       ViX.&lE  =vI                                  MA&I   1 5 ,   1 9 6 0   - GLAND  RAptis, MICHIGAN  '.                         NU~~BER  12
                                                                                        _-

                                                                                        But I wilt speak `of the suffering tiorshipper.
II                                                                                                           * *     * *

                                                                                        First,  it is David who laments .here:

                   `THE SUFFERING WORSHIPPER                                            What period of his life d&s'  he speak of? i do not know.

                    "0 my. God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest          It & not revealed. It niay  be when he was surrounded by
         '               not; and irt the night season, and am not silent.lJ    wicked Saul. and his hosts, as recorded in I Sam. 23 :25ff.
                                                                                But I do not knoti.
                                                                       22:2
                                                               PSALM  
                                                                                        At any rate, it was a terrible experience. It must have

      This psalm is called by the Holy ,Ghost : "Aijeleth                       been the worst experience of David's life.' Nowhere else does

Shahar," which mea&s,  the morning hart.                                        David cry as he does heie.

      And .ththe Subject' is without doubt: our Savior Jesus                            David and his his&y  was pre-ordained. It lent itself

Christ, `both' in His hutiiliation  and His, exaltation.                        exctllently  to-  be a shadow of the life and death, and glorifica-

                                                                                tion of the Christ. `of' Gdd.  Look at the sharp contrasts in his
      Yes, He is the Morning Hart. He is that kindly, meek,
                                                                                life. He was deeply humbled, but also greatly exalted ; a vile
and beautiful hart, -startled' at the very morning when the
                                                                                sinner but also a man after God's own heart. Look at his
first -huntsman, Herod;  came to kill' Him.. And ever since
                                                                                name: David, the Beloved. Steeped in depths of suffering,
that m&n&, they, hurite'd  Him,  iintil He hung on the ac-
                                                                                but also on the heights of faith and courage. ,He raves at
cu&ed  tree, lamenting  :to His dad : Why,  0 why hast Thou
                                                                                Achis,  but is a hero in many battles. In psahn  22 he is
forsaken me?
                                                                                terribly forsaken,. btit  in psalm  23 everything is still and
      And yet, it is David who speaks here.                                     quiet.

      And we' sing the psalm so mu&later, and it is our con-
                                                       .                         ' Pariicularly,  in this psalm we see David hunted by the
fession too.                                                                    enemies of God, under the wrath of God, in shadows of deep

      I hesitate, and tremble  when .I. set myself to write on this             darkness, without the happy light of God's countenance,                .

psalm. There is so mtich  I do not understand here. There is                    uttering cry upon cry.
                                                                                 .-.
a depth of suffering which I cannot fathom. There is an                                 I cry! 0 my God, I cry!
agony here which by far surpasses -anything I. ever suffered.
                                                                                        Attend to this, beloved reader, you do not cry so easily.
This psalm tells us of the suffering which began in. Bethlehem,
                                                                                It must be awful before you cry. When the sun -shines, and
and which -ended when He said: "It is finished !"
                                                                                things have their ordinary course, you may suffer a little, but
      Exegetically: how shall f explain the parting of David's                  you do not cry to God. And if troubles gather around your
garments, and the casting of lots upon David's vesture  ? And                   head, you labor, wrestle and fight to get out from under, but
$0  m         u     c      h         more.                                      you do not cry.

- Yes, I will'speak of this psalm, and write a little on this                           No, but .when  all your power and ingenuity ran short,

one verse. But I know, and you know, that we did not ex-                        when you liave  no more-power to fight, when you are being

plain ftilly.`  There are ,shadows  and depths here which ddy                   overwhelmed, when the miry pit seems to have `no bottom,

understanding.                                                                  and you are ready to perish : then you cry.
                                                                                                                        :-
      I am persuaded &at  even unto all eternity we shall never                         Y&I  cry to Gdd when the pressure withbut and within

be able to exhaust psalm 22. How should we be able to                           e;uceeds  your power3  of resistance. When things become feai--

explain  eternal death ?                                                        ful and there is no helper anymore.


                                                                                                                                         c





     266                                                   T H E   `STA.NDARD   B E A R E R



             And this terror was not for just a moment or two. 0 no,        to Jesus. Attend, for instance, to the sermon of Peter on the

     but it continued with unabated force. David was in trouble             first New Testament Pentecost Day.

     all the day. And the word which is used signifies that it was
                                                                                David suffered before the sufferings of Christ. And here
'    a rather long period. We read here "joman,"  and that means.
                                                                            in psalm 22 is one instance, and what an instance !
     day after day. And also in the night season. There was no
     relief.                                                                    Attend to the first cry of David in this psalm: "My God,
                                                                            my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"

                                   * * * *                                      The whole psalm is Messianic. Most of the psalms are

                                                                            Messianic. (That's why I love those psalms so much.)
             And what made his agony so terrible is this: God did

     not answer.                                                                The psalms of David `are as a shadow which is cast ahead

                                                                            of the coming Christ.
             During  the awful days David cried to God, but there was

     no answer. And at night. he multiplied his supplication, but               Psalm 22 pictures to us the sufferings of the Lamb of
     God seemed deaf, for there was silence.                          _.    God.

             And yet, David was not without faith. Listen to him                So also in my text. The text finds its fulfillment in Jesus

     My  G o d !                                                            our Lord.

             When the night is dark, and thousands of dangers threat-           Look at the text again: "My God, I cry in the daytime,

     en ; when the heavens are like copper, and no prayer can get           but Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not

     through  to God ; when the eternal  God is still and answers           silent."

     not; when thunders roar and lightning flashes in the dark                  This cry openb up the suffering heart of Jesus. Often
     clouds around your soul, and God hides His blessed face, and           we have read in the Gospels that Jesus, while it was still
     you can still say: My God ! then you have faith,                       dark, would leave His bed and silently wend His way to the

             David never let go of God.                                     desert places. And there He would fall down in the dust and

                                                                            cry to His God. Sometimes He would spend an entire night
             And why?
                                                                            in prayers to God.    Have  we not the ,terrible  testimony of
             Because God never let go of David.                             Hebrews 5?    "Who in the days of His flesh, when He had

             And thus David prays, continues his prayer in supplica-        offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and

     tion and crying, and never lets go of his God.                         tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death . . ."?

             That, my' friends, is the               of faith.                  What shall I say of the crying of -Jesus ? How shall  I
                                        victory 
                                                                            give a commentary on the days and the nights of anguished
                                   4       *-1: *
                                                                            weeping to God ? Hoti shall I paint to you of the bulls of

                                                                            Bashan  and the unicorns which beset Him day and night ?
           . But is this all ?

                                                                                In the daytime and in the night season?
             David cried to God in the midst of his awful darkness and
                                                                               Have you ever prayed the whole night through ? And in
     suffering. God did hear, and delivered him out of all his
                                                                            the morning there was no answer? Sometimes we sing: "N
     troubles. At this moment he is in the +rms of God: all his                                                                          O
                                                                            answer yet has found relief !" Do you know what that means ?
     tears are wiped away.

                                                                                Oh, how inexpressibly horrible must have been the days
     ~.      Can we now rest, and say: we have heard the Word of
                                                                            and nights of. the Lamb of God.
     God. Let us live like David, and always trust & God, for
     we know that ultimately He will come and save us to the                    God was silent and answered not.

     uttermost ?                                                                And so there was a troubled heart, and the blood drops in

                                                                            the night season of Gethsemane.
             0 no.

                                                                              And when the spikes were driven through His holy hands
             Please, take your Bible and read I Peter 1.30,  11. Here
                                                                            and feet, He roared to God.
     it is: "Of which salvation the prophets have  inquired and
                                                                               .And when darkness was added to the laughing and joking
     searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace'that should
                                                                            and derision of the multitude, He screamed that great and
     come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the
                                                                            terrible cry: My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken
     Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it
                                                                            Me?!
     testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory

     that  should follow."                                                      Jesus cried to God from out of a hell which is ever'

                                                                            greater than any hell of man or spirit.
             Here is the answer. David was one of those searching

     prophets who testified of the sufferings of- Christ and of His             First, He suffered an eternity of hell in a short space of

     glory that should follow. Sometimes the words which he                 time: what concentration  !

     spoke and the experiepces  he underwent are simply ascribed                Second, He suffered an agony which otherwise millions


                                                                 T    H    E         STAN.DARD  "BJZARER                                                                                                                                                                        267


      would have shared : but He suffered it all ALONE ! What

c o n c e n t r a t i o n   !                                                                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                                                     Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
            Third, if I would go to hell, I would say eternally: it fits!
                                                                                                       Published by the REFORMED  FREE  PUBLEXIING AssocIAnoIi
      I belong here. It answers to strictest justice. I fit the                                      P. 0. BOX 881, Mtidison  Square Station, Grand Rapids 7, h4ich.

      abomination of hell. But Jesus is the Holy One of Israel.                                                                  Editor - REV.  HERMAN HOEK~EMA
      He fits in heaven. But He wzust be in hell.                                                    Communications rel&ve  to contents should be addressed to

                                                                                                                      Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E.,
            Why ?
                                                                                                                                               Grand Rapids 7, Mich.

            Because He suffered all this hell for His people.                                        AU matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to hIr.

                                                                                                                         James Dykstra, .1326  \V. Butler Ave., S. E. `5
            Because He had to make us all perfect, fitting in the new                                                                      Grand Rapids 7, hlichigan

      heaven and the new earth.                                                                      Announcements and Obituaries must be mailed to the above
                                                                                                     address and will be published at a fee of $2.00 for each notice.

            Therefore Jesus said, nay,  cried: 0 my God, I cry in the                                RENEIVAL:  Unless a definite request for discon&ance  is re-
      daytime and Thou answerest not; in the night season and I                                      ceived it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription
                                                                                                     to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
      have no silence !
                                                                                                                                  Subscription price: $5.00 per year

                                                                                                       Entered 
                                              * * * +                                                                       as Second Class matter at Grand Rapids, Michigan


            Beloved brother and sister, you will have your nights of
                                                                                                                                                   C O N T E N T S
      horror, and your days of misery. Who knows, some of you
                                                                                                 MEDITATION-
      may have to die on the stake, and .be  burned.                                                       The        Suffering              Worshipper... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _..... . . . . . . .._.__..  265

            You may have to sing psalm 22 in great agony and                                                         Rev. G. Vos

      anguish.                                                                                   EDITORIALS-
                                                                                                           As To Being Protestant Reformed . ..____.................................  268
            God scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.. We have                                            Bad Conditions                      . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

      our crosses.                                                                                                   Rev. H. Hoeksema

                                                                                                 As To BOOKS -
            But continue to say': My God!                                                                  Christianity                and        Liberalism... . .._.__.....  . . . . . . . . ..___....... . . . . . 270

                                                                                                           Tempest Over Scotland
            Know that behind the dark clouds of your sufferings                                                                                                        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
                                                                                                           Christelijke               Encyclopedic                            ____ . . . ..___. ._ ___... . .._......._____.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1..271
      dwells our Father, our Father for Jesus' sake.                                                      Abraham Kuyper                             . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,. . . . . . . . . . . . 271

                                                                                                                     Rev. H. Hoeksema
            The day and`the:hour  will come when He shall  take you
      in His arms, and then He will wipe away all your, tears.                                   OUR  DOCTNNE-
                                                                                                           The Book of Revelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..____......................................  271

            Jesus, weeping in the night of eternity, merited such                                                    Rev. H. Hoeksema

      loveliness !                                                                               A CLOUD OF \VI'l?4ESSES-
                                                                                      G . V .              Joseph Ruler of Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
                                                                                                                     Rev. B. Woudenberg


                                                                                                 FROM HOLY ,WNT-
                                          A n n o u n c e m e n t                                          Exposition of I Corinthians 15 (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

            Classis  East of the Protestant Reformed Churches will                                                   Rev. G. Lubbers

      meet, the Lord willing, at 9 :00 A. M. on April 6th in the                                 IN HIS FEAR  -

      Hope Protestant Reformed Church. located on the West                                                 Punishment or Praise (4) _..........._...__........................................  278
                                                                                                                     R e v .   J .   A .   H e y s
      Beltline  of Grand Rapids. Consistories in the appointment
                                                                                                 CONTENDING  ~01% THE  FA~TE-
      of their delegates' will please take note.
                                                                                                           The Church and the Sacraments ,_...._........_____........................  280
                                                 REV. M. SCHIPPER,  Stated Clerk                                     Rev. H. Veldman

                                                                                                 THE VOICE  OF OUR FATHEX+-
                                                                                                           The Canons of Dordrecht... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
                                                Notice
                                 a                                                                                   Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
            Bulletin notices for Crestbn  Piotestant  Reformed  Churclz
                                                                                                 DECENCY  ANU OI~DEX-
      will please be sent to MISS A. LUBBERS, 1125 Franklin                                                Churcll Visitation ____._. .._........ . ..___. .._ ___ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,284

      St., S. E., Grand Rapids, Mich.,  until further notice.                                                        Rev. G. Vanden  Berg


                                                                                                 ALL AROUND  Us-
                                                                                                           Roman Catholics Becoming More Tolerant? : . .._.................. 286
                            About Mount Zion go,                                                           "Air Force Training Manual Draws N.C.C. Fire" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
                                      Her towers tind ramparts tell ;                                      "Are Officebearers                        Bound In Their Beliefs?" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

                            That ye her strength may how,                                                            Rev. M. Schipper

                                      Mark her defenses well;                                    NEWS FRO&E  @JR  cHvRCHES................................................................2~~
                                                                                                                     Mr. J. M. Faber
                            Her royal palaces behold

                            That ye her glories may unfold.

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



                                                                      we mean  such a bond of fellowship and love as can only
 Ii           EDl.TORIALS                                             exist between persons that are in the highest, degree equal
                                                                      and yet are personally distinct. Friends have communion.

                                                                      with one-another; they have no secrets from one-another.
             As TCI  Being Protestant Reformed'                       On the other hand,- if there is to be fellowship with one-

        The last time that we wrote an article under the above        another on the basis of equality. in being, it is also necessary

heading we discussed the idea of the promise and that, too,           that they differ in respect to p.ersonal  properties, fo? other-

in distinction from the so-called "well-meant offer of grace.`!       wise one might as well be said to have fellowship with  him-

       `This&me  we must elaborate a little more on the distinct-     self, and this is absurd. And on this basis we say that the

ively Reformed truth of the covenant.                                 covenant is a bond of friendship between God and man: it

        First of all, I wish to point out that the deepest ground     is essentially a bond of fellswship.  In that covenant God is

of the covenant relationship is in God Himself. This is true,         the Friend-Sovereign. As the Baptism-Form has it: "God

of course, of all the works of God, whether in crezition  or          the Father establishes His eternal covenant of grace with US."

salvation. But this is especially true of the covenant. We            He it is who reveals Himself to us and leads us into the

may say that God is a covenant God even apart from any                secrets of. His counsel. He opens His heart to us so that we

relation to the creature. The covenant as a relation of               may taste His goodness and the abundance bf His goodness

perfect friendship and fellowship rests in God. This is true          and grace. It is He that talks with us as. a friend with'  His

because the Scriptures reveal Him to us as- the Triune. He            iriends.  And we are *His  friend-servants. As His friend-

is orie in being. All the divine virtues such as eternity, in-        servants we dwell in His house. We walk with Him and

finity, unchangeableness,      self-existence, omnipotence, love,     talk tiith  Him. We love Him and consecrate ourselves to

grace, mercy and others belong to the divine essence. But             Him with all that `we have and are. We sing His praises

He is three in persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. All              and glorify His name.

three  persons are one in mind and will, one in being and in              Such is the Protestant Reformed idea of the covenant.

all the divine attributes, but the) differ in personal attributes.        And+his  idea of the covenant is based on Holy Writ.

The Fathei-  is always and eternally Father: He eternally                This is already from the revelation of God -to Adam

begets the Son and breathes out the Holy Ghost. The Son               before the fall, in the state of righteousness. God had created

is eterilally  Son, eternally begotten of the Father and breath-      him as His friend-servant. `For He formed man in His own

ing but the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is eternally the               image in true knowledge of God, righteousness and holiness.

Spirit, breathed out by the Fathe'r  and the Son. And yet,            He was made like God In a creaturely sense for the very

these three are one. And because they are one; they enter             purpose that he might be the friend of God. This has nothing

into one-another's nature, their mind and  will and life. There       to do, .you  understand with the so-called covenant of works

are no secrets for them. They know one-another perfectly,             and which is supposed to consist in condition, a promise and

each one knows the others as He is known. Besides, these              a penalty. The condition then is perfect obedience, the promise

three persons in the one divine, essense  constitute a com-           is eternal life, and the penalty is death.

.pleteness.  They are a perfect whole. No other person could             The Protestant Reformed Churches reject this entife

possibly bz  conceived as entering into this perfect union.           notion of the covenant of works. They do so for the follow-

They are sufficient in themselves.                                    ing reasons :

       Such is thz ,truth  concerning the triune `God which has           1. It is neither Scriptural nor confessional.
always been confessed by the Church.                                     2. Stich a covenant God is supposed to have established

       And it is on the basis of this truth that we say that          with Adam  after he was created. We believe that Adam

God is, in Himself, a covenant Go.d,  even apart from any             stood in a covenant relation to God from the very moment
relation to the creature.                                             he tia$ created in virtue of his being created after the image

       For the Father knows and loves the Son in and through          of God.
the Spirit; the Son knows and loves the Father in and                    3. There could be- no special covenant-demand of God

through the Spirit; the Holy Ghost knows and loves the                that Adam had to obey Him. From the motient Adam was
`Father and the Son in Himself.                                       created he was obliged to obey and to love the Lord his

       It is because of this absolute equality in essence while       God with all his sou!, with all his mind and with his

the three persons are personally distinct that God is a cov-          whole heart. It is: true that God tested his obedience by the

enant God. For they eternally live  in the most  absolute             command that he might not eat of the tree of knowledge of

covenant fellowship w.ith  one-another. And, therefore; we            good and evil, but this negative command was not an ele-

say that the covenant life of God is the deepest ground for           ment in the covenant: Adam stood in covenant-relation to

thecovenant  relationship between God and the creature.               God in the first paradise by dint of his being created in the

       For the covenant relation is essentially a:bond  of friend-    image of God and as such he was called to obey and to

ship between God and man. Thus we would define the                    consecrate himself to God with all that he had and! with his

covenant relation. It is a bond of friendship. By friendship          whole being.


     i
   -                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           269



    4. There is not an item of proof; either in Genesis II,        North Carolina. Many cotiplaints  were raised against the

III, or in all the rest of Sci-ipture  that Adam could have        teachings of the Rev. Jones.. As a result a Judicial Com-

attained to the goal of eternal life in the way of obedience.      mittee was appointed by Orarige  Presbytery to investigate

He might have remained in paradise had he refrained from           matters and,  conditions of the church in Chapel Hill. Their

eating of the forbidden f&it. ,He might have kept the life         findings were, indeed, amazing and they also came by way

with which God had endowed him when he tias created. He            of appeal, to the General  Assembly. Some of these findings,

might have lived that life everlastingly, - though all this is     published by the "Presbyterian Laymen" we briefly report

pure speculation. But -he surely could not have attained to        here :

eternal life. For this` is only in Jesus Christ our Lord, the          1. Persons that were never baptized made confession of

Son of God in the flesh, Who died and rose again. Eternal          faith  without first being baptized. What is worse, some of

life is resurrection life, life from death.                        the officers of the church did not know that the sacrament of

    For all these reasons we reject the idea of the covenant       baptism was being omitted, while others were aware of it,

of works.                                                          but considered it unimportant. Some of the elders were of

    More about this next time, D.V.                                tlie  opinion that the sacrament of baptism should .be  ad-
                                                                   ministered only upon the request of those that'made  confes-
                                                           H.H.
                                                                   sion of faith, otherwise it should be omitted.

                                                                       2. The questions that are asked of those that make con-

                                                                   fession of faith are  quite arbitrary and not in accord with
                      Bad Conditions
                                                                   those required by the Church Order. Sometimes the question

    I received another copy' of the "Presbyteriari  Laymen,"       is asked whether they accept Jesus as their personal guide !.

issued bjr  a group of orthodox members of the Southern            The Church Order specifies the-questions that are to be asked.

Presbyterian Church and describing the bad conditions in           when persons make public confession of their faith. They

that denomination.                                                 include such questions as to whether the persons that make

    By the way, brethren, my address is not RANKLIF  ST.,          confession are conscious of their sins and of the need of a

as you had it, but FRANKLIN ST. Please correct.                    personal Savior, and whether they believe that Christ is the

    Also in this issue the -main  topic of discussion is the       only Savior of men.  But the session (consistory) ignored
heretical position assumed by Dr. -Thompson against whom           all this and substituted their own arbitrcry questions.

elder Glasgow protested without avail.                                 3. Some of the co&story  members have never been

    But in the present issue it is not so much the heresies of     ordained or properly installed.

Dr. Thompson personally, but the effects of. his instruction       4. There. is, according to report of the committee a

in the seminary that are described.                                general feeling that it is unimportant to be strictly Pres-

    Concerning Dr. Thompson's influence in the churches, the       byterian. The committee, on the other hand, believes that

paper quotes the following from an address to the last             Presbyterianism is.taken from the Scriptures and, therefore,

General Assembly by a certain Dr. Frye. We quote a part            is based on the Word of God.

o f   i t :                                                            5. Most of the officebzarers  are not aware of the theo-

    "Indeed, it is probably true that in numbers alone he          Ibgical  position of their church. Most of them could not even

has taught more ministers than any other professor now ac-         speak "of their religious convictions in such fashion as to

tive in our seminaries as well as almQst  all the graduates of     include the concept of men as needing a savior, and of Christ

the assembly's training school. A recent count indicates that      as being a necessary Savior. A relatively large percentage,

there are approximately 2200 living clergymen who studied          for instance, affi'rmed  that they could not subscribe to the

at Union Seminary under Dr. Thompson. When we recall               Apostles"Creed,  implied in our Confession of faith."

that there  are some 3500 ministers in our church, then the            6. Several of the officebearers declared that they did not

figure of ,220O  assumes great significance:                       see the necessity of administering the sacraments. Some-

    "And Dr. Thompson has not only taught these ministers          times, indeed, upon request, the sacrament was administered,

of the church, but has exerted a profound personal influence       but then it was dorie,  not in &he  public gathering of the con-    ,

upon them . . . . His influence' has been not only on the          grcgation, but privately, in the gathering of the Session or

minds but also on the total personality and character of those     Consistory.

who have learned from him."                                            7. For only a few of the officebearers Christ. is the One

    It is evident that Dr. Thompson is a very capable teacher      that is expressed in the Confession of Faith. Some ascribe

and, therefore, has had a deep influence, not only upon his        some measure of divinity to Him, but for some Christ .is

students, but also in the churches in general. But the ques-       divine only in the sense that. all men are divine. For only

tion is : what kind of influence did h'e exert? Of this the        one or two was Christ the Son of God in the essential sense

"Presbyterian Laymen" quotes some examples one of which            of the word. For many the resurrection from the dead had

is that of Rev. Charles M. Jones, minister of Chapel Hill,         no significance. One declared that a good Confucianist  or


 270                                          TtiE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R


 Hindu might be a better Christian than most professing                      This is a very good book. And  although, in our churches,

 Christians.                                                              tie- have, by the grace of God; no liberal element, I heartily

    8. For most of the officebearers  the Bible was                       recommend it to all our readers.           Dr. Machen  criticizes
                                                        an unusual
 book but not the inspired Word of God. For some it was                   modern liberalisti and clearly shows that it is un-Christian.
 the record of man's evolution in his search for God.                     The book, after a rather lengthy introduction, starts with a

                                                                          chapter on doctrine of which liberalism must have nothing.
    9. The very idea of the sacrifice of Christ was disturbing
                                                                          According to the liberalist we must have, not doctrine, but
 and repelling to some of them. One declared that he could
                                                                          life. Over against this idea, the author shows from Scripture
 not feel at home in an atmosphere that included the necessity
                                                                          as well as from the history of Christianity that doctrine is
 of sacrifice, death, and the shedding of blood in relation to
                                                                          essential and is the basis of a Christian life. This is followed
 salvation.
                                                                          by chapters on God and Man, the Bible, Christ, Salvation,
        10. One of the officebearers `even denied the existence of
                                                                          and the Church.         '
- a personal God.

                                                                             On pp. 48-53 the author discusses several points of dif-
    What was the outcome of it all ?
                                                                          ference in doctrine among believers. He introduces this by
    The Judicial Committee. with approval of Orange .Pres-
                                                                          saying: "we cl0 not mean . . . that all points of doctrine are
 bytery decided that the Rev. Jones ay_d  all the' Church
                                                                          equally important.,' And then he continues to discuss several
 officers  should be removed from office.
                                                                          points of difference such as premillennialism, the Lutheran
    The case was appealed to the Synod of North Carolina.                 view of the Lord's Supper, various views of the ministry, the
 This Synod decided that ,the  case..should  be reviewed by the           difference between the Reformed and the Arminian  view of
 Orange Presbytery. The latter decided that there was no                  predestination, and he even speaks of the difference between
 sense in reviewing the case once more since they had already             Protestants and Roman Catholics who, in spite of the differ-
 thoroughly. Hence, they appealed to the General Assembly.                ences between  them, have much in common. It is not my
 This Assembly appointed a committee to settle the case. Of               purpose to criticize this part of the book, although I cannot
 this Judicial Committee Dr. Thotipson  was chairman! The                 agree with all of it. But my purpose is to point out that this
 committee met. The chairman, Dr. Thompson, was very fair                 hardly is an integral part of the book.
 in conducting the meeting.. Every member was given  five
                                                                             It. stands to reason that- I do not agree with the brief
 minutes to express his opinion. But after all had spoken the
                                                                          mention of "common grace" on p. 135.
 chairman was giveri  the privilege to speak as long as he

 wanted, and he spoke in favor of his former student, the Rev.               But the book I, nevertheless, recommend to all our readers.

 Jones. He almost succeeded to justify the Rev. Jones but not                                                                         H.H.
 quite. When the vote was taken the majority of the com-

 mittee sustained the Presbytery of Orange in their decision

 tb remove the Rev. Jones and all his officebearers from their               Tempest Ovev Scotland, by Norman E. Nygaard. Pub-
 office. But this was decided by the majority of only one vote.           lished by Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Mich.

    This, to my mind, shows tha; the liberal element in the               Price $2.50.

 Southern Presbyterian Church is very strong.
                                                                             This book is an account of part of the life of John Knox,
    As to the Rev. Jones, he left the Southern Presbyterian
                                                                          &e  well-known contemporary of Calvin. It is very interest-
 Church and established a Community Church in which they
                                                                          ingly written in the form of a story. Our readers ought to
 welcome those of all faiths and creeds.
                                                                          read it for themselves and also give it to their children to c
    Do you not agree with what I wrote above this article:                read. I have two remarks :
 "Bad Conditions" i
                                                                             1. I hardly think that John Knox would have made the
    And again I maintain: 1. That such `conditions could not
                                                                          remark that the author records him to have made, in a con-
 possibly arise if proper discipline had been maintained and
                                                                          versation with Mafjory,  his future  wife: "God has not fore-
 2. That the only' way for the faithful members of the
                                                                          ordained anyone to perdition, Marjory," Knox replied. "True,
 Southern Presbyterian Church is to separate.                    will
                                                        They              He has given us the choice between good and evil &d there
 never be able to oust the liberal element in the Church.
                                                                          are some that deliberately choose evil but God, from the be-
                                                             H.H.         ginning of time, before ever you or I were born, did not de-

                                                                          cide that either one of us should be damned eternally." I

                                                                          cannot believe that Knox thus denied the truth of reprobation
                      AS TO BOOKS                                         and taught freewill.

                                                                             2. The story is not finished. It stops right in the middle.

        Chm&ia.nity  and Liberalism, by J. Gresham Machen.                It ends with a conversation Knox had with queen Mary.

 Published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand                       When the reader looks for a few more chapters, he is dis-
                                                                   . .
:Rapids,  Mich.                                                           appointed.                                                  H.H.





                                                                                          .


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                271


    Chrisfelijke  Encyclopedic,  Vol. 4 ; redactors Dr. F. Wi
Grosheide and Dr. G. P., Van Itterzon. Published by J. H.                         OlJR  D O C T R I N E .   11
Kok, Kampen,  the Netherlands. Price f 29.50. j


    Also this work I recommend t,o all of our readers who                          THE BOOK: OF ,' REVELATION
can still read Dufch.  It stands to reason that no one expects

to read a volume of this kind thoroughly, from beginning to                                   PAriT   T W O

end. Nevertheless, I perused it sufficiently to be able to
recommend it to our readers. It is very clearly written and                                 CHAPTER  TWELVE
represents the Reformed view. Thus it is, for instance, with                            The Lamb  On Mount Zion

the article on Infant Baptism, writtten by Dr. J. Van                                      Revelation 14 :1-S
Genderen, which gives the grounds for infant baptism or&

against the Baptists. Besides, the reader will also find many             It might perhaps be expected that some of God's people

interesting pictures in this book.                                    would be missing, that some would have abandoned the at-

    Once more, to all who are able to read the Holland                tempt to follow the Lamb. -The times were hard, the suffering

language I heartily recommend this encyclopedia.                      for Christ's sake was very severe. They could not buy or sell.

                                                                      They had no place left on the earth. They were hated of all
    It contains a wealth of information.                    H.H.
                                                                      nations.    PerhAps  some of them yielded to the demand of

                                                                      Antichrist, forsook the Lamb and bowed before the beast.
    Abraham Kuyper, Frank Vanden  Berg; 306 pages, Wm.                But no. All the one hundred and forty-four thousand are
B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan.                   still with the Lamb. Not one is lacking. All God's people
Price : $4.00.                                                        are saved through the power of the Lamb, in spite of the

    This book fills a need for some English language material         raging fury of Antichrist.

on the great Dr. A. Kuyper Sr. It is, of course, a biography;             In what respect have they remained untouched ? Have

and as such it left the impression on this reviewer of being          they been protected by the power of the Lamb in the physical

rather complete and accurate in its information. Because of           sense of the word ? Have they not b-en in prison ? Have

the position which Dr. Kuyper occupied, the book at once              they not been in suffering and death? We know better. They

serves the purpose of furnishing a good deal of information           have suffered hunger and  nakedness because of their faithful

on the history of the reformation, of 1856,  the Doleantie, and       refusal to worship the beast. They were kill&d  all the day

aiso  gives much of the history of the Free University of             long. But this does not hurt. them. They have a spiritual

Amsterdam and of Dutch national politics, spec&ally  of the           existence and life. The question is not whether they were

Antirevolutionary Party. Those who are' interested in these           hurt physically but whether  they had any spiritual want.

matters, - and who of Dutch and Reformed ancestry, should             The great question for the people of God in the world is not

not be 7 - will do well to read this volume.                          whether or not they must suffer the suffering for Christ's

                                                                      sake because of their faithfulness, but rather whether they
    The book is rather interestingly written too, although not
                                                                      shall remain faithful in the midst of tribulation. And, be-
above criticism from this point of view. The style is a bit
                                                                      hold, that is the case with these one hundred and forty-four
stiff at times; nor is it free from cliches and Dutchisms. Be-
                                                                      thousand. All have remained with the Lamb. All have chosen
sides, although the authbr is perhaps limited by his material
                                                                      His side. All have faithfully followed Him even in tribulation
in this respect, one tends to get lost occasionally in the details
                                                                      and distress. Still more. They remained pure. The text says :
and intricacies of the Antirevolutionary Party's politics. All
                                                                      "They are not defiled with women, for they are virgins." You
in all, one's own interest in that particular period of history
must sometimes carry the reader through some rather dry               understand, of course, that these words must not be taken
passages.,                                                            in the literal sense any more than the rest of the text, as if
                                                                      celibacy were advocated here and as if the unmarried state
    As far as the content is concerned, my main criticism is
                                                                      were given preference aboye the married. This certainly is
the author's obvious bias in favor of Dr. Kuyper, which, in
                                                                      not the case. But we must remember that fornication in
my opinion, prevents him from making any important
                                                                      Scripture is the symbol of spiritual fornication. In that sense
negative criticism of the great Kuyper and results in a
                                                                      Esau was a fornicator because he despised God's covenant.
tepdency  to justify somewhat ahnost  all of Kuyper's  views
                                                                      In that sense Israel of the old dispensation is very often
and actions. Mr. Vanden  Berg seems to be a rabid admirer
                                                                      pictured in the Old Testament as ap adulterous woman,
of Kuyper.
                                                                      whoring after other gods and departing from the ways of Je-
   The book is enhanted  by some photographs of Dr. Kuyper            hovah their covenant God. And, therefore, being defiled in the
and also by the famous cartoon, "Abraham de Geweldige."               physical sense of the word is symbolic of the violation of the
These add interest.
                                                                      covenant of Jehovah. In .this  sense, then, these one hundred
   We recommend the book with the above reservations.                 and forty-four thousand have not become defiled. All &e

                                                         H.C.H.       world was committing fornication in the spiritual sense.. All

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



 whored  after the beast. And all the evil world demanded of         of mighty thunder, yet carried along on the breeze in the

 these one hundred and forty-four thousand to commit fornica-        sweet melody of harpers harping on their harps. What is

  tion as they did. They had threatened them with expulsion          this song? It is the song of the church triumphant in heaven,

 from the world if they would not worship the beast. But             the song of the saints that have been in tribulation who

  these had not heeded this call and had ignored the threat          have been redeemed - the song of Abel and Enoch  and Noah

  of the beast. They had remained faithful to their covenant         and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and Elijah and

  God. The same is expressed in the words, "they are without         all the prophets and witnesses of the old dispensation. It is

 blemish."    They have not been stained by the defilement of        the song of the apostles and the martyrs, of the cloud of

 the world. Yea, still more clearly: in their mouth was found        witnesses. This song swells the breeze till it reaches the ears

 no lie. All the kingdom of `Antichrist was filled with, was.        of these suffering one hundred forty-four thousand that are

 based upon, the lie that the beast must be worshipped and           still. in the heat of their spiritual battle. -It is the song of the

 that the dragon was king. But they had adhered to the truth         innumerable multitude that has gone in before them, that

 and had maintained boldly and without fear : Christ is King,        already are apparelled in their white robes and wear the palm

 and the Almighty God is sovereign of heaven and earth. 3%~~         branches. They hunger no more, neither do they thirst any

 they had remained faithful all through the reign of Antichrist.     more, neither doth the sun strike upon them, nor any heat.

 The people of God need not fear. For when that terrible time        The Lamb is their shepherd, and God is their guide and

 shall come, they shall remain with the powerful Lamb on             wipes away all tears from their eyes. And this .glorified

 Mount Zion and follow Him whithersoever He goeth.                   throng, this church triumphant, sings in forceful melody:

     But why do the people of God remain faithful even in the        "Salvation belongeth unto our God, and unto the Lamb." It

 midst of most terrible suffering and persecution for Christ's       is the song of joy, and victory. Behold, it reaches the ears of

 sake ? Is it in their own strength? Is it because of their own      these one hundred forty-four thousand that are still in

 natural faithful character perhaps ? By no means ! In the           tribulation but with the Lamb on Mount Zion. And what

 first place, let us call your attention to the sign they bear on    happens? Does it till their hearts with sorrow because they

 their forehead. Even as the wicked have the sigri  of the           are still in trouble `and distress ? Does it cause them to despair

 beast, so these have the name of the Lamb and of the Father.        of their own glory? Does it sound like.  sarcasm in their

 What does that mean ? It simply implies in this connection          ears perhaps ? Ah, no : they understand it. They can realize

 that the Father and the Lamb have marked them as their              already that this song is theirs. They can apply it to them-

 own. And therefore, by this name of the Lamb and of the             selves. Surely, they are still in trouble and tribulation, and

 Father we are reminded of God's eternal counsel. From all           their suffering is severe. They still hunger and thirst, and

 eternity God Almighty has chosen them and graven them in            the heat of the sun strikes them day by day: But conscious

 the palms of His hands. And in all eternity the Father has          of the fact that they stand on the side of the powerful Lamb,

 given His people to His Son, that he might redeem them to           conscious of the fact that they bear the name of the Father

 the full. No one, therefore, is able to pluck them out of the       and of the Lamb on their foreheads, conscious of the fact that

 Lamb's and out of the Father's hand. The Lamb had                   they have been purchased to be first fruits unto the Father

 purchased them with His own blood from the world and from           and unto the Lamb, they are sure of victory. Antichrist may

 among men ; and they belong to Him with body and soul, for          rage and make life extremely hard for them. His time is but

 time and eternity. Shall Antichrist then prevail against them ?     short. Christ shall have the victory. And they know it. And

 Shall he persuade them to worship the beast? No, never!             in that consciousness they can learn this song of victory.

 The counsel of Almighty God must first be broken, and it            In the midst of tribulation they too can sing it. And in the.

 must first be evident that the precious blood of the Lamb           joy of heart and to the amazement of the world, that cannot

 was shed in vain, before this can ever happen. And that, of         understand this song and that can never learn it, they chime

 course, is absolutely impossible. Standing therefore in the         in with the song of the glorified saints in heaven: "Salvation

 power of the Almighty, conscious of this power by faith,            belongeth unto our God and to the Lamb forever."

 redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, they cannot perish ; and             Such is the truth of the passage we just discussed. Shall
 Antichrist has nothing in them. Fi'rstfruits they must be           the saints endure tribulation ? They surely shall. Shall they
unto God and the Lamb. And no more than God will- give               not worship the beast and fall for the power of Antichrist?
 His glory to another, no more could these one hundred               They surely shall not. On the contrary, they shall glorify
 forty-four thousand of the Lamb be lost, whom the Almighty          God and His power, so that the world shall stand amazed.
 has formed for Himself that they should show forth His              And in the midst of apparent defeat they shall sing the song
 praise.                                                             of victory. How glorious to be of God's party in the -world!

     And finally, let us also notice that this power of              But, on the other. hand, how terrible to stand on the side of

 God and of the Lamb enabled them to sing even in the                the beast! For his kingdom is doomed to destruction. May

 midst of the battle, and sing of joy and victory. From              God ever give us abundant grace to stand on the side of the

 heaven swells a song, strong as the voice of many waters,           Lamb on Mount Zion. For there, and there alone, is victory

 rolling through the air and through heaven like the voice           and life.


                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              273


                                                                          13 we found the picture of the antichristian power and king-

                                                                         dom from its own point of view, apparently victorious, from

                           Revelation 14 :6-13                           the point of view of things visible, here, in chapter 14, we

                                                                         find a picture of that same kingdom from `the point of view

           6.     And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven,    of God Almighty. And hence, we find it as being doomed

          having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that         to destruction. If in chapter 13  we found the people of Jesus
           dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred,         apparently lost and without hope, in this chapter we find
           and tongue, and people,
                                                                         that they enter into glory and that the people of the beast

           7.     Saying with a loud voice, Pear God, and give glory     shall be drunken with the wrath of God forever and ever.

           to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and
                                                                             The Lamb, so we found in the preceding passage of this
           worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea,
                                                                         chapter, was standing on Mount Zion. There was no differ-
           and the fountains of waters.

                                                                         ence  of opinion about the identity of the Lamb, representing,
           8. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon          of course, Christ Jesus as the servant of God, having ful-
           is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made
                                                                         filled all things. And as to the figure of Mount Zion, we
           all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her
                                                                         explained that it `must be taken as a whole, and that the
           fornication.

                                                                         expression,    "the Lamb on mount Zion," denotes just one,
           9. And the third angel followed them, saying with a           single idea. Explaining it in connection with Psahn  2, we
           loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image,
                                                                         found that it denotes how God in heaven laughs about the
           and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
                                                                         output and power of Antichrist because He has anointed His

           10.       The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of    Son and given to Him the kingdoms of the world. Because
           God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup         of that fact. Antichrist must suffer defeat, and the kingdom
           of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire
                                                                         of Christ must be victorious.
           and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and

           in the presence of the Lamb:                                      In the same light we also viewed the one hundred forty-

                                                                         four thousand that were standing with the Lamb on Mount
           11. And  the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for
                                                                         Zion. As to the meaning of the one hundred forty-four
           ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night,

           who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever            thousand, we said that they represented God's people, the

           receiveth the mark of his name.                               complete number of God's elect on earth during the time of

                                                                         the antichristian reign.    And the great significance of this
           12. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they
                                                                         number in this connection, we found, was that they were
           that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of

           Jesus.                                                        all there and that not one is lacking. In the power of the

                                                                         Lamb they all stand, and they remain faithful to the end,
           13.    And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me,
                                                                         even in the midst of the suffering and tribulations of the last
           Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from
                                                                         times.
           henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that -they may rest                  We found that they remained pure and free from . -

           from their labours;  and their works do follow them.          the defilement of the antichristian kingdom and that they

                                                                         did not worship the beast; but following the Lamb whither-

   We must continually bear in mind that chapters 13 and                 soever He leadeth them, they remain faithful even unto the

14 of the book of, Revelation. belong together. And .we  said            end. We found that the secret of their faithfulness must be

in connection with the passage we discussed in the preceding             sought i,n the name they bear on their foreheads, denoting

chapter, we shall never obtain a complete and true picture               that they belong to the Father and to the Lamb and that they

of the kingdom of Antichrist from the thirteenth chapter                 have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ Jesus.

only. Qur'chapter  must be taken in connection with it. In the           And we found, finally, that because they were conscious of

thirteenth chapter we found indeed that the whole kingdom                their being loved from eternity and of their being redeemed        %

and reign of Antichrist was pictured to us both from its                 by. the Lamb, they could learn the song of victory, in .the

political and from its religious point of view. It was a king-           midst of tribulation and could chime in with the church tri-

dom in which all the works of God were developed to the                  umphant in heaven, "Salvation belongeth unto our God and

full, but in the which they were all devoted to the devil                unto the Lamb for ever and ever."

and the glory of the beast. It was a kingdom in which only                  The relation between that first portion of the chapter and

they that worshipped  the beast could participate in the                 the passage we are now discussing is evident. Also in the

blessings of the kingdom, and in which the faithful in Christ            present passage the light of heaven is shed upon the estab-

Jesus were pushed to the wall, so that they could neither buy            lished kingdom of the beast. In the first part of the chapter

nor sell. And therefore it seemed rather hopeless for the                we are told that God maintained His power and that He has

people of God, who put their trust in Christ Jesus their                 anointed His king over Zion forever. In this portion, how-

Lord. But for that, very reason it will not do to consider               ever, we have an indication of the manner in which that

chapter 13 as a complete picture of the kingdom of Anti-                 Lamb will maintain His authority and power over the king-

christ. No, chapter 14 belongs with it. And if in chapter                dom of darkness.                                         H.H.

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



II                                                                 I    the complete trust which Pharaoh immediately placed in him.
11 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 11 Secondly, Joseph was provided with new clothing of the
                                                                        finest linen such as only the Egyptians of that day could

                                                                        make. This rich clothing served to distinguish him in the
                   Joseph, Ruler of Egypt                               sight of all as a ruler of the people and a member of the

                  And Pharaoh said                                      royal court. Thirdly, a gold chain was placed about Joseph's
                                       unfo his servants, Can we
               find suck a one as this is., a man  in whovtz  the       neck. In E,Tpt  a gold chain of this kind was a symbol of
               Spirit of God is?                                        greatest authority and power. Fourthly, a royal chariot was

                  And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Foramuclz               placed at Joseph's disposal. It was second in elegance only
              as God lzatlz  shewed  thee all this, there is nbne SO    to the chariot of Pharaoh. Whenever Joseph rode in this
               dismeet  and wise as thou  art:         '                chariot, servants were sent before him to command obeisance

                  Thou. shalt be over my house, and according           from the people, for Joseph came with the authority of the
               unto  thy word shall all my people be ruled: only        king. Fifthly, lest racial prejudices should be held against
               in the throne  will I be greater than thou.              Joseph, he was given an Egyptian name, Zephnath-Paaneah,
                                                  Genesis 41 : 38:i0    Finally, even more to encourage Joseph's acceptance by the

        Through the means of a revelation from God Joseph had           people, he was given an Egyptian wife of high birth, Asenath
made known unto Pharaoh a dire problem which would face                 the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. Thus Joseph was
him and his country in the near -future: there was to be for            thoroughly established in the court of Pharaoh. As Pharaoh
them seven years of great bounty in their crops followed by             said to Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no
seven more years of most severe famine. But in almost the               man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt."

same breath he gave to them an answer as to how they might                 We marvel that Pharaoh, a heathen king, could put such
meet this problem. In greatest humility he gave this answer             immediate and complete trust in Joseph, a foreigner and a
with hardly a thought that he might gain from it personally.            former inmate of his prison. The mere fact that Joseph had

He felt sincerely that credit for the revelation and advice was         interpreted his dreams and. given him a bit of sage advice

due not to himself but to God from whom they came. At                   would hardly seem to explain it. But then we recall the words

most he hoped to gain for himself only a release from prison            of Solomon, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord,
and freedom to return to his father's home, and that, not as            as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will"

a payment for the revelation which came from God, but be-               (Pr. 21 :l). God ha willed that Joseph should be the ruler
                                                                                            d
cause now he might gain an opportunity to plead his inno-               of Egypt, and also Pharaoh would be made to serve this
cence before the king.       In that spirit of meekness he set          purpose. None can resist God's  will. Nonetheless, we should
before Pharaoh the four-point program that God had re-                  not explain this as merely the overruling power of God's
vealed to him, 1. Pharaoh should find a man who was dis-                providence. There was more to it than that: We note that
creet and wise to administer the affairs of the Egyptian                Pharaoh did not ascribe mere earthly wisdom to Joseph but
economy in the problem years ahead. 2. Subordinate officers             acknowledged that it was "the Spirit of God" that worked
should be appointed to execute the orders which this man                in him. Furthermore we learn from Psalm 105 (vs. 22) that
would set forth. 3. During the seven years of plenty a fifth            Pharaoh appointed Joseph to "teach his senators wisdom."
part of all of the crops should. be taken in as a taxation from         Surely Joseph was not satisfied to instruct those "senators"
the people. 4. The goods so gathered should be stored in                in mere intellectual knowledge. As far as the wisdom of the
cities and guarded to be used when the years of famine had              world is concerned the wise men of Egypt had much more
come.                                                                   knowledge than Joseph"; but there was one thing that Joseph

        Perhaps no one was more surprised at the reaction of            had which they did not, that was the knowledge of God. Of

Pharaoh than was Joseph. Not only did he give his immedi-               that knowledge Joseph was always most ready to speak. He

ate assent to Joseph's plan but he also appointed Joseph to             instructed the wisemen  of Egypt in it, and Pharaoh did not

be the administrator. Pharaoh discerned in Joseph the Spirit            disapprove. Finally we know that when Jacob came to Egypt

of God which provided him with just such wisdom and dis-                he gave his blessing to Pharaoh. We would conclude, there-

cretion as was needed for this difficult task. Placing absolute         fore, that for a short time in the history of Egypt, God saw

confidence in the Spirit of God which rested upon Joseph,               well to gather his elect out of that heathen nation. As in the

Pharaoh gave to Joseph all that was necessary for him to                house of Potiphar and in the cells of the prison, so Joseph in

function in his newly acquired office. First, and of foremost           the court of Pharaoh was a preacher of righteousness. For a

importance, Pharaoh took his own ring from his finger  and              brief moment in history Egypt, like Nineveh in later years,

placed it upon the finger of Joseph. This was a signet ring             was made a type of the gathering of the Gentiles. It was a

which bore the seal of royal authority. The signet could be             foretaste of the day concerning which Isaiah would write,

impressed in soft wax or clay and it would afhx the author-             ,"In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst

ity of Pharaoh's throne to any order that Joseph.would  give.           of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to'

 The fact that Pharaoh gave his ring into Joseph's care marks           the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 275


 the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry         gerous--experience.     Easily one's heart becomes filled with

 unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and he shall send         pride, and he begins to think that somehow his good fortune

 them a saviour, and a -great one, and he shall deliver them.       is due to his own .personal  excellence. But Joseph had been

 And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the.Egyptians            purged beforehand from the inclination toward such pride.

 shall know the Lord in that day, and shall do sacrifice and        From the favored position in his father's house, he was sold

 oblation, yea, they shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and             as a slave into Egypt. When again he rose into favor in

 perform it" (Isaiah 19 :19-21). Pharaoh acknowledged the           Potiphar's house, he was cast down into the depths of a

 wisdom of Joseph because the grace of God was working              dungeon. Thus Joseph was taught how `impossible it was

 in his heart.                                                      for him to care for himself. He was left with only God in

 In this way also, we can understand the marriage of                whom to trust. Thus when finally he was raised to a position

 Joseph to Asenath. Was Joseph unequally yoked together             of highest glory, he knew that it was due not to himself but

 with an unbeliever? Surely he would have never consented           to God. With all meekness he used his position as a servant

 to a marriage' such as that. He had refused to corrupt the         and not for his own satisfaction. He was an example to all

house of Potiphar with adultery ; surely he would never have        of a meek and a Godly life.

allowed `his own house to be polluted with the service of               Gradually the pattern and purpose of Joseph's life was

 idols. But Asenath was not an unbeliever. She was one of           beginning to come into focus. Joseph remembered the

 those who under the preaching of Joseph came to see the            dreams which he had had in his youth. At the time his

vanity of the religion of her fathers. She forsook, therefore,      brothers had laughed and mocked him for them ; they had

 her idols for the God of Joseph. Only thereafter did Joseph        seemed utterly impossible. As a slave in Potiphar's house,

take her to be his wife, and the blessing of God rested upon        and especially within the darkened walls of Pharaoh's prison,

 their marriage.                                                    they had seemed more impossible than ever before. Still he

    .The  first thing which Joseph did after &eiving  his           had not been able to escape the conviction that those dreams

 office from Pharaoh was to visit all the different parts of the    had been a revelation from God. Often he had pondered those

 land of Egypt. This he did even before the seven years of          dreams in the hours of his suffering but had not been able

plenty were begun. The purpose was to become thoroughly             to understand. Now, however, this was suddenly changed.

familiar with the land and with the people, so that, when the       The fulfillment of those dreams began at least to appear pos-

problems of gathering and distributing the grain would come         sible. In his new position of authority, his brothers had only

to him, he would be able to evaluate them correctly.                to come out of Canaan and they might easily bow before him

    Soon the years of plenty did come, and Joseph's time            as the dreams had foretold. Why it had to be, he did not

was fully occupied with gathering the excess. in safe and           know, but the possibility was clearly evident. For that reason

proper storage. These were not just good years, a bit better        also joseph did not use his influence with Pharaoh to obtain

than average, they were years which overflowed in plenty.           permission to visit his family in Canaan. There he would

There was a touch of the miraculous in the way that the land        meet them as equals, and the purpose of God, revealed to

brought forth its fruit. Many times the average crop was            him from his youth,`was  that they should bow down before

reaped by the.  workers. It was necessary for Joseph to keep        him. With patience he would wait for the fulfillment of

very close watch over all of the land to keep the people from       the way of the Lord.

wasting that which was extra. Year after year under the                Thus when God blessed -him with the birth of a son, he

careful supervision of Joseph the storage cities were filled        named the child Manasseh ; "for God, said he, hath made me

with their treasure: Not only did Joseph take the fifth part        forget all my toil, and all my father's house." The idea was

of the crop to be held in the possession of the government,         not that his love for his father, or even for his brothers, had

but he taught and instructed the people- on their cpart  to put     grown dim ; actually he longed to be reunited with them. But

up for the years of famine which were to follow. With his           the sting had gone out of that memory. It meant that he no

example it was necessary to show the people that the years          longer held any evil feelings toward his brothers for their sin ;

of plenty were not to be taken for granted or wasted. As much       and, even more, he was now able to distinguish that behind

as possible had to` be kept for the future. So great was the        the deed of his brothers there had been the hand of God

amount of food placed in storage that it exceeded the abilitv       guiding things toward an end that He had long before

of the Egyptians to count it.                                       ordained. Joseph was content in the way of the Lord. So

    We see in Joseph a beautiful example of a Godfearing            when his second child was born, he named him Ephraim,

ruler. Although all of the wealth of Egypt was at his disposal,     "for God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my

he applied himself diligently to the work which he was given        affliction." It was not the riches that had come to him. It

to do, He -would not take advantage of the favors that were         was not the power and glory of his newly acquired position.

.his, but bore himself always as a willing servant faithful in      It was the knowledge that he was being led in the way of the

his work. God had prepared him well for the position which          Lord. Surely that was the fruitfulness of his life in which

he filled. Normally to be lifted from the position of a slave       he could rejoice.

in a prison to ruler over all the land would be a very dan-                                                                    B.W.

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


                                                                            If we have only hoped in Ckrist  in. this life, we-are...af--all

                                                                            men most pitiable."
              FRO,M   H O L Y   W R I T
 III                                                                  II
                                                                               Looking at this passage it strikes our attention that

                                                                            Paul shows here .the dire consequences for life and death, if
                 Exposition of I Corinthians 15
                                                                            Christ is not risen from the dead. In a very masterful way

                                    II.                                     he shows the consequences that this has for the (1) content

                                                                            of the Gospel, (2) the preachers and witnesses of the resur-
                        (I Corinthians 15 :X-19)
                                                                            rection, (3) the believers of the Gospel and who hope in

        In our first essay in this series we noticed that Paul              Christ. What a complete triad. All education posits these

 lays a sure foundation for his entire polemic concerning the               three : (a) subject matter, (b) instructor, (c) pupil. In the

 truth of the gospel, the resurrection from the dead. What                  verses 12-14 Paul shows the consequences for the content of

 we have here is a beautiful model for all Christian UPO~WY;                the Gospel if Christ is not raised. In verse _ 15 the apostle

 only thus canthe truth of the gospel be successfully defended              demonstrates the dire consequences for the preachers of the

 against all the onslaughts of unbelief. One must stand four-               Gospel, if Christ is not raised. Finally, in the verses 17-19

 square in the truth of what is revealed in the Scriptures.                 he shows what awful and far-reaching implications this would

        That must be the status po !                                        have for the believers, if Christ be not raised.'

        Such must be the point of depmture  in all argumentation              When Paul here thus reasons he does not reason as a

 for the truth. We cannot meet the enemy on the basis of                    mere logician ; he does here not. reason simply from an ab-

 I'tis  arguments ; such a conflict is decided in favor of the              stract principle, from the general to the particular. Thus for

 enemy ere it is really begun. One thus grants unbelief the                 instance he does not simply say : If there be no animals, then
 right of argumentation. This Paul does not do for one                      there are no cozws,  hogs or sheep. ,That would be reasoning

 minute. His starting point is in the truth of the Gospel.                  from the general to the particular. Or another instance; if

        And then there are two pillars of the truth which stand,            there be no flowers, then there are no roses, lilies and violets.

and which were preached and believed. They are (1) that                     He does not reason from the abstract concept of "resurrec-

Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and (2)               tion" to Christ's resurrection. Paul, is not a philosopher.

that Christ arose from the dead on the third day according                  Paul is a witness of the resurrection. He argues not premises

to the Scriptures. ,(See verses 3, 4.)                                      but' facts. He argues from the one fact to the other; he

        That this was preaclzed  by Paul and all the other eye-             reasons from cause to effect and from effect to cause! The

witnesses of the living and glorified Lord, and that this was               resurrection of Christ is the cause in this case, and the resur-

 tlzus  believed by the Corinthians, is the end of all contradic-           rection of the believers is the effect ! He reasons from

tion. Thus the Apostle had received the gospel-message from                 the fountain to the water, and conversely. If there is no

the Lord, and therein the believers were saved.                             water then there is no fountain! If finally, the dead do not

                                                                            rise, those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, in the blessed
        Those who deny this, in earnest, simply are branded un-
                                                                            resurrection, then that must be proof that Christ never arose
believers. For either they are deniers of the truth, or Paul
                                                                            as the resurrection and the life.
and the witnesses of the resurrection are false witnesses. It

is an either-or situation. Here is no open forum where un-                     Here we see the truth demonstrated that a matter is not

belief and faith can discuss the questions of life and death.               true because it is logical, but that it is logical because it is

Here is the church, the pillar and ground of the truth, and                 true. We believe and, therefore, we know!

the gates of hell shall not prevail against her.                              Notice' the grand starting. point. "Now if Christ is

        In this `passage under consideration Paul will show to the          preached that he bath  been raised from the dead . . ." This

beiievers to what dire consequences the denial of the resurrec-             is a conditional sentence. It states that matter in this con-

tion of the dead must needs lead. The passage here under                    dition as a condition of fact. Christ is preached that he is

consideration reads as follows :                                            raised from the dead. Then all denial and questioning of

        "NOZU  if Christ is prcaclzed  tlmt lze bath been raised fro?14     this truth is per se heretical. And it is a heresy of no mean
the dead., hoti  say some avdong YOU  that there is no resurrec-            consequence.    It will result in the loss of everything that the

tion of the dead? B,ut  if there is no resurrection of the dead,            believer holds dear, and of what is preached.

gteitlzer  hatlz  Clakst  been raised: and if Christ hatlz not been            For notice, that the grand truth of the gospel is that

raised,. tlzen  is our preaching vain, your faith also -is' vain.           Christ ,is risen. He is in a constant and abiding state of

 Yea., a.nd zve a,re~ found false witnesses of God; because we              glory at the right hand of God! See verses 4, 12, 13, 14; 16,
witnessed. of God that he raised up Christ: whonz  he raised                20. In all of these passages Paul employs the perfect tense.

not up if so be tlae dead a.re not raised., For if the dead m-e             The degree of action is here considered fulfilled and finished

not raised, neither loath  Christ been raised: and if Christ loath          up to the present moment! He is now in the glory which he
not been raised, yo'ur  faitla  is vain, ye are yet in your sins.           had from God before the foundation of the world. He is

Then tlaey also thut are jhllen  asleep in Christ have pt&.sCaed.           exalted far above all principality and might and dominion,


                                                                                                                 Y


                                              T.HE  S T A N D A R D   ,B.E;AR.ER                                                              277



and every name- that%-named, not only in this age but                     What cogent: and -powerful polemic,which  appeals to the
                                                             2.~0

in the age to come.                                                   faith and hope of the believers !

    Such is the fact of what- is preached.                                And now one `final master stroke of polemic on the part
                                                                      of Paul. Look at that great host, the innumerable hosts of
   However, then no one can truthfully say: there is no
                                                                      the church throughout the ages. They hoped in God. Yet,
reswrection,  -blessed  resurrection from the dead.
                                                                      we read the solemn truth in Hebrews 11:13  : "These all
    For notice that the truth of the resurrection is really,
                                                                      died in faith, not having received the promises, but having
from a certain point of view, the very center of the Go.spel          seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed
story. It is the turning point from all defeat into victory. If       that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they
no resurrection, then also no gospel of victory over death            that say such things make it manifest; that they are seeking
Death is in such a case not swallowed up of life. Then death
                                                                      a country of their own." And to this we may add what we
has the victory. Then there is no glad-tidings.
                                                                      read in, Hebrews 11:39, 40 : "And these all having had wit-
   Does not Paul say, "If Christ is not raised . . . . our            ness borne to them through their faith, received not the
preaching is vain, and your faith is vain also"? Is then our          promise, God having some better thing concerning us, that
faith based--upon a glorious fact? Is it based at all upon a          .apart  from us they should not be made perfect." Look at
fact? Of course not ! In that case there is not any truth at          that "cloud of witnesses.`9  How hopeful they are. They greet
all to what is proclaimed. It is empty of all content! Then           the resurrection from afar. Did not Abraham, Isaac and
we do not have a living Lord, but a dead Christ. Then                 Jacob enter into the cave of Machpelah in this faith and
Christ's death was not the propitiation for our. sins, it had         hope ?
no power, it fulfilled no divine justice of God. Then the                 Fools `are they?
Cross is powerless to save, and to lead to the resurrection.
                                                                          If Christ is not raised from the dead, they fell asleep in
All the preaching is then empty. Yes, and faith is then also
                                                                      Christ in vain. What a terrible awakening. They expected to
empty. We believe then a nothing !
                                                                      open their eyes in heaven, in Abraham's bosom, and they
    Let not the deniers of the truth of the resurrection then
                                                                      bare- with the rich man in hell ! All their life they cleansed
pride themselves that they would still have a, message of             themselves in vain in hope.       And their number grew, and
hope, hope in a-dying world !                                         grew ! But .to what avail if Christ -is not raised. Are they not
    Then all is nothing.                                              still in their sins ? Did they not perish in their sins ? !

    Both as to what is preached and as to `the believing of it ! !        And are then we not simply hoping in Christ for this

    But there is more. Then also, says Paul, "we are found            l i f e ?

to be false witnesses of God." Ye?,  what a tremendous hoax              `There is then no future life, no ages to come !               ,.

all preaching is. It is then the most consummate deception                Look at the men of this world. They live in sin. Merrily
possible. Men are then sent to hell with an imaginary heaven          they go to hell. Is that then not better? At least they will not
and salvation. The preacher is then a deceiver than which             be disappointed. But we? Of all.men  we must then needs be
there is none conceivably greater.                                    most miserable, most pitiable. And yet there is then no one

    If Christ is not raised, he is still in the grave, is he not?     to show pity. Would one here not sing the praise of the

Has anyone then possibly been able to have seen his resur-            fools ? (De  Lof der Zotheid.)

rection.    Is then ,not the common report among the Jews                 But, thanks be to God, such is not the case.. Christ is

more possibly correct, that the resurrection is a "story" con-        risen. He is at the right hand of God. He lives. He is the

cocted by the disciples ? And is then the conclusion not far          resurrection and the life.

more warranted that the "disciples stole the body" of the                 Thus it was preached to us and thus we have believed.
Lord, and hid it elsewhere, while the Roman watch which
                                                                          And His truth shall stand!
Pilate had ordered at the grave slept? Forsooth, then no one
                                                                                                                                              G.L.
can truthfully say that he was an eye-witness of the resurrec-

tion ! He who says that he is such a witness is a blatant

liar. Nothing less! Such a person is then not simply mis-                                      IN MEMORIAM
taken. He cannot then say "that is the way it is to the best
                                                                         In loving memory of our Moth& and Sister
of my knowledge"!      He is then branded before God, devils,
                                                                                   MRS. JUSTINA  (TEN ELSHOF) VAN DER WAL
angels and men, who are then all damned, as the greatest
                                                                      who passed away on January %d, 1960.
deceiver. They raised the hopes to the highest point, only
                                                                                                                      Mrs. Hi Weeber
to plunge their gullible followers into the abyss of eternal                                                          Mrs. A. Potts

disappointment !                              ?                                                                       Mrs.  Wm. Venema

                                                                                                                      Mrs. J. Fraser
    For if the dead are not raised Christ was not raised.                                                             John Ten Elshof

    If finally the dead meet their eternal, dismal .and  horrible                                                .    James Ten Elshof
                                                                                                                      George Ten Elshof
disappointment - it is because Christ was then not raised !                                                           Mrs. C. McNeil

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



                                                                    for the same evil deed in the fear that they will be filled with
               I,N  H I S   F E A R                                 wrath towards 
Ii                                                            11                     us and towards God. It has to do with the
                                                                    method of punishing, the way in which we go about it rather
                                                                    than in the application of discipline itself. In Colossians 3 :21

                  Punishsnent or Praise?                            Paul uses a word that means to rouse to strife; and in
                                                                    Ephesians 6 :4 a word that means to irritate. These usually

                               (4)                                  come in later childhood and adolescence. A little child is a
                                                                    most forgiving little creature. He holds no grudges. One

      Some time ago, we read a little bit of worldly philosophy     minute he fights with' his playmates, and the next minute

to the effect' that one should always remember the goal one         he is the best of friends again. One minute you punish him

has in mind and then conduct oneself in such a way that this        till the tears flow freely down his cheeks. A few. minutes

goal may be reached. This advice was given in connection            later he is on your lap hugging you and acting toward you

with a discussion of the matter of losing one's temper and of       as though you never hurt him in your life. But let

defeating one's purpose by saying the. wrong thing or be-           him grow up a little. He does not forget,. and he takes

having in a way so that one's purpose was defeated. If we           careful note of your attitude and demeanor when you
wish to convince one of a certain thing, and that is our goal,      punish. He has his own pride also, and he is easily irritated

we should not irritate and incite that one to anger. Remem-         and resents it when you punish him in later life as though

bering `our -goal  we should fashion our approach and our           he were still a little babe. He sees your personal anger. He

conduct in such a way that it serves our goal. Well, that           sees your inconsistencies and your partiality.          Joseph's

philosophy can stand if our goal is a good one and if it is         brothers saw that too. He soon sees your punishing of him

understood that our conduct to reach this goal is also ethical.     as the venting of your own hot displeasure rather than, as

Otherwise the advice can just as well be stated in that             you may perhaps say to him, your God-given duty to correct

wicked. slogan: The end justifies the means.                        him and to train him in the fear of the Lord. Indeed, we

      Nevertheless when-we face the question of punishment or       must keep our goal in mind, but that goal must be a spiritual
praise we must indeed have our goal in mind, and that               one when we apply the rod to our children. And when
goal must be a righteous one.' Punishment or praise for evil        punishing in that narrow sense of the word is no longer ad-
purposes is evil;even `though punishment and praise in them-        visable as the child becomes a young man or a young woman
selves are ethically and morally good. God gives the author-        in our home, our discipline must tit the case and clearly
ities the right to punish the evil doer, and when they do so        indicate the goal we have in mind. It must still be corrective
at His command, they do not sin. But the motive can be              discipline, and our children should not only understand but
wrong, and then the inflicting of that punishment also be-          be able to see by our behaviour and actions that we are

comes a sin. Paul realized this also and expresses it when          seeking their good not only, but that we love God and are

he warns the parents in Colossians 3 :21  and in Ephesians          ourselves seeking to do His will. The form of discipline for
6 :4 not to provoke their children to wrath lest they become        these who have now to a great extent become our own equal
discouraged. That surely does not mean that we should let           physically, mentally' and psychically is not always easy to

them get away with some of their sinfulness. The parent             determine. And there is always the difference in the chil-
punishes in God's name and because He demands it. Now               dren's natures. The one child will respond to a few words of

God `does not. wink at any sin and does not excuse any sin          rebuke and blush in shame. Another child will of necessity
of any kind. He makes no distinction, and He sent His Son           be required to suffer certain deprivations. Certain privileges

to the cross for all the sins of His people. He did not deem        will have to be denied him for a time. No blanket rule can
some ;of them `so minor that they could be overlooked and           be .given  for such things. We do well to remember the words

passed over as not needing punishment. But our punish-              of Paul that we do not irritate and arouse to anger by our
ment of our children must always be corrective. Paul is             wrong b~ehaviour  and attitude in punishing.

speaking to covenant parents to whom and to whose children              There may be times when praise is advisable. Never can

God has given the covenant promises, whose sins are blotted         it take the place of punishment. Never can we praise the

out through the blood of the Lamb. We do not, therefore,            child (or the adult) for the thing that demands punishment.

by our punishment seek to make our children pay for their           That is not the idea in our theme. When an individual has

sins. As de-pointed out last time, Solomon declares that we         done something worthy of punishment, by all means do not

apply the rod because we love our children as children of           praise him for that deed or that part of his deed. That is as

God:-  We love God, and we love His children. And, because          wrong as to punish him for that which is praiseworthy. But

we love God we punish our children to teach them the fear           there are times when the child's -attention may be called to

of the' Lord. We desire to see them walk in God's ways ; and        his error without making him suffer either deprivation or

to their training belongs discipline upon them for their evil       punishment with the rod and that he is praised for some of

ways. That we do not provoke them to wrath, then, does not          his actions.

mean that we desist from punishing them time and again                 Indeed there are times when praise does ,more  harm than


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   BE.ARER                                                          2n


good. There are moments when we desire spontaneously to            all ears to hear it uttered. But rebukes, warnings dndex-

praise a child or an individual. We see a work that is praise-     hortations are displeasing to that flesh.. This' does-.not  alter

worthy and are convinced that the man deserves a word of           the fact that it `is our duty to punish and discipline as _well

praise for it. We know also that the man himself considers.        as to praise. The law teaches us that we must love our

himself worthy of such a word of praise. And it is better for      neighbour. Surely then we ought to love the brother in the

us to refrain from expressing it, not because the deed is not      church. And what Solomon says about the parent using the

praiseworthy but because by expressing it we will encourage        rod upon his child because he loves him is true also of dis-

pride and with it the performance of such works out of an          cipline of the adult by the church. The church that is con-

evil motive. But there are also times when a child or an adult     cerned with the spiritual well-being of its members will not

struggles conscientiously, fights against a weakness, exerts       ignore sin and have only a word of praise for each member.

himself to do the thing required and fails to reach the desired    That church, in love to God first of all, will rebuke and

goal. Such an one needs encouragement. Such must not be            exhort, will warn and discipline the wayward. But also in

provoked to wrath, irritated by a complete dismissal of all his    love to that member it will remind of sin and not behave as

effort and desire as so much hypocrisy and wickedness. The         though no wickedness is to be seen. That is also the spirit

sin into which such an one has again fallen must not be            of the "Golden Rule."       Indeed, these walking in sin do' not

brushed aside and glossed over; but a word of commenda-            want this done unto them ; but the spiritually minded office-

tion for his effort will not move him to walk in evil. Instead     bearer who desires to be dealt with in true love, wants to be

he will be encouraged to fight and to strive with more zeal        turned from his evil way ; and therefore he takes hold of the

and earnestness. A child especially is encouraged when his         wayward member over whom God has placed him and de-

efforts are noticed. And when he makes an honest effort to         mands confession and a breaking away from that sin.

do what is required of him, we may praise him with little             Praise men when it will `do good, otherwise refrain from

fear of pride. It is the child who gets things easily and          it. But' discipline always because it is always good. En-

with little effort who is inclined towards pride when he is        courage by a word of praise when it will encourage one in

praised. The parent knows his own child - due to a great           the way of righteousness. But failure to discipline can only

extent to the fact that he knows his own nature which he           encourage into the way of evil. We need no help to further

sees reflected in his child - .and  is in a better position. to    our way in the paths of evil. We do that readily enough and ,

know whether his child will be spoiled by praise or en-            spontaneously enough. We are bent'  in that direction, our

couraged to double his efforts upon learning that his efforts      whole being is inclined in the way of evil. But we can be

are noticed.                                                       spurred on even further and encouraged if not even em-

                                                                   boldened in that evil, when those in authority over us look
    When it comes to punishment we cannot, say, Punish if
                                                                   the other way and tolerate our wickedness. If, then, we are
it will do some good, otherwise refrain from it. Punishment
                                                                   in doubt as to whether we ought to praise or punish (dis-
is always in order, although the form and the degree must be
                                                                   cipline) and the case is not so clear-cut that we can see that
determined by the case at hand. Blanket rules for this are
                                                                   praise will encourage into more striving- rather than to pride'
useless and impossible. We may remember that God always
                                                                   and carelessness, let us use the corrective means God has
demands punishment. He hates all sin and because He does
                                                                   given us. Let 
He opposes it with all His holy being. As a result He                                US be found faithful to Him, even if men are
                                                                   to call us unappreciative and "big stick" men.
punishes every sin regardless. of the form; the length of .its
                                                                                                                                  J.A.H.
duration or extenuating circumstances. Sin with Him is al-

ways sin.    And we have yet to find a man who is stricter

than God. Therefore we do well to be careful of our criticism

of those who .hold  to discipline. It is not old-fashioned. It       S U N D A Y   S C H O O L   T E A C H E R S '   I N S P I R A T I O N

is not antiquated. It is not foolishness. It never goes out of                            M A S S   M E E T I N G

style except for those who hate God. One of the marks of
                                                                                                to be held
the true church is exactly the proper exercise of discipline.

Jesus also rebuked the churches who were lax in their                             WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16th

discipline in those letters to the seven churches in Revelation                      at HOLLAND, MICHIGAN I
two and three. He praises them for their faith and stand in
the midst of wickedness, but He also speaks clearly and force-        New location, corner West 12th and Washington Ave.

fully against the failure of the church to deal severely with

those who walk in ways of wickedness. Our churches, our                P.ROTESTANT  REFORMED HIGH SCHOOL
consistories, our elders may well take heed to these letters                                   M    E    E    T    I    N    G
to the seven churches and be warned by what is written
                                                                            Society for Christian Secondary Education
therein.

                                                                              will meet at SOUTHWEST CHURCH
    Those walking in evil may resent it. Their flesh always

will resent it. That flesh is read-y to drink in-praise and is            Thursday ev&ncJ, Mwclz 31, at 8 :00 o'clock


     280                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           :


                                                                         Christ has given unto the church His Holy--Spirit andsthe
     11 Contending For The Faith 11 promise that that Holy Spirit -would lead- -the Church of
                                                                         God into all the truth ? Thirdly, are there not several pas-

                                                                         sages of Holy Writ that appear to support and teach tradi-

                                                                         tion? We refer to passages such as John 16 :12, 20 :31,  21:25,
                 The Church atid the Sacraments
                                                                         Acts 1 :3, I, Cor. 11 :2, 23, II Thess. 2 :14, I Tim. 6:20, 11

                                                                         John 12, III John 13, 14. Finally, Jesus has taught His
                THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                              disciples many things which have not been recorded or writ-

                      VIEWS ON THE CHURCH                                ten by them but have been passed on from mouth to mouth.
                                                                         Church fathers, councils, and popes have recognized such an

                        F O R M A L   P R I N C I P L E                  apostolic tradition from the very beginning. In fact, the

                                                                         church also as of today continues to live out of this living

                                  (continued)                            tradition. Scripture alone is not sufficient. For, besides the

                                                                         fact that many things have not been recorded it is also

            We wili now continue with our discussion of the Rom?n        true that several writings -of-the-apostles and-prophetshave

     Catholic doctrine of Tradition. Our readers may recall that         been lost. The apostles did receive a commandment to wit-

     when we speak of the formal principle of the Reformation            ness, but they did not receive a commandment to witness by

     (the other main principle of the Reformation is the material        means of writing. They wrote only because they were forced

     principle, that of justification and only through faith) we         to do so because of circumstances. Hence, their writings do

     mean that the Reformers acknowledged only one source of             not. contain everything that is necessary for the doctrine and
     authority, namely the Holy Scriptures. Roman Catholicism            thelife of the church.. It is for this reason that we find little,

     recognizes, besides the Holy Scriptures, also Tradition. To         if: anything, in the Bible concerning the baptism of women,

     this we now call attention a little more in detail.                 the celebration of the Sabbath `and particularly the day when

            To state the difference between Roman Catholicism and        this sabbath must be observed in the New Dispensation, the
     Protestantism, we must distinguish sharply and clearly. The         office of the bishop, of. the seven sacraments, purgatory, the
     real question between Romanists and Protestants is not              holy and spotless conception of the virgin Mary, the salvation
     whether.the  Holy Spirit of God leads His Church and people         of heathens in the Old Dispensation, the inspiration and can-
     into the knowledge of the truth. Protestantism does' not deny       onicity of various books of the Bible ; in fact, dogmas such as
     development in the truth. The real question, however, may           the Trinity, the eternal generation of the Son, the procession

     be stated as follows : Is there not apart from the revelation       of the Holy. Spirit, the baptism of infants, etc., are not liter-
     contained in the Bible another supplementary and explanatory        ally mentioned in Holy Writ.` Expressed briefly, the, Scrip-
     revelation which has been handed down from outside of the           tures are profitable, but tradition is necessary. This is
     Scriptures,. by tradition ? Are there doctrines and institu-        Rome's conception of the truth that the Bible is insufficient
     tions and ordinances, having no warrant in the Scriptures,          and that Tradition must be maintained to fill this void.

     which we as Christians are bound to receive and obey upon              In our critical analysis of the Romish doctrine of Tradi-
     the authority of tradition, as interpreted by the Church'           tion we must surely be careful that we do not confound. this
     (which, according to Rome, means really the pope) ?                 conception. with the sound conception of the doctrine of

            The grounds which Rome advances for its doctrine of          development. It is surely true that the Church has advanced

     Tradition are several. First, Rome calls attention to the fact      throughout the ages in the knowledge of the truths of the

     that there was no Bible in the church before the days of,           Word of God. Hodge gives expression to this in his Sys-

'    Moses, that many of the believers lived and died.without  ever      tematic Theology, Vol. I, pages 116-118, as follows, and we

     reading and understanding the Scriptures, and that there-           quote: "All Protestants admit that there has been, in one

     fore many of God's people lived out of tradition. We know           sense, an uninterrupted development of theology in the

     that Moses wrote the first `books of the Bible, the first five      Church, from the apostolic age to the present time. All the

     books of the Bible, and that therefore there was not a              facts, truths, doctrines, and principles, which enter into

     written word of God before the time of Moses. Secondly,             Christian theology, are in the Bible. They are there as fully

     is it not mideniably  true that the great majority of the people    and as clearly at one time as at another; at the beginning as

     of God live out of tradition ? This applies to various -spheres     they are now. No addition has been made to, their number,

     of life, does it not? Does not our life, as it were, rest upon      and no new explanation has been afforded of their nature or

     tradition ? Are we not connected by tradition with the              relations. The same is true of the facts of nature. They are

     generations that preceded us and do we not take over from           now what they have been from the beginning. They are,

     these generations their treasures and pass them on to our           however, far better known, and more clearly understood now

     children ? If this be true ,of various spheres of life, would it    than they were a thousand years ago. The mechanism of the

     not also apply to the sphere of the church? In fact, would it       heavens was the same .in the days of Pythagoras as it was in

     not especially apply to the sphere of the church because            those of La Place ; and yet the astronomy of the `latter was


                                         .--T.HE--S-TA.N-D.A:R.D--.BEA-R.E  R                                                     281


immeasurably in advance of that of the former. The change             etc., etc.,    which now er$ers into the faith of evangelical

was effected by a' continual and gradual progress. The same           Christians, which was not, then clearly stated and author-

progress has taken .placein theological knowledge. Every              itatively sanctioned by the Church. In like manner, before

believer is conscious of such progress in his own' experience.        the Reformation, similar confusion existed with regard -to

When he was a child, he thought as a child. As he grew in             the great doctrine of justification. No clear line of dis-

years, he grew in knowledge of the Bible. He increased not            crimination was drawn between it and sanctification. Indeed,

only in the compass, but in the clearness, order, and harmony         during the Middle Ages, and among the most devout of the

of his knowledge. This is just as true of the Church col-             schoolmen, the idea of guilt was merged in the general idea

lectively as of the individual Christian. It is, in the first         of sin, and sin regarded as merely moral defilement. The

place, natural, if not inevitable, that it should be so. The          great object was to secure holiness. Then pardon would

Bible, although so clear and simple in its teaching, that he          come of course.      The apostolic, Pauline, deeply Scriptural

who runs may read and learn enough to secure his salvation,           doctrine, that there can be no holiness until sin be expiated,

is still full of the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of         that pardon, justification, and reconciliation, must precede

God ; full of ta bathee tou theou, the profoundest truths con-        sanctification, was never clearly apprehended. This was the

cerning all the great problems which have taxed the intellect         grand lesson which the Church learned at the Reformation,

of man from the beginning. These truths are not systemati-            and which it has never since forgot. It is true then, as an

cally stated, but scattered, so to speak, promiscuously over          historical fact, that the Church has advanced. It understands

the sacred pages, just as the facts of science are scattered          the great doctrines of theology,.anthropology,  and soteriology,

over the face of nature, or hidden in its depths. Every man           far better now; than they were understood in the early post-

knows that there is unspeakably more in the Bible than he             apostolic age of the Church." - end of quote from Hodge.

has yet learned, as every man of science knows that there is              Indeed, how true are these two great characteristics of

unspeakably more in nature than he has yet discovered, or             the Bible, the written Word of God: its perspicuity or

understands. It stands to'reason  that such a book, being the         transparency and its profundity. The Word of God is surely

subject of devout and laborious study, century after century,         transparently clear. Any child of God can read it unto his

by able and faithful men, should come to be better and better         own salvation and joy and peace. That Word is a lamp
understood. And as in matters of science, although one false          before our feet and a light upon our path. Its doctrines con-
theory after another, founded on wrong principles or on an
                                                                      cerning sin and grace, the creation of the heavens and the
imperfect induction of facts, has passed away, yet real prog-
                                                                      earth and the re-creation of new heavens and a new earth,
ress is made, and the ground once gained is never lost, so
                                                                      the salvation of the elect as merited by Christ and sovereignly
we should naturally expect it to be with the study of the
                                                                      and unconditionally bestowed upon them by irresistible grace,
Bible.       False, views, false inferences, misapprehensions,
ignoring of some facts, and misinterpretations, might be              etc., are as clear as crystal. However, this is only one char-

expected to come and go, in endless succession, but never-            acteristic of the Word of God. Another characteristic of the

theless a steady progress in the ,knowledge  of what the Bible        Bible is its profundity. The Bible may be compared to a

teaches be accomplished. And we might also expect that                clear mountain lake which appears to be bottomless. Its

here, too, the ground once surely gained would not again be           waters are clear but its bottom cannot be seen. Its truths

l o s t .                                                             are so simple and yet they are so majestically and wonderfully

    But, in the second place, what is thus natural and reason-        deep and profound. And throughout the ages it .is the

able in itself is a patent historical fact. The Church has            privilege of the Church to look into those depths. Continually

thus advanced in theological knowledge. The difference' be-           the Church grows and advances in the knowledge of the

tween the confused and discordant representation of the early         Scriptures. Continually new treasures are discovered. 0,

fathers on all subjects connected `with the doctrines of the          they were always present in the Word of God. But the people

Trinity and of the person of Christ, and the clearness, preci-        of God did not always see them. And the Church also ad-
sion, and consistency of the'views presented after ages of            vances and grows in its understanding of them. How limited
discussion, and the statement of these doctrines by the Coun-         was the understanding of Jesus' disciples, while our Lord
cils of Chalcedon  and Constantinople, is as great almost as
                                                                      was among us, of the doctrines of His coming and the spirit-
between chaos and cosmos. And this ground has never been
                                                                      ual purpose of that coming ! How earthly and carnal they
lost. The same is true with regard to the doctrines of sin
                                                                      were in their conceptions ! How they advanced in the knowl-
and grace. Before the long-continued discussion of these
                                                                      edge of His death, and resurrection, especially through. the
subjects in the Augustinian period, the greatest confusion
and contradiction prevailed in the teachings of the leaders           Spirit as He was poured out, into the Church on the. day of

of the Church ;- during those discussions the views of the            Pentecost! And throughout the ages the Church grows in

Church became clear and settled. There is scarcely a prin-            the knowledge of those wonderful treasures that .are  hidden

ciple or doctrine concerning the fall of man, the nature of           as so many golden nuggets inthe  Holy Scriptures.

sin and guilt, inability, the necessity of the Spirit's influence,                                                              H.V.


 2 8 2 .                                         T H E   S T A N D ' A R D   B E A R E R



                                                                                       every reason for boasting and assigns the praise for this
 II         The Voice of Our Fathers                                                    benefit to divine grace alone ; and it is contrary to the
                                                                            II          testimony of the Apostle: "Who` shall confirm you
                                                                                        unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of

                 The Canons of Dordrecht                                                our Lord Jesus Christ." I Cor. 1 :8.


                                                                                     There is one point in the above translation which is
                               PART Two
                                                                                  difficult to settle. It concerns the expression, "when all those

                     E                                                            things . . . have been put into operation." In our translation
                          XPOSITION OE THE C ANONS
                                                                                  we have followed the Dutch rendering: "doch  al is het nu

                     FIFTH HEAD OF DOCTRINE                                       ook dat alle dingen  . . . in het werk gesteld zijn."  But it is

                                                                                  possible that this rendering is too strong a translation for
             OF THE P&SEVERANCE  OF THE SAINTS
                                                                                  the Latin participle ~ositis.    Perhaps the idea is not that of
                  R E J E C T I O N   O F   E R R O R S                           being put into operation, but that of being given or supplied.
                                                                    =g,,
                                                                                  In that case, then, the powers necessary and sufficient for
              Article 2. Who teach: That God does indeed provide                  perseverance are not actually put into operation by God, but
              the. believer with sufficient  powers to persevere, and is
                                                                                  they are granted or bestowed. Such, at least, is the way one
              ever ready to preserve these in him, if he will do his
              duty; buf that though all things,. which are necessary              Dutch commentary explains this article. Ultimately, of course,
              to'persevere in faith and which God will use to preserve            it makes no real difference as far as the meaning of the

              faith, are made use of, it even then ever depends on the            article is concerned, except that if the stronger rendering is
              pleasure of the v&l  whether it will persevere or not. For          adopted, the Arminian error becomes just a little worse. For
              this idea contains. an outspoken Pelagianism, and while
                                                                                  in that case man by his free will not only chooses to use or
              it would make men free, it makes them robbers of God's
                                                                                  not to use the God-given powers of perseverance, but he
              honor, contrary to the prevailing agreement of the
              evangelical doctrine, which takes from man all cause of             can by his free will interrupt those powers once they have

              boasting, and ascribes all the praise for this favor to             actually been *put  into operation. But once again : the differ-

             the grace of God alone; and contrary to the Apostle, who             ence is not essential.
              declares: "That it is God, who shall also confirm you
              unto the end, that ye be unreprovable  in the day of our               The main thrust of this article is not difficult to grasp,
              Lord Jesus Christ." I Cor. 1:s.                                     especially if in the translation it is brought out that the

                                                                                  article concerns the will of God and the will of man. The
       Before we give our attention to the translation, we may                    erroneous position of the Arminians is clear i and the diamet-
 remark in passing that in the present edition of the Psaltir                     rically opposite position of the Reformed truth is equally clear
 there are two printing errors in this article: 1) "though" is                    here. Quite obviously we deal here with the fundamental
 rendered. "through."        2) The textual reference is not I Cor.               issue of the Arminians' sovereign will of man and dependent
  1 :lS, but 1:s. Incidentally, there are more such errors in                     God over against the Reformed faith's sovereign will of God
 the Psalter, some of them serious. For example, there is a                       and dependent man. The Arminian is at least consistent in
 serious omission in Article 26 of the Netlzerland  Confession                    his error, if that be any virtue. What he teaches about elec-
 which changes the meaning completely. These should be cor-                       tion he also maintains in regard to faith and conversion ; and
 rected, and new errors guarded against, in any future edition.                   what he teaches about faith and conversion he also maintains

       There is room for correction and clarification in the                      in regard to perseverance. God's choice in election is de-

above translation too. And we can best make these correc-                         pendent upon man's foreseen choice. God's will to save all

 tions by rendering anew the entire article: Then the reader                      men through a Christ Who dies for all men is dependent upon

 may compare and take note of the changes. We would trans-                        man's free will to believe and repent or not to believe and

 late as follows:                                                                 repent. And thus it is also with perseverance, according to

                                                                                  the Arminian. God's will is that all believers shall persevere
         Who teach: That God indeed provides a believing man                      unto the end. To that end God supplies all believers with
         with sufficient powers to persevere, and is ready to                     sufficient powers to persevere, and He intends on His part to
       preserve these in him if he will do his duty: neverthc-                    employ those powers for preserving faith in the believers. But
         less when all those things which are necessary for                       whether the will of God shall be accomplished, and whether
         persevering in the faith and which God wills (wishes)                    the powers which He supplies shall reach the intended pur-
         to employ for preserving faith have been put into                        pose, whether therefore the believers shall actually persevere
         operation, then it always depends on the free choice of                  to the end, that depends on the free choice of their will. Such
         the will whether he will persevere or not persevere.                     is the Arminian position.
         For this view contains evident Pelagianism ; and while
                                                                                     We may observe the following details in this view:
         it wishes to make men free, it makes them sacrilegious,

         contrary to the unbroken agreement (harmony) of the                          1) When the Arminians speak of "sufficient powers to

         doctrine of the gospel, which takes away from man                        persevere"    and of "all things necessary to. persevere" being


                                            T H E   ` S T A N D A R D   - B E A R E R                                            283.


bestowed upon the believers, and even being put into opera-          of the age-old and fundamental arguments of all Arminians

tion, they refer to all those spiritual benefits which are neces-    and Pelagians in their reply to this error. This out-and-out

sary for perseverance, namely, the power not to lose the grace       Pelagian idea, which the church had condemned long before

of adoption, the power not to forfeit the state of justification,    James Arminius appeared on the scene of history to revive it,

the power not to commit the sin unto death, the power to keep        purposes "to make men free." Their argument is that `if

the incorruptible seed of regeneration, the power not to             grace is absolutely sovereign, and if the will of God prevails

continue and *perish  in one's backsliding but to come to            over the will of man, determines the will of man, then man

repentance and to return to `the light and to be filled with a       is no more free, but is reduced to a'stock and block. This is

sincere and godly sorrow for sins and to seek and obtain             exactly the argument that is raised so frequently today also.

remission of sins in the blood of Christ, and the' power             We should beware of it. Man is indeed a rational, moral

diligently to work out our own salvation with fear and               being ;-and his moral choice and action is always-  in harmony

trembling.    In short, all those powers which are mentioned         with his own will. In that sense we may probably speak of

in. the positive part of this chapter the Arminian also              a psychological freedom of the will. But we must never

presents as being bestowed by God upon the believers.                forget that man and his will are not independent of God and

                                                                     His will. Man's will and his voluntary actions are never
   2) Secondly, we may .notice  that the Arminians speak of
                                                                     outside the scope and the confines of God's omnipotent will.
"the believer," or, "The believing man." Now this in itself
                                                                     We must not confuse freedom and sovereignty. That is the
is not wrong, of course. But it `is characteristic of the
                                                                     error of Pelagianism, repeated by Arrninianism.  And that
Arminian nevertheless that whenever he can use another
                                                                     error the fathers. describe as making men sacrilegious,
term than "elect," he will do so. Our fathers repeatedly use
                                                                     that is, making men robbers of God's honor.              Sover-
such terms as "the elect" and "his own people." But the
                                                                     eignty is a uniquely divine attribute and honor. If therefore
Arminian will avoid this language if possible, and speak as
                                                                     you ascribe sovereignty .to man's will,` you attempt to make
little as possible about election. While it is true in itself,
                                                                     man God and to rob God of His honor. And that is sacrilege.
therefore, that God bestows the powers of perseverance upon

the believing man, in Arminian parlance this means that God             The fathers condemn this error on the ground that it is

bestows these gifts because of man's believing.                      contrary to the current thought of Scripture : "contrary to the

                                                                     unbroken harmony of the doctrine of the gospel." This con-
   3) In the third place, the Arminian can leave nothing             sensus of Scripture they describe as taking away from man
untainted with the corruption of conditionalism. Even the            all cause of boasting, and assigning the praise for this benefit
opening statement in this paragraph must be qualified by             (of perseverance) to divine grace alone. This is noteworthy.
"if he will do his duty." That is, if only man will believe and      The Reformed view does not `rest on isolated texts, passages
repent, and .if only man will receive and use these powers           that are violently plucked out of their connection and that
of perseverance, then God will grant these powers and is             are considered apart from the Scriptures as a whole. -The
ready to preserve those powers in man. This is, of course,           strength of the Reformed view lies exactly in the fact that it
the usual Arminian double talk.                                      is "the current thought of Scripture." And as one expression

   4) But it is that double talk which makes the Arminian            of that current thought of Scripture the fathers cite the text

error again so insidious. Mark you well, if you insist that          in I Corinthians 1:8, in which it is plain that to God alone,

all the powers needed to persevere are from God, and if you          and not at all to man, is assigned the praise of this benefit of

maintain that God must bestow those powers, and if you               perseverance : God shall confirm you .unto the end, through

teach that man cannot persevere without those divinely be-           our Lord Jesus Christ.

stowed powers-in all this the Arminian will go along with               We may conclude on a practical note by quoting (in

you. In fact, he not only must leave the impression that he          translation) the comment of Rev. T. Bos in this connection:

speaks Scripture's language of a gospel of grace, but he wil-        "What a comfort there is in this truth for all the upright in

fully does leave that ,impression  in order to deceive. The          heart. They are but all too easily convinced of their .own

Arminian, in order to succeed, must proclaim his error of            weakness and unfaithfulness. All hope of salvation would be

cdnditionalism and salvation .by works under `the guise of a         taken away from them if, as far as the future is concerned,

gospel of grace.                                                     they had to trust in their own will, their own strength. Now,

                                                                     however, they may believe that God has begun a good work
   5) But, though he may not always do so as clearly as in
                                                                     in them and that therefore God has begun that good work in
the language .that is condemned in this article, the Arminian
                                                                     them in order that one day He shall save them completely,
will always end by maintaining the supremacy of man. The
                                                                     and that no one can resist His will: now they can be certain
use of these divine gifts, the effectualness of their operation,
                                                                     that He Who -once called them out of darkness, gave them
even the bestowal of them-this is all a matter of the free
                                                                     faith, and brought them into the fellowship of His Son Jesus
choice of the will. God's will is ever dependent upon and can
                                                                     Christ, will also preserve them and confirm them, that they
always be frustrated by man's will.
                                                                     may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."

   It is in this connection that the fathers take hold of one                                                                H.C.H.


II                                                                     whether he exercises Christian discipline, andmhether  to that
             DECENCY and ORDER                                   1     end the ecclesiastical gatherings are held. -             `-
                                                                          3. They shall also have oversight over the life and walk

                                                                       of the minister, and find oztt whether there are any qziarrels.
                      Church Visit&ion                                 and disunity in the congregation or other disorders tkaf are
                                                                       detrimental to the life- of the congregation and that ought
                       (Article 44 D.k.0.)                             to be removed us quickly as possible.

      In our previous article `we introduced the subject of             4. Finally, if with the members  of the consistory there.

Church Visitation by quoting the appropriate article of our            are found any faults title respect to the above mentioned in-
Church Order and the decisions appended to this article by             stances, they shall first ~admonishhtheua  privately unto ina-
our churches as these are found in our Church Order manual.            provement  and also help thevn unto that end, and if this is

We also quoted Rev. Ophoff's  comments on this subject and             of no avail they shall report the matter  to Classis."

observed in' the light of all this that the work of' ch&h
                                                                          ,Following  these principles, it is evident that the work of
visitation is a serious labor aimed at the spiritual-profit--and
                                                                       the church visitors must aim at the very heart of the life of
upbuilding of the church.       Mechaniiation  must be avoided
                                                                       the church, i.e., the preaching of the Word and in connection
and sufficient flexibility must be allowed the visitors in`this
                                                                       with this the walk and labors of the minister. Of course, the
work so that they may feel free to depart from stereotyped
                                                                       other office bearers of the church are not entirely excluded. !
forms in order to achieve this objective.        -
                                                                       That the work of church visiting, however, should concern

      The work of church visitation originated in the churches.        itself mainly with the preaching and other labors of the min-
-of the -Netherlands during the latter part of the sixteenth           istry of the Word follows from the correct assumption that

century. At first these churches were hesitant to introduce            where the preaching is pure and edifying and the labors of

this work because they feared the danger of hierarchy. This            the ministry properly and faithfully, executed, other things

was understandable. On the other hand, however, the need               will also be as they should. The reverse of this is likewise

for some kind of ,supervisory  work was keenly felt because in         true. Where the ministry does not measure up to the spiritual
some Classes there was little regard among the churches for            standard of God's Word, a resultant state of disorder and
denominational unity. Moreover many at this time had been              spiritual degeneracy will exist in the church. The evidences

admitted. into the ministry whose training had been inade-             of this are all too apparent in our day. If then the work of

quate and whose work therefore really needed some super-               church visiting is to prouzote  the upbuilding of the congrega-
visory control. Although suggestions were made as early as'            tion, it must concern itself mainly with the ministry of the

 1579 to institute church visitation, it was not until 1586 at         Word.

the Synod of `s Gravenhage that it was decided to recommend
                                                                           It is plain, too, from these principles that the church
this work to the Classes. Even then, however, it was left
                                                                       visitors must have a rather broad authority ; something that
optional in some provinces but in 1618-19 the &Synod  in-
                                                                       is again lacking in the work as it is practiced today. Yet it
corporated the present article in the Church Order and so
                                                                       follows from the very nature `of the task to be accomplished
the work of church visiting became mandatory in all of the
                                                                       that if this labor is to be effective at all, this authority is
c h u r c h e s .
                                                                       essential.    They must make an extensive survey of the
      Originally more serious attention was given to this work         spiritual condition of the congregation. To them belongs the
than is done in our present day. This:is  evident from the             task of ascertaining whether or not all things are done in
guiding principles set forth by the Synod of 1586 and which            the various churches according to the adopted order. It is
`today are scarcely ever observed any more. From Rutgers'              for them to determine whether the office bearers are faithful
Kerkelijke Adviesen  we learn that these principles are :              in the performance of the duties of their respective offices.

      "1. They (the clzu~ch  visitors) shall occasionally listen to    Where wrong doing or neglect are found they must ad:

 the sermons of the minister, not only to find out whether he is       monish and through their advice and assistance see to it that ,

pure in doctrine, but also whether he preaches in such a way           the evils are corrected or report their findings to the Classis

 tha!t  the sermons can be fog  the benefit and edification of the     so that the latter may then take the necessary steps to see to

congregation. They shall further investigate whether the u&z-          it that these things are rectified for the welfare of the con-

ister is diligent in the reading and study of Scripture,  and          gregation. Certainly such labor cannot be performed fruit-

@ally,  whether the vvtinister  makes use of the accepted forms        fully unless it is done with a measure of real author&y.

for baptism and other ceremonies. ~                                        Not without reason, therefore, does the 44th Article of

      2. They shall carefully and with courtesy attempt to find        our Church Order delegate this important work to ,at least

out with the elders  and deacons of the church in which the            two of the oldest, most experienced aud most competent

miuister  serves, or even from the utevhbers  of the church,           ministers. The article itself does not state whether the church

whether. the minister is fa,ithful  in edifying  the church,           visitors are to be appointed by the Classis  through its pres-


         ._.                               T H,E~  -S T A N-I31A.R.D       B E A R E R                                            285


ident  or whether they are to be-elected;- The latter practice is    either from the pulpit or on the church bulletin. Tbis notice

usually followed but regardless of which method of appoint-          is not simply for the consistory involved but for the whole

ment is followed, the above rule should be carefully observed.       congregation and the purpose of it is to enable the members

The Church Order Co&mntury points out that in the past               of the congregation to bring certain matters to the attention

frequently young men were appdinted who were just in the             of the church visitors. This. does riot mean that a member

ministry and who had no special qualification for this work.         who has a complaint can ignore or by-pass his consistory

The result of this was that the  work was done in such a.            8nd go directly to the cbfirch  visitors. Of course not. The

.mechanical  fashion that it was suggested that the questions        orderly procedure must be folldwed  and that usually calls

be proposed to the consistbries by a mailed questionnaire.           f&- the consistorial treatment of matters before they can

This .is simply no work for' a novice. Even among the .older         come to either the Classis  or the Church Visitors. But sup-
and e$peyienced  ministers, all are not qualified for this task.     pose that a certain member of the church is dissatisfied with

Rev. H. Hoeksema states that this is a "most difficult work          the preaching. He does nbt charge the minister with false

that requires experience, tact and wisdom as well as strong          doctrine for then obviously it must needs become a matter of

conviction and clear insight  into-the truth." Classis, in the       p&&t  with the consistory b&t he merely holds that the

interest of all the churches, should be very careful to select       preaching is characterized by a lack of study, generalities,

those men who possess most of these qualities.                       non-edifying, etc. Tlie consistory is made  aware of this but

                                                                     does nothing about it. In such a case the dissatisfied mem-
    It has- been' suggested that elders may also qualify for
                                                                     ber(s) may bring this matter to the attention of the church
this work. The Ckurch  Order Co~~~entary  states that "No
                                                                     visitors who in turn would necessarily have to conduct a
Classis  would violate a principle of Reformed Church polity
                                                                     thorough investigation if these claims were in any measure
if it should appoint an elder for this work." Jansen, in his
                                                                     substantiated.
Kotte Verklaving,  itiforms  us that years ago some of the
provincial Synods of Holland had rules which  definitely                Or, to use another example, there might be an u&hole-

permitted the appointment of Elders as Church Visitors.              some situation in ihe congregation that tends to break down

Under the present Church Order, however,. this is not                the unity and disturb the peace of the church. The consistory

permissible for it speaks only of "mziGsters"  being authorized      may not divulge this information to the church visitors since

for this `work. Nor may this be interpreted BS though min-           they do not regard it as serious and it necessitates no dis-

isters act as church visitors iti the capacity of ruling elders      ciplinary action as yet. Members of the congregation who

and not as teaching elders and so. leave the implicatipn  that       may be disturbed about the matter may  certainly appea?  at

elders may indeed be appointed for this task. Obviously the          the meeting of the church visitors .to inform them of this

authors of the Church Order had sound reason to specify              so that the matter is thoroughly investigated and remedied

"ministers" in this article. As a: general rule ministers are        for the profit of the church.

more qualified and better trained for this work and this                ,`Thus  we note that the task confronting the church visitors
would especially be true when those are selected who possess         is not one that they can expect to. finish in fifteen or twenty
the qualification that we mentioned before. But we should            minutes. They must be prepared, if necessary, to spend con-
also remember that the aim of this work is the spiritual up-         siderable time with a congregation where circumstances may
bzLilding  of the congregation and this is more than a super-        require it. Haste Imakes  waste also in this work.
visory task to be performed by ruling elders. It is also an-
                                                                        `(Let ,a11 things be done decently and in good order!"
instrztctional  work, and therefore properly belongs to the.
tea.~hing  elders.!                                                                                                        G.V.d.B.

    The term that these visitors serve is, according to the

article, continuous. By this we do not mean that they are
                                                                                With joy I heard my friends exclaim,
appointed for an indefinite period of time but rather that the
                                                                                  Come, let us in God's temple meet ;
Classis  may continue the `same visitors indefinitely. Usually
                                                                                Within thy gates, 0 Zion blest,
they are appointed for one year and then, re-appointed from
                                                                                   Shall ever stand our willing feet.
time to time. The advantage of this is that by repeated visits

to the churches these visitors come to more thoroughly know                     How beautiful. doth Zion stand,

the circumstances and are better able to give advice and as-                       A city built compact and fair;

sistance in troublesome situations than others who would                        The people of the Lord unite

come to confront these- things for the first time. A certain                      With joy and praise to worship there.

measure  of continuity in this work is desirable.
                                                                                They come to learn the will of God,

    Although the Article itself does not state it, one of the                      To pay their vows, His grace to own,

decisions of our churches appended here states that the con-                    For there is judgment's royal seat,

gregations to be visited must be given at least eight days'                        Messiah's sure and lasting throne.

notice of the proposed visit. `This  must then be announced                                                          Psalm 122: l-3

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



                                                                    to. see if there will be any further develoPments  as predicted
           A L L   AR.Ol.jND  U S                                   by. the W. C. C.


                                                                    "Air Force Training Manual Draws N.C.C.  Fire."

Roman Cathojics  Becoming More Tolerant?                                    The February 29th issue of Christianity Today presents

                                                                    an enlightening article on the above subject which has also
   According to an article appearing in the Grand Rapids
                                                                    appeared in most of the daily papers and magazines, and.
Press recently, the World Couricil  of Churches states that it
                                                                    which has stirred up considerable comment especially among
has reason to belieye  that  "Roman Catholics are showing
                                                                    the leaders in the National Council of Churches.
greater tolerance toward other churches."
                                                                            The occasion for the exchange of words between the
   .The W. C.-C. conducted a study which revealed. "Very
                                                                    National Council and the Department of Defense in the
important members" of the Catholic hierarchy now favor
                                                                    United States Government was the Air Force Manual re-
complete religi&s  liberty, It further revealed that "when'this
                                                                    cently published which expressed disparaging remarks about
attitude becomes a prevailing one in the Roman Church,
                                                                    the N.C.C. The latter was charged in the Manual with the
`new ways would open toward an ecumenical understanding'
                                                                    guilt of communistic activity against which the Air Force
between Protestants and Catholics."
                                                                    Reservds were warned.
   The author of the study  report, Dr. A. F. Carillo de
Alboronoz, said French Catholics are leading the movement                   Alongside of .the article &bove referred to, Chhstianity
for religious freedom. He described Maurice Cardinal Feltin,        Today also placed a copy of what the Manual said. We

archbishop of Paris, as one of its most ardent spokesmen.           quote  it in part.

Carillo said when the new opinion "becomes the official atti-               "Subversion. Subversion is any activity by which any

tude of the church itself, a practical agreement with' the          person or group willfully attempts to interfere with or im-

Roman Catholic church on the real exercise of religious             pair the loyalty, morale, or discipline of any member bf the

liberty in all countries will be possible"                          Armed Forces, or American citizens in general.

   The study also criticized Protestants by saying: "Too                    "To establish a workable program of subversion, the Com-

many. Protestants seem to believe that all Roman Catholics          munists have discovered what they think is an almost fool-

(even those who defend  religious' liberty) are of bad faith        proof weapon - the front organizatiqn. Have you ever heard

. . . or that they have as,a unique goal, political domination."    of . . . The Abraham Lincoln Brigade, American Youth for

 Carillo said the ecumenical movement and the world                 Democracy, The League of American Writers, American

Council should "substitute for this general distrustful attitude    Patriots, Inc., Committee for World Youth Friendship and

a truly ecumenical spirit of charity and understanding."            Cultural Exchange, The Nationa!  Committee for Freedom of

 It .wo.uld seem that the above expressed opinion is an             the Press, National Federation for Constitutional Liberties,

i&lated  one, not generally expressed in the Romish Church.         The Voice of Freedom Committee ? These sound quite

Though it is true that Pope John is reported to have ideas          American, don't they? Yet the Attorney General of the

df ecumenicity, and appears to have a more liberal outlook          United States has officially declared them to be subversive

than  his predecessors, the Roman Catholic Church is still a        Communist fronts . . .

long way from `discarding its stand sustained for hundreds          "Don't join any organization or sign a so-called `peace
                                                                     ,..

of ye&b,  that it and it alone: is representative of Christ in      petition' until you are certain it isn't a Red front. You may

the  world. Then, too, the recent persecutions perpetrated in       check organizations against the subversive list in AF Regula-

South America against those who dared to stand up to the.           tion 124-5, `Designation of Organizations in Connection .with

Roman Catholic Church would seem to belittle the report of          the Federal Employee Security Program.' This regulation

a change of attitude.                                               lists more than 280 organizations whose political or social

   However, we believe that the closer' we come to the end          philosophies (not necessarily all Communistic) are foreign to

of this dispensation the more the church, i.e., the nominal         the American concepts of democracy. Among these are a

church, will unite. Antichrist, according to Scripture must         number of schools which presumably teach alien ideologies,

come out of the church. So long as the Roman Catholic               such as the Samuel Adams School, Boston ; the Tom Paine

Church clings to the cardinal doctrine that Jesus Christ, the       Scliool of Social Science, Philadelphia ; the George Washing-

Son of God, is come in the flesh, she can hardly be said to         ton Carver School,  New YOrk City ; the Jefferson School of

be antichristian. But if she becomes lib&al,  as we believe         Social Science, New York City; the Joseph Weydemeyer

she is fast becoming, and she is able to unite with the liberal     School of Social Science, St. Louis ; the Seattle Labor

W. C. C., we can easily see and- believe how this united            School ; and the Philadelphia School of Social Science and

church will produce this antichrist. In that case Willem            Art. Also listed are the front organizations named earlier.

Brake1  and others with him would not be far wrong when                     "Communism in Religion. From a variety of authoritative

they asserted that the antichrist would come out of the             sources, there appears to be overwhelming evidence of Com-

Roman Catholic Church. At any rate, it will be interesting          munist anti-religious activity in the United States through


                                                                                                                                            287
                                                T H E   STANDARD 
                                                                                      _' B'EARER


the infiltration of fellow-travelers into churches ayd  educa-              State;. Ever since that famous convention in Cleveland, 1

t i o n a l   i n s t i t u t i o n s .    .                                beliete  it was in 1958, when the convention advocated that

    "The National Council of Churches of Christ  in the                     Red,iChina  be admitted to the United Nations, the NCC has

U.S.A. officially sponsored the Revised Standard Version of                 been severely criticized and we believe correctly so. This we

the Bible. Of the 95 persons who served in this. project, 30                believe  not so much because we conclude the organization is

have been affiliated with pro-Communist fronts, projects,, and              s&pathetic to communism, but because we believe it is not
                                                            -_
publications . . ,                                                -. . .    &e church's business to put her nose in affairs that belong

     "Dr. Harry F. Ward, long a recognized leader in the                    to the State Department alone.

National Council of Churches, was a Professor of Christian
                                                                            "AYe Officebearers Bound  In Their Beliefs?" '
Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York City for

some 25 years, during which time he influenced thousands of                         Under this caption Rev. N. J. Monsma writes a well-

theological studknts. Dr. Ward was identified by Louis                      documented article in the March isstie of Torch and Trwvtpet.

Francis Budenz (an ex-Cqmmunist) before the Senate Inter-                         *: sopiously  he quotes from the Doctrinal Standards, Church

nal Security Sub-committee as a member of the Communist                     Order, Formula of Subscription, and Reformed authorities on

Party . . ."      So far the Manual.                                        Church Polity to prove tbat the answer to the above question
     It is especially the last two paragraphs above that evoked             is affirmative. Professors; Ministers, Elders and Deacons
the wrath of the leaders of the N.C.C.                                      who sign their names to the Formula of Subscription when
     According to the article accompanying the Manual Re-                   they take office are indeed bound in their beliefs, according
port, the Manual also quoted a newspaper editorial which                    to Monsma. The reason why this is true, he asserts, iS be-
"criticized a. Protestant church convention for urging that                 cause these Confessions derive their contents from the Word
Red China be recognized by the United  States and admitted                  of God. Monsma, it appears, will give no ground to the
to the United Nations."                                                     undenominational movements of our day who advocate "no
     " `The implications of this editorial are clear,' the manual           creed but Christ" and "a return to the Scriptures." This, we
observed. `Communists and Communist fellow-travelers in-                    believe, is commendatory.
filtrated into. our churches. The foregoing is not an isolated                      As far as we were able to observe there was nothing in
example, by any means ; it is known that even the pastors of                the article of Rev. Monsma to which we could not subscribe.
certain of our churches are card-carrying communists.'                      And we believe that all `our .people,  especially those in
     "A reservist in Trenton, New Jersey, told his minister                 office, would do well to read his article which we cannot quote
that he was disturbed at this and other parts of the manual.                here in its eptirety.
The minister notified the local council of churches, which in                       We do not knqw  what motivated Rev. Monsma to write

turn called NCC headquarters in New York's Interchurch                      on this subject unless it is expressed in the last part of his
Center.                                                                     article where he writes under the sub-title "The Function of
     "James Wine, an associate general secretary of the NCC,                Confessions in Assemblies." Monsma suggests that there are

immediately fired off a strongly-worded letter of protest to                some yho call those who refer to the Standards in the
Defense Secretary Thomas S. Gates.                                          course `of debate as being g&y  of Dogmatism. With this he
     "Five days later. Wine and two other NCC staff members                 does not agree. Thbse who cry "Dogmatism" irisist  that
came to Washington because, according to a spokesman, the                   only the Scriptures can be the authority on which decisions

Defense Department `was not treating the matter with  the                   are made. But Monsma reminds them that the Standards
sense of importance we thought it deserved.'                                themselves are expressions of Scripture, and therefore have

     "The following day Air Force Secretary Dudley Sharp                    authority. This, we believe, is the only safe rule for all

was quoted as having `categorically repudiated the publica-                 ecclesiastical assemblies to follow. If this is not done, there

tion' as representative `of Air Force views.                                is no possible norm for unity.

     "Sharp also ordered the manuals withdrawn, only to learn               '       Space does not allow us to make any further comment at           .

that such an order had already been issued  -six days before.               this time. There are, however, questions which the article

 The Air Force said the manual was brought to the attention                      provoked which perhaps on another occasion we will have

of `responsible, officials by a member of the reserve forces.'                   opportunity to raise.                                      M.S.

An investigation was launched . . ." So far the article.

     To us it appears that the charges were withdrawn be-

cause the Defense Department sensed that it was not good                                                  Anraouncement
policy to vie with the NCC. But in spite of the fact that the
                                                                                    The Free Christian School at Edgerton, Minnesota, will
charges were withdrawn, the damage is done, i.e., the NCC
                                                                                 be in n-,ed  of a teacher for grades 1, 2, 3, and 4 for the term
has been put under suspicion. And this is not something new.
                                                                                 1960-1961.
 Various church leaders in and out of `the NCC have voiced
                                                                                    Please mail applications to        .
their criticism of the NCC which reputedly speaks for some

 33 Protestant and Orthodox denominations in the United                                                   H. MIERSMA,  Woodstock, Minnesota


                                                                 ^

                                                                       been privileged to be instructed by his keen insight into the

       -NEWS .FROM-`O.,~R,CHURGHE                                      Scriptures: and benefited by his spiritual guidance in all the
     i `_                                                              ways in,&hich  the Lord has led us. May the Chief Shepherd
                 ,"A11  the saints s&e thcs . . ." PHIL. 4:21ii,'
                                                                       continu$  to .bSess : Rev: Hoeksema and us by his ministry

_                                                                      among'&  also in the yearsto  come."

. .'                                            March 5, l960  ' `-
       1.:                      ._j        -               .-          .- ---Rev.  C. Hanko will spend three weeks- in So. `Dakota'
       The congregation at Hull,has extended a call to Rev. R.         preaching'in Isabel and Forbes as requested by the l&ion

Veldman  of Southeast Church in Grand Rapids, from a trio              Committee. Hi,s preaching. duties in First Church will be

which included Revs. G. Van Baren and %!I. Schipper.                   takeii`bver'by  P&f:  I%`C Hoeksema and Sem. J. Kortering,

                                                                       the latter also teaching the catechism classes.
     You who'live  in the Grand Rapids area are .hereby  re-                      . _.
                                                                          The :Rey., `G. Vanden,  Berg and J. Heys  attended the
minded to come to First Church, March 17, -to hear- the
                                                                       Catechism Committee meetings, and the February Prot. Ref.
lecture, to be presented that evening by Rev. H. Hoeksema.
                                                                       Teachers' Seminar, Feb. 25 and 26. The brethren were also
The topic will be "The Infallibility of the Scriptures,"-and.
                                                                       able to join the Adams St. School parents and friends at a
is under the auspices of the Men's Society oi'that church.
                                                                       Hostess Supper on the 25th. Because of the large number of
If you have extra room in your car why not invite your
                                                                       diners the supper was served. in two places, Adams school
neighbor, or friends, to ride out with you ? This auditorium
                                                                       and First Church. The program was held in First's audi-
provides room for many hundreds of listeners, and the timely
                                                                       torium with a ladies',  trio furnishing vocal music, and an
topic chosen by the lecturer will make it well worth while for
                                                                       after dinner talk rendered by Rev. H. Hoeksema. Usually an
a capacity audience.
                                                                       after dinner speech is appreciated for. its brevity and this one
       At a February `Men's Society meeting Creston's pastor           gave added. appreciation with its food for thought. The
gave a paper on the after recess program' entitled, "From              speaker led us in the contemplation of the marvelous gift of
Wittenberg to Liepsich."         It is also reported that Rev.         memory which we have received from the hand of our
Woudenberg plans to preach his farewell sermon March 20,               Creator, marveling at its power of retention and recollection;
when he leaves Creston  to take up his labors in Edgerton.             indicating how we must use that gift as it is found in our

     Doon's Ladies' Society joined in a project designed to save       children to their education in the truths of, Scripture, to the

the congregation the expense of purchasing new Psalters and            praise of God.

Bibles. They carefully mended all the old books that showed               The Teachers' Seminar, mentioned above, was held on

wear so that they may reasonably be expected to last. a few            Feb. 25. The paper read at the last meeting by Miss Thelma

more years.                                                            Pastoor was still under -discussion, treating the last point

                                                                       which examined ,the  religious development of the child. A
       Lynden's  pastor, Rev. Harbach, was on Classical appoint-
ment in Edgerton, Feb. 25, March 6 and 13. The Edgerton                PaPer,     "Teaching Moral and Spiritual Values" by James
                                                                       Jonker, was then read and discussion of the contents was
Young People's Society invited the young people from Hull
                                                                       b e g u n .
and from Doon to meet with them on Feb. 29. Rev. Harbach

gave a speech on Romans 3 :10-l%  The speaker pointed out,             _, The newly organized Prot. Ref. High School Society will

how "God faces natural man as Judge (10-12) and renders-               meet March 31 at Southwest Church in Grand Rapids. In

verdict as Physician (13-15). He emphasized the `complete              that evening meeting the society will be asked to act upon

hopelessness of natural man, yet the child of God is not with-.        the constitution proposal, and to elect board members from

out hope ; and although this passage also reveals what we are          a nomination to be presented by the temporary Board ap-

by nature, we nevertheless receive righteousness through               pointed at the organizational meeting. Opportunity will also

Christ. We who spiritually see our misery also see our                 be given to join. the society at that time, so- bring. your

deliverance and are properly thankful." Doon  supplied a               friends to Southwest Church on that date. Let us realize our

piano duet and Hull furnished a reading.' After closing, the           calling in regard .to the secondary' education of our children.

young people had a fine time playing group games, and en-                 Rev. Lanting has re-organized Holland's Young People's

joyed a delicious lunch prepared by the host society. The              Society, the-first regular meeting being held Feb. 28. That'was

above account was contributed by Rev. Van Baren,  who                  also the date of Holland's first divine services held. in their

added, "It was a pleasure for the young people to see and              new meeting place located at Washington and West 14th Sts.

hear Rev. Harbach, and to meet together as three societies."              Redlands' consistory has also reached the opinion that

       Found in First's `Feb. 28th bulletin : ."Today  we tom-         drinking the wine in unison, in the celebration of the Lord's

memorate with Rev. and Mrs. H. Hoeksema the 40 years of                Supper,     "adds to the unity of the sacrament." Wineglass

his ministry in our congregation. On Feb. 29, 1920, Rev.               holders had been.newly  added to the backs of the pews before

Hoeksema preached his inaugural sermons, and these many '              the decision went into effect on -Feb. 7.

years he has labored hard and faithfully among us. We have                . . . . see you in church.                            J.M.F.


