      VOLUME.  XXX111                             JUNE  1,  1957   - GRAND  RAPIDS~   MKCHIGAN                               NUMBER 17

                                                                             the mess we find in Canaan does not deserve the name house-
                                                                             hold. Such are the evils of polygamy: that is the evil of
                                                                             having many wives.
Ii           M-EDHATION                                                /(
                                                                                Jacob had really only one legitimate wife: Leah. And, I
                                                                             receive the impression that she was also the best of the four.
                 SALVATION THRU CRIME                             *          And Jacob seems to have realized it. Although he loved
                                                                             Rachel' more than any of the other women, he buries Leah
              "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but  God.         in the cave of Machpelah, while Rachel is buried, so to
              meant it unto good,  tcw bring to pass as it is this day,      speak by the roadside.
              ta save much people alive."  - Gen.  5020                         At any rate, this polygamy was the source of many of
                                                                             Jacob's troubles. and Joseph's sufferings.
      God's Book is unique.                                                     There were really four households.  `Each  set of children
      Here is a Book that tells, of the people of God, but it tells          was partial to their own mother. This polygamy set up
all! Do you know of any book written by men that does not                    families  within the family. And it made enemies of brothers.
gloss over the faults of its heroes, and paints in dark colors                  And what shall  I- say of the suffering of the women ?
the evil of villains  ?                                                      Jealousy and envy was the order of the day and night.
      And the answer is : No ! There is no such book.                           Then there was the partiality of Jacob, both as to his
      No, not even in the church of God.                                     wives and children. He was partial to Rachel, and to her
      The plainest example I can think of is the' memoriams                  son Joseph.
of departed ministers. How faithful and zealous, how in-                        One of my sources puts it this way: His partiality
dustrious and saintly are all those men!  What wonderful * wrought like yeast upon the passions of the wild sons of the
testimonies we read of our dead ministers !                                  handmaidens, and his polygamy fostered the sour hatred
      But God is different.                                                  among his generations.
      Yes, He tells us that the names of the twelve patriarchs                  Therefore, when you read of the hatred, jealousy and
are written on the 12 gates of the New Jerusalem in the                      envy of the patriarchs be sure and blame much of it on
new heaven and the new earth.  But He also tells us some                     Jacob's sins.
pretty evil things about those men. He tells of their envy;                     But again,  God works out His glorious purposes, even
wrath, fornication, hatred and murder.
                           ._      - __             .-      -.               through the crimes and the sins of His own children.
      They thought evil against  (ot all persons) Joseph !
      I like to talk of that a little.                                                                 *    +'  4:  *'
      And also of the wonder of God's salvation, indeed: they                   The brethren of Joseph become conspirators. They hate
thought evil,  ., but, with respect to the same matter, God                  him. And much of their hatred is also because of  Joseph's-
meant it unto good.
      Salvation  thru crime !                                                piety. I do not know of a more attractive figure among the
                                                                             youths of Scripture.
                                  *  +  *  *                                    And when they see the partiality of Jacob for this
                                                                             ,despised lad they hate him the more.
      What an unsavoury picture we receive of the household                     At last their opportunity arrives. They are far from home
of Jacob!                                                                    in  Dothan. And Joseph is sent after them to inquire after
      I hesitated when I wrote  hozt.s&old   of  Jacob. You note             their estate.
that I wrote in the singular: household. Perhaps I should                        He is still a long way off; but they recognize him, per-
 have said: households, that is, the plural. And if I did that,              haps,  by the many  coloured  coat.


     3 8 6                                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

          And to show how much they hated him, we read that as                                                And because of that he begins his long, long trail of
     soon as they saw him they conspired to slay him. "We will                                            suffering:
     slay him; we will cast him in some pit; we will say to his                                               Ridicule is the first thing he receives: here we have the
     father: `some evil beast has devoured him.  "                                                        master of dreams !
          They also are envious..                                                                                Shame is next: they strip him.
          "Behold, this dreamer  cometh."                                                                     Pain and anguish, and in such degree that many years
          As though Joseph could help it when God chose him to                                            later Reuben recalls it: "we saw the anguish of his soul,
     become an agent of revelation. They really accuse God who                                            when he, besought us, and we would not hear." Gen. 42  :21.
     gave the dreams. And, I think that they realized that he                                                 In the Dutch we read : when he begged  us  for mercy.
     was worthy, sharpening their envy and jealousy.                                                        Can you not see the scene ? It is heart rending. And I
          They also are mockers.                                                                          think he suffered more just because he was such a good,
          "And we will see what will become of his dreams  !"                                             tender, God-fearing lad. The more tender-hearted you are,
          Dangerous talk! They really talk about, and mock the                                            the more you suffer when you are maltreated.
     Word of God in dreams.                                                                                   Watch the patriarchs ! They sat down to eat bread. But
          They become also murderers.                                                                     the muffled cries of Joseph reach them at their banquet : Dear
          First in conspiracy.                                                                            brethren, dear brethren, Judah, Reuben, oh help me, help
                                                                                                          me!
          Then in word : let  us  slay him !                                                                  Einally, he suffers the worst of all : he is sold to the
          Third in their counsel: let us cast him in a pit, and then                                      Ishmaelites: And soon he will be on the way to Egypt,
     he will starve.                                                                                      wicked Egypt.
I         Finally, in that they sentence him to a slow death of                                               Judah,is  going to make money of a bad thing. After all,
     slavery.                                                                                             business-is business. Judah sounds merciful: What profit is
          They also are cruel.                                                                            it if we slay our brother . .  ., but wait, he continues: Come,
          They strip him of the hated coat, and Joseph is the ob-                                         let  us  sell him!
     ject of shame. Then they cast him in a pit. And although he                                              Do not slay him . . . let us sell him.
     cries pitifully from out of the pit: (see Gen.  42:21)  "they                                            Don't you see that instead of mercy,  you  find greater
     :at down  `to eat bread." What refined cruelty !                                                     cruelty? Slavery is worse than death.
          But God had in'mind some good thing : be patient !                                                  There goes Joseph : every. step brings him closer to the
                                            * *  9 *                                                      hateful, wicked, filthy Egyptians and farther away from
                                                                                                          father's embrace at home.
          Look a little while at the innocent object of all this crime,                                       Oh, I must not think of the tears and heart rending
     will you ?                                                                                           suffering of the lad. At the mercy of the wicked. And a
          Yes, he is the innocent object.  '                                                              great and  ,a long silence as far as beautiful speech is con--
          Jacob was partial: Joseph could not help that..                                                 cerned.  That you  find only in the church. But  he. became
          Jacob gave him that dreadful coat, the visible token of                                         the great exiie. And for many, many years.
     his foolish love for Joseph.                                                                             At home we see the hypocrites. Joseph is dead as far as
          God gave Joseph the dreams : he could  .not help it that                                        his home and father is concerned.
     God chose him and not Reuben or Simeon.                                                                  Look, there is another  colour  added to the many in his
     J a c o b   s e n t   h i m   n o r t h   f r o m   t h e   v a l l e y   o f   H e b r o n   t o    coat. The red of the blood of the goat. But Joseph is dead.
     Shechem.                                                                                                 His brothers continue on their crooked pathway. They
          In all his life he was a very obedient son. Oh, for more                                        lie and deceive. They feign and dissimulate: they mourned
     Joseph's !                                                                                           with Jacob !
          He was in this last case very anxious to discharge a                                                                      + *  * *
     duty. When Jacob called him he said : Here ! (That is the
     rendering in the Hebrew).                                                                                What picture of crime and wickedness!
          Inquires when he cannot find his brethren in Shechem.                                               1But wait ! God will speak, and clarify everything.
     And when he receives the information he plods on to  Dothan.                                             On the one hand we see Joseph in agony and fetters?
          Moreover, he is on a journey of benevolence. He is the                                          Jacob in tears and disconsolate, the brethren in murderous
     spokesman of an anxious father. And we may believe that                                              guilt. A sorry spectacle indeed.
     he shared the anxiety for their welfare.                                                                 But in heaven there is peace, And heaven's God is
          And  SQ  we find the lad far from home.                                                         Sovereign over all.


                                                T H E   STANDAR.D   B E A R E R                                                                                             3 5 7

    God is working out His purposes, even suing the ci-imes
of men, both the elect and the reprobates.                                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
    And how Joseph knew this ; how Joseph understood the                       Semi-mo?lthly,  except  month.ly  during June, July  a& August
counsel and the works of God ! Later, much later, when the                           Published by the  REFORMED   FREE  PUBLISHING  ASSOIZIATION
                                                                               P. 0. Box  SSl, Madison Square  S&on, Grand Rapids 7,  Mieh.
partriarchs  bow before him in Egypt, and when they are                                               Editor  - R
afraid of him, thinking that he will avenge himself on them,                                                            EV. HERMAN H~EKSEMA
he says: "Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with                         Communications relative to contents should  ,be addressed to Rev.
                                                                               H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me                        All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
before you to preserve life."                                                  G. Pipe, 1463 Ardmore St., S. E.,  Grand Rapids 7, Michigan.
    Two things are outstanding in this little speech, and a                    Announcements and Obituaries  must be mailed to the above
                                                                               address and will be published at a fee of $1.00 for each notice.
third must be added as a warning.                                              RENEWALS:  Unless a definite request: for discontinuance is re-
    First, how gracious is Joseph! How sweet is his regen-                     ceived, .it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription
erated soul and heart. Imagine: he says that to Judah who                      to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
had  held the 20 pieces of silver and divided them among the                                           Subscription price:  $4.OO.per year
brethren. He makes light of their sin: do not. be angry with                   E&wed  as  Secoud  Clms  m&r   at  Grand  Rapids, Michigan
yourselves ! Forsooth! What would you have done if  you
had this chance ?
    Second, he kxalts God! This is the greatest thing.                                                           C O N T E N T S
Through it all God had in mind to benefit Jacob and the                     MEDITATION  -
patriarchs. And it is God's wondrous irony, born of ever-                             Salvation Thru Crime .`. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _ . . . . . . . . r. _ . .385
lasting love, that he  bririgs untold and everlasting salvation                             Rev. G. Vos
through our sinning. (The Cross  !)
    And here is the warning : do not say now : let                          IGHToRIALS -
                                                              us  sin so              The Free Offer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...388
that God's salvation be enhanced!                                                    Electi,on and Reprobation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .389
    For  ,that is of the devil.                                                       Question Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : .391
    No, but here is the lesson of this beautiful and touching                         No Good . ..i............................................ 392
                                                                                            Rev. H. Hoeksema
story : live, suffer, weep, and confess and sing like Joseph.
    Oh, for more Josephs!                                                   .OUR                DOCTRINE-
                                                                                      The Book of Revelation . . . _ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .393
                                                                   G.V.                     Rev. H. Hoeksema

                                                                            THE DAY  08  SHADOWS-
                      CALL TO SYNOD                                                   The Prophecy of Zechariah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
                                                                                            Rev. G. M.  Ophoff
    According to the decision of the last Synod, the  Consis-
tory  .of the First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand                     JN HIS  FEAR-
                                                                                     Trained for What and by Whom? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39s
Rapids, Michigan, notifies the churches that the 1957 Synod                                 Rev. J. A. Heys
-of the Protestant Reformed Churches will convene on Wed-
nesday, June 5, D. V., at 9 :00 A. M. in the above mentioned                CONTENDING FOR TRE FAITH -
church.                                                                              The Church and the Sacraments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .400
                                                                                            Rev. H.  Veldn?an
    The pre-synodical service will be held on Tuesday eve-
ning, June 4, at 8 :00 P. M. at  First,Church.  The Rev. John               THE  VICE  CVF  OUR  FATHERS-
                                                                                      The Exposition of the' Canons of Dordrecht . . . . . . . . . . . : . .402
A. Heys, president of the previous synod, is scheduled fo                                   Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
preach at this service.
                                                                            DECENCY   AND  ORDER-
    Synodical delegates are requested to gather with the                             Matters to be Treated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
Consistory before the service.                                                              Rev. G. Vanden. Berg

    Those requesting lodging, are to contact P. Decker, 108                 ALL AROUND  Us-
Mayfield Ave., N. E., Grand Rapids, Michigan.                                         P.rof. Louis Berkhof Passes .:...........................406
                                                                                     Review of the "Perfee -Prayer". . . . . . . . . . . : . . . . . . . . . . .406
                                   Consistory of the First                           Graham and the New York City Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .406
                                   Protestant Reformed Church.                              Rev. M.  Schipper

                                   Rev. C. Hanko, President.                REPORTS  OF THE WEST  AND EAST LADIES' LEAGUES . . . . . . . . . . . . . .408
                                   P. Decker, Secretary.

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

                                                                      his delight in the law of the Lord and meditates on that law
             EDI.TORIALS                                              day and night. He is compared to a tree near the riverside,
                                                                      that brings forth fruit in due season: all that he does shall
                                                                      prosper. In contrast to this righteous man stands the un-
                         The Free Offer                 -             godly. He is like the chaff driven away by the wind. He
                                                                      cannot stand in judgment nor in the congregation of the
    The conclusion to which the authors of "The Free Offer"           righteous. And the psalm closes with the antithetical state.-
come in their study of the passages-from Matthew 5 and                ment : "For the Lord  knoweth the way of the righteous:
Luke  G read as follows:                                              but the way of the ungodly shall perish."
       "The sum of this study of these passages in Matthew and            I challenge the authors of "The Free Offer" so to explain
Luke is simply this; that presupposed in God's gifts be-              this  h;salm and the perishing  tiay of the ungodly that it is in
stowed upon the ungodly there is in God a disposition of              harmony with the theory that God is motivated by love in
love,. kindness, mercifulness, and that the actual gifts and          guiding the ungodly on his perishing way.
blessing  acruing therefrom for the ungodly must not be ab-               Or consider Psalm 5 :4-6: "For thou art not a God that
stracted from the lovingkindness of which they are the ex-            hath pleasure in wickedness : neither shall evil dwell with
pression. And, of course, we must not think of this  loving-          thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight : thou  hatest all
kindness as conditioned upon a penitent attitude in the reci-         .workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak
pients. The  lovingkindness rather  is exercised toward them          leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man."
in their ungodly state and is expressed in the favors they en-        Or again in vss. 9, 10: "For there is no faithfulness in their
joy. What bearing this may have upon the grace of God                 mouth  ; their inward part is very wickedness  ; their throat is
manifested in the free offer. of  the'gospel to all without  dis--    an open sepulchre  ; they flatter with their tongue. Destroy
tinction remains to be seen.  But-  we are hereby given a dis-        them, 0 God  ; let them fall by their own counsels  ; cast them
closure of goodness in the heart of God and of the relation           out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have
there is between gifts bestowed and the lovingkindness from           rebelled against thee." Let Murray and Stonehouse explain
.which they flow. And there is indicated to us something              these passages in the light of their theory that God loves,
respecting God's love or benevolence that we might not or             instead of hating, all the workers of iniquity, and shows His
could not entertain if we concentrated our thought simply on          love to them in the things they receive in this present time.
the divine decree of reprobation." p. 7.                              And let them attempt to take the. prayer of the psalmist on
   I suppose that the authors have in mind that there are             their own lips. It is, for them, simply impossible. Notice,
some that do exactly that which is expressed in  the last             too, that the psalmist does not speak of the reprobate in the
sentence, they "concentrate their thought simply in the divine        .abstract but of the ungodly, the workers of iniquity as they
decree of reprobation." If there are such, I do not know              concretely exist and live in this world. Them the Lord does
them. I do know, however, that God's attitude to those that           not love but hate.
are wicked and ungodly and continue to be such without                   The same is emphatically expressed  in Psalm  7:11-16  :
receiving the grace of repentance, is rooted in His decree of         "God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the
reprobation. Just as He loves the elect righteous and godly,  ^ wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword,
even while they are yet sinners, with an eternal and un-              he hath bent his bow, and made it ready. He  bath also
changeable love, so He hates the reprobate wicked with a              prepared for him the instruments of death  ; he  ordaineth  his
sovereign hatred from before the foundations of the world.            arrows against the persecutors. Behold, he travaileth with
   Such is the truth of Scripture.          I                         iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth
   But in my opposition to the theory of the authors of "The          falsehood. He hath made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen
Free Offer" that God is filled with lovingkindness and mercy          into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon
toward the wicked as such, and that this is manifest in the           his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon
gifts bestowed on them in this present time, I will not even          his own pate." Again, let the authors of "The Free Offer"
mention reprobation. I maintain that professors Murray and            so explain this passage that, instead of teaching that God  is
Stonehouse, with their conception of God's love for the               angry with the wicked that does not repent every day, it
wicked, stand opposed to the current teaching of Scripture.           means that God loves the wicked irrespective of the question
   This I will prove.                                                 whether or not he turns from his wicked way, as they  have,
   In Psalm 1, which, by the way strikes the keynote of all           it, and manifests His love to him in rain and sunshine  a$
the psalms, in the Word of God, David first describes the             in all the things he receives in this present time. They  chin
godly and righteous. He is the one that  "walketh.not  in  th,e       never do it.
counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners,              The  .same  note is sounded in Psalm  11%6  : "For lo, the
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." `This, of course, is        wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon
negative. Positively expressed, the righteous is he that has          the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in


                            /              ,   TtiE   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               389

 heart. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the right-         in the Old, but also in the New Testament.
 eous do  ? The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne            This we still hope to prove.                           H.H.
 is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children
 of men. The Lord trieth the righteous; but the wicked and
 him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked                           Efection and Reprobation
 he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible               We have not finished our discussion and criticism of
 tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup." Also in this      Berkouwer's book ("God's Election."
 passage the  c&estion. does not concern the reprobate in the            An important element we must still discuss more broadly
 abstract but the wicked and ungodly man in his concrete             and thoroughly, an element that stands in immediate connec-
 existence in the world.  .He is the one that, in this  wbrld,       tion with his criticism of my view, to which he devotes
 loveth violence and persecutes the righteous. Does God love         several pages of his book. I refer to his estimation of the
 him) as Murray and Stonehouse would have it? Does He                relation between the preaching of the gospel and Gods
 manifest His love to them in rain and sunshine and in all           election.
 the things of this' present time ? On the contrary, His  soi11       It stands to reason, in view of the fact that Berkouwer
 hates them, and the portion of their  cup*  shall be fire and       is very weak to express it mildly, on the truth of reprobation,
 brimstone.                                                          that he emphasizes rather strongly that the preaching of the
   Also in Psalm 37 throughout the subject is the antithesis         gospel is an offer, an invitation, well-meaning on the part
 between the righteous and the wicked and  .the attitude of          of God, to all that hear the gospel, to come to Christ and
 the Lord to them both. Always He loves the righteous only           be saved. He fully agrees with the First Point of the three
 and hates the wicked, Just let me quote a few instances.            that were adopted by the synqd of the Christian Reformed
 "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in           Church in 1924.
 anywise to do evil. For. evil doers shall be  cut off: but those        In this connection he refers, of course, to Canons II,  5
 that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For          and III, IV, 8, and also to certain: texts  as'1 Tim. 2  :4 and
 yet a little while, and  the wicked shall not be: yea, thou         II Peter 3  :9. To his discussion of- the latter we will now call
 shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.  But      attention, first of all.
 the meek shall inherit the earth  ; and they shall delight them-        Intentionally I say "discussion" and not exegesis. Exe-
 selves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plotteth against       gesis of these passages he  do& not offer. He introduces the
 the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord            discussion of the verses with some paragraphs in which he
 shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming. The        emphasizes the universality of  the gospel. We must, be-
 wicked have drawn  out'the  sword, and have bent their bow,         cause of fear for universalism, not close our eyes for this
 to cast down the poor and needy, and to: slay such as be of         un'iversality  of the gospel. This is done, according to  Berk-
 upright conversation. Their sword shall enter into their own        ouwer, when  \?;e try to explain texts like Ez.  18:23 and
 heart, arid their bows shall be broken." vss. S-15.                 11  :33 in the light of election and reprobation. We must
    Surely, Murray and Stonehouse must admit that the                not "as does  Hoeksema,  make a distinction between the un-
 psalm here does not speak of the reprobate in the abstract,         godly  that do turn and those that do not turn from their
 .as he appears in the decree of God,  but of the wicked as          evil way, and then eliminate the latter from  the first part
 he lives and exists and acts in the present world. And they         of these texts of Ezekiel." One certainly explains these
 also will have to admit that, in the passage  qupted  above as      texts erroneously as soon as the attempt is made to intro-
 well as in the entire psalm, God's attitude is that He loves        duce the scheme of election  and, reprobation into them, ac-
 the righteous and  .hates the wicked. Just let me quote a           cording to Berkouwer. Of course, you understand, that I
 few more verses from the same psalm:                                do not  igree with this fundamentai principle of Berkouwer.
    "A~ little that a righteous man  bath  is better than the        It is my  c6nviction  that  .we may never explain any particular
 riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall             passage of  the Word of God without taking into account the
 be broken: but the Lord upholdeth the righteous. The Lord           whole of the Bible, and all Scripture teaches the doctrine of
 knoweth the days of the upright: and their, inheritance shall       `election and reprobation and emphasizes that God's grace
 be for ever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and        is not general but particular.
 in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. But the wicked           But let this be for the moment.
 shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat           As I said, this first paragraph on the universality of the
of lambs : into smoke shall they consume away."                      gospel must serve as an introduction to the discussion of
    Thus the church of the old dispensation was taught to            I Timothy 2  :4 and II Peter 3  :9.
 sing, and thus the church of the new dispensation still sings.          In this connection, Berkouwer, first of all, presents vari-
 Surely, there is not even a-semblance of love for the wicked        ous interpretations. There is the interpretation that speaks
 in the passages. The contrary is true.                              of an antecedent or preceding will of God, which is general
    And this is the current teaching of Holy Writ, not only          and according to which God actually wills that everybody


,390                                          T H E   STANDAR.0   B E A R E R

shall be saved, and a consequent or superceding or following             Briefly, therefore, Berkhouwer teaches here that the
will of God, according to which God wills that some, those           preaching of the gospel is universal in its effect for all that
that believe  shall be saved, which latter will  .is limited by      by faith accept the invitation.
the free choice and will of man. Then he mentions the inter=             There is nothing specifically or definitely Reformed in this
pretation of Augustine, who at first interpreted all men as          teaching. As long as no more is said, any  Arminian  can sub-
referring only to the elect, but later referred the term to the      scribe to it.
human race  ifi general without having reference to individ-
uals. In connection with the phrase in II Peter  3~:9:  Not              But my question is: what does all this have to do with
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to          an interpretation of I Tim. 2  :4 and II Pe. 3  :9 ?
repentance, he refers to the commentary of Greydanus, who                -In I Tim. 2  :I we read: "Who will have all men to be
first refutes the universalism of the Remonstrants, "but then        saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth." For
speaks of `all the elect' although the text does  n@ mention         Reformed people the question that concerns them in connec-
the elect." Then,  $00, there is the view that seeks refuge          tion with this text is, and always has been: how can this
in the theory of a "secret"  ahd "revealed" will of God. The         text, which speaks of the will of God to save all men, be
fbrmer, then, refers, of  coursk, to the will of predestination,     harmonized  with& the truth of election and reprobation.
according to  wliich  G&l wills that only the elect' shall be        Either the text means  that  it is the will of God to save
saved, while the latter, the so-called revealed will of God          all men without exception, head for head  ; or it means that
seeks the  ,salvation  of all without distinction.                   God will have all men to be saved, not in the sense of every
                                                                     individual, but in the sense of all kinds and classes of men,
   But we are interested  iti Berkhouwer's own interpreta-           which still includes the elect only though they are not men-
tion.  `And in this we are disappointed, for he does not give        tioned. The universalist, the Remonstrants  c.s., prefer the
an explanation of these passages of Scripture. Nevertheless,         former interpret&ion. This implies, .of course, that the will
he  talks about  these texts and leaves the impression of an         of God to save all men is limited by the freewill of the
interpretation. In-this connection, I better quote him literally,    sinner.  But Reformed theologians usually reject this inter-
lest I be a&used of misrepresenting his would-be interpreta-         pretation and explain the text in the latter sense. Berkouwer
tion. I quote-from pp. 288-290:                                      offers no- explanation, though he talks about the text rather
                                                                     elaborately.
   "`It is, however, in  our opinion, neither possible to pene-
trate the meaning of these universal-sounding words of Scrip-         We prefer the Reformed interpretation because :
ture with the help of the distinction between the revealed               1. Negatively, the universalist explanation is impossible
and secret will of God. For exactly in what is called the            as must be evident:       .
revealed will of God the good pleasure of God in Jesus Christ           a. From the fact that God does not even have the gospel
is concerned, the  one' Mediator of God and man . . . This           preached to all men. In the old dispensation salvation was,
k&rugma  (preaching, H.H.)  has, as the message of God's             for a long time, limited to Israel  ; in the new dispensation the
saving dealings, a universal direction, which alone can ex-          gospel is preached only to those to whom God,  ia his good
plain the universality of the N. T. .  : . This need not be          pleasure, sends it. In the course of the history of the new
denied over against various forms of absolute or relative            dispensation it reached comparatively few.
universalism . . . For this direction of the gospel is aimed            b. From the fact that many to whom the gospel is preached
as  the arrow to its mark; and here no one is excluded, not          do not receive but reject it. They do not believe. And,
even the greatest of the sinners.                                    according to all Scripture, no man is able to believe unless
                                                                     faith is given him from  God. "It is not of him that willeth,
   "Behind this message-in all these universal words  -              nor of him that  runneth,  but of God that sheweth  mei-cy."
it is not necessary to fear for the real or secret will, which,      Hence, it is not true that God will have all men, head for
after all, still manifests itself as a dark shadow will, and can     head, to be saved.
still leave room for the limited will of consequence instead of         2. Positively, the text in its context teaches this rather
the antecedent will. In the message of salvation, we are             plainly and, in the light of all Scripture, can be interpreted
much rather  - according to the will of God made known to
all nations  - shown  the'qyay of conversion and of the knowl-       in no other way:
edge of the truth. That is the appeal and  the invitation, the          a. As far as the context is concerned:
calling and the admonition in this Will of God. The uni-                 (1 j Already in the  f&t verse the apostle employs the
versality of the gospel-call does not exclude but include the        same  phrase  "all men" as in vs. 4. He exhorts the congrega-
calling to faith and repentance. Apart from this faith and           tion that prayers and  giiring of thanks be made for all men.
repentance one cannot speak about this universality and                  (2) What he means, however, is expressed in vs. 2 : "for
surely cannot be confident on its basis. The epistles of the         kings  and all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet
apostles and their missionary activity are one in this respect."     and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty."


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER                                                        391

     b. It is plain, then, that according to the context, "all       20  :lO demands that a man that commits adultery with an-
 men" in vs. 4 does not mean every individual -but all kinds         other man's wife shall be put to death. This surely implies
 and classes of men. The `believers in Paul's time, perhaps,         that God looks with displeasure and wrath'upon all adultery,
 had an idea that salvation was not for kings and those that         even also on polygamy. That polygamy was not so punished
 were in authority. They were usually worldly and, besides,          but was, evidently, as in the case of David and Solomon,
 often persecuted them. Hence, the apostle corrects them and         winked at and even approved and justified, was simply an-
 writes  <that  God will have  all classes of men to be saved.       other sin added to the first. It is evident that., during a
And this is not in conflict but harmonizes with the truth of         certain period in the history  .o'f Israel in the old dispensation..
  election.                                                          having more than one wife was not considered a great sin
      The same  truth  though in `a different way, is expressed      or even a sin at all, but this does  not remove the fact  that
 in II Pe. 3  :9.                                                    God considered it a sin which He will  pmiish in time or
      But about this next time,  Q.V.                      H.H,      eternity or both. And to my mind, God clearly revealed His
                                                                     wrath and displeasure on, for instance, the polygamy of
                                                                     David, `by all the troubles he experienced.
                      QUESTION BOX                                       3. If, however, instead of using the term  "toleraLion" you
      Oak Lawn, in their Men's  So"ciety,  their wives being also    employ the Scriptural terms "forbearance" and  "longsuffer-
 present, discussed the question of polygamy and not being           ing," I would answer that this may be applied to the sin of
 able to come to what they considered to be a satisfactory           polygamy, but at the same tinie to all sin. God is  long-
 conclusion, asks  The  Standard Bearer-  to shed some addi-         suffering with regard to the sin as well as to the suffering of
 tional light on the question.                                       His people as well as forbearing with respect to the sin  .of
     They write :                                                    the reprobate. It is also true, of  course, that God reached His
     "The subject we discussed was : Polygamy in' Old Testa-         own purpose with the sin of both, the elect and the reprobate.
 ment Times. In general, we may say that it was agreed that          Whether we dare say that His purpose or one of His pur-
 polygamy is sin, a violation of the marriage ordinance in-          poses with the sin of polygamy was the bringing forth of the
 stituted by God from the  .beginning. Our question then is :        seed of the covenant, is another question. We know, of course,
 `Why did God tolerate it?' Since adultery, according to             that, in some cases (Samuel, Solomon) this was true, but
 Leviticus 20  :lO, was punishable by death and since polygamy       I would not subscribe to the general proposition that God's
 is a form of adultery, why  was not the same punishment             purpose with polygamy in general was the bringing forth of
 administered when it was committed ? Or, must we say that           the seed of the covenant.      .
 polygamy is not adultery?"                                             Well,  I made an attempt. If Oak Lawn is not satisfied,
     And a little farther they write :                               they better call again.                                       H.H.
     "We are wondering whether it is correct to say that God
 had a positive purpose with the evil of  polygkmy ? Can it
 be said that God, even as He used the sin of Esther,  al,so            From the same source comes the  followjng question,
 used the sin of polygamy to serve the bringing forth of             although not from the Men's Society:
 the covenant seed, etc.? We understand that this would not             "Another question which is hypothetical I, would like to
 justify the sin and we also understand that God punished            present for consideration. I shall use a hypothetical case.
 the polygamous marriages with many afflictions, but can             Suppose there are parents who with a baptized child belong
 this be a positive explanation as to why He tolerated it?           to the Christian Reformed Church. This child reaches,  let
 Your view on the matter will be appreciated."                       us say, the age of 16 to 18 and, still being a baptized member,
     My answer is as follows:                                        arrives at the conviction that he should leave the Christian
      1. Undoubtedly, polygamy is adultery. All adultery is          Reformed Church and become a member in the Protestant
 not polygamy, but all polygamy is adultery. If adultery may         Reformed Church. Consequently, he desires to make con-
 be defined a's unfaithfulness of a married man to his legal         fession of faith in the latter church. The parents, however,
 wife by sexual intercourse with another woman, and if it be         refuse to allow the baptism papers of the child to be given
 true, as it is, that a  l$an can have only one legal wife, in,      and insist that they remain in the Christian Reformed Church.
 the sight of God, then polygamy is nothing less than adultery       The child in good conscience cannot make  confesSion of
 on a large scale.                                                   `faith in that church. The question now is : (1) Must the
     2. The question of the society, however, is: why did God        con&story grant the child's request or must it grant the
 tolerate polygamy ? It seems to me that the crux of the             parents' request? (2) If the latter, what must the child  do'
 question must be found in the term "tolerate." This term is         (3) Who is responsible for the baptism papers, the in-
 rather ambiguous. If the meaning is that God permitted              dividual or the parents?"
 polygamy, then my answer is: He did not permit it. As the              Answer :
 men's society of Oak Lawn themselves point out, Leviticus               1. First of all, I  tiish  to state  that; in my answer, I will
                                              .

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

attempt to  place myself, in my imagination, in the  position   of       the Protestant Reformed Church in the place where he lives,
that Christian Reformed consistory and, of course, also of               the consistory can still follow two lines of, action. They  cdti
the parents.                                                             put him under discipline and ultimately excommunicate him,
    2. To begin with the latter, it is their calling as members          if they have the courage of their- conviction. Or they can
of the Christian Reformed Church carefully to instruct their             simply send him his papers, regardless of the attitude of the
child and to make plain to him the difference in doctrine be-            parents. If they do the former, the child can still demand
tween, the Christian Reformed and the Protestant Reformed                a copy of his baptismal certificate, for his papers are not the
Churches. In other words, they must explain to him and try               property of the parents, nor of the consistory, but his own.
to defend the Three Points. If the child is convinced that                  I hope that I have answered your questions.
the `doctrine of the Christian Reformed Church is the truth,                                                                        H.H.
they have gained him, and he can make confession of faith in
his own church. He will, of course, no longer ask that his                                         No Good!
papers will be transferred to the Protestant Reformed                       The  Stmdayd   Bears  is no good!
Church. The matter is settled.                                              Such is virtually the sweeping judgment of a certain
       3. If, however, after all this instruction by the parents         party  whose name I will not mention because the opinion
and also by the independent investigation of the child, the              was expressed in a private'letter. The letter was addressed,
latter is still convinced that the Christian Reformed Church,            not to me, but the Board of the R.F.P.A. and the board
in 1924, has departed from the truth and that the true doc-              evidently thought I might be interested to learn to know
trine is maintained by the Protestant  ,Reformed  Churches,              what some think of our magazine.
it stands to reason that he, in that state, cannot make con-                And, of course, I am. One should always be willing to
fession of faith in the Christian Reformed Church. For in                profit by the positive criticism of others. Besides, it stands
that confession he promises to abide by the doctrine that "is            to reason that our magazine is not perfect: there is always
taught here in this Christian church." What,  klow,  must the            room for improvement.
paients  do? If they are wise parents,. they will ask the child,            But a sweeping judgment as  expressed by this particular
to give the matter some time and prayerful consideration and             party I cannot swallow. I rather am of the opinion that it
seek contact with and advice from his minister.                          reflects upon the writer  of,the letter. I receive the impression
   4. If, however,. after all this, the child still insists that         from the letter that he is not and `never was Reformed. He
he must become a  member  of the Protestant Reformed                     certainly does not love the Reformed truth.
Church, and that he must make confession of faith there,                    Let me acquaint you with the contents of the letter which
what then must the parents do?  M&t they refuse that the                 are entirely negative.
child's papers be transferred ? This would, in the first place,             Hk begins by writing that he can still call the board
be very foolish. It is, by this time, very evident that the              members brethren even though they hold unbiblical opinions
child can never make confession in the Christian Reformed                and call them biblical. Then he states that "The Standard
Church. Is it not spiritually foolish to attempt to force him            Bearer" lacks emphasis on human responsibility which he
to do so  ? But, in the second place, this is also impossible,           calls a "most grievous biblical deficiency." Next he writes
for the papers  .belong  to the child and not the parents, even          that the Protestant Reformed Churches do not hold the whole
though the child is still a minor. Ultimately, the child will            counsel of God because they do not beseech men to be rec-
surely have his papers transferred and make confession of                onciled to God. He could not possibly be edified and blessed
faith in the church of his choice. You cannot force spiritual            through  the medium of the "Standard Bearer" and would
matters. Hence, my advice to those parents would be that                 not subscribe to it. And he ends with the prayer that God
they let the child join the Protestant Reformed Church and               may deliver the Pi-otestant Reformed Churches from the
that they have  his. baptismal certificate  .transferred.                error of their ways.
    5. But how about the consistory? Must, if the parents                   Such are the  contentS of the letter. It is entirely lacking
refuse to have the  child's  papers transferred, and the child           in positive contents. It is wholly negative. In one Word
comes to the consistory to ask for them, the consistory take             "The Standard Bearer" is no good!
the side of the parents or of the child. My advice would be                 What can you say to a man like that? Must we defend
as f&lows :                                                              our paper over against these charges  ?
   a. Let the  cons&tory  labor with the child for some time.               I will never deign to do this.
Let them attempt to convince him of the error of his way in                 All I will say is that all the issues of the paper we pub-
asking for his papers to what,  iritheir  conviction,  is a heretical    lished ever since 1923 prove that the letter written by this
church. They can do so by a committee or even by asking                  party is one big lie.
him to appear before the consistory. If they `gain him, the                 This I am prepared to prove if the party has the courage
matter is settled.                                                       to come out into open and asks me to sustain this contention.
    b. But if the child-is still convinced, and, besides, attends                                                                   H.H.


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               393
                                                                                                                - -
II                                                                               Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto
      O U R   D O C T R I N E                                                    him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb
                                                               II                for ever and ever.
                                                                                 14. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and
       THE BOOK OF REVELATION                                                    twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that
                                                                                liveth for ever and ever.
                            CHAPTER  XII
                                                                         Even the casual reader will notice immediately that this
          THE  VISION  OF THE , S EALED  BOOK                        grand vision is a continuation of the vision that was begun
                                                                     to be revealed to John in chapter 4. Chapters 4 and 5 belong
                             Revelation 5                            together. They are one whole. They constitute one vision.
        1. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on            What is told  usin chapter 5 simply adds a few new elements
        the throne a book written within and on the backside,        to the vision that was begun in chapter 4. It reveals to us
        sealed with seven seals.                                     above all Him Who is next to the One that sitteth upon
        2. And I saw  astrong angel proclaiming with a loud          the throne, the most important figure of the entire scene,
        voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose          the Lamb that standeth as though it hath been slain,  .the Lion
        t h e   s e a l s   t h e r e o f ?                          of Juda's tribe, the Root of David, Who has overcome to
        3. And no man in heaven, nor in earth,. neither under        open the book and to loose its seven seals. Jesus Christ is
        the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look'       here shown as receiving the power from God to do what
        thereon.                                                     no one in all creation was worthy and able to do namely, to'
        4. And I wept much, because no man was found                 bring and complete the glorious kingdom of God in all  crea-
        worthy to open and `to read the book, neither to look        tion. Hence, the chief thought of the chapter is that the
        thereon.                                                     Lamb is found worthy to open the book.
      5. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not:
      behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of                 We must, for a correct understanding of this entire               .
        David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose         passage, bear continually in mind that in it we have no
        the seven seals thereof.                                     revelation as yet of. the things that must come to pass here-
        6. And I beheld, and,  1o;in the midst of the throne         after. It pictures rather- the new order of things, the order
        and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the              of the new kingdom, as it exists perfectly in God's counsel,
        elders, stood a Lamb  as. it had been slain, having          and as it was in principle realized in the exaltation of the
        seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven              `Lord Jesus Christ, and as it will give battle in the new
        Spirits of God sent forth into  .a11 the earth.              dispensation to the still existing power of the prince of dark-
        7. And he came and took the book out of. the right           ness on earth, and as also it shall finally have the complete
        hand of him that sat upoa the throne.                        victory and be the realization and manifestation of the king-
        8. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts'          dom in all the glory of its ultimate perfection in the new
        and. four and twenty elders fell down before the             heavens and the new earth. It is, from a certain point of
        Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden
        vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the           view, a picture of the battle-force on the side of God op-
        saints.                                                      posing the serpent and his armies. Now in our chapter we
                                                   ,'                receive a vision of the general of this battle-force of the
        9. And  ,they sung  .a new song, saying, Thou art
        worthy to take the book, and to open the seals there-        Almighty, of Him that will lead the armies of God on to
        of: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God         victory  and that will finally gain complete victory at the time
        by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and           of His second coming. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb
        people, and nation;                                          that standeth as though it had been slain, is the chief figure
        10. And hast made us unto our God* kings and                 of this entire  chapter. Let  us  then from this' central point of
        priests: and we shall reign on the earth.                    view  consider the new elements John introduces into the
        11. And I beheld, and I heard the voice  o'f many            vision.
        angels round about the throne and the beasts and                 It is plain that if the apostle did not notice any definite
        the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand          figure on the central throne before, he now does. For he
        times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;              speaks of the right hand of Him that sat on the throne. The
        12. Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb             right hand in general is the symbol of power and. sovereign
        that was slain to receive power, and riches, and             a&ority.  And therefore we have here mention made of the
        wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and
        blessing.                                                    power and sovereign authority of the Most High. On that
                                                                     right hand John perceived a book. For literally we  ,read in
        13. And  .every creature which is in heaven, and on
        the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in           the original  -that  the book is on the right hand of Him that
        the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying,           sat on the throne. That it is on the right hand of God  in-

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

 dicates  evidently that the book is safely kept by the power of       is another: what is the meaning of the opening of the book
 the  Mqst  High and rests on His own authority. The fact              and the breaking of its seals  ? On this question hinges more
 that it  is- presented as being  on  the hand calls to mind the       or less our entire view of the chapter. And then we remark
 picture of one that offers something to another. God, there-          that' there can be little doubt about the fact that this book is
 fore, is ready to present, to give, this book to someone else.        symbol of the living and powerful  decree'of  God with regard
 The book itself is described to us in detail. Many interpreters       to the things  thtit.must  shortly come to pass. Let us clearly
 have attempted to give a graphic and definite description of          understand the implication of this statement. We do not
 this book. They have tried to visualize it. Especially have           mean to assert that this book is a copy, a dead copy, of that'
 they discussed the question whether here we must picture              decree, or the symbol of such a copy. In that case the open-
 to ourselves a  bo.ok  as we know it,  `a number of separate          ing of the book would imply nothing more than that' the
 pages bound up in two `covers, or whether it was the an-              hidden things of God's counsel were prophetically revealed
 cient roll of a book, which John saw in the vision. To us             `to us. But that is not so. The book is the symbol of the
 this question appears to be of little importance. In our dis-         decree itself, of the living, irresistible, powerful decree of
 cussion of the Book of Revelation in the future we shall  oft&        God, Whose chief purpose it is to realize the kingdom of
 meet with visions that cannot be visualized concretely what-          God, which He planned from before the foundation of the
 soever, of which we cannot draw a graphic picture before our          world. The breaking of the  s6als does not simply open the
 minds. Neither is this  hecessary.  What we must attempt              hidden things of God's counsel. Its idea is not simply that
  is to ascertain the  cential significance of each vision, and        of revelation. But the opening of the book signifies the
  explain the details of each scene in the light of this central       realization of that powerful, all-`comprehensive decree of
 idea more or less as a parable is explained. Thus also with           God. It signifies, therefore, the very realization of the king-
 this book. It is, in the first place, a book. And this causes us      dom. He that receives the book and may open the seals
 to think of the thought that is expressed in its contents,  -         receives the living decree of God itself and the power to
in this case the thought and plan of Him that sitteth upon             realize it. He that is honored with the distinction of break-
  the throne, the eternal thought of the living God. This book,        ing the seals receives therefore the power to establish and
  so we are told, was written within and on the back, that is,         to complete the kingdom, actually to bring to pass all that
 it was completely covered. This symbolizes the fact that the          is written in the book. That the book signifies the plan of
 tlioughts of God in this book are complete, and constitute one        the Almighty is evident,  5rst  of all, from the fact that it is
  whole. Nothing can be added to this book, and nothing may            found on His right -hand,  - indicating undoubtedly too that
  be subtracted from it. Just as the two  Stone tables of the          He alone is its Author. That is  Shown,  in the second place,
  Decalogue were covered'on both sides, symbolizing the corn-' by the fact that it is sealed with seven seals. The seal is
  pleteness of the law of God, so this book is complete in itself.     symbol of its secrecy  ; and seven is  co,nn&ed  with the king-
  Further, we notice that the  book'is  sealed. A seal serves to       dom of God. When all of these seals shall  haye been loosed,
  safeguard the contents of any manuscript or book against a           the counsel of God shall have been realized and the kingdom
  possible intruder, for whom the contents of a  certain letter        shall have been established in glory. This is evident, in the
  or book were not intended. Thus, the fact that the book on           third place, from Revelation 4  :l in connection with this book.
  the right hand of Him that sitteth upon the throne is sealed         There John was called to heaven to see the things that must
  and that its seals have never been  .broken signifies that the       shortly come to pass hereafter. It is, plain from all that fol-
  contents are as yet secret. They are not known, to anyone            lows in the Book of Revelation that these things  are con-
  outside of Him that sitteth upon the throne and that is its          tained in the book on the right hand of `Him that sat on the
  author. Yet the manner in which it is sealed  caubes  us to          throne. And that this book is not a mere dead copy of the
  surmise something in regard to the nature of its contents. It        decree of God, but symbol. of the living decree itself, so that
  is, namely, sealed with seven`seals. And seven is a symbolic,        the breaking  ,of its seals involves the realization of  Goi's`
  number. Seven is the symbol of completion, and as such it            counsel, is plain from all that follows. For when seal after
  indicates in this instance that the book is completely and           seal is broken, we are not simply served with  sotile informa-
  safely sealed. But in distinction from the number ten, which         tion read from the book in regard to the  ,things that must
  also denotes completion, seven has generally to do with the          come to pass hereafter,. but we see these very things being
  kingdom of God. And `thus, the number seven, often in-               realized before our eyes. Therefore, we conclude that the
  dicating the completion of God's work in the coming of His           book is symbol of the irresistible  de,cree of God with regard
  kingdom, makes us immediately conjecture that this book is           to the things that must come to pass in this dispensation, and
  somehow connected with the perfecting of the kingdom of              that the opening of the book,  the loosing of the seals, implies
  our Lord Jesus Christ.                                               the power to  iealize that decree and bring the eternal king-
        The.  questiod  that is of supreme importance in  .this in-    dom to perfection.
  stance is : what is the significance of this book  ? This must                                                                  H . H .
  be answered. And in connection with this first question there


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                         395

                                                                       form the last part of our book. Let us now enter into some
        THE DAY OF SHADOWS                                          II detail.Judgment upon the surrounding nations  ; Jerusalem pre-
                                                                        served, 9 :l-8.
            The Prophecy of Zechariah                                       The  bzbyden of  the word of the Lord  atport the land of
                                                                       Hadrach, `and Damascus ,is its resting place; for the Lord has
                          Chapter IX.                                   un eye  ujon  vmn, and upon all the tribes of  Isra.el, 2' and
                                                                       Hamath also  (zwbzicl~)  borders  theron, Tyre and Sidon, be-
   The final triumph of the covenant people, 9  :l  -  1'4  :21.        cause ,it is very wise. 3 And Tyre built for herself a strong-
   With 9  :l begins the second part of the book of  Zecha-             hold, and heaped up S&W ns du&, and gold as dirt of the
riah. It consists of various prophecies dealing with events            streets. 4 Behold the Lord will conquer her &d smite her
that are climaxed by the ultimate triumphs of the kingdom               bulwark  in  the sea, and she  herse'lf shall be  comumed by
of Christ. It opens  with- a prediction of the overthrow of             fire.  5 Ashkelon sees  sit  a.rLd is  afraid,  Gaza also,  a?nd  trevn-
the nations surrounding Palestine (9  :1-S). Then Jerusalem             bles exceedingly:  a,nd Ekron, for  her hope  is  put to shame,
is exhorted to rejoice in the coming unto her of her king.              md the king pmishes from Gam, and Ashkelon shall not be
As his reign will be one of peace, all  ,use of war implements          inhabited. 6 And-a basta.ud  dwells in Ashdod, and I will cut
will cease, hence they will be destroyed, and the dominion              off the haughtiness of the Philistines. 7  And  I will  t&e
of this king,  &ho will' speak peace unto the heathen, will be          awa.y the blood out of his &o&h, and his a,bon&aatiom  from
to the ends of the earth (g-10). The prisoners of hope will             between his tee&; and even: he will rema.in to our God, a.nd
be sent forth from the pit with the prospect of victory in become like a prince in Juda.h, and Ekron like the Jebmite,
their conflict with the world-power, for the Lord will defend           8 And I  will  encamp  ,abozt.t  my house  beca:ctse of thi  army,
and save them (12-17). God will be sought untd. He will                 became of Iaim that passes  by and returns, apad  no oppressor
purge and mightily quicken His flock, and in their resultant            shall  pass through them anymore, for now I see with mine
warfare with the heathen  .His people  will have the victory,           eyes.
for He will be with them  (10:1-g).   The flock marked for                  1.  Bztyden -In the Hebrew Bible this word occupies  a'
slaughter expresses their contempt for the good shepherd,               place above the discourse of our prophet. But in the versions
and for punishment will be given over into the power of an              this word forms the first sentence-element of the statement
evil  .shepherd,  who will neglect and destroy the  ,flock. This        introductory to the first eight verses of his prophecy. In
shepherd will be punished  (lo-17j.  1B;eleaguered  and as-             either position- the term denotes, according to the context,
sailed on every hand by the nations, Jerusalem will be won-             the word of God in its heavy prophecies of the overthrow
derfully delivered (12  :1-g). With the Spirit of grace poured          of the enemies of Jerusalem, of the covenant people.
upon them, the penitent inhabitants will mourn for the good
shepherd, whom they have pierced (10-14). There will be                     The  land  of Hadrach  - Several different interpretations
opened for Jerusalem a fountain of purgation, and the whole `have been given of Hadrach. According to the conclusions
land will be cleansed from idols and false prophets (13 :l-6).          of some it was the name of an otherwise unknown Syrian
The Lord bids the sword to awaken  and slay the good shep-              king. Others took it as the name of an ancient city, the his-
herd. The scattered sheep, the little ones, the refined and             torical identity of which can no longer be established, or as
tried remnant, to whom the Lord will stretch out His hand               the name of a Syrian god, or even of the Messiah. A  car-
again, will call upon His name, and in  reply.to  His answer,           ruption of the text has also been assumed. According to a
It is my people, will say, Jehovah is my God. (7-9). Chap-              recent archeological finding, we are told, it is the name  .of a
ter 14 describes a new conflict between Jerusalem and the               city called Hatarika in the Assyrian inscriptions, mentioned
heathen. By the Lord all the nations will be gathered to-               in connection with Damascus and other cities of Syria. But
gether to Jerusalem for battle, and will make a great  ahd at           whereas, adcording to our prophet, Hadrach was a `land, it
first successful assault upon the holy city (14  :l, 2). Then           cannot be Hatarika, which was a city. Then there is the
the Lord will fight against the nations. He will provide a              view that  the.word  is a compound term meaning  strong-weak,
way of escape for His people, set up His kingdom on earth,              which the prophet employed as a designation of the Persian
and dispense blessings and prosperity from out of Jerusa-               empire, seeing that he knew that this kingdom, then still
lem (3-11). The hostile nations  will'be  desti-oyed, and their         strong and mighty, and to which the covenant people were
treasures given to the covenant people. Those of the  natio?s           subject, would soon be made low.
that escaped will worship  the Lord in Jerusalem. The hea-                  Certain it is that Hadrach was a land, country, and not
then that come not  up.will be smitten with drought (12-19).            a city. This is clear from the expression "land of Hadrach."
Jerusalem  will be thoroughly consecrated unto the Lord                 But  .what land ? In all  likelihdod  Syria. For Damascus was
(20-21).                                                                the capital of Syria, and Hadrach is mentioned by the prophet
    Such in substance are the promises of the Gospel that               in the same breath with Damascus.


  396                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER-
          It really makes no essential difference whether Hadrach      though)  it is very wise." How, much better to read here,
  as a name signifies Syria or also the Persian empire. But            "Because the eye of the Lord is upon man and upon all the
  what is essential  ,is that Hadrach was an enemy of the cove-        tribes of Israel, and (upon)  Hamath (which) borders there-
  nant people, that this being true, the burden of the word of         by, (and upon)  Tyrus,  and Zidon, because it is very wise."
  the Lord -was upon this  iand, its people, its city states, and      This reading has the firm support also of the thought of
  that, therefore, they will be crushed, destroyed. For the            verse  Sb, "And no oppressor shall pass through them any
  word of God is  ,efficacious,  it always accomplishes what it        more : for now I (Jehovah) have seen with my eyes." The
  says. And it is under the burden of this word that this land         idea is that the Lord sees, observes the nations, knows how
  finds itself. This alone has real significance here. What            they -oppress His people. In the language of 1  b,  He has an
  significance? This is clear from the succeeding clause,  "Ad         eye upon mankind.
  Da.vtascus is its  yesting place."  In years gone by, when it           Also  Hamath was located in Syria. In ancient times it
  was still an independent city-.state, Damascus, Syria,. had          was a city of great prominence. When  Toi, king of  Hamath,
  been the scourge of Israel. Elisha had burst into tears at           heard that David had smitten all the hosts of Hadadezer,
  the thought of what Hazael, whom he had just anointed                he sent him present of gold, silver and brass (II Sam.  8  :9).
  king over Syria, was to `do to the covenant people, namely           Solomon built store cities in the land of  Hamath (II Chron.
  set on fire their strongholds, slay their young men with the         S  :4)  1 It lay to the north of Dan, bordering on the territory
  sword, dash their children and rip  up  their women with             of this tribe. But the burden of the Lord's word was also
  child (II Kings 9  :2). And, therefore, the burden of the            upon  Hamath,  so that its glory departed. Long before the
  Lord's word will rest upon Damascus. Upon Damascus it                time of our prophet it ceased to be an independent city-state.
  will abide, and not only upon Damascus but upon every                In the centuries that followed it gradually sank into decay.
  city, land, people, kingdom, world-power hostile to the  cov-
enant people will abide the burden of the Lord's  word.--                 3. Tyre and Sidon were the two chief cities of Phoenicia.
  abide until the last of these evil powers, kingdoms, to make         These cities also had grievously, trespassed against Israel
  its appearance, be crushed, utterly destroyed,  ,and the whole       and Judah. They had stolen gold and silver from the tem-
  earth cleansed from the race of men that now pollute it. This        ple and the homes of the rich Jews and had carried these
  is here the Gospel.                                                  treasures into the temple of their own gods. Invading Judah,
                                                                       they had led away captive Judah's children and sold them
     lb  y This last part of verse 1 states the reason why the         to the Grecians (Joel 3  :4), and to the Edomites (Amos
  burden of the Lord's word is upon Hadrach and Damascus.              1:9).  As a people they were endowed with a large, measure
  Jehovah has an eye upon man, mankind, and upon all the               of natural wisdom and understanding by which Tyre built
  tribes of Israel  ; that is, not alone upon Israel His people is     herself a stronghold and heaped up immense treasures (Ezek.
  His eye but upon all mankind as well, which is equivalent            25  :4,  -5). Originally built on the mainland, Tyre was later
  to saying that his interests are universal, that He knows            removed to a neighboring rocky island, where it was so
  what each and every nation does and deserves, and rewards            strongly fortified as to have become almost impregnable.
  every one according to his works. The same idea is ex-               But her power and wealth will cease. For the Lord lays the
  pressed by Jeremiah in the following words, "Great in coun-          burden of His word also upon these cities, upon Tyre. And
  sel, and mighty in work: for thine eyes are upon all the ways        this burden is that the Lord will seize her and smite her
  of the sons of men : to give every one according to his ways,        stronghold in the sea, and devour her with fire. The city
  and according to the fruit of his doings" (Jer. 32  :19). This       herself, her palaces, storehouses and magnificent buildings
  spells out the destruction also of the false church, the repro-      will go up in flames. And so it has come to pass. At the
  bated and disobedient seed among the covenant people.
     ,                                                                 time that this prophecy was uttered, the city had already
                                                                       lost her independence. But no conqueror had been able to
          Some, including Calvin, read verse  lZ, as follows, "When    breach her walls. This was first done by Alexander the
  the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward     great. Forcing his way into the city, he laid her in ruins.
  the Lord." This is the rendering found also in the versions.
  Although the Hebrew text allows this translation, it is not             S-6a. The prophet turns to Philistia, a  small country in
  so good. It makes verse `1 say that the burden of the Lord's         Southwestern Palestine from only 25 to 30 miles long, with
  word is  ,upon Damascus, Syria, the nations, mankind, be-            an average width of 15 miles. It contained several towns
  cause or when their eyes are turned upon Him, when, in               and villages, the most important of which were  `the five so
  other words, they seek Him, which, of course, cannot be.             often mentioned in the Scriptures, namely Gaza, Ashdod,
  Second, this other reading does not allow a proper flow              Ashkelon,  Gath,  and Ekron. In this land dwelt the  Philis-
  of thought between verses 1 and 2. Adopting this other               tines,- a people of great antiquity. From the beginning  .of
  translation we. have this, "When the eyes of man, as of all          Israel's settlement in the land of Canaan, the Philistines
  the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the Lord. And  Hamath          were actively and bitterly hostile to the covenant. people.
  also shall border thereby, Tyre and Zidon, because (not :            The Lord complains about this in the following revealing


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               397
                     ---_--           ;
language, "The Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have          `brought sacrifices, the blood  of. which they were in the habit
taken vengeance with a despiteful heart to destroy for the          of drinking, and the flesh of which they ate.  But the Lord
old hatred" (Ezek. 25  :15   j.  Our.  prophet describes the        will convert them, so that by His mercy they will spew
effect of the fall of Tyre upon four of their five chief cities.    these abominations out of their mouths and turn to Him,
Ashkelon will see it and be afraid. Gaza will also see it and       the living God, to worship Him only. And even he will
tremble exceedingly in terror.. And Ekron, for her confi-           remain to Israel's, God, or, better, a remnant also he will be
dence and expectation is put to shame. This last statement          to the Lord. He, the Philistine people, the Lord will turn,
explains the terror of these cities. The fall of  .Tyre, the        not head for head, but this people according to the election
invincible city, completely shatters the confidence of the          of grace, thus the remnant. The bastards, the children  of
Philistines in their own strongholds. If Tyre was unable            satan,  will become the sons of God, and enter the congrega-
to withstand the enemy, how will their own cities, however          tion of the Lord. And he will become like a prince in Judah.
well-fortified, be able to hold out against him, when  he- will     The Hebrew word here translated prince means governor,
have come upon them? And come he will. This explains                and is used as the head of a thousand. Here it denotes not
the terror. What is said of Ekron is just as true of the            the leader but the division over which he rules, so that the
other Philistine cities. How the enemy will deal with these         thought is that Philistia will become like one of the divisions
cities, what is to be the extent of the calamity to befall them,    in Judah. The remnant of the Philistines will be incorporated
the depth of the misery into which they will be plunged, is         into the church of God, become a living member of Christ's
foreold.  The king shall perish from Gaza. Ashkelon shall           body. And Ekron will become like the Jebusite. Ekron,
not be  inhabitecl, and a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod. As         like Ashdod in verse 6, represents all Philistia. The  Jel:u-
what is asserted of each of these cities must be equally true       sites were the Canaanitish inhabitants. of Jebus, thus also
of them all, the overall prediction is this : The enemy will        bastards originaly. But after the conquest of their strong-
come. He will force his way into the fortified cities, and          hold by David, they were incorporated into the Jewish nation
their inhabitants shall be put, to the sword. The depopu-           and the remnant saved.
lated cities will be inhabited by a bastard race. What is to            8. And the Lord will encamp about his house against
be understood by this word bastard  ? Who is this bastard?          an army, better, And the Lord will encamp for His ho  r;e,
Are we to think here, as some do, of a foreign or mixed             that is, for its protection, without an army, against him that
race by which the depopulated cities of Philistia will be col-      goeth hither and thither.  Howe  denotes His chosen people,
onized ? This would imply that the Philistines will be de-          the church,  in-the first instance the remnant of our prophet's
ported to some strange land, which is not so, as this was           day. While judgments fall upon the nations, Jerusalem, the
not the policy of the conqueror (Alexander the Great). The          true believers, will enjoy the protecting care of the Lord.
Hebrew word in question is found also in Deut. 23  :2, where        The phrase, "him that goeth hither and thither," denotes
it is stated that a bastard shall not enter the congregation        in the first place, Alexander the Great and his army, passing
of the Lord even  ,to the tenth generation. Here the word           and repassing Jerusalem but doing her no injury. For Je-
must signify an illegitimate  son,in  the natural sense. Is this    hovah was encamped about His house. And no oppressor
the signification of the word also in the verse under con-          shall come over them any more. No oppressor such as
sideration ? This cannot be. Is then the reference to bastards      Egypt, Syria, Assyria, Babylon, the world, the world powers
in the spiritual sense  ? This view can best be harmonized          and their prince, the devil, sin, death. For now the Lord
with surrounding statements.                                        sees with His eyes,  - sees the afflictions of His people and
   6b.  The Lord will cut off the pride of  ihe Philistines.        the cruelties perpetrated by the enemy. Of them all He will
With the judgments of God implied in verse 6 upon them,             make an end.
they will be deeply humiliated; For they were a powerful                                                                   G.iiO.
people. At the time of the Hebrew conquest none of their
towns were taken (Josh. 13  :3). In the past they had always
been able to `withstand the enemy, or, if defeated, to rehabil-
itate themselves.                                                                             NOTICE!
   7. The Lord will take away his blood out of his mouth,              The Editorial Staff of the  Stapzdard  Bearer will meet, the
and his abominations between his teeth. If these pronouns
look back to  .the Philistines of the preceding verse; the          Lord willing, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at the home of
bastard  that will dwell in Ekron of verse  6b  must be  Philis-    Rev. H.  Hoeksema, on Thursday evening, June 6,  1957.
tines. The blood of which mention is here made is that of           The members of the staff will please view this announcement
the sacrifice. The word abomination signifies idol worship.
The statement as a whole brands the Philistines worshippers         as an official notice.
of strange gods, spiritual bastards. To these gods they                                             c Rev.  H; Veldman, Secretary


39s                                            ,THE  ,STANDARD   B E A R E R

II                                                                    business executives or the like ? Did we have our eye on
i                                                                     wealth and send our children to school because we wanted
`ii               IN HIS F-EAR                                     / to see them make a pile of money for themselves and to get
                                                                      hold of a  sizeable portion of this world's goods  ?
             Trained for What and by Whom?                                There is nothing to celebrate then!
       For hundreds and thousands in our land the month of               .And it is a time for us to sit down and weep rather than
 June will have special significance.                                 to rejoice. If we have sought to have them trained with these
                                                                      things as the goal, we may with a sinful pride gather with
        It is frequently referred to as the month for brides, and     them at commencement exercises, thrust out our chests and
 it will, perhaps be chosen by many, many brides-to-be as the         boast that this or that is my boy or my girl. But we ought
 proper month for their wedding.                                      rather'to  weep  and'humble  ourselves before God in prayer
        But June is also, and consistently so, the month that         and penitence. For then we have not trained them in His
 sees commencement exercises across the land in which we              fear.
 live.                                                                    Listen once to the word of God!
        Universities, colleges, high schools and schools of ele-         "Thus saith  tho Lord, Let not. the wise man glory in his
 mentary education celebrate in June the fact that among the          wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let
 number of *their pupils  ,there are those who have finished the      not the rich man glory in his riches : But let him that glorieth
 prescribed course of study.                                          glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I
        Diplomas are handed out; and it is a happy time and a         am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and
 significant milestone in the lives of the youth of  ,our land.       righteousness in the earth : for in these things I delight,
        Even for those who graduate from the schools for ele-         saith,  the Lord," Jeremiah 9  :23,  24.
 mentary education it is a significant milestone. For some  of            No, wisdom in regard to natural things is not to be con-
 these it marks eight years of formal  education.being  brought       demned. And such wisdom may be sought. All the wisdom
 to its successful end. For others it may signify nine years          and skill of the surgeon and -physician may be appreciated
 of such education. But for well nigh all it means that at            and sought in our afflictions and woes. A place of power
 least half of the time they are to spend in receiving a formal       and honor over men need not be refused as an evil in itself.
 education is a matter of history. Eight or nine years of  ele-       We must not discourage our children, who at an early age
mentary  education, three or four years of high school and            have ambitions for an executive position, as though all might
then four years of college. Few go beyond that.' And the,             and power in themselves are evil. Gold and silver must not
 eighth or ninth grade graduate' can look back and say this           be avoided as poison  ; our children must not  be discouraged
 June that as far as the time element is concerned he is at           from seeking to be trained to make a living and are not to
 least half way through his formal education. For those who           be taught that it is a great wickedness before God to make
intend to seek no further education than that to be obtained          more money than a bare living.
in the high school it is a matter of being two thirds of the
way through this period of receiving a formal education.                  But do not train or let your children be trained to think
        June will, therefore, mark a very significant milestone in    that in these he is to glory. Do not let him be trained into
 the lives of many thousands of the youth of our land.                seeking these things as an end in themselves, as the goal of
                                                                      his life.
        Are your children among them ?
        And if they are, for what were they trained and by                Glory not in the achievements of your son and/or daugh-
whom ?                                                                ter who has such natural wisdom and a promising future of
                                                                      might and wealth, if they do not understand and know God
       We will gather with them and celebrate with them this          that He is "the Lord which exerciseth loving-kindness, judg-
achievement. We will, perhaps, reward them with a watch               ment and righteousness in the earth."
or some other gift; and congratulations will be the order
of the day.                                                               "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word
        But is there really anything to celebrate  ?                  that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," Matthew  4:4.
                                                                      0, it is to be understood that the unbeliever will live by
        Is it really an occasion that calls for rejoicing?            bread alone. It is to be expected that he sends his children
        Have we sent them to school merely for the sake of            to school to be trained to live for bread alone and to try to
wisdom? Did they attend their schools in order to be pre-             live by bread alone. He must, indeed, set before his child
pared to be mighty, influential men and women, men and                no other goal than earthly wisdom, might, and wealth among
women who will command respect and hold important posi-               men. He hates God and rules Him entirely out of his life.
tions in the world as doctors, lawyers, governors, senators,          He does not want to be bothered with the idea of living in


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   UEAl~l~l~'                                                   399
-.

His fear He knows  nothing  besides this present life and               And  now  yortr child graduates from such a training ?
this present world. He knows' that he is here for a very                Does his diploma state that he has successfully finished
short time  ; and he is intent on getting as much out  -of it as    the course of study in the glory of  man's earthly wisdom;
he possibly can. He will eat, drink and be merry, for he:           of carnal might and worldly riches ? Do the unbelievers
knows that `tomorrow he dies. He, must needs have his               sign their names to his diploma as a witness and seal that
child trained also to begin as early in life as possible to         your child has learned well that wherein God does not de-
seek the things of this world. He either refuses to believe         light  7
that there is anything for him after this life or else he lives
in the awful awareness that  hii lot after this life will have           Whp gives your child his diploma this month  ?
no joy but instead everlasting agony and woe in the just                Who is proud of ydur child  and. rejoices that he has
judgment of God. Therefore he and his children must seek            absorbed his teachings and responded to his training'?
honor and wealth of this world and seek wisdom to  .obtain
all these. Therefore he will gather with his children when              `Is it believer or unbeliever?
they graduate and glory in their wisdom because it gives                 Is it those  ,who understand and know God as  <the Lord
him hope of might and wealth.  '                                    who exercises loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness ?
   But you,  Cl&istian reader  qf these lines, for what and         Is it one who knows God in Jesus Christ, in whom that
by whom was this child of yours trained that receives his           loving-kindness alone is to be seen, in Whose cross the judg-
diploma this month from a university, a college, a high school,     ment of our sins and of the wicked world is displayed, in
or from a school for elementary education?                          Whom the righteousness of God is prepared for His people?
                                                                    Is it one who loves your child for God's sake or one who             ,
   If you sent them to the world for their training, can  you       loves your child for the sake of the gods of wisdom, might
expect anything else than that they are trained to glory  `in       and earthly riches ?
wisdom, might and earthly riches  ? Can you expect  tliat
those who themselves do not know and understand that God                 Can you  6eet with the saints and sing with them when
is "the Lord  Wh%  exercises lo&g-kindness, judgment,  afld         your child receives his diploma ? Will you sing the songs
righteousness in the earth" will teach your child to  under-        of Zion. the songs of God the  L&d, the. songs of His  loving-
`stand and know Him as such?                                        kindness, judgment and righteousness, when your child grad-
   Whtit does the unbeliever know about the priesthood of           uates this month  ? Or will you sing to the gods of wisdom,
man before  God*?  What does the world, that denies that            might and riches  ?
God is the Lord, know and understand about the creation                  0, if  yoil are a child of God and  you  love your children
of man in the image of God as a thinking, willing creature          as covenant children of God,  you  will weep rather than sing
through whose mind and will all of creation could and should        to see your child trained  with  tlie  world.  and by the world
return to God ? The unbeliever. (and the schools supervised         fog the world.
and founded by the unbelievers) denies that God is the Cre-
ator of all things. He wants to teach your child all things in           Remember that you send them to the world, to the un-
such a way that God is ruled out of His Own creation. He            believer for only one reason. There is only ONE thing for
does not know and understand that He is the Lord  bf all crea-      which you can send them to the world:  .&to understand and
tion. Creation is here for man. Higher than man and his             know wisdom, might and riches and to glory in these!
lusts, his  ,ambitions and his physical and psychical wellbeing          There is no Christian school where  you  may send them  ?
he does not want to go. He worships the creature rather
than the creator,  Remans  1  25. He worships wisdom, might              That is a tragic situation. And  you  ought to seek to
and riches. These are his god. And he can train your child          realize one in your  .community. But the fact remains.
only to glory in these gods of wisdom, might and riches. To         Whether you do it  ,deliberately  or out of necessity, when
understand and know that God is the Lord, Who exercises             you send them to the world, to the unbeliever,  you  do it
loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness he has no de-           that they may glory in wisdom, might and riches as an  elid
sire himself;  ,and rather than to desire to have your child        in themselves. Never do you send them there that they
whom you place under his "care" know and understand                 may understand and know that God is the Lord.
God in that way, he will plan and conduct all his teaching in            0, reconsider for the other children!
such a way that he will deliberately oppose the very idea.               Train them and have them trained in  IIis fear.
   Wisdom, might and riches are the end which he seeks.
   He will train your child to seek them and to glory in                 Then you can rejoice  wifh them at their commencement
them.                                                               exercises and sing with them of God's loving-kindness,
   Tell me who trains your child. I will tell you for what          judgment and righteousness and glory in these.
he trains them !                                                                                                              J.A.H.


400                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   BE,ARER

                                                                     himself carnally before offering the sacraments to God ! The
         Contending For The Faith                               I new order owed its whole time to the office and had none,
                                                                     left for marriage and the family life (I Cor. 7  :32). Only an
                                                                     unmarried man who refuses  `to gratify carnal lusts can fulfil
            The Church and the Sacraments                            the  injuction  to be a temple of God and avoid quenching the
                                                                     Spirit- (Eph.  4:30;  I Thess. 5  :19).
  VIEWS `DURING  THE THIRD  PERIOD  (750-1517 A.D.)                     These motives controlled also the followers of Gregory
                                                                     and the whole hierarchy,' and secured the ultimate triumph
                  THE SUPREMACY.  OF THE POPE                        of sacerdotal celibacy. The question of abolishing it has from
                                                                     time to, time been agitated, and in the exceptional cases of
           GREGORY  VII  AND THE PAPACY  (continued).                the Maronites and United Greeks the popes have allowed
       In his war on Nicolaitism, Gregory was sustained by           single marriage in deference to old custom and for prudential
                                                                     reasons. Pope Pius II, before he ascended the papal chair
ancient laws of the Roman Church, but not by the genuine             (1455-1464))  said that good reasons required the probibition
spirit of Christianity. Enforced clerical celibacy has no            of clerical marriage, but better reasons required its restora-
foundation in the Bible, and is- apt to defeat the sacerdotal        tion. The hierarchical interest, however, has always over-
ideal which it was intended to promote. The real power and           ruled these better reasons. Whatever may have been the
usefulness of the clergy depend upon its moral purity, which         advantages of clerical celibacy, its evils were much greater.
is protected and promoted by lawful matrimony, the oldest            The sexual immorality of the clergy, more than anything
institution of God, dating from the paradise of- innocence.          else, undermined the respect of the people for their spiritual
       The motives of Gregory in.his zeal for sacerdotal celibacy    guides, and was one of the chief causes of the Reformation,
were partly monkish and partly  hierachical.  Celibacy  was an       which restored honorable clerical marriage, created a pastoral
essential part of his ascetic ideal of a priest of God, who  must    home with its blessings, and established the supremacy of
be superior to carnal passions and frailties, wholly devoted  to     conscience over hierarchical ambition.
the interests- of `the Church distracted by no earthly cares,            From the standpoint of a zealous reformer, like Gregory,
separated from his fellow-men, and commanding their  -rever-         the morals of the clergy were certainly in a low condition.
ence by angelic purity. Celibacy, moreover, was an indis-            No practice did he condemn with such burning words as the
pensable condition of the freedom of the hierarchy. He               open marriage of priests or their secret cohabitation with
.declared  that he could not free the  Church from the rule of       women who were to all intents and purposes their wives.
the laity unless the priests were freed from their wives. A          Contemporary writers like Damiani, died 1072, in his  Go-
married clergy is connected with the world by social ties, and       pti,o&zionzbs,  give dark pictures of the lives of the priests.
concerned for the support of the family  ; an  unmarried=clergy      While descriptions of rigid ascetics are to be accepted with
is independent, has no home and aim but the Church, and              caution,  #the evidence abounds that in all parts of Latin
protects the pope like-a'standing army.                              Christendom the law of priestly celibacy was ignored.
       Another motive for opposing clerical marriage  .was to        Modern Catholic historians, like Hefele and Funk, do not
prevent the danger of a hereditary caste which might appropri-       hesitate to  .adduce the proofs of this state of affairs. The
ate ecclesiastical property to private uses and impoverish the       pope Benedict IX, according to friendly testimony, was
Church. The ranks of the  hierachy, even the chair of St.            thinking of taking a wife openly. The legislation, opening
Peter, were to be kept open to self-made men of the humblest         with the canons of the Roman synod of 1049 held by Leo IX,
classs, but closed against hereditary claimants.  !_ This was a      and emphasized at the Roman synod of 1059 held under
practical recognition of the democratic principle in. contrast       Nicholas II, was given by Gregory VII such a prominence
with the aristocratic feudalism of the Middle Ages.  Hilde-          that one might have supposed the very existence of the
brand himself, who rose from the lowest rank without patron-         Church depended upon the enforcement of clerical celibacy.
age to the papal throne, was. the best illustration of this          There were bishops even in Italy who openly permitted the
clerical  democrarcy.                                                marriage of priests, as was the  case with Kunibert of Turin.
       The power of the confessional, which is one of the pillars    In Germany,  :Bishop Poppo of Toul did not conceal his
of the priesthood, came to the aid of celibacy. Women are            quasi-marital relations which Gregory denounced as fornica-
reluctant to  intrust their secrets to a priest who is a husband     tion, and the bishops of Spires and Lausanne had hard work
and father of a family.                                              clearing themselves in public synods from a like charge.
       The married priests brought forward the example of the        Married priests were denominated by synods and by Gregory
priests of the Old Testament. This argument Damiani an-              VIII as  f`incontinent"  or "concubinary priests." Gregory
swered by saying that the Hebrew priest was forbidden to             spoke  of Germany as afflicted with the "inveterate disease of
eat before offering sacrifices at the altar. How much more           clerical fornication." And what was true of Italy and Ger-
unseemly it would be for a priest of the new order to soil           many was true of England.,                              .


                                                                                     :


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            .     401

 The  Enfowewted  of  Sacevdotal  Celiba.cy.                            afterwards forced into the ranks of his opponents, openly
    Gregory completed, with increased energy and the                    reproached him  for- these most  extraordin?ry measures as
weight of official authority, the moral reform of the clergy  as        dangerous to the peace of the Church, to the safety of the
a means for securing the freedom and power  of the Church.              clerical order, and even to the Christian faith. Bishop Henry
 He held synod after synod, which passed summary laws                   of Spires denounced him as having destroyed the episcopal
against  simony and  Nicolaitism,  and denounced all  carnal            authority, and subjected the Church to the madness of the
connection of  priests with -women, however legitimate, as              people. When the bishops, at the Diet of Worms, deposed
sinful and shameful concubinage. Not contented with  synod-             him, January, 1076, one of the reasons assigned was his sur-
ical legislation, he sent letters and legates into all countries        render of the Church of the laity.
with instructions to enforce the decrees. A synod in Rome,                  But the princes who were opposed to Henry IV and
March, 1074, opened the  w&r. It deposed the priests who had            deposed him at Tribur  (1076),  professed great zeal for the
bought their dignity or benefices, prohibited all future  sacer-        Roman Church and moral reform. They were stigmatized
dotal marriage, required married priests to dismiss their               with the Milanese name of Patarini. Even Henry. IV,  though1
wives or cease to read mass, and commanded the laity not to             he. tacitly protected the simoniacal and  concubinary clergy
attend their  servBes.  The same decrees had been passed                and received their aid, never ventured openly to defend them  ;
under  Nicolas  II and Alexander II, but were not enforced.             and the anti-pope Clement III, whom he elected 1090, ex-
The forbidding of the  laity to attend mass said by a married           pressed with almost Hildebrandian severity his detestation of
priest, was a most dangerous, despotic measure, which had               clerical  concubinate,  although he threatened with  excom-
no precedent in antiquity. In an encyclical of 1079 addressed           unication the presumptuous laymen who refused to take the
to the whole realm of Italy and Germany, Gregory used                   sacrament from immoral priests. Bishop Benzo, the most
these violent words, "If there are presbyters, deacons, or sub-         bitter of  impkrialists,  did not wish to be identified with the
deacons who are guilty of the crime of fornication (that is,            Nicolaitan heretics.
living with women as their wives), we forbid them, in the                  A contemporary writer, probably a priest of Treves, gives
name of God Almighty and by the authority of St. Peter, en-             a frightful `picture of the immediate results of this reform,
trance into the churches,  introituftz  ecclesiae, until they re-       with which he sympathized in principle. Slaves betrayed
pent and rectify their conduct."                                        masters and masters betrayed slaves, friends informed against
   These decrees caused a storm of opposition. Many clergy-             friends, faith and truth were violated, the offices of religion
men in Germany, as  Lambert  of Hersfeld reports, denounced             were neglected society, was almost dissolved. The peccant
Gregory as a madman and  heretic:  he had forgotten the                 priests were exposed to the scorn and contempt of the laity,
words of Christ, Matt. 19  :ll, and of  the Apostle, I Cor. 7  :9  ;    reduced to extreme poverty, or even mutilated by the popul-
he wanted to compel men to live like angels, and, by doing              ace, tortured and driven into exile. Their wives, who had been
violence to the law of nature, he opened the door to indis-             legally married with ring and religious rites, were insulted
criminate licentiousness. They would rather give up their               as harlots, and their children branded as bastards. Many of
calling than their wives, and tauntingly asked him to look              these unfortunate women died from hunger or grief, or com-
out for angels. who might take  theirs  place. The bishops were         mitted suicide in despair, and were buried in unconsecrated
placed in a most embarrassing position. Some,  like Otto of             earth. Peasants burned the tithes on the field lest they should
Constance, sympathized with the married clergy  ; and  hc               fall into the hands of disobedient priests, trampled the host
went so far as to bid his clergy marry. Others, like St.  Alt-          under foot, and baptized their own children.
mann of Passau, were enthusiasts for sacerdotal celibacy.                  In England, St.  Dunstan,  archbishop of Canterbury, died
Others, like Siegfried of Mainz, took a double attitude. Arch-          958,  had anticipated the reforms of Hildebrand, but only
bishop  Anno of Cologne agreed with the Hildebrandian prin-             with  temporari  success. William the Conqueror made no
ciple, but deemed it impracticable or inopportune. When the             effort to enforce sacerdotal celibacy except that the charge
bishops lacked in zeal, Gregory stirred up the laity against            of concubinage was freely used as a pretext for removing
the simoniacal and concubinary priests.  He exhorted a certain          Anglo-Saxon prelates to make room for Norman rivals.
Count Albert (October, 1074) to persist in enforcing the                Lanfranc of Canterbury was a Hildebrandian, but could not
papal orders, and commanded Duke Rudolf of Swabia and                   prevent a reformatory council at Winchester in 1076 from
Duke  Betrolf of Carinthia, January, 1075, to prevent by force,         allowing married priests to retain their wives, and it con-
if necessary, the rebellious priests from officiating, no matter        tented itself with the prohibition of future marriages. This
what the bishops' might say who had taken no step to punish             prohibition was repeated at a council held in London, 1102,
the guilty. He thus openly encouraged rebellion of the laity            when Anselm occupied the see of Canterbury.            Married
against the clergy, contrary to his fundamental principle of            priests were required to dismiss their wives,  ,and their chil-
the absolute rule of the hierarchy. He acted on the maxim               dren were forbidden to inherit their fathers' churches. A
that the end sanctifies the means. Bishop Theodoric of                  profession of chastity was to be exacted at ordination to the
Verdun, who at first sided in the main with Gregory, but  was'                                  (Co&ued   ow  jmge 403)


                                                                                                                           I
4-02                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
      - -

I/                                                                          Lord. It is to this that the fathers refer  wheel. they say,
              The Voice of Our  FathX                                      "When God accomplishes                his  good  pleaswe  in the elect,
                                                                                                         this 

                                                                            or works in them true conversion." Just as we remarked in
                                                                            the previous chapter, the fathers maintain not only that God
                    The Canons or Dordrecht                                 sovereignly chose His own from eternity in Christ, but they
                                                                            also insist that God Himself realizes His counsel of election
                                  PART  TWO                                 in time. The fathers  saw that the former could not  be
                      EXPOSITION  OF THE  CANONS                            maintained without the latter, and that if we are to maintain
               T HIRD  AND  FOURTH H EADS  OF   DOIXRIN~;:                  that salvation is the work of God at all, we must maintain
      OF  THE CORRUPTION OF  MAN,  H:s   CONVERSION TO GOD,                 that it is the work  pf God from beginning to end, and not at
                      AND  T H E  M A N N E R  T H E R E O F                all the work of man. And therefore- they refer to the effica-
                                                                            cious calling as the accomplishing by God of His  own good
                 Article 11.  But when God accomplishes his good
               % pleasure in the elect, or works  in' them true conver-     pleasure in the elect. But now they want to be very sure that
                 sion, he not only causes the gospel to be externally       this efficacious calling is indeed understood as efficacious. And
                 preached to them, and powerfully illuminates their
                 minds by his Holy Spirit, that they may rightly un-        they therefore leave no stone unturned to make this plain.
                 derstand and discern the things of the Spirit of  Go,d;    They want it plainly understood that God, and God alone,
                 but'by the efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit,
                 pervades the inmost recesses of the man; he opens          is the author of this work, and that He is the sovereign
                 the closed; and softens the hardened heart, and cir-       author. Hence, they set out in this article carefully to cir-
                 cumcises that which was uncircumcised, infuses new
                 qualities into the will, which though heretofore dead,     cumscribe this wonder of the efficacious calling, and to make
                 he quickens; from being evil,  disobedi+t, and re-         it plain that, as a divine work exclusively, it is complete.
                 fractory, he renders it good, obedient, and pliable;
                 actuates and strengthens it, that like a good tree, it     When they are finished with this description, there is simply
                 may bring  for,th the fruits  o,f good actions.            nothing left to be ascribed to man.
        A few minor corrections in the  franslation  are in order,             We must remember, of course, that they are opposing and
first of all.                                                               exposing the Arminian error. This explains their great care
 .l.          The first clause' should read : "Moreover,  wh`en  God        in carefully delineating this doctrine. For, first of all, the
accompliHhes  this his good pleasure in the elect . .  ." This              Arminians were crafty and deceitful. If you insisted that
expresses- the connection with the preceding article correctly,             salvation is of  the  Lo.rd, that man has not saving grace of
and is  plaitily  the meaning of the original,  "Caetemw,  qmndo            himself, nor of the energy of his free will, that it is needfui
Detts hoc su.UM heneplacitwm.  in electis esequit~w . . ."                  that he be born again of God in Christ, through his Holy
        2.    The description of the work of God's grace upon the           Spirit, and if you insist that the grace of God is the beginning,
will, found in the last part-of this article, though correct as             continuance, and accomplishment of all good, the Arminian
far as the meaning is concerned, might better maintain the                  will say, "Amen. I surely agree with you." You cannot talk
sharp emphasis of the article  b) following the word order of               generalities when you deal with an  Arminian  ; you must be
the original more closely, as does the Dutch  traiislation. It              specific,. And if you fail in this, the Arminian will leave the
would then read somewhat as follows:  ". . . . he infuses new               field of battle for the truth victorious. This is indeed  still
qualities into  the will, and changes it from being dead unto               true  today. Any Arminian will maintain what I have just
being alive  ; from being evil, good  ; from being unwilling,               described above. You can hear it in many an Arminian ser-
willing  ; from being refractory, obedient, and actuates and                mon. But in the meantime, you must not forget that the
strengthens it, so that, like a good tree, it is able to bring              same Arminian will maintain either literally or by implica-
forth the fruits of good actions."                                          tion that  `(as respects the mode of the operation of this grace,
        This paragraph stands in close connection with Article              it is not irresistible." And therefore you cannot afford, when
10, as is plain  from its opening clause, "Moreover, when God               dealing with Arminians, not to dot your i's and cross your
accomplishes this his good pleasure in the elect, or works in               t's.  *The  Arminian teaches, III, IV,  $3,  6, that in the true
them true conversion . .  ." In it we have a further delineation            conversion  of man no new qualities, powers or gifts, can be
of the wbrk of the efficacious calling. In the preceding para-              infused by God into the will, and that therefore faith through
graph the fathers have insisted that when others, called by                 which we are  fii-st converted, and because of which we are
the gospel, obey the call and are converted, this is not to                 called believers, is not  a, quality or  giftl infused by God, but
be ascribed  to'man,  but to God, Who, according to the stand-              only an act of man (sic  !) . The Arminian conceives of the
ard of election in Christ, efficaciously calls His own in time,             grace whereby we are  converted to God  (II!, IV, B,  7)) as
confers upon them faith and repentance, rescuing them from                  being only a gentle advising,  or (as others explain it), that
the power of `darkness, and translating them into the king-                 this is the noblest manner of working in the conversion of
dom of His own Son, that they may show forth the praises                    man, and that this manner of working, which consists
of Him Who hath called them out of darkness into His                        in advising, is most in harmony  with man's nature. And
marvelous light, and  v+y glory not in themselves, but in the               it is this fundamentally divergent view of grace,  - the


                                             T H E        STA.NDARD   BEARER                                                         403

 term itself being no longer applicable,  - which characterizes        1.          The preaching of the gospel to the elect. Notice, how-
 the Arminian view of the call of the gospel, and therefore, of       ever, `that even as regards the external preaching of the
 the preaching of the gospel, throughout. The Arminian                gospel, the fathers  use. careful language: God causes the
 preacher urges, and persuades,  and begs men to accept Christ.       gospel to be externally preached to His elect.
 He presses for a decision. There must be an act of faith. And               Y.
                                                                             3 The powerful  illumin?ion  of their minds by the Holy
 the sad spectacle is *that in our day many so-called Reformed        Spirit, so that they may rightly understand and discern the
 people have either so  completley  lost sight of the truth or        things of the Spirit of God. Without this work of the Holy
 else are become ashamed of the heritage of Dordt, that they          Spirit accompanying the external preaching of the gospel, the
 follow  <the same Arminian  tacti&,  and "press for a decision."     elect would never see the kingdom of heaven.
 It is these errors that the fathers had in `mind when they                  3. However, the foregoing are not first, and are not suf-
 composed this and other connected articles, and composed             fi-ient.   u By the efficacy of  the Spirit of regeneration, God
 ihell  in such a way that they left no room for these  Arminan-      penetrates into the inmost recesses of the elect man. There,
 izing tactics on the part of one who truly means to live by          first of all, He belabors man's heart. How contrary to the
 the Reformed confessions.                                            current presentation of this matter in our day! Not man,
     In the second place, we may note that here we deal with          but God opens the closed  tieart. That work of God is pre-
 a subject which receives but scant attention in either our           requisite to any receptivity `for the gospel of salvation. Not
 Heidelberg  ,Catech&f,  or our  NetherLand  Confession.  Al-         man, but God softens and mollifiies the hard heart. Unless
 though it is undoubtedly true that the  Arminiali view was           God does this, the seed of the Word will never fall therein,
 contrary to the whole tenor of our other confessions, it             take root. and bring forth fruit. And God circumcises the
 nevertheless remains true that these confessions  are not very       uncircumcised heart: This is, of course, figurative language.
 explicit and concise on the subject of the efficacious calling.      It means that God cuts away from the heart the dominion
 And from that point of view, they did not leave room for the         of  sin; of the old  mti.
 Arminian error, but, to use a figure, the door was not                      4. Furthermore,  this accomplishing of God's good
 slammed very tightly against Remonstrants' false doctrine.           pleasure in the elect concerns the will. God infuses into that
 On the other hand, we may be forever thankful that the God           will new spiritual qualities, -qualities that it has never
 of His church used the rise of the Arminian errors in order to       known before. It is naturally dead; God makes it alive  untc)
 stir our fathers  $0 state this truth concerning our calling out     Him. It is naturally evil; God  rriakes  it ethically good. It is
 of darkness into His light with great care. We have a plain          naturally unwilling,; God makes it willing. It is naturally
 example here of the' fact that the Lord often uses the rise of       refractory, rebellious; God makes it obedient. Where now
 controversy and opposition as a  means to accomplish the             is there any room for the false notion that man's "free will"
 further delineation of His truth by the church.                      is the determining factor,  - or any factor at all,  - in the
    As far as the positive meaning of this article is concerned,      work of salvation  ?
 we may observe, first of all, that here for the first                       5. But this is not enough. We now arrive at the matter
 time the fathers speak of regeneration, and that too,                of activity. And what is the fathers' view of this  ? Does
 only indirectly:  ". . . . . but  .by the efficacy of the same       God's work cease at this juncture, and man's work begin?
 regenerating Spirit,  peryades the inmost recesses of the  &an."     Not at all: God also  a,ctuates  and  stvengtlzens  that will in
 It is evident here that the article speaks, therefore, of re-        such. a way that it becomes a real possibility to bring forth
 generation in the broader sense of the word. We  may'  and           the fruits of good actions,  - actions of faith and repentance.
 do distinguish, of course, between the very first infusion of                                                                   H.C.H.
 the new life in an elect sinner and the so-called  inte'rnal
 calling. And when we speak of the order in which the bless-                               CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
 ings of salvation are bestowed upon God's people, we say:                                     (Coil tim4& f mm page  401)
 regeneration, calling, faith, etc. The two, regeneration and         subdiaconate  and the higher orders. But no punishment was
 the calling, are to be sure, very closely allied. And the            prescribed for the violation of these canons. Anselm main-
 apostle Paul includes the two frequently under the one term,         tained them vigorously before and after his exile. A new
tlze  calling.  Then the calling is to be understood as the entire    council, called by King Henry at London, 1108, a year be-
 work of God's almighty grace whereby He quickens the dead.           fore Anselm's death, passed severe laws against sacerdotal
 And it is in this last sense that the fathers speak of the           marriage under penalties  df deposition, expulsion from the
 work of regeneration. They  do not distinguish between the           Church,  .loss of property, and infamy. The temporal power
 very first beginning of regeneration and that work of God's          was pledged to enforce this legislation. But  aadmer,,  the
 grace whereby He brings the new life of regeneration to              bidgrapher  of Anselm, sorrowfully intimates that the result
 conscious activity and expressions. But they include the en-         was an increase of shocking crimes of priests with their rela-
 tire work in the one term.                                           tives, and that few preserved that purity with which  Anse!m
     In this work they include:                                       had labored to adorn his clergy.                              H.V.

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

                                                                         latter outside of the periphery of the church's concern and
              DECENCY and ORDER .                                        seriously enjoins her to keep her hands off. This, we be-
                                                                         lieve, is also the Scriptural viewpoint for the church in the
                                                                         world is the  ,earthly,  visible manifestation of the Kingdom of
                    Matters to be Treated                                Christ and that Kingdom, as Jesus Himself said, "Is not of
                                                                         this world." Thus, there are "matters of this world" and
                 Article 30 D.  Ii. 0. (Continued)                       "matters of the Kingdom" and the latter alone are and must
       "In these assemblies ecclesiastical matters only shall be         be *treated by the church in her proper assemblies.
treated." Such is the wording of Article 30. It would seem                   This distinction certainly does not conflict wih the  ac-
t,hat further comment on the above statement is altogether               ceped truth that the treatment by the church of those  things
unnecessary since the fact stated follows from the  verFJnature          that are -strictly "ecclesiastical" affects the relationship of her
of things. It is obvious that a farmer shall concern himself             members to the things of the present world. Her members are
$ith things pertaining to agriculture, a doctor with medicine,           indeed in  the  wovld  although they are not of  the  world and
a teacher with pedagogy, etc. Isn't it then rather redundant             their position in the world unavoidably places them daily in
to say that the church shall treat only those matters that               certain relationships to the things of the present world. By
pertain to and concern the church ?                                      virtue of this these "worldly things" do not become "ecclesi-
       Although this would appear to be the case, we must,               astical" but rather the relation  .of the believer to these
nevertheless, insist that the above rule is fundamental and it           mundane matters  is to be determined by those things that
is certainly not redundant to express it. It is very important           are properly treated by the church. The latter's determina-
*that this rule be retained and enforced with rigor. Such is             tion of "ecclesiastical matters" certainly affects her members
for the good of the church and if the necessity of this is to be         in their business relations, society, recreation, relation to
really felt, it may be imperative to further clarify the rule            government, education, etc. A classic example of this is the
which, in its resent form, is broad and undefined. Especially            decree of the church relative to the matter of so-called com-
                P .
two factors  contrlbute toward the mandatory enforcement and             mon grace. In dealing with this question as such, the church
clarification of  <this rule. Firstly, there is that reality that may    is properly &treating an ecclesiastical matter,  - a matter of
never be `overlooked, that the church always has a natural               faith and doctrine. When, however, she decides favorably to-
tendency and is constantly confronted with the temptation  io            ward the damnable heresy of common grace, as the Christian
enter into spheres and operations which are really of na                 Reformed Church did in 1924, she cannot escape the practical
concern to her. Among other things, the vain desire to                   consequences nor is she able to impede the mighty influx of
acquire recognition and honor in the present world is a                  worldliness into her midst. She cannot avoid, while pretend-
strong contributing  force  which urges her in this wrong                ing to maintain her Reformed Standards, to be plagued by
direction. Many churches today, forgetting or ignoring their             the embarrassing impossibility of solving her problems of
rightful limitations, have followed this urge and degraded               "unionism, worldly amalgamation, divorce, remarriage,
into mere secular institutions. It  iS pathetic that such in-            worldy amusements, the movie, card-playing, etc. etc." She
stitutions continue to wear the insignia "church." Now the               has in her treatment of the "ecclesiastical matter" opened her
rule of Article 30 safeguards the church from following this             door to worldly modernism and she, therefore, in her mem-
dangerous inclination which leads to spiritual jeopardy.                 bers, ought not to complain when the expected fruits of such
       In the second place, the fact that there is even within the       action by the church are reaped. When "ecclesiastical mat-
church itself a wide difference of opinion with respect to               ters" are  w&-treated by the church, the results are often far
what actually constitutes "ecclesiastical matters"  ,necessitates        more damaging yet than when the church reach& outside of
some further and  more. definite clarification of the rule. A            her rightful sphere to treat matters that are "non-ecclesi-
matter that to one is very ecclesiastical may, in the opinion            astical."
of another, have nothing to do with the church. Especially                   We mention all of this here for two reasons. Firstly, we
this problem is accentuated by the fact that the spiritual, con-         want to emphasize that ecclesiastical matters are not ab-
fessional influence of the church through the Gospel which               stract, academic questions of interest to theologians but they
she preaches permeates every sphere and relationship of                  are living issues that vitally concern our whole life. Since we
human life. This fact easily leads to a wrong conclusion.                are directly affected by the things that take place in our ec-
When all the things  df life are viewed from this broad                  clesiastical assemblies, these things ought always to be of
vantage point one is more than apt to conclude that every-               highest interest and deepest concern to  US.  And, secondly,
thing in life is "ecclesiastical" and, in a certain sense, this may      we must emphasize the significance of the words, "shall be
even be said to be true. However, obviously this conflicts               treated" in Article 30 as well as the worlds,, "only ecclesi-
with that other more limited viewpoint, apparantly that of               astical matters." Let us then comment further. on these two
the church order, that sharply distinguishes between "ec-                points.
clesiastical" and "non-ecclesiastical" matters. It places the                Concerning the first, it may be  saidl that  the reason this


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                            405

 is true lies in the fact that "ecclesiastical matters" are those    One may admit that such maneuvering is indeed clever but
 things that relate to the means of grace and the exercise of        it must be also noted that it is subtil and evil. It is a shirking
 Christian discipline.  Ecclesi,astical matters are inseparable      of responsibility. Yes, it is known that. such actions claim
 from the marks of the true church. These marks concern              an apparant justification on the alleged basis that the matter
 principally the' preaching of the Word, the main function and       really belongs with the local church but honesty would dic-
 calling of the church. Related to this is the task of the church    tate the admission that the whole thing is really a bit to
 to formulate the truth of the Word and express that truth           "consequential" and the major assembly ran "stuck with it."
 in her Confessions so that in concise and definite form  ,she       When the matter is simply passed on, it can by no stretch  af
 may have before her and excellent standard by which  the            the imagination be said that it was "treated" by the assembly.
 walk of her members is to be gauged and, on the other hand,         This involves "arriving at a definite conclusion, disposing of
 a mighty weapon with which to combat the sinister forces of         a matter by decision, making a final determination with
 deception and evil. With these things she ought to concern          respect to a given question." This is not done when the
 herself for her battle is strictly a spiritual one. The rule, we    so-called "hot-potatoe" is conveniently passed on to someone
 are discussing then prescribes that the church shall treat only     else to avoid having one's own hand's burned. Nor can that
 those matters that concern her, spiritual warfare with the          be the end of the matter. The fire continues to burn and the
 powers of darkness and that relate to the upright walk and          heat grows increasingly intense.
 conversation of the soldiers within her ranks. Thus char-                Likewise minor assemblies sometimes imprecate them-
 acterized the scope of "matters to be treated" is still some-       selves in the same manner when a difficult decision  con-
 what broad but is also so limited that there should be no           ceining.  a local circumstance confronts  thep  and, without
 real difficulty in ascertaining whether or not certain ques-        taking a definite position on the matter, they attempt to have
 tions and subjects which from time to time arise for con-           the major assemblies decide it for them. The "ecclesiastical
 sideration properly belong or do not belong within this scope.      assemblies" then become "Question boxes." This, too, may
    Concerning the second matter mentioned above we should           not be for the expressed mandate of Article 30 is that all
 like to emphasize first' df all the verb, "Shall Be."  Ecclesi;     ecclesiastical matters  shald be  trmted  first in the minor as-
 astical matters "shall be" treated. This "shall be" in our          semblies before they can be treated in the major assemblies.
 opinion assumes the proportion of a "must" in this  conriec-        To this there is one exception to which we shall presently
tion. It is  iinperative.  It is not a matter of voluntary choice    return. Our space, however, for this  issue is filled and so
 but rather the duty, obligation, calling, responsibility of the     we shall wait, D.V., till next time.
 church to treat matters that belong to her character. She                                                                         G.V.D.B.
 may not ignore those matters or attempt to find ways to evade
 deciding them. This is especially important when the church
 is confronted by weighty matters, -matters that have far                                          IN MEMORIAM
 reaching and serious consequences for her position and con-             The Priscilla Society of the First Protestant Reformed Church
 tinuous functioning as church in the world, -matters which          wishes to express its sincere sympathy to one of its members,
 in themselves are difficult and involved and concerning which       Mrs. Charles Pastoor, and her family, in the  14~s of their son
 there is considerable dispute and contention within her ranks.      a n d   b r o t h e r ,
                                                                                                  ROBERT W. PASTOOR
 Always there is a natural tendency to avoid the real treat-         on May 16, 1957.
 ment of such matters.  :This is not right. Oh, yes, they are            II Timothy  4:8-"Henceforth  there is laid up for me a crown
 considered and discussed but not  treated.  A decision may          of righteousness, which the  Losrd, the righteous judge, shall give
 ultimately be reached by the church  "about"  the matter but        me at that day: and not to me  o~dy, but unto all them also that
 the matter itself is left undecided. What is decided frequently     love his appearing."             .
                                                                                                                Mrs. G. Bol, President
 relates to various subordinate  and really irrelevent matters                                                  Mrs. C. Prince, Secretary
 that are somehow attached to the main question. This main
 question  iS then circumvented by a decision that is neither                                        IN MEMORIAM
 positive nor negative, often self-contradictory, ,a sort of  in-        The Men's Society and the Ladies' Aid  .Society extend their
 between-comprimise that is supposed to pacify both sides of         sincere sympathy to the family of Mr. and Mrs. Justin H.
 the dispute. Such treatment  (  ?) is more harmful than any         Kortering in the home-going of a beloved father and grandfather,
 thing else.  ' The assemblies must remain conscious of their                                   MR. BENJAMIN KORTERING
 calling and duty to  &eat  all matters properly before them.            "But ye are come unto mount  Sio,n,  and.unto the city of the
     In other instances we have witnessed major assemblies           living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable com-
                                                                     pany of angels, to the general assembly and church of the  first-
 of the church evade the duty of  treating  ecclesiastical  mat:     born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all,
 ters of this nature by conveniently deciding to "leave the          and to the spirits of just men made perfect." Heb.  12:&  23.
 matter to the discretion and judgment of the various in-                                                  The Ladies' Aid Society of Holland
 dividual churches." You, no doubt, also know of such cases.                                               T,he Men's Society of Holland


4.06                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B.EARER

                                                                      able section dealing with the. Kingdom of God.
11  A L L   AROLIND  U S                                                 "We are grateful that the Rev. Mr. Hoeksema was able
Ii                                                                    to finish his exposition of the Catechism. With the complete
                                                                      set of ten volumes in hand the interested student can clearly
Prof. Lo,uis Berklzof Passes.                                         see the important differences which Hoeksema's vigorous
        The  Gra.nd   Rapids  Press  of May 18 reported the unex-     denial of common grace. make at crucial points in the whole
pected death of Prof.  Eme?itus Louis Berkhof  at the age of          of Reformed faith and  practise.  These divergencies ought to
83 years. According  `to the news item, he died unexpectedly at       challenge the thinking of those who are concerned about the
Blodgett Memorial hospital Saturday morning about two                 lasting influence of the issues of the controversy of 1924.
hours after he was taken there with an apparent heart con-            This latest book of Hoeksema combines in a fine manner the
dition.                                                               author's unique gift of fusing theological insight with devo-
        The Press further reports that he entered into the min-       tional warmth, and his treatment opens up new and fresh
istry in the year 1900 and served two churches in  the Chris-         perspectives in understanding the Lord's Prayer."
tian Reformed  den6mination for brief periods of two years               We are rather pleased with this factual and pointed survey
each, and then was given the chair of New Testament and               which honors this servant of God who was granted the wis-
later dogmatics at Calvin Seminary in which he served until           dom,  strength  and time to produce this series which has
the time of his retirement in 1945.                                   been, and we trust, will be, so much help to the minister who
        Prof.  Berkhof was the first president of Calvin Seminary,    preaches on the Heidelberg Catechism or who studies this
the department editor of the church periodicals  The  Banner          Standard of our Reformed faith for his own spiritual profit.
and  De  Wachter  many years. In fact, an article of his ap-             The Rev. Mr. De Jong gives evidence in this review of
pears in the latest issue of  Tl~c Banner of May 17, 1957. He         having  ,read more than Hoeksema's series on the Catechism.
was also the author of many books, the most popular of which          Perhaps he is one of many ininisters who has in his library
was his "Systematic Theology," which the article states was           all of Hoeksema's books and prizes them as most valuable
translated into several  ot'her  languages. If our memory serves      implements  in' his studies. And  thouih  the Rev. De Jong
 correctly, he was also one of chief authors, if not the father,      cannot be in. agreement with the views of Rev. Hoeksema set
 of the now famous "Three Points of Common Grace" adopted             forth in his books where common grace is concerned, he
 by the Christian Reformed Church in 1924, which became               nevertheless gives a surprisingly fair appraisal and acceptable
the occasion for the split in the Christian Reformed Church           evaluation of them. For this we are deeply grateful.
and the  begimling  of our Protestant Reformed Churches.
        The Christian Reformed Church will no doubt consider          Graham and the New York City C~amfwign.
 his passing a severe loss ; and no doubt, too, cognizance of            Most of the recent church and independent religious
his passing will be noted in many `church periodicals outside         periodicals we have read carry articles relative to the Billy
of this denomination, since he was well-known on the church           Graham New York Crusade. Last week as we passed through
 scene both in this country and abroad. When we consider all          New York City huge bill-board signs portraying the bust
that we have read that  ,flowed  from his pen, it is our judg-        photo of Billy Graham and an accompanying advertisement
ment that the late  proflssor  was not a genius  for being            informing the passers-by of the meetings he would be con-
 original, but he did have the ability to amass and restate           ducting in Madison Square Gardens effectively caught our
 what others  before  him have stated.                                eye.  Characteri&ically one of these signs was placed along
Review of  "The Perfect Prayer."                                      side of a huge whiskey advertisement, attractively set high
        The Banner  of May 17, 1957, contains a brief  book-          above the buildings to our left, as we traveled south on the
review written by the Rev. Alexander C. De Jong relative              New Jersey Thru-Way to Philadelphia. Evidently months
to the latest and last book in the series on the Heidelberg           `of planning and ground work was expended by his  Evan-
 Catechism, written by the Rev. Herman Hoeksema. The                  gelis'tic  Association to prepare for this biggest of them all
book was titled: The Perfect Prayer. Rev. De Jong writes              campaigns to gain "decisions for Christ."
as follows :                                                             The Banner  of May 17, 1957, reports that "Three weeks
        "With this work on the  Lord? Prayer Rev. Hoeksema            before the opening date, the Graham organization had se-
 completes his series of ten volumes dealing with the Heidel-         cured the cooperation of 1,500 churches in the city, and had
 berg Catechism. The studies in this volume are not materially        enrolled a total  oP 4,500 individuals in the  counsellor training
 different from  thos'e found in an earlier work by the same          program. Two thousand ushers had been secured to direct
author entitled `In the Sanctuary.' There are, however, im-           the seating in the 19,000 seat Madison Square Garden,
 portant additions such as his treatment of the `necessity of         where the evangelistic meetings are to be held. Two choirs
 prayer, the perfection of the Lord's prayer,  the problem of         of 1,500 voices each were rehearsing with a view to providing
 healing in connection with prayer  - which incidentally con-         music nightly, each choir on alternate evenings.
 tains a unique exegesis of the James passage-and a valu-                 "The well-organized crusade had also secured and  ac-


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  407
                                    -                                                                                             -
 cepted an offer of a nation, wide T.V. network fdr an hour            and honor and glory, without hestitation and before any
 telecast time each Saturday night during the crusade . .  ."          group, to Jesus Christ.  @etter than anyone else, he knows           '
     ChGstia.nity  Today devotes no less than two rather               that the organization and publicity will amount to nothing
 lengthy articles in its May 13th issue to this campaign.  In          unless the power of God falls. A warning ever before him  8
 the first  ,of these written by Edward John  Carnell,  who titled     will be, `It is not by might nor by power, but by my spirit,
 his article with the question "Can Billy Graham Slay  .the            saith the Lord,' !and, `My glory I  wil! not share with another.'
 Giant  ?", the writer compares the city of New, York to                  "Greater things than the few listed here can happen in
 Goliath and Billy to David with his sling  and five smooth            New York. They will happen . . . if you care enough to
 stones.                                                               pray - without ceasing."
     Very interstingly the writer tells of his concern whether            Reader's Digest, May 1957 issue, also presents a con-
 Billy Graham will be able to succeed  ,to bring the giant to          densation of the'book written by Stanley High entitled :  "Bil!y
 the ground whereas Reinhold Niebuhr, the realistic theolo-            Graham: The Personal Story of the Man." The Digest in-
 gian of repute residing for sometime in the giant city has            traduces *the article with the following paragraph: "A sen-
 failed miserably "to stir the city for Christ."  Carnell  is          sitive, probing study of the man  whose career as a spokes-
 deeply interested in the outcome `of the campaign that it may         man for the Christian faith is unique in our times, and who,
 be determined whether the traditions of orthodoxy defended            in the massive crusade beginning in New York's City's
 by Graham, who "preaches Christ in such clear and forceful            Madison Square Garden on May 15, has found the courage
 language that even a bartender can find his way to the mercy          to undertake the most challenging revival meeting in Prot-
seat," will succeed in penetrating  <the granite towers of Man-        estant history."
 hattan.                                                                  These are only a few examples, which could probably  te
     In this same issue of  ClwistiaSnity  Today, George  Burn-        multiplied a hundredfold, demonstrating the effort of the
 ha&  writing under the title  `$This  Can Happen in New               Billy Graham supporters to set before the eyes of the reading
 York," begins his article thus: "If  jrou care enough to pray,        public  <the greatness of the now famous North Carolinian.
 a number of incredible things will happen during Billy Gra-              We have before expressed our judgment on the effort of
 ham's New York Crusade, beginning May 15. Here are a                  this man and his association to gain "decisions for Christ."
 number of predictions,  based on taking God at his word and           We need not repeat now what  \+e said then. This only would
 what he has done in the past  - not with an idea of trying to         we say, that it becomes increasingly evident that through this
 go before him :                                                       approach religion and the "preaching of the gospel," are
     1.     Billy Graham will tell more people about Jesus Christ      becoming increasingly popular. It is  OUT candid opinion that
 during the next six weeks than he has during all of his               f;he Holy Scriptures nowhere predict this popularity for the
 phenomenal ministry, with the exception of the world wide             true preaching of the gospel. Rather, the converse is true in
 radio program, `Hour of Decision.' . . .                              this latter age.  The  truth  has never been popular, and I
     3 
     Y. The number of inquirers who respond to the invita-             cannot find one passage in Scripture where the Word of God
 tion at the close of each message, by the grace of  God?  will        says that it ever will be. Arminianism and, for that matter,
 surpass any campaign to date . . .                                    many other false  isms, can be and evidently are now popular,
     3.     Ministers and church members will be revived. Unity        and will be for some time to come. But the truth which
 and love will  spread as they place Christ first and denomina-        presents the gospel that God  is sovereign in our salvation,
 tion second, endeavor to help instead of hinder! offer  comfort       and  <that He saves His elect without any contingent work of
 instead of criticism . . .                                            man, will never be acceptable to the masses. Billy Graham is
     4. The name of Jesus Christ will be for many the                  a thorough-bred Arminian, and the efforts of his association
 biggest topic of conversation on the streets, in factories and        do not proceed from the church of Jesus Christ who, Spirit
 offices and on the dimly lit night circuit of such spots as the       ied, fulfils her mandate to preach the gospel to all peoples,
Stork Club and Toots Shor's . . .                                      but from an independent organization through whom it does
     5.     The effect of the campaign will be felt in many parts      not please God to disseminate His truth.                   M.S
 of the world . . .
     6.     Communists in New York will face the rising threat                             WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
 to their godless way of life by smearing Mr. Graham in any               On June 30, 1957. our dear parents :nd grandparents,
 way possible . . .                                                       0       MR. and MRS. RALPH DE YOUNG, Sr.
     7.     Opposition will conitnue to-coine from small extreme       hope to  celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.
                                                                          We thank our Father in heaven for sustaining them in there
  groups within the Church . . .                                       thirty years together and pray that He will sustain and bless
   S. Most important of all, Jesus Christ will be glorified . .  ."    them in the years he has yet set befdre them if they be many or
                                                                       few.  And  we thank Him that it has been His will that they have
     Burnham  closes his article with the assertions that Mr.          raised us in the ways of his kingdom.
  Graham and his team are going into this campaign "totally                                         Mr. and Mrs. Ralph De Young, Jr.
                                                                                                    Mr. and Mrs. John De Young
  clependent upon God." "Mr. Graham will give all the praise                                        and 4 Grandchildren

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

            Report of Western Ladies' League-                         sang for  us.  Psalter numbers  71 and 197 were sung, our
       The spring meeting of  the. Western Ladies' League of          president thanked the hostesses, the Doon society, and Rev.
                                                                      Heys closed with prayer.
the Protestant Reformed Churches was held at Doon, IOWA,                 We are thankful to God for revealing' these `precious
on the afternoon of April 26, 1957.                                   truths  to  us  and pray for grace that we may be faithful to
       The meeting was opened- by singing our. theme song,            Him and that all things may be done to glorify His Holy
Psalter number 295 and also Psalter  number  82. Our pres-            Name.                               Mrs. T.  .Jansma,  Reporter
ident, Mrs.-E. Van Egdom, read Psalm 31, after which Rev.
Van Baren opened with prayer. A word of welcome was ex-                        Report of Eastern Ladies' League
tended by our president to all the ladies present. Our secre-            The Ladies' League meeting was held -April 25, 1957, at,
tary, Mrs. C. Klein, read the minutes and our treasurer, Mrs.         our Fourth Prot. Ref. Church. The meeting was opened by
T. Kooima, gave a report. Mrs. G. Van Baren was voted as              `singing Psalter No. 14 and Psalm  105  :5, after which our
our new vice president and Mrs. S. Broekhouse-as  our new             president Mrs. L. Jonker read from Scripture Deuteronomy
treasurer. Our president extended a word of thanks to the             6 :l-9, 20-25, 7 :6-11, and led us in prayer. She extended a
retiring officers. Psalter `numbers 221 and 112 were sung             word of welcome to all the ladies present. A ladies' Quartet
while the offering was taken for Ths Standard Bewer. The              from the Priscilla Society of First Church favored us, &h.a
president then introduced our speaker, Rev. Van Baren,  who           number entitled, "Search Me 0 Lord."
spoke on the topic, "Lead Thou Us On."                                   The president then introduced the speaker for the  eve-
       Rev. Van Baren said this is a prayer addressed to God          `ning, Rev. G. Lanting,  who< spoke to us on the topic, "The
arising from `the heart of the child of God and God answers           Duty of Covenant Mothers with respect to the Teen-Ager's
this prayer according to His grace.                                   Problems."
       What does it mean ? It means that we have no trust in              1. Problem - Teen-Agers are neither children or. adults
ourselves but in God. The child of God realizes a complete            and therefore.are  in a peculiar position. They are beginning
need for reliance on Him.  We are dependent on Him for                to take their  .owq place in church, home, school, etc. They
both our material needs and our spiritual needs. God must             criticise  the teachings of the parents and teachers, attempting
lead  us  in the truth. That is His promise and that is our           to stand on their own feet. What must we do with the Teen-
prayer. God only is true so we must depend on Him for the             Agers? They are covenant children and have dertain obliga-
truth. The child of ,Gbd prays for leadersihp confident that          tions to the covenant, therefore they must be taught.
                   `.
God  will lead  him in  the  way- the way of life. It implies            2. Answer or Solution. Training and Instruction. We
a certain goal which is the glory qf God. It is the purpose of        believe and teach that the covenant is established in the line
the child of God to glorify God.                                      of continued generations, therefore as mothers we have  a
    Who' are so led ? The child of God and the church of Christ       special ddty in respect to our Teen-Agers. Our manifestation
are led to eternal glory. The world is also led although they         must be all things to God's gldry. We must teach them not to
don't want. to be led. The world is led into eternal dam&a-           walk.in sthe ways of temptation but to walk according to the
tion. The child of God prays that he may be led. This prayer          glory of Gdd. This  takes  wisdom and knowledge of `God.
does not originate in us but is worked in our hearts by the               3. Our duty with respect to that problem. God must be
Holy Sipirt.                                                          the object of all our love. We must live as a good example
       Why is *this' prayer necessary? We live in a world of sin      before our children always  being  faithful to God. As cov-
and iniquity and we have our own sinful flesh. We must ask            enant  mothers our main object must be to know and serve
God to guide us for His own name's sake.                              God, then and then only can we instruct and train our cov-
   How does God lead us 7 Christ speaks to                            enant teen-agers to know God and what their obligations are
                                                  us and leads us
through Christ through the Word-through the proclama-                 to him in ail their activities. Bring to maturity in the fear of
tion of His Word, It is the work of the Spirit whereby God            the Lord to live to his honor and glory.
implants in us the new life. God leads us and also supplies               While singing Psalter No. 322, a collection was taken for
`us the means to follow.                                              The Standard  Bewer,  and our Hope and Adams Street
       As Christian mothers we must pray that God will  lead          Schools. The business of the evening was taken care of after
us in such a way that we can instruct, guide, point our chil-         which Mrs. J. Kuiper  from our Hope Church gave a report
dren to the truth. We must see to it that they receive proper         on the activities of their Society. The ladies' quartet sang
catechetical instruction and that they come to catechism pre-         another selection entitled, "All that thrills my ~0~1 is..Jesus."
: pared.                                                              We sang Psalter No. 344 and Rev. Ganting closed our meet-
       After this instructive speech! a ladies' duet from Edgerton    ing with prayer.
sang for                                                                  Refreshments were served in the basement.
             us.  Rev.  Veldman  answered the questions previously
sent to him by each society. A dquble duet from Hull then                                             Mrs. H. Velthouse, Reporter


