     VOLUME  XXXIV                             SEPTEMBER  15, 1958  -  GRAND   RAPIDS,  MICHIGAN                                NUMEER" 21

                                                                                  It is the regeneration of the earth  ; it is the spot  where
             MEiHTATION                                                       God  touched the earth with His  touch of love and  loving-
                                                                              kindness.
                     JERUSALEM! JERUSALEM!                                        That is Jerusalem.
                                                                                                          :`.: *  * *
               "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that  `killest  the prophets;
               and stonest them that are sent unto thee,  how   often             But that poses a problem  too.
               would 1 have  gathered  thy children together, even as a           City of Peace?
               hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye                 We  woulcl be inclinecl to clenominate it the city of rebel-
               would not!"                                   Matt.  23:37     lion.
    Here is a  text which is  oken   used to prove  (?) that                      By far the greatest part of history this Jerusalem rebels
Jesus, at least, wants to save  al1 men that  come under the                  against God, turns away backwards from Jehovah, and wor-
preaching of the Gospel !                                                     ships Baal and Ashteroth, and is consequently destroyed. A
    And they say further : if Jesus wants to save  al1 men, then              careful count  tells  US that this city was  twenty-three   times
God does too.                                                                 sacked, pillaged, and captured.
    Wel&  let                                                                     Jerusalem was the very opposite of its name during very
                     US see.                                                  long periods of history.
    First of al1 we should know who is meant by Jerusalem.                                                    .;
                                                                                  Let US take the period of the fulness of time, for instance.
    1 think  that  al1  my readers  wil1 agree  when, we  define              Some wise men travelled from the East in order to see the
Jerusalem as the city of peace. That is a mere translation of                 King of the Jews. Naturally, they go to Jerusalem. Arriving
t h e   n a m e .                                                             there, they want to see the representatives of Jerusalem.
    Its further significante  must be found'in two things: the                First they are brought to wicked King Herod. And When he
temple and the royal palace.                                                  is at a loss about the heart of history, and knows nothing
    The temple on mount Zon, or Moriah which is one of its                    about the King who should be born there, he, in turn, wants
foothills, is the embodiment of an idea, namely, Covenant                     to see the representatives of that great city Jerusalem. And
communion  with Jehovah. The temple means that God and                        . . . he turns to the chief priests and the scribes of the people!
His people are dwelling together in love and friendship.                      They  were Jerusalem !
    That this is so is plain from the fact that in the Holy of                    And as it was then, so it was during most of the periods
holies God dwelled in .the cloud suspended above the mercy                    of the 2000 years of its history. Most of the  time that city
seat. And God's people dwelled there, first of all, in the bloed              was in the power of reprobate men, scribes, priests, kings!
that was shed and sprinkled on the mercy  set. And, second-                  prophets, pharisees, sadducees, lawyers, etc.
ly, in the  fact that  once  each year the High Priest  entered                   Today, if you want to see the representatives of America,
that  Holy of  holies as the representative of Israel in the                  you h-y to meet Eisenhower, the nine supreme  court justices,
cloud of intense  which symbolized  the prayers of al1 saints.                the members  of congress.
    And the royal palace typified that God was the  Sovereign-                    Jerusalem, through the corruption of its generations,
Friend  of Israel,  who were His servant-friends ancl served                  comes into the power of carnal, sensual, clevilish Israel.
him.in the obedience of love.                                                  Jesus has  described   them in the  .context : they sit in
     And so Jerusalem is the City of Peace.                                   Noses'  seat : listen  and do their  words,. but do not  fellow


    482                                            Tl333   STANDARD   BEARER

   their corrupt example. They take the  chief  rooms,  that is,            In one word: God is exalted through the work of the
   they are a proud lot. They love the salutations : Rabbi ! Rab-        p r o p h e t s .
    bi ! They are a vain lot.                                                That is the same thing as the gathering of God% people.
           Their sins are enumerated by Jesus.                               Now Jesus Christ stands at the  very  pinncle of prophecy.
           And in this enumeration we see clearly that Jerusalem              And even so 1 do not say it quite,correctly.  1 should say :
   has reverted to its yery opposite.                                    Jesus Christ is really the only  Prophet   whom God sent to
           They have an external  show, but deny the substance.          His people of al1 the ages.
           They are full of hypocrisy.                                       He was the prophet  of God who did His work in Adam,
                                                                         Noah, Abraham, David and al1 the Old Testament prophets.
           They trample  under foot God's honor which they should            Attend to the Heidelberger: "We  receive of His  anoint-
   uphold.                                                               ing." That was true  from earliest  times,  and that is true
           They do not  &ter the  kingdom  of heaven, and they           today.
   hinder those who would enter.                                             Through  al1 God's prophets from the beginning of the
           They are full of missionary zeal:  they sent them into al1    world Christ prophesied of God, His glory, honor and, w&ks.
   lands to make proselytes, but  when they have made them                   When  .you boil over of the knowledge of God and must
   proselytes they turn them into children of hell.                      speak of Jehovah,  it is Jesus boiling in you.
           They strain at the gnat but swallow a camel.                      Hence, prophecy was fulfilled by Jesus' advent, His suf-
           They show outward beauty to men, but inwarclly they are       fering, death, resirrection  and exaltation.
   full of filth and uncleanness.                                            And  al1 this coming, suffering, and so forth, was  contained
           In that  light stands the text.                               in just one message  : and that is true prophecy : "This is the
                                                                         message  which we have heard of Him that God is a Light
       The text  clinches  this point. Listen: Jerusalem kills the       and that there is no darkness in Him !"
   prophets of God and stones  them that are sent unto them
   from God !                                                                And that Jesus laid the foundation of Jerusalem the true,
                                                                         the new world, the regeneration of the earth.
           But . . . if one would ask : where can 1 find Jerusalem ?
   You w&ld be sent to the selfsame murderers. You would be                  And  ,that   trtie Jerusalem has  many children, and it is
   introduced  to a solemn assembly  : the Sanheclrin!                   Jesus'  mandate  from the  Father  to  gather them through  al1
                                                                         the ages.
           That is the Jerusalem of Jesus' age.                              And in the final age of the ages this great Prophet  shall
                                  *  *  *  *                             stand in the midst of the great congregation, and in their
                                                                         midst He shall sing praises to God. Psalm 22.
           Well, this Jerusalem stil1 receives  the prophets of God..                               *  *  *  *
           Listen to Jesus: "Wherefore, behold, 1 send unto you
I prophets  !"                                                               Now then, Christ has been hindered in this gathering of
       What is a prophet?                                                the children of Jerusalem wherever He appeared in history,
                                                                         chiefly  when He was on earth.
       The answer,  the usual answer is easy : a prophet  is a man
   that foretells the future. Well, that,belongs to prophecy, but            Nat that this hindering ever kept Him from folcling His
   it is not the most important, essential part of true prophecy.        sheep and lambs to His bosom.
       A prophc$ is a man that speaks relative God.                          Oh no, the very  opposite is true.
           Literally, a prophet  is a man who boils over.                    We  may put it this way: the hindering of the false
                                                                         Jerusalem was an integral part of the gathering. Christ could
           He is so full of the knowledge of God that he must speak      not have gathered them if there had not been this hindering
   or burst asunder.                                                     by the false prophets.
           What is the reason for their sending?                             Here is the classic example: the' hindering Jerusalem
       God wants praise and adoration. And when it is lacking,           crucified  the great gathering Christ, and  10 and behold, it
   He sends prophets to His people who instruct, teach,  lead the        is exactly through this Cross that the children of Jerusalem
   people of God Godward with outspread hands in song and                go to heaven!
   speech and life, always telling Jehovah how wonderful and                 Do you not see that Jerusalem of my text, and the chil-
   good He is.                                                           dren whom Jesus would gather  as a hen gathereth her chick-
           That's why yo have prophets sent to you.                     ens under her wings are  two?


                                                      THE  STANDARD   REARER                                                                                                               483

          Jesus' werk was to gather  the children of Jerusalem, and
they are the  elect of God. And  when He set about to do                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
this work of ingathering He found the Pharisees, scribes,                           Semi-mo&hlg,   except  monthly  during   June,   July and  August
elders and lawyers in  His way.  They  would not!                                     Publis'hed  by  the  REFORMED   FREE  PUBLISHING  ASSOCIATION
                                                                                    P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
               The builders always rejected the great Stone of the                                        Editor  - REV.  HEXMAN -HOEKSET&
corner upon which the whole city and temple  is built.                              Communications relative to  contents   should be addressed to
                                                                                                  Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E.,
               It was that way in Jerusalem and Galilee while Jesus                                                 Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
walked  upon the earth. Wherever you  saw Jesus spreading                           Al1 matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
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               0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that  killest the prophets!             ceived it is assumed that the subscriber wishes  the subscription
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Yes, and thou that ultimately  killed the great Prophet!                                                   Subscription  price: $5.00 per year
                                     %  * *  *                                       Entered as  Second   Class  matter at Grand  Rap&, Michigan
               But  the children are nevertheless gathered.
               They were  in  Jesus' day. Witness the 11 disciples, the                                                 C O N T E N T S
Marys, the Marthas, the Lazaruses, the Zacheriahs, the                           MEDITATION-
Bartimaeuses,  the shepherds, and the ethers.                                             Jerusalem1 Jerusalem! .  .__.. . . . . . . . . . . . .  _.. .  ..481
               And so it is today and every  day.                                                Rev. G. Vos
                                                                                 EDITOIUALS-
               The hindering goes on also today.                                          The Declaration of Principles _.                            _.        _.       _.       _. ,484
               Even as Paul said : we are stil1 killed  al1 the day long                         Rev. H.  Hoeksema
and accounted as sheep  for the slaughter. They  stil1 hate the                  As To  BOOKS  -
prophets that speak TRUTH  OFOGOD.                                                        Faith and Perseverance by G. C. Berkouwer . . . . . . ..__.__._........  485
                                                                                          The greatest of these is Love by A. A. Van Ruler  . . . . ..___..____  486
               But the children are gathered.                                             Pastorale Adviezen  (Pastoral.Advices)  by C. H. Spurgeon 486
                                                                                          Tact en Contact (Tact and Contact) by Rev. P.  Overduin 486
               Jesus is stil1  calling,  is  calling  with great sweetness of             The Deeper Faith by Rev. Gordon Girod. . . . . . .  ,486
speech.                                                                                          Rev. H.  Hoeksema
               The children of Jerusalem listen to the silvery speech of         OUR  DOCTRINE-
                                                                                          The Book of Revelation . . . .  ". . .  .._ . ..487
Jesus.                                                                                           Rev. H..  Hoeksema
               And hearing they follow Him.                                      SPECIAL  hTICLE-
               And go Home to God ! Amen.                                                 Transcript of  Address  and Question Hour  (continued)........489
                                                                                                 Rev. H.  Hoeksema
                                                                        G.V.     FROM  HOLY  Wwr  -
                                                                                          Exposition of Matthew 24 and 25 ( 6 ) . 491
               Sunday School Teachers' Mass Meeting                                               Rev. G. Lubbers
                                                                                 IN  HIS  FEAR  -
               Teachers and friends are reminded of the Mass Meeting                      Jehovah, the God of Arithmetic  _.........................: .  .._.._..._ 493
to be held Thursday evening, September 18, at 8 P.M. at                                          Rev. J. A. Heys
Adams  St. School assembly room.
               Host church has aranged a  nice program. Rev. J. M                CONTENDING  FOR  THE FAITH-
                                                                           C              The Church and the Sacraments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Collum  wil1 be guest speaker, whose speech  wil1 pertain to                                      Rev. H.  Veldman
every  teacher's church and Sunday School.                                       THE  VOICIE   OF  OUR  FATEJZRS   -
                               The Sunday School Teachers' Association                    The Canons of Dordrecht .___..........................~................:  . . . . . . 497
                                                                                                  Rev. H. C.  Hoeksema

               THE  C H U R C H   O F   T H E   L I V I N G   G O D              ALL  AROUNJI   US  -
                                                                                          .Report  of Conferences  with De Wolf Group .  .._  .___.__   ..____..___  499
                          .Within  Thy temple, Lord,                                              Rev. M. Schipper
                            We think on  mercies  past;
                          Let earth  al1 praise  accord,                         CONTRIRUTIONS  -
                                                                                          Missionary Notes ____ .,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
                            Long as Thy Name shall last;                                          Rev. G. Lubbers
T. :: -_' :               The righteous judgments of her King                    INDEX ___,  ____.  __.  ,...  ._.  .__ ___  _. .  .._._  __,  _.~  ._._.  . . . . . .  .._ . 502
     :
 -I >`,`...
     -S!-L                Let Zion and her daughters sing.


 4s4                                          THE  STANDARD   BIE'ARER

                                                                         wil1 not and cannot  wil1 to  come unto God. He is  dead in
              E D I T O R I A L S                                        trespasses and sins. He hates God and wil1 not be converted.
                                                                         Hence, a conditional gospel is an impossible  one. And that
                                                                         the Canons do not mean this is evident from Art. 10 of the
              The Declkration of Principles                              same chapter where  we read : "But  that others who .+-e called
    ?Ve must  remember   that  the Declaration of Principles             by the gospel, obey the call, and are converted, is not to be
 emphasizes the absolute sovereignty and unconditionality of             ascribed to the proper exercise of free  will, whereby one
 the promise  of God unto salvation. It states that "the promise         distinguishes  himself  above others, equally furnished  wit11
 of the.gospel is not a gracieus offer on the part of God to al1         grace`  sufficient  for faith and conversions, as the proud heresy
 men, nor a conditional offer to al1 that are bom in the his-            of Pelagius  maintains;  but it must be wholly ascribed to
 torical dispensation of the  covenant,  that is to  al1 that are        God, who as he has chosen  his ,own from eternity in Christ,
 baptized, but an oath of ,God that He wil1 infallibiy lead al1          so he confers upon them faith and repentance, rescues them
 the elect tinto salvation and eternal glory through faith."             from the power of darkness, and translates them into the
 In this connection we were  di$ussing the Canons of                     kingdom  of his own Son,  that they  may show forth the
 Dordrecht and, the last time, particularly chapter 111, IV of           praises of him, who hath called them out of darkness into his
 that part of our Confessions.                                           marvellous  light, and  may glory not in themselves, but in
    In this chapter there is one article to which we must cal1           the Lord according to the  testimony of the apostles in various
 more special attention. 1 am referring to art. S. This article,         places."
 in the version of it we have in our psalter, reads as fellows  :            What does this mean ?
    "As  many as are called by the gospel, are unfeignedly
 called. For God hath  most earnestly and truly declared in                  It means that salvation is al1 of God.
 His Word, what  wil1 be acceptable to  him,  namely,  that  al1             It means, too, the even under the preaching of the gospel
 who are called, should comply with the invitation. He, more-            He saves only His own and no one else.
 over, promises eternal life and rest to as many as shall come               And it certainly means that we may not ever present the
 to him, and believe on him."                                            gospel as conditional, so that it depends upon the wil1 of man
    We  remark:                                                          whet.her  or not he wil1 be saved.
    1. That this article refers to the  external   cal1 of  the              This is stil1 more empbatically  asserted  in Art. 11 of the
 gospel. Even this external  calling  does by no means come to           same chapter of the Canons.
 al1 men, b'ut'to comparatively few. In the old dispensation it              For in that article it is emphasized that the  external
 was for a long  time limited to the  nation  of Israel. In the          preaching of the gospel is by no means sufficient  unto salva-
 new dispensation the preaching of the gospel is, indeed, uni-           tion, but that it requires nothing less than the sovereign and
 versal: the church is commanded to preach the gospel to al1             efficacious grace of God to bring a man to conversion.
 nations. But, in the first  place, it is in the  nature of the             3. That the translation of this article 8 of Canons  111,
 case that it takes a long time before this is realized and, in          IV as we have it in our psalter is not  very correct:  .the
the  meantime,   many perish without ever  having  heard the             clause "should  comply with the invitation" should  read:
 gospel. And, secondly, even this outward preaching of the               "should come unto him." It is true that even  S,chaff favors
 gospel  fellows  the line of God's counsel, according to Canons,        the translation  "should comply with the invitation."   Never-
 11,`5 : the gospel must be preached to  al1 men promiscuously           theless, this is incorrect. The  Latin  has  <`ut  vocati ad se
 but then "to whom God in his good pleasure sends the gos-               veniant," i.e., "That the called should come unto him," ancl
pel." This implies  that the positive purpose of the preaching           this is also the Dutch rendering: "dat de geroepenen tot hem
 of the gospel is the salvation of the elect while the rest are          komen." This may not seem very important but it is, never-
 hardened.                                                               theless, a serious error. The gospel is not a mere invitation
    2. That this  external   cal1 of the gospel is  serieus  for  al1    but it is a  cal1 of  Gocl. An invitation is  merely a  message
 that hear the gospel. It is unfeigned. The  ground,  for this           requesting or  asking   someone  to do something.  Qne is at
assertion, according to the asticle, is that God earnestly de-           liberty either to accept or to reject it. If  he rejects it, there
clares  in His Word  that it is acceptable to Him that the               can be no penalty imposed on him. But the gospel iS  tiot a
called should  come unto  Him. In other words, no one has                mere invitation but a cal1 of God. This may not be rejected.
the right before God to refuse to  come to Him and remain                It is a sovereign and unconditional  call. It is true that the
 unconverted. This the gospel declares to all, elect and  rep-           sinner, by  nature,  always rejects  this  call.  But a heavy
robate alike. This,  however?  does not imply that we  may               penalty, the penalty of greater  damnation,   wil1 be  imposed
 ever preach a conditional- gospel, as is so often heard over            upon  him if he does not  obey the  call.  Hence, the error in
the radio in our land. We may never  preach  that God  wil1              the translation of this article is rather  important.
 save the sinner on  condition  that he  wil1  come to God. If              4. The close of this article speaks of the promise,  and as
 we do, we preach an  impossible  salvation.  Fact is  that  no          we emphasize  in the Declaration of Principles, this promise
 sinner is  `able to fulfill  such a  condition.  He cannot  and,        is nat a conditional, offer, but an unconditional oath of God


                                            TIiE  S.YtANDARD   BEARER                                                                4%
                                     _
assuring those that believe in Christ of everlasting life. Nor              "Thus,  it is not in  consequente  of their own  merits, or
is this different in this article of the Canons. It  sta& that        styer@h,  hut of God's free  mercy,  that they do not totally
God "seriously promises eternal life and rest, to as many as          fall- fTom faith and grace, nor continue and perish finally in
shall come to him, and believe` on him."  Those that coine to         their backslidings ; which with respect to themselves, is not
him and believe on him are. those that, according to art. `only possible, but would undoubtedly happen  ; but with
                                                                      respect to God it is utterly impossible, since his counsel can-
11 of this chapter, are not only called externally by the             not be  changed,  nor his  promise fail, neither  can the  cal1
gospel, but are also internally called by the efficacy of the         according  to his purpose be revoked, nor the  merit,   inter-
Holy Spirit. They are, according to the same article, those           cession,  and preservation of Christ be rendered ineffectual,
whom God has chosen  from al1 eternity. Hence, to them the            nor the sealing of the Holy Spirit be frustrated or obliterated."
promise  of God is sure and unconditional.                                  N
   This, then, is the meaning of art. 8 of Canons 111, IV.                    O, God's promise can never fail!
                                                                            And why not?
   The last chapter of the  Cano.ns speaks of the  preserva-                Because of the faittifulness  and strength of the believers ?
tion and perseverance of the saints.                                  God forbid! In their own strength they would undoubtedly
 It  emphasizes  preservation  rather than perseverance as            fa11 from faith and grace and fail to inherit the promise.  But
we might  expect of the Canons. Preservation is the work of           it is only because the promise and its realization is wholly
God, perseverapce  is the calling  and work of man. But they          of God and, therefore, unconditional.
do not stand next to  each other in coordinate relation. On                 The assurance of this sure and faithful  promise of Go<,
the contrary,  perseverance follows preservation, the former          which is also wrought by God in the hearts of the believers,
is the fruit of the latter, the latter is the cause of the former.    is the only comfort of the children of God. And of this sure
Without preservation man, the  child of  .God, could never            and solid comfort those that proclaim  a conditional promise
persevere.                                                            would deprive  theti. This is expressed in art. 10 of the
   This is expressed in the Canons. In art. 3 we read: "By            same chapter of the Canons :
reason of these remains of indwelling sin, and the temptations              "This assurance, however,  is not produced  by any peculiar
of sin and of the world, these.  who are converted could not          revelation contrary to, or independent of the Word of God ;
persevere in a  state of  grace,  if left to their own strength.      but springs from faith in God's promises, which he has most
But God is faithful, who  having  conferred grace,  mercifully        abundantly revealed in his Word for our comfort; from the
confirms and pqwerfully pi-eserves  them therein, even to the         testiniony of the Holy Spirit, witnessing with our spirit that
end.".                                                                we are children and heirs of God, Rom.  ,S  :16  ; and  lastly,
   From this it ought to be clear, too,  what is the relation         from a serious and holy desire  to preserve a good conscience,
between this preservation and perseverance, on the one hand,          and  to, perform good works. And if the elect of God were
and the unconditional promise  of God on the other.                   deprived of this solid comfort, that they shall finally  obtain.
   Preservation is that work of God whereby He faithfully,            the victory, and of this infallible pledge or earnest of eternal
sovereignly, and unconditionally, realizes and confirms His           glory, they would be of al1 men the most miserable."
promise to the elect even to the end.                                       Thus it is indeed.
   God does not say to His people that He  wil1 preserve                    Of this solid comfort those that  proclaim  a conditional
them unto the end on condition  that they wil1 be faithful and        promise would deprive the believers.
fight the battle to the end, or on  condition  that they  wil1              In conclusion, we may stil1 ask and answer the question
persevere. That would be the conditional  promise of God.             whether  this emphasis on the unconditional  promise does not
But  such a  promise  would be impossible, for the  simple            make men careless and profane.
reason that believers could never remain in a state of grace                But this must wait til1 next time, D.V.
if they were left to themselves or if they had to be first, if                                                                     H.H.
they would have to fulfill the condition  of perseverance before
Gocl  wbuld  preserve them.
   But God is faithful!                                               ll                  AS, TO BOOKS
   And God is first, always first in the.whole werk of salva-
tion. Conditional theology in  any form  denies exactly this.
It always  makes  man first and God  second, it  makes  God                 Faith a.nd Persevepnce, by G. C. Berkouwer ;, translated
clependent  on man.                                                   from the Dutch, py Robert D. Knudsen. Published by Wm.
   This is the  principal  reason why we  emphasize  that the         B.  Eerdmans   :Publishing  Company.  Price $4.00.
promise  of God is unconditional.                                           This is a very good book written by the well-known pro-
   The  fa& that God's preservation of His people is the              fessor of  S&tematic Theology in the Free University of
continued  realization of His faithful and unconditional  prom-       Amsterdatii.  On the  whole it is  written in sufficiently clear
ise is also beautifully expressed in art. S of Can&  V which          language  and sfyle so that not only theologians hut  also
we here quote :                                                       `laymen   who are interested in  doctrinal-works  of this  nature


486                                          THE  STANDARD   BEARER

may  wel1 be able to study it. This is, no doubt, partly due           of a  sermon,  the use of the  voice,  etc. The book presents
to the  nature of the subject: Faith and Perseverance. To              very interesting reading. When once you start reading you
this subject eight  chapters  are devoted. There is an  in-            can harclly quit til1 you have finished it.
troductory chapter on the  importante  and  timeliness  of the             Of course, this does not  mean that 1 would agree with
subject. Then follows a chapter on the question of persever-           every part of the contents of the book. To my mind, for in-'
ante and faith in the Confessions, and this is followed by a           stance, he  overe.mphasizes  the so-called  internal  calling  of
cliscussion about three  controversies,  the  controversy  with        anyone  to the ministry of the Word at the expense of. the
the Armiaians, that wi-th Rome, and that with the Lutherans.           external  calling  by the church, which is most important. But
After that the subject itself is treated. The professor  dis-          this does not detract from the value of the book.
cusses perseverance in relation to prayer, to admonition, to               Heartily recommended.
temptation;  he points  to the comfort of this doctrine,  and                                                                      H.H.
closes  with a chapter on the reality of perseverance.
    This brief review of the contents must suffice.                        Tact en Contact  (Tact and Contact), by the Rev. P.
    I heartily recommend  this book to our readers.                    Overduin. Published by J. H. Kok, Kampen, the Netherlancls.
                                                              H.H.      Also this book 1 gladly recommend to the reader  who is
                                                                       able to  read the Holland language. It is a treatise on the
    The Greatest of these is Love, by A. A. Van Ruler  ; trans-        work of  Evangelism. In a preface the author  writes  (1
lated  by Lewis B.  Smedes   from the Dutch. Published by              translate) : "With al1 kinds of different people the minister
1Ym. B.  Eerdmans  Publishing Co.  Price $2.00.                        comes into contact, with farmers and people in the city, with
    This book contains a series of expositions or meditations          people  out of work and  rich business-men, with imbeciles
on 1 Cor. 13, the well-known chapter on love. On the inside            and intellectuals, with non-social people and neat citizens,
of the cover of this book we read that this book is a "beauti-         with artists and officials, with rich and poer, people of dif-
ful and illuminating essay on Paul's classic hymn of love."            ferent  descent,  heritage, circumstances, character and  con-
With this 1 can hardly agree. That it is beautiful in a way            victions. And Jesus Christ  came for  al1 these sorts of
1 may admit, although clarity is, to my mind essential to beau-        people. He seeks behind  al1 these differences : man,  the
ty. And many passages of the book are, to my mind, not clear           sinner, God's creture. The question is  how to get contact.
but dark. 1 wil1 quote just one passage to show what 1 mean.           Tact signifies to touch, not to  collide,  nor to float alongsicle
On p. 62 we find the following : "When  truth is obeyed, God           of each other, or simply to pass each other."
and man find each other. It is then that man acquires a taste              Now this book is designed to teach  how to exercise tact
for  God's will. And it is then that God looks with great              in order that contact  may be established in the work of
pleasure on men. The medium for this is the world. God                 Evangelism, which, according to the author is  very  often
wants more than a  human soul. He wants the world. It is               lacking.  for various reasons.
His world ; it is the truth. And God wants men to experience
true reality. Therefore man  can never  come to God  merely               Also in respect to this book 1 must remark that 1 cannot
by  himself.  He must  come with  the. world. He  bas to  ex-          agree with everything. Thus 1 would criticise what the au-
perience  God's great and beautiful world,  making  his  ex-           thor writes  on pp. 59, 60; 73-75 ; 77-78, etc. 1 doubt whether
perience a service of praise to God whose world it is. Only            al1 this is the correct, the Christian way of getting contact.
then is he a full participant of redemption. Only then does               Nevertheless, 1 heartily recommend this book.         H.H:
he come into the Kingdom of God."
    1 profess that the thoughts  of the writer are strange to             Tke Deeper Fa&, by the Rev. Gordon Girod ; publishecl
me. Nevertheless, 1 wish to recommend this book  ,to the               by  Reformed  Publications, 1819 Nwton Ave., Grand  Ra-
reader because of the many worthwhile passages in it.                  pids,  Mich.   Price $2.50.
                                                             H.H.         This is a book  after   om own heart. It is an exposition
   Pastorale  Adtiezmz  (Pastoral  Advices)  by C. H.  Spur-           of the Canons of Dordrecht in the light of Scripture.
geon;  translated from the English by the Rev. \V. De Graaf.              Let me just give you a taste of the contents of this book.
Published by J. H. Kok, N.V., Kampen, the Netherlands.                 On the fifth head of doctrine,  that of the Perseverance of
   This is a translation of part of Spurgeon's lectures to             the Saints, the author  writes  in a few introductory sentences :
his students.  It is, to my mind, a book of great value which          "It is not the perseverance of man but the perseverance of
every  minister ought to have in his book case, ahd which even         God which is assured  US in the Scriptures. It is  nat the
common  members,  in as far as they are able to  read `the             faithfulness of man which is assured but the faithfulness of
Holland language,  may  wel1  enjoy  reading. The book  con-           God. It is not the changelessness of man which is assurecl,
tains what may be called homiletica1 lectures in very popular          but the changelessness of God.`:
style. It treats  such  subjects  as the  calling  to the ministry,       But you better read the book. It is thoroughly Scriptural
the choice of a text, the preparation of ancl for the preaching        and Reformed.                                               H.H:


                                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               487

                                                                            Coming now to the discussion of the passage we quotecl
          O U R   D O C T R I N E                                   11 above, it is not difficult to see that the first four trumpets,
                                                                         even as was the case with the first four seals, form one
                                                                         group and  `belang together. The first four seals, we saw,
           THE  BOOK OF REVELATION                                       were  very clearly distinguished from the last three  especi-
                                                                         ally by the fact that they al1 came with the figure of the four
                            PART  TW6                                    horses.  The same is true of the first four trumpets. There
                            C                                            can be no doubt about it that they form a distinct group. This
                                 H A P T E R   V                         is  clear, in the first  place, from their  very  contents.  As we
                                                                         hope to see more clearly presently, they  al1 refer to the
                        Revelation 8 :7-12                               visible universe, and that too, to the world outside of man, -
                                                                         to creation, to nature,  - though it stands to reason that man,
            7. The  Erst  angel sounded, and there followed  hail        standing in close  touch with this visible universe, is  also
            and  Ere  mingled with blood, and they were  tast  upon      affected.  But in the second  place, that these first four trum-
            the earth: and the third part of trees was bumt up, and      pets form a separate, distinct group is  also plain from the
            al1 green grass was burnt up.                                fact that in the text they are separated from the last three by
            8. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a
            great mountain burning with  fue was  tast into the sea:     the outcry of the eagle in mid-heaven, announcing a three-
            and the third part of the sea became blood;                  fold woe  upon the inhabitants of the earth because of the
            ,9. And the third part of the  creatures  which were in      three trumpets that are stil1 to be sounded. Hence,  also in
            the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the       regard  to the trumpets it is to be noted that there is a divi-
            ships were destroyed.                                        sion into four and three. This division and distinction is un-
            10. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a            doubtedly intentional, plainly indicating that the number
            great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and       seven does symbolize the union between the world and God,
            it fell  upon the third part of the rivers, and  upon the    between the human and the divine, - if you please, the cov-
            fountains of waters;                                         enant relationship between God and His people.
            11. And the name of the star is called  Wormwood:'
            and the third part of the waters became wormwood;               We wil1 readily admit that the interpretation of the trum-
            and  many men died of the waters, because they were          pets in the Book of Revelation is very  difficult. That this is
            made bitter.                                                 true is not because the text itself is difficult to read, that there
            12. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part         are  many dark sayings in it : for that is not the case. If we
            of the sun was smitten, and  the third part of the moon,     had nothing else to do than merely  to explain the words of
            and the third part of the stars;  so as the third part of
            them was darkened, and  the day shone not for a third        the text, it would be  rather easy. Little explanation would
            part of it, and the night likewise.                          then  indeed be required. But that is not the purpose of
                                                                         the Book of Revelation, nor of our interpretation of  the
   The seventh seal, so we found, is revealed as seven                   book. We must not.  merely  try to understand the text as,
trumpets.  The first four of these  trumpets we wish to  dis-            such, but we  also must try to learn the historica1 reality
CLISS  in the present chapter.                                           represented by and referred to in the text.  If- we do  nat
   We must remember and bear constantly in mind that we                  attempt  to do this, the book does  nat become  real  to, the.
are discussing the last of the seven seals. Because this seventh         church of Christ, and  can offer little or no consolation. Yet
seal reveals itself as seven trumpets,  we are apt to lose sight         this is evidently the  chief  purpose of the book. Two  ques-
of the fact that  after  al1 we are discussing the seven seals.          tions, therefore,. must always be before our minds when we
And it is necessary that we bear this in mind for a correct              interpret the Book of Revelation, namely : first, what is the
understanding of the entire book. The whole history of this              literal  meaning  of the text? And secondly,  where  do 1 fincl
dispensation is implied in these seven seals. But the seventh            the things that are thus revealed in the history of our present
seal is divided into seven trumpets, while the seventh                   dispensation ?
trumpet is again divided into the seven vials of wrath. We                   To find the answer to these questions it may be  wel1 to
must also remember that the relation between the seals and               limit from the outset the sphere of our investigation by first
the trumpets is not to be conceived of as strictly successive,           of  al1 discarding the results of  many  allegorical  interpreta-
but rather as contemporaneous, while we bear this in mind,               tions  also in connection with the first four trumpets. You
however,  that the judgments and the  forces that are thus               understand that the question is : must we conceive of the facts
represented by the seals and the trumpets become more em-                mentioned  in the text quoted above as real,  or symbolical, or
phatic and more severe as the time draws near for the com-               allegorical ? Does the earth  mean the earth, or something
ing of the Lord Jesus, and that they finally assume the char-            else ? Do hail and fire mean hail and fire literally, or do they
acter of clear  signs, to be witnessed by al1 that live upon the         represent something spiritual ? Do the sun and moon and
earth.                                                                   stars that are mentioned in the text  mean the heavenly


488                                           THE  S-TANDARD   B:EARE.R

luminaries,  or do they represent realities in the spiritual           that the church could never understand its real  meaning.
world ? Those that prefer the allegorical method of  inter-                   We cannot accept this mode of interpretation. We  be-
pretation apply this method throughout. For instance, this             lieve that whenever the text is to be taken in the symbolical,
allegorical method  comes to the conclusion that  the first            or allegorical, sense of the Gord, the context or even the very
trumpet reveals  upheavals  either in the church or in the             contents of the  verses  will. plainly  indicate this.  When,  for
Roman empire. According  as interpreters adhere  to the one instance, John is said to  swallow  a book,.it is evident in it-
or to the. other  exilanation, they  make of the hail and fire         self that this is not reality,  but symbolism. But in this  con-
erroneous teachings,  while the trees that are hurt by them            nection there is absolutely nothing that  compels  US to  such
are preachers and.teachers in the church and the grass rep-            an interpretation.  It is true that there are  portions in the
resents the  common Christians, or they interpret that the             text that may be taken in the symbolical sense. There is one
earth represents the Roman empire, and the hail and fire part in which John himself plainly indicates  that it cannot be
destructive  forces of  ,enemies  that destroyed a third part of       taken in the literal sense, namely, when he says that a burn-
that empire immediately  after Constantine the Great.  Ac-             ing mass, as it were a great mountain, fel1 from heaven. But
cording to the  same  .method  of interpretation, the burning this gives US no reason to depart  so radically from its literal
mass that falls into .the -%ea according to the second trumpet
                 .,,.  "..                                             interpretation as to spiritualize and allegorize everything.
is allegorized into the devil, :raging with fury because of the        There is nothing strange in hail and fire falling from heaven,
progress of the church.and the kingdom  of God in the world.           nor in the disturbance  caused by the  mass from heaven in
Or again, the  whole is referred to great  naval exploits and          the sea, or in the  poisoning of the waters, or `the partial
battles  at the time when the Vandals devastated Rome. The             darkening of the heavenly bodies, sun, moon, and stars. In
star falling from heaven, that is  mentioned  in connection            fact, the text is piainly in favor of the literal interpretation.
with the third trumpet, represents either heretics, apostatized For you wil1  notice that by these four trumpets the  whole
from the church and poisoning the fountains of the truth and physical universe  is involved, - the earth, and the sea, and
thereby  killing   many spiritually  ; or again, it is made the        the rivers, and the heavens,  - thus presenting one whole,
symbol of Attila, the Hun, invading the Roman Empire. The              which  can never be obtained by  any allegorical  interpreta-
darkening of the sun and the moon and the stars, mentioned             tion. Even as the first four  seals refer to  every  sphere of
in connection with the fourth trumpet, is very readily spirit-         human activity and relationship in the present dispensation,
ualized into the` apostasy of the false teachers and the               so the four trumpets evidently refer to every  sphere of the
preachers of the church. Or again, by those that think of the          visible universe, together constituting the  whole of  the. world,
Roman empire, it is made to refer to the rulers whose glory            as is also indicated by the number fo,z$r,  In the second place,
was  eclipsed  at the  time of its downfall.  Such are a  -few         the allegorical interpretation gives no satisfaction. It is con- '
examples  of the interpretations that have been  offered by            ducive to al1 kinds of arbitrary questions, demanding  just as
these  that are of the opinion that they must always  spirit-          arbitrary an answer. And the result is  that  after  al1 is said,
ualize, that the allegorical method must be applied to the             you are not sure whether you have  attained  to the right
Book of Revelation. It  would seem, then; that the, Book of            interpretation or not.
Revelation was purposely written in such unintelligible form                                                                              H.H.


                                                           NOTICE OF



                                    REFORMED  FRE~i.PUBLISHING   ASSOCIATION
                                                          - j_..'
                      To be held Thursday Evenitig,  September-25, 8:00 o'clock
                                      . . . at First Prot. Ref. Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan

                      SPEAKER: The Rev. H. C. Hoeksema  of South Holland, Illinois
                      The Board of the R.F.P.A. invites  all our Prot. Ref. men to  join with  US in this
                               work of witnessing for the truth and urges  all our members  to">attend                          "
                                                       this important  eeetitg.                                                     - c
                              Selection of three new board members is to be  n&de from the  full&&&                                  .
                                                              nomina'aion:       . . . 3             ' ,: ._ "  >
                                        Messrs. R. Bloem, D. Engelsma, C. Kregel; 6. Kuiper,"
                                                    H.  Vander Wal, H. Veldhouse.


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 489

         TRANSCRIPT OF  ADDRESS  AND                                 You say, perhaps :  that  limits that statement? It does not.
                    QUESTION  HOUR .                                 It does not limit the statement as far as God's  promise  is
 held under the Auspices of the Committee for Protesiant             conci-ned.  God promises that everyone of you . . . that is
          Reformecl   Action, Hull, Iowa,  J~lly, 1954               the genera1 promise . . . if you believe. 1 say again : if the
                                                                     Rev. De Wolf had said, "1 proclaim  that if you believe, you
                 Speaker : Rev. H. Hoeksema                          shall be saved,"  that's something else, something entirely dif-
                                                                     ferent. Or even if he had said : "1 proclaim  that God promises
                          (Continued)                                rto everyone that  believes," that  would have been stil1  Re-
    But he  also said this, and this he does not  deny:              formed,  even according to the Canons. But he didn't say that.
"Some of you carry Protestant Reformed truth on the lapel            He said : "God promises everyone of you that if you believe
of your coat. You are proud of being Protestant Reformed.            you shall be saved." 1 put that in connection with the ser-
Don? think you go to heaven because you are Protestant               man, and 1 claim, - 1 was not the one that protested against
Reformed." These statements he admits to have made. 1 in-            the sermon, let  me  repeat that; 1 didn't; others protested;
sist that in a sermon that contains these statements, the rest       others than the consistory  even. -1 didn't even know what
of a sermon cannot possibly be Protestant Reformed. I claim          was  going  on in the  onsistory for a long, long  time. But
no Protestant Reformed man  can possibly say, in the first           when 1 came in contact with it through a committee,  1 wrote
place : "God promises everyone of you that if you believe,           my opinion black on white on the sermon which the Rev. De
you shall be, saved." That's not Protestant Reformed. Let            Wolf preached, and 1 sent it to the Consistory. It was not a
me analyze that a moment. God promises. Remember that                protest at the  time, but 1 wrote my opinion about the sermon.
that sermon was preached on the evening of April 15, 1951,           That was the first sermon preached.
that is,  immediately   after the Classis East adopted the              The  second sermon 1 heard. And if anything, that, to
Declaration of Principles,  in which it was maintained, strongly     my  mind, was stil1 worse. That was preached in Septem-
maintained, that the promise  of God is unconditional, and is        ber, 1952, a year and  a  half  after this sermon. I was in
f&- the  elect only. That was April 15, 1951. What does it           church then  ; 1 heard the sermon. And  the essence of the
mean? Let me analyze it. Mind  ypu, the Rev. De Wolf did             whole sermon, - not only a statement or two, - but the es-
not say : "1 preach to  you the promise that if you believe,         sence of the  whole sermon,  except  the  last few sentences,
you shall be s%ved." That would have been not quite clear,           maybe 2, 3 sentences, was this: our act of conversion is a
-hut it  would have passed  muster. He didn't say that. He           prerequisite, or  condtion,  to enter into the  kingdom  of
didn't  mean to say that either. He said: "God promises."            God. He made that statement literally in connection with
God promises. Now the promise of God is, in the first place,         the sermon on Matthew  18:1-4. He made that statement
an oath. What God promises He fulfills. In 1924 we obposed           literally. But he also emphasized it throughout his sermon.
the doctrine of the Chr. Ref. Churches that maintained that          "Our act of conversion is a prerequisite to enter into the
God is  gracieus  in  the well-meaning offer of salvation to         kingdom  of God." You know what that means. Prerequisite
everybody. This is worse. This is not the question of a well-        means   something  that is  required  of  US beforehand. That's
meaning  offer of the gospel. This is the question of God's          a prerequisite. In other words, we must  convert ourselves
promise. God promises. What God promises He swears by                before we ,enter into the kingdom  of heaven. Not only is that
Himself to fulfill. Moreover, what God promises to anyone            contrary to al1 that the confessions ever teach,  US, - 1 refer
He surely promises in His grace.  When  God promises salva-          you to Canons 111, IV, 10-12 etc.,-it is contrary also directly
tion, He certainly is gracieus  to the one to whom He promises.      to Scripture. The Word of God teaches  US that we are
There's no question of that. Even the Liberated,  - the              translated from the power of  darkness  into the kingdom  of
Liberated is  very  similar to  that doctrine as far as the cov-     God's dear Son. God's translation into the kingdom  of God's
enant is concerned. Prof.  Veenhof  in his Appel, as  .you           dear Son is first, it stands to reason.  "Veri,ly,  verily 1 say
probably know, insists that the promise of God is for every          unto you,  Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
child that is baptized. And, moreover, he is consistent. He          kingdom  of God." How, then,  can our conversion, our act
also writes  that that promise  of God to everyone that is bap-      of conversion be something that God requires of US before
tized is given to  every   child in  God's  grace.  But  this is.    we enter into the  kingdom  of God. That was his sermon.
stronger yet. God promises, that is, He swears with an oath          That was the sermon throughout. Let me say too: it was
to everyone of you ? That was the idea. That  waS not the            a preparatory sermon, supposed to be. There was no Christ
idea. That was the Statement; God promises to everyone of            and  no cross in it. 1 emphasized that in  rn$ protest. 1
you, in the audience, eieryone  of you, that is, everyone that       protested against that sermon. 1 made a protest against that
was in his hearing, whether members of the church or out-            sermon. And 1 protested at the Consistory that there was
siders, - he didn't know - whether carnal seed or spiritual          no cross in that sermon. One of my elders remarked that he
seed, whether elect  or reprobate, - he didn't know, - every-        nevertheless had mentioned  the cross once. 1 was present; 1
one of you, he said, "God promises everyone of you."  Ad,            do& believe it; but even that certainly cannot possibly be
he added to that the conditional  clause:  "if you believe."         suffcient  for a preparatory sermon on that text. The cross is


490                                      *  THE  STAN.DA'RD  B'EARE.R

the  entrance inta the kingdom  of God, the  entrance  through       to  suspend  the Rev. De Wolf. They were reluctant. Hence,
which we enter only as we are regenerated  before. Chrjst is         we sent the Fourth Church home, and decided that the Rev.
the  entrance into the  kingdom  of God. In this connection  1       De Wolf should put an answer black on white of thc protests
cannot refrain from issuing to al1 of you a word, of warning.        that had been lodged against him on both sermons.  That
1'11 do it. You know, we talk about so much in our day, and          was done. The answer was in no wise satisfactory. Then
in our churches,  - we talk about responsibility. We talk            the  Consistory decided,  -and there 1 was present,  - to let
about the activity of faith. And similar things. I'll'warn you       the Rev. De Wolf submit  himself to an examination on the
that on that basis and in that line  we're  going to lose the        basis of the Formula of Subscription. That was done.  `And.
gospel. We're going to lose the gospel. We're going to- lose         in the answers the Rev. De Wolf stated that he stil1 main-
election.  We're going to  lose reprobation. We're going  to         tained  both the statements and the doctrine  contained  in
lose th& gospel, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 0 yes,         them.  That was the substance of the answers. There's more.
we must preach the activity of faith. But by the activity of         The questions and answers, of course, were  al1  recorded.   I-
faith 1 mean not something that you and 1 must do, except            have a copy of it. If necessary, 1'11 publish the whole thing,
that first of all, by the activity of faith we  cling  to Christ,    from beginning to end. 1 have a copy of al1 my protests, of
and embrace Him and  al1 His benefits. That is  the activity         al1 the other protests, a copy of the questions and answers;
,of faith. Responsibility?  Don? you ever forget that the            and if necessary, 1 say, 1'11 publish the whole thing. It should
accusation that Reformed people cannot maintain  responsibil-        be done, probably, as an addition to the history of the Prot.
ity has always been brought against, - Reformed people have          Ref. Churches. In the meantime, you must not forget, the
always been accused'of denying responsibility by those that          Consistory changed,  that is, the personnel of the Consistory
are Arminians and moderns, We do not deny responsibility.            changed.  It was January. New elders were installed. And
We do not  deny the activity of faith. Of course not. But 1          the Consistory became- weaker  because new persons  errterecl
warn you that with the emphasis that is laid  upon these             into the Consistory. One of the elders, moreover, that was
things,  upon conditions,  upon activity of faith, and  upon         aewly installed was one of our strong Prat; .Ref.  elders, Mr.
responsibility, you're going to lose the gospel.  That's  mp         van Ellen. The Lord took him away soon  after  he became
warning.                                                             elder. So we were crippled. You must not forget that, in order
   We& those were the sermons preached. 1 protested. For             to understand the rest of the action of the Consistory. 1 wast
a long time the Consistory treated the case. For a long time, not present  very   often. The Consistory  changed  personnel.
You must not think  that it was easy for our  Consistoyy,  or        The result was that the meeting finalli decided to approve of
that they were eager to take  action against one of their            the answers to the questions given  by the Rev. De Wolf in
ministers. It was not. For over two years this case has              which he plainly stated that he  maintained   the statements'
been  pending.  For over two years. We asked the Rev. De             which were made in the two seimons. 1 say 1 was not pres- b
Wolf to aplogize. We asked him to make up his own                   ent ; otherwise they could not even have a majority. So slim,
apology, and publish it from the pulpit as he pleased, in his        and so tense was the relation between the so-called minority
own words. Personally, in the meeting of the Consistory, 1           and majority. If 1 had been there, and my vote had been
even suggested that he should make a sort of an apology in           tast, they would not even have had a majority for that mo-
his  sermon,  in the course of his sermon. Nothing availed.          tion, But they did, and 1 was glad they did, because 1
1 have a suspicon, that's my  suspicion,  for which 1 have          thought it would be better that the case would go in the
pretty` good basis, that if the Rev. De Wolf had been alone,         open, and would go to the classis. And so 1 did. At  thab
he would probably  have apologized. He didn't now. He had            time, after they decided that, 1 sent the following document
supporters in the congregation. Then they finally had a              to  my Consistory. This was February 2, 1953.
motion in the Consistory, - 1  wasn't  present at  that.  time
either,  -to suspend him. That  motion was  carried `by the          "Esteemed Brethren :
majority of the Consistory, to  suspend Rev.  Ce Wolf. That             "1 am very  sorry that in his reply to the questions with
suspension must, of course, be  carried  out with the  advice        which he was confronted by the Consistory  thee Rev. De
of a neighboring consistory. The neighboring consistory was          Wolf  fully maintains the heresy implied in the statements:
Fourth Church. We called in the Fourth Church. And the               a. God promises everyone of you that if  you  believe,  you
Fourth Church  objected  that our Consistory had not first           shall be saved. b. Our act of conversion is a prerequisite to
decided formally to suspend the Rev. De Wolf. They had               enter into the kingdom  of_God.
made a motion that he should be suspended, .but  thei had             - "1 had indeed hoped that he would see and acknowledge
not definitely and formally decided to suspend the Rev. De           the error of these teachings, so that we might again have
Wolf before they asked the Fourth Consistory. That should            fellowship with one another in the light, something which
be  done, of course. So  it was decided to meet apart for a          I earnestly  desire,  and without which  1 cannot live. But in
minute,  or a  while,- and carry  out that decision of Fourth        this  1 was deeply disappointed.
Church. At that meeting we once more postponed the sus-
pension. We were reluctant. The Consistory did not  mean                                   (`To be  continued)


                                               THE  STANDARD   BEARER                                                                  491
 Il                                                                        shall be impossible. If these days should `nat be shortened
            FR'OM MOLY  WRIT                                          il eventhe v?ry elect of God would not stand. For the elects'
                                                                           sake  ihey  shall be shortened. It  wil1 be like in the days of
                                                                           Noah.  Verses  15-28.
            Exposition of Matthew 24 and 25                                   Now in the passage under consideration (verses  29-31)
                        4'                                                 Jesus  poytrays  and foretells his disciples and  US more
                                 vr.                                       particularly  what  wil1 be the Sign of His PAROUSIA  and
                         (Matthew 24 :29-31)                               of the CONSUMMATION (sunteleias tou aioonos) of the
                                                                           ages! It uhould be noticed that even so the exact hour is
                                   a.                                      not given, the date foretold. It stil1 is prophecy. It calls for
       The text to which we cal1 attention in this essay reads as          watchfulness and prayer. The "when"  these things wil1 come
 follows : "Bztt  immediiately  after the tribulation  of  these dayj      to pass is only made known unto US by observing the signs
 thc  sztn shall'be  darkened, a*nd  tlte moon shall not give her          in the  sun, moon and stars. We know  where to look, and
 ,light,  and the stars shall fa11  from  baven,  and the powers  of       what to  notice,  but just  when this  wil1 be seen God has in
 the heavens  shall be shaken:  and then sha.11  afipear the sign          pedagogical  wisdqm not disclosed to  US.
 Of the  Son of mam in heaven: ,and then shall al1 the tribes                 However Jesus does  tel1  US that this Sign of the Son of
 of the ea.rtrfk  mown, a:nd they shall sec the Son of'man cowing          man shall be seen "immediately after the affliction of these
on the  cloztds  of  he,av'en  with  pow@v  and  great  glory.  And        days." In our humble opinion  "these  days" refers to the days
 he  ska11  send  fortk  h.is angels  with  . the  grea,t  soztnd of  n    of the great tribulation spoken of in the former verses, 15-28.
 tmwspet,   a,nd  they  ska11  gather   togetheu his elect  frowa  the     They are the days of which  Daniel  spoke,  having been  in-
 jour winds, frowa  one end of tlae heaven to the ether."                  structed by the angel in answer to his prayer, which he
       In our former articles we. have drawn the following line            uttered giving  heed to the prophecy of Jeremiah. These are
 of thought as being traceable in this chapter  up til1 this point.        the days  when the Man of Sin shall be revealed, the  anti-
       1. The issue, the question in the minds of the disciples            christian  world-powers, both politica1 and religious.  Compare
 is really twofold. a.  Wlzen shall these things, depicted in              R e v .   1 3 .
 the destruction of the earthly temple in Jerusalem, take                     The "Immediately" refers to the fact that there shall be
 place. b.  Wha.t  wil1 be the  sign  of Christ's Parousia (His            no  long season intervening between  "these  days" and the
 ever abiding with His people in glory) be and of the  consum-             Parousia of Christ. That  wil1 mark the consummation of
 mation of the ages!  Verses  1-3.                                         the ages ! That wil1 be the final  birth-pang in history. Then
                                                                           shall the Son of, man, of whom God speaks in Psalm 1, be
       2. Jesus warns against  -any  expectation that this  wil1 be        openly revealed as. both Lord and Christ. God wil1 then say
 soon.  Much  must take  place. It  wil1 be a long history of              openly before al1 the world, "Thou art my Son, this day have
 wars and rumors of wars. Men wil1 come with their panaceas
 for the world's ills.  But do not believe them. The Counsel               1 begotten thee: ask of me and 1 wil1 give thee the nations
 of God sh.al1  stand and He wil1 perform His good-pleasure.               for thine inheritance, and the uttermost part of the earth for
                                                                           thy possession !" N
 All' these things must  come to pass. In its deepest essence                                   O birth-pangs can then follow. The child
 history is  chztrclz-history,  the Son of God gathering his               of God's choice is then  exalted   fully, visibly and rightly at
 church, it spite of and through the opposition of the gates               God's right hand, Lord over all. The days are then shortenecl
 of hell! The world's ills are the beginning of the  birth-                for the elects' sake.  .The elect are then  manifestly  heirs of
 pangs which shall issue in the coming of the Son of man with              God and with Christ. It wil1 be the everlasting PAROUSIA
                                                                           of Christ with His own. Then shall the tabernacle of God
 the  clouds to be revealed the First-born of  al1  creatures.             be with man ; Immanuel, God-with-us ! The Stone in  Zion
 Verses  4-8.                                                              wil1 be the chief  corner of the temple, not made with hands!
       3. The church in the world  wil1 be liated of  al1 men.                There is in this "immediately" the fundamental truth of
  Mostly by those who are in the church, yet  who are not of               the "behold 1  come, quickly" of the book of Revelation. It
 her. It  wil1 be great trial. The love of many,  who confessed            is more than a dogmatical statement. It is really the answer
 to be  Christian  and really were not, shall wax  cold.  How-             to the prayer of the souls under the  altar:  "How long, 0
 ever, they who endure  to the end shall be saved. The Word                Master (Lord, Despotees),  the  holy and true, dost thou nat
 of the Ci-OSS  shall be preached and shall be efficacious to the          judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ?"
 end.  Verses  9-14.                                                       It is an answer to the impatient cry, the holy impatience of
       4. The  time  wil1  come at the end of history,  when the           the patient saints. Then shall the time,  the "little time"  that
 birthpangs wil1 be intensified in the world of the coming of              must be waited until "fellow servants, who should be killed
 the Son of man, when Satan shall have his hour. The zbomi-                as they were, have fulfilled their  course," be ended. NO more
 nation  of desolation shall be seen in the  holy  place,.  as             blood  needs to flow.  Rev.  6:10, 11. The measure of the
 spoken of by  Danie!  the  prophet.  Then instituted worship              suffering of Christ in His saints shall have  been-filled  up.


 4 9 2                                     THE  STANDARD   BIEARER

 Col. 1 24. See also Rev. 22  :20,  where  the Lord  assdres  tbe     move  out of its  place, in wars and  rumors of wars. But the
 waiting saints of His  speedy return. It is the last Word of         firmament stands unmoved and untouched by this all.
 the Son of man to His church, the fitting close of the Canon-           3. The firmament with the sun,  moon and stars,  some-
 ical Scriptures.                                                    how proclaims that our life is ruled from on high! Does not
    Wherefore the signs in the sun, moon and stars shall be           the  "sun," in  .its rising and in its setting, divide the light
a  welcome  sight to  the waiting church. They  can then "lift       from the darkness on earth, dividing the day from the night.
 up their heads, knowing that their redemption  is nigh." But        And is the sun, in so doing, not like a strng  man going forth
the wicked, who dwell upon the earth, shall be terrified.            from his tent to run a race? And  when this is done  "nor-
    Of  this Christ speaks here in this passage.                     mally"  there is  something  sure and strong in life. The sun
    Christ speaks of  this  when' he depicts the catastrophic        also "rises  on the evil." It gives the evil a feeling of security
signs which shall be seen in the "firmament" and in the sun,         to see the sun rise .and set!
moon and stars; the powers of heaven shall be shaken.                    4. And does not the moon  proclaim  in her silent,  silvery
    In attempting to understand the meaning of these "signs          light, which she  casts  upon the earth, that the  sun is stil1
in' the sun, moon and  star? (Luke  21:25),  ft should be            shining, and that it is fundamentally not darkness on  the
borne in mind that God created these heavenly bodies on              earth but light, even in the darkest night. And  when the
the fourth day of the creation week. And it should be borne          moon is not visible to US in om night, do not the stars break
in mind that he gave to these bodies a certain "normal"  func-       forth before our eye in greater  multitudes  and in bolder
tion. They are such  creatures  that without them life cannot        relief?   How beautiful is not our night in  al1 its wondrous
go on orderly. For we  read in Gen.  1:14-17  the following:         glory ?
"And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of heaven            Life has a steady pulse to it  when sun,  moon and stars
to divide the day from .the night: and let them be for signs         shine! Man feels safe under the canopy of the heavens. Even
and for seasons, and for days and years: and let them be for         the heathen,  changing the glory of the incorruptible God in
lights in the firmament of heaven to give  light   upon the          the likeness of the corruptible creature,  sought a measure of
earth: and it was so. And God made the two great lights:             reassurance  from the heavens  -  when  al1 appeared  "nor-
the greater light to rule the day, and the les& light  to rule       mal" !
the night: he made the stars also. And God set  them in the              But, oh, when the "powers of heaven are shaken," then
firmament of heaven to give light  upon the earth, and  to           al1 is so  very different.  When  days,  months and years are
rule. over the day and over the night, and to divide the light       affected-  so that the calendar events cannot go on, then.
from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And                 it is another story. When  God wil1 rol1 up these heavens as
there was evening and there was morning,  the fourth day."           a scroll, then the wicked are terrified. For then there is an-
    Now it is not the  intent of this writer to go off on a          other speech in these heavens. Then they too are the medium
tangent, and give  a. detailed exposition of this passage,           of revelation- but then they reveal the Great Day of the
quoted  from Gen. 1  :14-17.   Rather  we would point  out  the      Lord as being at hand.
following salient points, which we believe ought to be kept             It is of this that the prophets  often speak in the Old
in mind, in order to understand the meaning of the "signs"           Testament Scriptures. We find in our text both exact  quo-
spoken of by Jesus in Matthew  24:29. We refer to the                tations and allusions to such prophecies as Isaiah 13 :lO and
follwing :                                                          34:4; Ezekiel 32  :7 and Joel  2:10, 31; 3  :15, not to forget
    1. It is the evidently divine intention that the creation be     Zephaniah 1:15. And always in the prophecies the signs in
the medium of revelation; it is  God?s speech to man. The            sun, moon and stars, and in the shaking of the powers of
heavens  declare the glory of God, ancl the firmament showeth heaven there is an "announcement"  of the great Day of the
his handiwork. Psalm 19.                                             Lord, a "day" which shall be fully His !
   2. That  when  al1 things are  "normal"  in these heavenly           And since it is the clay of the "LORD," it is always a day
bodies, which God placed in the firmament on the "fourth             of doorn for the wicked and of salvation for the righteous.
day,," the speech of `God is such that it speaks of exactness,                              (to be continued)
faithfulness of God in maintaining the universe. It speaks,                                                                      G.L.
of an orderly life. It speaks of  God's power and divinity.
Ronl: 1  :lSff. There is nothing of the chaotic in the sun,
moon and `stars. Nothing is so unchanged by time and sin                                  Announcement
as the world, the powers of heaven. And seemingly nothing               The Classis East of  the Protestant  Reformed Churches
so loudly proclaims the stability of the  universe  and  con-        wil1 meet Wednesday, October 1, at 9 A.M. in the  First
tinued existente of al1 things as the sun, moon and stars. Do        Protestant  Reformed  Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
we not cal1 the blue sky above US "firmament"? The German            Consistories of this Classis wil1 consider this an official an-
calls it  "Feste"  ! They are the  "beams  of (God's) chambers       nouncement.
in the waters !" (Psalm 104  :3).  Al1 about  US  may seem to                                  REV.  M.  SCHIPPER,  Stated  Cl&.


                                             THE  STANDARD   BEARER                                                                   493

                                                                      seeing  the kingdom  of God, without seeing the stone cut out
               I  .N ti  I S F E A R                       1          of the mountain  without hands of Daniel  2 al1 history brings
                                                                      the worlcl no  advancement,  no deliverance outside that evil
                                                                      circle of vanity of vanities. Who would ever expect  to teach
            Jehovah, The God of Arithmetic                            history by taking a few  chapters  out of the textbook, some-
                                                                      where in the middle and utterly disregard the first chapters
     Before these lines of this typewriter are  reset by              and the last? Who would ever read a novel that way? Why
 linotype and appear upon the printed page which you have             you  might  find yourself taking  sides against the  principal
 taken  from your  mailbox, another school year  wil1 have            character and  hero of the book and cheering the  villain.  It
 begun.                                                               might  make interesting  reading, those chapters  in the center
     Already  your children and my children find themselves           of the book which you have lifted out of the book itself. But
 in the weekly routine of going to school, applying themselves        could you expect a child who was told to do that to give a
 to  the lessons at hand and then returning with their home           good and correct book report on that novel? Much  less, in-
 work. The one child delights in it and drinks in the added           deed,  very   much less  can you take a piece of that which
 knowledge with joy. The other child  fmds it boring. And             transpired in. ancient,  medieval,  European or  American  his-
 for  him it is hard to keep his  mind on the matter at hand.         tory and understand it when you have first ruled out God and
 For the one it  comes "naturally." For the other it  comes:          His work of creation and God and His  Iiingdom  of Christ
 only with hard labor.                                                for  ,which  al1 the other  kingdoms  exist that they  may  -
                                                                      though unconsciously and  very unwillingly  - serve the  pur-
    There is a far more important differente  of which we can         pose of its final and glorious realization in the day of Christ.
 speak between the instruction the one child receives  and that
 which is given to another child. The one child is taught al1             We confess, do we not, that we believe that there is "an
 things in the fear of the Lord. To the other child the               holy catholic  church"  ? And we believe  also, do we not,
 things of God's creation and the works which He performs             that this church  wil1 one day inherit the new creation and
 therein are taught in bold denial of God and of His glory.           that  al1 her  enemies  shall be  tast into the lake of fire? We
 However,   when He is ruled  out of His own creation and             believe that this church is the salt of the earth, the apple of
 the  creature  is  examined  as though it stood apart  from the      God's eye, the bride of Christ. And shall we then explain
 Creator, that which is taught is  utter folly. Since "the fear       world history as though this church does not exist and does
 of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" that which is taught         not amount  to anything ? Shall we have our children taught
 outside of His fear cannot be wisdom but must be utter folly.        in  the history  class  in  such  a,way  that the  kingdoms  of the
 Even though the things presented may be factually correct,           world are the important groups of people and that the  ch,urch
 it is folly that is taught  when the God  Who stands behind          serves their good ? Of course not ! But it certainly is  the
 these  facts and  causes   them  to be realities is ignored and      other way. The church is  engraven  in the palms of God's
 denied. For that reason we have decided to  write a few              hands (Isaiah  49:16), and not the  kingdoms  of the world.
 lines at this beginning of this school season concerning this        Do we really understand the things that transpire in this
 matter of instruction in His fear.                                   world and among the nations of this world, then, if our  view-
                                                                      point is not exactly that viewpoint of the God  Who with
    It is a  fact,  well-known  to  al1  who have given even a        these hands turns the hearts of kings and causes every  single
 superficial consideration to the matter, that the one subject        historica1 event to take place ? Surely in the history  class
 does lend itself more easily to a truly Christian presentation       there is abundant opportunity found and a God-given  calling
 to the mind  of. the child than another. It is unhesitatingly        to be recognized to explain and to  teach   al1 history in His
 conceded that in the subject of history it is a comparatively        fear.
 easy task to trace the finger of God as He "turns the hearts
 of kings as the rivers of water" (Proverbs 21  :l). But it               But at the moment we wish to speak about the subject
 must also be conceded that without tracing His finger in al1         of  arithmetic,  which does not lend itself as easily to a
 historica1 events the child is deceived and taught utter  folly.     presentation that clearly breathes the fear of God. And yet
 Vanity of vanities,  al1 is vanity  also in the realm  of history    there are <ome beautiful truths that  ven this abstract sub-
 unless in it we begin and end in God. History repeats itself.        ject teaches LIS and that ought not be kept from the covenant
 But it gets nowhere  when it is viewed in  any other way             child. The child ought early to learn and to know that his
 than in His fear. The world passes through one cycle after           God, Jehovah, is the God of arithmetic  as wel1 as of history
another with boring monotony.  War follows peace; and                 and geography.
 peace follows -war.  Bui: where  do these wars and periods of            And first of al1 we would have you consider with US that
 peace bring US? Only to, more dreadful wars. Both war and            the  whole field of arithmetic or of  numbers  reveals  Him to
 peace serve that same dreadful end. It brings one to vanity.         be an All-Wise God. What  wisdom, what unsearchable wis-
 A  war to end  war has only set the  wheels  turning more            dom is displayed in the whole world of numbers ! The inner
 rapidly in motion towards a war to end peace. And without            beauty and  harmony  between the numbers speaks of the

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

      Creator's everlasting praise. This we wish to  make plain            the things which He has made and which He upholds by the
      to you at this  time. But first of  al1 let  US note  how that        word of His power.
     Jehovah, the God of arithmetic uses these numbers Himself                 There are,  however,  other ways in which the wisdom of
      in the works of His hands.                                            God is displayed in His employment  of the system of numbers
             First of all, then, we `have reference to those numbers       which have  come forth from His infinite mind.  Examine
      which He set aside and used to symbolize various truths of           His snow flake. The number six is so noticeable here. There
      Himself, His creation and His covenant. These numbers are            is an endless variety to the shapes of these little pieces of
      the numbers one, three, four, six, seven, ten, twelve and the        divine artistry. Yet the number  six is so plainly evident.
      multiples of these numbers by the number ten, such as forty,         Or again think of those numbers with which the scientist  has
      seventy, one hundred, one thousand, one hundred  fortyfour           learned to deal in recent centuries but wherewith God has
     thousand and the like. God Himself is one ; and the number            been dealing ever since He spoke those momentous words,
     one symbolizes God in His oneness. He reveals  .Himself  to US        "`Let there be  light!" Indeed,  we have in mind the speed
      in  the Scriptures as a triune God,  Father,  Son and Spirit         of light and the speed of sound. These are expressed by
     dwelling  in that one divine essence. And therefore the num-          cold,  defnite,  exact numbers  ; but  they speak the praise of
     ber three is symbolic of God in His triune existente.  Gothic         Him Whose wisdom determined their exact speed. You have
     architecture has made  much use of this as  wel1 as of the            likewse the exact numbers which express that degree of
     symbolic number four  - which is the number of this earth in          temperature at which water, at sea  level,  wil1 freeze and
     its extent : four corners, four winds of heaven, four seasons:        wil1 boil. And so one could continue. It  al1  adds up to this
     The gothic arch has characteristically its three distinct parts ;     that Jehovah is, indeed, the God of arithmetic as wel1 as the
     and its circular  windows have their four distinct inner arts.        God of history and that our children should not be taught
     The number  six has been reserved and designated by God as            His numbers, His arithmetic and  mathematics  as divorced
     the number of man. See Revelation 13  :18.  Seven is the              from and in ignorante  of Him hut as that which He designed
     covenant number, ten the number of completion or perfectness          and as that wherewith He stil1 works today in al1 that which
     aud ,twelve the number of God's people. It is not, therefore,         is round about  US.
       mere coincidence that  when  Israel   comes to  Elim that  this        Surely there is room, much  room in the arithmetic class
     oasis has  exactly twelve  wells and seventy palm trees. It           to speak of God's  wisdom and praises as  wel1 as in the
     is not a  mere  cold, mathematica1  fact that God gave Jacob          chemistry room, the science room and the Bible class.. Let
     twelve sons in whom he would inherit the land of Canaan               your  child -in a Christian school, a school wherein the  in-
     and ethat Jesus chose exactly twelve apostles. Jehovah as the         struction is based' upon the word of God - understand that
     God whose  wisdom brought forth the wonderful world of                these numbers are designed by an all-wise God. What folly
     numbers  makes use `of these numbers to speak His Own mes-            to present these numbers as though they assembled  them-
     sage to His Church.                                                   selves  in the order in which they  come. This  wil1 become
         Nor is it only in the sphere of these spiritual things that       abundantly plain  - this  folly  -  when one considers nothing
     He  makes use of the numbers His wisdom has produced. In              more than that which we cal1 the "time tables." There is an
     every  earthly thing, we may say in every  creature,  He makes        inner harmony and beauty to be seen just in the numbers
     use of numbers; and these creatures  exist according to a def-        themselves. For this we have no room at present; but the
     inite  numerical   scheme.   Al1 are, no doubt, acquainted with       Lord  willing  we shall treat this marter next that we  may
     the moc;t popular of chemical formulas  : HZO. Spelled  out in        marvel at the  wisdom of our God and  may see the beauty
     the letters of the alphabet this is water. To the mind of the         of the truth expressed by the psalmist. Speaking his word
     chemist   who deals with the elements in this world it  spells        of thanks to God he declares of Him,  "That thy name is
     two parts of hydrogen  combined  with one part of oxygen.             near thy wondrous works declare," Psalm 75 :l.
     To the common man that is water. But the point we make                                                                        J.A.R.
     is that so God has made  al1 things according to  such  a
     mathematica1 formula.  HZ02 represents another work  69
     God.  When two parts of hydrogen are  combined   wit11 two                             Deacons' Conference
     parts -instead of one part - of oxygen, God has made nat
     the refreshing, life giving water which we  crave,  but a                 A Deacons' Conference of the churches in Classis East
     deadly poison called hydrogen peroxide. With that  very               wil1 be held at Creston Church, Thursday evening, October 2,
     little differente  of composition God has made the one material       at 8 P. M.
     to differ so very  greatly in taste, effect and power. We are            Al1 deacons, ministers and ex-deacons, being  out of
     in no position, nor is it needful to continue, to show  how           office for not more than one term, are invited to attend.
     al1 that which God has made can be expressed according to                Rev. Bernard Woudenberg wil1 introduce for discussion
     some  such  formula with its mathematica1  equation.   Al1 we         the topic, "Should we support or take collections for  such
     need to do is to remind th,e- reader that so God works in al1         institutions as the Bethany Home?"




i


                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         495

                                                                      Avignon three years later.     In 1334, John  issued a  bul1
I/          Conteiding For The  Faith  c  ~-  /I
                                                              2  :    which; according to  Bar1 Muller, was the rudest act of  vi-
                                                                      olence..done   LIP  to that  time to the German emperor by a
                                                                      pope. This fulmination separated Italy from the crown and
             The Church and the  Sacraments                           kingdom   -  ~&~e&?ti  et  wgnwn   -of Germany and forbade
                                                                      their being reunited in one body. The reason given for this
       VIEWS  DURING  THE  THIR~  PERIOD  (750-1517 A.D.)             drastic measure was the territoria1  separation of the two
                  THE  SUPREMACY OF THE  POPE                         provinces. Thus was accomplished by a distinct announce-
                                                                      ment what the diplomacy of Innocent 111 was the first to
      THE  DECLINE OF THE  PAPACY   AND THE  AVIGNON  EXILE.          make a part of the papa1 policy, and which figured so
                        A .   D .   .1294-1377.                       prominently  in the struggle between  Gregory  1X and  Fre-
        The next year, 1325, Lewis suffered a severe defeat from      derick 11.
Leopold of Austria, who had entered into a compact to put                With his constituency  completely  lost in Italy, and with
Charles IV of France on the German throne. He went  sol               only a uncertain support in Germany,  Lewis now made over-
far as to express his readiness, in t&e compact of Ulm, 1326,         tures for peace. But the pope  was not  ,ready for anything
to surrender the Gernian crown to  Frederick,  provided he            less  than  a full renunciation of the imperia1 power. John
himself was confirmed in his right to Italy and the imperia1          died in 1334, but the struggle continued  through the ponti-
dignity. At this juncture  Leopold died.                              ficate of his successor,  Benedict   X11.  Philip VI of France
        By papa1 appointment Robert of  Naples  was vicar of          set himself against Benedict's  measures  for reconciliation
Rome. But Lewis had no idea of surrendering his  cl$ims               with Lewis, and in 1337 the emperor made an alliance with
to Italy. and, now that he was once again free by Leopold's           England  against France.  Princes  of Germany,  making  the
death, he marched across the Alps and was crowned, Janua-             rights of the empire their own. adopted  the famous  con-
ry 1327, emperor in front of St. Peter's Sciarra Colonna, as          stitution of Rense, -a locality near Mainz, which was  con-
the representative of the people,  placed the crown on his            firmed at the Diet of Frankfurt, 1338. It repudiated the
head, and two bishops administered unction.  Villani   ex-            pope's extravagant tempora1 claims, and declared that the
presses indignation at an imperia1 coronation conducted               election  of an emperor by the electors was final, and did not
without the pope's consent as a thing unheard of. Lewis was           require papa1 approval. This was the first  representative
the first mediaeval emperor crowned by the people. A for-             German assembly to assert the independente  of the empire.
mal trial was instituted, and "James of Cahors,  who calls               The interdict was  hanging  over the German  assembly
himself John XXII" was denounced as anti-christ and  de-              when  Benedict  died, 1342. The battle had gone against Lewis,
posed from the papa1 throne and his effigy carried through            and his supporters were well-nigh al1 gone from him. A sub-
the streets and burnt. John  of Corbara,  belongitig  to the          mission even more humiliating than that of Henry IV was
Spiritual wing of the Franciscans,  was elected to the throne         the only thing left. He sought the favor of Clement VI, but
just declared vacant, and took the name of  Nicolas  V. He            in vain. In a bul1 of April 12, 1343, Clement enumerated the
was the first anti-pope since the days of Barbarossa. Lewis           emperor's many crimes, and anew ordered him to renounce
himself  placed the crown  upon the pontiff's head, and the           the imperia1 dibity.  Lewis wrote, yielding submission, hut
bishop of Venice performed the ceremony  of unction. Nicolas          the authenticity of the document was questioned at Avignon,
surrounded himself with a college of seven cardinals, and.            probably with the set purpose of increasing the  emperor's
was accused of having  forthwith renounced the principles  of         humiliation.  Harder conditions were laid down. They were
poverty and abstemiousness in dress and at the table which.           rejected by the  diet at Frankfurt, 1344. But Germany was
the day before he had advocated.                                      weary, and listened without revulsion to a final bul1 against
        To these acts of  violente John  replied  by pronouncing      iewis, 1346, and a summons to the electors to proceed  to a--
Lewis a heretic and appointing a crusade  against him, with           new  election.  The  electors, John of Bohemia among  them,
the  promise  of  indulgente  to  al1  taking part in it. Fickle      chose Charles IV, John's son.  %`he  Bohemian king was  the-
Rome' soon grew weary of her  lay-crowned  emperor,  who              blind warrior who met his death on the battlefield of Crecy
had been so unwise as `to impose an extraordinary tribute of          the  same year. Before his  election,  Charles had  visited
 10,000 florins each upon the people, the clergy, and the Jews,       Avignon, and  .promised  full submission to the pope's  de-
of the city. He retired to the North,  Nicolas  following  him        mands. His  continued   complacency  during his reign  justi-
with his retinue of cardinals. At Pisa, the emperor being             fied the pope's choice. The struggle ended with Lewis' death
present, the anti-pope excommunicated  John and summoned              a iear later, 1347, while he was engaged near Munich in .a
a genera1 council to Milan. John was again burnt in effigy?           bear-hunt. It was the last conflict of the empire and papacy
at the cathedral, and  condemned  to death for heresy. In             along the old lines laid down by those ecclesiastical warriors,
 1330 Lewis  withdreti   from Italy altogether, while  Nicolas,       Hildebrand and Innocent 111 and Gregory 1X.
with a  cord around his  neck,  submitted  to John. He  died in          To return to John  xX11,  he became  a prominent figure

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

in the controversy within the Franciscan order  over the               followers the  convents  of Narbonne, Carcassonne and  Be-
 tenure  of property, a controversy which had been going on            ziers, but  also ordered the Inquisition to punish the Spirit-
from  the earliest period between the two parties,  the                uals  who refused submission.
 Spirituals, or Observants, and the Conventuals. The last                  In  spite of the papa1  decrees,  the controversy was stil1
 testament of St.  Francis,  pleading for the  practice of ab-         being  carried on within the order with great heat,  when
 solute poverty, and  suppresied  in the  bul1 of  Nicolas  111,       John  XXII came to the throne. In the decretal  Qztommda.wz
 1279, which granted the  Franciscans  the right to use property       exeyit,  and in the bul1 Sancta  r-omana  e't ~univ~rsalis  @ccleia,
 as tenants, w-hile forbidding them to hold it in fee simple.          Dec. 30, 1317, John took a positive positian against the
 With this decision the strct party, the Spirituals, were not         Spirituals. A few weeks later, he condemned a forma1  list of
 satisfied, and the struggle went on. Coelestine V attempted           their errors and abolished  al1 the  convents  under Spiritual
 to bring peace by merging the Spiritual wing with the order           management. From this time on dates the application of the
 of  Hermits  he had founded, but the measure was without              name Fraticelli to the Spirituals. They refused to submit,
success.                                                               and took the position that even a  pope had na right to modify
       Under Boniface  VIII matters went hard with the Spirit-         the Rule of  St.  Francis.   Michael of Cesena, the genera1 of
 uals. This pope deposed'  the  general,  Raymond Gaufredi,            the order, defended them. Sixty-four af their  number  were
 putting in his  place John of Murro,  who belonged to the             summoned to Avignon. Twenty-five  refused  `to yield,  and
 laser wing. Peter John Olivi (died  1298), whose writings             passed into the hands af the Inquisitian. Four were  burnt
 were widely circulated, had declared himself in favor of              as  martyrs  at Marseilles, May 6,  1318.. Others fled to Sicily.
 Nicolas'  bull, with the interpretation that the use of property          The  chief  interest af the cantraversy was naw shifted to
 and goods was to be the "use of necessity," - ZISUS paztper  -        the strictly thealagical questian whether Christ and his
 as opposed to the more  liberal  use  advocated  by the  Con-         Apostles  observed complete paverty. This dispute threatened
 ventuals and called WZIS ~zodel-etzts.  Olivi's .personal fortunes    to rend the wing af the Conventuals itself. Michael of Cesena,
 were typical of the fortunes of the Spiritual branch.  After  his     Ockam, and others, taa, held the pasition that Christ and His
 death, the attack made against his memory was, if possible,           Apostles not anly held no property as individuals, but held
 more determined, and culminated in the charges preferred at           none in  common. Jahn, opposing this view, gave as  argu-
 Vienne. Murro adopted violent measures, burning Olivi's               ments the gifts of the Magi, that Christ possessed clathes  and
 writings, and casting his sympathizers `into prison. Other            bought food, the purse of Judas, and Paul's labor for a liv-
 prominent Spirituals fled. Angelo  Clareno found refuge for           ing. In the bul1  CUWZ  infer  nonnullos,  1323, and other bulls,
 a time in Greece, returning to Rome, 1305, under the protec-          John declared it heresy to hold that Christ and the Apostles
tion of the new Colonna.                                               held no possessions. Those who resisted this interpretation
                                                                       were pronounced, 1324, rebels and heretics. Jahn went
       The case was  formally  taken up by Clement V,  who             farther, and gave back to the order the right of possessing
 called a commission to Avignon to devise measures to heal             goods in fee simple, a right which Innocent IV had denied,
 the division, and gave the Spirituals temporary  relief from          and he declared that in things which disappear in the using,
 persecution. The proceedings were protracted til1 the meet-           such as eatables, no distinction  can be made between their
 ing of the council in Vienne, when the Conventuals brought            use and their possession. In 1326 John-  pronounced Olivi's
up the case in the form of an arraignment  of Olivi, who had           commentary on the Apocalypse heretical. The three Spiritual
come to be regarded  almast as a saint.  Among the charges             leaders, Cesena,  Ockam,  and Bonagratia were seized and
were that he pronounced the  `l~sus  paztper  to be of the es-         held in prison until 1328,  when they  escaped and  Fred  to
 sence af the Minorite rule, that Christ was stil1 living at the       Lewis the Bavarian at Pisa. It was at this  time  that  Ockam
time the lance was thrust into his side, and that the rational         was said to have used to the emperor  the famous words, "DO
soul  has not the  farm of a body. Olivi's memory was  de;`            thau defend me with the sword and 1 wil1 defend thee with
fended by Ubertino da Casale, and the council passed no                `the pen" - tat  wze defendes  gladio, ego te  defendam calawzo.
sentence  upon his person.                                             They were deposed  from their  offices  and included in  the
    In the bul1 Exivi de pnsadisoJ  issued 1313, and famous in         ban fulminated against the anti-pope, Peter of Corbara.
the history of the Franciscan order, Clement seemed to take            Later, Cesena submitted to the pope, as Ockam  is also said
the side of the Spirituals. It forbade the order or any of its         to have done shortly before his death. Cesena died at Mw
members  to accept bequests, possess vineyards, sell products          nich, 1342. He  committed  the seal of the order to  Ockam.
from their gardens, build fine churches, or go to law. It per-         On his death-bed he is said to have  cried   out: "My God,
mitted  only "the use of necessity," ~zbs arctus OY p,aacper,  and     what have 1 done ? 1 have appealed against him who is the
nothing beyond. The Minorites were to wear  no shoes, ride             highest on the earth. But look, 0  Father,  at the spirit  oi
&ly in cases of necessity, fast from November 1 until Christ-          truth that is in me which has not erred through the lust oi
mas, as  wel]. as  ever? Friday, and possess a single  mantle          the flesh but from great zeal for the seraphic order and out
with a hood and ene- without a hood. Clement ordered .the              of love for poverty." Bonagratia also died in Munich.
new  general,  Alexander of Alessandra, to turn over to Olivi's                                                                      H.V.


                                               THE  S-TANDAR,@:-BEARER                                                                   497

                                                                          Jesus Christ, is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and therefare
         The VoEce of Our Fathers                                         dklivefed  from the dominion and slavery of sin, yet he is not
                                                                          delivered, 2s long as he is in this life, from the body of sin
                                                                          and from the flesh. He has but a smal1 beginning of the new
               The Ca:nons of Dordrecht                                   abedience. And that smal1 beginning is a  principle  of the
                                                                          new life. Furthermore,  this means that he is principally free
                            PART TWO                                      from sin, so that he assumes a radically different attitude
                                                                          Qver  against sin. Yet, while he is  dead ta sin, sin is by  no
                 ESPOSITION OP e1`1-1~5  CANONS                           means  dead in  him. He stil1 has  hiS flesh, in which are the
                  F                                                       old roots of sin. And that flesh is the source in him of  al1
                    IFTH  HEAD OF  DOCTRINE                               kinds of sin and lust. "Hence spring daily sins of infirmity,
           OF  THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS                             and hence spots adhere  to the best works of the saints."
            Article 2. Hence spring daily sins                                By this expression  the sins of the saints are put in a
                                                      of i&rmity, and     two-fold classification : sins of weakness or infirmity and spots
            hence spots  adhere  to the best works of the saints;         which adhere  to the best works of the saints.
            which furnish them with constant matter for humiliation
            before God, and flying for refuge to Christ crucified;           By  "sins of infirmity" are denoted  al1 the sins of  +tie
            for mortifying,  the flesh more and more by the spirit of     saints. We must remember that  when the children of God
            prayer, ,and by holy exercises  of piety; and for pressing    fa11 into sin, this does not arise out of the fact that they love
            forward to the goal of perfection,  til1 being at  lengtll    sin accarbing  ta the new man. The new life has the tendency
            delivered from this body of death,  they are brought to       and the striving to manifest itself in perfection and to oppose
            reign with the Lamb of God in heaven.                         and put down al1 that stands over against it. This is in the
                                                                          very  nature  of that new life: it wil1 not sin; and it cannot sin,
   The following corrections should be made in the trans-                 because it is born of God. The saints are partakers of the
lation  given above: 1) "spirit  of prayer" should be "Spirit             life of Christ. And that life of Christ which is in  them
of prayer." 2) "and for pressing forward to the goal of per-              through the Spirit, which dwells in Christ as the Head andt
fection"  should be "and for  .,ionging for the goal of perfec-           in the saints as His  members,  is  victorieus  over sin and
tion." 3) "delivered from  th& body af  dea$' should be                   death.  How is it, then, that this perfection is not  attaied   ?
"freed  from this body of death." 4) "they  aTe brought  to               Whence spring the sins which the saints stil1 go on  com-
reign . . . ." shauld be simply "they shall reign  . . . :"               mitting ? Not from that new life itself, for it cannot sin. But
   This article continues the description of  a saint and of              that the new life never attains perfection in the saints in this
the life of a saint.in  this life which is begun in the previous          present  existente sterns from the constant influence of the
article: A correct  understafiding  of the  foreg&ig is of  ut-           flesh. Bec&se of the power af the flesh, the beginning of the
most importante  for the understanding of the doctrine of the             new life, which  is but a smal1 beginning, is weak, and it can
perseverance  qf the saints, as we indicated before. It must              never  come to the full manifestation of its power. It is  al-
certainly be evident that the Reformed doctrine of persever-              ways  hindered  and obstructed by the influences of -the old
ante has nothing in cbmmon with the praud and at the same                 sinful flesb. And it is that weakness that is the reason why
time superficial view `of the perfectionist.  B& it must  also            the  sain!s do not do what according to the new man they
be plain that the Reformed doctrine of persev&ance  has no                will, and do that which according to the new man they wil1
similarity  to the view of  s'm and the attitude toward sin               not. To  wil1 is present with  them, but  how to perform that
which is entertained by the antinomian and the libertine. And             which is good they find nat. These, then, are the sins of ia-
in a defense of the truth of  the. sure preservation  and.                firmity,  - sins which arise not from the new life itself, bui
perseverance of the saints these matters must be made clear,              from the weakness  of that new life which is  caused by the
and that taa, over against the slanders  of Arminianism.  What            power of the fleSh which is stil1 present with them.
is a saint, and  how does a saint live in this present  world,              In the same light are to be explained, in the second place,
and particularly, how does a saint that is surely preserved               the spots which cling  to the best works of the saints. Even
and  that surely perseveres manifest himself in this life,  -             apart fram the sins of the saints, sins which can in no sense
these are al1 matters of concern in this Fifth Head of Doc-               at  al1 be called good works, it must  also be said of  al1 the
trine. And it is within the scope of these questions that the             works of the Christian, including his best works, that they
wonder of God's preserving grace must be considered and                   are defiled and marred by sin. The Christian never performs
can best be understaod by the persevering saint.                          a work that is perfect and undefiled. We must remember that
    In this  second article, therefare,  the fathers  draw a con-         the Christian is not. two individuals, a new man and an old
clusian from the first. There, that is, in Article- 1, they               man, so that the flesh is samething next to the believer and
called the attention to the  fact that while the Christian, called        separate from him. The flesh is the pawer af sin, fram which
according to God's put-pose into the fellowship of His Son                he is principally delivered certainly, but which  stil1 works


4 9 s                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R  '
 _.

constantly in the same human nature in which also the prin-               spring from our  Aesh, God keeps  LIS  small. From the point
ciple of the new life operates. This accounts  for it that there          of view of the flesh, there is no greater danger for one who
is never a single work of the Christian which has its spirit-             has  received   grace than that he should  become .proud.  41~1
ual som-& in his regenerated heart which is not defiled and               yet there is `nothing that belongs less with grace than pride.
marred  by sin.                                                           And God through the very presence of sin in His children
         We may also remind ourselves in this connection that this        keeps  them  small, guards them against pride. For  when
presence of the old and the new man in the Christian by no                *through the weakness of the flesh they  fa11 into sin, they
means excuses his sin. The Christian cannot lightly  pass off             must humble themselves, and they must acknowledge that
his sins by blaming  the old man, as though that old man were             they are by nature not one bit better than the biggest sinner.
somcone  apart  from  him. Sin,  also the sin of the Christian,           And not only does God keep His children smal1 in relation
remains sin, horribly displeasing to God. In fact, it must be             to their fellows, but  .the emphasis in this article is  upon
emphasized that the sins of the children of God are worse                 humiliation  hefo~e  tlze  face'of God. The Christian's  imper-
than the'sins of ,the world. This also lies at the basis of the           fection brings  him to his knees before God. He is grievecl
further truth that is emphasized in this article. The very  fact          because of his sins. He has true sorrow  after God. He has
that the sins of God's people are grievous, that they are very            no peace with his sin. He must be rid of it. This is exactly
really sins also before the face of God, and that the children            the distinguishing mark of the new life,
of God are conscious of this, explains the possibility of the                It  fellows,  in the  second  place, that the Christian's  very
further instruction of this paragraph: these sins of infirmity            sin and imperfection drives him  out to  fnd refuge  .in the
and spots that  defile  their best  works "furnish  them with             cross of Christ. His sin is not reason for doubt and despair.         ,
constant matter for humiliation before God," etc.                         He has the victory. For al1 his  sins, even the sins which he
         In the second proposition  of this article the fathers there-    stil1 daily  commits,  are blotted  out forever in the blood of
fore  cal1 attention to the consequences of these sins of the             Christ.  But he has that victory only in Christ. And there-
saints. Before we consider the four items mentioned here, it              fore to Christ and His cleansing blood he must turn  time
is  wel1 to note that these consequences belong distinctly to             and  time again, in order to find in His cross a safe refuge.
the life of the  saint.  These  can be the consequences of the               In the third place,  the effect of the Christian's  imperfec-
presence of sin only because there is another principle  opera-           tion and sin is that it becomes  the occasion that he mortifies
tive in the saints, a  principle  which is  victorieus  over the          the flesh more and more. Concerning this we may make the
power of the flesh, namely,  the principle  of regeneration. If           following observations :
this were not true, sin could never be the occasion of humilial               1) This mortification is the proof that the Christian does
tion before God, of fleeing  for refuge to the cross of Christ,           not magnify sin, and  assume  the attitude, "Let 
of mortifying the Aesh more and more, and of longing for                                                                       US sin that.
                                                                          grace may abound."  Even while it is true that God turns the
the goal of perfection. But it is through these that the new              sin and imperfection of the Christian unto his salvation, it
life of the Christian expresses its opposition to the power of            remains true that in the consciousness of the child of God
the flesh. In  fact, it is through these that the new life is             sin is horrible transgression against God. He does not  as-
victorieus  over the power of the flesh. Nor must we forget               sume the attitude that he should sin more in order that he
that this is  already  the operation of preserving  grace.   How          may have more material  for humiliation before God and for
wonderful is God's grace,  that He turns .even the presence of            fleeing to Christ.  Such  would  indeed be contrary to true
sin and evil in the Christian unto good. For not only does                humiliation before God and genuine flight to the cross of
God use even our present imperfection unto the glorification              Christ.
of His name, but He also very  really uses even our present
sin and its operation unto our salvation and sanctification and.             2)  This mortification does not imply that the Christian
preservation. Sin  can never be  vidorous.  The operation of             becomes  steadily more perfect. He never has more than a
the power of the flesh must itself serve as a means in God's              smal1  beginning of the new obedience. But the mortification
hand unto our salvation. This is not to say that the Chris-               of the flesh  means that in  regard  to his  sins, which always
tian magnifies  that operation of sin within him and morbidly             remain with him and which, in fact, become more numerous
blesses the presence of that old man of sin. Not at al1 ; the             in the consciousness of the child of God as he progresses on
very opposite is true, according to this very article. NO, the            the  path. of sanctification,  the Christian becomes more and
Christian magnifies the power of God's  grace which puts the              more sincerely sorry and more and more hates and flees sin.
very operation of sin into subjection unto the salvation of                  3) This mortification takes place, according to the article.
the saints  and the glory of God's name.                                  by the Spirit of prayer and by  holy exercises of piety.  The
         For, in the first place, the saints are furnished here with      child of God, conscious of his weakness and infirmity,  re-
constant matter for humiliation before God. This .is not dif-             alizes,  on the one hand, that he is ever in need of God's grace
ficult to understand. By the fact that we are not delivered               and Spirit; and he seeks  that  grace and Spirit in prayer.
aitogether  from the'body of sin, and by the daily sins which                                (Continued  on page  501)


                                          THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                     4%

                                                                    is what the De Wolf group literally did. We read in the re-
           A L L   A R O U N D   U S                                port ,-"the  Protestant Reformed brethren conceded that they
                                                                    might have misinterpreted  the Three Points."
                                                                        .But before we  make  any more comments we give our
RFPOY~  of Conference  with De Wolf  Group.                         readers herewith the report in its entirety with  synod's  re-
   The Bannsr of August 22, 1958 presents a report `Co the          action.
synod of the Christian Reformed Church  of the meetings of               "The  following   excerpts  from the report of the  commit-
a committee of the Chistian Reformed Church and a com-             tee `to confer with the Protestant Reformed-  Churches are of
mittee of the De Wolf group. Most of our readers no doubt           interest :
were aware that such meetings were being held during the
last year; and if they do not  receive  The  Banner,  they  wil1         `In response to a communication  from the Protestant Re-
be curieus  to read the report of these meetings.                   formed Churches (Rev. H. De Wolf group) requesting our
                                                                    Synod to appoint a broad committee (4 ministers and 3
   The report in Thc Banner appeared under the following            elders j to discuss freely the diff erences  and similarities be-
caption : "Conference with Protestant Reformed Churches."           tween our churches, the Synod of 1957 appointed Rev. H.
The report,  however,   makes  clear  that by "Protestant  Re-      Baker,  Rev. J. Weidenaar, Professor M.  Monsma,  Rev. A.
formed Churches" is meant the De Wolf group, i.e.,  the             Persenaire; and the Elders H. Bratt, C. Van Malsen,  and C.
group of churches that separated themselves  from LIS follow-       Z y l s t r a .
ing the heresy of the Rev. De Wolf.                                     `The members  of the Protestant Reformecl Churches' com-
   The reader is wel1 aware that the synod of om- churches          mittee are: Rev. H. De Wolf, Rev.  J, Blankespoor, Rev. M.
has on more than one occasion addressed requests for con-           Gritters,  Rev. E.  Knott;  and the Elders  J. Kok, H.  Knott.
ferences with the Christian Reformed Church, and that it            and E. Howerzyl.'
was only this year that we  received   some semblance of a
satisfactory answer. As the editor of  The  Standard   Bea;ver                                  Procedure.
expressed it, there is "a glimmer of hope that ultimately the            `We are happy to report that  al1 the meetings were
Christian Reformed Church might recognize the Protestant            characterized by friendly, fraternal, free, and frank  discus-
Reformed Churches as Reformed." Though the reply was                sions. It was agreed by both committees  that during the en-
more favorable, it was not without restrictions. One. striking      tire year nothing was to be reported either in their or  our
condition  was "we judge that  such discussions must not be         church periodicals concernin,e the content of our  delibera-
polemical  rehearsals of past history." The editor of  The          tions. We feit that our discussions together should be an on-
Sta.nda,rd  Beam~ may desire  to change the word "polemical"        going process  and that publication of what this or that one
to "fraternal," al1 of which is  wel1 and good with  US, but        had uttered on this or that point  would be premature  and
words have meaning. And in this case it can only mean that          might jeopardize the  intent  of the discussions,  namely   `to
when  we ask for a conference with the Christian Reformed           werk for the unity of the church of Christ.'
Church to discuss our  differences,  we  may not talk  with                                     Similarities.
them about the  very  thing that has divided  US. Mind you               `There are  basic similarities between the Christian  Re-
when  the De Wolf group asked for the same kind of a con-           formed Church  and the Protestant Reformed Churches. Ob-
ference then the Christian*Reformed  synod is willing to talk       viously we met as brethren in  the Lord. We enjoyed our
about the past. Now everyone knows that there is not one            fellowship together and the discussion to such a degree that
of the ministers of the De Wolf group that had anything to          we can honestly say that we looked forward eagerly to OLU-
do with the separation from the Christian Reformed Church.          scheduled meetings. We felt increasingly that the barrier
Most of them were mere youngsters in 1924 and came with             which has kept US apart for more than thirty .years was in
their parents  into the Protestant Reformed Churches. With          the  process  of being  budged to the  mutual  gratification  and
these the Christian Reformed Church wil1 discuss the history        delight of both groups.'
of 1924. But the men (Hoeksema and Ophoff)  who were
put  out of the  .Christian  Reformed Church in 1924  simply                                    Differences.
because they would not subscribe to the Three Points of                  `In order to achieve  genuine unity we felt it obligatory to
Common  Grace,  and  who stil1  desire  to discuss  the history     face squarely the differences which do exist between  us. Oniy
with a view to seeking  unify, with these the Christian  Re-        in  this way is there hope of removing  the difficulties, over-
formed Church wil1 have no polemical rehearsals. This can           coming the obstacles, and leveling the barriers which keep
hardly be considered just and honest.  It is our candid con-        LIS  apart.
clusion that before you  can have a conference with the  Chris-          `The Protestant Reformed brethren favor  unity on  the
tian Reformed Church on the matter of Common Grace you              basis of the Scriptures and the Three Farms  of Unity. They
first must prove to  them that  you  are not sure what the          consider the Three Points of 1924 to be the chief> barrier. It
 Christian Reformed Church means by the Three Points. This           seemed to them that the Three Points jeopardize the Bibli-


500                                           THE  STAN'D:`ARD   BEARER

cal and Confessional doctrines of the eternal  decrees,  the          quested  the committee " to consider giving some publicity to
antithesis, and irresistible grace ; that the Three Points had        the  discussions." One  can hardly  refrain from questioning
been elevated to the position of a Dogma or a fourth creed            the reason given for this secrecy. Of  whom were the  com-
on Common Grace ; that this Dogma reduced the Christian               mittees   afraid  ? That some one on either committee might
Reformed Church to a sect; and that the Three Points there-           speak prematurely on a given point we could conceive as
fore prevented the possibility of  fruitful investigation and         possible. But  how would this jeopardize the  intent of the
ftu-ther  exploration.                                                discussions  ? Were those on the Christian Reformed  com-
                                                                      mittee aware perhaps that there might be some Christian  Re-
       `It was made, clear to them from the Acts of the Synod.        formed members, ministers included, who are not interested
of 1924 that the Three Points were not intended to be the
projection of a full-fledged doctrine of Common Grace and             at  al1 in taking under their wing the De Wolf group? We
that the Synod of 1924 rejected an overture which sought              have reason to believe this has a strong possibility. Or, was
                                                                      the De Wolf committee afraid  perhaps that they have mem-
to have the Synod appoint a committee to draw up a Dogma
on Common Grace.                                                      bers who would rather return to US than subject themselves
                                                                      to the Three Points of Common Grace which they have con-
       `At the same time th Protestant Reformed brethren con-        demned since 1924?  Or, were the two committees  as a whole
ceded that they might have misinterpreted the Three Points.           afraid  perhaps that if we got a hold of their minutes or knew
In our interpretation of the Three Points we were able to             of what this one said on this or that point, that we might
remoire misunderstandings and give assurance that they did            make the whole thing look ridiculous before the eyes of the
not undermine the  basic  doctrines to which we both are  con+        public and thus jeopardize the intent  of the discussions  to
mitted. The possibility of a  "vervangingsformule"  was  can-         seek unity of the two groups? To say the least, the reason-
vassed hut it became  increasingly clear that we cannot turn          ing of the conference is not beyond questioning. The amus-
back the cl&  nor abandon the Three Points of 1924.                  ing factor in  al1 this is the apparent  fact that both  sides of
       `On the other hand we did fee1 that, -without in the least     the conference were so intent  on getting together that they
rejecting the well-meant  offer of salvation, which we believe'       would brook no interruptions.
6  be both Biblical and Confessional, the placement of this
item in the context of the favorable attitude of God to  al1             What the  basic   similarties between' the Christian  Re-
men generally could and did give rise to a measore of con-            formed  and Protestant Reformed Churches of the De Wolf
fusion.                                                               group were the report does not  state.  What is emphasized
                                                                      was the  very friendly and brotherly atmosphere they enjoyed
       `These are instances of some of the matters which  en-         at their meetings. The impression is left that they were so
gaged our attention. We believe that certain difficulties have        friendly and brotherly that before any differences were dis-
been  removed  and that an  atrnosphere  has been created in          cussed they felt that they were  already  one.
which further discussion wil1 indeed prove fruitful.'
       "Synod decided to continue the committee which is  to.            When  we read the report of the differences  discussed  at
confer further with the Protestant Reformed Churches in               the conferences, we concluded that they were satisfactorily
order that the gains achieved  may be preserved and furthered         removed. The Christian Reformed  ,committee answered  al1
in the fond hope that we  al1  may be one in  the Lord. It            the objections of the De Wolf committee. The Three Points
was  also decided to request the committee to consider giving         do not jeopardize the Biblical and Confessional doctrines of
some  publicity  to the discussions."                                 the eternal decrees,  the antithesis and irresistible grace. They
       The above report satisfied our curiosity in two respects.      have not been elevated to the position-of  a Dogma or fourth
It informed                                                           creed on Common Grace. They do not as a Dogma reduce
                US as to the cohstituency  of the two committees,
and it also infortied                                                 the Christian Reformed Church to a  Sect. In  fact the con-
                           US as to the reason why the conferences
helcl by the committees  were kept so secret,                         ference proved from the Acts of 1924 that the synod in
                                                                      1924 did not intend at al1 to make a Dogma out of Common
       We knew, of course, of synod's favorable response to the       Gracc. And the De Wolf committee willingly conceded that
request for a conference by the De Wolf group, and that a             they might have misinterpreted the Three Points, while the
committee was`appointed  to confer with the De Wolf group,            Christian Reformed committee showed them that they did.
but who they were was a secret to outsiders. Now we know              Thus  the- conclusion must be that though the Three Points
who they were who met with a view to seeking unity of the             are no established Dogma, they must n&erthel&s never be
two groups. We are inclined to say something about the con-           abandoned. Perhaps they could be stated a little differently
stituency of these committees, but wil1 refrain for the prebent.      so that no one could again accuse the Christian Reformed
 . It is indeed interesting to note why their conferences were        Church of  embra+tig  Arminianism in the First Point. For
held in secret, and to note also that the synod apparently did        it was admitted that "the  placement of the well-nieant offr
not wholeheartedly approve of this  tactic. Though synod              of salvation in the context of the favorable attitude of God
favored  >he continuance of the conferences, synod  also  re-         to al1 men generally  could and did give rise to a measure of


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                      501

confusion." But even this concession should satisfy the De             collection be taken for  Th  Stawdard  Bca:rer.  After  this a
Wolf group. So we  colnclude finally that there really is  ,no         written Bible Quiz was conducted by Miss  Jannet  Hauck.
need for further conferences. That the synod  .neverth&less            This pyogram was concluded by elder  Jacob Reichert leading
decided that the conferences continue is perhaps due to the            in plosing prayer. The latter  is one of the elders in Isabel.
fact that final arrangementis must be made to officially take              A few games and contests planned by the Hauck sisters
the De Wolf group as a  whole into the Christian  Reformed   . were held afterwards. These were enjoyed and participatcd
Church.                                                       M.S.     in by young and old.  Al1 too soon the time  came to wend
                                                                       our way homeward  once more.
ll                                                                        .Since the undersigned was halfway to Forbes  from Isabel
                                                                       he and Mrs. Lubbers went to Forbes and preached there the
                                                                       following Sunday mornin g to return that Sunday  (July 6.)
                       Missionary  Notes                               to  Isabel for the evening service.
                                                                           Upon requesting the deacons of both churches as to the
      Should the undersigned ever find  time and interest to.          amount  of the collection  1 was  informed  that the collction
write his ($emoirs" of his experience as Home Missionary               wtis just a bit over $50.00.
he  would.not   omit, a  chapter  at the most, or a large  foot-
note at the least, of "A Fourth of July in South Dakota."                i  bltimately we  can get along without the $50.00 1'  am
                                                                       sure.  However, we cannot get along without the love and
      It should be understood that South Dakota abounds in             devotion which account for this collection. It stil1 is true that
Rodeo events "around the Fourth." Mobridge, a city some 60             it is more blessed to give than to receive.  Giving is livitig  !
miles  ea&  from  Isabel,  makes  it a three day event. It  goes       Otherwise the waters of life become stagnant.
somewhat  in the "spirit of the West." Many  a young aspirant             That memorable  Fourth was ended for Mrs. Lubbers ancl
tries  out his spurs! The purse is not high- but there is              the undersigned in a home in Leola,  where   once more  511.
glory and fun ! And p.ossibly a young admiring  maiden  on             evening of singing was enjoyed both from the Psalter and. in
the sunny bleachers ! That alone might  make his heart beat            the  German  language.
just a bit faster or cause it to "skip a beat" !                          With joyful weariness we  fel1  asleep  that  ni&ht  iti  sweet-,
      However,  some thirty  miles eastward  from  al1 this fan-       repose.
fare, there  is.a  State Park of South Dakota. There were
no  crowds  present. It was a blessed  quih in  that beautiful            It was a good and blessed Fourth
park. Mirabile dictu! "Here the two congregations met on                                                                               G.L.
July 4, 1958. Not  al1 were able to attend. One  family   re-
mained at home in the Forbes group to  welcome   visitor-
relatives   from Michigan  ; they arrived in late afternoon at
,the paternal home in Leola, South Dakota. Those who did                               THE  VOiCE   OF  OUR   FATHERS
attend drove about ninety  miles to get there. It was at the
Hidden Wood Lake Park, situated almost  half way between                                  (Continued   from  page 498)
Isabel  and Forbes. There were about thirty-five present.              And on  the other hand, he realizes that God's Spirit and,
      .It was a good day.                                              grace equip him and spur him on in the battle of faith. Hence, i
      At  lOi30  C.S.T.  (Isabel  has M.S.T.). nearly  al1  arrived    praying the Christian fights, and fighting he prays,  prays.
at the Park. There was horse-shoe.  pitching, ball-game before         that by the power of grace he mai have the' victory-over siti.
dinner. Since it  "almost  rained"  al1 that day  tables  were            Finally,  the effect of the Christian's present sin and im-
somehow put through the drop doors at the  sides of the                perfection is that through the consciousness thereof he is
pavilion. At noon  al1 gathered for a bountiful  repast.  "NO          brought  to long for the  final perfection. Then,  when he  is-
one went hungry" was the under-statement of the day !                  finally delivered  from this body of death, and reigns with the
      At 1:30 a program was rendered. There was community              Lamb of God in heaven, he shall have attained  the full vic-
singing of various Psalter  numbers.         M r .   (elder)  Edoch tory over sin. And in the midst of his present sin, his present
Hauch  from Forbes led in opening prayer. The little  chil-            humiliation,   bis present prayer for forgiveness through the
clren from both congregations sang Psalter No. 69. It was al1          blood of Christ, his present praying battle against sin, he
without accompaniment of  music. The three Hauch sisters               longs  hopcfully  for that  ultimate perfection. Then the battle
sang in harmony two Psalter  numbers.  The undersigned gave            wil1 be finished   ; then he shall no more daily have to seek
a  forty-minute  speech on "Christian Freedom in  Democ-               forgiveness ; th& that smal1 beginning of the new life' shall
racy." We had  some more  community  singing  from the                 no more be smal1 and weak, but shall have full Sway in his
Psalter. The undersigned explained the purpose of the "Re-             whole being ancl life  ; then the victory shall be complete.
formed : Free Publishing Association" and suggestcd  that a                                                                       H.C.H.


   502                                                                     THE  STqNDARD'BEARER

            I N D E X   ~TO  V O L U M E   XXXI-                                                                                      SUBJECT                                                          Author       Page No.
                                                                                                                 HebAws   2:3 . .................................................................. .G . V .   4 3 4   1 9
                                             TEXT   INDEX                                                        Hebrews  10:29 .............................................................. ..G.V. 434 19
                         SUBJECT                                                        Author      Page No.     11  .Peter 1:9 .................................................... . ......... O.L.M.S.           148       7
   Gene&   3:l .............................................................. G.M.O. 177  I  8                  Revelation 5:Ga .................................... .:, .................... .:...G.V.             73 4
   Genesis  59:15b,  19,  2lb .................................................. G . V .   2 1 7   1 0           Revelation  6:1-8 ........................................................... :H.H. 6 1
   Exodus  32:1, 32, 34b ....................................................... G.V.  361 16                    Revelation  6:1-8            .......................................................... H.H.        30      2
   Psahn32:1,2 ................................................................. *G.V.                1     1    Revelation 6: 1-8 ........................ .:. ...................... .:. ....... .H.H.             54 3
   Psalm  63~3 ........................................................................ G.V.         97 5        Revelation 6: 1-8 .......................................................... ..H.H.                 78 4
   Psalm  69:4b ..................................................................... G.V. 193 9                 Revelation  :1-8           ............................................................ H.H. 102 5
   Psalm  110:4 ......................... ............................................G.V. 241             11    Revelation  6:9-11           ................. ......................................... H.H. 103            5
   Psalm  119:1-8 ............................................................ G.C.L. 324 `14                    Revelation  6:9-11 ...... :...................................................  H.H. 129                     6
   Proverbs  23:26b .............................................................. G.V. 169 8                    Revelation  6:12-17            ........................................................ H.H.  lr15  8
   Isaiah  57:15 .................................................................... G.V. 25 2                  Revelation  :12-17            .................. ...................................... H.H.      199       9
   Zechariah         9:14-17 .................................................... G.M.O.              9     1    Revelation  6:12-17            ............................................... _......... H . H .   2 2 2   1 0
- Zechariah  lO:l,  2 ...................................................... G.M.O.                  10     1    Revelation  7:1-8 ............................................................ H . H .   2 2 4   1 0
   Zechariah 10:3-7 ............................ <. .......................... G.M.O.                32     2    Revelation 7:1-8 ............................................................ H.H. 246 11
   Zechariah  10:8-12 ...................................................... G.M.O.                  58     3    Revelation 7:1-8 ............................................................ H.H. 270 12
   Zechariah  ll:l-14 ...................................................... G.M.O.                  8 1   `4    Revelation 7:13, 14 ...................................................... G.V. 409 18
   Zechariah ll:l-14 ....................................................... G.M.O.                 106     5    Revelation 7:9, 13-17 .................................................... H.H. 271 12
   Zechariah  11:15-17 .................................................... G.M.O.                  107     5    Revelation  7:9, 13-17 .................................................... H.H.                   294     13
   Zechariah  12:1-9 ........................................................ G.M.0                 132 .. 6     Revelation 7:9, 13-17 .................................................... H.H.                    320     14
   Zechariah  12:1-9 ........................................................ G.M.O. 150 7                       Revelation 7:10-12             ........... :. ........................................... H.H.     320     14
   Zechariah  12:1-9 ......................................................... G.M.O.               176     8    Revelation 7:10-12             ........................................................ H.H.       343     15
   Zechariah 1.2:lO ................................... ............................ G.V.           385    17    Revelation  7:10-12            .................................... i .................... H.H.    390     17
   Zechariah  12:10-13:l .... . ........................................... G.M.O. 202                      9    Revelation  7:10-12            ........................................................ H . H .   4 1 4   1 8
   Zechariah 13:2-6 ........................................................ G.M.O.                 226    10    Revelation  8:1-6 .............................. I.. ........................... H.H. 415 18
   Zechariah 13:7. ... . ................................. ..................... G.M.O. 248                11    Revelation  8:1-6 ............................................................ H . H .   4 3 9   1 9
   Zechariah 133%9 .............................................. ..- .... G.M.O. 273                      12    Revelation 8:1-6 ............................................................ H.H. 462 20
   Zechariah  14:1-21 ...................................................... G.M.O.                 297    13    Revelation 8:7-12 ............................... < .......................... H.H. 487 21
   Zechariah 14:6, 7 ...................................................... G.M.O.                  321    14                                          SUBJECT   INDEX
   Zechariah  14:8-11 ........................................ .:. ............ G.M.O.              345    15
   Zechariah 14:12-15 .............................................. ...... G.M.O.                  367    16                                                    -A-
   Zechariah 14:16-19 .................................................... G.M.O.                   367    16    Absolute Abnegation ...................................................... G.V.                    193      9
   Zechariah  14:20-21 ..................................................... G.M.C.  3 9 2   1 7                 Abraham's Sacrifice of Isaac .................................... G.M.O.                            70 3
   Matthew  23:37 .............................................................. G . V .   4 8 1   2 1           Address  and Question  Hour,  Transcript of ................H.H. 464 20
   Matthew 24 and 25 (Introduction) ............................ G.C.L.                             349    15    A Good Meeting ........................................ .: .................H.H.                    28      2
   Matthew 24:1-3 ..................... ..: .......................... r.. ..... G.C.L.             371    16    An Allegory ................................................................ J.M.F.                370     16
   hilatthew   24:5-9 .......................................................... G.C.L. 417 18                   Angel of Jehovah, The .................................................. A.M. 429 18
   Matthew  24:9-14             ......................................................... G.C.L.    444    19    An Important Conference at Cutlerville ....................M.S.                                     47 2
   Matthew  24:15-28              ...................................................... G.C.L.     466 20       A Reformed Church, An Enemy of Christian  Schools..M.S.  143                                                6
   Matthew  24:29-31 .................................................. :...G.C.L.  4 9 1   2 1                  As To The Bible Text ........................................ .`...........  D.B.                   78 4
   Matthew 25:1-13 ............................................................ C.H.                159     7    Attitude of Faith ............... .o.. ..........................................H.H. 196                   9
   Matthew  27:17b,  20, 21b ................ ~................ .............G.V. 265 12                         A Wonderful Meeting .................................................. H.H. 220 10
   Mark  13:33-37 ................................................................ C.H. 159 7                                                                    -B-
   Mark  14:53,  63a, 64 ................................................ i. ....G.V.               241    11    Baptism, Jesus by John .................................................. R.V. 475 20
   Mark .i5:25" ...................................................................... G.V. 289            13    Become One With Them .............................................. H.H.                           317    14
   Luke  2~6,  7 ........................................................................G.V.       121     6    Better Than Life ................. ...................................... :;...G.V.                 97 5
   Luke  15:11-32 ........... . ..............o ..................................... G.V.           49 3        Birth O f The Saviour .................................................... G.V.                    121      6
   Luke 24: 13-35 .................................... ..;. ........................ G.V. 313 14                 Blessedness of the  Justified   Simaer ............................... G.V.                          1      1
   John  10:lla ........................................................... *. ....... G.V. 4 5 7   2 0          Books, As to
   Acts 8:36-39 .................................................................... G.V.;          337    15          Christelijke Encyclopedie ...................................... H.H.                        198      9
   1 Corinthians 7 (Introduction)  ,.:. .............................. G.C.L.                       134     6          Commentaar op het Nieuwe Testament ............H.H. 198                                               9
   1 Corinthians  7:1-7` .................................................... G.C.L. 153 7                             Commentaar op het Oude Testament ..................H.H. 198                                           9
   1 Corinthians  7:8-11 .................................. . ...............G.C.L. 179                     8          De Boeken der Kronieken .................................... H.H. 198                                 9
   1 Corinthians  7:12-16              ................................................ G.C.L. 205 9                   Op deManaf ........................................................ H.H.                     198      9
   1 Corinthians  7:12-16              ................................................. G.C.L. 229' 10                A  Goodly  Heritage ................................................ H.H.                    198      9
   1 Corinthians  7:17-24 ................................................ G.C.L. 251 11                               Anneke Jans ............................................................ H.H.                319    14
   1 Corinthians 7:25-35               ......... .: ................................... ..G.C.L.    276    12          Gezicht op de Zending ........................................ H.H.                          319    14
   1 Corinthians  7336-40 ................................................ G.C.L. 300 13                               Fa.& and Perseverance ........................................ H.H. 485 21
   1 Corinthians  13:2b              ...................................................... G.V. 169 8                 The Greatest of these is Love .............................. H.H. 486 21
  1 Corinthians  14:21 .................................................... G.C.L.                   12     1          Pastorale Adviezen ................................................ H.H.                     486 21
  I Corinthians  14:22-25 ......................... ..~~ ................. G.C.L.                    37 2              Tact en Contact ...................................................... H.H.                  486 21
  1 Corinthians  14:26-33 .............................................. G.C.L.                     60     3           The Deeper Faith ................................................... H.H. 486 21
  1 Corinthians  14:33-40 ,__ ........................................... G.C.L.                     84 4                                                        -c-
  I Timothy  2:2 .......................................... . .... .._..... ........... G.L.        358    15    Calvinism, The Truth ...................................................... R.H. 288 12
   II Tiniothy  4:7, -8  .:<. ...................................................... G.V. 145               7          Continued ............................. . .................................. R.H.            312    13


                                                                     THE  STANDARD   BEARER                                                                                                                                503

                     SUBJECT                                                     Author      Page No.                              SUBJECT                                                            Author       Page No.
      Continued ................................................................ R . H .   3 3 6   1 4       Cont&ling  -For The Faith ...................................... ..; t -....H.V.
      Continued ................:% .................................. ..~ ....... R.H. 360 15                       (See Church and Sacraments)  _
      Continued ............................................................... .R.H.       383      16      Correspondence ................................................................H.H,                   174 8
Canons of Dordrecht  -                                                                                       Covenant Joy ................................................................ J.A.H. 4 6 8   2 0
                                                                                                             Credentials         ............. .:. ................................................. .G.V.B.       3 5 6   1 5
      Head 111, IV, Chapter 15 ................................ H.C.H.                        18       1            Continued ........................................................... .G.V.B.                  3 7 9   1 6
      Head 111, IV, Chapter 15 ................................ H.C.H.                        43       2     Crucifixion, The ............................................................. .G.V.                  2 8 9   1 3
      Head 111, IV, Chapter 16 ................................ H.C.H. 64 3
      Head 111,  IV, Chapter 16 ................................ H.C.H. 90 4                                                                                      -D-
      Head  111, IV, Chapter  17 ................................ H.C.H.                    115        5     Daane Again Under Scrutiny ........................................ M.S.                              189 8
       Head 111, IV, Chapter 17                    .............................. H.C.H. 139          6      Daane's Distortion of Reformed Truth ............... %. ....... H.H.                                   77 4
      Rejection of Errors, Art. 1 ................................ H.C.H. 185                         8      Daane's Distortion of Reformed Truth ........................ H.H.                                    100 5
      Rejection of Errors, Art. 2 ................................ H.C.H. -211                        9             Continued .............................................................. H.H.                  128 6
      Rejection of Errors, Art. 3 ................................ H.C.H. 234 10                             Daane's Negativism ............................................ ..~....... H.H.                        28 2
      Rejection of Errors, Art. 4 ................................ H.C.H. 257 11                             Daane's Ravings ........................................................... .H.H.                      53 3
      Rejection of Errors, Art. 5 ................................ H.C.H.                   282      12      Day of Shadows ........................................................ G.M.O.
      Rejection of Errors, Art. 5 ................................ H.C.H. 306 13                                    (See Prophecy of Zechariah)
      Rejection of Errors, Art. 6 ................................ H.C.H. 330 14                             Declaration of Principles .............................................. ..H.H. 2 4 4   1 1
      Rejection of Errors, Art. 7 ........ . ....................... H.C.H. 354 15                                  Continued .................... _. ......................................... .H.H. 2 9 2   1 3
      Rejection of Errors, Art. 7 ................................ H.C.H. 377 16                                    Continued .............................................................. ..H.H. 3 1 7   1 4
      Rejection of Errors, Art. 8 ........ . ....................... H.CH.   3 9 9   1 7                            Continued ............................................................... .H.H. 3 4 0   1 5
      Rejection of Errors, Art. 9 ................................ H.C.H. 422                        18       '  C o n t i n u e d .............................................................. H.H. 3 6 4   1 6
      Head V, Introduction ........................................ H.C.H. 472 20                                   Continued ............................................................... .H.H. 4 6 1   2 0
      Head V, Chapter 1  .,,.__.: .................... _..............,H.C.H.               473 20                  Continued ............................................................... .H.H. 4 8 4   2 1
      Head V, Chapter 2 ............................................ H.C.H. 497 21                           Decree, The ................................................................... ..H.H.                124 6
Christ's Death and Its Significante ................................ M.S. 310                        13      Diatrephes         ....................................................... :. .............H.H.       3 1 6   1 4
Church and the Sacraments .........................................H.V.                      41       2      Did They Know .That Jesus Is The Christ ....................H.V. 2 2 0   1 0
Church and the Sacraments .................................. ..Y .. .H.V.                    62       3      Divine Love ... ................................................................ :`.C.V.
                                                                                                                                        . . . . .                                                                   49       3
Church and the Sacraments ........................................ H.V.                      88       4                            *                              -E-
Church and the Sacraments ........................................ H.V.                     113       5
Church and  the Sacraments  ._._ .................................... H.V. 157                        7      Ecclesiastical  Jurisdiction                   .......................................... G.V.B.' 4 5 0   1 9
Church and the Sacraments ..................................... :..H.V..                    183       8      Editorials ........................................................................ H.H.
Church and the Sacraments ........................................ H.V. 209                           9        (Listed Alphabetically under Individual, Headings)  '
Church and the Sacraments ........................................ H.V. 255 11                                                                                    -F-
Church and the Sacraments ........................................ H.V. 280                          12      Feature Article's Schedule ....................................................                        24 1
Church and the Sacraments ......................... . ..............H . V .   3 0 4   1 3                    Feature Articles:
Church and the Sacraments ........................................ H . V .   3 2 8   1 4                            Angel of Jehovah, The ........................................ A M . 4 2 9   1 8
Church and the Sacraments ........................................ H . V .   3 5 2   1 5                            Church or  Sect ............................................... _. ....... H.H. 2 5 9   11
Church and the Sacraments ........................................ H.V. 375 16                                      Harmony Between Righteousness and  Mercy ..R.C.H.                                              109       5
Church and the Sacraments ........................................ H . V .   3 9 7   1 7                            Jesus' Baptism by John .......................................... R.V. 4 7 5   20
Church and the Sacraments ........................................ H . V .   4 2 1   1 8                           Jesuits,  The ........................................................ G.J.V.B.                 3 0 3   IJ
Church and the Sacraments ....................................... .H.V.                     448      19             Parable. Of The Ten Virgins ................................ C.H.                              159 7
Church and  the Sacraments ................... j .................... H . V .   4 7 0   2 0                         Quiet  and Peaceable Life of  1 Tim.  22  ____,_____.____  G.L.                                3 5 8   1 5
Church and the Sacraments .......................................... H . V .   4 9 5   2 1                          Revelation ..................................................... .: ........ .H.H. ,405  1 7
Church in Soviet  Russia, The ............... .......... I.. ............ M.S. 215                    9             Revelation by Dreams and Visions .................. ..B.W. 4 5 4   1 9
Church Order. -                                                                                                     Sign of the Son of Man in Hedven  __________.__._____.__  R.V. 213 9
      Article 30 ............................................................ G.V.B. 20 1                           Socialism .................................................................. H.H. 4 4 0   1 9
      Article 31 (Introd.) ............................................ G.V.B. 117                    5             Symbolism of Colors in Scripture ............... .I.. ..... R.V.                                16. 1
      Article 31 ................. . ......................................... G.V.B.       140       6      Forgotten That He Was Purged .................................. H.H.                                  148 7
      Article 31 ............................................................ G.V.B. 161              7      Free to Celebrate Christmas in the Future ................M.S. 4 5 2   1 9
      Article 31 ............................................................ G.V.B. 187 8                   Freedom From Fear ..................................................... J.A.H. 2 7 8   1 2
      Article 31 ............ %, .............................................. G . V . B .   2 3 7   10            Continued ............................................................ J.A.H.                  3 2 6   1 4
      Article 31 .......................................................... ;.G.V.B.  2 8 4   1 2                   Continued .................................... >. ......................J.A.H.                 3 5 0   1 5
      Article 32 ............................................................ G.V.B.        308      13             Continued               ............................................................ J.A.H.    3 7 3   1 6
      Article 32 ............................................................ G.V.B.. 3 3 2   1 4                   Continued               ............................................................ J.A.H.    3 9 5   17
      Article 33 ............................................................. G.V.B. 356 15                        Continued ............................................................ J.A.H. 4 1 9   1 8
      Article 33 ..... ....................................................... G.V.B. L 379 16               From  Ligbt to Darkness ............................................... *G.V.                         3 3 7   1 5
      Article 33 ............................................................ G . V . B .   $91 17                                                                 -G-
      Article 34 ............................................................ G.V.B. 425 . .lE
      Article 35 ............................................. _..... , ........ G.V.B. 425 .. 18            Genuineness ................................................... . ...... :.........  G.V. 169 8
      Article 36 ................. I.. ........................................ G.V.B. 450 .19               God Is Not Deformed .................................................... M.S.                          22 1
Church or  Sect ................................................ . ...............H.H. 259 11                                                                      -H-
Committing our Way Unto The Lord .......................... H.H.                            172        8     Harmony Between Righteousness and  Mercy.. .......... R.C.H.                                          109 5
Community Churches .................................................... M.S. 239. l0                         Highness `With Lowliness ............................................ ..G.V.                           25 2
Confusion ......................................................................... H . H .   2 6 9   1 2    Hoeksema, An Example of Immigrant Production ..... M.S. 2 4 0   1 0
,Contemporary,  Evangelical  Thought ............................ M.S. 286 12                                How Shall We Escape .................................................... G.V. $34.   1 9


                                                                                          -.---------   _  _.--
504.'                   :-                                                -`J'HE`                   `s'T'ND&k.D                                     -B'EAREr\                                 `-              .-                ..
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                .  SUBJECT                                                             Authot      P a g e   N o .                        S U B J E C T                                                      Author        P a g e   N o .
                                                          I-                                                             Reply to Rev.  McKay .................................................. G.V.B.                      45         2
Improper Discemment .... . ......................................... H.H.K.                         261         11             Continued         ............................................................ G.V.B.          66        3
Improper Discernment ................................................. K.F. 408                                 1'7..    Report of Conferences with De Wolf  Group ............. .M.S. 499 21
In The Midst Of  The Throne .........................................                    G.V.         73 4               Report of Eastern  Ladies' League ............................... E.K.                              93         4
Isaiah; The  Dead Sea  Scroll  of ................................... M.S. 311 13                                        Report of Western Ldies' League .............. . ...............G.B.                               96         4
                                                                                                          -.             Report of Western  Ladies' League ........................... H.J.B. 431                                      18
                                                        - J -                                            <'              Reunion,  OnIy  in the Right Way ............................... H.H. 268 ,12
J.ehovah,   the God of A `th
                                       rr         t'
                                              mem .......................... I.. ...J.A.H.          493 21               Reumte, Shall We? ......................... ........................... :.H.H.                     341        15
JerusaIem! Jerusalem! .................. . .............. .___: ..............G.V..                 481 21..             Revelation        ................................................................ . ....H.H. 405             17
Jesuits ................................................ ......................... G.J.V.B. 302  13'                     Revelation  by, Dreams and Visions ....... :.: ....................B.W.                            454        19
Jesus or Barabbas ............................................................. G.V.                265         12                                                        -s-
Jesus' Resurrection .......................................................... G.V.                 313. .. 14           Schaff   Herzog  Encyclopedia,  The New ........................ M.S. 286                                     12
                                                        -L-                                                              Shepherd, The Good .................................................... G.V. 457 20
Last Things, The Doctrine Of ...................................... M.S.                              69        .3'      Showing the Coming Generation  God's  Praise ........ J.A.H.                                         14 1
Letter From The Chr. Reformed Church ..................R. J.D.                                        70 3                     Continued .............................................................. J.A.H.                39        2
,Letter  From South Holland .............................. . ...................                    365         16       Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven ................................ R.V. 213                                     9
Liturgical Prayers ............................................. .:. ...... ..G.V.B.                332 .14              Skandalon, The Great .................................................... G.V. 241                            11
`Lovingkindness               .............................................................. G . V .   2 1 7   1 0       SociaIism       .............. .......................................................... H.H.     441        19
                                                                                                                         Sovereignty Denied .................................................... G.V.B.                       92        4
                                                    AM-                                                                  Spiritual Bifocals .......................................................... J.A.H.               416        19
Marriage,  Mistaken  Notions on .................................... M.S.                           478 20               SpirituaIIy Sensitive .................................................. . .J.A.H.                   86 4
Meditation, Brief But Beautiful .................................. M.S.                               95 4                     Continued ................................................ i. ............J.A.H.             111         5
Meditations ..................................................................... .G.V.                                        Continued .............................................................. J.A.H.              136          6
       (Listed Alphabetically Under Individual Headings)                                                                       Continued .............................................................. J.A.H. 155                       7
Missions and Common Grace ........................................ H . H .   4 3 6   1 9                                       Contiriued ................... ........................................... J.A.H.            181          8
Missionary Notes ........................................................ G.C.L.                    431         18             Continued .............................................................. J.A.H. 207                       9
Missionary Notes ........................................................ G.C.L.                    456 19                     Continued .............................................................. J.A.H. 231                     10
Missionary Notes ...................................................... ..G.C.L.                    480 20                     Continued .............................................................. J.A.H. 253 11
Missionary Notes ....................................................                 G.C.L.        501 21               Sputnik, Mumik, Whatnik ............................................ M.S.                          163         7
Moderamen .................................................................. G.V.B.                 425         18       Standard Bearer and om Future ................................... .H.H.                              52 3
                                                                                                                                Continued         ............................................................. .H.H.         76 4
                                                        -N-                                                                    Continued ................................................................ H.H.              101         5
Nature  of an Epitaph ........................... . ........................ G.V.                   145  -  7            State  A  Result  of Common Grace, The ........................ M.S. 334 14
Notes from the Baptist Examiner ................................ M.S.                                 94 4               Symbolism  of  Colors  in Scripture .................................. R.V.                          16         1
                                                    -O-                                                                  Synod, of 1958,  Om ...................................................... H.H. 412 18
                                                                                                                               Continued ................................................................ H.H. 436 19
Open Letter to Rev. J. Blankespoor ............................ H.V.                                233         10             Continued ................................................................ H.H. 460 20
Om Conception of Churches ................................... .H.H.K.                                 71 3
Our  Conception of Churches ........................................ K.F. 191                                    8                                                        -T-
Om  Creeds  and the  Mission  Mandate ........................ M.S.                                   68 3               Temptation of Man, The .......................................... G.M.O.                           177         8
Our Doctrine ............. ................................................... H.H.                                      Television, Synod Condemns ...................................... ..M.S. 478 20
       (See "Revelation" under Text Index)                                                                               Ten PIagues, Their Purpose .................................... G.M.O.                            347         15
Our Future ...................................................................... H.V.              165          7       Testimony Regarding Our Own P. R. Schools ............ M.S.                                         48         2
      Continued ................................................................ H.V.               191          8       The Three Points and Those That  Forsook
Om Second Church ........................................................ H.H.                      149          7             The Prot. Ref.  Truth ............................................ H.H.                         4        1
Out  of the Great  Tribulation ..................... . .................. G.V. 409                              18       To My,Surprise ...................................................... C.V.D.M.                    408         17
                                                    -p-                  _                                               Torch and Trumpet Undergoes  Another  Change ........ M.S.                                          47         2
Parable of the Ten Virgins .......................................... C.H. 159                                   7       Truc and  False  Church As To The Confessions ...... ..B.M.                                       359         15
Peniel     .......................................................................... G.M.O. 322 14                      Tuition  and  Income Tax ................................................ M.S. 287 12
Pentecostal   Blessings  In Prospect .................................. G.V.                        385         17                                                       -u-
Prayer in Ecclesiastical Assemblies ................. .._ ........ G.V.B.                           308         13       Unconditional Election .................................................. M.S. 381 16
                                                   -Q-                                                                   United  `Theological  Education in N. Nigeria ................M.S. 403                                        17
Question  about  Dramatios .............................................. M.S. 405 17                                    Unity  We Seek, The  Nature  of  the .............................. M.S.                          119          5
Question Box:
      As To The Bible Text ............................................ H.H.                         78 4                                                                -v-
      Did They Know That Jesus Is The Christ ............ H.H. 220                                              10       Voice of om Fathers .................................................. H.C.H.
      Forgotten That He Was Purged ......................... .H.H.                                  148          7             (Sec  Canons of Dordrecht)
Question Hour and  Address,  Transcript of ..................H.H. 464 20                                                 Voting  Rights .............................................................. G.V.B. 401                      17
      Continued .................................................... I ........... H.H.            4 8 9   2 1
Quiet and Peaceable Life of  1 Timothy  2:2 ................ G.L.                                   358         15                                                      -.w -
                                                                                                                         Waiting Til1 Next Synod .............................................. H.H. 245 11
                                                   -R-                                                                   Worship of the Golden Calf ........................................ G.V.                          361         16
Reaffirming the Reformation ........................................ MS.                           427          18                                                                 Index by Rev. G.  Vanden Berg


