          VOL~IME   xxxn7                           AUGUST  1, 1958  -  GRAND  RAPIDS,   MICHIGAN                                                NUMBER   19

                                                                                       What  wil1  be your  answer, reader?
                M E D I T A T I O N                                                   The  `Bible  points  out that ths sorer punishment shall
                                                                                  consist in a fearful looking for of judgment,  fiery indignation,
                                                                                  that shall devour the adversaries. It shall be a fearful thing
                     "How Shall We Escape?"                                       to  fa11 into the hands of the living God. For our God is
                                                                                  a consuming fire.  Many, oh so  many  stripes,  compared to the
                     "Hw  shall  we escape, if we neglect so great  salva-       heathen.  .-
                  tion;  wbich  at the first  began to be spoken by  the Lord,
                  and was confirmed unto US by them that heafd Him . . . ?            Y,es, the lot of the  heathen  shall be terrible. They had
                     "Of  how  much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall
                  he be thought worthy,  who  hath trodden under foot the         the  law of God which testified in their hearts. Their  con-
                  Son of God,  nd hath counted the blood of the covenant,        sciences  ,would admit that  the.  law was good.  They  would
                  wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy  thing;and  hath         accuse  ancl  excuse   each other and themselves, testifying
                  done despite unto  the Spirit of grace?"                        thereby that they knew the  law of God. God had revealed
                                                     Hebrews  2:3 and  1049       it unto  them. And  when presently the hidden things of  -the
                                                                                  heart are.  revealed   when God shall turn the hearts of men
          The  promulgation of  the.  law of  Moses was a  manifesta-             inside  out, then it  wil1  become manifest that they are worthy
  tion of light.                                                                  of  eternal death. Oh yes, even if we imagine  the poor  mortal
                                                                                  who  wil1  receive the least punishment of all, his  lot  wil1 be
          It was the Word of God spoken by angels and  committed                  very  grievous  inded. They shall  receive few  stripes,  says
  in  God's Name to  Moses and  through'him   to, the  people                     Jesus. But these few  stripes  certainly are eternal  damna-
  of Israel.                                                                      tion and everlasting  despair.

          By itself it was  woqderful  too. Is  it. not wonderful                     Stil1 there are degrees of suffering in  heil..
  to  know what the Lord's  wil1 is for our  life ?  W-hat beautiful                  And  that is just.
  strains of  music ! Love  God.  above:  al1 and your neighbour
  as yourself. NO wonder that  every transgression and dis-                           Sin against the  holy  and lovable  law of God  wil1 be
' obedience was punished with a just recompense of reward.                        punished with sore punishment.
  That was  just. He died without  mercy  under two or three                          But  how  much sorer punishment  wil1 he  receive  who
  witnesses. That was just. NO one  can possibly find  fault                      has trodden under foot the Son of. God?
0 with it. To sin against' that which is lovely and sweet ralls
  for  ugly punishment. And they  received it and  wil1  receive                      It is difficult to  farm a conception of  such heinous crime.
  it in the  Judgment  Day,  who have been guilty of  such great                      Trodden under foot, the Son of God. We tread under
  sin.                                                                            foot that which  we  detest.  We are  very dainty people.
          If that be  trui, and it  is true,  how shall we escape if we           Sometimes we turn away in disgust from things that are
  neglect so great salvation as is  manife8ted  unto  LIS  who live               e x p o s e d   t o   o u r   v i e w .   T o   touch  such  objects   i s   t h e n
  under the everlasting Gospel ?  Or  ho6  much sorer punish- abomination to  US.  But trample on it, yes;  `that we dare do.
  ment, suppose ye, shall he  be thought worthy,  who hath                        The  soles of our feet  may  come in contact with those  objects
  trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted  the                        from which we turn away in disgust. We  wil1 kick  them
                                                                                  aside.
  blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an  m-
  holy thing, and hath done despite  unto  the Spirit of grace  ?                     And this we do by  nature   when we  come in contact with
  Heb. 10.                                                                        the Son of God;


                                                                                                                                            ._..
4 3 4                                          THE  STANDAR-T)   ,B:EARER

    Now if the  law of God was beautiful and sweet,  how            1~100~1  of the Son of God is so  very great because it saves  US
shall we appraise  the Son of God; the  Mediator of God             from so great a death.
and men, the vicariously suffering Servant of Jehovah.                  IS  qot our death  very great?
    He  came to seek them which the  Father had given to
Him. But to seek,  redeem  and save them He  willingly                  Just magine that you and 1  ari: fleeing  from God as
enters their eternal prison of death. He willingly and  mor         far as our thoughts and  inclinations  can carry  US. And to be
iivated by Divine love takes  al1 their guilt  upon  His  neck      apart from God is death. He is the  very Fountain of good
and  groans under the burden of the wrath of God. Honestly,         things for the image  bearer. i% is the Sum Total of  al1
such love  cannot be properly evaluated. NO matter  how             things that are sweet and lovely, light and life,  ,goodness
long eternity is, we shall never grow weary to  honor  Him          and kindness, health  and happiness, forgiveness and  grace,
and love Him for that love that  Was bestowed on  US by that        longsuffering  and  mercy  and a thousand  6ther  blesslngs.
Eternal Son of God. He emptied Himself and assumed the              Yet, we flee from Him. We do not like Him, but  hate Him.
role of slave, crawling in the dust of death for our sakes.         We say with  al1 that in  US lies:  Depart from me, 0 God, for
He let  al1 the grandeur of Sonship go  begging and becamo          L have no pleasure in Thy  ways ! Is  nat  our death  gyeat  ?
the Man of  Sorrows so that you and 1 could be filled with              But God is furious with sin and the sinner. And He
heavenly joy. He became an outcast,  weeping  in the  wilder-       sentenced man unto death  al1 his life on earth,  al1 . his
ness and sweating blood in the garden so that you might             existente  in the rotting grave and  al1 the dreary  wakes of
walk in liberty and taste that God's  co&munion   .is better        an eternity in hell. He ascribed the false  prophet   to be our
than  life.                                                         teacher and devils to be our companions. He  meted   out to
    Is not the Son of God, is not the bloody Man of sorrows         the  human race because of their guilt the habitation that
far sweeter than the  manifestation  of the  law of  Moses.?        really was prepared for devils. So great a death!
    And  when a  mortal  man  dares to trample the  manifesta-          Btit  YV.G  are saved from  al1 that.
tion of God's wondrous. love under foot,  how  much  sorer
punishment, suppose ye . . . Ah, 1 do not  know, Lord!                 "Thy great salvation, Lord ! So  Wil1  1 answer them  that
                                                                    scoff . . . ."

                                                                       Great salvation by the Son of God because He went into
    But it must be terrible beyond  compare.                        that prison of death. He  suffered  the terrible conflict and
    What  shall even the reception be, that Judas  wil1  receive    pou?ed  out His soul into death. He suffered the torture
of Sodom  ?  How shall he be greeted in  hel1 by  Gomorrah  ?       to be  forsaken  of the Fount of Life  and'happiness  in order
And  when  hel1 even  wil1 upbraid  such  detestable   creatures    to save  you,  dear reader. He shed His blood and sent His
how is God to recompense  them  ?                                   Spirit  so that you  might be divorced from the  Devil and
    Whenever and wherever they saw and heard the mani-.             false prophecy. So tht you no  longer would run away from
festation of the  blessed Gospel, they would trample under          God, but be halted in your tracks and made to  5pnsider and
foot the Son of God;  when you spoke to  them  of the Blood         say : In  `the Home of my  Father in heaven  tl+$e is bread
of the Testament,  how  that Jesus shed His  precieus  blood        enough and to spare ! But here 1 suffer hunger  nd thirst,
in the agony of His soul, they would say that  such  blood-         where   al1 the streams are dry.
theology  was an unholy thing. Horrible!                                                         *  * :g $
    Well, if we with our knowledge of heavenly things deern              Great salvation for it  fulfills   al1 your  needs.          ..
such  creatures  horrible  indeed,  how  wil1 God appraise  them
in the Day of days ?                                                    You need God. You need His  communion  and love.
                                                                    You  need the angels of life. You need the companionship
    Yes,  hel1 for the Japanese and Chnamen  wil1 be terrible:     of perfect saints. You need a beautiful world around  you.
but  hel1 for despisers of the Blood  wil1 be a hundred  times      You  need the  continuous Word of God to nourish  you  ever-
worse. There are degrees of suffering in that  place of  sor-       lastingly. You need His comforting speech telling you ever
rows. And despisers of the Son of God, His Blood and the            and  anon:   1 love  you,  my  dear son !  You   need  al1 that  ij
Spirit of  grace  wil1 lie in deepest hell.                         yozs  are to  be  htappy.  You  need your God.
    So great  s&ation  !                                                 So great salvation.
    Because God  del+ered   zts  from so  great a death!                 Therefore  <the saints in the new  paradise  wil1 sng in
                            * * 4:    :I:                           ever more beautiful strains the heavenly song: Thou, 0
                                                                    Son of God, hast purchased  US to God by Thy blood.  For-
   So great a death !                                               ever the' sign of the slaughtered Lamb shall be in the midst
    Things that are beautiful  assume   a) stil1 brighter  hue      of the Throne to remind  US, to remind  US ever and again,
when compared  with their  very opposites. Salvation by the         that we are saved with so great salvation!


                                             T H E   STA.N,DARII,.BE&RER
                                                          ,:  -                                                                                                                                    435

       That blood is preached, manifested in your  midst by the
Word that began to be spoken by Jesus.                                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                             Semi-+nonthly,   except   monthly  dwing   June,  July  and  August
       That blood sings the old, old story of Jesus and His love.             Published  by the  REFORMED  FREE   PUBLISHING   ASSOCIATION
       Shall we then neglect so great salvation  ?                           P. 0. Box  881;Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
                                                                                                       Editor  - REV. HERIMAN  HOEKSEU
       011, if we do, then the damned in  hel1  from the city                Communications relative to contents  should be adclressed to
of Sodom shall rebuke  US in  that awful Day. Then the  very                                  Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E.,
criminals  `of foreign lands shall stand up in judgmenf against                                                   Grand  -Rapids  7,  Mich.
                                                                             Al1 matters relative to  subscriptiohs  should be addressed to Mr.
LIS  and they shall  cal1  our horror righteously begotten.                  G. Pipe, 1463 Ardmore St., S. E., Grand  Rap& 7,  Mich.
       When  you are  .found in the pews on Sunday  in- this                 Announcements and Obituaries must be mailed to the above
                                                                             address  and  will be published at a fee of $1.00 for  each  notice.
land and neglect  sq great` salvation, deeming the blood of                  R
Jesus an  unholy thing ; then the  very  recesses of the  place                   ENEWAL:  Unless a defnite request for discontinuance is  re-
                                                                             ceived it is assumed that the subscriber wishes  the subscription
of torment shall reverberate with the oft-repeated questioh                  to, continue without the formality of a renewal order.
that  wil1 sear our souls and bodies : Friend, art  thozt  here ?                                       Subscription  price: $5.00 per year

       But if not: if we do not neglect so great salvation, if               Entered  .as  Second   Class  m a t t e r   at  Grand  Rapids,   Michigan
we do not despite unto the Spirit of grace (through His
sweet grace over  US) but on the contrary,  when we by His
Spirit are found at the foot of the  Cross of sweetst  ,grace-                                                       C O N T E N T S
then we shall be saved, then we are saved, then we shall              . _
make heaven musical forever by songs of salvation.                    MEDITATION  -
                                                                                    "How Shall We Escape?"  ._...__...........................  .  .._..._...__......  433
       Ah, God be praised for His unspeakable Gift!                                          Rev. G. Vos
                                                           G.  V.     EDITORIALS  -
                                                                                    Our Synod of 1958.. __ ..__ __ . . . . .__.._. __ .._. ._ . . . . . ..__ _. ___ .__ ..436.
                                                                                    Missions and Common Grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
                    Notice   for Classis West                                            R e v .   H .   Hoeksema
       Classis West of the  Pr@estant   Reformed  Churches  wil1      OUR  DOCTRINE  -
meet, the Lord willing, in Oak Lawn, Illinois,  Wednesday,                          The Book of Revelation . . . .._._____..................  . . . . . . .._........__.......... 439
September 17, 1958. The consistories are  reminded  of the                                   Rev. H.  Hoeksema
rule that  al1  matters  for the classica1 agendum must be in the     SPECIAL ARTICLE: "Socialism".                                      _.        _.       ._. .               _-.      :. ,440
hands of the stated  clerk not later than thirty days before                                 Rev. H.  Hoeksema
the meeting of Classis.                                               FROM HOLY  WRIT -
       Anyone  needing lodging is requested to  write Rev. G.                       Exposition of Matthew 24 and 25 (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Vanden  Berg,  9402 South 53rd Court,  Oal- Lawn, Illinois.                                 Rev. G. Lubbers
                                Rev. H.  Veldman,  Stated Clerk.      IN HIS FEAR -
                                                                                    Spiritual Bifocals ._.  __. . . . . . . . .  ..:  ..__... . 446
                         Announcement                                                       Rev. J. A. Heys
       The Rev. G. Lubbers, home missonary of our churches,          CONTENDIMG FOR  THE  FAITH  -
wil1 be at home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, n the Sundays                           The Church and the Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
                                                                                             Rev. H.  Veldman
of August 10, 17,  .and  241 On these Sundays he  wil1 be
preaching in Oak Lawn,  I!l., and in South East, Grand Rap-.          DECENCY  P,ND  ORDER  -
ids,  Mich.  However,  this leaves the  pulpits  in Forbes, N. D.,                  Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction __  ._  .._,  _.  .,  _..  __.  .._._.  .,  ._.  ..____   ..450
and  Isabel,  S. D., without preaching services.  Any of our                                Rev. G.  Vanden Berg
ministers,  who might be passing through these parts, are             ALL  AROTJND   US  -
reminded hereby that they are  welcome to preach in these                           Free to  Celebrafe Christmas  in the Future? . . . . . . .._...___..........  452
churches on  any of the above-mentioned  dates.                                              Re'v. M. Schipper
                            Rev. G. Lubbers, Home Missionary.         FEATURE  ARTICLE  -
                                                                                    Revelation by Dreams and Visions.. . . . . ___ . ..454
       Eastern  Ladies' League Board Meeting                                                Rev. B. Woudenberg
       Delegates, take  notice  1  The next Board Meeting  wil1 be CONTRIBUTIONS  -
held, the Lord willing, in  our Creston Church on  August                           Missionary Notes ___ __. . . . . . . ..__ __ __. ..___.  . . . . . . . .._ .._ . . . . 456
25                                                                                          Rev.  G, Lubbers
       at 8 :00 P. M.
                   Mrs. H. Velthouse,  Vice-Sec+etary-Treamrer.


 435'                                                  T H E   STANDARD..-BEiRE.R

                E D I T O R I A L S                                                                 Missions and Common Grace
                                                                                           On the subject of "common  grace"  in relation  .to the
                                                                                       mission  work of the Christian Reformed Church  writes the
                         Our Synod of 1958                                             Rev. L.  Verduin  in the  Refomsed   Journal of June  195s.
     T h e   Committee   o f   Pre-advice   i n   t h e    n a t t e r   o f   the        He  writes that the Christian Reformed Church, in  regard
 proposed new Bible translation advised Synod to adopt the                             to  mission work in the sense of evangelism, is a  very  sick man.
 following letter :                                                                    Several doctors have  already stood at the bedside of this
     "Dr. M. J. Wyngaarden, Corresponding Secretary of the                             patient, according to him, and they have suggested various
 Committee for Bible  .translation,                                                    remedies ; but  they, evidently, do not agree among one
     "Calvin Seminary,                                                                 another, neither as to the  nature  of the illness nor as to tha
     "Franklin and Calvin, Grand Rapids  , Michigan.                                  proper remedy. And now  comes Doctor.  Verduin,  and  sug-
     "Dear  Dr. Wyngaarden :                                                           gests that the patient  needs a shot of "common  grace"  in the
     "In reply to  .your missives  directed  to the Protestant                         arm. The trouble with the patient is that he always  em-
 Reformed Churches of America in  regard  to the matter of                             phasizes  election and reprobation:  "A distorted doctrine of
 Bible translation, the Synod of the Protestant Reformed                               divine sovereignty  can stifle the missionary spirit and
 Churches of America express appreciation for the  consid-                             program. Such distortion occurs  when we say  that  election
 eration shown in the  invitation to collaborate in this project.                      and reprobation are equally ultimate. To say that God is as
     "Although we agree with your committee that there is                              much pleased,  or, that  H,e is pleased in. the same way, with
 room for improvement  .in the present translations, we do not                         the  spehtacle of the reprobate on the way to perdition as He
 feel, that at this  time we  can collaborate with  you in this                        is with the sight of one of the  elect- on  the way to glory  L
 project."                                                                             this is to bind the feet of missions. To say that God loves the
                    "Fraternally  yours,                                               elect and that He hates  the reprobate  `and to let it go at
                          "The Synod of the-Prot. Ref. Churches."                      that is to put hobbles on the missionary spirit. For then we
                                                                                       must conclude that we cannot love a man until he gives
    The grounds for this  advice of the committee are the                              evidente of  election. And with  that, attitudes and  polities
 following :                                                                           spring up that  wil1 doorn our missionary activity to perpetual
    "1. We  fee1 that this request is worthy of an answer.                             barrenness. To say that God loves the  elect and hates the
    "2.' That we answer negatively is because of  the  com-                            reprobate and to let it go at that is to make it impossible for
          plexity of the  group that is invited to  werk  on this                      LE to manifest a prevenient love for men.  Where  this  cari-
          project as  composed of Arminians  arid  Premillen-                          cature  of the Reformed  Faith. is regnant, there men get the
          nialists."                                                                   impression that we are prepared to love them if and  when,
    The Synod,  however,   accepted  the request to collaborate                        and to  the extent, that they give  evidente  of a  state of  grace   ;
 in the proposed new Bible translation. It considered, as  also                        they find  US unable to love men anteriorly, prior to the
the committee expressed it, that there is,  indeed,  room for                          beginning  of their movement towards Christ" . . .
 such a new translation. It  also was of the opinion that in                               This, then, is, according to Doctor  Verduin,  the character
 this important request we might not refuse, especially in the                         of  the  malady  from which the Christian Reformed Church
 light of the  fact that we do have men that are able to  collab-                      suffers. It consists in an over emphasis or a wrong emphasis
 orate in this matter. And, finally, as far as complexity of                           on  the truth of  election and reprobation.
.  the  group is concerned that are to work together in this                               To me this is sheer  nonsense.  It is  quite contrary to  fact.
 project,  the Synod felt that,  after all, it is not a matter of                      And 1 do not believe a word of it.
 doctrine that is to be decided but  merely  a  question  of                              But let this be for the  time being.             .'
 translation from the original. Besides, if we should ever                                The trouble is that the doctor that examined this patient
 fee1 that the translation would go in the wrong direction,                            and made this diagnosis of his disease is so filled with the
 we could always refuse to collaborate  any further.                                   love of the false doctrine of common  grace  that he does not
    The Synod appointed the Revs.  ,G. M. Ophoff, H. C.                                understand and cannot believe the truth of predestination.
Hoeksema, and undersigned for this work.                                   H.H.           Do not say this to him, for he would most vehemently
                                  * *  Jm  *                                           deny it. Just listen to what he  writes :  "This article is not
    Yesterdy, July 13, we  received  the  very sad news that                          a plea for the relinquishment of  ,the doctrine of  election in
the Rev. Ophoff had a stroke while he was on  bis  vacation.                           order that  missions-may   flourish:It  does not  propose  a single
 It happened evidently in Toledo, Ohio, on his way home.                               step in the direction of an Arminian theology" . . .
As yet 1 do not know  how serious it is. If  1 have more  in-                           But what then does this doctor  _  propose   ? He  writes  :
formation before this  Standard  Bearer is printed, I  wil1 let                        "So it is with the various elements of Christian truth: not
you know. In the meantime, let  US  al1 remember the brother,                          a single creedal item  may usurp th air. For ourselves we
whom we  .dearly love, before the throne'of  grace.                       H.H.
          _,                                                                           prefer to seat the several items of Christian truth at a  round



                                                                                                                                                 i

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

table, so that not one of them  wil1 assume an air of superiority         mon  .grace. But this only shows that the doctrine of  selec-
above the rest."                                                          tive  grace  must be  supplemented  by  the doctrine of  non-
      Just imagine this conception, if  you  can.                         selective grace  . . . Common  grace  is called common precisely
      Al1 the doctrines of the Christian truth are sitting at a           because `it is common, that is, non-selective, indiscriminate,
round table, and  al1 are of equal value, absolutely coordinate.          promiscuous. And common  grace  is prevenient  .grace, that
N                                                                         is, a  grace  that antedates  any movement toward the Christ."
     O doctrine is subordinate to  any other. There is the doctrine
of  od,  His  attributes,  Persons  and works, including the                 This, to me, is pure Pelagianism and Arminianism.
doctrine of predestination, election and reprobation ; there is           "Common  grace" is prevenient  grace   ? This  means, if  any-
the doctrine of  creation: of man and the  fa11  ; there is the           thing, that it  comes necessarily before saving  grace, or, as the
doctrine of Christ, His virgin birth, death for our sins, His             doctor here expresses it, before  any movement towards
resurrection and exaltation at the right hand of God  ; the               Christ. It  also  means  that "common  grace"   can be used as
doctrine of the Spirit of Christ and His  werk  of applying               a  means  to  come to Christ. Of course, personally 1 do not
the salvation of Christ to our hearts: the work of  regener-              believe in  any sort of common  grace;  as the reader  wel1
ation,  calling,  faith, justificatin, sanctification, preservation,     knows. But this "common  grace"  of the doctor here is far
and glorification  ; the doctrine of the Church with the                  worse than what is usually called common  grace.  The sinner
preaching of the Word and the  sacraments  ; and, finally the             is totally corrupt and  incapable  of doing  any good. There is
doctrine of the last things and the creation of the new  heavens,         no  grace  that he  can use as a movement  to.wards Christ.
and earth.                                                                This doctrine of the doctor is literally condemned by `our
     Al1 these doctrines are sitting in equal positions at a              Reformed fathers in Canons 111, IV, Rejection of errors,
round table and none of them  may assume an air of  super-                V,  where  we  read: "The Synod rejects the errors of those
iority over  any other!                                                   Who  teach : That the corrupt and natura1 man  can so  wel1 use
      Did you ever  read anything more absurd and that, too,              the common  grace (by which they understand the light of
from the pen of one  who calls himself a Reformed theologian ?            nature) or the gifts stil1 left him  after the fall, that he  can
                                                                          gradually gain by their good use a greater, viz., the  evan-
      But, of course, we  can easily understand why this doctor           gelical or saving  grace  and salvation itself. And that in this
writes thus.  Fact is that although he claims to believe the              way God shows himself ready to reveal Christ unto  al1 men,
doctrine of election and reprobation, he must have nothing                since he applies to  al1 sufficiently and efficiently `the  means
of it, and he surely does not understand it. He wants to                  necessary to  conversion."
give "common   grace"  a  place of  honor at that round table
of his, and that is impossible if  you really  mean to maintain              This is virtually identical with the  prevenient  common
the truth of predestination. At  any  rate, the doctor does               grace  of  Verduin,   who wants to give his patient, the
nat. want to give the doctrine of election and reprobation a              Christian Reformed Church, a shot of common  grace  in the
place as the heart of the truth and as  .the foundation of our            arm:
salvation. Hence,  when he claims to believe the doctrine                     But let me go on, for 1 am not through yet.
of election, the rest of his statements made in this  connec-                After the doctor has observed stil1 another symptom of
tion give that claim the lie.                                             the patient's  condition,  namely, that of a prayer policy that
      But let  US now attend to- the question of- the remedy              is virtual denial of common  grace,  he tells a story of a
which this doctor wants to administer to this  sick patient, the          minister  who said in his prayer : "Heavenly  Father,   bless
Christian Reformed Church which has, according to him,                    al1 that Thy hand has made." The doctor was, evidently,
failed  rather miserably in its efforts at evangelism.                    utterly surprised, considering that this was a  very heretical
      The `remedy is, in one word, "common  grace."                       statement. (1 wonder if he might not have heard this prayer
                                                                          in the First Protestant Reformed Church, for 1 used to pray
      You  see, we must love  al1 men and from the motive of
that love to  al1 men we must and  can  sdo  mission   werk.              this frequently : there is no common  grace  in it whatsoever) .
Only  when, such is the  *thought, when men can  fee1 that we are         But  when the doctor thought about it, he  came to the  con-
motivated by the love of them,  can we  expect  to  draw men              clusion that it was correct. nd mark you, from that  time
to Christ. "It is wrong for                                               on  dates  "the  success the present writer has had  wit11 out-
                                US to be  selective  in  ,our love for
men ; we must love in  al1 directions . . . And this  indis-              siders."
criminate love,  when practiced, is but a creaturely reflection             Mirabele dictu !
of a similarly indiscriminate love on the part of God, the God               Is it possible ?
who  sends sunshine and  rain  upon saint and  sinner alike.                 In conclusion, the doctor left a prescription at the bedside
If we are to be children of God, that is, if we are to emulate            of the  patient which reads as follows : "Let the patient stop
God, then we  wil1  love~indiscriminately  and anteriorly. That           paying  mere lip-service to the doctrine of common  grace,
Is  the  point in this item of Christ's teaching. Granted that            that is, to a  grace  that is both prevenient and promiscuous.
this promiscuous benignity on our part is on the common                   Then a love  for men in their unsaved  condition  wil1 become
grace  leve1  - for it deals within the  commodities  of  com-            possible for him. Let  him begin to love all, love them


 43s                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

 fervently, love  them-anteriorly  and as  they are, so that if           no'trtith  in him.  When  he speaketh a lie.he speaketh of his
 and  when they embrace the Gospel they  wil1 experience                  own : for he is a  liar, and  the  father  of it." John  8  :44.
 a  higher  love at the hand of their benefactors  - just as                  And as for the  second, only the  grace  in Christ, and not
 they at that point experience a subsequent and  higher love at           so-called common  grace,  can be  the motive for the work of
 *the hand of God. This should make the patient's  pallor                 mission   or evangelism. For, first of all, the missionary must
 depart?  color  wil1 return to his  checks, and a sense of  joyous       preach Christ and the cross, and that is always foolishness to
 well-being  wil1 course through his frame as he leaps to the             the natural' man : "For  fhe preaching of the cross is  to  them
 task that awaits him."                                                   that perish foolishness, but unto  US which are saved it is the
                                                                          power of God," 1 Cor. 1  :lS. Andq again :  `CBut we preach
        And now my own conclusion.                                        Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto
        It is  this: there is literally  nat a word of truth in the       the  Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both
 whole article by the Rev. L.  Verduin.  To substantiate  this.           Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the  wisdom
 rather strong statement 1  wil1 point to the following  facts  :         of God," 1 Cor.  1:23, 24. And in 11 Cor. 5  :14, 15 we  read:
        1. It`is  nat true that  the Christian Reformed Church is         "For the love of Christ constraineth  US; because we thus
 a  sick patient, or  rather  feels  sick, because of a  lack of  com-    judge, that if one died for all, then were  al1  dead:  And that
 mon grace'so called, but  rather because she does not  under-            he died for all, that they  which live  -should not henceforth
 stand why she has so little  "success" in her work of  evangel-          live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and
 ism. As soon as she understands two things she  wil1  be                 rose  again." This is and should be the only motive for
 cured of her feeling of sickness. These two things are : (1)             missionary labor, and not a certain common  grace  and love
 That she must understand that her  whole task is that she                for al1  men..
 must simply preach-and witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ                 3. We  may  notice, too, that the Lord" Himself does not
 and be satisfied to leave the fruit to God.- She must not be             hesitate to emphasize strongly, in His preaching, the truth
 tempted to fill in tlie  "common   grac? prescription" of  Ver-          of  election  a'nd, in connection with  this, the truth that
.duin, but know and trust that the fruit of her labors is up to           man of himself is wholly  incapable  to  come  unto Him and
the sovereign  grace  of God and is rooted in predestination:             be saved. This is evident from the context of that well-known
 God calls whomsoever He will. (2) She must not and  can-                 gospel-cal1 and  promise  in Matthew  11:25, 26 : "At that
 not  expect  too  much fruit among those that  once, perhaps in          time Jesus answered and said, 1 thank thee, 0  Father,  because
 former generations or even recently,  belonged  to the Church            thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and
 and have departed. It is simply a rule that God gathers His              hast revealed them unto  babes.  Even so,  Father,  for so it
 Church in the line of cntinued generations, and  although               was goocl in thy  sight." And in John  6:36, 37: "But 1 said
 there are, no doubt, exceptions, He does not  often return to            unto you, that ye  also have seen me and believe not.  Al1
 those that  once were of the Church and have left her. It                that the  Father giveth me shall  come unto me  ; and he that
 may seem as if  the work of men like Sunday and Graham                   cometh unto me `1  wil1 in no wise  tast  out." And in v. 44:
 contradicts this statement,  b,ecause they seem to be able to            "NO man  can  come  unto me,  except  the  Father which hath
 create  much enthusiasm for the gospel, but more than  mere              sent me  draw him: and 1  wil1 raise him up at the last day."
 appearance this is not.  Time  wil1 show that by far most of             And  once more, in John  10:26-30:  "But ye believe not,
 this what 1 would  cal1 mob-enthusiasm  wil1 soon die down               because ye are not of my sheep, as 1 said unto you. My
 and that there is little or no permanent fruit left of the  la-          sheep hear my voie, and 1 know them, and they follow
 bors of these men.                                                       me': And `1 give unto them eternal life ; and they shall never
        2. It is not true that: (1) According to Scripture, we            perish, neither shall  any man  pluck  them  out of my hand.
 may love  al1 men. (2) That the love of men, so-called  common           My  Father,  which gave them me, is greater than  al1  ; and no
 grace  love,  may  be or  can be the motive for  mission  work.          man is able to  pluck them  out of my Father's hand. 1 and my
        As to the  first, the Bible teaches  very plainly that we         Father are  ene." This is the truth concerning salvation as
 may not and cannot  ,love those that plainly reveal  them-               the Lord proclaimed it. This is the truth which the apostles
 selves as enemies of  .God and of the gospel of Jesus Christ.            preached. And this is the truth which alsa the church must
 With a  holy  hatred,  which is essentially love, the love of            preach, whether it be to its own members or in its missionary
 God in Christ, we must  hate  them, "Should 1 not  hate them             labors. There is no other gospel;
 that  hate Thee  ?" Ps. 139. Nor did Jesus love  al1 men with                4. Hence, my  final conclusion is that  the article of Rev.
 the "common  grace  love" of  Verduin.  He certainly did not             Verduin  in the  Reforutted   Joztirn& is not Reformed but  Pela-
 love the hypocritical Pharisees as we  may learn emphatically            gian and Arminian. He avows,  `indeed, to believe the truth
 from Matthew 23. Besides,  .listen  to what Jesus said to the            of predestination, but this does not  mean a thing : in his
 Jews  who  .first pretended to believe on Him :  "Ye do the              whole article he never applies it and, on the contrary, he
 deeds of your  father.  . . Ye are of your  father the  devil, and       presents  `rcommon   grace," which, according to him, is  pre-
 the lust of your  father  ye  wil1 do. He was a murderer  from           venient  grace, as the motive for mission-work.  Such is my
 the  beginning,  and abode not in the truth, because there is            opinion.                                                      H.H.


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   439,

                                                                         And therefore, it  also denotes in genera1  any activity in the
           Ol.jR  D O C T R I N E                                     'IJ kingdom of God proclaiming  God's  gracieus presence over
                                                                         His people, but at the same  time destruction and judgment
                                                                         over the enemy. In connection with the seven trumpets  men-
            THE BOOK OF REVELATION                                       tioned in  our passage it is especially the  latter element that
                                                                         is on the foreground, as we shall observe later. The trumpets
                          PART TWO                                       signify especially that God through Christ Jesus is coming
                                                                         to inflict judgment and destruction  upon  the enemy of the
                           CHAPTER                          IV..         kingdom of God.  When  therefore our text informs  US that
                        Revelation 8  :l-6                               the angels that stand before the throne  receive the seven
                                                                         trumpets, it thereby indicates that these servants of the Most
       Th  Prese+xtation   of  tlae  Prayers  of  tlze  Saints   0       High  receive power to  execute judgment over the world of
                                                                         evil.
   We  know that Gabriel is one of them. For according                       Before,`  however,  these angels  sou& their trumpets, or
to the Gospel of Luke, ch. 1  :19, he says  ,to Zacharias : "1           even  prepare,_to  sound, they stand in  silence, watching what
am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God  ;  and am  sent           takes  place in heaven, namely, the presentation of the prayers
to speak  tinto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings." It           of the saints. For we  read in our passage: "And another
is not impossible that  Michael  is another of these angels, but         angel  came and stood at the  altar,  having a golden  censer;
this is not specifically stated in Scripture. And that they are          and there was given unto him  much  intense, that he should
seven in number shows that they have to do with the  cov-                offer it with the prayers of  al1 saints  upon  the golden  altar
enant and  kingdom of God, of which Christ is the head. That             which was before the throne. And  -the smoke of the  in-
they stand before the throne indicates that they are called              cerise, which  came with the prayers of the saints, ascended
and always are ready for special service unto the completion             up before God  out of the  angel's hand." It is  very evident
of the  kingdom of God.                                                  that the all-important element here is the prayers of the
   To these seven angels, then, there are given seven  trum-             saints. To understand the entire scene  it. is undoubtedly
pets. The trumpet occurs frequently in the Word of God.                  necessary to understand and to emphasize that these prayers
The people of Israel were instructed to use the trumpet in               that are here presented with the  intense  to God are the
time of  war. Before they went to  war against  the enemy  that          prayers of  mints.  They are not presented as  mere men, nor
oppressed them in their land, they had to blow the trumpet.              even as believers; but they are  pictured  from the point of
It seems, therefore, that the trumpet is a symbol of  war for            view of their being saints.  Who are these saints  ? They are
the  kingdom of God. In the  second'  place, it  also indicates the      not  merely  people  that are  already in heaven, as is the view
downfall and the destruction of  the enemy of the  kingdom,              of those  who make the church of God go  to, heaven at the
as is evident from the downfall of Jericho. For thus we  read            time that is mentioned in the first verse of the fourth  chapter.
in Joshua  62-5: "And the Lord said unto Joshua, See,  I                 They claim  that the people of Christ have gone to heaven
have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof,                before the seals are opened, and that henceforth the Book
and. the mighty men of valor. And ye shall compass the city,             of Revelation speaks no more of a church  upon  earth. And
al1 ye men of  war, ancl go round about the city  once. Thus             therefore,  when our text speaks of saints nevertheless, they
shalt thou do  six days. And seven priests shall bear before             claim that naturally they are people that are  already in
the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns : and the seventh day              heaven, and that the prayers of these people are  also actually
ye shall compass the city seven  times; and the priests shall            made from heaven.  However,  we cannot agree with this.
blow with the trumpets. And it shall  come to pass, that  when           Saints are not  only those that are  already in glory, but just
they make a long blast with the  ram's horn, and  when ye                as  wel1 the people of God  .on earth. Scripture calls believers
hear the sound of the trumpet,  al1 the people shall shout with          saints  time and again. Only think  of- the manner in which
a great shout  ; and the  wal1 of the city shall  fa11 down flat, and    the apostle Paul is accustomed to  address the church in his
the people shall ascencl up  every man straight before him."             epistles.'  Al1 the people of God are saints because they are
It  also indicates  evidently  judgment and authority, as is plain       members of the body of Christ. They are of Christ, and they
from God's appearing with the  law under the sound of a                  are in Him. They are in Him as their head, first of  al1 in a
trumpet on Sinai. For thus we  read in Exodus 20  :lS : "And             juridical sense of the word, so that  al1 their sins are forgiven
al1 the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and              them and they are justified. And therefore, from this  view-
the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and                  point they are saints in the most perfect sense- of the word.
when the people saw it, they removed and stood  afar off."               They have in Christ Jesus no sin whatsoever. But they are
Further, the trumpet was used with the people of Israel for              also in Christ Jesus in the organic sense, that is, they are in--
the convocation of the assembly in connection with their                 grafted into Him. They are living members of His body. The
sacrifices and festivals and for the crowning of the  theocratie         life that is in Him is  also in them. There is one body, with
king, as, for instance, in the case of  Jehu  and of Solomon.            one hed, and with one and the same Spirit of life. That one

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

body is the body of the church.  Al1 believers are members                   .      .             SOCIALISM
 of that body. Or, if  you please, in the strictest sense of the
word,  al1 that are regenerated by the Spirit of God are  mem-              Tke  follohing  is  ma old  lectur   wwhich I  hcre  publislz
bers of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. And of that body             instead of the Reu.  Ophoff's   article,   wlzo is  atnable  to  write
                                                                        at present. 
 Christ is the head, and the Spirit that is  given to Him is the                         H.H.
life of that body. That Spirit dwells in Christ as the head,                It is a  well-known   fact that  Socialisms a name that is
and in the saints as members of His body, and causes their              applied to one of the most remarkable and widespread  move-
faith and hope and love, in  fact, causes  al1 their life to be one,    ments of the present age. For although in recent  times the
one in Christ. By  that Spirit of Christ  they are controlled.          term has been frequently replaced by that of Bolshevism, it
By that Spirit of Christ they are sanctified, and  walk in  new-        should  never be forgotten that Bolshevism is  after  al1 nothing
ness of life.  When  our text, therefore, speaks of saints,  it         else than  Socialism in  principle  and  practice.'  Bolshevism
refers to that entire body of Christ and to  al1 its members.           may- have revealed itself of late as being  rather anarchistic
    We must  remember,  in the second place, that they pray             in character, in the first place it must be remembered that  al1
exactly in their capacity of saints. Not  every prayer that             Socialism  is ultimately anarchistic, and cannot rest satisfied
rises from the lips of believers is here referred to, but  merely       .with anything  less than  the total abolishment of the present
the prayer that  rises from their hearts as saints of Christ.           order of society  ; and in the second place, that the  circum-
Here  upon earth our prayers, or so-called prayers, are  often          stances under which Bolshevism arose especially in Russia
very imperfect. We do not always pray as members of                     were  highly conducive to exactly  such anarchistic programs
Christ's body. Our requests are  often sinful. We  often send           as have been enacted in the old world. Whether, therefore,
petitions to the throne of grace that are never heard because           you  speak of Bolshevism, or simply of  Socialism,  or again
our prayers are  often controlled by the lust of the flesh. But         as they love to  cal1  it in Germany and in the Netherlands,
of those prayers our text does not speak whatsoever. They               of  Social Democracy, in  principle  it  makes no  particle of
pray only in the capacity of saints. It speaks of prayers that          differente,   -  al1 these movements are  closely  allied, and to
actually rise to the throne of God in Christ Jesus our Lord,            them  al1 the name of  Socialism  is applicable. This movement
and which are surely heard. Perhaps they arise to the throne            has of recent days made tremendous strides toward the
of grace only in the form of the groanings of the Spirit that           realization of its ideal.  Under.  the pressure of the  world-war
are mentioned in Romans  8:26, 27.  When  we do not pray,               that has now practically  come to its official termination
or cannot pray, as we ought to, the Spirit of Christ that               Socialism  found fertile soil for its development in the stress of
dwells within the body of Christ and in the hearts of  al1 the          the  times and the miserable conditions under which especially
saints prays for  them  with groanings that cannot be uttered.          the lower classes had to suffer.  Insufficient  nourishment,
The Spirit knows the  needs of the saints. That Spirit  also            the enforced authority of regularly instituted  government  to
knows  their deepest longings as members of the body of                 cal1 its  subjects  to arms, the suffering and bloodshed and
Christ. And that Spirit presents these longings now through             sacrifice, the destruction of  homes and property,  - in short,
`their own consciousness, teaching them  how to pray, and               al1 the misery  caused by the  war naturally was conducive
now praying within them, outside of their consciousness, with.          of  much dissatisfaction and grumbling, and dissatisfaction in
groanings that cannot  be uttered. And it is of these prayers           the  minds and hearts of the masses is a  very favorable  con-
`of the saints, as they rise from their hearts, controlled by the       dition to the growth of.  socialism.  NO,  indeed,  we do not
Spirit of Christ that is in them, that  om text speaks. Thus            mean to leave the impression that these miserable conditions
conceived, it is not  difficult to guess what these saints pray         and  this dissatisfaction with them is the  real,  principle  and
for. What is their highest purpose? And what is the deepest             cause  of sociaiism,  - this lies of course far deeper.  But
longing of the saints in Christ? It is the perfect fellowship           granted  that this  principle  does exist, poor  social conditions
with the God of their salvation, the Sovereign of heaven and            wil1 serve as an impetus to its manifestation and development.
earth; and it is the  desire that He  may be glorified. And as          And, therefore, it need  cause no surprise that especially of
they know that this God of their life shall never  reach His            late  socialism has had a grand opportunity to develop. Rising
glory  except  through the completion and perfecting of the             as a dark  cloud at the eastern horizon of Europe, it soon
kingdom of Christ, the prayer of the saints is that the  king-          spread over the old world and more than we are probably
dom  may  come and  quickly  be  completed. Moreover, snce             as yet aware of has gained a foothold  also in  our own country.
they  also know that the glory of God and the  kingdom of               And, therefore, a few words on the subject of  socialism
Christ cannot  come otherwise than through the judgments                cannot be called  out of date in  om- day.
that must  come  upon the wicked world, their prayers  in-                 It- must be confessed from the  outset, that it is  rather
clude  also these judgments. Not only the saints whose blood            difficult to give a  satisfadory answer to the question:  what
has been shed for the Word of God and the testimony  which              is  socialism ? For in the first place, it is a  fact that  eco-
they had, but  al1 the saints, the entire body of Christ, prays         nomical experts widely differ in their description and  defini-
for judgment  upon  the world.                                          *tion of the  principles  of this system  .a.nd movement, and
                                                              H.H.      consequently, the definitions that have been given of  Socialism

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

  are so  numerousthat  it would be of no  benefit to enumerate                             peculiar to socialism to divide society from the outset, both
  them all. Just because they vary so considerably, they would                              in theory and  practice,  into two classes, that of the capitalists
  not help  US. And in the  second place, though socialism  may                             on the one, that of the proletarians on the other  side,  and
  remain the  same in principle  thruout the history of the                                 that pictures to itself the relation between these two  social.
  modern world, it must be confessed that it is  very pliable and                           classes as continual  antagonism and warfare. It is not true
adapts itself readily to circumstances. Socialism is not always                             that socialism  looks  up,on  society as one  whole  ; it divides
  the  same in  external  appearance, it does not always publish                            society. It is  nat true that socialism is anxious to seek the
  the  same platform, it does not always  come with the same                                welfare of the  whole, or, as it has  often been alleged, of the
  program to be  carried   out. And thus it  also differs in form                           :greatest possible number  ; it seeks  the-welfare  exclusively of
  at least in various countries. In our country, for instance,                              a certain  class, of the proletariat, regardless of society as a
  it `does not  assume  the same form as in Europe.  Much of our                            whole.
  Socialism here offers itself on the  market  as Christianity,                               The  real character of  al1 socialism  can be expressed no
  or social Christianity. And again the Bolshevism of Russia,                               better, perhaps,  than by the well-known term:  "Com-
  though essentially nothing but Marxian socialism and that                                 munism."  Communism,  it  may be asserted, is the  real essence
  o f   a   rather   moderate  t y p e , reveals itself different from                      of  al1 socialism, under whatever form, at whatever age, in
  German socialism or from the socialism of  .any other country                             whatever country it  may appear. It is characteristic of  com-
 .in the old world. It assumes  many different forms, reveals                               munism  to find the root of  al1 evil in the  fact of private
  itself  under  various  aspects, according as  time and  circum-                          property, and therefore, the  cure, the only remedy for  al1
  stances  demand.   .And, therefore, it would be  extremely                                the misery in the world is  ,the abolishment of the present
  difficult, if not actually impossible to offer a definition that                          system, and the inauguration of a dispensation in which  al1
  would  embrace in its scope  al1  the different  forms,of socialism                       shall share equally in the  material blessings  ,of this world.
  as they exist in different ages and climes. And, hence,                                   The present system, under which most  al1 the land and  al1
  would we obtain some conception nevertheless of what                                      the capita1 of the world is in the hands of a few, inevitably
  socialism really is, we  wil1 have to look for some  kernel, some                         leads to the degradation of the working classes, that  mus%
  principle, some program  al1 the different classes and groups                             labor  hard for a  bare living. And on the other hand, while
  of  socialists  have admittedly in common.                                                the present system  sends the masses of people to the slums,
    And then, 1 wish to  state in the first place that Socialism                            and  condemns  them to  mere animal  existente,  or to the life
  is by no  means  the opposite of  individualism. Literally the                            of a slave; the same system is the  cause of vice and  im-
 term socialism would  seem to imply that it stands  diametric-                             morality and  al1 kinds of debasement  among the  rich that            -
  ally opposed to  al1  individualistic views of society. And                               grow wealthy while sleeping, and reap the fruits of the labor
  many socialist scholars and leaders  come with this contention.                           of their fellow-men. Socialism, like  communism,   holds that
  They maintain that only socialism offers the true conception                              private property must be  changed  to common property. We
  of society and, therefore, is able to  come with the only  pos-                           are  al1 equal. We have an equal right to  al1 things. We
  sible solution of the social  probletns,  as over against  in-                            must live as brothers  upon  earth, children of a common
  dividualism.  The  latter  considers society as a  mere  mass                             Father,  and share in the Father's bounties, even as we  al1
  of  individuals; a collection of  persons that  exist  side by  side                      equally  enjoy the Iight of the sun. In this respect, at least,
  in the world without  any mutual and organic relation                                     al1  socialistic~  schools  may be  said to be fairly  wel1 agreed
 between  them. It refuses to consider society as an  organism,                             though they differ in  regard  to the question of application
 a n d   h e n c e ,   a s   a   whole, and  rather  r e p r e s e n t s   i t   a s   a    and the realization of their program.
 mechanica1 institution. Of course, this view is'directly  op-                                 In order,  however,  to express a correct judgment  upon
 posed to  `every  true conception of society, For the true  con-                           socialism as a system, it must  .be considered in the light
 ception is not that society is like a heap of sand, the grains                             of its history. To do this we must  concentrate  our attention
  of which simply are heaped  upon  one another,  hut  betveen                             first of  al1  upon  that form of socialism which was called the
 which there is no relation whatsoever  ; but that it is an                                 Utopian, or that  farm of socialism as it appeared directly
 organism, the  members  of which are organically related, are                              after the French revolution. and at the dawn of the industrial
 mutually interdependent,  each of  whom has his own definite                               revolution  -in  England. According to two French writers of
 place, and  al1 of  whom are  laboring  together in harmony for                            the  time, St. Simon and  Eourier,  the French revolution had
 the welfare of  the  whole. Regardless now of the question in                              by no  means  accomplished what  it  promised.  It had sounded
 how far  such society  can  actually exist  and. be realized in a                          the beautiful trumpet of "Libert, egalit et  fraternit'"   hut!
 sin-scarred world,  where   elect and reprobate live together,                             in actual  fact  it accomplished nothing. A little more politica1
it must be granted in the abstract that this is the only possible,                          freedom was  al1 it brought about. Equality was  stil1 far from
 the only correct view of society in  general.  And it is this                              being realized in  France,  and liberty was stil1 a relative term,
 view of society,  upon which according to  many writers,                                   while fraternity one must not look for at  ah. True,  the
 socialism is actually based, and  from which it proceeds.                                  nobility and clergy had been deprived of  some of their
 .This,   however,  we  deny  from the outset. For it is exactly                            outrageous privileges, but the greatst privilege, the root




                                                                                                                                                             .


442                                          T H E   STAN,DARD.BEARER

of  al1 other privileges, and at the same  time the root of  al1         the things of the world only.  Al1 discard the tremendous  fact
the social  evils of the time-private  propertyihad  remained            of sin in their account of evil  conditions,   al1 find the salvation
untouched. The revolution was the triumph of the  liberal                of men in a change of the existing social order.
party, of the  higher  bourgeoisie, but the lower classes had               An  enormous change was brought about,  however,  by
been left in their degradation. And, therefore, the fight                Kar1 Marx, the  well-known  German socialist philosopher,
must be  continued.  Not,  however,  by another bloody revolu-           who succeeded by his theory of social evolution to give a
tion would these men carry  out their program, but by the                new meaning to  socialism and to guide it in entirely different
simple preaching of the gospel of communism. The new                     channels  of  action. Marx was born at Treves and studied
light must be liberally spread, the seed of the new gospel               at the universities of Berlin and Bonn. He soon revealed a
must be freely disseminated, the coming revolution, which                remarkable interest in the study of history and philosophy.
would be the triumph of communism and the  ultimate defeat               At an early date he developed his own philosophy, which
of  al1 private property, must be gradually prepared by this  new        may be characterized as historica1 materialism.  .Being  a
gospel in the hearts and  minds  of  al1 the people. And the             disciple of Hegel, the pantheist, he practically reversed his
change in the social order  -would follow spontaneously.                 teacher's view. For Hegel the Idea, the absolute Spirit was
   A third writer of that period was the  fameus Englishman,             ah. But for  Kar1 Marx matter was everything, the idea
Robert  Owen. He had grown up in a period  when the  in-                 nothing. And this  basic view  constitutes the  principle  of his
dustrial revolution in  England was in full sway. The blind              entire philosophy of historica1 evolution.
power of  the machine replaced the ski11 of the  mechanic  and              What is historica1 evolution  ? It is a philosophy arrivecl
thousands  upon  thousands were gradually drawn from their               at by viewing  al1 history  thru materialistic spectacles. It is,
smal1 workshops into the large factories.  Owen  had been                of course, based on the theory of  evolution.  In his earliest
witness of the change and was deeply conscious of the                    stage of development man was but a highly developed animal.
abuse of the  factory system. The workingmen had  to-labor               As long as private property did not  exist,  this man-animal
mercilessly  long hours for starvation wages.  Many  women               was relatively happy and tame. But private property was
and children, anxious, or  rather   compelled by the  very system        introduced  and this  constitutes  the  fa11 of man. Peace was
to do their share for the  upkeep  of the family, were employed,         disturbed, happiness destroyed. For, the private property
the  latter  even as young as five and  six years of age. And            holders became great beasts of prey,  who desired nothing
these had to work the same number of hours, had to `do                   less than  20 gain  control over  al1 things, and the  non-pos-
practically the same work, and for  stil1 smaller wages.  Un-            sessors became a mass of  slaves groaning under the  yoke
told misery existed in  England  among the lower classes.                of oppression. But these non-possessors could not passively
According to wen, the  causes of this misery were in the                submit  themselves to this  state of affairs. They rose in
first  place, marriage, that  causes men to  .be tied down  to           rebellion. They  struggled  for freedom. They demanded
large families and compelled them to bow under the new                   equality.  War broke  out, a bitter  war, a  war which from
industrial conditions; in  the  second  place, religion, which           earliest days  may be  traced   thruout the history of the race.
kept men satisfied with existing conditions, or at least made            And now it is the  law of historica1 evolution, according to
them reconciled to the present with a view to the  compensa-             Marx, that the non-possessors gradually prevail and conquer.
tion a future world offered. But in the third  place and                 Gradually they improve their own  condition.  Gradually the
above all,  also  accrding  to  Owen, private property was the          position of the few possessors  wil1 become more and more
chief  cause of  al1 the existing  misery  in society. It was  be-       untenable, until according to the same inevitable  law of  his-
cause  the land and  the capita1 were in the hands of a few              torical evolution the new era  shall dawn in which  al1 private
capitalists, and because of the resulting competition between            property shall have been abolished and  al1 things  shall be
these few, that the  laboring  class had to suffer, And,  there-         enjoyed  equally by  ah. This progress to the socialistic  state
fore, the gospel of communism would have to take the  place              of things Marx  traces thru history. In the  olcl Asiatic form
of the gospel of Christ,  al1 property had to be  placed under           of  society,  at the  time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the
control of a socialistic  state, and presently the misery would          husband was even the absolute owner of wife and children,
cease and the dawn of a new and better era would soon                    and  could dispense with them according to his sovereign
gladden the hearts of all.                                               good pleasure. In the Roman Empire we do not see this  any-
       There you have in brief the views of three of the most            more, but the institution of slavery flourished. In the
prominent writers of that  time. Al1 three were materialistic at         middle ages slavery was practically abolished to be replaced
bottom,   and as  you  wil1 have noticed,  al1 three found the  only     by the feudalistic  state of things, under which the tenant
possible solution of the social  problem  in the communistic             Ibored for his feudal lord. And finally in our own  time the
program. In  France  this was an outgrowth of the revolu-                feudalistic  state has vanished to make  place for the  capi-
tionary philosophy of Voltaire and Rousseau and others,                  talistic form of society. But this cannot be the last stage of
while at the  same  time it was an  attempt to complete the              historie evolution, for the highest and most perfect form of
revolution. In  England communism  may be called the                     society is not yet reached. And, therefore, as inevitable as  the
legitimate  child of the  industrial revolution.  Al1 have a view for    old Asiatic form was replaced by the Roman, the Roman


                                               THEE   S T A N D A R D   Bl3tAREIt                                                           443

by the Feudal and  the Feudal by the Capitalistic  state of                must take its  place to satisfy the  desire of  man's  inmost  heart.
things, just as inevitably  wil1 the present give birth to the             Meanwhile we must keep  talm and abide the right moment.
socialistic age in which  al1 private property  wil1 be  aboiished         For the socialistic  state of things  wil1 surely  constitute the
and men shall have  al1 things in common. According to  tho                climax, the  ultimate termination of  al1 history, the  consum-
law of historica1 evolution the  Socialistic*era  is sure to  come         mation of  al1 things! It  wil1 surely  come according to the
even though there were not a single socialist !                            inevitable  law of historica1 evolution.
    Marx  also  makes bold that he has  %found the  law  ac-                   Such is the theory that is commonly known as Marxism.
cording to which the capitalistic  state of things  wil1 in+               It is an exposition  ancl criticism of capita1 and a prophecy
evitably give birth to the socialistic form of society. This               of its certain doorn. And since historica1 evolution by natura1
law he has developed in his theory of "surplus value." The                 and  material  laws, it is no less an exposition of  socialism.
implication  of this theory is briefly as follows. The only                For according to these laws the inevitable tendency of
standard by which the value of  any commodity  can be                      capitalism  is towards  socialism. His theory has been severely
measured  is labor. It is labor that gives  any commodity on               criticised, and as a matter of  fact it is at least nominally
the  market   its  real value. But of this value the laborer  that         rejected by  many modern socialists, espcially because of
does the  werk, and  who, therefore, is the rightful owner of              its advocacy of a passive attitude. But in spite of  al1 this,
the entire value of the article receives but a  smal1  portion,            modern  socialism is  stil1 deeply  influenced  by Marxism, nd
while the rest  goes to the capitalist. Now, if you  subtrace              in  principle  Bolshevism is nothing but this  very Marxism.
from the  real value,  the  market-price  of  any commodity that           And  after  al1 the definition  may not be so far from being
part which the laborer receives for his work, the remainder                correct, which  would hold that  Socialism  is nothing but  com-
is  what Marx calls the "surplus value." This remainder                    munism as it has been influenced and molded by Marxian
goes to  the capitalist. And since the capitalist puts this                philosophy.
remainder in his pocket, capita1 is nothing but an  accumul-                  It was not our purpose to pass criticism on the  tre-
tion of surplus value, or if you please, capita1 is  simply an             mendous movement. Especially of late  socialism has been
accumulation of  money that rightfully belongs to the  working-            its own  condemnation in the eyes, at least of  al1 Christian
man. But just because of this  fact, the capitalist  wil1 in the           people, because of the manner in which it reveals itself.
end  accomplish  his own destruction. He does not exert  him-              Neither do 1  think  that rank  socialism is our greatest danger.
self for his possessions. He  grows  rich while sleeping. He               Whenever the  devil reveals  himself  as plainly as he does
grows wealthier and wealthier in idleness, but thus he  be-                thru manifest  socialism in the  world,  -he is easily recognized,
comes morally and physically  weaker.  He  wil1 wax more                   and no  child of God is apt to shake hands with him and
careless as  time  goes on.  Moreover  on account of keen                  make common  cause. And therefore, a few words  wil1  suffice.
competition  in the  industrial and business world, the smaller            In the first  place, then, it  may be asserted that from a  mere
capitalist  wil1 gradually be swallowed up by the larger' and              economie point of view there are some elements in  socialism
more powerful, so that they  wil1 gradually decrease in                    which  may readily be approved, but which  oght never to
number.  This  state of affairs must continue for a while,                 blindfold  US to its  real character. We too must absolutely
must  become stil1 worse. The accumulation of capita1 has                  `condemn the greedy accumulation of wealth on the part of
to  assume  greater proportions still; concentration of trade              the  rich, at the expense of the laborer  ; we too must protest
in the few must develop further  ; the oppression of the                   against the concentration of business and industry, which
proletariat must  become more unbearable.  Al1 this  wil1 con-             leaves no standing room for the smaller man  ; we too  may
tinue,  til1 at last there  wil1 be but  very few capitalists  who have    labor for improvement of  social conditions in this  world,
al1 the world in  their  control,  and  who besides,  having grown         according to right and justice. And never should we  be-
rich in idleness are  morally degenerate and physically weak.              come  such blind antagonists of  socialism as to  be  mere
But this is the  very dawn of a new day. For this  wil1 be  the            defenders of sinful capitalism. The one is as sinful as  the
moment,  when the toiling and suffering proletarians of  al1               other. But as I.have  already said, this admission must never
the  world,   wil1 rise as one man, snatch  al1 power and wealth           close our eyes to the  real character of  al1  socialism. For in
away  from the hands of  their  oppressors>  and take the  control         principle   socialism is a denial of  al1 that is  dear to  US  ac-
of the world into their own hands. Then private property                   cording  to God's Word. It involves a denial of God and
shall be abolished forever, and peace and bliss shall reign                His Sovereignty,  who  assigns. to  each one his  place in  the
in the world during this socialistic millennium, for there  wil1           economy  of this dispensation, and has instituted  government
be  beasts of prey no more.                                                to punish the  evil-doer.  It is a denial of the  fact of sin,  ancl
   And, therefore,  also according to Marx no great, bloody                seeks to find the origin of  al1 evil in outward conditions,
politica1 revolution is necessary to accomplish the change.                especially in private property. It is a denial of the spiritual
Al1 that is necessary is that the gospel of  socialism be                  at the expense of the material;  it is an emphasis on the
preached to  al1 men, and the hearts and  minds of the people,             present at the expense of the future ; it maintains that  man's
es$ecially of the proletariat be prepared for the new  and                 only  happiness  must be found in this dispensation, and that
surely coming order. Religion must be silenced, and art                                         (Concluded   on  Page  445).,


 444                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D '   B E A R . E R

                                                                            day  of the  -evelation of Jesus Christ, 1 Peter  1:6, 7. The  ap-
   11 F R O M  
                                         HOLY  WRIT  11proved  charactey of faith must be demonstrated. For the
                                                                           victory that overcometh the world is  "faith"  - faith in  God.,
                                                                            trusting in his deliverance not simply  f~o't~t afflictions, but
           Exposition of Matthew 24 and 25                                  th-oatgh  aff lictions. For aff  liction  worketh patience, and
                                                                           patience approvedness, and approvedness hope, and hope
                                  IV.                                       does  nat put to shame because the love of God is shed
                                                                           abroad in our hearts, Romans. 5  :6. If  any man hath an ear
                         (Matthew 24 :9-14)                                let him hear. Here is the patience and  faith of the  .saints  !
                                                                           Revelation 13  :lOb.
    Jesus, we  wil1 remember, is  uttering  a prophetical  dis-                 In verse 14 we  read,  "then" shall they deliver you unto
course in which he answers the question of Peter, James ancl               affliction, tribulation! The term  "tote"   in Greek is an adverb
John concerning  the  time  when the destruction shall be  upon            of  time. The question is whether it here refers strictly to
Jerusalem, and, therefore,  upon  the  whole  World. For  judg-            time, or whether it refers to a  kind  of  time. In the Gospel of
ment must  needs begin at  Jerusaleni,  from the  "heuse  OP               Matthew the term  "tote"   often refers to  time.as  a. special or
God," 1 Peter  4:17;  Ezekiel  9  :6; Jeremiah 25  29;   II.-Thes-         genera1 occasion.  When  there are wars and rumors of wars
salonians -1  :8. There  where the Gospel is known, and yet                the  n&ions try to  overcome  the  "wound" of Babel. That'
not obeyed, judgment begins. From the center  out in ever                  was a deadly wound in the plan of the people for  "ene  world."
widening  circles. For Jerusalem of the Old Testament  atid                See Genesis 11 :l-9 ; Revelation 13  :3. And in so doing they
the Temple are the center of  the revelation of God.  When                 "make  .war on the  saints," Revelation 13  :6;  Daniel  7.~21.
fhis is destroyed one sees a picture, a type of the end of  the!           The initiative is from these nations, the beast which cometh
world. And the prophets always  .see this within the  perspec-             up  out of  the sea of the restless life of "nations" and tha
tive of the  final judgment of the world.                                  second beast, which stands in the service of the  "first  beast."
    History  wil1 be one  continued series of wars and  rumorsi            Th&  second beast is the false  prophet.   Together  they are
of wars.  What is happening even in our day, in the life  of               the antichristian world-power.
the "nations," should not  cause  us surprise nor should  iti                   "Then"  shall  they  "delive?"   you to tribulation. The way
case   US undue concern. For  al1 these things  "mu&  come to             of life and  obedience   wil1 be  exeeedingly  difficult. The road
Pass," Daniel  2  ~28, Matthew 24  :6. And the Mystery of God              which leads to life, which is  very  "narrow"   wil1 be a way of
in it  al1 is that the center of this history is the  great   fact that    extreme hardship. The enemies of  the Christ of God and
God is declaring from the  Decree,  `!Thou art my Son  ; this              of His exaltation  wil1 press hard  upon  the church.
day have 1 begotten thee.  ASk of me and 1  will.give  thee the                 They  wil1 go "the limit." And the  limitation of the
heathen for thy inheritance and the uttermost parts of the                 world's torture-rack is that they  can only  kil1  the body.
earth for thy possession)' Psalm 2  :7,  8. History is full  of            However,  they cannot  destroy  the soul! Hence, we need
"birthpangs." It is the  "begetting  of the  San" so that He               nat fear them.  Rather  we are to fear God  who  can  "destroy"
may be the First-Born of  al1  creatures,  as the First-Born  out          (a~oZzssui)  both body and soul in hell. The term employed
of the  dead, and  may have the pre-eminente in  al1 things !              in the Greek for "they shall kill" you is  "apoktenousin."
For in Him dwelleth  al1 the fulness of the Godhead bodily,                This does not simply  mean to  "kill"  hut `it  means  to  "kil1  off."
Colossians  1 :15-20.                                                      The  German  renders  this  "abschlachten"  ! It refers to  mur-
   .Hence,  tihen we hear the would-be saviors preach of a                 der on a grand  scale without reference to right and wrong.
different kind of world, we must not be deceived. We                       That  wil1 be the lot of the church. Here is the patience of
must give heed to the more sure prophetic word which shines                the  saiits  0      _
as- a light in a dark  place  until the  ,day. dawn and the  day-              And the motive? They shall be constantly hating you. It
star of the eternal hope arise in our hearts ! 11 Peter 1  :19.            is the  hatred  of the godless for the godly. It is  Cain  against
    It  wil1  ,ever be  ivars and rumors of wars !                         Abel. The Greek emphasizes. that there  wil1 be a  constan?
    In  verses  9-14  of- this  chapter the Lord depicts and               hatred  without let-up ! The term in Greek is  esasthe  ,wzis-  _
exhibits the  effects of this universal "beginning of  sorrows"            ozbllzenoi,  a paraphrastic future passive. It  wil1 simply be the
in its special effect and application  .upon  the entire  Christian        order of the day.  Such  is  `the ever repeated prediction of
church:                                                                    Jesus. See Matthew  10:16,  where  we  read, "Behold, 1 send
   The  key-note  in these passages is that the church shall               you forth  & sheep  arnon; the wolves: be ye therefore  wi&
have  a.fliction  in  ,tlze  world! She shall be "delivered unto           as serpents and harmless as doves." And in John  16:33 we
affliction" by these nations. And that is only because it is               read, "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good
necessary for the ti-ia1 of the faith, which is far more  precieus         cheer;  1 have  overcome  the world."
than gold which perishes  ; it must be found to be unto the                    Ancl why does the world  hate God's people? We  read in,
honor and praise of this faith,  ai the work of God, in the                John 15  :18-19,  "If the world  hate you, ye know that it


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                         445

 hated me before  .it hated you. If ye were of the world, the                fruit shall not be found on the tree which looks so promising.
 world would love its own: but because ye are  nat of the                        The term employed by Jesus in the Greek for "iniquity
 world,  Oatt  I  lznve   clzosen you  out  of  the.  zetrld,  therefore    shali  abounc"  is worthy of note. The term is  Yto  .plecthun-
the world hateth  you."                                                      theenai,"   that is, shall be made full. The  infinitiie here used
     Clear language, isn't it !                                              may be constative, simply stating a  fact, or it  may be  dura-
     This is not the ill-treatment which one  receives for his               tive,  that. is, expressing a degree of  adion which increases
faults. That is possible too. Of this Peter speaks in 1 Peter                over a period of  time  until it reaches a climax of  lawless-
3  :17,  where  we  read,  "For it is better, if the  wil1 of God be         ness. One  wil1 see this in the parallel of the days of Noah!
so, that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing"!                      The ungodliness of the men of the church in Noah's day
    Simply because  th& church is  the, "peculiar treasure of                was its amalgamation  with the world. The  differente   be-
God," His  chosen generation,  His royal priesthod, His  holy               tween church and world must be erased. The sons of God
nation  - therefore is she hated by the world, killed                        saw that the daughters of men were  beautiful.   Athens must
                                                                     off,
afflicted. But it cannot separate                                            bewed with  Jeruialem. Secularization of  al1 things. God is
                                         US from the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus, our  iord!                                         not in  al1 their thoughts  - while they profess to know Him !
    When  the heat of affliction is  brought  to bear  upon  the                 And then  the "love. of  &ny  wil1 have the  cold breath
church it  wil1 show  who  haS "depth of. earth," and  who are               blown  upon it." This love was not really present in them
like the seed sown on  stqny  ground, on hard-pan ground.                    who perish. In those  who  endure to the end it  may wax  cold
Of this verse 10 speaks. Here is an  implicit  warning too.                  for a bit, but  `it  wil1 surely revive. But in the case of the
r't is not  niere  prediction, but a  cal1  to. be  watchful   qnto          many we see that they are filled with the spirit of delusion.
prayer. Then  (tote)  shall  many be offended.                               It  wil1 be like a contagious disease. Departure from the
                                                                             truth  wil1 be seen in great proportion.  Indifferente to God,
    The term offense  comes from the  Greek   :  skundaZon.                  His Word, His Christ, His church  wil1 be seen on  every
This is properly a  tl-ajwticlz,  a bent stick on  which bait is             hand. The church becomes  very  smal1 in number. And  it
fastened, and so springs the trap. Hence, anything that is a                 becomes really a  very terrible  place for the church.
trap,   or. snare ! It  i`s anything which  onc stumbles or  strikes             But there is  `a note of hope. Some  wil1  "endure  to the
against. Here it must be offense  -because of the Word of                    end." The Son of God defends, gathers and preserves to
God and the testimony of Jesus. It is for this Word of God                   Himself  + church. And He  wil1 preserve her right through
and testimony of Jesus that the world hates and  persecutes                  this great "lawlessness," keeping  the flame of  love for God,
the church. And  `when this  hatred  is experienced the  real                hope for eternal  life.`alive in her heart !
character of faith  comes to manifestation. But it then is  also
matiifested   who do not have                                                    When   wil1  the "end" be?  When   al1 this beginning of
                                     truc  faith,  who do not bring
forth fruit in patience, a hundredfold, sixtyfold and thirtyfold.            birthpangs has  reached  its ultimate,  when the last  tear  lias
For let                                                                      been shed,  when the last prayer has been uttered, and  when
            LIS  remember that we enter the  kingdom of God
through  much aff  liction.                                                  the last sermon has been  preacked.
                                                                                 For the Gospel of  the  Kingdom shall continue. The Word
    `"Many" shall be  oflended.  The  fact is that this  exhibits            shall not fail the church. The  means  of  grace  shall be con-
the truth that  "many are called" but "few  are.chosen"   !,  Al1            stant to the end.
through history  "many" were offended at the straightness
.of the  "gate"' and the narrowness of the  "way"!  And few                      Thus this prediction of Christ  ends in a  note of hope,
                                                                             and tells  US  when the end shall be. It  wil1 be  when the history
there are that find it ! Few are ever the number that  .find it              of the church has  come to its end. Then there shall be  ho
in proportion to the  "many"   who do  nat.                                  more  night, unrighteousness.
    It is these  "many" which are offended  who become the                      It  wil1 be the parousia of Christ, to be forever with  us
enemies of the church. They are the "foe within" ! They                      and we with him,  when the  tabcrnacle  qf God shall be with
are the evil fish in the  nets of the  Kingdom of heaven. Here               man !                                                          G. L.
one has the great persecution. Here is the  hatred,  the killing
off of  each other.  The reason ? It is  hatred  for God, His
Word, His Christ.  They  wil1  think to do God a service.                                            S O C I A L I S M
    It  wil1 be an  abundance of lawlessness. And this shall                                      (Continued from Page 443)
arise especially  out of the  bosom of the church. It  wil1 be               it must be realized  thru  material things. It is, in short a
the great apostasy. Always there are apostates. The  measurei                denial of  al1 that is  dear to our hearts. It is a terrible red
of sin  wil1 become full. The  mysteq  of  ini-quity  wil1 become            monster,  dangerous.  to  the  state,  dangerous to society,  danger-
evident. The  secret  nature  of sin  wil1 reveal itself. And the            ous to the church and to the people of God's  kingdom.  And
effect  wil1 be that  many  wil1 reveal this sinfulness of  .sin             every   child of God should stand diametrically qpposed to
against God because of  and through the trials of  afflictitins.             al1 that calls itself socialist. A Christian-socialist is a  contra-
There  wil1 be  much religion but no  power of  godliness   ! The            diction in terms.                                             H. H.




                                                         _'


446                                          T H E   STANDAR?,   ..BEARE.R

                                                                      for him. It just does not harmonize with  tihat he sees in the
                I N   HIS  F E A R                                    distance so  Bearly. He cannot see, in other words, that  al1
                                                                      these present things belong to that which is so clearly before
                                                                      him in the future. He cannot see that  al1 these present things
                       Spiritual Bifocals                             werk  togdher  for good and actually serve the purpose of his
                                                                      glory in that New Jerusalem which he sees so clearly by
       The younger generation of our readers  wil1 not be in a        faith.
position to  appreciate  to a  very great extent the above  title.      The disciples were to a great extent afflicted with that.
The wearing of glasses is either an experience which they             Oh, they saw Jesus'  kingdom  - so they thought  -  very
have not had yet ; or else they have not yet been  introduced         clearly. `They saw  Him.as the promised Messiah and they
to the additional excitement(  ?) of wearing bifocals.                loved Him as  that Messiah. But His Capture, His surrender in
       The above title does not  fully express, either, that which    the Garden, His crucifixion and death were  al1  out of focus
we have in mind and concerning which we would  write.at               and did not fit into the picture at all. They could see  cleaily
this  time. But it  wil1 serve to introduce the matter.               into the distance but the things right before them were
                                                                      blurred,  confused  and distorted. They did not seem to belong
       Bifocals are an ingenious  device which  enableb those  who    to the same world.
requre it the ability to see clearly far into the distance by
means of the  upper  lenses in their glasses and to  read with            Often God's people today are afflicted with this same
ease the fine print at close range  with the lower  lenses of         evil. They have the eye of faith. They  can see  God'?
their glasses. One  who  needs bifocals  wil1 have to choose.         promises. Yea, with the eye of faith they  can  already see
otherwise, if he  pre'fers to have only the one type of  lenses       them fulfilled. But God's work with theni in this life they
set up  iti  the frame of his spectacles, whether he wants a pair     cannot see in the right light. The pains and afflictions they
of glasses which  wil1 help him see clearly into the distance         suffer, the losses and griefs they  endure seem to look to
but be  uiable to  read his newspaper without eyestrain,  OF          them as evident tokens of His displeasure and wrath. They
else to be able to  read with  ,ease and to have his  vision          cannot see with the Apostle Paul that "our light afflictions
blurred as far as the distant scene is concerned. There  comes        which are but for a moment work for  US a far more  ex-
a  time in the lives of those  who need the aid of  corrective        ceeding  and eternal  weight of glory : While we look  nat at
lenses  when their eyes are no  longer able to focus correctly        the things that are seen for they are tempora1  ; but the things
at both  ,the distant scene and the fine print of  "bis reading       which are not seen are  eternal," 11 Corinthians  4:17, 18.
material. The muscles of the eye  lo+e their tone. Age has                Another example of  such distorted  vision  we find in
made itself known and the body  finds that it  needs help from        Asaph?s personal observations in Psalm 73. He saw the
without in order to  b& able to live` a  somewhat   normal life.      wicked and was envious of them. Seeing  al1 their prosperity
       Spiritually you find people  also  who need bifocals and       and joy while he saw God's people suffer  reproach  and
whose eye of faith is  nat always  clear. Usually it  may be          shame, persecution and ridicule, he was  ready to say that he
said of these people that their distant  vision is good. It  is       had. cleansed his heart in vain and washed his hands in
very  clear;  and that which they see is definite and set  fort11     innocency.  Oh;  hc stil1 had that  far-off   vision that he saw
with clearly  defmed lines. But that which is close by they           the things which God promised. He stil1 believed in God and
see in a  very blurred  &d distorted way. Do you know  such           in 1-Iis promises. That is why even though his  vision was
people ? Are you perhaps one of them  ? Let me explain.               so blurred he stil1 went up to God's house. Then his  vision
    With the eye of faith some of God's people see thc                of the things  near%y cleared and he saw in what peril  uti-
                                                                      godly men stand. Then he saw the things of this life with
promises of God and see them as definitely and clearly as a
man with perfect  vision sees the distant mountain top and            its sufferings and sorrows in the proper light. He saw the
                                                                      near and the far clearly.  Al1 things were in focus for him.
the brightly  s_hining  morning-star.  He sees the day of Christ.         Be sure to put on your spiritual bifocals  when trials and
He sees the joys, the glory, the blessedness of the New Jeru-
salem in the new creation. He sees himself in  that New               distresses  come your  way,`when wickedness seems to triumph -
Jerusalem. He sees Christ coming  upon the  clouds of heaven.         and  prosper round about you. If clean hands seem worthless
                                                                      and pure hearts seem vain, if it seems as tho crime pays
He sees Satan and  al1 his followers  tast into the  lak; of          and that those  who  oppose the truth and maintain with  s&b-
everlasting torment. He has no trouble at  al1 seeing the end
of  al1 God's promises. It  al1 stands  out clearly before his        born teacity  ihe  lie.are blessed of God and have things their
eye of  faith.                                                        way; put on your spiritual bifocals. You are not looking at
                                                                      these  things  co&ectly.  You  may  -stil1   iee the distant  scene
    But  what is just before him,  the things that happened           clearly, but your  vision  of the present matters is  out of focus.
to him today, the things that appear about to happen to               Begin with Abel in Paradise and  trace the history of the
him tomorrow, that which transpires during  the.time  that he         Church  through  the Scriptures and then through the history
yasses his sojourn here below is blurred. It is  out of focus         of this world. Do not  overlook  the  abuse:  and. bondage of


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER                                                       4 1.7

Egypt. Be sure to stand at the cross of Christ. Take a                 -dimly and  out of focus that appearance before the great
good look at Paul in  al1 his trials as he mentions them in            white throne, which stands. so big and clear in the future.
11 Corinthians 11 :22-33. Spend some  time  with John  .on..the        Because they- have opposed their consciences  - which  .at
lsle of  Patmos for the witness of Christ. Then look again             first did smite them  - until they have hardened themselves
at your lot and at that which befalls  the,Church of God in            in their wickedness to the point  where  they find peace in it
this life. Be sure that  material  success and earthly prosperity      and actually look to the future with  such distortion of  fact
are not taken by you as an undeniable  evidente .of  God's             and reality that they  expect  God to express His approval
grace.    Never mind  the opinion and judgment of men.                 of it  al1 before the judgment seat of Christ. What they  now.,
Forget not likewise that Job's friends  (?) accused him of             see close at hand stands  out as something  very  goo,d  and
terrible sins and with vigor insisted that God was punishing           righteous in God's sight. And that they must stand one  day
him because  al1 his  material  and physical possessions were          before the Judge of heaven and of earth is a thing way  out- of
taken away from him. Job had clear  vision for the distant             focus for them.
and for that which was nearby. He blessed God although,                   Do not forget that Jesus speaks  also of  such.  Much,   very
he lost  al1 his  material possessions. And with an eye to the         much of the present joy and  reasons(   ?) for thanksgiving to
far-off future, with beautiful clarity of  vision he stated, "For      God today  wil1 in the day of Christ be turned to great, ever-
1 know that my Redeemer  liveth, and that he shall stand               lasting sorrow. That is not philosophy or an  out-of-focus
upon  this earth at the  latter  day  ; And though  after my skin      observation. Jesus says that to  many God  wil1 declare in that
worms destroy this body, yet in my  ,flesh shall 1 see God:            day, "Depart  from me, ye workers of iniquity. 1 never knew
Whom 1 shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold and            you." In feigned amazement they  may say, "But did we not
not another  ; though my reins be consumed  within  me," Job           tast  out devils in Thy name ? Did we not do  much good ?
19 :25-27. He sees the future  very clearly  and,  can  tel1  you      Were we not an influence for good  upon the  whole religious
in detail what  wil1 take  place. But  he  also sees the present;      world  ? Were we not a mighty people, strong in number  ancl
and though his friends (  ?) would have him see it  out of             universal in  om witness of Thee?' Yet in  allthat for which
focus and see  al1 things wrong, Job says  also of the present         they gave  thanks  ( ?) in  prayer.s without number, in song
things,  "1 know that my  Redeemer  liveth." He knows that             and speech, the judgment of Him  Who  presides over The
he has one  who  wil1 redeem him  out of  al1 that present woe,        Supreme Court  wil1 remain unchanged.
one  who  controls  and  rules  al1 these things  ar& that these
present things do not  deny God's grace and love to him but               .Let  LIS  be sure that both the present and the future stand
rather  he  stil1 has a living Redeemer.                               out in clear focus and  thatwe"see both aright. Live close to
                                                                       the Worcl of God. Let it explain the present as  wel1   .as,
   Then  again,  ,there are those  who live in the present and         present the future to your  mind's eye. And do not judge
see  thee future  very dimly. The distant scene is  out of focus       God's grace and favor by  material standards. For then
for them. The things that shall `be in the last days they              His grace is for the evildoer and a rare thing for His
see but faintly. Nothing stands  out with the definiteness  that       wde.
it should. Near at hand they see  very clearly. What they                          Rest in the Lord with quiet trust,
see is gold and silver, houses and land, abundance and                             Wait patiently for Him  ;               .-
plenty. Or as the Pharisees of old they see their own works                        Tho'  wickedness  triumphant seem,
and are  very satisfied with them. Are they not  esteemed   and                  Let not  .thy faith grow dim.
revered of men  ? Have. they not a large  place and great                                                                        J. A. H.
influence among men  ? Have they not acquired fine buildings,
financial  assets ?  Can they  nat claim a large following  and                                   i
have so  much that the eye  can clearly see of this earth's
goods  ?  My,  how God has blessed them ! Oh,  how good He
has been to them !  Who  needs  any special  lenses to see that  ?                        Consistories, Attention!
Who  needs spiritual bifocals to see that these  indeed are               By mid-September the following  catechism  books  wil1 be
the  .elite, the  chosen  of God, His favored people  ?                available for use in  om churches : Bible Stories For `Begin-
    Such  also speak loudly of God's blessing  upon them.              ners (Book One), Old Testament History For  Juniors, and
They  utter prayers with high-sounding phrases of  thanks-             Olcl Testament History For  .Seniors.  For  copies of these
giving to Him for  al1 His  manifold blessings which He
bas  (  ?)  bestowed   upon them. And then they  mean  material        books contact the Rev. G.  Vanden Berg, 9402 South 53rd
things.  That they no  longer have the truth in those  fine,           Court, Oak Lawn, Illinois. The  price of the books is  3Oc
spacious   an:d beautiful buildings; that they stand for  many         each. Please sencl  the  price of  the  books with your order.
increasirig  .evil-  practices  which are loathsome in God's sight,
they  donot  sec. And therefore because they have deceived                                          The  Catechism  Book Committee,
themselves  by the  material things close by, they see  hut                                                J. A. Heys, Secretary.


445                                        T H E   STANDBARD   B E A R E R

                                                                              After long and wearisome proceedings, this order was
           Contencling For The Fblith                                 formally legislated  out of  existente  by Clement in 1312.
                                                                      Founded in 1119  `to protext pilgrims and to defend the  Holy
                                                                      Land against the Moslems, it had outlived its  mission. Sapped
            The Church and the  Sacraments                            of its energy by  riches and  indulgente,   i t s   once  fameus
                                                                      knights might  wel1 have disbanded and no interest been the
  Vrs\vs   DUKIKG  TI-IE  TI-ITRTI  PERIOU   (750-1517  A.11.)        worse for it. The story,  however,  of their forcible  suppres-
                 THE  ~UPREMACY   OF THE  POPE                        sion awakens universal sympathy  and forms one of the most
                                                                      thrilling and mysterious  chapters of the  age: Dollinger has
 TIIE  DIXLINE  OF THE  PA~ACY  AND THE  AVIGNON  EXILE.              called it  "a unique drama in history."
                      A. D. 1294-1377.
                                                                              The destruction of the Templar order was relentlessly
       In his  zeal against his oid enemy Philip had callecl,         insisted  upon by Philip the Fair, and accomplished with the
probahly  .as early as 1305, for the canonization of Coelestine       reluctant  co-operation  of Clement V. (The Templars were
V. A  second  time, in 1307. Boniface's condemnation was              a military order founded in Jerusalem in 1119. They formed
pressed  upon Clement by  ,the king in  person.  But the pope         under the Augustinian  rule one of the spiritual orders of
knew  how to  prolong the prosecution on  al1 sorts of pretexts.      chivalry  that owed their origin to the `Crusades, a knightly
Philip. represented himself as concerned for the interests            society on a spiritual basis and for spiritual  ends. The
of religion, and Nogaret and the other conspirators insisted          Templars  ,in  France  were a formidable obstruction against
that  the assault at Avignon was a religious act,  negotiu?l%         centralization of power in the hands of the king. This  ex-
#ei. Nogaret sent forth no less than `twelve apologies  de-           plains the opposition of Philip the Fair against this order and
fending himself for his part in the assault. In 1310 the forma1       why Clement V was so reluctant to accede to the  demand of
trial began.  Many witnesses appeared to testify against              the  king.-H.V.   j  In  vairi did the king strive  to hide the
Boniface  - laymen, priests and bishops. The accusations              sordidness of his purpose under the thin mask of religious
were that the  -pope  had declared  al1 three religions false,        zeal. At  Clement's coronation, if not before, Philip brought
Mohammedanism, Judaism and Christianity,  pronounced  the,            charges against it. About the same  time, in  the insurrection
virgin birth a tale, denied transubstantiation and the  existente     called forth by  bis- debasement of the  coin, the  king took
of heil and heaven and that he had played games of  chance.           refuge in the Templars'  building at Paris. In 1307 he
  Clement issued one  bul1  after  another  protesting the  in-       renewed  ,the charges before the pope.  When  Clement
nocency  -of the offending parties concerned in the violent           hesitated, he proceeded to  violente, and on the night of Oct.
measures against Boniface. Philip and Nogaret were  de-               13, 1307, he had  al1 the members of the order in  France
clared innocent of  al1 guilt and to have only pure motives           arrested and thrown into prison, including  Jacques  de Molay,
in preferring charges against the  dead pope. The bull,  Rex          the grand-master. Dollinger applies to this deed the strong
ghia,e,  1311, addressed to Philip, stated that the  secular          language that, if he were  to  pick*out from the  whole history
kingclom was founded by God and that  France  in the new              of the world the accursed day,  -  dies  npfastzts,   - he .would
dispensation occupied about the  same  place as Israel,  the.elect    be able to name none other than Oct. 13, 1307. Three days
people, occupied under the old dispensation. Nogaret's                later, Philip announced that he had taken this  action   as:the,.--`.
purpose in entering into the agreement which resulted in the          defender of the faith and called  upon Christian  princes  to  "`,,  "
affair at Anagni was to save the Church from destruction at           follow his example. Little as the  business'was  to Clement's
,the hands of Boniface, and the plundering of the  papal.palace       taste, he was not man enough to set himself in opposition to
ancl church was done against the  wishes of the French                the  king, and he gradually became complaisant.              The
chancellor. In several bulls Clement recalled  al1  punish-           machinery of  the, Inquisition was called into use. The  Do-
ments, statements, suspensions  and declarations made against         minicans, its  chief agents, stood high in Philip's favor, and
Philip and his  kingdom, or supposed  to have been made.              one of their number was his confessor. In 1308 the  author-
And to  fully placate the king, he ordered  al1 Boniface's  pro-      ities of the  state assented to the  king's  plans to bring the
nouncements of this character effaced from the books of               order to trial. The constitution of the court was provided
the Roman Church. Thus in  the most  solemn papa1 form did            for by Clement, the  bishop  of  each diocese and two  Fran-
Boniface's successor undo  al1 that  Boniface  had done.  When        ciscans and two  Dominicans  being associated together. A
the Ecumenical Council of Vienne met, the case of  Boniface           commission invested with genera1 authority  -was-  to sit in
was so notorious a matter, that it had to be taken up.  After         Paris.
a forma1 trial, in which the accused pontiff was  defended                    In the  summer  of 1308 the pope ordered a prosecution
by three cardinals, he was adjudged not guilty. To gain this          of the knights wherever they  might  -be found. The charges
point, and to. save  bis, predecessor from formal'condemnation,       set forth were heresy, spitting  upon  the cross,  worshipping an
it is probable Clement had to surrender to Philip  unquali-           idol, Bafomet  - the word for Mohammed in the Provencal
fiedly in the matter of the Knights of the  Temple.                   dialect  - and  also. the most abominable  offences against

                                                                         .


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D  BEARER                                                           4      4         9

   `mora1 decency  such as  sodomy  and, kissing the posterior parts       necessary for the defence of the  Holy Land. Directions were
 -- and the navel of fellow. knights. The members were  also               given for the further procedure. The guilty were to be put
    accused of  having meetings  with  *the  devil  who appeared in        to  .death  ; the innocent  `to be supported  out of  the=-revenues
    the form of a black  cat and of  having carnal intercourse wth        of the order. With this  action  the famous order passed  out
    female  demons. The charges which the lawyers and In-                  of  existente.
  quisitors`got  together numbered 127 and these the pope sent
   .through France and to other countries as the basis of the                  The end of  Jacques  de Molay, the 22nd and last  grand-
    prosecution.                                                           master of the order of Templars, was worthy of its proudest
                                                                           -days. At the first trial  he confessed .to the charges of denying          .
        Under the strain of prolonged torture,  many of the  un-           Christ and spitting  upon the cross, and was condemned, but
    fortunate men gave assent to these charges, and more  particu-         afterwards recalled his confession. His case was reopened
    larly to the denial of Christ and the spitting  upon  the              in 1314. With Geoffrey de Charney, grand-preceptor of
    cross. The Templars seem to have had no  friends in high               Normandy, and others, he was led in front of Notre Dame
   places bold enough to take their part. The king, the pope, the          Cathedral, and sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. Molay
    Dominican  order, the University of Paris, the French  epis-           then stood forth and declared that the charges against the
copacy were against them.  Many confessions  once made by                  order were false, and that he had confessed to  them- under
    the victims were afterwards  `recalled at the stake.  Manp             the strain of torture and instructions from the king. Charney
    denied the charges altogether. In Paris 36 died under torture,         said  the same. The commission promised to reconsider  `the
    54 Suffered there at one burning,  May 10, 1310, and 8 days            case the next day. But the king's vengeance knew no  bot@,,
   later 4 more. Hundreds of  them   perished  in prison. Even             and that  night,  March 11, 1314, the prisoners were burned.
   the bitterest enemies acknowledged that the Templars  who               The story ran that while the flames were doing their  grue-
   were put to  death maintained their innocence to their dying            some work, Molay summoned pope and king to meet him
   breath. At the trial before the  bishop of  Nismes in 1309,             at the juclgment bar within a year. The former died;' in a
   out of 32,  al1 but three denied the charges. At Perpignan,             little more than a  month, of a loathsome disease, though
    1310, the  whole number, 25, denied the charges. At  Cler-             penitent, as it was reported, for his treatment of the order,
 _ ment 40 confessed the order guilty, 28 denied its guilt. With           and  the  king, by accident, while engaged in the  chase,  six
-  Sch antagonistic testimonies it is  difficult, if at  al1 possible,    months later. The  king was only 46 years old at  the  time
   to  decide  the question of guilt or innocence.                         of his death, and 14 years  after, the last of his direct
                                                                           descendants  was in  bis grave  .and the throne pssed to the
    `;. In accordance with Clement's order, trials were had in             house of Valois.
   Germany, Italy,  Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and  England. In
   England, Edward 11 at first refused to apply  the torture,                 As for the possessions of  the order, papa1  decrees turned
   which was never formally adopted in that land, but later, at            them over to the  Knights of St. John, but Philip again
   Clement's  demand,  he complied. Papa1 inquisitors appeared.            intervened and laid claim to 260,000 pounds as a  reimburse-
   Synods in  Londen  and York declared the charges of heresy
   so serious that it would be impossible for the knights to  clear        ment for alleged losses to the Temple and the expense of
   themselves. English houses were disbanded and the members               guarding the prisoners.  .In  Spain,  they passed to the orders
   distributed among the monasteries to do penance. In Italy               of San  Iago di Compostella and Calatrava. In Aragon, they
   and Germany the accused were, for the most part, declared               were in part applied to a  -new order, Santa Maria de  Mon-
   innocent. In  Spain and Portugal, no  evidente  was  forth-             tesia, and in Portugal to the Military Order of Jesus  Chris&
   coming of guilt and the synod of  Tarragona,  1310, and  ether          orde  wtilitac  Jesu  Ch~isti. Repeated demands made by the
   synods favored their innocence.                                         pope  secured  the transmission of a large part of their  pos-
       The last act in these hostile proceedings was opened at             sessions to the  Knights  of St. John. In  England,  in 1323,
   the Council of Vienne, called for the special purpose of  taking        parliament granted their  lands to the Hospitallers, but  the
   action  upon the order. The large majority of the council               king appropriated a  considerable  share to himself.  The
   were in favor of giving it a new trial and a fair  chance to            Temple in London  fel1 to the Earl of  Pembroke,  1313. The
   prove its innocence. But the king was  relentless.  He  re-
   minded Clement that the guilt of the knights had been  suf-             wealth of  .the Templars has been greatly exaggerated. They
   ciently  proved, and insisted that the order be abolshed. He         were not  richer in France than the Hospitallers. Thomas
   appeared in  person at the council, attended by a great  retinde.       Fuller, the English historian, quaintly  says, "Philip would
   Clement was overawed, and by virtue of his apostolic power              never  have taken away the Templars' lives if he might hve
   issued his  decree abolishing the Templars,  March 22, 1.312.           taken away their lands without putting them to death. He
   Clement's reasons were that suspicions existed  that the order          could not get the honey without burning the bees."
   held to heresies and other  offences! that thereafter reputable
   persons would not enter the order, and that it  .was no  longer                                                                      H. V.


450                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER
Il                                                                                   It is cbvious that this decision of the synod, interpreting
               DEGEN3 atid ORDER                                                 Article 36 of the Church Order, deals particularly with the
                                                                                 history of the deposition from office of the Revs. H.  Danhof
                                                                                 and G.  .M. Ophoff, with their  respective  Consistories.  Be-
                     Ecclesiastical  Jurisdiction                                cause this matte?, together  with the adoption of the  well-
       Tlze Classis lzas tlze samte jhhsdiction  over tlze Cons&or~              known "Thee points.  of  Commo.n   Grace"  adopted by the
as tlze Particuhr  Synod laas over tlze Classis and the Gewed                    Synod of 1924, constitutes the occasion of the existente  of The
Synod over  the  Particular."   Article 36, Church Order.                        P'rotestant  Reformed Churches in  America,  it is of  such  im-
                                                                                 portance that it  may never be forgotten by the present or
       "Dit artikel is van  beteekenis,"   write Van Dellen and                  future generations. The Christian Reformed Church  com-
Keegstra  in their "Kerkelijk Handboek."                                         mitted  a gross sin in  ths matter and is responsible to this
       With this the half is not said for the article quoted is not              present day for it as  wel1 as the subsequent evils that  ~have
only significant but it is of the most fundamental  importante.                  developed from it. From this sin we must continue to  cal1
Its  principie  is the groundwork  upon  which  the  structure  of               her to repentance for it is only in the way of true repentance
our  Reforied  ecclesiastical system is erected. The truth                       that the breach between  US  can be healed.
of  ,this principle  strikes  a death-blow  upon  ecclesiastical                     We do not, therefore, consider it redundant to rehearse
anarchism  and ecclesiastical hierarchy. Perhaps it would                        the church politica1 questions of 1924 in our rubric even
not be saying  toe  much if' we  compare  the thought in this                    though these  matters  have been  much spoken of and  written
article to the  mortar  which seals and binds the bricks in a                    about in the past. The present generation  wil1 be rendered
stone wall.  Such is the  importante  of the principle of proper                 an invaluable service through  such a rehearsal and  the  gen-
ecclesiastical jurisdiction.                                                     eration that lived through the history and is  now in the
       However,  we must add one more  thing to this.                            eventide of their earthly pilgrimage  can  also profitably  re-
       Of special,  very special  importante  is this article to  US,            flect  upon these  annals   of. the past.
Th Protestant  Refommtcd   Churches, of  America,   because of                       Before we do so,  however,  there are a few things we
the  historie role it  occupied in connection  ivith the origin of               must  mention in connection with Article 36.
our churches.                                                                        Firstly, the crux of the  whole article centers about  the
       In the "Manual of Church Order" by W. Stuart and G.                       word that in our English redaction is translated  jurisdiction.
Hoeksema  we find this appendage to Article 36.                                  Other terms have been suggested here. The original  Latin
       "In a concrete case,  and in  a.pzsweT-  to  protests   1-eceived         ChUrch Order did not use the word  jurisdictiq,   but  auctovitns,
questioning  tlte  l<glzt to  depose   a  Consistory,  Synod  ,u.plzeld          from the word  auctor,  which signifies an author, founder,
tlzis  r*ght on  tlae  follo@ng  grounds:                                       originator, etc., or an advisor, counselor, promoter, pattern.
       1.  Af,ti&  36 of  OW  Clzurclz  Orde! gives  tlze Classis                Auctoritas   indicates  the right to act, order, rule, advise, or
        jzwisdction   o v e r   tizc  Consistory.                               exhort. Our English word  a:ztthouity  comes close to this idea.
                                                                                 The Dutch has zeggen - `t Zelfde zeggen laeeft de Classe . . .
       2.  Articles  79  a,nd 80 of  tlze  Clzz~clt   Order, and  the
Formula  of  Sahcription   sta.te  p!ainly   tlmt  censu1.e  of  oficc-          enz. This,  toe, is a strong term. Hence,  ethers  have  sug-
 beaTers  slaa.11  Oe  suspension   01' deposition  from,   ofica.               gested in addition to  jl&sdiction  or  azttlzority  that we speak
                                                                        (Acts    in this connection. of  the  rights   or  >ti.peg&sion.
 1926, Art. 104, 1, b, 1 and 2, p. 142)"                                             Secondly, in this same connection it is interesting to note
       From the Acts of the Synod of the Christian Reformed                      that in the Proposed Revision of the Church Order, the
Church, 1926, we quote the following decision:                                   Committee of the Christian Reformed Synod offers the  fol-
       a.) Synod  tlm&s   tlze  PIre-advisovy   Comhttee on  Dc-                 lowing :
          position   of  Comistories   for  its  excdlcnt  wol-k,  and               "Tlae Classis  1Las  tke  sante  contuol  over the  Consistovy  as.
          decides  tlmt  tlae  report be  tnken up in  tlze Acts, (Bij-          tlze  Pauticular  Synod  lms  ozw  the Classis,  a.nd  tlze  General
          lage XVI)                                                              Synod over  tlie Particular Synod."
       b)  17~  con+aection   witlz  tlzis  report.  and in answer to                (We have been informed that the Chr. Ref. Synod of
          @otests rcceived,  Synod ztplzolds Chssis  Grand Rapids                1958 did not adopt this proposed revision as yet but that the
           West in  its  a.ction  of deposing  tlte consistories  af             matter  wil1  come again before later Synods.)
          Ka.lamazoo   a,nd Hope.  G.rounds:                                         Now regardless of what  specific  term is  used here, there
          1.  Articlc 36 of  tlze  Clzzu~cla  Order gives tlae  Classis          are questions that remain and  wil1 have to be  answered  to
          ju.sisdiction  over  tlte  Consistory.                                 arrive at an interpretation of the article. For example,
          2.  Articles 79  a.nd  80 of  the  Clzurclz Order,  a,nd  tlqe         whether  we  use  jurisdictioq   authority,   power,   riglzts,  or
          Formula   of  Sztbsn-iption  stnte  plainly   tlmt  censure  of        control,   it must be determined what is the  nature   .and scope
          office-bearers  shnll be  suspen$on   or  deposition  from.            of that  jzhsdction,   autlzority,   poweq  rights-   or  control.   The
           ofice.                                                                answer to that question  wil1 determine whether we agree or


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A ' R E R                                                          451

take  cxception  to the Christian Reformed position that                    capaciiy to givc  a.dvice.   The Synod and Classis are more
asserts that the Classis has the right to  depose a  con@ory:               than informal' conferences. They are ecclesiastical bodies
We  wil1 have to  inquire  into the problem with  much  c%re,and            that cleliberate and  .clecicle  in the Name of and  upon the
in doing so we  should  not lose sight of the  careful  formula-            authority  of Christ Jesus, the spiritual Head of the Church!
tion of Article 36. That is  very  instructive and gives  US  a                 However,  this jurisdiction must be carefully  distinguished
definite  directive.   Notice  that this article says nothing about         ancl never identified with the jurisdiotion the consistory has
`the  jatrisdiction  of the  Con&tory over the congregation. It             over the congregation. This is evident  from Article 36. The
compares  the relation of Classis to Consistory, Synod to                   consistory,  maintaining the  offices of  elder and deacon as
Classis, and the Genera1 Synod to  *the Particular Synod and                instituted by Christ  Himself, has sole authority to do  al1 that
stressed that in  each  instance this relation is the same but it           Christ has commanded  ; to preach the Word, administer the
does not say  that these relations are synonymous with the                  sacraments,  exercise the power of the keys of the  heavenly
relation of the Consictory to the congregation. It does not                 kingdom,  including and excluding from that  kingdom, etc.
say that the Classis has the  same jurisdiction over the  consis-           Tbe Classis and Synod, on the other hand, derive their
tory as the consistory  .has over the congregation, and the                 jurisdiction  from the mutual agreement of the individual
obvious reason it doesn't do this is  because this is not true.             churches that  comprise  the denomination and, therefore, in
.They are nat the  same. There is  a  very important.  differente           the exercise of their authority  *they  are limited by the act
in the  nasture  of  the  ja&sd,iction and only  when this is seen          of  agreement  to those matters "tha,t ca.nnot  be finished  ,in thc
can we arrive at clarity with respect to the problem. This                  minor  assemblies  os  such  au  pcrtan  to the  churches  of the
point is  very helpful in arriving at the truth of the matter.              major   assemblies in  common.f   (Article 30, D.  IC. 0.)
    In light of  this  .the  literal definition of the  terms   sug-
gested above does not prove to be too helpful.  From  Web-                      We  may, therefore, conclude by noting first of  al1 that no
ster's unabridged dictionary, we quote the pertinent parts                  Classis or Synod has jurisdiction to exercise the key power,
of these definitions :                                                      to  depose  from office and to  excommunicate   from the  Chris-
                                                                            tian Church. To do so is to  violate  the  natztre  a.nd scope of
    1. Authority  :  1.  Legal   powey,-or   a.  right to  covvmmnd   or    their jurisdiction. Secondly, as to the differences between
to act; 2. The power derived  frovr&  opinion,  respect, OY esteem;         the jurisdiction of these assemblies and that of the particular
influence of  chamcter   OY office; 3.  Testivvaonyy,  witness,  01         consistory, we  may  cite the following five points  from "The
the  peuson   who  testifies.                                               Church Orcler Commentary," though  space forbicls  a full
    11.  Jurisdiction  : 1. The  lcgal  power  OY  authopity  of  doing     quotation :
justice in cases of  covmplainf;  the power of  executing the                   1. One is depived,,  the ether is or;iginal  jatrisdiction.
laws  a.nd  disfpibrtting  justice; 2. The power  or right of
exercisi~ng   authority. 3. The district  OY  &mit  within  &iclz               2. Onc is limited., the ether generul.
power  wmy be  en-ewised.                                                       3.  ne is smaller  in measure, the other is higher in de-
    111. Right : To do jmtice to; to relieve  from  wuovtg.                         gree.
    IV. Power  : Ability,  material   or  moral;  force;  ~ivq%tence;           4. One is  ministeuing,  the  otlter is  compelling.
strength;   covmvmnd;  le@  au.thority,.   wa.ruant.                            5. Both are conditional,  ,i.e.,  tinlid  ovdy  if in  agmement
    V.  Control  : To  xef-cise   ruch  an influence over  LIS to                  with the Word of God.
guide,  direci*   vmnage  or  restmin; to have  -&der  covmmnd,
to check.                                                                       It is of further interest to note that the authors of this
                                                                            commentary  apparently  also do  nat. agree with the  action  of
    We stated that these  definltions  are  nat, too helpful.  Any          their Synod in 1926 for  they wrote in connection with this
one of them or  al1 of  .them might conceivably be used  bue                article :
if nothing more be said than this, it is inadequate and  may
even be  misleading  and in some instances positively wrong.                    "The  practic,al   ivv@ort  of  t&is brief  considerution  is  illus-
For example, in the  definition  of these  terms   mention is               trnted by thc decision of the Synod of 1926, which ruled thai
made of  legal  power  a.nd  lega,l  authority.  This is  unquestion-       major  assemblies had the right to depose  a Covzsistory inas-
ably true  when the terms are used in application to  govern-               much as Art. 36 attributed jurisdiction to Cla.sses  over Con-
ment or  offices in the  civil sphere but it is not the case  when          sistories. Now  aaide  f~ovn   the  question whether  or not  a
applied to the major  ecclesiastical assemblies. In the church,
authority  or  juuisdiction   is not juridical or  legal but  rather  it    Classis has the right to depose  a Consistmy,  Synod sho.uld
is always mora1 and spiritual since it has its derivation in                ,not have based ,its decision on the Ztse of the word jurisdic-'
the  In.w of God which is spiritual (Rom. 7  :14).                          tion in  Art. 36,  ,inammrch  m the  me of this  temt is  really  a
    Then it must be evident  that  the Synod and Classis are                msta.ke,  ostt of keeping with the  fmdamentnl   principles  of
vested with  a  spiritual powr  that is  indeed  a  power! These           the Church  Order."
bodies. have  a.zrthority, jurisdiction, etc.  This is more  than  Q,                                                             G.  Vanden Berg


452,.                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

Il                                                                                This sounds  very appealing. You  can understand  how
               A L L   A R O U N D   U S                                -II this sounds to  a young student infatuated with the techniques
                                                                              of science. To  participate  in using science for its  greatest
                                                                              achievement is a  seductive   vision.
               >
Frcc to  Celebuate   Chl-istnms  ,in the  Fsr.t,uye?                              However,  to be scientific you must follow scientific laws,
      ..< Recently  a brother  ,gave me  a printed report issued by and Communism then proceeds to give its three  scientifib
the  Comllittee  on Un-American Activities in which they                     laws. These laws are as follows :
consulted   a certain Dr. F. C. Schwarz,  executive   directer  of                The  first one is "There is no God." They are proudly,
the Christian Anti-Communist  Crusade.  The consultation                      unashamedly atheistic in theory and in  practice.   When  they
 took place in the office of the United States House of  Repre-               cleny God, they simultaneously  deny  every virtue and  every
 sentatives on Wednesday,  May 29, 1957. The report is the                    value that originates with God. They  deny  moral  law. They
 clearest and most vivicl description of the threat of  Com-                  deny absolute standards of truth and righteousness. An
 munisni'we have ever  read. The complete title of the report,                entire  civilized  code of mora1 and ethica1 values is destroyed
      . .
 written   in'large  letters, is :  Wil1 You Be Free To  Celebrate            so that they are free to erect in their place new mora1  ancl
 Christmas In The Future?                                                    ethica1 standards as the occasion  demands.
        The report is too long to quote in its entirety. We quote                 The  second  law.of  Communism  is that man is a  material.
 therefbre  the most important and interesting parts. The                     machine. He is matter in  motion  and nothing more. Man
 reader   wil1 unclerstanci that because the report is  a  consulta-          is  a body, and he is  complctely  describable in terms of the
 tion it appears in question  and answer  farm. The  directer  of             laws of  chemistry  and physics. Man has no soul, no spirit,
 the  Committee on Un-American Activities, Richard Arens,                     no significant individual value, no continuity of life. He is
 does most of the questioning, while Dr. Schwarz  provides                    entirely an evolutionary product, the specie Homo sapiens,
 the answers. We  may add here that Dr. Schwarz,  who has                     and subject  to  modification,  adaptation, and transformation
 offices  both  in Australia ancl Long  Beach,  Calif.., is perhaps           by the applied, established laws of animal husbandry.
 the best  informed individual in the western world on the                        William Z. Foster, chairman of the American Communist
 subject of  Communism.  Here follows  the.report  in brief with-             Party, expresses it in his book,  The Twilight of  WoAd
 out further  comment.                                                        CapWism,   which he wrote in 1949. In the  .last  chapter,
        n'tr. Arens:  May 1 pose this genera1 question to you as  a           "The Advent of the Socialist Man," he  writes:
 point of departure in your consultation with                                     !`Henceforth,  the evolution of  human species must be  clone
                                                        US  atoday :  How
 would you characterize or describe the ideology and morality                 artificially by the conscious  action of man himself." Their
 of  communis111,  and  how, in your  judgment,   can that ideology           second  law, therefore, is the  tiaterial animal  nature   .of man.
 and morality be  countered  or met in this world struggle  ?                     The third  law of  communism  is  economie determinism.
        Dr. Schwarz: The ideology of  communism  is applied                   It states  that the qualities of  human  intelligente,  personality,
 Godless  materialism.  The  problem that perplexes  many  peo-               emotional  and religious life  merely  reflect the  economie  en-
 ple is  the  overwhelming  appeal  ,that  communism  apparently              vironment;  #that in the last analysis what we think, what we
 exercises for the student  mind.                                             feel, what we believe,  whom we love, and  whom we worship
         Mr. Arens : What is the  nature  of that appeal, Doctor?             is simply  an expression of the environment in which we are
                                                                              raised, and' since that environment is .primarily concerned
        .Dr. Schwarz : The  nature of that appeal is  a  promise that         with  ,economic   forces, in the frst analysis, man is  a  deter-
 the student  can  achieve two  things by association with the                mined  economie being.
 Co~nl!lunist  Party. He  can  participate in the conquest of the                 Mr. Arens: 1  can hardly restrain myself at this point
 world and, following the conquest of the  world, he  can then                from posing this question, even at the risk of breaking the
 participate in  a program to change  human  nature,  perfect                 theme :  ff the  Communists  major premise is correct, that you
 human character, ancl populate the entire earth with  a new                  and 1 are not morally responsible, then why would the  Com-
 quality of  personality infinitely superior to  any that history             munists in the same breath turn around and try to assess
 has ever known. The appeal that attracts the young student                   mora1 responsibility against what they describe as the  capi-
 is  almost  a religious  appeal that his life  can be  utilized  for         talists ?
 the regeneration of  al1  mankind.                                               Dr. Schwarz: In the  final  analysis. they do not do that.
         Mr. Arens: Would you  care to elaborate on that theme,               They consider themselves as superior to the capitalist as the
 Doctor  ?                                                                    farmei- is  superior to his animal. Mora1 responsibility is not
        Dr. Schwarz  I  When you ask the Communist  a simple                  involved. They understand capitalist motivation as the  auto-
 question : "How are you going to change  human  natui-e?"                    matic outcome of the capitalist economics. Since the root is
 ,they would answer with one word, and that word is  "science,"               evil the fruit must be so. It is their  duty to destroy the  root.
 "We  are scientists. Science has  changed  the  material world.              and frequently the fruit. The concept of his  moral guilt does
 Science has  changed  the world of  animal   husbandry.   -We  can           not enter into it  any more than  when  a  farmer   destroys   an
 use science to change  human  nature  itself."                               animal giving a positive  tuberculin  reaction.  Yeti do  `nat


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                         453

  consider that animal morally responsible. He belongs to a  cer-        munism by reason of his edcational conditioning. `He  ac-
  tain class which by reason of its association, has developed  a,       cepts   that materialist foundation on which Communist  ideol-
  certain potentially dangerous character, and no matter'  how           ogy and morality is  built. He is recruited in terms of his
  splendid the animal, its destruction is obligatory.                    ideological pride. He is more intelligent than the  average
      Communism rests on a class concept. They believe, the              man, and he sees the opportunity to mold man and  cre'ate
  proletariat class is the progressive class of history and that         history, whereas the dull, brutally driven herd sweeps  .on
  the capitalist classes, the degenerate classes, are discarded          unaware of  ,the  forces that  create. it and drive it forward.
  by history and must be destroyed. To  them  this is the  law           He is one of the elite, the  chosen, and  the  intellectuai  ar&-
  of historica1 development. To argue on a bourgeois mora1               tocracy. In combination with this intellectual pride, the
  basis  merely  reflects degenerate class origin.                       religious  nature of man demands a purpose in life  ; they find
      Economie  determinism is the third  law of communism.              in this  vision- of hunian regeneration a religious refuge for
      Applying these laws, communism  asserts that the  environ-         their Godless hearts . . . .
  ment of capitalism is a degenerative environment and it                    Mr. Arens: Doctor,  with  this- record reflecting your
  creates  degenerate  people. The responsibility for individual         comments  `on the ideology and morality of Communism, we
  evil, for vice and crime, for selfishness and greed in  al1 its        would be  very happy to have you  proceed  to give  US your
 manifestations is not that' of the individual. It is the  pro-          views on  ho,w  the free world  can meet and defeat the ideology
 jection of the capitalist environment into  the individual.             of Communism.
      The Communist believes that if you are going to change                 Dr. Schwarz : The first step  f Communist conquest is the
 the individual, if you are going to change  mankind,  it is             ideolgical  conquest of the student mjnd. That is always  %he
 foolish to think that  $ou  can do it while the degenerative            first step. Our first step should be the immunization of the
 capitalist environment exists. First, you must conquer the              student mind against that conquest by the Communists . . .
 world and,  having conquered the world, you must  -destroy                  The  first thing is to  educate  young people  who believe in
 the capitalist environment which is built on  profit,  selfish-         their God, their country, their family, their Constitution,
 ness, and greed. You must replace  it by  socialism which is            their liberty uncler  law and  who are proud of their heritage.
 built on service,  co-operation,  and unselfishness, so that from       They then  $11 not easily be swayed by Godless,  material-
 birth the experiences of the environment  wil1 build into the           istic concepts . . .
 charactr  unselfishness,  co-operation',  and service, and as              When  we want people of the world to  resist.the Com-
 these children  mature  to  adolescents  and adults everyone            munist idea and to embrace the idea of freedom, we think.
 wil1 work because they love to  werk   ; everyone  wil1 give            that if we give them  material benefits this  wil1 automatically
 because it is better to give than to  receive  ; the  hand of no        come to pass, and  .so  the idea  is to give  economie aid and
 man  wil1 be raised in anger against his brother  ; there  wil1         military assistance in  the expectation that Communism  wil1
 no  longer be  any need for government and government  wil1             lose its appeal and  freedom  wil1 triumph.
 wither  and die. There  wil1 be no need for a  police force  ;              The fouridation is wrong. Materialistic measures do not
 there  wil1 be nothing for  police .to do. There  wil1 be no need       control the  minds and the hearts of the people. This must
 for an income-tax department because everyone  werking,-                be  don in a more direct fashion. We need a scientific  ap-
 according to his natura1 impulses, gives of his best for the            proach  that  wil1 utilize  the  moral,  cultural, and spiritual
 genera1 well-being, and  out of the  `abundance thus created            values in  each of these countries. We need a loving,  friendly,~
 retains only his own personal  needs. Farewell anger, lust              co-operative  spirit and a direct approach to their  minds and
 and greed, envy,  malice and strife,  pestilente  and  war; enter       hearts to mobilize them against communism . . .
 golden, companionable,  co-operative  brotherhood  ; .  mankind                                                         Rev. M. Schipper.
 wil1 live together in the glorious day of Communism that
has dawned on the earth.
     Mr. Arens:  How  .do  you account for the  fact that this
 ideology of communism, which is contrary to  al1 that  you and
 1 as Christians  - and 1 say it  inthe broadest term  - people                                    IN MEMORIAM
 who believe in God and believe in spiritual values,  how do  YOLI          The Mary-Martha Society of the Protestant Reformed Church
 account for the  fact that this force called Communism, evil            of Redlands, California,  hereby expresses its Sincere sympathy with
 as it is, unappealing as it is to those with  any sense in  them        one of its members, Mrs.  Hl  Veldman,  in the  10s~' of  h&  brother,
 of goodness, is  ,sweeping  across the world with a speed  that
 is hitherto  unknown  in the history of the world, that it now                                  BERT VAN DYKEN.
 encompasses about one-third of the population of the world                 May  our Heavenly  Father comfort  and  sustan  the bereaved in
 from a -start of about 50 years ago?  How do you account                their sorrow.
 for  that  ?
     Dr. Schwarz : First,  .the reason is their  recruitment  of the                                           Rev. H..H. Kuiper, President
 student intellectual,  who is  susceptible  to the  appeals  of  &m-                                          Mrs.  H: Sawyer, Secretary

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

            REVELATION BY DREAMS AND  :  _;.                           a.+per   significante in  regard  to the "church. So Pharaoh
                                                                         ;; .- ,'
                             VISiON!%                      "     _     may  .have-`.been  pleased to  discover  a way in which a crisis.
                                                                       within his  kingdom could be prevented, and the Midianite
   -In the June issue of  THE  STANDARD  BEARER   there  ap-           might have trembled in his foreknowledge of the  OU~CO~~
peared  an article under the title "Revelation"  written  by the       of the impending battle ; but, in reality they saw only the
Rev.  Herman  Hanko. As was stated at the  time, it was the            more tempora1 and superficial aspect of the revelation.  To,
first of two articles  treating  the genera1 subject of the revela-    the children of God  much more was revealed. Joseph  un-
tion of God through  means of dreams and visions. If, there-           doubtedly understood that the hand of the Lord was working
fore, one  wishes to  receive full  benefit from this article,  it!    in Canaan and in Egypt, intending the  `evil of famine to
would be  wel1 for him to go back and peruse  once more the werk  for the good of  the promised seed. Gideon saw that
article of Rev. Hanko.                                                 God was working to the salvation of His people before a
       There is, perhaps, no one of'  US  who is not familiar with.    wicked enemy.
the reality of that which is called a dream. Dreaming is a
rather  strange phenomenon of thought and imagination                        Therefore, we  may  wel1 conclude that  such dreams had
which  often takes  place within the hours of our sleep. In  our       ultimate  significante  only for the Church. Special revelation
dreams we are apt to find a  very great variety of thoughts            is always and only through Jesus Christ the Word, and His
and images  passing  before our  minds,  often in  rather  strange     Spirit. It is the Word of God concerning His  promise  and
and confusing relation to  each other. Occasionally,  however,         His people in Christ Jesus.  Such truth  can  be grasped only
                                                            e
we  may have a dream that corresponds so closely to  every-            by the regenerated heart; for "except  a man be born again
day experience that  it  ahnost seems to have been  real. In           he cannot see the  kingdom of  heaven."  Wicked people  may
either case our dreams appear to have little  significante for         seem to grasp certain superficial  aspects of the truth, but
LIS  other than perhaps to point  ,out certain  aspects of life        only' the  elect people of God, as they are  touched by  the
which weigh heavily  upon our  minds.                                  Spirit of truth,  can hear and know with a knowledge that
                                                                       touches the heart.
    There was a day,  however,   when at least certain  dreama
were used for a  much  higher  purpose than this. It was in                  Especially beautiful in this respect are the dreams that
the old dispensation of  sacred history.  `In that day God             were given directly to the people of God. Outstanding  aflong
often used the phenomenon of dreams to make known the                  them are those in which God Himself appeared in the dream
counsel of His  wil1 to His people.  Such dreams took  ,on  .a         to  speak to His  covenant  people. We are reminded of the
more profound and significant pattern than  any which we               beautiful dream that appeared to Jacob on  the road to  Padan-
ever experience.  Often,  to be sure, on  The surface these            aram.  The?e as he slept with stones for pillows, he saw in a
dieams   .appeared  to be as unreal and strange as  any,-for           dream  a stairway built up to heaven with angels  oi God
example, the dreams of Joseph, Pharaoh, and Nebuchadnez- ascending and descending, while the Lord God stood above
zar; yet, underlying them there was a  unity and  significante         it. There in a dream, he heard the  voice of God repeating
of  very great and beautiful proportions. Those dreams were            to him the glorious promises which had been given to his
ciesigned  with a purpose, to reveal the  wil1 of God. That            fathers, Abraham and Isaac, before him. One  can hardly
purpose they served in a  very fitting way.                            imagine the consolation  received  by a lonely traveler  oti
    Striking  among the revelatory dreams of the old  dispen-          hearing  such  w&-ds of truth. Another beautiful  instance of
sation were those that appeared to men that were evidently             dream  was that which was had by Solomon in Gibeon. In
unbelievers  and enemies of the Church. This is especially             1  Kings 3 we  find this dream  recorded  as an intimate spiritual
truc in light of the point established by the article of Rev.          conversation between Solomon and his God. In it Solomon
1-Ianko, "that revelation is only for the  elect." This would          not  only heard the Word of God  directed  to him concerning
seem to be contradicted by the  r&elatory  dreams that  ap-            the, way in which he was to be blessed in his  position  as king
peared to Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and the Midianite prior;            of Israel, but he  also took a  very  active  part.in the  proceed-
to  ,the  attack of Gideon. Surely it would seem that  such are        ings himself. He  spoke giving accurate evaluation of his own
instances  of God's  revelation being made known to men  who           spiritual attitude toward the office, consciously and with
were not  chosen and  elect of God.                                    responsibility. In instances  such as that we find the  revela-
                                                                       tory dream in its most beautiful  for&. The Lord  spele
   Concerning this there are especially two points of which,           directly to the  recipient  of the dream and in turn the  re-
we should take note. 1) These dreams, although  they   were            cipient consciously  received  the Word of God and made
made  known  through the agency of unbelieving men, were               reply to the Lord.  1~ this form  the dream approaches the
nevertheless made known through them to children of God,               vision in  significante.
-that is, to Joseph,  Daniel, and Gideon respectively,  and
furthermore were  recorded  in  Holy  Writ for  the  benefit of             We should note at this point that it is not always  pos-
the  church of  al1 ages. 2) These dreams, although they had a         sible to maintain a  clear and absolute distinction between
direct meaning which was understood by the  world,   also had          dreams and visions. There are different degrees of revela-


                                                                                                     ,?
                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEAtiER                                                       455

 tion in  each, and, although at  times they  may seem  very           Such were  `brought  through the  vision into  very intimate
 clearly distinct, at other  times the  differente  between them       contact with God and His Word.
 is so litttle that they seem  very  much the same. So,  ti&-$jy         ~!l%e"m&t   butstanding   fact about the  vision,  however,  is
 clearly see  a~difference  between the dreams of Joseph  in his       to be found in the depth of the truths that it was used to
 youth and  *the visions that appeared to John on  `Patmos,  but       reveal. A brief perusal of Scripture might surprise some as
 it is not nearly so easy to find a distinction between the            to the frequency with which visions were used. It was by
 dream of Solomon at Gibeon and the visions of Peter at                vision that God appeared to Abraham and revealed to  hirn
 Joppa. We  nd in the prophecy of  Daniel  that the two are          many of the truths concerning the  promise.  God spoke to
 practicall; identified. We .read in the firct two  verses of          Moses  ,through the  vision and revealed to him the  law. It is
 chapter  seven, "In the first year of Belshazzar, king of             not unlikely that the history  recorded  by him in Genesis was
 Babylon,  Daniel  had a dream and visions of his head  upon           also revealed to him in this way. Isaiah and Ezekiel  received
 his bed: then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the              the words of their prophecies through visions, to say nothing
 matters. Daniel spake and said, 1 saw in my  vision by                of the other  .prophets. A study of Paul's writings seems to
 night . . ."                                                          imply that he was instructed through visions during the
                                                                       years that he was in Arabia. John, of course,  received  the
     Nonetheless we  may generally note this  rather  evident          contents. of the book of Revelation through  Visions. Besides.
 distinction between  the  vision and the dream. The  drean!           this,  who  can  tel1 what other  portions of Scripture were not
 took place while  the recipient was in the  state of sleep. God       received  directly from God through the  means of visions?
 revealed His  wil1 to  such a  person by  controllingthe  thoughts    Sufficient  we know to judge that  some,of  the most profound,
and images of the mind which  constituted  the dream. In tha           the most doctrinal, the most heavily weighed, the most sig-
vision, on the other hand,  the recipient was  fully awake  ancl       nificant  portions of Scripture were revealed through this
conscious. The revelation  took place by God opening the               medium of revelation. It would lead 
 eyes and the ears of the  person  to behold spiritual realities.                                              US  to conclude that the
                                                                       vision was the  most exacting  means of revelation through
This  makes of the  vision a  higher  type of revelation than the      which God revealed the truths concerning Himself, fhe
clream. John prefixed  bis record of the visions which  he             promise.,  His people. and Jesus Christ His Son.  By,it He
received on the  Island of  Patmos by saying : "1 was in  ther         spoke to His prophets and  holy men of old that His Word
 Spirit." It was as though the individual was for a  time  re-         might be given to His people.
leased from the limitations of his  human body and allowed
to see spiritual realities and to hear spiritual words which              We should, perhaps, not conclude an article on this sub-
ordinarily the  human eye cannot perceive and the  human               ject without  making at least brief reference to the prophecy
earcannot  discern. That which was seen and heard in  vision           of Joel quoted by Peter on Pentecost, "And it shall  come
was not  merely  subjective  and imaginary, something  withinj         to pass in the last days, saith God, 1  wil1 pour  out my Spirit
his own mind;  rather,  for a  time he was given a spiritual           upon  al1 flesh: and your sons and your  daughters  shall
perception  which transcended the earthly and could  behold            prophesy;  -and your young men shall see visions, and your
that which is spiritual  ancl. heavenly.                               old men shall dream dreams." The question is sure to be
                                                                       raised: what has happened to the phenomena of dreams  and
     In the visions of Scripture those that beheld them were           visions  ? Why are they now  silent?  - But  rather,  should
conscious at the  time of the  fact  ,that they were receivng         not the question be  asked, "Are they  silent?"  We know, of
revelation from God.  Such was  almost  necessarily so  be-            course, that God no  longer speaks to His  people--  directly
cause of the  very  nature  of visions. A  person  receiving  a        through dreams and visions. Revelation in that sense is  silent.
vision was allowed to behold spiritual realities, the  distinc-        But the prophecy of Joel stil1 stands  also in reference to  US,
tiveness of which he could hardly  be unaware. It was  almost          "Your young men shall see visions, and  yo& old  m& shall
as if the division between heaven and earth was  momentarily           dream dreams." We should remember that the essence of
 bridged and the favored  person was allowed to see that which         both dreams and visions was always to be found in the  fact
 ordinarily the  human eye  can never distinguish. Before  such        that God was  making known to His people the truth  con-
glorious revelations the saints  were  struck with the  conscious-     cerning His Christ. We  may not wake in the morning to
 ness of their own unworthiness so as to cry  out as did               say that God spoke to  US  while we slept. We  may not be
 Isaiah, "Woe is me ! for 1 am undone  ; because 1 am a man            c&ght  up  in a trance to look directly into heaven beholding
 of unclean  lips. and 1 dwell in the  midst of a people of  un-       heavenly truths. Yet  the?fact remains that God speaks to  Hisl
 clean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord  OP            people  also now. He pours forth the spirit of prophecy that
 hosts." Hence, the recipient of a  vision was at  al1  times          the truth of Jesus Christ  may be seen and understood, even
 fully conscious and mentally alert. While the dreamer was             more clearly than  it was by the prophets of old. To  re-
 often a passive observer of that which he saw and heard,              phrase the words of Jesus to Nicodemus,  "The  man that  is,
 the  visionary  person  felt  himsdf present and  often took part     bom again surely sees the  kingdom of  heaven."
 in  the proceedings or askecl questions conceming them.                                                            B. Woudenberg.


                                                                          souls. These  six families purchased a home for the minister
                 COI~TRIBUTIONS                                           in November of 1957.  .They make a payment of $30.00 per
                                                                       !I month, so that  iti ten years it  wil1 be paid. This symbolizes
                                                                          their faith in view of the future, we believe.
                     Missionary Notes                                         The Forbes-Isabel churches  contribute  the<  amount  of
   The Dutch have a  prqverb  which  goes as follows:  o&~-                $145.00 in cash toward our  Mission  fund per month, plus
krnd  mna.kt  onbeq&zd.  that is,  "mlknown is  unloved"   !      '        the $30.00 per month for  om- home in  Isabel. And some of
  Such  iS the case  also  when the Home Missionary does                   the brethren have expressed that they  fee1 that possibly they
not keep the  churches  a bit informed about his whereabouts               could do a-bit more. This  means  that to  al1 practica1 extent
and labor. Not that 1  fee1  any particular guilt in this respect.  _ our  Mission  fund  receives enough money from these churches
That 1 did not  write the  last while in  Loveland was  simply             to put two. programs per week on the radio for one year.
because the official  secretaries  of Classis and Synod were               This is a  fact which possibly even  al1 the members of the past
keeping the people informed as to  the status of Loveland.                 Synod were not informed of. The  undersigned  was not  re-
However,  now we are in the Forbes-Isabel district. And, 1                 quested to  speak on his present field of labor. Synod  evi-
believe, our people in our Protestant Reformed. Churches                   dently did not  fee1  any need of thi's.  However,  the  under-
are desirous to hear about our labors and experiences, our                 signed believes that our people are interested. And this
joys and sorrows  also in this field.                                      interest should not wane! For  when interest is on the  down-
                                                                           hill trend, grumbling and criticism  (sometimei  wholly  un-
   We intimated the `last  time that we are  speriding five days           called for and ethically unfair) are on the upgrade! And
in Forbes, N. D., and nine days in  I-sabel,  S. D.,  every two            evil communications corrupt good  mariners   !
weeks. The reason for this arrangement is that these two
churches are approximately  150  miles `apart.  However,  that                 The question  may  wel1 be asked : why do these people
distance is not as far as it might seem to be. With a good                 seek the  feuowship  and church affiliation with the Protestant
car one  can drive this distance in three and one half hours               Reformed Churches? Do they do this because their "bread
without breaking the  speed and traffic  jaws. Ancl the road               is buttered on that  side"? Let  US not be unrealistic. These
is excellent. Forbes lies approximately one hundred and                    brethren need our financial help too. Is that a sin? But what
fifty (150)  miles east from  Isabel  and about thirty  miles              is a  virtu'e, is, that they love the Reformed truth, and  werti
north.                                                                     willing to sever connections with the Eureka Classis  without
                                                                           knozvinyl  whither  to  twr-n  ; whether they  wil1 be  received  by
   In Forbes the congregation  meets in a little white  school-            the Protestant Reformed Churches !
house,  rather  centrally located in the group at that  place.
Generally we have about 16 people in church on Sunday  dur-                    They passed through a "Sturm und Drang" period of
ing the services, although we are happy to report that  the-               transition. Not  al1  hearts were equally brave. But the  pillars
past two Sundays two more families have worshipped with                    in the church stood and others  rallied  about them. And they
                                                                           have no regrets, 1 am sure. They rejoice in the truth.
US, so that our number was  twenty-two.            And the past
Sunday with relatives from Michigan visiting, the number                       Next  time we shall, D.V.,  tel1 you about the meetings
was thirty.                                                                which we conduct here and about the wonderful "field day"
   Herein   Isabel  we have our little home. It is a smal1                urhich these two groups enjoyed together at the Lake Hidden
heuse.  But it has  al1 the modern conveniences that one  finds            Wood Park near Selby, South Dakota. The  latter  was on
in an  average  home here. We have lived here for three                   the fourth of July.
months now; we have a beautiful and  productive garden, the                   May our motto ever be:  ora et  labora!
house is neatly painted and  al1 is  very pleasant here at our                                                                            G:L.
"cottage home." Flowers bloom at the corners. A good
brother  froril Michigan, while here, remarked that it was an
"echt oud-`country'-sche tuin."
                                                                                                     IN MEMORIAM
   Isabel  has its own church. It is a  little church, possibly
a white school-house moved on to the large lot here in                        The Consistory  of the First Protestant Reformed Church expresses
Isabel. Although it is  rather primitive in design, it serves              its sympathy to two of its members, Mr. G. Bylsma and Mr. L. Looy-
                                                                           enga, in the loss of thei? brother and brother-in-law respectively,
and  bas served the purpose for  many years.       In  fact;  Isabel
was a congregation as early as 1919.  Through   many trials                                      MR. GEORGE BYLSMA.
and vicissitudes the congregation  continued to  exist.  It was
especially since 1953 that  Isabel  began  once more to  expe-                May our God abundantly comfort the bereaved by His Word
rience a more  vigor&s  life  under  the sound preaching of afid Spirit and strengthen them in the hope of the saints.
Rev.. H. Mensch. Today  Isabe!  numbers  six families or  26                                                           P. Decker,  Secretary


