I              VoIilME   XXXIV                                    MAY  15, 1958  -  GRAND  ILwDx,  MICHIGAN                                        NUMBER   16
                                                                                                 in the mount of God, there was a manifestation of God on
                     MEDITATION-                                                                 top of the mountain within sight of the  whole  tamp of the
                                                                                                 Israelites  : the sight of the glory of God like a devouring fire.
                                                                                                     Then from chapter 24 to chapter 31 they received  in-
               TNE WORSHIP  OF THE GOLDEN CALF                                                   structions from God with  regard to the whole cultus of Is-
     /'                                                                                          rael's  religion, namely, instructions to make the tabernacle
                          "`And   when  the people saw that  Moses  clelayed to
                      come  down  out  o f   t h e   mount,  t h e   p e o p l e   gathered      and.`all  its furniture, the institution of the priesthood, their
                      themselues together unto  Aaron,  and said unto  him, Up, service, and the  sacrifices.  In short, they received  instruc-
                      make  US  gods,  which  shall go before  US;  for  as for  this            tion regarding the  whole  economy  of salvation.  Moses and
                      Moses,   the-  man that brought  US up  out  of  the  land of              Joshua were shown the pattern of God's salvation in heaven.
                      Egypt, we wot not what is become  of  him.
                          Yet  now,  if  Thou wilt  forgive   th& sin  -; and if                     f                    `*  *  *  *
                      not, blot me,  I  pray  Thee,  out  of  Thy book which Thou
                      bast   written.
                          Behold, Mine angel  shall go before thee."                              And at the conclusion of that 40 days the great sin of
                                                                EXODlA.3   32:1, 32,  34b        Israel occurred. A mob gathered, under the leadership of
                                                                                                 some influential men, of course. They gathered themselves,
              .The great Rock of offense to al1 the wicked world is this :                      and after  agreeing on their intent and purpose, they went to
           God justifies the ungodly !                                                          Aaron : Up, malie US gods ! And let those gods go before US
                                                                                                and lead US. Because this man Moses who brought US here
              Oh, if only we preach a gospel according to mn : then                            from EgyFt  : we do not know what became of him !
           we Wil1 believe  and be saved. But when it is al1 of God, nd
           nothing of US, if we are saved by grace alone, we are offended.                          There you have the great sin of Israel.
                                                                                                     That sin was, first of al1 base ingratitude. Moses did not
              A' clear  case of this great truth is found in the worship                        redeem them. God did. The Great Deliverer was forgotten.
           of the golden  calf. If at  any  time,  it is Flain here that                        The loving God was denied.
           God justifies the ungodly :  Moses realized that there was                               Even the facts which testified of this miraculeus  deliver-
           nothing to plead on but God's faithfulness. The people had
           forfeited  al1 consideration.                                                        anc'were  forgotten. What about the wondrous miracles at
                                                                                               _,, the exodus. from the land of bondage ? They had forgotten
              In order to see the picture of this event clearly, you must                       the ten plagues on th one hand, and the march through  the
           go back to Chapter 24 of Exodus.                                                    midst of the Red Sea on dry ground on the other hand. Then
              Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, together with 70 elders                            too, there were the miraculeus  acts of God since they were
           were ~bidden  by God to approach  unto Him. And they saw                             on the way from Egypt to the typical land of Canaan.
           a beautiful manifestation of God: "under His feet as it were                             Al1 is forgotten.          ~'         _-
           paved work of sapphire stone." It was the heavenly blue of                               And in the stead of worship because of  al1 the acts of
           covenant  faithfulness. And although they  approached  so                            lovingkindness of God, .they lusted after idolatry and image
           close to the heavenly vision : "He laid not His hand upon the                        Worship : the abqminable thing they had seen so  often in
           nobles." That is, .He did not kil1 them.                                             EgYF't  .
              Thereafter,  Moses  receives  the commandment to  come                                The thing is  promptly  done.  Aaron  commands  them to
           up to God on the mount. Leaving  Aaron and Hur to rule                               strip their wives and their children of al1 their golden orna-
           and to guide the people of God, Moses and Joshua proceeded                           ments and to bring thm to him. A golden calf`is made, and
           to climb the mountain of God. And there they spent 40                                .all this wickedness is climaxed by filthy Flay : Moses found
           days and nights. And al1 the while Moses and Joshua were                             them naked in the sight of their enemies.
                                                                                                                   _


I
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      3 6 2                                           THE  STANI)ARD.   B E A R E R

          And what  makes this sin so great is that. it is done in              And if al1 confessing Christians would understand this
      the sight of the glory of God on the mount. In the sight of           fundamental truth, they would al1 gladly and joyously em-
      God they  changed  this glory of God into the similitude of           brace the doctrine of election  and reprobation.
      an ox that eateth grass.                                                  Attend to this : God cannot  merely forgive : the debt must
          The covenant with their God (see : Exodus 24 :5-8)) when          be paid. Well, from a thousand pulpits we hear the answer:
      they were sprinkled with the blood of the Old Testament,              Christ paid the debt ! But- He paid it for the whole world !
      `was utterly  broken.                                                 And if :that  is true then the whole world is saved!  For God
                                                                            wil1 never ask the payment of ~the debt twice. Neither is this
                                     .* ***                                 possible. If the debt of the whole world is paid, then there is
                                                                            no more wrath in God, and hel1 is impossible.
          Of cciurse, the Lords knew what. had transpired on that               However, let 
      40th day of Moses  and Joshua in the mount. And He tells                                   US return to  Moses. His sentence hangs in
                                                                            mid-air. He realizes that God cannot  merely  forgive with-
      them. And when God's wrath waxed hot, Moses intercedes                out an atonement being made. He also must have realized
      for  the. people three  times.  First he points really to  Gods       that atonement  by, the blood of animals could not  suffice
      faithfulness. Then, He reminds God of the danger that                 either.      -
      Egypt and the wicked nations  wil1 blaspheme Him for
      bringing the people  out of Egypt to the mount, only  `to                 And so we  come to his  attempt  of being the savior of
      destroy them. And third,  Moses reminds the Lord of  His-             Israel : "Blot me, 1 pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou
      oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the oath namely,  when              hast  written  !"
      He had promised  to bring them to Canaan.                                 What must we say, what must we confess of this attempt
          And. then Moses  and Joshua return to the people.                 at mediator?          -
          Seeing the  wanton  idolatry and filth, Moses  in great  anger        It was not defiance of, God, as though he wanted to say :
     1 calls on the faithful Levites to destroy the ring leaders, of        If they cannot live, 1 want to die too ! Because God had said
      whom 3000 are slain.                                                  to him that He would make a great nation of him.
         Then he returns to God.                                                NO, it is this : the Spirit of the Christ who was to  come
                                                                            was in Moses. The great love of God was the driving force
          Listen: Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have         i n   Moses. The same driving force of the love of God
      made them gods of gold.                                               pro.np<ed  Paul to say manp centuries later : 1 could wish that
         .All sin is nat great sin. There is a tremendous differente,       myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kins-
      David prays against "presumptuous  si&." :This was a great            men according to the flesha.  . .
      sin. It amounted to a severance from God. The covenant                    Note also that Moses went further than Paul. Paul could
      was decidedly broken.                                                 wish.  #Moses  said : Blot me  out of Thy book ! Paul  could
          And then  comes  something   very  strange and  uniquae:          wish, but he did not. And-why  ? Because he knew better  than
      Moses'  attempt  at being the mediator, the savior, the               to wish. He stood behind the cross and.  much additional
      deliverer from sin through-  self sacrice.                          revelation. But the same Spirit prompted both men.
          You fnd it twice, and perhaps, three times  in the Bib1.e.           However, Moses was refused. And that was right, beau-
          The form in which Moses brings his intercession to God            tifully right.                                          .
      is  also passing strange. 1 do not believe that you  can  find            He was refused, 1 think, for but one reason: NO man,
      another instance in the Bible where a sentence is cut shortin         being a sinner, can bring the sacrifice for sin.
     mid-air. Listen to  Moses  : "Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive                So, forgiveness,  +%ere  forgiveness is impossible.  Moses
      sin . . ." The sentence is not finished.                              realized this in the middle of his first sentence, and stopped
          How are we to explain this half sentence ?                        half way.
          1 think 1 know the solution. Moses realized in the very               And the redemption by savior Moses. is  impossible  also..
      middle of the sentence that MeYB forgiveness is not possible          He is a sinner himself.
      with God. Moses  realized that God is a HOLY  GOD! And                    Here is God% answer : it is twofold.
      God's  holiness  cannot allow  mere forgiveness. .Moses  re-              First : "Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him  wil1  1
      alized that as soon as a sin is sinned, there is a sure, a certain    blot  out of My  boek." It is the inexorable law  .of death to
      reaction in the  Holy God, a reaction of consuming wrath              the sinner.
      that  mut be  satisfied!                                                  This fundamental law is so inexorable that it even strikes
          Beloved reader, let this sink in: it is fundamental. We           the very Son of the Godhead when He hangs on the Cross
      hear  much of the concept of forgiveness, and of the forgiving        in the stead of His  elect  people. "It pleased the Lord to
      God and His Christ which is contraband.                               bruise Him !" Understand that if you can.


                                                .THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                                                                       3 6 3

        And, second, God makes answer positively by the Gospel
     words : Mine Angel shall go before thee !"                                                     +HE  STANDARD   BEARER
        That is the Gospel.                                                      Semi-monthly, exeept monthly  cluring   luns,   July and  Augusz
                                                                                  Published   by  &  REFO&D   FREE   PUBLISHING  ASSOCIATION
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     the place of which 1 have spoken unto thee."                                                           Editor  -  REv.  HERMYAN  HOEKSEMA
        Well, that place is Canaan, that is, the typical heaven.                 Communications relative to  contents  should be addressed to
                                                                                                Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E.,
         In other words : 1 have found. a solution. And here is                                                          Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
     My solution : Mine Angel shall go before thee !                             AR  matters  relative to subscriptions  should  be addressed to Mr.
                                                                                 G. Pipe, 1463 Ardmore St., S. E., Grand  Rapids 7,.  Mich.
        There is beauty in that sentence, but  also horror. That                 Announcements  and Obituaries must be mailed to the above
     is, horror for that Angel, and beauty for chosen  Israel.                   address  and  will be published at a fee of $1.00 for  eachnofice.
                                                                                 R~NEWAL:  Unless  a defnite  request for discontinuance is re-
        We know the sequence: Israel went to Canaan, and lived                   ceived it is assumed that the subscriber  wishes   the subscription
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     Lord, the preifiguration  of Jesus Christ preceded the Israel                                           Subscription  price: $5.00 per year
     of God on the accursed tree. (See : Isa. 63 :9)                             Entered as  Second  `Class  matter at Grand  Rap&, Michigan
        And there he suffered the wrath of God.                                                                                                                                                                      -
         For the worship of the golden calf of Israel.                      i
                                                                                                                              C O N T E N T S
         But  also for you and me, and  al1 those that have loved           MEDITATION  -
     His appearance. Amen.                                          G.V.              The Worship of the Golden Calf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
I                                                                                               Rev. G. Vos
                                                                            EDITOF+ILS -
                         CALL TO SYNOD                                                The Declaration of Principles.   .___.. .  .._....._ .  .__...  ,...364
                                                                                      A Letter from South Holland . . . . . . . ..__.__.................................  . ..365
         According to the decision of the last Synod, the  Con-                                 Rev. H.  Hoeksema
     sistory of the First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand               `Tm  DAY OF  SHADOWS   -
     Rapids, Michigan, notifies the churches that the 1958 Synod                      The Prophecy of Zechariah.  _. .  _... .  .._._..... . . . .  .._.... 367
     of the Protestant Reformed Churches wil1 convene  on Wed-                                  Rev. G. M. Ophoff
     nesday, June 4, D.V., at 9:00 A. M. in the above mentioned             FROM  HOLY  WRIT -
     church.                                                                          Exposition of Matthew 24 and 25 (2 ) . . . . . . .._.____.._..............  371
        The pre-synodical service  wil1 be held on Tuesday evening,                             Rev. G. Lubbers
     June 3, at  8 :00 P. M. at First Church. The Rev. C. Hanko, IN  HIS  FEAR  -
     president of the previous Synod, is scheduled to preach at                       Freedom From Fear (4) .  .._....................................  .__..........  ,..373
     this service.                                                                              Rev. J. A. Heys
        .Synodical delegates are requested  to:gather  with the  Con-       CONTENDING FOR  THE  FAITH  -
     sistory before the service.                                                      The Church and the Sacraments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
                                                                                                Rev. H.  Veldman
         Those requesting lodging are to contact Mr.  P: Decker,
     108 Mayfield Ave., N. E., Grand Rapids, Michigan.                      THE  VOICE OF  Om  FATEUW   -..-
                                    Consistory of the First                           The Canons of Dordrecht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
                                                                                                Rev. H. C.  Hoeksema
                                    Protestant Reformed Church
                                    Rev. C. Hanko, President                DECENCY  ASYD  ORDER -
                                                                                      Credentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..__ 379
                                    Peter  Decker,  Secretary                                    Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg

                                                                            ALL  ARomrr>   US  -
                               NOTICE!                                                Unconditional Election .                                           _.         _.         r.. . . . ,381
                                                                                                Rev. M. Schipper
         The Editorial Staff of  The  Standard Bearer  wil1 meet,           CONT~ZTrIONS  _
     the Lord willing, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the First                        An Allegory __  ..,  _. . . . .  ..__  ._._.  ..______   __.._.  .  .._......____  . . . . 370
     Church, on Thursday evening, June 5, 1958. The members                                     J.M.F.
     of the staff  wil1 please  regard this announcement as an                        Calvinism  - The Truth ( Continud ) ___... . . .._... . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._... ..383
     official notice.                                                                           Rev. Robert C. Harbach
                                     Rev. H.  Veldman,  Secretary




I


- 364                                         T H E   STAND,ARD  B E A R E R

                                                                        this? Is it not true that it is the  wil1 of God to save those
             E D I T O R I A L S                                        that believe and that persevere in the faith? Suppose that the
                                                                        statement we quoted above and to which those that departed
                                                                        from our churches subscribe, would  `be  changed  into this
              The Declaration of Principles                             form : "God wills that  every  one of you  that  believe and
     Also article 15 of the first chapter  of the Canons stands         persevere in the faith and in the obedience of faith shall be
  opposed  to. the notion of a genera1 conditional promise as           saved,!' would anyone object to this statement?
  maintained in the .First Point of 1924 as this is explained b,y           iBut the Canons object, not because the statement as it
  the leaders of the Christian Reformed Church, and it is .also         stands is not true, but because it is not the  whole truth, it
  very concretely maintained by those that left  US and departed        is not "the entire decree  of election." The trouble is that you
 from the Protestant Reformed faith. The  latter  al1  preac!h          omit the truth that faith is a gift of God and that He bestows
 the false doctrine  contained  in the statement: "God  prom-           that gift only on the  elect. Hence, in the same article, the
  ises every  one of you that, if you believe, you shall be saved."     Canons continue :
     Art.  15; of Canons 1 speaks of reprobation as follows :               "For these deceive  the.simple (as is,  indeed,  their purpose,
     "What peculiarly  tends to illustrate and recommend to  USI        H.H.) and plainly contradict the Scriptures, which declare
 the eternal and unmerited grace of election, is the express            that God wil1 not only save those who wil1 believe, but that
testimony of Sacred Scripture, that not all, but some only are          he also has from eternity chosen  particular persons  to whom
 elected, while others are passed by in the eternal  decree   ;         above others he in  time  wil1 grant both faith in Christ and
 whom  .God,  out of his sovereign, most  just, irreprehensible         perseverance, as it is written: `1 manifested thy name unto
 and unchangeable good pleasure, hath  decreed   to leave in the        the men whom thou gavest me out of the world.' John 17:6.
 common misery into which they have wilfully plunged  them-             `And as many ordained unto eternal life believed.' Acts 13 :4S.
 selves, and not to bestow  upon them saving faith and  th'e            .And : `Even as he chose US in him before the foundation of
 grace of conversion  ; but  permitting  them in his just  judg-        the world, that we should be holy and without blemish be-
 ment to follow their own ways, at last for the declaration of          fore  him in love.' Eph. 1 :4."
 his justice, to condemn and perish them forever, not only on               Those that have left US are, evidently, very fond of "con:
 account of their unbelief, but  also for  al1 their other sins. And    ditions" and "conditionally." But from the above you may
 this is the decree  of reprobation which by no  means  makes           notice that it is not even necessary to employ the term con-
 God the author of sin (the very thought of which is blasphe-           dition. Al1 you have to  teach is that the  decree  of election
 my), but declares him to be an awful, irreprehensible, and             is that God wills that  al1 that believe and persevere in the
 righteous avenger  thereof."                                           faith shall be saved and you are not Reformed but Arminian.
     From this article it is plain:                                         From the rest of this part of the Canns,  however,  it is
     1. That God does not promise salvation to al1 men, to the          very evident that the Arminians use the term  "condition"
 reprobate,. but only to the  elect. That, therefore, we  can           very  often and are, in fact,  very much in need of it.
 never say  : "God promises salvation to every  one of you."                Thus in Canons 1, B, 11  the fathers of Dordt reject the
     2. That the-  conditional sentence: "if you believe" does          errors of those who teach  different kinds of election, one of
                                                                                                              j.
 not help matters. For faith is of God. If, therefore, we say :         which is "incomplete, revocable,  non-decisive and  condi-
 "God promises every  one of you salvation," wemust  also be            tional."` In the next article, 111, the fathers reject the errors
 able to say "God promises faith to every  one of you," which           of those  "Who  teach: That the good pleasure of God, of
 is not truc: He does not promise faith to the reprobate.               which Scripture  makes   mention in the doctrine of election,
     3. Hence, the sente,nce:  "God promises every  one of you          does not  consist in this, that God  chose certain  persons
 that, if you believe, you shall be saved,`j  is sheer nonsense         rather than others, but in this that he  chose of  al1 possible
 except in the Arminian sense of the word. In this sense only,          conditions (among which are also the works of the law), or
 faith or believing is excluded from the  promise and the               out of the whole order of things, the act of faith which from
 promise  can be made a genera1 declaration based  upon  a              its very nature is undeserving, as wel1 as its incomplete obe-
 condition which man must be willing to fulfill.                        dience,  as a  condition of  salvation."
     Besides, this and similar statements are literally  con-              You understand, of course, that as the order of salvation
 demned in the Canons.                                                  is in the counsel of God, thus it is  also in  its realization in
     In Canons 1 B, the rejection of errors, we read in 1:              time. If faith and its incomplete obedience are a condition of
     "Tha synod rejects the errors of those:                            salvation in the counsel of election, they are also conditions
     "Who  teach: That the  wil1 of God to save those  who              which man must fulfill unto salvation in time. And this, too,
 would.  believe and would persevere in faith and in the obe-           is exactly what  these that left our churches  teach and
 dience  of faith, is the whole and entire decree  of election unto     preach. For they maintain that  "our act of conversion is a
 salvation, and  that nothing else concerning this  decree  has         prerequisite (or  condition)  to enter into the  kingdom  of
 been revealed in God's Word."                                          heaven."  This implies, therefore, that also in the `counsel of
     We would almost  be inclined to ask : What is wrong with           election, (God chose those unto salvation that would perform


                                              T H E   STAND.ARD  -BEARER                                                             365

the act of conversion. It is this doctrine of the schismatics          ternally hear the preaching of the.gospel.  And our Declara-
that is condemned here by the Canons.                                  tion maintains that the grace of God is always particular, for
But, of course, even the Arminians with  al1 their  free-              the elect  only, never for the reprobate. And it declared, too,
wil1 doctrine would not dare to teach openly that man has              "that the promise of the gospel is not a gracieus offer on the
the saving faith of himself. Scripture teaches too plainly that        part of God to al1 men, nor a conditional offer to al1 that are
faith is the gift of God. In order, therefore, to leave  salva-        in the historica1 dispensation of the covenant,  that is, to al1
tion, nevertheless, ultimately in the power of man they  in-           that are baptized, but an oath of God that wil1 infallibly lead
vented  the theory of natura1 light. Of this we read in Canons         al1 the elect  unto eternal glory through faith."
1, B. IV. There we read that the fathers of Dordt reject the              Those that have departed from the Protestant Reformed
errors of those "Who teach: That in the election unto faith            Churches have rejected the Declaration officially.
this  condition  is beforehand demanded, viz., that man should            The reason is that they prefer the conditional theology of
use the light of nature aright, be pious, humble, meek, and            the Arminians. They teach that the promise of the gospel is
fit for eternal life, as if on these things salvation were in any      for  al1  that hear the gospel. And they  also  teach that, even
way dependent." This is a very  necessary proposition of al1           before anyone  can ever enter into the  kingdom  of- heaven, he
Arminian theology. Consider : 1. God did not choose  any               must first fulfill the condition of converting himself.
particular persons  unto salvation in Christ; al1 men He wills            Al1 this is not Reformed according to the Confessions.
to be saved. 2. Faith and the obedience of faith are, however,            And, therefore, it certainly is not Protestant Reformed.
conditions unto salvation. .3. But faith is a gift of God which
no man has of himself. 4. To  whom does God give this                     We now come to the second chapter  of the Canons which
faith? He is willing to give it to  al1 men. But they must             treats of the death of Christ and the redemption of men by
show that they want that gift of faith by using the light of           that death.
nature aright, by being  pious. and fit for`the gift of eternal           The first article teaches that sin must be punished with
life.                                                                  tempora1 and eternal punishment and, unless satisfaction be
                                                                       made, we  can never escape this punishment. The  second
         Also 1, B, V speaks of conditions. There we  read that        article has it that God gave His only begotten Son in our
the errors are rej ected of those :                                    stead in order  that He might  malie  satisfaction for  US. The
         "Who  teach: That the incomplete and non-decisive elec-       third article speaks about the infinite value of the death of
tion of particular persons  unto salvation occurred because of         the Son of God, "abundantly sufficient  to expiate the sins of
a foreseen faith, conversion, holiness, godliness, which either        the whole world."  Article 4 explains why this death of Christ
began or continued  for some time ; but that  the complete and         is of so great and infinite value.  Al1 these articles, though im-
decisive  election occurred because of foreseen perseverance           portant in themselves, are not directly related with our
unto the end in faith, conversion, holiness and godliness  ; and       subject and, therefore, we  may pass them by  merely  men-
this is the gracieus  and evangelical worthiness, for the sake         tioning them.
of which he who is chosen,  is more worthy than he who is not             Nest,  however,  appars an article`that is important  be-
chosen;  and that therefore faith, the obedience of faith, holi-       cause  it has been quoted in defense of the First Point of 1924
ness,  godliness and perseverance are not fruits of the  un-           as teaching "common grace."
changeable election unto salvation, but are conditions, which,            To this article we will, therefore,  cal1 your  attention  in
being required beforehand, were foreseen as being met by               our next issue, the Lord willing.                           H.H.
those who wil1 be fully  elected, and are causes  without which
the unchangeable election to glory does not occur."
         We see, therefore, that according to the Arminians there                     A Letter froe South Holland
are conditions on al1 the way of salvation, from beginning                Before we continue our discussion under the heading
to end, from the right  use of natura1 light unto faith to             "Shall We  Re-unite   ?" 1 publish the following letter from
perseverance unto eternal glory. How downright dishonest               our congregation in South Holland.
it was for them  stil1 to speak of election!  Honest  it would            The readers will, undoubtedly, be interested in this.
have'.been  had they simply denied that there,is such a thing           The  contents speak for themselves  so  tliat comment is
as election.                                                           not necessary.
         It is in opposition to the conditional theology that, over       Here follows the letter:
against the "Three Points" of 1924, adopted by the Synod of                                     South Holland, Ill., April 17, 1958
the Christian Reformed Church, the Declaration of  Prin-               Dear  Members  of our Congregation:
ciples  was adopted. For, especially the first of these Three             Your Consistory is reporting to you in  this letter  con-
Points maintains, not only that there is a  grace of God to            cerning an incident that took place  at last night's consistory
al1 men, including the reprobate, manifest in the common               meeting. We report this matter to you because we want
gifts to al1 men, but also that the promise of the gospel is a         you to be acquainted with the  facts. We report by letter,
gracieus offer of salvation on the part of God to al1 that ex-         rather  than by bulletin or pulpit  announcement, for the fol-


366                                            T H E -   S T A N D A R D   B ' E A R E R

lowing reasons: 1) We do not care to fill your hearts- and                           2) We reminded Kok that he lied when he spoke of ad-
minds with these matters on the sabbath day. `2) We want                         dressing letters to our consistory (since these letters were
you to know the  facts of this matter before you hear  al1                       never addressed to  US) and that therefore his  whole  con-
kinds of rumors and partial reports from others. 3) By means                     versation was based on a lie from the beginning. We further
of a letter we  can give you a more detailed report. Our                         informed  him that our consistory was always ready to  re-
report here follows.                                                             ceive any correspondence properly addressed to US and to
       The Consistory was somewhat surprised last night when                     consider it.
a group of schismatics, headed by the Rev. B. Kok, appeared                          3. We called Kok's attention toe the ,fact that it was a lie
at our door, claiming  to be a committee who wanted to talk                      that they were grieved by the separation, since they gave no
to..us.  After  considring sthe matter, the Consistory decided                  evidente  in their actions of  any  such grief.. The chairman
to receive  any of these men individually, and the chairman                      then, under  witness  of the consistory, called  upon Kok to
so informed them. We .did this-because  we do not recognize                      repent  of his evil church politica1 and doctrinal way, remind-
their-group,  certainly not as they have recently represented                    ing him that it was terrible sin against God and His church.
themselves under our name, and  also because we recalled                         This, however,  Kok did not want to discuss,  he stated. And
that al1 the schismatics left US also i+zdivid~~~ZZy.  It was there-             when,  right before he was dismissed, Kok made a veiled
fore only proper to receive  them as individuals. We left it to                  threat of possible court action,  we reminded him once more
these visitors whether or not they wanted to enter our meet- that if they did that, it simply meant that they would go
ing in this way. And the Rev. Kok was the first, - and we. farther  in their wicked way and were responsible before God
may add, the only one, - to come. The substance of the con-                      for these actions.
versation we recorded  carefully in our minutes, and we re-                          When  Kk was dismissed from our meeting, having  given
port  it to you from our records, supported as to their  correct-                bis message,  the men who at first had appeared with him at
ness `by the witness of al1 eight consistory members.                    -. our door had disappeared, and so we had no more of these
    Uponbeing asked to state his business, the Rev. Kok soon                     "individual" visitors.
gave  evidente  that he after  al1 did not mean to speak as an                       That, beloved, is a brief factual report of what took place
individual;  but that -he  wanted to involve the Consistory in                   at our meeting. We need add no comments,  except to point
a discussion of a property settlement with the local  schis--                    out :
matic `group. We mention the following main items in Koks                            1) That the Consistory  wil1 not allow itself to  become
remarks.                                                                         involved in a property settlement discussion. We deny that
       1) He  claimed  to represent as moderator  the consistory                 anyone but our own congregation has  any  legal  or mora1
of "what is nominally called the Orthodox Protestant  Re-                        right to our church property.
formed Church of South Holland." (we quote his words  '                              2) That the Consistory is diligently making  preparations
here.) This was  Koks answer only  after  the  chairman~                         to face any possible legal  action.
questioned him as to what group and what consistory  he,                             3) That as far as our attitude toward the schismatics
was continually  talking  about without ever mentioning  them", is concerned, the Consistory took the only possible stand,
by name. We may  also note that there seems to have been.1 namely,  .to cal1 them to repent  and to return from their evil
another change of name, since in the mimeographed letters .j way.
which they sent to you they signed ouc church's name to the                          4) That it stands to reason that in that way of repentance
letters.                                                                 _' there would simply no longer  be any property  question what-
       2) Kok claimed  that he and his group had addressed let-..! soever. We should not forget that the  real  question is not
ters to our consistory, but had received  no answer.                      the property matter which the schismatics try now to in-
  . 3) He professed that he and his group. were grieved by: troduce, but the spiritual issue of their departure from the
the separation.                                                                  truth and from the way of righteousness in the church.
       4) He  claimed  that in  the light of recent  legal   history-                In the meantime, let US not be disturbed about these mat-
they believed themselves legally and morally entitled to ou:r                    ters, but commit our way unto the Lord, in the confidence
church property.                                                                 that He is for US, no matter what the future holds for US as
       5) He said, that if our consistory would not answer their congregation.
request for a discussion'of property settlement  by the end of                                   Yours in our Lord Jesus Christ,
the week, there would be no other way open for them than '                                              The Consistory of the Prot. Ref. Church,
to take  legal  action:  And in the course of his remarks, he  ;                                        South Holland, 111.
spoke of "perhaps"  taking the matter to court.-                                                         was signed:
       Through its chairman the Consistory  replied  to these
remarks in substance as follows:                                                                            H. C. Hoeksema, president
       1) The chairman reminded Kok  that  he was evidently                                                      J.. Van Baren,  clerk
not speaking~as  an indizidual,  as we decided to allow him to                   Done in Consistory, April  1.6, 1958.
do, but for a group.                                                     :  *                                                              H.H.


                                                    T H E   STAND.A'RD   .BEARER                                                                             367

                                                                                  run continually.  Consume~  them in thy wrath  ; consume them
I/  THE  @AY  OF  SHAl)QWS  .                                                     that they may nat-,be."
                                                                                    So the prophets of God of old prayed. And likewise the
                The Prophecy `of Zeshariah                                        saints of this Christian dispensation. "Destroy  the works of
                                                                                  the devil,"'  so they pray, "and' al1 violente  which would exalt
                                                                                  itself against thee," and, "Do thou therefore preserve and
              Tlae  Destruction  of tlze Hostile nations                          strengthen US by the power of thy Holy Spirit, that we may.
                           Chapter 14 :12-15                                      not be overcome  in this spiritual warfare, but constantly and
                                                                                  strenuously may resist our foes, til1 at last we obtain a com-
    12.  And  this  shall be the  plague  wtlz  zvhich  the Lord                 plete victory."* Victory over  whom  .and what? Over the
shll svwite  al1 the peofile.  who foztght  against Jerusalem; hk                 devil, the reprobated world and sinful flesh. The souls under
flesh  slzall  consuune  awa.y  while  lze  stmzds  upon  lais feet, and!         the altar  cry with a loud voice,  f'How long, 0 Lord, holy and
kis eyes shall  conwme   awzy  in his holes,  and  lus  tonc@!                    true, dost  thu  not judge and avenge our blood on them
slzall   cons%d*x,e  a w a y   iti  tkek  ~~~houth. 13.  And it  shnli!           that dwell on the earth."
Oe in. that day that tlzere shall Ee~awtong`Wzem  a great con.-                       -What are  al1  such prayers but petitions that the Lord
fitsion from the Lord, and they sha.11  seize  eack h2.s neighbor's               destroy the reprobated-wicked,`in'the  verses  under considera-
hand,  a.nd  @is  hund  hall rise  up  aga~imt  the  hand of  l&                  tion, `Yhe peoples  who fought against Jerusalem." Surely
neiglzbor.   14.  And  Jztda,h   slzall   also  jght at Jerusalem,  ano?,        the consideration of fhe last judgment  is. "most desirable and
the  riches of tlie natiom  wozmd  shll be gathered, gold mm!                     comforting to the saints." They  expect that great day with
silver and  @parel in great  abwndance. 15. And  so shall bcr                     ardent desire  as `knowing  - for God tells them - what this
the  plagzbe of the lzprse, of the nmle,  of the ca$mel,  and of thi              day has in store for them and for the wicked. This desire is
ass, and  of  a.11  the  .mttle  that  slzall   be  irt these  catv@s,   etien    rooted in the love of God. It is love of God  and of the
as tl2i.s  plague.          -..                                                   heavenly and therefore of necessity  hatred  of the world and
    The prophecy of these  -verses  is important. It describes                    al1 that is of sin including surey   the body of this death to
in figurative language the end of the reprobated wicked. IS:                      which the believers are chained in this life and under the
therefore  meets a  real  need of the saints in  tribulation-                     impulse of which they  lay off sin and put on Christ and
the need of being told of the Lord not alone that they shall                      weepingly declare,  `"For 1  delight  in th  law of God  after
inherit eternal glory but  also that the wicked shall be                          the inward man ; but  -1  see~ another  law n: my members,
diestroyed.  The consideration of the last judgment is, accord-                   warring.  against the law ,of my mind, and bringing  me into
ilg to the  Confession, "most desirable and comforting" to                       captivity of  .the  law of sin which is in my  iembers.  0
tihe saints. "For then they,shall  be `crowned with glory and                     wretched man that 1 am!  Who shall deliver  mefrom   th-~'
honour ; and the Son of God shall confess their names before                      body of this death ?" and jubilantly exclaims, "1 thank God
Ifod Ris  -Father  and  Ris  elect  angels.  Al1  tears shall be                  through Jesus Christ  -my Lord." A man  may say that as
wiped away from their eyes. And for a gracieus  reward, the                       moved by lve of God he hates al1 workers of iniquity; but
Lord shall cause them to possess  such glory, as never entered                    if that man in passing judgment on himself concludes that he
ihto the heart of man to conceive." But, says the Confession,                     has no sin and does not confess that in himself he  isno better
$od's believing people "expect  that  great day with ardent than the others whom God according to His sovereign,  good
desire  also because then their innocence shall be known to                       pleasure decided to ~hate,  he may be "sure  that his hatred of
all, and their  cause which is now condemned by  many judges                      the wicked is not love of God at al1 hut hatred of God and
and magistrates,  as heretical ancl impious, wil1 be known to                     inordinate love of self which is idolatry. And no idolater wil1
be the cause of the Son of God. And they shall see the terrible                   go to heaven unless he repents. And the same is true of the
vengeance which God shall excute on the wicked,  who most                        man  who loves  these  who love him, that is, loves  such
crelly        persecuted."                                                       persons  for the sole reason that they love and d wel1 unto
                                                                                  him. This man, too, is an idolater as is also evident from the
    The psalms of David are replete with prayers for the                          fact that he wil1 not love, bless and pray for Jzis enemies, that
destruction of the wicked. "Destroy thou them, 0 God ; let                        is, pray for the wicked  persons  that, as crossing his path,
them  al1  fa11 by their own  counsels.  Cast them  out in  the                   despitefully use and ~persecute  him. Instead ,of doing good
multitude of their transgressions. Arise, 0 Lord, let not                         unto such wicked ones, instead of Messing them and praying
man prevail; let the  heathen  be judged in thy  sight. Break                     for them, he insists that they are reprobated and accordingly
thou the arm of the wicked, and the evil man;' seek out his                       damns them to hel1 for the sole reason that they despitefully
wickedness  til1 thou find none. Let them be as chaff before the                  use hiuut. This man may imagine that in hating and cursing
wind, and let the angel of the Lord persecute them. Let them                      his enemies, he is moved by the love of God, but if he wil1
be ashamed and brought to confusion. Break their  teeth.,                         --
0 God, in their mouth ; let them melt away as waters which                        *Quotation   hm  Hd.   Catechtim's   Comnme+hzry   ort  hrd's   Prayer.


  368                                          T H E   STANDAR.D.BEARER

  only  engage in some earnest heartsearchings, if he  wil1         known who among the living are reprobated? Can't this be
  examine himself in the light of the Scriptures,, he wil1 dis-     known in  many cases  ? And can't we in  al1  such cases be
  cover that he deceives himself and' that the trut11  is not in    sure  ? One  wil1 point to the words of Christ, "Beware of
  him. Discover  he wil1 that what moves him is sheer carnal        false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, hut
  hatred  of the enemy. That the enemy in his wickedness is         inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by
  also an enemy of God does not concern him in the least, nat       their fruits. Do men  gather  grapes  of thorns, or figs of
  really. What incites his carnal rage is solely the considera-     thistles ?" etc. Mat. 7 :15ff. The sole point to this reasoning
  tion that the enemy misuses  ?v&. It  means  that the .man is     is that a false  prophet   can be known by his evil works.
 prostrated before  the shrine of his own ego, that he is a         Whether he is also reprobated, God only knows. Hence the
  worshipper of self and not of God, that, in a word, he is au      disciples of the Lord, besides calling  him toe repentance, may
  idolater. Yet he is telling himself that he is moved by the       and must desire  his conversion and pray-for the same.
  love.qf God ; he may even succeed in convincing himself with          Then there is that passage in the Hebrews,  "For it is
 the Scriptures. But he deceives himself certainly. The basic       impossible for these   who were once enlightened, and have
  question here involved is whether we  may say of  any  in-        tasted the heavenly gift,  kand were made partakers of the
  dividual wicked man that he is a reprobate, - mark you, 1         Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the
  say of any individual living man, definitely of that ,wicked      powers of the world to  come, if they should  fa11 away, to
  man  who daily  crosses our path and does  US  much  injury.      renew them again unto repentance ; seeing  that they crucify
  Let  us give answer. Through the Scriptures  ,God has  re-        unto themselves the son of God afresh and put him to open
 vealed that there is a people whom He sovereignly hates.           shame." The Lord wills not to give unto these apostates the
 .These  are the reprobated. We know from the Scripturec            grace-of repentance, and therefore they cannot be renewed
 that the race that perished by the waters of the flood was         to repentance, which  indicates  that they are reprobated  ; they
 reprobated, and that the Canaanites were reprobated- and           commit the unpardonable sin. But  who are we to judge
 likewise Esau  the older son of Isaac and Rebecca. God re-         whether the description applies to the apostate that crosses
 vealed it to them. And therefore they knew. But the Scrip-         our path ? The  sacred  writer in penning these words did
 tures do not  tel1  LIS  who among the present living are  re-     not mean to provide  US with an instrument for the detection
 probated. Certainly He does not make known to US that our          of the reprobated among the living ; his purpose is rather  to
                                                                        1. . .
 personal enemies are reprobated. Hence we do not know. If          put  bis readers on the alert  each of them with respect to
 anyone says that he knows, he must explain how he knows.           himself. This is clear  from the context. Though by this time
 He surely cannot know it from the Scriptures. Did he re-           they ought  40 be teachers, they have need that one  teach
 ceive a special  revelation, that is, did the Lord  tel1 him by    them again which be the first  principles  of the oracles of God.
 a voice from`heaven  7 Surely this is knowledge that the Lord      They do `not go on unto perfection, are not able to come to
- withholds  from His people, and with reason. Seeing that they     the knowledge of the truth, grow in the  grace and in the
 do not know, He can now try His people, discover  them to          knowledge of  the Lord Jesus Christ, but are always learning,
 themselves by mandating them, "Love your enemies, bless            again and again laying the foundation of repentance from
 them that  curse  you, do good to them that  hate you, and.        dead works, and of faith toward God and of the doctrine of
 pray for them which despitefully use you, and  persecute           baptism, etc. Let them take heed unto themselves lest they
 you."  And He  als gives to His people  grace to do as He         end up in repudiating the whole  Gospel, crucifying  Christ
 mandates; He puts this mandate, His laws, into their mind,         and putting Him to open shame as they once had done in
 and writes  them in their hearts. And thereby they know that       their ignorante  ; for then it wil1 be impossible to renew them
 they are children of their Father who is in heaven. For He,        unto repentance, seeing that they are now enlightened, and
 ~OO,  loves His enemies; He loves His  chosen  people by  na-      have tasted the heavenly gift, etc. Let them then by  al1
 ture haters of God. He commends His love toward them               means go unto perfection, for it is impossible to renew unto
 in that even while they were sinners, ungodly, without             repentance those who were  once enlightened, should they now
 strength, Christ died for them. If we can't love, uur enemies,     crucify Christ as they once had done in their ignorante  be-
 if we can't cal1 them to repentance with the fervent prayer in     fore the outpouring of the  Holy Spirit.  Such is here the
 our hearts and upon our lips that, could it be, the Lord also      reasoning of the sacred  writer, Heb. 5 :lZff. It is clear that in
 give them grace to repent,  if instead we curse them to hel1 as    penning these words it was not the purpose of the writer to
 taking the position that they are reprobated, we may be sure       provide  US with an instrument for the detection of the repro-
 that we are being led not by Christ's Spirit and not by the        bated among the living. Who the reprobated are among the
 Scriptures but by  om own carnal judgment, self-love and           living was not revealed to US ; this is knwn to God alone.
 carnal anger and hatred  of God and of His commandments.           We can and must therefore love and bless and pray for our
 Then  we are idolaters, worshippers of  another  god, that enemies.  Such is the  wil1 of God.  "Accordingly,  let him be
god being our own carnal self. And it bears repeating that          unto `you as a publican and a sinner," says Christ. He does
he wil1 not go to heaven except  he repent.                         not say, `"Let him be unto you as a reprobate." The refer-
    But one  wil1 say : Is it true that God is not  making   it     ence is to  the-.brother   who trespasses against  US, and  wil1


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                     369

not  repent  and is therefore excommunicated  out of the                   nat, Upon  them shall be none, upon them shall be the plagzte
church. The church must not take the position that he is a                 with  whch Jehovah  shall  plagate  the  nutions  which go  `nut
reprobate but a fallen brother and can and must therefore                  up to keep.the  feast of the tabernacles. 19. Th+ shall be the
continue to admonish him and pray for his conversion. This                 sir, of Egypt, and the sin of the nat,ions  whick  go nut wp to'
was also the teaching of our reformed fathers as is clear  from            keep the  feast of the  tabemacles.
the following statement  contained  in the Form of  Excom-
munication, "Further we exhort you, beloved Christians, to                    16. The armies of the nations wil1 perish before Jerusa-
keep no company with him, that he may be ashamed ; yet                     lem. Few, if any wil1 escape from the catastrophe described
count him not as an enemy, but at al1 times  admonish him                  in  verses  12-15. But the nations as such, the noncombatants
as you would a brother."                                                   at home, wil1 be spared for the sake of the remnant among
    But one may ask: how is this teaching to be harmonized                 them - the remnant according to the election  of tgrace,  the
with the fact the consideration of the last judgment is most               "al1 that is left of the  nations" (see verse 1). Should the
desirable and comforting to the saints and that they appea:r               Lord destroy this remnant, he would be unfaithful to His
in the Scriptures as praying for the destruction of the wicked.            promise to Abraham that in him al1 the nations, principally
They pray for the destruction of the reprobated wicked and                 the  elect, are blessed.  Upon the remnant therefore He  wil1
leave it to God  who the reprobated are. They pray for the                 surely have  compassion  in that day. These He gathers by
destruction of this people as holding the promise that, in the             His Spirit and His word through the ages of this Christian
language of our prophet  (verse l), the Lord shall smite "al1              dispensation -He the King, the Lord of Hosts, our Lord
the people (the reprobated) who fought against Jerusalem."                 Jesus Christ,  who sits at the right hand of the Throne. As
Let US observe that the verb here is in the past tense - have?             saved of Him, they honor Him as their Lord and king and
fo~~ght.  NO  longer   can they fight against God's people. For            they believe in Him and through Him in God. The conver-
the church is now in glory and the enemy is in the place of                sion of the remnant among the nations is depicted under the
eternal torment, where  their worm never dies and-the fire is              figure of yearly pilgrimages to the temple. From year to year
not quenched, and  where  there  wil1 be  weeping  and gnashing            they go up to worship `the king, and to keep the feast of the
of teeth everlastingly. In the figurative language of  om                  tabernacles. This feast was one of the three occasions men-
prophet,  "his flesh shall consume away while he stands upon               tioned in Deut. 15 :16. It was a great and solemn feast. The
his feet, and his eyes shall consume away in his holes, and                males repaired for its  celebration to the  place  where  God
his tongue shall consume away in their mouth."                             might put His name. It lasted eight days and was begun and
                                                                           ended by a day of holy convocation. It also bears the name
    13. In this verse the scene  changes.  The church is  stil1            "fhe Feast of Ingathering in the end of the yer when thou
militant here below ; the enemy is presented to view as stil1              hast gathered in thy labors  out of the field,`; for it took
fighting against Jerusalem. But its hour has now  struck.
There is among them a great confusion of the Lord.  The                    place immediately before the winter months  &d  after the
                                                                           labors of the harvest were past. This Feast of tabernacles
hand of each is against his neighbor. They turn their weapons              should be  rather,  of booths, for during  the continuance of
against one another. And the result is disaster. The defeat                this feast the people dwelt in booths, that is, in slight and
of the nations is made complete by God's people who rush
upon the helpless remnant (verse 14). With the  army                       temporary dwellings, light and movable, and easily pitched
destroyed, the tamp with al1 its riches  falls into the hand               and as easily taken down, and therefore the proper abodes
                                                                    o:E    of the children of Israel during their wanderings in the
the victors. A plagge as disastrous as that. which smites the
men  wil1 destroy the. beasts of the hostile  army. What is                desert.  It was in  such  structures  that the people of Israel
here foretold again in language borrowed from forms and                    were required to dwell during the Feast of Tabernacles. The
conditions of the .old dispensation is the destruction of the              reason assigned for this ordinance is stated. The people
hostile world-powers at the  second coming of Christ.                      had to dwell in booths, "that their generations might know
                                                                           that the Lord made the children of Israel to dwell in booths,
                                                                           when He brought them  out of the land of  Egypt."  Thus it
      The  Conversion  of the  Remnant  of the  Natz'ons                   was designed to keep alive the remembrance of this fact and
                                                                           of al1 the goodnesses and mercies  ,and loving kindnesses of
                        Chapter  14 :16-19                                 the Lord toward His people associated with this fact. Should
                                                                           the remembrance of His mercies  have been permitted to die,
    16. Aizd it shal2be  that al1 that is left of the nations  which       the praise and worship of His name would have ceased for
come  against  Jerusalena  shall go up  from  year  to year to             lack of knowledge. And this could not be allowed to hap-
worship the kivzg, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the feast of             pen. Because for this very purpose had He so marvellously
the  ta.berna.cles.   17. And  it  shall be that  tihoso of  the  faw-     befriended His people, namely that they should declare. His
ilies  of  the  earth   shall  nut  90  up to Jerusalem  ~ to worship      praises forever. It is plain that our  prophet  had a special
the king, Jehovah of  Hosts,  z@on.  theuut there  shall be  no            reason for mentioning the Feast of Tabernacles. His  de-
rain.  18.  And  if the  fautzily   of  Egypt  go  noG up and  COMI?       claring that the nations  wil1 keep this feast was his way ofO


 3    7    0                                T H E   STANDARD   B E A R E R

 saying that the souls of the redeemed  wil1 bless Him,  the          forced them out of their Log Cabin by sheer numbers. Then
 God of their salvation as never forgetting  al1 His  mercies.        the newly formed Indians from the Clans organized sixteen
 If -in this life their abode is a tent, they wil1 have a building    Tribes who made war with.their  brethren in the Log Cabins.
 with God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.               The Tribes called a  Pow Wow to be held in the First Log
      17.  Upon  al1 those of the nations of  the. earth- the         Cabin and there decided to send their best Medicine Man to
 reprobated among them - who wil1 nat go up to Jerusalem              the Agent of the Great White Father of the land to make in-
 to worship the king, the Lord of Hosts, there  wil1 be  no           cantations before the Agent in order to blind his eyes and
 rain. The withholding of rain symbolizes  the withholding of         mind to the truth. The Medicine Man made powerful
 al1 the spiritual blessings of Christ's cross. Unto His chosen       medicine with which he was very successful. His medicine '
 ones God gives  al1 things, so that  al1 He has,  can have, is       showed the Agent that because they, the `Tribes;  held their
 curse and damnation for the others.                                  annual Pow Wow in the First Log Cabin they, the Redskins,
                                                                      must be Palefaces.
      18. And if the family of Egypt go not up and come not,
 upon  them shall  come the plague, wherewith the Lord  willl            The Agent, while under the influence of the medicine,
 smite. Egypt is mentioned separately because of the peculiar         ruled that because the Pow Wow was held in the First Log
 condition  of its climate. It is not dependent directly on rain      Cabin the Reds were to be considered White..  And when the `
 for fertility, but on the overflowing of  the Nile,  caused by       Medicine Man asked the Agent what the Whites should be
 rainfall in Ethiopia, South of Egypt. The judgment of verse          called, the Agent answered, "1 pronounce them Indians  !"
 18, therefore, has no special terror for Egypt, and some                The Medicine Man went back to the Tribal Chiefs and
 might conclude that ~Egypt could refuse to worship the Lord          received   much wampum for making  them happy, and they
with impunity. But  such is by no  means the case. Egypt,             held a great  celebration around the campfire. The young
 too, must go or be cursed. But Egypt  wil1 go, for God has           Braves seated at the edge of the firelight practiced the diffi-
 His people  also in this  nation  as we learn from the discourses    cult words of their new ceremonial chant : Reds are Whites,
 of some of the other prophets.                                       Whites are Red, wrongs are rights, stones are bread ; Day is
      19. This shall be the sin of Egypt, and  -the sin of the        night, nights are days, dark is light, slander is praise.
 nations which go not up. As is  clear  from the context, this           Then the Indians (called Whites) sent smoke signals to
 verse views the- nations from the angle of their reprobated          the Whites (called Indians) inviting them to smoke the
 shell. As so viewed, none of them shall go  upi to keep the          peace pipe in the Log Cabins to become one again, and al1
 Feast of the Tabernacle. And this  wil1 be thei? sin  - this,        may. be called Indians - no, Whites. Powerful Medicine !
 namely that they worship not the King, believe not in the                                                                         J.M.F..
 Lord Jesus Christ but rebel against Him.  Al1 men of  this
 Christian dispensation shall be judged according to the at-
 titude that they take toward  -Christ. This is so, because
 Jerusalem has been exalted abov the mountains, ,and because,                 THE LOVE AND JUSTICE OF GOD
 accordingly, the sound, of the Gospel now goes forth to the
 ends of the earth.                                                              Thy  mercy and Thy  truth,  0 Lord,
                                                          G.M.O.                    Transcend the lofty sky ;
                                                                                 Thy judgments are a mighty deep,
                                                                                    And as the mountain high.

                         An Allegory                                             Lord, Thou preservest man and beast;
                                                                                    Since Thou art ever kind,
      Once upon a time, when the land was young, a family of                     Beneath the shadows of Thy wings
 Whites settled in the land and grew into  sixteen  Clans                           We  may a refuge  find.
 spreading over the whole country. After  many moons a Big
 Chief  from  across the great waters  came to visit, and                         With the abundance of Thy house
 showed his beautiful warpaints, tomahawks and poisoned  ar-                        We shall be satisfied,
 rows. These looked inviting to some of the young heads of                        From rivers of unfailing joy
 Clans,  who tried  them on for fun and soon  came to love                          Our thirst shall be supplied.
 those instruments of war. They practiced so  often with the
 new tomahawks and poisoned arrows, and painted their faces                       The- fountain of eternal life
 wit11  red paint until,  miraculously, they finally, turned into                   Is found alone with Thee,
 real  Indians !                                                                  And in the brightness of Thy light
      In some Clans, especially the First Clan, the  newly                          We clearly light shall see.
 formed Indians outnumbered the Whites  two, to one and                                                                  Psalm 36 :l-4


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                            371

                                                                                  Itlwas in this total unbelief  that we see that Jesus came
11  FROM  HOLY  WRIT-  11 to his own tl%zgs, the temple, sacrifices, priesthood, nd that
                                                                           bis own  received  him not. John 1  :ll. And this unbelief
                                                                           would nail him to the Cross, with the very Scriptures in their
          Exposition of Matthew 24 and 25                                  hand. For does not Matthew  24:l connect with the end of
                                  11.                                      Matthew 23 :37, 38 ? And does not this chapter  end with the
                                                                           distant perspective of the "return" of Christ upon clouds in
                          (Matthew 24 :l-3)                                His paToz&sia,  when al1 shall have to say, "Blessed is he that
    In our "Introductory" article, appearing in the former                 cometh in the name of the Lord"  1 (Psalm 118  :26). Jesus
issue of Th Standard  Bearer,  we attempted to give a bird's-              had finished speaking to the Old Testament people of God
eye view of these two chapters under consideration. We did                 as a  nation!  This city of Jerusalem is,  from the viewpoint
not intend, from the very nature of this discourse of Jesus,               of the unbelieving rulers, the reprobate element, Israel that
tp give a complete and comprehensive  exposition of the sub-               is not Israel.  Wel1 does Rev. 11  :8  read, "And their  dead
ject matter with which we here deal. We merely  wished to                  bodies shall die in the streets of the great city, which spirit-
sketch for the interested reader in genera1 the picture here               ually is called Sodom and  Egypt,  where   also our Lord was.
given in these prophetical utterances of our Lord.                         crucified"  ! Here is a great deal of religiosity, ritual and
                                                                           forma1 worship, but no service of God in Spirit and in truth.
    There are some  very salient points which we ought to                  Had Jesus not said to the  Samaritan   woman at the well,
observe in these chapters. We shall attempt  to single thern               speaking of the true worship of God,  "Woman, the hour
out and set them forth in bold relief.  In `doing so, however,             cometh  when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at
we shall try not to lose sight of the whole. At least we flatter           Jerusalem worship the  Father"? To this Jerusalem, which
otirselves  that we shall succeed in  making   clear to the                is spiritually Sodom and Egypt, it is said, "Behold, your
reader what we believe to be the instruction Unto godliness                house is left desolate to you." Thus Jesus had spoken on tl$s
which Jesus would  have US take to heart-!                                 very  day. Matthew 23 :28.
    In this essay we cal1 attention to the verses  1-3 of chapter                 And now Jesus-  leaves  this temple. It was  `a beautiful
24 of Matthew. This  section reads as follows:  "`And  Jesus               architectural   structure.   It was the temple of Herod. For
went  out,  omd departed  from  the  templtz  and  bis  disciples          more than  forty-six years it had  already  been under  con-
ca.me  unto  him  for to shew  the  buildings  of  th.e  temple.  Am4      struction. And the disciples point  out to Jesus the beauty"
Jesus  said  ztnto  them, See ye  not  al1  these  things?   Ve~ily   I    and grandeur of this temple.  It approached the beauty of the
say  unto  youj  -There  shatl not be  left one  stone  atpon   an-        Solomonic temple. However, SoJomon was only David's son
ether  that  shll not be  thown   down. And as  he sat  upor%.             and not David's Lord. But here is David's Lord. (Matthew
the  Yutomt of  Olives, the  disciples  mme  unto  him  privatety,         22:41-45).  He is the Son of God,  very  God in. our flesh,
saying, Yell, when s1aa.U  thse tlzings  be? And what shall be             Immanuel, God-with-us ! Is he not the King-Priest after the
tlze sign tif thy cowain.g, a9z.d  of the end of the-world?"               order of Melchizedec ? Wil1 he not build the Lord an house
    It seems to  US that for. a proper understanding of this               of living stones ? 1 Peter 2 :4-G. And wil1 in that new Jeru-
prophetical discourse of Jesus, spoken on Mount Olivet, it is              salem, in His Parousia, there  be a need of such a temple as
particularly important to  trace  out the  historie  sitztatiout  in       this, built of stones formed by man's hand ? Does not John
which they were  uttered.  For certainly we  can  write  ad-               &y in Revelation 21  :22, "And 1 saw no temple  (naon)
visedly  : historie, that is, a mentioned and celebrated point in          therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the
history ! Note wel1 : not history in the sense that man writes             temple of it" ? Then wil1 the tabernacle of God be with man !
history, but in the sense that the times  and the seasons arle             Rev. 21 :3.
in the authority and almight  of God, who reveals the secret                      In  -the  light of  al1 this, Jesus'  leaving  the temple  signals
things of His counsel!                                                     a very historie moment, does it not?
    We  notice then,  first of all, that these words were  ut-                    We do wel1 to keep it in mind in our interpretation.
tered in the evening of the last day of Jesus' public ministry                    Wel1  may the stones of  this temple of Herod be made
in the  state of humiliation. This is the last  time that Jesus            an  utter ruin. Shall man build the Lord an house to dwell
ever would be' in the earthly temple in Jerusalem. During                  in ? The heaven of heavens cannot contain God. How much
this day- Jesus had performed an astounding amount of labor.               less a  tcmple  of this earth  ? Hebrews 9 :l-11  contrasts  the
And these labors are  recorded   rather in detail in both the              "worldly sanctuary" with the "greater and more perfect  -
synoptic Gospels and in  -John. In  al1 these  accounts  the               tabernacle." This even Solomon understood. 1 Kings 8:26,
focus-point seems to be that Jesus stopped the mouth of                    27.
tota.1 unbelief. Do we not read- in Matthew 22 :46, "And no                       This reply of Jesus concerning the  utter destruction of
man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man                   the temple of Herod made a profound impression on  the  dis-
from that day forth ask him any mre questions"?                           ciples. Especially on Peter, James, John and Andrew. They

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

     sense that in the question of Jesus,  "Sec ye not  al1 these         course of Jesus. Does not Jesus speak of a Ing history in-
     things" he does not merely have in mind the stones of the            tervening between the Mt. of ,Olivet  and the final Parousia?
     temple. He has in mind, evidently,  al1  that these stones           And  is  it not  also clear from Acts 1  :6 that the disciples
     stood for in the mind of the Jews, the architects  and  al1 of       needed further instruction in this matter - that even with
     unbelief. It  al1 called for the judgment of God. The "that"         this instruction of Matthew 24 in mind, they stil1 needed the
     it shall  come to pass is clear to these disciples. But the          enlightenment of the  Holy Spirit. And  wil1 not the church
     "when"  is not clear.  Fact is, this is a point which had not        need the entire book of Revelation given on the isle of Pat-
     been disclosed to Daniel.  The disciples  also sense the great       mos?  However, apart from this misunderstanding of the
     import of the destruction of the temple. From their, as yet,         disciples,  it is perfectly clear that Jesus'  remark concerning
     Old Testament  perspective, the destruction of Jerusalem was         the destruction of the temple calls for the next great event
     really the consummation of the ages. When  Jerusalem and             of Christ's work: His  final return,  the  Puroztsia!
     the temple are destroyed, then we have  the parousia of                  Thirdly, we  should  notice that this Parousia of Christ
     Jehovah to come and dwell forever with his people.                   must not be separated as sometime preceding the end of the
        For these disciples this matter is connected with the hope        world, but  rather  as being that which exactly is the  end
     of Israel,  the final redemption of God's people. Hence, Peter,      of  the world.  Also here we should observe that the term
     James, John and Andrew  come to Jesus privately on the               "end" in the King James Version  really does not do justice
     Mount  of Olives with their questions, which show that they          to the term which Matthew employs in the Greek. The term
     would, in faith, scan the future !                                   is not simply "telos" but is "sunteleia,"  that is, be&g  brought
            "Tel1  US" they say, "`zvizen shall these things be ?" And    to an ertd together. Itis not simply a termination of history
     `rzul~at  shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of. the     in- a haphazard and arbitrary fashion. God does not simply
world."  Verse 3.                                                         stop history anywhere in  time. He brings  al1 things from
_       Conceming these questions of the disciples to Jesus we            Alpha to Omega. Al1 things have their God-appointed end.
would make the following observations :                                   It is the harvest time. The time is ripe. The season is ended.
        In the first  place, we should  notice that  when the King        History  can go no farther. The things which must  come to
James  Version  speaks of the "Sign  of thy co++tZng" the term            pass are realized. They are al1 so summed up that they are a
for  "coming" in the Greek is "parousia." Now the  teml                   consztwwmtion!   Compare  Matthew 13  :39,  40, 49,  where
parousia in both classic Greek and in the Greek New Testa-                Jesus explains the parable of the Tares and the parable of
ment does not  mean  "coming."  It really  means more than                the Fish Net. It is the  harvest  tivxe!              _I
cowzing. It  means  : a being present. In classic Greek,  ac-                 For this reason the text  also  speaks of the  consumma-
cording to Liddel  and Scott's Lexicon it means : to be present           tion not of the  "world"  but  rather of the  "ages."  These are
for the purpose of assisting. In the classics it refers to the            the present ages, the  times  and seasons which the  Father
presence of man. However, in the New Testament it refers                  hath put in his own power.
also to the presence of men. Paul employs it in II Cor. 10 :lO                This harvest  time, this consummation of the ages, falls
where  he quotes his adversaries as saying : Paul's presence              at the  time of the Parousia.  When  Christ  comes to dwell
     (parousia) is weak while his letters are strong and weighty.         forever with His people, when He comes to raise al1 His own
Paul  contrasts  the term  -presence  (parousia) with the term            out of the grave, then shall be the end, when He shall give
absente  (apousia) in Phil.  2:12. Hence, in our passage                  the  Kingdom to God and the Father.  Then shall it be fully
here in Matt. 24:3 the term "parousia" refers to the final re-            manifested that G.od is al1 and in al1 ; that al1 things in history
turn of Christ to judge the living and the  dead. He shall                are  out of Him and through Him and unto Him! 1 Cor.
then leave his church no more, hut shall forever dwell with               15 :23-28, Rom. 11:36.
US and we with him, in the glorified  state of the new heavens              i Concerning these matters Jesus  wil1 instruct His own
and the new earth. Parousia  means  Christ's arrival  upon                disciples and US in these chapters.
which there follows no farewell and departure anymore!                       The Lord  willing,  we shall continue this exposition in
        Secondly, we should notice that the disciples .believe  and       the next issue of The Standard Bearer.
understand that this coming, this parousia wil1 be signalled                                                                           G.L.
by a "Sign"  in which it. wil1 be perfectly clear that the time
of this  "final   arrival" is at hand. And in their mind this is
connected, as we stated earlier in this essay, with the  destruc-                     ASSURANCES FOR EVIL DAYS
tion of Jerusalem. Now as to the  "time element" the  dis-                            Jehovah's promises are sure,
ciples were certainly mistaken  in connecting the two, namely                         His words are true, His words are pure
the destruction of Jerusalem and the Parousia, as if they                                  As silver from the flame.
would  come at the same moment in history. From the                                  Though base men walk  on every  side,.
perspective of Daniel  and the prophets the two fa11 together.                       His saints -are safe, whate'er  betide,
That the disciples are in error is ipso facto clear from their                             Protected by His Name.
questioning Jesus, itself, as  wel1  as from the prophetic  dis-                                                                 Psalm 12 :4


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R . E R                                                373

                                                                    before sin entered into the world, feared God.  Indeed,  he
              I N   HIS  FEAk                                       was filled  with fear after he sinned and therefore hid under
                                                                    the trees. His fear took a new form. He had a guilty  con-
                                                                    science before this God  Whom he had  also feared in the
                  Freedom  From Fear                                state of righteousness ; but the very text above which declares
                                (4)                                 that the fear of the Lord is the beginning or  principle of
                                                                    wisdom certainly implies that man, created in the image of
    David says, "Jehovah is my light and my salvation  ;            the ah-wise God, came forth from the hand of God with the
whom shall 1 fear P'                                                fear  of. God in his heart.
    Salomon  writes, "Fear God and keep His  command-                   How- else shall we explain the action of the seraphim, as
ments: for this is the whole duty of man."                          we  read of them in Isaiah 6  12,  who with one pair of their
    David seems to rule  out al1 fear whatsoever and to ask  US,    wings cover their faces before God than that this, too, is due
yea to challenge US, to mention  one thing, one person  whom        to a godly fear in their hearts ? These holy beings also fear
he ought to fear.  Salomon,  however,   comes to  US with  thfe     God. And so it must be according to the psalmist in Psalm
sound, sanctified  advice and instruction to fear God, and          89:6, 7, "For who in the heaven  can be compared unto the
presents this as our solemn duty.                                   Lord  ?  Who among the sons of the mighty  can be likened
    Is there conflict here 7                                        unto the Lord? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly
    Does David disagree with Solomon?                               of the saints, and to be had in reverence of al1 them that are
   Has  Salomon a deeper insight and a greater wisdom in            about Him." This is further revealed in Revelation 15 where
these matters than David ?                                          John depicts a sign which he saw in heaven. He sees not
   That we dare not say. For the Scriptures are the infallible      holy angels but  victorieus  saints. These had "gotten the
record of the Word of God. Although there is development            victory over the beast, and over his mark, and over the num-
of the truth in the Scriptures, and  the New Testament              ber of his'name." These sang this song, `(Great and marvel-
writers did have deeper insight into and greater  wisdom            lous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty ; just and true are
concerning  many of the truths of Scripture, David was not          Thy ways, Thou King of saints. Who shall not fear Thee, 0
so lacking in spiritual knowledge that he did not know that-        Lord, and glorify Thy name ? for  Th&  only  art  holy: for
of which  Salomon wrote in Ecclesiastes  12:13.                     al1 nations  shall come and worship Thee; for Thy judgments
   David knew that it is mans duty to fear God. He wrote            are made manifest." Revelation 15 :l-4.
of that fact more than once in the psalms which God gave US             The testimony of the threa passages mentioned above is
through him. In Psalm 34:9 he writes, "0 fear the Lord, ye          that even those who either have never fallen  into sin or have*
His saints: for there is no want to them  that fear Him." A         through the blood of the Lamb of God gotten the  victory
few  verses  later, verse 11, he gives this counsel which           over sin and are justified in God's sight have a fear before
breathes the truth of which Salomon wrote, "Come  ye chil-          Him. Fear of God is not something that came into the world
dren, hearken unto me: 1  wil1  teach  you  .the fear of the        with the entrance of sin. The fear of the Lord is not  some-
Lord." Or again, if you will, we find this prayer of David          thing that is peculiar to those with a guilty conscience.
in Psalm  86.~11,   "Teach  me Thy way, 0 Lord  ; 1  wil1  walk        There are other texts which make this even more  em-
in Thy truth:  Unite  my heart to fear Thy name." And  al'1         phatic, texts which add to this fear the element of trembling
these were written long before Salomon came to the throne           before Him. It is often stated, and that not incorrectly, that
and long before he wrote the Book of cclesiastes. We may           the  "fear  of the Lord,' in the Old Testament Scriptures is
safely conclude that it was from David that  Salomon, as  a         the equivalent of the New Testament "faith in God." How-
little child already,  learned the truth that mans sole duty is     ever, we must not  receive the  mistaken notion that in the
to fear God and to keep His commandments.                           Old Testament the word "faith" is unknown. This is not true.
   Therefore we do wel1 to understand that freedom from             When  Paul writes  in Romans 1:17 that "therein," that is in
fear cannot  possibly mean that a man is freed from his obli-       the gospel, "is the righteousness of God revealed from faith
gation,  his duty to fear God. Man is made to fear God. IBy         to faith: as it is  written, The just shall live by faith," he is
virtue of the  very  fact that he was made in the image of          quoting Habakkuk 2 :4. There already  in the Old Testament
God, man was created t fear Him in Whose image he was              times  Habakkuk not only made mention of faith but also of
created. Listen to  a few passages from  Holy  Writ that            the doctrine of justification by faith. We can go back further.
underscore this truth!  IThe fear of the Lord is the  be-           In the days of Moses it was stated, and that by Moses himself
ginning of wisdom: a good understanding have al1 they that          in his song which vibrated from his lips shortly before his
do His commandments: His praise endureth for ever," Ps..            death, that the Israelites who worshipped idols were `<a very
111  :lO. The  very  principle   upon which  al1 true  wisdom       froward generation, children in whom is no  faith,"'  Deuter-
rests is the fear of God. He  who does not fear God is  a.          onomy 32 :20. And as far as believing is concerned, we wil1
fool. And God did not  create man as a fool but in  truc:           not weary you. with a host of Old Testament texts wherein
knowledge and as exceedingly wise. Adam in Paradise,,               we  read  that this one and that one believed God. We  wil1

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

simply  cal1 your attention to the first one, Genesis 15  :6             God's work whereby He would prove the people in order
where  we read already  of Abraham that "He believed in the              tht they might have His fear before their faces. Fear not,
Lord  ; and He counted it to him for  righteousness," and to             and yet God wants you to have His fear before your faces.
this same Psalm `of David wherein he speaks of freedom                   Both are stated in one short sentence.
from fear. In Psalm 27 :ll David,  who had used the word                     It is  plain that what the people feared,  when they cried
fear in other Psalms  writes, "1 had fainted, unless 1 had               in the words of the text quoted above, was the fact that God
believed to see the goodness of the Lord in. the land of the             was coming to visit them for their sins. They feared that
living." Therefore we do not do justice to the concept of fear           the judgment day had  come for them and that as Pharaoh
in the phrase "fear of the Lord,' by simply brushing it aside            and the host of Egyptians perished under such a display of
as nothing more or less than the New Testament concept of                His power and glory, they too are to be  consumed in a
faith.                                                                   moment to enter an everlasting torment in hell. The same
       We  wil1 add more  material to arrive at a proper  con-           thing  undoubtedly  is  also true whenever we  read of an
clusion.                                                                 angel of God coming to His people with these words, "Fear
       There is, as we said, coupled with this fear of the Lord,         nat." (There is of course a freedom from fear of that terror
as it is presented to  US in Scripture, the element of trembling.        and  that trembling.) The moment man sees an angel of
We  read in Jeremiah 5  :21,-22,  "Hear  now this, 0 foolish             God the brilliant holiness of these creatures coupled with the
people, and without understanding ; which have eyes, and                 fact that man knows that they have come from the very face
see not; which  hve ears and hear not : Fear ye not Me?                 of God as His messengers causes  a fear of the curse,  a fear of
`saith the Lord:  wil1  ye not tremble at My presence? which             the awful visitation of God's righteous judgment to grip him.
have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual             Thus at the open grave the angel said unto the sorrowing
decree,  that it cannot pass : and though the waves thereof toss         women,  "Fear not ye, for 1 know that ye seek Jesus which
themselves, yet  can they not prevail;  though they roar yet             was crucified." Zacharias was  "greatly troubled and fear
can they not pass over it?" To be sure this is declared of               fel1  upon him." And the angel said "Fear not, Zacharias."
the wicked, for in  verses  23 and 24 Jeremiah quotes these              Surely in both instances it was not the fear of the Lord of
words of God: "But  this people hath a revolting and a re-               which Solomon speaks when he calls it the beginning of wis-
bellious  heart ; they are revoltecl and gone. Neither  say they         dom that Zacharias and these  women are  counseled  to put
in their heart, Let US now fear the Lord our God, that giveth            far from them. But  surely  it is  al1 fear of the mighty hand
rain,  both the former and the  latter,  in  Hit season: He re-          of God to tast them into the terrors of hel1 which they are
serveth unto US the appointed weeks of the harvest." There-              admonished  to put away. For note especially with the  sorrow-
fore let  US turn  also to Isaiah  66:2,  ". . . to this man  wil1  I    ing women the reason given is that they seek Him Who was
look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and             crucified and suffered al1 of hell's  terrors for them.
trembleth at my word." Stil1 more, in the New Testament                      We would say more next  time, the Lord  willing,  about
we have that wel1 known passage in Philippians  2 :12, "Work             this fear that we are to have and which is the beginning of
out your own salvation with fear and trembling."                         wisdom. But at this point we want to stress simply the fa&
    How, then, can we ever expect freedom from fearto be                 that freedom from fear is not freedom from the fear of the
freedom from the fear of the Lord ?                                      Lord in  every  sense of the word and that this fear of the
    But  how  can we likewise  consider that fear of the Lord            Lord we are to have is a matter that belongs to faith and
to be nothing more than faith in the Lord ? Do we do justice             yet has its own distinctive quality.                                J.A.H.
to that text in Philippians  2:12 to  write it thus, "Work  out
your own salvation by faith" ? NO, we fee1 that we are leav-                                 W E D D I N G   A N N I V E R S A R Y
ing out an important element that Paul, under tbe guidance                                             1903-195s
of the Spirit, wanted included in the text.  By faith or in                 0;  May  7, 1958, our  beloved   parents,
faith does not express  fully  what is incorporated in the phrase                MR. and MRS. PETER DE YOUNG (nee Dykstra)
"with fear and trembling."                                               celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary.
   Here is another  text that makes an interesting use of the               We are deeply grateful to our  covenant God for  ah the  blessings
phrase, Exodus  20:18-20,  "And   al1 the people saw the                 He has bestowed  upon  them and  US; and we trust and  pray that
thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trum-              according to His  wiII they  may be spared for  each other and for  US
pets, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw                  for  many more years.
it, they removed and stood  afar  off. And they said unto                                   Their  chihhen:     Mr. and Mrs.  Victor  Hosman
                                                                                                                Mr. and Mrs. Abe Poortenga
Moses, Speak thou with  US, and we  wil1 hear: but let not                                                      Mr. and Mrs. Fred De Young
God speak with  US lest we die. And  Moses  said unto the                                                       Mr. and Mrs.  John  Bishop
people, Fear not: for God is  come to prove you, and that                                                       Mr. and Mrs. Fred  PohIer
His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin nat."                                                            Mr. and Mrs. Albert  Ensiuk
   We may note here that Moses says, "Fear not," and gives                                                     ' 19  grandchildren
                                                                                                                1 4   great-grandchikdren
the reason for al1 this tremendous display at Mount Sinai as             HudsonviIle,  Michigan


                                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEAR.ER                                                        375
ll                                                                             France known as  Dewm.   &iuLe   - Fear God  - which made
                Contendng For The Fath                                       the statements of papa1 prerogative stil1 more exasperating.
                                                                               This  supposititious  document, which is supposed to have
                                                                               been forged by Pierre Flotte, the king's  chief  councillor,
               The Church and the Sacrame.nts                                  was thrown into the flames Feb.  11,. 1302.  Such treatment
                                                                               of a papa1 brief was unprecedented.
      VIEWS   DUR&   T                                                                                                        It remained for
                              HE  THIRD  PERIOD  (750-1517 A.D.)               Luther to  tast the  genuine   bul1 of Leo X into the fire. The
                       THE  SUPREMACY OF THE  POPE                             two acts had little in common.
      T                                                                           The king  replied  by  calling  a French parliament of the
           HE  DECLINE-  OF THE  PAPACY AND THE  AVIGNON  EXILE.               three estates, the nobility, clergy and representatives of the
                               A. D. 1294-1377.                                cities, which set aside the papa1 summons to the council, com-
           Its purpose was not to deny feudal and freewill offerings           plained of the appointment of foreigners to French livings,
from the Church. In cases of emergency, the pope would                         and asserted the crown's independente  of the Church. Five
also be ready to grant special subsidies. The document was                     hundred years later a similar representative body of the
so offensive that the French bishops begged the pope  to recall                three estates was  to rise against French royalty and  decide
it altogether, a request he set aside. But to appease Philip,                  for the abolition of monarchy. In a letter to the pope,
Boniface  issued another buil, July 22, 1297, according there-                 Philip addressed him as  "your  infatuted Majesty,"'  and
after to French kings,  who had reached the age of 20, the                     declined  al1 submission to  any one on earth in tempora1
right to judge whether a tribute from the clergy was a case                    matters.
of necessity or not. A month later he canonized Louis 1X, a                       The council called by the pope convened in Rome the
further act of conciliation.                                                   last day of October, 1302, and included 4 archbishops, 35
           Boniface   also offered to act as umpire between France             bishops, and 6 abbots from. France. It issued two bulls. The
and England  in his personal capacity as Benedict  Gaetanus.                   first pronounced the ban on al1 who detained prelates going
The offer was accepted,  but the decision was not agreeable                    to `Rome or returning from.the  city. The second is one of the
to the French sovereign. The pope expressed a desire to visit                  most notable of al1 papa1 documents,  the bul1 Unma  sartcfa.wL,
Philip, but again gave offence by asking  Philip for a loan of                 the name given to it from its first words, "We are forced to
100,000 pounds for Philip's brother, Charles of Valois,  whom                  believe in one  holy Catholic Church." It marks an  epoch
Boniface  had invested with the command  of the papa1 forces.                  in the history of the declarations of the papacy, not because
           In 1301 the `flame of controversy  was again started by :L          it contained  anything novel, but because it set forth with un-
document, written probably by the French advocate, Pierre                      changed  clearness the stiffest claims of the papacy to tempora1
Dubois, which showed the direction in which Philip's mind                      and spiritual power. It begins with the assertion that there
was working, for it could hardly have appeared without his                     is only one true Church, outside of which there is no salva-
assent. The writer summoned the king to extend his domi-                       tion. The pope is the  .vicar  of Christ, and  whoever  refuses
nions to the walls of Rome and beyond, and denied the                          to be ruled by Peter belongs not to the fold of Christ. .Both
pope's right to  secular  power. The pontiff's business is  con-               swords are subject to the Church, the spiritual and the
fned  to the forgiving of sins, prayer, and preaching. Philip                 temporal. The tempora1 sword is  .to be wielded  for the
continued  to lay his hand without scruple  -on Church proper-                 Church, the spiritual hy it. The secular  estate may be judged
ty  ; Lyons,  tihich had been  claimed  by the empire, he de-                  by the spiritual estate, but the spiritual estate by no human
manded as a part of France. Appeals against his arbitrary                      tribunal. The document closes  with the startling declaration
acts went to Rome, and the pope sent Bernard of Saisset,                       that for  every   human being the  condition  of salvation is
bishop of Pamiers, to Paris, with commission to summon the                     obedience to the Roman pontiff.
French  king  to apply the  clerical tithe for its appointed                      There was no assertion of authority contained  in this bul1
purpose, a  crusade,  and for nothing else. Philip showed                      which had not been before made by  Gregory VII and his
his resentment by  having  the legate arrested. He was  ad-                    successors, and the document leans back not only upon the
judged by the  civil  tribunal a-traitor, and his deposition from              deliverances of  popes, but  upon the definitions of theologians
the  episcopate  demanded.                                                     like Hugo de St. Victor, Bernard and Thomas Aquinas. But
           Boniface's reply, set forth in the bul1 Az,tscztZta  fiZi - Give    in the  Una.wk  mnctawz   the  arrogante  of  the papacy  fmds its
ear, my son-issued Dec. 5, 1301,  charged  the king with                       most naked and irritating expression.
highhanded treatment of the clergy and making  plunder of ec-                     One of the clauses  pronounces  al1 offering resistance to
clesiastical property. The pope announced a council to be                      the pope's authority Manichaens. Thus Philip was made a
held in Rome to which the French prelates were called and                      heretic.  Six months later the pope  sent a cardinal legate,
the king summoned to be present, either in person  or by a                     John le Moine of Amiens, to announce  to the king his excom-
representative. The  bul1 declared that God had  placed his                    munication  for preventing French bishops from going to
earthly vicar above kings and kingdoms. To make the mat-                       Rome. The bearer of the message  was imprisoned and the
ter worse, a false copy of Boniface's  bul1 was circulated in                  legate fled. Boniface  now called upon the German emperor,

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

Albrecht, to take Philip's throne, as Innocent 111 had called       self in the hands of the conspirators. The conditions were
upon the French king  to take John's crown of Frederick 11.         rejected, and.after  a delay of three hours, the work of assault
Albrecht  had  wisdom enough to decline the  empty gift.            and destruction was renewed. The palaces  one after  another
Philip's seizure of the papa1  bulls before they could be           yielded, and the papa1 residence itself was taken and entered.
promulged in France was met by Boniface's announcement              The supreme pontiff, according to the description of Villani,
that the posting of a bul1 on the church doors of Rome was          received  the besiegers in high  pontifical  robes, seated on a
sufficient  to give it force.                                       throne, with  a crown on his head and a crucifix and the keys
       The French parliament, June, 1303, passed from the           in his hand. He proudly rebuked the intruders, and declared
negative attitude of defending the king and French rights to        his readiness to die for Christ and his Church. To the
an  attack upon Boniface  and his right to the papa1 throne.        demand that he resign the papa1 office, he replied,  "Never:
In 20 articles it accused him of simony,  sorcery, immoral in-      1 am Pope and as pope 1 wil1 die." Sciarra was about to kil1
tercourse with his niece,  having  a demon in his chambers,         him, when he was intercepted by Nogaret's arm. The palaces
the murder  of Coelestine, and other crimes.  It appealed to al     were looted and the cathedral bumt, and its  relics, if not
genera1 council, before which the pope was summoned to ap-          destroyed, went to swell-the booty. One of the relics, a vase
pear in  person. Five archbishops and 21 bishops joined in          said to have contained  milk from Mary's breasts, was turnd
subscribing to this document. The university and chapter  of        over and  broken.  The pope and his nephews were held in
Paris,  convents,  cities, and towns  placed themselves on the      confinement for three days, the  captors being undecided
king's side.                                                        whether to carry Boniface  away to Lyons, set him at liberty,
       One more step the pope was abut to take when a sudden.      or put him to death.. Such was the humiliating counterpart
stop was put to his  career. He had set the eighth day of           to the proud display made at the pope's coronatipn nine years
September as the  time when he would-publicly, in the church        b e f o r e !
of Anagni, and  with al1 the solemnities known to the Church,            In the meantime  the feelings of the Anagnese underwent
pronounce the ban  upon the disobedient king and release his        a change. The adherents of the Gaetani family rallied their
subjects  from allegiance. In the same edifice Alexander 111        forces and, combining  togethr,  they  rescued   Boniface  and
had excommunicated  Barbarossa, and Gregory 1X, Frederick           drove out the conspirators. Seated at .the hed of his palace
11. The bul1 already  had the papa1 signature, when, as by a        stairway, the pontiff thanked God and the people for  h;s
storm bursting from a clear sky, the  pope's plans were             deliverance.  `Yesterday," he said,  "1 was like Job, poor
shattered and his career brought to an end,                         and without  a~friend.  Today 1 have abundance of bread,
       During the two centuries and a half since Hildebrand had     wine, and water." A rescuing party from Rome conducted
entered the city of Rome with Leo 1X, popes had been im-            the unfortunate pope to the  Holy City,  where  he was no
prisoned by emperors, been banished from Rome by its                longer  his own master.  A month later, Oct. 11, 1303, his
citizens, had Fred for refuge and died in  exile,  but upon no      earthly career closed. Outside the death-chamber, the streets
one of them had a calamity fallen quite so humiliating and          of the city were filled with riot and tumult, and the Gaetani
complete as the calamity which now befell Boniface. A plot,         and Colonna were encamped, in battle array against  each
formed in France  to checkmate the pope and to carry him off        other in the Campagna.
to a council at Lyons, burst Sept. 7 upon the peaceful popula-           Reports agree that Boniface's death was a most pitiabie
tion of Anagni, the pope's country seat. William of Nogaret,        one. He died of melancholy and despair,  and perhaps actu-
professor of law at Montpellier and councillor of the king,         ally  insan'e. He refused food, and beat his head against the
was the manager of the plot and was probably its inventor.          wall. "He was  out of his  head,"  wrote Ptolemy of  Lucca,
According to the chronicler, Villani, Nogaret's parents were        and believed that  every  one  who approached  him was seeking
Cathari, and suffered for heresy in the flames in Southern          to put him in prison.
France. He stood as a representative of a new class of men,              Human sympathy goes out for the aged man of fourscore
laymen,   who were able to compete in culture with the best-        years and more, dying in loneliness and despair.  But judg-
trained ecclesiastics, and advocated  the independente  of the      ment comes sooner or later upon individuals ,and institutions
state.  With him was joined Sciarra Colonna, who, with other        for their  mistakes  and offences. And history's judgment
members of his family, had found refuge in France, and was          upon this-pope is not favorable.                                H.V.
thirsting for revenge  for their proscription by the pope. With
a smal1 body' of mercenaries, 300 of them on horse, they                                      I N   MEMORIAM
suddenly appeared in Anagni. The barons of the Latium,                  The  Ladies'  Society of the South Holland Protestant Reformed
embittered by the rise of the Gaetani family  upon their losses,    Church hereby  wishes  to express its  simzere  sympathy to Mrs.  Tena
joined with the conspirators, as also did the people of Anagni.     Bruinsma  and family in the  loss  of her  mother,
The palaces  of two of Boniface's nephews and several of the                               MRS. JERRY LENTING
cardinals were stormed and seized by Sciarra Colonna, who               May  the God of  all  grace comfort  and sustain the bereaved in
then' offered the pope life on the three conditions that the        their great sorrow.
                                                                                                       Rev. H. C.  Hoeksema,  President
Colonna be restored, ,Boniface  resign, and that he place him-                                         Mrs. S. Vroegh, Secretary


                                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER                                                    377

     11                                                                      opportunity to have returned. But now they  desire a better
                 The Voice of Our Fathers                                 il country, that is, an heavenly : wherefore God is nat ashamed
                                                                             to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a
                                                                             city." Heb. 11 :14-16. Of Abraham too it is said that by faith
                       The Ckmok of Dordrecht                                "he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder
                                                                             and maker is God." Heb. 11 :lO. In Heb. 13 :13, 14 we are
                                   PART. `r WO                               admonished : "Let  US go forth therefore unto him without the
                                                                             tamp, bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing
                         EsI~~sITI~N  OP 731s CANONS                         city, but we seek one to  come."  In a similar vein we  read
                                                                             in -11 Cor. 4 :17, 1s : "For our light affliction, which is but
                  THIRD  AND  FouRm   Arms  OF  DOCXRINE                     for a moment, worketh for  US a far more exceeding and
                                                                             eternal weight of glory ; While we look not at  the things
           OF  THE  CORRUPTION OF  MAN,  Hrs  CONVERSION TO  GOD,            which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the
                         AND  THE  MANNER  TREREOF                           things which are seen are tempora1 ; but the things which are
                                                                             not seen are eternal." Thus  also the Lord Jesus Himself
                        REJECTION OF ERRORS                                  says : "For what is a man profited, if he shall  gain the whole
                                                                             world, and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in
                            Article 7  (continued)                           exchange for  ,his soul?" Matt.  16:26. There  can be  ao  ~_
                                                                             doubt about it, therefore, that the gospel of grace exactly
             3) In the third place, the Arminians take a very definite       appeals to the faith and longing of the people of God by
     position as to the efficacy of this  moral. grace. It is  indeed        setting forth the promise of the eternal things as over against
     essential to understand this. This is stated as follows in this         the temporal. And to this extent it is  also true that the
     article : "and that the efficacy of the divine working, whereby         divine working surpasses the working of Satan in this
     it surpasses the .working of Satan, consists in this, that God          respect.  Al1 that Satan has to offer a man is incomparably
     promises eternal, while Satan promises only tempora1 goeds."            poor, not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall  be
     Here again, of course, there is an  element  of truth in the            revealed in US. NO, about this we have no quarrel with the
     Arminian presentation, which makes  it al1 the more deceptive..         Arminian. But  when the Arminian insists that this is the
     The element. of  truth is that God promises eternal goods               efficacy of the divine  wrking,  then  indee.d we differ  radi-
     while Satan promises only tempora1 goods. This is crtainly             cally. If this were true, then not a single individual  would
     Scriptural. The Bible teaches US everywhere that it exactly             ever lay hold upon that rich promise of eternal goods ; every-
     belongs to the hope of the children of God that it reaches              one would prefer what Satan promises. If this were true,
     beyond this present  time and this present worlcl, over the             then  the  promise of God and the  promise of Satan are of
     chasm of death, unto eternal life. And it  also certainly teaches       equal power; they only differ in contents.  If this were true,
     US that it is exactly this  that distinguishes the hope of the          then  after  al1 the promise is but an offer, not a sure word,
     people of God from any carnal hope of the world ; and we                and its efficacy is  after  al1 nothing. For  such a  promjse to
     also understand, of course, that this resurrection-object of            be effective it is necessary that man take hold of it and ac-
     the Christian faith and hope appeals  very strongly to the              cept it.. This Arminian presentation  simply   means that  al1
     child of God and is calculated to spur him on in a life`of con-         the so-called "efficacy of the divine working" is in man, is
     version.   Thus,  for example, Scripture  often draws a direct          the efficacy of a human operation, not of a divine one.
     contrast between the tempora1 goods and the eternal goods
     mentioned in this article. "Love not the world, neither the                4) And finally, we can now understand quite readily the
     things that are in the world . . . For al1 that is in the world,        remaining element of the Arminian position in this article.
     the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of       The Arminian claims that this mora1 manner of working is
     life, is not of the Father,  but is of the world. And the world         "the noblest manner of working in the conversion of man, is
     passeth away, and the lust thereof : but he  that doeth the  wil1       most in harmony with  man's  nature, and that there is no
     of God abideth for ever," 1 John 2:15-17.  "By faith Moses,             reason why this  mora1  grace alone should not be sufficient
     when he was come t.0 years; refused to be called the son of             to make the natura1 man spiritual." It is the Arminian claim
     Pharaoh's daughter  ; Choosing  rather to suffer affliction with        that if the grace of conversion is as the Reformed confession
     the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a             teaches, then the work of grace violates  man's rational, moral,
     season  ; Esteeming the  reproach of Christ greater  riches             responsible nature,  and makes of the moral,  rational creature
     than the treasures in Egypt : for he had respect unto the               a stock and  black.  But if, according to the Arminian, grace
     recompence `of the  reward." Heb. 11 :24-26. And again :                is mora1 in its operation, and consists in mora1 suasion, then
     "For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek           this difficulty in harmonizing God's grace and  man's nature is
     a country. And  truly, if they had been mindful of  that                overcome.  And  the Arminian maintains that there is no
     country from whence they came out, they might- have had                 reason why -such  a mora1 grace- should not be sufficient  to





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378                                          T H E   STANDARD   B I E A R E R

accomplish  the change of conversion, the change from a             case.  of the  elect  sinner God does this  gmcioudy  an6  well-
natura1 to a spiritual man. The premise upoh which  this            9tiea:ningly.
Arminian doctrine is based is found, of course, in the Ar-              But the fathers  insist that if this mora1 aspect of the
minian  doctrine of the creation and  fa11 of man. Granted          &ace of conversion is  posite& as the  only aspect and as
that the spiritual gifts do not belong to  .the  wil1 as  such,     setting forth the fundamental spiritual character of the grace
granted that these gifts are not separated from the  wil1 of        of conversion, then you become guilty of Pelagianism. And
man in spiritual death, granted that the unregenerate man           let  US understand that this is not simply a bit of  name-
is not really nor utterly  dead in sin, nor destitute of  al1       calling.  The idea here is that the church in dealing with
powers unto spiritual good, and granted that in the true  con-      heresy does not have to begin anew in laying down the
version of man no new qualities,  powers, or gifts can be in-       principles  of the truth every  time another heresy arises. The
fused by God into the will, - then it must also be granted          church is one in al1 ages. The church as it exists today does
that such a .moral grace and suasion would be quite sufficient      not have to develop the truth anew, but hs received  a herit-
to change a natura1 man into a spiritual one. But  notice:          age of the truth from the church as it existed yesterday.  And
1) That this reduces the change from a natura1 man to a             therefore the church  may not act as though the truth has
spiritual to a mere relative change and  denies the absolute        never been developed and expressed in the past. Hence, if it
and  radical  character of conversion. 2)  This. implies that       becmes  evident that a certain heresy which arises today is
both 6he wil1 to be converted and the ability to convert one's      nothing but the same heresy of Pelagius of yesterday, only
self lie within the power of the natura1 man. `He stil1 has,        by a different name, the church does nat re-investigate the
according to the  Arminiati, a  wil1 that  can successfully be      truth in order to determine whether Pelagius was right or
appealed to by God by promising to him eternal goods over           wrong. NO, it simply labels that heresy of today by its right
against Satan's goods, which are temporal.                          name, and condemns  it on the very ground that it is Pelagian.
       Such is the Arminian position set forth in this article.     Thus the fathers dealt with Arminianism.
       And the fathers condemn this position.                           The question  was whether those earnest urgipgs and ad-
       Let it be noted, first of all, that in their condemnation    visings to  repent  and be converted are enough.  Whoever
they do not deny, but affirm, that the grace of the Holy Spirit     maintains that,  - as the Arminians did,  -  mairitains  that
in the work of conversion partakes of the nature of advising        the natura1 man is able  to convert himself, if only he will,
or suasion, is a mora1 grace. If we do not remember this, we        and that in his wil1 lies the ability to choose and turn to the
lay ourselves open to the Arminian charge thst  in.the  R&          good, if only his understanding is enlightened and convinced
formed view man is nothing but a stock  and,  black.  God           of the necessity of conversion. And that is nothing but the
certainly does not violate the nature of the very  man which        Pelagianism condemned by the church long centuries before.
He created in  any of His dealings with man.  ,In the work              And it is  h&e that the fathers, in the  second   place,   se.e
of conversion God deals with man as a moral,  rational crea-        the fundamental  divergente  between the Reformed truth and
ture. Conversion does not take  place apart from and  out-          Pelagianism. The  Holy Scripture teaches  "another  and far
side of the wil1 of man, but in the will. It is conversion of       more powerful and divine manner of werking," an operatign
the geart and mind and will. And- therefore in conversion           which is prerequisite to this mora1 grace. The heart must be
God renders the evil, disobedient, and refractory wil1 of the       changed  first; and only  when the heart itself, and with it
natura1 man good, obedient, and pliable. 111, IV., A, ll. And       the mind and wil],  has been changed  can this gentle suasion
in  consequente  of this work of God, the wil1 thus renewed         and'moral  grace of  +the  Holy Spirit possibly bear  any fruit
is not only  actuaied  and influenced by God, but becomes           unto conversion. Here is  where  the Arminian and the  Re-
itself active.  111, IV, A, 12. As a result, we hear the "gentle    formed doctrines part ways. The Arminian says with Pela-
advising"  of the Holy Ghost, we see the folly of our sin and       gius : Convince the natura1 man of the necessity of conver-
the vanity of the things  tempora1 which Satan  "promises,"         sion, of the wisdom of it, of the great benefit  resulting from
,and we turn from the way of sin, from our evil way, we             it, and that man can by his own wil1 turn and be saved. The
repent,  we seek forgiveness, we believe.  Al1 this the Re-         Reformed faith says : But it is exactly impossible to convince
formed  faith does not  deny at all. Nor is it true that  ac-       the natural, unconyerted  man of his sin, because he is dead
cording to  Reformed  doctrine. the above is true only with         in trespasses and sins; he is both unable and unwilling to be
regard  to the outward proclamation of the gospel by a human        converted, yea, he is at enmity against the living God.  !B,efore
preacher. The article speaks of the gruce  of conversion, of        he  can ever be convicted of sin, before he can see spiritual
the manner of the Holy Spirit's working, and of what God            things, before he can ever actively turn from his evil way,
promises. And while it is true that in this respect the work        he must be turned in the depths of his being, and bis heart
of conversion takes  place through the means of the- Word           must be changed. And this is only possible through a work
preached, that Word preached js not the word of man, buit           which God works in US without US. This position they prove
the Word of God Himself ! God Himself earnestly advises             by an appeal to the text from Ezekiel cited in the article.
and urges the sinner to turn from his evil way. And in the                                                                    H.C.H.


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                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                       379

                                                                      then delegated. Even if the delegation from a certain  con-
               DECENCY and ORDER                                      sistory happens to be the president and the clerk of that con-
                                                                      sistory, a credential issued in  this marmer,  is not  legal.  It  .is
                                                                      a fraud and constitutes an ethica1 violation of the principles
                           C r e d e n t i a l s                      underlying the orderly  processes  of delegation. These things,
   In the previous issue we presented various credential              foo, belong to the  sacred  things of God and  may not be
forms and offered a few suggestions toward making  the one            trifled with and  when they are the punitive  finger  of God
presently in use more complete and, therefore, better. We             points toward those who do so!
also pointed out the idea of the credential letter in that it is         A consistorial credential is one that is properly issued by
an official authorization given to certain individuals to re-         motion at a legally held meeting of.the  consistory and record
present their consistories or classes at the major `ecclesiastica    thereof inscribed into the minutes. At the same  time  such
gatherings.                                                           action takes-place the proper form is filled out by the clerk
   This matter, treated in Article- 33 of our Church Order,           and signed by the designated officers in the presence of the
like many of the articles of that document, also has a history.       entire consistory.
The practice of using credentials dates back to the first reg-           Years ago,  when the relationship between church and
ular, Synod of the Reformed Churches of Holland held in               state in our fatherland was very close, it would sometimes
`Emden  in 1571. Circumstances at that  time, perhaps  much           happen that the town or city officials would sign the credenti-
more than today, made the necessity of proper credentials             als of ecclesiastical delegates.  This, was, of course, wrong.
more keenly felt. For one thing the churches were not as              Our fathers, fearing State domination, objected  to this prac-
close to each other in the sense that there were no modern            tice and, consequently, insisted  upon the insertion of the
means of conveyance. Travel was not common then as it is              phrase, "signed   by those  sertding  them."  In this they were
now and the representatives of different churches that were           wholly  correct. Now The Church Order Coutzutzentary  states,
some distance apart did not always know each other. Cre-              "For US today it- merely  means  that no letter of delegation is
dentials, issued by the churches, served the purpose of mak-          valid  except it be properly signed." On the surface this
ing proper identification and this was sometimes extremely            may appear to be true but it is not. Certainly no document
important.                                                            has official status and, therefore, cannot be regarded as valid
   Moreover, it should not be forgotten that these were the           without a signature.  However, there is more. It  ,is not
immediate post-reformation days. The churches had  gom:               merely  a question  of signature but rather  a question of how
through a long period of struggle. The days of persecution            the  signatuve  got there!  If the  civil  magistrates or anyone
had to some extent broken  off contact between the churches           else for that matter  who has no authority to do so puts it
in different places. Besides this, it was not uncommon that           there, it is .not  valid. That is obvious transgression.  How-
enemies of the church would attempt  to seat themselves in the        ever, it is just as wrong if the proper individuals affix the
assemblies for the purpose of doing damage to the cause of            signature apart from the proper processing by the body they
the truth. These fraudulent imposters must be barred and              represent. That's why the credential form also contains the
this could be accomplished. through the issuance of proper            clause  : "Done `in Consistory  . . . date"!  When  then this is
credentials. Those  who lacked them simply could not be               done by the consistory on a certain date and the form is
seated in the assembly.                                               processed  by individuals (not the consistory) on another
   Now, today these things have changed  but this does nol:           date, this gives the lie to the whole thing. If the thing was
obliterate the need of. credentials nor does it make them any         really done in Consistory why wasn't the form then  also
less  signific.ant.  NO one  may be seated in the ecclesiastical      filled out?
assembly without proper attestation. Only those  who are                  As far as the ecclesiastical assembly is concerned, such a
able t furnish official authorization in writing may be  ac-         document may be perfectly valid. It bears the proper signa-
cepted. It would be wrong to constitute  an assembly on the           tures. There is no visible  evidente  of tampering. Classis
mere basis of individual's claims to be delegates.  Great havoc       accepts  the  testimony of the hastily and improperly filled
could be wrought that way ! The business of the church is             out credential form. and seats  the delegates designated  there-
Christ's business or  rather  Christ's business is the church's       on. She  can do nothing else. Before the eyes of the Lord,
business and, therefore, only those authorized or appointed           however,   Who  commands  that  al1 things in His church be
by Christ Himself through the  offices of His church have             done  decently and in good  order, the thing is entirely wrong.
the right to transact  that labor.                                        Those  who are properly delegated and able to present
    What then constitutes a proper credential ?                       their valid letters of credential are authorized to, firstly, bring
    Article 33 stipulates the requirement : They shall  be            instructions to the broader assembly and, secondly, to vote
"signed  by those sendisg  them." This does not mean that the         in  al1 matters except such as particularly concern their  per-
delegates themselves fnll out the credential form at the very         sons or churches. We may note here that the term `rimtruc-
time and place of the meeting to which they are supposedly            tiom" in this connection has a twofold connotation. It refers


380                                         T H E   ST.AN.DARD   B E A R E R

on the one hand to the charge or instruction the  sending                Now perhaps it might happen that a delegate, knowing
body gives to its delegates as these are found on the creden-        the mind of his consistory, and even agreeing  with that mind,
tial letter. Briefly stated, each delegate is instructed to take     is convinced through the discussion in the broader gathering
part in  al1 matters legally coming before the meeting  and          that he should vote the very opposite way from which he first
transacted in harmony with the Word of God, the doctrinal            contemplated. Our view is that he should then do so but the
 Standards and the Church Order. By this instruction  each           matter does not rest there. He in turn should also, in report-
delegate must abide. He  carries it with him. Only by  ad-           ing back to his consistory, ttempt to convince them that in
hering to it is he a faithful  representative  of the church         view of added information, etc. his vete as he  recorded it was
sending  him.                                                        proper. If he succeeds,  very  wel1 ! If. not, the consistory is
       The term  "inst~wtiod'  may  also denote those matters        free to register a protest or appeal the decision at the next
which the sending.body itself brings to the broader assembly         meeting. This is the preferred position since it  makes  possible
through its representatives.  --These  may be in the form  o:E       free discussion, retains the deliberative character of the as-
overtures, protests, appeals or questions and should always          semblies and enables the individual delegate to do  justice by
be in writing and attached to the credential letter. And, of         acting harmonious with conviction.
course, they too must bear the proper and official signatures            The Church Order Cowwzentary  agrees substantially with
of the body sending  them.                                           this but adds a few other significant elements. We quote :
       In `the treatment of al1 these matters, the delegates have        "The instructions to delegates should, as a rule, always,
the right to vote.  Rather  important is the question as  to,        be  general.  To illustrate, no Consistory should endeavor to
whether or not the body that  sends ,delegates  also instructs       instruct its delegates to Classis how to vote on a particular
them as to how they are to vote on various matters that come         issue.  Each delegate must use his own best judgment, and
up for deliberation and decision. Does a consistory  tel1 its        then vote as his conscience before God bids him vote. Ab-
delegates to Classis how they are to vete or are.the  delegates      stractly and inherently the Churches wold have a right to
free to vote as they see fit?                                        give their delegates a definite mandate, telling them how to
       This question, as we see it, is debatable. Some things        vote. But the true welfare of the churches requires  that  al1
may be  cited in favor of both positions. For example, in            delegates have their hands free and unbound. For our  as-
favor of the position  -that  .delegates  are bound to vote in       semblies are not merely  meetings at: which the votes of the
agreement with the desires of their own consistory is, irst         various churches are  recorded.  But they are gatherings at
of all, the fact that they represent that consistory and, there-     which the problems and  the affairs of the churches are  mutu-
fore, must speak and vote in agreement with the consistory's         ally considered and decided  upon. Our gatherings are and
position for otherwise they are  nat true representatives.  Who      should remain deliberative assemblies. And our delegates
wil1 represent the consistory if their own delegates do not?, should not be reduced to the role of voting machines. It is
Moreover, in the second place,  an agendum is Iprepared  by          a  very good  practice  for the sending  bodies to consider the-
the stated clerk of the major assembly and sent in advance           major issues that wil1 require action at the assemblies to be
to al1 the consistories so that they may have opportunity fox        held. That promotes genera1 interest and counteracts hurt-
pi-evious deliberation. What is the intent  of this if not that      ful  ignorante.  And that wil1 help these  that go as delegates
consistories  come to settled convictions regarding the matters      to the major gatherings to know the mind of their brethren
to be treated and instruct their delegates to vote according         at home. But the delegates should not be bound.  After   a
to those convictions at_the gathering?                               good discussion at the major assembly they  may  fee1   com-
                                                                     pelled to vote exactly opposite from their first contemplations.
       On the other side of the question, however,  there is also
strong argument. First of ah, if it were true that the,delegates         Only  when circumstances are  very extraordinary, as
are bound in their voting by the instructions of their con-          when a  sending  body knows  al1 the issues involved in a
sistories, there would be no sense to hold Classica1 and             specific  case, would  it be justified to instruct its delegates
Synodical meetings. It would only be a waste of time and             how to vote. So, for example, at the great Synod of Dordt,
money to deliberate,  debate and weigh various arguments             1618-19, some Particular Synods had instructed their  dele-
concerning the issues involved if the vote of each delegate is       gates previously to vete so as to maintain  the purity of doc-
pre-determined by the consistory. The same end could then            trine, i.e., against the Arminians. Or as Jansen states, "send-
be gained by  having  each consistory register its vote via mail.    ing bodies can only give definite instruction as to how dele-
We believe, secondly, that our ecclesiastical bodies are and         gates  should vote regarding matters which are clearly  ex-
should remain  deliberative bodies. Free and open discussion         pressed in  Holy  Writ, and  concerning   w:hich therefore
should be encouraged. This in turn opens the way to con-             further deliberation is unnecessary, and change of opinion
vincing one another where  differences of opinion may exist          out of  place"  (pp. 151, 152).
so that unity of conviction may be attained in the assembly             The next  time,  D.V., we  wil1 consider the exception to
and `throughout the churches. And this  unity  can only be           this right of voting.
expressed  where  the freedom of vote on  al1 issues is retained.                                                          G.V.D.B.


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                         381

                                                                           etemzl life fo+ the glory of His name. Let it be remembered
  j        ALL'AR0UN.D                               lis              1 that the  whole  human race is condemned,  having  not the
                                                                           ability to remedy their awful condition.  Al1 mankind  sinned
                                                                           in Adam, and fel1 in Adam ; and, so are now dead  in tres-
  Unconditional  Eleckon                                                   passes and sins. If salvation were then dependent  upon  man's
        Recently a friend and brother, of one of our churches,             ability to choose God, or to become righteous before Him;
  was instrumental  in'  having  sent to me several copies of a            then none would ever be saved.
  monthly paper called "New Testament Baptist  Witness,"                          "God would be just to tast every  member of the human
  published in Cincinnati, Ohio, and edited by the pastor of               family into hell, for each one is but a rebel against God. Man
  the New Testament Baptist Church of that city,  Lasserre                 left to  himself  would choose nothing but sin, bringing eternal
  Bradley, Jr. Along  ,with the copies above referred to 1  re-            judgment  upon himself. So, it is only because of the choice
  ceived also a booklet'containing five messages o,n The DOC-              of God that  any shall be saved. One of the clearest definitions
  trines of Grace. These messages in substance.  were delivered            of the doctrine of  election  is found in the first  chapter  of
  by the pastor first in his church and then over the radio on             Ephesians. We begin reading with the third verse, `Blessed
  a program called the Baptist Bible Hour which at the time                be the God and Father  of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
  they were delivered was'carried  by seven radio stations. We             blessed US with al1 spiritual blessings in heavenly places  in
  wish to thank the brother for having  this material sent to US.          Christ : According as he hath  chosen   US in him before the
  It was  much appreciated.                                                foundation of the  world,  that we should be  holy without
   . We are not sure whether the pastor Bradley is a hard                  blame before him in love.'
  shell or thin shell or whatever shell Baptist he may be, but                    "Notice it says, `he hath  chosen   US'; it was His choice,
  if the material we read coming from his hand is a sample of              not ours. This choice was made before the foundation of the
  what he preaches, 1 could very easily find myself at home in             world and so it could not possibly be. founded on anything
 his audience. We  gather.  from what the pastor  writes  that             in  US. And note too, that He hath chosen  US `in Christ.' Al1
  it has been only a few years ago that he was converted from              the spiritual blessings we have are in Christ. We are chosen
  rank  Arminianism, and that he now embraces  ia11  the doc-              in Christ, loved in Christ ; in Christ we have righteousness,
  trines of God's Sovereign Grace.                                         sanctification, redemption, and `the forgiveness of sins, ac-
        Referring to the booklet above mentioned which contains            cording to the riches  of his  grace.'  Yozi  camot separate the
 five messages on The Doctrines of Grace, he treats of the                 dc-trne  of  election   fromn   the  person of  Christ.   In  fact the
  Five Points of Calvinism in their order..  Al1 of these  mes-            more we understand of election,  the more we wil1  come to
  sages are true to the Word of God. We purpose in this                    appreciate  the glories of Christ's  person and  desire His  in-
 writing to. give our readers a sample of what Bradley writes              timate fellowship.
 on the subject of Unconditional  Election.  We  may not be                       "Verse five continues, `Having predestinated US unto the
 able in our allotted space to quote al1 he writes on the sub-             adoption of children by Jesus Christ  to himself, according to
 ject, but here follows as  much as we can quote.                          the good pleasure of his will.' How were we predestinated?
        "AS we continue our messages on the doctrines of grace,            Was it according to man's free will? NO, many wish it. said
  we speak today on `Unconditional  Election.'  Our text is                that, but it plainly declares it was according to `His  will.'
  1 Thessalonians 1 :4, `Knowing, brethren beloved, your .elec-            `To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made
 tion of God.' Let us then at the very beginning be convinced              US accepted  in the beloved.' You often  hear people speak of,
 that  election  is of God. Realizing this to be true,  each one           `accepting Christ.' But if we are to use Scriptural language,
listening to this  message  should give their most diligent  at-           we must say we are `accepted  in Christ.' You see the choice
 tention to the passages we shall  read from God's Word. It                is not ours, we would never choose Christ - for our hearts
 is rny prayer that the Holy Spirit may open men's hearts and              being evil, we would flee from the light rather  than come to
  teach  them that election  is of God. And surely the only way            :L
                                                                           LL.
 anyone  can ever know this, being truly convinced in their
 heart, is for the Spirit to reveal it to them."                                  "Yes, God accepted  the elect  in Christ; and they, and no .
                                                                           more shall be saved. The question is then immediately raised,
        Pastor Bradley then  quotes from the Philadelphia  Con-            `Why does God choose some, and pass others by leaving
  fessions of Faith on the subject of election  which 1 wil1 not           them to perish in their sin.' And to this we must give the
  quote here. He then proceeds as follows:                                 answer of our Lord Himself, `. . . Jesus answered and said,
                                                                           1 thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
                     E L E C T I O N   D E F I N E D                       thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and
        "First we must explain, what is meant by election.  And            hast revealed them unto  babes. Even so,  Father: for so  it
 in brief we shall say, election  is a sovereign act of, God where-        seemed good in thy sight.' Shall we bring into question the
  by  He chooses  crtai.n   indiz,iduals,   from the  fa,llen race, to    sovereign rights of our Holy God? Can any charge that the

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

God of glory does not do right? NO, my friends, let US fa11                  for those people ; and the Spirit pledged Himself to apply
prostrate before Him, and  with great awe and wonder repeat                  salvation  to their hearts. Ah, how good to know that every
that marvellous phrase, `Even so, Father . . . it seemed good                one given to the Son shall come to Him, and if the desire to
in thy sight.'                                                               come is within your heart you know you wil1 nat be tast out,
         "Tlze  end of  this choice is to wmke a people like  Ch&t           for the desire  itself is the gift of God."'
fou  tlze  @mise  of  Hi.s  YWWZB.  He  `. .  ., hath raised  US. up  to:        Concerning Acts 13 :4&! Bradley writes  : "Coming now to
gether,  and made US sit together in heavenly places in Christ               Acts 13 148 we read,   `. . . and as many  as were ordained to
Jesus :.that  in the ages to come he might show the exceeding                eternal life believed.' They did not believe in order to be
riches of his grace in his kindness toward US through Jesu.s                 ordained to eternal life, but they believed because they were
Christ.' The language again points to the fact that salvation                ordained to it. In our preaching we urge men to believe on
is of the Lord,. `He raised US ;' we didn't raise ourselves.  And            Christ, but none  wil1 ever believe  except those  who were
to the reason for  al1 this - why, He shall show the exceeding               ordained to life ; for it is only unto them that the graces of
riches of His grace. Yes,  when the  many  sans are brought                  repentance and faith are granted. Let it ever be  remem-
unto glory, and al1 those who were predestinated have been                   bered that our believing is not the cause  of God's choice but
conformed   to the image of Christ  ; surely then His name shall             the evidente  of it."
be greatly magnified,  for al1 that blood washed throng sha'll                   Pastor Bsadley concludes this section of his message  with
fa11 before His throne. singing,  `Holy,  Holy,  Holy,' and no               the following two paragraphs :
doubt even the angels wil1 stand amazed at what God has
done for those who were by nature children of wrath.                            `Surely  you can see from these many  Scriptures that un-
                                                                             conditional  election  is  taught  in the Bible.  Once the Spirit
         "By unconditional  election, we  vzean  that  the choice of         opens your heart to this truth, you wil1 be able to see that it
God  was  not  cortdifiioned on  anyt,$ing   within   man. Since             is taught from Genesis through Revelation. And though this
man was utterly sinful,  there was nothing in him to attrac:t                doctrine strikes the death blow at the pride which is in men,
the favor of God. Then too, the Scriptures plainly declare                   and thus  often is resented by them; we believe it to be a
that this choice is not by the  wil1 of man. John  1:13  says,               most glorious and comforting truth. 1 wouldn't waste five
`Which were born, not of bloed,  .nor of the wil1 of the flesh,              minutes arguing about this doctrine or any ether teaching of
nor of the wil1 of man, but of God.' To say that  election  is               God's Word, but  often there are those  who have sincere
conditioned on the foreseen faith of man, or any other act of                questions. 1 couldn't deal with every  question in this broad-
his wil1 would deny this plain passage as wel1 as the rest of                tast, but it might be profitable  to consider a few.
God's Word. Again we  can say that  election  must be  un-
conditional, for salvation is by grace ; and, so could not bce                   "One question which is asked frequently is,  `Does& man
founded on anything in man for then'it would be by works.                    have a choice ? To this we answer, man had a choice in the
                                                                             garden of Eden ; but in Adam he chose sin and so lost his
                                                                             -ability  to choose good.  Many  times  people  wil1  attempt   tos
                       ELECTION TAUGHT                                       refute this doctrine by saying, `1 believe that whosoever wil1
         "Next, we shall examine a number of passages. dealing               may  come.' And it is true that the thirsty may drink of the
with this subject to see how  election  is taught in  the Bible.             living water, the hungry  may eat of the bread of life, the
Time &ll permit US to make only brief comments."                             w'eary  may come and rest, the willing may  come and be re-
                                                                             ceived; but, the thirst for the water, the hunger for the
    The reader wil1 forgive me for not quoting al1 that'pastor               bread, the  desire  for the rest, and the willingness to  come
Bradley  writes  under this heading for our  space is too limited            are  al1 given by the Lord and are given  only to His  elect."
to quote al1 the texts he quotes with his comments. Let me
just enmerate the texts and then pick two or three on which                   In tlie last  section of his  message  Bradley speaks of the
he makes some striking comments. The texts are the follow-                   profitableness of  election.  The two  main thoughts he  ex-
ing : Nehemiah 9  :7  ; Matthew  20:16; John  U  :37, 44, 65 ;               presses under this aspect of his subject are: "First, we can
John 15 :16,  lO;,John   17:2, 6, 9; Acts 13 :48; Romans  8  :28,            say it is profitable because it gives US the only proper view
29, 30; Romans 9:11-16;  11 Thessalonians 2 :13; 11 Timothy                  of God. You cannot  truly worship God  unless  you believe
1 :9.                                                                        He is' sovereign.
    Here is what Bradley writes on John 6~37.  "Al1 that the                     "Secondly, we know the preaching of election  is  profit-
Father giveth me shall come to me ; and him that cometh to                   able because it puts man in  the dust. You can't  go.to seed
me 1 wil1 in no wise tast out." "ften times  the last part of               on preaching this truth because you  can't  exalt God too
that verse is quoted like the first part was not there. It is                much and you can't put man low enough. We are made to
true that he who comes wil1 not be tast out, but who comes?                  see our own corruption, and  come to realiie that anything
Those who come are,the  -ones  given to the Son by the Father,,              we get  better than  Hel1  must be by sovereign grace."
they are the elect  of God. You see the Father  chose a people ;:                And 1 would add to this "and  al1 the people said Amen!"
Christ ntered into the covenant  of grace promising to die                                                                               M.S.


                                       T     H          E      STANDA.RD  ,BEARER                                                       383

                                                                         must be to them a curse (11 Co. 2 :15f) . From this ,it should
ll               CONTRIBUTIONS                                        -ll be plain that God does not love al1 without exception. Did
                                                                         God love Pharaoh (Ro. 9 :17) ? Did He love the Amalekites
                                                                         (Ex.  17:14ff)   ? Did H
              CALVINISM  - THE TRUTH                                                                 e 1ove the Canaanites (Dt. 20  :16)  ?
                                                                         the Ammonites and Moabites (23  :3)  ? Does He love the
                    ( Arminianism the Lie)                               workers of iniquity (Ps. 5 :5) ? Does He love the vessels of
As Based on the Canons of Dordt, Popularly known as the                  wrath (Ro.  9:22) ? Did He love  Esau (Ro. 9  :13) ? What
                   Five Points of Calvinism.                             is the centra1 purpose of the Cross  ?  To  "save His people
                 by REV.ROBERT  C. HAR'BACH                              ,(and them only) from their sins."
                      L i m i t e d   Atonement                                                 Irresistible  Giace
                          ( Continued)            -_                        6. ARMINIANISM insists that man  can and does  often
So with the word  `any." Cf. 11 Pe. 3 :9, "The  :Lord is not             resist Divine  grace (Ac. 7  ~51)  ; that the gospel does not
slack concerning His  promise (which is never made to the                present impossibilities to the- sinner, but  where  God  com-
reprobate), as some men count slackness ; but is longsuff ering          mands, there man is able to  obey. For the Lord gives  every
to  zts-ward,  not willing that  any should perish, but that  all        sinner the ability to believe, then' expects the sinner by `his
should come to repentance." God is longsuffering to US (His              free wil1 to exercise faith, and consent to the terms of salva-
elect) ; and is not willing that any of ~6s should perish. Who           tion. Sinners  can therefore accept or reject the offer of
are the  "any"? the "US"? According to the context, the                  grace at their pleasure. For God does His part for  man's
"beloved" of v. 1, the "beloved" of v. 8. He is not willing              salvation ; in fact God has done al1 He can for man without
that any of His beloved should perish. Therefore He is long-             destroying his free agency. So that God in His great efforts
suffering over tlzm. But take "any"  in the unqualified, ab-             to save man is displeased with Himself and the results He
solute sense, and the text is made to contradict other Scrip-            finally obtains. He sets his heart on the sinner to deliver
ture,  where,  for example, it says that God  is "willing  to show       him, and, as it were, labors til1 the going down of the sun
His wrath"  upon the "vessels of wrath," and  cause them                to deliver him (Dn. 6:14). Why He is not always successful
under that  wrath- to end in  "destructior?' (Rom.  9:22).               in accomplishing that deliverance is because He has created
However,   .it is different with His "beloved." They shall               man with a wil1 sovereign in its own right : "wherefore say
never perish. As to the word "world"  : did Christ die for the           My people, `We are lords (sovereigns) ; we  wil1  come no
whole world of men without exception  ?  NO, but for the                 more  unto~Thee"'  (Jer. 2 :31). For this reason God's coun-
world of "whosoever believeth" (Jn. 3 :16) ; the world which             sel can be annulled and rendered ineffectual by the perverse
has its sin actually and really "taken  away?'  (1:29).  The             wills of impenitent sinners : "1 have called and ye have re-
Lamb loves that world  ;  .He takes  a&ay its sin. But of the            fused ; 1 have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded ;
wicked it is said,  "your. sin  remzineth"   (9  :41). The  inter-       but ye have set at nought al1 my counsel, and would none of
cession of Christ is not for the whole world of mankind,  but            My  reproof"  (Pro.  1:24, 25). The unavoidable inference is
only for those the  Father gave Him (Jn. 17  :9). But if He              t,$at it .remains  in man's power to be regenerated or not, to
died for absolutely the whole world, why does He not pray                be converted or to continue unconverted. And since man has
for it.? The truth of the matter is that  there. is an elect             such power to choose or refuse, it may very wel1  happen that
world, a world with its sin removed (Jn. 1 :29), and a "world            al1 the works of grace which God uses to convert man may
of the  ungodly"  (11 Pe. 2  :5).  Teach,   however,  that Christ        be so opposed, the Holy Spirit so resisted that this salvation
died for al1 the sins of al1 men, and the following results :            is prevented; tho it was originally possible.
God demands the penalty for sin twice ! - once at the hands               CALVINISM rejoices in the truth that saving  grace is
of His Son who paid it ah, and again at the hands of those               irresistible. God does not save  any against their will, it is
for, whom He died (now in heil, themselves paying that al-               trtie. But man's wil1 is always subservient to, God's sovereign
ready  cancelled  debt  !). But Christ lays down  ,His life  ex-         will. God is always Almighty God! Therefore they  who
clusively for the &eep.  To the rest He says, "Ye are not of             did  resist the Spirit, did  not  resist the Spirit in  the+n,  for
My sheep" (Jn.  10:15, 26). He does not  lay down His life               they were devoid of the Spirit. But that resistance is to the
for  them Nor wil1 it do to say that God originally {ntended             Spirit in .the prophets, and in the ministers .of the Lord ; also
to save all. For fromthe beginning it was not so: Gn. 3 :15.             t: the external  calls and reproofs thru the preaching of the
At the first, God put enmity between the children of God  and.           Word.  But  when the Spirit is in men in His  grace of  con-
the children of the devil. From the first, the cross divided al].        version, and acts with a wil1 to convert, He thus makes  them
men into these two companies.  Clearly, the cross was never              .willing,  and  turns them forever to  Himself: "Thy people
intended to save that serpent's brood. For the cross  sover-             shall  be willing in the day of Thy power" (Ps. 110 :3). So
eignly puts (ordains) enmity against the serpent's seed. And.            that not by free wil1 (Jn.  1:12, 13; Ro. 9 :16;  Zech.  4:6) are
tho tempora1 gifts flow from the cross, they are not a bless-            we saved, but by God's irresistible power (Eph. 1:19), which
ing, but a  curse to that reprobate  seed. The gospel  .itself           works in US ,a new heart, removes hardness (and unwilling-


hess), and inscribes God's  law in our heart (Ezek.  36:26,           (Phil.  1:6). We trust not in our own  strength  (we have
27). The dead sinner does not open  bis heart to Christ and           none  !), but in His power to keep  US  .from falling and to
let Him come in to save. That is an idea prominent in Ar-             present LIS faultless before Him! .And phen the elect  do fall,
minian  hymnology, but is nowhere in Scripture.` Christ first         the Lord raises them up (Pro .  24:16).' So that,  He  is  faith-
opens the heart (Ac. 16:4), and then the heart receives  Him.         ful,  who  wil1 not suffer  US to `perish,  .but  wil1 establish  US,
Man, of himself, has not the ability to come to Jesus, wil1 not       and keep from evil (11 Th. 3 :3). Of this the believer may be
come, and cannot  wil1 to  come until the  Father   draw him          certain;  and have the  :assurance  of faith now and forever.
(Jn. 6 44). God giving that new heart  causes  the renewed            "The righteous  shall   hold on his  way," and as God has
sinner to  walk in His ways. Else  how  can a heart of stone          promised, he shall never  .depart from that way ; but rather  he
open to Christ ? How can a heart that is enmity -aginst  God         shall become "stronger and stronger" (Job  17:9): The  be-
be willing for Him t improve it  ? But, assume that the power        liever rcflzains a believer ; he. does persevere to the end, not
of God's-saving grace can be resisted, and God `must be sup-          by -human  effort, but by the power of God ; which power is
posed to wil1 that all~men  be saved, yet nevertheless it must        exerted on hs behalf not for any worthiness in him, but for,_
finally be, not as He  wills, but as  they  will!  However,  the      the sake of the Lamb who alone is wrthy  ! He, meanwhile
truth remains that grace saves those.  who are "the called            and always, belongs unto Jesus, "who shall also confirm  you
according to ais purpose" - saves with an almighty power              unto the end blameless, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ"
- for they  saust be saved with an everlasting salvation !            (1 Co. 1:s).              .
                    Pemeverance  of Saints                                                               Conclztszon
   7. ARMINIANISM wrests  Script.ure  to  teach  that it is              The truth is never popular. However,' we are not  concerned,
"possible for the true believer to fa11 from the grace of salva-      with what is  popular,  but with what is  right. The truth of
tion (Ga. 5  :4)  ; and that  each believer is provided  with         Scripture is one thing. What men  would  like to be  truc is
sufficient  ability to persevere and preserve himself, if  on!y       another. The question is, Are we willing to bow to  the
he will: `And ye  wil1 not  come to Me, that ye might have            Word of God ? no matter what the tost ? Too few are willing
life' (Jn. 5 :40). It  ah. depends on the choice of man's will,       to be that self-denying. The  hatred of the natura1 mind
whether he wil1 persevere or not. From this it follows that           against God is such that tho a man be shrewd,  intelligent and
not only can believers fatally and finally fall, sin unto death,      able to see the arguments on both sides, yet he wil1 not ad-
and be eternally lost, but, indeed, may often fall, be often re-      mit the fundamental doctrine of absolute sovereign grace to
covered,  yet be in the end lost to God. (`Take heed, brethren,       be true. If an angel from heaven were to stand before him,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in depart-      and declare that God redeems both- objectively and subject-
ing from the living God', Heb. 3  :ll). There is, then, no            ively only His elect  people, and that Christ prays not for the
such thing in this life as certainty of eternal security, nor as-     world,  but only for those the  Father gave Him,  such  a
surance of perseverance. (`Have not 1  chosen  you twelve             (natural)man wil1 not, cannot believe it. This whole system
and.one of you is a devil ?' : . . `And began every  one of them      of Truth is contrary to the old  nature  ; it is  tha opposite to
to say unto Him, Is it 1, Lord?' - Jn. 6 :70; Mt. 26 :22) ."          what men think to be in agreement with justice and  ex-
   CALVINISM is strong in the Divine Word that no'true                perience. So that the  many   who  hate this doctrine are  al-
believer  can ever  fa11 from Christ and salvation. For He            ways ready to oppose it. Therefore also comprehended under
promises, f`I give unto  them (the  sheep)`   eternal  life; and      the brand of Arminianism are the following evil  farms of the
they  shall never perish, neither  shall   any man  pluck them        same proud heresy, viz., Romanism, Pelagianism, Socinian-
out of my hand. My Father  which gave them Me, is greater             ism,i  Amyraldianism, 2 Baxterianism3  and New School Pres-
than  al1 ; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's       byterianism.4 Calvinists, then, are the most hated people in
hand" (Jn.  10:28f).  This  promise is made  unconditionalky          the universe! We know this from Scripture, reports, history
to God's people. It is not qualified with  any additions of "ifs,"    and personal experience.
"buts," "perhaps,"  maybes," etc., but is to be understood in             But this does not change the eternal purpose of God. For
its plain, unencumbered, unequivocal sense. God's  covenant  is       "the foundation of God standeth sure ; having  this seal, the
equally sure, In that covenant  He swears that He wil1 never          Lord knoweth them that are  His" (11 Ti.  2;19).  Suppose
leave His people, and wil1 so keep them that they shall never         every  preacher in the U. S. A., or in the  world  speaks the
forsake Him : "1 wil1 make an everlasting covenant  with them,        very opposite to these points ! That means,  humanly speaking,
and 1 wil1 not turn away from them, to do them good ; but             we are in a very, very unpopular minority. `!B,ut,  `with God
1 wil1 put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart        and His Truth on our side, or  rather  we being on His side,
from Me" (Jer. 32  :40). So our salvation' and our  re-               are-  actually on the  side of the majority ! Finally, it is our
maining in that salvation in no way depends on US, or upon            calling  to preach what God has clearly revealed. We cannot
our feeble will. Yet we are confident of this very thing (not
of our doing, but) that He who hath begun a good work in              but speak what we have seen and heard.
US  wil1 perform and perfect it unto the day of Jesus Christ          1. Polish  - disguised  Modernism,   2. French  -  camouflaged   Arminianism,   3 .
                                                                         English   -cmcealed   Arminianism,  4.  American   -  masked   Arminianism.


