     VQLUME  x=v                                OCTOBER 1, 1958-Gauq  RAPIDS, MICHIGAN  -'                                   - NTJMU.R  1


                                                                                  Some of the poor saints of God in olden times have-found
Ij-. IV1.E DITA.TION                                                          it out that man needs room physically. They were crushed
                                                                               and `broken on the rack. Other things : knives,. swords, in-

                                                                               struments of torture, have invaded the room they nee,ded for

                  ROsOM  WITH   G                 O     D     .         ~-     their little bodies, which room was denied them for-the sake
                    "                                                          of the testimony and the faith of Jesus. And.they  suffered.
                         . . . . . and yet there Is room."  Luke 1432213
                                                                                  It is-not, much, but a few cubic feet of room is necessary

    You may be certain that when the last.of the Old Testa-                   in order to live our physical life on earth. And God pro-

ment saints was shown his or her place in -God's  heaven,                     vided plenty `of space. There is place-to  move-for ail. -`Crowd-

that their number was great and their beauty wonderful.                       ing is not really necessary. `Even if all men that ever lived

From Adam to John the Baptist: what a glorious number                         should stand in the state of Texas, there would be room and

of elect!                                                                     `to spare.

    Shall we now begin to be merry ? Shall, we now destroy                        Also mentally there must be room for man. You see, all

the old heaven and the old earth, so that out of the burning                  .things  that God has made have their speech and their ideas

elements we may see the regeneration of new heavens and a                     come crowding in unto us and clamour  that -we take them

new earth? Shall we set the judgment seat, 0 Almighty                         and harbour them. So that haply  ,we  .may digest them and

Judge? Shall we usher in the throngs of the godless and                       their wondrous beauty. So that we might haply  meditate on

the throng of the redeenlecl  to hear the contents of the-books               -them, understand them and enjoy them. If not, if there

of remembrance ? Shall we make an end of things, so that                      is no room for them, if we are straightened mentally we are

the blessed eternal dispensation of Thy Covenant may-  begin,                 in a sorry state.- Then they, that is, created things of tree

never to end ?                                                                and grass, of animal. and element, of mountain and ocean,

    Listen: the servant of God speaketh: Lord, Thou hast                      -they all speak to us, but `we do not properly digest them,

commanded that from Adam to the end of the old dispen-                        make a hodge-podge of them and suffer. When all these

sation I `gather the poor, maimed, halt and blind from the                    things do not find  their proper place in our soul's mentality

streets and the lanes of the city. Well, it is-.done~as  `Thou                then we do not sing as we ought. Instead of the harmony

hast  commanded, and yet there is room."                                      they should produce in wondrous singing, they make us rave

    And the answer. I would like to furnish through the mouth                 in the diseased mind of the pseudo-priest.

of the writer to the Hebrews in Chapter ,ll :40 ; "`God having                    But above all there should be room spiritually for man,

provided some better thing for us, that `they without us                      if he is to be happy.      -

should not be made perfect."                                                      After all is said and' done, man ought to be in the arms

    And so it happened that the,  selfsame  servant of God                    of God. Unless he finds himself there, he can never rest in

went out in the highways. and hedges in order to compel                       peace. We may talk of the arms of luxury, of gold and silver,

the saints of `the New Dispensation to also enter in through                  of possessions and lands, of gifts and talents, of honor and

the portals into the banqueting halls of the Master-Who                       praise-they cannot give us the room our spirits need.

made a great supper.                                                          You need the room with God.

    For there was yet room with God.                                              Now God has room.

    Beautiful thought: there is yet room with God.                                The same word used' in Luke 14 :22b  is translated plncc

                                                                              in the prophecy of Jesus in John 14: "I go to prepare a
                             * + * *
                                                                              place for you."

    Man needs room.                                                             God has room in His house.

. - Physically, mentally and spiritually,, he needs room.                         Ah, that House of God: what wondrous room it has.

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


     Room to the Glory of God. That is the purpose for the           people would follow the pseudo-god and make a prudent

building that is made without hands.                                 covenant with hell: and they shall find the reward of their

                                                                     spirits for unto the wicked there is no peace.
     YOLI see, God dwells in that House of the Father of

Jesus. He dwells there to the glory of His own Name. In                                          8    :!: * *
that House the room, all the room, is used to reveal the

life of God which is the life of perfect harmony in love and             Yet there is room with God.

friendship. There Father sings of the good pleasure He                   Ah, but how shall we, the impure, enter the abode of the
finds in the Son; there the Son ever seeks the.  Father and          blest ?
answers in the chorus of Filial love ; there the Spirit searches         It is through Jesus.
the depths of God and finds the ever vibrant chords of ever-
                                                                         He is the King of Glory Who boldly commands the
lasting friendship.
                                                                     eternal doors : "Lift LIP  your heads, 0 ye gates; even lift
     And the roof'of that House should be over your head if          them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall
you.are  to be happy in eternal life.                                come in."
     It is to know God and in that knowledge to join in the              It is well ; we have, we can have no objection for King
song of everlasting friendship.                                      of glory He is. But what means that throng of wonderful
-    Listen: a few of the strains of that happy singing we           beings that follow Him up the steep hill of the Lord? How
have heard from the mouth of John: "Blessing, and honor,             is it that they also follow and enter?
and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the                  Ah, that is the Evangel of the ages.
throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."                            He reserved room for countless thousands that could not

     Room for your singing spirit you need, my brother,              enter because of their sin. And He earned the room by being

     That is, room with God.                                         straightened Himself.

                                                                         Physically: there was no room for Him in the inn.

                          * * * *                                        And throughout His life on earth, we begrudged Him

                                                                     the few cubic feet He needed for His holy body. A mere 33
     It seems almost as though I- hear the anxious quest : But       years He walked in our midst and we sometimes threatened
how are we to enter the abode of the blest? What constitutes         to throw Him from the cliff. At the end we hung Him on
entrance through the gates into the House of God?                    the Cross. There was no room for Him.
     And the answer is indeed terrible. Because Father is                Mentally, He was distressed, amazed, grieved, troubled
very particular whom .He invites.                                    even unto death. For surely He bore our sorrows and He

     You must be a man with clean hands, pure heart, a soul          was acquainted with grief. So utterly straightened He was

that doth not lift up itself unto vanity, neither swears deceit-     at times that the agony of His soul found expression in

fully.                                                               bloody sweat that fell from His brow.

     Only when the above perfectly fits you may stand in the             Spiritually, there was no room for Him. Forsaken in His

Holy place. For such'is the room with God.                           human consciousness from God, He cried : Oh, my God, why

     But this is indeed terrible, for we are the very opposite.      hast Thou forsaken Me?" He suffered hell on earth. The

We have dirty and filthy hands, our hearts are deceitful and         torments of the damned were His portion.

impure more than anything, who shall know it? Our soul                   And He did it, so that you might have room with God.

is vain all the day long and we swear indeed, but it is the              The fruit of all this indescribable suffering in the "be-

swearing of falsehood. Perjurer is the name that fits.               nauwdheid" of Jesus is room in the banqueting halls of the

     But more terrible is the place that fits the filthy, the im-    Father for you and for me. Oh, the depth !

pure, the vain and the perjurers. It is the place that is pre-           A few cubic feet we need. And there shall be an earth

pared for the devil and his fellows.                                 in which dwelleth righteousness. It is the earth that shall

     It is a place indeed, but there will be no room.                never grow old.

     Physically, there will be no room: it will be "benauwd"             Worlds of thought, of song and rapturous meditation we

there. The eternal fire and brimstone will invade your frame         need. And it shall be given you in the beauty of a recreated

if die you nx~st in your sin. They will invade your body and         world that eye never saw nor ear heard and has never en-

they shall burn but never annihilate.                                tered the heart of man. You shall walk along the shores of the

     Mentally, there will be no room: the soul shall be in           river of God and the tree of life that giveth a harvest in every

"vertwijfeling?'  and "wanhoop." Of quiet reflection, of har-        moon.

monious singing because of wondrous ideas, of beauteous                  God you need, room in His bosom.

images in the mind, there is not. There will be only passive             Listen, Jesus is speaking: I in them, and Thou in Me,

suffering of the soul.                                               that they may be made perfect in one ; and that the world

     Spiritually, there will be no room: the spirit shall be         may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as

companion to the devil and his fellows. These miserable              -Thou hast loved me.

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


    Room with God. And yet there is room.

    Are                                                                                                       IruE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
            you entering, brother? If you are then you will con-

fess that it is the ingathering of the sheep of Christ through                       Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August

His Word and Spirit.                                                                   Published by the REFORMED FREE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
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    There's a land that is fairer than day ; and by faith we
                                                                                                                      Editor - REV. HERMAN HOEKSEMA
can see it afar; for the Father waits over the way, to prepare
                                                                                      Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
us a dwelling-place there. In the sweet by and by we shall                                               Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E.,
meet on that beautiful shore !                                                                                                           Grand Rapids 7, Mich.

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Date            Subject            Writer            Rubric replaced                  Entered as Second  Class matter at Grand Rapids, Michigan


January l-

  Plays, Drama and Television                    Voice of our Fathers
                                  C. Hanko                                                                                                 C O N T E N T S

                                                                                MEDITATION -
February l-
                                                                                             Room with God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .          I
  Tile  Meaning of Shiloh  in                    Decency and Order
                                                                                                         Rev. G. Vos
  Genesis 49:lO                  R. Veldman

                                                                                EDITORIALS -
March l-
                                                                                            The Declaration of Principles __._......__.....,__.......,.....,....,...........  4
  The Inner  Man of Scripture                    Contending for the Faith
                                                                                                         Rev. H. Hoeksema
  as in Ephesians 3:lG            H. Hanko                 -!

                                                                                N
April 1 -                                                                            EWS     O F       OUR           CHURCHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  t . .._............... 6
                                                                                                         Mr. J. M. Faber
  The Deception of Ai  in                        In His Fear

  Joshua 8                    G. Van Baren                                      OUR DOCTRINE -

May l-                                                                                      The Book of Revelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .               7'
                                                                                                         Rev. H. Hoeksema
  Paul's Unbelief and Pure

  Conscience - I Tim. 1:13                       All Around Us ' 1 '
                                                                                SPECIAL ARTICLE -
  and II Tim. 1:3                G .   Laming
                                                                                            Transcript of Address and Question Hour (continued) .,..,,.. 9

June l-                                                                                                  Rev. H. Hoeksema

  God Giving Paul All That                       From Holy Writ
                                                                                FROM HOLY WRIT -
  Sailed with him
                                                                                       .     Exposition of Matthew 24 and 25 (7) . . . . . .._.__.....__................. 13
  Acts 27~24                 B. Woudenberg
                                                                                                         Rev. G. Lubbers

July I -
                                                                                IN HIS FEAR -
  The Christian And                              Day of Shadows
                                                                                            Jehovah, the God of Arithmetic (2.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~..................  15
 i Sunday Labor                   A. Mulder
                                                                                                         Rev. J. A. Heys                                         -

August l-

                                                                                F
  Social Security for the                        Voice of our Fathers                EATURE ARTICLE -
                                                                                             T h e Living Creatures of Ezekiel' 1 and 10 17
  Clergy                          H. Hanko
                                                                                                        Rev. C. Hanko
 September l-                                                      .

  Education Among                                Decency and Order              THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS -
  Israel                         R. Veldman                                                 The Canons of Dordrecht  ____._.....:  ____..._..._...,..__.....,.......,.,,.,,..,... 19
                                                                                                        -Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
 October l-

  The Reformation Prepared                       Contending for the Faith       SAINTS OF OLD -
  in Luther's Soul                C. Hanko                                                  The Birth of'Isaac  _.__._...,._...........~  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

                                                                                                       Rev. B. Woudenberg
 November l-

  The Iniluence  of Modern                       In His Fear                    ALL  AROUND TJs -                                 `%I

_ Life upon the Home             G. Lanting                                                 The Heidelberger                               on the Way Out? . . . . . . . . . . . . .._._....................  23
                                                                                            Concerning the Election of Elders and Deacons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

 December l-                                                                                             Rev. M,I.Schipper

  The Significance of the                        From Holy Writ

  Nazarite                       E. Emanuel

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

                                                                      ceives them into eternal glory. And because this is all the
                E D I T O R I A L S                                   work of God and His alone, so that we can have no part in
                                                                      it, also the subjective realization of the promise is absolutely

                                                                      sovereign and unconditional. There are no prerequisites, and

                The Declaration of Principles                         it is a fundamental error to teach, as those that have left us

                                                                      do, -that  "our act of conversion is a prerequisite to enter into
       The question we must still face is whether the conception
                                                                      the kingdom of heaven."
that salvation and the promise of God are absolutely uncon-

 ditional does not make men careless and profane.                         5. That exactly because God performs this work of salva-

       We are often accused of this error.                            tion in and for them sovereignly and unconditionally, it is

       Our accusers maintain that our view that the promise           impossible that they should become careless and profane. It
of God is unconditional implies that, in that case, man need          is true that they sometimes walk in a sinful way. But this
do nothing at all. He does not have to convert himself. He            certainly is not because of the unconditionality of the promise
does not have to walk in the way of God's precepts and live           of God but because of the remnants of their sinful nature, and
a life of sanctification. God saves him anyway. He must               they will surely come to repentance. For it is the fruit of the
and does do it all and he has to do absolutely nothing. He            work of God that ,they earnestly desire and strive to walk in
has no responsibility. He can and may safely walk and live            sanctification of life and to be pleasing to God Who hath
a careless and profane life.                                         called them out of darkness into His marvellous light. Just
                                                                     as inevitable as it is that God fulfills His promise for them
      But anyone who talks in this vein has never understood
                                                                     and in them, so inevitable it is that they in and for whom
the true conception of the unconditional promise of God.
                                                                     God fulfills His promise walk in a new and holy life. God
      What is meant by this unconditional promise ?
                                                                      regenerates them and they are and live as new creatures ; God

      It implies :                                                   calls them and they come ; God implants the true and living

      1. That the promise of God is rooted in God's eternal          faith in their hearts and they believe and walk in faith ; God
counsel of election. . In fact, we do not go wrong if, on the        justifies them and they are and know that they are righteous.

basis of He. 6:13-l&  we claim that the promise and the              before .God ; God sanctifies them and they walk in a new

counsel of election are virtually identical. They are the same       and holy life ; God preserves them and they persevere and

essentially.                                                         fight the battle of faith. God is always and unconditionally

                                                                     first and we follow. Our work is the fruit of His work, a
      2. That, therefore, the promise of God is not for all men      fruit that is inevitable. Hence, it is impossible that faith in.
but only for the elect. It may be proclaimed to all to whom          the unconditional promise of God should make men careless
God in His good pleasure sends the gospel. In fact, it must          and profane.
be proclaimed to them all promiscuously. But although the
                                                                         This is also the teaching of Scripture.
proclamation is and must be promiscuous, in that proclama-
                                                                         He. 6:13-M speaks of the sure and unconditional promise
tion the promise may never itself be presented as promis-
cuous. Always it must be clear somehow that the promise              of God. I will quote this beautiful passage once more: "For
is only for the elect. We may never say in our proclamation          when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear
of the gospel that God promises to every one of those that           -by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing
                                                                     I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And
hear that they shall be saved on condition that they believe.
                                                                     so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
That is not a general proclamation of a particular promise,
                                                                     For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for con-
but is the preaching to all of a general promise conditioned
                                                                     firmation is to them an end of.all strife. Wherein God, willing
by something man must and can do.
                                                                     to shew more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the im-
      3. That God also realizes His promise objectively and          mutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by
unconditionally in'christ. He died on the accursed tree for          two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to
our sins, that is, for the sins of the elect only. By His atoning    lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for
death He merited for usi that is, for those whom the Father          refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us."
gave Him before the foundation of the world, everlasting                 This passage, as any one can see, teaches that the promise
righteousness and life.    He was raised from the dead, and          and the counsel of God are one and the same.
entered into glory and received the Spirit that He might
                                                                         It teaches, moreover, that the promise, as is, the counsel, is
apply all the blessings of salvation to His own.
                                                                     sovereign and unconditional.

      4. That God, through Christ also realizes all the blessings       But we must now call particular attention to the truth

of salvation and thus fulfills His promise to all the elect sub-     that this unconditional promise of God does not make men

jectively. He regenerates them, calls them by His Word and           careless or profane, but, on the contrary incites them to spirit-

Spirit, gives them the saving faith, justifies them, sanctifies      ual activity.

and preserves them even unto the end, and ultimately re-                That this is true, according to the test, I find in the con-

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

nection  of this passage with the preceding. With the context       one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even

the passage is connected by the conjunction "for".                  in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself . . . Now the

    The immutability of the promise and of the counsel of           works .of the flesh are manifest, which are these : Adultery,

God is, therefore, presented as a reason and ground for what        fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft,

precedes. This is expressed in vss. 11 and 12 : "And we             hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence             envyings, murders, drunkenness, revilings, and such like: of

unto the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not        the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time

slothful, but followers of them who through faith and pa-           past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the

tience inherit the promises."                                       kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,

    In other words, the sovereign and absolute uncondition-         peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,

ality of the promise of God, far from making believers care-        temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are

less and profane, is an incentive to them to be spiritually         Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

diligent and to strive for the goal of eternal perfection in        If we live in .the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

glory.                                                                  There you have it.

    And thus it is always in the Word of God.                           It is impossible for those that live by the power of the

    For in the epistle to the Remans,  after the apostle had        absolutely free and unconditional promise of God to be care-

taught the doctrine of free and unconditional justification         less and profane.

without works; and had, in chapter 8, the truth of unchange-            I could quote much more.

able election and unconditional free grace ; and developed in           But I wish, in conclusion, still to refer to some passages

chapters 9-11, the doctrine of election and reprobation ; he        of the Confessions to prove that they teach the same truth.

continues, in chapter 12, to teach about the sure and inevit-           First of all, then, I refer to the Heidelberg Catechism,

able fruit that must result in believers from this doctrine of      QLI. 64: "But doth not this doctrine make~men  careless and

free and unconditional grace.                                       profane ? By no means : for it is impossible that those; who.

    Writes he: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the           are implanted into Christ by a true faith, should not bring

mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,     forth fruits of thankfulness."

holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.            The Catechism had just explained the truth of absolutely

And be ye not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed        free and unconditional justification by faith. It had also

by the renewal of your mind, that ye may prove what is that         answered the objection that our good works surely must have

good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God."                     something to do with our righteousness before God. It is in

    Notice the conjunction "therefore."                             answer to this truth that the objection is raised in question

    This indicates that the apostle writes this admonition and      form that such a doctrine of absolutely.unconditional     justifica-

all the exhortations that follow on the basis of all that he has    .tion makes men careless and `profane. And the Catechism

written in the preceding about the free and unconditional           answers that this is impossible. Why ? God Himself makes

grace .and promise of God.                                          this impossible. For the gift of justification is received by

    Far from making .men  careless and profane, therefore,          faith only; not on condition of faith, but by means of the

the realization of the unconditional promise of God, and of         God-given faith. By that faith they are implanted into Christ.

His free grace, in the elect, produces in them the fruits of        It is all of God. There is nothing of man in it. And it is

righteousness.                                                      exactly because the realization of the promise is all of God,

   The same is true of the epistle to the Galatians.                `that it is impossible that believers should live a careless and

    In that epistle, likewise as .every one knows, the apostle      profane life, and should not bring forth fruits of thankful-

emphasizes that we are freely and unconditionally justified by      ness.

God in Christ through faith, without the works of the law.              Secondly, I must refer once more to the Canons of

For we are not servants under bondage- but free sons, chil-         Dordrecht.

dren of the promise. You will realize that this is the same as         In the first head of doctrine the Canons, as we know,

the doctrine of the'unconditional promise. Does this mean           speak of the truth of election and reprobation.

that, if we are not circumcised and allow ourselves to be              After the, Canons have explained this doctrine, and have

under the law, we must needs be careless and profane ? The          emphasized that election is absolutely unconditional (Articles

contrary is true. For the apostle continues in chapter 5 :          9, 10) they explain in Art. 13 :

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath             "The `sense and certainty of this election afford to the

made you free and be not entangled again with the yoke of           children of God additional matter for daily humiliation be-

bondage."                                                           fore him, for adoring the depth of his mercies, for cleansing

   And what is this liberty? Is it the false freedom of             themselves, and rendering grateful returns of ardent love

.walking  in sin ? The answer to this question is found in vs.      to him, who first manifested so great love towards them.

13ff. : "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty ; only     The consideration of this doctrine of election is so far from

use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve     encouraging ,remissness  in the observance of the divine com-

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

mands,  or from sinking men in carnal security, that these, in        and is getting a good rest. Sunday he was given the privilege

the just judgment of God, are the usual- effects of rash              to come home for a couple of hours. The paralysis of his

presumption, or of idle and wanton trifling with the grace of         left arm and leg has almost completely left him and he is

election, in those who refuse to walk in the ways of the elect."      able to walk about with a cane. We hope that he may again,

     Far from making men careless and profane, therefore,             in the Lord's time, take up his writing.for  The Standard

the grace of absolutely unconditional election and of the un-         Beam*.

conditional promise of God, is for ,the  elect a matter of hu-           The news from the local churches, for this issue, must

miliation and cleansing themselves and living in true gratitude       remain meager. We expect the weekly bulletins from each

before God.                                                           church in the denomination in the future. Everyone is in-

     Once more, in the fifth head of doctrine, which speaks of        terested in all the activities of all our churches, so, if you

the preservation and perseverance of the saints, the Canons,          want to be in the news, send us the news.

after having explained that the preservation of the believers            This is the time of the year when the consistories begin

is solely the work of God and that their perseverance is the          making nominations for the election of office bearers. Men

fruit of their preservation, continue as follows :                    who "hold the mystery of faith in a pure conscience" and

     "This certainty of perseverance, however, is so far from         "having a good reports  of them which are without" must be

exciting in believers a spirit of pride, or of rendering them         elected into the office to rule over the flock and help the

carnally secure, that on the contrary, it is the real source of       indigent in the church of Christ.

humility, filial reverence, true piety, patience in every tribula-       The Southeast Prot. Ref. Church was host to the Sunday

tion, fervent prayers, constancy in suffering, and in confessing      School Mass Meeting held Sept. 18 in the Adams St. School.

the truth, and of solid rejoicing in God; so that the con-            It truly was an inspirational meeting with the Rev. McCollam

sideration of this benefit should serve as an incentive to the        as the speaker for the evening. He spoke on the peculiar

serious and constant practice of gratitude and good works, as         place the- Sunday School occupies in our churches, inspiring

appears from the testimony of Scripture, ancl  the examples           the teachers to continue their work with renewed vigor be-

of the saints." Art. 12. See also Art. 13.                            cause their work is in the vineyard of the Lord. Represent-

     Here we may close.                                               atives from Hope, Holland, Southwest, Southeast and First

     The Declaration of Principles still stands as the correct        churches were there to enjoy the Rev. McCollam's speech,

expression of the Reformed truth on the basis of Scripture            and to have fellowship around the Word of God that makes

and the Confessions.                                                  their first lesson story.

     And all who alIege  that true unconditional theology has            We see in the bulletin of First church that the catechisms

a tendency to make men careless and profane simply do not             are starting this week, two of which are to be held in the

understand the Reformed truth.                              H.H.      Adams St. School for the benefit of those children for whom

                                                                      it is difficult to come to the church. Societies have already

                                                                      begun ; .what  bountiful opportunities are given us, children

                                                                      and adults, to thoroughly furnish the man of God by the
             NEWS OF OUR ChJRCHES
                                                                      study of His Word! It is deplorable that not everybody
                                          September 22, 1958          avails himself of these opportunities; at least we know that

     May this column serve as a means to reach out to the far-        when we are delivered from this body of death it will not be

off outposts of Redlands, Lynden and Loveland, drawing                that way. In Heaven we shall all be gathered around the

them into a closer circle with the rest of our churches, bind-        Word of God, and that shall be bliss.

ing us closer in the bonds of love ;. yea, let it be a means to          In First church the annual family visitation has been

embrace one another in the communion of saints.                       started. In a church of that size it is quite impossible to

     What is the news from our churches in which we all are           conduct those visitations before each communion service, as

interested ? The number one news item today is Rev. Op-               it had been intended. We live in such busy times !. Rev.

hoff, of course. Our beloved G.M.O., whose signature under            Ha&o visits one half of the congregation each year, and the

any Sta.ndwd  Beag*er  article guaranteed it to be worthwhile         Elders visit the other half. "Receive these men as servants

reading. His delvings into the nooks and crannies of the              of God ; count the elders that rule well worthy of double

Old Testament have brought to our eyes the wonderful truths           honor, giving yourselves willingly to their inspection and

of God's dealings with His people- through types and                  government."

shadows -in Jesus Christ our Lord.                                        Did you know-that the Mission Committee of our

     G.M.O.`s pen is resting. The Lord told him to lay it             churches is broadcasting the Reformed Witness Hour in the

down for a while. Our beloved Rev. Ophoff has suffered a              Virgin Islands ? They are doing so through the kind as-

stroke which has become a stroke for us all. You have heard,          sistance and by the organization of the Radio Committee of

no doubt, that the Reverend had been confined to hospitals            First Church. If and when we get .response  from the Is-

for some time, first in Blodgett hospital, and now in Pine            landers we shall tell you about it in this column.

Rest. At this -writing he is quite comfortable, able to sleep,                   . . . . . see you in church.                J.M.F.


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D .   B E A R E R                                              7


                                                                      near. Some of the phenomena here mentioned, as, for in-
           OUR  D O C T R I N E                                 '     stance, the blood. with which the hail is mingled, are to bk
                                                                II    revealed in the future, perhaps, in the literal sense of the

                                                                      word. ,But for the rest, they all refer to mere natural

            THE BOOK OF REVELATION                                    phenomena that take place and may be observed in our `own

                                                                      time. All the. four trumpets, then, refer to phenomena in

                          P A R T   T W O                             nature outside of man. This does not mean that man is not

                                                                      affected or involved. On the contrary, man is very plainly
                           CHAPTER V
                                                                      interested in all these natural phenomena. The.  individual as

                                                                      well as the nations is affected by these four trumpets. Man

                         Revelation 8 :7-12                           is dependent upon the world in which he lives. He is de-

                                                                      pendent upon the soil which he cultivates, upon the crops
  If hail and fire may mean heresies, and may also                    that are raised. He is dependent upon the condition of the
mean political disturbances in the world of the Roman                 climate, upon rain and sunshine. He is dependent upon the
empire,    why may they not refer to a thousand other                 water which he drinks. And through it all he is dependent
things in the world ? All certainty is thus removed, and              upon the condition of the heavenly luminaries. This also the
Scripture becomes a source of speculation. Thirdly, I refuse          text indicates very plainly. And of course, what is true of
to go along with this mode of interpretation because the              the individual is also true of the nations and the relation
reference to definite historical facts and periods, as is im-         between them. `By the influence of these four trumpets the
plied in such a method, has always led to disappointment,             history of the nations is controlled and directed. Never has
and still does. Perhaps you remember, -to mention just one            this been more plainly understood than in our own time. I
example, -how the first World War in the early part of this           remember that in the war in the early part of the present
century was explained as meaning that it referred to Revela-          century it was emphasized that food will win it. And by
tion 13. The German Kaiser, so they had it, was the beast             this expression,a  deep truth is expressed. If food will win a
that is there pictured. And this war was to end in February,          war, -and to large extent it will- then the further truth,
1918, according to the exact calculation based upon the               which is most often overlooked, is also very evident, that
forty-two months that are mentioned in that chapter. Of               Christ, Who rules over the elements, over sunshine and
course, that theory is now exploded. And I suppose that               rain, over hail and fire, after all determines who will be
other theories of the same kind can be built up. For it seems         victorious in any war. And what is true with regard to the
impossible that people learn by experience in this respect.           land is also true in respect to the sea and to the inland waters
B,ut we will not be seduced by any such methods to interpret          and to the sun, moon, and stars. By these four trumpets the
Scripture in this wise. And therefore, I wish it to be under-         physical universe is affected, but through it all the world of
stood from the outset that in general .the text means just            men and the relation of nation over against nation is largely
exactly what it expresses. Hail and fire'mingled with blood           determined.
refer to the destructive forces in nature with a view to the

vegetable world. The sea. is nothing else but the sea; and               Let us also notice,' in `the second place, that these four

the creatures referred to are the inhabitants of that sea,            trumpets have this in common, that they all refer to what we

while a ship means literally a ship. Rivers and fountains of          may call evil ,phenomena  in nature.      On the whole they

water refer to inland waters in distinction from the oceans           picture destructive forces that become active and affect the

and seas; and their poisoning means exactly what it says.             whole of the natural world. Hail and fire from heaven are

And sun and moon and stars are the heavenly luminaries                the representatives of all the destructive forces in nature with

with which we are acquainted, and not some mysterious                 a view to the worid  of vegetation. As such I understand

reality either in the political or in the Roman world. We             them. In the first trumpet we have the picture of a mighty

have here,. in a word, a picture of the effects of the four           thunderstorm bursting forth over the land and accompanied

trumpets on the physical universe in the history of the               by the fall of heavy hail. That this can actually be a tre-

present dispensation.                                                 mendous force we may plainly perceive when sometimes

   However, if this be established, we still confront the             hailstones as large as hen eggs fall in great number in our

further question : what do these trumpets mean ? To what              own vicinity, destroying property and leaving large holes in

exactly do they refer? Our answer is, first of all, that they         the ground where they dropped. Thus it is in the vision.

all refer to natural phenomena. If we see this, it will bring         Tremendous thunder and hail storms are pictured, destroying

the. vision much nearer home. As I have emphasized re-                trees and grass, in general the representatives of the vege-

peatedly, the seals and the trumpets principally all refer to         table world. Crops are therefore destroyed in a moment by

events that take place throughout this dispensation. It is            this first trumpet. As far as the blood is concerned, I take it,

true, they will increase in force in an alarming measure as           in the first place, as having reference to the accompanying

time goes on. and as the completion of the kingdom draws              destruction. And we may take it in the literal sense of the

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

 word, In fact, history speaks more than once of. a bloody            the crops are destroyed and there is no grass for the cattle,

 snow and hail that fell in various places. And with a view           nor any fruit. That is the meaning of the first four trumpets.

 to the future, this blood mingled with the hail and fire will         It would mean that on the land there would be nothing to

 be so general and real that it becomes a sign to all that wit-       eat, neither for man nor beast, that when `men turn to the

 ness it. ,Thus it is also with the second trumpet. It pictures       waters to live on the creatures ,of the sea and rivers and

 to us a destructive force upon the oceans and the seas. John         lakes, they find them vacated, while at the same time they

 does not tell,us  that a great burning mountain was cast into        themselves die because of all kinds of epidemics caused by the

 the`sea, but that in the vision he saw us it zerere a great moun-    poison waters. Surely. if this were universal there would be
 tain burning with fire and cast into the sea. It matters little,     no creature left alive in all the universe. But evidently uni-

 evidently, what this particularly stands for. But in general         versal and absolute these trumpets are not yet. Only what

 if-is plain that it simply represents a destructive force with       aggravates the condition for the stricken lands is that one of

 regard' to the sea. The sea is represented as becoming a             the main means of transportation is also cut off, for the ships

 pool of blood, so that the creatures that live in it die. And        are destroyed, so that nothing can be transported from one

 at the same time it' is represented as being swept by a              nation to another.

 tenipest, or at least as being greatly disturbed, so that the
 ships are destroyed and caught in the storm. The same is                 It is, however, to the partial character of the trumpets
 true of the third trumpet. The picture is either that of a           and the forces they represent that we must call your attention
 star shattered to pieces and strewn over the waters outside          finally. In fact, I consider this one of the chief elements in
 of the ocean, or that of a comet leaving behind it poisonous         the explanation of the text itself. Very emphatically it tells
 gases and embittering the waters that must be drunk by men.          us several times that only one-third of the elements are
 Perhaps we may think in the literal sense of the word of a           affected by these trumpets. The expression "a third part"
star. For it is not impossible that the stars influence our           occurs even as many as twelve times `in this particular pas-
world far more than we know just now. However this may                sage, surely indicating that the Lord would have us pay
be, the main thing is that we remember that by this force             special attention to this particular feature. A third part of the
of the third trumpet the waters and the fountains of waters           earth, a third part of the trees is burnt up. And though it

are made bitter and poisonous, so that many die because               literally reads that all the green grass is burnt up, we take it

they drink of them. Wormwood is, properly speaking, a                 to mean all'the  green grass that grows on the third part of

plant that is noted because of its very bitter taste and be-          the earth, as is most natural. The third part of the sea is

cause of the poisonous nature of its volatile oil. Here the           turned into blood, and the third part of the creatures die, and

name is given to the star because of its embittering and              the third part of the ships is destroyed. The third part of the

poisoning effect upon the waters. And finally, the same is            waters and fountains of waters are smitten by the star called
also true of the last of these four trumpets. It speaks of a          Wormwood and are made bitter. The third part of the sun,

change of the heavenly luminaries. They are smitten for a             and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars
third part, so the text speaks, so that they do not shine to          is smitten, so that they do not shine for the third part of the

that extent upon the earth. What this would mean with                 day and of the night. Surely, there is reason for the ques-

respect to the sun ought to be plain to us all.     A third less      tion : what is indicated by this "third part" occurring so often
sunshine than necessary to ripen the crops would be deter-            in the text? There are some that interpret this third part as

minately detrimental to any land. And although we know                meaning the smallest half. One-third is destroyed ; two-thirds

less of the influence of the other heavenly bodies upon our           are still left intact. And then these interpreters have it that

planet, we may believe that they all affect us to a sufficient        the judgments are not as yet absolute: there is still time left

extent to become destructive when their relation to us is             for repentance. The mercy and grace of God are still ,greater

changed.                                                              in their effects than His wrath. Soon, when the vials are
                                                                      poured out, there is an advance over the trumpets in this

      Now picture, if you can, the combined effect of these four      respect, that they are universal and absolute in their effect.

forces, and you will understand the first four trumpets, and          They speak no more of a third part. Mercy is now still

feel `them rather near. A decided cooling down of the at-             predominant. We do not deny that there is an element of

mosphere and lack of sunshine, caused by the darkening, of            truth in that interpretation. Surely, there is an advance in

the sun, and added to that the less `known effect of the dark-        judgment. And gradually the tokens of God's general

ening of the other luminaries at night; a poisoning of the            providence are withdrawn from the world. And as the

rivers and lakes and fountains of waters, so that not only            power of that general providence of God is withdrawn, the

men die because they drink of them, but undoubtedly the               judgments pictured in the words of our text will become more

creatures that live in them also die because of the poison ; a        absolute and universal. In so far it is possible that also this

`great disturbance in the sea and the ocean, so that the fish         idea is implied in the repeated mention of a third part.

of the sea die and the ships are destroyed ; and, last but not

least, tremendous thunderstorms and falling of hail, so that                                                                      H.H.


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   BE'ARER                                                         9

            TRANSCRIPT OF ADDRESS AND                                which He in His everlasting mercy and grace swears by

                     QUESTION HOUR                                  Himself to His beloved elect, which He by sovereign grace
                                                                    fulfills only to and in them, without any condition or pre-
 held under the Auspices of the Committee for Protestant
                                                                     requisite to be fulfilled by them, and which promise implies
            Reformed Action, Hull, Iowa, July, 1954
                                                                    that by His Holy Spirit He causes them to receive and ap-

                   Speaker : Rev. H. Hoeksema                       propriate salvation by a true and living faith.

                                                                        "The second teaches that our act of conversion is a pre-
                          (Continued)                               requisite to enter into the kingdom of God, which means that

    The Rev. De Wolf not only assumes full responsibility           we convert ourselves before we are translated from the power
for his erroneous statements, but in addition to this, and to       of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son ; while Scrip-
defend himself, he defends the Barthian  heresy that the            ture and the Confessions plainly teach: 1) That the whole
kingdom of God is like the vertical line intersecting the           work of our conversion, regeneration in the narrower as well
horizontal line on the plane of our existence.' I am `very          as in the wider sense, in virtue of which we humble ourselves,
sorry for all this: My heart. bleeds for our Prot. Ref.             is sovereignly wrought by God by His Spirit and Word
Churches. Nevertheless, I want the Consistorji  to know :           through the preaching of the gospel in His elect; 2) That
    "1. That it is impossible for me to condone such preach-        this entire work of our conversion is our translation and
ing ; that I will never leave the impression that I condone it      entering into the kingdom of God. Hence, it is not and can-
officially by officially shaking hands, or by allowing anyone       not be before, but through our conversion that we enter the
officially to shake hands with me that condones`it.                 kingdom. We humble ourselves in the light, never in dark-
    "2. That therefore, if the Consistory nevertheless con-         ness. We humble ourselves, whether initially or repeatedly,
dones such preaching and teaching as they did, I will consider      in the kingdom, never outside of the kingdom. Hence, our
myself cast out by the Consistory, and the Consistory will          act of conversion is never antecedent t6 our entering in, but
have to- take action accordingly.                                   is always performed in the kingdom of God. And there are
    "3. That as soon as possible, and  necessary, I will publish    no -prerequisites.
this whole case, with all the documentary evidence, in order            "Grounds :
that our pedple may at least be able to take a conscious stand          "A. The protestants have clearly shown from Scripture
in the matter."                                                     and the Confessions that the-literal statements are heretical.
    That was my answer to the Consistory after it approved              "B. We believe this is necessary for us to state in the
of those questions. Then, of course, the matter came to the         light of our past experiences and history with the Liberated
Classis.                                                            Churches, who use these statements.
    I wili  be brief about that. The Classis,  after a good deal        "II. Classis  advises the Consistory of the First Church:

of deliberation, - and don't mistake that ; don't mistake that          "A. To demand ,that the Rev. De Wolf make a public

deliberatibn  for hesitation. There was no hesitation on the        apology for having made these two statements in question.

part of the Classis.  The Classis  even finally adopted the             "B. That the Consistory also publicly apologize for

following decision without a dissenting vote (there was no          having supported the Rev. De Wolf.

vote against it). 0, there was a long deliberation. There was           "With respect to the grounds in re the first statement, . . .
an &tempt on the part of the majority of the committee to           (and then the grounds are given).
defend, not, to defend, but to interpret the statements of the          "Grounds in re the second statement (grounds are given
Rev. De Wolf in a good sense. But they couldn't. The com-           again from Scripture and the confessions).
mittee, the majority of the committee itself, acknowledged
                                                                       "III. Classis  further advises the Consistory of First
that in the Classis  later on. And the decision of the Classis,
                                                                    `Church that in case the Rev. De Wolf should refuse to apolo-`
which the Classis  finally took, reads as follows: "In our
                                                                    gize, which our God graciously forbid, the Consistory proceed
opinion, the statements which the protestants condemn are
                                                                    to suspend him from the ofice  of the ministry of the Word
literally heretical, regardless of what the Rev. De Wolf
                                                                    and the sacraments according to the pertinent articles of the
meant by them, regardless of how, he explains them, because :
                                                                    D.K.O.
The first teaches a general promise of God unto salvation to
all that externally hear the preaching of the gospel, head for         "B. That in case any elder, or elders, should refuse to
head and soul for soul, limited by a condition which man            submit to the proposed action as stipulated under II, B, which
must fulfill, while Scripture and the Confessions plainly           God graciously forbid, such elder or elders be disciplined ac-
teach : 1) That indeed the proclamation of the gospel comes         cording to the articles of the D.K.O. pertaining thereto.

*to all to whom God in His good pleasure sends it. 2) That,            "Grounds : Article 79 and SO of the Church Order.

however, in our proclamation of the gospel we may never                "IV. That Classis  appoint a delegation of three ministers

say that God promises salvation to everyone of the hearers          and two elders to personally acquaint the Consistory with the

on condition of faith, for the promise itself is particular, un-    above decision and advice at the earliest possible Consistory

conditional, and only for the elect. For it is an oath of' God,     meeting.


1 0                                        T H E   STA.NDARD,   B E A R E R


       "Grounds :                                                   pone the installation of the new elder, on the grounds, in the

       "A. Almost all the elders of the First Church are absent     first place, that he didn't know anything about the whole

from classis'  meeting, and thus are not aware of the five days     business.    Brand new elder, had never sat in the Consistory

of deliberation which preceded the above advice.                    a% all, ciidn't  know anything about the case, couldn't very well

       "B. The matter is one of great magnitude and importance.     start to enter into the case again after the case had been

       "C. We owe the mother church of our entire denomina-         pending for two years.    So I made a motion first of all on

tion such courtesy and respect.                                     that ground, that we postpone the installation of the new

       "D. We should spare no efforts on our behalf, under          elder. And the second ground was that the elder that was

the bIessing  of otir covenant God, to serve (save?) our            to be installed was the brother-in-law of the Rev, De Wolf.

brethren involved."                                                 We had already one brother-in-law of the Rev. De Wolf in

       That is the decision of Classis.                             the Consistory. And now a second one, for which there was

       On June 1, - I'm almost through, - on June 1 the Con-        no need atall. So I on those two grounds advised and made

history  met with the committee of Classis.  The Rev..              a n&ion  to postpone the installation of the new elder. The
                                                            VOS
spoke. That speech is recorded. I have it here. It's too long       remark was made that the decision to install the new elder

to read. 19 inay be published in the future. The Rev.               had already b6en  made, and that therefore it would require
                                                           VOS
spoke. He begged the Consistory in terms of love .and firm          a two-thirds majority of the Consistory. And of course, a

conviction to act according to the advice of the Classis.  After    two-thirds majority I could never have. You understand

he spoke the Consistory, that is, the opposing elders im-           that. And so that was dropped.

mediately tried to- block the whole procedure. Let me tell             June 22. ;That  was the next meeting of the Consistory.

you what happened. After the Rev. Vos spoke, one of the             Then the new elder had been installed, and served. At that

opposing elders made a motion to adjourn. That was sup-             meeting, June 22, I asked the president, - I was present, -

ported. The politics was, of course, to save time, and to gain      I asked the president to ask the Rev. De Wolf and to ask

time, because still another elder had to be installed, and that     the elders that had been condemned by the Classis  to apolo-

elder was surely on their side. That's what they were look-         gize, whether they were ready to apologize. Immediately one

ing for. A motion  to adjourn while it was yet early, while the     of' the opposing elders got up and said, "We must haire a

matter was important. But that motion was defeated. We              motion for that."    I said, "We do not need a motion." It

still had the majority in the Consistory. Then a motion was         had been decided, had been decided on June 1, that we

made to adopt the advice of the Classis,  .and to act ac-           should act according to the aclvice  of the Classis.  It had been

cordingly. That was supported. Then a motion was made               decided that we should ask them to apologize, or that they

again by one of the opposing elders to table the matter,-           should be suspended and deposed. That was decided. No,

again for the same reason, for the same political reason, -         we must have a motion. They felt, of course, as if they

to table the matter, - waiting, save time, gain time ; that         could defeat it. That stands to reason. They now had a new

was the whole, sole reason. That too was defeated. Then             elder. Very well. I said: "It doesn't make any difference

the motion was adopted, the motion that the Consistory adopt        anyway, because you surely cannot vote in your own case."

the advice of the Classis  and act accordingly. Now, mind you,      Well, the motion to ask the Rev. De Wolf to apologize was

it is very' important that you understand this motion, because      made and supported and it was defeated by 11 to 11. One

that motion meant that the whole thing was decided by the           elder on our side did not vote. Otherwise it would have been

Consistory. Don't you forget it. That motion passed by the          12 to 11. And then at the same time, the Chairman ruled

Consistory meant that if they did not apologize, they were          properly that they could not possibly vote in their owli case.

suspended, and they were deposed. They certainly would be           And the case of the Rev. De Wolf was also the case of the

suspended and would be deposed, according to the decision           elders. They stood together. They supported him. Never-

of the Consistory in June 1. The matter was settled. They           theless, they by their illegal vote on June 22 had plainly ex-

asked for time. We thought that they wanted time to con-            pressed that they did not want the Rev. De Wolf to apolo-

sider the matter. They didn't. They asked for time never-           gize. Now they say, --there's no truth in it, - now they say

theless. We gave them time. Two weeks later, on June 15,            that they merely meant that he did not have to apologize ac-

we called another meeting, again in the presence of the             cqrding  to the decision of Classis  ; he could make his own

classical committee. We thought it better to have the clas-         apology. There's no word of anything like that in the min-

sical committee present, and witness all that happened in our       utes. The motion was simply- that the Rev. De Wolf should

Consistory. They can still testify to the whole procedure. At       be asked to apologize. And they rejected that motion. They

that meeting again,the  Rev. Vos spoke first. And then the          did. That is, by the illegal vote of those elders, they rejected

question was asked whether they were ready to apologize.            that motion. They did not want the Rev. De Wolf to apolo-

They said they were not ready. Two weeks' time ; they were          gize. The same is true of the motion to ask the elders to

not ready to apologize. I then made a motion, -and that             apologize. That was carried, even when they voted, again

will also explain the strange fact that one elder was deposed       illegally, in their own case by a vote of 12 to 11. But again

after being in office 45 hours, -1 made a motion to post-           in that meeting by voting illegally the elders. very plainly


                                           -THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                        1 1



   expressed `that they did not want to apologize, that they did        time, that the statement, "God promises everyone of you, if

  not want to abide by the decision of Classis,  which the meet-        you believe, you shall be saved," is simply a general promise

   ing of June 1 had decided. Mind you, June 1 is the basis of          on the part of God, limited by a condition of man. Nothing

   the whole business.    June 1 we decided by the majority of          else. You can never explain it any other way. Especially if

  the Consistory to abide by the decision of Classis, to adopt          you remember the statement that he made too. Election and

   it and to act accordingly, June 22nd the elders plainly stated       reprobation belittled . . . . Protestant Reformed truth on the

   that they did not want tb abide by this decision of Classis          lapel of your coat spme  of you . . . and all those things. I

   whatsoever.    They were, therefore, virtually suspended and         cannot understand that a Prot. Ref. man will ever preach a

   deposed.                                                             thing like that through the pulpit. I can't understand that.

        Now it has been said that the Rev. De Wolf made an                 "AS  far as the second statement is concerned, I did not

   apology. I will acquaint you with that apology too. In the           mean to teach that the natural man must convert himself

   first place, let me say this. That apology of the Rev. De            while he is in the power of darkness, outside the kingdom

   Wolf was first made on Sunday night, during the sermon of            of God."      Didn't he teach that? Isn't that the same thing?

   the Rev. De Wolf, - he was still preaching, - was made               "Our act of conversion is a prerequisite to enter into the

   from the pulpit. .Many thought that he had really apologized.        kingdom of God"? I told him again and again that's exactly

   But he didn't. In the consistory of June 22 we asked the             what he meant. He can never explain it either. We had this

   Rev. De Wolf to produce the record of the apology he had             in the Consistory again and again. And I tried to explain.

   made in his sermon on the previous Sunday. The sermon                And he understood it too. He simply didn't want to apologize

   was recorded. And the Rev. De Wolf himself had the record.           for it. And again I say: that's not a question of his simple

   He could, of course, have simply produced the record to the          statements. It's a question of the whole sermon. The whole

   Consistory, as he was asked. He refused. I was not there             sermon was bad, without any question. He even said, with

   when that sermon was preached. I think I preached some-              an appeal to Luke 13 : "If you don't convert yourself, you

   where else. But many of our Consist&y, including the Rev.            go to hell."     Is that preaching to the church of Jesus Christ?

   Ophoff, claim that he said something entirely different from         Is that the act of conversion that must be a prerequisite to.

   what he now offered at the Consistory. The Rev. De Wolf              enter into the kingdom of God? If that's the case, we're lost,

   claims that this is the reproduction of his statement from the       we're lost forever. Entirely lost. That's modernism, worse

   pulpit on June 21. But many claim it isn't. He did not want          than mqdernism.  I said that too in my protest. I maintain

   to produce the record. This could not stand in any court, in         that that sermon was modernism. I'll publish that, when it's .

   any worldly court. Nevertheless, I'll read it. This he offered       necessary.      And also this, he says, is contrary to everything

   neverthbless  as his apology. Let me read it, and explain it,        I ever preached. "If therefore I have offended anyone by not

p l e a s e .                                                           stating clearly what I meant, and thus gave him occasion for

         "As far as those statements are concerned, I am ready          misinterpretation, I'm sorry."      That's no apology. I did not

   to say that I'm sorry that they were not clear, and therefore        misinterpret the statements.     I certainly didn't. I understood

   left room for a wrong interpretation." I ask you : is that true ?    them, and still understand them, and I interpreted them

   Can anyone of you say conscientiously that those statements          correctly, without any question. And Classis  did the same

   were not clear? God pronlises  everyone of you that if you be-       thing.

   lieve, you shall be saved ? Is there anything not clear in this         Well, that's the end. Except that, of course, at that meet-

   statement? I deny it. Is there anything unclear in the state-        ing I finally left. You couldn't do anything with that Con-

   ment, "Our act of conversion is a prerequisite to enter into         sistory, that voted xgainst  the Classis, that had already virtu-

   the kingdom of God"? I say there is not. There-was no room           ally separated themselves from the churches ? They did. That

   for misinterpretation. Those statlments,  - and the Classis          voted against that the Rev. De Wolf should apologize, voted

   had said, the Classis  had declared, - those statements are          against the decision of Classis  that the elders should be de-

   heretical, regardless of what the Rev. De Wolf means, or             posed if they did not apologize ? They had separated them-

   how you explain them. They were heretical. They should               selves. They had condemned themselves on June 22, when

   simply have been retracted. He should simply have apolo-             the whole Consistory was present, by voting against the deci-

   gized. He did not. Listen': "As far as those statements are          sion of Classis.  Hence, I left.

   concerned, I am ready to say that I am sorry they were not              The next evening they had a meeting, not of the minority

   clear, and therefore left room for misinterpretation: I would        of the Consistory. We still have a majority of the Consistory,

   like to explain that by the first statement I had no intention       not a minority. If you count all the elders -and ministers, -

   at all to teach that God promises salvation to all men, and          the deacons of course are never present in our Consistory in

   that it depends on man's own will whether or not he will be          cases of discipline. They sometimes say, and they alleged also

   saved. I have never taught this, and could not have in-              in this case that in 1924 nevertheless the deacons also were

   tended to teach this by this statement."                             present. Also at that time the deacons were never present

         Nevertheless, he did teach that by that statement. That's      in any case of hiscipline.  Never were. Besides, don't forget

   the question. I offer you, and I'm willing to defend it any          that this was a case where elders were deposed. In 1924 the


 I2                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R - E R

 whole Consistory was deposed. This was a case where elders         that we should abide by the decision of the Consistory made

 were deposed and a minister was suspended by the Con-              on June 23, in which they decided that they would leave the

 sistory. In 1924 was a case where the Consistory and the           buildings,, not fight for the buildings, until the matter of the

 minister were deposed by the Classis,  something which we          property, was settled. In the meantime, the illegal opposition

 could never. admit. And therefore, when on June 23 the             sent us a note that they intended to occupy the buildings.

 Consistory came together once more, and with the advice of         We decided not to fight about that. We have a place, a nice

 Fourth Church, suspended the Rev. De Wolf and deposed              place, a very good place, in the Chr. High. And there we

 the elders, the case was settled. I also have the decision of      meet.    We meet with between 550 and 600 people every

 Fourth Church, which, by the.way,  is itself weak. The deci-       service. I don't know with how many they meet. We enjoy

 sion of Fourth Church, I say, is weak. Listen. Nevertheless,       it. We are immensely relieved that we are out. Immensely

 on the advice of the consistory we certainly had the right         relieved. What will become of the buildings I don't know.

 to continue and to proceed. I'll read that decision: "It is        We've had a meeting in our own church last Monday night,

 clear to our Fourth Consistory 1) That neither the Rev. De         a meeting of this same nature as we're having now. We

 Wolf nor the elders involved made the apology demanded by          wrote a letter to all the members of the congregation, an-

 the consistory as advised by Classis.  2) That Classis  advised    nouncing such a meeting in the auditorium of our own

 the Consistory to proceed with suspension in case the Rev.         church. In that meeting I said, "This is still our church,

 De Wolf and the elders involved should refuse to apologize.        even though we do not meet in it on Sunday." I said,

 3) That in so far the Consistory has the right to proceed          "Until the question of the property is settled, this is still our

 with suspension on the basis of the classical decision." And       church, the church of the legal consistory." After that they

then: "However (notice, H.H.) we are not prepared to say            put new locks on the building. They locked us out. They put

 (so that means nothing : we are not prepared to say, They          new locks on the building, so that we cannot get in at all.

don't say they aren't prepared to say anything) : 1) That a         I don't know what my Consistory does with it. We had a

consistory meeting can be called legal when half of its mem-        meeting last Monday, but of course I wasn't there. I came

bers were not notified that it would be held.    (The consistory    West and informed you of the whole business. What my
members knew very well on June 22 that that would be the            consistory decided, I do not know. It may very well be that

case. The consistory members, the opposing consistory mem-          they after all will force to make some kind of a court case.

.bers, could not possibly do anything at that consistory meet--     I hope not. But it's not impossible. We don't like it. I

ing. The consistory members were already condemned by               don't like it. I don't care. I rather meet in a barn, as we

the decision of .the Consistory June 1. All was done, all was       did in 1924 once, or in the, Community Building in the Frank-

finished.) 2) That a suspension can be called in order when         lin St. Park, when we were all united, than meeting in a nice

the involved were not notified of the fact that the double con-     -big church, a palace of a church, with strife and contention

sistory would be held and the suspension decided on." They          and false doctrine.

were not prepared to say that. In the meantime they advise             We were glad, and we still are glad that we're out. 1
us to proceed with the suspension on the basis of the decision      thank you.
of Classis.
                                                                       I'm sorry I kept you up so long. But the story is long.
       That happened in our history.
                                                                    I can't help that.
       Therefore this is the situation. I am not heading a fac-

tion. I am representing first of all, the only First Prot. Ref.                                               End of address.

Church in Grand Rapids. If the elders and the Rev. De Wolf

had objected against the decision of classis, and against the                              Announcement
decision of the Consistory, they could have protested, and
submit in the meantime. That's what they should have done.             Th Standa,rd  Beams staff, in its last meeting decided
                                                                    to institute a new column, under the rubric, News 
We could not do that in 1924 because we were deposed as                                                                   From 0~zt.v
                                                                    Churckes.  This decision is in response to the popular demand
a consistory. But they were deposed by the Consistory. They
could have appealed to classis and protested, but they didn't.      from many of our readers who have been desiring a closer
                                                                    unity between our churches, a unity wherein we can share
They're out. And I'm suge that the Classis  at its next session
will refuse to give them a place in the Classis.  Of course they    one another's joys and sorrows, a unity which is based on
will. They cannot give them a place, and they won't either.         one hope, one love, one Lord Jesus Christ. So in this issue
I'm positive of that.                                               you will find the intrdductory  column  devoted to church news
                                                                    as it affects each one of us. The ministers of each congrega-
  In the meantime, we have decided to leave the buildings.
                                                                    tion, and the presjdents  of consistories of vacant churches,
That was decided by the Consistory. They wanted to have the
                                                                    are requested to miil their bulletins and other important news
buildings. In 1924 we had enough trouble about the build-
                                                                    directly to the editor of the column.
ings. I did not desire any more of that trouble. I did not care

about the buildings, although I `do not voice the opinion of           Please send your contributions to J. M. Faber, 1123

my Consistory when I say this. It's my personal conviction          Cooper Ave., S. E., Grand Rapids 7, Michigan.


                                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             13


                                                                        fall from heaven. The whole constellation of the heavens shall
II          F R O M   H O L Y   W R I T                              II collapse. The "powers of the heavens shall be shaken" ! God
                                                                        will roll up the heavens as a scroll. All shall be changed. Not

                                                                        only shall the earth be shaken, but God shall also shake the

            Exposition 0% Matthew 24 and 25                             heavens. Hebrews 1:11, 12 ; 12 26-25.

                                                                               For in shaking the present world he indicates that he
                                V    I    I    .                        will bring in a world which cannot be shaken, the immovable

                                                                        heritage ! There shall be no more earthquakes in the Parousia
                        (Matthew 24 29-31)
                                                                        of the -Lord, in the new heaven and new earth where right-

      In our former essay we ended with some observations               eousness shall dwell.

concerning the created design and .purpose  of sun, moon and                   That is the "end." Thus we read in I Corinthians 15 23,

stars. They  are media of the revelation of God. They are               24.     "Now  each in his own order (rank), Christ the first-

set for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years.              fruits, then they which are of Christ & KS Parousia, and then

And the very speech of the heavenly luminaries is that all              the end, when he shall deliver the kingdom to the God and

time ends. Each evening the sun sets, proclaiming to man                Father, when he shall have made void all principalities and

and beast that the end has come of that particular day. And             authority and might." And that, too, "that God may be all

each new moon proclaims that another month has come, only               (things) in all" ! I Cor. 15 :28b.  There shall be "no more

to fade away after the zenith.of  its glory in the "last quarter"       time" .from this manifestation of the shaking of the heavens

and then to be gone from sight entirely. They are the clock             till the appearance of the "sign of the Son of Man" in the

of God which measures the time of God in history!                       heavens. (Confer Rev. 10 :6, 7, which speaks of the "end of

      Yet, when the Parousia of Jesus comes, when the sign              the M.ystery  of God, as preached by his servants and proph-

of the Son of Man comes, then it is the. end of time. Then              ets.")

shall the ,sun no more need give its light. Spring-time and                    "Then" will be ,the  "time when" the sign of the Son of

harvest-time will no longer be needed, the moon will no                 man will appear in the heavens !

longer need to give her light, proclaiming that the light                      The question is : what will this sign be ?

still shineth, and the stars will no longer need to be the                     There have been many answers given to this question.

harbingers of the morning.      For then the eternal morn shall         Lange gives a summary of these various answers. Hilory,

have come. The Day-star from on high shall have arrived.                Jerome speak of the sign of "a cross in heaven." Olshausen

The Sun of, righteousness shall forever be the light and the            speaks of the "Star of the Messiah," referring to Numbers

glory of the new creation. For Immanuel,  God-with-us, shall            34:17.  Fritzsch and Ewald interpret this sign as "being the

be with us. Parousia! H:e with us and we with Him, and                  Messiah himself." Meyer speaks of "a luminous appearance,

together with God, the Father!                                          a.forefunner  of the glory of the Messiah." De Wette thinks

      That the sun will be da.lfkened  must not be interpreted as       this sign will be "a kind of Shekinah."  Lange would have it
simply a partial and temporary eclipse of the sun ; such an             the "glory of Christ" himself!

eclipse as can be prognosticated by astronomers and demon-                     In our considered opinion the multitude of views on

strated graphically by a planetarium. The text and entire               this particular matter shows that there is no commztnis  op&o

context suggest rather a total darkening of the sun, so that            on this score amongst interpreters. Bearing .in mind the

the world returns to the darkness prior `to creation. It is a           peculiar force of the adverb "then" (tote-in Greek) re-

prefiguration of "outer darkness," such as was seen in Egypt-           ferring to the "kind of time," it seems most natural to refer
land during the three days of the ninth plague, or as was               this "sign of the Son of Man" to the great phenomena of the

seen "over the entire earth" when our Lord hung; as the                 "shaking of the powers of heaven," the "sign in the sun,
"pierced one," upon the accursed tree! It is the ushering in           moon and stars"  ! There is something univocal (having .but
of the "great and notable Day of the Lord." It is a day of              one sense or meaning) about this phenomena in the heavens !

destruction from the Almighty. Then shall the "tare?' be                It is a "sign" than which there is none greater! Nor could

removed from the "field of the world." It will be the day              that "sign" be more clear ! It is the sign of Christ's Parousia,

when the hearts of men, evil men, shall be faint ! Isaiah 13 :9.        of this coming to dwell forever with His people in glory.

He shall destroy the sinners out of it. Isaiah 13 :9. It will no        In it is very clearly seen what the church of the ages con-
longer "hurt" the wheat when the "tares" are pulled out!               fesses in the .4postolicma  "the resurrection of the body and
It is the final harvest day. And, therefore, let the sun no            the life everlasting" and also "From whence he shall come

longer give its light. Let it be totally darkened.                     to judge the living and the dead"! And, therefore, we hold

      And the "moon shall not give her light" ! It will no longer      that the "sign" of the Son of. Man is the "shaking of the

be a silent companion in the night, riding softly and gently           powers of heaven"!

through the skies, casting her silvery rays upon a resting                     Our Lord further tells us of the effect that this "sign"

and sleeping world !                                                   will have upon the "tribes of the earth," upon the rich and

      And the stars shall not be seen anymore, for they shall          the poor, world's great and small, rulers and principalities,


1 4                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   .BEARER


thrones and dominions, Theirs will be "wailing," that is, a         it.. It is simply the removal of the wicked in order that Zion

ritual, a solemn and universal lamentation, as of deep mourn-       may be saved: *that  she may dwell in the city four-square,

ing for the dead, a beating of the breast as was possibly pre-      where the gates shall never be closed !

figured in the conduct of the "centurion" at the Cross of              The other side is the "gathering the elect" from the four

Jesus, when he said, "Truly, this man was God's Son !" (was         corners of the world.

righteous !) It will be the beginning of the eternal and ever-         We notice that this shall be done with the sound of the

lasting weeping and gnashing of teeth ! Then will every knee        trumpet. It will be a call to the great "Feast of Trumpets" !

bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is "Lord,"           And the trumpet shall be truly the "Trump of God"! It will

unto the glory of God the Father. For they shall see the Son        signal that the time has come for the elect to enter with body

of Man coming in the "great glory" of His kingdom. The              and soul into the everlasting kingdom of God, to enter into the

text says literally (verse 30) "with power and great glory."        Parousia of the Lord! It will be the Feast of the Seventh

It was this power, (dunamis) ability ,of the Son which re-          Month, the Great Feast of the perfected Atonement! It will

vealed Him to be the Son of God. Romans 1 : 4. Particularly,        be the great year of Jubilee, in the land of Beulah. It will

-this great power will be manifested in that day. Then shall        be the call to come to worship in God's temple day and night.

all things in. heaven and, earth be united under one Head,          We quote here with approval from "Fairbairn's Typology."

even under Christ. That He upheld all things by the Word            ,4ncl  such was probably the more peculiar design of the blow-
of His power through the ages shall then be fully manifest.         ing of the trumpets at the festivals generally, and especially

And that he will and does shake the universe and usher in           at the festival of trumpets on the first day of the seventh

the new heavens and the new earth will too be fully mani-           month. That month was distinguished above all other months

fested. Hebrews 12-4.  In this great shaking of all things,         of the year, for the sacred services to be performed in it -

in this "sign" of the Son of Man, the "power" of the Christ         it was emphatically a sacred month . . . In perfect accordance

is manifest, but, therefore, also at once His "great glory." He     with this all, not only is the feast named the feast of trumpets,

is higher than the angels, having so much more excellent            but a "memorial of blowing of trumpets," a bringing to re-

name. To Him it was said, "Sit at my right hand, until I            membrance, or putting God, as it were, in mind of the great

make thy enemies the footstool of thy feet." Heb. 1 :13. When       things by Ehich  (symbolically) He was to distinguish the

He was ushered into the world as the "First-Begotten of             month that was thus introduced, precisely as when they wept

God" it was said, "Let all the angels of God worship Him."          to war against the enemy that oppressed them, they were to

Behold, then the greatness of what the angels sing in Bethle-       blow the trumpet, and, it is added, "ye shall be remembered

hem-Ephratah "Glory to God in the highest, and peace                before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your

among the men of His good-pleasure." Luke 2 :14.                    enemies" (Numbers 10 : 9).

       Yes, the shaking of the "power? of the heaven are the           It is remarkable that the wicked do not hear the sound
"sign of the Son of Man," coming to take the kingdom and            of the trumpet. This is for the "elect of God." They hear the
to give it to the "saints," subjecting all things unto God, even    call to worship and to come to the eternal feast, in God's
the Father.                                                         tabernacle with man! And they are thus gathered. They
       Then there shall be no "peace" for the wicked. For, as       come willingly! They heed the call of the angels. It will be
Luke tells us, the nations shall be in "anguish," in great dis-     the "last trumpet" ! No more need for the "trumpet" to sound
tress of mind and heart. They will know no way out of this          the alarm to battle. The swords can now be beaten into plow-
perplexity and what has come upon them. They will be as             shares. There need: ,be no smith anymore in Israel. This is
those who have lost the way, (aporos) do not know whither           all of no account. Some trusted in chariots and some in
to turn. There is no way out, when the "powers of heaven"           horses, But those who trusted in the Lord, will come to the
are shaken. The deeps will call unto the deeps, the sea will        Feast of' Trumpets, to forever remember the power and the
echo and roar and will biilow mightily. It will be a cata-          glory of God in Christ! That shall be His Paroztsia~!
strophic shake-up of all things. Men will not any longer be                                                                      G.L.
able to "comfort themselzfes"'    with the delusion "all things

remain as they were from the beginning," II Peter 3 :4.

       Men, the wicked, will simply die because of fear of the                       Deacons' Conference
things coming upon the inhabited world of man. They will
not simply faint. They shall die from fright and consterna-             A Deacons' Conference of the churches in Classis  East
tion. For the Son of God will terrify them with the Sign of         will be held at Creston Church, Thursday evening, October 2,
His great power. And then every eye shall see Him, also             at 8 P. M.

they who have pierced him. See Luke 21 25, 26. All their               All deacons, ministers and ex-deacons, being out of

laughter will be turned into mourning, their joy into sorrow.       office for not more than one term, are invited to attend.

The tables will be turned. For the Lord will avenge Zion !             Rev. Bernard Woudenberg will introduce for discussion

       That is but one side of the power and great glory of the     the topic, "Should we support or take collections for such

Son of Man. It is not even the positive and glorious side of        institutions as the Bethany  Home ?"


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  1 5



                                                                                                   4.5
 II             I N   H I S   .FEAR                             /I                                 54
                                                                                                   63

                                                                                              7     2

             Jehovah, Th.e  God of Arithmetic                                                      81

                                                                                                   90

                                (2)                                       Now if you will take the numbers in the right hand
                                                                      column only and follow them down the colunin, you will see
       As we remarked last time there is an inner harmony and         `that we have the numbers from nine down to 0 in the very
 beauty to be seen in the world of numbers. Note first of all         order in which they precede each other in our system of
 that there-.is  an unfailing pattern of odd and even numbers         numbers. If, then, you-.will take the numbers in the left
 in alternating order.    One, three, five, seven and nine are        hand column and follow -them  down the column, you will
 all odd numbers in that they cannot be equally divided into          have the reverse. The numbers will appear one after the
 two parts without the result being a fraction of a number.           other in the ord,er that they follow each.other  in our system
 Two, four, six, eight and ten are the even numbers which             of numbering. Now, if in the third place, you will look
 appear respectively between these odd numbers. They can              across the columns an even more astounding thing will be
  be divided in two: and the result is always a full number.          noted. Add up these numbers and each time you. will get
 And it makes no difference by what you multiply these even           the number nine. One and eight is nine. Two and seven is
numbers, the result always is again an even number. But               nine. Three and six is nine. And in the fourth place notice
 when you take an odd number and multiply it with the num-            that each time the result of. your multiplication begins with i
 bers beginning with one through any series of consecutive            nuniber  that. is one less than the number by which you are
 numbers, you will always find an alternating pattern of odd          multiplying the number nine. Thus two times nine is eighteen.
 and even numbers. Take'the number three for an example.              And eighteen begins with a one which is one less than the
 One times three gives you a sum that is odd, namely, three.          two by which you are multiplying nine. Again, three times
 But two times three gives you six which is an even number.           nine is twenty-seven, Twenty-seven begins with a two which
  Did this come about by some evolutionistic process ? Was it         is one number less than the three by which you are multi-
 at one time different? And did these numbers juggle them-            plying nine. So it proceeds through the whole table of nine
  selves and jocky themselves into such a harmonious and              from one times nine through teh times nine. You find that
 beautiful pattern ? Of course not ! An all-wise God designed         nowhere but in this table of nines.
 these numbers according to this beautiful scheme.                        Nor is that the extent of it. ,When  we pursue this in-
       Take again, if you will, the inner harmony and unchange-       triguing number to the next degree and multiply it by the
 able pattern of the number five. In this table again you have        numbers eleven through twenty we get a similarly startling
  an alternating pattern of odd and even numbers. What is             list of numbers. Let us line them up again and look care-
 more you have also in unchangeable pattern numbers that              fully at the series of numbers, This is the result of our multi-
  etid alternately in five or zero. And in the table of tens you      plication :

  have one series of even numbers that end each time unwaver-                                       99
  ingly with a zero.                                                                               108       i;s ,'

       But the number that is for us the most intriguing of them                                   117 ,'

  all and the most demonstrative of the wisdom of God is the                                       126

  number nine. There just is no number like it. For the child                                      135

  it may be one of the hardest of the tables to learn -perhaps                                     144

  because the sums are larger than of any of the other digits                                      153

  from one through eight. And yet this ought not be the case.                                      162

  In some respects it is the easiest to "figure out." If you will                                  171

  take a piece of paper - unless you can hold these figures                                        180

  clearly in your mind-and write down under each other the                We will notice that the same &hing  obtains here as in

  numbers of the table of nines you will observe a very startling     the nine times table taken from one through ten when we

  thing, yea more than one startling thing that speaks S`O loudly     go down the right hand column. Once again the numbers

  of God's beauty, harmony and wisdom. We want you to note            follow in the order that they precede each other in our way

  four things in this table and therefore will ask the printer        of counting from one through ten. And ivhen  we take the

  to set up this table before your eyes thus :                        left hand column-considering that the numbers are nine,

                               09                                     ten, eleven, etc., so that we have but two columns of numbers,

                               18                                     we find that here the numbers follow each other in the usual

                               27                                     pattern from nine through eighteen. But here is a new thing,

                               36                                     when we look at the list of numbers above and go across the


16                                            T H E   STANDA R D   B E A R E R


column and consider each number to be composed of three            one through forty, we will find three exceptions. And so

separate numbers and then add these numbers up, we will            you may  continue also with this.

each time, once again, get the number nine. This does not              How shall we explain all this to our children ? That we

apply to the first number, namely ninety-nine, but to all that     should call it to their attention in the arithmetic class is not

follow. Thus in the number one hundred eight above, if we          only beneficial for the child but will also catch his interest in

add the one and the zero and the eight, we get nine. If we         .what otherwise might be considered by him to be a dull and

take the next number, one hundred seventeen, and add the           boring subject. But how shall we do that? Is any man so

numbers across, once again we get nine. For one and one and        foolish as to believe that this harmony between numbers and

seven is nine. One other difference is that now the result of      this unique and intriguing pattern of numbers is there by the

our multiplication is two less than the number by which we         ingenuity of man ? Did man invent so intricate and yet so

multiplied nine. Thus eleven times nine are ninety-nine.           beautiful a system of arithmetic? To be sure man works with

Nine, the first figure is twd less than  the eleven by which we    it, and for ages, yea from the beginning, has been busy with

multiplied nine. Twelve times nine is one hundred eight. Ten,      these numbers. And was not the possibility of the atom bomb

the first part of this figure, is two less than the twelve by      determined exactly and demonstrated by mathematical

which we multiplied nine. And so we may continue with              figures? Man uses them, and man has become very skilled

this. The reason why the number is now twice removed from          in the use of them.    But sthey  were there before man ap-

the number by which we have multiplied nine is that we are         peared on the face of this globe. Water froze at its pres-

now doing so beyond that first series of numbers from one to       cribed temperature and boiled at its prescribed degree of

`ten. In this series we were one behind. Now when we go on         heat before man was created on the sixth day. And what will

to the numbers eleven through twenty we are still this one         the evolutionist say of all this? When his man did not ap-

behind plus the one of the new set of numbers. Then,' too,         pear for billions and billions of years, the water of this crea-

considering once again that we have only two columns of            tion was still after the same mathematical formula of H20

numbers so that we add ten to eight, and eleven to seven, and      as it is today. And there was no man to design this mathe-

twelve to six and so on down the line, our result will each        matical scheme.

tim- be eighteen. In the table when we multiply nine by the            This all belongs to the order of the creation which the

numbers one *through ten, the result was nine ; but now when       ALL-wise God has made. And it all displays His infinite

we multiply nine by the numbers eleven through twenty, the         wisdom and beauty. Blessed is that child who may have the

result is just twice as much, or eighteen.                         benefit of instruction that points this out to him and causes

                                                                   him to see how great his God is. That child will sing, "How

      We can do that again.    Multiply nine times the numbers     Great Thou Art."
twenty-one through thirty. The-  same underlying principle             And remember that this is true of the number nine in
and pattern will be found. Now the left and right hand             its combination with other numbers because of the value of
columns will proceed step by step up and down the series           these other numbers. This beauty, this harmony, this infinite
of numbers in their order. But now when we add the two             wisdom is seen in the number nine as we multiply it by other
columns across our result will be not nine, not eighteen, but      numbers; but without these other numbers the nine does
the next step in the table of nines, namely, twenty-seven.         not display this wisdom. And so really it is the wisdom of
Thus twenty-one times nine is 189. Take the 18 and the 9           God in the whole series of numbers, in all arithmetic and
and together they make twenty-seven. But take these num-           all mathematics that is to be seen in the tables of the multi-
bers from twenty-three times nine on through thirty times          plication of the nine. Indeed, vanity of vanities these num-
nine and consider the sum to be three numbers, and un-             bers are alone. But taught in His fear they take on meaning
erringly again your result will be nine. Thus 23 times nine        and have beauty. We plan, the Lord willing, to continue this
is 207. And 24 times 9 is 216. Add the two, the zero and           consideration of Jehovah as the God of arithmetic next time.
the seven and you get nine.                                        There are other truths to be seen than the truth of the wis-
                                Likewise, add the two, the one
and the six and you still get only nine. But did you note          dom of God in the world of numbers which He designed and
that now you get two nupbers  at the beginning that are ex-        uses.                                                    J.A.H.

ceptions?  The sums of twenty-one times nine and twenty-

two times nine when added up and across as three separate
                                                                               NOTICE: ACTS OF SYNOD
numbers total eighteen and not twenty-seven. Thus 189 and
                                                                      The Acts of the 1958 Synod of the Protestant Reformed
198 added across -thus, one and eight and nine, or one and
                                                                   Churches of America are now available. Obtain your copy
nine and eight  -.equal  eighteen. When we multiplied nine
                                                                   either from the minister or clerk of your church or_ send
times the second series of numbers, the numbers eleven
                                                                   your order to undersigned. The price is $1.00.
through twenty, we got one exception. Now when we multi-

ply nine times the third set of numbers, the numbers twenty,                               Rev. G. Vanden  Berg, Stated Clerk

one through thirty, we get two exceptions. If we carry this                                     9402  South 53rd Court

on and multiply nine times a fourth set, the numbers thirty-                                    Oak Lawn, Illinois


                                            THE   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   1 7


 THE LIVING CREATUJRES OF EZEKIEL 1 AND, 10                          they are flying, and two' used to cover their bodies. The wings

     Extremely interesting, but equally important for under-         of each touch the wings of the creature next to him.

 standing the entire prophecy of Ezekiel is the vision of the            In a more detailed description that'follows of the faces,

 living creatures mentioned in chapter 1, and referred to again      we find that these four faces each have their own peculiar

 later in the prophecy. Whenever we read the prophecy of             likeness. The one, as has been said, is the likeness of a man.

 Ezekiel, also in our family worship, a clear picture of the         To the right, is the likeness of a lion. To the left, the face

 vision and its significance is most essential for all of US.        of an ox. And in the back, the face of an eagle.

     As is. obvious from the first few verses of this prophecy,          Concerning the hands, we read that they are under the

 Ezekiel lived and prophesied among the exiles in Babylon.           wings on the four sides. This must mean that there are eight

 He was a contemporary of Daniel, with this difference, that         hands in all.

 Daniel lived and spoke in the king's court, while Ezekiel               There is also a peculiarity about the feet. We are told

 lived and prophesied among the people of Judah. Daniel              that the feet are straight. This is commonly taken to mean

 spoke of the destruction of all the kingdoms of this world          that the legs have no joints at the knee. It may mean, how-

 through the establishment of the kingdom of Christ in               ever, that the feet do not extend straight out from the body,

 heavenly perfection. Ezekiel spoke of the destruction of the        as is the case with a human. Rather, the legs extend straight

 earthly temple in Jerusalem to prepare the way for the              down, and end in the hoof of a calf. For we read, "And the

 eternal temple of God in the heavens. That is the theme of          sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot." And it

 the entire prophecy of Ezekiel, the destruction of the earthly      should not escape us that also these'feet glisten, even as the

 temple in Jerusalem to open the way for its spiritual reality,      cloud, like polished brass.

 the heavenly temple of God, where the promise of God will               So we have .the appearance of living beings, yet with four

 be realized in glorious perfection, "And ye shall be my             faces, including the likeness of a lion, an ox, and an eagle,

 people, and I will be your God." Ezek. 36 :28.                      as well as that of a man. Besides, these creatures have the

    It -is important to bear in mind that we are dealing with        feet of a calf. And, what stands  out most prominently, they

 a vision. The prophet mentions in the first verse that, "the        have many wings, the wings of cherubim, even as the cheru-

 heavens were opened, and I saw the visions of God." And             bim that were embroidered on the veil of the temple.

 again in the third verse that the hand of the Lord was upon             There is another element in the vision, and that is, that

 him, evidently referring to the fact that it was the hand of        these creatures are living and active. They seem to be always

 God whicl;  enabled him to see the revelation of God in a           on the move. And even their movement catches the attention

 vision. Coming at the very beginning of his labors, and ap-         of the prophet as being significant. They do not whirl about,

pearing here already in the first chapter, this vision is closely    even though they move in different directions. They always

 related to the calling of the prophet, and somehow expresses        move in the direction of one of the faces, either to the right

 the theme of all his prophecies.                                    or to the left, either toward the prophet or away from him.

    Let us try, in as far as that is possible, to form a mental      Yet they do not move arbitrarily, as fancy might dictate. They

 picture of the living creatures as seen by the prophet in. the      always move as directed by the Spirit. The idea must be,

vision.                                                              that the Holy Spirit .directs  all their mqvements,  causing

    We are told that he sees a whirlwind coming out of the           them, each in particular, and all together, to serve the plan

north. This whirlwind carries with it a great cloud, which           and purpose of the. Most High, Wht,  sits upon the throne.

comes rolling toward the prophet. This cloud contains in the         (Verse 26.)

center of its vortex a ball of fire, shining forth in glorious          Finally, mention is made of the fact, that a bright fire

brilliancy. For out of the midst of the fire radiates in all         burns among them, like coals of fire or a burning lamp, caus-

directions .a dazzling brightness like the color of amber, or        ing light to radiate from them and sending forth flashes of

better, like glistening, shining brass.                              lightning.

    As this whirlwind approaches, the form of living creatures          All this should aid us in forming a mental picture of the
appear before the wondering gaze of Ezekiel. Since we are            living beings as seen in the vision.
-dealing with a vision, thes'e are no real creatures, but rather        But now we sho.uld also turn to the tenth chapter of this
a likeness, and have symbolical significance. They bear the          prophecy, where these same creatures appear again. Rather
appearance of living beings, or living creatures. From now           than to enter into detail, we shall point out only the most im-
on his attention is fixed upon this appearance.                      portant features of this new vision.

 The predominating likeness is that of a man. Evidently                 First, the prophet is now standing in the inner court of
they have bodies that resemble human bodies, for they also           the temple in Jerusalem, as that temple had once been. He
have the hands of a man. Besides, one of the faces is a              sees the dead who have been slain by the righteous judgment
man's face. The creatures, four in number, all look in op-           of God and whose bodies lie in heaps in the temple.

posite directions, likely towards the four points of the com-            Secondly, he sees the likeness of a throne, which is the

pass, They also have four sets of wings. That is, each crea-         throne of God's sovereign majesty. The time has come when

ture has two wings ; two extended over their heads while             God not pnly visits the inhabitants of Jerusalem with His

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


judgments. but He also destroys the city and the temple.               man is the face of the mighty lion,  commonly referred to as

The man in white linen, who is obviously the Christ, is in-            `the king of the beasts. There is also the face of an ox, the

structed to pour fiery coals upon the city. At the same time           powerful representative of the domesticated animals. And

Jehovah prepares to depart from the earthly temple in His              there is the stately eagle, which represents the whole bird

cloud of glory.                                                        kingdom. Obviously, all the animate creatures are symbolized

      Thirdly, we note that again the living creatures of chap-        in these likenesses.

ter 1 are present, standing to the south of the temple. In fact,           But this plainly ignores a very important part of &the vi-

the coals used to destroy the city are taken from the bright           sion. For in chapter 1 we noted that they had wings, the tip

fire which is in the midst of them. These living creatures             of each touching the tip of the wing next to it. In chapter

take an active part in the judgment of God upon that temple            10 `these creatures are referred to as cherubim. And there

that is destroyed.                                                     the prominent face is that of a cherub.

      Finally, we notice that there are some outstanding dif-              That points to the fact that these creatures belong to the

ferences between the creatures as they appear here, and as             heavenly creation. They are spiritual beings, like unto the

we have already met them in chapter 1. The four faces are              angels of heaven, and are a part of the new creation. The

described here ai the face of the cherub, of a man, of a lion,         prophet does not see these creatures as we see them now with

and of an eagle. Here the cherub is on the foreground in-              our natural eye. As far as we are concerned, man and beast

 stead of the face of a man. In fact, the face of the cherub           and birds are still a part of this present earthly creation.

has replaced the face of an OS, which is not mentioned here.           They are even subject to vBnity, and thus they groan in hope,

Moreover, their bodies, and their backs, and their hands,              "bn,cause  the creature itself also shall be delivered from the

and their wings are  full of eyes round about. As for the              bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons

 rest, the description is the same, and it is emphasized that          of God," Rom. 8:19-22.  But the prophet sees them as they

these are the same creatures which were seen in the original           have been renewed and now belong to the heavenly creation.

vision, even. though here they are referred to as cherubim.            Actually they already exist as new creatures in the counsel

      Just one more remark about the vision, and that is that          of God, and therefore can appear in the vision. They take

John sees a very similar appearance of living creatures in the         an active part, as it were, in the destruction of the earthly

fourth chapter of the book of Revelation, the verses 6 to S.           temple ; for the new creation that is eternal in the heavens

 We urge you to read also that passage, and refer you to the           displaces the old.

interpretation given by the Rev. H. Hoeksema  in Tke  Sta.xd-              That accounts for it that these creatures are full of eyes
ard Beak,  vol. 33, page 368 ff.                                       and constantly move about. That also accounts for it that a

      Considering now the various elements of the vision, we           fire is in the midst of'them and that their feet glow with the

find that  the dloud from the north evidently refers to Babylon,       glory of God's holiness and majesty. These are living crea-

 which came against the Holy City and the temple to destroy            tures, filled with the Spirit of God. They have their own

them..  Both the cloud and the whirlwind symbolize the fact            nature and their own life, so that each in its own ivay serves

that they are instruments in God's hand to pour out His judg-          the purpose of the Most High. This is expressed by the

ment upon Judah because of their abominations and idolatry.            eyes that cover them. But this is also expressed by the power

 The fire also speaks of judgment, and generally includes the          of the Spirit which pervades them, so that they move under

idea of purging, even as God will bring forth a new creation           the direction of the Spirit, to cause all things to serve toward

out of the old through the fire'of  His final judgment., That          the coming of God's kingdom and the eternal revelation of

,same  idea we meet again in chapter ten, where the Lord               His glory.

through His Servant, the Christ, spreads coals of fire upon                That leaves us with the final question, what is the

Jerusalem and the temple to destroy them. And at the same              significance of these visions for the prophet and for us ?

time, He withdraws Himself to dwell `there no more.                        And then we answer, first of all, that they serve to point

      It is in that light that we must regard the living crkatures.    Ezekiel to his calling and his message in the midst of the

As you can well imagine, there are many varied interpreta-             people of Judah. It is his calling to point Judah to her idol-

tions of this part of the vision.     Some regard these creatures      atry, whereby she profaned the name of Jehovah among  the

as heavenly spirits, cherubim.       Others lay emphasis upon the      heathen. But he must also speak to the remnant according

fact that they are representatives of the earthly creation.            to election concerning the faithfulness of God, Who saves His

Actually, of course, both ideas are included in the vision.            people in Christ for His Name's sake. God is jealous of His

      The four living creatures represent, first of all, the whole     honor, and He will declare His glory among the heathen

earthly creation. This is evident from the number four, which          through the salvation of His people in Christ.

in Scripture always expresses the four ends of the earth, or               Therefore, in the second place, the prophet is given to

the entire earthly creation. But this is also evident from the         see the destruction of the earthly temple in the presence of

creatures themselves.     Prominent among them, especially in          these living creatures. These creatures exist before God, even

the first chapter, is the appearance of a man, who was created         according to His eternal counsel and good pleasure. These

as king of the earthly creation. Accompanying this face of a
                                                                                               (Continued on page 22)


                                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                    19

      -                                       _ -I_ _.- ._-- I                    that those human impossibilities are ,possible  with Him. Such
                The `Voice of Our Fathers                                         is our God!
I!                                                                                    At the same time we may observe that in this article is
                                                                                  set forth the very &ZZU  of the Reformed faith in contrast
                       The Canons of Dordrecht                                    with the gents  of the Arminian heresy. It is no accident

                                     I'AR'I'  `I`\VO                              .that the fathers present the truth of preservation by way of
                                                                                  *two  contrasting statements here. We must remember that

                         ~XI'ORI'I`~OIN  01' `1'1115  CANONS                      they are throughout the Canons consciously opposing the

                                                                                  heresy of the Remonstrants.        And stripped of all attempts
                         FIFTH HEAD OF DOCTRINE                                   to cloak it in pious and apparently Scriptural terminology,

                                                                                  that heresy is that in spite of the remains of indwelling sin
                  OF THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS
                                                                                  and the attacks. of the world and of Satan, the converted, if

                   Article 3.    By reason of these remains of indwelling sin,    left to their own strength, are able to persevere. The Ar-
                   and the temptations of sin and of the world, those who         minians may call in divine grace as an assistant; they may
                   are converted could not persevere in a state of grace,
                                                                                  even speak of God's preservation of the saints. The fact
                  if left to their own strength. But God is faithful, who,
                  having conferred grace, mercifully confirms, and power-         remains that their `doctrine leaves it entirely within the power

                  fully,preserves  them therein, even to the end.                 and will of man to persevere to the end. That is Arminian-

                                                                                  ism, plain and simple.      And that the fathers deny, flatly and
           The above translation is -not entirely'correct  ; and because
                                                                                  bluntly: the converted, if left to their own strength, could
the article is brief, we will present a corrected version of the
                                                                                  not persevere. And mark you well, this is a matter of
entire article :
                                                                                  a.bility!  It is not the mere question whether they do or do
                  On account of these remains of indwelling sin, and also         got persevere, but the much more fundamental question
                  the attacks of the world and of Satan, those who are
                                                                                  whether they are able  or ,unable  `to persevere. The Remon-
                  converted would not be able to persevere (remain stand-
                                                                                  strant grants, - he will have to grant, - that there are
                  ing) in that grace, if they were left to their own strength.
                  But God is faithful, who mercifully confirms them in the        many that do not, in fact, persevere to the end. But to the

                  grace once conferred, and powerfully preserves them             Arminian this is not a matter of inability, but a matter of un-
                  in the same, even to the end.                                   willingness on the part of a man who is endowed with a free

           In this article we have the main proposition of the entire             will, which means that it also lies within the scope of that

fifth chapter of the Canons, namely, that God mercifully con-                     free will to persevere if a man so desires. On the other hand,

                                                                                  stripped of all related questions as to the experience, the
firms the saints in the grace once conferred, and powerfully

preserves them in the same even unto the end. This, we say,                       manner, *the  assurance of, and the means of this preserving

is the main thought of this entire chapter. In the present                        grace, the plain and simple Reformed faith is: God power-
                                                                                  fully preserves the converted in grace even unto the end.
article this truth is simply set forth, without being further

explained. In the remaining articles the fathers speak of the                        With this in mind we may pay attention to some of the
relation between preservation and the sins and falls of `the.                     details of this article.

saints, the manner in which *the  grace of preservation oper-                         First of all, then, we must keep in mind what kind of men
ates, the assurance of preservation, and the means of preser-                     the article is speaking of, namely, mists. The question is
vation. All this remains to be discussed. But here the funda-                     not now: can a mere natural man, left to his own strength,
mental proposition of the Fifth Head of Doctrine is pro-                          obtain the grace of God and all the blessings of salvation im-
pounded, that God powerfully preserves His people to the                          plied therein ? But the question is : granted that a man has
v e r y   e n d .                                                                 once become a saint, has once obtained grace, can he, if left

           We may add at once that this truth is presented by way                 to his own strength, continue a saint? -And the question is,

of contrast, as the conjunction "but" indicates also. 1 The                       in this article, stated in still more limited form when the

contrast is between the powerful preservation of the faithful                     article speaks of the gvnce  of conversion. For this is indeed

God and the utter inability of the saints to persevere if left to                 the intention : the` article speaks of "those who are converted"

their own strength. This is noteworthy. God always reveals                        and the possibility of their persevering "in that grace." The

His grace against the background of and at the .point  of the                     latter expression refers undoubtedly therefore to the grace of

utter inability of man, the sinner. He will give His glory to                     conversion. Hence, the question is as follows: granted that

no other. He will not share the glory of His grace with                           the current of God's converting grace has once begun to flow

the creature, When the wonder of grace is revealed, the Lord                      into a man, if that man is now left  to his own strength, can

God always takes care that there is absolutely no room for                        he continue and persevere, endure to the very end, in that

the creature to boast of self, to take any credit for himself.                    grace of conversion ?. Or, on the other hand, is it necessary,

Only then and there, when and where it becomes abundantly                         -granted once more that grace has once been given to a

plain that things are impossible for man, does God reveal                         man, -that the current and energy of divine grace must con-

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


,tinue to flow from God to him if ever that man is to continue         we may perhaps emphatically grant that the natural man can
a converted man ?                                                      do.nothing toward his own salvation, nevertheless to imagine
      In order to answer this question, we must next consider          that the Christian, once he has become a Christian, can, left
what is meant by a man's being left to 12;s oz~n strength. This        to himself, do something. To put it rather crudely, if God
certainly means that once a man has been converted, there              gives him a start, he can keep going. But. this is very defi-
is no furthdr operation of grace upon him, no further flow             nitely not the case. Suppose that it were possible that Christ
of the current of grace from God through Christ into him,              would say to the saint: "I have established the connection of
no further operation or influence of God whatsoever in him.            faith between you and Myself. And through that bond I
He is simply regenerated, once made alive, receives a be-              have caused a supply of my life to flow into your heart. But
ginning of the new obedience, is delivered from the dominion           I am going to give you no more. I will take no further action.
and slavery of sin, but also left still in an imperfect state, that    I will not add to your supply of life. From now on I will
is not altogether delivered from the body of sin and the ifi-          remain completely passive. Or, at least, I will do nothing
firmities  of the flesh. And from that point on he is "on his          unless you seek My help. There is an ample supply of grace
own." It is up to him to continue in Christ, to keep on be-            and of life in Me. But from now on you must come and take
lieving in Him, to keep on fighting against sin, to see to it          it out of me: I will not simply give it to you. I am certainly
even that this -beginning of the new obediince,  this principle        willing to lead you to life eternal, but I will not do so unless
of regeneration, survives and is not snuffed out. God may              you put your hand in Mine and hold on to Me. Remember,
probably help him, if he himself seeks that help. But God              I will not give you any more strength than you now have
does not even operate within this man to cause him to seek             to hold My hand. It is entirely up to you. All the exertion,
divine help. This man is left entirely to his own strength,            all the initiative must from now on come from you, the
not, mark you, as. a natural man, but as a man described in            Christian." What would happen to such a Christian ?
Article 1 -of this chapter. Let us be very clear on this point.            He would never persevere! He could never remain in the
The question is : can a Christian, left to `his own strength as        fellowship of Christ. The moment he would- be left to his
a Clzri.stia?it,  survive the battle and persevere to the end ?        own strength, that is, the moment the life-giving current
      You will probably be very quick to answer negatively.            would cease to flow from Christ to him, at that moment he
Your reason will probably be that the life of regeneration can         would be powerless to maintain the flow of that current. If.
never exist in .separation  from Christ, no more than the              it were really true that Christ ,gave us a small supply of the
branch can live in separation from the vine. There cannot              new life, delivered us from the dominion and slavery of sin,
be.a multitude of independent living ones in separation from           though not altogether from the body of sin and from the in-
tjLe Living One. There cannot exist a family of sons of God            firmities of the flesh, and then abandoned us to persevere in
independent of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. If               our own strength, we would inevitably fail most miserably.
a saint is to continue a saint, then the bond, the connection,         If this were true, not only would some men fail ; all men
must be maintained between him and Christ: he must not                 would fail.
only once be called into the fellowship of God's Son Jesus                 And this failure would be inevitable because it is rooted
Christ, but he must also continue in that fellowship. Yes,             in an incapability. There is no question of it, according to
but that is exactly the issue. The connedtion  of faith must           the article under discussion, for "those who are converted
indeed be maintained between the saint and Christ. The saint           wozcld  not be a.ble to persevere in that grace, if left to their
must indeed continue in the fellowship of God's Son, our               own strength."
Lord Jesus Christ. If that connection, that fellowship, is
broken, the life of regeneration must certainly perish. But                Such is the negative side of the Reformed truth of
now, cannot the Christian, by virtue of the fact that he is            perseverance.                                                 H.C.H.
once regenerated and converted, himself continue' in the fel-
lowship of Christ? Cannot the Christian, by virtue of his                    ."
first gift. of grace even, from then on take the initiative and
continue to draw the gifts of grace out of Christ and have                                       IN MEMORIAM

fellowship with Christ? Or must God in Christ always take                 The Men's Society of the Hope Protestant Reformed Church
the initiative? Must God through the Spirit ,of Christ not             hereby +ishes to express its sincere  sympathy to one of its members,
only estahl~ish  the connection between the sinner and Christ,         Mr. Isaac Korhorn in the loss'of  his brother,
but also constantly ?w&ntain  that connection ? Is there never                              CORNELIUS KORHORN
any saving activity that originates purely with man, not even
with the man that has once become a Christian ?                           May our God comfort the bereaved in their sorrow.

      We emphasize that this is the issue, in order that we may                                               In the name of the Society,
see clearly that the matter of salvation is from beginning to                                                   Rev. H. Hanko, president
end solely a matter of sovereign grace. It is very easy, while                                                  P. Petroelje, secretary


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D '   BEA.RER                                                .     21


                                                                        sider only these facts : Sarah was an old woman 90 years of
            S A I N T S   O F   O L D                                   age who all of her life had been barren and had now passed
I'                                                                !J    the years of conception, Gen. 18 :11 ; Abraham also `was a
                      The Birth of Isaac                                man of many years and from the point of view of bringing
                                                                        forth a seed was to be considered "as good as dead," Heb.
          "FOY  Sarah  conceived., an,d have Abraltautt a son in        11:12. Surely for Abraham and Sarah to bring forth a
          his old age, at tkc set time  of wlzicl~  God had  sjoken
                                                                        seed was more `than human reason could expect.
          to him,  Artd  Abraham called the yamc  of his son . . .          Neither is this, just a conclusion which is to be arrived at
          Isaac." - GEN. 212, 3                                         only from the point of view of those that follow later. Abra-
      Miracles - Wonders of Grace.                                      ham and'sarah  themselves had come to much the same con-
      Some call them supernatural events because, they say,             clusion. It was not a long time before the birth of Isaac that
they are wrought directly by the hand of God. What they                 Sarah had stood hidden behind the door of the tent listening
have forgotten is that all things are wrought directly by God,          to the voice of the man that had come to visit them on the
for in his providence "as it were by his hand, he upholds and           plains of Mamre. She had heard his voice speaking, "I will
governs heaven, earth, and all creatures; . . . and all things          certainly return unto thee according to the time of life ; and
come not by chance, but by his fatherly hand." Heid. Cat.               lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son," Gen. 18 :lO.  But "Sarah
Q. 27.                                                                  laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall
      Miracles - Wonders of Grace.                                      I have pleasure, my lord being old also ?" Gen. 18 :12. It was
      They are events wrought by the hand of God whereby in             a cynical laugh, a laugh of unbelief. In earlier years it had
reality or in type He raises His chosen creatures out of the            been different. Then she had heard that same promise from
curse of sin into the glory of His everlasting kingdom and              the mouth of the Lord and laid hold upon it with the firmness
covenant, when all human agency has failed.                             of faith. Then in the strength of her younger years she had
      Among the gieatest  of such wonders of grace recorded             looked forward and anticipated the day when the Lord would
for us in the Scriptures was that which took place on the               open her womb so that she might bring forth a seed unto her
outskirts of Bethlehem when a virgin "Brought forth her                 husband Abraham even as the Lord had promised. But that
firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and                was long before. Years and even decades had passed while
laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them                the promise remained unfulfilled. Gradually the ugly head
in-the inn." Luke 2 :7. Then it was that. all human agency              of unbelief had raised itself within her consciousness envelop-
had failed, for Mary had not known a man from the royal                 ing her in its snare. Wave after wave of doubt had filled her
line of David through whom the promised line could be con-              soul ever again with greater power. In desperation she had
summated or even continued. The royal line from every hu-               laid the plan to raise up a seed to her husband through Hagar
man point of view m&t needs come to its end. But with God               her maid ; but her plan even before the child was born brought
all things `are possible and He sent forth His Spirit with              discord to their home and ever after was cause for repeated
miraculous power  so that the virgin Mary conceived and                 trouble. Finally there came to her ears this repetition of the
brought forth a son whose name is called "Emmanuel, which               promise ; but it was too much,  too often she had heard it be-
being interpreted is, God with us." Matt. 1 :23. "And the               fore, too many years had passed without its being fulfilled.
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld                 There burst from her soul that cynical laugh. She did not
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,)            believe it.
full of grace and truth." John 1 :14. - A miracle of grace.                Again it was not just Sarah. Abraham too had known
      Not nearly so great, not nearly so rich, yet also beautiful       such unbelief. It was but a year before Isaac was born when
with essentially the same beauty was another miraculous                 God had come to him to institute the seal of circumcision.
birth which had taken place many years before when "Sarah               His heart had been strained through years of waiting with-
conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set            out fulfillment, of hoping without realization. Then too the
`time of which God had spoken to him." Gen. 21:2.  It was a             Lord had repeated that same promise as was later heard by
beautiful figure of the greater reality which was to come.              Sarah, "As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name
      The birth of Isaac, like the virgin birth which it fore-          Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and
shadowed, was a birth utterly impossible from a human point             give thee a son also of her : yea, I will bless her, and she
of view. We all know how that in our modern age, dominated              shall be a mother of nations ; kings of people shall be of her,"
by the wise men of science, the virgin birth is one of the              Gen. 17:15, 16. Troubled in his heart, it was too much for
first truths of Scripture which would be discarded. With'               Abraham to receive. "Then Abraham fell upon his face, and
austere confidence the learned men of our day would say that            laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him
after objective consideration and scientific examination the            that is. an hundred years old ? and shall Sarah, that is ninety
possibility of a virgin birth must be considered impossible.            years old bear ?" Gen. 17 :17. He had a plan that seemed
Surely, if the birth of Isaac were to be placed before the              more possible, "0 that Ishmael might live before thee," he
Same panel of judges, it too would fall under their axe. Con-           prayed. Gen. 17;!18.


22' n -                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D  WL~RER


    The fact of this unbelief God would perpetuate through         numbers, but his heart was set on God that he might be re-
the years to come, for he said, "Sarah thy wife shall bear         ceived in favor by the Most High. Abraham knew, however,
thee a son indeed ; and thou shalt call his name Isaac," Gen.      that these blessings could not come to him as he stood in his
17 :19. Isaac - meaning "laughter," a memorial to the              own right. He was a sinner and as such could never be
doubts of both his parents.                                        received by a holy God. He understood full well as a spirit-
                                                                   uil 
  Nonetheless the Word of God is power.- The promise,                      man that he could never work out his own salvation.
once again repeated and met with laughter, was also a power        Hence, he lodked to the promise of God that He would give to
unto repentance. Falling upon the ears' of both Abraham            him a seed, trusting in hope. that through that seed redemp-
and Saf.&h;the Word found place in their regenerated hearts.       tion would come. He wanted a son not just to perpetuate his
Under  its influence unbelief died and faith again revived.        name upon the earth. He needed a son that in his generations
Although they had no strength left in the flesh wherein to         a Savior might be born. He looked to the promise for salva-
trust, they were brought to the point so beautifully described     tion from his sin that he might live as the friend of God
in Heb. 11 :ll, 12, "Through faith also Sarah herself re-          eternally and forevermore.
ceived strength to conceive seed, and was.delivered  of a child        The joy of Abraham and Sarah both in the birth of Isaac
when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who         was a joy of spiritual thanksgiving. From the very first time
had promised: Therefore sprang there even of one, and him          God had given them the promise, it had been for them a
as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude,     source of spiritual peace. Believing the promise they had
and as the sand by the sea shore innumerable."                     felt assured that God would prepare salvation and for them
    One can almost imagine the joy that swelled within the         fulfill all righteousness. Thus thk strength of their faith had
bosoms of Abraham and Sarah as they gazed on their first-          been accounted for them and in them for righteousness and
born son. A joy such as fills the heart of every mother when       peace. At times indeed their faith had faltered and in the
her firstborn child is placed within her arms. A joy such as       weakness of their flesh they had laughed. But the Word of
reflects in the eyes of every father when he looks, even if it     God had been sufficient to restore them again unto faith.
be through the, thick glass window of a nursery, upon the          Through faith they received strength to bring forth the
face of his own son. Stili it must have been much greater          promised seed. Gazing upon their son they saw the fulfill-
`to them for the many years which they had spent waiting,          ment of all of the promises bein,m realized in the se'ed  which
hoping, longing for the promise of God to be made real. We         was to come, and they laughed a laugh of spiritual joy and
find it echoed in the hymn of Sarah, "God hath made me             thanksgiving for that seed is Christ, -a miracle - a wonder
laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me, . . . Who         of grace.                                                 B.W.
would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have
given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old
age," Gen. 216;  7. Yes, once again there was laughter, as                  THE LIVING CREATURES OF EZEKIEL 1 AND 10
memorialized in his name. But this was a different laughter
                                                                                         (Continued from 
from that which had first moved God to give him that name.                                              page 18)
Then it had been the cynical laugh of a doubter. Now it was        creatures, as a part of the new creation, are the instruments
a laugh of joy and gladness, a laughter of faith and trust, a      of God to destroy the earthly temple. God's temple in the
laughter of praise and thanksgiving.                               heavens displaces, as it were, the temporal temple of Jeru-
   And still their joy was much deeper than that which             salem. The old must give way that the new may appear.
comes from merely the birth of a normal son. This child                And finally, believing Israel in exile is comforted with the
was a very special child. God's promises to Abraham had            hope of deliverance. Through these visions the prophet is
been very rich. He had promised to give to Abraham the             able to point them to the coming of the Son of God in the
land of Canaan as an eternal inheritance for him and for           flesh, to tabernacle among men. He can promise the victory
his seed after him. Gen. 12:7 and 13 :14-17.  He promised          of the cross, the resurrection from the dead, and the exalta-
to make of Abraham a great seed and a great nation as many         tion of Christ in heavenly glory. And through all this the
as the stars in number., :Gen.  12 :2 and 15 :4, 5. He promised    eye of faith is fixed upon Pentecost, but beyond that, upon
to bless Abraham and make him a blessing unto all families         the new Jerusalem, where God will dwell with His people in
of the earth. Gen. 12 :2, 3. He promised to establish his cov-     heavenly .perfection.
enant with Abraham and to be a God unto him and unto his              Thus, according to Revelatiijn  .4, the whole creation is
seed through all generations. Gen. 17 :1-S.-  These promises       always active to the glory of God. For we read in verses 8
Abraham understood to be not merely material but essenti-          and 9, "And the four beasts . . . rest not day and night, say-
ally spiritual. He desired not just the earthly land of Canaan,    ing, Holy, holy, holy, L&d God Almighty, which was, and
but we read, "He looked for a city which hath foundations,         is, and is to come. And . . . those--beasts give glory and
whose builder and maker is God," Heb. 11 :lO.  He sought,          honor and thanks to him that sat upon the thr&e,  who liveth
surely, not to be blessed merely with earthly riches and           forever and ever."                                         C.H.


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                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D , - B E A R E R                                                   23


                                                                              "On the other hand, there is much in the Catechism,
Ij0u~D  u                                                   s                  jl
                                                                      especially in Part III, which may be used fo direct attention
                                                                      to the moral and social implications of the gospel in the
                                                                      Christian life. While it is very easy for the preacher to
                                                                      ignore these elements, they are clearly there.

    In the September 5th issue of The Banner, in th.e rubric                  "For the rest, it must be observed that the Caetchism
"Other Churches in the News,`! the Rev. Peter Van Tuinen              presents the Scriptures from one point of view. The very
writes the following under the title: "Blaming the Heidel-            fact that we have two other doctrinal standards is an official
berger."                                                              admission of that fact.
   "A Reformed preacher in The Netherlands seems to find                      "It will .be useful if Dr. Van Minnen's article has the
symptoms of the disease described above in his own com-               effect of stirring up a discussion on the values of the prom-
munion, and lays the blame on the H-eidelberg Catechism.              inence given to the Heidelberg Catechism' in our church
Dr. J. M. Van Minnen, minister of the Gereformeerde Kerk              life. The Reformed Church must be ever reforming."
at Utrecht, writes in Bekwzhg  to charge that the impover-                    It is difficult to know what Rev. Van Tuinen means by
ishment of the spiritual life is to be charged to the well-           ,that last statement, "The Reformed Church must be ever
known and honored instruction book in the Christian religion.         reforming." By itself the statement is true, of course. It is
   " `The influence of the Catechism (I translate, VT) on             a truth that the Reformed Church should always be in the
the spiritual character of the Reformed Churches cannot               process of reformation. But we fear whe'n we read Rev. Van
easily be overestimated. This Catechism is memorized, has             Tuinen's comments on Dr. Van Minnen's article that the
been taught in the schools for generations, is espounded and          statement in his mouth bears no good meaning. Reformation
drilled in the Catechism classes. Half of our Sunday sermons          to him may mean that Article 68 of our Church Order should
are dedicated to the Catechism teaching, and that year after          be eventually abolished, namely, "The ministers shall on
year. Indeed, the strong shadows of the Catechism, with               Sunday explain briefly the sum of Christian doctrine com-
which the minister is occupied so many hours of the week,             prehended in the Heidelberg Catechism so that as much as
fall clearly on his direct Bible p&aching as weli. Even from          possible the explanation shall be annually completed, accord-
the Bible itself we constantly hear the trusted voice of the          ing to the division of the Catechism itself, for that purpose."
instruction book. The Catechism is the colored glass through          If this is what he and Dr. Van Minnen want, we may rest
which we read the Bible.                                              assured that this would be deformation rather than reforma-
                                                                      .tidn. The church will rue the day when she considers the
   " `We see only what is visible through the window of the           Heidelberger or the other Reformed Standards obsolete,
Catechism, so that not only whole passages of the Bible, but          valueless, a petrified iiiumrny  which belongs in an ancient
especially certain of its accents remain outside our thinking.        crypt.
   " `Could this not be the principal reason why man-in-the-                  On the other hand, if by reformation the Rev. Van
world (the Christian in his everyday affairs) gets so little          Tuinen means that he and Dr. Van Minnen and others of
attention, even in the Calvinistic churches?                          like sentiment should be reforming themselves as to their
   " `Couldn't it be here, in the Catechism, that <the reason         attitude toward the Heidelberger, and perhaps as to the man-
lies foi- our weakness on the world-scene, and of our lack of         ner in which they treat this Standard in their preaching, then
responsible exercise of our Christianity in society ? Might it        we can see that there may indeed be much occasion for ref-
be owing to the Catechism, because of its dpminating posi-            ormation.       We receive the impression that when these men
tion, that the salt of the earth has been left in the saltbin  and    preach they preach on the Catechism rather than "the sum              ,
threatens to become tasteless there?'                                 of Christian doctrine comprehended in the/Heidelberg  Cate-
                                                                      chism."        We contend that where the latter: is faithfully
   "This is likely the sharpest criticism of the Heiddlberg
                                                                      practised, the complaint of *these men will have no ground.
Catechism and its place in our church life that has ever been
                                                                      If the material of the Catechism is found by them to be
u&red by a ministerial voice within the `group. However               untimely, out of date, the reason lies only with them.
m.1~1~  the Reformed Churches in The Netherlands and on
this continent may recoil from it, it does remind us that the         Concerning  the Election of Elders a.TLd  Dencons.
Catechism wag written and its use in the churches determined
in other times than these. It might lead us to reflect too, that              In The Bnnnev  of September 12th,  Professor Martin
the Catechism directs the attention of the learner to his own         Monsma writes a guest editorial on %he timely subject desig-
spiritual life, and the personal coytifort that accrues to the        nated above.
believer. This approach can easily lead to a self-centered                    That it is "timely" is clue to the fact that soon our con-
religion, and it may have had more of such an eff&t than we           sistories will be required to present to their respective con-
are aware of.                                                         gregations nominations for the offices of elder and deacon.


           24                                        - THE  S-TANDAARD   B E A R E R


            In our judgment `Professor Monsma succeeds pretty well in          to serve.    Though *the writer grants that consistory work
           -stressing the importance of the consistorial and eongrega-         does have a salutary effect on those engaged in it, yet he
           tional calling to nominate and chdose men whom the King             maintains that' it will not do to call men to office because it
4           of the Church has gifted and qualified to serve in these holy      will do them good and because they need esperience.  He
           offices. Writes he, "Carelessness in the ,selection of nominees     feels that thgse who reason *thus "do not reckon sufficiently
           for the officers in our churches would not only be a sign of        with the fact ~that the Lord's work is sacred and -that we
            spiritual decline, but it would also accelerate that spiritual     shoyld nominate only those concerning whom we may be-
            decline."    He concludes, therefore, that "the question as *to    lieve that they have received from God a measure of. the
            the specific t&k of elders and deacons is therefore doubtless      necessary qualifications. And surely, a consistory may not
            very importatit,  when we consider-the matter of nominations       by-pass well qualified men for those less qualified just be-
           for these ofices."                                                  cause the latter need to have their spiritual life stimulated
                 Professor Mohsma builds his editorial around the thought      and built up."
            expressed in the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day XII and             Professor Monsma certainly does not go along with
            Question and Answer 31, where specifically the three-fold          the very prevalent idea that almost anyone can serve in the
            office of Christ is taight. Christ is our chief Prophet, our       office of deacon. Writes he, "In some churches almost any
            only High Priest, and our eternal King. Mr. Monsma shows           younger man of acceptable conduct and good judgment and
            how He is pleased to govern His Church through these               with some bookkeeping ability is considered a gbod candidate
            offices. The minis&  reflects the Prophetic office ; the elder,    for the deacon's office. And the majority of consistories find
            the Kingly office ; and the deacon, the High Priestly office.      it much harder to settle on a slate of nominees for the elder's
                 The writer then proceeds to point up the qualifications       office than for the deacon's office." And he asks, "May not
            of the elder and deacon. On the basis of I Timothy 3 :l-7 and      this experience be due in some instances to the fact that we
           Titus 1 5-9 he concludes that "elders must be without re-           have divested the deacon's o&e of its primary significance,
           `preach,  blameless, of good testimony from them that are           namely that it is the office of Christ's mercy and compassion ?
            without,' temperate, self-controlled, orderly, soberminded,        The deacon's office, rightly conceived of and functioning ac-
           not contentious and given to quarreling: gentle, not soon           cording to God's will, certainly requires a large measure of
            angry or self-willed, ruling their own houses well, holding        spiritual knowledge and experience. And some older men;
            to the faithful Word, apt to teach, able to exhort in the          although they know nothing of good bookkeeping methods,
            sound doctrine and to convict the gainsayers."                     make far better deacons than do their younger, inexperienced
                 On the basis of I Timothy 3 :8-12  and Acts 6 :3, concern-    brethren, who are perhaps experts at bookkeeping."
           ing the deacons he concludes : `:Deacons must be men of good           The writer does not mean td discourage the nomination
            report, full of the Spirit, full of wisdom, grave, holding the     and calling to office of the younger men. Fo,r he concludes,
           mystery of the faith in a pure conscience, ruling their children    "Many younger men are better qualified for both .the elder's
           and houses well, not double-tongued, not given to much wine,        office and the deacon's ofice than certain older men." Never-
           and not greedy of filthy lucre."                                    theless, he would warn consistories and tongregations  to
                 Professor Monsma further emphasizes the importance of         consider and choose men who have the best qualifications for
           the offices of elder and deacon by pointing up the facts that       these holy offices. He closes his editorial with an exhortation
           they who serve in them bear great respo'nsibility, and re-          to congregations to consider very seriously the nominations
           quiring of them a measure of `sacrifice and self-denial; and        presented by the consistories. and make use of their right of
          -, -yet, offices in which God is highly favoring those who serve     approbation. It is both a privilege and a duty to approve or
           in them. The writer rebulfks those tiho sometimes belittle          object to those of whom it is known that they are or are
           and make humorous remarks concerning those who fill the             not qualified to serve.
           offices. And he also points up the high privilege of those who         We believe the thought expressed in the editorial should
           serve in the government of the Church of Christ, and who            also be seriously taken to heart by all our own people- as
           are the special representatives in the dispensing of His            the time for nomination and election again approaches.
           merciful kindness, love and compassion toward His children                                                                                    M.S.
     \     in need and trouble.                                                        `- -' I .,      _. .
                 The editorial further brings out "that nat all of us are                            Eastern Ladies' League
           equally well qualified for these sacred offices." It also criti-
           cizes any mistaken assumptions one may- have concerning the            Ladies reserve the evening of October 23 for our Fall
           selection of brethren for the office of elder and deacon.           League meeting to be held at Southwest Protestant Reformed
                 A very common assumption, according to Mr. Monsma,            Church. Rev. B. Woudenberg will be the speaker.                      :
           is that everyone in good and regular standing is suitable to                                              M r s .   H .   V e l t h o u s e
           serve in the offices, and therefore should be given a chance                                        a          Vice-Secretary.
                                                                                                               `I


