    VOLuhm XXXVI                             APRIL 1, 1960 - GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIG+N                                     NUMBER 13


                                                                            Pilate is at his wits' end : watch him ! He -is afraid of a
          M E D I T A T I O N                                           tumult. He is afraid that a tumult will .ensue.

                                                                            And now watch him. He will employ- a Jewish custom:

                                                                        he took water; washed his hands, and he will speak his
         THE BURDEN OF JESUS;~  BLOOD                                   last words : I am innocent of the blood of this just Person :

                                                                        see ye to it!
           "Then a.nmered  all the peo@e,  and said; His
                blood be on us, and on o& children."                        Now read Deuteronomy 213-6.  There you find the                  --

                                                  h!tATT.  2 7   ~25    same ceremony.    All the elders of a city near which a slain

                                                                        man is found will wash their hands in water, and say, "Our

   The last attempt, Pilate made to clear Jesus was to put              hands have not shed, this. blood, neither have our eyes seen
                                                                                                                                       ._
Him on an ignoble duo : Jesus or Bar-Abbas! Whom do                     i t   !"

you desire ?                                                                Yes, I know it: Pilate is nevertheless guilty. I know

   Ignoble? Beloved' reader, I do not know what word to                 that if he was not converted before his death, he will be

use to adequately express the horror of that duo : Jesus or             damned in the : righteous judgment of God in the day of

Bar-Abbas! Principally the people are to choose between                 Christ. But listen to this: He will furiously condemn this

God and the devil!                                                      multitude in God's judgment. He will remind `them of these

                                                                        last words of his: he called Jesus a just Person. He did not
   And if that duo. is horrible, what shall I say of the
                                                                        want to kill Him. He wanted to set Jesus free. All the
people's decision ? They say : Give us the devil, and kill
                                                                        water of the oceans cannot obliterate these facts.
God ? That's the truth.

                                                                          The eternal burden of Jesus' blood does not fall centrally
 ' And those people' are horrible, are they not?
                                                                        on Pilate. He is guilty incidentally. But the central burden
   Yes, oh,yes,  they are horrible. And the whole world will            belongs on this multitude, and especially on the Pharisees,
today say: Yes, they are horrible.                                      the elders of the people, the lawyers, the judges, the priests,

   But attend to this : those-people are you and I.                     the leaders of the people !

  That action shows you in a measure to what depths the                     Two persons vocally assert the innocence of Jesus: the

human. nature has sunk.                                                 thief on the cross, and this Pilate. You know, sometimes'

                                                                        I wish that Pilate were converted before his death. Just
   But there are more horrors.
                                                                        because he wanted to set Jesus free, and just because he

                                                                        openly asserted the innocence of our beloved Savior.
                  _-       8 .* * *
                                                                            But enough of that. Let's go on.

   Pilate is set at nought. He has two more words.
                            .* :                                            Here is the answer of the multitude when they see Pilate

    First: But, ye poor deluded souls, what shall .I then do-           wash his hands in vain: Then answered all the people, and

with this Jesus ? But the people are not in a mood to reason            said, His blood be on us, and on our children!

about what is right and wrong. They have but one answer :                   Oh the horror of that statement. A thousand times it is
They all say unto him : Let Him be crucified !                          realized throughout all the New Testament history.

    Second : Why, what. evil hath He done ?                                 They assume the whole of the burden of Jesus' blood.

   And the answer ? It's the same as before. They-  are in                                             *    * 8 *
a blind stupor of the very hatred of God. `Again they say:

Let Him be crucified!                                                       The Blood.                                          . .


29.0                                            T H E   S?ANDARD   B E A R E R


        Essentially it is the life of a living creature. If your blood    Him exactly because of His great Innocency.  And that

flows away, your life is gone. The blood is the bearer of                 calls for wrath.

your life. A heart empty of blood is a dead heart.                             I` ask you, if God is incensed with eternal wrath when

        All blood is precious. Remember your blood banks, your            YOU slay a man in wickedness, what shall God say when you

transfusions, the haste of them.                                          stied the Blood of God ?

        Some cannot see blood. They faint. That's very natural.                As soon as the innocent blood paints the earth, it cried

Blood should never be seen, ,except  in the rosy glow on a                to God for vengeance. Abel's blood cried to God and it was

healthy face.                                                             heard.

        But this is the Blood of Jesus. This is the blood of the               And there at Golgotha lies the Blood of Jesus, and it

innocent Lamb of God.                                                     has cried to God for almost two thousand years.

        This is the .Blood of God (Acts 20 :28).                               And the world continues to crucify the Loi-d afresh. The

        And this innocent, beautiful Blood of Jesus is shed!              guilt and the wrath accumulate.

        Of course! It should be shed. It is the Blood of Him                                          1: * * *

who is declared guilty by God Himself.

        Jesus, standing there in the judgment hall of Pilate is                But this Blood of God?

carrying all the burden of the guilt of His sheep, given Him                 The Jews have an answer: Let that Blood come upon
by His Father. He must be slain. As He is hurried to                      us and ,upon  our children.
Golgotha, you may sa$: and it pleased the Lord to bruise
                                                                               Akful  self-condemnation !    :
H        i    m    !

                                                                              ~Thirty  years later on this very spot, judgment was given
        There is a figure used by `the Holy Ghost in Isa. 53 :6
                                                                          again& 3600 for insurrection. And a few years later  there
which is lost in our English translation. In our English
                                                                          was a forest of crosses around Jerusalem when Titus warred
Bible we read: "and the Lora  hath laid on Him the iniq-
                                                                          against it.
uity of us all."        But in the Holland version we read: "but

the Lord hath caused all our unrighteousness to walk toward                    And all the ages God has set all nations and tribes against

Him."                                                                     the Jews. They are still paying for this cry. The Blood of

                                                                          God is upon the Jews and upon their children indeed.
        What a figure! Look at Jesus: all our sins are running

toward Him, until they all rest on Him.                                        And not alone upon the Jews. They are the main cul-

                                                                          prits. And God never forgets.
        And God is just and righteous.

                                                                               But it is true also against all the wicked world of every
        His Blood must be shed. "The soul that sinneth, it shall
                                                                          age. The whole world is always arrayed against God and
die !" That's thk law of God which altereth not.
                                                                          His Anointed Son.
        Christ is innocently put fo death by the Sanhedrin, the
                                                                               God asks a simple question of every man, woman, and
people of Israel, Judas, Pilate, Herod,  the soldiers.
                                                                          child : What think ye of My Jesus ? And their answer is
        But looked at from the viewpoint` of God: Jesus is put            always : We think Him a curse! And the result is that
to death according to strictest justice `of God. All His                  Jesus' Blood is upon the wicked world. And on their
pangs, and sorro%s of death are meted out to Him. There                   children.
is not one ounce of suffering but it is deserved. All the
                                                                               Oh, but that Judgment Day will be terrible ! The world
eternity of death He suffers, He should suffer. It is beauti-
                                                                          has counted the Blood of the New Testament an impure
fully just !
                                                                          thing, and they have done despite unto the Son of God. They

                                                                          have trampled Him under foot. It shall be terrible to fall

                              * * + *                                     into the hand of the living God, for our God is a consuming

                                                                          iire !

        The Blood of God was shed at Golgotha.                                                        * * * *

        Justly, `according to God.                                             Come, beloved, let us look again at our text. But let us

        But there is another side to this terrible Drama. From            read it in another way, and then we will have most wondrous

the viewpoint of all whom I enumerated above, He is the                   salvation.

Innocent Lamb of God. From the viewpoint of pilate  and                      This text is our prayer very often.
the -Jews, Jesus is Innocent.
                                                                               "His blood be upon us, and upon our children !"

        And they shed the Innocent Blbod.
                                                                               Is there ever a day, beloved, when you do not crave this

        They shed His blood for they hated Him. They hated                blood upon you, to wash you, and to make you clean? Do


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   - B E A R E R                                                                                                                      291



you not cry daily unto God and say: 0 God, wash my

children and their children in that precious Blood,?                                             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
   Of course you do.
                                                                             Published by the REFORUED  FREE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
   0 the depth of the riches both of the-wisdom and knowl-                  P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7, Mich.

edge of God ! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His                                             Editor - REV. HFXMAN  HOEKSEMA

ways past finding out!                                                      Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
   0 the voice of that blood of Jesus ! It damns Pilate,                                    Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E.,
                                                                                                                    Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
Herod,  the soldiers, the multitude, Judas!                                 All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to hIr.
   In the Judgment Day that Blood shall be required of                                         James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave., S. E.
                                                                                                                Grand Rapids 7, Michigan
millions. And that Blood shall damn them unto all eternity
                                                                            Announcements and Obituaries must be mailed to the above
in hell, where their worm shall not die and their fire shall                address and will  be published at a fee of $2.00 for each notice'.

not be quenched!                                                            RENEWAL: Unless a definite request for discontinuance is re-
   But that same Blood shall liberate you, exalt you to the                 ceived it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription
                                                                            to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
highest heavens, put you into the very Bosom of God with                                                Subscription price: $5.00 per year
Christ.                                                                      Entered as Second Class matter at Grand  Rapids, Michigan

  On that Blood of God is built the new Jerusalem with all

its glittering beauty.

    On that Blood sparkles the diamond, the. jasper stone                                                               C O N T E N T S

and the ruby, and the rainbow above the Godhead, green as              MEDITATION -
                                                                                   -- - _ _                                     _ _ _
the emerald.                                                                       The Burden o f Jesus' Blood . ._... . . .._....  .__.. ..____  . . ..__.....  ,289
                                                                                           Rev. G. Vos
   That Blood of Jesus makes you clean, so clean.and  pure

as though you in your own person had fulfilled all the law of          EDITORIALS -

God.                                                                               Christian Education                          In Our Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ;.`.,292
                                                                                   As To Being Protestant Reformed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._.....................  293
   That Blood makes you sing, shout for joy in heavenly                                     Rev.  H.-Hoeksema
hallelujah's,
                                                                       O U R   D O C T R I N E -
   That Blood shed in the judgment hall of Pilate, on the
                                                                                   The Book of Revelation ___....._...............................................                                          294
Via Doloros'a,  on the hill called Golgotha, the Place of a                                 Rev. H. Hoeksema
Skull, tells the sweet story of the Love of God.
                                                                       A CLOUD  OF WITNESSES -
    0 that love of God in the Blood of Jesus !, Imagine if
                                                                                   Joseph's Meet&g  With His Brothers ___.........___...,...................  298
you can: He loved us so much that He went to hell for us,                                   Rev. B. Woudenberg
and was tortured with all the tortures the damned endure,

and much more, for He bled as the Beautiful, as the most               FROM HOLY WRIT-
                                                                                   Exposition of I Corinthians 15 (3) ____.........__.........................  300
Beautiful Thing God ever showed to the world!
                                                                                        Rev. G. Lubbers
    Blessed Blood of Jesus ! Amen.

                                                             G.V.      FEATURE ARTICLE -

                                                                                   John Knox and the Reformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

                                                                                            Rev. G. VanBaren
                          Announcement
                                                                       CONTENDING FOR THE FA.ITJZ  -
    Classis  East of the Protestant Reformed Churches will                         The Church. and the Sacraments ._____......._..____......................                                                  304
meet, the Lord willing, at 9 :00 A. M: on April 6th in the                                  Rev. H. Veldman

Hope Protestant Reformed Church located on the West

Beltline  of Grand Rapids. Consistories in the appointment             THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS  -
                                                                                   The Canons of Dordrecht . . . ..I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
of their delegates will please take niote.
                                                                                            Rev. H. C. Hoebsema
                              REV; M. SCRIPPER, Stated Clerk

                                                                       DECENCY AND ORDER -

                                                                                   Church Visitation. (Cont.) ___...  . . . . . . . . ._ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

            Office-Bearers' Conference                                                       Rev. G. Vanden Berg

 will be held April 5, at 8 o'clock in Hope Protestant                 ALL AROUND US -
Reformed Church. Rev. A. Mulder will be the speaker.                         : More Comment On The Liberated-Synodical  Merger........310

 Topic: "What is the relationship of the offices in the church,                              Rev. M. Schipper

 namely, the office of Minister, Elder and Deacon ? Is it true
                                                                       N
 that the one is elevated above the other?' All present and                 EWS    FROM          OUR CHXRCHES..  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _. _. . . . . . . .312
                                                                                             Mr. J. M. Faber
 former office-bearers ark urged to attend.

                                              J. Dotter,  Secretary





                                                                                                                                                                                                                            --

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



 I/                                                                    for three-year-old children. This book, according to the
                ED'ITO.RIALS.  jl                                      author, may or "cozt2d  be used equally well in any public
                                                                       scl~001,  or in any private nursery school enrolling Unitarians,

                                                                       Jews, and Moslems !"

           Christian Education In Our Country                              The author then discusses t'he theological principles which

                                                                       the lessons are supposed to embody'and  which reflect the
        When, in this article, I speak of Christian education in
                                                                       views of the National Council of Churches. He quotes from
 our country, I refer especially to such education as is taught,
                                                                       an article that appeared in . the Internatiorzal  Journal `of
 not in our churches or even in the Reformed Churches in
                                                                       Religidus  Educahon  which is the official organ of the Divi-
 general, but by far the majority of the large denominations
                                                                       sion of Christian Education of the NCC (National Council
 outside of our churches.
                                                                       of Churches). The article discusses the subject of the Word
        We have, first of all, the systematic religious education      of God, and this especially from the viewpoint of authority.
 conducted by the church officially in our catechism classes           He writes, and now I quote from the article in Chistianity
 which all the children of the church and also our young               Today :
 people before they make public confession of their faith are
                                                                           "Where does the Christian go for authority? D,oes he
 obliged to attend. In these catechism classes they  are not
                                                                       simply consult his own exp&ien&e  to discover his relation
 merely instructed in some general knowledge of the Bible
                                                                       with God and God's activity in life? Does he accept the
 but are also indoctrinated in the Reformed faith.
                                                                       dogmatic interpretations of an infallible Pope ? Or does he

        Besides, we have OUI Christian day schools, in-which all       find authority in an infallible Scripture? In wrestling with

 the instruction is, or is supposed to be, based on Christian          this question theologians have rediscovered the Protestant

 principles.                                                           concept of the `Word of God.' God's Word is neither an

                                                                       infallible book or Pope, nor individual experience. It is
        But in by far the majority of thi American Churches
                                                                       God's action in human life, revealed partly in human ex-
 this .instructi&  of the children and young people is left to
                                                                       perience and fully in Jesus Christ. The Bible has authority
 the Sunday school.
                                                                       insofar as through it God's living Word is spoken to men.
       `What kind of instruction is offered in the Sunday school ?     The Church has authority only as it speaks God's Word . . .

                                                                       According to this view, the Bible is a book which  historical
        This question is answered by David W. Baker in an
                                                                       criticism ,must  analyze. It -witnesses of the fact that `God
 article that appeared in. Ch&tinnity  Today of Feb. 29,
                                                                       was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.' The
 1960.
                                                                       Christian is not bound to particular words as God's Word.
        The author is an ordained minister iri the United Pres-        The Bible is not simply history, but the record of God's
 byterian Church in the U.S.A. He reveals rather astounding            mighty action in history . . . Gpd  speaks his living Word
 facts concerning this instruction in the Sunday schools of            through the Bible and the Church . . . The authority of the
 America.                                                              Bible rests in n&her words nor creeds, but in their witness

        First of all the Rev.. Baker informs us that there are two     to the mighty act of God in Christ."

 types of .lessons  used by the Sunday schodls  : Uniform and              Poor Sunday school pupils that are taught  such a mixture
 Graded lessons.                                                       of Barthian-modernistic-orthodox theological principles ! The

        As to the first, the Uniform Lessons, he informs that          Bible is not infallible. It is not the Word of God. It has

 they are' designed to give. "consideration of some aspect of          no authority except in so far as the living Word of God

the life or teaching of Jesus and some challenge to the                speaks through it! And who determines whether the "living

 Christian way of life."      He also expresses his opinion that       Word of God" speaks through it in any particular moment or

 it is. "amazing how little of the total content of the Bible is       by any particular passage of the Scriptures ? The inevitable

 studied during the entire course of two or three cycles; also         answer is, of course: Man. There is no authority except

 which doctrinal passages are dealt with, and which are                the authority of Man_  who hears the living Word of God.

 omitted."      This last is not surprising in view of the'fact the    And, of course, that living Word of God Man does not only

 lessons are chiefly designed to consider "some aspect of the          and not necessarily hear in a certain portion of the  Bible, but

 life or teaching of Jesus."                                           he may hear it just as well, say, in Shakespeare's Macbeth

        He then informs us that there are different Graded             or in some other writing. Once more I say: poor scholars
 Lessons. One.series  of lessons is produced by the Methodist          that are taught on the basis of such vague and good-for-
 Church. It contains a' study for the Adult Bible course on            nothing conglomeration of Bo-called  theological principles !

 the book of Romans. Of this the author remarks that it is                 But there is more. But this must wait till our next
not altogether satisfactory because "it leans heavily on liberal       issue.
 commentaries, and too easily espouses the views of critical

 scholarship."     Another example of graded lessons is a book                                                                   H.H.


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              293


             As To Being Protestant Reformed                         friendship with God. Thus we read of Enoch : "And Enoch

                                                                     walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred
     We are writing on the -covenant between God gnd  His
                                                                     years, and begat sons and daughters . . . .And Enoch walked
  people in Christ Jesus as one of the most important elements
                                                                     with God : and he was not ; for God took him." Gen. 5 :22,  24.
  of the Protestant Reformed faith.
                                                                     The same we read of Noah: "These are the generations of
     We repudiated the idea that the covenant consists of an         Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations,
  agreement between God as the first party and man as the            and Noah walked with God." Again, we r&ad  that they talked
  second.                                                            with God which is another manifestation of covenant fellow-

     We also repudiated the notion that the covenant is              ship. God revealed His counsel unto them atid--hid-  nothing

  essentially a conditional promise.                                 from them : "And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons

                                                                     with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish mj, covenant
     And at the close of my last article we expressed the
                                                                     with. you, and with your seed after you." Gen. 9$,  9. And
  idea that Adam stood indeed in covenant relation to God in
                                                                     in Gen. 18 :16ff. we read : "And the men rose up from thence,
  virtue of his being created in the image of God but, at the
                                                                     and looked toward Sodom : and Abraham went with them to
  same time, we rejected the notio&%a  covenant of works.
                                                                     bring them on the way. And the Lord said,. Shall I hide

     The essence of the covenant relati`on  is, according to our     from Abraham that thing which I do ; Seeing that Abkaham
  conception, a bond of friendship.       :                          shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the

     This, we remarked in our last a@icle,  .is based on Scrip-      nations of the earth shall be blessed in him ? For I know
  ture. This we will now demonstrate. _ .                            him, that he shall command his children and his household
                                                                     after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do
     First of all, then, we must `once more refer to "Adam
                                                                     justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abra-
  in the state of righteousness. We read that he was created
                                                                     ham that which he hath spoken of him." And thereupon the
  in the image of God: "And God said, let us make man in
                                                                     Lord revealed to Abraham all that was in his heart concern-
  our image, after our likeness . . . So God created man in
                                                                     ing Sodom and Gomorrah. After this Abraham, as he was
  his own image, in the image of God created he him." Gen.
                                                                     walking with God also talked with Him and made inter-
  1:26, 27. That image of God which as we know from
                                                                     cessory plea for the righteous that might still be in those
  Scripture consists in true knowledge of God, righteousness,
                                                                     cities.
  and holiness, is, on the part of man, the basis of the covenant
  relationship. For on the basis of this image of God he knew            Moreover, Abraham  is called the friend of- God : "But
  God and had covenant fellowship with Him. Moreover, we             thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen,
                                                                     the seed of Abraham my friend." Isa. 41%.  And again :
  read that, as His image-bearer, God gave him dominion over
                                                                     "And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham be-
  all things in the earthly creation: "and let them have domin-
                                                                     lieved God and it was imputed to him for righteousness, and
  ion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
                                                                     he was called the friend of God." Jas. 2 :23.
  and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every

  creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." Gen. 1:26.               Again, this idea of .the covenant  was symbolically ex-

  And again: "And God blessed them, and God said unto                `pressed in ?abernacle  and temple: God dwelling with His

  them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and      people under one roof.

  subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and             `Also, it is well-known that again and again the marriage
  over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that         relation, that most intimate of all human relationships, is
  moveth upon the ea'rth."  Gen. 1:28.  In other words, Adam         presented as a figure of the covenant of God with His.
  as he was created in or after the image of God, and as he          people, and that violation of the covenant is called adultery.
  stood in covenant fellowship with Him, was also God's
                                                                         In Psalm 25 :14  this idea of the covenant is almost literally
  king-servant. Indeed, Adam was a glorious creature, far
                                                                     expressed : "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear
  more glorious than we can even imagine. If we do note
                                                                     him, and he will show them his covenant." Here the H.ebrew
  that after his fall, according to our Netherland Confession,
                                                                     word  for "secrets" may be translated by friendship or by
  "he lost all his excellent gifts, which he had received from
                                                                     intimacy or familiar intercourse so that we may read: God
  God, and only retained a few remains thereof," and if then we
                                                                     realizes His covenant with those that fear Him by drawing
  see how that fallen man still reveals his power in the ac-
                                                                     them into familiar intercourse with Him.
cursed creation, how wonderful and glorious Adam must

  have  been in the state of righteousness !                             Frequently we read in Scripture that. God dwells in and

                                                                     with His people. In that sublime prayer of the Lord that is
     But this in passing.
                                                                     found in John 17 we read the well-known words : "I in them,
     Certain it is that Adam, as&he  was originally created, was     and thou in me, that they may be perfect in one." And in II
  the friend-servant-king of God.                                    Cor. 6 :16  we read : "I will dwell. in them, and walk in them;

     Besides, we read of the saints that they walked with            and I will bel  their God, and they shall be my people."

  God, an expression that denotes intimate!  fellowship and                                                                      H.H.


8

     294                                           T H E '   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           -


                                                                        This entire vision has reference to the time of the end. And
     II          O U R   D O C T R I N E .   11 according to these interpreters, this portion symbolizes the
                                                                        fact that in the end  the gospel `will be preached to all men,

                                                                        SO that it may cover the earth. But none of these interpreta-

                  T H E   B O O K   O F  ~REVEIATICJN '                 tions fits the contents of -our  text. In regard to `the first it
                              P A R T   T W O                           may be said-that the Romish papacy may be a type of Baby-

                                                                        lon, btit  it was certainly not the final manifestation of Anti-
                            CHAPTER TWELVE                              christ pictured in chapter 13. It was only a very @rtial

                        The Angels and the Voice                        realization of that power. And therefore, our portion, which
                                                                        evidently refers to the said Antichrist,.cannot refer to Martin
                            Revelation 14 :6-13                         Luther. And again, as to the second interpretation, as if in

            Once %ore I must warn you against a literal conception      those latter days there will be a special preaching of the

     and interpretation of the text. There are many who all of a        gospel, I would maintain that in those days the preaching of

     sudden forget that they have to do with symbolism and that         the gospel has, well-nigh finished its course. There is no

     in. our text we have to do with a vision when they come to         place for it, at least not in the kingdom of Antichrist. That

     this portion of the book., And then they read as if the text       kingdom is not characteriied  by heathen darkness, in which

     said : "Then shall an angel fly in mid-heaven and shall preach     the light of the gospel never shone. On the contrary, Anti-

     the gospel once more to every creature." And yet that is           christ shall rise from the midst of the Christian world. It

     certainly not the meaning. John tells us that he sees a vision.    shall be well-acquainted with the gospel. It shall know the

     And in that visibn  he first beholds the beasts representing       truth.; But it shall deliberately depart from the truth. The

     Antichrist coming out of the earth and out of the sea. And,        sin against the Holy Spirit shall be a general phenomenon in

     in the second place, he tells us how he sees the Lamb standing     that kingdom. And therefore there is no hope, and there is

     on Mount Zion, surrounded by His people. And now once              no gospel. But, in the third place, against all such interpreta-

     more, he beholds th;ee angels and hears one voice. And             tions stands the plain indication of the text. that `this angel

     -therefore also this part still belongs to the vision. As .such    does not preach the gospel of Christ Jesus at all. He does

     it must be explained. If we bear this in mind, we will not         not come with the message of salvation.           He does not

     reach the absurd conclusion that in this portion Scripture         preach Christ. He does not urge men, "Be reconciled to

     teaches us that in the end of time angels will proclaim the        God." Not at all. Interpreters have been deceived by the

     gospel of Christ in order to sound a last warning to all na-       word "good tidings," or "gospel." Just because we read that

     tions. That certainly is not the meaning. In fact, this entire     this angel proclaimed eternal good tidings, they draw the

     portion is not written for the people of the beast at all,         conclusion that he was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ

     but to comfort the people of God and of the Lamb. Hence,           to all men once more. But that is not the case. The good

     the text does not mean that an angel shall preach the gospel       tidings of this angel have nothing to do with the gospel of

     in the end of time as's last warning. We have no literalism,       Jesus Christ and salvation. For, in the first place, let us

     but symbolism, a vision, in the words of our text. The con-        notice that he preached an eternal gospel ; and the gospel of

     tents of the symbolism is that an angel flies in mid-heaven        Jesus is not eternal. God does not eternally proclaim that

     and shouts to all the earth, to all nations and tongues and        gospel; He does not eternally come with the call .to accept

     tribes, that they shall fear and worship God. Thus it is in        Him and believe in His name. That gospel to all men covers

     the vision. And the question is: what is the significance of       but a very brief period of history. And therefore, the gospel

     this ?                                                             of Christ cannot be'meant. Still more clear this becomes if

                                                                        we read the contents. .It merely states a demand. It does
            There are many who maintain that here we have a symbol
                                                                        not speak of salvation. It does not mention the name of
     of the preaching of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. The
                                                                        Christ. It does not tell the old story at all. It simply comes
     angel and his voice represents the call of the gospel to all
                                                                        with the demand to all people and nations: `&Fear  God, and
     nations. Among these there are again some who find in
                                                                        give him glory, and worship him." And therefore we must
     Rome the antichrist, and who therefore find the fulfillment
                                                                        discard all these interpretations.
     of this vision in the rise and work of Martin  Luther. Im-

     mediately before the days of Martin Luther, so they say,              In order to. understand the words of our text you must

     the power of Rome was supreme. And therefore chapter 13            grasp the whole situation once more. Antichrist is, supreme.

     is really fulfilled in the dominancy of the papacy. And when       Just imagine that you, as a child of God, live in those days.

     Martin Luther rose and recovered the Word from the dust            Antichrist has set up his kingdom. He rules over $1 the

     of the convent and preached that Word to all nations, the          world, and all the world admires him and his kingdom. That

     fulfillment of the prophecy of this angel was seen. Others         antichristian reign will be characterized by apostasy from

     claim that here we have no reference to the time of the            the living God. God and His truth shall be denied, and the

     Reformation, but rather to the time of the judgment, to            blood of Jesus shall be trampled under foot. The devil and

     the end of time. And they are undoubtedly more correct.            the beast shall be the object of worship. On every street


                                                 T H E   STANDARD   B E A R E R                                                         295



     and. corner,' in-every  shop and store you meet with the image
        ..j                                                              the kingdom of Antichrist. It does mean that in the future
     of the beast; and universally men bow before him. Every-            it shall actutilljr  go forth. It does not mean that an angel shall

     where you meet with men that bear the sign  of the beast            bring it, but it does mean that the people of God may

     on their forkhead  and on their right hand. You, as a people        depend on it: God shall maintain His glory and claim. And

     of God, shall not be able to buy or sell ; and they shall push      because the Almighty maintains that claim, the kingdom of

     you to the wall. There is no rifuge,  it seems, and the suffer-     darkness must be destroyed.

     ing is awful. It is a world of tribulation, and the blasphemy           If this is clear, then the rest is not difficult to understand.
     against God's name is seemingly unpunished, -What  now will         The first angel announced that God maintains His eternal
     be the question arising in your mind? It will be this : shall       claim over against the power and the kingdom of Antichrist.
     God allow this? Shall He let the glory of His name be               And the second and third angels announce the destruction
     trampled under foot, and shall He let His saints be uti-            and punishment that must naturally follow where this eternal
     revenged ? That all depends., If God will let go. His eternal       demand of the Almighty is not obeyed. In that eternal gospel
     claim, namely, that the creature shall worship Him, and             which. the first angel in the vision preached we have the
     worship Him alone, and fear and glorify His name, He                deepest ground, the supreme reason, for the judgment of
     shall let these- things go, and there is no end in sight. If        Antichrist and his kingdom. Just because God is sovereign
     God has changed His mind, if our covenant God can renounce          and maintains His claim to be feal'ed  and worshipped and
     His eternal claim, namely, that He only should receive. the         glorified by all creatures, and because, in direct opposition to

     glory, then indeed the case is hopeless. Then He shall do           this claim of the Almighty, stands the kingdom of Antichrist,

     nothing. Then He shall not arise to crush this awful power          trampling that gldry under foot and worshipping the beast,

     and to. save His own people. Then we are the coirenant              the latter must be judged and destroyed. Already the' first

     peopte of a God Who has surrendered the glory of His own            angel announced that the hour of God's judgment is come.

     name. ,But  that is not the case. No, the Lamb stands on            The second angel prophesies of that judgment and speaks as

     Mount Zion. And because the Lamb, the Anointed of                   if Babylon is fallen already. And the third angel announces

     God, stands in the place of His power, God will not let go          the terrible punishment that will be inflicted upon those that

     His demand. And therefore, to every nation and tribe and            w&-ship  the beast and his image.

     tpngue comes the demand: "Fear God, and give glory to                   It is here that we meet with the term Babylon. "Fallen,
     him ; for the hour of his judgment is come : and worship            fallen is Babylon the great, who hath made all the nations
     him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the foun-         to drink of the wine of her fornication," so the first angel
     tains of waters."                                                   shouts through mid-heaven. As to this name Babylon, we

          From this point of view all is plain. The meaning of           may remark, in the first place, that this is not the place to

     these words can now be understood. The angel sounds the             explain it in detail. Naturally not: the angel merely makes

     eternal gospel. It is the gospel that God is soverei&n,  the        a pre-announcement of its destruction. He is prophesying.

     gospel `that God is supieme.  It is the gospel that all creation    And prophesying, he sees the objects of his prophecy so

     must fear Him, and Him alone, and that He will judge all            vividly .that  it appears to him that Babylon is fallen already.

     who refuse to worship Him. It is the gospel that He alone           In a future portion of the book of Revelation we read of the

     is worthy of worship since He made all things and therefore         fall of this Babylon in detail, and then is the time to explain

      is the sole sovereign of them all. -That demand is as eternal      it. Atid  therefore, here `we merely must understand the

      as God's own' decree, .and it will last Forever. That gospel       general idea. There are different interpretations of this

      God will never change. For unto all eternity, even in the          Babylon. There are some who make it the apostate churcli

      new heavens and the new earth, it will still be the gospel.        pure and simple, without anything else, while others claim

      That demand is now placed over against the wicked kingdom          that it denotes not the apostate' church but the center of the

      of Antichrist. There, in that kingdom, they worship the            political world-power. It seems to us that neither is quite

      beast; there they give glory to Satan, and they fear Anti-         correct,. and that for the simple reason that the apostate

      christ. There they say; "Antichrist has made all things. Who       church and the power of the world in the future will be

      is like unto the beast, and who can war with him ?" There          perfectly one, one in life and view, one in hope and doc-

      they cast God's glory in the dust and trample His precepts         trine, one in purpose and aspiration, one in power and

      under foot. But even over against this state of,.things  God       attainment. And for that reason apostate Christianity, or the

      maintains His claim : "Fear Me, and give Me glory. For the         apostate church, must not be separated from the power of the

      hour of My judgment is come. And worship Me: for I                 beast. In our, portion it is evident that the entire power of

      have made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and the foun-        Antichrist is dehoted by the name Babylon. It rather denotes

      tains of ,waters."    Then also is clear the whole significance    the heart of the antichristian kingdom, just as Jerusalem

     of the scene. This sounds like gospel in the ears of God's          was the heart of Canaan and of the theocracy of Israel. And

      people. Even though. it may-seem as if God has relinquished        as of the name, we remember that Babel, or. Babylon, is

      His eternal claim, `they may depend on it that He shall            originally the  name of the city of mighty Nimrod. When the

      vindicate it to the end  and that He shall reveal His wrath to     peoples came  together and made the attempt to establish the





c

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



world-power and maintain themselves, they also tried to             torment of hell.is  pictured as God has prepared it for them.

build a city and a great tower. That city is the city of               Let us notice, in the first place, that this torment is both
Babel,-  or Babylon. And therefore this name reminds one of         internal and external. Everyone that worshippeth the beast,
the wound which the beast had received and which was                so the text reads, and receiveth a mark on his forehead or
healed. Babylon in Scripture stands for the great .opponent         upon his hand, he shall also drink of the wine of the wrath
of the people of God, the center of the world-power that            of God which is prepared unmixed in the cup of His anger.
oppresses God's saints. By Babylon the children of Jerusalem        Evidently these words refer to the spiritual and internal
were made captive. In Babylon they suffered in captivity,           suffering of the ungodly. The wine of the wrath of God is
far from the holy land. There they sang in lonely exile,            evidently a figure. The meaning is that these worshippers
yearning for the land of their covenant God: "0 daughter            of the beast shall receive a wine to drink, the spirit, or

of Babylon, who art to be destroyed ; happy shall he be,            alcoholic contents, of which is the wrath of `God. Even as

that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he          common wine affects the spirit of man, so shall the wine of
be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the             the wrath of God affect the worshippers of the beast. By
stones."    Of Babylon's fall in the literal as well as in the      drinking this wine the worshipper of the beast shall receive
symbolical sense of the word the prophets of old had spoken.        the wrath of God as a burning fire within his soul, so that

Babylon stands for all that opposes and oppresses the people        this wrath of God burns him from within, troubles him,

of God's kingdom. So here it denotes in one term the rule           leaves him no rest day or night. It shall be spiritual torment
and dominion of Antichrist. That kingdom has made the               night and day. Even as the greatest happiness and the most
nations drunk with the wine of her fornication.          It has     profound peace consists of communion with the God of grace

through its false prophet led all the tribes of the earth to        and love, so the most terrible suffering shall be that which

blaspheme the name of Jehovah and to worship the beast.             is caused by the consciousness of the wrath of the Almighty.
It has oppressed the people of God and made it that they            It shall be unmixed, that is, undiluted. Never shall the
could neither buy nor sell. Its destruction and judgment            worshipper of the beast in eternity receive one glimpse of
is the hope of the people of God. For its destruction they          Godls  love. Here upon earth he received the things of the
pray. For its judgment they long. And they can sing it              world, and God let His sun shine upon the wicked and the.
with the people of God of old : "Happy is he that taketh and        good alike. But when the measure of iniquity shall once be
dasheth thy little ones against a rock." And now, behold, the       full, they shall receive nothing but the wine of the wrath of
fall'of that great and powerful Babylon is announced. That          God unmixed. But it shall also be an external suffering.
kingdom of Babylon seemed permanent and impregnable.                They shall exist body and soul. And therefore they shall

But the Lord had appointed His Holy One over Zion. And              suffer as such.    With tire and brimstone they shall be
the angel announces the fall of the great city with a certainty     tormented, and that forever. Little are we able to describe

that leaves no doubt and that looks upon the whole scene            the terribleness of hell. No more than we can fully describe
as if it were already accomplished : "Fallen, fallen is Babylon,    the bliss of the new heaven and the new earth, no more can
the great, that had made all nations to drink of the wine of        we describe the state of the damned in hell. But we may be
her fornication." Again, it is to the comfort of the people of      sure that these symbols of fire and brimstone stand for grave
God that this vision is seen. For in the fall of Babylon they       realities. Worse than all the suffering of the earth, worse
see -their own victory and the-victory of Christ.                   than all the agony that may be seen upon the battlefield of

                                                                    the world, shall be the suffering of those that worship the
       A third angel comes upon the scene and announces the
                                                                    beast and his image. And, in the third place, that suffering
judgment upon the individual worshippers of the beast. Here
                                                                    shall be everlasting. Their smoke goeth up forever and 
upon earth it seemed as if they were supreme and as if they                                                                    ever.
                                                                    God is vindicating His rightepusness  and glory in the wicked
could oppress the people of God with impunity. They
                                                                    that at-e prepared unto the day of destruction.
lived like lords and participated in all the blessings

of creation.     And often the people of God were per-                 Wonderfully strange, at first sight, stands the sentence:

haps inclined to complain with Asaph that there is no               "Here is the patience of the saints, that keep the command-

knowledge with the Most High. They themselves, who                  ments of God and the faith of Jesus." And yet, if only these

served the Lord and followed Him wheresoever He go&h, 1             words are read in their proper light, the whole is plain.

they themselves suffered want and tribulation, were in pain         The idea is that because the saints see the end of their ene-

and distress every day. But the wicked and unbelievers, the         mies, see it and believe it, that Babylon is fallen and that

worshippers of the beast, prospered and knew bf no suffer-          the worshippers of the beast are doomed to everlasting pun-

ing. And therefore the people of God are given a glimpse of         ishment, they can be so patient. What is their patience? It

their end. Even as Asaph of old went into the sanctuary             has been described in a portion of Chapter 13. It was they

and considered their latter end, so -also,  the people of God       that did not kill by the sword. It was they that did not lead

that live at the time of Antichrist receive a vision of the end     into captivity. In other words, that patience consists in this,

and of these worshippers of the beast in their eternal estate.      that in all the tribulation and suffering in the reign of Anti-

Their eternal punishment is described in vivid terms. The           christ, they were calmly, serenely submissive. They did not


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               2 9 7


 try to gain control of things. They did not employ main             last words we must remember that the entire portion places

 force. They were patient. Even though they could not buy            itself upon the standpoint of the very last. That is plain, for

 or sell, they did not use the sword to obtain -what `they           instance, from the voice of the three angels. The first one

 wanted. Their suffering did no.t  persuade them to deny their       announces that the hour of God's judgment is come. The

 God and their Lord, did not seduce them from the way of             second one announces that Babylon is already fallen. The

 God's covenant. One word, one nod, one bow might suffice            third one announces that the worshippers of the beast are

 perhaps to gain-for them the favor of the power of Antichrist       to be sent to. everlasting torment. On that same standpoint

and would supply them with the.necessities  of life abundantly.      also the voice that is here speaking evidently places itself.

 But they refused. Patiently they bore the cross and followed        It speaks, therefore,. not of the bliss of the soul which it

 the Lamb whithersoever He led them. And that patience is            shall enjoy immediately after death, but rather after all is

 explained. Why were they so patient.? Why could they bear           past. Henceforth, that is, from the time that the voice speaks,

 the suffering? Why could they submit -without rising in             after all the battles are fought, after Babylon is fallen, after

 rebellion and employing main force ?. Simply for the same           the wicked are sent- to hell, when the judgment day is past -

 reason that Asaph became patient when he regarded their             henceforth shall be blessed those that die in the Lord. And

 latter end in the sanctuary of his God. They knew that their        therefore, not merely the dead that die during the time of

 enemies could not -escape their reward, and that in the' day        Antichrist, but the dead of all ages shall be blessed from

 of the Lord they would be judged in righteousness. And              that time forth and forevermore. Are they then not blessed

 hence, they left it all to their Lord, mindful of the. warning      before that time ? Surely, they are. They have entered into

 of Scripture that vengeance belongeth unto Him.                     life, and they are free from the tribulation of this present

     But this is not all. The scene does not close with the          time the moment they pass away from the scene of battle of
`announcement of destruction upon the enemies .and upon the          the church militant. But their bliss is not perfect. Their
 kingdom that follow the beast; but it also pictures the great       body is `still in the grave.     And all the brethren have not
 and glorious victory of believers, that do the will of God and      been gathered in.     But henceforth, that is, from the point of
 die in the Lord. For after the angels have retired and              view of the angel that speaks, when time shall be no more
 sounded their voice, another voice is beard from heaven, we,        and-  when eternity shall dawn, then shall be fully blessed
                                                                     all the saints that die in the Lord. Just because they died
 do not know of whom. He commands John with special
                                                                     in the Lord, just because they belong to Him and because
 emphasis to write: "Blessed are the dead which die in the
 Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may          He has paid for all their sins, they shall enter into ever-
 rest' from their labours  ; and their works do follow them."        lasting glory.
 These words have been often misunderstood, and preached                But there is still more. Surely, all the saints shall die
                                                                     and be blessed in the Lord. It is not because of their works,
 at many a funeral. They have been wrongly interpreted.
 It was thought generally that here we have a proof of the           but because of the work `of Christ Jesus that they shall enter
 fact that the soul is blessed immediately after death. "From        into the eternal kingdom.        And therefore the bliss shall be
 henceforth" would then mean: from the time they depart              general. But shall there be no distinction? Surely, there
 from this earth, immediately after physical death. And of           shall be. All shall be perfectly blessed. But not all shall
 course, this is true in itself. The dead shall be blessed,          reach the same state of glory. In the covenant God has
shall rest from their labors immediately after death. But            prepared some of His people to do great things, to be special
 it is not true that this word refers to that truth. In the first    witnesses of His name, to fight the kingdom of darkness in
 place, we might remark that in that case it would be very           a special way. And just because God has prepared some of
 ambiguously expressed.                                              His children for special works, so that they do more than
                            Instead of "from henceforth" an
 expression like "from death on" or "immediately after death"        others and suffer more than others and bear the brunt of the
 would have been much clearer. In. the second place-and              battle more than others, they also shall have a special place in
 this is a far weightier objection-we read that their works          glory. They were in suffering more than others. They
 do follow them, evidently referring to the day that each one        were despised more than others. They were in tribulation
 shall be judged according to his works. And this cannot be          in a special sense of the -word. God prepared Elijah to do
 said of the soul immediately after death. And,therefore,  that      great things. But he also fought more than all the prophets
 explanation does not hold. On the other hand, there are             of his time.      God prepared His prophets, like Isaiah and
 interpreters that limit the blessedness of the ones that are        Jeremiah, for special work. But they also went through
 mentioned here to the saints that die during the time of            special suffering and tribulation. God prepared the apostles
                                                                     and the martyrs to be faithful in a special sense of the word.
 Antichrist or in some other period. They limit the expres-
 sion "that die in the Lord." But also this' is not to be done.      And they suffered more than others. And so it shall be at
 It simply says that the dead that die in the Lord shall be          the time of the Antichrist. Not all are equally strong among
                                                                     the children of God. Not all are .equally  fit to testify and
 blessed henceforth. And that does not allow of any arbitrary
 limitation.                                                         bear the brunt of the battle.

     In order to obtain a clear view of the meaning of these                                                                     H.H.

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



                                                                       that if they went to Egypt their duty would be to look for

                                                                       the brother whom they had.  sold and try to redeem him.

                                                                       But if they would manage to find him, it would mean that

                                                                       their sin would be exposed. Troubled and frightened, they
           Joseph's Meeting With His Brothers                          remained silent. At last Jacob became impatient. "Why do

                 And the sons of Israel came tb buy corn among         ye look one upon another ?" he asked. "Behold, I have heard
               those that came:  for the famine  was in the land of    that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy
               Canaan . . . .                                          for us from thence ; that we may live, and not die." Thus it
                 And Joseph kne-zv  his brstken,  but they k%ezu
               not                                                     was, at the command of their -father, that the ten men set
                       him  GENESIS 42 :5. and 8.
                                                                       out for Egypt; but Benjamin was kept with Jacob at home.
        Egypt's years `of plenty came and went just as God had
 revealed. They were followed by a very grievous famine. The               For ,the  coming of his brothers to Egypt, Joseph mean-
 waters of the Nile ceased from overflowing their banks, and           while was ready and even waiting. For some time already
 the ground became `hard and parched. No new food would                he ,had  anticipated the way.  in which the Lord would lead.
 grow. The people were forced to live off the crops which              When he became ruler over all of Egypt the possibility of
 Joseph had warned them to lay aside. But it was not long              his brothers bowing down before him became very real, just
 before even these private storages. began to dwindle and              as the dreams of his youth had foretold. Moreover, when it
 disappear. Knowing that the storehouses of Egypt were full,           became apparent that the famine was over a broader area
 the people went to Pharaoh crying for food. Pharaoh referred          than just Egypt so that men came from many different
 them to Joseph, for he knew that in this matter also, Joseph          nations to buy food, it became evident to him what would
 was guided by the Spirit of God. But Joseph hesitated with            be the occasion of their coming. Rather than go himself into
 opening the granaries ; he knew that the famine would be              Canaan to visit his family, or to contact them in some other
 long and the storage should not be allowed to deplete any             way, he thought it best to wait for the way of the Lord to
 sooner than necessary.                                                unfold itself. Patiently he waited, all of the time keeping
                                 Only when the need became crucial
 did he allow the grain to be taken out of storage and sold            careful watch over those markets which men from Canaan
 to the people. With care he watched over the distribution of          were inclined to frequent.

 food that none should be wasted. Not only did the Egyptians              As Joseph awaited the coming of his brothers, the ques-

 have to be supplied, but buyers came to him from many                 tion of how he should greet them became for him. a matter

 different countries, for the famine was over all the earth.           of grave concern. There were two ways which would seem

        Meanwhile, back in Canaan, the life of Jacob's family          quite natural. He might have met them in anger determined

 had not been going well for many years. Ever since the ten            to punish them for the sin which they had committed against

 brothers had brought Joseph's blood-stained coat to him,              him. This is what the brothers would have expected had

 there had come a change over them which Jacob could see               they known that he awaited them. However, for Joseph it

 although he could not understand. The rough way of life               was quite ,impossible.  Any hatred or bitterness which he

which they had led in former years seemed to have lost its             might have once felt had long since faded away. He.  dis-

 interest for them. They settled down to a quieter life that           cerned the hand of the Lord in what had happened and was

 was much more becoming to them as children of God. In                 content. He could no longer be angry with his brothers.

 all of this Jacob could have rejoiced were it not for some-           More natural for Joseph would have been to forget about all

 thing else. Over the whole subject of Joseph there hung an            that had transpired and to greet them with welcome and joy.

 aura of mystery. The ten avoided the subject. They did                Although they had treated him badly,' they were still his

not want to talk about Joseph. It seemed, although the;e               brothers and, in spite of their sin, children of God. The easiest

 was no direct evidence, that they knew more about what                thing of all for him would have been to greet them with

 had happened to Joseph than they were willing to tell. This           love. But.that reaction too would have been natural and God

 made Jacob afraid. He found it difficult to trust his own             had brought Joseph to be a deeply spiritual man. As he con-

 children. He did not like to leave Benjamin alone with them.          templated the expected arrival of his brothers, questions

 He refused to allow him to go out into the field with them.           continued to arise in his mind concerning their spiritual

 The fear would not leave him that the same thing might                lives. Were they still living in sin as they had in the years

 happen to Benjamin which had happened to his brother.                 that he was among them ? Did they realize the guilt that

    Finally the time came when the great famine touched                was theirs because of the sin which they had committed

 also the land of Canaan. Crops would not grow and the                 against him? Were they sorry and repentant for their sins?

 people of the land began to travel to Egypt for food. But             Did they desire to: live new and better lives in the fear of

 now the same hesitant attitude which the ten brothers held            God ? These questions troubled Joseph and he felt that he

 toward their departed brother seemed to spread out to cover           had to learn the answers. If they had not yet learned to put

 also Egypt. They avoided the suggestion that they should              hatred behind them, it.was  necessary for him to lead them

 go with their neighbors to buy corn. What Jacob, did not              in that way. Moreover, he feared that should they recognize

 realize was that the brothers `also were afraid. They knew            him in his high position, they might pretend to be repentant


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             299


  for material gain while maintaining hatred in their hearts.         manner of inquisitors merely repeated his acctisation, "Nay

  He felt that the best that he could do would be to find out         but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come." Distraught,

  their attitude toward his brother Benjamin, who had un-             the sons of Jacob could think of no other defense than to

  doubtedly taken his place in their father's love, b&fore  they      give more details of their family., "Thy servants are twelve-

  recognized him as ruler of the land. It was with this concern       brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan ; and,

  for the spiritual lives of his. brothers that Joseph laid the       behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one

  plan which was followed.                                            is not.`, With joy Joseph heard this. Benjamin and his

                                                                      father yet lived. Even more he now had occasion to summon
     When the t'en brothers came into Egypt, God providen-
                                                                      Benjamin to Egypt. "That is it that I spake unto you, saying,
  tially led them to the very market where Joseph was manag-
                                                                      Ye are spies : hereby ye shall be proved : by the life of Phar-
  ing the sale of grain. Joseph, ever on the lookout for them,
                                                                      aoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your younger
  recognized them already at a distance and took personal
                                                                      brother come hither. Send one of you, and let him fetch
  charge of their transaction. There was little likelihood that
                                                                      your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words
  the -brothers would recognize him. While in the intervening
                                                                      may be proved, whether there be any truth in you: or else
  years the appearance of the brothers had not changed a
                                                                      by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies."
  great deal, Joseph looked entirely different. He had grown

from youth into manhood. His face was clean shaven like                  For thiee days Joseph put them all in prison to impress
  the Egyptians without the rough beard customary in Canaan.          upon them the seriousness of their situation and to stir their
  He wore royal apparel, and his E,Tptian  headgear served            consciences. Meanwhile also Joseph was led to revise his

  to disguise his identity. His manners were smooth and               plan. The suffering which he would cause his father's house

  polished like a high government official, far removed from          was too great. Calling his brothers ' out of prison Joseph

  the crude manners of the shepherd-boy which they had                presented to them his revised plan. "This do, and live; for

  known in the past. Moreover, the brothers hardly expected           I fear God : if ye be true men, let one of your brethren be
  to find Joseph in a position of high authority. If their eyes       bound in the house of your prison ; go ye, carry corn for the

  searched for him at all, it was among the numerous slaves           famine of your houses : but bring your youngest brother unto

  that constantly filled the market-place. When their eyes fell       me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die."

  upon Joseph, they saw nothing but an austere government                It was then that Joseph's plan began to bear fruit. The

  official whose every appearance spoke of high rank and great        brothers, not knowing that Joseph- could- understand their

  authority. Without question they bowed themselves to the            language, for he spoke to them through an interpreter, began

  ground before him. It was to Joseph as a sign from heaven.          to talk among themselves.      "We are verily guilty concerning

  The dreams- of his youth  which he had not been able to             our brother, in that we saw the angilish  of his soul, when he

  forget, but which always returned to perplex him, were              besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress

  finally come to fulfillment.                                        come upon us."    With deep feeling in his soul Joseph turned

     With keen disappointment, Joseph's eyes searched and             from them into another room and wept. This much he had

  found that Benjamin was not among the brothers. Perhaps             learned. They remembered their sin. They knew that they

  there passed through his mind even a tinge of fear lest they        were guilty  and worthy of punishment. It ~5s a joy for

  inight  have disposed of Benjamin as once they had disposed         Joseph to learn that much, and it made it even more difficult

  of him. For Joseph the presence of Benjamin was most                for him to suppress his natural desires and go on with his

  necessary. 0~1~ in examining their attitude totiard him             plan. But there was more he had to know. Were they sorry

  would he be able to determine whether hatred and jealousy           for their sin or merely for its consequences ? Had they laid

  still lingered in their hearts and controlled their lives.          their hatred aside ? Were they willing to live in God's love ?

     Joseph took the approach of an stern inquisitor. "Whence         That still had to be found out. Returning to the brothers,
  come ye?" he asked them through his interpreter. The                S&eon,  perhaps the leader in their sins of former years,
  question was natural enough, but the harsh manner was               he had bound before their eyes ; and, after giving them corn,
  frightening.    "From the land of Canaan to buy food," they         sent the rest on their way.

  meekly  replied. Joseph had to have reason to detain them,             On the way, one more cause for fear came to the brothers.

  and so he accused them, "Ye are spies; to see the nakedness         Without their knowledge Joseph had restored their money

  of the land ye are come."       Canaan was the traditional enemy    to the sacks in which their corn was carried. When nea"rly

  of Egypt and the accusation was not impossible. Shocked             home, one of the brothers ran out of provisions and opened

  and trembling with fear the brothers answered, "Nay, my             his sack to get more. -There he found. the money. That it

  l&d, but to buy food are thy servants come. We are all one          was there on purpose was more than they could imagine.

  man's sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies."            All that they could'-  think was that the Egyptian would find

  The logic was that one man would never  send so many of             it missing and think they had stolen it. That would make  it

  his sons to perfdrm such a dangerous task as spying out the         yet harder on Simeon. In fear  they cried, "What is this that

i tieak points in Egypt's defense. It was not a very good             God hath done unto us ?" and so returned to their father.

  argument but the best they could produce. Joseph after the                                                                    B.W.

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


                                                                      present essay.. That Christ is the "firstborn of all creation"
11         ,mF R 8 M I-I O- h v W R I T                          11 is abundantly evident in such expressions from Paul in this
                                                                      passage as "`Each in his own order." And that "He must

                                                                      reign, till' he hath put all enemies under his feet.", Verses
               Exposition of-1 Corinthians 15                         23, 25. And, last but not least, from the very meaningful

                                III.                                  expression, "in order that God bi a,11 in. a.ll."  Verse 28.

                                                                          Permit us to call attention to the following elements here
                     (I `Corinthians 15 :20-28)
                                                                      in the text, and the general teaching of Scripture on these

                                                                      points.
                                 a.

                                                                          In the first place, it should be noticed, that most em-
       The passage on which we will write this time is really         phatically Christ  is thk one who is raised from the dead.
too rich in content and too wide in scope to be properly ex-          You ask: who is he? He is none other but the person of
plained in-one  essay. Here, it seems to us, Paul surely does         the Son of God in human flesh, like unto us in all things
more than simply remind his readers of what he had in-                sin excepted. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh. Rom.
structed them in, whilk he was in their midst when he brought         8 :3 ; Hebrews 2 :17,  18. He is the true God and eternal life,
forth to Christ a pure bride. It is in this passage, no doubt,        I John 5 :20. He is co-equal with the Father and the Holy
that we see something of the great and deep thoughts of God           Spirit. He is God-with-us, Immanuel. He is the mighty God,
to glorify His Son, so that he says to Him in the unfolding           the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace.
of His Counsel, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten
                                                                          As the Son in our human nature, he is emphatically the
Thee ; ask of Me and I will give Thee the heathen for thine
                                                                      Messiah, the Anointed of God. ge is appointed to the task.
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy
                                                                      of dying for our sins and of rising again the third day
possession." Psalm 2 :7, 8. Here we will see some of the
                                                                      for our justification. Hereto was he sent. And this element
implications of "Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill
                                                                      qust  not be lost sight of in the jubilant and triumphant out-
of Zion." Idem,  6.
                                                                      cry of Paul in verse 20: "But now is Ckrist  risen, the first-
       This passage reads as follows, in part : "But now is Christ    fruits of them that slept.`, The Anointed of God is risen from
risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that          the dead. Incidentally we have the same emphasis in Romans
slept. For .since by man came death, by man came also the             8:33. Who is it that shall condemn? God is the one justi-
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in          fying us . . . Christ died, yea, rather, is risen, who is even
Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own              at the right .hand of God! God's Christ, His Messiah is
order : Christ the firstfruits ; afterwards they that are Christ's    king in Zion!
at his coming. Then cometh  the end, when he shall  have
                                                                       Thus it is in the decree!
delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father . . . . For
he must reign till ke lzath put all eneanies  under his feet.            pnd this decree God declares in history. He realizes this
The last etiemy  that shall be destroyed is death . . . . And         "decreg'  in the death and resurrection of His Son. It is alone
when all things shall be szibdued  unto him,  tlzen shall also        in Christ that the decree is aeclared: Thou art my Son, this
the Son himself be subject unto  him t/zat did puf all things         day have I begotten thee. Psalm 2 :7b. And this is declared
under l&n &at God may be all apzd in all? Verses 20-28.               by God in Christ's resurrection! Small wonder that we read
                                                                      the jubilant note here: "But now is Christ r&sed, the first-
       The attentive reader will have noticed that we have
                                                                      fruits of them that slept" ! God has declared the decree!
italicized only a part of this quotation. We .did  this in-

tentionally. It is our purpose to write twice on this section             It'shouid be odserved  that the Scriptures are rather ex-

in this series of essays, and, therefore, we wish to call             plicit on this point. A good deal of instruction is had in

attention in this essay chiefly tb those elements in the text         Scripture concerning God's declaring the decree in the death

which I italicized. It is our opinion that it will serve the          and resurrection of Christ.

cause of lucidness and clarity to write two essays instead of             This is touched upon by Paul when speaking of the resur-
one.                                                                  rection he says, "each in his own order" ! No, the term

      -There are really two chief and distinct elements in this       "order" in the text does not simply mean temporal order, or
entire section of I Corinthians 15.  The one element, which           succession of events. Rather the term "order" (tagma  in the
is possibly `the more apparent element in the text is that            Greek text) is a military term. It refers to the order of
Christ is "the firstfruits .of them that slept." Vs. 20. The          rank, of pre-eminence. It refers to the position of honor

other element, although not explicitly stated, is very really         which is due to each in the plan of salvation. And in that
the fundamental truth that "Christ is the firstborn of all            plan Christ has his own "tagma,"  his own "order." He is
creation." See Col. 1 :15. .                                          the Firstborpz  of all creatzcres,  Col. 1 :18,  19.    -

       It is our purpose to call attention to ,this second. and           It is important to notice the teaching ef Scripture on this

more fundamental aspect of Christ's resurrection in this              important point of Christ's pre-eminence as the Firstborn.


                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   BE.ARER                                                          301



      Various clear and rich passages of Scripture underscore ,this         must come forth from the dead. He is the resurrection and

      truth. There is, of course, that very well-known passage in           the life. -And, therefore, the grave gives birth,to  a Son, the

      Col. 1:18, 19 where we .&ad: "And he is the head of: the              firstb,orn  Son of God ! The grave has birthpangs ! Hallelujah !

_     body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from               `Do we not read in Acts 2 :22,. 23 ; "Ye men of Israel hear

      the dead : that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.         these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God
      For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should         unto you by.mighty  works and wonders and signs which God
      all the fulness dwell, and through him to reconcile all things        did in the midst of you, even as ye yourselves know: him

      unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his              being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowl-

      cross, through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or          edge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and
      things in heaven."                                                    slay : whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death :

         Such is Christ's order.        .                                   because it was not possible that he should be holden  of it."

         His is the place of pre-eminence. And He comes to this                 Thus Christ, as the firstborn of God, comes forth from

      place of pre-eminence in His dying for our sins according to          the counsel of God, he comes forth from the womb of the

      the Scriptures and in his being raised again the third day            gruve!

      according- to the Scriptures.                                             Shall we not here stop and worship him?

         Hence, Christ is the beginning !                                       He is : my Lord and my God !

         It becomes evident, that' he is the beginning, the First-              And thus God declared here of the decree: Thou art my

      fruits. of `all creation, in His resurrection from the dead.          Son, this day have I begotten thee. Thus we read in Acts

         Let it be understood rightly. Christ is the firstborn out          13 :33 : "And we bring you good tidings of the promise made

      of the dead because in the counsel of God, Christ is the first-       unto the fathers, that God hath fulfilled the same unto our

      born of all creation. Thus we read in Col. 1:15-171 "who              children, in that he raised up Jesus : as also it is written in

      is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation ;    the second Psalm : "Thou art my Son, this day have I be-

      for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon           gotten thee."

      the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones           Certainly the Son is -eternally the begotten of God in

      or dominions or principalities or powers : all things have been       the bosom of the Father. The Father generates the Son.

      created through him and unto him ; and he is before all               But in Psalm 2:7 reference is to the only begotten Son of                  '

      things, and in him all things consist" (held together).               God, as he is the Firstborn of all creation, and that, too,

         We repeat : Ch&t  is the firstborn out of the dead ; he            as he is the firstborn out of the dead !                                        :

      could only be such in his "order," since in the counsel of                Of him we read here in I Cor. 15 :25: "For he must

      God He is the firstborn of all creation !                             reign." It is the divine "must" which is implicit in Christ's

         This honor and prerogative could never be that of the              being the Anointed Son, the firstborn ! And he must `reign
      angels. In the womb of God's counsel, the counsel of his will,        so that he subdues all the enemies of him. Thus the Holy
      God determined that Christ would be the firstborn. He is              Spirit speaks of Him in Psalm 2 : 8; 9: "Ask of me, and I
      first. He leads the way. All things were created by Him and           will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the utter-
     zi~tto  Him. This honor of Christ is very beautifully described        most parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break
      to us in. Hebrews 15, 6, where we read f `CFor to which of            them with a rod of iron ; Thou shalt `dash them in pieces

      the angels said he at any `time: Thou art my Son, This day            like a potter's vessel."

      have I begotten thee ? and again, I will be to him a Father,             And since Christ is thus the firstborn He. will put all

      and he shall be to me a Son ?" Here the writer to the                 things under His feet, and will raise his church with him in

      Hebrews quotes Psalm 2 :7 and II Sam. 7 :14.                          glory.

         Thus the "order" of Christ is contrasted with that of the              For as `the Firstborn, he is also the "firstfruits."' He is

      angels, with all the angels without an exception. Must not            the firstfruits of them that slept.

      the Son, because he is the firstborn; receive all glory and                                                                             G.L.

      worship, even when he enters into this our inhabited world ?

      In Hebrews 1:,8,  9 (Psalm 45 : 6, 7) we read : "And of the

      angels he saith: `Who maketh his angels winds, and his                                            IN MEMORIAM
      ministers a flame of fire, but of the Son he saith, Thy throne,
                                                                               The consistory  e`utends  its sincere sympathy to our fellow  office
      0 God, is forever and ever."     Yea, in Psalm 97 :7 : "And let       beare;,  Mr. Peter Fisher, in the loss of his father,
      all the angels of God worshifi  him."
                                                                                                        JACOB FISHER.
         It is because of this order of Christ, his pre-eminence,
                                                                               For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Philippians 121.
      that the resurrection is so wonderful.
                                                                                                                   Protestant Reformed Church
         .For He, that came forth from the grave, had power to
                                                                                                                   of Randolph, Wisconsin
      lay,:his  life down and had power to take it up .again.  Life                                                William Huizenga, Clerk


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       JOHN KNOX AND THE REFORMATION                                    a period of 19 months. It is reported that during this time

                                                                        his health was ruined. Under pressure of the English author-
       It is very common among us that we celebrate the                 ities, Knox was finally released.
Reformation of the church, the beginning of which we con-
sider to be the nailing of the 95 theses to the door of the                 Knox, who was born in Scotland, was unable to return
Schlosskirche by Martin Luther on October 31, 1517. With-               to his native land after his release. For five years he labored
out any doubt, that event is important and significant in               in England, and served as one of the six chaplains for King
the history of the church. This was the beginning of free-              Edward VI. While in England, Knox was consulted when
dom from, the bondage of idolatry .and  corruption as it                several of the standards of the English church were com-
existed in the Roman Catholic Church of that day. The                   posed. He was forced later to flee also from England when
dual principle of the Reformation was established: justifica-           the Roman Catholic Mary I (Bloody Mary) ascended the
tion by faith, and interpretation of Scripture. on the basis of         English throne.

S c r i p t u r e . .                                                       The next five years of his life Knox lived in Europe, and

       Upon the basis of the learning, study, writing, and in-          spent much of this time at Geneva with John Calvin. Knox
struction of the leaders of this Reformation, the Protestant            admired Calvin greatly and was influenced by the learning
churches have been guided through the succeeding ages (at               of this great Reformer. Of Calvin and his instruction, Knox
least many of them claim to follow the instruction of these             stated that this was "the most perfect school of Christ that
Reformers). We too, as churches, maintain that we continue              ever was since the days of the Apostles." While at Geneva,
to uphold the same truths of Scripture whi'ch  Calvin devel-            Knox served as pastor to a church composed of English
oped on the basis of Scripture.                                         exiles.

  The fact is, however, that generally we know very little                  The last twelve years of the life of .John  Knox were

of the Reformation. We have all heard of Calvin and                     spent in his homeland - Scotland. Much could be written

Luther, but how much do we actually know of their lives                 of. all the struggles he endured there, but suffice it to say

and the struggles they had to face ? It would not harm us               that without fear of man Knox stood firm in the truth. He

at all if we knew more of the history of the Reformation.               was not even fearful to condemn his Queen when she

Simply to study history for the sake of increasing intellectual         walked in sin - and he did that several times to her face.

knowledge would be foolishness. But, as is true with all                  There are several characteristics of this man John Knox
history, we can see in the Reformation the unfolding of                 which are worthy of note. First of all,_he  is. to be admired
God's counsel and purpose when He preserves His Church                  for his :strong stand for the truth. It is said of Knox that
and His Truth through the events which then took place.                 he was more Calvinistic than Calvin himself. It is evident

       Of one of the Reformers we have possibly not even                that nothing could force him to renounce the truth of the

heard. That was John Knox. It is true that he is not' listed            Word of God. He strongly opposed all .of the Romish cor-

as one of the more important of the Reformers. In fact, it              ruption which he saw all about him in his own land. He

might be better not even to place him in the same class as              minced no words in condemning the mass, idol worship, the

Luther or Calvin, for he was a follower of Calvin. Never-               Romish hierarchy, and' the other false doctrines of the Roman

theless, the influence of .this man is also ,felt in Protestant         Catholic Church. Throughout his life he fought to remove

churches ; especially is this true in Scotland, and in England          this completely -from Scotland. Nor must one think that

and the United States to a lesser, degree.                              this was a simple task. Scotland at that time was predom-

                                                                        inantly Roman Catholic -including also its. queen.
       First, it might be well to review briefly the history of this

man. John Knox lived to be 67 years old (1505-1572).                        John Knox was not merely negative. He generally main-

When Knox was born, Luther was 26 and had already been                  tained those doctrines which are called Calvinistic. Of course,

a priest for two years. On the other hand, Knox was four                he insisted upon the truth of justification by faith, even as

years older than John Calvin.                                           did Luther. But he was also very strong in maintaining the

                                                                        eternal election of God's people through Jesus Christ. He
       At the age of 25 Knox was ordained a Roman Catholic
                                                                        maintained the same idea of the celebration of the Lordfs
priest, and it was not until he was 40 that he became a
                                                                        Supper as Calvin taught. He pointed too to`the three marks
Protestant convert (25 years after the 95 theses were nailed
                                                                        which distinguish the church which are familiar to us.
to the door of the Wittenburg church)~.  Especially two things

led to this turn of events in his life. He was greatly affected             You can call John Knox crude and rude as many have

by the man George Wishart who strongly maintained  the                  done. And undoubtedly his personality was not such that

truths of Scripture. A short time after, Knox became ac-                all men were attracted to him. He was indeed very out-

quainted with Wishart, the latter was captured and burned               spoken. Bluntly he declared what he believed to be the truth:

at the stake at the command of a Romish cardinal.                       He did not couch his condemnations in beautiful language.

       Two years after he had renounced Roman Catholicism,              But, after all, what matters all of that when a man stedfastly

Knox himself was captured and was made a galley-slave for               maintains the truth ? Often the same charge has been made


                                          T    H     E         `STANDLARD  B.EARER                                                  303
                                                                    .L           .

against others who likewise insisted upon the truth without                  The influence of Knox was also felt in England itself.

compromise.                                                               He assisted in formulating some of their creeds, but his

                                                                          influence goes further than that. If Scotland had remained
   By such men as Knox God has also maintained His                        Roman Catholic, there would have been great danger to Prot-
Church. Through God's power and wisdom, through His                       estant England. -Then  Scotland could have been, used as a
Word and Spirit, He sustains His Church. And throughout                   base for forces of Spain and France (which were Roman
the ages He has provided-His Church with men who led and                  Catholic) to advance against England itself. The Pope could
directed that Church according to His Word.                               have directed armies friendly to himself `to march against

   A secondsfeature  of this man Knox was his fearlessness.               England and force Roman Catholicism upon that country.

It is true that several times he was forced to flee from one              That was the desire of the Pope. But God had determined

place to another. Yet Knox never fled because he was                      otherwise. God used this man to lead Scotland from Roman

fearful of man. It was at the urging of friends who pointed               Catholicism and thus also to preserve Protestantism as it

out that he could serve no useful purpose by placing his life             existed.in England. If one-man. must be pointed out as the

in jeopardy that John Knox would finally agree to remove                  one who was most influential in propagating the views of

to another place. His courage is plainly seen in many things              Calvin among English-speaking peoples, that man would

during his life. Once he had been captured and made a                     doubtless be John Knox.

galley-slave. Doubtless he could have avoided that by for-                   Also in our country the influence of Knox is in evidence.
saking his calling in Scotland. In the latter part of his life,           Especially with the Puritans the teachings of Knox gere
no less than five times, he was summoned to appear before                 transported to this country. And the fact that this country
Mary, queen of the Scats. When he stood before the reigning               is not bound under the yoke of Romanism can also be traced
monarch, it was not he, but she, who trembled. He con-                    back to Knox. England, more than any other country, in-
demned her to her face for her worldly lusts (for she was                 fluenced the development of this country. If England had
one who craved the corrupt fashions of the day), and for                  remained Roman Catholic, there is the strong possibility that
her false and hypocritical worship of God. At least on one                today. the United  States would also be dominantly Roman
occasion Knox left the queen who copiously shed tears of                  Catholic. All of the above presents a large number of sup-
anger and humiliation at his rebukes. She, who could have                 positions, nevertheless it may show how that God used John
given the order td take away his life, was afraid of this `man            Knox at the time of the Reformation to stand up for the
of God. God so preserved Knox that the Queen of Scats                     truth ; and that the effect of that work in which God directed
dared not to touch him. John Knox himself was confident of                him is yet in evidence today.
God's care and guidance ; there was then no reason for him
                                                                             Here was a man of God. May we also receive of God
to fear.
                                                                          grace that, as Knox, we too stand firm in the truth regardless

   When viewing the life of this man; one can not help but                of all of the opposition -of man with the confidence that God

recall the word and promise of Christ, "They shall lay their              will preserve His own in all adversity.

.hands on you, and persecute you . . . being brought before                                                                      G.V.B  .

kings and rulers for my name's sake. Settle it therefore in

your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer; for

I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adver-                                        O M N I P R E S E N C E

saries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist" (Luke 21).
                                                                                      How Thy ever presence thrills me !

   John Knox was noted also for his eloquence of speech.                              How it moves the inmost soul !

Eloquence of speech in itself means nothing, but when this *                          Just to feel that as I journey,

gift is used in the service of the Word of Christ, it is a                            There is One' who has control.

marvelous thing to hear. So forceful was he in his preaching
                                                                                      Not a cross that is too heavy,
that it is even said that on occasions, pulpits would be
                                                                                      Will He give His Saints to bear.
splintered. The. story is that at the end of his life, when he
                                                                                      Not a road that is too rugged,
was so weak that he had to be assisted to the pulpit, after
                                                                                      Will He lead us, for He,cares.
he began to preach his old strength and vigor seemed to

return.                                                                               Every trial and temptation

                                                                                      That may come in life's brief day
    What was his impact upon the Reformation ? One must                               Is to help us strengthen, guide us,
certainly acknowledge that he was not a Calvin or a Luther.                           Til we're farther on the way.
Surely he was not as learned a man as either, nor was his

influence as great. But God so used him that the country                              What a comfort to the Christian,

of Scotland became strongly Protestant.             Without him,                      When it seems he treads alone

humanly speaking; this seemed impossible. Even today Scot-                            He has.an ever-present Guide, '

land, has the reputation of being Calvinistic.                                        Who'll watch and bring him safely home.

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


                                                                          and His apostles and what does not belong to them? We can
      II &tetiding For The Faith                                          understand, of course, that these unwritten sayings of Jesus
.-                                                                   II and His apostles could be authoritative in the very early `days
                                                                          of the Church in its New Testament infancy. These sayings

                   The Church and the Sacraments                          then were passed on from mouth to mouth. One can con-
                                                                          ceive of the possibility of this at the beginning of the

                                                                          Church in the New Dispensation. But, as the days of Jesus
               THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION
                                                                          .and the apostles receded more and more- into the past, and

                      ,VIEWS  ON THE CHURCH                               the distance became increasingly wider between them and

                                                                          the Church, the impossibility of a reliable and infallible

                         F O R M A L   P R I N C I P L E                  tradition became more and more apparent. Does man, be-

                                                                          cause of the presence of the power of sin in him, have the
                                   (continued)                            clearness of perception, the retentiveness of memory, or the

                                                                          power of presentation to enable him to give a trustworthy
          In our last article we called attention to the fact that        account of a discourse once heard a few years or even a few
      the `Romish doctrine of Tradition must not be confused or           months after its delivery ?    Does man, sinful man have the
      identified with the truth which advocated development in            ability to give a trustworthy and reliable account of the
      the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. Protestantism surely          sayings of Jesus and His apostles after years and centuries
      believes in such a development and advancement. We be-              have elapsed since their delivery ?
      lieve in the perspecuity,  transparency, and also in the

      profundity of the written Word of God. There will surely                This, however, is not all. We must bear in mind that man
      always remain hidden nuggets, treasures, unfathomable               is sinful. Would the Lord entrust His infallible Word to `the
      riches in the Word of the Lord. However, these riches .were         memory of sinful men? Are not all men by nature blind to
      always present in the Scriptures. They must never be viewed         the things that are of the Spirit? Is it not man's natural
      as revelations of the truth in addition to the Bible. This, we      disposition and inclination to pervert and misrepresent the
      understand, is exactly what Rome means when it speaks of            truth to suit his own prejudices and purposes ? Would God,
      the authority of its traditions.    But the Church of God simply    for example, entrust to man the writing of His Word? There
      advances and gr,ows in its knowledge of these truths which          are those, we.know, who believe that the Word of God is in
      were always present in the Word of God. In this article             .the  Bible. They do not claim that the Bible is the Word of
      we wish to continue our critical analysis of the Roman Cath-        God but they would maintain that the Bible contains the
      olic doctrine of Tradition as decreed in the Romish Council         Word of God, as, for example, a cradle contains a baby.
      of Trent.                                                           Would God simply instruct a- man to write, as in the epistle

          First, the Romish doctrine of Tradition simply involves         to the Romans, on the general theme of the Righteousness
      us in a natural impossibility. It is simply impossible. We          of -God, and leave it to him to write on it and develop it in
      do not deny, of course, that Christ and His apostles said           his own way? And then we should regard Tradition as of
      more than what is recorded in the books of the New Testa-           equal authority with the Word of God ? How can Tradition
      ment canon, the New Testament. And neither do we deny               be a reliable source of religious knowledge ? Imagine if the
      that these sayings of Jesus, in addition to what is recorded        retention of what Jesus or the apostles had said were left
      in the New Testament, are just as infallible as these books         to the memory of man! How easy it would be to distort
      of the New Testament. We certainly believe that, as far as          and pervert such truths as are recorded in Romans 9 where
      the apostles are concerned, they, too, wrote and said more          "we read that the Lord is the Potter and we are the clay, that
      than what is written in the New Testament. And they were            the living God has the sovereign right to make of the clay
      surely infallibly guided and led by the Holy Spirit when-           whatever He pleases, that-He makes vessels of honour and
      ever they were busy in their official capacity as apostles. We      of dishonour, and that no man can or may reply against Him !
      know, for example, that there were more than two epistles           The danger would surely exist that man would distort and
      to the church at Corinth. And that third epistle must also          corrupt these sayings .to suit his own natural likes and dis-
      have been infallibly written. However, it is not the question       likes. However, even this is not all. Still more can and must

      whether there was more said by Christ and His apostles              be said. Again we ask the question: who will determine

      than what is recorded in Holy Writ. Protestantism main-             whether these sayings of Jesus and of His apostles have

      tains that not all the sayings of Jesus and His apostles were       been correctly reproduced ? The Church of God in Africa

      intended to constitute a part of the permanent rule of faith        protested against the exaggerated value which was attributed

      and doctrine to the Church.                                         to Tradition especially in the second century. Cyprian ap-

         However, we remarked that the Romish doctrine of                 pealed to texts such as Isaiah 29:13, Matt. 15 :9, I Tim.

      Tradition involves us in a natural impossibility. Who will          6:3-5  to counteract tradition as the ground upon which the

      determine what belongs to these unrecorded sayings of Jesus         bishop of Rome attempted to maintain himself. The question


                                            T H E   STAND~ARD  B E A R E R                                                        305
                                    m




is therefore inevitable: who determines the value and purity        and terrible. Rome's unity, however, is merely external.

of these tzaditions  ? Is the Church `of God the organ which        There all the people are held together in one faith and doc-

safeguards the infallibility of traditions'? But, the church of     trine by an outward hierarchy, as loops around a barrel. The

God could surely not be this organ as far as its general            reason why Protestantism is split up into so many parts and

membership is concerned. That is an obvious fact. How               segments is because the Reformation returned the Bible to

could the common membership of the church be in a position          the people. Give the people the liberty to read and interpret

to read and interpret countless traditions and sayings of past      the Holy Scriptures and the invariable result will be that

centuries, also considering the fact that these traditions have     the evil of the human heart will always assert itself. This, of

come down to us in many and various languages ? Distinc-            course, is no reflection on the Word of God and its clearness,

tion can be made in the church of God between those who             but on the natural evil of the human heart and mind. The

hear and those who teach. One can hardly expect the hearing         unity of the Roman ,Catholic  Church is not internal and

element of the church (the laity) to determine what is true         spiritual but outward and forced. That all the people of the

or false. Does this teaching element (as, for example, the          Roman Catholic Church accept all the doctrines of Rome,

bishops) determine this question individually or when they          also those doctrines which are based on tradition, is not

are gathered in a council ? And if they determine this ques-        because they chose them but because they have been imposed

tion only when they are gathered in a council, does then the        upon them.

majority of votes determine the final outcome of .the matter?           Besides, in connection with Rome's appeal to the argu-

How great must this majority be? Is a majority of one vote          ment of "common consent," we must bear in mind that this

sufficient? And so the papal system went one step farther           argument of Rome ,is based upon the utterly preposterous

and ascribed infallibility to the pope. Hence, the infallibility    assumption that the Romanists are the only Christians in

of the pope, of one man, is the final result of this develop-       the midst of the world. They claim that there is no ,salvation

ment of the doctrine of Tradition throughout the ages. One          outside of the Church, and they claim that the Church is the

man, `one ordinary mortal controls this tremendously im-            Romish Church. Rome claims that the Church of Rome

portant and vital question.                                         receives certain doctrines upon the authority of tradition.

                                                                    They also claim that the Church of Rome includes all the
   Another argument that may `be voiced against the Roman
                                                                    Christians in the midst of the world. And so they conclude
Catholic doctrine of Tradition is that which revolved around
                                                                    that all the Christians throughout the world are in favour
the Roman Catholic doctrine of "common consent." Rome,
                                                                    of these doctrines. And whereas the Christians throughout
we know, glories in its unanimity. Roman Catholicism
                                                                    the world are in favour of these doctrines these doctrines
ridicules Protestantism because the latter is so hopelessly
                                                                    must be true. This is their argument of "common consent."
divided, cut up into hundreds of churches and denominations.
                                                                    Of course, this argument falls as soon as it becomes evident
We must bear in mind that, until the middle of the eleventh
                                                                    that all the Christians in the world are not confined to the
century, there- was but one church of Christ in the midst of
                                                                    Church of Rome.-  And the claim that all the Christians in
the world. It -was in the middle of the eleventh century that
                                                                    the world are confined to the Church of Rome is surely
the great schism occurred between the Latin and Greek sec-
                                                                    preposterous. The movement of the Reformation was `the
tions of the Church of God, between the East and the West,
                                                                    work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men, and this is
between Rome and Constantinople. And then another
                                                                    clear from the fact that they sought to maintain the principle
tremendous break took place in the sixteenth century, ,at the
                                                                    that the Bible alone is authoritative for life and doctrine and
time of the Reformation. And we know that since that time
                                                                    that our justification before God is not based in any sense of
the Roman Catholic Church has remained intact; Protestant-
                                                                    the word upon any work of man but only upon free and
ism,  however, has suffered one break after another. Rome
                                                                    sovereign grace.
points to this fact with pride, seeks in its own unity and
unanimity the earmark of its being the true church, and re-            Finally, continuing our criticism of Rome's' appeal to
gards the splitting up of the Protestant churches as a sure         the argument of "common consent," let us presuppose, for
indication that they are false. And `Rome also sees in its own      the sake of argument, that the Romish Church is the whole
unity and unanimity a certain proof of the infallibility of         Church of God in the midst of the world, and admit that
Tradition. It calls attention to the fact that all the doctrines    that Church is unanimous in its maintaining of certain teach-
which they have adopted as based upon tradition must be             ings and doctrines. Would in that case the appeal of Rome
true because these various dqctrines  enjoy such universal en-      to this unanimity'be conclusive? By no means. Rome must
dorsement and approval.                                             not only prove that they are unanimous today in what they
                                                                    teach. But they must also prove that the Church was always
   To counter this argument of Roman Catholicism we may
                                                                    unanimous also in the past. The Lord willing, we will con-
remark, in the first place, that Rome's unity is merely ex-
                                                                    tinue. with this discussion in our following article.      H.V.
ternal. Protestantism's divisions and schisms are certainly

to be deplored. This, of course, does not mean that we may

ever seek the reunion of churches at the cost of `the  truth.          `CEm*l  `p~irsateth  Sinnms;  but the righteozts slmll be rec-

However, any departure- from the truth. is always deplorable        ompensed z&h good? PROVERBS 13:21.


3%                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                            - :
II                                                                           Notice, first of all, that they speak of "the true believers
         The Voice of Our Fathers                                    II and regenerate." The subject, therefore, is not merely those
                                                                          who appear to be saints outwardly. We are not discussing

                                                                          those of whom the apostle John says: "They went out from
                  The Canons of Dordrecht                                 us,' but they were not of us." But the subject is the true

                                                                          saints, those who really believe and who are regenerate, that
                           :`,PART  Two
                                                                          is, who have the new and heavenly life of Christ in them.

                   EXPOSITION OF THE CANONS                               Concerning these the Arminians teach, in the first place,

                                                                          that it is possible for them to lose their justifying faith, and
                   FIFTH HEAD OF DOCTRINE                                 thus to fall from grace and salvation, something, of course,

             OF THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS                            which follows inevitably upon the loss of justifying faith.

                                                                          If one loses justifying faith, he loses the blessing of justifica-
                  R E J E C T I O N   O F   E R R O R S
                                                                          tion. And justification is basic. In our justification we have

             Article 3. Who teach: That the true believers and            the right before God to all the blessings of grace and salva-

             regenerate not only can fall from justifying faith and       tion ; without our justification we have the right to none of

             likewise from grace and salvation wholly and to the end,     them, but only to condemnation .and  wrath. And to make
             but .indeed often do fall from this and are lost forever.    the matter perfectly plain, the Arminians add: "wholly and
             For this conception makes powerless the grace, justilica-
                                                                          finally."    Hence, they mean that it is possible for the saint
             tion,  regeneration, and continued keeping by Christ,
             contrary to the expressed words of the Apostle Paul:         to lose the justifying faith, and therefore also grace and
             "That while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.          salvation, in such a way that he has nothing left. Not even

             Much more then, being justified by his blood, shall we       the power and the principle of that faith is left. It has dis-
             be saved from the wrath of God through him," Rom.            appeared completely, so that the saint has reverted to the
             5~3, 9. And contrary to the Apostle John: "Whosoever         status of an unsaved, natural man. Moreover, the Arminians
             is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed
             abideth in him; and he can not sin, because he is be-        are not speaking of a temporary fall from grace - something
             gotten of God," I John 3:9. And also contrary to, the        which would be folly anyway when they speak of a complete

             words of Jesus Christ: "I give unto them eternal life;       fall -but, to make'it  clear beyond a question, they speak of
             and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch         a @al  falling away. .,-In  the second place, the Arminians
             them out of my hand. My Father who hath given them           make bold to state' concerning these true believers and
             to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch
                                                                          regenerate that they not only can, but indeed often do fall
             them out of the Father's hand." John 10:28, 29.
                                                                          from justifying faith, grace, and salvation, and are lost for-
      We offer the following corrections of the translation:
                                                                          ever. Mark you well,`the  spiritual effect of this terrible doc-
1) "to the end" might better be rendered simply by "finally."
                                                                          trine is that not a single believer is safe. All face not only
2) "from this". should be "from these," referring to justi-
                                                                          the possibility of falling away, but also the imminent danger
fying faith, grace, and salvation. 3) "powerless" is correct
                                                                          of actually being lost forever. According to this view it could
if taken in the specific sense of "ineffectual,' or "void." 4)
                                                                          very well have come to pass that not a single soul would ever
In the. second sentence of this article, "grace, justification,
                                                                          reach everlasting glory and that Christ would occupy heaven
regeneration,"    should be "the grace of justification and of
                                                                          without His saints.
regeneration."    5) The texts quoted should be given con-

sistently as they are found in the Authorized Version.                        It is worth our while in this connection to take note of

      In this citation of error it is evident that the Arminians          some of the favorite arguments of the Arminians on this

went far beyond the position taken originally in the fifth                score. Even though these arguments are not mentioned in

article of the Remonstrance. There, you will `remember, they              this article, we should nevertheless be acquainted with them.

had not .dared to do more than to call the doctrine"of  `the              Forewarned is fore-armed. Hence, while we do not intend to

perseverance of the saints in question. . They had said that              explain all these passages, we will call your attention to them.

the matter of falling away from `grace "must be more partic-              First of all,. the Arminians teach that all those passages

ularly determined out of the Holy Scripture, before we -our-              which exhort God's people to persevere imply that the falling

selves can teach it with the full persuasion of our minds."               away of the saints is really possible. To mention `a few

And in that fifth article they had even rather $ously  quoted             examples, they point out that Christ says that only they

one of the passages which the fathers in the article we are               shall be saved that endure unto the end, Matt. 24:13. Or

discussing employ against them, namely, John 10 5%. Here,                 they cite a passage like Hebrews 4 :ll, where we are ad-

however, the Arminians are quoted by the fathers as going                 monished to labor to enter into the rest, lest any man fall

to the extreme of a complete denial of the truth of the                   after the same example of unbelief. Or they point to the

perseverance of the saints. They teach both' the possibility              numerous admonitions to the seven churches in the book of

of a final falling away and the frequent actuality of such a              Revelation which are also accompanied by threats -for

fall from.justifying faith and grace and salvation into ever-             example, the word to the church of Sardis: "Remember

lasting perdition. This is indeed a terrible doctrine.                    therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast,


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              307


 and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come        in the narrower sense of perseverance as that work of God

on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know  what hour I will      in Christ whereby He keeps His elect unto the final salva-

 come upon thee."      Or that to the church of Philadelphia.:     tion and glory. But this perseverance is never to be separ-

 "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast,          ated from the other blessings of salvation. It means that

 that no man take thy crown." In the second place, the Ar-         they continue as regenerated, believing, justified, sanctified

 minians appeal to Scripture passages which, in their opinion,     children of God unto the end, and that God preserves them

 teach the possibility of a final falling away. They mention       in these various aspects of grace. He keeps His regenerated

 the passage in Romans 11 where the apostle Paul speaks of         child, so that he never loses the new life. He preserves the

 the branches that are cut off on account of unbelief and          believer, so that he never loses the faith. He keeps the

 where he warns believers not to be highminded but to fear.        justified Christian; so that he does not fall out of the state

 They cite the well-known passage of Hebrews 6:4-8, where          of justification. He preserves the sanctified Christian, so that

 the author speaks of the impossibility of renewing unto re-       he continues in the grace of sanctification. Once regenerated

 pentance those who fall away, who crucify to themselves the       is always regenerated ; once a believer is always a believer ;

 Son of God afresh. And there are other such passages. And         once justified is forever justified ; .once sanctified is forever .

 finally, they also claim that there are actual examples of        sanctified. Hence, you cannot touch the truth of preservation

 those who ~fall  away. They cite I Tim. 1:19,  20: "Holding       without touching at the same time all these blessings of

 faith, and .a good conscience ; which some having put away        salvation in which the saints continue through divine pres-

 concerning faith have made shipwreck: Of whom is Hyme-            ervation.    Hence, the fathers were correct in pointing out

naeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan,             that when the Arminians say that true believers and regener-

that they may learn not to blaspheme." They also mention           ate can and do fall away wholly and finally from justifying

 those who erred concerning the truth of the resurrection,         faith and salvation, they are making ineffectual not only

 II Tim. 2 :17,  18, namely, Hymenaeus and Philetus. Or they       Christ's continued keeping of His saints but also the grace

 mention the false teachers of II Peter 2, .who denied the         of `regeneration and justification.

Lord that bought them, and who, after they escaped the                In the second place, notice that the fathers accuse the

pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Jesus             Arminians of making the grace of justification and regenera-

 Christ, are again entangled in those same pollutions and are      tion and the continued keeping by Christ powerless - liter-

 overcome. All these are supposed to be examples of men who        ally, ineffectual, or vain. In other words, according to the

had really been believers and regenerate and who lost the          Arminians, these works of grace are no guarantee whatso-
justifying faith, grace, and salvation through their own           ever of man's final salvation. It can and does come to pass
apostasy, so that they went lost forever.                          that a man is justified and regenerated and even kept by

    As we said, it is not our intention to treat these various     Christ but ,that  he nevertheless goes lost forever. All that

so-called Scriptural arguments of the Arminians in detail.         justification and regeneration and keeping by Christ in that

That is beyond the scope of this discussion of the Canons.         case is vain, of none effect, and went completely for nought.

 For the fathers do not deal in this connection with the Ar-       We said "in that case."     But the fathers correctly make a

minians' arguments, but with their doctrine. The arguments         general statement: this conception makes vain the grace of

were fully treated during the course of the Synod's investiga-     justification and regeneration and the continued keeping by

tion into the Arminians' writings. And therefore our fathers,      Christ. For if it be true in one single instance that a regener-

following the,sound  rule that the Scriptures do not contradict    ated and justified Christian goes lost forever, then these

themselves, present the current teaching of Scripture on this      works of grace are pzever  effectual. It is the old Arminian

subject, citing various passages, and implying, of course,         error over again: not the work of God, but the work of

that the various texts quoted by the Arminians must be             man is effectual. All depends on man's free will.

interpreted only in the light of that current teaching of             And that leads us to our third remark in this connection,

Scripture.                                                         namely, that the fathers exactly take us back to the fact that

    First, however, they very briefly expose the error of the      this Arminian error says something about the work of God.

Arminians : "For this conception makes powerless the grace,        Regeneration and justification and Christ's continued keep-

justification, regeneration, and continued keeping by Christ."     ing are works of grace, works of God. If you make them

This is a noteworthy answer.                                       ineffectual you make God's work ineffectual. And this is the

    In the first place, notice that the fathers do not only        accusation the fathers bring against the Arminians : by your           .
speak of the work of preservation as such, but also of .the        conception you make God's work, not man's work, ineffec-
grace of justification and regeneration. This is due un-           tual. To be sure, that is a severe accusation. But we must
doubtedly to the fact that the Arminians themselves speak          allow it to stand in all its severity. The Arminian doctrine
of the "true believers and regenerate" and of falling from         is a God-dishonoring doctrine. And if for no other reason
"justifying faith."    But this draws our attention to the fact    than this, we must oppose it with all our might.

that these matters are indeed at stake in any discussion of                               (to be continued)

the doctrine of perseverance.    It is true that one may speak                                                              H . C . H .   L


     308                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   ~



                                                                         ness and frankness must mark this work. Faults and short-
                   DECENCY and ORDER                                     comings, worthy of mention, will come to the attention of the
                                                                         Visitors much more readily if the various groups of office

                                                                         bearers will absent themselves for a little while than when

                                                                         they remain in the gathering. Some have said if a matter
                           Church Visitatibn
                                                                         requires mentioning the responding brother should be as

                        (Article 44, D.K.O.,  Con't.)                    willing to broach the matter in the presence of the party
                                                                         concerned as in his absence. But, this is reasoning too
         When the Church Visitors meet with a Consistory, it is
                                                                         idealistically. -Moreover, it is better in many instances for
     proper that the president of the Con&tory  presides over the
                                                                         the office bearer who may need correction that he does not
     meeting even though one of the rules prescribed for Church
                                                                         know who broached the matter. To know who mentioned
     Visitation states,: "Of the visitors, one sh&? function as          the matter would tend to introduce a personal element which
     chairmn .and the other as secretary. They shall record their        is undesirable."
     findings and actions in a book, which. can be consulted at the

     next visitation, nnd which can. be kept in fhe C&ical                  Although there is an element of truth in the above quota-

     a.rchive."    This rule. should be interpreted to mean that the     tion, it does not, in my opinion, express the entire truth. I
\    visitors function as chairman and secretary of their own            believe that, witbout becoming too idealistic, it may be

     committee and not of the Consistory. That this is evidently         argued that the presence of a full consistory during all the

     the intent of the rule follows from the fact that the secretary     questioning has certain advantages for the work of church

     does not transcribe a record of the visit in the minute book        visitation. Nor do I think that the mere assertion `that it

     of the consistory but in a book that is the property of the         is easier for a brother to bring up a certain matter against a

     Classis.  If then the secretary functions only as secretary of      fellow office-bearer in his absence than in his presence

     the committee, this would also be true of the chairman. His         should be a reason that he should be given this opportunity.

     oflice  as' chairman pertains only to his own committee.            If he has something against his fellow office-bearer, he should

                                                                         bring it up i?t his presence and neither should he wait until
         The meeting that is called is a Consistory meeting. The
                                                                         the church visitors are there to do so. Why should he keep
     minister of the church, who is the president of the Consis-
                                                                         a matter that needs correction in his soul for weeks and
     tory, opens the meeting with the reading of an appropriate
                                                                         perhaps even months ? Is the relationship of brethren such
     passage of Scripture and this is followed with prayer as
                                                                         that they will hate one another when they speak words of
     prescribed in Article 32 of the Church Order. Our own
                                                                         correction and admonition? Is not Proverbs 9:6 true any-
     custom is to include in these opening devotions the singing
                                                                         more? `(Rebuke  a wise mm and he will love thee." We
     of a Psalm. This is fitting. The Consistory is met to be
                                                                         must have more of that spirit in the church and less of the
     engaged in the Lord's work and this work is .a joyous one.
                                                                         spirit of secrecy and cover-up. It is my contention that it is
     That joy may appropriately be expressed by a Psalm of
                                                                         unnecessary to ask the minister, elders and deacons to leave
     praise or thanksgiving to `God. The meeting is then properly
                                                                         the room while questions are asked and answered concerning
     constituted and the chairman, after addressing >a few ap-
                                                                         their persons and work.
     propriate words of welcome to the visitors, extends to them

     the right to perform the labors for whichthey  have met with           Not only would I advocate that they remain present in

     the Consistory. The chairman of the church visiting com-            the Consistory meeting but I want to offer one further sug-

     mittee `then proceeds to this task and the committee's. sec-        gestion along this line. It seems to me that it would even be.

     retary transcribes in their record the transactions that follow.    advantageous and fruitful if, for example, the questions that

         The prescribed questions that are asked by the Church           are asked about the minister and his work were answered by
     Visitors are divided into four parts.. First, there is a series     the minister himself with the elders and deacons witnessing
     of nineteen questions that are asked of the whole consistory.       his answers. Likewise then would the elders answer the
     Next, there are six questions that are asked of the elders          questions pertaining to them and their office and so also the
     and deacons in the absence of the minister. The third part,         deacons with the rest of the Consistory witnessing the an-
     consisting again of six questions, is asked of the minister and     swers. Silence on the part of the witnesses would mean
     deacons with the elders being absent. The final part consists       agreement with the answers given. Should there then be
     of five questions that are asked of the minister and elders in      dissent with regard to any of the answers given, a circum-
     the absence of the deacons.                                         stance would come to light for the church visitors to in-
                                                                         vestigate further.
        There is, of course, reason why the various members of

     the Consistory are asked to absent themselves from the                 Let us then apply this to a few concrete questions. The

     meeting during part of the questioning. The Church Order'           question is asked, for example, concerning the minister: "Is

     Cosmmentary  cites this as "a good rule." Their reasoning           he devoted as much as possible to the exercise of his office ?"

     is that "if the work of mutual supervision carried on through       Now the elders and deacons, in the absence of the minister,

     Church Visitation is to have real significance, then thorough-      might readily answer that question affirmatively and the


                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               309


 church visitors would proceed to the next one. If, however,         sources do you study in connection with your catechism

 the minister himself was asked to answer that question, it          preaching ? Do you preach on the Catechism from different

 is possible that he could not, in good conscience, give an          viewpoints ? From what viewpoint are you preaching on it

 affirmative answer. Who knows, better than the minister             at present? The same holds for many other questions."

 himself, how devoted he is to his office ? And should he                We cite this because if the minister was present to an-
 then hesitate to answer or to give a negative answer, there         swer the question: "Do you faithfully ,explain  God's Word
 would arise immediately a circumstance that should be in-           so that the congregation is built up through your preaching?'
 vestigated and corrected as. soon as possible.                      a wonderful opportunity would be given in the light of the

     Another example we will take from the questions now             above for the church visitors to ask many things relating to

 asked in the absence of the elders. Suppose that the elders         the work and preaching of the minister in the congregation.

 themselves were asked the fifth question: "Do you try to            And the same is true of the questions that would'  then be

 prevent and remove all offense in the congregation, and try         directed to the elders and deacons, but this is especially im-

 to comfort and instruct the members?' In their absence              portant with regard to the matters of the preaching. The

 the minister and deacons might reply' that they do but it is        more these things are broadened out the more fruitful they

 also possible that the elders themselves know of offenses that      will become not only for the consistory members themselves

 they put forth no effort to remove and, would therefore be          but also for the entire church and we visualize an opportune

 unable to answer affirmatively. If then, they themselves make       way to accomplish this by changing some of the current

 admission of neglect in regard to this matter, the church vis-      practices of church visitation. If, for example, the church

 itors could serve amicably with advice and counsel that             visitors could do a little investigative work, they might have

 would be beneficial to the whole church.                            asked in 1953 a certain minister who ,had been in the min-

                                                                     istry for nearly twenty-five years, to explain why he still
    We may cite one more example with reference to the
                                                                     used the literal themes and divisions in his Catechism preach-
 deacons. The question is asked now in their absence: "Are
                                                                     ing that Rev. Hoeksema had given him in his student days ?
they diligent in the collecting of the alms and do they faith-
                                                                     And the irony of it was that while he was doing this he was
 fully realize their calling in the care and comfort of the poor
                                                                     most vigorously propagating slander against the Professor
 and oppressed ?" It might be advantageous to have the
                                                                     whose material he was using for his sermons. The evidence
 deacons testify before the consistory and church visitors in
                                                                     and proof of this I have preserved in my file to this day.
 regard to this matter. It is my contention that in all these
                                                                     No doubt many more things would have been uncovered in
 instances the ones concerning whom the questions are asked
                                                                     those days if the church visitors had had authority to in-
 are best able to answer them and that, therefore, they should
                                                                     terrogate ministers, elders and deacons personally on matters
 be put to them and not to others in their absence.
                                                                     relating to the prescribed .questions.
    I realize that this would be a rather radical departure                                                                      G.V.d.B.
 from past custom.' ,However, this should be no objection if

 it will improve the institution of church .visitation  as is ,my

 contention. There may be objections because this would'un-
 doubtedly make the task more difficult for the consistory,                                  Announcement

 members since it would put a little flesh on an otherwise               The Free Christian School at Edgerton, Minnesota, will
 "wassen neus" but at the same time it would make the task           be in need of a teacher for grades 1, 2, 3, and 4 for the term
 richer for the church visitors provided that, as we have            1960-1961.
 suggested before, they would be allowed in connection with
                                                                         Please mail applications to
 their questioning to depart somewhat from the accepted form.
                                                                                           H. MIERSMA, Woodstock, Minnesota
 For instance, I want to refer you to what Rev. Hoeksema

`wrote in connection with the question that is asked concern-

ing the preaching from the Heidelberg Catechism. He ex-
                                                                         Proverb selected for this issue: Buy the truth, sell it
 plains that it is easy to answer the question "Yes" and let
                                                                     n o t ; also wisdom,     and instruction,         and understanding.
 the matter drop. But he also suggests that the church visitors
                                                                     Prov. 23 :23.  %
 question further along these lines. We now quote from page

 200, Vol. 35, S. B.                         0
    "But suppose that the purpose of the question is, too, to        "It should be borne in mind, that, in those who have
 find out whether the minister is faithful in studying the doc-      just learned Christ, the same cannot be expected, as from
 trine explained in the Catechism and whether he himself re-         those who have been instructed from .early youth ; that the

 mains ahead of the congregation. Then it becomes a different deepest motives of conversion, as a rule, remain hid from
 matter. Then the church visitors might ask such questions           others, and often even from those who experience it; and
 as these: `Do you always make new sermons on the Cate-              the sense of ,guilt  is not the cause; but is the fruit of faith."

 chism or do you simply put the old pile upside down ? What                                  H. Bavinck, Geref.  Dogmatiek,  Vol. `IV

                                                                                                                  f

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


                                                                       "The majority of leaders in the Gereformeerde Kerken
 Il.          A L L   AROU.N-D  U S                                 were of the opinion that this problem can best be solved by
                                                                    distinguishing between the outward and inward aspects of

                                                                    the covenant. All children of believing parents are outwardly

 More Comment On The Liberated-Synodical IMerger.                   in the covenant, but only the elect children are inwardly (and
                                                                    really) in the covenant.
        The reader may recall that in `the February 1st issue of
                                                                       "There was a minority of .leaders  who had objections
 !l%e  Standard Bearel'  we called attention to the first of two
                                                                    against this view. For, this would mean that baptism did
 articles written by Dr. R. Danhof in The Banner in which he
                                                                    not have the same meaning for children of believing parents.
 told of the "Renewed Attempt at Merger in the Netherlands.,,
                                                                    This minority preferred to believe that the covenant promises
 Dr. Danhof informed his readers that the Christian Reformed
                                                                    are the same to all the children of believing parents. They
 Church in America assumed a "lay hands off" policy with
                                                                    preferred to explain the problem of the Ishmaels and Esaus
 respect to the Netherlands situation. It was in connection
                                                                    by pointing ,to faith and repentance as the condition upon
 with this revealed policy that we made the following state-
                                                                    which the promise would be realized. They believed that this
 ments :
                                                                    was a Reformed view, and pointed to Lord's Day 45 which
        "It would stand to reason that the Christian Reformed
                                                                    says that `God will give His grace and Holy Spirit to those
 Church would assume a `lay hands off' policy, because they
                                                                    only who with hearty sighing unceasingly beg them of Him
 had already placed themselves in the precarious position of
                                                                    and thank Him for them.'
 jumping -in the frying pan or to the fire. They would main-
 tain the friendly and sisterly relation of long standing with         "Thus there were two views in the Gereformeerde Ker-
 the Gereformeerde Kerken (Synodicals), while at the same           ken, even since 1905 when the Conclusions of Utrecht had,
 time they were busy swallowing up the Dutch immigrants             been drawn up. The Conclusions of Utrecht had straddled
 from the Liberated Churches into their own church which            the issue. But in 1942 the Gereformeerde Synod deciared
 came to this country or to Canada. It would ,not do for the        that the view of the minority might no longer be taught.
 Christian Reformed Church to show partiality to either             Ministers who failed to fall in line were deposed for insub-
 group."                                                            ordination. Many serious minded people, alarmed with grow-
                                                                    ing `covenantal complacency' in the Geref-ormeerde  Kerken,
        When we penned the above quoted paragraph the thought
                                                                    went along with their ministers to form the `Liberated
 was in our soul that there might be readers of The Banpler
                                                                    Church.
 who, after reading Dr. Danhof's articles, would nevertheless

 feel that partiality was bein g shown. That our suspicion was         "Although the Christian Reformed Church calls the Ge-

 not unwarranted is plain from a letter addressed to the            reformeerde Kerken a `sister church, as before, and although

 Editor of The Banner in the department "Voices in the              we have never applied that term as yet to the `Liberated

 Church," in the March 11th issue.                                  Churches,' we ha.ve never made a pronouncement as, to who

        Rev. Harold Hollander of Orangeville, Ontario, who          was right. T/l/e still hay!e the Conclusions of Utrecht  which
 Dr. Danhof informs us is Stated Clerk of Classis  Toronto,         allows both positions; we leave  never adopted the formula-
 comments on the articles of Dr. Danhof, and the latter             tions which were yxade  in. Holland in `42 and `46.

 makes his reply.                                                      "I regret that Dr. Danhof states that the Gereformeerde

        Rev. Hollander, it appears, feels that Dr. Danhof may       Kerken did not adopt a new doctrinal position in `42. Al-

 have left room for misunderstanding "between the `Liberated        though no new doctfrine  was added, t,`ze doct&al  position

 people (both in Holland and U.S.) and ourselves." By               was changed in t?zat the minority view might no longer be

 "ourselves" he means the Christian Reformed Church. Rev.           taught.

 Hollander remarks that the articles of Dr. Danhof "although           "I hope that the statement of Dr. Danhof will be taken
 intended to be factual, and perhaps purposely vague as to          as the opinion of one man (although he happens to be the
 the problems involved, contain a statement which is liable to      Stated Clerk of Synod) and not the official position of our
promote further misunderstanding . . ." To elucidate, Rev.          church."
 Hollander continues :
                                                                       To this Dr. Danhof makes the following reply:
        "To understand this, we must remember that the con-

 troversy revolves especially around the promise of the Cov-           "Brother Hollander introduces matters in his document

 enant. Does the covenant promise made to the children of           which I purposely avoided in my brief historical review of

 believers contain also the promise of the regenerating work        the split which occurred in the Reformed Churches of the

 of the Holy Spirit, or doesn't it? How is it to be explained       Netherlands and the repeated attempts to effect ,a merger.

 that among the children of believing parents there are the         The problem raised by him concerning the `Ishmaels and

 Ishmaels and Esaus and others who received the sign and the        Esaus' in the covenant of grace, and the distinctions such

 seal of the covenant, but in whom, to all appearances, the         as `outward and inward, aspects of the covenant were not

 covenant is not realized ?                                         within the scope or purpose of my articles. To discuss the


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                311



dogmatic distinctions raised by him would require a series            read Dr. Danhof's answer to the question: Which doctrinal

of articles.                                                          position do you sustain, that of the Synodicals or of the

    "The statement to which brother Hollander offers ob-              Liberated ? And`again, in view of the fact that many in :he

jection is against my contention that the Synod of the Re-            Christian Reformed Church are under the influence of the

formed Churches of the Netherlands in 1942 added no new               Heynsian conception of the covenant, how is it to be ex-

doctke (Italics mine).      For the historical accuracy of this       plained that the Synodicals and the Christian Reformed are

I refer him to Acts of 1942, Art. 158, dealing with the doc-          called sister churches, whereas the Liberated Churches hold

trine of the Covenant of Grace, f. . . overeenkomstig hetgeen         to the Heynsian conception ?

de Synode van Utrecht uitgesproken heeft.' When the Synod
                                                                         2. That he correctly points Rev. Hollander to the Re-
of 1946 once again undertook to. reformulate the decision of          formed principle that .the decisions of synod are settled and
1942 it is again stated `. . . dat de zakelijke inhoud der betref-    binding, and may not be militated against except through the
fende uitspraken van 1905 en 1942 . . . niet prijsgegeven mag         legal way of appeal. This principle is often forgotten,
worden'  (Acts 1946, Art. 197).
                                                                      especially when a church is in the throes of a controversy ;
    "The chief objection of brother Hollander is expressed            but a principle, nevertheless, which must be religiously ad-
in the words, `Although no new doctrine was added, the doc-           hered to lest the church be cast into a state of chaos and
trinal position was changed in that the minority view might           anarchy. When the minority group becomes unwilling to sub-
no longer be taught.' The Synod of 1942 undertook, because            mit, it stands to reason that suspension and deposition must
of much agitation against point 4 of the Utrecht Conclusions          follow. If, on the other hand, the synod refuses' to honor
adopted in 1905, to reformulate a decision in agreement with          appeal, and deposes those who raise their voices in opposi-
the content and spirit expressed by the'synod of 1905.\$The           tion to the decision of synod, the church becomes hierarchical.
decision of 1942 was declared binding. It meant that all              We have the impression that in the controversy of 1942
office bearers were expected to submit to this decision of            both groups in the Netherlands made themselves guilty ; the
synod. A.minority was unwilling to submit to this decision,           one, by refusing to go the legal way of appeal ; and the -other,
and as a consequence suspension and deposition from office            by hierarchically deposing ministers and their consistories,
followed. Does brother Hollander mean to infer that after             much like the Christian Reformed Church did to our leaders
the synod of 1942 made a decision a group opposed to the              in 1926.
decision should be permitted to propagate their. own views ?
The Form of Subscription and Article 31 of our Church                    3.. That, if we have understood his answer correctly, Dr.
Order prescribes the proper method of appeal for a minority           Danhof also gives Rev. Hollander warning that as office
group in disagreement -with a decision of a Synod.               '    bearer and stated clerk in the Christian Reformed Church he
                                                                      had better remember the above stated principle lest his
"The closing paragraph of brother Hollander seems to
                                                                      defence of the Liberated bring him into trouble. Very diplo-
imply that my position as stated clerk has some undefined
                                                                      matically he reminds Rev. Hollander of the decisions of the
relation to the articles which I submitted. I can assure him
                                                                      Synod of 190s.  This must mean decisions of the Christian
that this is not the case. I did not speak for the denomination
                                                                      Reformed Church under whose jurisdiction Rev. Hollander
but for myself. I assume he did the same, though he is
                                                                      also stands. Should Rev. Hollander in his defence of the '
stated clerk of Classis Toronto. However, as stated clerk
                                                                      Liberated militate against the position of the Christian
of the church, I can assure him that the decisions of the
                                                                      Reformed Church, he can only expect his church to impose
Synod of 1908 are the official position of our church and are
                                                                      proper discipline upon him. That seems to be the implication
binding upon all office bearers."
                                                                      of Dr. Danhof's closing remarks.
    From Dr. Danhof's answer to Rev. Hollander we draw

the following conclusions :                                              4. That Dr. Danhof certainly gives evidence that his

    1. That he handily avoided an answer to Rev. Hollander's          articles written on the church merger in the Netherlands

request that he express who was right in the Netherlands              were written with a definite purpose not to become involved

controversy, and also whether the Liberated Churches should           in the Netherlands controversy. This, we believe, was also

be considered sister churches. This he did by informing Rev.          on the side of diplomacy. As we stated in our former article,

Hollander that the problems involved, would require a series          we believe that because of circumstances it would not be a

of `articles. The thought came to us that two articles on a           point of wisdom for Danhof to commit himself or his

certain subject is already a series. Would it have been too           churches to either side in the controversy. He could not

much to write one or two more articles ? Especially where             do it with respect to the Synodicals, lest he evoke the ire of

he might properly enlighten his readers in the doctrinal is-          the Liberated who are being swallowed up by the Christian

sues involved? It would be interesting to know what Dr.               Reformed. Church both in Canada and the United States. He

Danhof would reply to the question : How is it to be ex-              could not do it with respect to the Liberated, lest he spoil

plained that the Christian Reformed Church continues to call          the sisterly relation subsisting between the Christian Re-

the Synodicals sister churches, while the Liberated Churches          formed Church and the Synodicals.

have not been so called ? It would be interesting, too, to                                                                       M.S.


                                                  -_--_~___-p  -~__ .
     312                                             T H E   S.TANDARD   B E - A R E R
                          :. ,.`I                                                .1        .I.. .,._         -' -:

                                                                                 Randolph, and Oak Lawn. Ali the consistories but two; were
     II NEWSFROMOUR'CHURCHES rcpreserited' bjr t%o Idelegates.
                                                                                                                     REV.. H. VELDMAN;  Stated Clerk
              `, "     "All  the safnts  salute thee . . ." PHIL. 4 :21    /I
                                                                                 ..iThe  Prdtestant  Refbrtied-  -tiusic Fdstival   ( t h e   f i r s t   o f
                                                                                                      _. .
                                                                                 its k&d)'  is- no%. history.        The program' featured over 130
                                                   March `&, 1960                participants, grqups- and individuals representing every phase

            Classis  West met in Oak Lain,  Ill., M&ch  `16; and                 of dhbrch  and school tiusic  ,&s  we know it. If such a festival

     decided, upon the suggestion ,of ClaSsis  East, to. Send. up the            is to. be rep&at&d,  as- we sincerely hopk, it might be better

     news of Classical meetings td the' church news `editor. to ap;              &af  8, whole  ev&ing'  be devoted to it instead of rendering

     pear in his column. The fdllowing  items were furnished by                  &ie after `a S&day  evening. service; thk hour got quite late

     the Stated Cl&k:  Rev. -G. Van Baren presided, functioning                  for the many school-attending children in the audience. The

     in that office for the first time. Rev. H. H. Kuiper, president             Young People's Society of our Southeast church sponsored

     of the previous Classis,  functioned as clerk. The meeting                  the event, furnishing music that admirably served to com-

     lasted from 9 A.M. to lo:15 P.M., and was marked with a                     plete a Sunday of praise worship.

     good spirit throughout. Classis  approved the action of consis-                   Holland  gave their new pa&or a congregational welcome

     tories in two censure cases, one of which was the erasure of a              Friday evening, March 11, in the audiiorium  of their new

     baptized member. Another case was returned to the consis-                   meeting place. (This is located on West 12th St., not West
     tory as not having been completed at that level.                            14&,  as reported in `the last issue.) Rev. Lanting writes

            Rev. H. Veldman was re-eledted  to the office of Stated              that' it was a very enjoyable evening for the congregation and

     Clerk for a term of three years. Revs. J. A. Heys and G.                    for him and his family.

     VandenBerg  were elected Church Visitors with Rev. G.                             Edgerton  plans  to install Rev. Woudenberg Mar. 25, and

     Van Baren as alternate.                                                     after the s&vice a congregational welcome will be given, D.V.

            Classis  elected the follotiing  as delegates to the forth-                The Program Committee of the Ref. Witness Hour has

     coming synod: Ministers, Primi,  Revs. J. A. Heys, H: H.                    the following to report: A new Radio Choir has been organ-

     Kuiper, G. Vanden  Berg, H. Veidman  ; secundi,  R. C. Har-                 ized and by this-time has been "on the air." They hope, D.V.,

     bath,  G. Van Baren.  Elders, p&i., J. Flikkema, W.-A.                      to furnish the musical portions of the Ref. Witness Hour

     Griess, H. Huisken, C. Vander Molen; secuvzdi,  J. Blanken-                 for many of the Sunday programs. The choir and accom-

     spoor, G. Grunnink, G. Huber, R. Regnerus. It was de-                       panist; under the capable direction of Mr: Roland Petersen,

     cided that the first alternate minister delegate would serve as             is composed of musical talent from our various local congre-

     secundus for the first. two primi  delegates, and the second                gations. The Radio Committee is eagerly awaiting your com-

     alternate to serve as secundus for the last two primi  dele-                ments regarding this newly organized group. The commit-

     gates ; further, that each elder delegate should call on his                tee and choir have labored quite some time in the realiza-

     alternate if necessary.                                                     tion of this endeavor and requests the "listeners' reaction."

            Classical appointments are as follows : For Hull, March              The Committee also reports that on Resurrection Day, April

     20, 27, April 3, Rev. H. Veldman; Mtiy  1, G. Van Baren;                    17, special music has been provided- to commemorate this

     May 8, B. Woudenberg; May 15, G. Van Baren;  June 5,                        glorious and ,blessed  event. Be sure to listen to this program

     B. Woudenberg; June 12, J:A. Heys; June 19, G. Vanden                       -Rev. H. Hoeksema will speak on the theme, "The Living

     Berg; July 10, 17 and 24, H. H. Kuiper; Aug. 7, B. Wou-                     One." Send your comments to: The Reformed Witness

     denberg;  Aug. 14, J. A. Heys; Aug. 21, G. Van Baren;                       Hour, P.O. Box 8, Grand Rapids 1, Mich.

     Aug. 28, Sept. 4,. 11, R. C. .Harbach.  For Pella,  April 3, G.                   Rev. H. Hoeksema's lecture on "The Infallibility of the

     Vanden  Berg; June  19, B. Woudenberg ; July 31, G. Van                     Scriptures" was given March 17 in the auditorium of First

     den Berg; Sept. 11, J. A. Heys.                                             Church in Gland. Rapids. Immediately after the, lecture the

       Classis  decided to request. Classis  East to provide clis-               ushers collected questions from the audience, which were

     sical  appointments for the congregation of Randolph ; and, if              then answered by the speaker. The entire meeting lasted

     the neighbor Classis  cannot meet the request, the consistory               three Lours,  from 8 to 11 P. M., with interest running high

     of Randolph shall apply to the Classical Committee for as-                  to the very end. It was very gratifying to the sponsoring

     sistance iti this matter. Classis  also decided to adopt a set of           Men's Society to see such a large audience willing to attend

     rules-for parliamentary procedure, and to request Synod to                  a serious lecture, and to be willing to stay so late to hear

     incorporate these rules in' a new Church Order bodk, to-                    their questions answered. We hope that the success of this

     gether with a constitution for the Classical Committee. The'                venture will give them courage to, sponsor another lecture in

.    ministers were requested to furnish two more sermons, for                   the Fall, probably on a topic suggested by one of the ques-

     reading services, by July 1. A decision was made tb rec-                    tions,    "The so-called findings of Science, in the light of

     ommend to Synbd  that subsidy be granted to the congrega-                   Scripture."

     tions of Redlands, Lynden, Loveland, Doon, Hull, Edgerton,                        . . . . see you in church.                                   J . M . F .


