    VOLyME AxxLpI                            OCTOBER 1, 1959 - GRAND  RAPIDS,.  MICHIGAN                               NTJSESER 1



                                                                     sentence of sin and death cannot free himself of this yoke of
                                                                II sin and death ,which have the right to rule over him. Why-
                        .-                                      4 .~ not? Because he is a willing slave. He agrees with God's
                                                                     sentence over him. He loves his prison, and if you at any
       WdRfX  .OUT YOUR SALVATION                                    time would endeavour to free him from his prison, he would
                                                                     fight you to remain the captive'of sin, the devil and of death.
                 "Work out yo& own salvation with*fear  and          Man does not want to be saved.
                  tre:mb&ng.  For it is God which worket!z  in
                                                                        Neither is it so that man is a factor in his salvation.
                  you both. tb zvill (and to do of His good
                                                                     That has also been taught numerous times, and many deluded
                $leasa6ye."  -            PHILIPPIANS 2 :12b, 13     millions have believed .it. But it is not true.' Salvation is not
                                                                     a matter of synergism, which means that God and man work
   I think that- the connection of ,my text must be found            together to establish and work out their salvation. Salvation
in the first five verses of this chapter. There Paul had             is no admixture of the work of God and the work of man.
admonished the church at Philippi to live the Christian life.        And for the same reasons as enumerated above.
And the very root of that Christian life is expressed in verse          No, but salvation is entirely, exclusively the work of
    * "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ             Almighty God ! Hallelujah !
~~ifi&" etc.

   And what follows is a beautiful commentary on the life                                      *    + .*. *
and death of Christ, which can. be summed up in these words :
He humbled Himself in the cursed death of the cross. As                 Then what does it mean when Paul tells the church of
we have often remarked : the fundamental law in the Kingdom          all the ages that they must be obedient to him and the Gospel
of God is humility. As Jesus Himself expressed it one                he preaches by working out their own salvation ?
blessed day : "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me:                  It means, beloved reader, that the salvation of God
for I am meek and lowly in heart :-and ye shall find rest unto       comes to manifestation tl'tro,ltgh  man.
your souls," Matt. 11 :29.        -'
                                                                        Man is no machine. Man is a volitional, thinking being.
   These last words of Jesus spell out the Christian life.           Man possesses heart and.mind  and will. And it is God's will
   It is the working out of your salvation on this sorry earth.      that all salvation shall proceed through man to its very com-
                                                                     pletion. -
                              * * `* *

                                                                       And somehow, man becomes active in his own salvation.

   Now let us`first see what it cannot mean.                            It is God's purpose to ,have a heaven full of willing,
                                                                     singing and glorifying saints in that abode of the blest.
   It certainly does not mean that salvation is in any way
the `work of man.                                                       Salvation means love of God and the neighbor, worship
   He is hopelessly inadequate to do so. He will not do              and exultation, prayer and humility, praises of God and an
it ;. he cannot do it ; he dare not do it; and, he may not do it.    eternal walk in the light.
He must be and remain in the prison of death because of his             Salvation in practice is a man or a woman or a child,
sin. He is sold under sin.                                           standing on the earth, throwing up his hands, and singing
   Natural man is in the pit of sin and death, and he may            from the heart : Oh, my God !
not come out of it. Of course, it is not so that man could              Our fathers have said many centuries ago : if a man utters
`G&h  to come ; could yearn to come out, but because of God's        just one longing, ,yearning  sigh. towards the Godhead, such


2                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARE:R


a soul is saved! And that is beautifully true. Witness the               worship, or/and prayer, supplication and beseeching.
murerdere on the cross. He turns his pain-laden `body to                    But one thing is sure: if and when God so works upon
Christ, and stammers : Remember me ! Oh, remember me !                   you and within you, you become a very humble man, woman
And it was enough. He worked out his own salvation in                    or child.
fear and trembling.                                                                               ****
       And so it is with us, with all of us.

                            * * .* ,*                                       Therefore, to work out your salvation is to praise and
                                                                         glorify God while you have your sojourn in this wicked
                                                                         world.
       And how do we come to this longing, .yearning  for God
which is very salvation itself ?                                            Through the almighty power of the Spirit and the Word
                                                                         of Christ you put off the old man of sin, pride, haughtiness,
       There was a time in `the history of the church that the           filth, malice and all manner of iniquity. You say a loud NO !
answer to that question was well known and confessed by                  to all those things, first in your heart, then in your mouth,
the throngs that walked to heaven. Listen to this : "And this            and then in your deeds and works.
is the regeneration so highly celebrated in Scripture, and
denominated a new creation: a resurrection from the dead,                   You kill your old man of sin every day of your life, by
a making alive, which God works in us without our aid. Bd                saying NO ! to him, and his works.
this is in no wise effected merely by the external preaching                And.through the same almighty power of the Holy Spirit
of the Gospel, by moral suasion, or such mode of operation.              and the Word of Christ you~put  on the new man.
that after God has performed His part, it still remains in                  You do that by saying a loud YES ! to all that is beautiful,
the power of man to be regenerated or not, to be converted               good, upright and true. You. become a true man, an upright
or to continue unconverted ; but it is evidently a supernatural          man, woman or child. You hate all sin, and you love all
work, most powerful and at the same time most delight&l,
astonislzing,  mysterious und  inefa,ble;                                goodness. That's working out your salvation all the day
                                                not inferior in effi-    long. By His Spirit and Word God placed salvation in your
cacy to creation, or the resurrection from the dead, etc."               deepest heart; and by the same almighty Spirit and Word of
     And a little further: "Whereupon the will thus renewed,             Christ God activates you so that it proceeds from you, so
is not only actuated and influenced by God, but. in con-                 that men see your good works all the day long. It becomes
sequence of this influence, becomes itself active." And, no'             manifest that God has put a difference between Israel and
doubt, our fathers had before their mind the text we have                Egypt.
set above this little meditation.                                           That is called the life of sanctification. And without it,
       However, do not think now that this becoming active of            no man will see the Lord !
the regenerated sinner is the sinnev's  part of tlze work of
.salvation.  Because we read further on in the same head of                                       *    * * *
doctrine of our Reformed fathers : "God . . . produces both
the will `to believe, and the act of believing also."                       And now, finally one more thing.
       If you desire to check these references, you will find them           How shall we do that? What shall be the manner of this
in third and fourth heads of doctrine of the Canons of Dordt,            working out of our salvation ?
articles 12 and 14.                                                          With our nose in the air? Looking down on those poor,
       Oh yes, salvation is of the Lord.                                 deluded, filthy reprobates who throng around and in the
                                                                         midst of the church ?
       It is His work in us, and His work through us.
                                                                             Shall we behave as the .Pharisees  di.d ? Shall we walk
       Both by the work of the Holy Ghost of Christ, and the             stately with our long robes, and fear to be touched by the
Word of Christ, God works this salvation in us, and through              multitude that knows not the law, and is cursed?
us.
                                                                             No, a thousancl times no.
       But, again, because we are both volitional and thinking
creatures, we become active, being activated by the Godhead.                 We shall do so in fear and trembling.
       God changes our hearts, kills the old man principally,                What is the meaning of fear?
renews us so that the Lord Jesus Christ comes to dwell in                   It is not `the slavish fear of the slave who cowers under
our heart, infuses new qualities in our will, and gently leads           the whip lashes of his master, for that fear is principally
us along the quiet waters.                                               hatred.

       The Holy Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ comes to dwell               It is the Godly fear of God. It is the awe we feel for
in our heart, and from without comes the Word of God,                    Him, who .has drawn so nigh to us, that He is working
which makes the heart pregnant with praise, adoration, and               salvation in us.

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



             Do it in fear and trembling, FOR IT IS GOD! He is
                                                                                                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
      very nea; unto you. What would you say if President Ike                               Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
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              Well, God is always at your elbow, and what is Eisen-                                                         Editor - REV. HERMAN HOEKSEMA
      hower compared to the Holy One of Israel ? Nothing and                                 Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
                                                                                                                Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E.,
      a vanity.                                                                                                                             Grand Rapids 7, Mich.

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              Work out  your own salvation, and do it in fear and                                                                      C O N T E N T S

          trembling !                                                          G.V.    MEDITATION -
                                                                                                     Work Out Your Salvation. . . . . .._... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                                                  1

                                                                                                                Rev. G.. Vos

                                           Notice                                      EDITORIALS -.
                                                                                             .-      An Exhortation to Theological Professors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
          Available for. pulpit supply :
                                                                                                                Rev. H. Hoeksema

                         REV. H. C. HOEKSEMA                                           OUR DOCTRINE-
                     1218 Griggs St., S. E.                                                          The Book of Revelation... ._____.,  . . . . . . .__ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

                          Grand Rapids 7, Michigan                                                              Rev. H. Hoeksema

                          Phone : GL 2-9284                                            A CLOUD OF WITNESSES-
                                                                                                     Jacob Preparing to Meet Esau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

                                                                                                                Rev. B. Woudenberg

                                         Attention,                                    FROM HOLY WRIT-

                                                                                                     Exposition of Romans 14, 15 (7) . . ..__........._............................                                                                              11
                          Office Bearers' Conference to be held
                                                                                                                Rev. G. Lubbers

                         TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, at 8 P. M.                                IN HIS FEAR -

                 at Hudsonville Prdtestant  Reformed Church.                                         Fear That Removes Fear (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

                                                                                                                Rev. J. A. Heys
                  All present and former. office bearers welcome.

                                                                                       FEATURE  ARTICLE-
                         S p e a k e r :   R E V .   GEOR'GE  LA.NTING           5                   The Reformation Prepared in Luther's Soul . . . . . . 15

                                                                                                                Rev. C. Ha&o
                     Topic : "Praying for those in Authority"

                                                                                       T
                                                         Secretary T. Engelsma          HE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS -
.x                                                                                                   The Canons of Dordrecht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
                                                                                                               Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
     : ,.
      . .                                                                              DECENCY AND ORDER F
                                                                                                                                       
                            W E D D I N G   A N N I V E R S A R Y                                    Unorganized                      Churches .__...  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

              On October'                                                                                       Rev. G. Vauden BeTg
                              15, 1959, our dear parents,

                             MR. and MRS. PETER DE VRIES                               ALL AROUND Us -
                                                                                                     A Strong Protest Against the N.C.C.C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
      ihope  to commemorate their  45th  wkdding anniversary.                                                   Rev. .M. Scppper
     [       We are thankful to God that He has blessed and kept them these

          many years.      Our prayer is that they may continue to experience          C~N~IEKTTIONS                        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~..........................  23
          .His loving kindness in their  remaining years.                                                       Jake Fisher

                                                    Mr. and Mrs. John F. De Vries
                                                                                       N
                                                    Mr. and Mrs. Peter                      EWS      FROM OUR CHURCHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      :.......2p
                                                                           Zandstra                                                                                                                                                              _
                                                                                                                Mr. J. M. Faber
                                                    8 grandchildren
--,`Grand  Rapids; Michigan
I
"

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



 II                                                                     still others, and this continues to the present time. Always,
              E D I T O R I A L S                                   II therefore, it is Paul that is first, together with all the authors.
                                                                        of Holy Writ. All that follow are dependent upon them.
                                                                        Always, therefore we must go back in all our teaching to
        An Exhortation t.o Theological P:ofessprs                       them. And only is as far as your candidate is a spiritual son
                                                                        of Paul, and only' in as far as it can be said that I instructed
        On Sept. 4, 1959 the Rev. H. C. Hoeksema was installed          him in the things which Paul and all the authors of Holy
 as professor in our Theological School. At that occasion the           Writ spoke does my text'apply to the present occasion.
,Rev. G. Vos read the Form of Installation while the under-                Bearing this in mind, I speak a few.moments  on:
 signed preached the sermon.                                                      An Exhortation to Professors ,in Theology :
        I was asked to publish this sermon in our S~a%dard
 Bearer. And although the sermon, as far as I know, was                             I.     .What  they must teach.
 no_t recorded, and I do not have a complete typewritten copy                       II.    To Whom they must teach.
 of it, yet, because I have a rather broad outline of it, and                       III: In what power they must teach.
because the sermon as I preached it is still rather fresh in               I.    You may ask me, perhaps, why I speak in my theme
my memory, I think that I can reproduce it rather faithfully.           of theological professors.    Does the text speak of them ?
       The text on which I spoke on that occasion is found in           My answer is affirmative. For after all a theological profes-
II Tim. 2:1, 2: "Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the             sor is nothing but a teacher in theology, and of such teachers
grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things which thou               the text speaks throughout. Timothy is taught by Paul, and
hast heard of me am&g many witnesses, the same commit                  he, `in turn, must teach faithful men, and, again, these must
thbu to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others aiso."         teach others. The text certainly, therefore, speaks of teachers
       In these -words, beloved, I find a stiong temptaticn,           or professors. Ahd that it does not refer to teachers in
especially on this occasion, to interpret and apply them               general but to professors in theology, is also plain from the
literally. In that case, I would read the words as follows:            text. For they all must teach the things they have heard of
"Thou, therefore, my son Homer, be strong in the Lord and              Paul. Those things refer, of course, to all that is revealed in
in the grace of Jesus Christ. And the things which thou hast           the Holy Scriptures : the law and the prophets, all the revela-
heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou                 tion of the New Testament, in as far as it had already been
to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." Thus         completed at that time and still would be finished, with Christ
the text .would fit perfectly for the present occasion. - For he       as the heart and center of it all. These things Timothy had
that is about to be installed is, indeed, my son according to.         heard from Paul and m&t commit to others. There can,
the flesh. Moreover, I also instructed him in the things               therefore, be no doubt about the fact that the text speaks
whereof Paul speaks, so that also in this respect the text             of professors of theology.
would fit perfectly : `<the things. which thou hast heard of me,           But, once more, what are those things Timothy had heard
thy father," etc.                                                      of Paul 7 Or, if you please, what specifically is contained in
       Yet this would be a principal and fundamental mistake.          the books of Holy Writ, that was taught by Paul to Timothy,
       For, in the first place, Paul, in these words, is addressing    which he must commit to others, and which must also be
Timothy. He is, indeed, `speaking to him as his son but not            taught at our seminary and by the brother that is about to
in the natural or physical, but only in the spiritual sense of         be installed a> professor ? I can answer very briefly: The
the word. Paul loves Timothy with a spiritual love in the              Gospel ! The gospel, the whole gospel, and nothing but the
Lord as a son which he has begotten spiritually. The tex+,             gospel must be taught at- our school. This gospel I would
therefore, does not and cannot refer to the father-and-son             define as the sovereign revelation of the sovereign will of
relationship between me and the one that is about to be                God to save His people and none other, from sin and heath
installed as professor in our Seminary.                                unto everlasting life and glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. It
       But there is more.                                              is not, therefore, a superficial gospel which you may write
       When  Paul speaks of "the things which thou hast heard          on your thumbnail. It is not simply a general invitatioQ  to
of me" he refers to himself as an apostle. And the apostles            "come to Jesus" as is often preached from the pulpit and over
were infallibly inspired by the Holy Spirit. But I' am not             the radio, an invitation with which no sinner can or will
and I was not when, in the past, I taught my son in the                comply except through the sovereign grace of God. Nor is
seminary. Hence,  also these words cannot directly refer to            it, as the Christian Reformed ,Church teaches, a general offer
me and my son, but they must be applied to Paul and his                of salvation to all that hear the gospel, for an offer is de-
spiritual son Timothy.                                                 pendent for its accept?nce  on the one to whom the offer is
       But do, then, these words not have a.ny reference to this       made. All that teach and preach thus certainly do not preach
occasion ? They certainly have. For Timothy is instructed,             the gospel but corrupt  it. But, as I said in my definition, it
not only to receive the things he heard from Paul, but he              is the sovereign revelation of the sovereign will of God to
must also commit them to faithful men and these faithful men           save His people, and nbne other, from sin %nd death unto
mu& instruct others, and these others must be able to teach            everlasting life and glory `in the Lord Jesus Christ.

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


   This includes many truths.                                        be taught in our school.
   It includes sovereign election and reprobation. Election             But, you say, is this really true.? Granted that also
is, as Reformed people have always rightly and on the basis          "these things" are taught in our seminary, are there not
of Scripture maintained, the heart of the gospel. Without the        m,any other things also taught at the same time? My answer
preaching of election there is no proclamation of the gospel.        is that, nevertheless, all things taught in our school are and
Just as when a man's heart stops beating he is dead,                 must be related to the one gospel. Many subjects are taught
so the gospel is dead without the preaching of election.             that are directly connected with the gospel, while others sre
0, to be sure, this does not mean that. we must always               more remotely related to it. To the former, for instance,
preach election and nothing else as some.seem  to characterize       belongs the subject of exegesis, which is the interpretation of
our preaching. It does not even imply that in every sermon           Scripture and which, for that reason, is very important. Re-
we must always literally mention the doctrine of election. But       lated to this is the subject of hermeneutics which teaches the
it certainly means that the hearers must always be able to           theory and rules of the explanation of Holy Writ. Then,
feel the heart-beat of election in every sermon we' preach.          there is, of course, the important subject of dogmatics which
And the same is true of the teaching in our seminary. The            presents the doctrine of the gospel in systematic form. Thus
professors must never camouflage or soft-pedal the doctrine          there care many other subjects such as Old and New Testa-
of election but, in all their instruction must clearly manifest      ment history, typology and others which are all rather
that this doctrine is the heart of the gospel. For they must         closely related to the gospel. And then there are also other
teach Christ" and He is the first and chief elect and all that       subjects that must be taught and that are less directly related
the Father gave Him are elect in Him.                                to the gospel, such as church polity which deals with the
   All the rest of the gospel follows, on the basis of Scrip-        offices and government of the church, and church history as
ture, from this most fundamental truth. The sending of               well as other subjects. Nevertheless, whether the subjects
Christ into the world, in the likeness of sinful flesh, was a        taught in our seminary are more or less closely related to
sovereign act of God, according to which the Son of God              the central subject of the gospel, they all belong to it and to
assumed the human nature in unity of divine Person. It was           the things which Timothy heard of the apostle Paul.
an equally sovereign act of God in Christ that He took all              A word must be said about the phrase which the apostle
the sins of His own, whom the Father had given Him, to the           adds here: `<among  many witnesses." The things spoken by
accursed tree to atone for them and blot them out forever. By        Paul and heard by Timothy were spoken and heard among
the same sovereign God He was raised from the dead,                  many witnesses. Who are these witnesses? Some have it
exalted in the highest glory and is now seated,, as the only         that the apostle refers to the law and the prophets. But this
sovereign in heaven and on earth, at the right hand of the           interpretation is not very likely correct. In the first place,
majesty on high. Such is the gospel. And it ought to be              because the apostle, evidently, refers to witnesses that were
very evident that no man had any part -in this objective             present when he spoke. And, secondly, the law and the
realization of the gospel and promise of God. God sover-             prophets belong to the very things which the apostle spoke
eignly realized it all alone.                                        and which Timothy heard. We prefer, therefore, to think
    Do not say that, although this is all true, nevertheless, the    of the church and its officebearers.  And when Paul preached
subjective application of the-gospel depends, in part at least,      or taught those that had heard him had the testimony by the
on us. We must accept the gospel and we must walk in the             Spirit in their hearts that he spoke the truth of God in
way of the promise of God : otherwise we will surely' be lost.       Christ. The same is true today. The,gospel  is never alone.
I do not deny this. But do not forget that even in regard            Always it has witnesses. Even in our school this is the case.
to this subjective application of the gospel the sovereign grace     Not only the students, but also the theological school com-
of God in Christ is first. Christ received the Spirit and that       mittee ought. to be present, and even others, the more the
Spirit He sent into His church to abide with her forever. By         better, to give testimony to the truth of what is taught.
and through that Spirit He applies all the blessings of salva-          II.    Now the apostle exhorts Timothy that he must com-
tion to His own without fail. He regenerates them and gives          mit the things which he has heard unto faithful men, who
the new life of the kingdom of heaven. He calls them, through        shall be able to teach others also.
-the gospel by His own powerful Word which is always                    It is evident that the apostle does not merely mean, in
efficacious, and when He calls we obey and receive and               these words, that he must preach the gospel to others, al-
accept the gospel. He adopts us, justifies and sanctifies us,        though in itself this is true also. But, as-we remarked in the
and finally, after having preserved us unto the end, takes us        beginning, the apostle, in these words, exhorts Timothy to
into eternal glory. Gods in Christ is always first and only          teach and that not in general to the whole congregation, al-
when He sovereignly imparts, His grace to us and in LX, do           though this must be done, too, but in a very special sense of
we accept and fight the good fight even unto the end.                the word. He must be a professor of theology and he must
   Such is the gospel. Another gospel there is not. These            have a special class of -students. That this is true is evident
are the things which Timothy learned from Paul and which             from the addition "faithful men" as well as from the further
he must commit to faithful men. And these same things must           clause : `,`who  shall be able.to  teach others also." In the midst

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

  of the church, therefore, Timothy must find a special group         reasons why unfaithful men corrupt the truth of the gospel !
  of men whom he must choose as his students and whose                    It is largely because of such unfaithful men and their
  special professor he must become.                                   distortion of the truth that the need of officially adopted con-
        But why, we ask, does the apostle emphasize that the men      fessions always arose in the church, in order that the things
  whom Timothy must thus choose out of the church must be             spoken by Paul, the whole truth of the gospel, may be
  faithful men ? It does not refer to them merely as believers,       preserved and defended over against gainsayers.
  although it is certainly true that they are believers also. But         That by these "faithful men" the apostle does not refer
  "faithful men" are those that are faithful to the things which      to all and every member in the church but rather to a special
  Timothy has heard from Paul, faithful to the truth and to the       class, is further evident, as we have already remarked, from
  church under all circumstances of life. Negatively speaking,        what follows in the text: "Who shall be able to teach others
  they are men that will never depart from the pure truth of          also." To teach others is not everybody's work. It requires
  the gospel, no matter what happens. They are men that never         not only a full knowledge and clear understanding of the
  will corrupt the church for their own carnal and selfish            truth, but also special ability or tact to teach. Now, this
  reasons and by their lies or compromise. And, positively            will be your task, my son, who art called to be professor in
  speaking, they are'men  that always speak the truth and             our seminary and who wilt presently be installed in that
  seek the good of the church, though because of it they are          office. When our churches, through their Synod, called you
  reproached and reviled, though they must suffer the loss of         for this task, they thereby expressed that they considered
  all things, yea, though because of it they must go into             you a faithful man who ,will  never distort the truth of the
  prison and into death. Such faithful men Timothy must               gospel and who is able to teach others also. And when you
  choose in order that he may commit to them the things he            accepted this appointment, you2 on your part, declared that
  had heard from the apostle Paul.         '                          you-.believed  that God called you to this special task and
        But once more we ask: why this emphasis on "faithful          that He will make you faithful and enable you to accomplish
  men"? The answer is not difficult. In the first place, it is not    the important work to which you are called. Do not. disap-
  according to the flesh to `preach and teach the gospel purely,      point the churches in the trust they have placed in you!
  without compromise and in all its implications. But, in the             Thus the line continues. It cannot end and is not intended
  second place, and for that very reason, there are in the history    to end, by the apostle Paul, in those first faithful men that
  of the church many examples of faithless men who, for               must teach others, nor in the others that are taught. But
  various reasons distorted the true doctrine pf the gospel.          the others that are taught must teach still others and yet
Sometimes, no doubt, their error and their corruption of              others until the present time and even unto the end of the
  the truth were induced by misunderstanding, although this           present age. The teaching of the things which Timothy heard
  cannot be an excuse for the Scriptures are very clear on the        from Paul among many witnesses continues in the line of
subject. The things which Timothy heard of Paul left no               generations. And I do not hesitate to say that, by the grace
  room for doubt or misunderstanding. More ,often, however,           of God, our seminary, small and despised though it may be,
  there were carnal reasons for the distortion of the truth by        represents the purest manifestation of the gospel that was
  these unfaithful men. When the carnal crowd at Capernaum            taught by the apostle Paul and which is taught in the, whole
  had heard the discourse of Jesus on the bread of life, they         of Scripture !
  finally said : "This is an hard saying, who can hear it ?" John        III.       But how is it possible for Timothy and the faithful
  660. Thus there were and there still are many in the church         men that follow him, as well as for the present professors of
  today that took the same attitude and still take the same           theology, to perform this difficult task? In and by what'
  attitude toward the iruth of the gospel. `The heart of the          power must they teach the things spoken by Paul and the
  gospel, the. truth of election and reprobation, is too hard for     truth of the gospel ? I find the answer in the first part of my
  them and, therefore, they corrupt the whole gospel in various       text : "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that
  ways. And having distorted the heart of the gospel, they            is in Christ Jesus." And I would translate the word for
  necessarily must corrupt the rest: the total depravity of the       " s t r o n g by r`be  strengthened" or "grow and increase in
  sinner, particular atonement and similar truths. There are          strength."      This is absolutely necessary.
  other carnal reasons, such as the honor of men, worldly gain,          In the first place, without the power of the grace that is
  and even personal hatred and dislike, that motivate unfaith-        in Christ Jesus Timothy will not even be able to receive
  ful men to distort the truth. If it had not been for such           the things that were spoken by the apostle Paul, nor will we.
  carnal reasons, do you imagine that the Christian Reformed          0, we may probably be able, to a certain extent to grasp them
  Church would ever have adopted the "Three Points" and               intellectually, but this is not sufficient. We must hide them
  cast us out because we could not possibly sign them. Before         in our hearts. We must spiritually apprehend them. And this
  God and the Church I -declare that this would never have            we never can and will do apart from the grace that is in
  been done except for carnal reasons ! And I am convinced.           Christ Jesus. .In the second place, we surely are neither able
  that the same holds true. for the recent history of our             nor willing to commit these things unto faithful men that are
  Protestant Reformed Churches. 0 yes, there are many, carnal         able to teach others also without the grace that is in `Christ.

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



For there is always the power of the flesh within us. And the                   O U R   D O C T R I N E
flesh does not only fail to apprehend the things of the Spirit,                                                                     II
but also always rebels against it, It despises and rejects the                                                                      `I
truth that God sovereignly chose some unto salvation and
rejected others. In fact, it will have nothing of the absolute                   THE BOOIK  OF REVELATION
sovereignty of God : it prefers to be its own Lord and-master.
It will have nothing of the truth of the gospel that man is                                   P A R T   T W O   '
totally depraved and nothing but a slave of sin, incapable of                                CH A P T E R   T EN
doing any good and inclined to `all evil. It prefers the false
free-will doctrine. And this the attitude of the flesh over                            The  Tzwo  Signs  in Heaven
against all the things spoken by Paul and taught ,in the gospel.
                                                                                               Rev. 12 :l-6
Besides, there is not only the power of the flesh within, but
there is also the enemy without, the power of the devil and his          Now if we ask the question, "What is the identity of this
host, the power of the. world and its temptations, and the            woman and the identity of this dragon, and what .are the
power of false doctrine which is always rampant in the church         things signified by these signs ?" it is perhaps advisable to
to confuse the minds of the believers. How, then, will it be pas-     start with the dragon. In the first' place, it may be said that
sible to receive the things of the gospel as spoken by Paul           from his very appearance we already infer that he signifies
f and revealed to us in Scripture, and to commit them to              some tremendous and evil power. In the second `place, to
others ? The answer is : only by the power of the grace that          approach his identity more definitely, we recall that already
is in Christ Jesus.                                                   in paradise we have met with a serpent, and that there the
    We must be strengthened, according to the original, in            serpent was none other than the devil in person. But above
the grace that is irt Christ Jesus. We must, therefore, increase      all do we find little difficulty in finding the identity of this
and grow in that grace. And this is but natural. We are not yet       dragon for the simple reason that our chapter tells us in
perfect. We are not yet wholly sanctified and delivered from          plain words that it is the devil.. For in the 9th verse of
the power of sin and death. In fact, in this life we only have        this chapter we ,read : "And the great dragon was cast out,
but a small-beginning of the new obedience. Hence, we must            that old serpent, called'the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth
constantly dwell in the sphere of (in) the grace that is in Christ    the whole world.`, It is therefore beyond all doubt that in
Jesus and by that grace we must always be strengthened.               this dragon we have a picture of the devil in person. But the
    This requires two things. In the first place, prayer.. Only       question still remains : why is he pictured in this manner
by constant prayer can we have fellowship with God in                 in our. text? What do the individual features of this great
Christ and dwell in the sphere of his grace. This is true,            dragon stand for? Why is it that the sign of the devil is
of course, for all of us. But the apostle refers, in the words        very appropriately this terrible dragon ? And then we call
of our text, especially to professors of theology. They, above        your attention, in the first place, to the fact that he is
all must never neglect the prayer that they may be strength-          pictured as a monster, that is, as, a being with an altogether
ened for their important task by the grace that is in Christ          unnatural and deformed appearance in nature. And such is
J esus. And we also earnestly entreat our whole church to             the devil. The devil is indeed a monster.. Not that God had
commit their professors to the throne of grace that they may'         made him a monster : God made of him a glorious and power-
constantly be strengthened in the sphere of the grace that is         ful creature. But with his great and glorious power he fell
in Christ Jesus.                                                      away from God, rose in rebellion against the Almighty,
    But, in the second place, to be strengthened in that grace        with that power still stands in opposition against the God
also requires faithful and earnest study of the things of the         that made him, and thus he made a prodigy, a terrible monster
gospel. Never imagine, my son, that you already know enough           of himself. The serpent may be the fittest symbol of the devil
of the things Timothy and also you heard from the apostle             because of its subtlety and shrewdness. But the mere serpent
Paul so that you can henceforth rest on your laurels. That            does not picture the devil adequately. He must be symbol-
would' certainly be your end. Without the Word of God                 ized as a monster serpent. God never made a serpent with
you cannot increase in the grace`that is in Christ Jesus. That        seven heads and ten horns. The serpent as God made him
Word of God, the revelation of the gospel of our Lord Jesus           has but one head and no horns at all. And thus it is with
 Christ, is very rich. There is no end to its riches. And it is       the devil. God never made a devil. The devil is selfmade  as
your calling to bring forth out of that treasure of the Word          devil, as an evil power. And since he deformed himself in
of God things new and old. Hence, it is your calling to study         his attempt to exalt himself, he has become a hideous mon-
diligently. Then only you will be found worthy of the calling         ster. You understand, of course, that all this is under the
wherewith God has called you, through our churches, as pro-           power and providence of God. But nevertheless, God did
fessor in our own Protestant Reformed Theological School.             not make the devil as devil. In the second place, let us
    My prayer and, I am sure, the prayer of our churches              consider that also the greatness of the dragon is an ap-
is that God may richly bless you ! Amen.                    H.H.      propriate sign of the devil.      God made. of Satan a great

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

creature among the angels. Perhaps we may say' that he             But the reality of. the thing is that he has ten horns. He has
was the greatest of all the angels, great in power and glory. God-limited power and with this God-limited power he will
And this greatness the devil has not lost by his fall. On          never be able to maintain his seven crowns and his royal ap-
the contrary, he retained it. Only, that same greatness            pearance.     On the contrary, after he has done all that was
wherewith he was to glorify his Creator he now employs             permitted him to do, God will take those crowns away, crush
against Him as a real monster. In the third place, we must         those seven heads, break the horns, and cast the miserable
take into consideration the color of the dragon. He is red.        dragon into eternal hell.
And red is the color of blood, of war and destruction and              What may be meant by his drawing of the stars of heaven
murder, -again, a fit symbol of the devil, for .he is the          with his tail ? This seems to be plain in itself. The stars in
murderer from the beginning, according to Scripture. In            this connection must, of course, not be taken in the literal
the fourth place, our attention is especially called to the        sense, no more than the entire portion. In this connection the
seven crowned heads and the ten horns which he possesses.          inference is plain that they indicate the fellow angels of the
The numbers severt  and ten, as we have explained repeatedly,      devil. In Job the angels are called the morning-stars. And
are symbolical numbers. They do not `refer to ten kingdoms         indeed this application is very appropriate for these spiritual
or ten kings or to seven kings literally, but they denote the      inhabitants of the sphere of eternal light. And the devil him-
authority and power of this dragon, the devil. Seven, as           self has been such a morning-star, perhaps, as we have said
well as ten, is a complete number. They therefore both,in-         before, the greatest and most glorious among them all, And
dicate completeness. But as we have explained before, seven        although the passage in Isaiah 14:l.Z cannot literally be
is a holy number in this respect, that it generally is used        applied to Satan, yet the language in which this metaphor
to denote the completion of the kingdom of God and its             against the king of Babylon is used, is such that the latter
fulness, while ten is the number that denotes the measure of       is evidently a type of the devil. And therefore also the devil
time or space or power as it is allotted and limited to any        may fittingly be called Lucifer, the day or morning-star. This
creature by God's decree. A divinely limited measure of            morning-star, as we know, rebelled against God Almighty.
something is indicated by the number ten. Further, it needs        But he was not alone. He instigated a general rebellion in
no' proof that the crowned head is the symbol of royalty and       the heaven of heavens. He seduced others of his fellow
of kingly power and authority. Seven crowned heads, there-         angels to rise with him and exalt themselves against the
fore, would symbolically indicate the authority and royal          Most High. And it is this feature that is pictured of the
power of the kingdom of God. And therefore, as to the              devil most probably in the fourth verse of this chapter. He
appearance of this dragon we would draw the conclusion             dragged the third part, that is, in this sense, a great many,
that the devil is king in the kingdom of God, for he possesses     yet not a majority, of his fellow angels with him in his fall
the seven crowned heads. But we must be careful with the           from heaven. And they together with him were cast down
interpretation of this dragon. For remember : he is a deceiver.    from their exalted place. And therefore, in conclusion we
And therefore we must rather explain the ten horns first;          may say that in this dragon we have a sign of -the devil as
before we draw our conclusion as to his real power. The            the powerful, bloodthirsty murderer from the beginning, the
horn is the symbol of might and strength and power in              impostor and intruder into God's kingdom, the deceiver, who
Scripture. And that this dragon has ten horns indicates,           tries to appear as the king of the world but whose power is
therefore, that the devil has just exactly as much power as        limited by God Almighty and whose ultimate defeat is certain,
God has allowed him, - no more and no less. It indicates           the rebel, who in his rebellion succeeded to drag along with
that the power of the devil is limited by the sovereign decree     himself a host of his fellow angels, that sank with him into
of God Almighty and that the devil can do no more, no less,        perdition.
than that which God has decreed for him and which God                 Now who is represented by the woman in the chapter?
wills him to do. `But how must it then be explained that           This question is not difficult to answer.. Almost immediately
at the same time the devil seems to have the complete author-      we recognize in her the -church of the living God in Christ
ity in the kingdom of God, as indicated in the seven crowned       Jesus. In the first place, this is true because we meet here
heads. We would explain it simply in this way. The devil           with the same period of time that was mentioned in the
is the deceiver. And by these seven crowns you must not be         preceding chapter in regard to the two witnesses. Those
deceived. God did not put them on his head. He put them            two witnesses, symbols of the church with her anointed
on himself. They are not real -crowns either. They are not         servants, witnessed in the world, clothed in sackcloth, for a
made` in heaven, whence all authority issues forth ; but they      period of twelve hundred and sixty days. And thus we find
are made in hell. And therefore they are no good ; they            of this woman, after she is delivered of her child, that she
are counterfeit.. The thing is that the devil is a pretender,      is in the wilderness for that same period of time, that is
an impostor,, an intruder, a usurper. He intrudes into the         twelve hundred sixty days. The inference is very strong,
kingdom of'God. He usurped the power of the kingdom, and           therefore, that this woman is essentially the same body as
he put on. his own seven crowns and tries to give his king-        was symbolized in the two witnesses, that is, therefore, the
dom the aspect of the kingdom of God by these seven crowns.        church of God. .                                         H . H .


                                             THE STANDARD  B               E    A    R    E    R                                  9


                                                                    have felt that there was only one group of angels, and, with
/ A CLOLJD  OF wlTNESSES  i( the host of Jacob, they formed a double host. Again it has
                                                                    been suggested that the vision of Bethel reappeared with the
                                                                    ascending and descending angels forming the two different
                                                                                                          -..
              Jacob Preparing To Meet Esau                          hosts. Which of these views, if any, most accurately reflects
                                                                    what actually took place, we can hardly determine. Regard-
               And                                                  less of the form of the appearance, the meaning is quite clear.
                       Jacob sent messengers before l&a to Esach
            his brother' unto the land of Seir,  the COUnkY  of     God was reaffirming to Jacob the promise which he had made
            Edom  . . .                                             at Bethel. It reminded him of God's Word of blessing,
                                                                    "Behold, I am with. thee, and will keep thee in all places
              .And  the Taessengevs  retiurned to Jacob, saying,    whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land ;
            We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh  to     for I will not leave, thee." The host of the .Lord's  angels
            meet thee, and four hun&ed  men with him.               watched over him in the way. A more comforting assurance
            . `Then Jacob was greatly afraid and disfre.ssed.       a man could hardly have.

                                             GENESIS 32: 3, 6, 7       Had Jacob been a man of greatest faith, this revelation
                                                                    would have been sufficient to alleviate all of his worries. But
   It was the apostle Paul who noted, "0 the depth of the           Jacob we know, as we ourselves, was inclined often to falter.
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how un-             As Jacob approached closer unto Canaan, his mind became
searchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out !"      more and more uneasy. An old fear, through the years almost
(Remans  11 :33).          This unsearchable wisdom of God we       forgotten, began once again to raise its ugly head. When he
find so evidently demonstrated in the life of Jacob. As to          came to Canaan, he would have to meet. once `again with
the nature with which he was born, Jacob had very little            Esau. It had been out of fear for Esau, his brother, that he
which can be considered commendable. He was weak, cheat-            had left for Haran in the first place. Esau had sworn to kill
ing, dishonest, proud, ambitious, and sinful. One thing only        him. Through his extended stay in Haran, Jacob had.found
Jacob had, that was, the elective grace of God. Deep and            less and less occasion to think about this oath. His fear had
mysterious were the ways through which that grace led him.          become almost completely dormant. Now, however, as his
Again and again it brought him unto sorrow; repeatedly it           footsteps once again led toward the place were Esau dwelt,
set him before temptations where only too often he faltered;        this old fear began once again to revive. Although he had
but always it was near to lift him up again, to guide, preserve     almost forgotten, what reason did he have to think that,
and keep him, to mold, form and build him into a saint of           Esau's anger had abated ? Each step of the way seemed to
God worthy to sit eternally with Isaac and Abraham, his             make this question more real and more critical before his
fathers.                                                            mind. Even more, he began to review in his thoughts all
    It was no doubt with` a sigh of relief that Jacob saw the       of the old reports about Esau that travelers from Canaan
figure of Laban fade away into the distance. Twenty years           had brought to him through the years. Esau had not retired
he had spent in the household of his uncle ; those years had        in quiet seclusion unknown and unnoticed by all. Rather, his
been far from pleasant. During those years he had prospered         feats had been such that they attracted very wide attention.
immensely ; but it had been in spite of his uncle, not because      He had gathered about him a vast company of men, wild
of him. Always and again Laban had tried to use Jacob only          and belligerent like himself. As a wild Bedouin tribe, they
for his own advantage. No underhanded means was beyond              had gone about laying waste the land wherever they went,
him ; lying, cheating, hedging on promises, changing terms          especially the land of Sier on the east side of Jordan. If the
of contract, all these and more Laban had tried. The worst          wrath of such a group of men should be turned upon him and
of all, however, was that Jacob did not often have.  the            his household, what chance would there be for them to sur-
strength to resist answering in kind. Life in Haran became          vive ? Finally, to make Jacob's fear overwhelming, there was
a constant sparring match between two cunning minds. Such           his conscience that was not free from guilt. His dealings
a life can not but be vexing to a righteous soul. With relief       with Esau in the past had not been all honest and straight.
Jacob saw it come to an end.                                        He had given to Esau occasion for wrath. What mercy could
                                                                    he justly expect?
   Even more encouraging ,to him, was a revelation from
God which appeared as Jacob and his host proceeded toward              Beset by his fear, Jacob felt that something had to be
Canaan. A host of heavenly angels met him on the way. Of            done. He called to himself some of his servants and sent
the details of this appearance Scripture tells us very little.      them ahead to meet with Esau. The purpose of this was two-
About all we know is that Jacob named `the .place  of their         fold : they were to try to discover the feelings of Esau toward
appearing Mahanaim, meaning, a double host. This has led            Jacob, and they were to try as much as possible to soothe
to various speculations. Some have deducted from this that          whatever wrath Esau still held. Neither would he leave these
two different groups of angels made the appearance. Others          men to act according to their own discretion. He gave to,


  10                                          THEE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R


  hem a carefully-worded message: "Thus shall ye speak unto          the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear
  my lord Esau ; Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have SO-            him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with
  journed with Laban, and' stayed there until now : And I have       the chiidren.  And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good,
  oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants :      and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be
  and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy      numbered for multitude."      It was a simple and beautiful
  sight." This message was carefully devised to leave a rec-         prayer of faith, a prayer which in essence could be repeated
  onciling impression upon Esau. It bore a tone of meekness          by any child of God in time of need. As every child of God
  and humility such as Jacob had not had in former years.            should, Jacob in his prayer found only one basis for his plea,
  It assured Esau that he, Jacob, now had sufficient wealth of       the promised mercies of his God. As every child of God
  his own and there was no longer any necessity for him to           should, Jacob in his prayer trustingly laid all of his needs in
  contest with Esau for the inheritance of their father. `It         the hands of. his God. And, perhaps in this case most
  stated, finally, that he desired to live henceforth in Esau's      significant of all, he made a complete confession of his own
  good graces.                                                       unworthiness.    In his own mind and heart, Jacob saw his
                                                                     sins whelming up against him. All of his past pride and
        It was not long after leaving Jacob that these messengers    arrogance and rebellion accused him of his guilt. In grieving
  met with Esau. Esau had heard of the approach of Jacob             awareness of his own depravity Jacob.cried,  "I am not worthy
  .`and  was coming to meet him. The intervening years had,          of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou
  indeed, served to take the edge off Esau's wrath. While still      hast shewed  thy servant."
  dwelling in his father's home, it had seemed to Esau to be
  vitally important that he should receive his father's inherit-        It was a different Jacob that rose from his knees that
  ance. Now he was independent and self-sufficient and the           day. Still the fearsome attack of Esau seemed to be pending;
  memory of Jacob's actions bothered him not nearly so, much.        still that basic conflict that had always existed between him
  Nonetheless, he did remember the antagonism which had              and his brother was there; but, he was being prepared to
  always existed between him and his brother. Their lives            meet it in a new and a different way. Always before it had
  had always been in conflict. Esau was coming to find out           been in his own strength that Jacob had sparred with Esau.
  if Jacob by returning to Canaan was intending to renew this        He-had matched the ingenuity of his own mind against his
  conflict. If Jacob did, he was ready to oppose him. Nor was        brother's greater strength. This had led him repeatedly into
  the message of Jacob sufficient to allay his fears. He was         sin and sorrow. Now Jacob was brought face to face with
  not one to trust a man's mere words, especially not the words      his own bankruptcy. His approach' became entirely different..
  of Jacob. His reception of the messengers of Jacob was cold        Jacob separated from his flocks 550 heads of cattle. These
  and formal. He received their message and sent them back           he divided into separate groups to go ahead to meet with
  without an answer. The only report that they could bring           Esau. The servants that drove them he commanded to tell
  to Jacob was that Esau was approaching with four hundred           Esau concerning these cattle, "They be thy servant Jacob's : it
  men.                                                               is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and,. behold, also-he is
                                                                     behind us." Jacob took the approach of humility. He was
        To Jacob this message was frightening. The only con-         beginning to learn that he who will be the first in the
  clusion that he could make was that Esau was still angry           kingdom of heaven must first of all be the least. He was
  and intent on destroying him. What could he and his few            learning the truth later set forth by the apostle Paul,
  domesticated servants do against four hundred armed and            "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place
  hardened men? Desperately he sought for an answer. Al-             unto wrath : for it is written, Vengeance is mine ; I will
  ways before his mind had been capable of devising some             repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger feed
  plan of action in his troubles. Now he sought in vain. He          him! if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt
  .divided  his household into two different groups so that, if      heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil,, but
_ one was attacked, the other could try to escape ; but what         overcome evil with good." Romans 12 :19-21.
  comfort could be derived from a plan which at best could
  secure the safety of only half of his possessions and family.         `God was already answering the faithful prayer of Jacob.
  .It was the grace of God which brought Jacob into circum-          Jacob had prayed that God would deliver him .from  his ene-
  stances for which he could not begin himself to devise the         .my. In .his pwn mind that enemy was Esau, and, in a very
  solution. It brought him to find assurance in his only true        `real sense this was true. But also in a very real sense that
  rock of defense. Jacob prayed. "0 God of my father Abra-           -enemy was hi.m-seif -as. he .was inclined to follow the proud
  ham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lords  which saidst unto      and sinful inclinations of his own flesh. From this enemy also
  `me,  Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will      :God would:deliver  him. In fact, a very great step in that
  deal well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the       .deliverance  was ordained to take place that very night before
  mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed  unto        he actually entered Canaan'by passing over Penuel.
  thy servant ; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan ; and
  now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from                                                                      B.W.


                                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   ` B E A R E R                                                 11

                                                                          ham. `,`In thee and in thy Seed shall all nations be blessed."
                  F R O M   H O L Y   WRli-                                  That is singularly and uniquely taught in these passages.
                                                                             We shall, therefore, give more than usual and casual at-
                                                                          tention to .these passages. It is imperative that we notice
                    Exposition of Romans 14,15
                                                                          these passages in the Old Testamental and historical setting
                                     V I I .                              in the history of salvation (Heilsgeschiedenis) noticing par-
                              (Romans 15 :9b)                             ticularly the prophetical perspective of each of these passages.
                                                                          In thus doing we are not to forget the point of argument of
          We now come to Paul's proof from the Old Testament              Paul in Remans  14, 15, namely, that we are to receive each
      Scriptures that Christ became a minister of the Circumcision        other even as Christ received us to the glory of God.
      in behalf of the truth of God, namely, to establish the prom-          In this essay we would call attention to the words from
      ises of the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify for his    both II Samuel 22 :50  and Psalm 18:50  where we read:
      great mercy in this gracious dispensation of God!                   "Thprefore  I will give thasks  unto thee, 0 LORD, among
          When we look' at all these references from the Old              the he,a&n, .a.nd  I will s&g praises unto thy name.`J
      Testament Scriptures it strikes -us that these were certainly          In order to properly interpret these words from II Samuel
      the things which were written before hand, and that, too, for       22 :50  as Paul would have them applied to the situation re-
      our learning and instruction, that we might, as Gentiles and        ferred to in Rom. 14, 15, we should bear the following in
      Jews, -have hope in God ! For without this ministry of Christ       mind :
     there is neither hope nor comfort for either of these groups.           1. That this .Psalm  is found literally in two different
      For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.             chapters of the Bible. It is found in II Samuel 22 and in
       We also notice, when we take a rather careful study of             Psalm 18. In both of these David, as the. "sweet-singer in
      these quoted Scripture passages here in the verses 9-12 of          Israel!' is heard to utter glad and prophetical strains!
      this fifteenth Chapter of Romans, that this matter of the
      Christ being made a servant of the circumcision is not simply       -, 2. That this Psalm was uttered by David, evidently,
      the isolated teaching of certain passages, but that they con-       when the throne is established to him in Jerusalem according
      stitute what is the very warp and woof of the teaching of           to God's sure promise, and such was inherent in his being
      Scripture, the more sure Word of prophecy of the God of our         anointed by Samuel as King in Israel, a man after the heart
      salvation. For proof of .this we have but to notice the very        of God ! For David sings of deliverance and salvation. For
      beautiful account of the discussion on the way between Jesus        we.read literally in II Samuel 22 :l : "And David spake unto
      and the two travelers to Emmaus  in Luke 24. In the verses          the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD
      25-27.  of this .well-known  chapter we read: "And he said          had delivered him out of the hand of his enemies, and out of
      unto them, 0 fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the       the hand of Saul."
      prophets have spoken : Ought not the Christ to have suffered        ,,_ 3. Further, we may be certain that David sings this
      all these things, and enter into his glory ? And beginning at       Psalm "being a prophet." He is "David, the Son of Jesse, the
      Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them *in all          man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of
      the Sc)iptiu?/es the things concerning lzz&self" (en pasais         Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel," II Sam. 23 :l. And,
      graphais ta peri eautou). Besides, does not Jesus say to the        as such an anointed one, he sings of the greatness'of God in
      unbelieving Jews of his day, who perish with the Scriptures         his covenant mercy to Israel and in the calling of Israel
r     as a closed book in their hands, "For had ye believed Moses,        among the nations! God's promise stands to David and to
      ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye            His great Son forever. For the Lord has said to his Lord,
      believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words ?"          "Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy enemies thy
          Surely the entire Old Testament Scriptures in their Theo-       foot-stool," Psalm 110 :I. That David speaks .as a prophet
      logical-Christological meaning are all centered around the          is quite evident, first of all, from what we read in II Samuel
      coming of the Son of God in the flesh, his death and resur-         23 :2 : "The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word
      rection. Does not Peter write, "Of which salvation the              was in my tongue." David too belongs to the prophets, to
      prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who proph-          the "holy men" who spake from God, being moved by the
      esied of the grace that should come unto you : searching what       Holy Ghost (II Peter 1:21).  He too, in the Spirit of Christ,
      or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in            searched out the time or what manner of time of the suffer-
      them did signify, when it testified before hand the sufferings      ings of Christ and the glory to follow! Angels were desirous
      .of Christ `and the glory to follow . . ." I Peter 1 :lO,  11.      to look into the things of which he spake!
        Paul has, therefore, in a certain sense, but to select at            4. Therefore both II Samuel 22 and Psalm 18 are in-
      random !                                                            tensely prophetical of the sufferings of Christ in the saints of
          However, when we take careful notice of these passages,         the Old. Testament and of the glory and the deliverance to
      it becomes increasingly evident that they are such passages         follow. It was suffering for righteousness' sake with Christ
      which speak particularly of the truth that "salvation is out of     in order to be glorified .with him (Romans 8:17,  18).  It is
      the Jews" also for the Gentiles. That the promise is to Abra-       true that David suffered in the Old Testament- Dispensation

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


 on the plane of the earthly. Yet, his suffering was typical            This is really the exaltation spoken of in Hebrews 112, 3 :
 of the. suffering of Christ. And just as his suffering was typical     "God . . . hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
 of the suffering of Christ, so was also his deliverance from           Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom
 the hands of his enemies and from the hand of Saul a type              also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his
 of Christ's deliverance from and victory over all His foes and         glory, and the expressed image of his person, and upholding
 the powers and demons of hell! For thus does the Psalm                 all things by the word of his power, when he hath by himself
 end: "Great deliverance giveth he to his King, and showeth             purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
 lovingkindness to his anointed, to David and to his Seed               on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath
 forevermore" !                                                         by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they."
       And this prophetical-Christological Psalm, when it is ful-           We may, therefore, conclude from the foregoing observa-
 filled in Christ in the fulness of times, comes to stand before        tion concerning this Psalm of David, that we are here
 us thus that Christ came to be the greater David, the minister         dealing with the Spirit of Prophecy, in which David from
 of the circumcision for the truth of God as depicted here in           the earthly plane of his own suffering and experience rises
this Psalm. And thus mercy comes to the Gentiles ! Such is              to the more glorious and distant suffering of the Man of
the. Mystery of godliness.                                              Sorrows, the man of God's infinite delight. Thus we under-
       More particularly concerning this Psalm we should notice         stand too that the "issue" between David and Saul was not
the following :                                                        merely one of the rivalry of two kings, but it was the true
       1. That this Psalm is Jehomh-centered.  This means that         man of God being persecuted by the fa1s.e  Saul is, therefore,
this Jehovah of the Old Testament is the "God and Father               really one with the nations. Was he not chosen by the people
of our Lord Jesus Christ.," only He is such in the Old Testa-          to be a king "to judge like all the nations"? (I Sam. 8)
ment terms, and is here sung of in poetical strains. Sings                 And is this not repeatedly brought into bold relief at the
David: "I love thee, 0 JEHOVAH, my strength." All is of                various encounters of David and Saul when Saul seeks David
Jehovah. He is David's all in all. He is the great deliverer, v. 1.    like a roe upon the mountains ? In I Samuel 24 :4-7 when
                                                                       David is at Engidi, David cut only the "skirt of Paul's robe."
       2. That roughly speaking this Psalm (both in II Samuel          Was David intent to kill Saul ? God forbid ! He says, "Je-
22 and Psalm 18) is divided into tlzree fiarts. In the verses          hovah forbid that I should do this thing unto my Lord . . ~
4-6 David speaks of his great distress, and he couches this            seeing'he is Jehovah's anointed." David waits for the Lord's
distress in terms as "cords of death", "floods of ungodliness",        exalting him. Thus we read in I Samuel 26:9 that David
"cords of Sheol", "snares of death" and "all that would                stayed the hand of -Abishai  against Saul saying: "Destroy
swallow me up !"       And all this distress is represented, as        him not, for who can stretch forth his hand against the
far as David is concerned, in David's enemies, even in the             LORD'S anointed, and be guiltless 7 David said furthermore,
persecutions of his father-in-law, Saul! In the verses 7-19            As the LORD liveth, the LORD shall smite high; or his day
David speaks of Jehovah's great deliverance which he                   shall come to die ; or he shall descend into battle, and perish."
wrought for David simply because "he had delight in" David !               Even in the mouth of Saul and emphatically from the
See verse 19 where we read: "He brought me forth also into             mouth of Jonathan the exaltation of David as the LORD'S
a large place: he delivered me because he delighted in me."            anointed is certain. Does not Jonathan have a rendezvous
The terms- and phraseology here in the verses 7-19 remind              with David in the wilderness of Ziph, and does not Jonathan
one of the glory, majesty of Sinai, which caused even Moses            "strengthen his hand in God" and tell him: ". . . and thou
to tremble. Notice: "then the earth shook and trembled, the            shalt be king over Israel . . .`I? And does not Saul say. once
foundations also of the mountains quaked. He bowed the                 and again in effect : "And now I'know  that thou shalt surely
heavens and came down, and thick darkness was under his                be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established
feet !" Here we have a description of the Divine Theophany,            in thy hand." See I Sam. 24:20;  26125.
Jehovah's presence to protect David. And in the higher sense
it refers to the Theophany of God in Christ. He dwelt                      And when David interprets this history, this great deliver-
among us, and "we have seen His glory, glory, as of the Only-          ance in the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of prophecy, he sings
Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth"! Did not God          of the greater redemption which will come forth from his
deliver his Son on the Cross through his death and resurrec-           great Son and Lord, the Christ. Thus through His deliver-
tion, because He delighted in Him. Does God not say from               ance he will sit on the Throne and the Christ will come and
heaven : "This is my beloved Son in whom is all my good-               sit upon the throne of his father David forever.
pleasure, (delight) Hear ye Him" ? And in the verses 20-27                If such be written before hand for our instruction shall
David sings of the righteous cause which is his. All is justice.       we not heed it and receive those whom Christ has thus merci-
Mercy and justice kiss each other. David has a righteous               fully received ?
cause, and he will be strong to put down all his enemies.                 For the reception is no after-thought. It is the promise
This really refers to David's exaltation first of all upon the         made to the Fathers, and which is established in Christ's
Throne, and principally to the exaltation of Christ upon the           ministry as the truth of God in all the Scriptures and thus
Throne on the right hand of. the majesty of God on high.               mercy has come to us, the Gentiles.                        G.L.

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

                                                                    psychoanalyst, Dr. Sigmund Freud, he states that man's
              I N   H I S   F E A R                                 mind is disturbed because he has been too good and has been
                                                                    repressing certain desires as evil and thus been doing him-
        The Fear That Removes Fear                   (2)            self great harm. '
                                                                        In effect this Freudian idea - which-is desperately wicked
    Today man's chiefest fear is war.                               -teaches man that he must not be afraid to sin against God.
   Basically his fear is always fear of death.                      His frustrations, his tensions and fears are `due to a fear to
    That is why he fears war today. That is why he fears            do the sinful. The fear of the Lord is not the beginning of
cancer and a heart attack. That is why he fears the lightning,      wisdom, but the wise man is one who dares to follow his
the earthquake and the tornado. That is why he fears that           sinful impulses and desires. That man will remain mentally
which is high and that which is low. That is why he fears           healthy. This thought was openly voiced at the 67th annual
that which is hot and that which is cold. He fears death.           meeting of' the American Psychological Association. One' of
    And he fears death because he knows that then he shall          the questions discussed at this meeting of the nation's psychol-
come to stand before God. He knows that he cannot stand be-         ogists was whether the ideas of sin and hell serve a purpose
fore Him and that he deserves the fierce wrath of God in hell.      in the modern world. Imagine that! You might just as well
    Today - as we wrote last time-he fears a terrifying,            ask whether the Word of God, the Scriptures, which testify
annihilating war with frightful weapons of destruction and          on every page of these things, serve any purpose in the
with swift and widespread death to mankind. Yet the folly           modern world. Surely the fear of the Lord is not in such
of it all is that men wait breathlessly to hear what sinful men,    a discussion. The principle of wisdom, therefore, is not to
who have shown that their words cannot be trusted, have to          be found there. And out of such a. discussion can never come
say. Upon their words they will wait for. some hope of peace        the principles of treatment that will remove fear and set the
in the midst of mounting signs of war. God Whose Word is            mind at ease.
truth and Who has always shown Himself to be faithful to His           A   f o r m e r   p r e s i d e n t   o f   t h i s   a s s o c i a t i o n ,   0 .   H o b a r t
Word, they will not hear. From Him and from His speech              Mowrer,  fought vigorously for the idea that the matter of
they turn away. They stop their ears and close their eyes           sin should be brought back into the treatment of disturbed
when He works His signs of the times in their presence. They        minds, contending that the Freudian theory has produced
give no thought to the better things which He promises to           another evil. Moral restraint has been lost. Man is en-
give by removing the present things that can be shaken. For         couraged to walk in all the immorality and crime that his
them these are not better things because they center around         wicked heart and mind devises to do. Mr. Mowrer was
God and fellowship with Him. This they do not want. The             strongly opposed by Dr. Albert Ellis who, as a faithful
fear of God is not before them and in their hearts. Therefore       disciple of Freud, insisted that repression of sinful desires
in the fear of His hell and of man's brutality they must live.      would impair the mental health. He stated that giving some-
    But man has other fears than war.                               one a sense of sin is the worst possible way to help him in
   This is the day of tranquilizing .pills. This is the day of ~    his mental distresses and that it is virtually impossible for
nervous tensions.    Ours is an age when "nervous break-            that man to become seriously upset who under no circum-
downs" and mental disorders are increasingly common oc-             stances blames or punishes himself for a deed or a desire.
currences. Fear grips man on every side. He knows not                  That sounds very familiar, does it not?
which way to turn. Fleeing from one terror he runs head-               A beautiful woman, pure and holy, walked in a garden
long into the next. He has irritations and they build up into       of resplendent glory. She and her husband had no tensions.
aggravations only to explode in frustrations.                       They could not understand the word +&ation.  They had
   Where does he go in his fears? What does he do for               perfect' peace of heart and mind. Their mental health was                                               1
his "nerves"? He runs to the psychiatrist and finds no help         perfect. But a lie was voiced that to have sinful impulses
because he does not know the fear of the Lord. The fear that        was good for man. He must not be afraid to sin against God.
removes fear is foreign to him and to his worldly psychiatrist.     There really is no hell, and by eating of the fruit of the tree
He finds no peace of mind. And fear is indeed a matter of           man would rise to a new and higher degree of freedom and
the mind. The slumbering man can sleep in peace while               glory. To follow the lust of the eye-the beauty of the
the house round about.him, is burning furiously to the danger       fruit-to follow the lust of the flesh-the goodness of that
of his life. But the ,moment he awakens and his mind com-           fruit for food - and the pride of life- the attaining to God's
prehends what .is taking place fear grips him and terror            position to choose for one's self what is good and evil -that
seizes his heart and mind. Therefore men have striven by            is the wise thing to do. The fear of the Lord gets you no-
psychoanalysis to take away man's fears and to give him peace       where. It builds a wall around you and makes life very nar-
of mind. He subscribes to the theory that abnormal mental           row and empty. Man must sin to improve his lot. God has
reactions are due to the unwise repression of desires which         spoken of sin and of hell, but these things should not be
he rejects consciously as evil and yet in the depth of his soul-    mentioned in the world (not even that early world). What
wants to satisfy.- Taking his cue from that eminent Austrian        desperate wickedness ! What utter folly! The fear of the

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


  Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Let no man rob you of that            The worldly psychiatrist cannot do that. He does not
  truth. You need that to remain mentally healthy.                   fear the `Lord and consequently has no use for and sees no
  .     Now.  to fear God is to know that He is God,~ It is to       value in the fear of the Lord in his patient. Our Christian
  know and believe that He is highly exalted above you.as your       psychopathic hospitals, Pine Rest and Bethesda have their
  Lord and God. If you do not know that you cannot know              Hospital Pastors as well as their Christian psychiatrists be-
  sin, nor can you have room in your thoughts for hell. If YOU       cause there is no removal of man's fears in any other way
  do not know that He is God, you can have no wisdom. YOU            than in the way of the fear of the Lord. Sin and hell
  do not know the very principle of wisdom. Without God              (punishment) must not be unmentionable things to the
  nothing has any meaning. All things came from Him. All             mentally disturbed. But they must be acknowledged and
  things depend upon Him: All things are made for the glory          confessed as the very reason why the cross is necessary.
  of His name. And all men are made to serve Him. If you do          Man must know his misery, if he is `to come to the joy of
  not know that and you dare to refuse to serve Him, you are         the knowledge of his redemption through the blood of Christ.
  a fool and have not the very beginning of wisdom within you.       Man must believe in the fall of man, if he is to appreciate
  For He.is God in spite of what you say and do. Our denial          the cross. Do the ideas of sin and hell serve a purpose in
  of Him is not going to put Him away. Our denial that we            the modern world ? Indeed, because also in that modern
  must serve Him with all our soul and mind and strength             world there are the elect children of God. These fear the
  is not going to make Him cease to be God. He is and remains        Lord and believe that He is God. They believe in Him as
  God, and therefore everyone denies this, either by word,           the God of their salvation in Christ. Therefore being justified
  or by refusing to serve Him, is a fool. And exactly because        by faith, they have peace with God, a peace that is enjoyed
  He is God and continues on His own sovereign way, those            by faith in the acknowledgement of the facts of sin and hell
  who do not fear Him and, walking in their own way, run up          and in the confidence in the blood of Christ to remove them
  against Him must have frustrations and tensions and fears.         both for his people. But to tell a man not to be afraid of sin
  If I run down the railroad track toward the speeding freight       and hell is devilishly wicked and utter folly. The fear of the
  train, with its tons and tons of weight and call out `my un-       Lord IS the beginning of wisdom ; and therefore that wisest
  belief that there actually is such a thing as a train speeding     of mere mortals, King Solomon, declared, "He that covereth
  towards me, am I not a fool ? And does all my protestation         his sins shall not prosper : but whoso confesseth and forsaketh
  remove that train from the track ? Does all my crying out of       them shall have mercy," Proverbs 25:13.  Sin and hell are'
  my unbelief and all my continuance on my own way change            there. And you cannot set at ease the mind that is disturbed
  the fact that there is a mass of steel rushing towards me with     by the facts of sin and hell by denying them. You can never
  overpowering force ? Still more, does all my denial and            rid man of the knowledge that these are inescapable realities.
  refusal to be afraid because of my unbelief bring me joy and       He that covereth his sins does not prosper; he does not suc-
 happiness or a gruesome and awful end ? Shall I ask, then,          ceed even in covering these sins from his own mind. Surely he
 whether the idea of God's hell and sin against Him serves           does not, by covering sin and hell with his own philosophies,
 any good,purpose  in this modern world ? Of course it does.         cover them from God's eyes. No, there is only one way to
        Sin and hell, or let us say sin and punishment are- facts    peace of heart and mind. There is only one way to remove
 that must be held before the minds of men. "In the day thou         fear from man's heart and mind. That is the fear of the
 eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" is the word of God to         Lord which believes these facts of sin and hell and takes
 man in his .state of righteousness before frustrations and          them to the cross. Faith in God as the God of our salvation
 fears `were known by him. Would we say the All-wise God             in Christ removes all our fears and gives us the peace that
 made a mistake ? Would we dare to say that He knew nothing          passeth all understanding. For then our hearts and minds
 of psychology and that it took a mere creature of dust, such        are kept in Christ. They are kept from all cares and anxieties,
 as Dr. Sigmund Freud, to show God what psychology really            from all worries and tensions.. Paul does not `tell the church
 is ? Perish the thought ! But then let us not behave that way.      at Philippi to be careless and throw away all thought of sin
 If we do not- want to say it, then let us- also not want to         and hell.. He tells that church in Philippians 46 not to be
 practice it.                                                        full of cares, to empty their souls of them by going to God
       This rather we will do when a man is troubled about           with them by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, to'
 his sins and fears lest he has committed the unpardonable           take them to the God Who is never frustrated, never worries,
sin, we will take him to the cross. We will agree with him           never has anxiety. He will take you with your knowledge
 that he has sinned. We will not try to set his mind at ease         of sin and of the hell, which we deserve because of our sins,
 by denying the facts of sin and hell. But we will show him          to Christ and His cross. And there you will find peace of
 that God has blotted out the sins of His people in the blood        heart and mind.
 of His `Son and that concern for these sins, anxiety about             That is the wise thing to do : Go to Him and not deny
 their presence and a desire for peace with God in regard to         Him by denying sin and hell. That is the wise thing because
 them is undeniable evidence that the unpardonable ,-sin  has        it is rooted in the principle of the fear of the Lord. That
 not been committed.                                                 fear will' remove all other fears.                     J.A.H.


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  15

         THE REFORMATION PREPARED IN                                      A brief survey of his life history up to this moment must
                      LUTHER'S SOUL .                                 clearly show this. For our convenience, we shall divide the
                                                                      first thirty-four years of Luther's life into five periods to
     On October 31 we shall again celebrate Reformation Day.          show how the Lord prepared him step by step for this
 This remains an important date in the annals of the church,          momentous task. They are as follows:
 just because our thoughts revert back to that memorable night            The period of early training and deep-seated fear of God.
 of October- 31, 1517, when Dr. Martin Luther nailed the                  The period of wrestling with the problem of his personal
 ninety-five theses on the doors of the church at Wittenberg.         salvation.
 That particular event still stands out in the minds of all Prot-
 estant Christendom as the dawn of the Reformation and the                The period of searching for peace in the convent.
 beginning of our deliverance from the yoke of Roman Catholic             The period in which he attained peace through the Scrip-
 hierarchy. That is what makes this date so important to US.          tures.

     Yet, you may well wonder why this particular date mark-              The period in which he became burdened with the evils
 ing that particular event should- be so important. It was not        within the church institute to the point where he was com-
 an innovation to nail a public announcement on the church            pelled to oppose them openly:
 door, since at that time it was a common practice to distribute        We shall make a few remarks about each of these.
 .news  and information that way, particularly to those who
 were attending church. Nor did these ninety-five theses                  Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483, an hour
                                                                      before midnight, at Eisleben, in the home .of very simple yet
 suggest in any way the dawning pf a new day for a church
 that groaned under the oppression of Rome. It is true that           God fearing parents. At six months, his parents took him to
                                                                      Mansfeld where his father worked in the mines. They were
 Luther did attack many evils within the church, particularly
                                                                      very poor, so that at the age of 14 years Martin had to go
 the sale of indulgences. But at this point Luther still
 acknowledged the authority of the pope, and defended the             out .on the streets to sing for a living. At home he was
                                                                      brought up, as he himself later writes, under stern discipline.
 indulgence as such. That is, he still recognized the right of
 lthe church to forgive sins in the name of Christ upon confes-       And in the schools he attended the discipline was equally
                                                                      severe. The result was that during this early period of his
 sion of guilt. He did not condemn the indulgence but rather
 the promiscuous sale of indulgences for the sake of financial        life he was filled with a deep-seated fear of God, which never
 gain for the church. And finally, we should note, that at this       left him. It was while he was attending school at Eisenach
 `time Luther had not the slightest intention of breaking with        that the wife of a wealthy merchant took him into her home
 `the Roman Catholic Institution. Nor did this break come             and invited him to share the bounties of her table. This pious
 until almost four years later, on April 18, 1521, at the Diet        family by their benevolent interest in his welfare also helped
 `of Worms, when he defied the authority of the pope and of           to establish his spirituality and piety.
 -the church councils.                                                    The second period of which we spoke, in which Luther
     What, then, makes that simple act of nailing ninety-five         became aware of a spiritual unrest in his soul, began ap-
 :-theses  on the church door so important? Why does October          proximately at 18 years of age. In 1501 he entered the
 `3 1 rightfully stand out as a memorable date for us even today ?    University of Erfurt, one of the best universities of that time
                                                                      `in the country. There he studied chiefly scholastic philosophy,
     The answer lies in the fact that God prepared the Refor-         including such subjects as logic, rhetoric, physics, and
 `mation in Luther's soul long before this, and the first evidence    metaphysics. He also studied the ancient classics and acquired
 of this work of God appeared on that night of October 31.            knowledge of the Latin. Four years later he received his
 -Unawares to himself, Luther had reached a point of no return.       degree of Master of Arts. But it was during these years that
 .He could.only  go on from that moment to carry out the con-         he became deeply concerned about his personal salvation. The
 viction of his soul even though it meant a complete break            burden of the guilt of his sins weighed heavily upon him,
 -with the Roman Catholic Church. This was possible because           frequently bringing him to the verge of despair. The un-
 `the Reformation was not a work.of  man but of God. In the           certainty of his election and the fear of impending judgment
 providence of God the time had become ripe within the                troubled him incessantly. This second phase of Luther's life
  church for `the dawning of a new day. Even politically the          probably influenced him more than anything else to seek his
  situation was such in Germany that the reformers could carry        refuge in ,a convent.
 on their work unhindered by the civil government. God also
 -prepared the hearts of',His  people so that when the tocsin             Martin's eariiest intentions were to become a lawyer. But
 `rang, through the hammer blows on the church door of Wit-           upon his return to Erfurt, after spending a short period of
  tenberg,  the sound re-echoed through the world and aroused         vacation at home, he was overtaken by a heavy thunder-
  all true Christendom to seek deliverance from its bondage.          storm and was almost struck by lightning. It is still a ques-
But likewise, the Lord prepared the Reformation in the soul           tion in my mind how- much importance should be-attached to
  of the man He had appointed for this work, Martin Luther.           this incident, as well as many more in the reformer's life




                                    .

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


 which are often blown up beyond all proportion. But it is           righteous man can stand in the presence of God-  and live.
 commonly accepted that this brought him to the third period         He also knew that there is no righteousness apart from Christ
 we mentioned, his search for peace in the convent.                  Jesus, but that all our righteousness is solely in Him. And
                                                                     he realized, to his own delight, that this righteousness of
       It was on July 17, 1505, that he entered the monastery of     Christ is ours through the bond of faith that unites us to
 the Augustinian order at Erfurt and became a monk. We are           Him. He knew from experience that (`the just shall live by
 told, "He was clothed with a white woolen shirt in honor of         faith" (Rom. 1 :18). And he could exclaim with exuberant
 the pure Virgin, a black cowl and frock tied by a leathern          joy, "Wherefore being jutified by faith, we have peace with
 girdle. He assumed the most menial offices to subdue his            God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5 :l).
 pride: he swept the floor, begged bread through the streets,
 and submitted without a murmur to the ascetic severities. He           This brings us to the final period in which Luther was
 said twenty-five Paternosters with the Ave Maria in each of         aroused against the evils of the church and felt impelled to
the seven appointed hours of prayer. He was devoted to the           oppose them.
 Holy Virgin and even believed, with the Augustinians and               As a priest he came into still closer contact with the dead
 Franciscans, her immaculate conception, or freedom from             formalism of the church in `which he was reared. In 1508 he
 hereditary sin-a doctrine denied by the Dominicans and              became professor in Wittenberg. He first taught philosophy
 not made an article of faith till the year 1854. He regularly       but became more and more interegted  in theology. He applied.
 confessed his sins to the priest at least once a week."* He         himself to an even more thorough study of Scriptures, giving
 himself said afterward, "If ever a monk got to heaven by            lectures on the Psalms and on the epistle to the'Romans.  In
 monkery, I would have gotten there." But always the same            the meantime he was still frequently cast between periods of
 problem loomed large before him, how could he find peace            black despondency and moments of peace and serenity.
 for his soul ? He knew how' to cry out with the apostle, "0            In the autumn of 1510, Luther was sent to Rome in the
 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me out of the             interest of his order and at the suggestion of Staupitz. In
 body of this death ?" But he had not learned to add, "I             company with two others he travelled on foot from convent to
 thank God through Jesus ,Christ, our Lord."                         convent. He spent four weeks in Rome in an Augustinian
       This phase of Luther's experience was of great impor-         convent and- returned to Wittenberg in the following spring.
 tance for his later life. God was using also this experience        This trip served to open his eyes to the corruption that was
 and turning it for his good,by  the ever-present operation of       rampant, not only in the convents, but also in Rome. He was
 the Holy Spirit in his -heart.. It was in the convent that          shocked by the unbelief, levity, and immorality of the clergy.
 Luther learned the utter hopelessness of salvation by works.        ,Money  and luxurious living were their chief ambitions. Even
 And it was there that he began a systematic study of the            the pope was interested only in worldly grandeur and power.
 Bible. There he realized how much more the Scriptures, con-         This journey to Rome left a lasting impression upon him and
 tained than had ever been taught him by the church, and how         prepared -the way for his bitter opposition to the Roman
 barren the Roman Catholic theology actually was.                    Catholic formalism and corruption.

       .This brings us to the period in Luther's life when he           The climax came when Tetzel arrived in Germany selling
 found peace through the Scriptures.                                 indulgences for the building of St. Peter's Church in Rome.
       Johann von Staupitz, `a Doctor of Divinity and Vicar-         Others before him had opposed this same evil, such as
 General of the Augustinian convents in Germany, aided               Wyclif  in England, Huss in Bohemia, John von Wese.1  in
 Luther in his study of the Scriptures. Luther himself referred      Germany, John Wessel in Holland, but without any lasting
-to Staupitz as his spiritual father who <`first caused the light    effect. But now also Luther was aroused. The result was the
 of the gospel to shine in the darkness of my heart." He             nailing of the ninety-five theses on the door of the church of
 directed him from his sins to the cross of Christ. He pointed       Wittenberg on the eve of All-Saints Day, October 31, 1517.
him away from dead works to the power of grace which                    Here was a monk and' priest, living within the church, yet
works faith in the heart. He taught him that true repentance         daring to raise his voice against her corruption. From this'
consists, not in self-imposed penances, but `in love to God
                                                                     first act the rest must follow. Having taken the first step, -
 and faith in the blood of Golgotha. He encouraged Luther
                                                                     there was no alternative but to go on. God had created all
to become a priest in 1507 and brought him to Wittenberg.            the attending circumstances both religiously and politically,
He induced him to take a degree of Doctor of Divinity and
                                                                     had prepared the man of his choice for the work that" had to
to preach. He stirred him up against popery. But when the
                                                                     be accomplished, had appointed the moment for the Reforma-
Reformation came, Staupitz remained in the Roman Catholic
                                                                     tion, and was now'bringing it to pass. Thus, approximately
Church and that until his death.
                                                                     four years later, when he was placed before the Diet of
       Thus the peace of God gradually filled the soul of the        Worms and required to retract all his writings of the past
reformer.     He experienced in his own heart that only the          years, he was ready to defy the pope and the councils of the

""History of the Christian Church," by Philip S&a&  page 115.                           (Continued on page 23)


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                      17


                                                                       chips away at the truth of the certainty of perseverance by
         The Voice of Our Fathers                             -.       way of compromising and conditionalizing in a so-called
                                                                    11 Reformed sense until that certainty is virtually destroyed and-
                                                                       the security is done away. This is wrong. It is a surrender
                 The Canons of Dordrecht                               to Arminianism. And we should be on our guard against it.
                            PART Two                                   It is not the style of our Reformed fathers. They did not face '
                                                                       this calumny of the Remonstrants by saying, "Well, now,
                   EXPOSITION OF ,THE CANONS
                                                                       there is some truth in this charge, and it is possible that
                   FIFTH HEAD OF DOCTRINE                              one is rendered proud and carnally secure by this certainty.
           O                                                           of perseverance, and therefore we -must be on our guard
                F THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS
                                                                       against such carnal security and give a little more emphasis
                     Article 12 (continued)                            to the responsibility of man, etc., etc." No, they faced this                 .
    In the third place, we may notice once again that the              charge and answered flatly: "It is far from the truth ; the
Arminian employs the "big lie" technique in his attempt to             very opposite.is true." And we should follow their example.
discredit the truth. As is very plain from the language of the         There is so little militancy for the cause of the Reformed
fathers in this article, this charge of the Arminians is nothing       faith -today. When those who oppose the truth are met, we
short of preposterous. Nothing could be farther from the               can be so ready to belittle and compromise and well-nigh
truth than this allegation which they bring against the doc-           hide our Reformed faith in its distinctive character, as though
trine of the certainty of perseverance. And it seems that              we were really ashamed of it. And how boldly we ought in-
they almost felt that if they made, their lie big enough and           stead to stand in the faith and cast far from us the false
cunning enough, they might be able to overthrow the truth              and foul accusations that are hurled against the truth !
in the minds of some. For as the fathers indicate, this charge             In the second place, we ought to note that the fathers
of the Arminians is the extreme and diametrical opposite of            state a fact here, not a mere possibility. And this is of the
the truth : "This certainty of perseverance, however, is so jar        utmost importance. for the understanding of their answer to
from exciting in believers a spirit of pride, or of rendering          the Arminians' accusation. They do not answer: "On the
them carnally secure, that on the contrary, it is the real source      contrary, this certainty of perseverance ought to be the real
of humility, filial reverence, true piety . . . ."                     source of humility, filial reverence, etc." This would not be
   Coming now to the contents of the article itself, we may            an answer to' the accusation. It would still leave the door
begin by making a few general observations.                            open for the possibility that what ought to be is in actual
    In the first place, we may note that the issue does not            fact not the case. And therefore they answer : "This certainty
concern "security" but, "carnal security." This is important.          of perseverance ,is the real source of humility, filial reverence,
The fathers certainly do not intend to deny that the certainty         true piety, etc." In other words, there is an inherent, binding,
of perseverance renders believers secure. If it did not render         unbreakable relationship between this certainty of persever-
them secure, then it would indeed be a very uncertain cer-             ance and all these Christian virtues. Where the one is given,            .
tainty. No, but the issue is whether or noth this certainty of         there the other is sure to be found. You will never find a
perseverance renders believers cnmdy  secure. And there is a           believer who has the certainty of perseverance, but who is at
vast difference. The certainty of perseverance renders believers       the same time proud and carnally secure. And wherever you
truly secure ; to be carnally secure is to possess a false sense       find one who enjoys the certainty of perseverance, you will
of security. The certainty of perseverance renders men                 inevitably find that this certainty functions in him as the
piously secure ; carnal security is a security in the ways of          source of humility and all the Christian virtues mentioned in
the flesh, a security in the way of sin and evil, a security           this article. You will find in such a Christian the very op-
that boasts of itself and in the meantime seeks the world,             posite of pride and carnal security.
enjoys sin, and hates God's precepts. And what our fathers                 In the third place, we may notice that the fathers speak
flatly deny as being wholly out of the realm of possibility,           of this certainty of perseverance as the ,veal  SOZU-CB  of humility,
while at the same time maintaining that the believer does              etc. And this is correct, provided that we understand this
indeed obtain a sense of genuine security, is that the certainty       to refer to the subjective spiritual source, of these virtues in
of perseverance renders one carnally secure, secure in his sin.        the heart and life of the Christian. All these virtues are gifts
Now someone may say that this lies in the nature of `the case.         of grace, of course. And from that point of view the real
And this,is  so. Nevertheless we may draw a practical warn-            source of them is the grace and Spirit. of our Lord Jesus
ing from this obvious truth. It is this, namely, that we as            Christ. But the article speaks of the internal, subjective
Reformed believers should not be so panic-stricken by this             spiritual source of these virtues. And that source &thin  the
argument of the Arminians that we abandon our Reformed                 believer is the certainty of perseverance. Or we may put it
position and deny after all that this certainty of perseverance        this way. The certainty of perseverance is a gift of grace
renders us secure in any sense whatsoever. This is easily              wrought in the heart of the child -of God. And that one gift
done. In the attempt to meet this argument one carves and              of grace becomes at once the root of many gifts of grace

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

       which blossom forth from it under the gracious influences of           ness that he is his Father's possession, that same believer
       the Holy Spirit.           .                                           willingly acknowledges his, heavenly Father as the Lord of
               With these general observations in mind, we may give           his life, Whose will, not in the fear of terror but in the fear
       our attention to the specific elements mentioned here.                 of love and reverence, he delights to do.
               The first fruit of this certainty of perseverance mentioned       This, in turn, leads, in the third place, to true piety and
       here is Izztzwil~ity.  It stands over against the "spirit of pride"    godliness in the walk of those who have this certainty of
       which the Arminians claim is excited by such a certainty.              perseverance. Because God is the God of their life, and
       Now such pride is absolutely iinpossible,  and true humility is        knowing that they are the objects of His saving grace for
       the necessary fruit of. this certainty of perseverance for the         the very purpose that they should show forth His praises in
       simple reason that this dertainty of perseverance is all of free       the midst of the world, they in principle have as the con-
       and sovereign grace. Pride and boasting, whether over                  trolling question of their entire .walk  this : "Lord, what wilt
       against God or the neighbor, must have some ground, or at              Thou have me to do ?" It is only in the way of this true
       least some apparent ground. But the believer, persevering              piety that they can ever enjoy the assurance of perseverance.
     and assured of his perseverance by grace only, has absolutely                The article mentions, in the fourth place, the virtue of
       nothing to boast. Such & believer has learned to know him-             patience in every tribulation. Patience is that virtue accord-
       self as one who cannot possibly persevere of himself. He               ing to which one endures to the end in spite of difficulty and
      _-has  learned to know his daily sins of infirmity and the spots        in the midst of the battle. That .patience  is quickened by the
       that adhere to his best works. He has learned to know him-             certainty of perseverance not only hecause  the .end unto
       self as one who'sometimes  sinfully deviates from the guidance         which we are patient is certain, but especially because we
       of divine grace and is seduced by the lusts of the flesh. He           know and are assured that we shall attain to that glorious
       has learned to know that by his enormous sins he highly                end: If. the end is not certain, there is no incentive for
       offends God, incurs a deadly guilt, grieves the Holy Spirit.           patience. But if the end is certain, but we are not assured of
       He has learned to know that in himself there is not the power          ieaching  that end, then too there is no incentive for patience.
      to return to Gdd and to repent of his daily sins and to seek            But if we know that the blessed inheritance is there, reserved
       and obtain remission of his sins even after he has once be-            for us, and that we are preserved infallibly unto that in-
       come a child of God. And on the other hand, he has tasted              heritance, then we are able to confess : "The suffering of this
       the power of divine grade that never lets him go completely.           present time is not worthy to be compared with the glory that
       He has learned to know that God Who never wholly with-                 shall be revealed in us."
       draws His Holy Spirit from His own people. He knows                        Further, the article mentions the fruit of fervent prayers.
       that God of all grace who preserves in him the incorruptible           Those who would deny this truth of the assurance of per-
       seed of regeneration and by His Word and Spirit effectually            severance would seem to have reason, at first glance, to claim
       and certainly renews him to repentance, to a sincere and               that such assurance would be detrimental to a life of prayer.
       godly sorrow, to a seekin,u and obtaining of the remission of          But the contrary is true. It is not a state of doubt and un-
       sir+. All these blessings of grace he has tasted. And there            certainty that fosters fervent prayer, but a state of assurance.
       has been quickened in him the firm assurance of perseverance.          For, in the first place, prayer must be characterized by con-
       And in the midst of it all, he realizes and acknowledges that          fidence. What expectation of an answer to prayer can there '
       there was absolutely tie reason in him why he should be the            be, except oq the -basis of this assurance of perseverance?
       object of so rich a grace and such abundant spiritual bless-           How can I pray for preservation when I cannot even be
       ings. .Where  is boasting then.7 It is excluded! The believer          certain that God can and will preserve me to the end ? And,
       knows this. And in true humility he falls on his knees be-             ,in the second place, that very assurance becomes the occasion
       fore God, the God of his salvation, and confesses: "0 my               and the incentive for the Christian to pray always and again
       God !' It is none of self, all of Thee !"                              for grace that he may persevere to the end, and that thus in
       of self, all of Thee !"                                                the way of perseverance he may continue to enjoy this blessed
              No, not pride but humility is the fruit of this certainty of    assurance !
       perseverance.      And pride and carelessness are found, on the                               (to be continued)
       contrary, exactly with those who deny the doctrine of free                                                                     H.C.H.
     grace. If anyone who claims to be a believer and to have the
       assurance of perseverance manifests the spirit of pride rather
      ?han humility, he shows thereby that his assurance does not                                  Announcement
       rest on good grounds.
               In close connection with this virtue of humility stands           Classis East of the Protestant Reformed Churches will
r      the second fruit mentioned in this article, filial reverence or        meet on Wednesday, October 7th, in the Protestant Reformed
       childlike fear. In the humble consciousness that it is all of          Church of Hudsonville, Michigan, the Lord willing. Con-
       God and none of self, the believer bows in humble depend-              sistories will please take note of this in the appointment of
       ence upon his heavenly Father; and, in the glad conscious-             delegates.                        M. SCRIPPER, Stated dlerk

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


                                                                             main there to perpetuate that witness of Him to the best of
             DECENCY and ORDER                                               their ability.

                                                                                 (4) It is easier said than ddne. It is one thing for a
                  Unorganized Churches .                                     Classis or a Synod to decide that people should. move to the
                                                                             vicinity of the church but it is another thing in hoiv far the
    "Places where as yet no con&tory can be constituted:                     ecclesiastical assembly is aware of the problems and difficul-
&all  be placed  under  the care of a neighboring consistory.`J              ties such a decision may create. Furthermore, it must not
                                         - A r t i c l e   3 9 ,   D.K.O.    be overlooked that when this advice -is executed, those con-
                                                                             cerned not only temporarily lose their means of livelihood,
    To this article the following decision of Synod is appended              but also their potential to contribute toward and support the
in our Church Order:                                                         church and related causes of the Kingdom. It may be that
    "If possible the org.aniza.tion  of a congregation shll                  in their new community they are not able to obtain work to
precede the a~dministratio~n  of the sacraments. However, if                 which they are adapted and the last end may prove to be
the conditions aYe not ripe for the orga.nization  of a con-                 worse than the first.
gregation, su.clz  members are to be enrolled *in an (adjoining                 For all these reasons we would hesitate to go in this
congregation, arLd  thus the sacraments can be ad+&aistered                  direction, except, -perhaps, in a very rare or exceptional case
under the supervision of that consistory. However, this shall                where it is rather evident that it is the dnly feasible thing
`not he done without the accompa,nyirtg  preo&ng  of the                     to do.
Word, nor without  sufficient represenbtion  of the consistolpy
                                                                                Article 39 advocates as a solution to this problem that
to have >tbpervisioTt  of the ad~nhistration."                               such unorganized groups be placed under the care of the
    In general the meanin,m of the above article is plain. It                neighboring consistory. The words "as yet" in the article
is not so much a question as to what this article means but                  are significant. They would seem to indicate that in the
the difficulty is confronted in the execution or putting into                circumstances the time is foreseeable when a consistory could
practice the rules prescribed in it. To use a collo,quialism,                b? organized and the church  properly instituted. Van Dellen
It is easier said than  done! The article itself refers to circum-           and Kekgstra state : "De woorden `nog geen' geven te kennen
stances where there may be a group of believers who, with                    dat zoo'n  tE%tand  niet langer yytag  dcmn da.n st&t noodig `is."
their children, desire to be organized as the church of Jesus                Translated : "The words `as yet' indicate that such a circum-
Christ but, for sbme reason or another, a consistory cannot be,              stance may not exist any longer than is absolutely necessary."
constituted and, therefore, the desired organization cannot be                  This would indicate that it is far from ideal to have an
effected. The church cannot be organized without office-                     unorganized group, located some distance from the church,
bearers. The offices of the church are an essential part' of                 placed under the care of the consistory of that church. To
the institute.                                                               ,place an unorganized group under the care of a neighboring
   Hence, the question : What are these people to do ? They                  consistory does not solve all problems. The consistory will
cannot, being believers, live without the church and as yet                  and shduld  provide the fullest possible spiritual care that
the church cannot be organized in the community where they                   circumstances permit but it virtually is impossible in most in-
live. A real problem indeed !                                                stances to provide regular ,preaching  services and for such -a
    As a solution to this problem indeed!                                    group that is~ most essential. It is also questionable how
                                                                             much catechetical instruction could be given to the children
    As a solution t? this problem some would advocate that                   and youth of the unorganized group. This too is essential
those involved in such circumstances are duty bound to leave                 and for these reasons this situation should not .be allowed to
their places of employment, sell their farms, close their busi-              persist for an indefinite period of time.
ness and move with their families into a community where
the church is found. We would not say that this advice is                       One definite advantage in this arrangement, however, is
.never  to be given but we do contend that it should only be                 that it would enable the consistory of the neighboring church
employed in circumstances where every other conceivable                      to, engage in church-extension labor in the area where the
possibility has been exhausted and that for the following                    unorganized group is found. Perhaps it would be advisable
reasons :                                                                    that the consistory release its minister for this work for a
                                                                             definitely stated time. He could then devote all his jime  and
    (1) It is not in accord with the advice of the Church                    effort to work the field and the fruits of these labors would
Order, -Article  39.                                                         then determine whether the Lord will have His church estab-
    (2) It has no direct basis in Scripture.                                 lished there or whether those believers who are found there
   .(3)  3t. is questionable, to say the least, whether it is the            are called to "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy
Lord's will that His people, whom He in His providence has                   kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will
brought to and established in a certain community and then                   shew thee" (Genesis 12 :l).
later called to the faith, should leave that community or re-                   Historically, so the Church Order Commentary informs

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

us, the ruling of Article 39 was born in the post-reformation        has invested in His church, and therefore, although believers
days when the organized churches were confronted withthe             may certainly gather for mutual edification, the Word can-
question : "What should we do. with those localities which           not be officially preached and the sacraments administCred
have no Reformed Churches as yet?' It appears that the               e&ept  through properly instituted of&es in the church. That
present decision was reached primarily and it was Calvin who         this principle .is commonly ignored in our day needs no proof
had urged not to institute the administration of the Word            but what is most alarming is the fact. that evep in so-called
and the Sacraments without the institution of the offices,           Reformed circles there is more and more disregard (ignor-
He held that in order to maintain the purity of the preaching        ance) for the teachings of the great Reformer and the prin-
of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments,                ciples of truth founded upon Scripture and which he was
proper supervision and control was necessary.                        instrumental in conveying to the church. Calvin would un-
                                                                     doubtedly shudder at the teachings and practices of many
      In 1571 then, the very first Synod of the Reformed             would-be Calvinists in our day.                               G.V.d.B.
Churches of Holland which met in Emden, stipulated that
ministers and elders of Classes "bearing the cross," i.e., being
persecuted, should diligently ascertain whether or not there
were any in their near-by cities or villages who were. favor-
ably inclined toward- the Reformation, and urge such to do                            FEPLTURE,  ARTICLES FOR
their duty. To this end the minister and elders of these                              THE STANDARD BEARER
,Classes  should attempt to organize churches, or at least the                                    IN 1960
beginning of churches. In order to carry on this work the
classes were to divide the various cities and villages amongst       Date and Subject                  Writer       Rubric replaced
themselves so that no localities might be neglected. And the
                                                                     January l-
dispersed churches, churches consisting of believers who had
fled to distant parts for their safety, should be active in            The Proper Relation between                Voice of Our Fathers
their new localities it was urged. Dispersed believers should          Church and School              C. Hanko

further the work of the consistories active in the gathering
                                                                     February l-
of churches by cautiously supplying the church officers with
names of persons who had in the past manifested their in-              Calvin and the Burning                     Decency and Order
terest in the true religion in their home community from               of Servetus                 R. Veldman

which they had been driven, or in the place to which they
                                                                     March l-
f l e d .
                                                                       Matthew 19:7-8  and                        Contending for the Faith
      This action of the Synod of 1571 was reaffirmed by the           DeuteGonomy  24: 1-4         H. Hanko
Synod qf 1575.                                                  *

      By 1556 the work of reformation and church organization        A p r i l   l-
had progressed greatly. The Synod of that year decided that            John Knox and the                          In His Fear
in localities which had no consistories as yet the classis should      Reformation               G. Van Baren

do that which the Church Order assigned under normal
                                                                     May l-
circumstances to the consistories.      Neighboring churches,
through their classical organization, were therefore to min-           Luther and Calvin -                        All Around Us
ister to the spiritual needs of those living in communities           A Comparison                 G. Laniing

not yet having a church. They were to do this particularly,
                                                                     September l-
we may assume, by sending a minister who could sponsor
the organization of churches, even as the former Synod had             Capital Punishment           A. Mulder Voice of Our Fathers

urged and decided.
                                                                     October l-
      All this was_ confirmed by the great Synod of Dort in           The Significance of the _                   Decency and Order
1618-1619 and so the decision became the 39th article of the          Ninety-Five Theses         H. H. Kuiper
Church Order which is preserved to the present day with
only one slight alteration.                                          November l-

      Undoubtedly the main principle involved in th?s article,        The Significance of                         Contending for the Faith
although not expressed, is that the Word and Sacraments               the Candlesticks         R. C. Harbach
may not be administered apart from the institution of the
church. The right to preach the Word and to administer the           December l-

sacraments does not inhere in any individual or society,              The Number Ten in                           In His Fear

regardless of who or what they may. be. That right Christ             the Old Testament           R. Veldman


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                21

 II                                                                     " `Disarmament by multilateral agreement? with `the goal
               A L L   A R O U N D   U S   -1 of universal disarmament.'
                                                                        "The use of military force only when `sanctioned by and
                                                                    under the control of the United Nations.'
 A Stropag  Protest Aga.iwt the N.C.C.C.
                                                                        ""The creation of a permanent United Nations police
                                                                    force.' Abolition of universal military training.
        From a friend and brother we received a pamphlet en-
 titled: The National Council of Churcehs -A Menace To                  "Abolition of `the system of military conscription' and of
 Church And State, for which we are deeply grateful. We             the Selective Service System.
 have read much in recent years concerning this organization            "Opposition to `the concept of nuclear retaliation or
 of a deprecating nature, but never anything so ,succinct, en-      preventive war.'
 lightening and thought-provoking as the pamphlet above                 "Extension .of trade and travel without restrictions be-
 mentioned. If our readers. would desire a copy, they may           tween the United States and Communist countries."
 address their request, including 20~; to : The Southern Pres-
 byterian Journal, Weaverville, N.C. If you really want to              The authors of the pamphlet add here: "This could not
 know what is wrong with the National Council of Churches           have more nearly conformed to the Communist `line,' if it
 of Christ, this pamphlet will tell you.                            had originated in the Kremlin."

       According to the pamphlet,' the Southern Presbyterian            But to return to the main theme of the pamphlet, namely,
 Church is a member of the National Council, but the Journal        the Menace to Church and State, the pamphlet proceeds to
which speaks for the Church rises in vigorous protest against       point out wherein that menace consists.
some of the most recent pronouncements of the Council,                 It does so first of all by informing the reader that "there
warning the constituency against the pitfalls into which the        are three leading concepts of the relationship of Church and
Council is leading the churches.                                    State" and pointing out what is wrong with two of them,
       Late last year in a meeting of the Council held in Cleve-    while emphasizing the only correct position we are to take.
land, it was decided to request our government and the Nato            The three leading concepts are the following:
nations to recognize Communist China. This political ma-
neuver not only aroused the ire of men like Dan Poling and             "The Roman Catholic concept is that the civil govern-
Norman V. Peale, but it also stirred the S. P. Journal to           ment is a part of and therefore subordinate to the Church.
produce the pamphlet above mentioned. The Journal believes          For this reason- the Church of Rome seeks to influence and
that the N.C.C.C. is attempting to fast remove the age-old          control governments in the name of the Church. These
distinction between Church and State. It is with this fact          activities may be open or they may be carried on in secret.
that the N.C.C.C. is a menace to Church and State that the          Where Rome exercises free power within governments Chris-
pamphlet is mostly concerned.                                       tian freedoms are suppressed. One has but to look at
                                                                    Colombia, Spain and other Catholic-dominated countries to
       To be sure, the pamphlet is also concerned that "the
                                                                    realize that where free to do so the church persecutes and
National Council is seductively and. aggressively using the
                                                                    oppresseg.
Churches to promote pacifism, socialism, and to give aid and                      For that reason thinking Americans view with
                                                                    genuine alarm the possible election of a Roman Catholic
comfort to the Communists." This is clear, the pamphlet
                                                                    as President of the United States. No matter how loyal a
points out, from a brief summary of the "Message" which
                                                                    citizen he may be, no matter how able and dedicated he may
the Council sent out December last which advocated the
                                                                    be to the highest good for America, if he is a loyal Catholic
following :
                                                                    he is part of a system which is the very antithesis of the
       "Diplomatic recognition by the United States of Red          basic ideals on which our country was founded.
China.
                                                                       "The second concept of Church-State relationships was
       "Admission of Red China to the United Nations.               first made popular by Erastus, a physician in Heidelberg in
       "Co-existence with `the Communist nations.'                  the sixteenth century. The Erastian doctrine is the very
       "Avoidance of `the posture of general hostility' to `the     opposite of that held by the Roman Catholic Church. He
Communist nations.'                                                 taught that the Church is only a phase of the State. The
                                                                    State being a divine institution was therefore responsible for
       "A call to `fellow churchmen to work to overcome segre-      both the spiritual and temporal welfare of the people. Out of
gation in all areas,. beginning with their own congregation         this doctrine there came the State Church, a church sup;
and including housing, public services and economic or OG           ported by and obligated to look to the State for the main-
cupational opportunities."                                          tenance of doctrine, the proper administration of the sacra-
       "Ratification of the genocide convention.                    ments, and of discipline. Here church officers are appointed
       "Internationalism to supersede national patriotism.          by the State and are in a measure responsible to the State:


  22                                           T H E   STANDAR.D   B E A R E R


                                                                        which both governments and churches stand. It is the evil
        "The Reformed or Protestant doctrine of the Church is           attempt to erase the distinction between Church and State.
  that both the State and the Church are divine institutions            And history has proved again and again that where this
  but that their objectives and functions are in every way              .attempt  is realized there is bound to be trouble.
  different and independent the one of the other. The State
                                                                            The positive character of the ,material in-the pamphlet
  is temporal in its administration, designed for the temporal
                                                                        may be summed up in the following paragraph:
  welfare of its citizens. The Church is a spiritual organiza-
  tion-designed to witness to the saving and keeping power of               "The Witnessing mission of the Church should ever be
  the Lord Jesus Christ, to administer the ordinances and               foremost. `Ye are my witnesses'- `This Gospel shall. be
  maintain the discipline of the Church and to constitute a             preached for a witness to all nations,' express the primary
  visible witness of a redeemed citizenry, one in but not of            work of the Church. Once assume that it is the Church which
  this world ; men and women separated unto righteousness               is to conquer the world and the next step of assuming and
  who should live in the world as shining lights.                       conniving for worldly power is inevitable. It is this utterly
                                                                        un-Protestant Philosophy of the Church which has led some
        "This view of the Church emphasizes the spiritual nature        to say: `When the General Assembly takes action God has
  of her calling and looks to believers to be true `salt' and           spoken.' Recognizing such a danger the Westminster divines
  `light' in the society of which they are a part.                      inserted in the Confession of l?aith  this clear restriction : `God
        "This view requires that the influence of the Church shall      alone is the Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from
  be exercised by Christians, as citizens of their. country, and        doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything
  rejects the idea that the Church, in the name of the Church,          contrary to His word, or beside it in matters of worship'
  should seek to exercise political controls or pressures on the         (Chapt. 22, ll)."
  State."                                                                   It is in connection with the truth set forth in the above
        The pamphlet further produces a reproduction of one             paragraph that the writers of the pamphlet make this sig-
  of the articles of the Church Order, which I presume is that          nificant statement :
  of the Southern Presbyterian Church, which clearly coincides              "Wherever the Church has arrogated to itself temporal
  with the Reformed and Protestant doctrine of the Church.              powers there is also the tendency to usurp the headship of
  .     "Synods' and councils are to handle or conclude nothing         Christ. It should be remembered at all times that the Church
  but that which is ecclesiastical: and are not to intermeddle          is the body and that Christ is the Head. It is Christ who
  with civil affairs which concern the commonwealth unless by           will eventually conquer, not the Church. It is to Him that
  way of humble petition in cases extraordinary ; or by way of          every knee will bow, not to the Church. The latter is the
  advice for satisfaction of conscience, if they be thereunto           Bride, not the Bridegroom."
  required by the civil magistrate."                                        The above statement is of practical value for the church
        It is against the violation of -this principle of the Church    institute when, as so often is the case, she is asked to decide
  Order of which the N.C.C.C. has made itself guilty, that the          on matters that are not of an ecclesiastical nature. And how
  pamphlet protests.                                                    true it is that when the church is required to be on business
        Write the authors of the pamphlet: "The conference in           for the King, she makes it her own business.
                                                                                 .
 . Cleveland is typical of the multiplied top-level meetings                We believe that the pamphlet was well written. It hit
  sponsored by the National Council in which carefully pre-             the nail on the head. And it will certainly have its repercus-
  pared programs are developed beforehand by some of the                sions in those churches which are members of the Council.
  ablest men in the ecclesiastical world, men who are irrevoc-,             It is gratifying to observe that in the nominal church
  ably committed to a particular philosophy of the Church, so-          which is fast becoming the tool of Antichrist, there are those
  cial action, and world affairs. This philosophy envisions the         who have the boldness to shoot their arrows of criticism at
  Church, as such, exercising political pressures on the govern-        the Beast.                                                   M.S.
  ment by which, in a very real sense, the government becomes
  the agent of the Church. To many of us this is a fatal con-
  cept, one which abdicates the high spiritual nature of the
Church, and substitutes for it a secular and materialistic role                        0 God of our salvation,
  for which there is no scriptural basis."                                               Since Thou dost love the right,
        The pamphlet points out that the Council is not interested                    Thou wilt an answer send us
  in promoting the truth of Scripture so that its doctrines are                          In wondrous deeds of might.
 developed and the truth disseminated. Rather its chief con-                           In all earth's habitations,
 cern is making political resolutions and persuading govern-                             On all the boundless sea,
 ments to act according to its pronouncements. This, the                              Man finds no sure reliance,
 pamphlet contends, is the destruction of the' principles for                            No peace, apart from Thee.

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


                                                                        ism ; and, *as the dog returns to that which it had' discarded,
               CONTRIBUTIONS                                            so the Reverend has returned to that which he had discarded.
                                                                        You will readily see that we do not place the Reverend in
                                                                        the same category as those whom Peter condemns, but place
                               Randolph, Wise.,  g-15-59                him in another category which the proverb portrays. Thus,
   In The Standard Bearer, Sept. 1, under the heading,                  as it is a fact that the Reverend has returned to that which
"News from our Churches" the statement is made referring                he had discarded, it cannot be a transgression of the ninth
to Rev. J. M. M                                                         commandment to record the same.
                 C Collam's resignation as pastor of the Prot.
Ref. Church (cf. II Peter 2:22).  There we read, "It has                                                                                           J.M.F.
happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog
turning to his vomit again, and the sow that has been washed
to the wallowing in the mire." And that under the caption,                  THE REFORMATION PREPARED IN LUTHER'S SOUL
"All the saints salute thee. " Is this work of the saints ? No
-that cannot be. I don't mean that we should condone an                                                   (Continued from page 16)
action of this nature, of course not. Consider for a moment             church, and thus make a complete break with the institute of
of whom the apostle Peter is speaking here in this second               Roman Catholicism.- Then and there he made the bold and
chapter of his second epistle. It becomes very evident that             defiant statement, at least in substance, "Here I stand, I
the apostle is referring to people who have completely fallen           cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen."
away from the truth; false prophets, even denying their                    Plainly the Reformation was prepared by God in the soul
master who bought them. Bringing upon them swift destr@-                of Martin Luther.
tion. And many other statements in this same chapter. Must
we now place Rev. MC Collam in this category ? Far be it                   In conclusion, it may be well to add, that because of this
from us to do that, for we call ourselves saints. And it ill            peculiar beginning, the Reformation never found its comple-
behooves us as saints to so flagrantly disobey the Ninth Com-           tion in Luther himself. Luther opened the way, but it took a
mandment of God's Holy Law. I firmly believe an ex-                     Calvin to point out the real doctrinal significance of the
pression of this sort lowers the prestige of our church paper,          Reformation. For Luther the break with the Roman Church
The Startdard  Bearw.                                                   centered about the truth of justification by faith, but Calvin
                               Jake -Fisher, Randolph, Wise.            brought out that this truth rested in the more .fundamental
                                                                        truth of the sovereignty of God. Calvin saw and taught that
   Answer: The apostle Peter refers to a proverb well                   we can never maintain the truth of justification by faith alone
known in his day, a popular saying with a double meaning                without a clear conception of God's sovereignty and eternal
which was used to convey a truth by way of comparison.                  predestination.
Just as we say, "Birds of a feather flock together" when we                History has also proved this to be a fact. Although
see thieves resort together ; or, we might use it when we               Luther himself remained sound in the truth, his close friend,
note in a factory lunch room that Christians -group together            Melanchton, weaned away from it and even favored a healing
to eat and the non-Christians eat with their own group. The             of the, breach with Rome, particularly after Luther's death.
proverb used by Peter was not invented by him to convey                 And in the centuries that followed, Lutheranism often became
his point, but was one then in vogue which he borrowed for              man-centered rather than God-centered.
his purpose: He said, in effect, "This well known proverb                  Thus Luther's work prepared the way for that other re-
applies to the people of whom I write to you." In such same             former, John Calvin, who with the theological principle of
manner we also referred -to that true proverb. We did not               "Soli  Deo Gloria" set the Reformation on a sound Reformed
refer to the entire chapter, but merely to that verse which             path.                                                                       C . H .
contained the proverb. We believe that the proverb applies
to the case of the Reverend who, having had his dwelling in                                                                             _'
a church denomination which was predominantly Arminian                                                 T H E L O R D O U R M A K E R
and with strong tendencies towards modernism ; and, having
discarded the Arminianism to whole-heartedly embrace                                         The wicked Thou wilt surely slay,
Calvinism in all its ramifications ; he then broke his vow of                                From me let sinners turn away ;
ordination and returned to the sphere of Arminianism and                                     They speak against the Name divine,
modernism, albeit in another church denomination.                The                         I .count God's enemies as mine.
church group to which the Reverend had gone harbors, un-
disciplined, ministers who do not believe in the Virgin Birth,                               Search me, 0 God, my heart discern,
modernism in its crudest form. Therefore we believe, #as the                                 Try me, my inmost thought to learn ;
sow, after she has been washed, returns to her mire, so the                                  And lead me, if in sin I stray,
Reverend has returned to the mire of the sphere of Arminian-                                 To choose the everlasting way.                   -


       _                                          .-~ ----~  ..-. -                                                      --

 24                                             -THE   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   :                                                   `.
                                                                                                                               _. . . ,.

                                                                                  The Young People of Hull's congregation gave a farewell
                                                                        party for Henry Hoksbergen who was to leave for training
                                                                        in the National Guard, September 13. After an afternoon
                                                                        of swimming the young -folks enjoyed a supper in thepark
                                                                        at Rock Rapids.
                                                 Sept. 20, 1959                                                                 -. -`:.
            Rev. H. Hanko has declined the call to the church from         . -Sept. 15 was the date for the Annual Meeting of the Prot.
 E d g e r t o n .
 _.                                                                      Ref. Action Society. Rev: G. Vanden  Berg `of Oak' Lawn,
            Rev. C. Hanko has declined the call from South Holland,      was scheduled to speak on "The Infallibility of the Scrip-
                                                                        tures:"
 but is still considering one.from  Randolph.

            Edgerton  has made the following trio: Revs. J. A. Heys,              From Oak Lawn's `bulletin we perceive that they are re-
 G. VanBaren  and G. Vanden  Berg.                                       scheduling a society meeting from Wednesday .to. Thursday
            New Addresses: Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1218 Griggs St.,        so that Rev. Vanden  Berg may be able to teach a catechism
 S. E., Grand Rapids 7, Mich. Rev. H. Veldman, 817 Web-                  class in South Holland on Wednesday evening-until they
 ster, Redlands, Calif.                                                  receive a minister of their own.

            We have attained a new goal! A Prot. Ref. High School                 Thirtieth wedding anniversaries were celebrated by two
 Society has been organized! The evening of Sept. 15 saw a               of. our ministers recently: Rev. and Mrs. R. Feldman were
 crowd of about 160 men and women gathered in Southwest                 ,sr: t
                                                                        `surprised by their congregation Sept. 16 in First Church
 Church, called together by a Steering Committee who had                parlors, and Rev. and Mrs. C. Hanko held Open House Sept.
 made all the arrangements for this memorable occasion. Sept.            19. The occasion was also a celebration of the 30th anni-
 15, 1959;  is a date that will be celebrated by our children's          versary of their entrance. into the ministry for both the
children ! Mr. James Swart, chairman of the Steering Com-                pastors. Somber note: From their graduation class of six
 mittee, called the meeting to order, opened with prayer, and            they are the two remaining true to the teaching received in
 introduced Rev. C. Hanko as the speaker for the evening.                our seminary.                                            :
 Rev. Hanko gave an inspirational talk on "Making Plans -
 Proceeding to Attain Our Own High School." The speaker                           The .Sunday  School Teachers' Fall Inspirational meeting
 convinced us that it `was necessary; he showed us that it               was held Sept. 18 at Creston Church. Our Missionary, Rev.
 was possible ; and disclosed the procedure - past, present and          G. Lubbers, gave the inspirational message, telling of the
 future. The speech was truly an "inspirational,' one as wit-            origin and further .development  of the Sunday School move-
 nessed by the response when `membership cards were col-                ment, including the modern version of it. The speaker also
 lected. That evening 94 charter members were signed up,                gave the teachers some observations and suggested improve-
 with promise of additional signatures from others who were             ments which might serve to enhance our Sunday Schools. Mr.
 absent.- The Steering Committee was authorized to appoint a             M. Koerner, president of the Association, led the teachers in
 "Constitution Committee" to draw up a proposed constitu-                the study of the season's first lesson-the thrilling story of
 tion, and also a nomination for Board members, to be                    the burning, fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. Sunday School
 presented at a forthcoming society meeting to be held as soon          teachers.: we bid you, suffer little children to. come unto HIM.
 as possible. As the speaker pointed out, the success of Hope
 and Adams schools -beyond the expectations of their                              Family visitation is being conducted in all our churches
 charter members - is a sure pledge that, D.V., our own high             at this time.       In regard to this work Hope's bulletin ad-
 school will also be a reality in the not too distant future.
                 "                                                       monishes, "As this work of the consistory begins, welcome
            Add to" the list of societies who do not recess for the     these servants of God into your homes because they come in
 summer : Hull's Young People's Society.                                the name of Christ."

            Quote from Doon's (Rev. Van Baren)  bulletin: "This
 week the society season starts again. If it is possible for us                   The Year Book of our churches, containing the Acts of
 to attend, and yet we hesitate, let us consider questions such          Synod and. all the statistics of our denomination, is on sale.
 as the following: Have we an hour and a half to spare out               Order your. copy from your consistory. For only one dollar
 of the 168 hours God gives us in a week? Do we truly                   you, too, can have all this information at your fingertips.
 enjoy the fellowship of the saints as it finds expression in
 this way? Can we yet learn .from God's Word? Can we                              Text for this issue: ". . . turn thou me and I shall be
 really afford not to make use of this opportunity?"                    turned, for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after I was
                                                                        turned, I repented . . ." Jer. 31:18,  19.
            Rev. G. Van Baren  gave the address at the Opening
 Exercises of the Doon  Christian School Tuesday, Sept. 1.              c . . . . see you in church,                            _ J.M.F.


