                                                                                                 The Nationa!  Council and N.B.C.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .-. . . . .359
      members of the staff will please view this announcement as                                       Rev.  M;  Schipper
      an official notice.
     .'                                       Rev. H. Veldman, Secretary


   3            4          0                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                                        election,  in- those who  reiuse to walk in the ways of the
                     E.D I T 0  W  II A  E S                                            e l e c t . "
                                                                                            I am convinced, by reading Berkduwer's  Book, that he ,
                                                                                        cannot subscribe to the words I underscored above  ; the truly
                           The Election of God                                          Prptestant Reformed man does.
        According   to  Berkouwer   and  accor&mg   t,o  the  Pnot.   Reformed              I believe with all  pzy  &rt and  -&Uzo,~tt any reservation
                                                                                        that God sovereignly rejects as well- as elects according to
        -,I  lpAi&e  witI-1  a.11  7ny  heart  and  zvithozd any  1-&er-vntiori         Canons I, 15 : "What peculiarly tends to illustrate and rec-
   that : "Election is tlie unchangeable purpose of. God, whereby.                      ommend to us the et&-nal  and unmerited grace of election,
   .before  the foundation of the world, he hath out of mere grace,                     is the express testimony of sacred Scripture, that not all,
   according to the sovereign good pleasure of  -his own will,                          but some only are' elected, while others are passed by ip the
   chosen, from the whole human race, which had fallen.through                          eternal decree ; whom God, out of his sovereign, most just,
   their own fault, from their primitive state of rectitude, into' irreprehensible and undhangeable good pleasure, hath decreed
   sin and destruction, a certain number of persons to redemp-                          to leave in the common misery into which they have willfully
   tion in Christ, whom he from eternity appointed the Medi-                            plunged themselves, and not to bestow upon them saving
   ator .ancl  Head of the elect, and.  the foundation of salvation.                    faith and the grace of conversion- ; but permitting the& in
   This elect number, though by nature neither better nor more                          hl"s just judgment to follow their own ways,  at last for the
   deserving than others, but with them involved in one com-                            declaration of his justice, to condemn and punish them for-
   mon miser_y,  God hath decreed to give tb Christ. to be saved                        ever, not only on accomlt of their unbelief, but also for all
   by- him, and effectually to call and,draw  them into his com-                        their other sins. And this is.the decree of reprobation which
  nlunion  by his Word and Spirit, to bestow upon them true                             by no means makes God the author of sin (the very thought
   faith, justification and sanctification ; and having powerfully                      of which is blasphemy), but declares him to be an awful,
   preserved them in the fellowship of his Sbn. finally, to glorify                     irrepreliensible, and righteous judge and avenger thereof."
   them for the demonstrat:lori of his mercy, and for the praise                            Also to this decree of reprobation, evkn in its  infralap-
  %.of the riches of his glorious grace." Canons I, 7.                                  .sarian  form as it is presented in the above Canon, Berkouwer
         In the words that are underscored in the above sentence,                       does not subscribe with n!l his heart and -tiitizout 0.p~~ reser-
   "with all my`heart"  and "without any reservatidn"  you may                          vation; the truly Protestant Reformed man ddes.
   discover the difference between  Berkouwer's  view of and                                I believe with a.11 VX_V hea:]-t and without &~y rqervation
   approach to the doctri.ne  of election and that of the Protestaut                    that it is the unconditional promise of the gospel that believ-
   Reformed man.                                                                        ers in Christ shall be saved, and that this gospel must be
          I believe with  a12  1~1,~  healrt  and  witholtt  a.ny  reserzmtiovt         preached to all to whom, in his good pleasure, he sends it;
   "That the elect in due time, though in various degrees and                           according to Canons II, 5 : "Moreover, the promise of the
   in different measures, attain the assurance of `this their eter-                     `gospel is, that whbsoever believeth in Christ crucified, shall
   nal and unchangeable election, not by inquisitively prying                           not perish, but have everlasting life. This promise, together
   into the secret ancl deep things of God, but by observing in                         with the command to repent and believe, ought to be de-
themselves with a spiritual joy and holy pleasure,  the `in-                            clared and published to all nations, and to all persons pro-
   f&ible fruits of election pointed out in the .Word of God-                           miscuously and without distinction," to whom God out of his
   such  as a true faith in Christ, filial fear, a godly sorrdw for                     good pleasure sends the gospel?
   sin, a hungering and thirsting after rightdousness,  etc."                               It may seem strange, in view of the fact that  he thinks
         Again, I say `that in the utlderscored  words you may find                     that he can quote this passage of the Canons against the
   the difference between  the conception of election and the ap-                       Protestant Reformed believer in election and reprobation, but
   proach to it between Berkouwer and the truly Protestant                              it is a fact, nevertheless, that, not Berkouwer, but only the
R e f o r m e d   m a n .                                                               truly Protestant. Reformed man can confess this with all his
         I believe with  alb  my  heart  ad  zvitho~ut  a.xy  rcscrva.tio+z             heart and without any reservation.
   that "The sense -and certainty of this election afford to the                            This  is- especially true because the truly Protestant Re-
   children of God additional matter for daily humiliation be-                          formed man`also confesses with all Izis head and ,witlzout  any
   fore him, for adoring the depth of his mercie_,  for cleansing                       r~.se-uz~.tio~z  the following : `(For this was the sovereign coun-
   themselves, and rendering grateful returns of ardent~.love  to                       sel, and most gracious will and purpose of God the Father,
   him, who first manifested so* great love towards them. The                           that the quickening and saving efficacy of the.most  precious
   consideration of this  doctri& of election is so far from en-                        death of his Son Should &end to all the elect, for bestowilig
   couraging  ritmissness  in the  .observance  of the divine  c&n-                     upon them alone the gift of justifying faith, thereby to bring
  mands, or from. sinking men in carnal security, that these                            them infallibly to- salvation : that is, it was the will of God,
   in the just judgment of God, are the usual effects of rash                           that Christ by the blood of the `cross, whereby he confirmed
   presumption, or of idle and-wanton trifling with the grace of                        the new covenant, should effectually redeem out of every
                                                                                  .:


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   - B E A R E R                                                       341

people, tribe, nation and language, all those, and those only,            elect, or works in them t&e conversion, he not only causes
who -were from eternity chosen to salvation, and given to                 the gospel to be externally preached to them, and power-
him by the Father; that he should confer upon them faith,                 fully illuminates their minds by His Holy Spirit, that they
which together with all the other saving gifts of the Holy                may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit
Spirit,. he purchased for them by his death ; should purge                of God ; but by the efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit,
them from all sin, both original and actual, whether commit-         pervades the inmost recesses bf the man  ; he opens the closed
ted before or after believing  ; and having faithfully preserved          and softens the hardened `heart, and circumcises `that which
them even to the end, should at last bring them free from                 was uncircumcised, infuses new qualities into the will, which               s
every spot and blemish to the enjoyment of glory in his own               though heretofore dead,  he quickens; from being evil, dis-
presence forever."                                                        obedient, and refractory. he renders it good, obedient, and
   This, too, Berkouwer, judging from his book, cannot con-               pliable; actuates and strengthens it, that Zke a good tree, it
                                                                     .
fess with all his heart and z@ho,ut reservatiion.                         may bring forth the fruit of good actions."
   Again, the Protestant Reformed man believes and con-                      All this the truly Protestant Reformed man believes `and
fesses with a,21 his heart and without reservation that man is            confesses with a21 his heart a,nd witho,& arty resevvntion; but
completely dead in sin and that he can be changed only by                 Berkouwer does not.
the sovereign grace of God alone, without any help or coop-                  Finally, the truly Protestant .Reformed  man also believes
eration on the part of man. This is according to the Re-                  and colifesses  with his zohole heart and with&t a?ly reserva-
formed Confessions in  Canons  III, IV, 3, 4, 10,. 11:                    tio,n that God infallibly preserves the elect unto final salva-
   "Therefore all men are conceived in sin, and by nature                 tion in Christ by his Holy Spirit, as it is expressed in  .our
children of wrath, incapable of saving good, prone to evil,               confessions, Canons V, 6, 7: "But God, who is rich in mercy,
dead in sin, and in bondage thereto, and without the regen-          according to his unchangeable -purpose of election, does not
erating grace of the Holy Spirit, they are neither able nor               wholly withdraw the Holy Spirit from his own people, even
willing to return to God, to reform the `depravity of their               in thei?  melancholy falls; nor suffers them to proceed so far
nature, nor dispose themselves to reformation.                            as to lbse the grace of adoption, and forfeit the state of justi-
   "There remain, however, in man since the fall glimmer-                 fication, or to commit the sin unto death ; nor does he permit
ings of natural light, whereby he retains some knowledge of               them to be totally deserted, and to plunge themselves into
God, of natural things, and of the difference between good                everlasting destruction.
and evil, and discovers some regard for virtue, good order                   "For in the first place, in these falls he preserves in them
in society and for maintaining an orderly external deport-                the incorruptible seed of regeneration from perishing  or
ment. But so far is this light of nature from being sufficient            being totally lost; and again by His  Word and Spirit, cer-
to bring him to- a saving knowledge of God, and to true con-              tainly and .effectually  renews them to repentance, to a sin-
version, that he is incapable of using it aright even in things           cere and godly sorrow for their sins, that they may seek and
natural and civil. Nay further, this light, such as it is, man in         obtain remission in the blood of the Mediator, may again
various ways renders wholly polluted, and holds it in un-                 experience the favor of a reconciled God, through faith adore          '
righteousness, by doing which he becomes inexcusable be-                  his mercies, and  henceforward  more diligently work out their
f o r e   G o d . "                                                       own salvation with fear and  tretibling."        ~.
   So much about the state of the natural man, dead in sin                   And again in Canons V, 9: "Of this preservation of the
and misery. On the other hand, as to the absolutely sgver-                elect to salvation and of their perseverance in the faith, true
eign grace whereby this dead sinner is changed from death                 believers for themselves may and do obtain assurance ac-
into life, from darkness into light, the same Canons have the             cording to the measure of their faith, whereby they arrive
following :                                                               at the certain persuasion, that they ever will continue true
   "But that others who are called by the gospel, obey the                and living members of the church ; and that they experience
call and are converted, is not to be ascribed to the proper               forgiveness of sins, and will at last inherit eternal life."
exercise of free will, whereby one distinguishes himself above               All this the truly Protestant Reformed man believes and
others, equally furnished with grace. sufficient for faith and            confesses wholeheartedly and without any reservation; Ber-
conversion, as the p;oud heresy of Pelagius maintains ; but               kouwer does not.
it must be wholly ascribed to God, who as he has chosen his                                                                         H. H.
own from eternity in Christ, so he confers upon them faith
and repentance, rescues them from the power of darkness;
and translates them into the kingdom of his own Son, that                    "Forsooth the knowledge of sin is out of the law in as
they may show forth the praises of him, who hath called                   far as all sin finds its measuring-rod in the law, and, there-
them out of darkness into his marvelous  -light   ; and may          -fore, is lawlessness ; (anomia) but that man learns to see
glory not in themselves, but in the Lord according to the                 and acknowledge sin in its true nature is due to the Gospel
tes$nony  of the .apostles  in various places.                            and must be viewed as a fruit of faith."
    "But when God accomplishes, his good pleasure in the                           Bavinck's Dogmatics, p. 146,  Faith and Conversion


     342                                                  T H E   .STANDARD   B.EARER
                                                                           ._; In the light of the preceding, the question probably will
                O U R   DOCTR,N'E                                         b$ asked whether this prayer for deliverance from evil is
                                                                          merely an expression of longing for the perfection of heaven,
                                                                          and whether it does not apply to our present life whatsoever.
                   THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE  -'                               Is it merely eschatological? Does not God hear this prayer
                                                                          even now, while we are in this world  ? Even though this
            Aiv  EXPOSITION OF THE  HEIDELBERG  CATECIXSM                 were the .case, that ,there were no answer to this prayer ex-
                    PART  III  -OF THANKFULNESS                           cept after death, the believer would still have to utter this
                                                                          cry for deliverance every day of his life.
                                LORD'S DAY 52                                 Nevertheless, this is not the case. Our Father in heaven
                                 C h a p t e r   I I I                    hears this prayer even now, while we are still in the body of
                                                                          this death. And when He does hear this prayer, the firstfruit
                   Prayer for Deliverance from Evil                .      is that we increase in that grace whereby we may cast an
        We perhaps all have heard the claim made occasionally that        even deeper glance into the inner recesses of our own exist-
     one has lived a whole day,' a week, a month, a year, perhaps,        ence, and discover more and more sins and more corruptions
     without committing any sin. But a claim of that kind is              in our sinful nature. Sins we never noticed before then come
     based on a very superficial notion of sin, and is -the result
                                    ~.                                    to stand clearly before our consciousness. Secondly, the
     of a very cursory examination of one's self. Perhaps we are          answer to this prayer results too in our growing more sen-
     in a position to make such a claim if we mean that for a             sitive, so that we begin to consider sinful what formerly we
     day or week, or even a longer period, we were never angry,           approved, and so that we begin spontaneously to approve
     or spoke a profane word, or flew into a rage, or cursed and          that which is excellent. `Further, the answer to this prayer
     swore, or stole, or committed adultery. But how about the            reveals itself in this, that we become more deeply sorry for
     true, positive standard, that all things must be done to the         our sin and our sinful condition, bemoan them in sackcloth
     glory of  `God and must be motivated by the pure love of             and ashes before our God, and that we more earnestly seek
     God if they are not to fall into the  category~  of sin? Would       and  find'the blessedness of His forgiving grace. Still more:
     anyone have the courage to claim that every word he spoke            in answer to this prayer God gives us grace to  fight the
     and every deed he did were perfect according to that, stand-         battle against sin. He gives us the knowledge of "that good,
     ard ? Or let us turn from the audible word that passed our           and acceptable, and perfect-will of God," and instills into
     lips and from the external deed that was performed,. to the          our hearts a deeper and greater love of that perfect will. -He
     secret recesses of our own inner life, to our thoughts, to our       causes us to watch and pray, and gives us more abundant
     desires, to our emotions, to ..our' motives- or hidden inclina-      grace to put off the old man and his deeds, and to put on the
     tions. Who is there; that calls himself a Christian and that         new man, as the elect of God, "bowels of mercies, kindness,
*    takes things seriously, that lives before the face -of God con-      humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering," and, "charity,
     sciously at all, who would dare to claim that all his thoughts       which is the bond of perfectness." Col. 3  :12, 14. In short,
     were of God, that all his desires were pure, that all his emo-       He gives us grace to put on the whole armor of God, that
     tions were motivated by the love of God and of the brother,          we may fight the good` fight of faith, and that in this fight
     that never a sinful inclination arose from the dark recesses         we may not be defeated and overcomei but persevere even
     of his hidden life, for a week, fora  day, or even for an hour?      unto the end, that no one take our crown. And thus, being
     I emphatically deny that there is a man on earth, or that            replenished by His graee daily, we continue to pray, and
     there ever was or will be, outside of our Lord Jesus Christ,         indeed cry more fervently as our prayer is heard:  `"Our
     Who was the only sinless  -man  in all the history of this           Father Who art in heaven, deliver us from evil."
     world, that could honestly step forward and say, "I am that             Yet, the final answer to this prayer will not be heard until
     man." And I deny that there is any serious-minded Chris-             we arrive at perfection in eternal glory, as also the Heidel-
     tian that will ever lay claim to a sinless day in this world.        berg `Catechism suggests in that last clause of Question 127 :
     On the contrary, he will confess that all he does, that even         I`. . . till at ,last we obtain a complete victory."
     the very best of his works, are defiled with sin, and that             0, indeed, our Father in heaven hears this prayer even
     with none of them  would-he,  dare to. appear in judgment be-        while we are still in the flesh and in ,this present world, in
     fore God. And it is that Christian, who is perfect in principle,     the midst of all kinds of temptations. Nevertheless, He,.will
     but very imperfect in the body of this death, who, looking at        not deliver us to the utmost until death comes to open the
     the sinful nature that is always with him and that makes it          door for us into the heavenly perfection.  .This prayer is
     impossible for him ever to perform anything that is not de-          heard, first of all, when the earthly house of this tabernacle
     filed with sin, cries from the depths of his regenerated -heart :    is dissolved, and we enter into the house of God not made
     "Our Father Who art in heaven, deliver us from the evil              with hands,. eternal in the heavens. But in the last analysis,
     one and from all evil."                                              final perfection and deliverance from the evil one and from


                                              T H E    S T A j& A R ,-, -.`j& A'& R                                                 343
                                                                             .-_.      :                  P
 all evil, from all sin and corruption and from all the effects of    of our.vGbd,  ev& over all the forces of temptation and over
 sin, does not come until the day of the Lord, when He shall          all the powers of &il, so that we canriot be led into temptation
 raise our corruptible and mortal bodies  int.6 the  glooi-y  of      but by $he will. of our heavenly Father. Triumphantly, as it
 incorruptibility and immortality, and give us our place for-, were, the doxology supplies the reason for  .the contents of
ever in the heavenly tabernacle of God in, the new creation.          this petition. For it--acknowledges that there is no sover-
 In last analysis it is to that perfection that this prayer looks     eignty, no rule, no power, and no glory in anyone else but
 forward. And it is with his eye on that- glorious state  of          in our heavenly Father.  Tkirte,  not the devil's, not  men's,-
 perfect righteousness that the believer utters this prayer:          not all the power of the world and of the flesh, but Thine is
 "Dkliver us from the evil one."                                      the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. In the
     From this it is evident what is  the spiritual disposition       second place, it supplies the motive and the grotind  for the
 required to utter this -final petition of the Lord's Prayer in       entire -prayer. We prayed as we did because our heavenly
 spirit and in truth. In general, it is the `disposition in which     Father's is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
-we earnestly long for complete perfection. It implies a deep         Th.at is the reason why we addressed Him as our Father in
 and growing spiritual -knowledge of our sinful condition, a          heaven. That  & also the reason why the first place in our
 profound consciousness of sin. It presupposes a deeply rooted        prayer, and, in fact, the first half of all the petitions we made
 -hatred and abhorrence of sin, of all sin, and that too? because     were devoted to God and His cause : His name, His kingdom,
 sin is contrary  to. the will of God and dishonors His holy          His will. And that is the reason, too, why we asked of Him
 name. It presupposes that he who utters this prayer is               for our daily bread, for the remission  of- our sins, and for
 moved by a strong resolution to fight against all evil and to        the deliverance -from evil. But lastly, although this  -is not
 keep all the commandments of God. For how shall one bring            true as far as the connection with the Lord's Prayer is con-
 this prayer before the face of the Holy One as long as there         cerned, we may also look upon this.doxology  as a most -beau-
 is even one sin which he nourishes and presses to his bosom.?        tiful conclusion and climax of  the entire Heidelberg  Cate-
 There is, moreover, in this prayer the expression of a deep          6hism.  Our little. book of  in&i-uction,  commenced with the
 consciousness of our utter dependence upon the grace of              confession of the Christian that his only comfort in life and
 God, and of the truth of the words of  Jestis,  "Without me          death is that he belongs to his faithful Savior Jesus Christ,
 ye can do nothing." As long as we imagine that in any sense          Who so preserves  h& and cares for him that without the
 we can deliver ourselves from evil, this prayer has no `room         will of his heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from his head.
 in our hearts. And so, this last petition-is motivated .by the       That confession of the Christian's comfort in life and death.
 love of the bride for the Bridegroom and by the desire to be         was the keynote  of. the entire Catechism, and was maintained
 like Him at His coming. Yea, come, Lord Jesus ; and come             throughout.  I And  in. this last Lord's Day, particularly in
quickly !                                                             Answer 128, our little instrudtor closes with the ground for
                                                                      that very confession : "Our Father Who art in heaven, Thine
                           chapter  I    V                            only is the kingdom, Thine only is the power, Thine only is
              The  fioxology of the Lord's Prayer                     the glory forever. That  Thou art our God and Father  in'
                                                                      Jesus Christ our Savior is indeed our only comfort in life
    The conclusion of the Lord's Prayer is called the dox-            and in death."
 ology, which means an ascriptibn of praise or glory to God.           . The doxology had its place in the Lord's Prayer from
    This,doxology, w$ may note at once, as also the Heidel-           earliest times. To us it would appear very strange and abrupt
 berg Catechism, in Question-and  AnSwer  128, emphasizes, is         if ever we would close the Lord's Prayer with the sixth peti-
 connecte,d with the whole prayer by `the conjunction for : "For      tion. However, if you consult your Revised Version  df the           '
 thine is the kingdom; and the power, and the glory, for ever."       Bible, you will discover tha2: these words are omitted. And
 It therefore assumes the character of a reason, a reason for         that they do not occur there is a question of textual criticism.
 the fact that we pray, that we pray to our Fathkr Who is in          This omission means that it is now quite generally accepted
 heaven, and a reason also for the contents of our prayer.            -on the basis of sound- investigation of the original manu-
 Thus also the Heidelberg Catecl+sm,  which explains : " `For         scripts of the New Testament that the doxology does not be-
 thine is the kingdom, a,nd the power, and the glory, for ever';      long to the text of the Lord's Prayer as o+$nally  given by
 that is, all these we ask of thee, because thou, being our King      our Savior  to His disciples, and that it was inserted later.
 and almighty, ,art willing and able to give us all good; and
 all this we pray for, that thereby not we, but thy holy name,           I cannot  enter into the discussion of this  critical-   ques;
 may be gl&ified'for ever."                                           tion here. All I wish to say now is that even though it must
    We may view this doxology as a reason for the preceding           be admitted that the preponderance of the original manu-
 from a threefold point of view. In the first place, we may say       scripts of the New Testament is in favor of its omission from
 that it is most intimately connected with the sixth petition,        the text in Matthew, it is safe to assume that the church will
 and assigns a reason for it. Especially that sixth petition im-      always continue  to' close the Lord's Prayer with this par-
 plied an acknowledgement of the supremacy and sovereignty            ticular conclusion.

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

            We may say too that therk is good reason, ndt only for        is an ascription of praise: in it we adore the Most High.
     the continuance of this custom, but also for considering.these       &nd this is after all the essence, the deepest meaning, of all.
     closing words as quite Scriptural, and'therefore  for treating       prayer. The highest purpose of prayer is not to receive some-
     it in our discussion as a genuine part of the Lord's Prayer.         thing for ourselves. Oh, this is true too: in prayer we desire
     Not only does this prayer without the. doxology come to a            something, we ask something from God. Principally we al-
     very  unnatgral,  abrupt close  ; but doxologies  pf this kind       Ways ask for His grace, and we long to enter into His cove-
     abound in Scripture,  so that the closing words of the model         hant fellowship. But the chief purpose always is that we
     prayer may certainly be said to be inspired as to their con-         may adore Him and glorify His holy name. In prayer we
     tents. Even in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms,          desire grace to know Him, in, order that we may taste Him Bs
     we have some very beautiful ascriptions  qf praise to Jehovah.       the sole fountain`of all good, and thus ascribe all praise-and
     Think,  for instance, of the close of Ps. 103: "The Lord hith        honor and glory to Him- alone. Only conceived of in this
     prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth           light can wt understand that prayer is the chief part of thank-
     over all. `Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength,    fulness. I'n.pray& we desire to receive in our own conscious-
     that do his  comandments,  hearkening unto <he voice of  -his        ness `an impression of the- goodness, of a& the wonderful
     word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his  angels;   ye min-               virtues and glory of the  Most  High. And having  b&ome
     isters of his, that do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, all             deeply conscious of the wonders of His Being, we then adore
     my soul." And Ps. 150, which is one grand ascription of              Him and express His wonders before one. another  and before
     praise to the Lord, closes with the words: "Let every thing          the whole world, but also, and principally, before His face.
     that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord." And           And such adoration is the highest expression of gratitude.
     the same is true of the New Testament. Are not the words             Our thankfulness is certainly not expressed in this, that we -
     with which the apostle Paul closes the eleventh chapter of           attempt to do something for Him. For God is the  all-s'uf-
     the epistle to the Romans a glorious doxology? "0 the depth          ficient in Himself. He is the only fountain of all good. `And
     of the riches both of the  tiisdom  and knowledge of God !           we can add nothing to that fountain. All tie can do is ascribe
     how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past find-          praise to Him, and adore the wonderful virtues of His
     ing  .out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or               Being. Thus it is in all Scripture. In Ps. 116, .to mention
     who hath been his  counsellor   ? Or who hath first given to         just one illustration, we find that the psalmist. has tasted the
     him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again ? For of             wonderful grace and goodness of Jehovah.  For- he was in
     him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom            deep trouble. The sorrows of death compassed him, and the
     be glory for. ever. Amen." In Phil. 4  :?O we read: "Now             pains ?f hell gat hold upon him. He found trouble and. sor-
     unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen."           row. vs. 3. But he called upon the name of the Lord,  Bnd
     And the apostle John, in his introduction to, the book of Rev-       the Lord  helped  him out of all his distress. Thus he  tasted~
     elation, writes : "Unto him that loved us, and  -washed  us          the virtues of the Lord, as he expresses it in vs. 5 : "Gracious
     from our sins in his own blood,. And hath made us kings              is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful." And
     and priests unto  God and his Father; to him be glory and. what will he do now? Will he attempt to. do something for
     dominion for ever and ever. Amen." The four and twenty               the Lord in return ? On the coritrary, he realizes deeply
     elders fall down to worship Him that sitteth upon the  thi-one,      that he can never repay the Lord for all His benefits, as he
     saying, "Thou art worthy; 0 Lord, to receive glory and               expresses it in verses 12 and 13: "What shall I render unta
                                                                          the Lord. for all his benefits toward -tie ?- I will take the. cup
     honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and by            of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord." To- glorify
     thy pleasure they are and were created." Rev.  4:11. And             and adore the Most High is the sole proper -way of thanks-
     all creation breaks forth in praise unto God and the Lamb            giving for His benefits.
     in the& words: "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power,             Such is  Jhe idea of this doxology at the close of  the.
     be .unto him that sitteth upon  the throne, and unto the Lamb        Lord's Prayer. It still addresses the Lord, our God,  our
     for ever and ever." Rev. 5 :13. And the holy angels r&pond           Father Which  ii in heaven; yet not any more in humble
     to the praise of the redeemed church in glory, "Saying,              petition, but in  gdoration.  The believer htre tells the Lord
     Amen: blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving,             something. He praises Him in His face, and in exultation
:    and honour, and power, and might be,unto God for ever and            declares that His is the kingdom, His is the power, His is
     ever. Amen." Rev.  7:12. Hence, it seems to me that the              the glory, and that'too, forever.
     Lord Jesus never intended us to close our prayers abruptly              Let us first try to understand the meaning of these clos-
     with the sixth petition and with the word "evil," and that,          ing words, in order then to inquire into their significance and
     textual criticism notwithstanding, the Revised Version had           relation to the whole of this perfect prayer.
     served us  better by leaving this beautiful doxology in the             Three things we ascribe in this doxology to God: the
     body of the text.                                                    kingdom, the power, and the glory.
                                                                                                           -
            As we have already stated, the close of the Lord's Prayer        .It will be evident that the words "for ever" are meant


                                                - T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEAkER  .                                                    345          "

                                                                                         `
                                                                                          .
     to modify all three, the kingdom, the power, and the glory,            ile  iti+&er aiid pretender to- the throne who is temporarily
     so that the meaning is : Thine is the kingdom for ever ; Thine         successful, but who will ultimately be expelled by the king;
     is the power. for ever; Thine is the glory for ever. And the           who will then hold.undisputed  sway in his domain.
     whole doxology, as well as the whole of our prayer, is closed              But such is not the meaning of .this doxology.
     with the solemn assurance of faith and confidence, "Amen."                 To ascribe such a meaning to it would not be to the glory
        Each  if these three elements of the doxology we must               of God, but would rather be to belittle and to profane His
     explain a little more in detail.                                       holy name, the name of our Father Which is in heaven.
-       Thine is the kingdom forever. 1~ these words the child                  God's is the kingdom!
     of God ascribes to his Father in heaven absolute sovereignty               And notice that we should add here too : forever! This
     over all things, undisputed, exclusive, and forever. This              modifier does  -not  mei-ely  look to the future, when all the
     means,  first of  911, that God has the sole authority, the ex-        powers of darkness shall be destroyed. ..It has reference to         -
     clusive prerogative to rule, not only over His kingdom asit            the present and to all the past as well. God always did rule.
     is  esttiblished  in Jesus Christ our Lord,  .but absolutely over      He always does. rule. And  IjCe always will  rtile as the sole
     all things, over all creatures in the entire universe. He  is          and absolute Sovereign-over all things. Even when the devil
sovereign Lord! But these words also declare that God                       and all the powers.of darkness appear to rule, it is God alone
     actually has the dominion, that He always does rule with               that rules. Even when  they think they rule, as in the vain
     sovereign might, and that no one is ever  ,able to deprive             imagination of their foolish minds they no doubt do, it is                     -
     Him of the reins  of government. Two things, therefore, are            God only that has the sole authority over all things. As we
     expressed here : "Thou, 0 -Father in heaven, art the only              read in the second Psalm: "Why do the` heathen rage, and.
     rightful Sovereign over  all~things,  and must be acknowledged         the people imdgine a vain thing 7 The kings of the earth set
as such; " and, "Thou, 0 Lord of heaven and earth dost actu-                themselves,- and the rulers take counsel together,  against the
     ally govern all things, so that nothing ever betides in all            Lord, and against his, anointed, saying, Let us break their
the  tiicje  creation without Thy sovereign will." Do not over-             bands  astinder,  and cast away their cords from us. He that
     look the fact that the exclusiveness of this dominiqn of the           si'cteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them
     Most High is  em&asized   in this doxology. We are taught              in derision." He does not even have a battle to fight to
     here not to  as&b& dominion, some dominion, the highest                maintain His rule  ; He  sjmply  rules. He does not defend
     authority and sovereignty, perhaps, to God, while there is             His dominion ; He has dominion. -God is the L&d forever.
     also some authority in the creature.- But absolutely and ex-           That is what the believer who understands something of the
     clusively, ail authority and dominion is -ascribed to *God.  alone.    ,sovereignty  of  his. Father in heaven means when he says,
     For we are instructed to say, "Think is the kingdom." God is.          "Thine is the' kingdom forever."
                                                                                               _
     not  a, Sovereign, while there are other  .s&ereigns beside                The same exclusiveneds  must be emphasized in our ex-
     Him,  or perhaps under Him. But He is  the  Lord, the sole             planation of the second  element  of  this. doxology : "Thine is
     .Sovereign, the only Potentate of potentates, in heaven -arid          the power forever." The word that is used here in the
     on earth. He alone is the authority. His only is the power             original for "power': signifies inherent force, or energy, to
     to rule. There is absolutely nothing excluded from this king-          accomplish something. There is- another word -for "power"
     dom of God. He always rules alone.  For He is God, and                 in Scripture, the word that  is used, for instance, by our
     there is none beside Him. That is a bold statement to make             Savior when He says, YJnto me is given all power in heaven
     in this- world `of sin and corruption; in- which .the powers of        and on- earth;" and which emphasizes the notion of authority.
     darkness always appear to dispute the sovereignty of God,              The term that is used here in the doxology, however, is the
     and often seerri to have considkrable  success in their attempt        word from which dur English term "dynamic" is derived. It
     to-  rebel  against the .Most fiigh. Perhaps it would be easier denotes ability to do things. -This .is here ciscribed  to God.
     for some to take this doxology upon `their lips if they might          His is-the power to accomplish whatsoever He wills, There
     change its ten$e into the future, and &y : "Thine will be the          is no limit to this power of  Gbd. Only His own Being, or-
     kingdom,  when all thirigs shall be finished." For  many-people        Nature, determines what He is able to do arid what He wills
     it would seem rather difficult to believe that God always  has         to' do. For notice that also here the ascription of praise
     the dominion. They- have a rather dualistic  conception   of           to the  Most High is exclusive and absolute  :- "Thine is  the
     things. The devil and all the power of darkness, so they think,        power.". This is not the same as saying that God is very
     do also haye dominion ; and for a time at least they succes-           powerful, that He is more powerful than any other being,
     fully oppose the-kingdom of God.- Their consolation is, how-           or even that He is supremely powerful. It means that He
     ever, that God's: dominion is more powerful and more efi-              is all-powerful, for the simple reason that all power is strictly
     cient than the kingdom of darkness, and that in the end God            His. Not only &e power that is within God is His, but also
     will overcome them all. They look upon  the,relation  between          the -force and ability of the creature is from. Him and is His.
the Most High and the devil and all the powers of darkness                  And without Him there is no power anywhere in all this wide
     as similar to that of an earthly sovereign over against a host-        creation.                                                  H.H.


                                                    I



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

 II  .-                                                                      His. For they proceed out of His mouth. Because He speaks
            THE DAY  OF-SiiADOWS                                      II them they are words laden with His power to which there
                                                                             is no limit. The word of God, therefore, is quick and potier-
                                                                             ful and sharper than any two-edge-d sword. It pierces  even
                The Prophecy- of Zechariah                                   to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints
                                                                             and marrow. It calls those things which be not as though,
        The sixth vision-The Flying Roll, chapter v. l-4.                    they were. It raises the dead, makes the  blind to see, the
        1. Then I turned a"nd lifted up mine eyes, a,nd looked aid           deaf to hear and the lame to falk. It justifies and cleanses
 behold a flyins  roll.                                                      frbm  all sin and fills with the peace that passeth all under--
        2. And he said unto me,  yhat seest thou?  And  I  an-               standing. Then His word -is -one  of blessing, which He al-
 swered, I see a flying ,~oll; the length th.ereof ,is twenty cubits,        ways speaks to His people.
 and the breadth thereof ten mbits.                                             But there is also the word of cursing. It goes forth over
                                                                             the whole land. It pursues  the wicked, surrounds them  o-n
        3. Then said hg unto me,, This is-- the curse that goeth             every hand, penetrates their being, fills them with nameless
 forth over the  face- of the whole land. For every one that                 woe and finally casts them into perdition  - the thief and
 stealeth.  sha.11 be cut  off on  this  fide   a.ccording   to  z't; and    he that sweareth. This is the curse.
 every one thnt sweaseth  shall be cut ofi on that side accord-                 He who swears falsely calls  upori  ~God's~  name to  begr
 ing to it.                              `.                                  witness to the  Jie. He is the hypocrite, the pretender in
     4. And I will bring it fo&, smith the Lord of hosts, and                God's house: He is a friend of the world and poses as a
 it shall enter int^o the house of the thief, a.nd into the hoxse            friend of Christ. He serves mammon under the preience of
 of him. that sweareth. falsely by vnj nauute; and it shall abide            serving God. He bears upon his person the mark of the
 in the midst of his hozASe,  and shall consumel it with the tim-            beast and the sign of the- covenant. Though the cup of the
 ber thereof and the stones thereof.                                         platter be full of extortior+  and excesses, he cleans only the
        1.  The visions must have followed one another in close              outside thereof. Like'the  whited sepulchres he appears beau-
 succeSsion,  seeing that they came in one night. No sooner,                 tiful outward, but within he is full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
                                                                             He is a wolf  in sheep's clothing,  repre'sentative  of false re-
 perhaps, had the interpreting angel finished explaining the                 ligion, anti-Christ.
 two olive branches than the prophet's attention  ljvas attracted               And therefore he also steals. For he loves' the world and
 by a new sight, He turned  and lifted up his eyes and looked                that which is of the world, the lusts of the fleih, the lusts of
 and behold a flying roll. Among- the ancients written docu-                 the eye& and the pride of life. He commits thefts punishable
 ments were preserved in the  form  of rolls.  It was `flying,               by the magistrate but is also adept at stealing without clash-
 moving swiftly over the earth perhaps now in this dirgction,                ing with the law. But the sinners in Zion shall be destroyed.
 then in that seemingly as it chose.                                            4.  A'nd  I will bring it forth-- Literally, I  ha.ve  ca,used
        2.  The prophet took careful notice of the vision. For               it tc go forth. It has already started on its mission of j udg-
 when the interpre&ng  angel put to him the question, "What                  ment. Its destination is the houses of the evil doers. . ..%a11
 seest thou ?" he was able to reply that' he saw a flying roll               remain - literally lodge overnight: But it wi!l not sleep but
 twenty cubits long and ten cubits broad. That its dimensions                will perform its deadly work. Shall covzszmze  - It shall exe-
were discernible shows that it was. unfolded. As a cubit is                  cute the judgment that it announces. House and occupants
 estimated at eighteen inches, it was oi considerable size. The              shall be consumed. With the timber thereof and the .&ones
 measurements indicate the scope of the judgments, namely                    thereof - that is utterly.'
 the covenant people, the house of God, the church. For the                     The two expressions of verse 3 Lron. this side . . . on that
 figures were those of the tabernacle as stated in Exodus                    side" mean :- on this side of the roll . . . on that side of the
 xxvii. This may explain how the prophet was able to tell                    roll. Others take the expression to mean, "From this side
 the dimensions of the roll. He knew the size of the Holy                    of the  land . . . from`tha?   side of  -the  land according to the
 P l a c e .                                                                 curses of the roll." But this is not so good. For then we
        3. The prophet having related his observations, the in-              have this verse by implication saying that no thieves were
 terpreting angel explains the visions.  This is the  cztrse-                found on this side of the land and no perjurers on the other,
 From expressions occurring in the succeeding verse it seems                 which of coul'se  is too unlikely.
 that inscribed on one side of the roll' were the words, "cursed                The prophet had just received the good tidings, sym-
 is every one that stealeth," and on the other side, "cursed is              bolized by the candlestick. and the olive branches : not by
 every  one that sweareth," that is, "sweareth by my' name',                 night, nor by power, but by my Spirit, s&h the Lord of
  (verse 4). ,Yet the roll was not presented to the prophet to               hosts. The house of God shall be built. No earthly power               I
 be read but was. made to fly. As a flying roll it symbolized                shall be able to prevent it. For before- Zerubbabel the  &-eat.
 the curse.                                                                  mountain shall become a plain. This spelled' blessing upon
        The curse is a potent word of God like every word of                 the second  ,temple,  blessing upon the temple as centrally


                                                T.HE  -STAN?ARD   B E A R E R -                          :,.                           347
                                                                                  -

 realized through the suffering, death and resurrection of                 the earth.  For the curse struck.  jerusalem was destroyed
 Christ, and his exaltation at the right hand of the throne of             And the sinners perished in her. And their house was left
 God, `and blessing finally upon the New Jerusalem, but also               desolate unto them.
%urse  over the house of God. Christ came and with Him the                    Christ continued thrdugh  the ages to gather His. church.
Kingdo,nl of Heaven. All who were b&n-of the Spirit entered                The house of Gdd is being built, His temple reared.. The
 it and the others were excluded. Jerusalem was destroyed,                 rooms in the Father's ho&e, where Christ prepared a place
 the temple burned and the Jewish state as the typical city of             for each one of His sheep, are being filled %nd shall continue..
 God came to an end. Thus the curse hit its mark and this                  to be filled until the whole house is full. And this house is
 mark the-house of God. The consummation of the curse will                 the true church, Christ's body, the great family of redeemed.
 come at the appearing of `Chrisi.  Then the house of God will                But there is the church institute on earth.. In it is found.
 be finally and permanently cleansed from the .race of -men                the carnal seed as always. For all is not Israel that is of
.always bent on destroying the temple of God.                              Israel, -And  the carnal seed is hardened as always. And this ..- '
        `Vision VII - The Woman in the iphah, 5-11                         hardening process is the curse of .God in operation. He  -
                                                                           curses them. He gives them over always to do things which
   5.  .Th.en the  axgel that talked  with  me  ca.ze forth, and           are not convenient; but filled with all  unrighteousriess,  for-
 said un.tp me,, Lift up now the eyes, I pray, &id see what is             nication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of
 this that goetk forth. 6. And I mid, W1za.t is it? And ke said,           envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, back-
 This is an ephah tlmt goeth forth. He said moreovel; This is              biters, haters of God,  despiteful,  proud, boasters, inventors
 their eye through-all the land. 7. And, behold, a piece of lead           of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding,
 was lifted up, and this is .a woman sitting in the midst-of  the          dovenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, un-          _
 ephah. 8. And he mid, This is wickedtzess. And he cast her                merciful. And so, when The cup of iniquity is again filled up,
 in the midst of ths~ephah. And he cast the weight of the lead             the curse of GGd will strike the house of God and the sinners
 ftpon the mozt.th thereof. 9. And I lifted zti, wzy eyes, and sa=l,       in it will be destroyed, then at the final appearing of Christ.
 ,ahd behold,  two women came forth and the, z&d was in their
 wings,  mad they had wings like a  sto?-k's  tyings,   -and  tiey            It is this hardening process in preparation for ;he judg-
 lifted up the ephah between earth and heavtvi?n. 10. And I said           ment over the house of God, of its being struck by the curse, .
 to  the  a.ngel  thcit talked with  `m.e,  Whither  are  these  taking    that this next visidn sets forth by symbol and vyord.
 the  eplzak?  11.  And he  s&d  %nto  gae,  Td build for her  a              5, 6. The prophet is. exhorted to look. He is told to lift
 house in- the band of Shivtav, and it shall  be settled- there atpon      up his eyes and to see what is going forth. Lift up his eyes
 i t s   o w n   b a s e .                                                 he must. It may indicate that  he was  again  as in a sleep,'
     There is a close connection between this vision and the               lost iti coptemplation  of the messages of the previbus visions.
 preceding. The  mess&ge  of the former is that the church,                The prophet sees something but fails to understand what it is.
 the house of God, will be cleansed of the wicked by the curse             That which  cometh  forth is an ephah, he is told. Its size
 of God when it strikes to destroy. But the, curse does not                cannot be determined. Speaking in general terms, it may be
 always strike. True, it is always operative in the church,                compared to a bushel. But it must have exceeded the size of
 hardening the reprobated wicked through the Gospel and                    a bushel, seeing that it was large enough to hold a woman.-
 thereby preparing them for their eternal destiny, which is                The interpreting angel. immediately proceeds to explain it..
 perdition. But the curse strikes to destroy the church only               The prophet is fold that what he sees is an ephah going forth,
 at times, namely,  &hen as a result of the multiplication of              and  further that this is their "eye" through all the land.
 the wicked in her, she has become the false church,  thus only            The pronoun "this" refers to the ephah. It, the ephah as
 when she has filled  up her meastire  of iniquity and thereby:            containing the woman, which the prophet has not yet seen,
 become ripe for judgment. This took place when  Chri&                     is their "eye." Whose eye ? Doubtless the reference is to
 came afid His heavenly kingdom with Him. Having atoned                    the wicked of the land, among  th,e covenant people, they that
 by His death the sins of His own, He  was raised from the                 swear falsely and steal. This - the: ephah as containing the
 dead,  exalted in the highest Heavens  and returned  to,.*His             wonian `- is their f'eye.`~ What does this mean ? There is a
 own in the Spirit. And they,entered  the kingdom by a living              great number, of suggested interpretations. The Hebrew
 faith in Him. And the rest as hardened filled up theirmeas-               word rendered "eye" has also the meaning  .of  "forti,"
 ure of iniquity.~  They swore falsely. They were lustful men.             "figure." So in Lev. xiii. 55, and in Ezek. i. 5. Doubtless
 As carried  away by their lust they devoured the widow's                  so, too, here in this verse of our prophet. The meaning then
 houses and robed their abominations in a  ,cloak of righteous-            is that the woman in the Ephah is the form of, symbolizes,
 ness. -The exalted.Christ  sent among them prophets and wise              represents the wickedness of the ungodly in the land. The
 men and scribes. But they hated them, for.-their works were               question is whether the ephah also has symbolical signifi-
 evil. And so they killed and crucified them and scourged                  cance. In other words, should the symbolism be extended also
 thein in  th?ir.,.synagogues   and;persecuted   th$m from city to         to the ephah. Doubtless it should. For why otherwise should
 city.. So upon them came, all the righteous blood shed upon               it be specified that the container is an ephah. According to


                                                             I

,348                               -        T           H         E           s%ANDARD.   BEARER
                                                                                              _
                     -
 some, the ephah symbolizes worldly business. This is doubt-                   lusts of the eyes and the pride of life.' At the same time they
 less correct. If so the woman  in the ephah symbolizes wick-.. are esteemed  as. members of the  chu'rch.  They occupy the
 edness in business,` that is, business as practiced by the                    places of  authority in the church and set the tone. When
 w i c k e d .                                                                 this has come to pass the church is  again   apostite.  She is'
 `- 7.  awhile   the interpreting angel was  &ii1 speaking,. the               then the woman that John saw in his vision - the woman
 cove? was lift&d  from tke top of the ephah called! in `the text              sitting up0n.a  scarlet coloured  beast, full of names' of blas-
-"a~ piece  of lead." Now the prophet sees-  thk content. .Xnd                 phemy, having seven heads and ten horns, and arrayed in
 this is a wovnnn  hat sittetli.in  the `btidst of the ephah --.A              purple and scarlet colour,  and decked with gold and prkcious
 better trarisiation is, "And, behold! a piece of lead was lifted              stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of
 up  ; and (behold) this !  one. (l&e) woman sitting in the                    abominations and filthiness of -her, fornications.  And upon
 midst of the ephah." The jdea is that  nothing  else was in                   her forehead was  5 name written, Mystery, Babylon the
-the              efihah.                                                      Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the
                                             _                                 Earth. Then the  curse  will again strike.  And Babylon shall
    8.  The interpreter proceeds to explain the meaning of                     fall. .
the woman in the ephah. This is wickedness -.This, namely                                                                                               G: M. 0:
the  worn& in the ephah, is wicked&s, that is,, symbolizes
wickedness; the wickedness 1 of the whole land.                        -
    As  t&e  cpver is  13fted up,  the  tidman tries to escape,
but  .the angel  throws her back and replaces, the lid upon
the  tiouth.  .'                                                                                                I N   M E M O R I A M
    9, 10. These verses describe the-rcmoial  of the ephah from                    The Men's Society of the Manhattan Protestant Reformed                               -
the land. Lifting up  his eyes  t& prophet  sees two women                     Church hereby wishes to express its sincere sympathy to one
coli?ing  forth. They appear as the agents appointed to remove                 of its `fellow members, My. John  Kamerman  and his family, in
the ephah. They are -supplied, with wings like those of a                      the  Iqss of his brother,
stork. The  .stork is an unclean' bird (Lev. xi. 19). This                                              MR. HAROLD KAMERMAN                                        ~
places the two women iti the category of symbols of wicked-                        May the Lord sustain the bereaved in their sorrow and corn-
ness.  The,.wind is in  their wings that they might proceed                    fort  them with the assurance' that He does all things well and
with greater swiftness. They lift up the.gphah  betoken  earth                 that there remaineth a rest for -the people of God.
and heaven  and bear it `away. The pi-ophet inquires where                                                                                    Andrew Leep, Sec'y..
                                                                                                                                                          _  .-
they  .are gobg. l,l. The angel replies that they were taking
"her? &at is, the woman to the l&d of Shinar - Babylonia
 (Gen. x., 10 ; xi: .2) ,. in the fir@ analysis ths Babylon of the                                                   IN MEMORIAM
book of  Revelatipn,  thus the kingdom of the  anti-Christ.                        %he Men's Society of the First Protestant Reformed Church
There they are to build a house for  h&r. And it shall be                      of Grand Rapids, Michigan, extends its sympathy to Mr. John
settled upon its own base, meaning- that her stay there is                     Dykstra, one  o'f its members, in the death of his  daughtgr-in-law
                                                  ~.
to- be permanent.                                                                                    M R S .   `HERMAN DYKSTRA
    As was stated, the woman in the ephah  symboliz&  the                          May-our Heavenly Father comfort the family in this  time.  of
wickedness of the ungodly in the holy land. Symbolized ifi                     s o r r o w .   -
the final instance is the ungodly themselves in their wicked-                                                                         Rev. G. M. Ophoff, President
ness. The woman in the ephah is their sign, emblem, token,                                                                            R. Kamminga, Secretary
their badge, coat of arms, so to say. Hence, it is the ungodly~
in the house of God themselves -that shall be removed, not                                                           I      N         MEM'ORIAM   -
simply -sin in the abstract. This removal must not be con-
ceived of as a deportation by invading hostile armies. -For.                     The Ladies' Aid of `First Protestant  Reforied  Church of
the vision plainly indicates that a spiritual force is at work                 Grand Rapids, Michigan, mourns  -the loss of one of' its  `&embers,
here operating from within and not a physical force-applied                             0                  .MISS  J E N N I E   K U I P E R
from withouf. The wicked of our vision are the Babylonians                    whom the Lord took unto himself April 10.
in the church. They lust after the world and that which is                         We hereby express  otir sincere sympathy to our President
of the world. And so they go into  the world, though -not                      Mrs. H. Hoeksema and family in. the loss of her  ,sister.  `,`
necessarily in a local sense, under' the imp,ulse  of their. lust                  We find comfort in these words : "Oh, how. great is thy good-.
of the.material  advantages to be had in Babylon and of the                    ness which thou hast laid up for  them that fear thee; which
worldly prospects t6at Babylon holds forth to her devotees.                    thou hast wrought for them  tha; trust in thee before the sons
                                                                               o f   m e n   !"  P s .   3 1   :$
And so these people become more and  ,more  revealed  as,                                                                 Mrs. J.  Vapder  Wal,  Vice"Presidenf
lovers .of Babylon, of her idols - the lusts of the flesh, the                                                            Mrs. J. Van Winsheym, Secretary


                                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   .   ,'                               349

                                                                        found realities are revealed here in as far as they are neces-
 11 -F R 0. M H .O L Y W R I T*                                    Il. sary for our life and walk in this world. The Bible knows
                                                                        ,of no knowledge for knowledge's sake and of no theology for
 I'                                                                     theology's sake. All things are of us, we are of Christ and
           ' Exposition of I Corinthians 1-4                            Christ is God's.
                                                                             We believe that we cannot "fully comprehend", these
                                   14.          "     _     ^           realities. -This limitation  of. our understanding, however,
                                                                        does not mean that Scripture gives us a blurred vision. On
       We will not' repeat what we have written concerning the. the contrar.y, we have here a rather clear picture given to us
 general argument of Paul here in these chapters. We only-              of the work, of the Holy Spirit, and we are not to reduce
 wish to remind the reader that Paul is not engaged in a gen-           this "revealed picture" to something which we cannot so put
 eral, abstract discussion .-of theology, but rather is engaged         together as to see the proper relationship of ourselves to'
 in a down-to-ear&polemic with party-strife and schism in               God, His counsel, His Christ,. His Spirit, and the proper
 the church of'God at Corinth.             -                            attitude and conduct which are becoming to us for this very
       Paul, therefore, marshalls the evidence against such con-        revelation's sake.
 duct and also shows the deeper inner motives~which  are and                .We notice then, first of all, that the term in English
 should be ours as God's peculiar people in the earth.                  "search" is the translation of the Greek verb "ereunaw."
       Hence, we have. here Christian, pedagogical instruction of       From Homer down this verb meant: to search, to examine
 the highest order.      --.                                            into. A. T. Robertson in his Word Pictures cites Moulton
       And now the verses 10 and 11 which we have copied for            and Milligan's Vo~abzrla.ry on this term. According to them
 you in the former Article. We will refer in this essay par-            the term is. used for a professional researcher's report, and'
  ticularly to lob and 11, wher:`we  read `(for the Spirit search-      (ereutai) searchers for customs officials.
 eth a.11 things, yea, the deep things of G0.d. For who among                In the New Testament Scriptures this verb is employed
 men  knowetJz   the things of a man save the spirit of  man            by Christ Himself. In John 7 :39 we read that Jesus says to
 which is in  him? Thus  also'no man knoweth the things of              the Pharisees, "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think
 God,save the Spiq,it of God.".                                         to have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."
       Here we receive instruction which is de profund,&  Here          And, again, in John 7 152 the term is used by the Jews against
 is a Word of Revelation, which may be classified as belong-            Nicodemus when they say to the latter, "Art thou also. of
 ing to those things which Peter calls "in which are some               Galilee  ?  Sear&  and look for out of Galilee ariseth no
 things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned            prophet."-
 and unstable wrest . . . to. their o,wn destruction." Now the              Paul employs the term in various instances. In Romans
 latter we need not do. For God hath revealed these matters             8 :27 Paul ascribes to the Holy Spirit of Christ in the church
 also unto us  by-His Spirit. Although these matters are, the activity of being one, who prays for. the church, and this
 profound, too vast for our finite mind, since the finite can-          prayer is understood  ,and answered by God as "He who
not comprehend the infinite God, (finitus- `non  capax in-              searcketlz  the hearts." Thus also Christ speaks to John on
 finitum)' yet we may here believe in the clarity and perspicu-         Patmos when the latter is told to write to the church in
 ity of the Scriptures and apply the rule that Scripture inter-         Thyatira.-  God is there called "He that  searcheth  the reins
 prets Scripture. And, applying this rule, we-believe that this         a n d   h e a r t s . "
 profound instruction concerning the' work and `activity of                 From all these passages which speak of "searching" we
 the Holy Spirit in the Godhead, as well as in the economy              may infer the `following :
 of salvation, was written for our instruction, correction, `re-            1. That when used of men it is an activity of searching
 proof -that the man of God, the spiritual man, may be-                 the facts; it is -empirical searching. One then goes through
 thoroughly furnished unto every good work.                             the records and archives to look for facts whereby one can
 Let us attempt to understand this. instruction of Paul                 arrive at legitimate conclusions. Thus the Jews are told to
 concerning the work of the Holy Spirit which is called                 do by Jesus and thus also Nikodemus is chidingly told to
 "searching."                                                           do by the Jews relative to where prophets originated in the
       The Spirit in this passage is, of course, none other             past.
 than the Third Person in the Holy Trinity. He is a  perso*z.               2.. However, as soon as. it is employed of Divine search-
 He thinks, wills, acts, teaches, gives, longs, desires, is grieved,    ing of the hearts the "searching" takes on .a different char-
 etc. He is a  D,i+ne  Person. He is co-equal with the Father           acter. Yes, even so, the facts are searched out and set in'
 and the Son. And that activity and work of the Spirit which            order. But the searching is such that the deepest motives and
 is specifically. his work in distinction `from the Father and          impulses of a man are investigated; determined and set in
 the Son are here `mentioned. This is mentioned here not for            array before the eye of those who are thus searched out.
 a speculation beyond the limits of, revelation to "pry curiously       Such is Divine searching of man!
 into the .deep and secret. things of' God," but rather these pro-          3. In our text, however, the object of this search is not  -
                           !:,


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 350                                               T H - E   `S-TANDA.iiIj   &ARER
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 said to be "God,"  but the "deep'thitigs  of ,God" ! And,this is. knowledge, wisdom  and power.  There is God, Who has
 the activity of the Holy Spirit of God. And Paul makes this                depths to His virtues. And they are such that "out of Him
 clear, brings  it- down to our understanding by the analogy of             iand through Him and unto` Him are. all things ; to whom be
 the. self-conscious knowledge of a man, `of any and every                  the glory' both ndw and forever, Amen !
 man amongst  meti. There are really `no exceptions. The                              Such is' clearly the case in Remans  11:33-36. -
 searclzing  of the Spirit is  such, therefore, that of all the                       But here in I Cori&&ians  2 410; 11 then ?                   '
 things which God has' planned and, purposed for our glory,                      We should notice that  .Paul-is  here giving the  reason why
 there is nothing in this which is' not  seal;ched out by the               the Holy Spirit of God can and does surely "reveal'7 unto us
 Spirit, thoroughly understood by Him, so that He  cannbt                   the hidden Myst,eries  of God, things which can only be known
fully  comprehknd  it. Here is Infinitus  capax Infinituin, the             because they are revealed into our: minds and hearts by the
 Infinite Spirit understands, comprehends and, therefore, can               ,Spirit.  And that He can and does perform this wonder of
 "sea&h" the deep things of God.  ;And it is for this reason                ,grace in our hearts is because His is this peculiar task  in
 that He can make them kriown-  to us, reveal them unto our                 the Godhead, and this same task in the Godhead is also His
 heart and mind. ' (See former article on the notion "revela-               task in the Creature created after God's image in Adam
 tion" in distinction from "manifest.".)                                    and recreated after the same image in Christ Jesus our Lord.
        The question is: what are tie' to  tmderstand  the term                       With the foregoing in mind concerning the peculiar per-
 "deep things of -G&d" as referring tot?.                                   sonal  subsistency  of the Spirit in the Godhead, we would
                                                                            call attention of the following elements in the text:
  , ..As we see it there are two gossible:  alternatives.                             1. That Paul evidently distinguishes in the text (verse
        The  first  qf` these is that "deep  .things  of God"  simply lob) between "all things" and "the deep things of God."
 refers to' the things- which God has prepared for those-loving             .These  two expressions point to two different areas of in-
 Him. (Verse 9) And, again,;. it then simply refers to the                  vestigation by the Spirit. The "all things" clearly points
 things God has  "fT+y  graced  `tpon  us"  .~(Verse 12) It is              toward the creation of God. "All things" which are created,
 then an  bperation  of the Holy Spirit whereby He search&                   by the Word, so that nothing -was created which was not
 out the plan, the counsel of God and the entire  Divine econ-              created by I&in. John .l :l-3. While in the term "deep things
 omy of salvation. This' plan of salvation, the  MySterl hid                of God," or. "depths of God" refers to something  antece-
- and now  revetiled.  in  Christ  are. then  the  ."content"  of the        c&t to, bkyond  and' above the laws and manner of life oi all
 deep things of God,  "                       _               ,.
                                   _                                        things. The "depths of God" is something basic .to the "all
                                                                            things."
    `The second alternative is, that.the f`deep things of God"                              One, who can search all thi~ngs, cannot yet search
                                                                          the depths of  God, but  one who can search the "depths. of
 refer to hidden purposes,  the, love, grace, mercy ,of -the God-            God" can surely search "all thing-s." Such searching will
 head itself, the vast depths of ,His essence and being. And it             be different.
 is in this sense that the tianslatidn  both in the Holland and                                      There is  soinething  very climactic" in the
                                                                            "searches all things, yeaj the deep things of God,."
 in the German language  under.stand  the term. They translate
 the plural  "ta  &thti" (deep things.) "depths." In the Hol-                         Tnst what these depths of God are will certainly always
 land version we read "de diepten Gods," .tihile  in the German             remain above and beyond our searching mind  and. under-
 ver'sion  we read -"die tiefen  .Gottes."                                  s t a n d i n g .
                                                                                      We leave it thus.
        Now what ai-e we to sajr of these two alternatives ; which                    For only thus can there be real meaning to Paul's in-
 1s the correct  one exegetidally  ?                                        sistence, that, He who instructs us, reveals the Mysteries of
        We  first of all wish to point out that in Holy Writ the" God to us, is competent with,a  Divine competency!                                     .'
 term "bathos" is never,. when applied to Gpd, used as a sub-                         Forsboth we cannot separate the attributes of God from
 stantive. It is  always   used as a  circi&scription  of God, or           the "depths" of :God" : These attributes  are  ,such that we
 of one or more of His  attribtites  and perfections. But it                speak of them as de profztn.dij.  He;& we bow our heads and
 never stands by itself.` Thus  God is never  designatkd' as                worship. We boast; only we `boast in the Lord, our God.
 `!The Deep One."  God is never reduced to a hidden abStra?t
 "Deep."- God is His virtues and all his  virtues are one.                            And when thus we have received it by the Spirit, who
 And ivhen  Paul wishes tv'indicate  that this is above and .be--           is, so mighty in His. activity that He- can fathom the depths
 yond the: searching and tracing  .out of mari, even when some' of God, we will once and for all cease boasting in man, and
 of'these virtues are inanifested by God. in time ip His -right-            glory `alone in. the Lord.
 eous judgments, theti he cries out in y;vvbnderment  an& ador-                  And  jet  .all, who boast in the Lord, boast not in  th&
 iqg worship : 0 the depths; bdth of the wisdom and knowl-                  super&i&but  let him boast in the simplicity of God's virtues,
edge of.God ; how unsearchable `are His ways and His paths                  which' virtues,  are God Himself, and which have  unsegrch-
 past finding out . . ! No, Paul does not say :` God is a mighty            able depths !
 Deep  !: He speaks of the depths -of the virfues  of God, his                               . `)                          ..`.     ,.     G;;          L*


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                                              T . H E   STAN.D.itiD   ,,Bj?ARER                                                          351  I

                                                                         What  iS worse they do not-care what that law says.
                 I N   H I S   `F E A R                                      So we repeat: The fear of the  Lbrd is not in it.. It is a
                                                                         godless practice !       `.
                                                                            The merchant will not only sell-*his merchandise ; he will
        This Godless "Lucky' Number" Craze                               sell the souls of his customers to the sin of covetousness and
    That is right !                     i                                idolatry. Walking in P+ way which is not in His fear, he will
                                                                         also set up a scheme which depends for its execution upon
    We call it a godless craze!                                          the sinful  covetousn&s of  man and. his inherent trust in
    Such it is and such it must be considered to be be&se                "luck" and "Fate."
 the fear of the Lord is not. in it.                                        The fear of the Lord is in no business venture that fosters
    You go to the store, and for so many dollars' worth of               and thrives on a walk that is contrary to God's holy law.
 purchase's you get numbered tickets to which you sign your                 Our objection to-this whole "lucky number"  craze is not
 name. These you drop into a container, keeping a stdb foi-              that`it is-getting something  for nothing.
-identification, atid wait for the day that someone will reach              How dould we ever object to a thing on that basi3  ?
 iti and pick out one ticket, the "lucky" one, which will des-              There is not and cannot be anything ethically  wrong  in
 ignate the "winner" of  a,new automobile, a new deep freeze,            receiving something for nothing. There is nothing' ethically
 a new refrigerator or the like.                                         wrong with giving a thing t6 others as a free-gift. Scripture
    It all is a godless ptocedure ; and those who walk-in Yis            approves of that and advocates it: "It is more blessed to
 fear will not participate in it.                                        give than to receive," are the words of the Saviour Himself.
    Appealing it surely is to the flesh. A-"good" advertising            And after all, all that we have, we have received from God
 scheme it surely must be, for you may be sure that it would             as  a free gift. He has given freely all that  which  exists. He
 not be Practiced so repeatedly and so universally if the                s&s nothing. He is not in business. He makes no "deals,"
 sponsor did not profit grenfly by.it. By getting a few more             Ieither with  &an or with any other -creature. All that man
 pennies of purchase from each customer he more than off-                has whether it be in the realm of the natural or in the realm
 sets the price of the "prize" which he, in the first instance,          of, the spiritual he has .received  as a free gift from God.
.got at a great discount from the manufacturer because he                   That object is not always given in His grace. Often it is
.toO is anxious to have his product advertized.                          given simply in  ,-God's  providence without His grace entering
    flo one is so foolish in this day of `,`eniightenme,nt"  is he ?
 that he thinks that by "giving away" some object .the dealer            into the matter at all. He always bestows good gifts  but
 is really  generous   and anxidus to do his customers a good            He does not  always  bestow them in His goodness to that
                                                                         individual who receives them. The same good Sunshine He
 turn. The world unashamedly testifies `that this  + "good
 business tactics" and makes  nq attempt to leave the im-                bestows upon the elect and upon the' reprobate. He sends
                                                                         the same -cheering rain upon the fields of the godless that.
 pression that the dealer is walking in His fear, that he is             He sknds to His elect children. .B#oth  receive these absolutely
 be&g so kind, so generous, so concerned with the-well-being
 and prosperity of`his customers. = He is not walking in the             free. The one, however,  rec,eiTies  them in God's grace  ;  thi:
                                                                         other receives them in His wrath and simply because the
 way of Romans 12 :8, ". . . he that giveth, let him do it With
 `simplicity ; . .`j And because he is not doing it in the spirit        Sovereign God has. planned a certain work for that godless
                                                                         man to perform and because He supplies him with all the-
 that God commands us to give, ii! is not in Hi&fear.  And it            means that His -`counsel be  fqlfilled.  And  then righteously
 is godless !
     The sin is not simply in the "prize': seeker, the one who           and sovereignly He -hea@ everlasting destruction upon this
                                                                         receiver of all these things because he used them for his
 covets the. "lucky number" and that which is given to the               flesh and not in His fear.
 holder of such a number. It is also in the dealer who tempts
 his customers into covetousness by his "lucky number" proj-                 But the point remains  : All that any creature 1 even the
 ect. He tempts men to break the tenth  commandmetit.  This              holy angels before God's face in heaven-has he has ob-  -
 he does because in his own heart he has already coveted the             tained as a free gift from God.  -.
 trade that has been drifting to his competitor down the Street.             Does anyone buy the cheering rain?
 Because he covets his neighbgur's  trade he has no scruples                 True, some have hired  men and purchased dry ice to
 to lead his customers into coveting for the benefit of his dwn          seed the rain clouds in desperate attempts  to obtain moisture
pocketbook.                                                              for their parched land. But did..thq  buy those clouds from
     Even in this so-called "enlightened"  age  m'en are so spirit-      the living God ?                              ~.
ually illiterate that unless you rewrite the tenth commandment               Does the sun rise in the  .East each  mornings  because
 to read, "Thou shalt not c&et thy n'eighbour's house, thou              tien have dropped their coin of filthy lucre in  .s~me -slot
 shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his trade, nor his            .,and so purchased eight to fourteen hours `of light? Does the
 very efficient and capable employee, (man servant or maid               darkness settle, at eventide because men failed .to make .an-
-servant)  . .  ." they cannot see these things in the law of God.       other deposit in the slot?                          .'  ;

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

                  The answer is self-evident.                                   This whole "lucky number" business militates against
`                 We have no objection when the merchant gives a valued         all these characteristics of good works and conforms to none
           possession to his customers. If he does.it, as Paul writes the           .of t    h    e    m     .
           mind of God on this matter, in simplicity, that is, gives it                To be sure, there are "religious" organizations that will
           because he wants to give it and not gives it in order to soften      raffle off a new automobile,. From organizations whose
           up his customer to give him more business, we cannot and             avowed purpose is to help the indigent, the maimed and af-
           would never object. That would be in His fear. But to                flicted you can buy "chances" on a new Buick, a new Pontiac _
           give little in order to get more is not according to the Word        or the like. We have repeatedly seen `such displays and ad:.
           of God. Then we must remember Jesus' words: "It is more              vertisements. That does not, however, make this evil practice.
           ,blessed to give than to receive." "He that giveth, let him          to be one that is to the glory of God. You cannot glorify Him
           .do it with simplicity" not with duplicity.                          with an evil work. When one resorts to evil works in order
                  This "lucky number" business. is . godless for another        to fulfill one's "desire" to glorify -God, you may be sure that
           reason than that we obtain so valuable an object .merely by          he- did not desire to glorify God. To murder is sin. It  al,
           signing our names to a little ticket. We do. not even sign           ways is. And he who murders an enemy of the Church must
           our .nanlks to get freely so valuable a gift from God as that        not say that he did so to -glorify God. Even the civil author-
           which men often call a "million dollar rain."           .-           ities. will punish the man who claims to have performed his
                  The "lucky number" craze is godless because it rules out      act of murder because the one slain opposed the truth and
           the living. God, does not recognize Him, renders no thanks           the cause of Christ. Similarly, a "lucky number" raffle can-
           unto Him and cannot be done before His face and to His               not be called glorifying God simply because the proceeds
           glory.            ~.                                                 are to be used for some work of "charity." A man who sets
                  Let us explore this matter .together  more carefully for a    out to glorify God will `never seek such a godless way to
           few moments.                                                         realize his desire to glorify God:
                                                                                        That such "lucky. number" projects are not to the glory
                  We shall begin with that last element.. This "lucky num-      of God and cannot be such ought to- be evident from the fact
           ber" craze cannot- be done to God's glory.                           .that no man yet sponsored `or participated in one because of
      -           If we measure all things according to that standard we        his love for God's glory. The merchant does not, for otherl
           will find that many of the things that we practice are godless.      wise he would give to the poor and.indigent,  without having
     That, nevertheless, must be the standard for judging all                   his deed published,
           things ; and we must not glibly use. words and refuse to ac-                                  and witho.ut  seeking a reward of patron-
                                                                                age or further advertisement of his  `fgood"  deed. The  cuss
           cept their meaning. A thing that is godless is just exactly          tomer.does not participate to the glory of God's name because
           that: a thing without God, a thing that subtracts God, a             in the way of "`luck?' rather than trust and faith. in God he
           thing that. has no use for Him, forgets Him, denies Him, yea,        sought a thing he coveted for himself; and if he dared he
           positively, opposes Him.                                             would pray to God to keep from the others whose names are
                  We are reminded at once of the definition of good works         _
                                                                                on such "lucky number" tickets that "prize." The Wordof
           in the Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 33. It hews to             God says, "Look not every man on his own things, but every
           the line and unequivocally declares, "Only those which pro-          man also on the things of others," Philippians 2 :4.
           ceed from true faith, are,performed  according to the law of                We hope to have more to say of-this matter next time.
           God, and to his glory ; and not such as arer founded on our                                                                   J. A. H.
           imaginations, or the institutions of  ,men."
            Does anyone dare to maintain that one can walk in His                                            NOTICE!.               -
           fear while not walking in good works  ? Does anyone want to                 The Adams St. Prot. Ref. Christian School has two
           maintain that godlessness has any concern for God's glory ?          teaching positions open for the  1956-`57  school year. We
           Does anyone want to uphold that which has no concern for             need a teacher for our Second. Grade and a Kindergarten.
     God's glory ?                                                              teacher (Half-days the full term or all day the second term).
              Those three things presented in the Heidelberg Catechism          Interested qualified persons are invited to make application
      -are so Scriptural that there is no argument against- them.               to the Educational Committee in care of the school, 1150
           "Without faith it is impossible to please God," Hebrews              Adams St., S. E., Grand Rapids, Michigan.
           11  :6. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin," Romans 14  ~23.
           "Fear God and  keep- His commandments : for this is the                     "The lack of comfort in the soul of many Christians is
           whole duty of man," Ecclesiastes 12 :13. "Let your light so          due to a woeful lack of the sense of proportion in expenditure
           shine before men that they may see your good works, and              of their energy. Only spend your energy in the direction of
           glorify your Father which is  `in heaven," Matthew `5  :16.          the spiritual, according to the measure its riches excel1 the
     -  -"That  ye should show forth the praise of  Him who hath                mundane  ; apply the injunction to seek  first the Kingdom
           called you out of -darkness into His marvelous light,"  1            of heaven. and his righteousness- and amazing comfort
           Peter 2  :9. .                                                       will flood the soul."                                    -HHK.


                                                                                                         "
                                                                                                           -
                                                                                      :  ,' i  3:: -    ;  ~.-..l
                                                                    I     ,:          .`
                                                                                          (  ;  -3.
                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B.EARER                                                          353
                                                                                      .I  ;~;-L,  !-y
                                                                          <..         .--:;.:                             -_
                                                                                 sin, and baptism, as a rite of purification, always has -refer-
                  Cbntending For The Faith II                                    ence to the forgiveness of sins. They attributed to infant bap-
                                                                                 tism an improving ,eff ect; Coelestius maintained that children
                                                                                 by baptism gained entrance'to the higher stage of salvation,
                    The Church and the Sacraments                                the kingdom of God, to which; with merely natural powers,
                                                                                 they.could  not attain. -He tlierefore'supposed a middle con-
         VIEWS DURING THE  SECOND  PER&  (300-750  AD.)                          dition of lower salvation for unbaptized children, which in
                    .                                                            the above-quoted second canon of the council of Carthage  -
                              BAPTIS.M  ( 4 )                                    if -it be genuine - is condemned. Pelagius said more. cau-
          In addition to the fact that great significance was attached           tiously : Whither unbaptized children go, I know not ; whither
      to the significance of baptism during the second period of the             they do not go, I know:
      Church in the New Dispensation which period we are now                       "But, notwithstanding the general admission of infant
      discussing, we may also observe that the baptism of infants                baptism, the practice of it was by no means universal. Forced
      was generally in vogue during this time. The following quo-                baptism, which is contrary to the nature of Christianity and
      tation from Philip Schaff's History of the Christian Church                the sacrament, was-as  yet`unknown. Many Christian parents
      is of interest : "Augustine brought the operation of baptism               postponed the baptism of- their children, `sometimes from in-
      into `connection with his more complete doctrine of original               difference, sometimes from fear that they might by their
      sin. Baptism delivers from the guilt of original'sin, and takes            later life forfeit the grace of. baptism, and thereby make their
'     away the sinful character of the concupiscence of the flesh,               condition the worse. Thus Gregory Nazianzen and Augus-
      while for the adult it aat the same. time effects `the forgive-            tine, though they had eminently pious mothers, were not bap-
      ness of all actual transgressions before baptism. Like Am-                 tized till their conversion in. their manhood. But they after-
      brose and other fathers, Augustine taught. the necessity of                ward regretted this. Gregory admonishes a mother : `Let not
      baptism for entrance into the kingdom of heaven, on the                    sin gain the mastery in thy child ; .let him be consecrated-even
      ground of John 3 ~5, and deduced therefrom, in logical con-                in swaddling bands.  .Thou  art-.afraid-  of the divine seal on
      sistency, the terrible doctrine of  the' damnation of all unbap-           account of the weakness of nature. What weakness of faith !
      tized children, though he assigned them the mildest grade of               Hannah dedicated her Samuel to the Lord even before- his
      perdition.                                                                 birth ; and immediately after his birth trained him for the
          "The council of Carthage,, in 318, did the `same, and in its           priesthood. Instead of fearing, human weakness, trust in
     second canon rejected the. notion of a happy middle state for               God.'                               .               ,
      unbaptized, children. It is remarkable; however, that this                    "Many -adult catechumens and proselytes likewise, partly
      addition to the second canon does not appear in all copies of              from light-mindedness,. and love of the world, partly' from
      the Acts of- the council, and was perhaps out of some horror               pious prudence and superstitious  fear, of impairing  the.mag-
      omitted.                                                                   ical virtue of baptism, postponed their baptism until some
          "In Augustine we already find all the germs of the schol-
      &tic and Catholic doctrine of baptism, though they hardly                  misfortune or severe sickness drove them to the ordinance.
                                                                                 The most celebrated example of `this is the emperor Con-
      agree properly .with his. doctrine of predestination, the ab-
      solute sovereignty of divine grace' and the perseverance of                stantine, who was not baptized till-he .was on his bed of death.
      saints. According to this view, baptism is the' sacrament of               The postponement of: baptism in that day was equivalent to
      regeneration, which is, negatively, the means of the forgive-              the postponement of. repentance and conversion so frequent
                                                                                 in ours. This custom was resisted by the most eminent
      ness of sin, that is, both  `of original sin and of actual sins            church teachers, but did not give way. till the fifth century,
      committed before ,baptism' (not nftel- it), and, positively, the           when it gradually disappeared before the universal introduc-
      foundation of the new spiritual life of faith through the im-              tion of infant baptism.                        .
      partation of the gratin ope+ans and co-operamcs. .The subjec-
      tive condition of this effect is the worthy receiving;that  is,               "Heretical baptism was now generally regarded  .as valid,
      penitent faith.. Since in the child there is no actual sin, .the           if performed in the name of the triune God. The Roman view
      effect of baptism in this case is, limited to the remission of             prevailed over the Cyprianic, at least in the Western church  ;
      the guilt of original sin ; and since the'child  cannot yet itself         except among the Donatists,  who entirely rejected heretical
      believe, the Christian church (represented by the parents.                 baptism (as. well as the catholic  .baptism),.  and made the
      and the sponsors) here appears in its behalf, as Augustine                 efficacy of the sacrament depend not pnly  on the ecclesiastical
      likewise supposed, and- assumes the responsibility of the edu-             position, but also on the personal piety of the officiating
      cation of the baptized child to Christian majority.                        .priest."   - end of quote.
          "As to infant baptism: there was in this period a general               In connection with this quotation of Philip  Schaff  we
      conviction of its propriety and of its apostolic origin. Even              would make a .few  observations. In the first place, it is cer-
      the Pelagians were no exception  ; though infant baptism does              tainly. correct that the baptism of. infants does not really fit
      not properly fit into their system ; for they denied original              into the Pelagian system. However one may view the  sig-


            354                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
            -A
            nificance  of the sacrament of baptism, it is certainly the sac-     ful, and, in the case of the latter,  not in need of the sacra-
            rament of the washing away of our sins, whether that wash-           ment of baptism.
            ing actually occurs in the child to whom the sacrament is                Finally, it was taught during this second period of the
            being administered or whether that washing must be under-            Church in the New Testament (300-750 A.D.) that there is
          ~ stood conditionally, upon the condition of the faith of the          no salvation without baptism. Augustine once wrote that
          one baptized. The latter view, for example, is closely related         "no one attains to God without baptism." And, having dis-
            to the modern Liberated conception of the sacrament which            cussed the penitent on the cross, he concludes his remarks
            would view .the baptism of infants as God's bestowal upon            as follows : "By all these considerations it is proved that the
            that child of the promise, which promise will actually become        sacrament of baptism is one thing, the conversion of the
            realized and effective in the child only when it believes when       heart another; but that man's salvation is made complete
            it comes to years of discretion. I am sure that we can easily        through the two together. Nor are we to suppose that, if one
            understand that the pelagian, denying original sin and pollu-        of these be wanting, it necessarily follows that the other is
            tion, really has no place in his system of thought for the           wanting also; because the sacrament may exist in the infant
            sacrament of baptism as administered to infants. Why should          without the conversion of the heart ; and this was found to
            the infant, which is not affected by original sin and guilt,         be possible without the sacrament in the case of the thief,
            receive the sacrament of the washing away of sins which do           God in either case filling up what was involuntarily wanting
            not characterize it? Secondly, it is plain from this quotation       . . . Nor can there be said in any way to be a turning of the
            that great significance was attached to baptism. By it both          heart to God when the sacrament of God is treated with con-
            original and actual sins (as before baptism) were removed.           tempt." In this quotation Augustine again affirms that sal-
            However, this power was not attributed to the water of bap-          vation and the conversion of the heart are inseparable.
            tism as such, but only on condition of repentance and faith.         Hence, there is no magical influence to be ascribed to the
            And it was held that in the case of the baptism of infants the       water of baptism. But he also affirms that man's salvation
            faith of the Church, as represented. by the godfathers and           is made complete through the two together; namely: baptism
            godmothers; functioned for the child. And, thirdly, it is also       and the conversion of the heart. Hence, baptism is necessary
           plain from this article or quotation  that,the  baptism of infants    unto salvation.
           was generally in vogue during this period. It is true that                Leo the Great  (he was the pope from 440 to 461) de-
           this practice was by no means universal. Attention is di-             clared : "No one can be released from original sin except
            rected to Gregory Nazianzen and. Augustine. But they after-          through baptism." And Gregory the Great (he was the pope
            ward regretted it. And Gregory admonishes a mother that              from 590 to 604) declared that "Those dying without the
            she should by all means have her child baptized.                     sacrament pass on to eternal death."
               Incidentally, Augustine, too,. speaks of the baptism of               This concludes our discussion of the significance of the
           infants. This appears in a quotation from him which we                sacrament of baptism during this second period of the Church
           quoted in a previous article, as example in the `following            in the New Dispensation. We have noted that tremendous
           words : "As therefore in Abraham the justification of faith           significance' was attached to this sacrament. But we have
           came first, and circumcision was added afterwards as the              also noted that no magical power was ascribed to the water
           seal of faith  ; so in Cornelius the spiritual sanctification came    of baptism. The power of the sacrament was only on the
          first in the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the sacrament of             condition of faith and repentance. In our following articles
           regeneration was added afterwards in the laver  of baptism.           we will conclude our discussion-of the Church and the Sacra-
           And as in Isaac, who was circumcised on the eighth day                ments during the second period of the Church by calling
           after his birth, the seal of. this righteousness of faith was         attention to the development of the doctrine concerning the
           given first, and afterwards, as he imitated the faith of his          Lord's Supper.
           father, `the righteousness itself followed as he grew up, of                                                                  H. V.
           which the seal had been given before when he was an in-
`: -:.     fant, so in infants, who are baptized, the sacrament of regen-
           eration is given first, and if they maintain a .Chr&tian  piety,
           conversion also in the heart will follow, of which the mys-               "It is the duty of Christians to be constantly watchful
           terious sign had gone before in~the  outward body." We have           over the peace and purity of the church, and not allow those
           already called attention in a previous article to the strange         who cause scandals- and divisions,- by departing from the
           impression which these words make upon us. IBut,  be this as
           it.may,  it is evident from these words of the-eminent church         true doctrine, -to pursue their course unnoticed. With all
           father, that the practice of infant baptism was endorsed by           such  tie should break off every connection which either sanc-
           him. And  Seeberg  declares that Augustine, in his struggle           tions their opinions and conduct, or gives them facilities for
           with the Pelagian view, strongly emphasizes infant baptism,           affecting evil."
           declaring that new-born children are either sinful or not sin-                            Charles Hodge, Comm. on Romans, page 714


                                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 355
I                                                                            was  this consequence that led the fathers to take such a
          The Voice of Our Fathers                                       1 serious view of the Arminian err&, and, which also today
                                                                             should cause us to take a serious and uncompromising view
                                                                             of this error. And this aspect of their error comes into
                The Canons of Dordrecht                                      clear light in this negative portion of Chapter II.
                             PART           TWO                                 In the second place, it will become  Fvident that the
                                                                             deepest root of the Remonstrants' error concerning the.:
                  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  CANONS                                atonement lies in their denial of the particular, or limited;
                  SECOND  HEAD  OF  DOCTRINE                                 character of that atonement, that is to say, their denial of
                                                                             sovereign predestination. And, in fact, this becomes evident
       OF  THE  DEATH              C
                           OF           HRIST ,  AND  THE  REDEMPTION        especially already in the very first article of the Rejection
                        OF  MEN  THEREBY                                     of Errors.
                      REJECTION  OF  ERRORS                                     At the same time, - and this perhaps also explains the
                                                                             fact that even today many Arminians appear to believe in
      (The true doctrine having been explained, the Synod                   the atonement, - we must remember that these statements
rejects the errors of those :)                               .               of error which the Synod rejects are not the Arminians' lit-
                                                                             eral statements. That is not to say in any wise that the
             Article I. Who teach: That God the Father has
             ordained his Son to the death of the cross without a            Synod makes false accusations here. But no Arminian here-
             certain and definite decree to save any, so that the           tic would ever make these statements in this bare-faced
             necessity, profitableness and worth of what Christ             form: that would be too frank an admission of error. When
             merited by his death might have existed, and might              the Arminian teaches these errors, he does so in a vague and
             remain in all its parts complete,  :perfect and intact,         under-cover manner. But in the articles of Rejection the
             even if the merited redemption had never in fact been
             ,applied  to any person.  For this doctrine tends to the        fathers analyse the Arminian teachings, draw out the conse-
             despising of the wisdom of the  Fathkr and of  the              quences of their teachings, .and expose their errors. But they
             merits of Jesus Christ, and is contrary to Scripture.           do so in a manner which prevents  any Arminian from deny-
             For thus saith our Savior:  "I-19~  down my life for            ing the truth of these accusations.
             the sheep, and I know them," John  10:15, 27. And
             the prophet Isaiah saith concerning the  Savior:                   Atid in the third place, it will become evident that the
             "When thou shalt make his  soal  .an offering for sin,          Arminians are themselves guilty of the very  gross errors
             he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and           with which they charge their Reformed opponents. This is
             the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand,,'            indeed noteworthy, for it is a favorite device of heretics.
             Is:  53:lO.  Finally,, this contradicts the article of          Thus, in this case, the Arminians charged the Reformed
             `faith according to which we believe the catholic
          Christian church.                                                  with denying the perfect sacrifice of Christ and with teaching
                                                                             that there was a defect and insufficiency in Christ's sacrifice.
     In considering  the Rejection of Error of this second                   But, as becomes plain already in the very first article of the
chapter of our Canons, it  wi!l become evident, in the first                 Rejection, the -Arminians  themselves are guilty of this very
place, that the-- Remonstrants cannot possibly teach that                    error, for they actually teach that Christ might have died
Christ actually atoned for our sins by satisfying the justice                without ever actually saving a single sinner. And how ter-
of God against sin. If they would teach this, they would be                  ribly insufficient and defective would such a sacrifice be!
compelled to teach also that all men are actually saved, since                   Let us now turn to the details of this first article.
God in justice could nbt possibly damn anyone whose guilt
of sin has been removed. But since they will not accept  the                    The error rejected is stated in the first sentence of this
consequence of universal salvation, they have but one alter-                 article. And we may note the following elements in this ac-
native, namely, to deny the vicarious atonement of the Christ.               cusation :
Especially because in our day many an Arminian still seems                       1.. The Arminians teach that the death of Christ would
to believe and to teach the atonement and freely speaks the lose none of its meaning and significance even if no one
language of those who believe in vicarious atonement, it is                  would actually be saved. Christ's death would remain per-
necessary that we clearly understand this. If you accuse an                  fectly complete in all its parts, as to its necessity, profitable-
Arminian of not believing in the atoning blood of Christ, he                 ness, and worth, even though the merits of His redemption
will in all probability with holy horror reject your accusa-                 were never applied to anyone.
tion and maintain vehemently that there is forgiveness of                       2. The Armitiians must maintain this because they make
sins only in the blood of Christ. Nevertheless, the conse-                   separation between the merits of Christ's death and the ap-
quence of the Arminian error that Christ died for all and                    plication of those merits `to the sinner, and because they
every man is, exactly such that he must deny that Christ                     cause the application of those merits to depend upon the free
actually atoned for and removed the  guilt  of any man.  It                  will of the sinner.

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

     3. The Arminians maintain,  - and this is the root of              merits. The former were Christ's; the latter was utterly
 the entire error,  - that Christ did not die for a particular          dependent on man's free will.
 and definite people, but that He died merely in, general, in              Hence, already here the Arminian stands guilty of deny-
 order to establish a general possibility of reconciliation. That       ing that Christ actually atoned for anyone. He must either
 this is the root of their error is plain from the way.in which         let go of the error that Christ died for all, or he must relin-
 the fathers state it: "That God the Father has ordained his            quish all claim that Christ atoned. An atonement for all is
 Son to the death of the cross without a certain and definite           an atonement for none !
 decree to save any, so that . . .,'                                       Hence, the fathers are fully justified in their three-fold
     Now, let us first of all ask the question: do the fathers          charge.         c
 here present a fair analysis of the Arminian error? In order              `In the first place, they accuse the Arminians in this doc-
 to answer this question we might, as did the fathers, do a             trine of despising the' wisdom of God and the merits of Jesus
 great deal of research, and examine all the Arminian writ-             Christ. What a foolish God is the God of the Arminians,
 ings on the subject. But it will be sufficient to refer merely         who gives His Son to the death' of the cross, and who then
 to the  Five  Points  of  the  Rewtonstmnce.  Recall, first of all,    lets the merits of that most precious death of His Son lie
 how the fathers expose the Arminian view of predestination             wasted and unused. What a foolish God that would be, who
 as it is veiledly expressed in the First Point of the Arminians.       would give His Son to the death of the cross and who would
 The Arminians, remember, taught that God "hath determined              "run the risk,' that no one would be saved by the death of
 . . . to save . . . those who . . . shall believe on this his Son      His Son. And remember : a foolish God is no God at all !
 Jesus, and shall persevere in this faith and obedience of              And how insufficient and defective is the death of Jesus
 -faith." And the fathers exposed in the First  .Head of Doc-           Christ when it is possible that no one is saved by that death
 trine their error of a conditional, non-sovereign election, their      at all, and when, by the Arminians' own admission, it is an
 error of a changeable decree of election, and their confusing          actual fact that many for whom Christ died actually go lost.
 error of various kinds of election, general, indefinite, par-          How, in truth, this error is a despising of Christ's merits!
 ticular and definite, incomplete and complete, revocable and           For how impossible it really becomes to maintain that
 irrevocable, non-decisive or decisive, conditional or absolute.        Christ's death could exist perfect, complete, and intact in its
 Already in this light the fathers are fully justified in saying        necessity, profit, and worth, when actually that death was
 that God.ordained his Son to the death of the cross without            effectual to save no one !
 a .certain  and definite decree to save any. For the Arminian             In the second place, they accuse the Arminians of `con-
 election is an election of no one unto nothing. There is no            tradicting the Scriptures. And this is so obvious that it
 single element of certainty in it, except the certainty of fail-       needs no explanation. Does not John 10 speak of Christ's
 ure and damnation! Not a single definite person did God                sheep (a distinct and definite number of people) and of the
 ordain His.Son  to save. For it all depended . . . It depended         fact that Christ knows them even when `He lays down His
 on MAN, who might believe, or then again, might not be-                life ? And does not Isaiah 53 :lO speak long centuries before
lieve:  It depended on MAN, who might persevere in faith                Christ died of the absolute certainty that Christ shall see His
                                                                        seed ? But how could this certainty exist if Christ was or-
 and obedience, but who also indeed might not persevere.                dained to the death of the cross without a certain and definite
  But even the second article of the Arminians is quite                 decree to save exactly that seed, known and chosen of God
 sufficient to establish as true the accusation of the fathers          the Father from eternity ?
 here. There they taught that "Christ, the  Saviour of the                 And finally, the fathers justly accuse the Arminians of
 world, died for all men and for every man, so that he has              denying an article .of faith, that concerning the holy catholic
 obtained for them all redemption and the forgiveness of                church. It makes little difference whether this reference is
 sins." You ask: how, in the light of the fact that the  Ar-            understood as referring to the  Apostolic Confession,  or
 minians speak of  .a11  men,  can the fathers accuse them of           whether it is taken as referring definitely to the already
 teaching that Christ was ordained without a certain and                adopted expressions of the  Heidelberg Catechism (Q. 54)
 definite decree to save any ? The answer lies in the  Armin-           and the hTetherland Confession (Article 27). The Arminians
 ians,  own further statement:  ". . . yet that no one actually         deny  .a11  three. If Christ died for all, but atoned for none
 enjoys this forgiveness  ,of sins  .except the believer." This         definitely, and with certainty saved none, then I cannot with
 seems a perfectly innocent statement by itself. But taken in           "certain knowledge" and "hearty confidence" believe that
 connection with the foregoing, it means exactly what the               there is an holy catholic church. land  it surely becomes im-
 fathers say. Christ might have died without saving a single            possible to maintain those clear and concise statements of
 individual. It might indeed have been so that Christ had               the Heidelberger and the Nethe&nd  Confession concerning
 obtained for all men redemption and forgiveness, but that no           the church.~
 man enjoyed this redemption and forgiveness because no                    And therefore, let us, with the fathers, with all our heart
 man would believe. They made separation, fatal separation,             reject this Arminian error of a general atonement.
between the merits of Christ and the application of those                                                                     H. C. H.


                                                                                                   .




                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D ,   B E A R E R                                                  357
, II                                                                         The  t&o terms as we commonly use them merely denote two
               DECENCY awmd G'
                                                           Riij phases of the one office, of Serving in Christ's church.
                                                                                  The offices of Christ's church reflect the service which
                                                                             %hrist Himself'has rendered. In the highest sense of the worcl
                                                                             Christ is  I'lze  Sc~z-r,ant  (minister, cliakonos) of God so that
                  The Office of the Deacon                                   apart from Him  `fhere is no real service of God possible.
                                                                             "The Son of man- came not to be ministered unto but to
                        B. AN Office bf- Mercy                               mi&ter (diakoneo) , and to give His life a ransom for .many"
                                                                             (Mark 10 :45). As such He functions as `the Prophet, Priest
        The  word from which the term "deacpn" is derived and                and King of God and of this three-fold office of Christ we
   that also  expresses   the idea of the office we are at present           have a `beautiful reflectioll.  in the offices in the church.' The
   discussing is the Greek word "diakonos." It is rather inter:              prophetic office is reflected in the teaching ministry of the
   esting to note that of the thirty times that this word appears            church as performed by the ministers of the Word. The
   in the noull form in *the New Testament iit also. appears in              kingly office is reflected in the ruling ministry of the church
   the verbal form)? it is ltranslatecl  by the English word "de+            as performed by the elders. The priestly office is `properly
   con" only three times in the King James version. These three              reflectecl in the ministry of mercy as performed by the ,clea-
   references are Philippians 1  :l, I Timothy 3  :8 and  12.                cons. If this  .is not the  case there is something wrong and
        Seven' times the same word is translattcl by the word                the church should *take steps to revise the functions of the
   "servant." The servants in the parable of the marriage of                 cleaconate so that they do reflect this ministry.
   the  king's  son are called  "diakonoi"  (Matt.  32  :13). Jesus               Certainly then the function of the. deacon consists in mucl~
   says in Matthew 23 :ll that "He that is greatest .among  YOU              more than that one serves as  I an  accountat&,  book-keeper.
   shall be your servant (cliakonos)  ." The same thought is                 a!icl custodian of the  church's   .money. These tasks are only
   expressed in Mark 9 :35. At the wedditig in Cana the mother               of secondary importance and must serve simply  ,as  means-
   of Jesus tells the servants (diakonoi)  `to do whatever the               through which the principle idea of the office is attained.
   Lord tells them to do (John 2 5) . And in Romans 16 :l the' Even then they are  only. helpful means and are not  iti
   apostle commends to the church at Rome a                     '
                                                        woman named          themselves  il,ecessarily   essolztinl.  The  cleacons  are called to
   Phebe, who is 3 sister in the Lorcl and a servant (diakonos)              the office to dispense the mercies of  Cl&i&  and to do that
   of  #the church which is at  CencllTea.  To render service is a           requires much grace and compassion of love. It does not re-
   fundamental idea of the. ~0x1 ."cleacon."                                 quire grace to "count the collections, write out a few checks,
        Most  .frequently,  however, the term is translated in  oui          pay the monthly bills and deliver a few baskets of groceries
  English Bibles by the word "minister". in which also  ttie                 to the poor, etc." These things any man with a sense of in-
   idea of serving  is predominant. In `twenty places this trans-            tegrity and normal intellectual ability, is able- to do hilt that
   lation is found. A few examples are : Matt. 20 :26, Romans                is .not yet performing the task of a deacon.
   `13:4,   lS:l, I Cor.  3:5, Gal . 3  :17, Eph. 3 :7, 6 :21, Col. 1 :7,         "To- use the office of a deacon iaell,"  as` the apostle Paul
   23, $5, etc. Although today the term "minister" is commonly               writes in I Timothy 3 :13 is something else. That means that
   applied only to &OS&  office-beareis  of $the church who labor in         the pffice  is raised  to the level of the spiritual and through it
   the Word and doctrine, it should be noted  tl>at the New                  the true mercies of Christ yesus are made manifest and by
   Testament term, for "deacon" is translated by  -that  word                these the  poor and indigent are comforted and assisted in
   two-thirds of the time. A "cleacoh"  is a "minister."                     their afflictions. To be sure they are also given food and
        This, however, sh&l  not lead us to confuse the offices              rail-llent  for the bocly and such  things as they have need of
   o? the church as tthough there were  no more distinction be-              but  dnly when  these  things are bestowed  upon them in
   tween the office of the ministei  a& that of the deacon. The              ?gzexy  is. the of&e of the -deacon functioning or, otherwise
   conclusion would certainly be unwarranted to say that min-                statecl, is Christ functioning through the office. Mercy is
   isters are deacons and deacons  -are ministers without any                first.
   further explanation. It should -be remembered that the word                   What is mercy?
   "cliakonos," used with respect to both ministers and deacons,                  Mercy is related to those other ethical' perfections.. mell-
   simply denotes "one who serves" and, consequently, `(a ser-               tiqnecl in Gocl's Word, such as love, goodness, grace, long-
   vant." Ministers (:elclers)-  and deacons have this in co&on              suffering, etc. We may speak of it in a two-fold way, as a
   with. respect  -to their offices that they are servants . . .             virtue of God's own Being and as a disposition of God re-
   servants of Christ. In  ethis  irespect  there is no difference.          vealed to His people in Christ. The latter in turn is again
   The one is not a higher office than the other; the'one is not             reflected in the people of God who also manifest mercy.
   a spiritual office in distinction from the other which is then.                In respect to God Himself, mercy may be considered as
   regarded  as. secular. Sot at all. Both are  eq&lly important             one of His ethical perfkctions  which may be defined as that
   spiritual offices instituted by Christ in the church and differ-          attribute of God according to which He is in Himself, and
   itig only in the nature of service that is required of them.              eternally wills- to be, infinitely blessed as the  LIltimate  ancl


      358                                          THE STANDARD BEARER . .

      only- good. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord                former  followS the  Jatter but where it is practiced without
      Jesus Christ"  (Eph. 1  :l j means that God realizes the per-         the latter, it is cold cruelty.
      fection of mercy in  l!$mself. He is blessed. He is good.                In a more particular sense of the word, the office of the
      He is. eternally free in the ab$olute sense of the word from          Deacon is that office in Ch&?s church through which in an
      misery or affliction. Mercy is perfected in- God.                     official capacity the mercies of Jesus Christ are manifested.
                                                                            As to how this is to' be done, we shall have occasiori  to write, I
--
             In regard to  .His people who are in the midst of the          D.V., in connection with the next Article of our Church
      world, we may speak of Divine mercy as that attribute of              Ordki-  but in the present connection we want it Aade  clea;
      God according to which He is affected toward them with an             that the calling of the deacon is firstly to reflect the Phestly
      eternal desire or Will to bless them and make the& blessed            functions of Christ in his office as much as it is the duty of
      as He is and, furthermore,  it is for that very reason also           the elder to reflect Christ's Prophetic and  Kingly  fun&o+
      the power of God according to which He perfectly delivei-s            in his office. The beautiful task of the deacon is to apply
      His people .fyom all the misery and deepest woe of sin and            the. salve of mercy to the sore wounds of God's afflicted and
      death and raises them' to the highest possible blessedness of         distressed people. If he fails to  sfrive toward this he does
      eternal  .life and glory wherein they forever  taste that He          not serve the office well.
      is good. Mercy is never common nor are all men the reci-                  We have frequently encountered the erroneous notion'
      pient of this blessing. "By His mercy He saved us." (Titus            that only the elders must be rnkn  versed in the Scriptures and
      .3  5) The revelation of God's mercy is in Jesus Christ and           of a high spiritual stature sin& the nature of that office re-
      especially do we see this in all of His High Priestly work            quires this while it is then sufficient if the deacons be honest,
      wherein He not only lays down  His life as  a sacrifice and           men of. business ability since their duties concern<  only tlie
      atonement for our sin, delivering us from Zhe curse of death,         material  and earthly things. Such a notion is based on an
      but also .in His continuous in&cession for us through which           altogether wrong understanding or no understanding at all
      He receives from the Father all the spiritual blessings in            of the office of deacon and when it is applied in the church
      heavenly places which in His mercy He. bestows upon His               and used `as a standard by which men are jtidged  qualified
      own. Christ is our merciful High Priest Who ministers `for the office, the result is that the  of&e soon becomes so
      to us God's mercy. He is the Minister (diakonos). of mercy.           d&graded  that it is  $rtuall$  impossible to find in it any
                                                                            setiblarice  of the spiritual idea it is supposed to express. Into
             In general it may be said that ,God's people are certainly     such a state of deterioration many a deaconate of our day has
      called to also reflect that mercy of God in Christ toward one         lapsed. To bring it back to that which it ought to be accord-
      another. "Put on, therefore, as the  elect of God, bowels of          ing to Scripture,. it is necessary that the  dhurch carefully
      mercy" (Col. 3  :12)., Such is our calling. This, however,            choose men-who are qualified according to the standards of
      must not be confused with a false show of mercy which is              Holy. Writ.  To.. these qualifications we will, D.V., direct
      only an attempt of man to be good to his fellow man while             attention the next time.
      leaving him in his  siti. That does not reflect  Gocl's-  rilercy,            :                                               G.V.D.B.'
      and, therefore, it is not mercy at all. It is the very opposite.
      That is also why Scripture `says, "The tender mercies of the
      wicked are `cruel" (Prov. 12:lO).  To manifest true mercies              "Why  was the Bread of Life hungry,  but that He might
      implies that we are first of. all the recipients of the "mercy        feed the hungry with the bread of life? Why was the REST
      of the Lord which is  from  everlasting to everlasting upon           itself weary, buf to give the weary rest? Why was the Prince
      them that fear Him" (Ps, 103  :17). Surely it is-impossible           of Peace in trouble, but that the troubled might have peace ?
      to reflect that which we do not possess. . . And the reflkction       None but the Image of .God could restore us to God's image.
      of genuine mercy is then this : "By mercy and truth iniquity          None but the Prince of Peace, could'bring the God of peace
      is purged  ; and `by the fear of the Lord men depart from             and the peace of God to poor sinners."                   - DyeSr
      evil" (Prov. 16  :G). Mercy is inseparable  fro?1  the  tmt.h!
      "Mercy and truth are met together" Ps. 85 :lO. "Me&y  and                "How inconsistent^the  Christian `can yet be ! On the one
      truth shall go before thy face," Ps.  89  :14. "Let  `not mercy       hand he, rightly, condemns man's aspiration in Adam to
      and truth forsake thee," Prov.. 3  :3. "Mercy and truth shall.        cast off God's sovereign  rule-on the other, he daily at-
      be to them that devise good," Prov. 14:~.                             tempts to displace' the only Judge of heaven and earth, by
                                                                            haughtily judging his fellowmen; forgetting  -the stern in-
             Hence,  true mercy is that affection of one toward another     junction: "Judge not, that ye be not judged."
      whereby the one' desires and seeks to lead the .other in the                                                                     HHK..
      way of the truth in which way is the attainment of the only
      blessedness. Mercy is not first of all pity toward those that            Would your church. treasurer eagerly trade the amount
`
-     are hungry, naked and destitute but mercy pities them that            you actually-gave to your church, for the amount your tax
      are held in bondage by the powers, of evil and the lie. The           return claims you did ?                                 - Anon.


                                            T H E   STAN.DARD   B E A R E R                                                        359
                                                                         ...-.     -
                                                                    plication he means to assert that the promises of God. are
 11  AL.L  AiWUND  U S   - -                                   II general and, I have no doubt, he also believes they are con-
                                                                    ditional  ; for that would follow a general promise.      .
                                                                       Here we have another illustration  of- what these poor-men.
 LOW,Thy  Neigh&  fb~  Gdd's  Sa~ke:                                say when they do not know what else to say. Yes, indeed,
                                       .
    This is the title of Rev. H. Hoeksema's latest book in          Hoeksema is a great theologian, his writings are "exhaus-
 the series on the Heidelberg Catechism, bmalso  the heading        tive," "scholarly, " "valuable," etc., but we must have nothing
 of one of the book reviews appearing in torch and tm@et.,          of his doctrine. No word is written to prove his rationalism,
 p. 23, of the April, 1956, issue. The reviewer is the Rev.         and nothing is said to show that the promises of God are.
 L. Mulder of Neerlandia, Alberta, Canada.                          general and conditional, and no Scriptural evidence is pro-
                                                                    duced to show that Hoeksema's view on "divorce and re-
    Here is what this reviewer said about Hoeksema's book:          marriage" is contrary to the truth. Of course, we can con-
   "Rev. Hoeksema's wish to complete his exposition on the          clude he is shooting only with a' pea-shooter. Not dangerous
 Heidelberg Catechism has almost been fulfilled. He plans to        therefore ishe.  And who would be so silly to try and climb
 do it in ten volumes, so that all that remains is one volume       the fence to apprehend the "general"? There is always the
 dealing with the Lord's Prayer. Says the author, `I look           possibility one might tear his trousers. And who likes to
 forward to completing it.' As we can expect from this author,      hand out money to the tailor needlessly?
 he deals with his subject in a scholarly and rather exhaustive
 fashion. Several chapters are sometimes devoted to one single      The  National  C&n'&  an8 N.  B. C.
 Lord's Day.                                                           Both in the Presbyterian Guardian of March 15,  `56,
     "It goes .without saying, I suppose, that Rev. Hoeksema        and in The Ba.nney of April 13, `56 appear articles relative
 reveals himself in his writings as one who violently dis-          .to the condemnation by the National Council of the Churches
 agrees' with the Christian Reformed Church on matters of           of Christ in the U.S.A. of the National Broadcasting  Corn--
 common grace and the covenant of grace. Whenever these             pany because of the latter'> decision to consider granting
 subjects enter into the scope of a particular Lord's Day, he       time for the broadcasting of religious programs, particularly
 unhesitantly shows his colors.. That is the main objection I       the  iBilly  Graham program.
 have to a brilliantly written book. Rev. Hoeksema proceeds            It appears from both of these articles as well as from the
 from a presupposition which is dangerously related to a            March 7th issue of the Nezv York T&z&s that both the N.B.C.
I certain brand of rationalism. This is not the place to enter      and the Columbia Broadcasting System have heretofore been
 upon a debate pertaining to the salient differences which          holding firm against the sale of time to religious groups. It
 exist between him  .and us, but the fact is they are there,        also appears that the reason why they have refused this time
 permeating all of his dogmatics.                                   for religious programs is the pressure the National Council
    "His view of divorce' and remarriage can be `stated in' of Churches has brought to bear on them. These churches
 simple terms. The marital  bond-is indissoluble,  hence  no        it seems have a monopoly and have industriously endeavored
 marriage not even for the innocent party in case of fornica-       to keep off the major net works all orthodox religious pro-
 tion. He does not enter into the problems which arise be-          grams that would militate against their liberalism. Only the
 cause of remarriage.                                               Mutual Broadcasting System and the American Broadcasting
                                                                    Company which have national hook-ups have given time to
   " `God's promises are for the elect and for them only' is        other religious groups. There are, we are told, only seven-
 a phrase which recurs rather frequently throughout the             teen religious programs apart from the program of the Na-
 book. That of course was to ,be expected and does not sur-                                                                               -I
                                                                    tional Council that are aired on the major net works. The
 prise us in the least. It means, however, that his books, valu-    Back to God Hour and the Lutheran Hour are among these
 able as they are, should, be handled and used by discerning        seventeen. Of course there are many smaller stations, in-
 people."                                                           dependent stations, that carry many other religious programs,
     This reviewer reminds us of a little boy with a pea-shooter    such as those which broadcast our  owt~.Reformed  Witness
 peeking through a knot hole in a board fence enclosure. Like       Hour.                                         -.
 a mighty general he imagines himself to be as he threatens             We are also told that the Synod of 1955 of the Chr. Ref.
 the passers-by with his "big  gun,"-  the pea-shooter. He          Church approved the idea of using the facilities of. the N:B.C.
 can do no great bodily harm, but neither can he be appre-          for the expansion of their program when the funds would
 hended for his threatenings.                                       permit. But until now this has not been done because the
     SO the Rev. Mulder hides safely .behind  the enclosure of.. N.B.C.`s policy on selling religious time had not `been
 the doctrine of common grace, while peering out he makes           finally determined. The editor of the Back to God department
 great sweeping charges. He will allow you no room for              in The Banner pleads that- "these modern apostles of toler-
 debate on the issue-of common grace, but ,at the same time         ante (meaning the National Council of Churches  - M.S.)
 he makes the sweeping charge of "rationalism," and by im-          now prove their tolerance! Let them rejoice that N.B.C.


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  3          6       0                             T H E - S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

       has now made it possible for historic Christianity to be                get on the -N.B.C. System," other. religious  .programs,   in
                                                                                                                 .-
       h e a r d   !`:                                                         eluding  really conservative programs, may also succeed in
  .        The writer in the Presbyterian Grmrdian~ however, poses             getting on. And this would. seriously jeopardize the position
       some problems connected with  ,the decision of the N.B.C. He            and prestige of  sthe National Council.
       tells  us  that "it can hardly be expected that radio stations                  There is also another thought suggested by the article
       sl~o~~lcl bear the  cost- of religious broadcasts.- Some means          in the Presbyterian  Gua.rd,ian  which has often come to my
       should be devised for the costs at least being met by the               mind. I refer to  `. the matter of obtaining an independent
       broadcaster. On the other hand, the multiplicity of religious           religious radio station. There are those who have succeeded
       groups that would demand time, if free time were available,             in this. Moody Bible.Institute of Chicago is one illustration.
       would make an impartial distribution of time by the net                 We have, also thought of the possibility of collaborating with
       works or stations almost impossible. They would naturally               other religious organizations to realize such a station. But
       resort to giving time to groups of churches or councils that            the problems -involved in either method are so many and
       were deemed `representative.' This in effect would eliminate            great that the whole idea' seems prohibitive. :For one thing
       from the air broadcasts characterized by `conservatism' or              there are many strict governmental regulations that would
       `orthodosy.`.'                                                          have to be reckoned with. To put up a private radio station
           "On the other hand, charging for broadcasts has `the                with enough wattage to make it worth while is *also  prohib-
       result that only those can broadcast who can pay the relatively         itive from a financial point of view. And perhaps the most
       high costs of radio time. This also results in certain groups           difficult of all to realize, is collaboration with other religious
   being favored,  .and others rejected! `not on the grounds of                groups in the .establishment  ,of a- religious broadcasting com-
       their religious content, but their ability to pay.                      pany. I can hardly visualize this possibility unless all could
           `We doubt there is any satisfactory answer to this prob-            agree not to be distinctive in presenting his own views. And
       lem. The best approach to a solution  would seem to be the              the latter is impossible of course as I see it.
 establishment of broadcasting stations owned and operated                             So  <the only means left to us, for the present at least, is
  by those religious groups that desire to broadcast, with chan-               Ithe use of several smaller stations on which we can buy time
  nels made available' to them .in accordance with reasonable                  to re-broadcast the program that emanates from- -Grand
  government controls."                                                        Rapids. We remind our'readers that this is an effective medi-
           Radio broadcasting of our distinctive Reformed- heritage            um still available to proclaim our Protestant Reformed con-
  has been of personal interest to me for a number of years,                   ceptions to many thousands who otherwise would never hear
  and I am sure that it has been also to our churches which                    of us. How wonderful it would be if our people would become
  have sponsored various programs, one of which, the  Re-                      thoroughly enthused and contribute enough so that time on
  formed Witness Hour, will soon celebrate its fifteenth year                  several more stations could be obtained in strategic points in
  on the air. Even though we cannot talk in terms as big as let                our .land and in Canada. We would exhort you to give this
  us say the Chr. Ref. Church as far as dollars and cents goes,                serious consideration and the next time opportunity is given :
  so that we are ready to make a decision to obtain time on                    for you to contribute to the Reformed Witness Hour that
  a national hook-up, we are nevertheless interested in any                    you. reflect your enthusiasm with a generous response:
  future. possibilities.                                                                                                                     M.S.
           We are fully aware?  and have been for a long time, that
  the clay is not far hence when the freedom to disseminate our
  views via radio will  be.denied   us'.  In fact, as the articles                     "In the New Testament the term mystery (musterion) is
  above referred to evince, the National Council, representing                 the name for the wonders and deeds of God, which were
  modernistic churches, has almost from the beginning of reli-                 formerly hidden, but which have now been refealed."
  gious broadcasting hacl a monopoly on the major net works,                                  H. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. LV, page 4$3
  and by dint of power has kept other religious broadcasts of
  an orthodos or conservative nature- off the air. We were                             "The word q&ery,  according to the common Scriptural
  therefore not a little surprised to learn that somehow the                   sense of the term, does not mean something obscure or in-
  N.B.C. has for the time being at least determined to change                  comprehensible, but simply something previously unknown
  its policy. Perhaps this was due to the -fact that the Billy                 and undiscovered by human reason, .and which, if known at
  Graham `program is fast becoming popular through the pop-                    all must be known by revelation from God. In this sense
  ularity of its central figure. Broadcasting companies, like                  the gospel is called a mystery, or "the wisdom of God in
the publishers of books, are interested in that which the                      mystery; that is, a hidden wisdom, which the wise of this
  populace wants, and is willing to buy.                                       world could not cl&cover, but which God has revealed by His
           It stands `to reason that the National Council is highly            Spirit."               ,
  displeased with this decision since, if Billy Graham can                                           Charles Hodge, Comm. on Remans l-6:25-27


