              VOLUiUl3   xxx111                           NQVEIVIBER   1, 1956  -CAND   F~APIDS,  MICHIGAN                             N U M B E R   3
                                                                                                                                                          I
                                                                                         -~ It has never failed yet and never will.
                   \MEDITATION                                                            Arm yourself with this thought!
                                                                                          Saith your God.
                        OUR RELIABLE WEAPON                                               The thought: He that hath suffered in the flesh hath
       . .            "Forasmuch  then as Christ hath suffered for us in           ceased from -sin.
                       the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same                   A very simple statement, so lucid that a child can grasp
                       mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath           it
                       ceased from sin." I Peter  4:l.                                    And yet after reading it a few times, and. pondering on it,
              A thought.                                                           it seems to ,develop into a enigma.
I             A single thought, or `consideration:                                        We are inclined to say: This saying is hard.            y       I
     That is obviously what the apostle refers to when he                                 What does it mean. to cease from sin ? It cannot mean.
     tells us to arm ourselves with the same "mind."                               that the true child of God is so completely delivered from
              A thought, that nevertheless, is like a precious gem, a              sin, that he never sins any more, and cannot as much as sin,
     valuable asset, even a gold mine of truth for him who pos-                    but has attained to perfection. That would be in conflict with
     sesses it.                                                                    all of the Scriptures, and particularly with the passage in
                                                                                   I John 1 3, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive our-'
              For it' is a thought of God, that He reveals to us in His            selves, and the truth is not in us."
     holy Word, and lays in our hearts by His Spirit, in order
     that we may know it and cherish it.                                                  And what does the expression "suffered in the "flesh"
                                                                                   mean ? We know of suffering, for the world is full of suffer-
              It is a thought that is the personal  %property of the be-           ing. Earthquakes, floods, famines and storms ravage all man--
     liever to reassure him in his conflict in the flesh.                          kind, so that none escapes. What a misery you encounter in.
              You  can well compare it to the "faithful sayings" of which          the hospitals and institutions all over the world. Every home
     the apostle Paul speaks. These were maxims which were                         has its problems. Every person meets his troubles anew
     take from t~he Scriptures, and were found on the lips of the                  every day. There is not a single moment of pure joy in the
     believers of the early church, both in their private conversa-                life of any individual upon the earth. But how can it be
     tions and in their public worship. They used them to en-                      said, then; that he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased
     courage one another in temptations, in persecutions, and                      from sin ? For this would seemingly apply to all men. And
     even at the stake.                e                                           then this word, that is intended to reassure the believer alone,
              This is such a "faithful `saying" that is presented here .as         would lose all its signi5cance:
     a  thoztgkt.                                                     `\                  It is an enigma to ponder over.
              It  is a thought that we can always remember, carry be-                     And as we `ponder over it new vistas of truth open up
     fore our consciousness, to refer to it and address it to others               before us.
     as the need requires.                                                               A thought, worth considering, worth remembering. . .
      . For with it we are able to resist and overcome the=                         Arlll  yourself'with   i t.  .-
     fiercest foe.  `1
              It is our sword and shield. It is our complete  panoply,                    You have ceased from sin . . . if so be that you have
     our only and sufficient arsenal in the spiritual battle of faith.             suffered in the flesh:

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

      The meaning of the word "ceased': becomes perfectly ob-               Does the world ridicule you and pour out her hatred
vious if we translate it. as "having come to rest."                    against you ? Does she make you understand that you are a
      Sin is a burden that is too heavy for us to bear. God            stranger in her midst? If so, count it all joy: She hates  you
has taught LIS to know and confess how. heavily that burden            because she hates God, and she treated the saints before you
of guilt weighs upon us, so that "my bones waxed old                   with the same "cure."
through my roaring all the day long."                                       Does your flesh make your life grievous every day, so
                                                                       that you bitterly complain with Paul, "0 wretched man that
      There is also nothing so wearying to  the.~ soul as the           I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?"
constant onslaughts of sin. The devil never ceases his at-
tacks. The world finds daily new delight in making our                      Then be of good cheer. You have ceased from sin.
life bitter. Our own flesh is always a ready' victum to all                 Arm yourself with this reliable w.eapon.
the temptations round about us, while sin breeds sin within
us. And through it all we grow hopelessly weary as we                       0, it cannot fail.
realize that we are always only prone by nature to hate                     Remember, that Christ suffered in the flesh.
God and the neighbor.
                                                                            The Son of God came into the likeness of our sinful flesh,
      But Jesus proclaims the good news to our hearts: Come            like us in all things, with only sin excluded.
unto Me! Yes, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest."                                     He was born of Adam, flesh of our flesh, to walk our
                                                                        streets, associate with sinful men, and converse among us.
      By grace we experience that sin has no more dominion
o v e r   u s .                                                             He was Abraham's seed, having taken on the flesh and
                                                                       blood of brethren according to divine appointment.
      We have ceased, found rest from sin, for God is mightier
than any foe. And grace abounds.                                            He was David's Son, `the Lion of Judah's tribe, for
                                        :                              .Whom  the victory was laid away as a crown of life in the
      That is the confidence of our faith in the midst of the          heavens.
battle.                                                                     He was the Light that shone into the darkness, and' the
      We have ceased from sin.                                         `darkness hated Him, because their deeds were evil. Herod
                                                                        sought to kill Him before He could ever walk or talk.
      How do I know?                                                    Scribes and Pharisees immediately laid plans to kill Him.
      How am I'reassured of this wonderful security?                    His own brethren refused to believe in Him. His mother
                                                                       and  .His disciples were constantly offended by Him. Judas
      The thought : "He that hath suffered in the flesh hath           betrayed Him. Peter denied Him. Wicked hands took Him
ceased from sin."                                                       and nailed Him to the cross to get rid of Him once for all,
      This expression, (`suffered in the flesh," has its own                He suffered as the Just in the hands of the unjust in our
peculiar significance in this epistle of Peter, in which he is          flesh. He was hated just because He was the Son of God;
addressing the elect strangers sojourning in the Babylon of             just because He was the Light that shone into the darkness;
this world.                                                             yes, just because He was the Just among the unjust..
      In the previous chapter he already referred to it in the              But God's divine purpose was realized through all this.
eighteenth verse, where he points out that Christ has suf-
fered as the Just for the unjust, and was even put to death              . For notice how carefully Peter inserts two significant
in the flesh.                                                          words here: "for us." "Christ hath suffered for us in the
                                                                        flesh.?'
      Now he refers to that again by saying, "Forasmuch then                He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for
as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh."                          our iniquities : the chastisement o$ our peace was upon Him,
       So that "suffered in the flesh" refers to all the sufferings     that by His stripes we might be healed.
through the assaults of the powers of darkness as long as we                He arose from the dead, entered into His rest, and
are in the flesh.                                                      pours out His Spirit into our hearts, drawing us unto
      Are you acquainted with that suffering?                          -Him by that powerful efficacious Word: "Come unto  Me!
      Does the devil attack you ? Does he seem to make it his           all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
particular business to assault you with his endless whisper-            rest."
ings, cunning treachery, and lying deceit, as if you were                   We have ceased from sin.
an object of his special attention ? In that case, blessed art              Wherefore we suffer in the flesh.
thou. He never bothers about those who already are in his                   The devil attacks us, because he knows that he has but
grasp, but he is interested in destroying the church, of God.           a little while.


                                               .THE   ST.ANDARD   B E A R E R                                                                                                       51

    The world hates us, because our presence among her
condemns her.                                                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R -
                                                                    Semi-mortthly,  except  moltthly  during  Juw, July  a,nd August
    Our own flesh makes our life bitter, because it is in the         Published by the 
throes of the death-struggle of sin.                                                                 F&F~RI&ED  FREE PUBLISHING  ASSIXIAT~ON
                                                                    P. 0. Box  S81,  Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
    God's purpose  is. that through suffering we may be                                   Editor  - REV. HERMAN  H~EKSEMA
glorified.                                                          Communications  relative to contents should be addressed  to Rev.
                                                                    H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
    Arm yourself with that thought.                                 All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
                                                                    G. Pipe, 1463 Ardmore St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7, Michigan.
                                                                    Announcements and Obituaries must be mailed to the above
    The same thought that filled the soul of Christ.                address and will be published at a fee of $1.00 for each notice.
                                                                    RENEWALS  : Unless a  de&rite  request for discontinuance `is re-
    He came to do the Father's will, for He carried in His          ceived, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription
                                                                    to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
hand the scroll of prophecy that had to be fulfilled.                                       Subscription price: $4.00 per year
    ke saw the heavens opened, and the.devil descending like        Entered  as  Seco&  Class matter  at Grand  -Rapids,  Michigan
lightning into the eternal abyss.

    He spoke boldly of His sufferings and' the glory that                                              C O N T E N T S
would follows. Therefore, standing before the sanhedrin,         MEDITA~ON  -
He makes the confession: "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of            Our Reliable Weapon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
man sitting at the righi hand of power, and coming in the                     Rev. C. Hanko
clouds of heaven.                                                E D I T O R I A L S   Y
    For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the                Strange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    52
cross, despising shame, and is set at the right hand of the            Unbiblical Divorce and Remarriage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
                                                                       Election and Reproebation..  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
throne of God.                                                             " Rev. H. Hoeksema
    He is the Captain of our salvation Who leads His army              Congratulations, Plus ! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
                                                                              Rev. G. Vos
with Him into victory.                    ,
                                                                 OUR  DOCTRINE-
    His thought is now your thought.                                   The Book of Revelation.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
                                                                              Rev.  H. Hoeksema
    It never failed Him.
                                                                 THE DAY OF  SHADQWS-
    It cannot fail you.                                                The .Prophecy  of Zechariah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .,. . . . . . . . . . . . . .58
                                                                              Rev. G. M. Ophoff

    It is your only reliable weapon.                             FROM HOLY  WRIT-
                                                                       Exposition of I Corinthians l-4 (22). . . <. . . . . . . . . . . . . ;. . . ;61
    Does this doctrine make men careless and profane ?. God                   Rev. G. Lubbers
forbid! The truth never does that, but the lie always does.      IN HIS  FEAR-
                                                                      Giving in His Fear (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ., . . . . . .63
    Sin has no more dominion over us. We need no longer                       Rev; J. A. Heys
live unto sin.
                                                                 CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH -
    Besides the time is short. We have served sin long                The Church and the Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,..65
enough, and, don't forget, we owe her nothing.                                Rev. H. Veldman

    Grace has made it possible for us to do the will of the      THE VOICE  OF OUR  FATHERS-
Father, in love to Him and in hatred against all sin.                 The Exposition of the Canons of Dorclrecht.. . . . . . . . . . . . . ,67
                                                                              Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
    Stand therefore. Fight the battle of faith.                  DECENCY AND  ORDER-
   Always holding this firmly as-your weapon.                         Compulsory Retirement of Office Bearers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
                                                                              Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg
   A single thought.                                             ALL AROUND  Us-
   Faith is the victory that overcomes the world !                    The Offer of the Gospel and Accepting Christ.. . . . . . . . . . . . .71
                                                                              Rev. M.  Schipper
                                                         C.H.

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

  II                                                                     an overture to synod asking that they retract the "Three
            _ E D I  l--O R I A  1 S                                  II Points" as binding upon the office-bearers and members of
                                                                         the Christian Reformed Church, that they apologize to us
                                                                         for ever having cast us out, and that they ask us to return
                              Skange                                     to their fold.
        In  De  Whlzti~ of  Oct. 2, 1956, the Rev. I. Van  Dellen          As it stands now, the article by the Rev. Van  Dellen  in
  writes that the last synod the Christian Reformed Church               De Wa.clzter of Oct. 8, 1956 is, to say the least, very strange.
  left the impression that the Three Forms of Unity are no                   It is also dishonest.
  longer sufficient as a bond of fellowship, but that several                Was not the Rev. Van  Dellen  president of the synod of
  items, synodical decisions, must be added to them.                     the Christian, Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, 1924, that
        When a minister from a different church connection with          adopted the "Three Points" ?
  which the Christian Reformed Church has only what is                       Was he not the co-author of the "Three Points" together
  called "restricted fellowship" asks to be admitted in his              with one or two other ministers, that is, co-author of those
  official capacity, as minister, therefore, in the Christian Re-        points in the form in which they were finally adopted  ?
  formed Church, a written document shall be presented to                I think he was.
  him, informing him of several synodical decisions in the past,             Were not the Rev. H. Danhof, the Rev. G. M. Ophoff
  such as the Conclusions of Utrecht, the stand against secret           and the undersigned expelled from the Christian Reformed
  societies, the decisions concerning worldly amusements, and            Church because we would not and could not agree that those
  the three points about "common grace." The minister that               three points were Reformed and in harmony with the Con-
  applies for admission shall be asked to express agreement              fessions  ? They were. And did not the Rev. Van  Dellen
with these decisions and shall be asked to conform his                   agree with this expulsion and even gave advice, contrary to
  preaching and teaching to them.                                        Dr. Van Lonkhuyzen  at, the time, as to how this might be
        Now, according to the Rev. Van  Dellen,  the Christian           done by  Classis  East and  Classis  West of Grand Rapids, in
  Reformed Church moved in a wrong direction by making                   spite of the fact that the synod of Kalamazoo had not
  these decisions. Writes he (I translate) : "In my opinion we           demanded deposition if the accused pastors did not agree with
  are going the wrong way by imposing the above mentioned                the "Three Points"? I think he did.
  demands. Is it not sufficient that agreement is expressed                  Was he not one of the witnesses in the Grand Rapids
  with the Three Forms of Unity ? The danger threatens that              court designed to deprive us of our church property? He was.
  we are going to seek the basis of church fellowship in synod-              And now he writes that the three points are, after all, not
  ical decisions rather than in the confessions. We also forget          the same as the confessions and there is room in the Re-
  that, within the limits of the confessions, there is room for          formed Churches for difference of opinion in regard to the
  difference of  oginion.  Think, for instance, about common             matter of common grace ? And he does so without even
  grace and the Conclusions of Utrecht. If, from now on                  blushing  ?
  we assume this standpoint, we. will build  littlk walls that               Once more, I say: Very strange, indeed!
 prevent us from uniting with churches that c&fess the same                                                                       H. H.
 truth as we do, and also act according this confession.' I am
  afraid that, in the long run, this will  lead-  to sectarianism.
  Next to the confessions we still have something else that
 distinguishes us from other Reformed churches and that                            &biblical Divorce and Remarriage
 prevents us to live in fellowship with them."                              We were discussing a report on the question concerning
        I say: coming from the pen of the Rev. Van Dellen,  this        unbiblical divorce and remarriage delivered to the Synod of
 is, to say the least, very strange.                                    the Christian Reformed Church in 1932. In that report the
        I,  ;tm referring especially to what he writes about com-       words of the Lord concerning divorce and remarriage were
 mon grace and the "three points."                                      so distorted that all the parties concerned, the husband that
        It seems to me. that, before the Rev. Van  Dellen  can          forsakes his wife apart from adultery, the woman that is
 honestly assume the standpoint that the "three points" of              forsaken, and the man that marries the forsaken woman,
  1924  `are not binding as the confessions are, he should,  at         commit no sin when they remarry  `or marry, although the
 least, plainly express that, since 1924, he has changed his            Lord  emphatically  declares the very opposite in the  texts
 mind.                                                                  quoted.
        Still more, .he should also confess that he  grievously             We promised to examine the arguments in the way of
 sinned when, on the ,basis of the "three. points" he agreed            which this strange conclusion is reached. But in doing so
 to have the Rev. H. Danhof, the Rev. G. M. Ophoff and the              we may as well, at the same time, present our own view of
 undersigned deposed from office and expelled from the                  the matter and our interpretation of the texts concerned.
 Christian Reformed Church.                                                 First of all, then, l&t us consider the two texts in Matthew
        Moreover, he  .should, at least, make the, attempt to get       that have reference to this matter.


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              5 3

    In Matt. 5 :32 we read : "But I say unto you, That who-          and his wife are not two after marriage, but  they are one
 soever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornica-    flesh. It is on the basis of all this that the Lord enjoins
 tion, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall           His people never to divorce, and never to leave their proper
 marry her a that is divorced committeth adultery."                  spouses except for the cause of fornication.
     And in Matt. 19  :9: "And I say unto you, Whosoever                Now the committee, with respect to the first party, the
-shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall    man that leaves his wife for .any `cause, invented the subter-
 marry another, committeth adultery : and' whose marrieth            fuge of inserting in the text of Matt.  19:9 the word "im-
 her which is put away d&h commit adultery."                         mediately." The-text, then, reads thus: "If a man leaves his
     Now, about the first party, the man that puts away his          wife for any reason, not for fornicatidn, and immediately, even
 wife that did not commit the sin of fornication, the conten-        before the forsaken wife has married another man, marries
 .tion of the committee above mentioned that he is free to           another worn&,  commits adultery, but if he waits until she
 marry again is certainly contrary to the text as well as            is married  &gain, he is free also to marry." But this is
 to the context. As far as the context is concerned, in Matt.        nothing but a subterfuge, as has been said. There is ab-
 5 :31 we read: "It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away         solutely nothing in the text that even suggests such an
 his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement."  AC-          interpretation. And I would like to know what right the
 cording to this, no one might leave his wife except in  the         committee has to insert words and phrases into any passage
 legal way. This idea the Lord opposes and condemns in verse:        of Scripture and that, too, for the purpose of distorting the
 32. Nothing, not even a legal divorce, can break the mar-           text that it supports their own notions.
 riage bond. Fornication is, indeed, a violation of marriage,           Besides, the text in Matthew 5, certainly condemns this
 and if the wife commits this sin, the husbarid `my (does not        "interpretation" of the committee. There we read not only
 have to) leave her, but even this is not the same as the            that when a man leaves his wife except for the cause of
 dissolution of the marriage bond by way of a legal divorce; At      fornication he commits adultery, but that he causes his wife
 any rate, the man that thus leaves his  wife is not free' to        to commit adultery. How strange the reasoning of the
 marry again.                                                        committee becomes in this light. Notice : 1. He forsakes his
    This is even stronger in Matthew. 19. In the context of          wife. 2. By doing so, he not only becomes guilty of adultery
 this passage, `we read : "The Pharisees also came'unto him,         when he marries another, but he is also the cause of his wife's
 tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man `to       adultery. He is, therefore, doubly guilty. 3. And now, ac-
 leave his wife for every cause? And he `answered and-said           cording to the committee, that man, that is doubly guilty, is
 unto them, Have ye not read; that he which made them                free, because of his own sinful actions, to marry another!
 at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For              More about the question next time, the Lord willing.
 this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall                                                                     H.H.
 cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Where-
 fore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore
 God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. They                            Election and Reprobation
 say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writ-               In his book on God's Election, Berkouwer also devotes
 ing of divorcement and to put her away ? He said unto them,         a section to the `question of "hardening," the hardening of
 Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you           man's heart. He is very averse to bring this hardening in
' to put away your wives : but from the beginning it was not         causal connection with God's decree of reprobation. Beyond
 So.`j And then follow the well-known words : "But I say unto        saying that hardening is the revelation of God's holy wrath
 you, Whosoever shall put, away his wife, except it be for           over man's sin and guilt he does not want to go. He denies
 fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery :         that God is absolutely sovereign in hardening man's heart,
 and' whoso marrieth her  ivhich  is put away doth commit            so that even in this God is first while man is second.
 adultery."                                                             Hence, in this section of his book, pp.  29ff., he treats
    Notice : 1. That, according to the Lord, Moses catered           of self-hardening first of all. With great emphasis, according
 tb wicked Israel, for the hardness of their heart, when  he         to him, Scripture speaks of the self-hardening: man hardens
 enjoined them to give their wives a divorce. 2. That the            his own heart. This is true of Pharaoh who under all the
 Lord, however, even in oppositipn to Moses, refers to the           plagues which God sent upon him constantly hardens his
 beginning and emphasizes that marriage, the joining of one          heart. But this is no  less true of Israel to whom the word
 man to one woman, is rooted in creation. It is a creation.          is, therefore, addressed : "Harden not your heart." This
 ordinance, which may not and, in fact,, cannot be broken by         self-hardkning Berkouwer defines as a walking in a way of
 any man. 3. That the organic rklation in marriage, of one           increasing non-receptivity, in a way in which one does no
 man to one woman, is even firmer than that of parents and           longer hear and see. And of this self-hardening the whole
 children. This is the reason why a man will forsake his father      of Scripture speaks repeatedly, in the New Testament as
 and mother, and shall cleave to his wife.  4. That a man            well as in the Old. But it is erroneous, according to Berkou-

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

  wer, to bring this hardening in connection and that, too, in           First of all, he emphasizes that one may not weaken the
  a causal connection with the doctrine of reprobation.               sense of these words. They must be allowed to stand in their
       But, secondly, Berkouwer also treats of God's hardening        real and serious meaning. But then, he immediately em-
  man's heart. Pharaoh not only hardens his own heart but             phasizes that one may not give a "hard" meaning to these
  God hardens it also. And, in Rom. 9 the apostle refers to           words. One may, indeed, plead for the sovereign freedom
  this act of God's hardening, man as an act of his sovereign         of God, but be very careful that this be not understood in a
  freedom. And this applies not only to Pharaoh and the               deterministic  sense. One must understand that Scripture
  heathen nations but also to Israel of the old dispensation and      never speaks of man's hardening ai a causal divine act, but
  to those that live under the gospel in the days of the New          it  alivays  places God's hardening of man's heart in direcb
  Testament. This Berkouwer explains as a righteous  judg-            connection, with the preaching of the gospel that places man
  ment of God. On the part of man, there is a process of cor-         before a choice. If a man does not listen to and heed the
  ruption in increasing guilt. Guilt is transgression, accord-        gospel, he is driven in the way of alienation and judgment.
  ing to him, and calls for the reaction of God's holiness and        In that way the ripening process is seen, so that finally they
  wrath. Then God acts in wrath over against or in  .the guilti       arrive at the stage in which it can be said of them: "they
  of sin. Then he can deliver and abandon His people or               could riot believe." But this is not an impotence that is the
  separate individuals of His people or of the heathen, and in        result of a determination of an absolute power, but rather of
  thus "giving them over" he reveals His holiness and judg-           the  holiness  of God in judgment over man's sin. It is
  ment, p. 300.                                                       a terrible misunderstanding to interpret all this in the light'
       In this connection, he also refers to the well-known pas-" of the symmetry of election and reprobation, pp. 303, 304.
  sage in Isa. 6 < "And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear          From all this is plain:
  ye indeed, but understand nqt, and see ye indeed, but per-             1. That Berkouwer does not want a causal relation be-
  ceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their        tween God's eternal counsel of reprobation and the harden-
  ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their           ing of man's heart.
  eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their              2. That the guilt and sin of man are always first  and
  heart, and convert, and be healed." It is, according  to            the hardening of man's heart by God is second and follows
  Berkouwer, incomprehensible how one could possibly read in          as an act of judgment upon the sin of man.
  these verses a distinction and separation of elect and repro-          I maintain that all this is not Reformed. Any  Arminian
  bate and a description of the hardening of the reprobate            can subscribe to it.
  according to the counsel of eternal reprobation. It has nothing        And again, I claim that !B,erkouwer, in his heart of hearts,
  to do with reprobation. All that is taught in this passage is       must have nothing of the Scriptural doctrine of reprobation.
  the judgment of God over the sin of the people, pp. 300-302.           This I still hope to prove, D. V.        '
                                                                                                                               H . H .
       The same is true of Jesus' application of the parable of
  fhe sower and similar passages : Lu. 8 :9, 10 ; Matt. 13 :lO-17;
  Mark 4 :lO-12;  *John  12 :37-40. Especially the text in Mark
  .is strong, in connection with the passage from Isa. 6: "And                        Congratulations, Plus!
  when he was alone,  they that were about him with the                  Yes, this book review is in the nature of multiple con-
  twelve asked him of the parable. And he said unto them,             gratulations, and with  a,"plus" added.
  Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom.             First, I wish to congratulate the Wm. B.  Eerdmans,
  of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are        Publishing Company, and more particularly, Mr. William
  clone in parables : That seeing they may see, and not perceive ;    Eerdmans. This part of my article is sadly overdue. I
  and hearing they may hear, and not understand ; lest at any         should have given time and thought to this item years ago.
  time they should be converted, and their sins should be                When the whole world that calls itself Reformed either
  forgiven them." And no less strong is the passage in John           ignored its most outstanding theologian, the Rev. Herman
  12, again in connection with the passage from Isaiah: "But          Hoeksema, or attacked him and his views, God gave us the
  though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they           foremost publisher of Reformed heritage to publish his
  believed not on him : That the saying of Esaias the prophet         works. God moved his heart and mind to open the door. to
. might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed         the world of publications.
  our report ? and to- whom hath the arm of the Lord been re-            Most of  Us do not realize the outlay of  money  and the
  vealed ? Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias      subsequent risks involved in the publishing of books. I
  said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their Icnow, for Mr. Eerdmans told me, and showed me the
  heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor under-         graphs- of costs and sales.
  stand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal           - And so I wish to publicly thank him at this occasion : a
  them."                                                              milepost in the publishing of Hoeksema's books.
       Now, how does Berkouwer interpret all these passages?             You ask: "How come?' Why did this man, versed  ip


                                            TH.E  S'TANDARD   B E A R E R                                                                                                         5 5

  profitable printing and publishing matters, risk so much ?         gave to the treatment of the same material in a separate.
      Here is his answer, and it is twofold: first, "The Rev.        work:  In  the  Sa.nctztary.   A title gives, or ought to give, the
  Hoeksema writes for the ages  !" And,  ,second,  "This is my       content of the book or article in brief. Perhaps the author
  partial share of working for the coming of the Kingdom !"          did not want to create confusion by having two distinct
      And so, congratulations, Mr. Eerdmans, in finishing the        publications with the same title.
  publication of the most valuable set ,of commentaries on the            I am confident that when you h&e read the Rev. Hoek-
  Heidelberger. May God repay you for what you have -done            sema's exposition of the Lord's Prayer, you will say: I have
  for the Reformed Churches in the United States.                    been in God's Sanctuacy.  There he takes you and your life.
                           *  * *  4:                                There he shows you how to behave before the Face of Je-
                                                                     hovah, ever guided by the Word which alone is. the safe
      My second congratulations are directed ;o the author, the      guide when doing that most difficult work of prayer and sup-
  Rev. H. Hoeksema.                                                  plication.
      The first volume came off the p;ess in June, 1943.                  Here are the titles and prices :
      The  lOth, and last, volume came off the press just a few
  weeks ago. (I was asked to write a review of both the 10th         V o l .   N o .             Titles                                                                    Price.9
  volume and the entire series which is now completed).                    I. In the Midst of Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 2.50
      The Rev.  Hoeksema's first word in the introduction of             II. God's Way Out  _...____._..........___...._..__....................   2.00.
  the first volume, June 1, 1943, was the word "if." And that          III. The Death of the Son of God  __._._................  . 2 . 5 0
  was proper. We are as a mist, a vapour, a vanity at best.            IV. The Lord of Glory ..______  __.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
  God is the only Rock. When God writes about Himself and                V. Abundant Mercy .._.. i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
  His works He never prefaces His thoughts with this little          V I . Baptized into Chtist .._ ,....___._................................                                 2.50
  word "if." His counsel stands, and He doeth all His good-           VII. Eating and Drinking Christ  ,,i  .__.._...__..............                                          2.50
  pleasure.                                                          VIII. Love the Lord Thy God _,....._ ,,_.......  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 . 0 0
      But Hoeksema wrote: "If in God's inscrutable purpose             IX. Love Thy Neighbor for God's Sake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                               2.50
  there are left to me a sufficient number of days to work and          .X. The Perfect Prayer  ____.....____...____...__,.............:  . 3.00
  labor, I intend to complete the work the beginning of which
  I offer to the public in the present volume." (Preface of                                       Total, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._.............  i . . . . . . . . . . $25.50
  Volume I : In the Midst of Death).                                      However, when last speaking to Mr. Eerdmans, he told
      Well, dear reader, when Hoeksema wrote that sentence,          me that I could include in my announcement that when, buy-
  God said: Amen! God knew that He would multiply his                ing the whole set you can get it for $20.00.
  days in order to give to the Church of Christ this wonderful                                                 *  *  *  *
  commentary on the Heidelberger.
      It seemed in 1947 as ththbugh the same fate would strike            Third, congratulations to the Reformed world, and par-
  him as it did Dr.  K. Schilder, who might only complete            ticularly, to our Protestant Reformed Churches. An ex-
  Lord's Day 10 of our Catechism, in his exposition. Our             position such as we have here of the Heidelberger Cate-
  beloved leader lay,  iti Sioux Fall's hospital, bereft of voice    chism in the English language fills a great need. There is
  and locomotion. We tearfully thought that his earthly pil-         aothing published here that can be compared to it. It ought,
  grimage was over.                                                  and it will, be found in the home of every member of the
      But God in His mercy decreed otherwise.                        Reformed Churches. It ought to be, and will, be `eventually,.
      He returned to us not only, but he returned with abund-        in every study of the ministry who still love this confession
  ant vigor of body and soul and-spirit, as the present com-         which was made in the most flourishing -period  of Reformed
  pletion of the Heidelberger exposition serves as indubitable       thinking. Use, study and application of this work of the
  proof.                                                             `Rev. Hoeksema will prove that it is homogenous with the
      The work accomplished is no mere exegesis of the Cate-         convictions of these  fathers. Furthermore, it will prove to
  chism. It is an able development of the doctrines presented        the serious student that the authbr went beyond them, as-
. therein. I have studied every volume and it is my con-             similating all that was produced -by God's Church in the last
  viction that it would be easy to construct a rather thorough       3vz centuries, and developing along the lines of sound Re-
   dogmatics from its rich contents.                                 formed and Biblical thought.
      The outstanding thrust of this exposition is the Sovereign-         Every family in our own churches ought to buy this set.
  ty of the Triune God. That outstanding doctrine of Scrip-                Consider the price you pay for many luxuries, radios,
   ture is found on all its 2223 pages. The Holy Bible begins        television sets, furniture, etc.
   with the majestic: "In the beginning God . .  ." Well, the             Can you estimate the wondrous blessings which will
   Rev. Hoeksema has kept the faith of that majesty.                 accrue to your children's lives when they receive your gift
      The last volume's title is TIze Perfect Prayer, and I find     of these ten priceless volumes  ?
   no fault with it. However, I would have liked the title he                                         (Continued  on  page 72)

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

                                                                      testimony of the hope that was within them at all times.
               O U R   D O C T R I N E                           II They were rich in actual fact. Though the  worl( hated
                                                                      them, deprived them of their possessions, made them poor
                                                                      and naked and miserable from the temporal point of view,
                THE BOOK OF REVELATION                                yet they knew that their King was the Lord of heaven and
                                                                      earth, and by faith they were saved in hope. Indeed, the
                            CHAPTER  V                                church in tribulation is rich!
                                                                          This is always true. It is not  only applicable to the
                         Revelation 2 33-l 1                          church of Sinyma,  but equally much to the church in tribula-
                                                                      tion' in all ages.  -It has even become proverbial  thar_ the
              THE CHURCH STRONG IN TRIBULATION                        blood of martyrs hase become the seed of the church in
         Nor must we entertain the erroneous idea that the Lord       history. Never does the church offer a more miserable and
   would have overlooked the weakness of this specific con-           pitiable aspect than in times of prosperity from a worldly
 gregation, and pass it in silence, in view of the fact that in       point of view, of peace and abundance. Nkver is its concli-
   its tribulation it had need of encouragement rather than of        tion more precarious than when it caters to the good pleasure
   rebuke. This would have been fatal and detrimental to the          of the world, and craves  for  wealth  and glory and honor
   church. No, there is nothing to criticize. There is no reason      after the measure of the world. The church of  ,Laodicea  is
  to reprimand the church in any respect. And again, also here        the warning example. But, on the other hand, it is equally
. we must remember that it is not the individual believer, but        true that the church is  nevei- more nearly perfect in this
  the church as a whole that Jesus is addressing. It is not so        dispensation than when it is called upon to figh; the battle
  that the members of the congregation in Smyrna had already          of faith, to suffer and endure affliction for the Word of God
   reached perfection, and that they sinned no more. But              and the testimony of Jesus.
  addressing the congregation as a whole, the Lord finds no               And this is but natural. The question might be asked:
  &eakness,  mentions no cause for rebuke, for the simple reason      why is it that the church of Smyrna, that the church in
  that it did not exist. The church of Smyrna possesses all           tribulation generally, is strong and rich  ? And the answer
  the favorable features of the church in this dispensation. It       is not difficult to find. In the first place, there is no doubt
  does not present any of the weaknesses and signs of degenera-       a theological reason. Scripture reveals to us that &n&g the
  tion found in others. But further, this sound condition of the      elect of God there are-not many wise and noble and rich
  congregation is positively expressed by the Lord, when `He          in the world. The reason for this is very evident. The
  says : "But thou art rich." Its condition is exactly the            church does not exist for its own glory, but for the glory of
  opposite of the church in Laodicea. The latter was rich             `God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And therefore the church d&s
  and luxurious, filled to the full and in need of nothing, suf-      not exist for the purpose of showing forth its own strength
  fered no tribulation ; yet it was poor and naked in' the con-       and abundance from a natural point of view, but of mani-
   sideration of Him that walketh in the midst of the golden          festing the grace and power of the Lord her God. This it
  candlesticks.                                                       can do no more clearly than in times of tribulation, when it
         But the church of Smyrna is outwardly destitute, poor        becomes manifest that it possesses no resources, no strength,
  and despised, a social outcast, in the midst of tribulation, and    no faith, no hope,, outside of Christ; that its all is in Him ;
  with more severe persecution to be expected in the near             that from Him it receives its strength to stand and to be
  future. In this respect it offers a complete contrast to the        faithful.     ~
  church of Laodicea. But although the church in Smyrna was.              Besides, there is also a spiritual reason why the church
  outwardly poor and in miserable condition, nevertheless she         in tribulation flourishes and is strong. The root of its life
  was spiritually rich, rich in the grace of our Lord Jesus           is faith. For by faith it is connected with Him that walks
  Christ. There is no reason to limit this assertion of the Lord      in the midst of the golden candlesticks. By faith only it
  as to the condition of the church in Smyrna. It implies that        receives all the treasures of salvation. The stronger and the
  it is rich in all the treasures and blessings of grace. She was     more conscious this faith is, the more the church will grow
  rich in the knowledge of the truth. She was rich  in works          in grace and increase in all spiritual `riches in Christ. But
  and patience. She was rich in bearing the cross, and revealed       what is more conducive to the exercise and strengthening
  a strong spiritual life in the midst of tribulations. The church    of this faith than a period pf outward poverty and tribula-
  in Smyrna had not lost its first love, as was the case'with         tion ? It is when the storm howls in the woods that the oak
  the church in Ephesus. Strong the church was in the faith,          strikes its root more deeply and firmly in the soil, and is
  firm in hope, ardent in love, abounding in works, patient in        strengthened. So it is when the storm of persecution sweeps
  affliction,  a&l in the midst of tribulation expecting the day      through the church that the latter strikes the roots of  its.
 of the Lord, the day of perfect deliverance. Rich the church         faith more deeply into Christ, and draws from Him more
  was undoubtedly in  so'und  experiental knowledge of the            consciously the very strength of its life. Apd  therefore, it is
  truth. The members of that church were prepared to give             especially in times of trouble that the church fldurishes. For


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   -~                                              57

at such times it is taught  to cling to its powerful King, and       necessary to point to the appropriateness of this announce-
seek its all in Him.                                                 ment, especially~  with a view to the condition of the church
   Finally, there is also a historical reason for this concur-       in tribulation. It is certainly adapted to fill the members of
rence of tribulation and spiritual strength and prosperity in        the faithful church with courage and hope in  the midst of
the. church of Smyrna and with- regard to the church of              suffering. Christ is the first and the last. He was before all
Christ in tribulation in all ages. In times of prosperity and        things, and before all history, and will be when this dispensa-
wealth and peace, when the church is honored rather than             tion shall have come to its finish. He is the principle of all
despised in the world, there is a grave danger that many an          that is, and its purpose. He stands above all time and con-
Israelite that is not spiritually of Israel becomes member of        trols all history. He will be the last also in the sense that
the church of Christ in the world from carnal motives and            He shall prevail in battle against the devil and against the
for selfish reasons. It becomes a matter of honor, or even of        power of the Antichrist. Not the devil, not the powers `of
common decency, to be a church member. Hence, many join              .evil, shall be the last on the battlefield ; but Christ shall be
the church. These carnal  meinbers  are a veritable danger           the victor. Even with death He was in battle, and remained
to the church of Christ. They often become- .dominant, and           victor. For He was dead and lives again. He stands, as it
assume leadership in the church. They impose their carnal            were, before the congregation in tribulation, holding the
desires upon.the church. They lead her into the world, and,          keys of death and .of hades in His right. hand. and saying:
of course, to destruction. They are of the world, and would          "Behold, my people : H have overcome death, and have.power
make the church a part bf the world. In times of persecution,        to open and close, to condemn  and to deliver. I, even 1
however, when church membership and the reproach of Christ           alone, am He that controlleth all these things." And there-
are inseparable, this danger does not exist. On the contrary,        fore, with that powerful victor as their Savior and  `theil
when the faithful must suffer persecution and suffering for          King, they need not fear the edemy. The devil may cast them
Christ's sake, the church is cleansed of these hypocrites.           into prison, and terrible tribulation may come in  the  ,near
They are exposed in their  cai-nal  nature. If  `he must lose        future. What of it? Christ has overcome the devil, and he
his life because of it, there is  no danger that the hypocrite       is subject to Him alone. Yea, even death may threaten them;
will join himself to the church; or that he will. remain in her      as is implied in the admonition that follows. Nothing can
midst, And therefore, also from this point of view it is not         harm them. Christ has power even over death. And in due
difficult to understand that in times of persecution and tribula-    time He shall deliver them, and give them life and glory.
tion the church is spiritually blessed.                                  This latter assurance the Lord gives. them directly in the
    What then? Shall we willfully incite the malignity and           admonition : "Be  .thou faithful unto death, and I will give
enmity of the world, and strive for the martyr's &own?  Our          thee a crown of life."
answer is: there is absolutely no occasion for any such thing.           Faithfulness surely is one of the most beautiful virtues
If the church is truly faithful, faithful in its confession and      that exists, even from a natural point of view. It implies, in
in its walk, unfurling -the banner of its King, and walking          the first place,  that there exists an established relation be-
in the light in the midst of a world that is in darkness, the        tween two persons, or parties, whether it be a relation of
latter will naturally hate her, and the reproach and suffering       friendship or mutual contract and agreement. It implies, in
from the side  -of Antichristendom is inevitable. But in all         the second place, that this definite relation is put to  the
this we need not be, afraid. For especizilly  the sufferings for     Zest, whether it be by a: long period of time or by adverse
Christ's sake work together for good to them that love God,          circumstances, that' make it difficult to keep  the agreement
to them that are called according to His purpose. And be-            or the bond of friendship. And in the third place, it implies
sides, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to         that in spite of these adverse circumstances the relation
be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us.               remains as it always was. A  f&end in times of prosperity
    Now let us see how the Lord comforts the church in               is nothing special; but in adversity the faithfulness of `a
Smyrna.                                                              `friend is put to a test.
    First of all, we may call your  atten$on  to the manner              In the spiritual sense, faithfulness is the chief virtue of
in which the Lord announces Himself to the church of  Smyr-          the covenant people. They belong to God's party. in the
na. We observed in connection with the former letter that            world. They confess Christ -as their. King. .The questiqn  is,
these announcements, these Self-introductions of the Lord            whether at all times they will be loyal to their King in the
to the churches, are in- harmony with the condition of the           midst of a world that hates Him.  ~There  exists a certain
church that is addressed. Thus it was also with. regard to           definite relation between the King and themselves.  dnd
the church of Ephesus, where the Lord introduced Him-                the question is whether they shall publicly confess that
self as the One that walketh in the midst of the seven golden        relation, never deny their King or be ashamed of His name,
candlesticks and that holdeth the seven stars in His right           no matter what happens. Thus it was in the  -congregatibn
hand. This is also the case in regard to  the church of              of Smyrna.
Smyrna. Here He introduces Himself as `the One that was
dead and lived .again,  as the first and the last. It is scarcely                                                                H.H.


5 8                                         THE            STANDLARD              B'EARE.R

I                                                                   establish itself in the earth shall be made to pass away. And
         THE DAY.OF SHADOWS                                      I. there shall be new heavens and a new earth on which right-
                                                                    eousness shall dwell.
                                                                        Zioti -One of the mountains upon which Jerusalem was
               The Prophecy of Zechariah                   -        built and the sight of the palace of the king. There was also'
                                                                    Moriah the temple mountain. It is sometimes called Zion,
                           Chapter VIII                             which indicates that the two must be thought of as one. And
            The Promises. of always, richer blessirtgs.             Zion  is:Jerusalem. She was the only city of her kind in all
                                                                    the earth. For here reigned Jehovah of hosts over all the
       The preceding chapter reports that a deputation from powers in heaven and in the earth. And here He  dweli  in
Bethel came to Jerusalem to enquire whether the fast that           His holy temple. Here the saints, therefore, entered  .His
had been instituted seventy years previous to commemorate           presence and beheld His glory in the face of Christ as fore-
the destruction of the holy city had still to be observed. In       shadowed by priest and sacrifice and the blood of sprinkling
replying the prophet rebukes the formalism of the Jews and          on the horns of the altar and on the mercy-seat of the Ark
sets forth the dire consequences of disobedience.  .He reminds      of the covenant in the holiest place. Jerusalem's inhabitants
them of the troubles that overwhelmed their apostate fathers.       must be thought of as including the whole of Israel. For
Jehovah had scattered them with a whirlwind among the               the whole of Israel and not merely the Jews that actually
nations that they knew not. In chapter VIII, now to be              dwelt in the holy city, was covered by the blood that was
treated, the prophet depicts the great. good that Jehovah has shed at her altar. Jerusalem, therefore,. is also Israel,  the
in store for His people, the true Israel that love Him and          whole nation, the church of the Old Dispensation in the
keep His commandments.                                              first instance. In Isa.  49:14, where Israel  .in exile com-
       The Lord will return to the city and she shall become        plains that the Lord has forsaken her, Israel is called Zion,
known for her spiritual goodness, Vers.  l-3-Wonderful              Jerusalem.
peace and prosperity, vers.  4-6-The  Lord will save His                However, here all was shadow-Jerusalem, Israel,' the
people from every quarter, vers. 7, 8 - General fertility'and       temple, priest; sacrifice, blood, the ark of the covenant in the
peace in place .of former- want and affliction, vers. 9-13 - holiest place, the mercy seat, the glory of the pillar of cloud
The certainty of Jehovah's promises, vers. 14, 15 -The              that filled the temple, the candle-stick, table of shew-bread
obligation to keep Jeh&ah?s  commandments, vers. 16, 17-            ,and altar  of. incense-all was shadow. The body  for-
Fasts shall become joy and gladness, vers. 18, 19  -Won-            shadowed is the church in glory, the new Jerusalem that
derful extention  of Christ's kingdom : many nations shall seek     John in his vision saw coming down from God out of heaven,
Jehovah,  ver.?. 20-23.                                             prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, thus the
       1.  Again the word of Jehovah  bf hosts came, saying, 2      church as i;od eternally beheld her in Christ in His counsel.
Thus so&h Jehovah of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great'          Now it is of the church in glory that in the final instance
jealo,usly, a.nd with grept fury was I jealous for her.             the prophets of the Old Testament Scriptures are always
       The introductory formula of verse 1 does not mark the        speaking when they make mention of Zion, Jerusalem for
beginning of a new discourse ; it introduces a new line  c;f        which -Ghd  was so zealous and this of necessity seeing that
thought in the prophecy that commences in 7 :4. Jekovah  of         she foreshadowed,  was a prophetic type of the heavenly. `We
hosts-  This name characterizes God as king full of glory           must not end with the promise as set forth by the prophets
who, as surrounded by the angelic hosts, rules in the whole         of the Old Testament Bible in the earthly Jerusalem and in
earth, so that by the utterance Thus saith  the Lord of Hosts,      the Israel of that day. Jerusalem in the last analysis is not
which occurs ten times in this chapter, the Lord assures His        Israel as limited to the Jews but the church in glory as in-
people in their hearts first that the prophet speaks the prom-      cluding both-Jews and Gentiles according to the election of
ises of God and not his own words and second that                   grace. Nothing could be plainer from the Scriptures than
God's promises cannot fail. Jealoz&sy  - The Lord's zeal for        this.
Zion, His vehement love of His people as His spouse. He                 3. Thus saith the Lord:  1  shall  retuxn unto Zion,  and
was zealous for Zion with a great  zetil and with great fury        will dzwell in the midst of Jermalewx  and Jemsalem  shall be
toward the nations because of their ill-treatment of Zion. He       called  the  city  of truth; and the  mountain of the Lord  of
was but a little displeased with. His people and the heathen        hosts, the holy mountain.
had helped for evil (see on  1:13).  Therefore  %Ie had cast            I shall ret,thrn  - Not, "I am. returned," as the versions
out the horns of the gentiles, destroyed the worldpower  that       have it. For the tense is perfect .and places the action in the
had been holding Israel captive and had thereby delivered           future and  thereby  expresses absolute confidence in  the
His people, so that they were back in God's  Fountry. And           fulfilment of the proliise. The Lord shall return unto Zion.
He shall continue to overturn the world-powers successively,        This also looks back to what the Lord had done .unto zion.
one after the other, until finally, at thk second coming of         He had poured out on her His fury like a fire, covered her
Christ, the last of them to make its appearance and to              with the cloud of His anger, had swallowed up Israel. He


                                            T H E   `S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                59
-
had swallowed up her palaces, violently taken away her                  However here all was again but. shadow. It was  the---
tabernacle, destroyed the-places of the assembly, caused the         blood -of bulls and of goats that was here again being shed.
solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, destroyed        It could not take away sin. And therefore, from the vantage
in the indignation of His anger the king and the priests,            !point  of the church of that day, the promise had still to be      __,
cast off His altar, abhorred His  sanciuary,  and scattered          fulfilled. But from our vantage point the promise has been
Israel among the gentiles. The law was no more, and the              fulfilled, though, seeing that the church has not yet appeared
prophets found no vision from the Lord (Jer. 2  :4ff). Sin           with Christ in glory, there still remaineth for us a promise.
was no longer being atoned, the priest was not blessing any          Nevertheless the promise has been fulfilled essentially  Iri the
more, the temple where God had been throning lay in ruins.           fulness of time God sent forth His Son, made of a woman,
.The ark of the covenant had been carried away by  `the              made under the law. And God laid all Zion's sins upon Him,
heathen. They had come into the Lord's inheritance, defiled          her whole vast &cumulation of sins. And He brought His
His temple and laid Jerusalem in ruins (Ps. 79  :l). The             only begotten under the burden of His wrath by smitting
glory of Israel departed.                                            Him for Zion's transgression, crushing Him for Zion's in-
   But why had the Lord thus dealt with Zion ? Because               iquities. In that black hour of His sufferings on the cross He
the city, once faithful, had become a harlot, Because the            was heard to utter substantially that very cry that came from
city was full of murderers - the city that once was full of          Zion's lips in that dark hour of her suffering." My God, my
judgment (Isa. 1 :21). A sinful nation, a people laden with          God, why hast thou forsaken me.?' Then was He suffering
iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters,        for Zion the hellish agonies,  -Then when by His agoriies
having forsaken the Lqrd, provoked the holy One of Israel            He had fully satisfied God's wrath and fulfilled all the re-
to anger, having gone away backward- that was Zion,                  quirements of the law, He cried out with a loud voice jubi-
Israel (Isa. 1 :Sff). For the law had entered in and sin had         lantly, "It is finished," gave up the ghost and committed His
abounded.                                                            spirit into the hands of the Father. Then the Father retufned
   But the Lord  shall return to Zion and dwell in  the              to Christ, who centrally is Zion. He raised Him from the
midst of Jerusalem. Amazing news. But why will the Lord              dead, set Him in the highest Heavens at the right hand of
return to Zion ? The city is sinful, ill-deserving, astonishingly    the throne and poured out of His Spirit on Him when the
so. The Lord has chosen Zion in Christ. He cannot forget             day of Pentecost was fully come. Then, too, Jehovah re-
her, cast her off  utter&. She is engraved on the palms  of!         turned to Zion  fhrbugh  His Spirit-filled Christ. Through . .
His hands. And this answers the question how the  +ight-             Christ He poured out Christ's Spirit on the church in
eous and holy God, whose eyes are to pure to behold sin,             .Heaven  and on the church on earth.
can return to Zion. He will return to her through Christ in
whom He has chosen her and, therefore, her eternal right-               J,erusalem  shall be called the city of truth. For that is
eousness. Through Him He will return to Zion, through the            what she is. For God through Christ in His Spirit dwells
blood of His atonement, the blood of the Lamb, that was slain        in her midst, and in the hearts of all Her inhabitants, -in
from before the foundations of the world.                            His Spirit; the Spirit of Christ  that He merited for His
   That this is here the promise is plain. Let us consider           church and therefore the life-giving Spirit, the sanctifying
that it is Jehovah who promises, the triune Jehovah, the             and beautifying Spirit,. the Spirit that imparts unto the
God and Father of Christ. How could He return to Zion as             church the fulness of life and blessings - the fulness of the
Saviour, if He returned not to her through the blood of the          godhead - of which the Father is the fountain  and that dwell3
atonement of the Christ. That this is here the promise is            bodily in Christ.
also plain from its  fuifilment  on the typical level. On this          Truth-W-hat is truth? The original word `used for
level the Lord was already returned to Zion. He had                  truth means: that which is firm, faithful, the amen. Truth
turned the captivity of Zion, sb that His people were back           is light. Truth frees. `B,y truth iniquity is purged. Truth is
in His country. The breaches in Jerusalem's `walls were              a shield and a buckler. It reaches to the clouds and endureth
mended and her gates repaired. And what  .is  most significant       forever. For truth is out of God. He is the truth. The lie is
is, that the Lord had restored to His people His altar. For          out of the devil. It is darkness, unrighteousness. It deceives,
the altar was the meeting-place between Jehovah and His              puts to shame, leads to destruction. They that speak the lie
people. And on the temple-mountain His altar again  burhed,          shall lie down, never to arise.
and the blood of sprinkling was again upon its horns as a               That is Jerusalem-a city of truth. Her inhabitants
covering for all of Zion's sins. That blood was Christ (typi-        have the truth in their inward parts, love the truth, seek the
cally). And, therefore, though the temple that was rising            truth, walk in the light of the truth, speak the truth every
on the ruins of the old was not yet completed, the Lord was          one wih his neighbor before the face of God-and are blessed -
already returned, to His people and dwelling in their midst.         of God.
For He had restored to them  -His altar. What it means is
that  thi-ough Christ He had returned to them. Truly the                Jerusalem is the.mountain  of Jehovah of hosts. Here He
promise has already been fulfilled.                                  chose to dwell, not because Jerusalem's inhabitants had 3irst

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

  chosen Him and were seeking after God but because it                        they  wiil spend most of their time, visiting together. Jeru-
  pleased Him.                                                                salem, therefore, will be a good place to dwell. Surrounded
        Being the city of  ti-uth and the *mountain of Jehovah,               by peace and prosperity her inhabitant will be without care.
  Jerusalem is the mountain of holiness. Her inhabitants with                 Also these promises may be said to have been fulfilled on
  all that they are and possess are wholly consecrated unto                   the typical level. At the time that they were spoken Jerusa-
  their  rkdeemer  God in love. And she is the only city of                   lem's inhabitants were few in number. For only a few of
  truth, holy mountain. All other cities are cities of ungodli-               the exiles had returned. But they were fruitful  and multi-
  ness: For God does not dwell in them. He  -dwells in Zion                   plied until the territory formerly occupied  `by the tribe of
  only.                                                                       Judah was  filldd with them. An during the reign of the
        What Jerusalem is she shall also be called - city of truth,           Maccabean princes they dwelt safely in the land. But this,
  Mountain- of Jehovah of hosts, the holy mbuntain. So she                    too, was -but shadow so that also with these promises we
  shall be known. All men shall call her blessed. She shall be                must end in the heavenly city, which, of course, does not
  the joy of the whole earth.                                                 mean that there are going to be old men in heaven.
        Such will be the blessedness- of Jerusalem in glory. But                 A right understanding of the matter requires that we
  Jerusalem, though in heaven with Christ, is `not yet in                     have respect to the following: When the people of Israel as
  glory. There are citizens of Jerusalem' on this earth, in this              a~nation served God, they were blessed of the lath and then
  world; in which they have many afflictions. For the world                   earthly prosperity and physical well-being was their portion.
  is Babylon and these citizens are in principle children of the              But when Israel forsook God, they were cursed of the law,
  light, sons of God, seekers of the heavenly city. And there-                ,and then the nation was made to experience all manner of
  fore the world  knows them not. As Jerusalem is not yet                     physical calamaties (See Deut. 27 and 28). For it was the
  in glory, Jehovah shall once more return to .Jerusalem,  Zion.              dispensation of shadows and Israel was under the law. And
  Once  .more  He  shill be jealous for Zion with great fury                  so the blessings and cursings of the law worked themselves
  toward her enemies. They shall be destroyed. The whole                      out in that day in the existence of the people of Israel. Both
  earth shall be cleansed of them so thoughly this time that not              the earthly prosperity and the physical, earthly calamaties
  one of them shall survive to plagues God's people. The devil                were typical. The  former'foreshadowed  the blessings of the
  shall be cast into the bottomless pit. The heavens and the                  church in glory, and the latter the nameless sufferings and
  earth shall pass away and there shall be a new earth where                  miseries of-the damned in hell. This earthly prosperity was
  the tabernacle of God will be with His people forever. That                 a-token of God's favor toward the elect. It was a blessing
  will be the final returning of Jehovah unto Zion. For never                 only for them. For the reprobated in Israel. it  was-a  curse
  again shall He cover her with a cloud of His anger on ac-                   and also meant as such. As to this earthly calamity, it
  count of her sins. For she will be wholly pure, the bride                   was a revelation of God's anger, of the anger of His love,
  without spot or wrinkle, the city of truth, the holy mountain.              with regard to the elect, and of the anger of His hatred
  If there was a time when she was full of. murderers, there                  with regard to the reprobated. For the Israel according to
  now will not be found a murderer in her. And Christ is her                  the reprobation it was punishment; for the elect it was not
  eternal righteousness, sanctification, wisdom and redemption.               punishment but chastisement and here the purpose was to
  And in Him she is grafted by a faith that is living and can-                lead to repentance and to drive into the arms of Christ. And,
  not cease because He her eternal. mediator will never cease                 therefore, though they suffered all these typical. workings of
  to pray for  he?. For this final return  pf Jehovah unto Zion               the law, when iri times of national apostacy  and .decay God
  all the saints both in heaven and on earth cry day and                      would lay His strokes upon the nation, the  ,law, God, did
  night.  Aild unto the promise of His final return to Zion. not curse them, their persons, for they were hidden in Christ
  they take heed as unto a light that shineth in our darkness.                by virtue of their being chosen of God before the foundations
  They take heed unto this promise until the day dawn and                     of the world.
  the day star rises in their hearts (I Peter 19).                               Now these calamities included also barrenness of the
        4 .    Thus saitla the Lord of hosts; there shall yet old PPEW        womb. They included Israel's being -cut off by death from
  and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every                  Canaan and its temple and altars -Canaan, the land that
  1paa.n   with  his  staf  in  %s  hand for  `zrery  aye.  5.  And  the      the Lord had given His people. Accordingly the blessings
  streets  of  the city  shall, be  fztlk  of  boyS and girls playing  irk    of the law included living long in Canaan and a numerous
  in  the  straets  thereof.                                                  offspring. For how could Israel continue in the possession
        Old vtzen  and old zvomen- Jerusalem shall be inhabited               of Canaan without offspring, seed ? -
by men and women who attain to a ripe age.  Staff . . .  for                   .- We now perceive the Gospel of our text. The inhabitants
  very age - Because of extreme old age they must lean upon                   of the new Jerusalem shall  .live long in Canaan, the new
  staves. Boys and  gi,& playing-There  will be a wealth                      earth. They shall never die. For Christ, who fulfilled all the
  of children. Wives will be as fruitful vines by the side of                 requirement of the law, shall raise them up unto an unending
  their husband's houses. In the streets the children  will- be               life, life everlasting. And the neti Jerusalem shall be full of
  playing. The old men will be dwelling  in- the streets. Here                                    (Cowtimed  ow page  66)


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEA.REK                                                       6i

                                                                       Hence, this ironical speech.
            FRQM  HOLY  W R I T                               I        Irony is the use of words and terms to signify the exact
                                                                   opposite of what they usually express. Thus, for instance,
                                                                   onk may say : what a mighty man, when he really means:
              Exposition of I Corinthians l-4                      what a weak simpleton. Or again : one may say : Wisdom has
                                                                   indeed died with him, &hen we mean! that such a person is
                              22.                                  -nothing  by a conceited fool, who deceives none but himself in
                                                                   his inflated ego.. Or once more ; one may say : what virtuous
                    (I Corinthians 4:9-13)                         honesty, while he means that  the. fellow is nothing by a
   There are some passages in Scripture which so graphic-          scoundi-ed  and a knave!
ally portray a. given situation in life, in  the life of  Gdd's        Such is the use of the form of speech called irony.
church on earth in days of sin, error and schism, that one             And Paul employs such a form of speech here in the
hardly needs to reflect upon them and give detailed inter-  text,  when  he  saysj "Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye
pretation.                                                         have reigned as kings without us . . . ." He really ridicules
   About all one needs to do is to quote them. And they, in        them here  under the form of praise and compliment!
whose heart the Spirit of God dwells, and who, therefore,              The reason for this particular form of  irotiy then,
have a free conscience, which is not simply led by itself and      someone may ask ? Why does Paul here speak of their being
having itself as a standard, but, which is bound by the Word       "already" full, and "already" rich ? To what does this being
of God as the Canon of faith and all of life-  they  will          "full" and being "rich" refer?
surely  see the striking parallel between the situation in             This being "full' might, taken by itself, refer to the
Corinth and that of those, who ride high and handsome, in          state of mind and heart in which unbelief becomes satiated
our day!                                                           by the riches of the Kingdom of glory and the beauties of
   Both are a  g&at vexation of spirit; such a vexation            the Lord. Thus we read in Deut. 32 :15, "But Jeshuran wan-ed
which only righteous men feel, who desire to live in' thank- fat,  and kicked: thou art waxen  fa,t,  thou art grown thick,
fulness for the great redemption in Christ.                        thou are covered with fatness; then he forsook God which
                                                                   made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
   Paul's righteous spirit is not little stirred up over this      They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with
state of affairs in the midst of the saints in Christ.             abominations pi-ovoked they him to anger." Such  ,was the
   His wrath is justly and deeply stirred ; for it is not the      case with Israel when they became tired of the good treat-
wrath of man, which does not work the righteousness of             nient of God  in  ihe Theocracy. The way of faith and trust
God, but it is the wrath of deep spirittial  concern about the     alone in  dpd becomes too boring ; thankfulness to a God
peace of Zion and prosperity within her palaces!                   who bi-ings  out of Egypt land does not sit well with them --
   Hear him ironically write to the imaginary great in             for they really like Egypt.
Corinth : `Tudw  ye are fzdl, now ye a.re rich, ye have reigned        Such is the interpretation of some.
as kin.gs without us: and I wo.uld to God ye did reign, that          However, that interpretation. hardly sqares with the facts
we also might reign with you."                                     in Corinth as we know them from this epistle, nor does it
   Let us try to understand the meaning here of Paul.              fit with the rest of this verse, nor with the sequence. For
   I would first of like to remark that we have here a master-     this sequence definitely shows that Paul is employing irony.
ful description ; we have here a bit of keenest irony. If the         Wherefore we hold that Paul, in speaking of the Corin-
situation were not so serious one would be  incliried  to          thians being "fat" already, rather is portraying them as being
chuckle. For Paul surely takes these Corinthians in the            of a frame of mind of having "arrived.". In their acting the
proverbial wood-shed to administer to them a  souud fatherly       part   of  rulers  and  "kings,"   that  of  being   "many  masters"
spanking. And. they had it coming.                                 ihey show that they have a spiritual psychosis that they
   And to administer this bit of fatherly correction Paul          really have come to the Messianic. Kingdom. The entire
employs an ironical form of speech. For note you well this         church forsooth, will needs have to wait till the "Day of the
is not  simpl)  some light and jovial banter. Evil man and         Lord," but these Corinthians have an earlier calender and
"naughty children" might have said of this in our day "the         schedule than the Lord of heaven has ! Mirabile  dictu! 0
old man blew his top" at us. Such is the speech, of course,        tempores, o, Mores! It is a sad state of affairs. But the
of the flesh, if not indeed worse. And we have heard such          puffed up, self-inflated Corinthians do not see their own
speech, have we not?! Evil tongues had wagged against              folly. Slaves of sin and carnal passions, children who need
Paul. It is the devil's strategy to attempt to make Paul's         to be fed with milk, acting part of kings. As we have said
work with none effect. Well, Paul will not only answer all         before, a great vanity and vexation of spirit under the sun  -
the arguments ; he will also try to silence the mad clamor for     .and in the church of the living God. Here none are  loid
power in the. church and silence the barking of the dogs !         and masters. Yet, the Corinthians have arrived alrea.dy.


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      Does- one know in such `a state of affairs whether to            the parting of .the ways far more profoundly than I at that
laugh or to cry ? !                                                    .moment  realized. I would bow before the Word of God and
      A good thing that their are then true preachers in the           the confessions in re the point "no Pro~~is~ to all if they be-
,church,  who know how rightly to divide the Word, speaking            lieve." ;B,ut he said : I will defend it; ,,ik zet mijn Geldersche
it in season and out of season.                                        kop er  voor." It was then that I remembered the word
      That is what Paul does.                                          of James : "Know ye not that the wrath of man doth not
      That the Corinthians have "reigned with Paul" surely             work the righteousness of God ?"
meant that they acted as if they could very well get along                 What kingly leadership in the church when in one Court
without him and the word of the Cross which he preached.               the "law of the church" is Congregational, even to the ex-
They would be kings. True! Yet, they acted as such would-              tent that those who said that it was Presbyterial were called
be kings all apart from the proper consideration of their              "Benedict Arnolds !" However, w,4iZe  this "Congregational"
also being called to be prophets and priests of God. They              church law is being defended in the Supreme Court of Michi-
did not with a "free conscience fight against sin. and the             gan, it is being denied by the same witnesses in the' Court
devil in this life, and afterwards reign with Christ over all          in Pipestone ! What royalty is this ? ! Did Christ change
things," but rather set. up their own little "dominion" in             too in heaven concerning the  ,,grondwet  van Zijn  Rijk?'
Corinth. And the deep reason  ? They were not led by the               This has the sanction of `Him who stands between the seven
Word. They acted as if Christ  "were  divided." The Priest-            candlesticks, and has the seven stars (Ministers) in his right
hood of the believers ,was put on the background, namely,              hand ?
that they in their whole life and walk present themselves a.               Yes, they ruled like kings. Would that they had indeed
Zivin.g  sacrifice unto God, since they are partakers of Christ        ruled so that I could have ruled with them!
.by faith. And particularly they were lacking in walking                   Meanwhile the judge of heaven and earth has judged'too.
according to the word, as God has revealed himself in mystery          He has judged to find men, his underlings, faithful. Woe,
unto the church. And so they walked, not according to the              to them who have beaten the servants. It shall be more
rule of faith.                                                         tolerable in that day . . . . ! It were better not to have been -
      In their fleshly lust they, therefore, acted as if they. had.    b o r n !
-arrived, and did not know what a miserable state of affairs               Sometimes I am approached and asked: how is it pos-
they had created in God's church.                                      sible  that student6 of the past of a School and theologians
      They  so. walked that Paul could not by any stretch of           can so act  ? I ask in return : is that so strange ? Were the
the imagination "reign with them" and walk in a good con-              Corinthians instructed by Paul  ? Does Paul not say,  `(For
science before the Lord! For he says "would that ye had                though ye have ten thousand instructers  in Christ, yet have
reigned  !" Yea, would fo God,, they had! And this latter is           ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you
not irony. It is a bitter lamentation! It is a heart-rending,          through the Gospel ?" And was not Arminius a student of
a so&searching cry from the heart of a "father" for his                Beza  ; had he not been thoroughly instructed  ? And what
children.                                                              do men always do when they become "fat," rich in their
      However, instead of  ,having ruled in good discretion they       foolish imagination ?
had acted, yea, were acting the part of little "lords" in God's            However, rather than dwell on what has happened, let
flock.                                                                 us give all diligence to sound words of doctrine and heed
      No matter how desperately one might try to walk with             the explicit and implicit instruction of Paul, lest we be
such "brethren," the very walk of such makes it impossible             many masters and a greater judgment be ours.
to be with them without becoming accomplices in evil. Here                 Meanwhile it remains true that "God standeth in the con-
the distinction between steadfastness and stubbornness has             gregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods." Yes
been obliterated. Rather than walking in a truly humble                it is true, "They know not, neither will they understand ;
spirit that proves itself to be humble by bowing to the Word,          they  wa.lk  on in  darknus:  all the foundations of the earth
much lip service is given to "humility" and "becoming like             are out of course.
a little child," while all the while acting the part of kings             Arise, o God, judge the earth - and thy dhurch !
and paying slight heed to the Word of the Cross, the work                 Thou shalt inherit all nations !
of Christ in us whereby we have become and shall forever                                                                            G.L.
remain living members.                                                                                          ?a
      When in our day we must read, if we are not blind,
about a good conscience, of those who had "leadership' in
creating schism in the Protestant Reformed Churches, while                             Men's League Meeting
refusing to bow before the Word, then I question such "good
conscience," particularly when such a writer once said to me               Eastern Men's League meeting will be held at First
at a crucial moment at  Classis  ,,dan zet ik mijn Geldersche          Protestant Reformed Church, November 8, at 8 P. M.
kop er tegen !" It was at a moment when he and I stood at                                               Mr. John Dykstra, Secretary


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            63

                                                                   nothing away from Him of all the riches He has eternally as
                 I N   H I S   F E A - R                           the God that He is.
                                                                       For what we receive from Him we always receive as
                                                                   stewards of His goods. What He gives us He gives us to
                    Giving In His Fear                             occupy for Himself. Whether He gives us little or much He
                                                                   always gives us these things as means wherewith He may
                              (2)                                  and must be served. They remain, therefore, His though
                                                                   they are given to you. And because they remain His He
    "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the         may take them back again whenever it pleases Him.
world and they that dwell therein."                                   He `sees fit to let you have these things today in distinc-
    That truth David expresses in Psalm 24:l.                      tion from your neighbour. Tomorrow He may give  ,them
    There are similar passages in Holy Writ.                       .to your children and loosen your grip on them by death.
    "Who hath prevented me that I should repay him  ? what-        These children claim them, hold on to them, defend them
soever is under the whole heaven is mine," Job 41 :l 1.            until they must leave them for your grandchildren. Yet all
    "For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle         the while `they are Gods.
upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains :        Living in His fear we will remember that undeniable prin-
and the wild beasts of the field are mine," Psalm 50:10, 11.       ciple of truth.
    `Cff I were hungry I would not tell thee : for the world          We will, then, be guided by that principle when the op-
is mine and the fulness thereof," Psalm 50  :12.                   portunity presents itself for us to give part  1 of what is
    "The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for        relatively ours and absolutely God's -for the maintenance
the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them,"        of the gospel and  `the welfare of those to whom God had
Psalm  89:ll.                                                      given so little of this earth's goods that they are the poor
    All this is the speech of the Living God.                      amongst us.
    And that means that all that you and I have of this earth's       We will, then, give in His fear !
goods we have only in a relative sense.                               For giving in His, fear means exactly that : we give in
    I have things which belong to me and are in no sense           the consciousness of the fact that also what is not given
yours. You have things that are yours; and under no cir-           is also His; that we give willingly and cheerfully in love
cumstances may I take them away from you. In relation to           to Him Who has been pleased to give us all that we have
each other we have our own personal possessions. The cattle        in order that we may have means to serve Him.
on this hill may be yours in distinction from the neighbour           It all comes down to this, we will give in His fear. only
down the road. He has within his fence cattle that in no           as we have received in His fear !
sense are yours and which roam and graze on his hills. He             If we do not know why we received all the possessions
has cattle and he has hills. You have cattle and you have          which God has given us, we surely will not use them aright.
hills.                                                             We will not  use. a proper proportion of them for the
    Yet his hills and cattle and your hills and cattle are the     maintenance of the gospel, but. we will not use the rest of
Lords. The cattle on a thousand hills are His.                     it either in His fear. We do not hesitate to put down the
    We have absolutely no possession that is not His. They         principle that the amount and the cheerfulness and thank-
may be ours in relation to our neighbour ; but they are in         fulness wherewith you give your contribution on the Sab-
the absolute sense of the word  Gods. Nothing is His               bath for the maintenance of the gospel and the schools in-
relatively. All things are His absolutely.                         dicates also whether you-intend to use the rest in His fear
    They are His. before we receive from Him. They remain          or in the service of the flesh.
His after we have obtained them.                                      "Ye cannot serve God and mammon," Jesus said. Let
    It is His seed that we sow in His soil. It is His rain         us not twist this into saying that we ought not serve God
and sunshine that bring forth His plants. It is His harvest        and mammon both. Jesus says that we cannot, that it is
that we reap and His flour wherewith we bake our bread.            impossible to serve both. This is no admonition that comes
It is His bread that crowns our tables. And when we have           to us but a fundamental principle that cannot be denied!
been nourished by that-bread, it is His strength wherewith            And the way in which we give the fraction of all we re-
we are able to go out and work in His creation.                    ceive to the maintenance of the gospel surely reveals the way
     God gives and yet retains all that which He gives.            in which `we intend to use the rest of it. If our giving is
                                                                   truly in His fear so that we cheerfully and liberally give
     He gives and is no "poorer" -how strange that sounds          for the maintenance of the gospel we are serving God with
when applied to God ! Nor is He any richer by the gifts            that percentage of our goods; and that reveals that it is
which we bring unto Him..                                          our desire to use the remainder also in His fear to serve.
     He never loses anything ; nor does He find new riches.        Him therewith. But the reason why- one parts with a per-
     We can add nothing to His wealth. And we can take             centage of his goods for the maintenance of the gospel with

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

such difficulty and heaviness of soul is exactly because he         His fear and give in His fear when far fewer dollars a week
wants to keep it for himself; and that is serving mammon.           is for us too much fbr spiritual food for our whole family?
      "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; the            Have we received with thanksgivifig  that which God has
world and they that dwell therein." Let us remember that            given us as the fruit of our daily toils when we' grudgingly,
even when it is in our hands,`011  our land, deposited under        give a little of it to the support of His kingdom in its earthly
our name in the bank. And` even when we so speak, let               manifestation ? When He begins to take them away from us
us consider that those hands are also God's; those acres            we suddenly remember where they came from. When we
of land are His, and wherever our goods rests or is found           fail to live as those who know that all came from Him and
that place also is God's. If we remember these things and           still is His and He reminds us of it by lessening the amount;
live accordingly we will give in His fear; and in these             He g&es us, causes us to l&e our good-paying job, have we
times of material abundance and prosperity the cause of God's       learned our lesson when we, continuing to live in our former
kingdom will ndt suffer want of that which is necessary for         luxuries, now give even less to the maintenance of  the!
the maintenance of the gospel. -                                    gospel than we did before  ?
      But, you say, I find it very hard to give liberally to the        0, indeed, walking in His fear is not easy.
maintenance  of` the gospel in these days of high prices.              Giving in His fear likewise, is for us a difficult thing to
Everything costs so much more than it did a few years ago;          d o .
and the price spiral increases as time goes on:                        For by nature it is an  impossil$e' thing to do. The  -flesh
      Indeed, it does &d with it the price of maintaining the       ,cannot walk in His fear. The flesh will not give one cent in
gospel.                                                             His fear.
      However, are we putting it `correctly when we'say  that we
find it hard to give to the maintenance of the gospel ? Is that'       What does the flesh care about the. maintenance of the
the language, of faith ? Is that looking at the matter spirit-      gospel  ? What does the flesh care about the glory of God's'
ually and with due consideration of the fact that all that we       name ? The flesh must have ail that it can lay its hands upon ;
have is God's ?                                                     and even then it is not satisfied.
      Would it not be the language of faith- to say, "I find           The flesh says of the widow who cast into the treasury
it getting harder and harder  .for me to  buy the luxuries          of the temple her last two-mites that she is a fool. And your
my flesh craves when I seek to maintain the gospel of               and my flesh says the same thing to the new man in Christ
Jesus Christ?" If, as Jesus admonishes us, we seek first            when he would cheerfully and liberally support the cause of
the kingdom of God, will we not say, that it is going to be         God's kingdom here below. And we find with the `Apostle
harder for us  .to build so lavishly that new house that we         Paul, also, that "the good that I would, I allow not."
planned to erect for our physical needs; that it will be harder        But that must not be an excuse.
to put enough away for the pleasure trip that we had                    It will not be an excuse for him who loves God. In a
planned; that we will find it more difficult to save for the        fear of reverance  and awe, of respect and love for God he will
vacation we had in mind; that we will have to put up with           by his offering  I on the Sabbath declare with David, "The
this present automobile for a few thousand more miles be-           earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof . . . The heavens
cause now it- will be harder to get enough together for a           are thine, the earth also is thine:  as' for the world and the
new one.                                                            fulness thereof, thou hast founded them."
      In His fear, now, will we ever say that the maintenarice         And he will first lay aside for the maintenance  df the
of the gospel is hard when we find it easy to spend three           gospel. and use `what is left for his earthly needs.' He will
or ten times-as much for a television set, an automobile, a         not first satisfy his flesh and then see if there might possibly
house, a farm, a vacatidn  ?                                        be a few pennies left for God's cause.       ~
      If without winking an eye-we can write out a check for           With the man who walks in God's fear first things are
these things in full. or in installments that per month  are        first. And he, therefore, first lays aside, as God has blessed
more than what tie grudgingly give in the collection plate          him with stewardship over His goods, for the maintenance
that month or all year, is that  giving  in His fear?               jof the gospel and  therl uses the rest for his earthly needs.
The answer  is obvious.                                             For, he who walks in His fear cannot enjoy those earthly
      Our income tax we will pay in full. To be sure, not           things unless his soul  is. satisfied that God's cause is not
cheerfully and with relish-though Jesus tells us to render          suffering at the experise  of his own cause prospering. If our
unto Caesar what is Caesar's - yet to the last penny.? Should       earthly cause prospers because we neglect God's cause, there
then the Church of God suffer and receive far less from us          is something radically wrong.
than the government does?
      Our grocery bill runs pretty high. At the end of the week        The child of God, thankful for the salvation in Christ,
it' represents a tidy' sum of dollars. But we need to eat.          ,gives in His fear and enjoys doing so.
Our bodies need. food ; and God wants us to feed them well             Do you?
with plenty of food and with good food. But do we walk in                                                                     J.A.H.


                                             T H E   .STANDARD   .BEARtiR                                                             65

                                                                      of redemption, and the choir geneially  concludes the thanks-
         Contending For The Faith                                II giving with the so-called Trisagion or Seraphic Hymn (Is:
                                                                      6  :3), and the triumphal Hosanna  (Matt. 22  :9) : "Holy,
                                                                      Holy Lord of Sabaoth  ; heaven and earth are full of Thy
          The Church and the Sacraments                               glory. Hosanna in the highest: blessed. is He that cometh  in
                                                                      the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest."
   VIEWS DURING THE SECOND PERIOD  (300-750 A.D.)                         Then follows the  consecration  and  obZatiolz   of the ele-
                                                                      ments, by the commemoration of the great facts in the life
                      THE LORD'S SUPPER                               of Christ, by the rehearsing of the Words of Institution from L
                                                                      the Gospels or from Paul, and by the invocation of the Holy -
              The  Celebra.tioN  of the  Eucharist.                   Ghost, who brings to pass the  .mysterious  change of the
                                                                      bread and wine into. the sacrament& body and blood of
    The celebration of the  eucha'ristic  sacrifice and of the        Christ. This invocation of the Holy Ghost appears in all
communion was the centre and summit of the public worship             the Oriental liturgies, but is wanting in the Latin  dhurch,
of the Lord's Day, and all other parts of worship served as           which ascribes the consecration exclusively to the virtues of
preparation and accompaniment. The old liturgies are es-              Christ's Words of Institution. The form of the Words of
sentially, and almost exclusively, eucharistic prayers and            ,Institution  is different  in the different liturgies. The eleva-
exercises; they contain nothing besides, except some bap-             tion of the consecrkted  elements was introduced in the Latin
tismal formulas and prayers for the catechumens. The word             church, though not till after the Berengarian controversies in
liturgy (leitourgia), which properly  embraces  all parts of          the eleventh century, to give the people occasion to show, by
the worship of God, denotes in the narrower sense a celebra-          the adoration of the host, their faith in the real presence of
tion of the eucharist or the mass.                                    Christ in the sacrament.
   Here lies a cardinal difference between the Catholic and              Tb add an example: The prayer of consecration and
Evangelical cultus : in the former the sacrifice of the mass,         oblation in one of the oldest and most important of the
in the latter the sermon, is the centre.                              liturgies, that of St. James, runs thus: After the Words of
   With all variations in particulars, especially in the  in-         Institution the priest proceeds :
iroductory  portions, the old Catholic liturgies agree in the            "Priest: We sinners, remembering His' life-giving pas-
essential. points, particularly in the prayers which immedi-          sion, His saving cross, His death, and His resurrection from
ately precede and follow the consecration of the elements.            the dead on the third day, His ascension to heaven, and His
They all (excepting some Syriac  copies of certain Nestorian sitting at  the right hand of Thee His God `and Father, and
and Monophysite foimularies)  repeat the solemn Words of              His glorious and terrible second appearing, which He shall
Institution from the Gospels, understanding them not merely           come in glory to judge the quick and the dead, and to
in a declaratory but in an bperative sense ; they all contain         render to every man according to his works,  - offer to Thee,
the acts of Cons&ration, Intercession, and Communion ; all            0 Lord, this awful and unbloody sacrifice ; beseeching Thee
(except the Roman) invoke the Holy Ghost upon. the ele-               that Thou wouldst deal with us not after our sins nor reward
ments to sanctify them, and make them actual vehicles of              us according to our iniquities, but according to Thy goodness
the body and blood of Christ  ; all conceive the Eucharist            and unspeakable love to men wouldst blot out the handwrit-
primarily as a sacrifice, and then, on the basis of the sacrifice,    ing which is against us Thy suppliants and wouldst vouch-
as a communion.                                                       safe to us Thy heavenly and eternal gifts, which eye hath
   The eucharistic action in the narrower sense is called th3         not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart
Anapkol-a,  or the  c.a.non   qzissae,  and begins after the close    of man what Thou, 0 God, hast prepared for them that love
of the service of the catechumens (which consisted principally        Thee. And reject not Thy people, 0 loving Lord, for my
of reading and preaching,  .and extended to the Offertory, i.e.,      sake and gn account of `my sins.
the preparation of the brea'd and wir& and the placing of it             He repeats thrice: For Thy people and Thy Church
on the altar). It is introduced with the "~4voo ta.s kardias, or      prayeth to Thee.
SUYSU~~   corda,  of .the priest: the exhortation to the faithful        People: Have mercy upon us, 0 Lord God, almighty
to lift  `up their hearts in devotion, and take part in the           F a t h e r !
prayers ; to which the congregation answers  :  Habemzu   a-d            Priest: Have mercy upon us, almighty  God!
Do"rl";inuftiz,  "We lift them'up unto the Lord." Then follow?           Have mercy upon us, 0 God, our Redeemer!
the exhortation: Let us give thanks to the Lord," with the               Have mercy upon us, 0 God, according to Thy great
response : "It is meet and right."                                    mercy, and send upon us, and upon these gifts here present,
   The first principal act of the Anaphora is the great prayer        Thy most holy Spirit, Lord, Giver of life, who with Thee the
of thanksgiving, the eztlogia  or euclau@istia, after the example     God and Father, and with Thine only begotten Son, sit&h
of the Saviour in the institution  qf the Supper. In this,            and reigneth upon one throne, and is of the same essence and
prayer the priest thanks God for all the gifts of creation and        co-eternal, who spoke in the  law and in the prophets, and


   6 6                                             T H E   STAND.ARD   B E A R E R

   in Thy new covenant, who descended in the form of a dove                  often complains of the indifference of those who come to
   upon our. Lord Jesus Christ in the river Jordan, and rested               church only to hear the sermons, or who attend the eucharistic
   upon Him, who came down upon Thy holy apostles in the                     sacrifice, but do not commune. one of his allusions to this
   form of tongues of fire in the upper room of Thy holy and                 neglect we have already quoted. Some later councils threaten-
   glorious Zion on the day of Pentecost: Send down, 0 Lord,                 ed all laymen with excommunication, who did not commune
    the same Holy Ghost upon us and upon these holy gifts here               at least on Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost.
   present, that with His holy and good and glorious presence                   In the Oriental and North African churches prevailed the
    He may sanctify this bread and make it the holy body of Thy              incongruous custom of infant communion, which seemed to
C h r i s t .                                                                follow from infant baptism, and was advocated by Augustine
          P e o p l e :   A m e n .                                          and Innocent I, on the authority of John 653. In the Greek
                                                                             church this custom  :continues  to this day, but in the Latin,
            Priest: And this cup the dear blood of Thy Christ.               after the ninth century, it was disputed or forbidden, be-
           People : Amen.                                                    cause the apostle (I Cor. 9 :28,29) requires self-examination
           Priest (in a low voice) : That they may avail to those            as the condition of worthy participation.
    who receive them, for the forgiveness of sins and for eternal             With this custom appear the first instances, and they
    life, for the sanctification of soul and body, for the bringing          exceptional, of a communio  sub `ztnai specie ; after a little girl
    forth of good works, for the strengthening of Thy holy                   in Carthage in the time of Cyprian had been made drunk by
    Catholic church which Thou hast built upon the rock of faith,            receiving the wine. But the withholding of the cup from the
    that the gates of hell may not prevail against her; delivering           laity, which transgresses the express command of the Lord:
    her from all error and all scandal, and from the ungodly, and            "Drink ye  2Z of it," and is associated with a superstitious
    preserving her unto the consummation of all things."                     horror of profaning the blood of the Lord by spilling, and
           After the act of consecration come the intercessions, some-       with the development of the power of the priesthood, dates
    times very long, for the church, for all classes, for the living,        only from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and was then
    and for the dead from righteous Abel to Mary, the apostles,              justified by the scholastic doctrine of concomitance.
    the martyrs, and the saints in Paradise  ; and finally the                   In the Greek church it was customary to dip the bread
    Lord's Prayer. To the several intercessions, and the Lord's              in the wine, and deliver both elements in a spoon.
    Prayer, the people or the choir responds Amen. With this                     The customs of house-communion and after-communion
    closes the act of eucharistic sacrifice.                                 for the sick and for prisoners, of distributing the unconse-
            Now follows the co?n++zzzztnion,  or the participation of the    crated remainder of the bread among the non-communicants,
    consecrated elements. It is introduced with the words : "Holy            and of sending the consecrated elements, or their substitutes,
    things for holy persons," and the Kyyie eleison, or (as in the           to distant bishops or churches at Easter as a token of fellow-
    Clementine liturgy) the Gloria in Excel&~:  "Glory be to God             ship, are very old.
    on high, peace on earth, and good will to men. Hosanna to                    The Greek church used leavened bread, the Latin, un-
    the Son of David! Blessed is he that cometh  in the name of              leavened. This difference ultimately led to intricate con-
    the Lord : God is the Lord, and he hath appeared among us."              troversies.
    The bishop and the clergy communicate first, and then the                    The mixing of the wine with water was considered es-
    people. The formula of distribution in the Clementine liturgy            sential, and was explained in various mystical ways ; chiefly
    is simply: "The body of Christ;" "The blood of Christ, the               by reference to the blood and water. which flowed from the
    cup of life," to which the receiver answers "Amen.' In other             side of Jesus on the cross.
    liturgies it is longer.                                                                                                               H.V.
           The holy act closes with prayers of thanksgiving, psalms,                           THE  DAY  OF SHADOWS
    and the benediction.                                                                            (Codmed   from  pagt 60)
           The Eucharist was celebrated daily, or at least every             children, seed, offspring of God out of whom they are born,
    Sunday. The people were exhorted to frequent communion,                  seed, offspring of Christ by whose Spirit they are brought
    especially on the high festivals. In North Africa some com-              into being as new creatures, and to whom it was said that,
   muned every day, others every Sunday, others still less fre-              when He should have made His soul an offering for sin, He
    quently. Augustine leaves this to the needs of every believer,           should see His seed (Isa. 53  :lO), and seed of Abraham to
    but says. in one place: "The Eucharist is our daily bread."              whom God said that unto him and his seed God would
   The daily communion was connected with the current mystical               give this land, and, finally, seed of the totality of believers
    interpretation of the fourth petition in the Lord's Prayer.              to whom God said that unto them and their seed was the
    Basil communed four times in the week. Gennadius of Mas-                 promise. And there they shall securely dwell as free from
    silia commends at least weekly communion. In the East it                 every care and want and fear - carnal fear of God and fear
    seems to have been the custom, after the fourth century to               of the enemy. For there the-enemy cannot kill and spoil and
    commune only one a year, or on great occasions. Chrysostom               devastate.                                                G.M.O.


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               67
II                                                                   of the devil, coming, as we know, in the serpent, that man
            The Voice of Our Fathers                            II fell. This certainly does not' mean that Adam was  at all
                                                                     so?@elled  to fall, for he fell by his own free will. But we
                                                                     n?ust  remember, in the first place, that there was no evil
                     The Canons of Dordrecht                         in man's nature in the state of righteousness. Sin could not
                             PART TWO                                arise out of the perfect heart and mind and will of the man
                      EXPOSITION OF THE CANONS                       who was created in the image of God. Hence, in the' second
             T                                                       place, it had to come from without, and gain access to man's
                  HIRD AND FOURTH HEADS OF DOCTRINE                  nature from without. This is also the reason undoubtedly
      OF  THE CORRUPTION OF  MAN,  HIS CONVERSION TO  GAD,           why the tempter had to come through the visible instrument
                      AND THE MANNER THEREOF                         of the serpent. He had no direct access to the heart of man,
                              Article 1                              as he has now. And in the third. place, his temptation also
                             (concluded)                             had to be connected with an object in the visible world, the
                                                                     tree of the  knowledge,of  good and evil, to which the com-
       We have yet to consider what the  Cunons  here teach          mand of dad had been attached, and which lent itself as a
concerning the manner of man's fall. The article mentions            medium for the devil's temptation of man by the very fa?t
three elements. In the first place, there is the fundamental         that it was the medium of God's demand of perfect obedience
fact that man revolted from God. This, after all, is the very        of man. Taking all this in connection with the fact that Go&
essence of man's fall. God, His Creator, after Whose image           had created man with the power of imagination and con-
man was made, was the very fountain of man's life. In the            ception, we can understand somewhat how it was possible
fellowship of his God there was life for man. To live apart .for the Evil One to gain access to man's heart from without,
from God is death. As long as he remained in the sphere of           to present to him the lie as something to be chosen in op-
that fellowship, he lived. The moment he stepped outside             position to the Word of God, and thus to instigate the rebel-
the bounds of that fellowship he died, for he cut himself oti        `lion, on man's part, from God.
from the very source of life. `And the sphere of that fellow-           In the second place, however, the fathers emphasize that
ship of God was the sphere of the knowledge of God, right-           this rebellion took place by the freedom of man's own will.
eousness, and holiness. It  was the sphere of the service of         This is certainly an important statement in this connection.
God, the sphere of obedience. Furthermore, God made this             Before we `point to its importance, however, let us briefly
very clear to man in the so-called probationary command,             take stock of the meaning of this freedom of man's  wi1.l.
not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and        Negatively, the free will of man does not mean that with,
in the warning appended to that command, "For the day                respect to good and evil Adam was neutral. Nor is freedom
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." This is not to           to be confused with license, as if man had the right and the
be understood as though death were a natural result of man's         ability to think as he pleased and to will as he pleased and
eating of the tree. But it certainly means that death would          to act as he pleased. The latter is not freedom at all. It is
be the inevitable result of the breaking. of God's command-          the corrupt and sinful counterfeit of freedom which sinful
ment, due to the fact that .God would maintain Himself as            man has devised. In that state man sets himself up indeed
the righteous `and holy God, could therefore not counten-            a3 God, proposes to make his own God, and determines for
ance anyone contrary to His own righteousness and holiness,          himself what is good and what is evil. And along these
and therefore would reveal His righteousness in wrath over           lines we sail exactly into the dangerous waters of Pelagian-       '
against the sinner. Revolting from God, therefore,  *man             ism and  Arminianism. It is the Pelagian who claims that,
revolted from the fountain of all life and blessing, and in-         sin is not a matter of the nature, but of the act. It is the
voked upon himself death, as the expression of the fierce            Pelagian who maintains- that even after sin man remains free,
wrath of the God of all life.                                        that his will is not become corrupt, but that he is still prin-
       iBut the question also remains : how did this rebellion       cipally free to do either good- or evil. And it is the Pelagian
take place ? How was it possible for the creature who was            who, setting up his own notion of freedom as the norm, main-
created after God's own image, whose understanding was               tains that tie deny the free will and the responsibility  ofi           '
permeated,with  the true knowledge of God, whole heart and           man. No, man's freedom was not that he could and might
will were adorned with righteousness, all whose affections           do either good or evil. But his freedom consisted in this,
were adorned with purity, and whose whole being was holy,            that his inner nature was in perfect accord with the law of
- how was it possible for such a creature to rebel 7                 God. His heart and mind and will and his whole life `were  in
        Our, Canons very briefly give a two-fold answer to this      harmony with the law of God. The love of God was in him,
question : 1) Man rebelled at the instigation of the devil  ;        in his heart, and permeated all the issues of his life. Such
and, `2) He rebelled by his own free will.                           was the freedom of man as he `came from the hand of his
        First of all, then, we are referred to the history of the    Creator.
fall as it is recorded in Genesis 3. It was by the instigation           However, while man's freedom did not consist in that

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

 he could either sin or not sin, but rather in the fact  that          ing God the author of sin. Incidentally, it may in this light
 he stood in perfect righteousness, his freedom was never-             be deemed a good sign if these same accusations are brought
 theless not the highest freedom. The limitation of man's              against us today: it is a testimony that we maintain the truth
 freedom lay in this, that he was created  fallible. Sometimes         of God's sovereign counsel.
 this freedom of original man is negatively characterized                 In the second place, it is to be noted that the fathers in
 by the Latin expression:  posse non  peccare,  "to be able            this article by a brief and flat statement fling this Arminian
 not to `sin." This denotes that Adam's freedom was  such              accusation far from them. It was not God Who sinned. It
 that he could, while he was indeed capable of performing and          was not God Who perpetrated and instigated the rebellion in
 did perform the will of God, he nevertheless could by an              paradise. But man, rebelling against God by  the. instigation
 act of his own will renounce his freedom and subject himself          of the devil  und  by his  own  free  zvill,  bereawd  hinzself of
to the slavery of sin. The highest freedom is that state               these excellent gifts. Could it be said more flatly ? And what
 in which it will be forever impossible for man to  chooose            Reformed man does not always maintain this truth ? What
 contrary to -the will of God. That is the freedom that is             Reformed man foolishly and morbidly boasts of the fall, as
 attained only in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the freedom             if it were a thing to be glad of, instead of a reason for
 that is negatively expressed in the phrase: non posse  pec-           deep sorrow  and humility and contrition  ? The Arminian
 caye, "not to be able to be sin."  But Adam's freedom was             himself could not more pointedly place the blame for sin and
 not thus. He was lapsible. And thus he also did indeed fall,          the fall on the proper party than do our  Cslnons.  Man  br-
 and rebel against God.                                                rsaved  lzimself  of these excellent gifts ! And he did so  by
    We said that this statement of our. Canons is important.           kis own free will! And let never the charge of the denial of
 And its `importance lies in the fact that it gives the lie to         the freedom of the will and the responsibility for sin be
 the well-known Arminian charge that the Reformed fathers              brought against the Reformed truth again.
 denied the freedom of the will and the responsibility of man.            Finally, we may notice that the article does not with
 Positively this accusation took the form of charging  them            so much as a single word qualify this statement. This cer-
 with making God the author of sin.                                    tainly is not because our fathers meant to teach by this
    What .shall we say of this charge ?                                statement that man's freedom was such that it was not under
    Let it be noted that this charge can be registered only            the sovereign will of God. The very thought is sheer folly.
 against those who maintain the absolute sovereignty of God            But the subject under discussion here is the corruption of
 with respect to  electibn  and reprobation, in the first place.       man., The other subject, namely, the sovereignty of God's
 Never will you find that the accusation is brought against            predestinating purpose, has been already discussed in the
-any others. You see, if one maintains sovereign election al;J         First Head of Doctrine, and `there the truth of the proper
 reprobation, he must needs maintain that included in that             relation between sin and God's purpose has been sufficiently
 sovereign will of God is not only the destiny of His moral            set forth. We too, therefore, shall not lengthen the discus-
 creatures, both wicked and righteous, reprobate and elect,            sion of this article by treating that subject anew. Suffice it
 but also the means and the way along which that destiny  is           to say that the fathers maintain both truths, and that too,
 reached. This must be perfectly obvious. If the destination           not in unexplained coordination, nor in inexplicable con-
 of men, all men, is absolutely certain from all eternity  1)~         tradiction, but in such order that they surely teach that ac-
-sovereign determination, then the way to that destination             cording to God's sovereign purpose sin and the fall and the
-must also be absolutely certain from all eternity by sovereign        corruption of man must serve the realization of the eternal
 determination. If the means and the way are out&de of the             destiny of elect and reprobate, and therefore are under his
 determination of God, then there is no guarantee at all of            sovereign control, both in their origin and their development.
 an eternally certain destiny. If, as the Arminian has it, the                                                             H . C . H .
 reprobate go in the way of the elect, it follows that they end
 at the destination of the elect; and if the elect -go in the way
 of the. reprobate, the way of unbelief, it follotis that they will
 end at the destination of the reprobate. It is thus that the                    UNTO THEE, 0 LORD JEHOVAH
Arminian denies sovereign predestination and maintains his
conditional view. But the Reformed faith maintains that                              Unto Thee, 0 Lord Jehovah,
both the destiny and the way unto that destiny are by sover-                         Do I lift my waiting soul.
eign determination. They also certainly maintained, whether                          0 my God, in Thee I trusted  ;
they were sztpra  or i%fra,  that sin and the fall did not take                      Let no shame now o'er me roll .
place apart from the predestinating purpose of God. And                              On my enemy be shame,
because they taught that the fall was according to the sover-                        Oft without a cause transgressing ;
eign counsel of God, whether by a so-called "permissive will"                        But all those who trust Thy Name
or by positive determination, thdy were accused of denying                           Honor with abundant blessing.
the freedom of man's will and his responsibility, and of  mak-                                                              Psalm 25 :l


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B H A R E R                                               69

                                                                       of heirarchy and a virtual preventive of its evil practices.
                 DECENCY and ORDER                                     These evils, generally present where men are continuously to
                                                                       office, are very harmful to the church.
                                                                          3. The perpetuity of the office does not repose in the
         Compulsory Retirement of Office Bearers                      individual, as is claimed by Rome, but rather the office
         Those who are against the practice of retiring office        itself is continuous. This is not denied when individuals are
bearers after a specified tenure of service present the follow-       retired and replaced by others.
ing arguments' in support of their. position:                             4. To rightly administer the duties of the offices in-
         1.    There is not to be found a direct command in the       volves considerable time, effort, .etc. As a matter of justice,
Word of God requiring this compulsory retirement !                    it is proper that these be shared rather than borne by a select
         2. Ministers serve in their office for life. It should be    few.
the same with the elders and deacons.                                     5. The gifts  ,of the Spirit  are diversified among the
         3. Elders and deacons vow before God' and His church         members of the church. These can be utilized to the utmost
at the time of their  ordination  that they feel called to their      advantage so that the church reaps the.greatest benefits when
respective offices. They do not specify "for a certain period         there is a periodic change in the constituency of the  con-
of time."                                                             sistory.
         4. The most capable and talented men are needed in                                     +  Q  *  +
these offices. They should not be replaced by men tiho are                Undoubtedly other arguments could be added to this
less capable as is frequently the case. This is detrimental to        debate. The list  appeariqg  above is not intended to be ex-
the church.                                                           haustive but only purpose to bring out why this subject has
         5. Experience  is both desirable and  ,very essential for    for many years been one of disagreement and debate within
the proper execution of the work of the church. This can best         the Reformed Churches..
be gained where men are permitted to continue uninterrupted               It may also `be stated that much more could easily be
in office.                                                            written concerning each one of these arguments. There  is
    6. B3 changing the constituency of the consistory period-.        i-oom to question many of them. This, however, is not our
ically the continuity of the labor of the church may be               purpose now. The matter is nbt of  such-  importance as
disrupted.. This would be harmful and can easily  be avoid<?l         to warrant a detailed discussion of each point in question.
by abolishing this practice.                                              In considering the arguments generally, it may be noted,
    7. Men who are really well qualified for these offices            first of all, that the first argument on both sides has little
are scarce. This practice reduces this number still more a0.d         value. Both the pro and the con argue in their favor from
`often necessitates using men inferiorly qualified. This is           the silence of Scripture. No definite conclusioti  can be drawn
improper.                                                             from this basis. The silence of Scripture neither approves
    8. When many are retired and replaced in the offices              nor condemns either side.
periodically, the honor and respect for the office is reduced.            In the second place, it  may  be said that several of the
The offices would hold more prestige if those serving were            arguments of those opposing the practice of retiring office
permanently ordained.                                                 bearers contain a mixture of sound and misleading reason-
  ' 9. The incentive to apply one's self, studiously  and             ings. The result of this is that since part of the reasoning
whole-heartedly to the task of the office is reduced when the         is factually correct, the argument appears to have consider-
period of service is only temporary.                                  able weight but, `since another past of the reasoning is mis-
    10. Definite retirement breaks the connecting  link be-           leading, the conclusions drawn are often incorrect or- have
tween office bearers and the work of the major assemblies,            no real bearing upon the issue in question. An example
to the hurt of both.                                                  of this may be cited `from the fifth argument listed above.
                             * 8 *  *                                 It is certainly true that experience is both necessary and
                                                                      desirable for the proper execution of the work of the church.
    On the other side are those who defend and argue to               From this, however, "permanent eldership" cannot be con-
retain the practice of retiring office bearers at specified           cluded. It can be just as well argued from this same premise
intervals. They base their claims upon the following reason-          that "temporary eldership" is more proper since under the
ing :                                                                 system of periodic retirement a consistory is always retained
    1. There is in Scripture no direct instruction to the effect      in which the majority of members have had experience in
that elders and deacons are to serve for life.  `If the  nlatter      church work and, what is more, `under this system fhe scope
involved a serious principle, a clear mandate would be found          of such experience is widened rather than limited to a select
in the Word. Scripture's silence on the matter indicates that         few. This is a definite benefit of the &hole  church.
the church is free to choose whom she will and to regulate               Similarly some of these other arguments can easily be
all these things according to her discretion.                         reversed. Some of them have no bearing upon the issue at
    2. The practice is a good safeguard against the dangers           all. Take, for example, the nineth one. If we grant for the

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

sake of argument that the statement itself is true, it still        conceivable that there are men who are qualified for both,
proves nothing since it is no reflection upon the system of         offices. If then they have served in the one office, nothing
retiring office bearers but rather only upon the office bearers     bars them from being considered for the other, This  alsp
themselves. We would answer such an objection by saying             explains the "why" of question  .3. B,eing qualified they may
that anyone who ha& no desire to apply himself studiously           be considered and nominated. That they have served in one
and whole heartedly to his task as elder or deacon because          of the offices has nothing to do with their present nomination.
his tenure of service is limited is not worthy of the task.            The fourth question is a bit more involved. Does the
If laziness or indifference is evident, he must be admqnished       `questioner mean  to imply that the elder who has served
and, if necessary, relieved of the office which then is given       faithfully is more qualified than the deacon ? Is it further
to one more worthy,                                                 implied that failure to re-nominate the elder may indicate
      We, therefore, express agreement with those who favor         that his services are not regarded as having been faithful ?
the practice of retiring  ofice bearers periodically as is also     `Does the example cited mean that there are no other reason-
the current practice in our churches. This practice has             able possibilities; no other material in the congregation that
many advantages and since Scripture is silent we may poit'it        is suitable for the office  ? Is it a case where circumstances
to the fact that history has proven the dangers and evils of        necessitate the nomination of a deacon or where the re-elec-
"permanent eldership." We must add to this, however, that           tion of the retiring elder is deemed advisable  ? In the
we favor the practice of retirement only with the added             light of these things the "good, better and -best" of the
provision that either where circumstances require it (in sm~~ll     above question must be determined. There is nothing wrong
churches where there is a scarcity `of consistorial material) or    in nominating a retiring deacon for the office of elder nor
where there are men of exceptional ability, elders or deacons       in nominating. a retiring office bearer for re-election if cir-
way be considered for immediate re-election when their term         cumstances are such that this is advisable. Let the  con-
expires. Retirement after  two- or three years must not be          sistory who knows the needs and circumstances of the con-
made compulsory. This must be controlled by local regula-           gregation, nominate  fo; the  offices those whom they sincerely
tions so that ultimately the congregation itself decides through    regard as the best qualified. The fact that men have or are
its vote whether it wishes to retain certain ones in office or      serving in one of the offices has essentially no bearing upon
replace them with others. In this way the best talents are          the matter of eligibility for nomination.
always available for the services of the church. For this              In regard-to the last question it may be said that there
reason the 27th Article of our Church Order, which estab-           is no violation here provided the nominee is qualified. Such
lishes periodic retirement as the rule but also allows  the         a nomination would be in harmony with the spirit of this
possibility of continued service, is most proper.                   article. However, if such a nominee lacked the j qualities to
                                                                    be found in an elder and there is no other material available,
                           *  + * *                                 the retiring elder should be renominated which is also in
      To  bur department the following questions concerning         harmony with the provision of the last part of Article 27.
this  .article have been submitted.                                 This whole matter must be worked out by local regulation
      "1. May an elder be nominated for deacon?                     since it is a thing that properly belongs to the autonomy of
      "2. May a deacon be nominated for elder?                      the local church. No hard and fast rule will adequately cover
      `"3.  If so, why?                                             every circumstance and, fortunately, our church order here
      "4. If you have a retiring elder, who has served- faith-      does not impose .such a rule.                        G.V.D.B.
fully, why may you nominate a deacon to succeed him ? Is
it not better in this case to nominate the elder to succeed him-
self rather than a deacon to succeed the retiring elder?                         THE EXPOSITION OF THE
      "5. Do we violate the spirit of the  D.K.O.  (Art. 27) if                 HEIDELBERG CATECHISM
a retiring faithful elder is passed by in order to nominate a
deacon for elder."                                                                  by  tlze  REV.  H.  HOEKSE,JVA
      Our reply may be brief. Concerning the first three qties-     is now completed. These 10 volumes and several other
tions, we may say that this is not .only  p&rmissible  but it is                        subjects are available.
frequently also done. We should remember, however, that
the  ofice of deacon is not a stepping stone to that                  If desired, a catalog will be sent to you of these books.
of elder. I fear that oft times this erroneous conception pre-
vails. The latter office is not a promotion-a step of higher                          Send your inquiry to the
rank in the church-to that of the former.  The  offices are                    REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
of .equal rank but differing in character. When then or if a.
deacon is nominated as elder from this motive, it is wrong.                                  P.O. Box  8
Merely the fact that he is a qualified deacon does not mean                      GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN
that he is suitable for the office of elder. However, it is


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 71

                                                                   intended  .to imply that the acceptance of the offer is the
            ALL AROUND US                                          necessary means of obtaining salvation.'
                                                                       "Now the offerers of the Gospel must admit, either that
                                                                   all men have a natural ability to close with the offer ; or that
The Offer of he Gospel and Accebting Clwist.                       all men have a natural disability to spiritual good. In the
    A brother allowed me, to read a little pamphlet he had         former case no salvation can be involved, because the `natural
received recently which I thought was most interesting es-         man receiveth  not the things of the Spirit of God: for they
pecially in the light of our controversy with those who speak      are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them because
of the offer of the gospel, and the acceptance of Christ           they are spiritually discerned.' (I Cor. 2, 14). In the latter
proffered therein.                                                 case, having a natural disability to spiritual good, how can
   The author of the pamphlet entitled : Popular PJzraseology      a sinner close with the offer, before having a change of
Considered, is C. Breed, principal of the Strict Baptist Bible     nature ? (I  wotild rather say : heart, not nature-M.S.)
Institute. And its contents constitutes a paper read at  Z.            "1. First let it  be observed that offering the Gospel is
Minister's Fellowship Conference of  the_Strict  and Particular not preaching the Gospel.
Baptist Group.                                                         (a) The Apostles were ordained to preach the Gospel
   The writer begins his little pamphlet with the pointed          according to the commandment of Christ (Luke 9, 2 ; Mark
.remark  : "It cannot be doubted that preachers of the ever-       16, 15; I Tim. 2, 7; II Tim. 1, 11). The New Testament
lasting gospel carry the responsibility of making themselves       has ten verbs and one noun which mean `preaching,' but,not
understood. If the preacher's language conveys a meaning           one of these ever means `offer. Again the New Testament
,different from that which he intends,  he has failed in one       has eight verbs and four nouns which mean `offer,' but not
of the primary requirements of his office."                        one of these is ever used of preaching. These considerations
   He then goes on to say in effect that words have meaning,       alone seem to shatter the nbtion  that the Gospel is an offer
and that words and phrases .often change in their meaning          of any kind whatever.
with time and use. He insists that "the words `Bible', `Scrip-         (b) The example of the Apostles and others shows what
ture', `Christian', and even `Baptized Believer' have changed      they understood the Master to mean when He commanded
their copnotation in the course of history."' He is afraid         them to preach. Passages like Acts 2, 14-36; 4, 17-20  ; 5,
that words and phrases coined by different theological             25-32 ; 8, 4-5 ; 8. 35, etc., show the attitude of these preachers
systems than the Strict Baptist's are being imported into:         with regard to this matter. There is no command to make an
his churches which he considers regrettable. He has in mind        offer to those who are dead in sin, but there is a command to
such expressions as "Offer Christ" or "the Gospel  ;" "to ,preach the Gospel to them.  Similary  Ezekiel was commanded
make a full surrender  ;" or `Yo give the heart to Christ."        to prophesy to the dry bones, but he did not make them any
The writer is espCcially  apprehensive of the terms : "Gospel      offer.
Offer" and "Accepting Christ." It appears from his writing             (c) There is in fact no passage of Scripture to show that
that these expressions in his opinion have no place in Scrip-      preaching the Gospel means making an offer of the Gospel.
ture and therefore should have no place in the pulpit. In          On the  other hand Paul asks, `How shall they believe in
respect to the "Gospel  Offer" he writes:                          Him of  .whom (this should be WHOM  - M.S.) they have
   "The language and import of `Gospel Offers' needs care-         not heard  ? and how shall they hear without a preacher  ?'
ful attention. It is true that the phrase `to offer' the Gospel    (Rom. 10, 14). Then he adds, faith  cometh  by hearing (not
is found in the Reformers, and is used by modern Calvinists        by accepting an offer), and hearing by the word of God.'
such as Hodge and others, but the implications of this             In other words, faith where it has been implanted, is stirred
language would be denied- by `these theologians.                   to action by hearing the Gospel.' Rahab heard what the Lord
   "In its modern popular.  .use, the phrase -cannot mean          had done, and her faith became active. No offers had been
merely the offer of the story of Christ, but must involve the      made to her.
offer of Christ Himself and of salvation. Thus even Hodge              (d) The difference between preaching and offering is
says, `In the general offers of the Gospel, God exhibits salva-    seen again, when it is remembered that Paul preached `the
tion .  `: . . sincerely offered to everyone without exception.' whole counsel of God' (Acts 20, 27). This included such
T,he following points at  leas! are implied and intended in        themes as the sovereignty of God, the election and predestina-
offers of the Gospel : -                                           tion of the Lord's people, as witness the epistles of Paul.
    1. The offer of the Gospel means that grace itself and         But how can the  Soveceignty   .of God be offered ? Or how
salvation itself is offered.                                       can election and predestination be offered ? From Ram.. 4,
   2. The offer of  >ne Gospel is intended to  in&an  that         25, we learn  &at Christ was delivered on account of our
free grace and full salvation is offered to all promiscuously      offences, and was raised again on account of our justifica-
that hear, that they might  be saved,                              tion. Clearly there `can be no salvation apart from the death
   3. The offer of the Gospel to all without  kxception  is        and resurrection of Christ. How can the crucifixion of Christ!


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  72                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D '   BEAkER   .-                                           -
                                                                                                 ...              :
  be offered ? Ho& can the. resurrection of Christ be offered ?           But the point is that if *accepting  ii the same thing as  be\
  But b&h these matters are to be preached.                               lieving,   then'  offeri;lg  is the` same thing as preaching. If  by
        (e) True preaching exalts the  s%reignty  of  G&l (Gal.           offei-ing' ministers `mean' preaching,, then let them  say  .wh&
 .3. S), it is supreme and comes with authority (Matt.  .?8,              they mean. Meanwhile,,  we  ilust believe they  ri?$&   what
  18-19)  ; but offers  are servile and "debase the -majesty of           they say; and are .compl@tely  out of harmony with- `the Free
  God, they are  powerless'to  do  anythitig  but wait upon the grace view point and the teaching of the New  ~Test+mFt.
  actieptance  of the sinner. Preaching is a revealing act (Rom.          If fhe foregoing discussioti  is valid, then off&  of the Gospel
 ,l,  16-l?),  offering is  a` tendering act..  & offer cannot            are ruled, out by the Book which -commands us to handle-`the
  accomplish anything, it cannot produce .the desired result :            Gospel by the method which is called  preaching:;`?.   1  ._  :..  :
  but preaching the Gospel is a means to produce the desired                  Because i do not have the space in this issue to quote-the
  result, for men are born again by the Word df God (I .Peter             writer on "accepting Christ," I wish to continue this subject
  1; 23). In any `case, since it is the, Spirit that quickeneth,          the next time, D.V.
  why not offer the Spirit rather than Christ?                                However, in `the material we quoted above, it' is very
        (f) An offer entices a natural man into a conceit of Self-        plain that the writer speaks our language and that,  .too,
ability. He is encouraged to suppose that he can hold God                 in no uncertain terms. It does our heart good to know there
  at arm's length pending an acceptance of the offer. On the              are otheri who not only understand the Scripture truth con-
  other ~hand, preaching is not human flattery as chapters one            cerning preaching, but who also have correctly analyzed the
  and two in the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians amply demon-              Arminian cargo. that has been smuggled into the `church
  strate.                                                                 with the phraseology "the offer of the Gospel" br "the offer
                                                                          of Christ in the Gospel:"
        "2. Secondly, let it be observed that an offer  oi the
  Gospel is not the means of the Spirit's internal work where-                Today, one appears like the voice crying in the wildernis
  by the sinner experiences salvation.                                    who militates against -this Arminian tendency. And what
                                                                          grieves us so much is the fact that our so-called Reformed
        (a) The offer cannot be the  means of the Spirit's work,          brethren have become so deaf that they do not seem to be
  because it is the Spirit Himself who is the author of spiritual         able to discern that -voice.       '
  ability (Rom.  8, 8-9; Gal. 5, 18; Phil. 2, 13). There is no                                                                           M.S.
  means by which the Spirit comes. He comes sovereignly,
  and in person to impart life. Even preaching does not convey
  the Spirit. The Spirit  is sent (John 14, 26  ;  -15, 26  ; 16, 7  ;                       CONGRATULATIONS, PLUS!
  Luke 24, 19)  ; the Spirit comes (John 16,  7.; Acts 1, 8)  ; the                            (Co&nued   fi-0w-t   @ge 55)
  Spirit falls (Acts 8, 16  ; 11, 15  ; 10, 14)  ; the Spirit is              Our latest church statistics show that we number  588'
  shed forth (Acts 2, 23 ; Rom. 5, 5 j Titus 3, 4-6).                     families.
        (b) According to Gal. 3, 2, the Spirit is received either             Five hundred eighty eight sets ought to be found there.
  in connection with works or in connection with faith, but if                Spiritually we cannot afford not to buy the set.
  the sinner lays hold of Christ before the Spirit'lays hold of                   -.                     * *  4:  *
  the sinner, then-the sinner receiyes  life by works and not by
  faith.  Y.et the fourth Gospel teaches that the Spirit of the               If you. reah the title above this editorial, you noted the
  Father works in the sinner before the sinner comes to Christ            word "plus." I would write 0~ "Congratulations, plus !"
  (`John  6,.45).                                                            You see, dear reader, I cannot, and may not congratulate
        (c) Rom. 8, 9-17 compared with John 5,  i2  and other             the liting God. That would amount to sacrilege.
  passages show that to have the Spi;it is to have Christ. But                But I may thank Him for this gift to us.
  the sinner must have the Spirit before hk ha? the faith which
  the Spirit works; and he must have  Ch&t before he has                     He gave His blessed Word which was faultlessly, infal-
  life to close with the supposed offer. How then can the offer           libly inspired.
  be the means of giving the Spirit and Christ, who must be                  `No word of man can stand in its shadow.                       L.
  possessed before the off&-  can be accepted?                               Bi& His are also the good books.
        "The fact is that offers of Christ and salvation are con-           The Holy Spirit still leads us into all truth. Well, this
  sistent only with a general redemption `and an unfettered               set is a fruit of such leadership.
 human will ; but not with a particular redemption and the
  bondage of the will.' If a man is non-elect how can he close               After reading: these books you will. say : Thank Thee,
 with the offer of a salvation never designed for him  ?  It              kather,  for the fruit of Thy loying providence.
 may be said that the same thing applies to the non-elect be-                For all the  hon& is His for  eVermore!
  lieving the Gospel which is to be preached to all. Of course !                                                                       G . V .


