                                                                                                I



      VOLUME   XXX11                                             JULY   1,  19%  -GRAND  RAPIDS,,   MICHIGAN                  /              NUMBER   18

                                                                                                C)br if born, that *they were cast into the sea, rather than
                M E D I T A T I O N                                                                                                                                  *
                                                                                           to pout their filthy hands on the beloved of Christ.


   THE ADVENT OF CHRIST'S MISSIONARIES                                                          Behold, I send unto you prophets !
                                                                                           -    What are they ?
                   "Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and                            Prophets are men who are so completely fuli of God and
                  wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall                         Christ, and the things of God's, Covenant; that they must
                  kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge
                  in your synagogues, and persecute them from city                         speak-
               t o   c i t y : .                                                                To be a prophet means that you- boil over of the things
                  That upon you may.come all the'unrighteous blood                         of Gpd.
                  shed `upon the earth, from the blood of righteous                             Whenever we. hear the name prophet, we .think of men
                  Abel unto the blood of Zacherias, son of Barachias,
                  whom ye slew between the temple. and the altar.                          who tell us what is going to happen in the future.
                  Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come                            And yet that is only the smallest part of their work.
                  u p o n   t h i s   g e n e r a t i o n . "      M a t t .   23:34-46         To be a prophet means that you speak about God and                        .
    It is difficult to understand where the modern church                                  Christ and salvation. That's the reason why the historical
finds the picture of that meek Jesus who serves humanity as                                books of the  Old.Testament  were reckoned with the prophets
 some Santa Claus, always  being ready to bless anyone at all,                             in the 0. T. canon of the Jews,. The things of God and His
standing at the door of everyone's heart, knocking, knocking,                              Son,.-  whether they still lie in' the future, or whether they
if  haply they may let Him in, so -that He may save them                                   have already happened, and are  no$history,  are prophecy.
from sin and death.                                                                             And so, if you speak of God-from the heart that fears and
     Difficult, for I do not find such ,a picture in the Bible.                            loved Him, you are prophesying.
     Attend to the context of my text, and shudder !                                            Such men Christ  tiould send to this evil generation of
     But . . . . .                                                                         Pharisees and scribes.
     But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!                                       -And that sending by Christ is the meaning of the word
     And such language is repeated a dozen times within the                                "apostle."
confines of one chapter. And the last such condemnation uses                                    And, indeed, He did send the twelve to that evil genera-
the following language : "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers,                            tion. And excepting John, they all were killed and destroyed         '
how &an you escape the damnation of hell ?'                                                by the wicked.
     Jesus spoke this `language because He knew their hearts,                                   But in the most general sense, all God's people of all
and because His very name is the Truth. He never minces                                    the ages are apostles of the Lord, sent as missionaries to an
 vvords..                   *                                                              evil generation, in order that the elect might listen to them
  _ And my text is part of the conclusion of this address to                               and be saved, and  that'the-wicked  might ultimately take and'
 the wicked church leaders of His day. He shall tell them of                               destroy them, kill them and scourge them.
a more terrible condemnation. He is going to send good men                                      And the church is always singing the song of David in
 to them. He will set upon their pathway prophets, wise men,                               Psalm 44 : For Thy sake are we killed all the day long !
 and scribes, good scribes. And that will be terrible for the                                   Moreover, these same men are also wise men. A prophet
 Pharisee, for they will kill those good missionaries of Christ.                           is also wise.
     And so they will fill up the measure of their wickedness.                                  And to be a wise man means that you walk on the right1
     For they will destroy the missionaries of Christ.                                     way and use the right means  unto- the attainment of the
     It were better for them if they had not been born.                                    highest and best purpose.


  434                                           T H E   STA.N.DARD   B E A R E R

    He that does that is a wise man.                                        What may be the reason for such treatment. Why is it,
    That purpose is the glory of God.                                    that `the most wonderful men the world has ever seen are,
    ,God always does that.                                               treated in such cruel manner?
    All that happens on earth, in heaven and in hell are the                The answer is easy.
ways and the means which God uses unto the attainment of                    First, because these missionaries of Christ are good.
 the highest and the only purpose of the whole' Universe,                And the world is bad. And a bad man cannot stand the
 namely the glory of His name.                                           sight of a good man.. They call them "spoil sports." For a
    And since Jesus Christ is the center of all these things             good man to be in the proximity of a bad lot is torture for the
 and ways and means, therefore His name is The Wisdom of                 latter. In Revelation we read that the two witnesses of God
 God.                                                                    tortured the wicked. That's what I mean in this connection.
    And every child bf God receives of that wisdom.                         Second, because the world is bad. .And they are totally
    In the same measure that. he lives from that principle of            bad. There is no good in them. And they never reveal their
 wisdom, such a man, woman or child seeks the glory of God.              badness more than when you place them in the proximity
         Such men are sent to the wicked.                                of the good church of Christ.
    And they also are the scribes of my text. They are the                  Third, because they hate God and Christ. And since God
 good scribes. Among the wicked generation of Jesus' day                 and Christ dwell in the church, they kill and crucify and
 there were also scribes, `in fact; Jesus addressed the scribes,,        scourge the church. Look what they did to Jesus Himself !
 and said: I will send scribes unto you. And the same word                  Fourth, because they must work out their own damna-
 is used in the original.                                                tion. Look at the text: "that upon you may come all the
    The meaning is that these good men would also use the                unrighteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of
 written word for the purpose they pursued. They would write             righteous Abel unto `the blood of Zacharias, son of  Bara-
 the age-old story of God and Christ and salvation.                      chias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar." Note
    And so we have the Word of God in the narrowest.sense                here that the race of the wicked are viewed by our God as
 of the word.                                                            a unity. For they were not around when Abel and  Bara-
         But there are also the books of the missionaries of Christ      chias were killed. But they and their fathers, as well as
 of all the ages: We have writings of the fathers, and of the            their children, are an ever growing sore, until the man of
 Reformers, and of all the good men whom Jesus sent `to His              sin, Anti-Christ himself, shall be revealed. And they work
 church. And so they speak to us, even after they are dead.              out their own doom.
    All these good men are sent by Christ to the wicked and                 And all this according to the wise counsel of God.
 apostate church.                                                            Positively, we should add that through all this Golgotha
                                                                         of the ages the `Church is gathered. The blood of the mar-
                               *'  *  +  *                               tyrs is the seed of the church. And God is both glorified and
                                                                         justified ,in this terrible spectacle.
         Now, dear reader, what is their reception and lot?
    Well, what would you expect?                                                                      * *  *  *
    You know that their identity and task is wonderful. They
 are good men, and they are sent in order to speak and to                    It will not do to sit .down and cry at the carnage of the
 write and to live the beauteous Word of God. And then we                people of God.
 hear an echo : How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet                Barachias did not. Abel had no opportunity.
 of him that bringeth good tidings !                                        Barachias said : Why transgress ye  the commandment
    Yes, we would expect that- humanity would bear them up               of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? And when they killed
 on arms of love.                                                        him, he said: The Lord look upon it and require it!
         But they did not. The reverse is true.                             And when Abel could not talk anymore, the Lord said:
    According to Jesus, they_ would be killed, crucified, scdurg-        The voice of thy brother's blood  crieth unto Me from the
 ed and persecuted.                                                      ground.
         Think on Stephen, Peter, Paul and James. Yes, and in               And when the saints of all the ages arrive in the New
 connection with that scourging, listen to Paul: "Of the Jews            Jerusalem, they cry to Him: How long, o Lord, holy and
 five times I received forty stripes save one. Thrice was  I             true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them
 beaten with rods, once was I stoned.                                    that dwell on the earth ?
         And they were persecuted from city to city.                         Oh, no, for God has seen the carnage and shall surely
         And this treatment they received in all the ages.               require it.
         And if you ask. if that is true in. our day, then the answer        In a sense He does already require it now. You cannot
 is yes.                                                                 slay the righteous and enjoy your life: Oh no, even now, at
         For we are hated all the day long for Christ's sake, and        this side of the great Judgment Day you pay in a burdened
 hatred is the root of all the terrible treatment of my text.            heart and conscience. Unless you  areaone of the few who


                                              T H E :   S T A N D A R D   ~BEARER'                                                                                                  435

have committed the unpardonable sin, so that your con-
science is seared shut with an iron.                                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
   And presently He shall require all this precious blood at          Semi-momtkly,   excejt  mo&hly  dz&g  Jzme, July and August
the hand of those who shed it. And it is not necessary to                Published by the  I&FORMED   FREE   PUBLISHING   ASSXIATION
shed actual blood of God's people in order to sharethe  pun-          P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
ishment in that day. No, just hate those that reveal the                                    Editor  -  REV.  HERMAN   H~EKSEMA
Godhead, and you are in the miserable throng of those who              Communications relative to contents should be addressed to Rev.
are addressed by Jesus in my text.                                     H. Hoeksema,  1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
                                                                      All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
   And the victims need not, should not weep.                          G. Pipe, 1463  Ardmosre  St., S. E., Grand  ,Rapids  7,  Mixchigan.
   Their crown is waiting.                                            Announcements and Obituaries must be mailed to the  abo,ve
                                                                      address and will be published at a fee of $1.00 for each notice.
   Of grace it was given to them to believe.                           RENEWALS   : Unless a' definite request for discontinuance is re-
   But of grace it was also given to all of us to suffer              ceived, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription
because of the righteousness of Christ.                               to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
   Suffering for Christ's sake has a hallowing effect.  It                                    Subscription price: $4.00 per year
makes the soul and the heart better.                                  El&red as Second Class  mitten at  Grand  Ra&ds,  Michigan
   It brings us closer to God.
   And to be near unto God is unspeakable blessedness.                                                    C O N T E N T S
   For it is of the essence of heaven..
                                                        G. Vos.     MEDITATION  -
                                                                          The Advent of Christ's Missionaries.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .433
                                                                                 Rev. G. Vos
                                                                    EDITCXGALS  -
                     Announcements                                        Election and Arbitrariness.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .436
                                                                          A Dutch `Encyclopaedia..  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .438
   The Synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches `has de-                        Rev. H. Hoeksema
cided that each congregation be requested to take two col-          A s   TO  BOOKS-
                                                                        Leer en Leven by Rev. J. G. Feenstra  ,................. 439
lections a year for Foreign Missions..                                    Als lichtende Sterren.  by Nelly Van, Dijk-Has . . . . . . . . . . . . .439
   Will the consistories please consider this an official an-             Expository Outlines of the Whole Bible by Charles Simeon.439
                                                                                 Rev. H. Hoeksema
nouncement `to them.                                                OUR   DOCTRINE  -
   Please send to : Mr. Arthur H. Haan,  Breton Road, S. E.,              The Book of Revelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Grand Rapids, Michigan.                                                          Rev. H. Hoeksema
                                        G. Lubbers, Stated Clerk    THE  DAY   OF  SHAIKXVS-
                                                                          The  Prophecyof'Zechariah...............................442
   The Synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches, con-                           Rev. G. M. Ophoff
vened in South Holland, Illinois, on June 5th, 1956, has ex-        FROM   HOLY   WRIT-
                                                                          Exposition of I Corinthians l-4 (17). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .444
tended the Candidacy of brother Marvin Koerner  for a period                     Rev. G. Lubbers
of three (3) years in which he will be eligible to receive a        IN  HIS   FEAR-
call from one of our churches.                                            Praying in His Fear (33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .446
                           G. Lubbers, Stated Clerk of Synod                     Rev. J. A. Heys
   Note : Due to an oversight on the part of the Stated Clerk       CoN~:NDrNG  FoR THE FA1TH -
                                                                          The Church and the Sacraments (The Lord's Supper).  . . .  .448
this announcement did not appear in the July 1st issue of                        Rev. H. Veldman
the Standard Bea.yer. We offer the brother our apologies.           THE   VOICE  OF  OUR  FATHERS  -
                                                           G . L .        The Exposition of the Canons of Dordrecht.. . . . . . . . . . . . . .4.50
                                                                                 Rev. H. C. Hoeksema

                              T R I O                               FEATURE  ARTICLE  -
                                                                          Tlhe  Proper Use of the term "Condition". . . . . .I.. . . . . . . . . .452
   The  Creston Protestant Reformed Church has made the                          Rev. C. Hanko
following trio :                                                    ALL  AROUND  Us-
                    Rev. G.  Laming                                       S t e r e o t y p e d   T h e o l o g y . . . . . : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5 4
                                                                                 Rev. M.  Schipper
                    Rev.  G.'  Vanden Berg
                    Cand. G. Van Baren

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

                                                                               elect in his just judgment to their own wickedness and
                        EDITOfLIALS                                            obduracy. And herein is especially displayed the profound,
                                                                               the merciful, and at the same time the righteous discrimina-
                                                                               tion between men equally involved in ruin ; or that decree
                            Election cd Arbitrariness                          of election and reprobation revealed in the Word of God,
                                                                               which though men of perverse, impure, and unstable minds
                  In his book on the Election of God, Dr. !Berkouwer  has      wrest to their own destruction, yet to holy and pious souls
           one chapter on  "Verkiezing  en  Willekeur;"  i.e. "Election        affords unspeakable consolation."  _
           and Arbitrariness or Capriciousness." In it he means  to               Let us notice that the Canons here ascribe the deepest
           demonstrate that the will of God concerning election is never       cause of faith and unbelief to God's eternal counsel of elec-
           arbitrary but always well motivated and consistent, has  a          tion and reprobation even .though the article is thoroughly
           definite purpose in view.                                           infralapsarian. Let us notice, too, that the article is far
                  This, of course, no Reformed man will ever deny.             from ascribing any capriciousness or arbitrariness to God in
                                                                               respect to His decree of election and reprobation. On the
                  The will of God is never arbitrary simply because God        contrary, this decree displays the profound, the merciful and
           is not arbitrary. Election and Reprobation do not represent         righteous discrimination between men. And it is in his just
           a blind and capricious power but are motivated by all the           judgment that he leaves the non-elect to their own wicked-
           virtues of  .God,  His righteousness and mercy, His justice         ness and obduracy. How this can be true the Canons do
           and grace, His sovereign power and His sovereign love, and          not attempt to explain.
           whatever other virtues there are revealed of God in Holy
           Writ. God is one and His virtues are one and even for that             The same is true of I, 7 of the Canons which describes
           reason it is impossible to speak of arbitrariness in God.           the decree of election as follows:
           Moreover, all Scripture clearly testifies that there is, never         "Election is the unchangeable purpose of God, whereby,
           any unrighteousness in God, that He loves the righteous and         before the foundation of the world, he  bath out of mere
           hates the wicked every day. His love is, not arbitrary but          grace, according to the sovereign good pleasure of his own
           is a righteous love, His grace and mercy are not capricious         will, chosen from the whole human race, which had  faden
           but are a just grace and mercy. There is no common grace            through their own fault, from their' primitive state of recti-
           in God. .                                                           tude, into sin and. destruction, a certain number of persons
                  But the question is : what is first? Is man first or God?    to redemption in Christ, whom he from eternity appointed
           When the Scriptures so strongly emphasize that God loves            the Mediator and Head of the elect, and the foundation of
           the righteous and hates the wicked, does that mean that             their salvation.
           God simply finds righteous and wicked in the world and                 "This elect number, though by nature neither better nor
           that His attitude is deterniined accordingly? The Scrip-            more deserving than others, but with them involved in one
           tures teach plainly that, if the wicked turn from his evil          common misery, God  bath decreed to give to Christ, to be
           ways and repent, he shall surely live,' for God has no pleas-       saved by him, and effectually to call and draw to his com-
           ure that the wicked should die but that he repent and live.         munion by his Word and Spirit, to' .bestow upon them true
           But  the, question that concerns us in this connection is           faith, justification and sanctification ; and having powerfully
           whether the impenitence of the wicked has ultimately its            preserved them in the fellowship of his Son, finally, to
           cause or source in God's reprobation, the decree "to leave          glorify them for the demonstration of his mercy, and for
           him in his sin," while, on the other hand, the penitence of         the praise of the riches of his glorious grace  ; as it is
           the sinner has its deepest cause in God's sovereign election,       written, etc."
           the eternal decree to redeem and deliver him from sin and              Here again election is presented as the sole cause of the
           give him eternal life. This is the Reformed position. All the       salvation of men. Besides, this election is also realized in
           rest is  Arminianism  and synergism: man cooperates with            time by God Himself through His Word and Spirit. Nor is
           God in his own salvation.                                           this election to be ascribed to any arbitrariness in God. God
      -       That this is, indeed, the Reformed position and that all         has a definite purpose, and even that purpose is not man, but
           other views are rejected is plain from the Canons of Dord-          the demonstration of his mercy and the praise of the riches
           recht which teach in I, 6:                                          of his glorious grace.
                  "That some receive the gift of faith from God and, others       Now what is Berkouwer's solution of this problem, if
,-         do not receive it, proceeds from God's eternal .decree, `For        problem it is ? In his book I find the same tendency to
           known unto God are all his  works  from the beginning of            compromise in regard to, the doctrine of election which I
           the world.' Acts 15  :18. `Who worketh all things after the         noticed before. He never states clearly that all the blessings
           counsel of his will.' Eph. l:ll. According to which decree,         of salvation `are absolutely and only the work of God and
           he graciously softens the hearts of the elect, however obsti-       the fruit of election, but only states that believers can con-
           nate, and inclines them to believe ; while he leaves the non-       sider themselves elect. This is true in itself, but,  neverthe-

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

 less, leaves the impression, whether so intended or not, that         of the flesh, these are not the children .of God : but the chil-
 God chose those that believe, which is not Reformed but               dren of the promise are counted for the seed." Remember
 Arminian.                                                             `that in these verses the apostle speaks of the Israelites, his
     Offering an interpretation of Rom. 9 (with which I                brethren according to the flesh. Of these the apostle had
 do not agree), he writes first of all as follows (I translate,        written in the preceding verses that to them pertained the
 H. H.) :                                                              adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving
     "He refutes this `possibility' (the possibility `that the word    of ,the law, and the service of God, and the promises, and of
 of God hath taken none effect, H. H.) by an expression,               whom Christ came according to the flesh. And now not
 which always drew special attention:  `for they are not all           only was the nation of Israel rejected, but thousands- upon
 Israel, which are of Israel, neither because they are the seed        thousands of individual Israelites were excluded from the
 of Abraham, are they all children.' More than once one has,           Kingdom of God. How must this be explained  ? Merely
 at the occasion of this word, thought of a threat or limita-          from the fact that many of them did not believe and were
 tion of God's historical covenant- and promise-word from              not "believing listeners to the `promise of God"? Was the
 the viewpoint of election, and all sorts of tensions in the           promise of God for all and did the promise fail because of
 history of the doctrine of. election may be brought into con-         the unbelief of thousands upon thousands of Jews  ? The
 nection with the exegesis of this word of Paul. In that case          apostle answers in the negative. The Word of God did not
 a deep shadow descends upon that Word, this promise of                fail, can never fail. It is absolutely realized. But what then ?
 God, because one must first know about `election', before             The answer is : The Word of God has not fallen. out, but
 one can consider himself as addressed by this promise-word            that word of promise never' meant all the Jews, all the de-
 of God. It is, however, clear that Paul is not thinking of .scendants  of Abraham, but only the children of the promise
 such a devaluation of the Word of God. It is much more                are counted for the seed. Only these are true Israelites, and
 his intention to show, that it was not at all the intention of        only these are children of God. It is not a question of faith
 the natrwe and the #~$o.se  of the promise-word of God, that          and unbelief, however true it may be that only the children
 one could automatically and apart from faith draw the con-            of the promise ever come to` faith, but of sovereign election
 clusion from this word in this sense: seed of Abraham and             according to which some are born of the promise in dis-
therefore real Israel! The Jews may have considered this               tinction from others, the reprobate, that are not born thus.
 conclusion a simple matter of fact, .but therewith they have             What is meant by the term "children of the promise"?
 misunderstood the promise and election. One construed the             Does the expression mean the same as if the apostle had
 promise as an `Anspruch' (address, claim, H. H.) and                  written : the  provtzised clzildren,  as some would have it? Or
 thereby denied that there is an Israel according to the flesh         does it mean: Ch&%en  to  whow~ the p_romise pertains?  The
 and an Israel according to the Spirit. Against this `Anspruch         expression, no doubt, has a far deeper meaning. We all
 Paul directs his protest. God's election is not' a threat             know that Scripture frequently speaks of the'promise,  some-
 against a believing listening to the promise of God, but              Yimes in the; plural. and often in the singular. The promise
 indeed a menace to the faithless `Anspruch.' For this reason,, is God's revealed and sworn purpose of eternal salvation
 Rom. 9 can make mention of `not all,' and can display its             through Jesus Christ for His people, the elect. It is the
 tremendous warning power. In order to point out the `not              promise, not of man, but of God. Hence, the divine Word
 having effect' of the Word of God Paul calls attention to             of promise is powerful to perform whatever it declares. And
 the divine `ekloge (election, H. H.), and then it becomes             children of the promise are those that are brought forth by
 evident that this `ekloge' does not contradict and cross              ,the power of. the promise. The promise is, as it were their
 through God's own word of promise, but that the sense and             mother. Hence, they are those in whom God has realized
 contents of the `ekloge' throw light upon the paths of Israel's       the promise through  %Tis Spirit and Word. That this is,  -
 history. He shows according to which `ekloge' God acts.               indeed, the meaning of the expression is evident from Gal.
 It appears not to be an `ekloge - as realization of the pur-          4  123, 28, 29, to which we refer the reader. By nature, we
 pose of God -of a dark arbitrariness, accidental and irra-            are children of the flesh. But by the power of the promise
 tional, changeable and inaccessible, but an `ekloge' which,           of God, we are born after the Spirit. And, therefore, chil-
 indeed, rests in God's freedom and sovereignty, but then in           dren of the promise are spiritual children in whom God
-this way that `it has a  clear  and incontestable and non-excep-      wrought and realized the power of the promise of salvation.
 tional content and definiteness." pp. 73-75. .                        Not man is first, not faith is first, not a "believing listening
                                                                       to the promise-word" is first, but always God is first and
    We remark the following:                                           that, too, according to the apostle in Rom. 9,  accordihg to
    1. This is surely no exegesis of Rom. 9 : "Not as though           the eternal counsel of election.
 the Word of God  bath  taken none effect. For they are not               Hence, in the same passage, the apostle calls the children
 all Israel, which are of Israel. Neither because they are the         of the promise the children of God. For he writes in vs. 8:
 seed of Abraham, are they all children: but in Isaac  shall           "That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are
 they seed be called. That is, They which. are the children            not the children of God, but the children .of the promise are

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

counted for the seed.`, The:  .implication  is, evidently, that     promise of God, but only of God's sovereign  selection and
the children of the promise are God's children. They are            reprobation. However, when he writes that election does
those whom God adopted as His children from before the              not contradict or cross through the promise of God, I must
foundation of the world, for whom Christ died that they             disagree with him, or rather, the entire chapter of Rom. 9
might have the right of  sonship,  whom He regenerates, in          condemns that statement. He, evidently, thinks o'f the prom-
whose hearts He implants the power of faith, and in whom            ise as general and as meant for all. And taken in this
He thus realized the adoption by the Spirit of grace.               sense, election would surely contradict and cross through
       2. I will not say that Berkouwer would deny all this,        the promise. But fact is that the Word of God has not
but his exposition of Rom. 9 :6-8 certainly implies such a          fallen out simply because the promise of God was never
denial. His words which I quoted above leave a bad,  un-            meant for all, but only for the children of the promise,
Reformed impression. When I consider that Dr. De Jong               that is, for the elect.
had his instruction from Berkouwer, I can understand that              What Berkouwer means with the last sentence we quoted
he could write his very un-Reformed thesis. Consider that           is rather difficult to understand. There he writes that God's
he writes in the paragraph which' I quoted above : "More            election is not characterized by a dark arbitrariness, but an
than once one has, `at the occasion of this word, thought of        election "which, indeed, rests in God's freedom and sover-
a threat or limitation of God's historical covenant- and            eignty, but then in this way that it has a clear and incon-
promise-word from the viewpoint of election." This  Ber-            testable and non-exceptional content and definiteness." I
kouwer  denies. But this is exactly what the apostle intends        wish that I could ask Berkouwer to explain his own words
to do and does. That the Word of God's promise has not              here, for they certainly need explanation. Election  "non-
fallen out, even though thousands upon thousands of histor-         exceptional,`? To me that means God, in His eternal coun-
ical Israel were lost, is only because the promise was never        sel  of- election makes no exception among men. To me it
meant for all, but only the children of the promise are counted     signifies that, as far as God's election is concerned, all men
for the seed, and these are none other than the elect. I            may be saved. To me, that is not Reformed but Arminian
challenge Berkouwer to deny this.                                   and, perhaps, Barthian. For also Barth, although he denies
   Again he writes : "In that case a deep shadow falls upon         the accusation that he teaches the  apokastasis   pantoo?z,  the
that Word, this promise of God, because one must know               restoration and salvation of all, yet in his  Kirchicke  Dog-
about `election,' before one can consider himself addressed         wzatik,   II, 2, clearly suggests it, to say the least. But I do
by this promise-word of God." This is a bad sentence which          not care to ascribe a meaning to the words of Berkouwer
no man that is Reformed at heart would ever write. In the           which he himself did not intend them to survey. Hence, I
first place, if "in that case" a deep shadow descends upon          wish that he would explain what he means. by an election
the promise of God, the shadow is caused  by. none other            which is non-exceptional in its content.
than the apostle Paul. It is he that limits the Word of God                                                                   H.H.
to the "children of the promise," that is the elect, not we.
.For only the children. of the promise are counted for the
seed. In the second place, what Reformed man would ever                          A DUTCH ENCYCLOPAEDIA .
write that one must first know about `election' before he
can consider himself as addressed by this promise-word of              The first volume of the second edition of the  "Christe-
God ? This is a very unspiritual and erroneous way of ex-           lijke  Encyclopedic" was sent to me by J. H.  Kok,  Kampen;
pressing the-matter. It certainly is not true. The truth is         the Netherlands. The price for one volume is twenty-eight
that God first realizes His promise in the hearts of the            guilders and fifty cents or about seven dollars, while the
elect by His Spirit and Word, then the "children of the             whole set as it is still to be published costs twenty-five
promise" know that the promise is for them, and only thus- guilders or a little over six dollars per volume.
they realize that they are elect and they rejoice in that truth.       Mr. Kok sent me a letter in which he asks that I do
       Again Berkouwer, after he has emphasized that. God's         not simply offer a mere book review of this first volume
election is not a threat against a believing listening to the       but a more extensive discussion of it in  TjLe  Standard
promise of God but the faithless listener, he writes that elec-     Bearer.
tion does not contradict or cross thrbugh,God's,  promise but
throws light upon the paths of Israel's history. Now, that             This I propose to' do, although it is rather difficult to
God's election is not a threat to the believer but to the un-       discuss an  encyclopaedia  and all its various articles. Nev-
believer, no Reformed man will ever deny. But, and this             ertheless, I will attempt to comply with Kok's request, in
is the point I wish to make, neither will any Arminian.             the hope that he will send me the rest of the volumes too.
They, too, believe in the election of the believer. And in          I will do so by first offering a general survey of the book
these words, Berkouwer may be either Reformed or Armin-             as well as general characterization of this first volume in
ian. This is true all the more because in Rom. 9 the apostle        order, then, to discuss some of the separate articles.
does not speak of faith and of a believing listening to the                                                                   H. H.


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               439
                          AS TO BOOKS                                   I O U R   D O C T R I N E
        Leer  en  Leven  (Doctrine and Life) by Rev. J. G.  Feen-                  THE BOOK OF REVELATION
     stra. Published  by. J. H.  Kok, N.V.,  Earnpen, the Nether-                                CHAPTER  II
     lands. Price f 9.75.                                                          Salutation and Bles&g. Rev. 1: 4-8.
        This book is really brief dogmatics. It follows the six loci
     of Dogmatics : theology, anthropology, christology, soteriology       He was in death, and went through death, and He now
     ecclesiology, eschatology. The last part, the doctrine of the      lives as never one lived before. And what is more, as He
     last things, is treated very briefly. In fact, of the more than    passed through death, He left the way open!  BF faith we
     three  ,hundred pages it covers only seven. This is, to my         behold Him there, on the other side of death, and looking
     mind, a weakness of the book, for, especially in our time, the     at His glory from our present darkness, we know by that
     doctrine of the last things is very important and of great         very token -that there is a way out ! As a man groping in the
     interest. Why the author chose as the title of his book "Doc-      black and' fearful darkness of a deep cave, in the distance
     trine and Life" I fail to understand, for, except for a few        beholds the glimmer of glorious sunlight and takes courage
     introductory remarks, the book is all doctrine.                    to continue his way in the one direction of that light-spot in
                                                                        the distance, assured that there lies his deliverance ; so the
        I heartily recommend this brief dogmatics to all who are        believer groping in the darkness of the shadow of his present
     interested in the Reformed truth and who still can read            death, beholding by faith the glory of the Risen Lord, knows
     Dutch. Needless to say that this recommendation does not           that there is a way out of death into the glorious liberty of
     mean that I subscribe to every detail in the book. But it          the children of God. For, mark you well; He is not merely
     does mean that I regard the book as representing, in general,      risen, He is the first begotten of the dead! And the firstborn
     the Reformed truth of a conservative type. Moreover, it is         is he that "openeth  the womb" and prepares the way for all
     very clearly written, so that it is easily within reach of every- his brethren. Thus Christ was `in the womb of death, was
     one that can read the Holland language.                   H.H.     born from death,  ,opened the womb of death for all the
                                                                        Father gave Him. `And it is He, standing in that spot of
        Als  Liclztende  Stewen.  (As Bright Stars), by Nelly Van       glorious light you see from your present darkness, Who calls
     Dijk-Has. Published by J. H.  Kok, N.V.,  Rampen, the Ne-          to you: "Grace and peace to you !"
     therlands. Price f 3.95.                                              >No power is able to deprive God's people of that blessing
        Are you interested in a very interesting, beautifully writ-     or to prevent the ultimate realization of the peace that is
     ten Christian novel  ? Then I recommend to you the above           promised them in the day of Christ. For He is Lord. He is
     mentioned story. It is, chiefly, a love-story. The chief char-     Prince, too, of the kings of the earth. This does not mean
     acters are Loeki, Gerard and Hans. Early in life, both Hans        that Jesus Christ is King also of the State in the sense that
     and Gerard'are `in love with Loeki. Then comes the war of          worldly magistrates rule by His- grace. For in the book of
     1939. After the war . . . .                                        Revelation the kings of the earth are the antichristian world
        But why should I tell you the story? Read it for yourself.      rulers. They acknowledge not the Christ of the Scriptures as
     You will like it. I did..                                 H.H.     their Lord. They do not delight in doing His will and ruling
                                                                        in harmony with it. On the contrary, they are the rulers that
.       Expository  Outlines on  the Whole Bible,  by Charles           are pictured in the second Psalm, who set themselves, and
     Simeon. Published by Zondervan Publishing House, Grand             take counsel together against the Zord and against His An-
     Rapids, Mich. Price per volume $3.95.                              ointed, saying: "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast
                                                                        away their cords from us," vss. 2, 3. But He that sitteth in
       Again I received a few volumes of this Bible commentary          the heavens shall laugh and have them in derision. For, He
     by Charles Simeon. It is, of course, impossible to discuss a       hath anointed His- king and set -Him upon His holy hill of
     work like this in detail. But, in general, I will say, as I did    Sion. And this king shall rule the antichristian powers with a
     before, that these outlines on the Bible are excellent. The        rod of iron and break them in pieces like a potter-`&vessel. Ps.    -
     last two volumes are on the Psalms, and I would like to            2 :7-9  ; Rev. 2  :27. Christ is the Prince of the rulers of the
     quote some passages to give you a taste of its contents. But       earth! Though they may rave against Him, yet must they
     space forbids. I would advise you to procure this set of out-      do His will. Even the Nero's and Calligula's and Domitians,
     lines for yourself. Even though you naturally will not sub-        the Hitlers and Mussolini's are His servants in spite of them-
     scribe to all of the author's views, you will not be sorry.        selves. The Church is perfectly safe; her salvation and final
        On a wrapper around the last two volumes I notice that,         victory is sure. "In the world' ye shall have tribulation : but
     if you order the entire set before Dec. 31, 1956, you can          be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33.
     save ten dollars.                                         H.H.     "Grace unto you and peace."


 440                                        T H E   STANDAR.D   B E A R E R   '

        Already the Church receives this blessing of grace and       right to be received into the blessed service of God once
peace. And she ,responds in joyful adoration to the pronoun-         more and in that service to reign over all things. And through
cement of this benediction. She confesses this Christ, even          the grace of the Lord Jesus, by His indwelling Spirit, we are
now, even  .in the midst of this world and its antichristian         actually delivered, translated out of darkness into the  marvel-
rulers, and to Him alone she ascribes all glory and dominion         louslight of God, and formed into a kingdom of priests. For,
for ever and ever. This is the meaning of the doxology that          indeed; God's people are a kingdom, and not merely a multi-
now follows in the text : "Unto him that loved us (or "loveth"       tude of kings. They are a unity, a kingdom over which
us, as the Revised Version has it), and washed us (or "loosed        Christ rules as the chief Servant of Jehovah, the High Priest
us" according to the reading of the Revised Version) from            according to the order of Melchisedec,  ,Who  has a name
our sins in His own. blood, and hath made us kings and               above all names ; and in which His brethren reign with Him,
priests- (or "a kingdom and priests," R.V.) unto God and             each in his own position and all serving the purpose of the
his father (or "unto his God and Father," R.V.) ; to him be          whole, that all may be to the glory of the God and Father
glory and dominion for ever.  and ever. Amen."                       of our Lord Jesus Christ. Such a kingdom of priests the
    Jesus loved us, or if the reading of the Revised Version         Church is even now, for by faith they partake of the vic-
is the more correct, He loveth us. Essentially there is no dif-      tory and royal dominion of their Lord. But not until the
ference between these' two readings. If we read the past             day of Christ, when the eternal kingdom of glory shall be
tense, the emphasis falls on the historic fact of the death of       ushered in, when all the elect shall have been gathered and
Christ on the cross, where He manifested His love once for           the Body of the Lord shall be complete, when also our hu-
all  ; if the present tense is taken as the better reading, the      miliated bodies shall be made like unto His most glorious
thought of His present and enduring love for us is stressed.         body, and when all things shall be made new and the taber-
But if He loved us on the cross, will he not love us still and       nacle of God shall be with men in the new heavens and the
forever? And if He loves us now, is it not because He loved          new earth, shall this kingdom of priests be fully realized.
us on the accursed tree ? The same may be-said of the two                In the consciousness, then, of this great love wherewith
readings : "washed" and "loosed" us from our sins in His own         the Lord loved and still loves us, and of the marvellous grace
blood. Principally there is no difference between the two. whereby He hath liberated them' from the power of sin and
They imply that the blood of Jesus is atoning blood, because         death,. and formed them into a royal priesthood, the be-
by His death He fully satisfied for all our sins. They mean          lievers ascribe glory unto their Lord: "to him be glory and
that He not merely shed His blood for us on the accursed             dominion for ever and ever. Amen." Glory is the radiation.
tree, but that He also applies its atoning power to us. They         of infinite, of divine goodness and perfection. God alone is
signify that by the application of that atoning blood to us          glorious. The creature can only reflect His glory, can never
we are liberated not only from the guilt of sin, but also            possess any glory of its own. Whatever glory may be seen
from its dominion and corruption: the law of the Spirit of           in creation has its source in God. The highest and fullest
life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin           revelation of that glory is in Christ. All the divine perfec-
and death. And  ,thu.s He made us kings and priests unto God         tions shine forth through and in Him. For it was  the
and His Father, or a kingdom and priests unto His God and            Father's good pleasure that in Him all the fulness should
Father. Christ `makes us a royal priesthood or a priestly            dwell,  Cal, 1  :19. He is the image of the invisible God, the
kingdom. The ideas of priesthood and royalty belong to-              firstborn of every creature, Col. 1:15. And in Him dwelleth
gether and are inseparable. One that is not a priest unto God        all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, Col. 2 :9. In the days
can never be king: the antichristian rulers of this world are        of His flesh this glory was hid by His humiliated body  ;
mere usurpers and will surely be dethroned. For the deepest          only. occasionally it flashed through when He spoke with.
notion of priesthood is that of perfect consecration to and          authority or revealed His power in the miracles He per-
love of God, manifested in perfect obedience and willing -formed. And on the mount of transfiguration the apostles
service. A priest consecrates- himself and all things to God.        beheld His glory for a moment. But through His resurrec-
And- the idea-of the kingly office is that of reign and dominion.    tion and exaltation at the right hand of God, Christ is glori-
A priestly king is a servant-king, a kingdom of priests is a         tied with the glory which He had with the Father before the
kingdom in which all submit themselves to the living God             world was, John 17:5. All the divine goodness shines forth
and reign .in His name and under Him over all the works              #through  Him, radiates from Him. This is possible, of course,
of His hands. Such a royal priesthood Christ makes us                only because He is the very Son of God in human nature.
through the marvellous power of His grace. By the power              No mere man could possess this glory ; and to ascribe this
of sin we became slaves of the devil, rebel kings, that pro.-        glory to any other than the exalted Christ, would be idolatry
posed to rule over God's works apart from Him, against Him.          and blasphemy. But the Church- knows that He is the Son
Such is the awful folly of sin. But through the atoning blood        of God, the final and highest revelation of God the Father,
of the cross we have been forgiven that folly, we have been          worthy of all glory and honor. She ascribes glory to Him
perfectly justified, we have obtained the right to be delivered,     in this doxology. And she also is taught here to  acknowl-.
from the slavery of sin and the dominion of the devil, the           edge Him as the One that has dominion. Of course, He has

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

 dominion, i.e. authority and power to reign, to declare His           Servant of God forever, reign under Him. All things shall
 will and demand  obe,dience,  to judge and to execute  judg-          forever be subject to Christ; with all things Christ shall be.
ment, in the absolute sense. of the word as the Son of God.            subject to the Father; and thus God will be all in all! For,'
 As God He is sovereign. But the reference in the text is              all Scripture teaches that Christ's dominion will never cease,
 to the dominion, to the power and authority He received               that He will reign forever. His dominion is an everlasting
 from`God  as the glorified Christ, in His human nature. All           dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that
 power is given unto Him in heaven and on earth. Christ                which shall not be destroyed, Dan. 7:14. And the dosology
 stands at the pinnacle of all created things. He has received         that is put into the mouth of the Church in the text we are
 a name which is above all names, that at the name of Jesus            discussing ascribes glory and dominion to Him forever !
 every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in                 The passage closes with a solemn assurance of the coming
 earth, and things under the earth  ;  and, that every tongue          of our Lord Jesus Christ: "Behold, he cometh with clouds ;
 should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God         and every eye shall see him, and they' also which pierced
 the Father, Phil. 2 :9-11. He has dominion over the Church            him: and all kindreds  of the earth shall wail because of him.
 whose  King He is; and He has dominion over all things,               Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
 event  over the powers of darkness, which He has overcome             the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and
 and that cannot move against His. will. In the Church this            which was to come, the Almighty." We say that this is a
 dominion-is a reign by grace through His Spirit and Word :            solely  assurance, in the first place, because special attention
 His people are gladly His, and it is their delight to acknowl-        is called to the fact of Christ's coming by the introductory
 edge His authority and to do His will. Hence, in the words            word: behold; it is as if -the Word of God here would have
 of our text they ascribe this dominion to Him. And in the             the Church conceive of this coming as a present fact ; always
 world and  .over  the powers of darkness He rules by His              the Church must have the eyes of hope fixed upon. that final
 might, in spite of themselves. And also these, when they shall        event. Constantly she must stand in the attitude of expectancy
 have been put down finally, and cast into outer darkness, shall       and longing, the attitude of the bride looking for the coming
 acknowledge this dominion and every tongue shall have to              of the Bridegroom, with the prayer on her lips : "Come, Lord
 confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! Not Satan, not the servant         Jesus !" And, secondly, this is a solemn assurance, because
 of the devil, but the Servant of Jehovah alone is Lord for-           of the double corroberation: "Even so, Amen  !" The word
ever, that God may be all in all !                                     A,vtae?t  is a Hebrew word. It means : it is firm, established,
    Forever shall this dominion be. Glory and dominion are             immoveable ; it shall surely be ! Let the Church never doubt,
 His even now, and Church acknowledges this in her-doxology            never grow faint, the Lord will surely come ! The `time may
 according to the text. She means to say: "glory and                   seem long, but He cometh. The suffering of the waiting
 dominion is Thine now; let it be ascribed to Thee." But               Church may be severe, and it may seem sometimes as if the
 this glory, and also this dominion will be His forever. Christ        Lord  -were slack concerning His promise, but He is surely
 will never abdicate. By some it is argued that the royal              coming. .The promise is sealed with a double oath: Even so,.
 power and dominion Christ now has at the right hand of God            Amen !
 will terminate when He shall have finished His work and                  The  words'refer to the final coming of the Lord Jesus
 His kingdom shall have been completed. The present power              Christ, His literal and personal and visible return, the
 and dominion He possesses in order that He may be able                parousia, that will mark the end of all history and usher in
 to perfect `His kingdom. When that shall have been ac-                the eternal state of heavenly glory in the new creation. For,
 complished, He shall reign no more, but be in subjection              the history of this world will not reach its consummation by
 to the Father. The eternal and sovereign God will then reign          way of a gradual process of development, but by a cata-
 directly without being represented by Christ. This conception         strophe, a final Wonder : the appearance in glory of our Lord       p
 is based chiefly on the statement in I Cor. 15 25, 28 : "For          Jesus Christ. To this final coming the text refers. It is true,
 he must reign, till he' hat11 put all enemies under his feet . . .    that the Bible does speak of His coming with the clouds of
 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall             heaven all through the ages of this dispensation. Did not the
 the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things          Lord Himself thus testify before the high priest in the hour
 under him, that God may be all in all." But with this view            of His condemnation :, "Henceforth (R.V.) ye shall see the
 we cannot agree. The text just quoted from I Cor. 15 does             Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming
 not teach that Christ shall ever cease to reign. That He now          with the clouds of heaven ?" All through the ages He is com-
 reigns z,cntiZ  He hath put all enemies under His feet, merely        ing. Ever since His exaltation at the right hand of God, He
 expresses that this complete subjection of all enemies under          has been coming. For, He reigns supreme and so directs ail
 His feet is the purpose of His reign, the end that must be            `the events of this present time, that they must lead up to
 attained. And that, when this end shall have been attained            and end in His final coming. He is coming in the sense
 and all things shall have been subdued under Him,  He`Him-            that He is on the way. And He is hastening ! The Lord is
 self will also be subject unto the Father, does not mean that         not slack concerning His promise.
 He will reign no more, but merely that He will reign as the                                                                    H . H .


442                                              T H E   STANDA-RD   B E A R E R

I                                                                         of God,  "Bfthel" must not be translated and regarded as
            THE DAY OF SHADOWS                                            used of the temple. The context requires that it be taken
                                                                          as the name of the well-known town of the Northern king-
                                                                          dam about ten miles north of Jerusalem to which some of
                The Prophecy of Zechariah                                 the exiles had returned (Ezra 2 :l, 25). And it is nominative
                                                                          and, therefore, we must translate "Bethel sent" and  not
                    The Question regarding the Fast.                      `(sent to Bethel." This, too, is plain from the context. Jeho-
                              Chapter VII                                 vah dwelt in Zion and not in Bethel and it was Jehovah whom
                                                                          the deputies were' seeking. There is also the reading that
The question-stated and the Lord's rebuke.                                takes the names of the two deputies to be in opposition vuith
                                                                          Bethel, "And they of Bethel, even Shalzezer and Regem-
       1.  And it came  $0  pass  in  the foztrth year of Dari,zu  the    melech, sent, etc." But this is not necessary. The Bethelites
king, that the `word of Jehovah camel to Zechariah on the                 sent two of their number to inquire of the priests and the
fourth day of Uze nirzt7z  qrzonth, ,in Kislev, 2. when Bethel sent       prophets.  Regem-melech  came with his men who were
Shlzeser arzd Regem-melech and lzis ylzeuz  to beseech the face           either his servants or men temporarily placed under his
of Jekova.h, 3. to speak to tlze priests who were a.t the lzoatse         leadership. It suggests that he was a Bethelite of some
of  Jelaovah  of  Hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Shall. I            prominence in his community.
weep irz the f;ftk hzonth,  separating wzyself,  as I have done so           The delegates came `to entreat Jehovah, to enquire of
many years?                                                               His servants in the Holy City. For there was a question
     4. And came the word of Jehvah of hosts unto me, say-                that weighed heavily on their souls. Certainly the exile of
ing,  5.  Speak to all the people of tke land, and to the                 Judah and the destruction of the temple had been a cause
pviests, saying,  WVaen ye fasted  and  vzoztrned  irz  tlzi,  fifth      of unspeakable sorrow to the true Israel. By- the rivers of
(month) and in the seventh, and that for seventy years, did               Babylon they sat down and wept when they remembered
ye  fast at all to ?ule, to me? 6. And when ye eat and.when               Zion. They hanged their harps upon the willows in the
ye drink, iS it not ye that eat and ye tjzat drink? 7. (Know              midst thereof (Ps. 137). But there were those among them
ye not) the words which  Jeh0va.h   cried by the hand of  the             who wanted everybody to weep, not always but at least once
former propjzets,  wizen Jerusalem was inhabited and at pe,ace,           a year. So there was ordained at the beginning of the exile
a.vzd her cities round about leer, and the Sash% and the Plain            an annual fast to be observed in the fifth month. The  re-
wwe inhabited?                                                            quirement was that on a certain day of this month every-
       8.  And the word  of  Jehova.lz  ca*tze to  Zechariuh,  saying,    body, abstaining from food and separating themselves from
9. Thus  spake Jehovah of hosts saying, The  jztdgpzzent  of              the ordinary occupations of life, raise `their voice and weep
truth judge, an,d kindriess and compassiorzs show every mam               before the face of Jehovah. The true believers among the
to his  br&zev.  10.  Arzd  widow  a.nd  orplzan,  a.nd  stranger         exiles could do so. For they were genuinely sorry for their
poor  man do  not oppress;  and  evil  against his brother  let           sins and they truly loved Zion. Hence they wept not only
none of  yoat  conc&e  in his laeart. 11.  But they refzzsed  to          in the fifth month but in every month and on every day of
listen and offered a rebell,ioau  slaoa~lder~  and ma.de their ears       the month. They wept continuously. But as to the carnal
too heavy to hear. 12. And their heart they made an ada?zant,             Israel, it could cry with the voice, but it could not truly
tht  ilaey  wzight  not  kear  the law and the words  dada                weep. It could not weep spiritually. Yet, the fathers had
Jehovah sent by His Sfiipit, by the hand of tlae forwzer propla-          ordained  - the fathers, not the Lord  - that everyone
ets; and  the?-e  was great  w&la  from  Jejzovah of kosts.  13.          should weep. And so it was done. In the fifth month there
And it came to pass, that as he cried arzd they did not hear,             was much lamenting among the exiles. Everybody was cry-
so they call and,I baear not, saith Jehovah,of hosts; 14. And             ing. This went on during all the seventy years.
I whirled  them  her the  na.tions  wlaom they knew not. dnd                 However, these years were now drabing to a close. The
tlze land was  ,+taade desolate behind  thevtz, so that  vzo one          prayers of God's believing people were being heard. The
goes oad or comes in. And (so) they made tlae land of desire              Lord had turned their captivity. The walls of Jerusalem
a,  desolation..                                                          were being repaired and the temple was nearing completion.
       Vers. l-3. At the time indicated in the text-nearly                And He would fill it with `glory and its glory would be
two years after the occurrence of the night visions recorded              greater than the former. And in this place He would give
in the previous chapters - a deputation came to Jerusalem                 peace. So had He promised. The true Israel, therefore, was
sent by Bethel and inquiring of the priests and the prophets              glad. There was rejoicing among the saints. Weeping had
whether the fast that had been instituted seventy years                   given way to laughter, lamentation to the singing of songs
previous to commemorate the destruction of the Holy City                  of praise to Jehovah. And so the deputies speak to the
had still to be observed.  Kislev  was not a place but the                priests and the prophets, counseling with them, "Shall I
ninth month in the Jewish `calendar and answered to part                  weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done
of November and part of December. Though meaning hoabse                   so  Inany years  ,?' The pronoun  I  is collective. It includes


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                443

the weepers in the whole land. The speaker asks for them             munication to all the people of the land and particularly to
a l l :                                                              the priests. It indicates that they especially needed the  in-
     Shall we weep ? The deputies have need of knowing. If           strudtion thus given. Doubtless the fast had been instituted
it is the Lord's will, they will weep, though they will have         by  their authority and was still being observed under their
to press the tears from their eyes.                                  p r e s s u r e .
     The matter was truly of vital importance.  IBasically  it        The reply of the Lord is  .significant. He reminds. them
was a question of sacrifice or obedience, of essence or form,        that they have  fa.$ed  and  m6urned  in the fifth month and
of worshipping in spirit and in truth or with the lips.              in the seventh (in the seventh to  commem6rate the murder
     Shall I weep ? Surely yes, said the Pharisee in the post-       of Gedaliah and his friends, Jer. 12:lff) for seventy years.
exilic community. And so he wept, because he thought                 We sense the reproof hidden in this reminder. Surely they
thereby to establish his own righteousness before God or             had not actually during all those years shed copious tears
`because he wanted to appear righteous before men while              annually in the months  ,specified  as truly and greatly dis-
plundering the houses of the widows. He wept, therefore,             tressed in their souls by the recollection of the calamities
and brought sacrifices unto the Lord  ; burnt-offering of rams,.     in their history that they were still commemorating by their
the fat of fed beasts, the blood of bullocks, lambs and  he-         fasts. The vast majority of these weepers had still to be born
goats; appeared before the Lord, tread his courts, brought           at the time of the occurrence of those disasters. So their
oblations, burnt incense, kept the new  moons and the sab-           weeping was forced, artificial. Their grief was feigned.
baths, called assemblies and solemn meetings, observed the           Fasting and weeping was good in times that by their char-
appointed feasts, spread forth his hands and made many               acter provoked those feeliigs. But when fasting was made to
prayers, compassed  .sea and land to make one proselyte,             recur statedly and for years after the occasions that called
swore by the altar, payed  tithes and mint and anise and cum-        forth the practice, as was here the case, it was bound to
min,  builded the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the           degenerate into sheer `form and self-deception.  It did so
sepulchres of the righteous and said that if he had been in          here. And, therefore, they  had not been  fa$ting  "to me, to
the days of- the fathers he would not have been partaker             me," that is to the Lord, He went on to tell them in the form.
with them in the blood of the prophets.                              of a question ; and when, having spent the day in fasting and
     But the entire worship was form without essence, spirit,        weeping, they would again eat and drink, it was they who
truth. It was form put to the evil use of cloking  a life of sin.    ate and drank. The repetition of the phrase  "to me" em-
For when the Lord. came and sought fruit on him, this                phasizes the ethical worthlessness  of' their fasting in the
pharisee and his spiritual kin-fruit worthy of repentance            sight of God. Not done out of faith and under the impulse of
- He found none. Instead of faith He found unbelief; in-             love of God but done simply under the stres's  of custom and
stead of love,, hatred; instead of humbleness, pride; instead        tradition and done .in the imagining that it was a work that
of mercy, cruelty, extortions, excesses. With all his praying,       nevertheless merited with God and done, finally, with the
church-going and Bible-reading, he was found to be a hypo-           weepers, the carnal Israel, in the meantime oppressing
crite, devouring widdws' houses and shutting up the king-            widows, orphans and strangers (see the following verses),
dom of  hqaven against men, a child of the devil, a blind            it, their fasting and weeping was an abomination in His
guide, a fool, outwardly righteous and within full of hypoc-         eyes. And as they fasted and  wept, so they also ate. and
ricy and,  inipuity  (Is. 1 :ll-15  ; Matt. 5). And,  .therefore,    drank, namely to themselves. There is, indeed,`a fasting and
also, needless to say, the Lord loathed his entire worship -         a weeping that is precious in God's sight. It is weeping on
his  .praying, and' sacrificing and church-going.. It was an         account of one's sins. But they were not concerned about
abomination  td Him, iniquity. He could not away with it.            their sins but were in its service, that is the carnal Israel.
It was a trouble to Him. When this hypocrite prayed, the
Lord hid His eyes from him (Isa. 1). Form without essence,           The trzte yeqztirement of Jehovah, 7-14
worship but no truth in the inward parts.
     Shall I weep ? It was not a question for the priests to             Are not these  $he words which the Lord cried by the
answer. They were doubtless bound by tradition- and, there-          hand of the  fo~~ze~~   prophets  . . .?  - The Hebrew has no
fore, would have said: Weep, surely yes. The fast must be            verb. The English versions supply, "Should ye not hear"
observed. The fathers have so ordained. And so it was.               the words, etc. B,ut the other reading is closer to the Hebrew
The fast as an institution, this weeping at stated times, in the     t&t. The words are given in verses 9 and 10. The former
fifth month or in  a&y other month, in commemoration of              prophets were all the predecessors of Zechariah that wrought
calamities in the history of the nation, was not of God but          before the exile when Jerusalem and the cities round about
of man. No mention is made of it in the law. It was a human          her were inhabited and at peace, and the South and the
institution. As to the question of the deputies, it was one          Plain, two of the three divisions of Judah (Josh. 15 21, 33)
for the Lord to answer. And He hastened to reply (vers 4-7)          were inhabited. That verse 8, "And the word of Jehovah
through Zechariah as His organ. To him alone came the                came to Zechariah," is a repetition of verse 4 can be no
word of the Lord directly. He must speak the Lord's com-                           ;      (Codczced  on page 456)

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

II                                                                                                          then means that God possesses these two ministers of His:
              F R O M   .HOLY  W R I T                                                                II Paul and Apollos !
                                                                                                                So much for this translation with its resultant sense.
                                                                                                                Our next objection is that in the entire New Testament
                  Exposition of I Corinthians 1-4                                                           Scriptures the term "co-workers" (sunergoi) never is em-
                                                 17.                                                        ployed by Paul or any other writer as referring to a syner-
                                                                                                            gism of activity between man and God. The term always
                                 (I Corinthians 3 :3-.9)                                                    refers to the human co-workers. It always has reference to
                                                                                                            Paul and those Apostles and evangelists and helpers work-
      An attentive and sympathetic reader called my attention                                               ing with him. We refer the reader to Rom.  16:3, 9, 21;
to the fact it might be advantageous to the average reader                                                  Phil. 2 :24 ; 4 :3 ; 1. Thess. 3 :2, etc.
that I always clearly indicate the passage which I am dis-                                                     There is one passage in Holy Writ which seems to teach
cussing in a given article by giving it in full. I believe that                                             a certain synergism between the Apdstles  and God. We refer
his iemark  has merit. Wherefore I will comply.                                                             to Mark 16:20, where we read, "And they went forth, and
       Here follows the text of this article on "From Holy                                                  preached everywhere,-the Lord  working with  them,  and con-
Writ." It reads in full as follows:  "For ye  are yet  carnal:                                              firming the word with signs following." In the Greek orgi-
for wherea.s there is among you envying, and strife, and ii-                                                nal we have here the participial phrase (genitive absolute) :
visions,  a.re ye  not carnal, and walk  a.s men?  For while one                                            tou Kuriou sunergountos. The Lord co-operating.  This
&tlz, I  am of  Paul: and  .artother, I  a.m of A  fiollos;  are ye                                         might be quoted to show that God does co-operate with man.
not  carnal?  L$%o is  then  Puul, and who is Apollos, but                                                  We grant this from a formal viewpoint. However, then the
gutiniste?-s   by  whom ye believed, even as  the  Lord  gave to                                            nature of this co-operation must still be carefully deter-
every man? I ha.ve p&ted, Apollos watered; but God gave                                                     mined. We cannot go into this in' great detail. Let the fol-
t h e   i n c r e a s e .   S o   tlaert   n e i t h e r   i s   he  t h a t   plartteth   a n y   t&g!,    lowing suffice :
neither he that  wn~tereth;   but `God  that  giveth  the increase.                                             1. That we do not read here at all of the Apostle co-
Now he tht +mtctk and he that zvaderetlz ark one: and every                                                 operating with God. God does all the co-operating here.
man  slmll receive his  ozwz reward according to  kis  own                                                  And this is clearly indicated in the text. It simply means
la,bor.  For we  a.re  la.borers  togeth2   with God; ye  are God's                                         that except the Lord build the city vainly do the laborers
husbandry, ye aYe God's building."                                                                          build. God is the "all in all" in this activity.
      We must, at the very outset, call attention to  .a matter                                                2. This co-operating was certainly the efficacious calling
of translation of the King James' Version of the text. We                                                   by the Spirit by means of the preaching of- the Apostles in
refer to the translation in verse 9. There we read, "For we                                                 all the world. He went with them in His Divine power and
are laborers together  with  God . .  ." We have  italicised the                                            efficacious saving grace. The evidence of His presence, so
the objectionable element in the translation. The Greek text                                                that with His Godhead, Spirit and grace he was never ab-
literally has : "For of God we are co-laborers . .  ." We be-                                               sent from them, we have in the notice in the text in Mark
lieve that the translation here in the King James Version 3s                                                16 :20 "and confirming the word with. signs following."
not only faulty, but also rests upon an erroneous conception                                                   This all is a far cry from our being co-workers ,with God.
of the relationship between the work of laborers in.-God's                                                     Besides, the metaphors employed by Paul dlear the
kingdom and' the work of God Himself in His kingdom.                                                        point in a different direction than that of the translation of
      Permit us to explain.                                                                                 the King James version. (Incidentally we may notice in
      The translation above cited, as given by the King James                                               passing that the Dtitch translation correctly renders the orig-
Version, makes man and God partners in this labor in the                                                    inal Greek, "Wij zijn Gods  medeaybeiders"  ! Thus also the
church. We labor "with God."                                                                                Germaa  translates, "Denn wir sind Gottes Mitarbeiter"  !)
      Against this translation we have  .&me  very basic and                                                And these translations agree with the entire context as ~~11
solid exegetical objections to offer.                                                                       as with the metaphors employed by Paul in the text.
      Our first objection is that it is against the very wording                                               Such was indeed the very point in the polemic of Paul.
of the text in the original Greek. If words have meaning                                                    Paul and Apollos have absolutely no quarrel in this matter.
than by not stretch of the imagination can the Greek text be                                                That Paul employs his own name  an{ that of Apollos in
translated as does the King James Version, and still have                                                   this case is only to make this matter clear by way of exam-
the sense of  the text retained. The "with" (sun) in the                                                    ple. He makes, as it were, a "case study" of it. Thus Paul
text must not be read as with "God" but rather as a  com-                                                   writes in Chapter  4:6, "and these things, brethren, I have
pos'itir noun modified by the subject "we," referring to. Paul                                              in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your
and Apollos. The resultant implication is that  Pail and                                                    sakes ; that ye might" learn in us not to think of men above
Apollos are the "co-workers" and not Paul and Apollos are                                                   that which ,is written, that no man of you be puffed up for
co-workers  with  God! The genitive (tou Theou)  of  God                                                    one against the other." In this particular case of Paul and
                                                                                                                                      /


II                                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                    445
            Apollos as here given by Paul we are dealing with the proper          Churches, no  Minister.  over other Ministers, no elder or
            attitude required in all such cases  in the church. And Paul          deacon over other elders or deacons." And on this principle
            explicitly states that such is his purpose in so speaking fiere       Paul writ& in Chapter  4:4b, "but he that judgeth me is
            in his metaphors.                                                    the Lord,`!
                Besides, that, Apollos will not in anyway become  in-                And what is the iron clad logic of the fact that. Paul
            volved in this insane business of playing out Paul and Apol-         planted and Apollos watered ? What is the iron clad impli-
            10s  overagainst  each other, is evident from I Corinthians          cation, but that God alone gives the growth in the Church.
            16:12, where we read, "As touching our brother Apollos,              He causes the growth  by the Holy. Spirit. Should anyone
            I -greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren :          therefore ever boast except in God, the Lord?
            but his will was not to come at all this time ; but he will come         Who is Paul ? Who is Apoilbs  ? Calvin, Luther, Kuyper,
            when he shall have convenient time."                                 Lubbers, Hoeksema, Ophoff - who are they? Each in their
                Writes A. T. Robertson in his W. P., "Apollos had left           own place? Co-laborers of God. Each as it was  gitien to
            Corinth in disgust over the strife which irivolved him and           him. So then these are nothing as Paul says: "So then
            Paul (I Cor. l-4). He had had enough of partisan strife              neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that  water-
            over preachers."  ~                                                  eth, but God Who giveth the increase  !"       ,
                From this appears that Paul does not wish to emphasize               Is it then not sinful carnality in the church when men
            the unity of action beween God and himself in this passage,          will plead for one minister of God against the other? Is
            but rather the unity between himself and Apollos. ,They are
      ~_                                                                         such not sinfully being puffed up  ? Must those, who  en-
            co-laborers. And as such both belong to God ; `howbeit each          gaged in this sinful business, not be addressed as being
            in his own place and calling.                                        children  in the Lord, immature in faith and godliness, and as
               What was this calling of each ?                                   such which must be demoted from their imaginary status of
                Paul's had been the  task of being the first preacher in         teachers in God's church to that of children, who once more
            Corinth. As such his work can be compared to the task of             must pass through the Kindergarten where the  first principles
            a sower in the field. He had expounded the Scriptures con- are taught: the laying again the foundation of repentance
            cerning Jesus Christ as the fulfilment of the promises of            from dead works and of faith toward God; of the doctrine of
            God. And for this place God had chosen him. That is his              baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection from
            boast.  `He will not build upon another man's foundation.            the dead and eternal judgment !
            compare Rom. 15  :20, "Yea, so have I strived to preach                  Paul says such are carnal;                      -     . .
            the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build             They walk not after God but they walk as' men. The
            upon another man's foundation" !                                    things of God have not yet really become a part of -their.
               Is there any disagreement with Apollos in Paul's thus             life of faith and conversion. They have in this matter,  .~ot
            having preached ?                                                    yet learned to see God in His exaltedness and man  .in .his.
               None whatsoever !                                                 nothingness.
               Apollos came later to Corinth. And he came to continue               Talking about the one preacher in preference to the other
            tie labors of God in Corinth as they had been begun by.Paul.         they forget that God is using both to build them, to cause
            Thus we read in Acts 18 :27, 28, "and when he was disposed           them to grow.
            to pass into Achaia, the  bre&en wrote, exhorting the  dis-             What` a, pity !
            ciples to receive him (Apollos) : who, when he was come,                Here is folly prating ifi the name of wisdom.
            helped  them  ~~uc~z. which had believed through grace: for             How can such be instructed in the sublime truths of &e
            he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing           Mjrstery  of God in Christ?
            by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ."                               Just an ounce of this proper consciousness of the place
               Thus Apollos' labors in Corinth may be  .likened  to one          of each minister as co-laborer with others under God will
            who irrigates the land. He nurtures the  plants along to a           be a pound of prevention of much sin of party-strife in God's
            more stable growth. He builds ,lt.pon the foundation that has        church.
            been laid.                                                              Thus it will be with the ministers themselves. They will
               They are indeed  co-laborers!                                     feel blessed in their littleness before  GGd which is their
            Paul and Apollos.                                                    greatness as ministers. God causes the church to believe
               Each has his own assigned place and calling in the church         through their labors. Weakest means fulfil His purp'ose.
            ai a laborer called of God!                                             His strength supplied in our  .weakness.
            - Thus they  a+  coilaborers  of God. To Him alone is each              What a glory in the Ministry of the Word  ; a glory'
            accountable and not to each other. This is a profound and            which both ministers and congregations must honor.
            sublime truth which is laid down in Article 84 of the Church            Thus alone God is all  in all!
            Order, "No Church shall in any way lord it over other                                                                         G. L.

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

                                                                         pro&es of God for  Jesus!  sake. Humble he is because by
                          I N   HIS.  F E A R                            that same faith he understands that the right to the things
                                                                         promised is his for Jesus' sake. The believer can be and is
                                                                         bold in ,his prayer and yet is also and can be humble in that
                            Praying in His Fear                          prayer. In that "for Jesus' sake" lies his boldness, that is,
                                                                         in his faith in that truth lies his boldness, his courage, his as-
                                     (3)                                 surance that the things for which he asks are really his; and
                                                                         in that "for Jesus' sake lies also his humility, for therein
            A prayer is a reque$.                                        he expresses that it is not of his own works or  woi-thiness
            It must be a request for. that to which we have a right.     but of the mercy of God in Christ.
      But it is and must be a request.                                      In boldness, then, he pleads and asks things of the Un-
            That it must be a request for that to. which we have a * changeable God.
     right is expressed in the phrase to which we already called            For his  bqldness  is his confidence in Christ, yea his
     your attention : "For Jesus' s'ake." For His sake we have           faith in Christ. As we  .read in Hebrews  10:19-22, "Having
     a right to the things for which we pray. And let  US  under-        therefore, brethren, boldness to .enter into the holiest by the
     stand that for His sake there are definite rights to definite       blood of Jesus . . . let us. draw near "with a true heart in
     blessings for definite individuals.                                 full Bssurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
            He  went to Calvary not for salvation in some general        evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water:"
     sense but for salvation for a definite number of people per-        Or again in Hebrews  4:16, "Let us therefore come boldly
     sonally designated by God from before the foundation of the         unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and .
     world in sovereign predestination and for definite blessings        find grace to help in time of need." And again in I John
     of salvation for each one of these persons. God is a God            4:17,  18, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we  may
     o f   o r d e r .                                                   have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is so
            In prayer, therefore, we ask for that which God  has         are we in the world. There is no fear in love  ; but perfect
     promised to give to us because for Jesus' sake we have a            love casteth out fear.; because fear hath torment. He that
     right to it. All that which we shall receive through prayer         feareth is not made perfect in love." You will note that in
     has already been laid away for us. All the blessings of sal-        all this speech of boldness before God, even in the  day of
     vation are "earmarked" for definite individuals. That is a          judgment, is.contained  not one smallest suggestion of pride.
     fundamental principle that is usually denied or ignored `fin        Always the  boldliesS is linked up with faith in the works
     prayer. Yet it is as true as it is true that Jehovah is the         of Christ. We must in prayer dare to come before God's
     I Am, The Changeless One. Prayer must not be an attempt             face. That we pray in His fear does not mean that we h&e
     to make Him change His mind. You cannot do it. Try it               not or have hardly the courage to come to Him with our
     and your request ceases to be a prayer.                             petitions.  .The whole Roman Catholic philosophy that we
            The heavenly storehouse is not a large warehouse full        have need of the intermediate work of Mary and may not
     of blessings which are dealt out as we persuade God to give         have the "audacity" to  cdme to  .Christ  Himself directly  ii
     them  to'us. Neither is the heavenly stprehouse run on the          exactly in the service of not piaying  in His fear. The whole
     principle  qf "first come, first served." The blessings  af         idea that we may not come directly to Christ with boldness
     heaven are not dealt out "from the front of the shelf to the        and confidence ignores, or still worse, deliberately rules out
     back of the shelf" as is done in a grocery store when a certain     the element of faith in Christ.  Such an one who dares not
     item is repeatedly requested by customers. Those blessings          pray for the blessings of Christ's  kingdom-l.acks  this bold-
     are all "earmarked" for certain individuals and reserved            ness in the measure that he lacks faith in the works of
     "on the. shelf" for them to be given when they pray for             Christ, yea in his place in the body of Christ. Perfect love
/ them ; to be given when they request them in prayer.                   casteth out fear. There is no fear in love. Therefore it is
                                                                         also true that in the measure- we are confident (believe)
            God is, indeed, a Changeless God of order.                   that  Gbd loves us in Christ, in that measure we have bold-.
I           This  .does not take away the fact that one's prayer is a    ness to ask for all the blessings of salvation. In the meas-
; request for that which has been "earmarked" for that  par-             ure we can say in sincerity "I am not my own but belong
j  titular individual.                                                   to my faithful Saviour," in that measure we will come
            In prayer we come boldly to the throne of grace. In the      boldly to this Saviour (not to His earthly mother) and ask
/ measure that we are strong in our faith we will come boldly            Him for that which He has laid up for us in the heavenly
1. to the throne of grace  to make our requests.                         storehouse.
     But we must not confuse boldness `with pride.              _           That we  c6me hanging our heads in shame because of
         The proud God sees afar off; but he has respect unto            our sin and guilt as the  Publican  who smote his breast in
; the humble. ,The boldness of the believer is a humble bold-            contrition of heart and cry out for the mercy of God does
: ness. Bold he is because by faith he has taken hold of the             not in any way or to any degree rule out that element of


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               4 4 7

boldness of faith. The Publican  came to the temple, did he              How often is not our grumbling and complaining when
not? He dared to come and seek forgiveness. He dared to              God sends us the opposite from what we requested of Him
call to God and use His name and indicate that he was mak-           that the addition in our prayers, "If it be Thy will," was
ing his petition to God.                                             not sincere, that we really wanted right along our will and
   So, beautifully, we see that humility and boldness of             were waiting for it to be realized. But that is not praying
faith also in that Canaanitish woman who came to Jesus               in His fear;
seeking salvation for her daughter who was possessed of an               He who prays in His fear means what he says.
evil spirit. She is ready in her humility to admit that she              Of course, he does not add this to every petition.
`and her daughter are dogs. But in boldness of faith she                 To add the words "If it be Thy will" to some petitions
keeps on seeking deliverance for her .child. First Jesus pays        would be to reveal either an extremely weak faith or other "
no attention to her at all. When the disciples suggest that          wise even unbelief. Surely we do not add the phrase to that
Be send her away, Jesus said in her hearing, "I am not               petition for a thing which God has promised to give unto
sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Upon           us for Jesus' sake. We do not, for example, pray, "Lord
hearing this the mother of this tormented child cries out            forgive me my many sins, if it be Thy will." We know and
hei- prayer more loudly and vigorously than before, "Lord,           surely do believe that it is God's will .to forgive the sins of
help me." Jesus tells her that it is not meet to give the bread      His people. And when we come to Himin.prayer we come
of the children to the dogs. In the boldness of faith she            as those who believe that they belong to that people whose.
hesitates not a moment and answers, "Truth, Lord, yet the            sins have been blotted out by the blood of Christ. Jesus
dogs eat the crumbs which fall from the master's table."             teaches  us  to pray, "Our Father Who art in heaven." Now,
   Did Jesus say to her, "Woman, you are much too bold" ?            surely, if we are to approach Him as our Father we confess
  Nay, He declared to her, "Woman, great is thy faith."              thereby that we believe that we are His children. And we
   To come boldly before the throne of grace is not a sin.           know that it is His will to forgive the sins of His children.
It is to come in faith when that boldness is based -on the               We use the expression when we pray for that which God
confidence that these things are ours for Jesus' sake.               does not condemn in His word as an improper thing for
   The Canaanitish woman when told that the bread is for             which to pray and which has also not been specifically design-
the lost sheep of the house of Israel conceded that point and        ated by God as the thing for which the individual should
`was not bold to demand of Christ that He take the bread             pray. There are things which God promises to the Church
away from them. Any request that God do unrighteously                but not yet to every individual in the Church. There are
can never be a prayer in His fear. That is not boldness of           *things  which it pleases Him to give to one individual and
faith. It is sinful pride and conceit ! But the boldness of faith not to the other without indicating in His word which in-
is seen in the request of this woman for those blessings ,as n       dividual may have such a thing.
cEo;g. Her boldness, being one of faith, displayed that humility         Some God calls to the ministry of the gospel ; but every
that she was ready to confess being only a dog in herself,           parent may not pray for this for his son as a thing promised
`but then a dog that was deeply desirous of the blessings            by God. If he seriously -and deeply desires it, he prays it
which the sheep and the children enjoy.                              for his son if it be God's will.
   This humility of those that pray in His fear will manifest            That belongs to praying in His fear.
itself not only in the phrase, "For Jesus' sake" but also in
that other phrase that one hears rather frequently (and prop-            And then he means exactly that: he prays for God's will,
erly so> in prayers, "Not my will but Thy will be done," or          not for his own.
its shorter variation, "If it please Thee," or "If it" be accord-        He has the fear of the Lord which is the principle of all
ing to Thy will.".                                                   wisdom.                                                    J.A.H.
  With those who pray in His fear this is not some pious
phrase that is used to soothe one's conscience after uttering
many requests which one realizes one should not have made.                                   IN MEMORIAM
He who prays in His fear means just exactly what he says                The Martha Ladies' Aid Society of the Hull Protestant Re-
in that phrase: he  su'bmits  to God's will and declares that,       formed Church hereby wishes to exprkss its sincere sympathy
should the thing for which he has prayed be that which has           to one of its members, Mrs. Peter  Hoekstra,  in the loss of her
not been promised him for Jesus' sake and therefore is not           sister,
according to God's good pleasure, he does not want God to
fulfill that petition.                                                                      MRS. A. REITSMA
    We must remember when, we use these phrases, "Thy                   May the rich promise of God's word comfort and sustain the
will be done ; If it pleases Thee ; If it be in harmony with         bereaved in their sorrow.
Thy will" we actually pray that it is our desire NOT to                                                  Rev. John A. Heys, President
have our request fulfilled if God's will is otherwise.                                                   Mrs. Nellie Brummel, Secretary


     448                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
     I------i* the clearness and definiteness which the Nicene dogma of
              Contending For The Faith                                     the Trinity, the Chalcedonian Christology (that the two
                                                                           natures, in Christ, are united in one Divine Person, un-
                                                                           changed, unmixed, undivided, and without separation  1
               The `Church and the Sacraments                              H.V.);  and the Augustinian anthropology and soteriology
                                                                           acquired from the controversies preceding them. In the
        VIEWS DURING THE SECOND PERIOD  (300-750 A.D                       doctrine of baptism also we have a much better right to speak
                                                                           of a  consenpths  patirzb$pz  (consensus, agreement between the
                               THE LORD'S SUPPER                           fathers - H.V.), than in the doctrine of the holy Supper.
                    The  iEucharist  by Philip  Schff.                         In general, this period, following the representatives of
                                                                           the mystic theory in the previous one, was already very
       . The Eucharist is both a sacrament wherein God conveys             strongly inclined toward. the doctrine of transubstantiation
     to us a certain blessing, and a sacrifice which man offers to         and toward the Greek and Roman sacrifice of the mass, which'
     God. As a sacrament, or the communion, it stands at the head          are inseparable in so far as a real sacrifice requires the real
     of all sacred rites ; as a sacrifice it stands alone. The celebra-    presence of the victim. But the kind and mode of this presence
     tion of it under this twofold character forms the holy of holies      are not yet particularly defined, and amidst very different
     of `the Christian  cultus in the ancient church, and in the           views : Christ may be conceived as really present either in
     greater part of Christendom at this day (the reader may               and with the elements (consubstantiation, impanation),  or
     recall, having read these articles on the development  .and           under the illusive appearance of the changed elements  (tran-
     history of doctrine throughout the ages, that mention has             substantiation), or only dynamically and spiritually.
     been made in the past that the Fathers viewed the sacrament               In the previous period we distinguish three views: the
     of the Lord's Supper as a sacrifice which man or the church           mystic view of  Ignatius,  Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus  ; the
     offers to the Lord. They did not use the word "sacrifice" in          symbolical view of Tertullian and Cyprian  ; and the alle-
     the sense in which the Roman Catholic Church uses it today.           gorical or spiritualistic view of Clement of Alexandria and.
     It. was our sacrifice to the Lord. That the word "sacrifice"          Origin. In the present the first view, which best answered
     was used in this sense is confirmed by Philip Schaff in this          the mystic and superstitious tendency of the time, preponder-
     paragraph. - H.V. Schaff, when writing that the Eucharist,            ated, but the second also was represented by considerable
     as a sacrament, stands alone and at the head of all sacred            authorities.
     rites, quotes the following interesting statement, and I quote :          I. The realistic and mystic view is represented by several
     "Freemen says to the Eucharist, not without justice, from             fathers and the early liturgies, whose testimony we shall
     a historical and theological point of view : `It was confessedly      further cite below. They speak in enthusiastic and extra-
     through long ages of the church, and is by the vast majority          vagant terms of the sacrament and sacrifice of the altar. They
     of the Christian world at this hour, conceived to be . . . no         teach a real presence of the body and blood of Christ, which
     less than the highest line of contact and region of comming-          is included in the very idea of a real sacrifice, and they see
     ling between heaven and earth known to us, or provided for            in the mystical union of it with the sensible elements a sort
     us ; - a borderland of mystery, where, by gradations baffling         of repetition of the incarnation of the Logos. With the act
     sight and thought, the material truly blends with the spiritual,      of consecration a change accordingly takes place in the ele-
     and the visible shades off into`the unseen  ; a thing, therefore,     ments, whereby they become vehicles and organs of the life
     which of all events or gifts in this world most nearly answers
>                                                                          of Christ, although by no means necessarily changed into an-
     to the highest aspirations and deepest yearnings of our won-          other substance. To denote this  change.very  strong expres-
     derfully compounded being ; while in some ages and climes of          sions are used, like  metabolee,  wwtaba~llein,   Ytteta.ballestIza!i,
     the church it has been elevated into something yet more awful         uytetasto,i.~~ioz,~thai,   metapo,iiesthai,  YM&atio.,   tmnslatio,  trans-
     and mysterious.")  `                                                  figawatio,   transforwmtio; illustrated by the miraculous trans-
        We consider first the doctrine of the Eucharist as a sacra-        formation of water into wine, the assimilation of food, and
     .ment, then the doctrine of the Eucharist as a sacrifice, and         the pervasive power of leaven.
     finally the celebration of the eucharistic communion and                  Cyril of Jerusalem goes farther in' this direction than
     eucharistic sacrifice.                                                any of the fathers. He plainly teaches some sort of super-
        The doctrine of the sacrament of the Eucharist was not a           natural connection between the body of Christ and the ele-
     subject of theological controversy and ecclesiastical  Bction         ments, though not  ,necessarily  a transubstantiation of the'
     till the time of Paschasius Radbert, in the ninth century  ;          latter. Let us hear the principal passages. "Then follows,"
     whereas since then this feast of the Saviour's dying love has         he says in describing the celebration of the Eucharist, "the
     been the innocent cause of the most bitter disputes, especially       invocation of God, for the sending of his Spirit to make the
     in the age of the Reformation, between Papists and Prot-              bread the body of Christ, the wine the blood of Christ. For
     estants, and among Lutherans, Zwinglians, and Calvinists.             what the Holy Ghost touches is sanctified and transformed."
     Hence the doctrine of the ancient church on this point lacks          "Under the type of the bread is given to thee the body, under

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

 - the type of  -the wine is given to thee the blood, that thou        ing, for thirty years superior of a monastery near Constan-
   mayest be a partaker of the body and blood of Christ, and be        tinople - H.V.) .
   of one body and blood with him." "After the invocation of
   the Holy Ghost the bread of the Eucharist is no longer bread,             II. The symbolical view, though on .a realistic basis, is
   but the body of          "
                      Christ.. "Consider, therefore, the bread and     represented first by Eusebius, who calls the Supper a com-
   the wine not as empty elements, for they are, according to          memoration of Christ by the symbols of his body and blood,
   the declaration of the Lord, the body and blood of Christ."         and takes the flesh and blood of Christ in the sixth chapter of
   In support of this change Cyril refers at one time to the           John to mean the words of Christ, which are spirit and life,
   wedding feast at Cana,  which indicates the Roman theory of         the true food of the soul, to `believers. Here appears the
   change of substance ; but at another to the consecration of the     influence of his venerated Origen, whose views in regard to
   chrism, wherein the substance is unchanged. He was `not            the sacraments aspect of the Eucharist ,he- substantially re-
   clear and consistent with himself. His ,opinion probably was,      peats.
   that the eucharistic elements lost by consecration not so                 But it is striking that even Athanasius, "the father of or-1
   much their earthly substance, as their earthly purpose.            thodoxy," recognized only a  sph-itua.1  participation, a  self-
        Gregory of Nyssa, though in general a very faithful dis-      communication of the nourishing divine virtue of the Logos,
   ciple- of the spiritualistic Origin, is on this point entirely     in the symbols of the bread and wine, and incidentally evinces
   realistic. He calls the Eucharistic a food of immortality, and     a doctrine of the Eucharist wholly foreign to the Catholic, and
   speaks of a miraculous transformation of the nature of the         very like the older Alexandrian or Origenistic, and  `thd
   elements into the glorified body of Christ by virtue of the        Calvinistic, though by no means identical with the latter. By
  priestly blessing. ,                                                the flesh and blood in the mysterious discourse of Jesus in --
        Chrysostom likewise, though only incidentally  in. his        the sixth chapter of John, which he refers to the Lord's
  homilies, and not in the strain of sober logic and theology,        Supper, he understands not  ,the earthly, human, but the
  but of glowing rhetoric, speaks several times of a union of         heavenly, divine manifestation of Jesus, a spiritual nutriment
  our whole nature with the body of Christ in the Eucharist,          coming down from above, which the Logos through the  I-Ioly
  and even of a manducatio  oralis.                                   Ghost communicates to believers (but not to a Judas, nor to
                                                                      the unbelieving). With this view accords his extending of
        Of the Latin fathers, Hilary, Ambrose, and Gaudentius         the participation of the eucharistic food to believers in heaven,
   (dies in 410) come nearest to the later dogma of  transub-         and even to the angels, who, on account of their incorporeal
  stantiation. The latter says: "The Creator and Lord of nature, are incapable of a corporeal participation of Christ.
  nature, who produces bread from the earth, prepares out of                                                                                 .
  bread his own `body, makes of wine his own blood."                         Gregory Nazianzen sees in the Eucharist a type of the
                                                                      incarnation,, and calls the consecrated elements symbols and
        But closely as these and similar expressions verge upon       antitypes of the great mysteries, but ascribes to them a saving
  the Roman doctrine of transubstantiation, they seem to contain      virtue.
  at most a dynamic, not a substantial, change of the elements
  into the body and blood of Christ. For, in the first place, it             St. Basil, likewise, in explaining the words of Christ, ."I.
  must be remembered there is a great difference between the          live by the Father" (John  .6:57),  against the Arians  who-
  half-poetic, enthusiastic, glowing language of devotion,  irr,      inferred from it that Christ was a creature, incidentally gives
  which the fathers, and especially the liturgies, speak of the       a spiritual meaning to the fruition of the eucharistic elements.
  eucharistic sacrifice, and the clear, calm, and cool language of    "We eat the flesh of Christ," he says, "and drink His blood,
  logic and doctrinal definition. In the second place, the same       if we, through His incarnation and human life, become par-
  fathers apply the same or quite similar terms to the baptismal      takers of the Logos and wisdom."                                                 .
  water and the chrism of confirmation, without intending to                                                                       H.V.
  teach a proper change of the substance of these material ele-
  ments into the Holy Ghost. On the other hand, they not
  rarely. use, concerning the bread and wine, tztpos, arztitztpa,
  figzt?*a,   signat%, and like expressions, which denote rather                      ' Notice, for Classis West
  a symbolical than a metabolical relation of them to the body
  and blood of the Lord. Finally, the favorite comparison  of                Classis  West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will
  the mysterious transformation with the incarnation of the           meet, the  ,Lord willing, in Oak Lawn, Illinois, Wednesday,  :
  Logos, which, in fact, was not an annihilation of the'human
  nature, but an assumption of it into unity with the divine, is      September 19, 1956. The consistories are reminded of the
  of itself in favor of the continuance of the substance of the       rule that all matters for the classical agendum must be in the
  elements ; else it would abet the Eutychian heresy (Eutychi-        hands of the stated clerk thirty days before the meeting of                 "
  anism was a Christological heresy of the fifth century, taking      Classis.
'  its- name from Eutyches, an ascetic, of strict monastic train-      Y-                             Rev. H. Veldman, Stated Clerk
                                                                              _. .        -


   /


 4 5 0                Y.                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                           All  `men have been  a.ccepted mto the state ~of reconcilia-
 11 The  Voice of Our Fathers  11 t,ion. This is their first proposition. It follows, let us note,
                                                                        from the proposition that Christ died for all and for every
                                                                        man. The Arminians felt, of course, the compulsion of their
                    The Canons of Dordrecht                             own heresy. Regardless now. of the fact. that they have
                                                                        ,already  emptied that death of Christ of its true meaning,
                                 PAl@  TWO                              and regardless of the fact that Christ went to His death with-
                     EXPOSITION OF THE CANONS                           out a definite purpose either on His part or on the part of
                                                                        His Father to save any, they felt that if they taught that
                      SECOND HEAD OF DOCTRINE                           Christ died for all men and for every man, they were com-
          OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST,  AND THE REDEMPTION                   pelled also to maintain that all men have been .accepted  (by
                             OF. MEN THEREBY                            God, of course) unto the state of reconciliation. After ail, the
                                                                        gospel is a ministry of  reconciliation.  God hath reconciled us
                            REJECTION OF ERRORS                         unto Himself by Jesus Christ. God was in Christ reconciling
                Article V. Who teach: That all men have been ac-        the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
                cepted unto the state of reconciliation and unto the    them. II Cor. 5  :lS, 19. And, it pleased the Father, having
                grace  o,f the covenant, so that no one is worthy of    made peace through the blood of his cross, by Him to rec-
                condemnation on account of original sin, and that       oncile all things unto himself. And you, that were sometime
                no one shall be condemned because of it, but that
               all are free from the guilt of original sin. For this    alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet
                opinion is repugnant to Scripture which teaches that    now hath he  reconciled  in the body of his flesh through
                we are by nature children of wrath. Eph. 2:3.           death. Colossians 1  :19-Z.  Hence, the Arminian, if he
     When One thinks his way into the various ramifications             wanted to maintain a semblance of agreement with Scripture,
 Of the Arminian error as it is presented and condemned  in             had to recognize this association between reconciliation and
 the  above article, he stands aghast at its implications.  The         the death of Christ, and he was compelled to accept the
                                                                        consequence of his error and also teach that all men have
 article is very brief in its presentation of the error not only,       been accepted unto the state of reconciliation. Notice, in the
 `but also in its answer.  And undoubtedly the fathers give             second place, that this proposition is completely general. It
 expression to the essential  -fault  of the Arminian presenta-
 tion when they state that it is repugnant to the Scriptural            includes every member of the human race, Christian and
 teaching that we are by nature children of wrath. But let              non-Christian, believer and unbeliever, those who have heard
 none be deceived by the brevity of this answer. At first               the gospel and those who never came into contact with the
 glance it may even seem that the fathers by this answer                gospel, elect and reprobate, - all men. Notice, in the third
 fail to answer, fail actually to meet the Arminian argument.           place, that already at this juncture the Arminian is craftily
 Nevertheless, it is exactly the case that the Arminians deny           cautious -in his language,  .although  we may admit that if
that there is anywhere in this world a person' who is by                there were not a cloud in the sky, one could not find fault
 nature a. child of wrath. They so wrest the  ,Scriptures  that         with this expression. They "have been accepted unto the
 children of wrath are simply non-existent, theoretical ab-             state of reconciliation." This is camouflage. Notice he
 stractions. And they remove completely any possibility that            speaks of the "state" of reconciliation. What does he mean?
 anyone can ever in true contrition and repentance confess              Are they excluded perhaps from the actual reconciliation.
 that he personally is a child of wrath by nature. It becomes           Notice, he speaks of "have been accepted." What does he
 increasingly evident that the  .Remonstrants  so twist the Scrip-      mean ? Does he mean to leave room .for the possibility that
 tures that they empty the Scriptural terms of all their true `while they have been accepted, they will not accept? Scrip-
 meaning, pour their own heretical content into these terms,            ture certainly does not employ this language. It presents
 and thus present a teaching that is entirely divergent from            reconciliation as an accomplished fact in the cross of Christ.
 the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They' leave no stone          It simply presents the elect as reconciled by and to God in
 unturned in their effort to overthrow the truth. The Re-               Christ. All this becomes the more noteworthy when, in the
 formed faith and the Arminian heresy are not merely diver-             fourth place, we consider what reconciliation implies. It
 gent in some respects. They differ not in emphasis merely.             presupposes an already existent relationship of friendship
 But they are utterly divergent. At no point do they agree as           between those who are reconciled. Even among men, strang-
 to the gospel of our salvation. You cannot find back the               ers are not reconciled. You speak of reconciliation where
 Reformed faith in the Arminian presentation. This the                  there is a bond of love, of friendship.. An estranged husband
 fathers understood. And this all lovers of the Reformed                and wife may be reconciled. Estranged friends may be rec-
 faith ought to see, in order that they may avoid all attempts          onciled. And so it is also spiritually. Hence, the Arminian
 to compromise and to cooperate with Arminian false teachers.           position implies a relation of friendship on God's' hart to-
     Let                                                                ward all men. This, of course, is quite in harmony with the
             US,  first of all, investigate the teaching of the  Ar-
 minians  as it is here presented.                                      whole Arminian position in regard to God and His decrees.

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

It is quite the spirit of contemporary Arminianism  also. God         helping  grace. Hence, his third proposition is that man  is.
is a God of love, not a God of wrath. He loves all men.               received to the state of reconciliation and the grace of the
And in `His general love He accepts all men unto the state            covenant  in  such  a way  t1za.t he is  jkee  frofwt  0Kginal guilt.  _
of reconciliation. Secondly, reconciliation implies that this         Once again, this applies to all men! And this is so strong,
relationship is violated by sin, so that it cannot function. And      that the Arminian claims that no ?vban is worthy of condemna-
thirdly, reconciliation means that the cause of estrangement,         tion or shall be condemned on account of original sin. In
sin; is removed, so that those who were the objects of wrath          other words, God wipes the slate. clean z+ to the wzohent of
are now the objects of divine favor and blessing. Now put             his bit% It is the old Pelagian view of the tabsula rasa. With
the two together :  reconciliat,ion  and  .,a11   men. It is small    such a clean slate to begin with, and with much less stringent
wonder that the Arminian had to camouflage his view, and              conditions of eternal life besides, God makes it as easy as
speak of being a.ccepted unto the state of reconciliation. He         possible for man to be saved. In parentheses we may re-
had to be very crafty, lest his heresy became too obvious.            mark that it is on this basis that the Arminian explains the
   That brings us to the second proposition of the Remon-             salvation of all children who die in infancy: they have no
strants in this article, namely,  tha.t all men have also beeti       original guilt, and they have not yet acquired any actual
accefited unto the  gleace of the  Cozfenant.  This, of course, in    guilt, and therefore they are innocent. And now it follows,
turn follows upon reconciliation. The Arminian can never              of course, that the Arminian also denies original corruption.
avoid this. Those who are reconciled are also received unto           Original guilt is the judicial ground of our original  car-
the grace of the covenant. In that covenant God and man               ruption. If the former is gone, we can no more be held
stand in a renewed relation of friendship through reconcilia-         under the dominion of sin. It may be that man retains a
tion. God is the God of His covenant people, and they are             certain tendency toward the evil, an aptitude for sin, but he -
His people. Mark you well, this applies, according to the             has no corrupt- nature. He has a free will., And if only he
Arminian, to all men! Notice, by the way, what a similarity           uses his free will aright, then that grace of the covenant will
there is between this view and that which holds that all chil-        not be frustrated, and he will be saved.
dren of believers, head for head, are heirs of the covenant of           Without further comment and explanation it ought to
grace and of God's promise. There is no principal difference.- be very clear that by this view the reality of the "children
But again  *the Arminian is compelled to empty the term               of wrath by nature" of Ephesians 2 :3 is entirely gone. There
grace of the covenant of its true meaning, and substitute for         never enters the world a single babe that is a child of wrath.              _
it his own philosophy. For it is obvious that if all men              There is none that is the object of God's wrath. There is                        -
were actually received unto the grace of the covenant (taking         none that is guilty in Adam ere ever it is born. There is                   -
that term now in its Scriptural sense), then all men would            none that enters this world under the wrath of God, so that
be saved; but this the Arminian cannot maintain. Hence,               it is born in the sphere of sin and death. There simply is
we must remember that the covenant is in the Arminian view            no such thing as one who is a child of wrath by nature.
not a-covenant of grace at all, but a covenant of works.              Principally the answer of the fathers is quite sufficient there-
And the grace of that covenant of works is not grace at all,          fore. But in connection with this answer we may point out
but simply a subtle application of the old principle of work-         too that the Arminian view is guilty of the following: 1) It
righteousness. It is a sort of half-way grace, a grace too that       is individualistic. It denies any covenant relationship, either
even in so far as it could ever be called grace could still be        to Adam or to Christ, when it denies original guilt and when
frustrated and made vain by man. For the Arminians teaches :          it presents the matter of- salvation as though every man
1. That Christ acquired for the Father the mere right to              stands or falls his own master. 2) It makes separation be-
establish with man such a covenant as he might please,                tween original guilt and actual guilt, and, in fact, between
whether of grace or of works. 2. That Christ merited for the          original corruption and actual sin in a way  thatis  untenable.
Father the authority or the perfect will to deal again with           For in the first place, actual sin and actual guilt, while they
man, and to prescribe new conditions as he might desire,              must be distinguished from original sin, are nevertheless in-
obedience- to which conditions depended on the free will of           conceivable apart from original sin. From whence would
man. 3. That God substituted the condition of faith and the           they spring if it were not for original, sin ? And in the second
obedience of faith for the condition of the perfect obedience         place, a reconciliation that frees us only from original guilt
of the law. 4. And that this substitution is the element of           is no reconciliation at all: our actual guilt would still stand
grace in this covenant, - the substitution of less stringent          in the way of the favor of God...
conditions of eternal life. This is` the grace of the covenant
from the objective viewpoint.                                             Hence, the Arminian has no covenant, no reconciliation,
    With this the Arminian cannot be satisfied, however, for, no grace, no sin, no salvation, -nothing at all in the Scrip-
he still has a man who `cannot even meet these new condi-             tural sense. He has the false doctrine of human philosophy.
tions. If obedience to these conditions is to depend on the           And the Reformed Christian rejects this heresy with all
free will of man, he  needs.  just a little more grace.  :But it      his heart.                                                   H . C . H .
must not be sovereign and irresistible grace. It  must be a


                                                                                                                            4


                                   1
            4 5 2                                       THEN   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                         THE PkOPER USE OF THE TERM                                   The next article we refer to is found in the First Head
                                   "CONDITION"  _                                 of Doctrine, article 10, which declares, "The good pleasure
                                                                                  of God is the sole cause of this gracious election ; which dot11
                When -we speak of the proper use of the term "condition,"         not consist herein; that out of all possible qualities and ac-
            we cannot appeal to the use of the term in Scripture, since           tions of men God has chosen some as a condition of salva-
     _      it never `appears there. In that sense it is not a Scriptural         tion  ; but that He was pleased out of the common mass of
            term. That does not yet imply that it is contrary to the              sinners to adopt some certain persons as a peculiar people
            Scriptures, for there are numerous accepted terms among               to Himself, as it is written," etc.'
            us, such as "attribute," -"sacrament," and "providence,"                  1. Here the fathers refute the idea that it was the good
            which are not found in the Bible, but do express the truth            pleasure of God to choose certain gifts and actions of men
            of Scripture. When we use such terms, we always make                  as conditions of salvation. God did not choose. "gifts and
            sure that the church. of the past has .given,  and that we give       -actions of men," but He .chose "persons as a peculiar people
            a Scriptural connotation to them, so that there can be no             to  Him&if."
            misunderstanding. But we cannot appeal to the Scriptures to               2. The term "condition" is *employed' here to refer to
            find out how Scripture uses the term.                                 certain pre-requisites which God has set up from eternity,
                Nor can we appeal to the Confessions for the proper               to which man must conform in order to be included in God's
            use of the term "condition." Not as if it does not appear there,      election, and thus to be saved.
-          5 for we find it used repeatedly in the Canons of Dordrecht.               3. See in this connection also, Head of Doctrine II,
            But whenever the Canons use the term, they always, without            Rejection of Errors, III.
          .im exception, refer to it as employed by the Arminian. They                Those among us who felt a strong need for the use of the
            only point out its improper use.                                      term "condition," and defended a conditional promise and
                But that can be of aid to us in our present discussion.           a conditional gospel,. raised the argument that the Canons
              Let us notice, first of all, the First Head of Doctrine,,           speak of "arminian conditions," while they wanted to main-
            article 9,. "This election was not founded upon foreseen faith,       tain "reformed conditions." Arminian conditions, so it was
            and the obedience of faith, holiness, or any other good quality       said, are conditions unto election, but "reformed conditions"
            or disposition in man, as the pre-requisite, ca.zLse  or condition    are conditions unto salvation. Although they would maintain,
            on which it depended ; but men are chosen to faith and to             on the one hand, that God's election is sovereign and un-
            the obedience of faith, holiness, etc., therefore election is the     conditional, yet, on the other hand, there are also conditions
            fountain of every saving good ; from which proceed faith,             unto our salvation.- Although it is true, that conversion, faith,
            holiness, and the other gifts of salvation, and finally eternal       obedience and perseverance are gifts of grace, they are also?
          life itself, as its fruits and effects, according to that of the        particularly before our consciousness, conditions that  we'
            apostle: `He bath  chosen us (not because we were) but that           must fulfill to be saved.
            we should be holy, and- without blame, before Him in love.' "             But our Confessions do not know that language.
           Ph. 1  :4.                                                                 1. The Canons speak of "conditions" as synonymous
                This article teaches that :                                       with "cause" and "contingency."
                1. The term "condition" is synonymous with the term                  2. They know of but one cause of our salvation, namely,
            "cause," and therefore implies a pre-requisite. A condition,          election. That is the fountain out of which the stream of
            as the Confession speaks of it, is something that is required         grace flows. And God determines sovereignly and uncondi-
            beforehand, so that something else is contingent or dependent         tionally upon whom it shall flow, when it shall flow upon
            upon it.                                                              them, and how much they shall receive at any given time.,
                2. Faith, obedience of faith; holiness, or any other dis-            3. Moreover, they never speak of salvation as something'
            position of man, are not the pre-requisite cause.or condition         `that is only finally attained in heaven. But they include con-
            of election and salvation. This is said in refutation of the          version, faith, obedience and~sanctification,  with all the other
            Arminian.                                                             gifts of grace as a part of our salvation. God is even now
              3. On the contrary, election is the fountain of every               the sole Cause, Who supplies the necessary means, and Who.
            saving good. Therefore election is also the fountain, or              produces the fruits of faith, etc., in the hearts of the believer.
            source of faith. But'then faith is no more a condition.               It is in this confidence that the believer can be fully assured
               4. Faith, obedience of faith, holiness, or the like, are           of his ultimate victory and eternal perfection. Instead of
            fruits  that proceed from election, rather than conditions unto       using the term "condition," the Canons speak of "Fountain,"
            election. Since they are fruits, they can not be conditions.          "cause," "gifts," "means," and "fruits."
               You will  find a very similar language under this same                That is Scripture, according to the Confessions.
            Head of Doctrine, in the section of rejection of errors,  ar7            Those who contend that the term "condition," in a "re-'
            titles IV, V, and VII, which we shall `not quote here for             formed" sense, is necessary in order to have a full-orbed
            want of space. If you are interested, see also Head of Doc-           gospel, will appeal to the fact, that although the Scriptures
            trine V, Rejection of Errors I.                                       do not use the term as such, they do express the conditional


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   thought by the numerous "if clauses." And therefore, to ex:        applies, that Scripture must be compared with and inter-
   press this idea of the "if clauses" the term "condition" is        preted in the light of Scripture.
   proper and essential to Reformed Theology.            _                Psalm 132 :12 reads : "If thy children will keep my cove-
       But let us view these "if clauses" for a moment in the         nant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their chil-
  light of the Confessions quoted above.                              dren shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore."
       We notice, first of all, that many, in fact, most of the           While Psalm 89  :20, 28-35 teaches us : "I have. found
"if clauses" in Scripture have the significance of "since."           David (Christ) my servant; with my holy oil have I
   There is no contingency expressed in them at all, but appeal       anointed him . . . My mercy will I keep for him forevermore.
   is made to an established fact. I refer to but two examples:       and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also
       Gal. 5  :25, "If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in    will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days
   the Spirit."                                                       of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and walk not
       Col. 3  :l, "If we then be risen with Christ, seek those       in my judgments ; if they break my statutes, and keep not
   things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right          my commandments  ; then will I visit their transgression with
   hand of God."                                                      the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my
       Notice in this connection the beautiful thought of James       lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer
   4  :8, "Draw nigh to God, and (since, in that way) He will         my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not  .break, nor
   draw nigh to you."                                                 alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have'1 sworn
   Reference is made to numerous passages in the Old                  by my holiness that I will not lie unto David."
   Testament in which God's blessing is assured to Israel  if             But an appeal is also made to the fact that the reformed
   they will keep His commandments, but His curse awaits              fathers of the period in which the Confessions were composed
   them if they fail to do so. Here, so it is said, we meet with      did use the term "condition" in their writings, even when
   a true conditionality,. a contingency depending upon man's         they were aware of the arminian implications of the term.
   response to God's law. If . . . this; if not . . . that.           This we readily grant. iBut it must also be granted that they
   To quote one example, we refer to Deut.  28:1, 2, 1.5 :            employed the term loosely, almost, we might say, thought-
   "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently       lessly, without attaching any- doctrinal implications to it.
   unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all       In that sense many of the early reformed fathers spoke of
   his commandments which I command thee -this day, that the          "common grace," (which was also found on the lips of the
   Lord thy. God will set thee on high above all nations of the       Arminians and condemned in the Canons), and "offer of
   earth ; and all these blessings shall come on thee, and over,-     salvation," without any intention of attaching any special
   take thee, if thou wilt hearken unto the voice of the Lord         significance to the terms. But as soon as any doctrinal im-
   thy God. But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken       plications are drawn from the use of a term, or any special
   unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his       significance is attached to it, the church may well review the
   commandments and his statutes which I command thee this            "accepted use and the significance of the term in history."
   day  ; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and over-           That still leaves the question whether the term "condi-
   take thee."                                                        tion" does not express better and more concisely certain
      But' as is plain from many other passages of Deuteron-          relationships in the "Order of Salvation" than any other term
   omy, this is nothing less than a prediction, which history         could possibly express them. It is obvious that certain gifts
   has borne out. Spiritual Israel, by the grace of God, did          of grace precede others, that one follows out of the other, and
   hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord their God, to        that our final salvation is only possible as a result of all these
   observe and do all His commandments which He  corn-                gifts of grace bestowed upon us during this present time.
  manded them, and they are set on high above all the nations            For example, regeneration is necessarily first, for "`Ex-
  of the earth eternally. While, on the other hand, carnal            cept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
   Israel did not observe to do all His commandments and His          (John 3  :3). Regeneration is like. the  -acorn, for essentially
  statutes, so that all His curses did come upon them, and            all other gifts are included in this one gift.
  overtake them eternally. This served as a sound pedagogy               Likewise' conversion must precede the enjoyment of con-
  for spiritual Israel, for in as far as they were unfaithful the     scious faith.
  Lord caused them to suffer His chastisement to bring them              -Faith is the divine means unto our justification.
  to repentance. But the word of the Lord was confirmed                  Only in the way of sanctification do we experience God's
  among them:  Those  who hearken to His voice experience             approval.
  His blessing, but those who do not hearken experience His              Only those who receive the grace to persevere unto the
  curse.                                                              end will receive the crown of life.
      It is likewise evident that the passage in Psalm  132:12           Even in regard to affairs of our present earthly existence
  cannot be interpreted as a condition which is dependent             we learn to say: "If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this,
  upon man for its fulfillment, but must be interpreted in con-       o r   t h a t . "   (James,4:15)
  nection with Psalm S9 :2O, 28-35. Also here the sound rule                               (Co~~tima?   OIL  pccge  455)

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

                                                                      Protestant Reformed. Of this I shall never be ashamed. I'm
            ALL  A R O U N D   U S                               II `sure that even the leaders of the Chr. Ref. Church believe
                                                                      this of us, though they do `not agree with us. That they do
                                                                      not see anything that is distinctively Reformed in your
 Stereotyped Theology.                                                group is evidenced in their acceptance of the Rev. James
     On- this subject the' Rev. H. -De Wolf wrote editorially         Van Weelden into the ministry of their churches.
 in the Reformed Guardian of June 25, 19%. In this editorial              De Wolf writes that there was no justifiable reason for
 he tells -his readers how happy he is that he is no longer. in       suspicion and distrust when he and his supporters were still
our Protestant Reformed Churches where he claims he had               with us. All our suspicions were based on ungrounded sub-
 been subjected to a one-man rule and a one-man theology.             jective reasonings. I want to point out to him that there
 He derides our name and repudiates our doctrine.                     was nothing subjective in our reasonings, nor were they un-
     His article is too long to quote in its entirety, nor is this    grounded when our churches condemned those two doctrinal'
 necessary to show how he disdains our churches and how               statements of his. Our judgment of them was based entirely
 ungrateful he is towards the instructor from whom he re-             on the Word of God and our Reformed Confessions. This
 ceived the little knowledge of theology he had before he             is black and white in the minute book of  Classis  East that
 became addicted  to. heretical doctrines.                            condemned those statements, a copy of which was presented
     He begins his editorial with a play on our name. He tells        to De Wolf and his elders by a committee of Classis as De
 his readers that at the beginning of our history we "boasted         Wolf well remembers. Though I would agree that it is
 of being Refovwted." This we did overagainst the Christian           difficult to remain objective when you see the very founda-
 Reformed Churches. whom we accused of `adopting the Ar-              tions of one's church threatened, De Wolf should never say
 rninian Tjtr-ee  Points. `Later, so he writes, we laid emphasis      that we were merely subjective in our reasonings and that
 on the name  Piotehai.   We did this to distinguish our              they were wholly ungrounded..
 denomination from the Christian. Reformed to identify our-               But De Wolf's main objection is against stereotyped
 selves before the' church-world. Still later in our history;         theology. In fact he maintains that all of our suspicions and
 when we felt it was necessary to show that we were the only          actions were controlled by a one-man rule and a one-man
 preformed  denomination in the world, we insisted that we            theology. He writes : "To be distinctively P. R. meant, there-
 were distinctively Protestant Reformed. This became neces-           fore, to be unconditionally and unreservedly in complete
 .sary, according to De Wolf, when we began to suspicion              agreement with the opinions of the Rev. Hoeksema . . . . Let
 some of our ministers and people of being inclined to heretical      anyone disagree with a theological opinion of this one man
 doctrines. He claims that this suspicion was entirely  with-         and he was informed in no uncertain terms that he was not
 `out basis and proof.                                                P. R. . . . . . Today we laugh at such child's play, but there
    I was a little amused the other day when a brother, who           was a time when this accusation struck fear in one's heart. I
 also read `De Wolf's editorial, said to me: "De Wolf did not         am thankful to God that He-has delivered us from all of this."
 go far enough in talking about the name. He should have                 I just want to remind De Wolf that these thoughts never
 called the attention of his readers to the fact that the. De         came up in his heart until the sinful desire arose within him
 Wolf group went still a step farther in the development of           to become bigger than the one man whose theology he claims
 the name when they, assumed the name Orthodox  Protestant            we are "unconditionally and unreservedly in agreement with."
 `Reformed." I agree with the brother.                                I do not think-1 miss by much when I say that De Wolf is
  . Since De Wolf wanted to talk about names it might                 very much like another minister of his group who said : "Rev.
have been instructive to  his readers if he had explained to          Hoeksema forgets that we (ministers) have grown up and
 them just why his group chose the name Orthodox Protestant           no  :longer wear knee breeches." They fail to gratefully
 `Reformed Church. Certainly they are not Reforwaed-.because          acknowledge and give thanks to God for the gifts and talents
 they sustain the heresy of De Wolf. Surely they `are not             He has given to the church in Rev. Hoeksema. They-forget
 Protesta.nt Reformed because they separated from our `Prot-          that in the historical `development of doctrine God is pleased
 estant Reformed Churches, refusing to abide by the doctrine          to raise up men to whom He gives special `gifts of knowledge
 and Church Order of our Churches. And they are not  Or-              and leadership. Calvin, whom De Wolf quotes without
 tliodon- either if.1 understand the meaning of that expression.      reference, was one of them. H. De Cock and A. Kuyper
 The only name they could have assumed that had Protestant            were others.
 Reformed in it that makes sense would be Heterodox Prot-                De Wolf felt that he said too much, for he interjects : "But
 estant Reformed Church. De Wolf will never  be able to ap-           is the theology of one man to be condemned, then, simply
 preciate how thankful we are to God that we were enough              because it is the theology of .one man ? Of course not. That
 distinctively Protestant. Reformed to be able to detect his          is not'my  contention in the least . . . . . Although, therefore,
 heresy' and purge our churches of an element that was fast           a one-man theology is not be condemned simply because it
 making  US  lose our Reformed heritage. Yes, De Wolf, after          is the theology of one man, it is, nevertheless, very dangerous
 you and  youi   supporters left us we became truly distinctively     to exalt a certain theologian above all his contemporaries and


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-      -.     -.     .._--I__v-+             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                             455
                          .,




predecessors . . . . . To presume, as we have in the. past and       theological training. and back-ground make such sweeping
as those who have taken issue with us still do in the present,       statements as De Wolf makes in his editorial.
that one `man is qualified to speak authoritatively on all               It is only natural that he does not like what Hoeksema
theological issues, to correct all theologians of the past, to       says about the term "condition."- It was especially De Wolf's
censure  all opinions of present theologians and to discard          error that he defended `and still does this term which our
theological terminology which has been a part of the' Re-            Reformed fathers put in the mouth of the Arminian.
formed vocabulary for hundreds of years, is tantamount to               Just a word or two  in.closing.  My dictionary defines the
elevating such a man to the virtual position of pope. This           word "stereotype" in its figurative use as meaning: to fix
is what the Roman Catholic Church does in very fact. The             firmly or unalterably. When De Wolf applied this to our
result is a stereotyped theology."                                   theology it meant that our theology is. fixed firmly or  .&a-,
       What De Wolf really meant `to say was : "I have no ob-        alterably. Will De Wolf show us from Scripture and our
jection to following the theology of one man, but that man           Confessions how our theology must be cast aside or changed`?
must not be Rev. Hoeksema." And why does De Wolf say                 I, for one, would be pleased to have him show me. But I
this  ? Simply because there was no other man in all our             must have nothing of his evil aspersions, nor of his philo-
churches who so thoroughly undressed him with Scripture              sophy.
and the Confessions to lay bare the heresy he was and still is           It is rather revealing when De Wolf charges a man
promoting. 0, how this man is hated for his clear insight            with "weakness and sin" without once mentioning his weak-
into the Scriptures and his keen ability to detect whatever          ness and sin, but instead casting evil aspersions on his
smells of being un-Reformed !                                        theology. No man addicted to stereotyped theology,. least
                                                                     of all the stereotyper, can be hurt by this kind of criticism.
       De Wolf gives his readers two or three examples to show       But De Wolf is independent now. He does not'belong to a
how our theology became stereotyped, and how we'became               church which has any set doctrine. or Church Order. So  i
subjected to it. He writes: "Our people are afraid of the            suppose he may think and write as he pleases, and no one
word `offer' because in their thinking that word has receivel        will do anything about it.
a definite connotation due to the .exclusive definition which
this stereotyped theology has ascribed to it . . .  ." Is it De                                                                               M.S.
Wolf's contention that Rev. Hoeksema has made us afraid
of the word "offer" in the sense in which the Christian Re-                                           IN MEMORIAM
formed Church uses it in the first of the Three Points  ?.              Our. Society extends it's sincere sympathy to Mrs. Isaac
`Did he never read what Rev. De Boer, who is now schismatic          Korhorn in  ,the death of  her  sister,
with him, wrote in the Standard Bewer some nineteen years                              M R S .   F L O R E N C E   K O R H O R N   ..
ago about this word and how we and the Chr. Ref. Church
differ in its use? Did De Boer get his conception from                  "And we know that all things work together for good to them
                                                                     that love God, to them who are the called according to his
Hoeksema or Calvin ? Or, does De Wolf also condemn                   purpose." -Ram. 8  23.
what De Boer wrote then ?`Or, is this De Wolf's way of tel-                           The Ruth Ladies' Aid Society of the
ling the Chr. Ref. Church. how much he would like to sit                                        Hope Prot. Ref. Church,
down with them and talk about the term `"offer"? I'm be-                                                   Rev. H. Hanko, President
gimling  to believe that De Wolf  was. stereotyped, not our                                                Mrs. A. Engelsma, Vice-Secretary
theology.
       Another example of our stereotyped theology, according
to De Wolf, is our conception of the covenant. And a third             AS  THOU, 0 LORD, HAST MADE ME STRONG'
eliample  he uses is our understanding of the word "con-                          As Thou, 0 Lord,`hast made me strong
dition." I do not  have'.the  space to comment on these                              To overcome my mighty foe,
examples but suffice it to say that he does not want our con-                     So now to fight against the wrong
ception of the covenant and surely not our criticism of the                          And conquer in Thy Name I go.
word "condition" which he and his group love so well.                             Jehovah lives, and blest is He,
       Frankly, I declare to all who will read this that there is                    My rock, my refuge and defense,
no theologian living or dead who has developed the concep-                        My Savior'who delivers me,
tion of the Covenant of God as has the Rev. H. Hoeksema.                             And will the wicked recompense.
De Wolf knows this too if he'would only admit it. Or, does
De Wolf now know of another theologian or group of theolo-                     -To David, His anointed king
gians who have developed a better conception, one that is                            And to his sons upon his throne,                    '
`more Reformed and Scriptural ? I am sure that he cannot                          The Lord will great salvation bring
mention one, .beginning from the time of Calvin to the present.                      And ever make His mercy known.
It is rather amusing to hear one who has had such little                                                                  Psalm 18: 1, 3, 5


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   456                                           -  -T H E. s T A. N D'A  R.-B:..-..B.E  AR E R

                           THE  DA'Y OF  SI-fADOWS                              THE PROPER USE OF THE TERM "CONDITION"

                           (Con&u&   f7.om   jage   442)                                        (Codnzwd   from  page 452)
  `. ground, for omitting  it.- Verse 9, "Thus spake Jehovah of               If we were to speak of "conditions" at all, if would'neces-
  hosts sayitig,"  introduces the words that were spoken by the            sarily be in that sense, placing the conditionality or  con-
 former prophets to past generations. And the words are                    tingency solely in God. God is the absolute Sovereign, and
   these, "The judgment of truth judge, a.nd kindness and COWL-            we are utterly-  deperident upon Him, even' in every con-
   passion'show every  maAn to his brother: and widow  and                 ceivable way. Every cause, condition, pre-requisite or con-
 orphan  end stranger and poo+ ma,n ,do not oppress;  a.nd evil            tingency rest entirely in Him. He must grant regeneration,
   against his  brother  ltit `none of  yoh conceive  in kis heart." conversion, faith,  justificatioli, sanctification, preservation,
 -*These  are the requirements of the Lord. In a word, they shall          j;y, peace,  blessedness,   2nd every other gift. And through
   love one another. Such has been the word of the Lord to- all            all those gifts He must bestow upon us our final glorification.
   the generation of the past. Love one another. It is the                    But again it must be grahted,  that to express all this the
   second of the two c&mandments on which hang all the law                 Canons  fe!t no need to employ the term "condition."  vir can
 1 and the prophets. For how shall they refrain from  oppqessing           it `be said that the term "condition" expresses this truth bitter
   the  defenceless  members of their community, such as the               and more comprehensively than such terms as ~the- Canons
   widow and the orphan, if they do not love ? And how shall               employs, namely, cause, gifts, means, or fruits,. We certainly
   they refrain from planning evil each against his brother,               lose nothing in the preaching by avoiding it. To say that God
   if they do not love 7.                                                  is the sole cause, and election is the fountain of our salvation,
          But  they- the fathers -refused to hearken. Like the             is a truth of inestimable comfort to the believer. To, say that
   ox that refuses to have `the yoke put on his neck, they offered         Go'd's gifts are His sovereign means to our final perfection
   a rebellious shoulder. They made heavy their. ears  .and                is our constant peace.  To say that He Who works the
   their  heart like an adamant stone, so that no impression.              fruits of grace in us will also.finish  all that He has begun,
   could be made, that they might not, hear the law, the instruc-          does not make anyone careless and profane, but affords per-
   tion and words of Jehovah se& by His Spirit and the former              fect assurance for the believer.
   prophets. Then came great wrath which was revealed in                      And since the  .Arminian  so sorely needs, and so freely
   judgments. And when the fathers cried for help and -deliver-            uses the term to bolster and propagate his error also in our
   ance Jehovah would not hear them seeing that they did not               day, we  are safe and avoid  ali  misunderskanding  by simply
   hear, when He had cried. And he whirled them among the                  refusing to use it in connection with all tha? pertains to our 7
   nations whom they knew not -the Assyrians and the  Chal-                salvation.                                                   C.H.
   deans, who, as strangers, had no compassion. After they
   were scattered  the~land  became desolate. The country be-
   came so waste that no traveler ventured to pass through it.
   And so they made the land of desire a desolation- they, not                   THE HEAVENS DECLARE THY GLORY                                   -
   the enemies but the inhabitant,' the fathers through their                            The spacious heavens declare
   disobedience and rebellion.                                                             The glory of our God,
          These..  verses teach that the present genera&ion will be                      The  firmamknt  displays
   overtaken by identical judgments, if they take a similar at-                            His handiwork abroad  ;
   titude. They shall love one another. But how shall they                        Day unto day proclaims His might,
   love except they be born again from above? In other words,                            And night His wisdoin  tells to night.
   how shall they love, except the love of the Father be in them ?                       Aloud-they do not speak,
      And  shall~  they weep, they the born-again men in the                               They utter forth no word,
   community,. the Israel according to the election of grace?                            Noi- into  language  break,
   They do weep and will continue to weep as long as they find                             Their voice is never heard;
   themselves chained to the body of this death from which                               Yet thro' the 6orld the truth they bear
   they fain would be delivered. For their desire is to live                             And their Creator's power declare.
.- perfectly according to all God's commandments. But what
   they would-they do not and what they hate that they do.                               The clouds of heaven are spread,
   And therefore they weep. But they also rejoice in the cer-                              A tent to hold the sun,
   tain knowledge that all their sins are forgiven them of dad                           And like a bridegroom fair
   for Christ's sake and that when He appears they shall ap-                               Comes forth the mighty one,
.:.. par with Him in glory.                                                              Rejoicing in his strength and grace
          TIiere  is .a weeping that is indeed precious in God's sight.
                    --.                                                                  To run his wondsous daily race.
                                                               G.M.O.                                                           Psalm 19 :l-3


