                                                                                                                                                                  _                ~ ._ .,.-

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    VOL6MExxxti                                  SY~PTEMBEF  %, 1960-G&D  -RAPIDS,  &HIGAN                                                                  - ,N&B&  j+ 1


                                                                                                  I -know of no instance where we-find a more miserable

            M E D;' `f T-A $ j `0                                                        man -than this one. Imagine : he was--possessed of a legion of
                                                                                         devils. Now  we. know that a legion of Roman.  soldiers was

                                                                                         composed of 6000 men. No wonder then that this poor un-

                 -Q~?R;AYERRE~~SED'                                                      happy mortal was roaming the mountains and the :tombs,
      -
                                                                                         tearing his clothes and cutting himself -with :.&es,- `all-the
              "And when He was cov&  @o th.e ship, hi that                               while screaming and yelling at the top of his voice:                                          - -
              `had  been `po&~~.ssd  wi& tlzs devil prayed Him
              that' he- might  be with-  Him.'  -Howbeit-  Jesti.sS:                              Also; he vvas:untamabne.,,  ' _ : _. _ -,                                              _
              mffered hiti n.ot, but sail%, mto h+v~,,  Go home to
                                                                                           The people. had: tried to` tame' him. They had caught
             thy friertds,.  qnd- tell- the? -how.  great things t&,
              L&d kath done for thee, and bath had compassion-                           him several times, binding him with  fetters, and chains;  but
              on thee." Mark 5 :18, 19                                                   he had broken the fetters to pieces, and the. chains he had
                                                                                                                                                      _.._ __-
                                                                                         simply plucked asunder by almost superhuman strength; `en-
    There are three prayers of some-kind in the story of this
                                                                                         gendered through -demoniac  possession. 1. . : "- :                                             :
miracle. There is the prayer of the devils, of the Gadarenes,                                                              ,. `.
and of the erstwhile, demoniad. It `seems to me that .Jksus                                       But Jesus had healed this unhappy. man:: As, soon as

would-  listen to this  poor man's prayer, -and give -.him his                           Jesus came out of the ship this man CarnIe toward  the Savior.
                                                                                                                                                      .
petition. But he did not." :                                    . .                      If we study this whole history in `ifs context tie-note  that                                             '

                                                                                         Jesus came purposely across the lake of Galilee in order` to
    I cannot -say  anything with  regard to the devils' `prayer;
                                                                                         save` just -one of His elect: That is the reason' also why this
I did not understand anything, about it.. Why-are  the devils'
                                                                                         man is led to Jesus the moment He steps yashore.
afraid of being sent out of the country.? What. -benefit do.

devils have in being sent into the swine? God did not reveal.                                .And the majestic King of' the whole Universe says :

much of -the spirit world, and we will have to patiently .v@t                            "Come out of the man, thou unclean. spirit !" ,_                                   . .

for the day of Christ to learn more about angels and devils.                        .       . Then'cqmes the rejoinder by the many-  devils within : Art

 The prayer of the Gadarenes is-most horrible:                         .                 Thou come to torment us before the time ? (See `also Mat-

It comes down to this : jesus, please depart out of our. thew  8 :?9.>                                                                                     . .
coasts !                                                                                 1.. They, .no doubt, refer to the day ;when  Jesus shall cast
                                                                                                                                         . -
    Ask these poor souls today, -as they-  are in hell !                                 all devils in`the lake of fire.

    Here is the-savior  of the world! And they have ,seen His                            1-j Arid&hen  follovirs  the. question of Jesus about their name,

mighty deeds ! And they ask Him- to please go .away ! I.                                 and'the  request :of  .the' devils to be sent into the swine, rather
                                                     : .-
tremble. .'                                                                              than `to be se+ out- of the country. And. Jesus allowed them

    The prayer of the demoniac is easily understood; Indeed,. tb.enter:the  s@ine. - -                                                :- .- ;.
if he had not, prayed this- prayer we-would have been sur-'                                  ' ..
                                                                                             But   t h e   man'was   h e a l e d   s u d d e n l y .   ,:  .                            --
                                                    _ _. .,
                                                                            . _
prised.                                                                                      And v&en  the: people of the .Gadarenes  approach Jesus,
    "Please, Jesus, may I stay,with  Thee ?". :              :. r                  _ they find this formerly so miserable man sitting at the feet
    But, so the `Holy Bible tells us, Jesus suffered him  hot;-                      of jesus; clothed,. healed -and in his right-.mind,.                              . ' - --               _
                                                                                                            .
but said unto-him : Go home to thy friends and. tell them : : .                          c r .              -'                                                         _
                                                                                                                  -               - :
                                                               . . . _,..., - ._. --,*..,                                                      . . ,. . . .
                                                                                         L... _ -
                            4: * *     *                        > -                                                    -* *" :* +-`Y  . . _- ' :
                                                             _- ..-                                    "                                         _.
                                                             . .._."_
                                                                                    . -
   This man was a demoniac, that is, a man who  was  pas:                                  Then Jesus made :preparatidns  :to -return- to Galilee. For

sessed of many demons, devils.              .                                -.u" we--read.in  the text that He: was: come into- the ship: The
                                                                                                                                         ._




                                                                                                                                                 :


458 !                                         T H E   z@AtiD,.ARD   B E A R E R


erstwhile demoniac, noticing Jesus' intent to depart, prays to        terrible storm arose on the way over, when Jesus was asleep

Him : 0 Lord, let me stay with Thee !                                 in the ship, and the mariners were afraid they would drown.

                                                                      And therefore you read that Jesus REBUKED the wind.
    That was a very natural reaction by this man.
                                                                      Jesus knew that the very devil was behind this tempestuous
    Do you remember Mary of Magdala ? Was there anyone                sea and wind, and-therefore rebuked them.
among Jesus' followers that loved Him. as Mary did? Of
                                                                          But. Jesus is the King of the whole Universe: even the
course not ! She proved it. Read the story of the resurrection
of Jesus.                                                             wind and the sea obey Him. And also the devils. Jesus
                                                                      saves this poor lost sheep.
    And God proved it.
                                                                          And when. the poor man. wants to stay with Him, He
    When God from all eternity counselled: Whom shall We              refuses !
first show the King of Israel upon His resurrection ? The
                                                                          Dear reader, do you know what this meant for the poor
answer of the Godhead eternally is: Mary of Magdala. That
is God's reasoning..                                                  soul ? It meant this : he- had to stay in heathendom, among
                                                                      the heathens who just had prayed Jesus to get away from
   Oh yes, Mary the Magdalene showed that she loved Jesus.            them ! It meant that he had to stay in the DARKNESS of
She is the only one who is not afraid of all the -frightening         heathendom. In Decapolis of the Gadarenes there were no
circumstances.                                                        Scriptures,, no people of God, no Jesus I,

    Why ?                                                               . Besides, this poor man remembered the devils who had

    Love driveth away fear.                                           inhabited him. And he is afraid that the devils would return.

    Mary has just one thought: I want to be with Jesus !                  Can you blame him for desiring to stay close to Jesus
                                                                                                                    :
    And there were but ( ?) seven devils cast out of her.             his Deliverer? Of -course not.

    But this man had had within him a legion of devils, six               But Jesus enters the ship, Andy  they depart. Without him.
thousand of them!                                                     He is divorced from the Fountain of his salvation!

    And now he had peace, sweet peace.
                                                                                                  * * * *
    But he did remember the former unspeakable horrors of

demoniac possession. And so we can easily understand the                  And yet, everything is ah-ight.
one thought within him: I want to stay close to this wonder-
                                                                          The same condition is true of the whole church of God.
ful Savior. I want to be forever with this Stranger of Gali-
lee !                                                                     You can also trace it even with respect to the disciples of
                                                                      Jesus.       Read the Gospel of John. They were so sad when
    And; therefore, his request, his fervent prayer : Jesus, may
                                                                      Jesus told them that He would leave them and return to
I stay with Thee ?
                                                                      heaven whence He came.
                             * * * *
                                                                          And how about the whole Christian Church of all the.

    But Jesus suffered him not.                                       ages ?

    It seems to be entirely contrary to Jesus'.program  in the            Christ came to us, cast out the devils, saved.us,  and went
                                                                      into the ship: that is, He rose from the grave, walked a
w0dd.
                                                                      while among the church, and ascended. And He is still in
    How often did Jesus -stress  that He was sent into the
                                                                      heaven, and we are alone here on earth among the wicked.
world by the Father to save those that were lost.
                                                                          That is the simple truth.
         He is the Good Shepherd who came to save His sheep.
He would leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go               Christ told His people time and again. Listen to this:
upon the mountains to seek that one lost sheep. And having            Behold, I send you as sheep among the wolves !

found it, He would lay it on His shoulders and come home                  And listen to Jesus after the resurrection: Thomas,
and say to His friends : Rejoice with Me : I have found the           because thou hast seen Me thou hast believed, blessed are
sheep that was lost..                                                 they that have not seen, and `yet have believed.

         And the poets sing: Safe in the arms of Jesus.                   Of course, we. are sent away like sheep among the wolves.

         But here?                                                    `And they persecute us, and hate us and slay us. Listen to

         Here Jesus comes across the sea of Galilee with but one      the cry which is found in both the Old and the New Testa-
purpose: I must save that one child of Mine there in the              ment : For Thy sake are we killed, we are accounted as sheep
tombs and mountains ! There is a legion of devils -holding            for the slaughter.     See Psalm 44~22 and Romans 8:36.

him, infuriating him, and making him so very miserable.                   God wants to `reveal- the glittering gold and the shining

         But the -whole devil-world is against it ! Therefore that    jasper stone of grace  in the midst of trial and temptation,


                                                     T          H         E               STAN-D&RD  ,$-RARER                                                                                                                               459

                                                                                                         _-

God  wants- ever to `reveal Himself in us among the wicked
world. To strengthen us and to condemn the wicked.                                                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                                               semi-monthly, except monthly during Jtirw,  July and  August
                             `* * * +                                                             Published by the RFTOKUED  FREE  PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
                                                                                                P.`O.  Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
    Therefore Jesus says to this cured demoniac: Go Home!
                                                                                                                               Editor - I&.                     HERMAN HOEXSEMA
    And there is our charge too. God says to all the church:                                    Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
Go home to thy friends !                                                                                            Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E.,
                                                                                                                                            Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
    The time to feast with Jesus can wait until later when
                                                                                                All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
you may sit at the heavenly table of the Covenant of God.                                                           James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler `Ave., S. E.
    There is work to do for God.                                                                                                       Grand Rapids 7, Michigan,
                                                                     :
                                                                                                Announcements and Obituaries must be mailed to the above
    Go home to thy friends!                                                                     address and will be published at a fee of $2.00 for each notice.

   That means, negatively, the tombs and the mountains,                                         RENEWAL:  rinless  a de&rite  request for discontinuance is re-
                                                                                                ceived it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription
-the raving and yelling, the tearing asunder of fetters and of                                         to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
chains is past. Set thy hand to the plow and do not look                                                                       Subscription price: $5.00 per year

backward.!                                                                                              Second Class postage paid at Grand Rapids, Michigan

    But look forward. Go to thy friends, to the community                                                                                                                                                                                     3

where I place you.
 A n d   t h e n   w h a t ?                                                                                                                    C O N T E N T S

    Tell them all the wonderful things God has done for                                  MEDITATION  -

you ! And  that He had. compassion on thee.                                                             The Prayer Refused.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .`.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .457
                                                                                                                  Rev. G. Vos
    Well, this poor man did.             We read in the context that

he went to the Ten Cities, which is the meaning of Decapolis,                            EDITORWL~  -

and that he did exactly what Jesus told him.                                                            As to Being Protestant Reformed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     :..460
                                                                                                                  Rev. H. Hoeksema
    And they were amazed at his testimony.
    Do you?                                                                              OUR  Docrrirrm-
                                                          .r                                            The Book of Revelation.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           .462
    It .is not enough that ministers preach, and that writers                                                     Rev. H. Hoeksema
write.
                                                                                         A CLOUD .OF WITNESSES  -
 G o   h o m e !                                                                                        Jacob Prepares for Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
 Tell tb.y friends the wonderful works God did for you.                                                           Rev. B. Woudenberg

    And His Name will receive the glory that is so due                                   FROM HOLY Wrur-
unto it!                                        -                                                       Exposition of I Corinthians 15 (10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...' . . . . . . . . . . . 466
                                                                          G.V.                                    Rev. G. Lubbers


                                                                                         IN HIS  FEAR-

                                                                                                        Interest upon The Principal (3) . . . . . . . . .._................................. 468
                      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                                         Rev. J. A. Heys

   On  September 7, `1960, our beloved parents,                                     CONTENDING FOR TEIE  FATTH  -
                    REV. and MRS. GERRIT VOS                                                            The Church and the Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      I.470
will the Lord willing, celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.                                                  Rev. H. Veldman
   We thank the Lord for His care and guidance in the past and
                                                                               :
pray for His blessings in the future.                                                    THE VOICE OF OUR FAT~ZS  -
                                                                                                        The Canons of Dordrecht _.......................................................  472
                             Their children,
                                    Mr. and Mrs. John Poelstra  and family -                                      Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
                                    Mr. and Mrs. Peter Vos and family                    DECENCY  AND  ORDER-
                                    Dr. and Mrs. Ben Zandsira  and family                               The Mission Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _... . . . . . . . . . . . . . ., . . . . . . . .., ..474
                      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                                         Rev. G. Vanden  Berg

   On September 7, 1960,  the Lord willing, our beloved pastor and                       ALLAIiouNDus-
his wife,                                                                                               The Three Points Still Binding? ..__.... I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476'
                     REV. and MRS. GERRIT VOS                                                                     Rev. M. Schipper
will commemorate their 40th wedding anniversary  We are thankful
to God for having. spared them for each other and the church of _ CONTPXXITIONS  -
Hudsonville these many years. We pray our heavenly Father that He                                       "Synod of Protestant Reformed Churches 1960" . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
may continue to bless them in the days that he ahead as they labor                                                H .   H u i s k e n
faithfully in the Lord Jesus Christ.
                                                                                         NEWS F&M OUR CHURCHES  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
                               .        The Consistory  of Hudsonville
                                        Protestant Reformed Church                                                Mr. J. M. Faber
                                          D. Dykstra, Vice President
                                          H. Zwak, Secretary


4 6 0                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R


                                                                         Synod never advised discipline but deliberately left out that
                E D I T 0 R I A i S                                      part of the report of the committee of pre-advice that de-
                                                                         manded it. I claim that when a Synod finishes a matter, no

                                                                         classis  has the right to take it up again except in. the legal

              As to Being Protestant Reformed                            ecclesiastical way of protest.    Yet, this is exactly what the

                                                                         two classes, Grand Rapids East and West did. I claim, there-
         The here following article is not a continuation of my
                                                                         fore, that the deposition of officebearers in 1924 was wholly
 last editorial on the above mentioned subject but, although it
                                                                         illegal, was sinful and, therefore, must be confessed, before
 is related to this subject, is, nevertheless, a digression.
                                                                         any reunion can even be discussed.
     The reason for the digression is that I wish `to call' the
 attention of our readers to the correspondence which the last              How, then, can the schismatics say, `We do not wish to
 schismatic Synod had with the last Synod of the Christian               re-open the case and history of 1924"?

 Reformed Church.                                                           This is all the more serious when we consider the main

         A letter was composed and adopted by the last schismatic        thrust and contents of the letter of-the schismatic Synod. It

 Synod and immediately sent to the Synod of the Christian Re-            is expressed in the question: "May we urge you; therefore,

 formed Church, and the latter was kind and gracious enough              to consider the Three Points of Common Grace as without

 to prepare an answer and send it to the schismatics: Both of            any further binding force?"       Notice that  they do not say

 these letters are in our possession now. I will quote from              that the Three Points never should have had any binding

 the letter of the schismatics and the .letter  of the, Christian        power because they are neither Scriptural nor Confessional

 Reformed Synod I will present in full.                                  but they ask that they may be considered as "without ,any

         In the former, the letter of the schismatics, the schismatic    furt1~er &c&g fo&."  Till the present time they had. binding

 Synod first of all express their appreciation for the iyilling-         power. And, because of this binding power, they could ac-

 ness  of the Christian Reformed Synod to seek. contact with             complish their evil work by casting out officebearers that

 the schismatics.      "We are grateful for your recognition and         were, according to the testimony of the very Synod that

 confidence in us as well as your spirit of Christian. charity           adopted the Three Points, confessionally Reformed. But this

 and statement `to do all that is possible to effect a reunion."'        the schismatic Synod, evidently, does not mind. All this is

         Then they say : "We do not wish to reopen the case and          implied in the statement of the schismatic Synod: "We do

 history of 1924 for we realize that differences exist, and              not wish to re-open the case and history of 1924." For

 will continue to exist, both in your communion and ours                 thirty-six years the Christian Reformed Church has been

 regarding the judgment of history and the matter .of  common            walking in sin. But this the schismatics do not mind, if they

 grace. We therefore do not desire to maintain the Three                 only are received in the Christian Reformed Church. How-

 Points, or any new formulation or interpretation, as neces-             ever, if they join the Christian Reformed Church, they de-

 sary for a Church to stipulate and insist upon for unification          liberately choose to walk in the same sinful way. Then they

 of Churches."                                                           assume full responsibility for the deposition from office, in

         Here I make my first remark.                                    1924, of the Revs. Danhof, Ophoff and undersigned and of

         How, I ask, is it possible for truly Protestant Reformed        their consistories. And what is true of the schismatic Synod

 Churches to reunite with the Christian Reformed. Church                 is equally true of all that follow them in this thoroughly evil

 without discussing the history of 1924 ? Fact  is that several          way.

 officebearers were deposed from of&e because they could not                The schismatics also furnish grounds or reasons for the

  subscribe to the Three Points. NOW, either this deposition'            .request  that the Three Points be no longer considered bind-

 from office was justifiable and, in that case, any Protestant           ing. The -first is that the term "common grace" does not

 Reformed man, whether officebearer or common member,                    occur in the Bible or in' the Confessions. This is a poor

 must confess that he sinned when he refused to subscribe to             ground. For, as to the first, namely, that the term does not

 the Three Points ; or the, Christian Reformed Church must               occur in the Bible, the fact is that we use all kinds of terms

 confess that it was sinful to depose officebearers, in 1924,  on        in Dogmatics and Theology that cannot be found in Scrip-

 the basis .of their refusal to subscribe to the Three Points.           ture. And for the contention that the term is not in the

 Besides, the Synod of 1924. had finished the matter of `rcom-           Confession, this is not true: the term does. occur in the

 mon grace" for the matter had been addressed to Synod in                Canons, although it is put in the mouth of the Arminians.

 the proper ecclesiastical way of consistory-classis-synod. But          The second ground is that the term "common grace" should

 the Synod of 1924  had not advised discipline, nor demanded             not be established or denied by ecclesiastical decisions that

 that anyone must subscribe to the Three Points. In fact,                go beyond our creeds. This is undoubtedly true. But this

 although the committee of preadvice in the matter had urged-            ground is itself in need of proof, for the `Synod of 1924

 discipline in the matter in case the accused ministers should           claimed that the Three Points were based on the Confessions.

 refuse to -subscribe to the Three Points, and although the two          The third reason-or ground is that the forcing of the selec-

 accused ministers plainly expressed on the floor of the Synod           tion of terms for theological. thinking by ecclesiastical deci-

  that they would  not and could not subscribe to them, yet the          sion must be avoided. Yet this has been done. time and.


                                           T    H    E         STANDA-R.D  :BE,ARER  _                                              461


again in the history of the Church, especially in times when              Whv,  then, don't thev do-this  ? ..    '
                                                                              - ,
the truth is attacked and that, too, quite properly so. The               I Can only.guess  at the janswer to this question, but I am

fourth reason is that the .Reformed-  Churches in the Nether-      quite confident that my conjecture is correct: It .is this : for

lands avoided to establish ecclesiastical terminology in their     the sake of the peopie.

reference to "common grace." This may be true but is no                   Not all the people that followed the schismatics in 1953

reason why `the Christian Reformed Church in 1924 could            agree. with them. Not all of them want to return to the

not do so. And the final reason is that the well-known Con-        Christian Reformed Church, especially not if by doing so they                       -

clusions of Utrecht had the desired effect of peace in the         are required to put their neck under the yoke of the Three

Churches. Well, the Christian Reformed Synod in their an-          ,Points.  Not all the people among them, especially those that

swer to this letter of the schismatics; claim the adoption of      have knowledge of the Reformed truth, want to do this. Not

the Three Points had the same salutary effect.                     all that followed the schismatics in 1953 would subscribe to,

    On the basis of all these grounds, the Synod of the s&is-      the statement that the Three Points. are not Arminian and                    - '

matics  urges the Christian Reformed Synod to relinquish the       Pelagian. And the schismatic Synod knew this very well.

binding force of .the  Three Points.                               Hence, in order to take as many of their group along to the

    In a further paragraph, after they have stated that they       Christian Reformed Church as possible, they ask that let

believe in the responsibility of man, the schismatics state the    the Three Points, although they are. not Arminian and

following :                                                        ,Pelagian,  although they are Reformed, be declared as having

    "We appreciate the efforts that you have so far made           no further binding force.

toward better understanding and relationship with us. We                  Such is my ,guess.

no longer wish to be responsible for the charge of Arminian-              The letter of the schismatic Synod continues as follows :

ism and Pelagianism in the. adoption of the .Three  Points          "We regret . . . that classis, Grand Rapids East and West

.which  we have made against you as.. Christian Reformed           of the Christian Reformed Church took the action they did

Church in the past."                                               subsequent to 1924. It is not our purpose to raise again the

    And in the next paragraph :                                    issues. of 1924 and succeeding years for the purpose of self-

    "Although we do not charge that the Three Points are           justification. Rather our purpose is to make unification

Arminian and Pelagian we continue to regret they were              possible in an honest way ; thereby assuring further efforts            /

formulated in 1924  . . ."                                         toward unity of believers in Jesus Christ."

    All this, the reader may notice, is negative: the Three               This part of the letter we already discussed in the

Points are patot  Arminian or Pelagian.                            preceding part of this editorial.

    But, I ask, what are they then,?                                      And then the letter continues as follows :

    Are they nothing ? Are they mere harmless declarations ?              "In that effort it is ever the calling to lead Christ's flock

By implication the schismatics.state  that they are Reformed.      with pastoral love, being careful in bringing charges and

For they declare something about the grace of God. And,            applying penalties.      This care, we believe, was not always

therefore, they must be either-or, Arminian or Reformed.           exercised in the ofttimes  bitter struggle during the years of

It is Reformed to teach that the grace of God `is particular,      our mutual controversy. On our part we humbly confess

and that God is gracious to the elect only, not to the rep-        that there should have been a proper appeal to the Synod of

robate: it is Arminian. to claim that the grace of God is          1926 and that we should not have proselytized during such                      -

general and for all men. There `can be nothing in between.         an appeal ,in our communion as `Protesting Christian Re-

    This is all the more serious because the Christian Re-         formed Churches.'        On the other hand, for the sake of
formed Church in 1924 when they attempted to declare some-         Christian charity and freedom of conviction allowable under                    .
thing about what may be called the Kuyperian  common grace         the Word of God, we cannot concede.to  any implication or
and tried to base the Three Points on the Confessions (which       charge of heresy and schism against us, unless through
never speak of a grace for all men) lapsed into the error of       persuasion and conviction from the Confessions or the Word
Arminian common grace and made the preaching of the                of God."
gpspel  grace for all that hear it.                                  About this we still have something to say.
                                                                          But this must wait till next time.,
    Thus it -is very evident that the. schismatic Synod, by
stating that the Three Points are not Arminian or Pelagian,                                                                      H.H.

claim that'they are Reformed. And they subscribe to them.

   But why then urge the Synod of the Christian Reformed                                   Announcement
Church to declare that the Three Points will have no further
                                                                          The Theological School of the Protestant Reformed
binding force? What wrong is there in making something
binding that is Reformed? If the Three Points are Reformed         Churches will begin its new term, D.V., Tuesday, Septem-
the Protestant Reformed Churches are not. And those that           ber 13, at 9 ,A. M., in the- basement of the First -Church,

left us `in 1953 should beg the Christian Reformed Church to       Grand Rapids.
receive them in their midst unconditionally. _                       _                                  H. C. HOEKSEMA, Rector


462 .-                                        THE   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                     _                              .. _

                                                                          come more and more poisoned, the sea shall show itself more

                                                                          and more as a rotten pool, the fountains of water shall afford

                                                                          no more relief. and refreshment, and the sun shall become

                                                                          more and more intolerably hot, - so that it scorches men.

            ~THE BOOK OF REVELATION                                       Gradually. the kingdom of Antichrist, which was such a

                                                                          glorious kingdom, shall lose control of its blessings. And
                        P A R T   T W O                                   gradually its downfall shall be prepared. And so I also

                                                                          imagine that during this period gradually the fifth vial shall
                      CHAPTER  FIFTEEN
                                                                          be realized, which shall darken the'kingdom of ,the beast.
                 "The Battle of Armageddon                                   We read that the fifth vial is poured out. upon the throne

                      Revelation 16 :lO-21                                of the beast. The beast here is evidently Antichrist. And
                                                                          the throne of the beast stands for the seat of his authority
 .    The fall of Babylon, the coming of the King on the white            and power to rule. The- throne is always a symbol of royal
horse for battle, the loosening of Satan with a view to the.              power and authority. The king on his throne issues the laws
nations - all these things will be reviewed before our vision             for his kingdom,, executes judgment, and expresses sentences.
once more before we get the vision of the New Jerusalem                   The king on his throne is obeyed and honored by all his
that `is to come down- out of heaven from God. But- here we               subjects. The king on his throne is the symbol of royal
have nevertheless the picture of' the end. For in the seven               power.    When a king is dethroned, he has lost his royal
vials which the seven angels pour out the wrath of God is                 dominion. Thus it is here. Antichrist was enthroned -by all
i&ished.                                                                  the nations of the world. He had a great and glorious

      We must make no mistake as to the time element in these             dominion. All the nations of the world bow down to him and
seven vials of wrath. If we do, we shall never be able to                 acknowledge him. They willingly pay him homage. They ad-

understand the whole. Especially must we warn you once                    mire him. They wonder after him. They glorify him. They

more not to consider these seven vials as being strictly suc-             worship him. People put their trust in him as. they do in a god.

cessive. It is not thus, that the first of these seven vials must         They expect everything from him. They deem nothing too

be finished before the second is poured out, that the third               wonderful for him. They look upon him as their god. And

must wait till the -second lias had its effect, the fourth for            everywhere they make images of him, and worship the image

the.fulfillment  of the. third, etc; Much rather must we con-             of the beast.' The beast, therefore, had a glorious dominion.

ceive of these seven vials as being upon the earth at the same            And it seemed indeed as if the last millennium of peace and

time, so that all their misery together finally combines into             bliss had come under his. rule -upon the world of man. He

one great effect. It may be that the one precedes the other               had control over all things-control over commerce and

in its coming. And especially is it very well possible, nay,              industry, control over science and art, control over philos-

even probable, that the first four vials shall be witnessed               ophy and religion. And for all these different spheres he

before the others. But for the rest `we may not refer them                freely issued his laws. And those that refused to obey them

to seven different periods in the history of man snd  of the              he banished from the kingdom, made them social outlaws, so

,world.  Nor must we, on the other hand, conceive of them                 that they could occupy no position, find no job, could neither

as bearing no relation to one another. That .is generally not             buy nor sell, were misersble  and poor. That -is implied in

the way in which God works in the history of the world ; and              the. throne, in the dominion and royal authority and power

that will not be the case in the period of the end. No, also              of the beast. But now the fifth vial is poured out upon that

at that time one thing will bring on the other till all the world         throne. And the result is, so our text tells us, that his

is steeped in misery and pain and agony. The- first four vials            dominion is darkened. There are some. interpreters who

evidently belong together from this point of view, and they               have it that "dominion" here must be taken in the sense of

form one .definite.  group. They are the plagues of God in                territory, the kingdom as the territory over which the beast

nature. That they have a combined effect is very plain. The               rules. And then the darkness is to be taken as a darkness in

earth and the sea and the rivers and the fountains of water               nature. But I do not think so. `In the first place, this is little

are poisoned with the wrath of God ; and the- sun is so in-               to be harmonized with the scorching heat of the sun, which

flamed by it that it scorches men with its heat. All these                shall continue, no doubt, also `at this time. But besides, the

plagues together cause sickness and want; hunger and thirst               entire contents of this fifth vial is against this interpretation.

and great suffering, so that they have their influence upon               The meaning' evidently is, that the dominion of the beast is

the kingdom of Antichrist. I conceive of these plagues as                 darkened, his glory wanes, his authority is questioned, his

coming on gradually, and not all of a sudden, so that one                 power ceases to be, his appearance ceases to inspire with awe

moment man enjoys life and the other moment he is lost in                 and confidence. People and nations lose their trust in, the

the depth of misery. No, rather gradually they come. It                   beast. They used to worship him ; they now begin to doubt

shall hardly be noticeable perhaps that anything special is               his divinity. They used to shout, "Who can make war-with

coming upon the world, But gradually the earth shall be-                  the beast ?' They ,now are not so sure of his unconquerable


 power, and his unconquerable nature. They used to admire              so that there the throne .of the beast, the government of the
 him. They now. withhold their admiration. A sort of political         kingdom, is seated. Then it ,is possible that the rest of the
 unrest is noticeable in the dominion of the beast, so that the        civilized nations,    especially under the influence of the
 power of his kingdom is darkened.                                     plagues that come in the first four' vials, rise against this
                                                                       throne of the beast and free themselves from antichristian

     This is, in the first place, in harmony with the corres-          dominion, thus darkening the throne of the beast.. .In the
 pondence between the fifth vial and the fifth trumpet. That           future we shall read more about this. Now it is plain that
 trumpet spoke of the fierce locusts that. rose out of .the  abyss,    the dominion of the antichristian kingdom has lost its hold,
 the result of which was a terrible, agonizing pessimism, so           first of all, upon the nominally Christian nations, which are
 that men sought death and could not find it. The same is              the nations of Antichrist proper. But it is not only these
 the case here. People had put all their  trust in ,the anti-.         that are affected. On the contrary, there are still the other
 Christian kingdom and power. In that kingdom there was                nations, the nations that live outside of the sphere of Chris-
 plenty and peace and blessing. And they deemed nothing                tianity in its outward sense, the nations that live at the four
 too wonderful for Man to perform. They worshipped the                 corners of the earth, Gog and Magog. By these are meant
 beast and his image. They put their trust in him. But now             all those nations that have never played a part in the histqry
 they lose the object of their hope. They lose their god. The          of the world, the millions and millions of Chinese and Jap-
 domain of. the beast is darkened, and the. nations gradually          anese, and the inhabitants of India and Africa and Australia.
 lose their trust in the only object of their hope. For years          Always they have lived outside of the pale of history proper,
 and years they had hoped for this kingdom. For-years and and never have they played any appreciable part in that
 years they had struggled for its establishment. And for a             history of the world. When we speak'of the history .of the-,
 time it seemed possible to reach happiness and bliss without          world, we refer to the history of but very few nations. And
 the God of heaven and without His Christ. But now all is              since the coming of Christ, we refer to the nations that have
 vain, Also this hope they lose, but not in order to turn to           come under the influence of Christianity. The only nations
 the true God in-repentance. No, they blaspheme the God of             that might possibly form an exception in this respect are the
 heaven. And therefore they are now without any object in              Mohammedans. But for. the rest, all the -pagan world has
 which they can put their trust. They are now literally with-          had no part in the history of man and of the world. Also
 out God in the world. And hence, their despair, their com-            these nations have belonged to the antichristian kingdom out-
 plete hopelessness is coming on as the kingdom is darkened            wardly. They have naturally somewhat shared in its prosper-
 and the authority of what they looked upon as their god is            ity, and have at the same time subjected themselves out-
 questioned. They gnaw their tongues because of their trouble          wardly. But they never formed an integral part `of the
 and their pain and their despair. And, in the second place,           dominion, and on the whole they simply followed their pagan
. this is also entirely in harmony with the effect of the first        customs and religions. They lived in separation and isola-
 four vials. As we have said before, the first four vials              tion, more or less. But the time shall come, so Scripture tells
 prepare the way for the last three. They constitute .the'             us more than once, that also these nations shall take a definite
 plagues in nature that deprive the Antichrist land  his king-         stand and rise up against God Almighty and His Anointed
 dom of their material blessings. Instead of plenty and bless-         for battle, in order that they and their gods may have do-
 ing there is now suffering and want and hunger and -thirst            minion of-the world. And that time has come with the sixth
 and sickness. And since the people admired the beast and seventh vials.
 especially because of the material blessings that were con-
 nected with his reign, it is but natural that his dominion               The sixth vial is poured out on the great- river Euphrates,
 gradually wanes as the plagues in nature become more and              so the text tells us. Also here we may notice the correspond-
 more severe. And therefore, the fifth plague brings disturb-.         ence between the sixth trumpet and the sixth vial. When
 ante  over the reign of Antichrist. People are in despair and         the sixth trumpet sounded, the four angels that were bound
 pain, partly because of the plagues in the nature, partly be-         at the great river Euphrates were liberated, and they
 cause they have lost and are losing their only god. And they.         gathered the army of monstrous warriors from the east to
 blaspheme the God of heaven that bath power over these                battle against the nations of Christendom. Then one-third of
 p l a g u e s .                                                       the men were killed. But now we have the sixth vial. And
                                                                       that sixth vial is -poured  out on the great river, the river

     Exactly to what extent this darkening of the throne of            Euphrates. But this time it is completely dried up, and that

 the beast will be and just what shall take.place  at that time        for the purpose that .the way might be prepared for the kings

 is not told us. But clear it seems to be that' the Christian          that come from the sun-rising, or from the east. It is not

 nations,    which, of course, are the antichristian nations           necessary to explain again in, detail what is the meaning of

 proper, are affected first of ail. Perhaps we must picture            the great river Euphrates, since this was `done in connection

 the relation` thus, that in course of time one of the Chris-          with the sixth trumpet.

 tian, or civilized, nations has gained control and' predomin-
 ance over the other nations of the antichristian confederacy,                                                                   H.H.


 9                                             T H E -   S T A N - D - & R - D -   B E A R E R

                                                                          thou ,art yet alive."    Still seventeen years passed by before
 11 A. CLOUD QF WITNESSiS 11                                              the time finally came. They had been years of peace and joy.
                                                                    `1    His sons had repented from the sinful way of life which they
 v                                                                        had pursued in Canaan ; and he was united again with Joseph,
                   Jacob Prepares For Death                    -          always the son of his love, Although the duties of Joseph

                                                                          were many, we may be sure that he found frequent opportun-
             And the time dr'ew  nigh that Israel vmst die.- -
      -\I                                            Genesis 47 :29       ity to meet and commune with his father. Thus when Jacob
                                                                          felt death approaching, it was Joseph whom he called first
             By faith Jacob, when  he was a dying, blessed both           to his side.
             thi sons of Joseph; and worshippcd,  leaming  upon the        Jacob had a very serious burden pressing upon his heart
             top of his staff.                      Hebrews 11. :21
                                                                          which he wished' to impart unto Joseph. ,`As soon as Joseph

        "And the time drew nigh that Israel must die."                    appeared he spoke, "If now I have found grace in thy sight,
        Death is a hard and difficult thing. It brings man in-            put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly
 gloriously to his end, especially when it is a natural death             and truly with me ; bury me not, I pray thee,-  in Egypt : but
 caused by nothing but age. The strength and vitality of youth            I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of
 is gone, and man lies upon his bed in weakness, oft times                Egypt, and bury me in their buryingplace." When Joseph
 in pain. The eyes have grown dim, able to see only in vague              consented to this request, it was not enough. Jacob required
 outline. The ears have grown faint. Even the mind seems                  him to swear with an oath.

 often to have lost its sharpness. The keen rules of logic are               We might wonder about this.. We know that among the
 no longer observed. The distant memories of the past are                 heathen it was customary tom  make elaborate preparations for
 ascribed greater importance than the realities of the present.           burial. This was especially true among the Egyptians. It
  The thoughts flit vaguely from one disconnected thought to              was thought by them .that  the circumstances of their burial

 another. It is not surprising that friends and relatives stand           would have an effect on the life to come. So they built the

 about the bedside with sadness written across their ,faces.  It          pyramids, and so they had them filled with treasures of great

 is a time of sorrow and weeping. Death is a hard and difficult           value and with mystical symbols of many sorts. But for the

 thing.                                                                   children of God such superstitious practices are more than fol-

        So the time of Jacob's death drew nigh ; and so the marks         ly. God does not judge a person according to his external cir-

 of death were to be seen. His strength was all but gone, and             cumstances ; nor does what happens to the body after death-

 he had to worship while leaning upon his staff, bowed over               have any effect on the life to come. But why then the great

 the head of his bed. His eyes were dim so that he could                  concern of Jacob ?

 hardly recognize the forms of his own grandchildren. The                  Jacob was a child of faith. From his earliest youth, he

 remarks of others to him were of scant concern, to be                    had grown in the faith that God would realize His covenant

 shrugged aside as interruptions. The important things were               with Abraham and. his seed-in the land of Canaan. Canaan

 the memories of events long past. In fond reminiscence, they             was a symbol as well as a type of the promise that God had

 dominated his mind. With words whispered and halting, his                made to his fathers. It was the land in which the covenant

 thoughts wandered over the length and breadth of the past.               $romises  would be realized. Even when in his old age Jacob

 The waning ways of death were upon him. We. see the tears                left the land of Canaan, his hope remained implanted there.

 in the eyes of Joseph as he knelt by the side of his father,             In that land only could his blessing come, and there only

 the looks of confusion on Manasseh and Ephraim who in                    could the blessing of his children come. Thus, as Jacob felt

 their youth could not completely understand the seriousness              the shades of death closing upon him, he felt the importance

 and finality of death. We are given here a clear picture of              of stressing this fact upon his children. He must leave them

 a death-bed scene with all of its sad characteristics of                 no occasion to think that their future could as well be realized

 declining strength. And yet as we examine it again `we find              in Egypt as in Canaan. They must tarry there only .for  a

that.from  it there shines a beautiful light. In fact] the more           time and then return to Canaan. In insisting that his `bones

 we look with the eyes of faith the stronger the light becomes            be carried to Canaan, he was telling his children, in terms

 until the sadness all but disappears before the richness of              more forceful than words, that Egypt was in no sense their

 spiritual glory. The weakness of `the flesh gives way to the             home. The home of their fathers was the land of Canaan to

 strength of faith. The dimness of the eyes is forgotten `for             which they also would have to return. Jacob in his command

 the surety of hope. The sadness of the end is swallowed up               was preaching to his sons the gospel.

 in the confidence of victory. Such is the paradoxical beauty                ,Willingly  Joseph made the oath required of his father.

 to be found in the death of a saint. It emits the gl,orious  cry         He did so with his hand upon his father's thigh, for it was

 of faith, "For me to live is Christ, and to die ? - it is ,gain !"       from those loins that according to promise the Messiah

        Jacob knew that death was approaching. Already .when              would come.- It was an oath in effect before God. There-

 he had first come into Egypt, he had fallen on Joseph's neck             upon Jacob `bowed himself upon the bed's head. It was the

 and said, "Now let.me die, since I have seen thy face, because           attitude of prayer. He was thanking his God in heaven for


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              4 6 5


the assurance that his final.testimony  of faith would be given.    the .way&f  Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem." One thought

                                                                    had dominated the `life and the death of Rachel, the -desire
    Some time passed by during which Jacob grew steadily
                                                                    to bring forth seed. Jacob had seen it develop in her from
weaker. Finally a messenger came to Joseph informing him
                                                                    a carnal sense of competition with her sister to a deep spirit-
that his father was sick and the end was rapidly approaching.
                                                                    ual longing to bring forth a covenant seed unto God. In her
Immediately Joseph called- his two sons and went with them
                                                                    death on the way to Ephrath she had ,grieved  because she
to the bedside of their grandfather. There is recorded for
                                                                    thought that her second son would not live and there would
us the resulting interview. Clearly the speech of Jacob con-
                                                                    be left from her only one son, Joseph. But Benjamin had
stitutes the wandering reminiscence of an old man ; but
                                                                    lived, and to Joseph was given a double portion in the cov-
through it there shines the consistency `and conviction of a
                                                                    enant. Even more, as though in answer to Rachel's prayer,
faith that has been purged through a lifetime of trial and
                                                                    Ephraim and Manasseh would serve in Israel as a symbol of
victory. It is the speech of a saint who, having received God's
                                                                    the fertility which their grandmother had desired. This Jacob
blessings in the past, iooks  forward with hope to the future.
                                                                    brought clearly forth in what followed.
    Jacob began with. recalling one of his most cherished

memories. "God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the                  The aged eyes of Jacob discerned the forms of Ephraim

land of Canaan, and blessed -me. And said unto me, Behold,          and Manasseh in the shadows of his tent. Because of the

I will make-  thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make     weakness of his vision, he was not'certain as to their identity.
of thee a multitude of people ; and -will give the land to) thy     After asking and being assured, he said, ,"Bring  them, I pray

seed after thee for an everlasting possession." Twice he had        thee, unto me, and I will bless them." He kissed and em-

been at Bethel with close to forty years in between. But in         braced them,.and then, while Joseph bowed in reverence, he

the mind of the old patriarch the two events were practically       extended his hands to bless them as the seed of Joseph. "God,

merged into one. Bethel formed the chief foundation for the         before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the

confidence of his life. There God Almighty had appeared to          God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel

him, and there he had been given unequivocally the covenant         which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads." It was a

blessing from above. God assured him that- unto him would           beautiful blessing, anticipating the trinitarian benediction of

be given the covenant seed, and the promised land of Canaan         later ages. The first phrase refers to God the Father Who

would be their dwelling place. Through all his troubled life,       walks in love with His people ; the second to God the Holy

Jacob had found in this .promise  his strength. That it should      Spirit Who communes with and nurtures His people; the

be first in his mind at the approach of death was to be ex-         third to .the Angel of Jehovah, God the Son, Who in grace

pected.                                                             redeems His people from sin. To this Jacob added, "And let

                                                                    my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers
   From Bethel Jacob's mind turned to Joseph and his
                                                                    Abraham and Isaac ; and let them grow into a multitude in
children. Although the two thoughts might appear to be dis-
                                                                    the midst of the earth." To them was .the name of the cov-
connected, there is a definite relationship between them.
Jacob had long wished `to- pass on the blessing which he            enant, and in them would the greatness of Israel be revealed.
received at Bethel to Joseph and his children; At the time          So great was to be their greatness that henceforth it would
of Joseph's youth this had been a firm conviction with him.         be a byword among Israel, "God make thee as Ephraim
One of the functions of Joseph's' removal into Egypt was to         and Manasseh." The prayer of Rachel was answered.

keep this determination from developing as it did in the case          It was then that Joseph noted his father's hands. While

of Isaac with Esau. Now after many years of separation, in          he had led Manasseh to Jacob's right hand and Ephraim to

which Jacob feared Joseph to be dead, he saw the matter in          his left, Jacob had crossed over his right hand to Ephraim's

`a much more balanced light. Joseph was not to receive the          head and the left to Manasseh's. Joseph interrupted, "Not

full blessing, although neither was he to be excluded from. it      so, my father : for this is the firstborn ; put thy right hand

completely. The blessing consisted of three different portions :    upon his head." But -Jacob was not to be moved. He spoke and
the princedomj  the priesthood, and the double portion. Of          blessed the children not as a man but as a spokesman for the
these Joseph was to receive the last. With the sure convic-         elective counsel of God. To God the order of the flesh is of
tion of one who was in accord with the will of God, Jacob           no matter. Although Manasseh was also to be blessed, the
spoke, "And now thy sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which               place ordained for Ephraim was the greater. Through faith
were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto         this was revealed to Jacob, and in accord with it he acted.
thee into E,Tpt,  are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, .they  shall         Once again, Hebrews 11 tells us, Jacob worshipped,
be mine."                                                           "leaning ~upon  the top of his ~ staff ." He said, "Behold, I,

   With joy Jacob .pronounced  those words. They brought            die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto

back to him the memory of his beloved wife, Rachel. He              the land of your fathers. Moreover I have given to thee one

continued, "When I came from Padan, Rachel died by me               portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of
in the land of. Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a         the Amorite with my sword and with my bow."

little. way to come unto Ephrath : and I buried her there in                                                                 B.W.

                                                                                     .,


466                                                T H E   STAND.ARD   B E A R E R


                                                                               Christ will come to' remain ever with his saints to have them

                                                                               behold his glory. All the attention of the readers is thus

                                                                               summoned by the apostle.

                                                                                  Paul calls attention to a "Mystery" of God, a mystery

             Exposition df I Corinthians 15                                    of the Kingdom of Christ in His saints.
                                                                                 The question is : what is the i&a of the term and concept

                                    x. (                                       Mystery- in Holy Writ? It is the common opinion and con-

                                                                               clusion of recognized exegetes and students of Scripture
                      (I Corinthians 15:51-58)                                 (e.g.  Hodge and- Lange and others) that the term mystery

    There is still a matter which is of extreme importance                     must not be made to mean that which is contmdictory,  either-
for the believing church of God in this world which Paul                       really or-apparently so. Nor is the term in the Bible to be
must "make known" to the Corinthians. `He is finished.with                     equated *with  the-  idea of Mystery' such as we find in the
his polemic against the skeptics who ask.ed:  with what kind                   heathen,. mystic cults ; it is in no wise like these. These
of body do the dead rise and how will this take place.                         cults make the term mystery refer to that which is dark and
    Paul has shown conclusively that both the manner of the.                   not at all understandable for the human mind. Nor does the
resurrection and the kind of bodies with which we come.                        term Mystery refer to what is commonly called the contra-
from the grave is demonstrable from the realm of creation-                     dictory between the sovereignty of God and human respon-
about us. Does not every plant and seed need to die in order                   sibility.

to be made alive into a new plant and organism ? And is                           Mystery in Scripture. is that which belongs to the great

there not such a great variety in the different bodies about                   acts of God in`the salvation of the elect, either as a whole or

us,. both in the world of the heavenly bodies as well as the                   certain facets and aspects of the same, and, therefore, that

earthly, that we need not doubt that all things proclaim unto                  -which is known and can only be known because it is "re-

us that Christ will come into the flesh, suffer and die and                    vealed,' to us by God in Christ, through the operation of the

rise again, and `that this suffering and death is, indeed, the                 Holy Spirit. To quote Meyer: "Mystery signifies that which

ground and' pattern of our blessed resurrection ?                              is undiscerned by men themselves, has been made known to

    Besides, there is the indisputable- truth of the difference                them by divine revelation (apokalupsis) -and always refers

between the two Adams, the first and the last; the first is of                 to relations and developments of the Messianic Kingdom

the earth earthy, and the "last Adam is the Lord out of                        (Mitt.  13 :ll).  Thus it frequently denotes ,with  Paul the

heaven."                                                                       divine Counsel of redemption through Christ -.as  a whole

    That determines all for Paul.          .                                   or particular parts thereof-because it was veiled from

    And such is `more  than sufficient for us.                                 men before God revealed it." - Rom. 16 :25 ; I Cor. 2 :7-10 ;
 _ However, Paul will still call attention to a detail, an                     Eph. 3-5.  Or to quote Hodge: "The word ~~ztst&on,  secret,

aspect of the resurrection, which is important for us to know                  is not generally used, in the New Testament, in the sense

that we be comforted, and that we mourn not as those who                       of the word ?pLyst@yy.. It means simply, what is hidden or un-

have no hope. It is the matter of the manner of the resur-                     known ; whether because it is an unrevealed purpose of God ;

rection of the saints in the P;ccro&a,  in the moment at the                   or because it is future, or because it is covered up in Parables

point of history which he calls in verse 24 "the end,' !                       or symbols. Whatever needs an apokah@sis  (revelation) to

    The particular section here under discussion reads ver-                    become the object of knowledge, is'a *%%&sterion. It is there-

batim as follows : cCBel~old,-  I shew yoz~ a Fystery; We sItall               fore used of doctrines of the gospel which are not the truths
aot all sleep,. but we shall all be chartged,  In a moment,  in                of reason, but matters of divine revelation ; Rom. 16 :25 ; I

the twinkling of an eye,. aAt the last t~~~~~~+~~p;  for t/re  tiru.+lzp.et    Cor. 2:7; 4 :l ; Eph. 6 :19 . . . . Any further event, therefore,
shall  .sozmd, and the dead shall be mised irzcohqbtible,  and                 which could be known only by divine revelation is a mystery.
we shll be changed. For. this comuptible  must pztt on in-                     The fact that all should not die, though all should be changed,
corruption, aad this mortal must  put on immortality. So                       was a mystery. I Cor. 15:51."
when this corruptible shall have put on incorrztpt`ion,  and t&                   The particular event (Mystery) which Paul has in mind
mof*tal  shall have put on immortality, then shalt be brought                  here is what will happen in the "end," when all the dead
to pass the saying that is zewitten,  Death is swallowed up                    shall rise, to those who are still living in distinction from
in victory , . . . Therefore my beloved brethren., be ye sted-                 those who have died already, fallen asleep in the Lord or

fast, uhmovable,  always abozhndhg  in the work of the Lord,                   through Jesus. Paul has in mind the entire church when he
foyamuch as ye` know that your  labor is not vah in.  &e                       says LLwe,JJ including himself. We shall not all sleep but we
Lord."                                                                         shall all be changed, writes he! There is some difference of

    Paul introduces this matter of the revelation of the                       opinion concerning the terms ."alS'  in this sentence. Some

mystery with the demonstrative particle "behold." Paul calls                   hold that the first term all, that is "all sleep" refers to the

attention of his readers to the great act of God, the event                    fact that some will still be living at the time of Christ's return,

which will befall the saints in the Parousia  of Christ; when                  as taught in I Thess. 4. The difficulty seems to center on the


                                             T H E   STA.NDARD   B E A R E R                                                    4      6     7


  second "all" in the phrase "but all. shall be changed." The             And -the glad-tidings of good things shall then be the.

 question is does this "all" refer to those still living at the       portion of all who waited for `God! The words shall be ful-
 return of Christ, not all living then shall fall asleep but all      filled: 0 death, where is thy sting, 0 grave, where is thy
  shall be changed, or does this "all" mean that the entire           victory ! The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the
 church shall be changed; yet not "all" shall fall asleep. We         law, but thanks~be  to God, who giveth us the victory through

  believe that the "all shall be changed" refers to all who do        our Lord, Jesus Christ!
 not fall asleep. These all are those who shall not prevent in            Victory will then be complete `and final.

 the Parousia those who have died in Christ. For the dead                 It shall be manifest that all the suffering of this present

  shall rise first and then those who are remaining will be           time is `not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall

 changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump ! These         be revealed in us.

  shall be changed after the dead have been raised, and so shall          Small wonder that Paul ends this grand exposC  of all

 we ever be with the Lord.                                            unbelief in-the resurrection, that central and mortal attack

     Such is the Mystery of which Paul here speaks.                   upon the very heart of the Gospel in Christ, with the very

     Paul also reveals the manner in which those, who will            good and,  sound admonition that we be steadfast, unmovable,

 then be living at Christ's' P~Yo&u,  shall be changed. It will       that we always abound in the- work of the Lord, knowing
 be in a wzomtent,  in the &inkling  of an eye. The term in the       that our labors and sorrows are never vain in the Lord.
 Greek for moment is &O'YMO,  that is, in an indivisible moment.          Here is no vanity of vanities of the Preacher.

 We can divide years into months, and months into days, and            Here we come to the end, the end of God. Here `we

 days into hours, and-hours into minutes, and minutes into            receive what ear hath not heard and what eye hath not seen

 seconds, and even seconds into parts of seconds on the clock         and what hath never entered into the heart of man, the things-

 of time! But the time limit wherein this change shall be             which~ God hath prepared for His people.

 effected by God in Christ through the Holy ,Spirit  will be              The Word of the Lord is that he hath taken the sting out

 indivisible. To accent this miraculous and super-time miracle        of death. Death doth not kill us. He that liveth and believeth,

of grace, this Mystery, Paul adds "in `the  twinkling of an           though he be dead, shall live, and he that liveth and.believeth

 eye." It will be so swiftly. -Not a long process of time at all !    .shall  never die ! Such is the work of the Lord for us in which

     And the time shall be at the last trump. There have.been         we are to abound in faith and hope.

 many trumpet blasts before this. They were ali the trumpet              Let -the grave then yawn and-attempt to swallow us up ;

 blasts announcing the work of God -and calling to the great          it shall not `succeed ! The Lord has made the grave the en-

 feasts of trumpets, the great and eternal Sabbath of God. By         trance into glory. Hallelujah ! The law cannot condemn us

 this trump of God the elect will be- called from the four            any more to death and hell. Cur  dying is no payment for

 corners of the earth, and they shall come forth to the resu.r-       sin but a dying unto sin and an entrance into glory !

 rection  of life to ever be with the Lord. This ch-apter  speaks.       It was with the sincere desire to comfort- with these

 of the "last" Adam, and here it is the "last" trumpet. History       words that we have written rather at length on this marvelous

 will. then be ended. The Omega shall then be reached. The            apology of Paul.

 counsel of God fulfilled; God's good-pleasure in- His Son.              Thus. we have preached and thus ye have believed..

     And that change at that time is a "must." This mortal                God is great in Zion. He is .a11 in all. His life is mani-

 must put on immortality, and this corruptible must put on            fested in our death.

 incorruption. Thus it is' planned by Almighty God in His                Comfort-one another with these words so that the peace

 love for the world so. that He gave His only begotten Son,           of God which passeth understanding may reign in `our hearts,

 that. eternal life may be fully received by all the believers,       and we be more than-victors through our Lord, Jesus Christ !

 thosegiven to Christ by the Father from before the founda-                                                                          G.L.
 tion of the earth. And nothing shall stand ii1 the way of

this divine "must" !

     For .the  Scriptures must be fulfilled. The Word of the                           Consisitories  Attention
 Lord must come to pass; Wherefore Paul says, "Then shall
 be brought to pass the saying that is written: `Death is.               The following catechism books will be available for use in
 swallowed up in victory' " (Isaiah-25 :S)  . That was the word       our churches for the coming season: Bible Stories for Be-
 of the Lord, who declares from ancient times that things             ginners, Book I, Book II, and Book III; Old Testament
 which shall come to pass, by the mouth of the Seer, Isaiah.          History for .Juniors  ; New Testament History for Juniors ;
 Then shall Jerusalem be arrayed in wondrous beauty and               Old Testament History for Seniors and New Testament His-
 glory. And then shall the vail of mourning be removed from           tory for Seniors.     These books may be obtained by writing-
 the nations, and there shall be fat things upon the lees, and        to Rev. G. Vanden  Berg, 9402 - 53rd Court, Oak Lawn,
 the new wine shall be drunk by Christ with His own in His            I l l i n o i s .
kingdom. And all the redeemed shall then say: This is our                                                    T h e   C o m m i t t e e ,

God, for Him we have waited ! !                                                                              Rev. J. A. Heys, Sec'y


        468                                           T H E   ST.A,NDARD  BE,ARER


                                                                              becoming more spiritual and therefore more covenant-train-
        II           -IN Hl..S  F E A R . .I                                  ing conscious. Were that only the case, we would not write
                                                                              that there is so little interest upon the principal things also

                                                                              in the sphere of the education of the covenant youth. There

                                                                              are other contributing factors which present an entirely
                        Interest upon The Principal
                                                                              different aspect.

                                            (3)                                   Whether we like to admit it or not, and whether we con-

               It is that time of the year again.                             fess it or not that all men are born free and' equal, we have
               Children will soon be spending their six hours a day,          ourselves known cases where the race question alone has
        five days a week in the schools the parents have selected for         contributed to the increase of the enrollment in the Christian
        them.                                                                 school. It was not a matter of the spiritual advantage or
               Hour after hour for a period of some thirty-six weeks          disadvantage. It was not a matter of calling before God. It
        they will be subjected to the "philosophies" of life. Impres-         was simply an aversion to .having  the children be the minor-
        sions will be made into their minds. A way of thinking, wili          ity in a class composed of white and black races ! Parents
        be taught them and be absorbed by them. Step by step they             were eager to have their children in a different environment,
        will be brought to new concepts and ideologies. They will             and therefore they enrolled them in'a Christian school where
        be taught to see history as the teacher believes it to be, as         there would be no negro playmates. It was not another
        the author of the text book conceived of it in his mind, as           spiritual environment that they sought for their children. It
        the school system desires to have it understood. The earth            was-not a case of choosing the one school over the other be-
        and its fulness  wherewith it is stored will be presented from        cause of what was taught and how it was taught, but it was
        the viewpoint of the instructor and textbook, be they devout          simply a social question, a question' of who else attended that
        Godfearing men and women who have seen God's ,glory  in               school from a social viewpoint.
        Christ or godfearing men and women "whose god is their                    111 other instances -of' which we have personal knowledge
        belly," as Paul writes to the Philippians, "and whose glory :is       parents made the change purely because of financial considera-
        in their shame, who mind earthly things," Philippians 3 :19 ;         tions. That may sound strange in some circles of our land and
        and therefore, though they are called godfearing by men               church-world. For it is an obvious fact that it costs money
        actually are Godsneering.                                             to send a child to a Christian school. One pays taxes and so
                                       For they hold Him in contempt
        and deny Him `His glory. Political subjects, social subjects;         supports the local public school. He must pay his share for
        the arts and language, arithmetic and spelling similarly are          training that his children do not get; and then he must also
        taught as though Jehovah does not exist.                              foot the bill for the salary of other-  teachers. and for the
              It certainly makes a great deal of difference where our         maintenance of another school where his children actually do       ,.
-"      children are-taught and by whom.                                      receive their training: It would seem strange then to state'
              If we are in a community where by God's providence we           that for financial reasons parents sometimes take their chil-
        as yet have no choice in the matter and the remnant of true           dren out of the public school to send- them to the Christian       -
        believers is too small to fill the covenant obligation either         school and pay double tuition.
        partially or wholly, either on the so-called grade school level          Yet it is a fact that in some. areas where the public
        or the high school level ; or whether we live by His `prov-           schools are consolidated, the children are forced to travel by
      idence where such things are available does make some differ-           bus to a distant school in another town or city ; and the cost
        ence. The one has the calling to put forth every effort to            of doing so is a. big factor in the child being sent to the
        realize such education for the covenant youth; for the other          Christian School. If one is to pay for tuition above and be-
        the calling is to use and support the institutions that exist.        yond the regular taxes, the child"might  just as well have a
      . It is that time of. the year again when we are faced with             Christian school education.

        this matter of the education of our children to' the utmost of           And we hardly need to add the matter of. convenience in

        our power in the fear of His name.                           \        this connection. If the Christian school bus makes a better
              But little interest exists upon the principal thing also in.    schedule, there is less time on the road and away from home,

        this sphere of the education of the covenant youth.                   the children need not walk so far to catch the Christian school

              It is true that the Christian School movement is proceed-       bus especially in the rain and biting winter cold, then  the

       ing with rapid strides. Schools are soon too small. .Tempo-            Christian school gets a few extra pupils for any reason but

       rary arrangements must be made for classes that are too large          interest upon the principal things.

       for one teacher to handle.      '                                         We could add. also that there are those parents who seem
              And this is not simply the effect of war babies coming to       to be well meaning and would never think of sending their
       the age of formal education in the school systems of our               children anywhere but to the Christian school who, when
       land. To be sure this zprns  the case also in the Christian            questioned as to the reason for their stand, can give no better
        School, movement. But that does not explain everything. .Nor          answer than that they do so -because. they love their children.
       does it explain everythin g to say that the church world is            That, of course, is to be expected. If there is no natural


                                              T.HE  STANDAR.D.  .BEARER                                                            469


  affection of the parent for his child Paul says that he has a        plane now for these passengers as far as reaching their ob-

  reprobate mind, .according  to Romans 1:28-31.. But. if that         jective is concerned ? What safety is there for them as they

  is all that we have, our.motive for sending our children to a        continue to rush relentlessly forward ? That plane is good as

  Christian school cannot be one that is characterized by the          long-as you have the human factor there-to guide it and use

  fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord says, I love God and          it.' And you would agree that it is utter folly and `murderous

  for the sake of His praise in my children, I desire to have          wickedness for the management to order the whole crew to

  them taught all things in their natural life from the view-          take the plane to the stratosphere and then ditch the plane

  point of His Word.                                                   with its load of human cargo. And yet we see this great and

     Let us hear the word of God and not harden our hearts             glorious universe made by the God in Whom we live and move

against it. The Psalmist declares in Psalm 119 :98-100,                and have all our being, and we want to teach our children all

  "Thou through Thy commandments hast made me wiser than               things concerning His creation as though He is not there !

  mine enemies : for they are ever with me. I have more under-         No less folly than to tell your child that the jet liner has

  standing than all of my teachers : for Thy testimonies are my        life in itself, takes off by itself, reads your mind and knows

  meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I           to what city you wish to go, knows how to take off and land

  keep Thy precepts." Again he writes in verse 130, "The en-           with no human hand on the controls. Indeed, the fear of the

  trance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding to         Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Rule Him out in your un-

  the simple." Indeed, and shall we then keep that understand-         believing ways and you talk utter nonsense.

  ing from our children ? Shall we pull down the shade to keep           And shall we send our children to be taught by minds that
  them from that wonderful light? Does the truth of the word           are ruled by such utter nonsense? Wozdd  we entrust them
  `of God in this text mean nothing to us ? Can we quote it for        to men who believed and taught that this marvelous jet air-
  everything else ; quote it for the unchurched, for the Hotten-       liner is but the product of some aluminum, steel, wires, rub-
  tot in Africa, for the church member in his moments of fear,         ber, glass, fabric and what not joining each other in definite
  of grief and bereavement; and then shall we say it has noth-         proportions in the right places, drinking in fuel into the right
  ing to do with our children and their instruction every day          compartments and then sailing unerringly to a destination
  concerning the world of God, in which He has placed them to          controlled by little tickets of paper which this inanimate thing
  be His royal priesthood ?                                            can read ? Shall  we. send our children to men and women

     And again the word of God says in Psalm 111 :lO, "The             who speak that way of the universe in which we dwell? Is

  fear of the Lord is the beginning' of wisdom: a good under-          the one any more rational than the other? How can men be
  .standing  have all they that do his commandments : His praise       so sure that the jet airliner was designed by a mind and is
  .endureth  for ever."    In the light of this truth how can we       the product of much thought and is controlled by a rational
  ,dare  to let those who do not have this fear of the Lord            being, and then look upon this universe which is infinitely'
  .teach  our children? If we believe that the unbeliever has not      more wonderful and glorious and rule God out of it all?
  the beginning of .wisdom  and that the entrance of. God's               Who made the wonderful eye, the marvellous ear? Long
 -word into the minds of our children and into the instruction         before electricity was discovered by man, who made the
  that is given them giveth light and understanding, then how          amazing nervous system of man with its electrical impulses
  can we ever find any reason to fight the cause of Christian          to the brain? Who sent the sun, the moon and the stars into
  instruction or even remain luke warm on the side lines ?             orbit? ,And that without any failures and without a tedious
  and say that if people want to send their children to a- Chris-      count down!
  tian school it is all right, but I will never give to its support     Nay, let your child be taught in such a way that the
  .and I will- never urge or encourage a man to spend his hard         entrance of God's Word gives him light and understanding.
  .earned money that way. Shame on us ! 0 that this word of            Otherwise, you have the word of God for it, he will remain
  ,God might make its entrance into our souls and lighten us           simple. He will `not have even the beginning of wisdom.
  with the truth that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of         And he will not even begin to know his life's calling in this
  wisdom.                                                              world:
     And seeing that this is absolutely true, namely, that the
                                                                          In His fear have your child trained in the sphere of His
  fear of the Lord is the beginning, the principle of all wisdom,      Word.
  the world can,only  teach your child foolishness'! Do we care?
                                                                          There will- be dividends.
  Are ,we  so lukewarm,, so untouched, so unmoved by so -ob-
  -vious  a truth that we can shrug our shoulders, turn on our          _ Gold and silver, houses and land, honor and fame you
  Iheels  and turn our thoughts to more fleshly things ?               will not get. If that is the interest you seek for yourselves
                                                                       and for your children, you have invested the wrong kind of
     A jet airliner is a wonderful piece of mechanism and
                                                                       principal in the wrong kind of bank.
  design. Smoothly and swiftly it rushes through the strata;
  .sphere with its precious cargo of human lives. But take that          But this is .the blessed interest that will' be yours when,
  pilot away. Remove him and the co-pilot. Snatch them by              in interest upon the principal things of God's kingdom, you

  some magical power out of that plane. What value has that                                (Con6inued  on page 473)


 470                                         .THE STAtiDA-RD  BEARE.R-


                                                                                         The Atian  .A$ostasy.
II                                                                                               -.
          Contending For The Faith II                                   The first great historical fact inconsistent with this theory
                                                                     is, that the great majority of the bishops, both of the Eastern

                                                                     and Western Church, including the Pope of Rome, taught
             The Church and' the Sacraments                          Arianism, which the whole Church, both before and after-

           THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION -                             wards, condemned. The decision of three hundred and eighty
                                                                     bishops at the Council of Nice, ratified by the assent of the
                 VIEWS   O N   T H E   C H U R C H       '           great'majority of those who did not attend that Council, is

                    F O R M A L   P R I N C I P L E '                fairly taken as proof that the visible Church at that time
                                                                     taught, as Rome now teaches, that the Son is consubstantial
                             (continued)                             with the Father. The fact that some dissented at the time,

                                                                     or that more soon joined in that dissent; or, that in a few

              The Do&he  Contradicted By Facts                       years, in the East, the dissentients were in the majority, ,is

                                                                     not considered as invalidating the decision of that Council
      The fourth argument is that the, Romish doctrine of the        as the decision of the.  Church ; because a majority of the
infallibility of- the .Church is contradicted by undeniable          bishops, as a body, were still in favor of the Nicene doctrine.
historical facts.. It therefore cannot be true. The Church has       Then, by parity of reasoning, the decisions of the two con-
often erred, and therefore it. is not infallible.                    temporary councils, one at Seleucia in the East, the other at
      P-rotestants believe that the Church, under all dispensa-      Ariminum  in the West, including nearly eight hundred bish-
tions, has been the same. It has always had the same God ;           ops, ratified as those decisions were by the great majority
the same Redeemer; the same rule of faith and practice (the          of the bishops of the whole Church (including Liberius, the
written Word of God, at least from the time of Moses), the           bishop of Rome), must be accepted as the teaching of the
same promise of the presence and guidance of the Spirit, the         vrslble  Church of that age. But those decisions, according to
same pledge of -perpetuity and triumph. To them, therefore,          the previous and subsequent judgment of the Church, were
the fact that the whole visible Church repeatedly apostatized        heretical. It has been urged that. the language adopted by
during the old economy - and that, not the people only, but          the Council of Ariminum admits of an orthodox.interpreta-
all the representatives of the Church, the priests, the Levites,     tion. In answer to this, it is enough to say, (1) That it was
and.  the elders-is a decisive proof that the external, visible
                                                                     drawn up, proposed, and urged by the avowed. opponents of
Church may fatally err in matters of faith. No less decisive         the Nicene Creed. (2) That it was strenuously resisted by
is the fact that the whole. Jewish Church and people, as a
                                                                     the advocates of that creed, and ren0unce.d  as soon as they
church and nation, rejected Christ. He came to His. own,.
                                                                     gained the ascendancy. (3) That Mr. Palmer himself admits
and His own received Him not. The vast majority of the
                                                                     that the Council repudiated the word "consubstantial" as ex-
people, the chief priests, the scribes and the elders, refused to
                                                                     pressing the relation of the Son to the Father. But this
recognize, Him as the Messiah. The Sanhedrin, the great
                                                                     was the precise point in dispute between the Orthodox and
 representative body of-the Church at' that time, pronounced
                                                                     semi-Arians.                                               i
Him worthy of death, and demanded His. crucifixion. This,

to the Protestants, is overwhelming proof that the.  .Church            Ancients and moderns unite in testifying to the general

may err..                                                            prevalence of Arianism at that- time. Gregory Nazianzen

      Romanists, however, make.such  a difference between the        speaks to this effect. And this is also true of Jerome. Jerome
Church before and after the advent of Christ, that they do           asserts that the whole world had become Arian ; and that all
not admit. the force of this argument. That the Jewish               the churches were in the possession of heretics. These state-
Church erred, they say, is no proof that the Christian Church        ments must be taken with due allowance. They nevertheless
can err. It- will be necessary, therefore, to show that accord-      prove that the great majority of bishops had adopted the
ing to the principles and admissions of Romanists themselves,        Arian, or semi-Arian Creed. Athanasius and Vincent of
the Church has erred. It taught at one time what it con-             Lerius express themselves to the same effect. To these an-
demned at another, and. what the Church of Rome now                  cient testimonies any number of authorities from modern
condemns. To prove this, it will suffice to refer to two un-         theologians might be added. We give only the testimony of
deniable examples.                                                   Dr. Jackson, one of the most distinguished theologians of
                                                                     the Church of England:
      It is to be borne in mind that by the Church, in this con-.                              "After this defection of the Romish-
nection,  Romanists do not mean the true people of -God;  nor        Church in the bishop Liberius, the whole Roman empire was.
the body of professing Christians ; nor the majority of priests,     overspread with Arianism."

or, doctors of divinity, but the episcopate. What the body              Whatever doubt may exist as to'details,  the general fact

of bishops of any age teach; all Christians are bound to             of this apostasy cannot be doubted. Through.defection  from

believe, because these bishops are so guided by the Spirit as        the truth, through the arts of the dominant party, through

' to be infallible in their teaching.                                the influence of the emperor, the great majority of the bish-
                                                                             4.


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARE-R                                                      471


ops did join in condemnation of Athanasius, and in subscrib-          disputed.~  The.eighteenth  chapter of Wiggers, "Augustinian-

ing a formula of doctrine drawn up_  in opposition to the             ism and Pelagianism," is headed, "The final adoption of the

 Nicene Creed ; a formula afterwards renounced and con-               Augustinian system' for all Christendom by the third ecumen-

demned ; a formula for which the Bishop of Rome was ban-              ical council of Ephesus, A.D. 431." It is not denied that

ished for two years for refusing to sign, and restored to his         many of the eastern bishops, perhaps the majority of them,

see when he consented to subscribe. If, then, we apply to this        were secretly opposed to that system in its ,essential  features.

case the same rules which are applied to the decisions of the         All that is insisted upon is that the whole Church, through

 Nicene Council, it must be admitted that the external Church         what Romanists recognize as its official organs, gave its sane-

apostatized as truly under Constantius; as it professed the           tion to Augustine's peculiar doctrines ; and that so far the

true faith under Constantine. If many signed the Eusebian             -Latin  Church is concerned this assent was not only for the

or, Arian formula insincerely, so did many hypocritically             time general but cordial. It is no less certain that the

assent to the decrees of Nice. If many were overborne by              Council of Trent, while it condemned Pelagianism, and even

authority and fear in the one case, so they were in the other.        the' peculiar doctrine ,of .semi-Pelagians,  who said that man

 If many revoked their assent to Arianism, quite as many              began the work of conversion, thus denying the necessity of

withdrew their consent to the Athanasian doctrine.                    preventing grace (gratia preveniens) , nevertheless repudi-

                                                                      ated the distinguishing doctrines of Augustine and anathe-

                                                                      matized all who held them.
          T1te  Rowdsh  Evasion Of This  Argument

    In dealing with. this undeniable fact,: Romanists and                     The Church of Rome Now Teachek  Error
Romanizers are forced to abandon their principle. Their doc-
                                                                         A fifth argument against the-infallibility of the Church
trine is that the external Church cannot err, that the majority
                                                                      of Rome, is that that Church now teaches error. Of this
of the bishops living at any time cannot fail to teach the
                                                                      there can be no reasonable doubt, if the Scriptures be ad-
truth. But under the reign of the Emperor Constantius, it is
                                                                      mitted as the standard of judgment.
undeniable that the vast majority, including the Bishop of

Rome, did renounce the truth. But, says Bellarmin, .the                  1. It is a monstrous error, contrary to the Bible, to its

Church continued and was conspicuous .in Athanasius, Hil-             letter and spirit, and shocking to the common sense of man-

ary; Eusebius,  and others. And Mr. Palmer, of Oxford says,           kind, that the salvation of men should be suspended on

 `The truth was preserved -under even Arian bishops." But             their acknowledging the Pope to- be the head of the Church

the question is not, whether the truth shall be preserved and         in the world, or the. vicar of Christ. This makes salvation-

confessed by the true children of God, but, whether any ex-           independent of faith and character. A man may be sincere

ternal, organized body, especially the Church of Rome, can.           and intelligent in his faith in God and Christ, and perfectly

,err  in its teaching. Romanists cannot be allowed, merely to         exemplary in his Christian life, yet if he does not acknowl-

meet an emergency, to avail themselves of the Protestant doc-         edge the Pope, he must ,perish  forever.

-trine  that the'church  may consist of scattered believers. It          2. It is a grievous error, contrary to the express teach-
is true as Jerome teaches this in his writing. But that is our        ings of the Bible, that the sacraments are the only channels
.doctrine,  and not the doctrine of Rome. Protestants say             of communicating to men the benefits of redemption. In con-
with full confidence that the Church maintains the truth.             sequence of this false assumption, Romanists teach that all
:But whether in conspicuous glory as in ths time of David, or         who die unbaptized, even infants, are lost.
in scattered believers as-in the days of Elias, is not essential.
                                                                         3. It is a great error to teach as the Church of Rome
                                                .
                                                                      does teach, that the ministers of the gospel are priests, that
        The Church Of Rome Rejects he Lloctmke Of                     the people have no access to God or Christ, and cannot ob-
                           Azcgwtine                                  tain the remission of sins or other saving blessings, except

                                                                      through their intervention and by their. ministrations ; that
    A second case in which the external church (and specially
                                                                      the priests have the power not only of declarative, but of
the Church of Rome) has departed from what it had itself
                                                                      judicial and effective absolution, so that those and those only
.declared  to be true, is in the rejection of the doctrines known
                                                                      whom-  they absolve stand acquitted at the bar of God. This
 in history as Augustinian. That the peculiar doctrines of'
                                                                      was the grand reason for the Reformation, which was a rebel-
 Augustine, including the doctrine of sinful corruption of
                                                                      lion against this priestly domination ; a demand on the part
nature derived from Adam, which is spiritual death, and in-
                                                                      of the people for the `liberty wherewith Christ had made
volves entire inability on the part of the sinner to convert
                                                                      them free-the liberty to go immediately to him with their
lhimself  or to cooperate in his own regeneration ; the neces-
                                                                      sins and sorrows, and find relief without the intervention or
:sity of the certainly efficacious operation of divine grace ; the
                                                                      permission of any man who has no better right of access than
 sovereignty of God in election and' reprobation, and the cer-
                                                                      themselves.
tain perseverance of the saints ; were sanctioned .by the whole

Church, and specially by the Church of Rome, cannot be                                                                            H.V.


 472                                           T . - H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R


                                                                           view of regeneration is widely taught as though it. were the
        The Voice of Our Fathers.                                          truth of Scripture.
                                                                               It may be considered rather strange that' in connection

                                                                           with the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints this sub-

               The Canons of Dordrecht                                     ject of regeneration comes up again and again. In reality,
                                                                           however, this is not strange at all. For the two truths are

                            PART  Two                                      `inseparably related, and the one necessarily follows from the

                                                                           other. If you are Reformed in regard to the doctrine of
                  EXPOSITION OF THE CANONS                                 regeneration, to be consistent you must also be Reformed in

                                                                           regard to the doctrine of perseverance. And if you are Ar-
                  FIFTH HEAD  OF DOCTRINE
                                                                           minianin  regard to regeneration, you will also be Arminian
           OF THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS                   _           in regard to the perseverance. Regeneration, rightly under-

                                                                           stood, is the essence of perseverance ; and perseverance is but
                REJECTION OF ERRORS
                                                                           the extension of the .wonder`  of regeneration. Regeneration

                                                                           means that the principle of the new life of Christ is implanted
            Article 8. Who teach: That it is not absurd that one
                                                                           in your heart. Perseverance, positively speaking, means
            having lost his first regeneration, is again and even often
            born anew. For these deny by this doctrine the in-             nothing else than that Christ from moment to moment con-
            corruptibleness of the seed of God, whereby we are born        tinues to give you that life through His indwelling Spirit.
            again. Contrary to the testimony of the Apostle Peter:         Regeneration means that the incorruptible seed has been im-
            `TIaving  been begotten again, not of corruptible seed,        planted in you. Perseverance means that that seed remaineth
            but of incorruptible," I Peter 1:23.
                                                                           in you, so that no matter how grievously you may fall and

    The above rendering very well conveys the idea of the                  no matter how far you may fall, you can never fall so far

original, and therefore needs no correction in the translation.            that the principle of the new life perishes.. If, therefore, you

The structure and punctuation of the last two sentences,                   deny this truth of regeneration, you have already principally

however, could be improved. A comma, instead of a period,                  denied the truth of perseverance.

should follow the words "born again," and then the sentence                   Thus the Arminians necessarily did violence to the truth

should continue with "contrary to the testimony of the                     of regeneration when they attempted to deny the sure

Apostle Peter," etc.     B,esides,  as we have noted before, it            perseverance of the saints. They taught, according to, this
would be bettes consistently to follow the King James Ver-                 article, "that it is not absurd that one having lost his first

sion in the citations from Scripture.                                      regeneration, is again and even often born anew." And our

    It is rather unfortunate that Reformed people in ,the  dis-            fathers charged that "these deny by this doctrine the in-
cussion of this article tend to lose sight of the main point               corruptibleness of the seed of God, whereby we are born

and to become entangled in the -rather involved question of                again."    Our fathers go the very core. of the Arminians'
mediate or immediate regeneration. This may be quite                       error in. this statement. But there is more than one related
natural. And'we surely do. not mean to say that the question               error in the Arminian view. And we must, first of all, under-
of mediate or immediate regeneration is of no significance, or             stand their view. Even in the brief statement of their vieti
that a discussion of the question is without benefit. Never-               in this article .we may distinguish these elements: 1) Re-
theless, even though this discussion has arisen since the time             generation is of such a nature that it can be lost. 2) Re-
when our Canons  were drawn up, and even though this dis-                  generation is of such a nature that one can be repeatedly
cussion has often centered about the text in I Peter 1:23,                 regenerated. .3) Regeneration - this by implication-is of
quoted in this article, that discussion is not exactly germane             such a nature that it can be lost  permanently and finally, that
to the issue involved in this article of the Rejection of Errors.          is, so that we are never again regenerated.
The Arminians had, and still have, an altogether different                    What, then, is the Arminian teaching on this score?

conception of regeneration- than the Reformed. And every                      To put it very bluntly, the Arminian does not believe in

sound Reformed man, whether he maintains that regenera-                    regeneration at all. But the term pegenemtion  is' Scriptural.

tion is mediate or that it is immediate, will with our Canons              And since the Bible speaks of being born again or being

reject the Arminian view of regeneration.                                  born from above, the Arminian must also say something

    Although, therefore, we will naturally come to this ques-              about regeneration.    In fact, Arminians love to say, "The

tion of mediate or immediate regeneration in connection with               Bible says . . ." However, they empty the term of its true,
our discussion of the Scriptural proof attached to this article,           Scriptural content; and they substitute for that true mean-

we intend to give our primary attention to that which is also              ing of the term their own false. notions, which really have

primary in the article, namely, the erroneous Arminian  view               nothing to do with the term: .They  pour into the term an

of regeneration. And we intend to do this not only because                 entirely foreign meaning.

this is in harmony with the article itself, but also because                  In the first place, the Arminian completely denies any
.this is-very  necessary in our day, when this same erroneous              necessity of and any room for regeneration in the true sense


                                              T H E   S-TANDARD  BEABER                                                               473


of the word. For he denies original sin. And he denies that           result- that though he was born again, he nevertheless perishes

the will has ever been corrupted. And he denies that the un-          f o r e v e r .

regenerate man is `really and-utterly dead and destitute of `all          Now our fathers do not take the trouble to go into all the

powers, and gifts is not necessary (because man never lost            ramifications of the Arminian view to contradict their error.

man can yet hunger and- thirst after righteousness and life,          In the first place,' they have already dealt with the various

and can offer the sacrifice of a contrite and broken spirit.          errors that are involved. But, in the second place, they pin-

Hence, there is really no room for and no necessity of a new          point a single element which makes it obvious beyond a

birth in the Arminian view of man. Man is essentially good.          shadow of doubt that the Arminians in fact deny the whole

    In the second place, the Arminian teaches that faith `is          truth of regeneration and maintain a downright absurd view.

always and only an act-not a bond, nor a power. Accord-               That one element is thisj that the Arminians actually teach

ing -to him, in conversion the infusion of new qualities,             that the seed of God, through which we are born again, is

powers, and gifts is not necessary (because man never lost            corruptible, while the Scriptures teach that we are born again

them), and it does not take place. And therefore faith itself         not of corruptible, but of incorruptible seed.

is not a -quality or gift infused by God, but only an act of             This is quite sufficient to overthrow the entire view: And

man. The Arminian therefore places all the emphasis upon              it is a sufficient test for anyone to use in order to determine

the act of believing.                                                 whether one's view. of regeneration is correct. In the light

    In the third place, that act of believing is, in the Arminian     of the Scriptural truth that we are born again of incorruptible

view, the very first step in salvation. Peculiarly enough, it is      seed, it is nothing short of absurd to teach that one can lose

before regeneration. This betrays already - or at least ought         his first regeneration'and can be again and even often born

to betray to any thinkin g Christian -that he is playing              anew.

kzoczts-$XKZZS with the doctrine of regeneration. For if a man           The passage from Scripture which our fathers cite is I

is able to believe, this obviates any necessity whatsoever of a       .Peter  1 t23. Because we intend to enter into the question of

being born again.        Nevertheless, this is the Arminian view.    ~-mediate  or immediate regeneration in connection with this

If you believe and accept Christ, then you. will be reborn.           discussion, we will quote the entire passage of I Peter 1:23-

They can speak of this silly and absurd thing in the most             25 for such use as we may make of it in connection with that

glowing and persuasive terms. But silly it is, and desperately        question. It reads as follows: "Being born again, not of.

wicked too, to teach that the wonderful and powerful act of           corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God,

~regeneration  that is. in Scripture so highly celebrated as a        which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass,

new creation and a resurrection from the dead is dependent            and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass

upon-an act of believing to be performed by a dead sinner.            withereth, and the flower thereof fall&h  away: But the word

Surely, the `Bible says, "Except a man be born again, he              of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which

cannot see the kingdom of God." But to say, "Unless you               by the gospel is preached unto you."

believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot be born again,"                                  (to be continued)

is just as foreign to Scripture as black is to white. And it is                                                                 H.C.H. ~-

so desperately wicked b_ecause  it is so deceptive and sounds

so nice and pious in the ears of the uninitiated. But once                                      IN  H I S   F E A R      ,,

again: -this is the Armi.nian  view.                                                       (Continued jrom  page 459)

    In the fourth place, the Arminian -for he has to speak            do your utmost to see your child trained in these principal

of this too - corrupts and distorts the grace of God whereby          things, you will rejoice to behold that God is gathering His

.we are converted into a gentle advising. He denies the power         children out of your children.

-of the Word of God -and  changes it into a mere advisory or           That is interest you will keep in the life to come. Moth

-persuasive word, even though that word be true in its con-           and rust shall not corrupt it. Death shall not destroy it.

tents. The power of that .Word is dependent on the consent            And God promises it to His people. "For the promise is unto

.of the hearer.                                                      you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even

    And now regeneration, finally, means that if a man hears          as many as the Lord our God shall call." Acts 2:39.
that gentle, advisory, persuasive word and believes it - and                                                                   J . A . H .

,only  so long as he believes it-there is an influence for
-good on his life, a change for the better, a "new birth." If,                           Notice for Classis West

-however,  that same man-tomorrow no more believes, but in-              Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will

stead rejects that word, then that new birth is lost too. As          meet, the Lord willing, in Doon,  Iowa, on Wednesday, Sep-

Song as a man accepts the word, `that `word has a good in-            tember 21, 1960. The consistories are reminded of the rule

fluence upon him; if he lets go of that word, then that good          that all matters for this classical agendum must be in the

influence is also lost. Thus it is possible that a man is             hands of the Stated Clerk not later than thirty days before

regenerated repeatedly, And thus it is possible that he may           the meeting of Classis.

also lose his regeneration finally and completely, with the                                         Rev. H. Veldman, Stated Clerk


     474                                        THE  S%ANIjARD-   B E A R E R                                         -


                                                                         has been adopted or is still in' the process of consideration,

                                                                         we do not -know. Under the heading "~Evangelism  and Mis-

                                                                         %rw;"~~~the  proposed change would appear as Article 70 in

                                                                         th'e revised Church Order Andy  would read thus :
              . . .-    The Mission  Oider                                  "Each-  chu.rch  is p&ileged  and in duty b,ound  to bring

                                                                         the gospel tothose who do not know Christ and salvation in
        "The  Ytzissiona~y  wo?k of the churches is regulated by the    .Hitiz. This task shall, wherever possible, be left to the partic-
    Getieral  Syno;d  in. a ~is.sion, order." - Article 51, D.K.O.
        r.                                                              ular  churches, who may execute it singly or in cooperation
                                                                        with qne or wore  neighboring' d&r&es. Only if the scope.
        The above article of our Church Order is of recent date.
                                                                         of the work puts it be.yond the sphere of local supervisio;n,
    It was written and adopted in 1914 and replaced an article
                                                                        and demands close denoutinational  cooperation, shall it be
    that had become outdated. The original article that had
                                                                        regulated by a SynodZcal  Mission Order."
    become outdated did not deal with the matter of missions but
    concerned a situation in the churches of the Netherlands                The Synod .of the Protestant R,eformed  Churches has
    (including both Belgium and Netherlands today) in which             also adopted Article 51 as written in 1914 and approved in
    two~different  languages, French and Dutch, were used. The          its English translation in 1920. Although we have not
    article stipulated that two groups of ecclesiastical gatherings     adopted a separate Home Mission Order, our churches have
    should be maintained. The Dutchlspeaking  churches held             always interpreted Article 51 to include Domestic as well as
    their own consistory meetings, classical gatherings and             Foreign Mission work.          This is evident from our Church
    particular synod.. The French-speaking church did the same.         Order, book where a-footnote appears under this article re-
    This arrangement, however; was no longer necessary in 1914          ferring us to the Constitution of the Mission Committee that
    and consequently this article was eliminated from the Church        appears on pages 46-49 of the .same book. It is noteworthy
    Order and replaced with the present article dealing with the,       that the preamble to this constitution speaks of church ex-
    mission work of the churches.         -                             tension, church reformation as well as preaching the blessed
                                                                        `gospel to the-unchurched and heathen. Although these are
        Monsma and Van .Dellen  .in The  Chztrch  Ord&  `Cow-
                                                                        distinguished, the application of Article 51 of the Church
    -Ytzentary,  page 218, make the, assertion that "the term `Mis-
                                                                        Order is to them all. The preamble reads :
    sionary Work' in the present article only refers .to mission
    work -among pagan peoples, such as the American Indians,                "The--Protestant  Reforphed  Churches believe that, irt obe- ^
    the Chinese, etc." They base this contention upon the claim         dience  to the cou+umnd  of Christ, the King of the church,
    that the English translation, approved by the Synod of 1920,        to preach the blessed Gospel to all creatures, baptizing, and
    of the- Dutch article adopted' in 1914 is not as specific as it     teaching them to observe -aA? things which Christ has com-
    should have been. The Dutch translation read: "De arbeid            manded, it is the e@licit  duty #and s&red  p&Jilege  of said
    der kerkelijke  Zending  ondm  de heidenen en Joden  wordt          churches to carry ou,t. this calling according to the measure
- ddw  de Ge%erale  Synode in eene Zendings  orde geregeld."            of oatr  God-given ability.

       In view of this the same authors, hold that, "This article        7Ve believe that this. u&sionary  activity incla&des  the
    does not refer to all types of mission work undertaken by our       work of church extension, and chatrch  reformation, as well'las
    churches . . . . Neither does Article 51 refer .to Home Mis-        the task of ca.rrying  out the Gospel to the unchamhed  and
    sions or Church Extension."      This must be maintained, ac-       heathen, .Hotiever,  .we are- convinced that oatr  iresent  du,tj
    cording to the authors, in order to retain the fundamental          lies primarily in the field of chamh  extension and chamh

    principle of Reformed Church Polity that the work of evan-          reformation.

    gelization belongs to the local church and therefore `each              "With a view to this persuasion. the laere  following con-
    church must be left full liberty to perform as much of this         stitution has been drawn up, and any enlaygetient  of the
    work as possible in its own area. Still this does not exclude       scope of labors woarld  imply  changes and enlaygezents  of the
    the Synod or the Classes from. also regulating a certain            present draft constitution.`J
    amount of home mission work or church extension work.                  The Protestant Reformed Churches. do root believe that
    This is not a matter of "either-or." There is no conflict           the work of the synod excludes the mission endeavors of the
    between- the work of the individual church and that of th2          local or individual churches. On the contrary, it is our firm
    churches collectively in this field. It can very well be a          belief that each church is duty-bound and privileged, accord-
    "both-andi'  project.    But since the work of home missions        ing to its means and ability, to spread the gospel in its own
    does not fall. under Article 51 as adopted in 1914, the Chris-      area and that the.churches together, under synodical  regula-
    tian Reformed Synod in 1936.adopted  for practical reasons a        tion, are to conduct mission work in the broader sphere.
    new Home Mission Order which placed this work under the             In view of this the alleged charge, fabricated by the enemies
    care and authority of the synod.                                    of the truth, that the Protestant Reformed Churches do not
       A couple years ago the Christian Reformed Church was             believe in missions; is-a malicious lie designed only to deceive
    considering a proposed change, in this article. Whether this        the ignorant.

                                                                                  . .


                                               T H E   ST.ANDARD.   B E A R E R                                                   475


     The scope of Article 51 then does not include-the mission       church ? Did you know that `he cannot leave his field of

 work that is performed and regulated by the individual              labor i&&i@dia&+  if he chooses to accept a call elsewhere but

 church. This work comes into consideration in connection _ must give at least two months' notice to the committee?

 with the questions of church visitation that are asked each         Did you know that he has ex-officio an advisory vote at ail

 consistory under Article 41 of the Church-Order. Our present        synodical meetings dealing with. the missionary work in

 concern is with the.work of missions as done by our churches        which he is engaged, or in all matters that may affect him'
                                                                                                           _.
 cooperatively and regulated by a synodical order.                   and his work ?              _-,

     The "Mission Order" by. which this work is regulated by            4. Did you know that our synodical mission work is to
 the synod of our churches.is  the "Constitution of the Synod-       be regulated by a Board which is to consist of no less than
 ical Mission Committee." According to the rules and limita-         eight men and is to be- chosen from the Eastern branch of
 tions prescribed in this constitution, the committee must carry     our churches ? The latter regulation ds, of course, not a mat-<
 out the work assigned to it by the synod. We are not going          ter of principle but.&.  so decided for practical reasons since
 to quote this constitution in this connection nor are we going      our calling church is now located in Grand Rapids, Michigan:..
 to discuss the individual articles but we will briefly refer. to    Should synod decide to appoint one ,of the `western churches
 the pertinent parts and note a few practical matters that are       as the calling church, it is reasonable to assume that the con-
 worthy of our attention.                                            stituency.  of the synodical mission committee would then be

     1. Did you know that the Mission Board cannot call a            chosen from the west.

 missionary ? Even though this Board ,is a synodical commit-             5. Did you know that the synod of 1'942 authorized the
 tee, i.e., a denominational committee, it has no power to call      Mission Board to secure the services of ministers and students
 and send out a missionary. This is the task of the church.          to carry on the work of missions in the event we. have no
 Just as it' is exclusively the prerogative of the church to         missionary in the field ? And that the synod of 1946 ex-
 ordain of&e bearers, preach the Word, administer baptism            pressed that church extension. work ought to be pushed even
 and the Lord's Supper, so it is her task to call and send out       more than before and further, that the Home Missionary be
 the missionary. It was the church at Antioch that sent out.         assured of as,sistance  in his labors by permitting the Mission
. Paul and Barnabas after they had fasted and `prayed and            Committee, in conjunction with the calling church, to ask
 laid their hands on them ~(Acts  13 :3). Synod, therefore,          the help. of a fellow-minister ? Of course you know that the
 designates one of the churches as the calling church for this       synod of 1959 decided to embark LIQO~  a vast program of
 task. When the missionary has been obtained and is ready            foreign radio broadcastin g by which the gospel as proclaimed
 for the work, the calling.church  must labor jointly with the       by the Protestant Reformed Churches will be proclaimed to
 committee of synod to determine upon such matters as "field         a potential audience of millions !
 .of -labor, method of labor. and time of labor to be devoted
 to the field."    In his Principles of M&ions,  Rev. Hoekse-            Still they say: "The `Protestant Reformed Churches are
 ma states : "It is, of course, perfectly all right that the de-     not mission-minded."

 nomination appoints a mission board to aid the local churches           To us'the".work  of missions is very important: -And the
 in many respects: to coordinate the work. But those boards          reason for this is not social, economic or utilitarian but rather
 must be very careful that they do not take the place of the         because we believe that "by His Word and Spirit  the Son
 local church, that they must simply serve the purpose of            of God, from the begimzimg  to the e+sd  of the world, gather2;,
 helping the local church in their labors."                          defmds, and preserves to Himself out of the whole human

     2. Did you know what the duties of the missionary are           race, a, church chosen to `everlasting life, agreeing in, iWe
 in relation to the committee of synod and the church that           f;aith'..  (Heid.  Cat., L.D. 21).
 calls and sends him into his field of labor? He is required                                                                G . V . d . B .

 to submit a bi-monthly report to the committee and the call-

 ing church containing information concerning the number of

 calls he makes, the number of speeches he delivers, the num-
                                                                                            A n n o u n c e m e n t
 ber of radio broadcasts, how much literature is distributed

 .either  personally or by mail, how many miles he has traveled          Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will

 .-how  and why - an opinion as to the progress made and             meet, the Lord willing, in Doon, Iowa, on Wednesday,
 the' prospects- of the particular field in which he is laboring.    September 21, 1960. The consistories are reminded of the
  Further the missionary, is required to submit a monthly
                                                                     rule that all matters for this classical agendum must be in
 statement of his expenses to a sub-committee of the Mission
                                                                     the hands of the Stated Clerk not later than thirty days be-
  Board which must approve the account before it is paid by
 the synodical treasurer.                                            fore the meeting of. Classis. Anyone who is in need of lodg-

                                                                     ing should write James Blankespoor, Box C, Doon, Iowa.
     3. Did you know that the missionary and his family are

  required to have their membership papers in. the calling                                           .REv. H. VELDMAN, Stated Clerk


476                                         T H E / S T A N D A R D   B-EARER                           ._ ._ -                  .


                                                                   positive  basis upon- which we may seek fo,r unification. This

                                                                   positive approach is not to be sought by requesting our Synod

                                                                   virtually. to discard what it deemed to be necessary- to state

                                                                   in 1924, and what is still necessary to maintain at the

                                                                   present time;' nor in demanding of you an expression of total
The Three  Points Still Binding?
                                                                   agreement with the Three Points as formulated by.1924 and

    The synod of the De Wolf group, according to The  Ban-         further elucidated by 1959; but rather hy accepting a basis
ner of July 29, 1960, sent a letter to the synod of the Chris-     ori which we can unite.

tian Reformed Church in which it requested "to consider the            "It i&' our considered judgment that in as much as both
Three Points of Common Grace as without any further bind-          your denomination and ours subscribe to the Word of God
ing force."                                                        and the Three Forms -of Unity, unification .of our churches

    To this the synod of the Christian Reformed Church gave        could be effected :

the following reply :                                                  `a. if you will agree that the Three Points are neither

    "Esteemed Brethren :                                           Arminian npr Pelagian ; that in the light of the official inter-
                                                                   pretation given by our -Synod  of 1959, the objection that the
    "We thank you for the fraternal and cordial reply to our       Three Points are in conflict with, Scripture and the Forms
Synod's letter to you in June 1959. Iti reply to this, your        of Unity is not valid ; and that you will agree not to agitate
comr&nication,  we wish to observe that we appreciate the          against official interpretations.
general tenor of this document, which indicates that there is
on your part a sincere desire for reconciliation and unifica-          "b. if we do not require submission in the sense of demand-
tion with our church.                                              ing total agreement with the Three Points ; we recognize and
                                                                   bear with scruplks  which you m&y have, in the expectation
    "Addressing ourselves to the main thrust of your  letter
                                                                   that we together may come eventually to a better understand-
(paragraph 4, page 1) : `May we urge you; therefore, to            ing of the truth ; and not bar those who have certain mis-
consider the Three Points of common grace as without any           givings or divergent interpretations as long as they refrain
further binding force? we conclude that this question is           from propaganda for their i&erpretations.
the heart of the matter which you present to our Synod. You

are asking our Synod simply to set aside or discard, without           "As to-the  method of effecting `such a union we suggest

any restrictions or qualifications, that which was done by our     t h a t :

Synods of 1924 and 1959. This is evident from your state-              "a. If this is to be worked out on a denominational basis,
ment (second part of-paragraph 3, page 1) : `We, therefore,        a committee of your church be appointed to confer with a
do not desire to maintain the Three Points or `any new             committee of our church ; or,
formulation or interpretation as necessary for a church to
                                                                       "b. If this is to be worked out on a 10.~1 basis, this be left
stipulate and insist upon for unification of churches.'     -.     to the individual consistories  and classes in which such at-
   `<Synod  may on occasion be compelled to make emergency         tempts toward union would be made."
decisions. which serve a definite purpose in a given historic
moment. Such. emergency decisions are dsted and may in                It is plain from the above qudtation  that the Christian
time become inactive because they have served their purpose        Reformed Church would still maintain the Three Points of
and are no longer needed.. The result could be that such           Common &-ace. But the question: Are. the Three Points
decisions are in effect set aside. Reflecting however, on the      still binding? is not positively answered.

synodical  decisions of 1924 respecting the Three Points, we          You can be a member  of the Christian Refdrmed Church.
believe that an outright and official setting aside of them is     and have scruples regarding the Three  Points, provided, of
unwarranted,for  the following reasons :                           course, that you do-not agitate against the official interpreta-

   "a. The serious situation in 1924  which called these  Three    tions. If I understand the word "scruple," it meatis : .doubt,

Points into being.                                                 conscientious distrust, unbelief. In this case the scruple is

   "b. The salutary effect of these Three Points in producing      with regard. to the Three Points. One,  therefore, who, has.
                                                                   scruples regardi-ng  these points of .doctrine  does not believe
rest and peace in the churches.
                                                                   them, has conscientious objections to them. And I use the
   "c. The fact that such setting aside of the Three Points        word "conscientious" not to indicate some mystical feeling,
would run counter to and virtually nullify a large measure         but I understand it to indicate that strong testimony in the
of agreement which had been achieved.                              heart of the believer who looks at all things, also the doctrine

   "We are of the opinion that such a simple discarding of         of common grace, in the light of God's Word, and is con-

the Three Points, as well as of the elucidations and inter-        vinced by that light and testimony that the doctrine is false.

pretations of these given in the letter of our Synod of 1959,      One who has scruples of this kind may be a member of the

is not desirable. We would rather point out to you a more          Christian Reformed Church provided he does not try to gain.


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   '                                          477


 others to his view by way of propaganda. Viewed in $$i?            oped out .pf years., of controversy, and which has been held

 light, the Three Points are `not binding.                          before the  public eye by both those for it and against it for

     On the other hand, `the Three Points are binding to hini       so many. years, is well understo'od  `1 would say especially by
                                                                    those who haye  opposed it, whether they belong to us 6r De
 who would dare to denounce them as. Arminian and Pelagiafi;
                                                                    Wolf. yc! still run in;o  people in the Christian Refqrmed
 or who would seek to propagate his divergent views. Such
                                                                    Church who ask why Rev. Hoe+ema  ,made up those Three
 an one could not be a member of the Christian Reform&
                                                                    Pbints,  thus. revealing their ignorance. But such ignorance
 Church. It is for this reason that the Three Points must be
' maintained.                                                       does not obtain among those who are or once were Prot-
                                                                    estant Reformed. And, therefore, if the  Three Points are
     We, as history has shown, have not only had scruples           Scriptural and Confessional, the church that maintains them
 concerning the Three Points, but have openly declared with         should bind them on its membership. Doctrines and Confes-
 proofs that they are Arminian and Pelagian. The Christian          sions are not only instruments to keep out of the church
 Reformed Church knows this, of cburse, and therefore, when         what is in disagreement with it, but they are also instru-
 we also sought discussions with them on this doctrine, have        ments to live by.
 answered us that they do not want "polemical rehearsals of
 past history."    But with those in the De Wolf group, who             But there is more to be said about the above quotation.
 just as vehemently .as we denounced in the past the Three          It cannot have passed the reader's notice the reasons offered
 Points as Arminian and Pelagian, with them the Christian           by the Christian Reformed Church for maintaining the Three
 Reformed Church is not only willing to discuss but even            Points. The first -reason is "the serious situation in 1924
 propose the way to reunion. There can be only one reason           which called these Three Points into being." I am partic-
 for this, and that  is that those in the De Wolf group have        ularly interested in this reason. Of course, the Christian
 recanted. The only reason why they ask the Christian Re-           Reformed Church supposes that those to who&  their letter
 formed Church to declare the Three Points `no longer bitid-        was directed would -know what that "serious situation in
 ing is the fact that they have a rather large segment in their     .192@'  was, and therefore.did  not feel impelled to describe it.
 group who find it difficult and maybe even impossible to           But because I fear they have a di.fferent  understanding of
 swallow the Three Points which they have always  denounced         that "serious situation'" than I do, I am moved to tell our
 as heresy. It is with respect to this iast element ,and  with      readers what it was. The Christian Reformed Church im-
 respkct  to us that the Christian Reformed Church would,           plies by this expression that its denominational existence was
 mainiain  this. doctrine of, common grace and make the Three       jeopardized by the fact that certain ministers in the church
 Points binding. They  cannot afford to have their peace            were, disturbing the peace of the denomination by publicly
 disturbed.                                                         asserting their opposition to the doctrine of common grace.
                                                                    And to stop this growing agitation, the Three Points were
    But is not the position set forth' in the above quotation       concocted on the basis of which the various classes in which
 .a very weak position ? `Indeed `it is. For notice that the        the agitators resided imposed discipline and ultimately cast
church, on the one hand, takes the position `that  the Three        them out. Thus according to point b, peace was restored ;
 Points are binding, and in 1959 insisted that they were both       and point c, this peace they would keep at all costs.
 Scriptural and Confessional ; while on the other hand, it is

 possible to be a member of that church and not believe in the          Tlie truth is, that prior to 1924 there were two elements

 Three Points. The position is that you may believe in ihe&         in the church, one conservative group in the minority which

 (or desist, so long as you do not agitate against the official     held strictly to the Word of God and the Confessions; the

 interpretations. We, as is well known, do not believe the          other, a libel-al  element which on the basis of the doctrine of

 Three Points are Scriptural and Confessional. We could             common grace would open&the  gates for the flood of worldli-

 therefore never subscribe to them. But, for. the sake of argu-     mindedness to come into the church. They wanted, SO to speak,

 ment, let us suppose that the Three Points are Scriptural          to play ball with the world. Because that first element (many

 and Confessional. Are then the Three Points not binding            of whom later recanted) loved the church and the.truth, and

 upon the conscience of the member of the church that main-         strongly insisted that Athens and Jerusalem could not live

 tains. them? I believe, you have to say they would be. Could       together under the same roof, they were cast out and that,

.one  who is a Reformed believer .ever  refuse to subscribe to      too, on the basis of the doctrine of common grace as sum-

 Scripture and-the  Confessions.? I think not. Yet the Chris-       marized in the Three Points which is neither Scripture nor

tian Reformed Church will allow its members and prospective         the Confessions. Hoeksema, Danhof and Ophoff who were

Lmembers  to desist in subscribing to the Three Points so long      the stalwarts defending the purity of the church, her doctrine

.as they do not agitate against official interpretations. I say     and life, w&e  disowned and cast out on the basis of a doc-

 this is a very weak position to say the least. I understand, of    trine formulated `and adopted by a majority that refused to

-course, that it cannot be expected of evei-jr  member of the       be .pestered  with the truth of God's Word. and our Confes-

-church that -he understands` thoroughly all her  doctrine. But     sions. 0, it is true that this liberal element could never have      -
-certainly such a doctrine as common grace yhich has devel-         succeeded if their stand had no semblance of truth. So they


 478                                       T H E   ST.ANDARD   B E A R E R


 hastily prepared texts of. Scriptureiwithout  exegesis, and at           study committee writes in the first paragraph of their intro-

 random quoted parts of the Confessions that seemed to ski-               duction  : "your committee realized that the problem beforo

 tain their view, But to this date, now thirty-six years later,           US is not merely the proposed change of Article 69 of the

 no one has successfully disproved the arguments of-those cast            Church Order, but that the whole question of hymnody  is on

 out which.clearly  show up thefallacy  of the Three Points.              our table. This is evident from the First Church overture."

    .More;-  honest it would have been, it seems to me,. if the           We do not have a request for faithful versifications  of Scrip-

 Christian Reformed Church had conceded to the De Wolf                    ture, but a request to sing hymns. It is this request for hymns
 group that the Three Points had served their purpose, name-              that has -disturbed and caused much fear in the West. It is

 ly, to get men out of the church in 1924 who gave the church             like a flock of sheep that have heard the bark of a `wolf.

 no peace in her,  modernistic. and liberal trend. More honest               This fear, furthermore,.is  not groundless. For over nine-

it would have been, it seems to me, if they had said, "We will            teen hundred years the faithful church has fought~  to `sing
 now scrap the Three Points seeing we have the peace we                   only the Psalms'in  their church services, and we believe that

 desired, and it is in harmony with our expansion movement                we are the faithful continuation of that church. Reading the
 to admit into our churches even the De `Wolf group, and that             report of the study committee is proof enough that the faith-
 without scruples."                                                       ful church -is convinced that God has decided and that it

    But then, if they did that, they would surely hear from               pleases Him that His church sing only- the Psalms in, their
 us. So, the Three Points must be retained.                               services. show then.can any Synod decide. on other songs.
                                                          MS.             The Psalms ape the song book of the Scriptures. Just as
                                                                          there are good hymns, there -are good books, but they have

                                                                          no place in our church services.

                                                                             It should be proof enough that if God wanted to have

                                                                          His church sing other songs besides the Psalms He would

                                                                         have had the New Testament Church sing them in their be-

                                                                    .     ginning and not `when we are looking for the end of all things.
 Editor of The Standard &eayer
                                                                          If ever the church needs the Psalms, it is now and more so
 Att. : Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                 as it approaches the end. The apostate church has no need

    Dear brother in Christ,                                               to sing about God's wrath and. vengeance on his enemies,

                                                                          but the faithful `church receives great  comfort from the
    Will you please print these few lines in The Stanclard

 Bearer in regards to the article in the July 1, 1960, issue              Psa1ms.
 under Variaj  "Synod of Protestant Reformed Churches                        Let us all reread the Rev. H. Hoeksema's' article in The
 1960," by Prof. H. Cl Hoeksema.                                          Standard Bearer, Vol. .IV pp. 317-319;  and take heed to
                                                                          what he writes. We ,quote  : "There is no need for hymns
    In this article the Prof. writes about Article 69 of our
                                                                          next to the Psalms of David which are presented to us in
 Church Order.  He writes : "I think these fears (concerning
                                                                          Holy Scripture. There is in the Psalms a spiritual wealth
 the overture of First Church for the introduction of ~hymns)
                                                                          wherein also the heart of the New Testament Church is able
are -a bit groundless and based on misunderstanding."
                                                                          to express itself perfectly, provided one learns to understand
    I wish to make plain that these. fears, especially in the             those psalms  well."

 West, are very real and that the people have good grounds                   Remarks have been made that we `do not have songs to
 to fear, i.e., those who love the Psalms and are convinced               fit sermons for special days such as Easter and Pentecost. I
 that only the Psalms should be sung in our churches.                     would like to know why it is- not fitting that we sing about

    We are amazed that the overture from the First Church this victorious King of Kings and of the wrath of God on

ever reached our Synod. The overture reads as follows : "The              His enemies when we'hear  a sermon on Christ's resurrection

 Consistory of the First Protestant Reformed Church.in  rec-              and ascension. The Psalms comfort the church through all

 ognition of the common use of hymns by our people and the                the ages from beginning to end. If we wish to have our

 often expressed desire for their use in our church services              children's children sing the Psalms, then we must not have

 appeal to- your `body to consider the matter, and adopt meas-            any other songs besides them. History teaches us that `if

 ures enabling their use in our churches, furthermore, in ,rec-.          we-do, the Psalms will be crowded out.
 ognition of the present character of Article 69 of the Prot-                God has preserved a church for all these ,years  which
 estant Reformed Churches we herewith overture Synod the                  sings the Psalms. He will also preserve a church which loves
 Article to read: "in our church -service only the 150 Psalms             the Psalms and will sing them only in their services until
 and hymns as approved and adopted` by the Synod shall be                Christ comes again. Again we quote Rev. H. Hoeksema:'
 sung."                                                                   "Therefore, it is-always much safer to keep ourselves to the

    It is very plain that the study committee did not mis-                songs which Scriptures present us."

 understand the overture and `neither does the West. The                     If we wish to change Article 69, let us go back to the


       .                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                479

                                                   _                                  .; :
Synod of Dordrecht and add again what we lost: "all other                   therefore; there was no weighty objection against the idea
songs shall be,kept  out of the churches." -                                as such.

If our Psalter lacks something, let it be proven with                            f. I would agree if'brother  Huisken said, "The Psalms

good grounds and something better be offered in its place.                  are the song book of the Old Testament Scriptures." But,

I urge every member of our Protestant Reformed Churches                     while I have great esteem for both our English Psalter and

to read the report of the study committee and Rev. H. Hoek-                 the Dutch Psalms, I beg to point out that it cannot be said

semals  article in Vol. IV, pp. 317-319 in The Skmdcwd                      that we sing the 150 Psalms of David in our churches. In

B e e r .                                                                   other words, our Psalter- is not the same as the Psalms,

                                 .    Yours in the Lord,                    and in some cases far removed from the Psalms.

                                               -H.' Huisken,                    ^g. I still feel that especially on some of the special occai
                                               Edgerton, Minn.              sions, such as Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, our Psalter

                                                                            lacks in selections that have direct and pointed application
R e p l y :
                                                                            to the occasion concerned.
    Our Editor referred this contribution to the undersigned.
                                                                                 Perhaps the above will suffice to arouse further ,discus-
because it is a reflection on some of the comments made by
                                                                            sion, both pro~and  con. In the meantime, I would especially
him in the July i issue in connection with the hymn-proposal
                                                                            like to see one or more of the brethren from First Church
at our 1960 Synod.
                                                                            d e f e n d   h i s   o v e r t u r e .
    In reply, the follo5wing:                                                                                                                                `H.C.H.

    1) I .am very glad that brother Huisken contributed his                                                                                I. .                 --.
thoughts on the subject. This is in harmony with my sugges-

tion that we have some discussion of this matter in our
                                                                                                              I        N           MEtiORIAM
Sta%dayd  Beayer.  And this, I believe, is good for our,                                           . ..".
                                                                $tatnoT-

ard Beare?*,  and also good for our people and our churches.                    The Ladies' Aid Society of the Fir$  Protestant  Reformed  Church
Through clear and calm discussion of issues that concern                    of Grand Rapids, Michigan, mourns.  the loss of one of its faithful
                                                                            members,
our churches. we may all be enlightened and. arrive at real                                              M R S ,   0 .   V A N   E L L E N
unity. I hope that more discussion will follow.                 _.
                                                                            who passed away on August 16. May our Heaven& Father co&ort
   2) I do not intend at this time to offer a. thorough reply               the bereaved with the assurance  that He doeth all things well.

because I wish to encourage others to contribute. their                                                                     Mrs. H. Hoeksema, President
-thoughts. on the subject. I shall -therefore. offer only a few                                                             Mrs. J. Newhouse, Secretary
remarks which may incite more discussion. And if the. oc-                                                                                                       -

casion and/or the need arises, I wihwrite  more in the future.

    3) My remarks are. as follows :'                                                              SIN AND FORGIVENESS
    a. I still think that these, fears are a bit groundless and
                                                                                            How blest .is he whose trespass
based on misunderstanding, as I wrote originally.
                                                                                                Hath freely been forgiven,
    b. I have great respect and love for sheep who are on
                                                                                            Whose sin is wholly covered                                `.
the alert against the wolves. ,But ins this case I believe the
:bark of the wolf that brother Huisken refers to is imaginary.                                  Before the sight of~heaven.

At least, I do not. think that the Consistory of First Church                               Blest he.to whom Jehovah

is the wolf, nor that the wolf's bark can be detected in their                                 -1mputeth  not his sin,
overture.                                                                                   Who hath a guileless -spirit,

    c. 1, do think that the formulation of the First Church                                     Whose heart is true within.
overture is a bit unfortunate and brief, and that this perhaps

is -the occasion of some of the fears.                                                      While I kept guilty silence

    d. I do not agree that the whole question of hymnody                                        My strength was spent with grief,
was on the table of Synod. And certainly, at this time the                                  Thy hand was heavy on me,
question has been reduced to one of. "faithfmversifications                                     My soul found no relief;
of the. Scriptures."    Personally, I believe that the latter is
                                                                                            But when I owned my trespass,
quite in harmony with the intentions of First Church.
                                                                                                My sin hid not from .Thee,                        .
     e. If I am not mistaken, this idea of faithful versifica-
                                                                                            When I confessed transgression,
tions of the Scriptures has been before our churches in the
past, and then - without much ado.- a committee was given                                       Then Thou forgavest me.
-permission to work on such versifications.  At that time,                                                                                      Psalm  32:1, 2


                                                                                 . .
                                                                     go round about her, t&he  towers thereof; mark' ye- well her

                                                                     bulwarks, .consider,her  palaces ; that ye may tell it to genera-

                                                                     tions .following,`,    Psalm .&12,. 13;: God said, "Train up a -

                                                                     child:.`inthe  way he should go- and he will*not  .depart  .from

                                                                     it,,, IProv;  22 ~6.. And what doctrine or idea was Rev.  Heys
                                           August 20; 1960, .        spreading,?:. ,?I% foundin this prayer : "May our Covenant
    Our congregation at Hull called Candidate J. Kdrtering           Goh bless our efforts .to have a school of our' own for our

from a trio which. also .included  the. Revs, G! Vos and G..         children's joy and benefit."

Lubbers. Randolph's trio consisted .of the Revs. R. C. Har-              Convention -N-J. The Young People's 1966  convention
bath  and M. Schipper  and Cand. J. Kortering;  the candidate        was launched with a Beacon Lights pre-convention Hymnsing
receiving the call. The third call to come to the candidate          Sunday evening, August 14, at .First Church. The meeting
was from Creston  Church whose trio included the Revs. H.            was opened by the president, Dave Engelsma, who introduced
Hanko and A. Mulder.                                                 the song-leader for the evening, Chas. Westra, youth director
    Rev. A. Mulder of Kalamazoo~~declined  the call he. had          in' our Southeast Church. The audience sang hymns and
.received  from the church at `Grand Haven.                          Psalter numbers appropriate to the Convention theme,

   The Reformed Witness Hour welcomes Rev. A. Mulder,                "Faithful Today." The singing was accompanied by Bonnie
minister of the Word of God in our Kalamazoo Church, as              Bylsma at the organ and Mary Pastoor at the piano.. A male

their guest speaker during the month of September. This is           quartet from Hope's Y.P.S. sang two numbers, Mr. Edw.

Rev. Mulder's initial appearance in the Protestant Reformed          Ophoff rendered a vocal solo,and  a piano-organ duet, "The

radio ministry - a- ministry of weekly messages broadcast            Heavens are Tehing"  rounded out the program to the en-

over' many U.S; stations and one European station. Rev.              joyment of all. Tuesday'evening found many people gathered
Mulder has taken as the theme of his four radio broadcasts:          in First Church for the Mass -Meeting-  open to the public.
"The Powers of Praise,, : "By Hearing," "By Giving,,, "By            Rev. H. Hoeksema occupied his usual post, that of Keynote

Singing," and "By Praying." Copies of these sermons are              Speaker for the Convention. His topic was, "Faithful In The
available by writing `to the Reformed Witness Hour, P.O.             Truth." Wednesday was the day of the outing, in the A.M.
Box 8, Grand Rapids 1, Michigan.                                     at Saugatuck with `its thrilling dune scootering,.  and in the

    Covrecfiioti.  Not only members of Holland, Hudsonville          P.M. at the Chr. Ref. Conf. grounds on Lake Michigan.
and Hope contributed the funds necessary for the four room           There -business meetings and a program occupied the young
addition to Hope School (as reported last month) but those           people's attention. Speaker for the evening was the Rev. J.
of Creston  and Southwest also gave generously to that King-         A. Heys, of South Holland, who spoke on the topic, "Faith-
dom cause, as we learned since,, from a kind reporter.               ful In Life." Thursday started off with `a pancake breakfast
                                                                     at Douglas Walker Park, then back to First Church for
   Lynden's pastor, Rev. R. C. Harbach, was privileged to
                                                                     more business, a ,luncheon  and- a panel discussion on, "How
expound the Word of God, as found in Matt. 1:21, in the
                                                                     does the world show her hostility to the church ?" The final
chapel service of the .Christian  Rest Home Sunday, July 31.
                                                                     gathering, the eagerly anticipated banquet, was held at the
The "He shall save His `people" gospel revealed in that text
                                                                     Mayfair Christian School gym with the speaker for that
is comforting to all ages, and, especially to folks waiting the
deliverance from the earthly house.                                  evening, the Rev. G. Vanden  Berg, of Oak Lawn. The final
                                                                     topic of the series under the theme, ."I?aithful  Today," was
   May the joint efforts of Rev. Heys and Rev. Vanden
                                                                     "Faithful unto Death." It is reported that this 20th Annual
Berg be successful! They are planning to organize a choral
                                                                     Convention was carried out without any unpleasant incident
society of volunteer singers from both their churches. It is
                                                                     to mar it; it was further observed that a few of our churches
still in the planning stages, but should it-be successful it will
                                                                     were not represented by their delegates, which was the,pnly
be another means of grace which  many may enjoy-the
                                                                     restraint to a wholly successful convention.
singers' and,' when ready to give a concert, the audiences.                                                           '

Truly, the church on earth should be a singing church 1                 .>Yoti%g ?pLen: There is a call for aspirants to our Theolog-

   Doon's  Cons&tory  decided to add a third elder to their          ical School directed to you ! In such a reminder found in
body. At the Congregational meeting, held August 3, E.               South Holland's bulletin we find the last paragraph to read
Van Egdom was chosen, and at the August 7 morning serv-              as follows : !`Make.  it a matter ,of prayer, and ask yourself
ice the brother was installed into the office.                       before God whether He does not have labor for you in His
   Some spiritual and scriptural propaganda found in South           Kingdom in- this glorious work of proclaiming the truth as
Holland's bulletin : John said, "I have no greater                   He has given it to us as Protestant Reformed people. What
                                                    joy than to
hear that my children walk in truth," III_ John 4; JO&~              a glorious truth to `proclaim ! Have you any desire to make
said,                                                                it known to others ?'
          "AS  for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord,"

Joshua 24 :1.5 ; The Psalmist said, "Walk about Zion, and               . . . . see you'in church.                            J.M.F.


