    VOLUME XXXVII                              JANUARY 1, 1961 - GLAND  RAPIDS,  MICHIGAN                             NU~LIBER  7


                                                                     Body and soul, with  the whqle  of the church of Christ, shall

          M E D I'TA T `I 0 N                                        be to His glorious praises forever more.

                                                                                                  * * * *


    COMMIT  THY  WAY  UNTO THE  LORD                                     Our way, what is it.?

                                                                         Your way.  is your whole life, period.
           "Cowmit  thy way unto the Lo+d; tvztst also in
            Him; and He shall b?ing  it fo pass." Psalm 37 :5            From the cradle to the grave with all that lies in between.
                                                                     But from the point of view of the heart. All the issues of

   When you read this, it will already he 1961 !                     your life proceed from the heart, so that as the heart of

                                                                     man is, so is he !      .
   But I am still in the old year while I write this.

                                                                         It includes progress, direction and destination.
   I want to say something to you with regard to the chang-

ing of the year.                                                        -Hence, it is so terrible important that we keep our heart

                                                                     above all that is to be kept, for. out of it are the issues of
   And as always, I sought and found a word of God.
                                                                     our lives.
   As you stand before a New Year, roll your way unto the
                                                                         Commit thy way unto the Lord!
Lord : for He is the only Almighty God, and merciful Father.

He will take care of you.                                                It is not so evident from the English translation, be&in

                                                                     the Hebrew we have here a mixed metaphor. It says literally :
   Psalm 37 harbors a great contrast between the righteous
                                                                     Roll thy way unto the Lord.
and the wicked. You find in it a description of the wicked

and the righteous, as well as their end.                                 The word used here has the figure of a burden which

                                                                     you are to throw on the Lord.
   The context of my text is sweet as honey and the honey-
comb.                             $                                      And why should we throw our burden upop God ?

   "Delight thyself also.' in`-  the L&d !"    Can you think of          First, because it is a burden. From the cradle to the

anything sweeter than that? Think on the Godhead in terms            grave. It is a wonder that we get to be as old as we are.

of delight, pleasure, ecstasy. Is there anything in this sorry       That is not always so clear, especially when we are young,

world that can be compared to that activity?                         or when all things turn out to our advantage and then I

                                                                     mean to the advantage of the flesh. Then things look rosy,
   Start from the beginning of the psalm : Do not fret thyself
                                                                     and we laugh and play, and are in good spirits.
because of evil men ; trust in God ; delight thyself in Him,

and then roll your way on Him: He is strong, and able to                 But look somewhat deeper, and better still, read Psalm

take care of all your way. And the result will be that He            9O:lO.  And there we read: Their strength is labor and

will recreate you unto a glorious vessel of mercy.                  sorrow ! That is, the strength of our days, that is, the best

                                                                     of our days h&e on earth.
   No, this does not mean that you are the first, and God

a glorious second.                                                      And why ?

   It is presupposed that you are already alive unto Him.                That is easy: it is so because of sin and guilt. That's

The poet is David, the man after God's own heart.                    enough to make us weep all the day long. From infancy to

                                                                     our last death throb, we are sinners against God, and con-
But, nevertheless, we are taught here that God will
                                                                     sequently we are guilty and damn worthy.
recreate your life in such a way that you will be the beautiful

Bride of Christ in the day when He will lllalre  up His jewels.          Our whole life from the heart is running in minus, an


 146                                     .T`HE S'TANDAkD   B E A R E R



 everlasting minus, falling far short of the glory of God's            Wait on the Lord!

sanctuary.                                                             He is able to bear that burden, in fact, He has carried

    Is that not enough to make you weep ?                          that burden for you already. Objectively, God has carried

                                                                   that burden from all eternity. Objectively, He carried that
    Look at the life which you lived in 1960 ; look at it
                                                                   burden all through the weary years of the Old Dispensation.
jhrough the spectacles of the law of God, and weep.
                                                                   Objectively, He carried that burden on the Cross.
    It's all corrupt, evil, unrighteous, and damnable. It is
                                                                       How do I know that?
so evil, my dear readers, that if you are to be judged accord-

ing to your life's work, you will spend eternity in the lake           The Bible tells me that the Lamb of .God was slain from

of fire and brimstone, weeping and gnashing your teeth.            before the foundation of the world.

    Now, the man that knows this has a hard life.                      I believe that God has justified His saints from ever-

                                                                   lasting.
    Do you want proof?

                                                                       But here is the point of this psalm: God wants you to
    Then read the psalms of David, and note how often he
                                                                   believe that when you see your mess. He wants you to have
grovels in the dust before the face of God.
                                                                   that justification in your heart. Therefore, He says to you
    When the Spirit of grace. opens your eyes, so that you         and to me in the eve of the year : Cast that burden on My
can read and understand &e ?Vcii-d  of God, you find the           shoulders: you cannot bear it!
proof in your evening prayer. And. I mean your evening
                                                                       And leave that burden there : trust in Me !
prayer, at the conclusion of each and every day of your life.

                                                                       Many, many years ago, when I was a child, I heard old
    Our life is a burden.
                                                                   men pray within my hearin g, and they said in their prayers :
    But the result, the reward of sin, is a greater burden.        "0 God ! dat wij ons mogen laten zakken en zinken op U, de

    I have said sometimes from the pulpit: "If you want            Rots die van geen wankelen weet !" Freely translated that

to know something about what hell is like, you must ask a          would be something like this : 0 God, that we may let our-

child of God !"                                                    selves fall and sink down upon Thee the Rock who does not

                                                                   know of any wavering!
    You do not understand that? Then read Psalm 116 :3,

"The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell              So, trust in the Lord after throwing your burden on

gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow." Or go to            Him, and He will surely take care of you.

Moses and listen to this man of God: "For we are consumed             However, there is one thing we must keep before our
by Thine anger, and by Thy wrath are we troubled." Psalm           mind in this connection. And that is this : to cast your burden
90 :7.                                                             on God, and to trust in Him wholly, does not mean that you

    Sin incurs guilt, and guilt is liability to punishment, and    just sit. Oh no, but a true Christian works all the day long,

punishment is hell.                                                uses all the means, is busy in sancification  and all good works.

                                                                   However, after all is said and done, you trust in God who
    Believe it, dear reader, our way is a mess !
                                                                   is a complete Savior.
    It is that at its very inception. When we are born, we

have a load ,of guilt pressing down upon us in the cradle,                                   * * * *
and when we progress on the way, we make that burden

heavier.
                                                                      And what is the result of the action of the true believer?
    We see that every evening, but at the evening of the year
                                                                       This : "And He shall bring it to pass."
it becomes oppressive beyond our days. We think then on

the 365 days that flew past, and are weary with our days.              Now remember that this is a poor translation.

                                                                      The literal translation is this: "And He shall create !"
                           * * + 4
                                                                       Hence, it means that God shall perform the perfect work

                                                                   for you.
    There is no man who is able to carry that burden. And,

therefore, the Lord comes to us in the evening of the year,           And what is that?

aud  tells us : Cast that burden upon Me !                            Undoubtedly it refers to your whole life. For that is the

    And leave it there!                                            subject of this text. Remember? It was your way which was

                                                                   at stake. You must cast your way upon the Lord and trust
    This last thought we find in the sentence: "trust also.in
                                                                   that He will take care of it.
Him !"

                                                                      Well, He will and He has.
    To trust in God means that you patiently wait on Him:

He will surely make it come to pass.                                   It is a wonderfully comforting thought at the evening


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   `B-EARER



of this year, and at the beginning of another year of our

Lord. The thought namely, that God will create.                                       T H E   S+ANDARD   B E A R E R

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are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good                                     Editor  - REV. HERMAN' HOFXSEMA
works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk                Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
in them." Eph. 2 :lO.           "                                                    Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E.,
                                                                                                    Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
   The phrase :      "created in Christ Jesus" is exactly the
                                                                         All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
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tion, and conversion, and sanctification. It means that He               RENEWAL: Unless a definite request for discontinuance is re-
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is the justification of the saints.

   And the basis is the cross of Jesus Christ.

    Trust in that cross, in that Christ, in that God -of your                                          CON.TENTS
                                                                  _ _
salvation. Rest in Him, trust and rely on Him and He will         MEDITATION  -
                                                                             Commit Thy Way Unto The Lord ..__.__.__,..,,_..__...................                             145
create. He will go on creating, until you are body and soul
                                                                                    Rev. G. Vos
in heaven, in the second, in the last Paradise of God. Oh

yes, in that trust let us enter 1961 ! Amen.                      EDITORIALS -
if&!                                                     G.V.               About Being Protestant Reformed ._____._____._____......................  148
                                                                                    Rev. H. Hoeksema

                       Announcement
                                                                  OUR DOCTRINE-
   Classis  East of the Protestant Reformed Churches will                    The Book of Revelation .._.__..__._.,.............,...,...............,..,.,....                 150

meet on Wednesday, January 4, at Southeast Protestant                               Rev. I-1. Hoeksema

Reformed Church at 9 A. M.
                                                                  A CLOUD 
   Delegates of the various consistories comprising Classis                        OF WITNESSES -
                                                                             The Cal&g  of Moses ___________._.,...,................,..,....................,..  154
East will please take note.                                                         Rev. B. Woudenberg
                           REV. M. SCHIPPER, Stated Clerk

                                                                  FROM HOLY WRIT -

                Office-Bearers'  Conference                                 Exposition of Matthew 1: 18-25.. . . .__ .._ __ __ .__ ..156
                                                                                    Rev. G. Lubbers
will be held January 3 at 8 o'clock in Southeast Protestant

Reformed Church. Rev. Herman Hanko will be the speaker.           IN HIS FEAR -
Topic : "What should. be our attitude toward those who left                  Children of Our Aage ( 3) . . . . . . . .._............................................ 158

our church, and what should be required of them for re-                             Rev. J. A. Heys

admittance ?" All present and former office-bearers are urged
                                                                                             TI-IE  FAITH-
to attend. It was decided at our previous meeting, that our       CONTENDING FOR 
                                                                            The Church and the Sacraments _...............__._........................  160
Ministers are also invited to our meetings.                                         Rev.   H .   Veldman

                                        JOHN DOCTER, Sec.
                                                                  SHOULD  OUR ADOLESCENTS DE ENCOURAGED  TO PARTAB,
                                                                                                    SV~PER  . . . . . . .._._............................................     162
                                                                             OF    T H E LORD'S
               Teaching  Positions Available                                        Rev. H. C. Hoeksema

   The South Holland-Oak Lawn Protestant Reformed
                                                                  DECENCY AND ORDGR-
School Association plans, D.V., to open its school in Sep-                  Literary Censorship             . . ___ __ . . ,164

tember of 1961.                                                                     Rev. G. Vanden Berg

    In accordance with the rules of our Federation that
                                                                  ALL AROUND US -
"schools are permitted to advertise their need for personnel                Recent Movements Towards Ecumenicism ___ ._. _. ._. __. __. .166
as soon as a vacancy becomes known," we hereby notify all                   The Adam Question __............__................................................                167

teachers and prospective teachers that teaching positions will                      Rev. H. Hanko

be available for grades one through Junior High.
                                                                  NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES..............................................................~~~
            The Association for Protestant Reformed Education                       Mr. J. M. Faber
            9402 South 53rd Court, Oak Lawn, Illinois


      1.4s                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEA,RER


                                                                         knowledge, such as the people of Bethsaida, Chorazin, and

II                  EDITORI,ALS                                          Capernaum. Such we all are by nature. As such we can
                                                                         never hear and receive the gospel but always reject it.

                                                                             2. But there is more. God could, of course, by the

                   About Being  Protestant  Reformed                     power of His grace, have revealed the gospel unto them.

                                                                         And if the preaching of the gospel were, indeed, a well-meant
          In the last number of our Standard Bearer I was dis-           offer of salvation to all that .h&ar it, He would surely have
      cussing an article that appeared in the d/lissiomr~  Montk2y,      done this. But He did not do this. But what then? Is there
      written by Dr. Jerome De Jong. I was not quite finished            no operation of God at all, through the preaching of the
      with my discussion. Hence, I must now finish my criticism.         gospel, upon the hearts of these wise and prudent? There

          First of all, I must quote once more from the article in       surely is: He hid these things from them. And this is the

      question. Dr. De Jong writes as follows:                           teaching of the Lord and of all Scripture through out. Thus,

          "We also want to consider that `well-meant' gospel offer."     for instance, in John 12 :37-40: "But though he had done

      Is the gospel only for the elect ? Does `God really want men       so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him :

      saved ? It is beyond me that men who seriously believe in          That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled,

      the inspiration of the Bible argue away the plain invitation       which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to

      of such passages as "Come unto me all ye that labor, and           whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed ? Therefore

      are heavy laden and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11 :28)          they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He

      and ". . . . Not willing that any should perish but that all       hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts; that they

      should come to repentance." II Peter 3 :9.                         should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their

          We must stop here a moment.                                    heart, and be converted and I should heal them." And again,
          As to the first text which Dr. De Jong quotes, it is never     in Rom. 9 :15-15  : "For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy
      advisable to quote a text outside of its immediate context,        on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on
      and not even apart from the entire Bible. This is exactly          Nhom I will have compassion.     So then it is not of him that
      the way the Scriptures can be made ,to teach all kinds of          willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth
      heresies.    The question is here whether this passage teaches     `mercy. For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, "Even for

      a well-meant offer of salvation to all illen  anywhere, in the     this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew
      whole world. Dr. De Jong will, no doubt agree with me              my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
      when I say that "well-meant" signifies that God through the        throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
      preaching of the gospel wants all men, head for head and           he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth."

      soul for soul, to be saved. Now the question is whether the            I could quote much more. But let this be suffidient.

      text in Matt. 11 :2S teaches this. I could quote all kinds of          3. Such, according to the text in Matt. 11, is God's own

      passages from the Bible to the contrary. But let me just           good pleasure: "for so it seemed good in thy sight." And

      adhere to the immediate context. From vs. 20ff. the Lord had       that good pleasure of God is always fulfilled. But how, then,

      upbraided the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum,        could it seem good in the sight of God to save all that hear

      because they had not repented though all the mighty works          the gospel ? What about that well-meant offer of grace and

      of the Lord had been done in them accompanied, of course,          salvation, if under the preaching of the gospel God hardens

      by the  preaching of the gospel. But what then ? Does this         the hearts of the reprobates and blinds their eyes so that they

      mean that even one of the elect of God had been lost? Does         can neither believe nor see ?

      it mean that God failed in His well-meant offer, according            4. Once more I must make an observation in connection

      to which He would that all the inhabitants of those cities         with the text which I quoted above. It is this : in the same

      were saved? On the contrary. In the immediate context of           passage the Lord says: "No man knoweth the Son, but the

      Matt. 11 :2S  we may notice that Jesus turns to the Father         Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, but the Son,

      with thanksgiving in the following words : "I thank thee,          and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." In the light

      0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid          of this I ask once more: what becomes of the so-called well-

      these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed          meant offer of grace and salvation, well-meant on the part

      them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in         of God ? If under the preaching of the gospel the Son must

      thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father:          reveal tl;le Father, and if He does not reveal the Father to

      and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father ; neither               all the hearers, but only to some, i.e. the elect, to those

      knoweth any man the Father, but the Son, and he to whom-           whom the Father has given Him, and if, as far as His

      soever the Son will reveal him."                                   power is concerned, He could reveal the Father just as well

              Let us note, in these words of the Lord, the following     to all that hear the gospel- would you still maintain that

      plain facts :                                                      the Son is willing to save all as is the idea in the well-meant

              1. The "wise and prudent" are those that are wise and      offer ?                                         I

      prudent according to the flesh, filled with natural and worldly        Now, in the light of this context, let us look once more


                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEA.RER                                                     149



     at the text in Matt. 11:28  : "Come'unto  me all ye that labor        heavens and the earth that now are will be destroyed by

     and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."                        fire at the last day, the day of judgment.

         1. Whom does Jesus call here ? The answer is : those                  2. Then in vs. 9 the apostle writes that God is not

     that labor and are heavy laden. Who are they? Not surely.             slack concerning his promise.      In other words, He hastens to

     the physically burdened and weary, for in that sense He could         the end. But many things must take place such as the

     not promise them rest. Hence, they must be the spiritually            gathering in of all the elect, the coming of antichrist, the man

     weary.       And who are they? Surely not all men and not all         of sin etc. All these things take place as fast as possible.

     those that hear the gospel: not those whom God hardens,               And when they have been realized, God will surely fulfil

     not those that are spiritually blind, not those to whom the           His promise.

     Son will not reveal the Father, not the wise and prudent of               3. Hence, rather than assume that God is Slack con-

     whom Jesus speaks in the context. Only those that are                 cerning His promise we must understand that He is long-

     spiritually burdened and weary.  They are those and those only        suffering over us. Here we confront several questions such

     that are conscious of their sin and misery and are sorry for          as : what is meant by longsuffering  ; over whom is God long-

     their in. They are the babes of whom Jesus speaks in vs. 25.          suffering: and why is God longsuffering? The questions we

         2. To them Jesus issues the call: Come unto me. This              answer as follows:

     is not a mere invitation which one may possibly accept or                a. Longsuffering is that attitude of God over His people

     reject, but is the call of the gospel to all that hear and which      according to which He restrains Himself as it were, from

     no one has the right to reject and for which all that hear            realizing the final fulfillment of His promise until all things

     are responsible.                                                      shall have been fulfilled and all the elect shall have have been

         3. But how can anyone come to Jesus ? The answer is :             called into the church and into the fellowship of God in

     only when, not a man even when he preaches the gospel,                Christ. 0, surely, He would realize the promise immediately

     proclaims the call ;      but when through the word of the            and glorify the saints with all the glory they shall have in

     preacher Christ Himself through the Spirit sends forth this           the new creation, if this were possible. He longs to fulfil His

     summons into the hearts of those that labor and are heavy             promise especially in view of the fact that in the world His

     laden. For thus all the Scriptures teach us. In John 6:35-37          people suffer and are in tribulation. He suffers, as it were

     we read: "J esus s&d  unto them, I am the bread of life ; he          with them. Yet, in His longsuffering He restrains Himself

     that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth           till all things shall have been fulfilled.

     on me shall never thirst. But I said unto' you, That ye also             b. The second question is : over whom is God long-

     have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father giveth             suffering? The answer of the text is: over us. And who are

     unto me shall come to me ; and him that cometh to me I will           "us" ? Are they all men, wicked and righteous alike ? The

     in no wise cast out." And again in vs. 44 of the same chapter :       answer is : by no- means. Why must this be the answer ?. In

     "No man can come to me, except that the Father that hath              the first place, because the apostle is not writing this epistle

     sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day."           to all men but to the church, to the saints in Christ Jesus.

         Hence, in Matt. 11:28  we have no well-meant offer of             Hence, they are denoted by the pronoun "us." In the second

     salvation to all that hear the gospel nor even a general              place, because Scripture never uses the term longsuffering

     invitation, but a powerful call of our Lord Jesus Christ to           with regard to the wicked reprobates (not even in Rom. 9:

     those that are spiritually laboring and heavy laden.                  22),  but always with respect to His own people, i.e. the  elect.

                                  * +    =k *                                 c. And why is God longsuffering over them? The

         But how about II Peter 3 :9 to which Dr. De Jong also             answer is in the text: not willing that any should perish,

     refers ?                                                              but that all should come to repentance. To whom does the

         The whole text, which Dr. -De  Jong quotes only in part,          apostle refer in these words? To all men? By no means.

     reads as follows:       "The Lord is snot slack concerning his        In the first place, if God, in His longsuffering would wait

     promise, as some men count slackness ; but is longsuffering to        for the fulfillment of His promise till men would come to

     us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all             repentance, then Christ would never come, for all men will

     should come to repentance."                                           never be saved. In the second place, because the bringing

         Here we remark:                                                   to repentance is the work of God Himself which He performs

         1.      In these words we, evidently, have no offer whatsoever    only in the elect.    Hence He is not willing that all men

     but  only a statement of what God does and will do and of             should be saved. And, thi.rdly, this is not in harmony with

     his attitude over His people : He is longsuffering to His             the rest of the text. For, surely, in the first part of the

     people. In the context the apostle had written that in the            text, by the pronoun "us" refers to the church, to the elect.

     last days there would be scoffers that mocked at the idea             Hence, we must read the last part of the text in this way:

     that the Lord would ever come again. All things, so they              not willing that any of us, of the church, of the elect, should

     argued remained from the beginning. To this the apostle               perish, but that all of the church, the elect, should come to

     replied, in the first place,      that `this is not true, for the     repentance. But, as I said, in this text there is no well-meant

     world that was before Noah perished with the flood and the            offer, or any offer whatsoever.                            H.H.





I

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



                                                                             powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that
                 O U R   DOCTR!NE                                            be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the
I                                                                            power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist
                                                                             shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a
                           THE BOOK OF REVELATION                            terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be

                                                                             afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt
                                     P A R T   T W O
                                                                             have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God. But

                                   CHAPTER SIXTEEN                           if thou do that which is evil, be afraid ; for he beareth not

                                                                             the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger
                              The Kingdom of the Beast
                                                                             to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

                                  Revelation 17 :15-18                          Hence, it is plain that:

              The church and the worldly state have allied themselves,           1. The state is an institution of God. It is. ordained by
          in the first place. The one supports the other, and the other      Him to bear the sword power, to punish evil-doers and to
          directs and aids the one. Where the one goes, the other            protect the good.
                                                                                2. The state is a temporal institution, to maintain law
          follows. For the beast carries the woman, which at least
                                                                             and order in the midst of a corrupt world.
          also seems to imply that after all the beast employs the
                                                                                3. The God-given instrument it employs is not spiritual
          woman for his own purpose and carries her whithersoever
                                                                             but material, the power of the sword, and all this implies. It
          he will, though in turn he is the strength and suppoi-t of the
                                                                             is not the power of a certain common grace, but the power
          woman, and she owes it to the beast that she is decked with
                                                                             of `the sword. That, in our view, is the purpose of govern-
          jewels and precious stones and arrayed in purple. However
                                                                             ment. And that is the Scriptural conception. To it we are
          this may be, the fact that the woman is riding or sitting upon
                                                                             in subjection, of course. And for conscience's sake the Chris-
          the beast means to show intimate union between church and
                                                                             tian can never become a rebel or even a traitor in time of
     I    worldly government, shows that they :have  united in char-
          acter, united in purpose, united in aim and effort, and that       war or peace,    unless that state, that government, should
     \                                                                       demand of him that he would act contrary to the will of
          together they strive to realize a common aim. The church
          stands here in an illegal, wrong relatiofi  to the power of the    God.

          world, is employed by the latter, fulfills its purpose, and           What, however, is `the church ? It is an entirely different

          therefore loses her true character. This idea is emphasized        institution. It is the manifestation of the body of Christ on

          by the fact that the woman is directly called the harlot.          earth, and represents the authority of Christ in the world.

          She is the harlot in a two-fold sense. In the first place, she     It is the result, the product, the manifestation, of the grace of

          is that because she allows herself to be the whore of the          cod through Jesus Christ. Through it it becomes possible for

          kings of the world, with which the great of the world can          the people of God to manifest themselves as the body of Christ,

          do as they please, on the which they can satisfy all their         worship and glorify their God and King, and reveal His

          desire. But, in the second place, she is also the great whore      glory in the midst of the world. Its purpose is two-fold. In

          because she is the mother of abominatidns, and makes all the       the first place, it is the establishment and upbuilding of the

          inhabitants of the world drunken with the wine of her              saints in Christ Jesus, so that they may come to a fuller and

          fornications.     And therefore we obtain the two-fold picture,    clearer knowledge and stronger faith of the grace that is in

          that, on the one hand, the instituted church allows herself        Christ. And, in the second place, it ?s the propagation of the

          to be employed by the world-power, and, on the other hand,         gospel of the kingdom in every land. And therefore, its task

          that she leads all the individual inhabitants of the earth to      is definitely circumscribed. She does not receive her instruc-

          follow her in this and to serve the purpose of the beast.          tions from the worldy power. The latter cannot tell her

             But even thus we cannot be satisfied, but we must ask           what to believe and to confess and how to- worship, has no

          the concrete question: in what does this harlotry of the           authority to define the contents of the message she must bring

          church consist? What is the illegality of the relation between     in the church and in all the world. In all this she acknowl-

          the two ? And then it will be necessary to determine, in the       edges no other authority than that of Jesus Christ and the

          first place, what would be the right relation, and what is the     Word of her God. She is different from the state in that

          character and purpose of each, the church and the state, in        she employs no earthly or physical power, but only the

          the world ? Just as you must determine of literal harlotry         spiritual instrument of. the Word and the reliance on the

          by first determining the proper relation of man and woman,         work of the Holy Spirit. She is eternal, not destined to dis-

          so also we must come to a true understanding of the harlotry       appear, but to exist forever when her King shall come to

          of the church with the worldly power by ascertaining, first        deliver her. And her task is not to make the world better,

          of all, what is the right relation between the two. What is        but simply to aim at the rooting out of sin and its power

          the state ? What is instituted government, according to the        through the Word and the Spirit. And the relation between

          Word of God ? Of this we find a very clear description in          her and the state is essentially such that the worldly power

          Rom. 13 :l-14: "Let every soul be subject unto the higher          exists for her sake, namely, to make the development of the


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                       151


people of God possible in the world. And therefore, each has         the' things of the eternal kingdom of Christ. Concretely

its own sphere. The church represents the power of the               speaking, she will no more preach on sin and total depravity.

eternal kingdom, can be satisfied with nothing less than the         She will no more teach the necessity of personal regeneration

complete deliverance from sin, and looks for `the eternal            and the atoning blood of Christ, but be full of messages that

kingdom of God to come. The instituted government, how-              pertain only to this world. She will preach on the great

ever, represents a temporal power, is ordained in order to           topics of war and peace, on the betterment of humanity

handle the sword power and to punish the evil-doer, to               through all kinds of legislation, on prohibition and woman

protect the righteous, and to maintain order until God shall         suffrage, on hygiene and health ordinances, on wages and

have completed His own, eternal kingdcjm.                            labor, on business and industry. And she will try to picture

                                                                     before the minds of her members how through all these
    When now does the wrong relation ensue between the
                                                                     things the great and glorious kingdom of God shall come in
two? And when does the worldly power become the beast,
                                                                     the earth. Thus she has abandoned her true, her spiritual,
and the church the harlot? This comes about when, in the
                                                                     her eternal character, and become the great harlot.
first place, the state, the power of the world, presumes to

represent the development of the kingdom of Christ, and                  Now then, what shall become of this harlot, in the first

thus claims to be essentially the eternal kingdom itself. In         place ? What shall be the end of her harlotry ? Simply this,

that case it will deny its original character, refuse to be          that she shall ultimately cease to exist as a separate institu-

satisfied with being a punishing power upon evil and a main-         tion. She shall be great and glorious for a time. She shall

tainer of public order, and strive for worldwide power, in           score great victories evidently. For, in the first place, the

order that through her agency the world may become the               text tells us that she is sitting upon many waters. Twice this

kingdom of God. It will conceive of the possibilty to root out       is mentioned in the text. Already in our passage the angel
evil and establish real righteousness and peace by main power,       explains that this symbol refers to peoples and nations and

by the power of the law and by the action of the sword.              tongues and multitudes. Of course, this is not in conflict

And it will tell you that this is the kingdom of Christ that was     with her being seated on the beast. For the beast evidently

to come. Of course you understand that this is not true and          comprises many peoples. And therefore by sitting on the

that this can never be. The state does not exist on the basis of     beast the harlot naturally sits on many peoples. But in this

the atoning blood of Christ directly. It is not destined to be       figure, as well as in the statement that she made the in-

eternal. It is not purposed to become the main and eternal           habitants of the earth drunken with the wine of her fornica-

kingdom. Its purpose is temporal, not eternal. Its power is          tions, the idea is expressed that she influences and fascinates

auxiliary, not chief. And therefore, as soon as the state through    the minds of many, of a great multitude. She preaches a

its power aims at establishing the eternal kingdom, a kingdom        religion that can be adopted by the world ; and therefore
of righteousness and peace and justice, without the spiritual        her victory is great.         And, in the second place, she scores,
means of the Word and the blood of Christ, it becomes the            great victories from the side of the world-power. It is no
antichristian kingdom. It becomes the beast. Naturally, with         doubt through the power of the beast that she is decked
that aim the children of God, the true church, will come into        with pearls and arrayed in purple and that she is great and
conflict. For the latter will deny that it is the purpose of the     glorious.         For a time she is victorious as an institution, en-

state to develop into the eternal kingdom of God and will            joys the favor of the .world,  and succeeds to persecute'the
maintain that this can only lead to the establishment of the         true saints of Christ, that refuse to join her harlotry.  It is

show-kingdom of Antichrist. But this will only lead to               after all through her influence that the true church is ulti-
persecution on the part of the world-power. That world-              mately a castaway, an object of shame and mockery.

power will try to get control of all things- of art and                 But this is not her end. The text plainly tells us that the

science and commerce and industry, but also of religion and          same kings and the same beast whose favorite pet she was

worship, and ultimately dictate what God we shall worship            with all her harlotries will hate her and desp?se  her and

and how we must worship Him. There you have the anti-                utterly destroy her, eat her flesh and burn her. Notice, in

Christian beast. And the church becomes the harlot, the              the first place, that there is something perfectly natural in

apostate church, when she becomes of one mind with the               this. Just as the whoremongers in a natural and literal sense

b-,ast. Negatively, she will begin by admitting that the blood       ultimately hate the harlot that has been instrumental in the

of Christ is nqt necessary for the establishment of the king-        satisfaction of their lust, so also these kings and these beasts,

dom of God. She will deny that the Holy Spirit only can              when the apostate church as an institution shall have fulfilled

truly make children of the kingdom. She will abandon the             all their desire, shall hate her and become envious and jealous

name of Jesus and the Word of God, and seek her hope in              of her power and glory. After all, what is the use and the

this dispensation and in this world. And positively, she will        place of the church as an institution when the vague and                         ,

help in forming that great state for which also the world-           general religion of Antichrist shall prevail? What is the use            ,*"'

power strives. She will offer her full services to the state,        of an established form of worship in an established church?

give her most hearty support to any movement `that comes             Just as the church as an institution shall disappear when the

along, and be busy in the things of this  world instead of in        kingdom of glory of our Lord shall have been completed, so
                                                                                  c


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also shall the institution of the false chu%ch  disappear when     character, forsaken her rightful husband, Jesus Christ, and

her work is finished and she has been instrumental in prepar-      surrendered herself to be employed as an instrument of the

ing the religion of Antichrist. At any rate, the church shall      world-power and of Antichrist. And as a city her essential

be abolished. That is clear from the text. Not her apostate        character is revealed. For even as the true church of Christ

spirit shall be destroyed, but her body, her manifestation,        shall ultimately reveal itself as the New Jerusalem, so the

shall come to an end. It makes no difference to us now how         counterfeit church shall reveal itself as the counterfeit

this shall be realized. Certain it is that the beast shall do      Jerusalem, that is, Babylon.

away with the institution of the church that has served his           Secondly, we also discussed the beast on whom the

purpose. And then shall the kingdom be realized. Then all          woman-harlot was found sitting. And we found that in it a

shall be blended, and the institution even of the church shall     picture is presented to our view of the world-power in its

be no more. The very shadow of Christ shall have been              historical development, as well as in its ultimate formation.

obliterated from the earth. And all that remains in the            Seven kingdoms shall come before the world-power, as the

world is the world-power, the antichristian kingdom. The           eighth, shall be able to come to its realization and consum-

woman as to her form shall have disappkared. But essentially       mation. With the seventh all the then-existing kings shall

her apostate spirit shall be realized in the worship of the        combined their power; and they all shall give it to the beast,

image of the beast. And that same woman, spiritually re-           that is, the kingdom of Antichrist.

alized in the kingdom of Antichrist from its religious point          That beast shall make war with the Christ and His

of view, shall reappear in Babylon, the great center of the        saints, but shall be overthrown by them ; and Christ shall

world-power that is to come. From there she shall rule,over        have the victory.

the hearts and minds of great and small and of the in-                In the third place, we discussed the judgment of the

habitants of the world. The appearance of the harlot has           great whore, the harlot-woman. We found that her harlotry

vanished. She now exists centrally as th;e great city, Babylon,    consisted in an illegal relation in which she, as church,

the capital of the kingdom of Antichrist.                          stands to the world-power. She is called to be the manifesta-

   Two remarks we wish to make in application. In the first        tion of the body of Christ in the world, and she gives herself

place, notice that God controls all these developments through     to be the body of the beast. She is called to build the saints

Jesus Christ. It is God, so we read, that gives it into the        in the most holy faith, and she makes all the inhabitants of

heart of these kings and of the beast to hate the harlot and       the earth drunk with the wine of her fornications.  She is

to come to oneness of mind. God, then, controls all things.        called to be the army of an eternal kingdom, based on the

Christ reigns. There is nothing to fear. When the institu-         atoning blood of the Savior; and she labors for the establish-

tion of the apostate church shall be abolished, the same shall     ment of a temporal kingdom of Antichrist that has no part

be true of the true church. Public worship then for us be-         with the blood of Christ Jesus and is doomed to destruction.
longs to the past. It shall be the reign of the man of sin.        She is called to employ the spiritual means of the Word and
But never fear. God reigns! He has given it in the heart           of the sacraments; and instead she abandons the truth of
of the kings to hate the harlot. His will must be done ; and       the Word of God and seeks refuge in outward means and
all things work together for good to them that love Him.           external instruments to establish the promised kingdom. She
In the second place, the repetition of the practical admonition    is the harlot, the apostate woman, that labors for the beast
i? also ,110~ in order : "Go ye out from her, my people, and       instead of for the kingdom of Christ. And we found also
have no fellowship with her sins, that' ye may not partake         that her judgment as harlot is certain: she will ultimately
of her judgment."        Even as the institution of the harlot     disappear as an institution, because her very lovers shall
church, so shall Babylon also fall. And only the New Jeru-         hate her. The kings that committed fornication with her
salem shall ultimately prevail. Watch, therefore, that ye fall     shall aim at her destruction. The very appearance of the
not into temptation.                                               church in this dispensation shall be annoying, nauseating, to

                                                                   them: and therefore they shall obliterate her from the face
                        CHAPTER SEVENTEEN                          of the earth. Then the woman as harlot shall exist no more.

                                                                   The instituted church has come to the end of her existence.

                                                                   But she shall reappear as a city whose mystical name is
                 Revelation 18  (See your Bible)                   Babylon. For in Babylon, the center and heart of the anti-

       We devoted some time to the discussion of Babylon the       Christian kingdom, the spirit of that same woman that once
Great, the Mystery, the Mother of Harlots and Abomina-             appeared as the apostate church shall reign supreme.

tions of the Earth. First we discussed Babylon as' such.              In the chapter we are now approaching, chapter 18, how-

We found that she is both a woman-harlot and a city. As            ever, the destruction of that great city is portrayed in highly

woman she is no doubt a symbol of the church on earth as           descriptive and symbolic language. It is impossible to divide

an institution for the building up of the saints and for the       the chapter, for evidently all the material found here belongs

propagation of the gospel of the kingdom. As harlot, how-          together, elaborates upon one and the same theme, concen-

ever, she is the apostate church, who has denied her true          trates itself around the same central thought. And that
                                                     0


                                            T H E   S T A N D A ' R D   B E A R E R                                              153



central thought of the chapter is the fall of Babylon. And           merely a city among others is Babylon, but the city, the only

therefore this we must now discuss.                                  city that is a center of business and industry and art and

   It cannot escape our attention that purposely the text            science, from whence these are controlled over the entire

gives us once more a description of Babylon, this time of her        world and without which the life of industry and commerce

existenck as a city. Even as in the end we are presented             is gone. Such a city is Babylon, according to the chapter we

with an elaborate description of the New Jerusalem, its              are now discussing. Plain this is from the description of the

beauty and glory and blessedness, so we are also given a             weeping and wailing merchants, who stand afar off and are

picture of the highest attainment of the world-power and of          pictured as beholding her destruction with fear and anguish.

the apostate church as it is pictured in the city of Babylon.        Babylon is the merchant of this world. She sells every con-

But the difference is that while Jerusalem's description is          ceivable article ; and if she cannot sell,' all the commerce and

connected with her final and absolute glory and victory over         business of the world is at a standstill. Babylon sells gold

all enemies, the elaborate description of Babylon is connected       and silver and precious stones and pearls. She is the only

with its ultimate destruction.      But in order to understanci      money-market in the world. Babylon sells fine linen and

the significance of the downfall of Babylon, it will be neces-       purple and scarlet, matters of necessity and luxury. Babylon

sary that we obtain a glimpse of her real importance, of her         controls the sale of all the products of industry. She it is

greatness and riches, of her influence and control of all the        who sells vessels of thyine wood, of ivory, and most precious

matters of the world. It makes no difference whether we              wood, of brass and iron, and marble. On her market we

accept the view that Babylon shall be a real city, or whether        find the products of all parts of the world: the spices of

we are inclined to believe that this element belongs to the          tropical zones, the wine and the oil of more moderate climate,

symbolism of the picture, certain it remains that in the fall        cinnamon and incense and ointment and frankincense - these

of Babylon we meet with the fall of all human labor and              all must be bought within her walls. Babylon controls all the

attainment, the fall of the entire structure of the antichristian    necessities of life. For they are her merchants that have a

kingdom.                                                             monopoly of fine flour and wheat, of cattle and sheep and

   In the first place, then, Babylon is plainly pictured as          horses and chariots. Yea, Babylon controls the power of

the center of the antichristian kingdom from a royal and             universal labor. For her merchants sell the bodies and souls

legislative point of view.     In the pride of her heart she ix-     of men.    Babylon controls the luxuries of the world. For

claims herself : "I sit a queen, and shall see no mourning !"        she is decked with purple and gold ; and the luscious fruits

She sits, therefore,           many waters as a queen. Babylon       and dainty things are found within her borders. Still more,
                     upon  
is the royal city. From Babylon goes forth the law over              Babylon also controls every craft. For the angel that sym-

many nations and tongues and tribes and multitudes. There            bolizes the fall of Babylon by casting a large stone into the

is the judicial wisdom of the kingdom. From there the laws           sea announces that no craftsman, of whatsoever craft, shall

are issued. There resides the executive power. If I may for          be found any more in her, and that the sound of the millstone

a moment accept that the head of that kingdom shall be a             is silenced within her walls forever. She is the mother of

person, the very culmination of antichristian principle, he          music and fine arts, of pipers and trumpeters, of the inven-

lives in Babylon, and from Babylon he reigns. There is the           tion of many a thing of convenience and luxury. She is the

power that controls all things, that keeps order, that regulates     center of joy, the mistress of life, in the kingdom of Anti-

commerce and industry, that reiulates science and art and            christ. Without her there is no commerce: for the merchants

religion, that establishes the form of worship for the beast.        shall wail because no one can buy their merchandise any more

This is also plain from the repeated expression that "the            after the destruction of Babylon. Without her there is

kings of the earth committed fornication with her and lived          neither art nor science nor industry conceivable. She is, in

deliciously with her."    Babylon was the glory of the kings         one word, the heart and center of the business and life of all

of the earth, their stronghold and center. In Babylon the            the world.

ten kings of the earth, of the great alliance with the beast,           In the third place, she is pictured as a luxurious and

came together to make their plans for the advancement of             wicked city. The kings of the earth commit fornication with

their cause and kingdom and for their war against the                her, and the merchants of the earth wax rich by the power of

Christ and against His saints. In a word, Babylon appears            her wantonness, vs. 3. Luscious fruits and dainty things,

as the royal center, as the throne of Antichrist. She is the         whatever is nice and pleasant to the taste, are found in her,

center of all law and rule for the entire world; and all the         YS. 14. She is arrayed in fine linen and purple and scarlet

world obeys her will.         Without Babylon the antichristian      and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, vs. 16.

kingdom is inconceivable even as Germany is inconceivable            Within her walls is heard the voice of harpers and minstrels,

without Berlin, France without Paris, England without                of flute-players and trumpeters the joyful voice of the bride-

London. She is of central significance for all the kingdom.          groom and the bride, VSS.  22, 23. She is, therefore, a city

   In the second place, we may also notice that Babylon is           filled-to overflowing with joy and abundance, There is the

pictured in the text as being the heart and center of all the        culmination of all that human ingenuity could possibly invent

commerce in the world, the home of industry and art. Not             for the joy and bliss and ease and comfort of man.        H.H.

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


                                                                                            r$vived.  Perhaps .the new Pharaoh would be. different ; may-

b CLOUD OF WITNESSES j                                                                      be he would be more kind. But alas, all of their fondest
                                                                                            dreams were in vain.    Grievous oppression continued to be

                                                                                            their part, aid  if anything, it was heavier than before. At
                      The @ding of Moses                                                    last Israel's confidence in Egypt and its people began to

                                                                                            waver and die. Anticipation gave way to despair, and there
           And the children of Inpael  sighed  by re,asorL  of the
                                                                                            arose from their hearts a bitter sigh. Only then did they
        bondage, a.nd they c&d,  a.nd their  CITY caw&g .up znnto
                                                                                            think to remember the true source of their strength in the
        God by maso+z of the bortdage  . . ,
           And . . . God called  u.nto  l&m out of the mi.dst of the                        past. They were a wretched people. Nearly eighty years of
        bmlz, ,amd  said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am                                oppression had passed during which Israel had pinned its
        I . . .                                                                             hopes on the world and its men. Only when all had failed
           And the Lol*d  said, I hue  sztAy  seen the affliction                           did they remember to turn to their God. It was a wonder
        of my people  zvhich.  are in Egypt, and have heard their
                                                                                            of divine grace that "God heard their groaning, and God
        cry by l'eason  of their tmknta.stem;  for I know the+
        sorrows . . .                                                                       remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and
           C o m e   n o w   therefore,    a n d   I   w i l l   s e n d   t h e e   u&o    with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and
        Pharaoh, that fhu  mayest  bring forth my people, the                               God had respect unto them."
        children of Ismel,  out of Egypt.

                                                 Exodus `3 :23 ; 4 14, 7, 10                                         +    * * *


   Moses had been rejected by the children of Israel. They                                     It was. a lone shepherd who led his small flock to the

had refused to receive him as a brother in the faith. They                                  backside of the wilderness of Midian.  The way had been

did not want him as a prince and rule?  to lead them out of                                 rough and barren, but here on the slopes of Horeb green

the bondage of Egypt.          For many generations they had been                           pastures were sure to be found. The sheep were in good

living in the land of Egypt. The riches of Egypt were many,                                 hands. The man's words were few, and his appearance was

and the Israelites had enjoyed them to the full. They had                                   crude ; but his actions were gentle, and his eyes reflected a

learned to love the bounties that could always be obtained,                                 heart that had found peace. To look at him one could hardly

the fish, the onions and melons, the garlic and leeks. At                                   suspect that once his feet had trod the royal courts of Egypt,

the same time the land of Canaan had lost its attachment for                                that. his feats of learning had won great acclaim by his

them. It seemed distant and far away. ,They  seldom thought                                 teachers, that his mind had devised plans of great and im-

of it anymore. That their fathers had `come from that land                                  pressive works, that his dreams had been to lead a great

no lbnger  seenied very important. The thought that they                                    nation hundreds of thousands strong. That had been long

someday might return to Canaan gave them little joy. In-                                    ago and the way of life he had now learned was quite dif-

deed, in recent years the situation in Egypt had been                                       ferent. True, the dreams and ambitions of youth had died

changing. The former kindness of the Egyptians had turned                                   slowly, and often painfully ; but die they had. The manner-

to hatred. The joys of Egypt had been curtailed by oppres-                                  isms of the court had disappeared, and in their place had

sion and persecution. Bitter bondage was now their part,                                    come the simpler virtues of gentleness, kindness, patience,

with arduous labor in brick, and in mortar, and in all manner                               meekness and childlike trust in his God. The one great joy

of service in the field. The very lives of their new born                                   that remained to him was simply to pray and worship the

children had been threatened again and again. But still their                               Lord, and to meditate upon His Word. What good was it

hope endured. Maybe something would happen to mollify                                       all ? What was this man accomplishing alone in this barren

the hatred of Pharaoh. If the Egyptians could be soothed,                                   wilderness? What was becoming of all his preparation and

then they could settle down to enjoy once again the luxuries                                education 7 Where was his challenge? What was he doing

of Egypt which they had learned to love. When Moses ap-                                     for God ? The world could hardly be expected to recognize

peared and slew an Egyptian, thereby clearly offering to                                    it, the man hardly realized it himself, but through those years

lead them in rebellion against their masters, it ieft them                                  in the wilderness he had grown immensely in stature before

cold and even angry. They did not want trouble and fight-                                   God. The day would come when divine inspiration would

ing ; they wanted peace. They wanted to soothe their masters,                               cause it to be written that `Yhe man Moses was very meek,

not incite them. With harsh words and scornful looks they                                   above all the men which were upon the face of the earth."

drove Moses away. Dutifully they reported his misdeed to                                    What greater virtue could be ascribed to a child of God ?

the overseers. Moses was forced to flee for his life toward                                 The lesson of Midian  exceeded by far all that he had learned

the wilderness of Midian  soon to be forgotten by all but a                                 in the greatest schools of the world.

few.                                                                                           As the shepherd made his way up the slopes of Horeb,

   The years passed by. The children of Israel looked for                                   there was a purpose guiding his life of which he was quite

Pharaoh's anger to abate ; but it did not. They tried to                                    unaware. The invisible hand of God's providehce  was lead-

pacify him, but could not. The future only continued to look                                ing him toward a certain bush that grew there among the

more dark.         Finally Pharaoh died, and the hopes of Israel                            mountain crags. Suddenly he saw it. There stood before him


                                              T H E   STANDA.RD   B E A R E R                                                          155



a bush, a bush enveloped in flames, a bush filled with fire,            former years. Was it perhaps because of the memories that

but still it was not consumed. His curiosity aroused, he                came back so forcibly to him along with these thoughts of

turned to examine the bush more closely. And then from                  the past? He remembered the time that he had tried. The

the bush there came the voice, "Moses, Moses," and with                 bitter words, the hate-filled looks, the foolishness of having

faltering lips he answered back, "Here am I." The bush                  tried to establish `himself by his own words and works, these

was chosen as a symbol of Israel in its lowly state of bondage.         memories were painful for Moses even to recall. How could

In the bush was the fire of God's presence, purging His                 he ever go and try again? But even more his whole outlook

people through suffering, but not consuming them. This                  on life had changed. Then he had thought himself capable ;

Moses did not yet realize, but the voice went on to instruct            now he knew that he was not. Moses rejoiced at God's

him.     "Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy          promise of deliverance for Israel, but his joy was mingled

feet for the. place whereon thou standest is holy ground. I             with dismay at the very suggestion that it was through him

am the God of thy father the God of Abraham, the God of                 that it was to be wrought. He answered back, "Who am I,

Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Awed and afraid, Moses hid                that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth

his face. Who was. he to look upon God ?                                the children of Israel out of Egypt?"

       The voice continued.    "I have surely seen the affliction of           God's answer to Moses was kind and gentle. "Certainly

my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by               I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that

reason of their taskmasters ; for I know their sorrows ; and            I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people

I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the                   out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain." It

Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a                 was this which would make all of the difference. Before

good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and                Moses had tried to become the leader over Israel by acting

honey ; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites,             on his own. Thus he had been bound to failure. By working

and the Amorites  and the Perizzites and the Hivites and                apart from the command of God he had been opposing the

the Jebusites. Now therefore behold, the cry of the children            cause of the Lord and not aiding it. But now God would

of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppres-             be with him. God would give to him strength and authority.

sion wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now there-              There was no longer any real reason why Moses should be

fore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest               afraid.

bring forth my people the children-of Israel out of Egypt."                    But the fear of Moses was set very deep, and it was not

       Can we begin to imagine with what depth of feeling               easily dismissed. Through the long years in the wilderness

these words stirred the heart of Moses. Here was the hope               he had learned to repudiate all of his dreams of leadership.

and longing of all his life promised by the very voice of the           Only with flushes of shame did he remember his former

angel of God's presence. Already as a child sitting upon his            efforts. It hurt and pained him to remember those cutting

mother's knee he had heard of God's promise that Israel                 words of rejection, "Who made thee a prince and judge over

would be delivered from the bondage of Egypt, and he had                    ?" How could he ever present himself to Israel again ?
                                                                        us 
looked forward to it with childlike ,eagerness  and anti-               Moses voiced his objection.     "Behold, when I come unto the

cipation. All during his youth as he had applied himself with           children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your

diligence to study and learning, it had been in the expectation         fathers hath sent me unto              ; and they shall say to me,
                                                                                                       you 
that what he learned could be used in the service of God's              What is his name ? what shall I say unto them ?" To what

people in their deliverance and settling in the promised land.          could he possibly appeal to prove to them that his act was

Through the emerging discretion of his yomlg  adulthood, his            not again mere presumption ?

every thought and ambition had been dominated by the                        The answer of God to Moses must rank among the great-

determination to work for the deliverance of the people of              est of the self-revelations that God has made to His people

God. Even during the forty long years of his banishment in              in time.    "I AM THAT I AM.:  Thus shalt thou say unto the

Midian,  he had ceased not to pray in the confidence that               children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. Thus shalt

God would be faithful to His promises. Now the voice of                 thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your
God's angel was telling him ; the time had come.                        fathers the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God

       And there was more.       Not only would Moses witness           of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever,

and take part in the deliverance, he was the one through                and this is my memorial unto all generations." I AM THAT

whom God would work to bring it to pass. Did not all of                 I AM, this is God's name in a most unique sense of the

the old dreams and ambitions, which only after a hard and               word. No one else can possibly have this name, for everyone

painful struggle had subsided from his mind, suddenly surge             else is only that which God has determined him to be. Only

       again within him ? He was to stand upon the fore. All of         God is the absolutely self-determining one. He alone deter-
up 
his years of training and preparation were not without                  mines what He alone shall be at every moment of time and

purpose after all.    The dreams of his youth were to be re-            throughout all eternity. He alone does only and always what

alized. Yet, somehow, these old dreams and ambitions did                He Himself has determined that He shall do. Thus He can

not seem to have the appeal for him that they had had in                                      (Continued on page 165)


 156                                           TH:E  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R


 I                                                                     man. .And  since this was an exception it raised a problenl
         F R O M   HOLY'WRIT                                           which could only be received by faith ; only by faith could
                                                                       Joseph be reconciled to Mary's condition.

                                                                           Let us not forget that, according to the Bible, Mary was

                                                                       espoused to a man named Joseph. Joseph, too, was of the
                Exposition  of Matthew  1: 18-25                       house of David. He is called "Joseph, thou son of David,"

                                                                       in verse 20. However, Joseph is not a son in the royal line.
      It has been correctly observed by expositors of Holy
                                                                       He is placed in this line by Matthew as the father "so-
Writ that the Gospel of Matthew is written for the believers
                                                                       called" (Luke 3 23). He adopted Jesus, Mary's Son. It
who were once under the law of the Old Testament, in the
                                                                       seems that Joseph marries Mary since he is the nearest
days of the types and shadows, but who are now believers
                                                                       kinsman in the line. However, Mary is the daughter royal
in Christ Jesus; that Matthew consequently is writing in this
                                                                       from David's house. Otherwise Jesus is, not out of David as
entire Gosple from the viewpoint that in Christ the entire
                                                                       far as the flesh is concerned, the Son royal to sit upon
Old Testament promises, covenants, types and shadows are
                                                                       David's throne. The geneologies in Matthew and Luke are
fulfilled.
                                                                       both of Mary, I hold. The line in Luke from Mary's mother's
      This viewpoint explains the fact that when Matthew               side over Nathan, David's son, and the one in Matthew over
delineates upon the "Genesis," the "beginning" of Jesus                Mary's father, Jacob, from Solomon.
Christ, he picks up this beginning with the patriarch Abra-
                                                                           Such was this Joseph. And we ought not to overlook
ham. While Luke traces the genealogical line of Christ back
                                                                       the fact that no better and more understanding father
from Christ to Adam, Matthew traces the line forward from
                                                                       could have been found. God must have moved Joseph's
Abraham to Christ. The line, as given in Matthew 1 :l-16,
                                                                       heart in a very wonderful way by His Spirit and grace.
is such that it is from Abraham to David, the king ; from

David to the Babylonian captivity ; and from the Babylonian                It really required grace of God for Joseph to be reconciled
captivity to the coming of Christ.                                     to the situation which God created in this man's life and that

      And this is interpreted by Matthew in Chapter 1 verse            in the relationship of him to his espoused wife.

17 as follows: "Now all the generation from Abraham unto                   For "before they came together" Mary is found with
David are fourteen generations, and from David unto the                child !
Babylonian captivity are fourteen generations, and from the

Babylonian captivity unto the birth of Christ are fourteen                 And that created a moral and spiritual problem. There

generations."        It is very evident that, in order to arrive at    were, as far as the people of Nazareth were concerned, only
this figure, Matthew must omit some names from the lists               two alternatives left them to explain this `%ase"  of Mary.

of the successive generations. And this can be understood              Either she and Joseph had had pre-marital co-habitation,

when we notice that Matthew is tracing the rise, the high-             they were guilty of fornication ; or Joseph was innocent, and

point of Jesse's house, and its descent ,to a sawed-off trunk          Mary was guilty, virtually, of-adultery with another man!

of Jesse's tree. For Abraham is blessed in the Seed which is           Thus the tongues would wag. And that, from a human
to come, that is in him who did not come from the will of              standpoint, very understandably! And from Joseph's stand-
man, nor from the will of blood, but who is born by the will           point there was really only one alternative. Since, in his
of God, conceived by the Holy Ghost and born from the                  heart and conscience he was free and innocent, there could

virgin Mary !                                                          only be the stark reality that Mary had played the harlot.

      That the birth of the Seed, of David's Son and Lord, is              And this was too painful for Joseph. His confidence in

different from the conception and birth of every other child           Mary was greatly shaken.      What every man so jealously
which is born to man is foretold by the prophet Isaiah : "For,         desires, to have a chaste and innocent virgin to wife, here was

behold, a virgin shall conceive, and she shall bear a son . ."         made impossible. If he married Mary he would needs have

      And this entirely different birth of the Christ is due to        to be father to the child from another man!

the fact that the "beginning" of Jesus Christ is in a class all
                thus."                                                     On the other hand there was Mary's account. Was it
by itself. Hence Matthew writes: "The birth (genesis) of               factual, or was it an impossible and preposterous story ?
Jesus Christ was                The pau,nner  of the beginning of      Never had it been heard that a woman conceived without a
Jesus Christ, his entire coming into the flesh was in a                man. And, lo, Mary told him in all truthfulness of the visit
class and mode  all by itself.                                         by the angel Gabriel some three or more months before. She

      And it raised peculiar problems; it gave a problem.  to          undoubtedly told him of the angel's words, of how she had

Joseph. Fact is that Jesus was conceived in Mary, conceived            said: "I know not a man" and how Gabriel had told her that

by the Holy Ghost, apart from a man, as the only exception             "the Holy Ghost would come upon her, that the power of the

to the z&versa1  rule. Never before or afterwards has a                Highest would overshadow her and that which was to be

child been conceived in the womb of a woman without the                born of her, that Holy thing, would be called God's Son !"


                                         T H E   STAN,DAR:D   B E A R E R                                                           157



   If Zacharias' faith &as severely put to the test' in the        in the royal line, God himself has come, without the will of

news that they were,to.have  their son in their old age, surely    man, to bring forth the Seed, which is Christ. Among all

here was something far  more taxing. At least Joseph had           .the sons of Jesse, there is none like him. He is not only to be

not been visited by an angel as had been Zacharias in the          David's son, but he is also David's LORD !

temple. Besides, there was a "precedent" in the case of                    He it is that shall save his people from their sins !
Zacharias in the birth of John from the barren and aged                    Other kings delivered Israel from the hands of the sur-
,Elizabeth.  There was the case, the classic case, of Abraham      rounding nations. But none tiere  able to make the people
and Sarah. But always there was a man, be it then a quick-         themselves free from sin, so that in the just judgment of God
ened and rejuvenated man! But Joseph had nothing by way            they would no more be delivered into the hand of the enemies.
of precedent.        . .                                           But this one, this Son will be a King. He will be the Mighty

   And consequently Joseph does what a "just man" will do.         God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace !

He will, according to the law, put Mary away. He will, in                  When this child is born then you must name him
effect, divorce her ; give her a writing of divorcement. The       J E S U S .
text says that he would do this "privily" ! He would do
                                                                           He is Jehovah God. He is the eternal God. He is God in
this without citing the grounds of adultery. Thus he thinks
                                                                   the flesh. He is the only hope of Israel ; he is the root of
of it and purposes it in his mind. He has come upon the
                                                                   David, the Lion out of Judah's tribe and to him shall the
most l%uvmn  solution to this knotty problem. He will try
                                                                   gathering of the people be. Only in him does Israel, as na-
to cut the Gordian knot. He will put her away privily and
                                                                   tion, have significance and purpose. Only in him does the
thus he will leave the real "grounds" for his conduct an
                                                                   line from Abraham through David have a consummation, so
open question. The question whether Mary alone is to blame
                                                                   that no more sons need to be born. He will sit upon `the
and then some other man, or whether Joseph is to blame
                                                                   throne forever! After he has served the counsel of God he
for this, the people in Nazareth will needs have to decipher
                                                                   will not need to be "gathered to his people" and see corrup-
for themselves. If he puts Mary away privily then a measure
                                                                   tion, but he will go to heaven at God's right hand to live
of the reproach will fall upon Joseph, and Mary will at least
                                                                   .and pray as the great king-priest.
be the object of some leniency since the people will opine

that Joseph had made her the "innocent" victim of his own                  Believe this, Joseph !

possibly evil conduct.                                                     He will save all his people. The entire-church, both Jews

   Thus the pendulum swings between jealousy and loyalty           and Gentiles, will he save. He will save them from their

to Mary ! !                                                        sins. He will pay the guilt and debt of sin. He will be the

   And while, in weariness, he fell asleep, behold, the angel      glory of Israel and light of the nations.

of the Lord makes the first of his four visits to Joseph in a              And Joseph believed and obeyed.

dream !                                                                    He took Mary to wife and shared her secret in faith!

   What a beautiful address : "Joseph, thou son of David,"                 He called the.  little babe's name : JESUS !
be not afraid to take Mary to wife. For what Mary told
                                                                           Why did this all thus come to pass? The answer is that
you, Joseph, that is factual.    She told you that the "Holy
                                                                   this is the fulfrlment  of what Jehovah spake through Isaiah
Ghost had come upon her, that the power of the Highest
                                                                   to king Ahaz when the latter was given a sign, that upon
had overshadowed her" and that the child would be "great"
                                                                   David's royal throne there would be no lack of an heir. The
and would sit upon the throne of your father David, and
                                                                   royal line had run out of heirs to the throne, humanly
be called the "Son of God."
                                                                   speaking. There "was no man." But now God does the im-
   Incredulous as that may have sounded in your ears, and          possible. And this can and need happen once and only once.
a fact without precedent in all the history of the world, that     A virgin shall conceive and bear a son. That is the "sign."
is nonetheless the truth, Joseph. For that which is conceived      It is one all in its own class. And therefore Joseph's heart
in her is of the Holy Ghost.                                       can rest assured. He need not fear to take Mary to wife. He

   And, what is more, Joseph, you are to take Mary to wife         need not be ashamed of this child. Blessed is he who is not

and this child to be thy "Son." He `is to be called Jesus.         offended in him !

And that name you are to give him at the occasion of his                   In him the triad of fourteen generations find their climax

circumcision upon the eighth day. -You are to give him the         and fulfillment. God's covenant is established in him ; the

name which is above every name.      Thou shall call his name      promise is fulfilled in this Son of Mary, Son of God.

JESUS ! !                                                                  Presently she gives birth to her firstborn Son and lays

   You are to see in this son of Mary your son by adoption,        him in a manger, because there was no room for him in the
the well-beloved Son of God, in whom is all God's good-            inn.

pleasure. For here where all possiblity is gone for man to             Immanuel,  God with us.

raise up seed to sit upon David's throne, since you are not


 15s                                         T H E   STANDAR.D   B E A R E R


                                                                   dous increase in the number of crimes and evil performed

              I      N            HIS FEAR,                        today, but the forms of wickedness also have multiplied.

                                                                       Such has been the undeniable course of history. From

                                                                   that original sin of Adam the world rushed through the

                    Children  of Our Age                           murder of Cain and of Lamech to all the wickedness that
                                                                   soon called for the judgment of the Flood. Soon enough the

                                  (3)                              state of the world became such that we read, "And God
                                                                   saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and

        "Those were the good old days !"                           that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only

                                                                   evil continually. 
    Men speak that way sometimes and refer to various                                    Evwy  imagination . . . only evil corttinuatty.
                                                                   What an awful picture of that human race that had so
 things which, in their opinion, were better than the things
                                                                   shortly before stood in righteousness and holiness before God
 of today. Not infrequently however this sentiment is ex-
                                                                   in Paradise! True, in that day men lived to be nine hundred
pressed also in regard to the conduct of men and particularly
                                                                   years old before they died. They lived longer than we do,
in regard to the conduct of children. Our age speaks much
of juvenile delinquency and of a "teen age problem." And           and they were able to develop in their sins to a very marked
in reference to the conduct and behaviour of the youth of          degree before they died. To many generations they had the
our day the thought is often expressed that it was much            opportunity to teach their devilishness. But do not forget that
better in the olden times. Children were not so bold. They         today we have much better means of transportation and com-
dared not perform those actions that today they practice           munication. We have our magazines and newspapers, our ra-
without a blush or sign of remorse or shame. And many a            dio and television to spread the evil works of men and to teach
parent has caught himself saying to his child, "When we were       others ways of violence and wickedness. And the root of sin
children, we did not dare to do such things." Then again           that was sown in Paradise must needs bring forth more and
the remark will be made, "What is this generation coming to        more fruit.    For it is not dead but very much alive. The
anyway ?,,     Back of all this is the undeniable belief of man    rotten spot in the apple does not stay ,confined  to its little
that there is a development of sin and that each age is            area but soon spreads and envelopes the whole apple. The
followed by a more evil age.                                       disease germ in your body is either overcome by the white
                                                                   corpuscles in your blood or else multiplies and brings you
    You say, It simply looks that way ? "                          low with disease. So it is with the corruption that entered
    Indeed we do forget so quickly the sins of our youth.          into man when he fell in Paradise. Who would dare to deny
And it is not at all difficult to treat our children as though     that there is much more sin and many more types of sin in
they were adults. We can exact of them that which a child          the world today than those Adam committed in Paradise
cannot do and then come to the conclusion that our children        or after being driven out because of his sin? Sin is not
are not as self-reliant and resourceful as we were in our
                                                                   dying off. Sin is very much alive and growing at a tremen-
childhood, forgetting that we did these things at a much
                                                                   dous speed.
later age and by far more gradual steps. We do not
have the same kinds of sins as those we had when we were              Trace, if you will, the history. of Israel. Trace it in the
children. Naughty tricks and evil works which we enjoyed           ten tribes who departed through the sin of Jeroboam  the
in our childhood days no longer give us that same thrill ;         son of Nebat who made Israel to sin. Did it stop at the
and we apply this change of pleasure to the days of our chil-      worshipping of golden calves which were said to represent

dren and seem not to be able to remember that when we were         Jehovah Who brought them up  out of the land of Egypt?

young we DID do those things ourselves. We forget also             Of course it did not. It developed into the worship of all the
that our children live in another age with different circum-       gods of the heathen round about them. It developed until

.stances,  when sins are much closer at hand and easier to         God was ready to cast them out of the promised land and

reach than in our day. Therefore we quickly cry of a genera-       into captivity from which they never returned. No different

tion that is so ~nuch more evil than the age when we were          was it with the two tribes who followed David and his sons.
children.                                                          Soon enough the wickedness of the ten tribes spread over

                                                                   the border and was gladly received by the two tribes; and
    Well, far be it from us to say anything else. This age in
                                                                   it went from bad to worse until this kingdom also was ready
which we live IS far more evil than the age of our youth,
                                                                   for exile into Babylon.
and the present generation also has reached a degree of sin

that the former age did not know. All the statistics that are         We must not deceive ourselves into thinking that it is

released will show you that. Crime and vice have reached           any otherwise today. Paul warns Timothy and                        that
                                                                                                                               us 
astounding proportions. Teenagers do dare to. do things            perilous times are coming when men shall manifest them-

that adults would hesitate to do. Children do without a            selves clearly as lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

trace of shame or even of ackonwledgement  of wrong perpe-         II Timothy 3 :1-S.  Paul `sees no restraining grace of God in

trate the most terrible crimes. Not only is there a tremen-        the hearts of the reprobate world, nor does he therefore see


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  159


a withdrawal of such a restraining grace in the latter days         wish to see only that symbolic number of seven souls saved

which accounts for these perilous times and the rising up of        in the ark. Others who read the text to declare that Ham

the antichrist. The Antichrist has been coming ever since           was cursed rather than his son Canaan insist that therefore

the Fall. He does not suddenly begin to come. The awful             he could not be an elect child of God. Still others point to

form which he assumes in the days just before Christ's return       his sin, overlooking, of course, the fact that Noah sinned

will be a most powerful manifestation of sin and be the             first and just as grievously as Ham, and in fact by his sin

highest development of sin.     For he is called in Scripture       caused Ham to stumble - and on the basis of this sin insist

the noun of sin., the man sin produces, II Thessalonians 2 :1-b.    that he was a reprobate. It really makes no difference, all

And this is not something that comes all of a sudden out of         this filth and corruption, all this drunkness  and sexual

a clear sky but rather by a steady, continuous development          perversion of today comes not simply out of Ham's deed

of sin. That is why John could say that now today and in            but out of Noah's.  He introduced such filth and evil back

his day-a time &hen  according to some a certain restrain-          into the new world. That Ham later on would expose the

ing grace of God was upon the hearts of the reprobate with-         evil of his heart in some other way even if his father had

out renewing them- there were many antichrists, I John              not here given him the occasion so soon after the Flood,

2 :lS. Nay, that Antichrist can come at the end of time only        does not change the matter at all. The fact still remains that

because throughout history sin has been developing in the           Noah was the one who introduced these sins back into the

hearts of men and in the works of their hands. No sooner            new world. Noah was the one who carried in his fly?.&  all

had God destroyed the first world with the flood and purified       its lusts even while being saved by the flood and in the ark.

it, and sjn reappears. And if you please, we may even see a         And he still had them when he came forth from the ark.

development of sin in the Churcli,  for as we wrote last
                                                                        Anyone still wish to argue the point that as far as our
time, our flesh also is part of that ungodly world and not
                                                                    flesh is concerned we are not simply like the world but in-
simply like unto it. According to our flesh we are that world
                                                                    deed are part of t1za.t  world? Jesus once said, "Remember
and develop with that world in sin. Noah advanced into sin
                                                                    Lot's wife."     Indeed, and to see the matter correctly, let 
and  Ham took over where he left off to establish it once                                                                         us
                                                                    also remember drunken Noah. Let us do so to understand
again firmly on the new earth. Look about you today! Have
                                                                    what filthy damnable sinners we are as far as our flesh is
these sins of Noah and of Ham been contained to the
                                                                    concerned. Let us do so in order to learn well our misery
relatively small area of Noah's nakedness and Ham's filthy
                                                                    and need of the-blood of Christ. Let us do .so in order that
delight ? Do we see more than such sins in the world today ?
                                                                    we may fully appreciate the salvation in Christ. Let us do
Are our newspapers today merely filled with accounts of
                                                                    so in order that we may hold fast to the truth hat it is not
drunken men who expose themselves naked before the eyes
                                                                    of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth -for Noah
of others? And are men hailed in court and fined for laugh-
                                                                    willed sin and ran in the way of sin- but of God Who
ing at such shameful things? Is the world of today no more
                                                                    showeth mercy. We, as far as our flesh is concerned, are
wicked than that? Come, come ! Look again and explain
                                                                    children of the age in which we live, and the sins that the
all this harlotry,  adultery, fornication, sexual freedom and
                                                                    world commits, we commit, if not openly then surely in our
corruption that you see every where today and even in the
                                                                    hearts. The evil that we would not, that we do. And it is
eyes of the world is a plague upon our land. The wild
                                                                    only because God sent His Son Who was conceived by the
parties of not simply drunken men but of men and women,
                                                                    Holy Ghost and Whose flesh was not tainted by our sin and
the immoral literature and photography, the lewd speech and
                                                                    gave the pure life as a sacrifice for our sins that we have
filthy entertainment of the world of today all is the product
                                                                    salvation.
of the development of sin that began with the sins of those

who peopled the earth after the Flood. No, no grace of God             Let us then work out our own salvation with fear and

has bEen  restraining that sin in the hearts of the reprobate       trembling, knowing that it is God Who worketh in us both

world. Sin develops, and as man invents new tools and               to will and to do. That our flesh is part of the world and

means, he multiplies and magnifies the sins he is able to           that it develops in sin with the world is not reason for

commit.    There is one steady line of development of sin           complacency. We have also another life within us. We are

from the family of Noah till it culminates in the Antichrist.       children of our age, but by God's grace we are also children

   And grasp the significance of that fact! All the corrup-         of God, children of the light. Let us so walk in His fear.

tion in the world, all the sins of today which have developed                                                                J.A.H.

out of the sins of the past, all the sinners of today as they

stand on the shoulders of the sinners in ages past and are

able to reach new heights of deviltry and perversion, all these

developed out of the flesh of those who were the Church                           A thousand ages in Thy sight

saved by the water of the Flood. We may wish to label Ham                           Are like an evening gone,

as an reprobate, and many do for several reasons. Some do                         Short as the watch that ends the night

because they wish to retain the symbolic number seven and                           Before the rising sun.

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



                                                                    ing of the pestilence at Wittenberg, he wrote to Melanch-
          Contending For The Faith                                  &on,  who was absent at Jena: "For more than a week I
                                                                    have been tossed about in death and hell ; so that, hurt in

                                                                    all my body, I still tremble in every limb. For having almost

            The  Church  and the Sacraments                         lost Christ, I was driven about by storms and tempests of
                                                                    despair and blasphemy against God. But God, moved by

           THE TIR/IE  OF THE REFORMATION                           the prayers of the saints, begins to have pity upon me, and

                                                                    has drawn my soul out of the lowest hell. Do not cease to

                 VIEWS ON THE CHURCH                                pray for me, as I do for you. I believe that this agony of

                                                                    mine pertains to others also."
                    F O R M A L   P R I N C I P L E

                                                                        In such trials and temptations he clung all the more
                              (continued)                           mightily  to the Scriptures and to faith which believes against

                                                                    reason and hopes against hope. "It is a quality of faith," he
       The Reformation was a protest against human authority,
                                                                    says in the explanation of his favorite Epistle to the Gala-
asserted the right of private conscience and judgment, and
                                                                    tians, "that it wrings the neck of reason and strangles the
roused a spirit of criticism and free inquiry in all depart-
                                                                    beast, which else the whole world, with all creatures, could
ments of knowledge. It allows, therefore, a much wider scope
                                                                    not strangle. But how? It holds to God's Word, and lets
for the exercise of reason in religion than the Roman church,
                                                                    it be right and true, no matter how foolish and impossible
which requires unconditional submission to her infallible
                                                                    it sounds. So. did Abraham take. his reason captive ,and  slay
authority. It marks a real progress, but this progress is
                                                                    it, inasmuch as he believed God's Word, wherein was prom-
perfectly consistent with a belief in revelation on subjects
                                                                    ised him that from his unfruitful and as it were dead wife,
which lie beyond the boundary of time and sense. What do
                                                                    Sarah, God would give him seed."
we know of the creation, and the world of the future, except
what God has chosen to reveal to us ? Human reason can                  This and many similar passages clearly show the bent
prove the possibility and probability of the existence of God       of Luther's mind. He knew the enemy, but overcame it;
and the immortality of the soul, but not the certainty and          his faith triumphed over doubt. In his later years he became
necessity. It is reasonable, therefore, to believe in the super-    more and more a conservative churchman. He repudiated
natural on divine testimony, and it is unreasonable to reject       the mystic doctrine of the inner word and spirit, insisted on
it.                                                                 submission to the written letter of the Scriptures, even when
                                                                    it flatly contradicted reason. He traced the errors of the
       The Reformers used their reason and judgment very
                                                                    Zwickau  prophets, the rebellious peasants, the Anabaptists,
freely in their contest with church authority. Luther refused
                                                                    and the radical views of Carlstadt and Zwingli, without
to recant in the crisis at Worms, unless convinced by testi-
                                                                    `proper discriminat`ion,  to presumptuous inroads of the human
monies of the Scriptures and "cogent arguments." For a
                                                                    `reason into the domain of faith, and feared from them the
while he was disposed to avail himself of the humanistic
                                                                    `overthrow of religion. He so far forgot his obligations to
movement which was skeptical and rationalistic in its ten-
                                                                    ,Erasmus  as to call him an Epicurus,  a Lucian,  a doubter,
dency, but his strong religious nature always retained the
                                                                    and an atheist. Much as he valued reason as a precious gift
mastery. He felt as keenly as any modern Rationalist, the
                                                                    of God in matters of this world, he abused it with un-
conflict between natural reason and the transcending mys-
                                                                    reasonable violence, when it dared to sit in judgment over
teries of revelation. He was often tormented by doubts and
                                                                    matters of faith.
even temptations to blasphemy, especially when suffering
from physical infirmity. A comforter of others, he needed               Certainly Luther must first be utterly divested of his
comfort himself and asked the prayers of friends to fortify         faith, and the authorship of his sermons, catechisms and
him against the assaults of the evil spirit, with whom he had,      hymns must be called in question, before he can be appealed
as he thought, many a personal encounter. He confessed, in          to as the father of Rationalism. He would have sacrificed
1524, how glad he would have been five years before in his          his reason ten times rather than his faith.

war with papal superstition, if Carlstadt could have con-               Zwingli was the most clear-headed and rationalizing

vinced him that the Eucharist was nothing but bread and             among the Reformers. He did not pass through the dis-

wine, and how strongly he was then in&lined to that rational-       cipline of monasticism and mysticism, like Luther, but

istic view which would have given a death blow to transub-          through the liberal culture of Erasmus. He had no mystic

stantiation and the mass. He felt that every article of his         vein, but sound, sober, practical common sense. He always

creed - the trinity in unity, the incarnation, the transmis-        preferred the plainest sense of the Bible. He rejected the

sion of Adam's sin, the atonement by the blood of Christ,           Catholic views on original sin, infant damnation and the

baptismal regeneration, the real presence, the renewal of the       corporeal presence in the eucharist,  and held advanced opin-

Holy Spirit, the resurrection of the body-transcended               ions which shocked Luther and even Calvin. But he never-

human comprehension. In August 2, 1527, during the rag-             theless reverently bowed before the divine authority of the


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   :BEARER



inspired Word of God and had no idea of setting reason over        ologumena" refers to the books of the New Testament which

it. His dispute with Luther was simply a question of inter-        were recognized as belonging to the canonical books; "anti-

pretation, and he had strong arguments for his exegesis, as        legomena" refers to the books of the New Testament which

even the best Lutheran commentators confess.                       at first were not recognized as belonging to the New Testa-

    Calvin was the ,best theologian and exegete among the          ment Can&  - H.V.) .

Reformers. He never abused reason, like Luther, but as-               They added, moreover, to the external evidence, the more

signed it the office of an indispensable handmaid of revela-       important internal evidence on the intrinsic excellency of the

tion. He constructed with his logical genius the severest          Scripture as the true ground on which its authority and

system of Protestant orthodoxy which shaped French, Dutch,         claim to obedience rests ; and they established a firm

English and American theology, and fortified it against Ra-        criterion of canonicity, namely, the purity and force of teach-

tionalism as well as against Romanism. His orthodoxy and           ing Christ and his gospel of salvation. They did not reject

discipline could not keep his own church in Geneva from            the testimonies of the fathers, but they placed over them

becoming Socinian in the eighteenth century, but he is no          what Paul calls the "demonstration of the Spirit and of

more responsible for that than Luther for the Rationalism of       power" (I Cor. 2 :4).

Germany, or Rome for the infidelity of Voltaire. Upon the             Luther was the bold pioneer of a higher criticism, which

whole, the Reformed churches in England, Scotland and              was indeed subjective and arbitrary, but, after all, a criticism

North America, have been far less invaded by Rationalism           of faith. He made his central doctrine of justification by

than Germany.                                                      faith the criterion of canonicity. He thus placed the material

    2. Let us now consider the application of the principle        or subjective principle of Protestantism above the formal or

of free inquiry to the Bible.                                      objective principle, the truth above the witness of the truth,

    The Bible, its origin, genuineness, integrity, ai&  and all    the doctrine of the gospel above the written Gospel, Christ
its circumstances and surroundings are proper subjects of          above the Bible. But we must remember that Luther first
investigation ; for it is a human as well as a divine book,        learnt Christ from the Bible and especially from the Epistles
and has a history, like other literary productions. The extent     of Paul, which furnished him the key for the understanding
of the Bible, moreover, or the canon, is not determined by         of the scheme of salvation.

the Bible itself or by inspiration, but by church authority           He made a distinction, moreover, between the more im-

or tradition, and was not fully agreed upon till the close of      portant and the less important books of the New Testament,

the fourth century, and even then only by provincial synods,       according to the extent of their evangelic purity and force,

not by any of the seven oecumenical  councils. It was there-       and put Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation at the end

fore justly open to reinvestigation.                               of the German Bible.

    The Church of Rome, at the Council of Trent, settled              He states his reason in the Preface to the Hebrews as
the canon, including the Apocrypha,  but without any critical      follows : "Hitherto we have had the right and genuine books
inquiry or definite theological principle; it simply confirmed     of the New Testament. The four that follow have been
the traditional usage, and pronounced an anathema on every         differently esteemed in olden times." He therefore appeals
noe who does not receive all the books contained in the Latin      to the ante-Nicene tradition, but his chief objection was to
Vulgate. She also checked the freedom of itivestigation  by        the contents.

requiring conformity to a defective version and a unanimous           He disliked, most of all, the Epistle of James because he

consensus of the fathers, although such an exegetical con-         could not harmonize it with Paul's teaching on justification

sensus does not exist except in certain fundamental doc-           by faith w2hou.t  works, and he called it an epistle of straw

trines.                                                            as compared with genuine apostolic writings. However, we

    The Reformers re-opened the question of the                    must not overlook the fact that Luther makes this remark in
                                                     extent of
the canon, as they had a right to do, but without any idea         connection with the epistle of James when comparing it with
of sweeping away the traditional belief or undermining the         the epistles of the apostle Paul. The German Reformer was
authority of the Word of God. On the contrary, from the            not blind to the merits of James as a fresh and vigorous
fulness of their faith in the inspired Word, as contained in       teacher of practical Christianity, did not therefore condemn
the Scriptures, they questioned the canonicity of a few books      this epistle of James entirely. The Lord willing, we will
which seem to be lacking in sufficient evidence to entitle them    conclude this quotation in our following article.

to a place in the Bible. They simply revived, in a new shape                                                                 H.V.

and on doctrinal rather than historical grounds, the distinc-

tion made by, the Hebrews and the ancient fathers between                           Over all God reigns forever,
the canonical `and  apocryphal books of the Old Testament,
                                                                                      Through all ages He is King ;
and the Eusebian  distinction between the Howologztmena
and A~&ilegontena.  of the New Testament, and claimed in                            Unto Him, thy God, 0 Zion,

both respects the freedom of the ante-Nicene church ("hom-                            Joyful hallelujahs sing.


162                                         T H E   S T A N D A,RD   B E A R E R


           SHOULD OUR  ADOLESCENTS BE                                       mission to the Lord's table. For if a child of 12 or 13 may
              ENCOURAGED  TO PARTAKE                                        be admitted, why should not a child of 8 or 9 ; and if a child
                                                                            of S or 9, why not a child of 5 or 6 ?
                OF THE  LORD'S  SUPPER?
                                                                               4) This plan is co,ntm-y to Chistian  discipli&e  aT&d  its

                                (3)                                         pztV$ose  of ~aint,&n&g  the pwity of the sacraments. It is
                                                                            the express purpose of Christian discipline to prevent the
       Continuing to mention various objections against the                 sacraments from being profaned by the unbelieving and un-
suggestion that early adolescents be encouraged to partake                  godly. And while we baptize all infants of believers, this is
of the Lord's Supper before they make confession of faith,             ,possible  only because "our young children do not understand
we may take note of the following:                                          these things."    For that reason we may not exclude them

       3) This plan would be contrary to the ddtea  of the Lo~d's           .from baptism. If this same reasoning could be applied to

Supper, namely, that of active and discerning participa,tion.               all early adolescents in regard to this sacrament, which in-

This consideration is closely connected with what we have                   .volves  active and discerning participation, then we could

mentioned already concerning the view, of the Lord's Supper                 concede that they must be admitted to the Lord's table. But

found in our confessions. And we will not enlarge on this              .we know very well that among our early adolescents there

at length here. Besides, we will have more to say on the                    are those who are unbelieving and ungodly. And now these

readiness and degree of development of adolescents with a                   `unbelieving and ungodly, whom we know are found among

view to the Lord's Supper and confession of faith later. We                 our children, must be allowed and even encouraged to come

may concede, of course, that an adolescent is not like an                   to the Lord's table ? This %lmost  amounts to an application

infant any more and totally without understanding of the                    of the idea of "open communion" to the sphere of the cov-

sacrament and the truths signified thereby as the infant is                 enant.

without understanding of his baptism. In fact, the same may                    5) Nor is it true, as has been suggested, that discipline
be said of a little child of five or six years old. He can very        !--and,  in a sense, excommunication -of baptized members
well understand something of the truth's of his salvation and          i requires that they first be admitted to the Lord's Supper. I
have a personal faith in Ais ch~i2dish  ZWI.X$.  And the adolescent    `believe we may draw a parallel between the admission of
can also have an understanding of the realities for which the               baptized members to the Lord's table and the exclusion (and
sacrament stands and have a personal faith irt his adolwcext                in that sense, the excommunication) of baptized members
way. But by the same token, it must be conceded that an                     from the Lord's table. Just as you admit baptized members,
adolescent, especially an early adolescent, is not yet an adult             or potential communicants, so you also discipline and ex-
and is not yet mature and has not yet reached a mature un-                  communicate those who bEcause  of their baptism and status
derstanding and a mature faith. He is still developing and             `as baptized members are potential communicants. I see no
still approaching that stage of discernment in which he is             `difficulty here whatsoever. And it is rather significant to me
able to partake of the Lord's Supper. And personally, while                 that while in other Reformed churches there has been con-
we seem to live in an age when our adolescents are con-                     siderable study and also development of the discipline of
sidered by themselves and by their parents to be very grown                 baptized members, there has been no effort to introduce the
up and are even to a degree artificially forced to be grown                 plan we are now considering.
up, I am inclined to the opinion that they are after all very

immature - perhaps more so than formerly - and that too,               :       6) Finally, as a practical argument, I would object that

especially when it comes to things spiritual. Moreover, I              o~ur churches wozdd not be strong  enough to eawcise  the

believe that if they have reached that degree of discernment           stringe& discip&e  required undw this plan. It must be

when they are able to discern the Lord's body in such a way                 conceded that it certainly would require a church strong

that they can partake of the supper in more than a fo>mal              in discipline and strict in the application of discipline to en-

and outward way, they have also reached the point where                     force this plan. On the whole, I believe our churches are

they can and should make confession of faith. If the latter is              slower to discipline adolescents and even adults who have

impossible, the former is also. And in view of the fact that                failed to make confession of faith than they are in discipline

according to our confessions we do actually make confession                 matters generally. There is a good and bad side to this, 1

of faith at the Lord's table, it seems to me that we face the          believe. But I also believe that it is almost in the nature of

alternative of either maintaining the necessity of confession               the case that fathers in the church are very loath to declare

of faith as a requisite for admission to the Lord's Supper or               of an adolescent or a young adult that he is unbelieving and

of discarding the requirement of confession of faith altogether.            ungodly and is to be excluded from tAe  table of the Lorcl.

If one remembers that at the table of the Lord we do make                   That is a very severe and serious judgment, but it is a

confession of our faith, and that too, publicly, our established            judgment which consistories must sometimes make. Under

custom of' confession of faith would lose its meaning and                   this plan they would undoubtedly have to make this judg-

necessity, become a misfit, under this new system. And the                  ment earlier and more often than they do now. And I fear

result will be that you lose every objective standard for ad-               that they will continue to be loath to do so. "If my fears are


                                            THE,STANDARD   B E A R E R                                                              163


correct, the result will be that you have an increasing number          both by~calvin  .and  a Lasco  and by the Reformed churches

of non-confessing members who nevertheless have been and                of the Netherlands in the early period the accepted age for

are admitted to the Lord's table and who ought not to be                confession of faith was about that of 14. And the churches

there at all.                                                           were rather strict in this regard. According to Dr. H. Bouw-

     For the above reasons - and I have only briefly sketched           man, admonition and discipline set in if by the age of 14 one

them - I feel very strongly that this first suggestion should           was not sufficiently instructed to make confession of faith

never be introduced in our churches.                                    and to be admitted to the Lord's Supper. `And indeed, there

                                                                        is a good side to this practice. It evinces a very earnest view

     II. Shoz&  covenant  youth of 12 to 15 years of age be             df the necessity for early and thorough instruction of the

cncoztmged to parta.ke  of the Lord's S@pe+  by ,vaalzing ea,rly        covenant seed and also a very healthy view of the church as

confession of faith?                                                    co&sting  of believers and their children.

     By way of introduction, we may observe, in the first                   2) The unhealthy practice of postponement of confession
place, that this question is of a little different nature. It           of faith in Reformed circles arose under the influence of
involves no violation of well-established Reformed principles           pietism and false mysticism in the 18th and 19th centuries.
and rules with respect to those who may participate of the              Under these influences a false conception of church member-
Lord's Supper. And it involves no fundamental departure                 ship also arose. The idea of covenant children "joining the
from the practice which we have always followed. This is                church" by confession of faith as also the distinction between
rather a mere question of the                                           confession of the truth and confession of faith, became prev-
                                   time  fnctol-  in confession of
faith. And as such it is a rather practical and discretionary           alent under the pietistic and mystic reaction against the cold
question. There may very well be an area of disagreement                rationalism and dead orthodoxy that swept through the Re-
when it comes to answering this question. And the best                  formed churches in the 1Sth  century. We ought to forsake
we can do, in answering this question, is to try to reach               that mystical trend and return to the earlier practice of the
a reasoned and well-founded conclusion as to what is the                Reformed churches. Covenant children do not join the
most prudent procedure for the church to follow.                        church, but they are already baptized as members of Christ's
     In the second place, and in close connection with the              church.
above, we may note that the emphasis in this question falls                3) Early adolescents (of 12 to 15 years) are quite able to
on the readiness of early adolescents to make confession of             make confession of faith, consciously to assume their position
faith. Can we, or can we not, agree that covenant youth of              in the church, to discern the Lord's body, and to partake of
12 to 15 years of age are as a general rule psychologically             the Lord's Supper.       Communicants do not have to be little
and spiritually ready to make confession of faith ? If they             theologians before they are admitted to the Lord's Supper,
are, then  they ought to do so, and the church should expect            and we ought not to over-emphasize the intellectual and
them to do so and should, of course, then admit them to the             doctrinal aspect of confession of faith. Instead, we should
Lord's table.                                                           lay more stress than we do on the spiritual and volitionai
     Some such plan as the following might be followed in               aspect of confession of faith.
this case: 1) Children of believers would make confession                  4) This practice would have the benefit that covenant

of faith sometime between the ages of 12 and 15, and would              youth would be tied in more closely with the church at a
thereupon be admitted to communion. This would become                   critical period of their life and that through the sacrament
the general practice in our churches. 3) This would be en-              as a means of grace their faith would be strengthened and

couraged either by the adoption of some kind of general rule,           encouraged at a time when they need it most.

or by the synodical  adoption of a policy for our churches,                5) Under this plan our covenant youth would be made
and by way of instruction and urging from the pulpit, in the            more conscious of their covenant obligations, and the idea

catechism class, and through personal labors of our pastors.            would be avoided that the youth of -the church are more or

There would, of course, be a certain period of transition ; but         less free to live irresponsibly and to "sow their wild oats"

eventually this would become the common practice in our                 until they grow          and settle down and become good and
                                                                                          up 
churches. 3) Such covenant youth would be expected to con-              ready to make confession of faith.

tinue their catechetical training for a time after their con-              To the above you could add some of the arguments

fession of faith, so that their doctrinal instruction might be          advanced in favor of the first plan too. We will conclude
completed. 4) If they made no confession by the age of 15               our discussion of this subject next time, the Lord willing.
or 16, baptized members would begin to be the object of                 Meanwhile, what do you think of Plan II?

ecclesiastical discipline with a view to eventual "excom-                                                                     H.C.H.

munication," if necessary, when they reach the age of adult-

h    o    o    d    .                                                              Thy burden now cast on the Lord,

     In favor of this plan may be mentioned the.  following :                        And -He shall thy weakness sustain ;

     1) This plan would be in harmony with the historic                            The righteous who trust in His word

Reformed practice. The history of the church teaches            that               Unmoved shall forever remain.
                                                         us 

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


                                                                   continuously, it was impossible to pass on all the writings that

                                                                   were submitted. The only way that this could be done was
    D E C E N C Y   a n d   O R D E R
                                                                   through committees and this tended toward hierarchism, that

                                                                   much dreaded evil. Besides, often the wrong men were in

                  Literary  Censorship                             charge of this supervision so that in effect the result was

                                                                   that the writings of Reformed men were banned and non-
                  (Article 55, Concluded)                          Reformed men could publish their works without restrictions.

                                                                   In 1703 I?. Van Lee&of  published his Heamen  on Enrtlt with
   To ward off the publication of heresies by means of civil
                                                                   proper approval, while in 1705  the churches had to depose
or ecclesiastical censorship has proveil  ineffective and un-
                                                                   him because of heresies advocated in this book. The rule
successful. The Roman Catholic Church put forth a very
                                                                   was ineffective and often did more damage then good. Beside,
vigorous effort to accomplish this especially at the time of
                                                                   as Dr. Bouwman says, "Stolen  waters are sweet, and bread
the Reformation in the sixteenth century. They considered
                                                                   eaten in secret is pleasant" (Prov. 9 :17). Official disapproval
the writings of the Reformers to be heretical and, therefore,
                                                                   of books usually arouses curiosity and whets the appetite
forbade their publication. They threatened the authors of
                                                                   of the public so that refusal of approval often made good
these works with excommunication and martyred and perse-
                                                                   advertisement and promoted the reading of such publications
cuted those who in any way helped to publish or to distribute
                                                                   if they were published in spite of the `opinion of those who
this forbidden literature. They ordered these books to be
                                                                   reviewed the book. In other words, tell the child that he may
burned wherever they might be found. A very intensive
                                                                   not have something and he will want it all the more. Inform
campaign was. conducted to squelch the voice of the Re-
                                                                   the public that a certain movie that has failed to pass censor-
formers. All this, however, did not dampen the spirit or
                                                                   ship will be shown in a certain theatre and the place will be
hamper the spread of the Reformation.
                                                                   filled to capacity. The public wil clamor for a repeat per-
   It was not very long before the Reformed Churches were          formance. Forbid a book and it will receive more attention
confronted with the same problem of curbing the spread of          than one that is favorably recommended. Such is the pervers-
undesirable and heretical literature. Would the church allow       ity of human nature.
complete freedom of press or would it be more desirable that           Does all of this mean then that there should be no censor-
the church exercise some control in this regard ? The Re-          ship at all ? We think not. We believe that censorship of
formed Churches took the latter position so that in the            literature (`and other things as well, such as, radio, television,
original fifty-fifth article of the Church Order provision was     music, amusements, etc.) should begin in the home. As
made that, "no one, being of the Reformed religion, should         parents we must saturate our homes with the Word of God
undertake to publish a book or a pamphlet dealing with a           and that which is in harmony with the Word and forbid
religious matter unless he had first received permission and       entrance to those things that defile the mind and soul. Fur-
approval of the Ministers of his Classes, or of the Ministers      ther, we should positively cultivate and develope in ourselves
of his Particular Synod, or of the theological professors.         as well as in our children a desire for and interest in that
These professors could not give approval without the fore-         which is pure and wholesome. It is impossible to so control
knowledge of the Classis  in which they resided." The Synod        the press that the world is prevented from publishing the
of 1571  even weut  further and ruled that "no one, regardless     type of worthless literary rot that satisfies the carnal mind
of the fact whether he belonged to one of the Reformed             but it is an indication that something is radically wrong with
Churches or not, should be permitted to publish a book             our own training and censorship when young people of the
without proper authorization."    Following synods confirmed       church are seen indulging more, in the reading of cheap
this position in the obvious hop-, that the government in the      paper-back romance and mystery stories, picked up at the
Netherlands would become wholly Reformed and support               corner news-stand, than in the reading of Tlze  Sta.ndard
this stand. This, however, did not materialize and so in           Bearer. This is tragic and then they even have the audacity
1586  the ruling was restricted to those who professed to be       to express that for the reading of such things as The Stand-
Reformed and over whom therefore the church had i&mediate          a,rd BeaTper  and other good literature they have no time in
supervision and control. It was at the great Synod of Dordt        their busy life. It is time that the home, in cooperation with
in 1615-19  that the article was written as we have indicated      the schools, puts forth a new emphasis upon literature-ap-
above.                                                             preciation in the good sense of the word so that our children

   For more than one reason this attempt to prevent the            may learn to distinguish between the good and the bad, the

publication of heretical books was destined to fail. First of      edifying and the destructive in the field of reading. Though

all, the desired cooperation by the government to enforce this     it is impossible to rid the world of its literary filth, it is

ban was not forthcoming.    In fact, late in 161s the govern-      possible, by the grace of God, to keep the stuff out of the

ment in Holland made a law of its own which was much               lives of God's children. This calls for thorough instruction,

less drastic than that which the churches had desired. Then        firm discipline and diligent training. This sort of cendrship

too, since the broader ecclesiastical bodies are not in session     we believe is conducive to good results. It means that we


                                           T    H    E         STAN,DAR`D  .B.EARER                                              16.5


will have to undo our materialistic emphasis and learn, to            vent the law so that he will escape any penalty for his

reappraise true moral and spiritual values.                           maliciousness. Evidence of this is seen daily in a city like

    The school and the church, too, must exercise a censor-           Chicago. One noted news columnist has exposed many times
ship of books although not in the sense that they would              the fact that the law enforcing powers in the city are
presume to control the printing presses or publication busi-         reluctant and in many cases even refuse to make arrests
ness. In selecting textbooks to be used, in building both            where arrests should be made because they know beforehand
school and church libraries and in other projects where              that the charges will not be upheld in the courts. The result
literary works are involved, great care and discretion must          is that the flow of obscene and pornographic literature in-
be exercised. It is no easy task for even when the scope of          creases. The market for it is no longer hidden. This lucra-
our problem is limited to those works that are today pub-            tive business draws more and more into it. Already it has
lished under the name of "Christian fiction, non-fiction and          reached millions of dollars per annum and the end is not in
religious periodicals,"    there is an overwhelming mass of          sight. Evil abounds, waxing worse and worse until the
material on the market that is saturated with subtle heresies        measure of sin is full.

designed to deceive the undiscerning reader. No matter                   For it there is no solution to be found in the world.

how careful the censorship, some of it is bound to creep              Man cannot curb his own passion for evil. Education, with-

through. For this reason, too, the most potent and effective          out the fear of God, only trends to produce a more subtle

censorship is that which is effected through positive and            and bit more polished perpetrator of the same corruption.

sound instruction in the truth. The truth must be preached           As long as there are corrupt people who demand corrupt

and taught and in the measure that it is applied by the Spirit       literature, there will be producers and peddlers to supply

of God unto the heart, the subject will not only develope a          this demand.

deep love for all that is good, pure and true but will repel             The answer is to be found in the Word of God. It is this :
every form of heresy he may encounter in his reading.                 "Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which com-

    Our conclusion is that the solution to the problem of            mit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same:

censorship of literature is not to be found in legislation,          but have pleasure in them that do them" (Romans 1:32).

control or any other arbitrary, mechanical or man-made               And again, "Indignation and wrath, (from God) tribulation

device but in grace alone. The problem is resolved for               and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil" (Rom.

those who are consciously in Christ and who live out of His          2 23,  9).
fulness. They love the truth and hate the lie. "They will not            See then that your garments are kept clean. Watch and
support, nor promote the sale of, nor recommend to others            pray that you enter not into temptation. Have no fellowship
heretical and deceiving publications. To be sure, this does          with these unfruitful works of darkness and give all diligence
not put these dangerous books out of circulation nor does it         through sound instruction to ward off every form of the `lie
prohibit or make impossible their publication but it does            that can only lead to destruction. Be assured that "to them
relegate them to a'sphere  where they can do no real damage.         who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and
Let them then not be found once among us, in our homes,              honor and immortality, eternal life . . . but glory, honor and
our schools and our churches.                                        peace to every man that worketh good" (Romans 2 :7, 10).

   It may not be out of place to make a few remarks~ yet                                                                   G.V.d.B.

about this problem of "censorship" as it exists even in the

world today. A real problem it is. Of this the world itself

is deeply conscious. It boasts of a "free-press" and yet,

realizes very well that this freedom of press cannot be un-

limited. ,One may not be permitted to publish anything they                            A CLOUD OF WITNESSES
desire but must remain within the limitations of worldly

"decency." This restriction of the freedom of press the world                           (Continued from page 155)

tries to regulate by law. But this proves to be very difficult
                                                                     be and is ever faithful to His promises, to the promises given
if not impossible because "decency" is a relative thing in
                                                                     to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and to all of their spiritual
the world that recognizes no objective standard such, as the

Word of God to determine what is good or bad. Each would             seed. This absolute independent faithfuhless  of the covenant

decide this for himself and then what one regards as vile            God would become perfectly evident through the work which

is to another an exhibition of real "culture." What one calls        Moses was being sent to perform. This name of God would

obscene is by another considered to be artistic. Laws are            be established as a memorial of faithfulness to his people for-
made but openly defied by those who publish and peddle
                                                                     evermore. It would prove beyond doubt that God is the I
morally corrupt literature because the laws fail to state clearly
                                                                     AM THAT I AM.
what constitutes a violation. The peddler of smut is certain

that even if he is apprehended, a smart lawyer will circum-                                                                   B.W.

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


                                                                     merger, but evidently believes that the value of it would

/I  A L L   A R O U N D   ilS 11 warrant the time and energy expended to make this super-
                                                                     denomination a reality.
IJ                                                           -II
                                                                         Another development along these same lines was the
RECENT MOVEMENTS TOWARDS ECUMENKXM                                   recent meeting of the Archbishop of Canterbury with the

      The unity of the church has always been a grave prob-          Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Although the discus-

lem in the history of theology and of the church in the New          sion that was held between these two men and the conclu-

Dispensation. In recent years this problem has come to the           sions, if any, which they reached were never published, every-

foreground of religious thought many times. The Roman                one interested speculated that they talked of union between

Catholic Church, defining the unity of *the church as a unity        the Anglican Church of England and the Roman Catholic

of external organization, has always claimed to have achieved        Church. The Catholic Press made quite a point of it that

the goal of "one holy catholic church." For this reason also,        at least in this case here was no room for compromise. While

Rome has often sneered at Protestant' Churches who, since            the Protestant could merge denominations by compromise,

the Reformation, have been splintered into an almost in-             each participant sacrificing some of its principles, the Roman

numerable number of groups, sects, denominations and                 Catholic Church would never do this. If the Anglican

organizations. .It seems as if Rome's criticism has had its          Church of England wanted to join with the Roman Catholic

effect, for more and more, Protestant churches also are              Church, that could be considered ; but only by means of the

striving for the unity of external organization. This has            Anglicans becoming completely Roman Catholic. The Angli-

resulted in a number of mergers joining several denomina-            cans did not have to expect that the Roman Catholics would

tions under one ecclesiastical roof, as well as several organiza-    meet them half way.

tions more loosely bound, but uniting various denominations              This striving in the church world for external unity is of
in councils, synods and associations. There are, for example,        utmost importance. It is difficult to say whether there will
such organizations as the World Council of Churches, the             : be one massive church in which all so-called Christian
National Association of Evangelicals,  the National Council          Churches are united before the end comes. It is true, no
of Churches, the Reformed Ecumenical Synod.                          doubt, that the false church will be the right arm of the
      There have been some recent startling developments in          Anti-Christ. It is also true that the church world in the days
this field of ecumenicism and church union. T&ze  magazine           `of Anti-Christ will be very sharply divided between the true
recently reported on one of these. A certain Rev. Dr. Eugene         church - the remnant according to the election of grace -
Blake who is the executive head of the United Presbyterian           and the false church which has apostatized. It is more than
Church preached a sermon in San Francisco's Episcopal                likely that the present trends towards merger will continue
Grace Cathedral, where Bishop James A. Pike is minister.             and in fact gain momentum. as time goes on. And even if
He proposed in this sermon a union between four denomina-            the church world-now I mean, as opposed to heathendom
tions in the country - the Methodists, the Episcopalians,            - never succeeds in forming one large denomination, never-
the Presbyterians, and the United Church of Christ. This             theless, as the churches drift deeper into apostasy they will
wuold form one denomination numbering 17,800,OO  people.             `certainly be one in organization, in purpose, in their efforts
The United Church of Christ was recently formed by a                 i to support and promote the kingdom of the beast. It is for
merger of the Evangelical and Reformed Church with the               j this reason that these movements warrant our close attention.
Congregational Christian Churches. This latter merger is
                                                                         It is, as a matter of fact, the confession of believers that
still the subject of dispute and court action, but will un-
                                                                     the unity of the church of Jesus Christ is not a unity of
doubtedly continue in the face of some scattered opposition.
                                                                     external organization, but `a unity which is completely an
Dr. Blake also suggested some general basis on which these
                                                                     object of faith. We believe "an holy catholic church," even
denominations could unite. He suggested a compromise be-
                                                                     though that unity does not come to complete outward expres-
tween the Episcopalian emphasis on the apostolic succession
                                                                     sion in time. And for this reason also, it is well to remember
of the bishops and the more Reformed and Presbyterian
                                                                     that this unity is spiritual: it is a unity of the body of Christ
practice of voting      in officebearers and calling ministers
                                                                     accomplished by Christ's Spirit. It is a unity of faith, of
through a vote of the congregation. He spoke broadly of the
                                                                     hope, of doctrine, of calling. It is a unity that finds its
 doctrinal basis as necessarily including the doctrine of the
                                                                     deepest principle and ground in Christ Himself.
 trinity and the maintenance of two sacraments-baptism

and the Lord's Supper. He mentioned some minor points                    It is also for this reason that the true unity of the church

 of dispute as, for example, the type of clothes that the min-       can never be realized by the efforts of man ; it is a work of

isters and bishops would wear.                                       God. Rev. H. Hoeksema  writes in his dogmatics, "The

        There was considerable support for his idea among the        church on earth is divided, not only because of the natural

 leaders of the denominations he included in his plan, although      causes of separation, such as distance, language, differences in

 there was by no means unanimous agreement. He suggested             races and nationalities, but also in regard to doctrine, confes-

 that it would take a minimum of ten years to effect such a           sion, form of worship and of church government. How must


                                          T H E   S T . A N - D A R D   B E A R E R                                             167



this be remedied ? What must be the attitude of the church          son, he informed the Classis  that he was of the opinion that

and of the individual believer over against this failure of the     Paul was mistaken. When quizzed further on the matter, he

church to realize her true unity and to manifest that there is      complained that he was not the one who should stand trial for

one Lord, one spirit, one faith, and one calling'?                  these views but that the responsibility lay with the New

   "Many there are in our day who find the cause of all the         Brunswick Seminary of the Reformed Churches by whose

dissension and division in the church in too much doctrine          porfessors he had been taught these things. This became an

and in creeds that are too specific in their doctrinal declara-     issue of some importance in the Reformed Church, being re-

tions. Hence, they advocate that all these specific declara-        ferred first to the Particular Synod, and later to the General

tions of faith by which each church erects a wall of separation     Synod. I have not heard for some time what happened con-

around itself be forgotten, erased, eliminated, that the con-       sequent to these events. But recently an article appeared in

fessions be broadened, generalized, and that on the basis of        Ch&ianity  Today which speaks of a report of a committee

this broad declaration of general principles the various            appointed by the General Synod to study this issue of the

denominations merge, and thus realize the unity of the              historical reality of Genesis l-3. The report was made and

church. However, it should be evident that in this fashion          adopted by the General Synod last summer. The report is

an outward unity may indeed be effected, but only at the ex-        only very briefly quoted and evidently maintains the historical

pense of the truth, at the cost of the church's faith, which is     character of Genesis, but adds that the church must allow

the same as saying that it is a unity without, the Christ of        a certain latitude in the understanding of details.

the Scriptures. The church is not interested in an outward             Several men of the Reformed Churches criticized the

unity, that reveals itself in a mighty human institution, as,       report severely. They condemned it as too vague to be of any

for instance, the present existing World Council of Churches.       use and as opening the doors to the destructive hammer

And the church on earth that understands the character of           blows of higher criticism. Dr. John H. Ludham and Mr.

the true spiritual unity of the body of Christ and that realizes    John Richard De Witt wrote a pamphlet in which they ex-

her calling with respect to the manifestation of this unity         pressed their concern about the report. This pamphlet was

can never co-operate with such humanistic, faith-destroying,        printed by the Consistory of the Sixth Reformed Church of

Christ-despising movements of amalgamation. The unity of            Paterson, New Jersey. That indeed the report of the com-

the church is centered in Christ. If the church is to grow          mittee was vague and general is evident from the fact that

in this true unity, she must grow in Christ. She must not           Mr. De Witt  himself wrote to each of the members of the

have less of Christ, but always more. And her Christ is in          original committee that drew up the report asking for their

the Scriptures. Hence, she must appropriate the Christ of           interpretation. Their responses showed that even they did

Holy Writ. And that means that she must instruct and be             not agree on what the report meant. Some said that the

instructed in the truth. She must not seek union in the way         report expressed a belief that Genesis l-3 were indeed descrip-

of less, but rather in the way of more and richer doctrine.         tions of actual history ; others thought it did not, and were

She must put aside all doctrines of men, to be sure ; but she       sad about it; still others said it did not, and rejoiced; one

must ever `grow in the doctrine of Christ. Let the true church      did ,not commit himself on the question.

be ever so small in the world, she dare not seek the realiza-          `One  cannot escape the conclusion that this is the sad and
tion of her unity in any other direction than that of growing       disastrous result of tampering with the simple meaning of
in the knowledge of Christ her Head . . . Only they that strive     the profoundly beautiful description of creation as given in
to approach that stature (of the fulness of Christ) are really      Genesis 1. Once an attempt is made, in the name of so-called
working for the manifestation of the unity of the church, and       honesty to scientific advancement, to twist the meaning of the
whatsoever is more than these is of the evil one."                  Scriptural narrative of creation beyond its obvious meaning

                                                                    and intent, this can only be the result. To make of the six
THE ADAM QUESTION
                                                                    days of creation long periods of time is to change Genesis 1
   Some years ago I received some pamphlets from a Con-
                                                                    almost beyond recognition. And then the real meaning of the
sistory of a Reformed Church in New Jersey which dealt
                                                                    whole account is called into question. The result is that the
with a problem of the real existence of Adam, As I recall
                                                                    whole narrative must be rejected as altogether too fanciful
these pamphlets now, a certain student was being examined
                                                                    for the scientifically enlightened mind. Paradise the first did
by a Classis  prior to bein,m ordained to the office of the min-
                                                                    not exist, Adam is a fanciful or allegorical figure, the worlds
istry of the Word.    During the course of the examination,
                                                                    came into being by some evolutionary process, and the fall is
it became evident that the student did not believe that Adam
                                                                    a figment of man's imagination.
was a real person, and in fact he rejected the idea of -the
first three chapters of Genesis as describng  something which          But even here the matter cannot rest. For if the fall is
actually took place. He preferred to speak of these chapters        not real, certainly there is no longer any need for the cross or
as an allegorical explanation of something other than the           for Christ who died on it "on account of sin." If one part of
literal interpretation of the text would allow. When it was         Scripture is called into question, the whole of Scripture is
pointed out to him that Paul referred to Adam as a real per-        open to debate. Paul's words cannot be trusted, nor the words


                                                 --;. _-. -_ ~_-.~~                              7----r-.- ~-              ..." . -_ ._.. ._`_.._.~__  -. . .._-.
168                                           T H E S T A N D .4-R-n  B-E A R I< i<
                                           `-                                                                                           . .
          : ..'                                                                      .'

OS Peter or John or even Christ. Scripture star&  or falls as                        ing the needs of the Christian Foundation for Handicapped

"a whole, `No, Scripture  stands. And all the effdrts of men                         Children, and contained a notice of a benefit coffte and

to destroy it cannot take one part from it. And because                             luncheon to be held in their village for that worthwhile cause.

`StiriptLire  stands the faith of the churcli.stands  - a faith alsq                         I<~~~~Muzoo's  pastor, Rev. A. MLlider,  used a bulletin

.th&.imd&stands  that the worlds were framed by the word                             notice to express his thanks for the volunteer work, provided

.of-  God, so that things which are:seen were not made from                          by his parishoners, which made possible the completion of a
.ihirigs  which do appear.                                      .                   garage on the parsonage property.

-. -' Certainly  this history in the Reformdd  Churches ought .to                            Lynden's  Dec. 11 bulletin, on the day that Rev. Harbach

hake  a` sobering effect upon `those -who  are eag%  to. firomote                    -p:-eached  on Lord's Day 22 - The Comfort of fiodiiy  R&u--

their views df periods &tead  of dais of .t6enfy'f&r's hb&`s.                        rection - contained this quote: "In this we have comfort,

,Ii is our` hbpe  that there is eriougb  strength left: in the-  Re-                 that all believers will rise at the last day ; of which Paul,

`formed Churches to combat this deeply serious error &id `to                         reasoning saith, `if the dead rise not, then is Christ not risen.'

,purge  itself of it.                                         Hi Hanko               The manner of our resurrection we may read in Ezek. 37,

                                                                                     how we shall rise with flesh and bones."

       NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES                                                                Oak Lnzm's Men's Society met in South Holland with'
                                                                                     their society, Nov. 28. The Young People's Society was
                "All tke saints salute tiee :. ." PHIL. 4.~21
                                    .                                                host to South Holland's young people on Dec. 11. The two

                                                                          9          congrega&ons  maintain a joint choral society. All this shows
                                           .-  ` D e c .   ,20,  1.960               a healthy relationship between sister churches which is
       Rev. A. Mulder, of I~alamazoo,,  declined the call-extended highly  colnlnendable

him by our Creston  congregation. _ kandolp's, new trio con-
                                                                                             South East's .congregation  has decided upon the purchase
sists of the Revs. C. Hanko, R. C. Harb&&id.M.  Schipper.
                                                                                     of a Gulbransen Organ for their new church auditorium. The
- The congregations of Forbes and Isabel joi&ly'exte&led
                                                                                     beginning of the funds for this purchase was by Mr. and Mrs.
a call to our Missionary, Rev. G. LtibQers.  --.Grand  Haven's
                                                       / _ _ ., _ _.                 Society sponsored banks, and will be completed by an addi-
congregation called the Rev. G. Van  Baren  from the I trio
                                                                                     tion of fifty cents to `the weekly budget.
presented to them.
                                                                                           .. So'&  Hollartd's ~pastor,'  Rev. J. A. Heys, inserted the
    Doon.-  Rev. Van Baren very cleverly utiiiied  the .&a&
                                                                               following notice in his Nov.  27 bulletin : "Several members of
page of his Dec. 4 bulletin to print order blanks $0; subscrip-
                                                                                     our congregations in Isabel and Forbes have asked us to ex-
tions to The Standard BeaTfey and to the Beacort  L&l&s..  Only
                                                                                     press a `word of thanks for them to our congregation for the
the blanks for the name and address w&e left for the sub-
                                                                               services our  pastor was able to perform in their midst on his
scriber to fill in-the mail address of -Mr.  Jas. Dykstra of
                                                                                     recent Classical appointment."
the Standard Bearer Board:  and Miss Janet-Kunz, of the
Beacon Lights Staff being given also. Surely only the lack                                   The Program Committee of the Reformed Witness Hour

of eight dollars could be a valid  excuse for not ordering our ; contributed the following : "During the five Sundays of Janu-
church papers.                                                                 i     ary Rev. H. Hoeksema  continues his series of radio sermons
    Fkst  - The Ladies' Aid.Society i-ecently  dispensed gifts !                     expounding the visibn of the Apostle John as recorded in the
totaling over $750.00, giving varying amount to The .Sta,nd-                         Book of R&vela&on,  chapters five and six. Thus far in this
ard Beah:,  Beacon Lights, Adams School, Chr, High Schqol,                           current series, the radio listeners have learned that the
our own High School Society, Children's Retreat, Pine Rest ;                         council of God shall surely stand unto the coming  of the

Hospital and the Recording Fund, besides laying away an-                             Kingdom of Gdd and the realization of His eternal Covenant ;
other addition to the Mission Fund they are building up.                             also that God alone realizes His kingdom, and all attempts of
    Edgerton  - The thank offering received in the Commu-                            msn to establish a kingdom of peace are vain, and that Christ
nion service held Dec. 11, was designated for the Pine Rest                          alone is worthy and powerful to bring the kingdom of
Hospital.                                                                      Heaven. Sunday,. Jan. 1, the speaker further explains the
       GT,cl,nd  Haves's  bulletin rack also contains pamphlets                      Reirelation  with a sernlon  entitled "The Lamb Receives The
furnished by First's Sunday School Pub. `Society, and ?adio  Book."                               The following three broadcasts are devoted to the
sermons which the people are advised to pass on to friends                           "Four'Horsemen,"  in which the colors of the horses and their

after having read them themselves.                                             Biblical meaning are discussed. This series of radio broad-
    Holland's jastolf,  Rev. G. Lanting was the speaker at                     : casts should prove exceedingly comforting and edifying to
`$Iope's  P.T.A. meeting held December 9.                                            all the listeners who look eagerly for the Coming of our Lord
    Hope's Mr. and Mrs. Soc'y has been added to the ever                             Jesus Christ. Written copies are available by request. .The
lengthening list of` groups to enjoy a guided tour of Children's                     address - The Reformed Witness Hour, P.O. Box 8, Grand
R.etreatl                                                                            Rapids 1, Mich."

Hudsonville's  Dec. 11 -bulletin had a special cover depict-                                 . . . . see you in church.                                     J.M.F.


