                                                                  _
                            -. :.                                                                                                               . ../

                                                                                                                        :
        VOLuhkE  ~XXXVII                       O                                                                                     &Qf&,J;.;. -:+:  .,:
                                                 CTOBER- l? 1960  - (GRAND  RAPIDS,~M~XIGAN                                   `1.    _.._  _..- i.`.. -.: '
                                                                                                                                                         _ .,p

                                                                                 It `was the beginning of .Christ's  ministry .on earth.  1. p .-i _.              .-'
                                                                                                                                            -- ,*- `.                     _
                                                                                                                                                         ._..-.
           M E D I T A T 1. 0 -ht.-                                              What happened here followed hard upon the 40 days lof::.  .,
                                                                         temptation by. the. devil in the desert .places.                  . . . . -::"-`!-r-  -0 ; '

                                                                                 He .who was familiar to a Divine Orchestra of the'et&&l .~
             CHRISYS lMISSI6N.TO  PREACH
   ,                                                                     song of love -was. led by t-he Holy Ghost to `listen to the
                            THE KI.NGBC)M               ' .' _           raucous voice of the Devil. What horrors !                         ._ .._
                                                                                                                                           .._
                                                                         -_
               "And when it z!a,s  day,, He departed- aSFd  went                 .It was also -before~  the berfect  number. of twelve` apostles
              .. into a desert place: and the peopb  sought Hiti,        were called. So far He, had four of themthat  followed "Him:
                and cag%e unto Him, and stnyed Him, that He                       Christ who was used. to- the company of :beautiful  rangels,
                shoJd `not depart fro+%  tltevut.  And He said
                unto thewt,.I  must preach the Kingdo?%  of God          and souls of men made perfect chose His company of:,.un;:--
                                                                                                                                                            -,, . .
                to other cztses  also: for therejove a.m I se%. 4:n'd    learned .and foolish men.
                He preached in the synagogues of Galdlee."               _-..
                                                                         It was also following `His  visit `to' Nazareth;`the-  @ce;' `.
                                                      Luke 4 :42-44
                                                                         where He grew up. Yes, and there they threatened to &~;ro~%i.

   How is it that we have the preaching of God's Word in                 Him down to the rocks below, and why ?_ Because I%

Hudsonville.?.                                                           preached- the Truth !                           .           -- : vj. .- -'

   dur test is the answer to that question.                                       It was also at the .close of His .first  .work at Capernaum,
                                _-.
                                                                         preaching with power, casting out unclean spirits, healing
   Christ did not stay in one place, nor His Holy Spirit.
                                                                         thosethat  were sick with diverse diseases.
   Lately, a very strange Man had come to the shores of
                                                                                 Christ was tired.
the Lake of Galilee. He is called The Stranger of Galilee . . :

                                                                                 And therefore, even though you may not understand this
   That Strange Man has gone from land to land, from Con-
                                                                         at first flush, therefore, $Ie  arose a] great while before the
tinent to Continent and to the Isles of the Seas.
                                                                         dawn of day:
   He is Christ, the Word of God.
                                                                               Yes,' that sounds strange to you, but. it is entirely-h&-
   His Holy Spirit came initially in Jerusalem, the City of              monious  with the' laws of spiritual life. -                 =
the Great King. But He did not abide there: He went with
                                                                                 Listen : He went to a -desert  place alone, to bray. And
Christ and His Word from shore to shore and to the utter-
                                                                         why? Spiritual work needs spiritual strength. And there is
most parts of the earth.
                                                                         but one Source, and that Source -is God !
   And `He'.will be wending His way until your children
                                                                                 And why a solitary place in the desert? Because it har-
and my children_shall  hear the Word, and he saved .' . .
                                                                         monized with His earthly portio.n,  in the days of His humilia-
   Christ could have sung the song : Do not detain Me !                  tion:  there was a burden of eternal wrath on Him. And

   "I must &-each  the Kingdom of God to other cities also !"            there is no place on earth which portrays that wrath such

   "And He preached in the synagogues of Galilee."                       as a solitary place-in -the desert. Travel through Death Valley
                                                                         in California, and you will'see  .a little of that truth.
   Yes, and so He also came to us in Hudsonville.
                                                                                 And so we find Christ in the desert with the burden of
   God be thanked.
                                                                         the wrath of God pressing upon--Him  and within Him.
                               4:    * * $
                                                                                 And with strong crying He went to God !

   What were the circumstances ?                                                                          8 + 9 *


2                                             T H E   _ S..TANDAe~J$D  .:@EARER


      But. there comes the clamoring .multitude  !      ._ -.         shall I send; and who will go- for us ? then it was Jesus and

                                                                      not Isaiah that said: Send Me! Remember that, and never
      They sought. Him ; they came unto Him ; they stayed
                                                                      forget it. Remember this: all the prophets, apostles, evan-
Him ; and they beg Him:  that He should not depart -from
                                                                      gelists, ministers, elders, deacons, and all God's people that
them.
                                                                      are sent; are really- Jesus the Missionary. Here is the ex-
      Well, that sounds salutary.                                     planation: it is Christ's Word and Christ's Spirit that sends

      It sounds better than the prayer of the Gergesenes that         you, and you go and preach.

He would please depart from their coasts.                                 No, Christ would not stay on in Capernaum: the his-

      But it was really not any better: There was selfishness in      torical reason for His refusal to tarry is that He must

that request. Look at verse 40, There you find your answer.           preach also in the other cities of Galilee. God be,thanked  !

They had all their sick and miserable healed.              ,'            Listen to Matt. 4. :14-16.:  "That it might be fulfilled which

       Imagine a Man of God coming to your coasts who heals           was spoken by Esaias the prophet saying: the land of Zebu-

all the sick of your land and .your  city. Would-you not want         lun and the land of Naphtalim by the way of the sea, beyond

Him in your midst?                                                    Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the .people  that sat in dark-

                                                                      ness saw-a great light and to them which sat in the region
      Do you remember the multitude .who clamored for Jesus
                                                                      and.the  shadow of death light is sprung up."
to be their King ? And what was behind it? Jesus will tell

you : "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek Me, not because            Here is the reason: there were many sons and daughters

ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves,. and       of God who were waiting for the sight of that.great  Light.

w e r e   f i l l e d . "                                             And that Light was Jesus. And He knew it. He must needs

                                                                      leave them at Capernaum, and hurry to those other places
       So also here. They would love to have such a proficient
                                                                      and lead them from darkness to the light of the love of God.
Physician and Doctor among them. Make Him King -of

Israel ! Hallelujah !                                                  It is the Mission of the Love of God!

                             --* * * *                                   And it explains the strange refusal of Jesus to stay in

                                                                      their midst.
      But Christ has a Mission. He must preach the Kingdom
                                                                          He had to go on to Grand Rapids and to Hudsonville.
of God !`
                                                                                                * * * 4:
     Will you, please, look at that heavy word, MUST ?

      -We often, read of that word in the Gospels. He must               And what are the'cqntents of that mission of Jesus ?
suffer ; the Scriptures must be fulfilled.
                                                                         To preach the Kingdom of God.
       They are the earthly echoes of a Heavenly Voice.
                                                                          And, oh, what wondrous variety in that preaching !
      In eternity, from everlasting to everlasting there is the
                                                                          L i s t e n :                      ._
Voice of the Triune God : I ,will  glorify Myself in the highest !
                                                                          To preach the Gospel to the poor. The Gospel is the
      And that Voice is expressive of a Will.                         glad tidings of .the  Promise of God. And. that promise is

 '     It is the WILL of God to glorify Himself in Jesus Christ       fulfilled in this Jesus. If you have this Jesus you. are blessed

the Lord.'                                                            unto all. eternity. You may lack everything else: if you have

       Think of the night in Ephratah's fields: Glory to God in       Jesus you are blessed unto all eternity,

t h e   h i g h e s t !                                                   To heal the broken-hearted.

       I would beg of you: do not forget that for one moment            How come you are broken-hearted ?

all through your history on earth. Think on that no matter               `God's light shines in your heart, and by the clear light
what happens with you or with the heavens and the earth.              of God you saw all your filth and your corruption, and your
That is fundamental and is the reason,. the only reason, for          heart broke, and the night heard your sighing: 0 God, be
things, both in heaven and on earth and in hell. Even the             merciful to me, the sinner !
wrath of men shall praise Thee!
                                                                          But Christ heals such. He shows His cross and resurrec-
       And that is behind all that MUST in Christ's life.'            tion to such, and they ,arise  and sing, they sing through their

       "For therefore am I sent !" -                                  tears.

       The Lord Jesus received a commission. You may even                 To preach deliverance to the captives.

say that He is the ONLY ONE who received this com-                        Captives we are. to the devil, to the world, and to the
mission.                                                              flesh. And when the Light of God shows you such captivity

       When there was a -voice in the heavens that asked : Whom       you cry in your anguish : 0 wretched man that I am ! Who


                                                  T H E   S.TAN.DARD  BEAR&R                                                                                                                                                                3


  shall deliver me from the body df this death ? And the answer

  is: JESUS!                                                                                 TtiE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                                 Semi-mbnthly,  except  monthly  during  June, July  and August
      And recovery of sight to the blind.                                          Published by the REFORMED  FREE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
      The blind : who are they ?                                                 P. 0. BOX  881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7, Mich.

      All of us are blind by nature. We see neither God nor                                                   Editor  - REV.  Hmm HOEKSE~U
   ourselves. In the watchword of the Reformers  there is a                      .Communi&& relative to contents should be `addressed to
                                                                                                  Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St:, S. E.,
   line which refers to that miserable estate: Once was I a                                                                 Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
   stranger before God and myself! That-is the blindness of the                  All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
_ `sinner. But Christ opens our eyes, and'when we begin to                                        James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave., S. E.
                                                                                                                       Grand Rapids 7, Michigan
   cry, `they begin to sing in_ heaven. There is much joy in                     Announcements and Obituaries must be mailed to the above
   heaven over one si&.er  that comes to repentance.                              address and fl be publ&hed  at a fee of $2.00 for each notice.

      To set at liberty them that z&e  bruised;                                  RENEWAL: Unless a definite request for discontinuance is re-
                                                                                 ceived it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription
      Bruised we are from day to day. That begins when you                           to continue without  .the formality of a renewal  order.
   are lying in your cradle. All you can do, and all we can                                                   Subscription price: $5.00 per year,

   do to one atiother  is to bruise and to kill. We are surrounded                 Second Cluss  postage paid  at Grand  Rap&.Michigan

   by forces around about us and within us that bruise us con-

   tinually. Look at the little infant, and then look at the man                                                                 C O N T E N T S
   of eighty years, arid see the difference.                                MEDITATION-

      But Christ in His preaching of the Kingdom sets us at                           Christ's Mission T o Preach The Kingdom _............  ~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . _... 1
   liberty.' It is a glorious experience to walk at liberty and                                  Rev. G. Vos
   have room to live a;id  to breathe. God be thanked.                      EDJXORIALS-
                                                                                     As to Being Protestant Reformed: . . .._____...__...............................  4
      To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.                                                 Rev. H. Hoeksema
       Oh that acceptable year of Jesus and of God!                         OURDOCTRINE-

      There is a year and there is a day when there is Divine                        The Book of Revelation . . . . . . . . .._.................................................  -6
                                                                                                 Rev. H. Hoeksema
   acceptance, and the arms of God will enfold you.
                                                                            A CLOUD OF WITNESSESY-
      They will sing then about you, and they will answer one                        Preparing To Go T o Canaan __....................................                                                             Y . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
   another in the chorus  of a divine song: Safe in the arms of                                  Rev. B. Woudenberg
   Jesus !                                                                  FROM HOLY WRIT -
       How beautiful is' the  Voice of the Preacher of all the                       Exposition of I John 2:12-14 (b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._.......................... 9
                                                                                                 Rev. G. Lubtiers
   ages : Jesus Christ the Lord !
                                                                            IN HIS FEAR  -
       He is sent to the poor, the humble, fhe naked, the hungry                      The Freedom of "Bigop" ( 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   and thirsty !                                                                              Rev. J. A. Heys

      And He prepares acceptance, acceptance in the arms of                 CONTENDING FOR T& FM~x-  -
   God !                                                            G.V.             The Church and de Sacraments...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
                                                                                                 Rev. H. Veldman

                                                                            TIP;  VOICE OF OUR  FATHERS-
                                                                                      The Canons of Dordrecht _.._...................................................... 15

                               IN MtiMORIAM                                                  Rev. H. C. Hoeksema

                                                                            D
      On September 8, 1960, it pleased our Heavenly Father to take               ECENCY AND ORDER-
                                                                                      The Mission Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   unto Himself our dear  mother, sister, grandmother, and great-grand-                          Rev. G. Vanden  Berg
   mother
                              MRS. G.PASTOOR                                ALLAROUNDUS-
                                                                                      Roman Catholic Influence In Government... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
   at the age of 82 years.                                                            Missionary Labor In Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
      May the family take c&niort  in the knowledge that when our                     Religious Broadcasting ._...  `... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
   earthly tabernacle is dissolved, we have  an eternal home with our                   I'_ Rev. H. Hanko
   covenant God in Heaven.                                                  COi&JBmONS  -
                                   Mr. and Mrs. William G. Pastoer                    MisSionary                   Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
                                   Mr. and Mrs. Donald Pastoor                                   Rev. G. Lubbers
                                   Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Pastoor                      Contribution On The Hymn Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
                                   Mr. and Mrs. Jo&.  Pastoor                                    Mr. R. Rooda
                                   Mr. and Mrs. Peter Pastoor                        Reply to Brother Rooda  ____.___.___....____.......................................... 22
                                   Mr. and Mrs. Robert P&oor                                     Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
                                   Miss Stella  Wierenga                    NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES . . . . . .._ ___.....  .._.............  . . . ..___.  ..___..__  24

                                   Grandchildren and "                                           Mr. J. M. Faber
                                   Great-Grandchildren

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

                                                                     ._
                                                                      ' This is my first.general  remark.

                                                                           Secondly, the Synod of the Christian `Reformed Church

                                                                      does.  not deal with the Protestant Reformed Churches but

                                                                      with schismatics and with a s&ismatic  Synod. Does not the
           As to Being Protestant Reformed                            Synod of the Christian Reformed Church know this ? Of

                                                                      course, they do. Does not the Synod .of the Christian Re-

      In our last editorial we quoted the entire letter of the       formed Church know ,that a minister of the Protestant Re-

 Christian Reformed Synod to the schismatic Synod.                   formed Churches was legally deposed from office and that

      We will now briefly discuss this communication.                this deposition was sealed by Classis East? Of course, they
                                                                     do. Does not the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church
      According to the letter of the Christian Reformed Synod,       know that, when the Classis  approved of the suspension and
 the heart of the letter sent by the schismatics is that the         later of the deposition of the minister referred to above some
 latter request that the Three Points be set aside so that           of the delegates simply left the Classis  and organized a
 they have no longer any binding force. And this is un-
                                                                     separate Classis  which later was recognized by the schismatic
 doubtedly correct.
                                                                      Synod ?. Again, I say : of course, they do. .And,  therefore, it
      Then the Christian Reformed Synod:                             is very plain  that the Synod of the Christian Reformed

      1. Expresses that this cannot be done.                          Church knows that it is not dealing with the Protestant
                                                                     Reformed Churches, in this attempt to unification, but with
      2. Gives three reasons or grounds for this decision.
                                                                     schismatics. And in doing so, they heap sin upon sin.
      3,. And finally suggests a -way in which the unification of
                                                                           This is my second general remark.
the Christian Reformed Church and the schismatics may,
 nevertheless, be effected.                                                Finally, I ask- will the Synod of the Christian Reformed
                                                                     Church simply receive the schismatic ministers in their com-
      Again, as.1 have written more than once, no word in the
                                                                     munion and allow them to preach and receive a call without
 entire letter of the Christian Reformed Synod speaks of sin
                                                                     any special further instruction. Remember that the only in-
 and confession of sin ! Yet, in 1924, sin was committed. The
                                                                     struction they ever had, .as far -as theology is concerned, was
 sin that officebearers, ministers and elders and deacons, were
                                                                     in our own Seminary. Will they now recognize the theolog-
 deposed from their office. This also concerns the schismatics.
                                                                     ical instruction that was given by professors that were cast
 By following the deposed officebearers, they acknowledged
                                                                     out of the Christian Reformed Church? We shall see.
 that Classis East and West of Grand Rapids walked in a
sinful way when they deposed the officebearers of Eastern                  Now let us discuss the letter that was sent by the Synod

 Avenue, Kalamazoo and Hope, officebearers that were ad-             of the Christian Reformed Church to the schismatic Synod

 mittedly Reformed and that had done no wrong. Does the              a little more in detail.

 Christian Reformed Synod of 1959 and 1960 still consider                  First of all, they refuse to set aside the Three Points.
 that the deposition of. these officebearers in 1924 was correct?    They do so in the following words: .'
Do they hold themselves responsible' for that deposition? If
                                                                           "Synod may on occasion be compelled to make emergency
 so, it is evident that the schismatics must `be required to
                                                                      decisions which serve a definite purpose in a given historic
 confess their sin even before they, can talk about the condi-
                                                                     moment. Such emergency decisions are dated and may in
 tions upon which they can be received in the communion of
                                                                     time become inactive because they have served their purpose
 the Christian Reformed Church. And the letter of the Chris-
                                                                     and are no longer needed. The result could be that such
 tian Reformed Church to the schismatics certainly should
                                                                     decisions are in effect set aside. Reflecting, however, on the
 have emphasized that most important fact. Or if they do not
                                                                      synodical  decisions of 1924 respecting the Three Points, we
 wish to be responsible for the deposition of the officebearers
                                                                     believe that an outright and official setting aside of them is
 in 1924, they should, at least, express this very clearly and
                                                                     unwarranted . . . ."
 offer an apology, not to the schismatics, but to the Synod of
 the Protestant Reformed Churches and to those of the office-              This is an answer to the decision of the schismatic Synod
 bearers that were deposed and that are still living. _              that they do not desire to maintain the Three Points in any
                                                                     form.
      The only way in which sin can be put out of the way is,
                                                                           Now, the language of .the  Christian Reformed Synod is
 atcording  to Scripture, by confession and forgiveness.
                                                                      rather careful : "We believe that an oz&r&~~t  and o@cial
      But neither the letter of the Synod of the Christian            setting aside of them is ti+zway+-anted."  To me this seems to
Reformed Church of 1960 nor that of the schismatics make              leave room for a partial and unofficial setting aside of the
 mention of this.                                                     Three Points as being warranted. The Synod could simply

      I maintain, therefore, that the blessing of the Lord .can      have, said : `<We-  must deny your request to set aside the

 never rest upon this attempt to unification..                        Three Points because they express the truth."


                                              T - H E   S T A N D A R D   ,BEARER                                                    5


       Nevertheless, however careful the language may be, the            "The salutary effect  of- these Three Points in producing

fact remains that the Synod of the Christian Reformed                 rest and -peace  in the churches."

Church still maintains the Three Points and that any Church              This.1 deny unless what is meant is the rest and peace of
or group of Churches that unites with that Church put their           the graveyard. Since 1924, according to all I hear, see and
neck under that yoke.                                                 read, the Christian Reformed Church has departed more and

       But the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church, 1966,          more from the Reformed truth. The Church has grown
also produced reasons or grounds why the setting aside of             tremendously in numbers and has large and beautiful prop-
the Three Points is unwarranted. The first of these reasons           erties, but it has failed to grow in grace and especially in
is as follows:                                                        the knowledge and maintenance .of the Reformed faith.
`^_
       "a. The serious situation in 1924 which called these Three        The third reason or ground which the Synod offers is the
Points into being."                                                   following :
                                     12
       This, I think, would be a nice ground for the very                "The fact that such setting aside of the Three Points
                                                              op-
posite from what the Synod wants to prove., For one could             would run counter to and virtually nullify a large measure of
reason as follows : a. The Three Points were called into being        agreement which had been achieved."

because of a certain situation that existed in 1924. b. That             I know not whether I understand this correctly but I

`situation does not exist anymore and has not existed more            suppose that the meaning is `that a large measure of agree-

than thirty years. c. Therefore, the Three Points ,may  now           ment refers to the committee of the Christian Reformed

safely be set aside.                                                  Church in conference with the committee of the schismatics.

       What was the serious situation that required the formula-      And this is: to some`extent,  perhaps, even to a large extent,
tion of the Three Points ?                                            true. For this reason, 1.~ cannot understand why the schis-
                                                                      matic Synod now comes with the request to set aside the
       I could write a long chapter in answer to this question.       Three Points. I can only surmise the reason. And the reason
But I will be very brief. The situation was as follows :              that I surmise is that there are still-many of the schismatics
       1. The deposition of professor R. Jansen by the Synod          that must have nothing of the Three Points and that do not
of Orange City who was teaching false doctrine at Calvin              want to join the Christian Reformed Church. They under-
Seminary. He was deposed by the above named Synod in                  stand by this time. that, in 1953, they were deceived. They
1922. In this deposition the Rev. H. Danhof and myself                would like to come back if it were not for the fact that they
`took a very active part.                                             would have to come back in the way of an apology and after

       2. The "Jansen men" of whom there were several swore           Seven years of separate existence it is- often difficult to get
that they would also cast us, and especially me, out of the           their families along -with  them. I surmise that this is the
church.                                                               reason why the schismatic Synod now requests that the
                                                                      Three Points be set aside. This would. seem to make it easier
       3.    Hence, they hit upon the-question of so-called common
                                                                      for many of the schismatics to unite with the Christian
grace on which I had written a few. years before this in The
                                                                      Reformed Church. However, this request is not granted.
Banner;
                                                                      Thus the question is : what next ?
       4. In the meantime, because we could not have sufficient
                                                                         I would advise that-those of the schismatics who are still
space in the church papers to defend and develop our views,
                                                                      Protestant- Reformed return to. us with the expression of
we organized and published The Standard Bczayer  in 1923.
                                                                      heartfelt sorrow that they ever were deceived by their leaders
       5. To this I must add that the supervisory committee of        and left the Protestant Reformed Church:
Calvin College and Seminary, of which the Rev. H. Danhof
and myself were members, had, .on the suggestion of the Rev.             But although the Christian Reformed Synod maintain the
Ghysels,.  reported to the Curatorium  that the instruction of        Three Points, they nevertheless open the back door for the
the "four professors" of the Seminary could be much im-               schismatics to come in. They suggest another way for the
proved upon. This explains the attitude of those professors           schismatics to unite with them. They will not set aside the
and especially of lprofessor  Berkhof in the entire case that         Three Points, nor will they demand of the schismatics an
came before the Synod of i924.                                        expression of total agreement with those Three Points., For,
                                                                      so they say, we all, the Christian Reformed Church and the
       In other words the situation in 1924 was not such that it      schismatics, stand on the basis of Scripture and the Confes-
was love for the truth that motivated our opponents but               sions and, therefore, the unification ought to be effected.
personal hatred and envy..
                                                                         Next time we still must consider that open back door,
       The second reason or ground for the statement that the
                                                                      D.V.
setting aside of the Three Points is unwarranted reads as

follows :                                                                                                                      H.H.

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



                                                                    clothed with all sorts of armour,  even a great company with

                                                                    "bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia,

                                                                    Ethiopia, and Libya with them ; all of them with shield and

                                                                    helmet : Gbmkr;  and ail his bands ; the house of Togarmah
             THE BOOK OF REVELATION                           .     of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people

                                                                    with thee . . . . It shall also come to pass, that at the same
                         PART TWO -
                                                                    time shall things come into thy mind, and thou .shalt  think

                  CHAPTER FIFTEEN -                                 an evil thought: And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land

                  The Battle of Amageddolz                          of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that

                      Revelation 16 :lO-21                          dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having
                                                                    neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil, and to take a prey.;
     The book with its seven seals is given Him, in order that
He might have all power in heaven and on earth. Seal after          to turn' thine hand upon the desolate places that are now
                                                                    inhabited, and upon the people that are gatbered out `of the
seal has been broken. Trumpet after trumpet has been.blown.
                                                                    nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in
Vial after vial has been poured out. All history has been
                                                                    the midst of the land . . .
controlled by Him from year to year and from stage to                                              And it shall come to pass at: the
                                                                    same time -when Gog shall come against the land. .of Israel,
stage, till the last vial is poured out and the last scene is to
take place on the stage of history, the scene that will             saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face.
                                                         prepare
                                                                    For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have `I spoken,
the earth for the descent of the New Jerusalem. It is finished.
     The last vial is poured out. As the nations are gathered       Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land
                                                                    of Israel ; So that the fishes of the sea,' and the fowls of the
in the winepress of the wrath of God, battling one another to
                                                                    heaven, and.the  beasts of the field, and all creeping things
death, the very atmosphere is filled with the wrath of God'.
                                                                    that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the.
The devils, that find their abode in that air, are defeated for-
ever.. And nature is angry with terrible convulsions. There are     face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the moun-
                                                                    tains shall be thrown down, and the steep places, shall fall,
terrific lightnings and thunders and voices. The sun is dark-
ened, and the moon appears blood red. A great and .terrible         and every wall shall fall to the:ground.  And I will call for
                                                                    a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the
earthquake cracks the earth, so that Babylon is split and
destroyed and the cities  of the nations. are wiped out - an        Lord God: every man's .sword  shall be against his brother.
                                                                    And I will .plead  against him with pestilence and with blood ;
earthquake as never before, as long as man lived on earth.
                                                                    and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the
And to finish all,. great hail falls from heaven, making the
                                                                    many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and
destruction complete. Every hailstone. weighs a talent, that is,
                                                                    great hailstones, fire, an,d brimstone." Ezek: 38 :l-6, 10-12,
approximately one hundred pounds. Just imagine the scene. It
                                                                    1 8 - 2 2 .   `.
is the great day of the wrath of God. All the nations are
gathered. They fight and rage, wild with the despair of their          Thus shall the evil intentions of the nations and of the
forlorn kingdom. They are at each other's throats in fury,          beast and of the dragon be turned against themselves. In
filled with the wrath of God. Darkness prevails. The moon by        that last battle the people of God shall have no part. They
night looks like blood. Tremendous hailstones begin to fall,        shall be taken away. A beautiful indication is given us once
crushing them to death. An earthquake destroys their cities.        more of this truth in the fifteenth verse of this' chapter, where
Mountains are rooted out of their place. The very surface of        the Lord so wonderfully warns: "Behold, I come as a thief.
the earth is changing. Islands flee away. And in the midst of       Blessed is he that `watcheth,  and keepeth his garments, lest
this universal destruction, from which no one shall escape,         he walk naked, and they see his shame." The Lord will come
are heard the cursings  and blasphemies of a wicked race,           as a-thief, unexpectedly, unawares, with His judgments, but
rebellious to the very last. No indeed, there is no repentance      also to take His people away from the earth. He shall come
except through the grace of God. God is fully justified in          and go, and no one shall have noticed that He shall have
this last scene of human history. Sin is rebellion, hatred          been. The nations shall continue to rage and to blaspheme
against the God. of heaven.                                         the God of heaven ; but the church of God shall be upon earth
     Strikingly, this is the fulfillment of what was prophesied     no more. Therefore the chapter is a warning to watch, look
by Ezekiel in Old- Testament symbolism. In Ezekiel we read :        for the coming of the Lord, when all these things shall come
"And the word of the Lord came unto me, say&Son  of                 to pass. We are making history fast, especially in the last
man, set thy face against Gog, the land -of Magog, the chief        years.      And therefore, we must keep our garments clean,
prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And          watch out for the defilement of Antichrist, refuse to have
say, Thus saith the Lord God ; Behold, I am against thee, 0         anything to do with him, watch as children of light, expect-
Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal : And I will turn        ing the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may be
thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee       faithful -even  unto the end ; and no one shall take our crown.

forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them                                                                    H.H.


                                            T - H E   S-TANDARD  B'EAltER                                                 -         7


                                                                      buryingijlace.  There they buried Abraham and Sarah his

11 A CLOLI D OF Wl.TNESS~ES>; 11 wife; .there they buried Isaac and Rebekah  his wife; and
                                                                      there Iburied Leah. The purchase of the field and of the cave

                                                                      that is therein was from the children of Heth." This was
            Prep&ring To Go To Canaan                                 the one thought that carried Jacob's soul as he came to the
        And he charged .theun, and said unto them.,- I am to          end of his life. It'vividly revealed the deepest confidence of
     be gathered'ztnto  my people: bury me with vny fathers           his faith. Having expressed it, he gathered up his feet and
     in the-cave . . . . that is &z the field of Machpelah, whz'ch
     is before &la*zre,  in the Eand  of Canaan . . .                 died.
        And when Jacob had m!ade an end of command&g                      Jacob died in the confidence that he would be gathered
     Lois  souts,  he gatlzered  2*p his feet into the ,bed, and      -unto his people. His fathers were in Canaan, and he would
     yielded up fhe ghost, and was gathered unto his people.          be with them. In this he saw not just'the earthly Canaan
                                           Genesis 49 :29, 30, 33
                                                                      where their ,bodies  had been laid. He saw the eternal Canaan,
       ' And Joseph tobk  & oath of the children of ,IsVael,          the city which has' foundations whose builder and maker is               .
     saying, God ~21  surely  visit, yoti,  and ye shall carry'
     up rtzy  bones from hence. So Joieph  died.                       God. It was Jacob's firm conviction that his fathers had
                                               Genesis 50:25, 26      not perished in the grave. Unto them were the promises of

  It might appear to some that the title for this'article  is          God, and those promises endured forever. They were re-
poorly chosen. It might better read, "The Death of Jacob               deemed from the power of death. Even as he knew his fathers
and Joseph." Still, we can not help but feel that Jacob and           -were.  yet living, he knew that he would continue to live
Joseph themselves would not have it so. At the hour of their          `also. Thus death held for him no fear. With him there was
death neither of them was concerned so much with the                  no sorrow or' weeping. In confidence he looked forward to.
sorrow of departure. They were looking forward in hope to             being .with  God. In that. assurance he died.
being united with their people in Canaan.                                 It was because of this also that he gave his sons command-
   The death of Jacob is remarkable. We see him in that               ments concerning the burial of his body. Surely Jacob -was
hour gathering up his feet into `his bed with complete self-          not superstitious, as to think that where his body was buried
composure and contentment, almost as though by his own                would make any real difference for him. But his sons were
choosing giving up the ghost. For all of God's people it is           there. It was important for them -to know that their dwell-
not so. For many death is more like a final battle. Some              ing place could not be always in Egypt. God had given them
approach it amid anguish and pain as though the body would             Canaan as a type and picture of the kingdom of heaven. To
impress upon their souls one last taste of the curse. Some             that land they had to return. This Jacob told them by corn-        -
approach death with great sorrow, with the flesh refusing to          manding  that in that, land his body should be buried. The
leave go of all that is dear. But there are also those, who            command that his body should be laid with his fathers in
in the closing hours seem to mount up in the full strength             Canaan was an .external~  testimony of his faith that his soul.
of faith. As gradually the body weakens, the spirit advances           would be with them also. So should all of the true children
`in vigor. More clearly the s&ritual realities are seen and            of Israel continue to look to Canaan as .an external manifesta-
held than ever before. The feebleness of the  body and. the            tion of the faith that they would dwell eternally in the pres-
concerns of the flesh seem to fade away as nothing until              ,ence of God.

life closes its doors with a shout of triumph. Such was the              -No sooner had the moment of Jacob's death passed by

death of Jacob.                                                       than "Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him,

   The closer Jacob approached to the end, the more the                and. kissed him." Joseph had always been'closer to his father                .

promise of God began to dominate his mind. It became his              `than any of his brothers.    From his earliest youth, he had

final and sole concern. With the promise of God standing               shared his inner, spiritual ,life  in intimate communion with

out before his mind, he bestowed their portion of the birth-          his father. He had not known the isolation of sin which had

right upon Joseph's sons. With the-  promise strengthening             separated his brothers. Even during the many years that he

his heart, he called his `sons together to bless them. Personal       had been in Egypt, his father had been dontinually  in his

feelings.and  prejudices no longer concerned him. He exhorted         thoughts, just as he had been in his father's. When finally

and admonished, promised and assured each son`as the will-            they had been united again, this same spiritual communion

of the Lord had determined. When this was done only one               had been restored. Now that once again they were separated,

reflection remained to be expressed from his soul. As he had           Joseph felt the sorrow more than anyone else: We find a

charged Joseph individually before, so now he spoke to all            picture so typidal of the death of saints. While the one

of .his sons, "1, am gathered unto my people : bury me with            departing leaves in confidence, those left behind are over-

my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hit-         come with. grief.

tite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which. is            Soon very elaborate preparations- were begun for the

before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought              burial of Jacob. Joseph called in his physicians, who em-

,with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a           balmed  the body after the Egyptian manner. .This took a
                        - _


 8                                            T H E   S'TANDARD   B E A R E R
                                                                   :.

 total of forty days.    Meanwhile the whole of the Egyptian             It was after their return that aznew  fear began to trouble

 nation went into mourning for a total of seventy `days.           the brothers of Joseph. Reflecting upon their father's death,-

      We may wonder at this. Surely it was not the Hebrew          they reasoned among themselves, `! Joseph will peradventure

 custom either to embalm the dead or to mourn at suchlength.       hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we

 But there are several considerations which we should note.        did unto. him."      Martin Luther remarked concerning this,

 There was undoubtedly a certain amount of adaptation to the       "From this narrative we learn how dreadful it is to sin and

 customs of the Egyptians.     This in itself was neither right    have an accusing conscience. It is much like a. wound that

 nor wrong as long as the mourning remained truthful and           cannot be healed."      What sinner is there who has not ex-

 sincere. As far as the embalming of Jacob's body was con-         perienced this ? A sin ,has been confessed and forgiven, but

r cerned, although not according to Hebrew custom, it was in       in times of weakness it returns again and again to plague

 this situation necessary. Jacob's body had to be carried on       the sinner with fear. Jacob had anticipated this trouble among

 the long, hot journey from.Egypt  to Canaan. If it were left      his.sons.  He had warned them not to live in fear but showed

 in its natural state, this could never be done. The only other    them the way of relief, "So shall ye say unto Joseph, `Forgive,

 alternative was to embalm the body after the manner of            I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin.' "

 the Egyptians. It was only the Egyptians' knowledge of                  In accord with the instructions of their father, the

 embalming that allowed for the command of Jacob to be             brothers soon sent a messenger to Joseph. "We pray thee," he

kept. Finally, and perhaps most remarkable, was the mourn-         said, "Forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy

 ing of the Egyptians. This mourning was evidently very            Father." Joseph Ileard  the message and wept. But before

 elaborate and widespread.     This was partly because of the      he could send an answer, the brothers themselves came and,

 high esteem in which Joseph was held. The Egyptians joined        bowing down before him, exclaimed, -"Behold,  we be thy

him in his mourning for his father. But this would not seem        servants."    The answer of Joseph stands yet today as one of

 to account for it all. There was also a high regard for Jacob     the classic examples of forgiving love. "Fear not: for am I

 himself. And, if such were so, it would only be because of the    in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil .against

 important position which Jacob held in God's covenant. It         me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is

 is hard for us-to.  know just exactly how b-road Joseph's         this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye

 religious influence had been in Egypt. The Scriptures do not      not : I will nourish you, and your little ones." Joseph had no

 tell us very much about that. Surely Joseph did not remain        desire to judge his brethren. That is the prerogative of Gpd.

 silent in matters that pertained to God. From the great           He wished only to instruct and share with them the glorious

 sorrow which the Egyptians revealed at the death of Jacob,        truth "that all things work together for good to them that

 it would appear that- Joseph's.  influence was much greater       love God,' - yes, even the sins of God's people. He had

 than what we might at first imagine.                              passed through the fire .himseif, and had tasted the riches of

       When the days of formal mourning were completed,            divine love. With him there remained only one desire, and

 Joseph sent to Pharaoh this request, "My father made me           that was to minister to the deeds of his brethren. Faithfully

 swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged         Joseph followed the example of his Saviour, Who, paradox-

 for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now       ically, was yet many ages to come.

 therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and            Of the rest of the life of Joseph, we know' very little.

 I will come again.,, Although in a position of highest author-    We may be sure that with kind instruction and guidance he

 ity, Joseph would not forget his responsibility to Pharaoh.       continued to fill the place of his father in Israel.

 Even in matters of personal concern, he respected the greater           It is of the end of Joseph's life that we are once more
 authority of Pharaoh. God had taught him to be humble.'           given a brief glimpse.      We find `him standing in the same
 Pharaoh's answer was in turn short and kind. "Go up and           faith as that of his father. His thoughts of faith were also
 bury thy father, according as he made thee swear."                set upon Canaan. So he instructed the children of Israel, "1

       It was a great retinue that made its way to Canaan. All     die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this

 of the houses of Joseph and his brothers were' present, as        land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac,

 many as could make the trip. In addition there were great         and to Jacob." This  was-not  a wish or mere desire. It-was-

 numbers of Pharaoh's servants, elders of the land, and horse-     not even an instruction which they had to fulfill. It was a

 men and chariots to protect them on their way. These latter       sure promise of the mercies of God.

 came, not so much by command, but out of deep respect for               Thus in his closing hours, Joseph also left them with a

 Joseph andhis  father. The extent of their sorrow manifested      testimony. He took of the children of Israel an oath, saying,

 itselfrto  all that met them on the way. The Canaanites called    "God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones

 the place where they stopped Abelmizraim because of the           from hence." Joseph's body was embalmed and left unburied.

 grievous mourning of the Egyptians. Having arrived in             It waited for the return to Canaan, a constant testimony of

 Canaan, the sons of Jacob went on alone to perform the            his faith that he would be gathered eternally, to dwell with

 actual burial. Together they returned to Egypt.                   the people of God.                                         B.W.


                                         -


                                                                                                                           ,,
                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  `9


                                                                      _ The question is : who are the fathers here in the text; to

          F R O M   HOLY IIi'RlIT                                   whom. do.es  John refer in thus designating his readers ? It
                                                                    seems `to us that in justice to the text we must- not limit the

                                                                    scope of "fath;ers"  strictly andrigidly to old men in terms of

             Exposition of I John 2:!2-14                           years. John seems to have something else and more in mind
                                                                    than simply those in the congregation who have attained unto
                               b*                                   a ripe old age. We believe that John has in mind the more

    In our former article,we  noticed that John, in addressing      matured Christians from a certain point of view. For, if
his readers as "`children" and "little children" in the verses      what John says concerning "little children" refers to the en-
12 and 14, has reference to the entire congregation, young          tire congregation, the old fathers as well as the young men,
and old, and not simply the very young in the congregation.         then a strict line of demarcation between fathers and the                ,;
                                                                    young men must not be urged. Both the "fathers" and the
We based this observation and interpretation on the
current usage of the term "children" in the.  entire epistle        "young men" possess the forgiveness of their sins, and both
of John, where it very clearly refers- to' the entire new-born      know the Father in his, forgiving love. Hence, we see no
church of God in distinction from the world which lies in           exegetical reason for urging such a distinction in terms of
darkness and in the power of the Evil One. See.John  2 :l- ;        years.     We subscribe to the remark of Lange in his Com-
2 :8 ; 3 :l ; 3 :lO, 11 and 4 :4. Furthermore, we noticed that      mentary on `I John, and we quote, "That which John says
the term "little children" is interchanged very definitely in       to the tekniois (children) that their sins have been forgiven,
this epistle with the term "beloved." John is writing to the        applies indeed to all, and it does not apply exclusively to the
bletoved in the Lord, for whose sins God sent His Son as a          fathers, that they have known the Lord ; or exclusively to
propitiation because of His great love.                             the young men, that they have overcome the wicked one.;
                                                                    for it may be that there are fathers who have just gained the
    It is the peculiar privilege of the "little children," the
                                                                    victory, and young men who have acquired profound know11
new-born church, that' her sins are forgiven her for Christ's
                                                                    edge.`,
name's sake. That constitutes the legal basis of her new
                                                                        Yet, it may be more the characteristic of the "father" to
relationship to God and to the fellow-saints in Christ, and
                                                                    reflect upon the deeper and divine background of salvation,
her` changed relationship to the world which lies in dark-
                                                                    to know the one "who is from the beginning." For this latter
ness ! They are free from the curse of the law ; the accuser
                                                                    is none else than our Lord Jesus himself in his Deity, as he
of the brethren cannot bring any accusation against these
                                                                    is before the foundation of the world. He it was who claimed
children. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ,
                                                                    to be the true God and eternal life. He and the Father are
the righteous. And nothing in all the world can separate us
                                                                    one. ,He is as to His Divine nature, as the person of the           '
from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Up to the present
                                                                    Son, from the beginning. He was` when the world was made.
moment the sins are forgiven ; the little children are assured
                                                                    Thus we read in the Prologue of John's Gospel: "In the be-
that God remembers them no .more. John employs the perfect
                                                                    ginning was the Word, and the Word was' with God and the
tense in ,the  Greek which expresses completed action up to
                                                                    Word was God. All things .were  made by him and nothing
the present wzowzemt!  Such is the grace wherein the children
                                                                    was made that was not made by him: In him was life and
stand and rejoice (ever up to the present moment) in the
                                                                    the life was the light of man. And the Word was made
hope of the glory of God in the saints!
                                                                    flesh and dwelt among us:" See John 1:1-l%. And, again;
    This is ground number one why John writes these little          in the Prologue of this epistle we read: "That which was
children,                                                           from the beginning, what which we- have heard, that which
    For in this conscious possession of the.forgiveness  of sins    we have seen with. our eyes, and our hands have handled
the saints also know the Father. They know God, the triune          concerning the Word of life - and the life was manifested,
God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in this knowl-        and we have seen and testify and declare unto you the
-edge  of the forgiveness of sins they have eternal life. John      eternal life which was with the Father and manifested unto
17 :3.                                                              ,you  . . ." Comp. I John 1 :l-2.
    Once more, such is the ground, the first reason for the           There can hardly be any doubt but that John has refer-
concrete addressableness of these saints. They possess what         ence to this entire-manifestation of eternal life, the unfolding
it takes to be admonished to the battle that their joy may be       of the counsel of God concerning our redemption, when he
-full. I John 1:4.  Compare Canons of Dort, III, IV, 16, 17.        speaks of what the fathers know or have known ! When one
More grace is conferred upon them through admonitions!              knows him who is from the beginning one knows the wzunner
Sapienti  sat! (A word to the wise is sufficient.)                  of the love of God, of God revealing Himself in the Son.

    We must also yet notice what John writes, concerning            Such know. the mystery of godliness that is great. God is

the "fathers"  and the "young men" in these verses.                 revealed in the flesh! This is the "heavenly things" which

    First of all what he writes concerning the "fathers."           Jesus makes known unto Nicodemus in John 3 :X4-16  when


 1       0                                   ,THE  S-TA,NDqRD   B E A R E R


 he `says : "Even as Moses lifted up the serpent  "in &e wilder-           -. ---This'  rather at once tells us whb the~Evi1  One is and also

 ness, thus must the `Son  of Man be lifted up . . ; For God          dircumscribes  the battle,. the -strength needed and weapons

 thus loved the world that He gave His only beg&n Son                 to .be .employed.

 . . . " And this is a more mstured  and `reflective knowledge                Now the young men are strong. Their  strength is not
 of salvation, the deeper and-  divine background, so to speak,       simply a potential of native ability, but  theirs is valiant
 of the forgiveness of sins. Here is the rock-bottomness of           strength in battle. They battle gloriously, crowned and en-
 salvation. Here one says "it behooved God." See, Heb. 2 :lO          dowed with this strength of God. They are strong because
 where we read of this one who is from the beginnitig'&id             of the Word of God  which dwells in them through faith by
 his place in the economy of salvation ifi bringing many sons        the operation of,  the Holy Ghost. -They stand in the hanoply
 to glory ! !                                                         of God ; the full armor of God is theirs.' Because this word

      When one knows this one from the beginning he belongs           thus dwells in them by faith, in this faith they fight the battle

' to the "fathers" in principle. .H& is the &lid,`quiet  t&st of      against the Evil. One. They. say  : it is written. And the Evil

 the matured little children of God ,whose sins are forgiven          One may ass&t, but there is no wrestling match ; the Evil

 them for Christ's name's sake.                                       One is kept at bay so that he cannot lay his hands on the

      L&t no one say that there is no need for this knowledge.       young men in the. battle.

 This  is more than a thumb-nail preaching.          -This .means     These `$oung  men have overcome. Constantly they have
 profound preaching such as we have in question and answer           the. victory-up to the present moment. They are more

 form in the Heidelberg Catechism: Why must he be truly              than conquerors in the Lord. Their sins are forgiven ; they

 and righteous man ? Why must he be truly God ? What must            know the Father in His saving love and power. Such is the

 a Christian believe ? Ah, here one evermore profoundly              militant church. She knows in Whom she believes. She is

 delves into the mysteries of faith of the Apostolicurn: God,        well-anchored in the truth in Jesus. And thus she 6g'@s  to
 the Father, in our creation ; God, the Son, in our redemption ;     hold what she has. Thus are these young men.

 God, the Holy -Ghost,  in our sanctification !                               `Such is the church when she is iti her manhood and when

      May our .Protestant  Reformed Churches ,ever  be corn--        she is strong, courageous, and quits herself like men.

 posed df such "fathers" well-nurtured in the. Word!                         `Behold, the last two grounds for. writing  the church !

      For- if we thus knoti him who -was  from the beginning                  For it ought ,to be crystal clear that John says all these

 then our: joy shall be full.                                        things of -his readers as the grownds  for writing them. Were

                                                                     this not all true of these little children, fathers and young
      Secondly, we must al& consider. what John writ& con-
                                                                     men, there would be no point in writing them. They would
 cerning  the "young men."
                                                                     be the "world"; then they would not be the church. But
      Also here the question is : who are the young men ? What       now he writes them as he does.
 ye wrote in an'earlier paragraph also holds here concerning
                                                                              And it seems to me that he does so .with  great urgency.
 these "young men."        They too have the forgiveness of sins
 and kndw the Lord. There certainly must be something of                      It seems that the repetition of "I write," "I wrote" points
 the "fathers" in these young men shall they indeed be strong.       i n   t h a t   d i r e c t i o n .

 In the young men we have this church in her fighting                -.       It is the battle-cry of John to the chuich in the world.

 strength. -She  is the church, well-founded in the truth of Him     The church must live up to her high estate. She may not

 who is from the beginning, as the gates of hell would prevail       make common cause with the world, her lusts, her  pride of

 against her. She has to deal with the Evil One  ! She is ?he         life, Hers is another greatness.
 church militant ! !                                                          He&e  this repetition in two series-of triads. .Apd  the
      Let us take note of this just a bit more in detail.       .    latter triad is the underscoring of the former in a certain

      in the light of all of Scripture as well as in the light of    type of Hebraism.

 various passages `of this epistle of John, it is quite  evident              Well may we give heed  to this Word of God.                .
 that Evil One refers to Satan, the prince of devils himself.
                                                                              Satan hath little time and great wrath. Has he not and
 -He is the prince of this world. In Matthew 13 :19 the Evil         does he not constantly assault- us,. both as to doctrine and
 One  is Satan who takes the Word out of the hearts of those         life ? Let.  us then as little children stand in our new rela-
 hearers, called: sowed by the way-side. In chapter 6 of             tionship to God in the forgiveness of sins, and be fathers in
 Ephesians the apostle warns against the "fiery darts of the         doctrine and young meti in walk of life.
 evil one."      And in this epistle of John in chapter 3 :12- we
                                                                              I write y6u, I write you? I-write you!
 read, "Not as Cain who was out of the Evil One and slew

 his brother," and in chapter 5 :18 we read, ". . . . but he that             I have written you, I have written' you,-  I have written

 is born of God  keepeth himself and the Evil One doth not lay       you !

 hold on him."                                                                                                                          G.L.


                                                `    T    H     E             STAND-ARD  .tiE`ARER                                           11


                                                                                  Last time we concluded by saying that we would like to

              I N              HIi  F E A R                                   point out the ,teachings  of Jesus that  we should be obstinately
                                                                              and intolerantly devoted to our faith in Him as He is revealed

                                                                              to us in the Scriptures.    Let us turn.our  thoughts now to a

                 The Freedom of "Bigotry"                                     few passages of Holy Writ which  teach us this truth. Jesus
                                                                              Himself is a clear example of what many today would call

                                    G-3                                       a bigot. He was' obstinately and intolerantly devoted to the

     Jesus' words fo the fault-finding Pharisees are classic:                 truth the Father sent Him to proclaim. He never yielded
 "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto                   an itich to the ph<losophical  Pharisees and Sadducees.  Even
 God the things that are Gpd's," Luke 20 :25.                                 though some of them were chief priests and scribes and
     To the authorities we must be subject. .The  tribute they                elders of the people, He tolerated none of their false doctrines
 demand of us we .must pay. The man elected to be our                         and thoroughly condemned their sinful walk of life. He called
 President, we must recognize as such and- show him honor                     them.  a. viper's brood, and children of the devil. He called
 for God's sake. For we can render unto God the things                        them whited sepulchres that outside were white and clean
 that are God's only as we render unto His servants the things                but inside were full of dead men's bones. He never yielded
 which He places upon us through them. Only when these                        one point to the enemy on any doctrinal issue.       _
 authorities demand of us that we no longer render unto God                       And before Him His servants and His people revealed
 the obedience and service  that we owe unto Him,  may we                     that same intolerence  and that same obstinate  stand against all
 refuse to do as they command.                                                but that which by God's grace they were led to believe.
     But that does not mean that, if. I refuse to vote for a.                 Enoch,  that preacher cf righteousness, did not budge an
 candidate whose church has every intention and ambition to                   inch, or tell the tiicked  world that they had the right to
 destroy the faith which by God's grace I have been led to                    continue believing what* they pleased and walking as they
 believe is the undeniable truth of His Word, I should                        willed; He would not compromise to. any degree at any &tie.
 be accused of bigotry. I have nothing I need render to that                  0, no, he walked with. God, and God-is infinitely obstiriate
 candidate nor to his party. And since being an adherent to                   and intolerant in His devotion to His Own glory. Noah ob-
 that `party is also ?I voluntary matter with no legal obliga-                stinately and intolerantly continued to build the ark, although
 tioris, I do not need to render anything to that party either.               he was ridiculed and "shown" that his faith could not be the
 Though I might ccinsider myself to be a supporter-that is                    right one-no such flood could ever come. (Pharaoh was
 in the moral sense and financial sense - of that party, I am                 obstinately and int&erantIy  devoted to his own flesh and  his
 not guilty of bigotry when I will not tolerate idolatry and                  own gods, and he perished in the Red Sea by thk God of
 obstinately refuse to invite a church, that threatens serious                Israel Who `would tolerate no such foolishness and wicked-
 damage to my faith and church, to have influence over the                    ness.) Daniel and his three friends obstinately were devoted
 affairs of the state in which I am a citizen.                                to God and intolerant with the evil commands of the king.
     Vote as before God's face you  must vote-for after all                   They went into the  lions' den and into the fiery furnace in
 there is no other way in His fear. We repeat what we said                    their obstinate  refusal to recognize any other faith than faith
 last time, ."We will not tell you hdw to vote." But we insist                in God. But H,e saved them. M&n called them bigots, but
 that the right must be left to the child of God to be obstinate              God called them  : My  loving children.
 in his faith and intolerant of all that which he considers to                   John the `Baptist prepared the way for Christ by being
 be the lie and evil. And this right ht must have without                     such a "bigot." There in the' wilderness you saw  a man ob-
 being labeled as a bigot. That nasty word may not be pinned                  stinately and intolerantly devoted to his God'and the Lord

 on him. If it is frekdom of religion to call men bigoted be-                 Whose wajr he must prep&-e. He minced no words. He took
 cause their consciences will not allow them to give any moral,               nothing back. He allowed none oi the Jews their own opinion
 physical and financial support to a faith that in the past'has               about these matters. Instead he demanded repentance. He
 openly used violence to strive- to put `down Protestantism,                  insisted that these wicked Jews change their minds and con-
 and still gives itistruction  in3 its schools which. clearly reveals         form to his teachings. Obstinate he was. Intolerant he surely
 that she would suppress with an iron heel that Protestantism                 was; But he was also faithful, and though men would call

 today, if given a chance, we say, If we may not oppose that                  him a big&,  Jesus said that he was the greatest of those that -
church and yield firmly to our own faith, then give us the                    were born of women.

 freedom of "bigotry." Let us then be called by this vile name,                  The Apostles were obstiriate  in their  testimony of Jesus

 but let this'not  turn us into unfaithfulness against_ the truth             even though they had been threatened and even beaten. The

 and the Church of God. If that is the name we will be called,                Apostle Paul was intolerant in his epistles to the churches,

 let it be $0 ; but let        have the freedom to do what is right           rebuking in no uncertain terms,`demanding  a complete break
                            US  

 and not be forced-by name-calling, and reproach, or fear of                  with evil. He tells us in II Corinthians 6 that there is no

 reproach, `to move away from our position of faith.                          feliowship  ,between  darkness and light, no conco;d  betweeti


 1          2                                T H E   STANDAR-D   B E A R E R


 Christ and Belial. And lest you say, but we are today talking         Catholic children are taught that the State must promote only

 here about the Christian church, about those who also profess         the Roman Catholic religion. That means that. a Roman

 Christ,, notice -that Paul writes to the Galatians, "But              Catholic president would be obliged by his faith and loyalty

 though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel           to his church to promote the Roman Catholic religion in our

 than that which we have preached unto you, let him be ac-             country with all his power and at every opportunity given

 cursed." Galatians 1:8.-  And he says `this because some had          him. And if he is not loyal to his church, and in his campaign

 been moved away unto another "gospel." Two divergent                  he promises NOT to be loyal to this stand of his church,

 views cannot both be right. The Protestant faith and `-the            men may well ask whether his professed loyalty to the State

 Roman Catholic faith are not parallel faiths, or faiths that          and the Constitution of the State has any real meaning and

differ only in emphasis. And all that which belongs to Prot-           can-be relied upon as anything more than campaign propa-

 estantism likewise is not the truth of the Word of God.               ganda. We insist that first of ali a man must-be loyal to his

 Against much of it we must be intolerant. The lie does not            God. He must render to God the things. that are God's.  If

 have an equal right with the truth. And we must be obstinate          he wavers in. his `devotion in regard to his faith, one must

 in our stand over against the lie in every form. You cannot           not be surprised that he also defects in his professed devotion

 find a passage in- Holy Writ that gives you the right to do           to that for- which the State stands. And black on white on

 anything else, And the "Love Chapter" of I Corinthians                pages 98 and 99 of the Roman Catholic book Chistiun  P&n-

 13 least of all. Indeed, in it Paul says that love suffereth          ciples and National  P1-oblems,  a book used in the Roman

 long and thinketh no evil. But in that same breath he says            Catholic school system, you may read the following: "The

 that love rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth.       doctrine of the Church . . . . .1s that the State must profess

 In that light you will have to explain the fact that love             -and promote not any religion, but the one true form of wor-

 suffereth long and thinketh no evil. Love to God, as the              ship founded by Christ `and continuing today in .the Catholic

 Scriptures know it, is intolerant with the lie and with all           Church alone . . . The non-Catholic and the non-baptized

 evil, and is obstinate in its dedication and .devotion  to God        should be permitted to carry on their own form of worship
                      .
 and the things of Hts kingdom. It may be stated as an un-             as long-as there would be no danger of scandal or perversion

 deniable fact that the Word of God demands of us that we              to the faithful. In a country where the majority are Catholics,

 stand firmly opposed to all false doctrines and wicked prac-          the practice of.  Protestantism or paganism by an incon-

 tices, that we encourage none of them and do nothing to               spicuous minority would be neither a source of scandal nor

 foster. and spread them. Let men call us bigots. Our                  perversion to the adherents of the true faith."

 "bigotry" in reality then is true Christianity.                          Lest that last sentence .be misunderstood let us return to

       But as we remarked last time, we wish to point out what         that statement of .the Pope in 1945 that these other beliefs

 the Roman Catholic Church teaches its own youth about                 should have only a de facto existence without opportunity

 these matters and about the relation between church and               to spread their beliefs. That means close our schools, put us

 state, which makes it so important that we,. in this respect          off the radio and close the presses to us. Freedom of the press

 for sure, must exercise the freedom of-"bigotry."  The Pope           is even at stake. And note that it says that an "inconspicuous

 himself stated in 1948 (not too long ago is that ?), "The             minority" would not be a scandal, but today Protestantism

 Roman Catholic Church, convinced through its divine prerog-           in our country is a majority.

 atives, of being the only true church, must demand the right             We would conclude this article with one more quotation

 of freedom for herself alone, because such a right can only           from a `book used in the Roman Catholic schools today and

 be possessed by truth, never by error. As for other religions,        plan to continue this next time. In Liz&q Ow  Faith, by

 the Church will certainly never draw the sword, but she will.         Flynn, Loretto and Simeon, we may read the following : "The

 require that by legitimate means they shall not be allowed to         question of union or separation of Church and State has

 propagate false doctrine. Consequently, in a state where the          perplexed men since the Protestant Revolt. (Note, not Prot-

 majority of the people are Catholic, the Church will require          estant Reformation but Protestant Revolt. J.A.H.) The ideal

 that legal existence be denied to error, and that if religious        situation exists when there is perfect union and accord be-

 minorities actually exist, they shall have only a ,de  facto          tween Church and State, with each supreme in its own field

 existence without opportunity to spread .their beliefs." This         . . . In a Catholic country, when a dispute arises (between
 quotation is from the April issue of Civilta  Cattolica,  a Jesuit    Church and State) and settlement is unattainable, the rights

 journal. If refusing to vote for a candidate for the highest          of -the Church should prevail, since it possesses the higher

 civil office in our land because he believes the above is bigotry,    authority.`,

 an obstinate and intolerant. devotion to the beliefs of one's             It is plain, is it not, that the Roman -Catholic  Church
 church, what is it to hold on to such a faith as the one ex-          demands obstinate and intolerant devotion to its faith? And
 pressed in the quotation above ?                                      should we be forbidden to be as intolerant and obstinate over

      But this is taught Roman Catholic children in school. In         against all the false doctrine and idolatry of the Roman

 a book which is used in Roman Catholic schools, the Roman                                 ~(Continued  on page 23)


                                                     .THE  .STA,NDARD   B E A R E R                                                           13


                                                                               Church  in the-; inner guidance of the Holy Spirit, but this
\                                 c                                      11

11 Cmtenckng  F o r   .The  f a i t h   11 guidance, according to .Rome, centers in.the pope. And when
                                                                               Protestantism (as including. Anabaptists, etc.,. in the broad

                                                                               sense of, the word), denied the: absolute necessity of the Bible,

                 The Church and the Sacraments                                 it strengthened Rome's position immeasurably and, .in the
                                                                               same measure, weakened itself. This, we repeat, lies in the

                THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                                    very nature of the case. For, whereas Protestantism, deny-

                                                                               ing the absolute necessity of Holy Writ, and relying. upon
                       VIEWS ON THE CHURCH
                                                                               the inner operation of the .Holy  Spirit, lost all ground and
                       F O R M A L   P R I N C I P L E                         based everything upon a man's inner, subjective feeling and

                                                                               therefore had nothing left, Rome ate least could point to the
                            ( c o n t i n u e d )
                                                                               infallible pope.

           We concluded our preceding article on this subject with                 Although the Reformation made a -complete  break with

       the observation that we must always be on our guard against             .Rome  and maintained the absolute necessity of Holy Writ, `it

       the danger of False Mysticism. Mysticism was particularly               did not deny that the Church as before Moses had its,

       effective and grew into  prominence at the. timeurof  the Rif-          existence in the world long before the Scripture made its ap-

       ormation on French and -Germane  soil, and, especially on               pearance.    It did not deny that there was no written Word

       German soil. This Mysticism flourished, we repeat, par:                 of `God during the `first  twenty-five hundred years of .the

       titularly  on German soil and sought by means  of asceticism,           world's exisfence.$  And it also conceded, of course, that the

       meditation and contemplation a fellowship and communion                 Church of God as in the New Dispensation was  established

       with God which could. be experiehced  without the Holy                  by the apostles long before- the appearance of the New Testa-

     Scriptures. Especially the Anabaptists exalted the inner or               ment Sci-iptures.  Moreover, the Church of God is called into

       internal word above the external word. Already in 1521 the              existence in the heathen world through  the preaching of the

       contrast was made between Scripture and Spirit, and this                goshel.  For ages it is, simply true that many people of `the

       contrast has -become a lasting characteristic of Anabaptism             Lord. lived and died without ever having seen a copy of the

       (see H. Bavinck, Vol. I of his Dogmatics). Scripture is not             Bible. It is, comparatively speaking, not too long ago' that

       the true word of God but merely a testimony and `a descrip-             the Bible became as plentiful as it is today. Today it is called

       tion of it; the real, true word of God is that which the Holy           the best -seller.  There are several Bibles in every Christian

       Spirit speaks in our hearts. The Bible is nothing more than             home. But this ,svas not the case before the invention' of the

       a book of letters ; the Bible is Babel, full of confusion ; it can-     printing press. In those days it was a priceless possession in

       not work faith in our hearts. The Spirit alone can teach us             the hands of a very few. Does this, in any sense of the word,

       the, true word. And when that Spirit instructs us we can. do            imply that the Scriptures are unnecessary, that, tihereas  si,

       yithout  the Scriptures ; it is a temporary remedy but un-              manjr children of the Lord lived and died without~.  it, its

       necessary for the spiritual man. Some identified this internal          necessity may be questioned ? Indeed not ! The Word of

       word with natural reason and pointed to many contradictions             God surely existed from the beginning of the world and was

       in the Bible; Others simply did not consider the Scriptures             indeed the seed df the Church. It is true that the Church

     necessary.. Then, there were those who bluntly declared that              existed before Moses wrote the Scriptures. But'it is just as

       the Bible should be abolished' 2nd that people should simply            true that there was a spoken word of God long before there

       live according to nature and spirit. It was argued that religion        was a written word of God. The Church never  lived out of

       existed in the world before the Bible made its appearance.              itself, never rested upon itself, but-always through and in the

       Christianity was present before evangelists and apostles                Word of God. The Church may be older than the written

       wrote about the truth. Religion is not true because evangelists         word; it is surely younger than the spoken word. This also

       and- apostles taught it, but they taught it- because it is true.        applies to -the Church of God in the New Dispensation-. It is

       Luther, it was said, has delivered us from the yoke of tradi-           true that the canon of the New Testament Scriptures were

       tion ; who will deliier  us-from the yoke of the letter ?               not generally acknowledged and recognized until the middle

          This conception which would emphasize the testim.ony  of             of the second c'entury.  But the Church of God as .in the New

       the Holy Spirit within the hearts of men at the cost of the             Dispensation had from its New Testament beginning the Old

       written Word of God, gave tremendous support to' Rome.                  Testament Scriptures. These congregations were established

       This is surely understandable. Also Rome denies the ab-                 through the word of the apostles. And at an early time these

       solute necessity of Holy Writ. Rome, of course, seeks the               churches came into p&session of the writings of the apostles

       ground and continued existence of the Christian religion in             which also were given to others to be read by them. .It lies

       the Church Institute, that is, in the infallible pope. All these        in the very nature of the case that, as long as the apostles

       departures from the Scriptures as the sole  rule for all faith          lived and visited the churches, no distinction was made be-

       and life seek the development and continued existence of the            tween their spoken and written word ; tradition and Scrip-


14                                          T H E   STA.NDARD   B E A R E R


ture, as it were, were as yet one. Besides, the apostles  were        .movement  had its origin on German soil, but, unlike the

Divinely inspired whenever they spoke apostolically, official-        Reformation, it did not spread beyond Germany and the

ly, and they themselves gave guidance to the various churches         Lowlands. Its chief centers were Strassburg and Cologne;

or congregations of God in the New Dispensation. But                  its leading representatives the speculative -Meister  `Eckart,

when that first period of the apostles had passed by and this         died 1327, John Tauler, died 1361, Henry Suso, died 1366,

period of these .Divinely  led leaders of the churches had            John Ruysbroeck, died 138.1, Gerrit Groote, died 1384, and

passed from the scene and receded more and more into the              Thomas a Kempis,  died 1471:  The earlier designation for

background; the writings of the apostles grew in significance'        these pietists was Friends of God. The Brothers of the Com-

and they became (these writings) increasingly important and           mon Life; the companions and followers of Groote, were of

necessary.                                                            the same type, but developed abiding institutions of practical

      Hence, it is surely not true that the Scriptures came forth     Christian philanthropy. In localities the Beguines and Beg-
out of the Church. According to the doctrine of the Word              hards also breathed the same devotional and philanthropic
of God inspiration is a special operation of the Holy Spirit,         spirit. The little book called the Germ.an Theology, and the
a sp,ecial  gift bestowed upon the prophets and apostles, by          Imitation of Chris& were among the finest fruits of the move-
which they were able to- deliver the pure and unadulterated           ment. Gerson and Nicolas  of Cusa also had a strong mystical
Wordof God to the Church. Scripture, therefore, did not               vein, but they are not to be classed with the German mystics.
come forth out of the Church but was given to the Church              With them mysticism was an incidental, not the distinguish-
through a special operation of the Holy Spirit-in the prophets        ing quality.

and apostles. Rome, to a certain extent, will concede this.               The mystics along the Rhine formed groups which, how-
However, Protestantism maintains that this special and in-            -ever, were. not bound together by any formal organization.
spiring operation of the Holy Spirit as in the -prophets and          Their only bond was. the fellowship of a common religious
apostles has come to an end, whereas Rome maintains that              purpose.
this infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit continues in the
                                                                        Their religious thought was not always homogeneous in
p o p e .
                                                                      its expression, but all agreed in the serious attempt to secure
      True Mysticism, we must understand, does not deny the           purity of heart and life through union of the soul with God.
`inner operation and testimony of the Holy Spirit in the hearts       Mysticism is a phase of Christian life. It is a devotional habit,
of the people of God. Of course not! But it maintains that            in contradistinction to the outward and formal practice of
all -the operation- of the Spirit within us is inseparably con-       religious rules. It is a religious experience in contrast to a
nected with the written Word of God and is never divorced             mere intellectual assent to tenets. It is the conscious effort
from it. False Mysticism makes separation between the inner           of the soul to apprehend and possess God and Christ, and .
testimony of the Holy Spirit, the "inner voice," and the Holy         expresses itself in the words, "I live, and yet not I but
Scriptures.                                                           Christ liveth in me." It is essentially what is now called in

      Now we have already made the observation at the be-             some quarters "personal religion." Perhaps the shortest

ginning of this `article that Mysticism flourished especially         definition of.mysticism  is the best. It is the love of God shed

in. Germany. Writing on "The New Mysticism," Vol. VI,                 abroad in the .heart.  The element of intuition has a large

pages 236-242, Philip Schaff  writes concerning this move-            place,.and  the avenues through which religious experience is

ment as follows :      .                                              reached are self-detachment from the world, self-purgation,

      "At the time when the scholastic method was falling into        prayer and contemplation. __

disrepute and the scandals of the Avignon court and the                   Without disparaging the sacraments or -disputing the

papal schism were shaking men's faith in the foundations of           authority of the Church, the German mystics sought a better
the Church, a stream of pure pietism was watering the                 way. They laid stress upon the meaning of such passages as

regions along the Rhine, from Base1 to Cologne, and from              "he that believeth.  in ~me  shall never hunger and he that
Cologne to the North Sea. North of the Alps, voices issuing           cometh  unto me shall never thirst," "he that loveth me shall
from convents and from the ranks of the laity called atten-           be loved of my Father" and `fhe  that followeth me shall not
tion to' the value of the inner religious `life. and God's~  imme-    walk in darkness." The word love figures most prominently
diate`communications to the soul.                                     in their writings. Among the distinctive terms in vogue

      To this religious movement has recently been given the          among them were Abge&iedenheit,  Eckart's word. for self-
name, the Dominican mysticism, on account of the large                detachment from the world and that which is temporal, and
number. of its representatives who belonged to the Dominican          K&r, Tauler's oft-used word for conversion. They.laid  stress
order. The older name, German mysticism, which is to be               upon the new birth, and found in Christ's incarnation a type
preferred, points to the locality where it manifested itself,. and    of the-realization of the divine in the soul." Next time, the.
to the language which the mystics for the most part used              Lord willing, we will continue with this quotation.

in' their. writings. Like..  the Protestant Reformation, the                                                                     H.V.

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


                                                                          d&tin-$  ,factsi  therefore. _ And -when the apostle Peter tells

     11       The Voice of Our Fathers -!I us;: that regeneration takes place through the living Word
                                                                          itself, it simply will not do to replace this living Word by the

                                                                          preaching of the gospel. In the second place, this interpreta-

                                                                         `tion makes the mistake of ignoring the prepositions "out of"
                     The Canons of Dordrecht                             ,and "through." We are born again out of incorruptible seed

                                                                          through the living and abiding' Word of God. IIere  -again
                                 PART Two
                                                                          are two distinct facts. And it will not do to read the text

                         EXPOSITION OF THE CANONS,                        as though "out of incorruptible seed" and- "through the 1iv.T        _

                                                                          ing and abiding Word 0f God" mean the- same thing;. and
                         FIFTH'  H E A D  O F   D O C T R I N E . .      `that then this. in turn .means  the same as "through the

                 OF THE PERSEVERANCE OF. THE SAINTS                :'     preaching of the gospel:" This is precisely the mist&e  made

                                                                          by the Rev. ,Bos  in his explanation cited last time. He writes :
                      R E J E C T I O N   O F   E R R O R S   .
                                                                          "&W  the Son  is never' called `the word of God;" only the

                            Article 8. (continued)                        Word: And` `that Son can also not be called `the *seed  of                I

                                                                          God,' ,as that seed appears here. The .seed  of God a;nd  ttce
           As we have seen from the example cited 1,`s time, the          word of God and `the zqtird of the Lord' is tt$ preached`wo?d
     adherents of mediate regeneration appeal to this article of          of <he  Go&?2  (italics supplied). Here  then is indeed proof
     our Ccmons  for support. We said this is not correct. For the        that the. preached word, the word of the Gospel, is here
     Canons themselves do not give any such indication in, the            considered as the seed of regeneration . . ." Now just. apply
     article. Actually, what the adherents of mediate regeneration.       this bit of exegesis. to the text under consideration, and
     do is to appeal to the passage from I Peter 1 :23, quoted by         substitute "the preached word of the Gospel" for the terms
     the Canons, in order to support their view. But regardless           mentioned. ' You get this nonsense : "Being born again not
     now of whether I Peter 1:23  supports their view, the Canons         out of the corruptible, but out of the incorruptible preached
     `certainly say nothing about it. The mere fact. that the             word of the Gospel through the preached word of the Gospel,
     Canons quote the text from I Peter is no proof whatsoever            which liveth and abideth for ever.. For all flesh is as grass,
     that they teach a mediate regeneration. And as far as the            and all the. glory of man as `the flower of grass. The grass
     question of mediate or immediate regeneration is concerned,          withereth, and the -flower  thereof falleth away: -But  the
     the Canons offer no interpretation of the text. The fathers          preached word of the Gospel endureth for ever. And this is
     only cite `this text to show the absurdity of a repeated             the preached word of the Gospel which by the gospel is
     regeneration. In fact, in so far as they indicate anything at        preached unto you." It is very evident, therefore, that this
     all, we may say that the Canons speak-here not of regenera-          interpretation leads to absurdity. Certainly the hoiy apostle
     tion as a whole, including regeneration in its broadest sense,       did not intend this at all. Hence, two things must be estab-
     but of regeneration in the narrower sense of the word.               lished from the outset : 1) "Out of incorruptible.seed"  does

           We `may, however, inquire -whether the passage in I Peter      not mean the same as "through the living and abiding Word

     1 teaches an immediate or a mediate regeneration. And then           of `God." 2) "The living and abiding Word of God" is ,not

     we must be careful to read and interpret this passage cor-           simply the same as the "preaching of. the gospel." If we

     rectly, and not simply read it to fit a certain view. For the        keep these two facts in view, we will see already that the text

     apostle uses some rather precise language here in speaking           does not simply teach a mediate regeneration.

     of regeneration.
                                                                             But what then ?
           Those who hold to mediate regeneration emphasize .that

     the text teaches clearly that regeneration takes place throztgh         In the first place,-let us keep in mind that in these verses

     the living  and abiding Word of God, and that in verse 25 the        the apostle is evidently describing the whole of regeneration.

     -apostle  tells us that this is the same Word that is preached       He is not speaking, as the Canons do, only of regeneration

     unto them.      And so they conclude that regeneration is            in the narrower sense of the word, but of regeneration also

     through the preaching of the Word. But this is incorrect. In         in its wider sense, as including the unfolding and -develop-

L    the first place, this interpretation makes the mistake of simply     ment of the new life in the consciousness of the believer. This

     identifying the living and abiding .Word  of God and the             is evident not only from the terms "out of)' and "through,"

     proclamation of that Word. The apostle does not do-this. On          but also from the context in vs. 22. There the apostle ad-
     the contrary, in the passage he very plainly mentions these          monishes the church : `Seeing ye have purified your souls in

     as two different things. First of all, he says that we are           obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of

     born again through the living and abiding Word of God.               the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart

     And then he adds a second truth, namely: this is the Word            fervently.? And then he goes right on in vs. 23 : "Being born

     which -by the gospel is preached unto you. These are two             again . . ." The whole of regeneration is therefore meant.


      16                                          T.HE  STANDARti  B.E.AREE


            And in that whole process the apostle makes certain .pre-      tion abides, and that too, in distinction from-tillflesh;.which

      cise and careful distinctions, as is plain from his terminology.     is as the grass that withereth.

            Hence, in the second place,.we  may notice that the apostle       And finally, the -apostle distinguishes ,also the preaching
      distinguishes regeneration in its narrower sense as the im-          of that Word. The living and abiding Word of God is
      planting'of the seed of regeneration, the principle of the new       .preached.  Otherwise we would have and could have no con-
      life, in our hearts. There is a seed, an incorruptible seed;         tact with it here on earth. We do not lay hold on the Word
      implanted within us ; and out of &hat seed. we are born again.       of God mystically. But the reception of the Word of God
      This is regeneration in the deepest and narrowest .sense  of         takes place through our understanding, .through  our mind,
      the word, namely, that saving act of the Triune God whereby          through our intellect. And when our natural intellect is under
      He takes hold of the elect and in himself dead sinner through        the power of regeneration through the Word, then that Word
      the Spirit of Christ, translates him in the very depth' of his       as it is preached is apprehended by us spiritually, so that we
      existence, and infuses into him the principle of the life which.     can hear it and be- saved. Mark you well, the Word is
      is in Christ Jesus, thus translating him in principle out of         preached ! It is proclaimed officially by the church in the
      death into life and placing him in abiding communion with            service of the living Word of Christ. And when' through that
      the body of Christ. This is exclusively a work of the Triune         preaching the saints come into contact with the living and
      God; it takes place in the very depth of a man's existence,          abiding Word `of ,God,  then the seed of regeneration sprouts
      not in his consciousness as such ; and it precedes all mediate       and develops into conscious activity:

      work of God in us. It is the implanting of the Seed of the              TQ sum up, therefore, there are three factors or elements
      new life as it is not yet sprouted into the consciousness of         which come .to the fore in this passage :
      the sinner. It is an immediate work of God, through the
                                                                               1) There is our regeneration in the narrowest sense of
      Holy Spirit in our hearts, taking place in us without us.
                                                                           the word, the implanting of the principle, the seed, of the new

            In the third place, we may note that this incorruptible        life. This is direct and immediate. The Holy Spirit performs

      seed of regeneration is then under the influence of the living       this in the depth of our being, apart from our consciousness.

      and abiding .WQrd  of God. For we are born again out of              Out of this seed we are born again.

      incorruptible seed through the l,iving  and abiding Word of             2) There is the living and abiding Word of God, or the
      God. The principle of the new life, implanted in the depths          efficacious calling, through which the seed of regeneration is
.     of a man's being by the Holy Spirit directly and immediately,        quickened into conscious activity. This is regeneration in
      sprouts and develops into a conscious and active life of             the broader sense. Thmugl~  the living and abiding Word of
      regeneration through the living and abiding Word of God.             God we are born again out of incorruptible seed.
      This is regeneration in the broader sense. And this is the
                                                                              3) There is the preaching of that. Word, which lends
      second distinction which the apostle Peter makes in the pas-
                                                                           contents to the calling for us and through' which we appre-
      sage under consideration. We must remember, however, that
                                                                           hend the living and abiding Word. -The  Word is by the
      even this is not the preached Word as such. The preached
                                                                           gospel preached unto you.
      Word is in itself not living. And it is not abiding. The

      living'and  abiding Word of God is the Word which God                   But that regeneration in its narrowest sense is immediate.

      speaks through Christ. You have here therefore the idea of           It is in us without our aid. And just as surely as its being

      the efficacious calling. To be sure, that efficacious calling is     in us is without our aid, so surely also it cannot be lost, and

      preached. But you must make a. distinction between the liv-          need never be repeated. It is an incorruptible seed, which

      ing and abiding Word of God-as  such and that Word as it             cannot be influenced by any power except the living and

      is preached. That' Word is living because it is the Word of          abiding Word of God.

     God.through  Christ. God is life, and Christ is the life; and                                                                H.C.H.

      therefore the Word of God is living. Living it is, too, be-

      cause through that Word God quickens, makes alive. It

      quickens the seed of regeneration into conscious activity. And

     that Word is also abiding, everlasting. Otherwise regenera-                       As one lays a garment by,

      tion could not be-abiding. Regeneration is not implanted into                    Thou wilt change the starry sky
     the heart and,  then left to itself. And it is not once quickened                 Like a vesture worn and old,
     by the efficacious calling and then neglected. Then it would                      But Thy years shall ne'er be told. .
     never abide. God must continue to speak His regenerating
                                                                                       Thou wilt make Thy servants' race
      Word. Just as in providence God continues to speak the
     Word which He once spoke creatively, so in the efficacious                        Ever live before Thy face,

     calling God through Christ continues to speak His Word                            And forever at Thy side

      that He once spoke recreatively. And that is why regenera-                        Children's children shall abide.


                                            3x3~ STANDARD  XEARER                                                                      17 L


                                                                       of Gdd;`"  Rev. De Korne adds that, "This is fundamental.

     DECENCY   a n d 0.RDER                                            Since it was not disputed it is seldom mentioned in later dis-
                                                                       cussions."

                                                                           "2. Who must send ? According to Matthew 28 :19 .and
                     The Mission Order                                 Acts 13 :lff., missions ii the task of the church, not of the

                        Art. 51, P.K.0.                                church as denomination, but of, the.,  IGcal  congregatiop,  al:
                                                                       eopgh  in the working out of missioriary  activity dknomina-
    In our last installment, we learned that Article 51 of the         tional  ties must be recognized.
 Church Order deals with the subject of missions as regulated
                                                                           "3. Who must go?' only office.bearers  of the church can
 by a synodical  mission order. More particularly,. therefore,
                                                                       be sent as missionaries. Auxiliary services can be rendered
with denominational mission work although not altogether
                                                                       by those who do not hold ofice  in the church, but in the
 excluding the endeavors of the individual churches. We- ob-
                                                                       exercise of all official functions only the ordainkd missionary
 served that mission work by' our churches & .conducted
                                                                       `can officiate.
 through our Mission Board  that is responsible to our Synod
 and that works cooperatively with the dons&tory of the call-              "4. To whom must missionaries be sent? TQ all creatures,
 ing church. we also noted that dur Mission Board is not               but the colonial possessions `of the N&herlands  are.the  special
 empowered to call a missionary since that is the sole prerog-         responsibility of this country.

 ative of the church as institute. This practice, although not             "5.' How must missions be done ? Force is excluded. We
 always agreed upon, has been followed by our churches from            must convince men. of .&he truth, bring them to faith, and
 the begjnning  of our existence. Concerning the history of            those who reveal themselves as believers must be gathered in
 this question tie shall write presently but first we n&t              churches. There is such-a thing as preparatory grace. Since
 inject a parenthetical. thought.                                      the Christian religion is bound to the Holy Scriptures, teach-

     (It is somewhat of a temptation to digress for a little           ing nien fo read is one of the appointed means of preparation.
 while from matters that concerti our Church Order directly            Medical help. is also preparatory. But reniember that this
 and devote  the space of this-rubric to. a series of articles on      preparation and these auxiliary methods are not missions.
 the principles, methods- and- practices .6f tiissions  and other      Schools and hospitals do not flow forth fro&  the offices of
 related questions. Three main reasons motivate this desire.           the church, and these preparatory and atixiliary  means may
 First of all, we.  believe this would be of interest and'benefit      not be identified with the work of church officers.- There is a
 to our people. Secondly, we feel.  there is a definite need for       warning against failin,c to distinguish between the essence of
 this and especially so because of the multifarious misconcep-         Christianity and the western form of civilization ; renderirig
 tions regarding missions that are currently being propagated          all services free ; and against persisting in missionary en-
 in many religious periodicals. A voice that will witness of the       deavor in places where no one comes tci confession of faith."
 truth concerning the calling of the church in this regard is          This se&n co&ins  a number of other valtiable-hints  from
 both desired and needed. Finally, we have very little in our          which our church can profit in its further study of missionary
 Standwd  Bearer with regard to this subject.. Having just             methods.

 recently compiled the index for the last volume of our                    `Y$ Missionary Relationships. It is declared that the
 magazine, I find the articles referring to missions to be very        church which carries on mission work has necessary relation-
 scarce. May we then suggest at l&St that since this material          ships with the government, with other churches, with other
 is really foreign to our Church Order rubric, our niissionary         mission stations, and with churches of sound confession in
 might perhaps devote himself t6 this task and in so doing             the land where the work is done."
 this could nicely be combined with periodic reports of our
                                                                           We- do not aim to evaluate these principles nor are we
 current mission activity.)
                                                                       concerned with their vaiidity.  At present we are interested
    To return  to the question whether it is proper for a synod        only in the second of these principles which deals with the
 or classis to call and send out a missionary, we learn that this      matter of sending out the missionary and involves related
 matter was considered already as early as 1896 by the Synod           questions, such as, his call, field of labor, directives pertain-
 of Middelburg. From a series of articles ,written  in The             ing to his work, etc. In discussing this question in his articles,
 Bayaey  a number of years ago by J. D. De Korne, we are               Reb.  De Korne distinguishes between what he calls "ien-
 informed that the Synod of Middelburg defined foreign mis-            tralization"  versus `Cdece~ztralization.JJ  The former he then
 sion principles but that it was in 1902 at the Synod of Am-           defines as "the theory of missionary activity which stresses
 hem that these principles were embodied in a mission order.           the control and supervision of mission work by the synod and
 We quote here the following six principles of that mission            agencies appointed by the synod" while decentralization
 order :                                                               refers to the "theorjr  of missionary activity which places all

     "1. The purpose of a.11 missionary effort is the glorification    emphasis on the autonomy and the authority of the local con-


       18                                          T H E .   ST.A.N:DAR.D           BEAR.ER


       gregation."    Apart from our dislike of the use of the term          `.&tories,  ~classes;  or synod. The synod appointed a- commit-

       ~`dlecen~a~~~ation,.`~  this distinction is perhaps workable to at    tee to draw up a Mission Order based on Biblical principles.

       least make plain the issue that is involved here. We would            The report of this committee was submitted two years later

       prefer to speak of two theories of mission activity that em-          and gave rise to a spirited discussion of the question whether

       phasize the centralization of authority on two different levels.      missionaries can be.  called only by local consistories or

       The one stresses the local consistory and the .other  the             whether they can be called also by groups of consistories, by

       broader gatherings of the churches. Although it- is true that         classes, or by synod. The synod then took the position that,

       no one pleads for the extreme feature of either view which            "Since the broader judicatories of our churches as they meet

       would men that mission activity would be comfiletely  con-            in classis  and synod,  form a legal representation of these

       trolled by either the consistory or the synod, our churches in        churches, ,it follows that not only may separate consistories

       both theory and practice have favored the "decentralization"          meeting separately call a minister of the Word and install

       view which was also the original position taken by the Synod          ,him  in office, but that also each classis  and synod in corn:

       of Middelburg in 1896.                                                bined  session may issue calls'in  cases where a minister of the

             ' In the Netherlands, the Synod of Arnhem in 1902 drew          Word is needed in general service."

       up an expression adopting in effect the decentralization posi-            This decision of the synod aroused a vigorous protest on

       tion  in that it insisted that calling churches, not classes or       the following grounds :

       ~synod,  are the official bodies-. which send out missionaries.           "a. The decision leads to the introduction of general
       The position of this synod was that calling churches. pay not         offices which the Scriptures do not recognize after the offices
       only the salaries of their missionaries but all expenses of the       of apostles and evangelists were discontinued.
       mission post. The same synod, however, made certain con-
       cessions to the position of centralization in that it required            "b. In calls to such @ices the office-bearers will have to
       that synod determine the field, assign posts to the calling           separate themselves from the ,congregation  with which the
       churches, determine the requirements of the men who can be            primordial right to extend calls rests, as is evident from Acts
       called, and required that two synodical  deputies for missions        1:23,  6 :2-6, 13 :l-3, II Corinthians 8 :19, and from. Article
       must be present at their examination. Synodical  deputies             XXX1  of the Netherlands Confession of Faith, Article IV
       also have a voice in determining the qualifications of native         land  V. of ,the Church .Order of Dort, and from the formula for
       workers on -the mission field, control the training schools on        the installation of office-bearers.

       the field,` have authority to subsidize medical a-work  at .the          "c. The Church Order does not recognize such general

       posts of individual calling churches, and determine which             offices, makes no. provision for the -ecclesiastical position of

       -liturgical documents and- Bible translations shall be used.          office-bearers as called, with the result that these,- although

       Prof. J. H. Bavinck. says that this mission order of 19.02  has       they are mmisters  of the Word, cannot `by virtue of their

       remained the fundamental position of the Reformed Churches            office be members of any consistory.

     of the Netherlands on missions. There have been some                        "d. Because this decision inevitabiy leads us into the arms
       changes but none of them is major.                                    of collegialism which threatens us from every side."                 .

             From the same articles referred to above, we learn that            `In spite of this, synod decided to have a committee draw
       this question has also had a stormy history in the Reformed           up a Mission Order consistent with the principle adopted.
       churches of our country, particularly our mother church. In           And this decision aroused still more controversy over the
       1898 the first Mission Order was adopted. It expressed in             question.                                                                 I
                                                                                                                                          - 1.1,  I
       Article 1 that, "In the execution of her decisions regarding                                   (to be continued) -                              '
       heathen missions, synod makes use of a Board for heathen                                                                                   :-
      .missions.  The Board is subject to synod.". Article 25 states                                                                  G.V.d.B.

-     that, "Discipline over doctrine and life .of missionaries and

       missionary `helpers must .be exercised by the consistory to

       which they belong." Article 32 provides that, "When a min-
       ister is needed for mission service the Board shall',request  a                                  IN MEMORIAM

       -classis  to call and send out that person, but the further              The Eunice Society of First Protestant Reformed Church qf

       regulation of his work and his financial. support was `to be          Grand Rapids wishes to express its sincqe  sympathy to two of our
       `left entirely .to the Board." .Thus  1896 leaned toward the          members,  Miss S. Wiereiga  and Mrs. D. Pastoor, in the loss of
                                                                             their sister and mother-in-law `-
       principle of centralization. In 1902 a further step was taken

       and the Board was authorized to ordain missionaries.                                           MRk G. PASTQOR

             In 1906 these principles were challenged. Two Classes              May our God comfort the bereaved family and give them peace.

        (Classis  Iowa and Classis  Hudson) proposed -that mission-                                                 Mrs. D. Jonker,  President

       .aries'.  should not be sent.. out by committees, but by con-                                                Mrs. G. Spruyt,  Secretary


                                            T - H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                19
 - ,_..


                                                                     sionaries  to return. Under the title, "Re-entering Congo," in

  I/ALL AROUNQ                                        U s / ( the August 29. issue of Clzristianity.Toda~y,  there appears the
                                                                      following brief notice:

                                                                             "AS  of the middle of August, Protestant missionaries'
 Roman  Catholic. Imjkence  Irt Goverwxent                               who had `evacuated the strife-torn Congo were slowly re-
                                                                         turning, urged on by appeals such as one received by Dr.
     With the democratic nomination for president of the                 C. Darby Fulton, executive secretary of the Presbyterian
  United States going to a Roman Catholic, there is con-                 U. S. Board.of  World Missions. The letter to Fulton from
  siderable discussion going on among church leaders as well             Congolese Christians cited, in halting English, the `neces-
  as leaders in the publishing field in general ,about  the ad-          sity' of having the missionaries return.
  visability of a Roman Catholic in the White House. Many                    " `We ask you to get them back in Congo immediately,'
                                                                         the letter said.
  churches' have already taken a stand against this, especially
  the churches in the South. That the Romish Church is still                "During his visit to North Ameri&this  summer, Con-
                                                                      - golese.  Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba said that mis-
  interested in world domination is evident from the follow-             sionaries had done much for the `moral and intellectual up
  ing quote by a Catholic named J. J. Connor  who is chair-              bringing' of his people.
  man of the Catholic Committee for Historical Truth:                       " `We want the missionaries.to  remain,' he said. `For
        "We now have more than 100 Catholics in Congress,                years it was only the missions who looked after the Con-
     18 or 20 Catholic governors and thousands of Catholics in         golese. We ask them to continue their help.'
     our state legislatures. If these Catholics would forget the            "The Swiss Catholic press agency KIPA said, how-.
     by now meaningless designation of `Republican' and                  ever, that it had secured a copy of a `secret instructions'
     `Democrat' and work together, keeping in mind the social            document issued to militants of the Congolese National
     and economic doctrines set out through the generations by           Movement singling. out Christian missionaries as the
     the Church since at least the days of St. Thomas Aquinas,           `greatest enemy' of the people. The document apparently         -
     and if we elect a Catholic as president to take his place at       was issued before the proclamation of independence.
    the head of the Army of God, we cannot only- march                Lumumba was the head of the Congolese National Move-
    triumphant against the scourge.of  Communism but we can             ment."
    bring a true and lasting peace to the entire world and make
                                                                         This ,whole  matter of mission endeavor in Africa brings
    the United States a Catholic country in a real sense, and
    the greatest nation of all time. We are at a crossroad now.       up some interesting `questions. It certainly is a fact that the
    We can take the road to destruction and damnation, or we          gospel has never had the influence in Africa that it had in
    can take the road to God and glory. And we must do it at          nations such as Europe arid America. This is not to say that
    the ballot box."                                                  the Lord does not have His own elect in Africa as well as

                                                                      other nations, for the church shall be gathered and is gathered

,.Mis.rionary  Labor In Africa                                        from every nation and tribe and tongue. Nor does this mean

                                                                     `that all that goes under the name of mission work today is
     With the strong surge of nationalism in Africa bringing
 new nations to independence almost every .month,  there is a         indeed the progress of the gospel in the gathering of the
                                                                      church. Much, and perhaps most, of what is called mission
 need forced upon many churches to re-examine their mission
 endeavors in the "dark Continent." Articles are appearing            endeavor cannot possibly have any positive fruit. For many
with regularity in many papers about the difficulties of mis-        people who claim to preach the gospel do not preach it at all,
 sion work and the hazards of missionaries. Some time ago             but preach a perversion of the gospel that the Lord will not
 an interesting article appeared in Chri.&a&y  Today in              and does not use to gather His church.

 which the threat to mission work by the rise of nationalism             But, apart from these questions, it remains a fact that

 was vividly discussed. It seems as if nations who attain in-        `.the  continent of Africa as well as the nations of Asia are

 dependence from so-called "colonial powers" soon turn               never nations that come under the influence of the gospel.

 against the church. This article pointed out that the churches      The gospel is predominantly limited to the nations of the

 which had been established and the missionaries who were            West. And such is also undoubtedly the purpose of God.

 working. in these fields were threatened constantly and often       The progress of the gospel is always westward from Jeru-

 forced to flee. Many seeming converts turned back again to          salem,  Judea  and Samaria to Asia Minor and Europe, and

 paganism with all its strange.and  often repulsive rituals and      finally to America. The covenant lines run mainly through

 rites once the nation was freed from the rule of another            the nations that inhabit the western part of the globe. And

 country. The leaders of these new nations were often not            always with the gospel there is also a certain civilizing power

 favorably inclined to the work of missions, and harassed            and influence so that the main stream of culture is to be

 those who carried on such work, The result is thatthe  whole        found mainly in the West.

 mission enterprise in Africa stands in some danger of coming            This is not only evident from history, but is also the
 to an end. This was especially true recently in the Congo.          teaching of Scripture. It is perhaps entirely in harmony with

     Now there is a plea on the part of some leaders for mis-        Scripture to, say that these nations which -come  under the


     20                                           T H E   STANDARD.`BEARER


     influence of the preaching of the gospel and are IChristian-              four of its eight paid religious programs, including the Oral
     ized"  are also the nations that become Anti-Christian - i.e.,         -Roberts broadcast.
     the very center of the power of the Anti-Christ...  While' at                 `-`Network  spokesmen'say that failure of local stations
                                                                             to air the programs is responsible for the move, which fol;
     the. same time, the nations that do not come under the in-
                                                                               lows a creeping trend toward general elimination of paad
     fluence of the gospel as completely as the Western nations                religious broadcasting.       The trend runs in accord with
     become the nations on the four corners of the earth - Gog                 National Council of Churches policy favoring bloc alloca-
     and Magog. While these nations also are bitterly opposed to               tions  of free time to major religious groups instead of
     the church and to the truth of the Word of God,fhey remain             individual sales to religious broadcasters.        Evangelicals,
                                                                               generally oppose such an either-or arrangement! but radio
`for the most part in Paganism. They are not part of the
                                                                               stations have asserted a right to refuse to sell time. Even
     nations that are called "Christian," using the term in its                though the broadcasting industry is federally-regulated, no
     broadest sense. They remain for the most part under the                   religious broadcaster has thus far been able to. prove his
     influence of their pagan religions. They are the nations that             legal right to radio time.

     are forced to give their power to the beast for a season ; but                "A strong argument Against paid religious broadcast-
     they are also `the nations that  never will have anything to do           ing revolves on the poor quality of some programs which
                                                                               have been aired under such an arrangement. Once the
     with what is called Christianity. They are' atheistic and
                                                                               time is sold, stations have no control over amateur pro-
     pagan to the core and remain so to the end of time. This                  ducers who may alienate an audience.
     seems to be evident also from history which is, recently being                "Paying broadcasters will counter with the assertion
     made in the Congo. Part of what is happening there may be                 that the free time concept does not guarantee quality
     the result of a perpetual hatred of these nations against all             programming inasmuch as there is no agreement on what
     that goes under the name of Christian.                                    constitutes good religious radio.
                                                                                   "Another considerati,on  : size of audience is not in
           These. same nations are the ones that eventually turn               itself a fair measure of religious program effectiveness.
`against Anti-qhrist  and' bring about the final battle which                     "Faced with the loss of radio time on commercial sta-
-shall come at the end of the ages. It is, however, interesting                tions, some Christian groups are looking to stations all
     that the basic reason why these nations turn against Anti-                their own . . . . "

     christ is no .doubt that they still consider the Anti-Christian            In connection with this same subject, a stinging criticism
`kingdom to be the citadel of Christianity, not realizing in the            .of  religious broadcasting is made by a certain Charles Brack-
     darkness of their paganism that what was once Christian                bill, Jr., executive director of radio and television for the
     has become in time Anti-Christian.                                     New Jersey Council of Churches. The following is a quoted

           It is difficult if not impossible to. predict what part these    summary and partial quotation of his views.

     nations will play in detail in our contemporary history. But                  " `It is a picture of confusion, waste, out-dated and in-
     the believer, who looks at history as being one of the signs              credibly dull programming,' he says; charging that in-
     of the return of his -Lord, sees these events as instructive              dividual producers follow patterns that seem right in their
     and comforting, for `they must bring with them the final                  own eyes and fail to cooperate with other broadcasters.
     redemption of the church when Jesus shall appear again.                      "Brackbill asserts that `the Protestant ministry has
                                                                               failed to keep pace with developments in radio.

                                                                                   " `Preachers, -could- always preach,' he declares, `and
                                                                               they have been .doing  it on radio since the first religious
      As some of our readers know, there has been an attempt                   broadcast. All during radio's heyday of great variety.
                                                                             produdtions,  they preached. And now that radio has its
     in recent years made by the National, Council of Churches to
                                                                               strength back, religious broadcasters still preach. They
     gain control of all religious broadcasting in our country. This           haven't moved backward, they just have pot  moved.'
     NCC favors a policy of bloc allocations of free time to major                "Brackbill suggests that Protestant broadcasters should
     religious groups instead of individual sales to religious broad-          cooperate if only because they have in common so many
     casters. This means also, of course, that the NCC will have               problems, such as : ( 1) ineffective programming, (2)
     a great deal to say about what religious organizations are                schedule extremities (`And it's our own fault . . . The
                                                                            public interest, convenience and necessity clause of the
.granted  these free blocs of time to broadcast.
                                                                               Communications Act will not protect our poor program-
           Under the heading "Protestant Broadcasting Faces More               ming forever'), (3) mercenary motive, (`If Congressional
     Cutbacks,"     Clz&stia&y  Today has the following :                      committee ever investigates- the deceit and chicanery of
                                                                               some religious broadcasting, there will be a bigger scandal
             "Religious radio appears to be in for even harder times.          than that of the recent payola exposures'), and (4) de-
              "New curtailments on paid religious broadcasts go into           nominational pride (`We ought to decide whether we are
           effect this fall, forcing more programs off the air. Hun-           selling individual automobile brands or transportation').
           dreds of big stations now refuse to sell time for religious           " `Too much money is being spent to save the lost by
           programs.                                                          programs which the lost never listen to,' according to
              "Latest to annouuce  a cutback is the American Broad-           Brackbill.    `Often the who1.e  program is pitched to the
           casting Company radio network, which has the nation's               beloved in Christ and.then  to 0 sinners in the last thirty
-          sedond  largest chain of station-affiliates. ABC has dropped        seconds. The Christian friends must never stop praying

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


   for God to bless the program in its soul winning, or to send        We look back upon the summer that has passed with its
   in the money on the chance that a lost one will tune in."        sorrows and joys. Summer in these parts is certainly.not  the

    In this same article, Brackbill proposes that all the           time .for  lectures, visits or any concerted effort. The climate

 churches get together to coordinate their broadcasting aims,       here is too hot and humid during the summer, and farmers

- and .try to decide what can be done in order to make              are busy and others are off on vacations, etc. Hence, `we  can

 religious broadcasting more effective.                             `only .relate  that we preached here in Pella for four Sundays,

                                                                    two during June and one in July and one in August.
    This whole matter of religious broadcasting is of no-little        "
 importance to our churches who are constantly expanding               It may interest our readers to know that the undersigned

 their work in this field. Especially since we now have             preached, catechized, taught Sunday School, led Consistory

 started a foreign broadcast, developments ought to be closely      meetings and gave a Fourth of July' address in our South

 watched.                                                           Dakota churches during the month of July.      (While in..  South

                                                                    Dakota we were called to Michigan' to the funeral of our dear
    Although Brackbill is undoubtedly in favor of some
                                                                    niece, Agalene Van Baren.)  On the Fourth of July the un-
control `by the NCC of all religious broadcasting, some of
                                                                    dersigned spoke on "Stewardship In A Democratic Society."
.his criticisms are to the point. One who has heard occa-
                                                                    It was a good day, all in all. During the month of July we
 sionally many of the programs on the air sponsored by every
                                                                    also gave a lecture in Randolph, Wisconsin on the subject,
 type of religious group.has  felt the same way that'he does.
                                                                    "God's Unchangeable Marriage Ordinance." Of course, even
    Nevertheless, the deepest evil of modern religious broad-       during the summer months, and that, too, in spite of much
 casting is that the gospel is not preached. This will never        traveling, copy had to be supplied for Th*e Stkdard  Beayer.
be admitted, but it is the deepest cause of the gross misuse
                                                                       Then, there were the very busy weeks, called our "vaca-
of religious radio ministry. Radio has become another means
                                                                    tion?' We had the privilege (as had many of o,ur  ministers
of propagating false religion, and has been prostituted in the
                                                                    on their vacation) to preach seven times in three weeks, in
 service of that which is not the gospel.
                                                                    Creston,  Grand Haven and in First Church. There was the
    The day is no doubt coming that the NCC will gain               ever interesting and joyful Y. P. Convention to attend, with
control of religious broadcasting, and will have its say about      its instructive and timely speeches; its delicious banquet meal,
what programs will be aired. And we can be sure that once           meeting old friends and colleagues, and seeing those who
this happens, the Reformed Witness Hour will not be                 were but children a few years ago also at the convention as
exempt from the criticism of the NCC. The time' is no               young men and women. It seems a long while ago since the
doubt coming when it will be impossible for us to bring our .       first Convention, held at South Holland, Illinois, whither we
truth over the radio, and to use radio time as a means of           drove from Pella, Iowa' honored as the first and only speaker
witness. Our program, with its emphasis on the truth, will          at that occasion. One says then : Tempus fugit  1
never be tolerated by a liberal organization such as the NCC.
                                                                       Also we,might  attend and enjoy the outing at Douglas-
    Just recently, while a sub-committee of the Mission Com-        Walker Park near Byron Center .to remember the great
mittee was inquiring into the matter of foreign broadcasting,       goodness upon God's servant, Rev. H. Hoeksema, at the oc-
it became evident that there are already some stations who          casion of the forty-fifth year of his ministry. How good it is
are not interested in our program. -There were responses            to meet .with  friends and brethren.
which we received from several stations which would not
consider giving us radio time. And no doubt this general              If I am permitted to, say just something of a more domes-
                                                                    tic nature: we might also officiate and be present in First
attitude will .increase.                             H. Hanko
                                                                    Church at the occasion of the marriage of, one of our daugh-

                                                                    ters, Garretta, to Thomas Newhof. One sees his children

                                                                    marry and leave the paternal home with mingled feelings of
)I C'OIN T R I B U T-I 0 N S 11 joy and pain. Who said that parting was sweet sorrow?
                                                                       I must not forget to relate that during this, summer we

                     Missionary Notes                               also were `present to witness the deliberations of the Synod
                                                                    of our churches. It was so very heartening for the under-
    At the time of this writing (September 9) the under-            signed and Mrs. Lubbers that Synod received these two
signed and his wife are once more in an apartment in Pella,         churches, Forbes and Isabel, without a dissenting vote. May
Iowa, situated at 1218 North Main. We arrived here on               these churches press forward in faith and confidence and
 Saturday, September 3, after a very hot trip, made the more        obedience to Christ's will, expressing their unity in faith and
wearying due to the pre-Labor Day traffic on the highways.          life with all our churches.
 Now the hot weather of late summer has given way for the
cooler air of early fall, and, we believe, that beautiful autumn      -However, there was one meeting which was not held,

days will come according to the word of God to Noah.                and which I could. not attend. I felt and feel that such a


     22                                         T H E   ~ST-ANDARD  B'EARER


     meeting should have'been held. I have reference to:a meeting       resurrection and the ascension into heaven of our Lord, we

     which should be called "Mission Day." How wonderful it             surely cannot do that with a hymn. Then we need the Word

     would be for our people and also for the Home Missionary'          of God, namely; the Psalms.

     should the Consistory of the'calling church and the Mission           And what an unrest all this brings into the church.
     Committee arrange a program with appropriate speeches and          Brother Huiskens surely had a good example when he writes
     song. I think of a very wonderful address which I heard            that like a flock of sheep that have heard the bark of a wolf
     many years ago on a Mission Fest. It was on the subject,           they will cling together. We should thank the Lord for that.
     "Election and Mission." I shall never forget the three points      That is surely still. a sign of life.
     of the speaker. They were : 1.. Election the basis of -Mission.
                                                                           Then you say, Rev. Hoeksema;  that what brother Huis-
     2. Election the directive of Mission. 3. Election the guarantee
                                                                        kens says about the consistory of First Church does not fit.
     of fruits of Mission. Points which are well to reflect upon..
                                                                        Well, he surely could not blame the consistories of South
     What a boon to be sent off by the prayers of the calling
                                                                        Holland and Oak Lawn. He must surely use your con-
     church, who have the needs of the Mission bound upon their
                                                                        sistory as an example and then I would say, "Shame on a
     hearts, heeding Paul's exhortation: "withal praying for us,
                                                                        consistory that even desires or suggests bringing hymns into
     that God would open the door of utterance to speak the
                                                                        our churches."
     Mystery of Christ . . . that I may make it manifest as I

     ought to speak." Cal. 4 :3,- 4.                                    Oak Lawn, 111. -                                Mr. R. Rooda

           At the present time we are planning and preparing a few
     lectures to be. given in these parts again. Will `there be                       `- Reply To Brother Rooda                .

     audiences ? We remember : where two or three are gathered !
                                                                            Thank you, brother, for the interest and concern you
     The Lord knows and we wait for Him ! And : we are always
                                                                        show in your contribution.
     a sweet savor unto God, both to them. that perish and to
     them that are saved. May the Lord of the harvest give the              In reply, the following.:

     increase upon our labors.                                            1. Brother Rooda's  main contention seems to be that in
                                                           -T G.L.      our church music we must have nothing but the inspired

                                                                        Word of God, namely, the Psalms. In fact, this thought

              Contribution On The Hymn Question                         takes up -the biggest part of his contribution. I believe that
                                                                        this is a position which cannot be maintained, which Mr.
     Dear Rev. H. C. Hoeksemas                                          Rooda  does not really maintain, and which our churches do

                                                                        not maintain. It is neither the language nor the intent of
           I wish you God's richest blessing upon your work and
                                                                        our Church Order.' This is plain:
     not only you, but all our members, ministers, consistories,

     classes and synod. Shall, we, however, experience that                 a. From the fact that Article 69 speaks of much more than

     blessing, we must walk in His ways. The Word of God says           the Psalms. The Twelve Articles of Faith, the Morning and

     that we shall not turn to the left  nor to the right and in        Evening Hymns, and the Hymn of Prayer are not the in-

     another place it says that we shall not add to nor take away       .spired  Word of ,God.  And therefore, if by Psalms the article

     from that Word. All we need is the Word of God:  In our            means the inspired Word of God, and intends that only this

     prayers ! In our preaching ! Also in our singing !                 inspired Word of God may be sung in the church, the article

                                                                        is self-contradictory.
           Then if we look at all the so-called. churches that begin
     with thinking that they can express the truth better in song          b. From the fact, which we all can see, that.we do not
     than the Holy Spirit does in the Word,- where `then are            have  and do not sing the inspired Word of God in our
     they? They should be a good example unto us that we                Psalter or in our Dutch Psalms. This, is a. catchy phrase,
     should not start with this. The devil knows that if we start       "the  inspired Word of God." And it has been appealed to
     to play with that we .are on his side.                             more often in support of psalm-singing. And I would cer-
                                                                        tainly say that if it were a question of the inspired Word of
           Then they start to say, "But must we then condemn all        God over against mere huinan compositions, we would have
     hymns ? I know that there are a lot of good hymns." This is        to choose for the former as a matter of principle. But that
-    the same as with books. Surely there are a lot of good books,      is not- the case. In both our English and Dutch psalters we
     but it is just like brother Huiskens wrote in The-Standard         do ,-not have the inspired~  Word of God, but kersz&ations
     Bearer that we would not think of -reading those good books        based on. 
     or sing those good songs on the Sabbath Day in our worship                     the Word oJ: God. All thqe  versifications involve
                                                                        inteyppretation.  -Many of these versifications are rather far
     services.                                                          from the text of Scripture. And some of- them can even be

           All that we need and can trust is the inspired Word of       called erroneous. Let me give -a couple examples. Number

     God. If we sing of'the birth, the work, the death and the          7 of our Psalter is :


                                             T H E   -STAtiQARD  ~&ARER                                                                  23


1. "On the good and faithful  God has set His love;                                   Office-Bearers' Conference ,

     When  they call He sends them Blessings from above.
                                                                            will be held October 4 at S o'clock in Hudsonville
     Stand in awe, and sin not, Bid your heart be still;.-%
     Through the silent watches Think upon His will."                                    Protestant Reformed Church

This is a versification of: "But :know that the Lord hath                           R'ev. C. Hanko will be the speaker.

set apart hiI9 that is godly fdr himself: the Lord will hear         Topic: "Must the Approval of Classis  Be Obtained-for the
when I call. unto him. Stand in awe,  and sin not: commune
                                                                                       Erasure, of. a Baptized Member ?'
with your own  heart upon your bed, and be still. S'eiah."           .'

   A. comparison will show that,  there is only one little part      All present and former office-bearers are urged to attend.

of these two verses which appears .literally  in the versifica-                                             ; . J: DOCTER, `Secretary

tion, namely:. "Stand in a&e,  and. sin not." The rest is
versification and interpretation. %                                                                   -

   Or think of ve;se  2 of Number 7:                                                               Anmuncetienf

  "Lay upon.  God's altar Good and loving deeds,                           Classis  East of the Protestant Reformed Churches will                           .
     And in all things trust Him To supply your needs:
                                                                     meet on Wednesday, October 51 at 9 A. M. in the Hudson-
  * Anxious and. despairing, Many  walk in night;
                                                                     ville  Protestant Reformed Church, D.V.
     But to those that fear Him God will send His lighf."

   This is a vetisification  of : "Offer the sacrifices of right-          Consistories will please consider this an official annourice-

eousness, and put your trust in the Lord. There be many              ment and accordingly appoint delegates to attend this

that say, Who will shew is- any good ? Lord, lift thou up            meeting.
the light of thy countenance upon us." Inspired Scripture ?                                            REV; M. SCHIPPER, Stated  Clerk
The latter is ; the former is far from it !

   Or in the Dutch  compare `that old and beautiful favorite,

which I too love, 84:S, "Gij-  tech;  Gij zijt  hmi  `roem, de
                                                                                            W E D D I N G   A N N I V E R S A R Y
kracht van hunne  kracht . `. . ." Compare.  this with Scrip-

ture. It iS supposed; to be & versification of Psalm 89:18                 On October 4, 1960, the Lord willing, our dear parents,

and 19.: "Want Gij zijt de heerlijkheid hunner sterkte, en                                                                                  . . .._
                                                                                      MR. AND MRS. JOSEPH  OOMKES
door uw tielbehagen  zal-,onze  hoorri  verhoogd .worden.  Want
                                                                     hope to commemorate -their  25th wedding anniversary. We are
ons schild  van den Heere, en brize  koning is van den               thankful to our God Who has given them to us, and thaf He may
Heilige Israels."    A beautiful veriifica`tion?  0 yes, gnd  it     continue `to bless them as He has done in the past is the prayer of               *
expr2s.ses::&he  faith df the church. But inspired -Scripture ?      their grateful.  children.
Ahsol&&  not ; merely a versification, involving interpreta-                                           Mr. and Mrs. William John Oomk&,
                                                                                                       Karlene  Anne  Ootikes
tion. ,.                                                                                            . Ruth Ilene Oomkes

 2. If the fortner  is true L and it is -then there can be                                             and 1 grandchild

no principal objection to. other. versifications  of Scripture,

whether Old or New Testament, and to hymns in that sense.

And no one need shame himself for. thinking of it.
                                                                             THE GOD OF PROVIDENCE AND GRACE
   3.. But I repeat : let one of the elders  of the First -Con-

sistory write about the meaping  and intent of their overture.                     Let all the. earth Jehovah fear,

I did not hear the wolf bark !                                                     Let all that dwell both far and near

                                                         H.C.H.                       In awe before Him stand ;

                                                                                   For lo, He Spake  and it was done,

                                                                                   And all with `sovereign power begun

                            IN HIS FEAR                                          `Stood fast  at His command.

                     (Continued from  page 12)                                     He makes the nations' counsels ,vaini

Catholic Church ? May we not be faithful to the truth with-                       The plans the peoples would maintain

out being called bigots ? 0, that we would be as firm in our                          Are th_warted  by His hand ;.

convictions and stand for them no matter what the financial,                       Jehovah's cot@el  stands secure, "

political and economic consequences might be. Give  us                             His purposes of heart endure,

the freedom of such "bigotry." Then w&know  that we are                               For evermore they stand.
pleasing in God's sight.                                 J.A.H.                                                            Psalm 33 :;, 2


                                                                                        Rev.` C. H&o  spent. eight days in. Ferguson Hospital, in

                                                                                 `Grand, Rapids,-submitting `to &rrective  -surgery; During his

                                                                                 two week absende-"from  his -pulpit Rev; H. Hoekse-ma

                                                                                 preached twice each Sunday.                    ,,
                                                                                 ,_ . . _ .- _ -. . i _                                     .
  .,, . ^. . . . .'                 .                                                            -. : ._ .        .
       -~.^ -.-.
                            .^                -.
                                   --                                             .     Loveland-`s. bulletin quoted a poem entitled, "Remember
                                                                                  .                                    .,...
            Rev. H. Hanko,  of Hope Church~  r&veil. the call-from               Met',  .which~  was -a prayer -for. God's remembering the fallen
  C&ad;  Haven ; Rev. G., Lubbers.. wasalso  on. th.at: trio, the                sinner. by, sh-owing  him the Way of the Cross. .What  was so
  third member being--Rev. -G. Van Baren,  and not Rev. R. C.                    unique about that quotation was' that it was -printed in the
  Harbach,  as reported last time.                  _                            .Gernian;'  language ! And, a telegram  diredted  to Rev. H.
                                                                                 Hotksema -.was printed in Loveland's bulletin above the
            From a trio which included Rev. R. C. Harbach  and Rev.              signature of the clerk, Wm. A. Griess, as follows: "Whereas
  M. Schipper,  Randolph's congregation called Rev. A. Mulder,                   distance prohibits a delegation from. our midst, the consistory
  of Kalamazo_o.                                                                 has mandated me to extend ours and the congregation's
           . -..                _' -
  - Rev.:  C. Hariko, of -First `Church;-  declined'the  call ex-                heartiest.congratulations  to you 1 on your forty4,fth  anniver-            _
  tended-him from the Dakota~chur~hes.  Is~bel:and  Forbes.                      sary in the ministry.         May the .Lord  sustain you further to
                                  ,- ._
            Doon's  congregation has received the long awaited `new              the~fulness  of his counsel for you here, and bless our churches T
  .edition.  of the. Esalters'.ordered  some time -ago. -Their new               `thro.ugh your further labors as I% has .done in the past.,,
                                                                                                                                 .
  ,project.is  already: .under. way, that: of..purchasing  new Bibles
                                                                                      Cont&$i~lz           - The Program Committee of the Re-
  for the auditorium and for society use `in the church parlors.
                                                                                 formed WitnesssIIour  is happy to announce that Rev. H.
 .And  it was ftim Doon  that. we learned that Rev. `B:. WOU-
       . ..? . . _ . _                                                           Hanko, pastor of the, Hope  Prot. Ref. Church, Grand Rapids,
 :denberg  was scheduled'to` speak at the annual meeting of the
                                                                                 Mich.,  will be the. guest speaker for the month of October.
       Society for Protestant Refprmed-Action  Committee.                   _
                                                                                 He has' taken his texts from the First Epistle of Peter. His
            The Sunday School Teachers' Mass Meeting was held                    ,topics  will be, "Begotten Unto A Lively Hope," "Hope's
Sept. 16 in, Southwest `Chur&h. 1 Thus,'  this Kingdom work                      Apology,,' "Armed For Suffering,"' and "Watching Unto
       among..the.  children of -the. covenant. is again off to- a- fresh        The End." - Be sure .to- listen -to the. preaching of the Word
       s t a r t .         .    .' . ._. _ - r                                   .of ,God as proclaimed-over the -distinctively Reformed Radio

 `.         %tolland's  congregation held .an- Inspirational meeting             Program-The Reformed Witness Hour. Free copies of every
 :$onday,  .Sept.sl%  This  is an.annual  meeting.for  the prepara-              sermon are: available. Write to The .Reformed  Witness Hour,
 &on~,.for  the coming society season: :An inspirational address                 .P.O.  Box 8, Grand' Rapids .1, Michigan.
                                                                                                      .                          ,.
       and an appropriate program was planned.                   `. : .'
                      _                                                                 To call Iattention.  to. the new Year  Book, we quote from

            The annual family %&at&s  by our' consistories are well              :Lynden's  bulletin : "Each family-is urged to acquire a copy

       under way in most .churdhes,-  some- have already been com-               of the Acts of our 1960 Synod, which met in session from

- pleted,  thus satisfying the tenth question asked by the Church                June .,l:to 10. A.-copy  costs `only $1100,  and furnishes you

  `Visitors. . *                                                                 with -indispensable information concerning the kingdom work
                                         __, ,--
                                                                                 our churches have, do.ne, and are doing. Also you will have
            The Office Bearers' Conference will be held at our Hud-
                                           _ .._                                 concrete evidence -that our -denomination is not- dwindling
 ~sonvi.Ile`  Church;  Oct.` 4. IRev. .C. XIH&nko, of. First Church, is
                                                                                 -away, or falling .apart, but is growing in numbers, in spirit,
scheduled to' speak .on the .question,:  "Must the approval of
                                                                                 and in enthusiasm. Keep yourself well informed !"
       Classis  be obtained for'the censure .of: a- baptized member ?"

                                                                                        Southeast Church celebrated a great event Sunday, Sept.
            How very familiar is the-appeal `found in: IIope's  bulletin
                                                                                 `4, as expressed in the following bulletin quote : "Today is the
       reminding the members-of the congregation of-a  `second meet-
                                                                                 -first Lord's Day in our new church home. LMay  God's work
ing' of a society,. the _ first havingbeen'  poorly: attended, this
                                                                                 appear unto-us in this plate  and -His glory to our children,
time that of the Choral .Society.which:u~ed.~:m~re  male voices.
                                                                                 and may the work of our hands be established by Him to
  -We suppose it to be:tlie  lethargic result of the summer vaca-
                                                                                 His praise."               L : `.
       tion when spiritual -emerdsks-  have been suspe.ndkd.  Are we

       not all, more- or less; `.guilty:  of: such. :torpor.? _-This same in-           From Redland's bulletin we learn that church activities
 .&cation  of indifference recently : resulted .:in'. a form letter              are -once again:in  full swing, with announcements of first
handed put at a church  service in First'.Chur&h:  The letter                    `meetings `of .catechisms  and- societies taking up most of the
 `was from the Men's Society;~and  .was an urgent address to                     `space in the issue of September il.
the men of the congregation..who  `could;.but did not, attend                                    .
                                                                                 _ .._
                                                                                 -
 :the:fi&t  meeting of the society.                                              .--.-,  .). . see you in church.                      .         _ J.M.F.


