    V0LllM.E -11                            APRIL 15, 1961 - GRAND RAPIDS,  M                                          N
                                                                                 ICHIGAN                                    UMBER 14


                                                                      fruit of the Man of sin who will sit in the temple of God

                                                                      in the end of the ages, proudly proclaiming that he is God!

                                                                          Indeed, there is enmity in the heart of man, but it is

                                                                      enmity against God !

     ENMITY BETWEEN SEED AND EED                                                                 * * * *


        "`And I will put enmity between thee ,and the 2oovtinn,          But God said : "And I will put enmity between thee and
          a.wj  between thy seed and hel- seed; it s~hall  bmiss      the woman !"
          thy head, and tlaoa sldt bwisc his heel."                      That means that Eve went to heaven. If you ever are
                                                     Genesis 3 :15
                                                                      required to produce proof for the contention that Eve is

   "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,                 saved, you will find it here. God placed enmity against the

and between thy seed and her seed !"                                  devil in the heart of the woman, and that is Eve, our first j

   That, beloved reader, is the everlasting Gospel of our             mother. And to hate the devil is principally to love God.

Covenant God! Look at the picture of the erstwhile harmo-             You cannot love God and not hate the devil, and conversely,

nious Paradise, after the devil has done his hellish work!            you cannot hate the devil and not love God. The one pos-

Man, created in God's image and likeness, placed into cov-            tulates the other. The service of God is antithetical.

enant communion of friendship and love with his God, is                  And if you ask me how the Lord put enmity in the heart
fallen away from Him. who is the Source of heavenly glee              of Eve against the devil, then the answer is easy: God put

and jubilation.                                                       the love of God in her beart  through His Word and His

   Neither is he neutral with respect.to  God. He has made            Holy Spirit.
                                                                                                      .
a very careful covenant with heJi1 and the devil. His slave              And that results in two thmgs.

he is and will be after the successful temptation. He is an              Fhst,  if you have the love of God in your heart, you
enemy of God, and his seed will be the same. And we note              will hate all that is evil. And, remember, that is so in the

the enmity at once. When God comes to him in His great                absolute sense of the word: all evil. There is no evil which

mercy, and says : Where art thou ? he crawls away into the            a man loves who has the love of God in his heart. And the

underbrush and hides himself from the light and the love              reason is clear. God hates all evil, and so His child hates

of God. When God takes him to task for his disobedience,              all evil. There is no exception to the rule that God hates

he accuses God: the woman z&r.o~,z,z  Tlwu.  gavest to be zvitlz      evil, is there ? At once your heart and mind answers : No !

Iwe! When the woman is addressed and accused of her evil,             The same holds true of the child of God who has the love

she says : The serpent beguiled me ! There is no honesty or           of God spread abroad in his heart through the Holy Ghost

uprightness left in their inmost heart. Instead, they should          that is given unto him or her. And, incidentally, that is the

have said : We have sinned against Thee ! We are guilty and           reason why John says that whosoever is born of God sinneth

we have deserved nothing but to be cast away forever from             not, for he cannot sin.

Thy love and from Thy grace!                                             Second, if you have the love of God in your heart, the

   But they are filled with e'nmity  against God.                     devil will hate you.    And the reason is clear: the devil hates

   They are of the party of the devil, and have become his            goodness. And also here, there are no exceptions to the rule.

spiritual children. And from that time on, all they can do is         Are you a child of God? Then the devil hates you with a
produce offspring of the same kind, with this difference that         cruel hatred. And he hates you, not so much because you

they will make it worse from year to year and from genera-            are you, but only because he smells God in you, he tastes God

tion to generation, until the wholly logical seed will be             in you, he hears and sees'and feels God in you, And God he

produced in the end of the ages: the Antichrist! The foul             hates, and God he would like to murder, and God he will

seed of sin which our first parents sowed calls for the fouler        murder on the cruel cross in the fulness of time.

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



       Hence, to have enmity put in your heart by God is the       believe! Believing on God in Christ is the proof that the

most blessed Gospel of God. I am glad I hate the devil, and        enmity is put there. Wonderfully comfortable doctrine!

that he hates me. For it is proof that I have the love of God                                        * * * 6

in my heart, and that I hate evil, even the devil, who is the
                                                                       `L
very embodiment of evil.                                                     . . . and her seed."

                                                                      Yes, that is the offspring of God throughout all the ages.
    Oh, the boon of having enmity against the devil divinely
                                                                   That is the Church of God, the number of the elect unto
put into one's heart !
                                                                   eternal life. But they have a core, a center, a common origin

                            * * *    *                             in the one Seed of all seeds of God. Principally, the seed
                                                                   here is Christ Jesus the Lord.

   "And between thy seed and her seed !"                              Paul is our instructor here. Said he in Gal. 3 :16: "NOW
                                                                   to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith
   "Thy seed" refers to the children of the devil.
                                                                   not, And to seeds, as of many ; but as of one, And to thy

   You ask: how can the devil have offspring? Well, he             seed, which is Christ."

cannot have real, natural offspring, for he is a spirit, and          Oh yes,, Christ is the Seed of God. He has the love of
spirits do not marry and have sexual life.                         God and therefore the enmity against the devil in His heart

   But the Lord God here speaks of spiritual children. And         as no other son or daughter of Adam. He is the beginning

Jesus affirms it. Said He: "You are of your father the devil,      of the creation of God, the Firstborn of all the creatures. He

and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer         is the Firstbegotten of the dead and the Image of the in-

from the beginn:ng,  and abode not in the truth, because           visible God. It all turns around Him. It was not God's

there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh      purpose to unite Himself with all created things unto the

of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it." This Scrip-    everlasting joys of His covenant through Adam and Eve and

ture is very illuminating with respect to the subject matter       their posterity. He wanted to unite all things in Christ,

at hand. If you are a natural son or daughter of Eve, you          the Seed of all seeds.

are conceived of the devil, and the sphere of that conception         And so the Lord God placed enmity in Jesus' heart
is the sphere of the lie. So that the product is the foul          against the devil like in no other. And how He hated the

product of the lie.                                                devil. Wherever He smelled him, Jesus said: Get thee be-

   And that is true of all of us, as we are by nature. Can         hind me, Satan!

anyone produce the clean out of the unclean ? No, not one.            Blessed enmity against the devil. It spells the love of

We are all children of the devil by nature, and therefore we       God. In Christ Jesus the Lord!

are all liars from our birth. And the principal lie is this:                                         * * * *
God is no God! There is no Gad. But to the contrary: I am
God and there is no other God besides me. But the seed of             "It shall bruise thy head !"

the woman receive the love of -God  in their heart, become            Yes, that means historically first of all that we hate the

regenerated and converted, receive the image of the heaven-        whole race of snakes and that we crush their heads. But its

ly in their heart and mind and soul, become in a sense God-        fulfilment came in the fulness of time. Hatred against the

like, certainly the sons of God! There is all the difference.      devil was never revealed as when Jesus took the devil and

                                                                   crushed his head on Calvary.
   Incidentally, note that the seed of the woman receive
                                                                      The head is representative of the mind, the counsel, the
the enmity against the evil in their heart, put there of God!
Later, people would quarrel about what the seed receive.           planning brain. And the plan of the devil is known to us.
                                                                   He would remove God from His Throne and put himself in
Some say : God offers to put the enmity there. ,Others  say :
                                                                   His place. And, consequently, he would destroy God's king-
Gpd promises to put the enmity there, Still others : you may
                                                                   dom on earth; he would replace God as the King of His
put it there yourself. But the text says: And I will put
                                                                   created people, and become in His stead the Prince of this
enmity between . . . thy seed and her seed! Here is the
                                                                   world.
only warranted conclusion: if you want to put content into

the phrase: the seed of the woman, you will have to say:              But Jesus breaks this head, crushes this counsel of the

those that are or will be regenerated, in other words, the         devil, and brings it to nought. First, He restores and exalts

elect. I am curious to know what could ever be said against        the revealed covenant communion between God and man to

this. God simply says: I will put enmity between thy seed,         heavenly heights. He does so by taking the sin of Adam

that is, the devil's children, and her seed, that is, God's        and of the seed of the woman on His own head and pays for

children who receive the love of God in their heart. God does      it. And further He fulfills the law of God, and does it so

not say: I will put that blessed enmity against the devil in       intensively that they for whom He labored are brought very

your heart, provided you believe on Me or on Christ! But           closely to the heart of God.

He says: I will put enmity in your heart, and therefore you           Second, He earns the right of the judgment of the devil


                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                                                                                             315



and of all his seed. The Lord God told Him this: Sit Thou

at My right hand, until I shall make Thy enemies Thy                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                                    Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
footstool. Oh yes, the head of the Serpent is crushed.
                                                                                     Published by the REFO~  FREE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
                                 *    + * *                                        P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Gland  Rapids 7, Mich.

                                                                                                              Editor - REV. HERMAN                                          HOEKSEMA
    "               and thou shalt bruise his heel."
         . . . .                                                                   Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
    And how the devil has bruised us ! Principally, {his                                           Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E.,
                                                                                                                           Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
refers to all the anguish and pain and horror which Jesus
                                                                                   All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to or.
suffered of man and of devils. But it also refers to the                                           James Dykstra,  1326 W. Butler Ave., S. E.
suffering which the seed of the woman received from man                                                                Grand Rapids 7, Michigan

inspired by the devil and devils, as well as the suffering                         Announcements and Obituaries must be mailed to the above
                                                                                    address and will be published at a fee of $2.00. for each notice.
which we endured immediately from the hand of the devil
                                                                                    RENEWAL: Unless a definite request for discontinuance is re-
and his demons. There is temptation and doubt which he                              ceived it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription
always will try to sow in our hearts. And  he sometimes, no,                           to continue without the  formality of a renewal order.

often succeeds. But we have the victory.                                                                       Subscription price: $5.00 per year

                                                                                        Second Class postage paid at Grand Rapids, Michigan
    The bruising of our heel is only a "light affliction which

is but for a moment," and here is the joy in the midst of the

tribulations of the devil: they work an exceeding weight of                                                                     C O N T E N T S

la-Y-                                                                         MEDITATION-
    Blessed enmity! Blessed love of God which is spread                                Enmity Between Seed and Seed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  313
                                                                                                  Rev. G. Vos
abroad in our hearts, through the Holy Ghost which is given

Lmto  us !                                                            G.V.
                                                                              EDITORL~LS  -

                                                                                       Presbyterian Laymen On Predestination. . . . . . . . .._....___.  . . . ..316

                                                                                                  Rev. H. Hoeksema
                                IN MEMORIAM

    It pleased the Lord to take unto Himself in the morning of                OUR  DOCTRINE-
March 27, our beloved Wife, Mother, and Grandmother,                                   The Book of Revelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

                    MRS. ANNA VAN ALTEN-nee  ZUIDEMA                                              Rev. H. Hoelcsema

at the age of 63 years.
                                                                              A CLOUD OF WITNESSES -
   That God was her portion is our great consolation.
                                                                                        The Calling of the Gospel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
                                      Mr. Daniel Van Alten                                         Rev. B. Woudenberg
                                      Dr. and Mrs. Lloyd Van Alten

                                      Dr. and Mrs. Pierson J. Van Alten
                                                                              F
                                      3 granddaughters                             ROM HOLY WRIT -
                                                                                        Exposition               of I Timothy... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Grand Rapids, Michigan                                                                             Rev. G. Lubbers


                                IN MEMORIAM                                   IN HIS FEAR -

    The Ladies' Aid Society of the First Protestant Reformed Church                     God's Royal Priesthood                                  (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
of Grand Rapids, Michigan, mourns the loss of one of its faithful                                  Rev. J. A. Heys.

members,

                           MRS. ANNA VAN ALTEN                                CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH-
                                                                                        The Church and the Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
whom the Lord took unto Himself. May the God of all grace com-
fort the bereaved and sustain them in their                                                        Rev. H. Veldman
                                                sorrow.
    Psalm 91:1, 2. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most          THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS -
High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of                        The Belgic Confession _..._......  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
the Lord, He is my refuge atid  my fortress: my God; in Him will I                                 Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
trust."
                                            Mrs. H. Hoeksema, President
                                                                              DECENCY AND ORJJER  -
                                            Mrs. J. Newhouse, Secretary
                                                                                        Sundry Matters On Baptism ____.._.___..__.____................................                                                                                 332

                                                                                                   Rev. G. Vanden Berg
                                IN MEMORIAM i

    The Eunice Society of the Southwest Protestant Reformed Church            ALL AROUND  us -

herewith expresses its sympathy to one of its members, Mrs. Peter                       Matters Concerning the Union. . . . . . . . . .._  334

OfFringa,  in the loss of her brother,                                                  More About Aid to Schools... . . . . . . . ..____ 335

                             IMR. HENRY MORREN                                                     Rev. H. Hank0

    May the Lord grant her comfort with His Word and Spirit.                  NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES _.,.............................................................  336
                                           Rev. M: Schipper,  President                            Mr. J. M. Faber
                                            Mrs. Rex Clawson,  Secretary

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



I                                                                   would oppose therefore any change that would in any way

            E D I T O R I A L S                                     make this matter less clear or less Biblical."
                                                                        The paper further states that as early as 1938-39 a major-

                                                                    ity of the presbyteries wanted to change the Confession with
       Presbyterian Laymen On Predestination                        regard to the doctrine of predestination. At that time, how-

     Another copy of the paper of Presbyteria,n Laywzen  was        ever, the General Assembly did not adopt an overture on
published and sent to me.                                           thematter because it failed to get the required three-fourths'

     It contains especially three items : Divorce and Marriage,     majority.

Predestination, and The Directory of Worship.                           But in 19.58, twenty years later, therefore, the General

     We are especially interested in the question of predestina-    Assembly considered another  overture from one of the

tion.                                                               presbyteries proposing to delete from Chapter III of the

     The matter of divorce and marriage is, of course, also         Westminst& Confession articles or paragraphs 3, 4 and 7.

important. But, in the first place, it seems that the General       These articles read as follows:

Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church already made              "3. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his

a decision on this matter and I do not have a copy of that          glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto ever-

decision so that it is impossible for me to discuss it. And,        lasting life, and others foreordained unto everlasting death.

in the second place, I do not agree with the Westminster               "4.  These men and angels, thus predestinated and fore-
Confession on this matter. This Confession states the fol-          ordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed ; and
lowing :                                                            their number is so certain and definite that it can not be
     "Adultery or fornication,    committed after a contract,       either increased or diminished.
being detected before marriage, giveth just occasion to the
                                                                       "7. The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to
innocent party to dissolve that contract.      In the case of
                                                                    the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he ,ex-
adultery after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party
                                                                    tendeth or withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of
to sue out a divorce, and after the divorce to marry another,       his sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by and ordain
as if the offending party were dead." Chapter XXIV, 5.
                                                                    them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his
     With the last part of this article of the Westminster          glorious justice."
Confession I do not agree. It is true that, in the case of
                                                                       These are the articles to which the overture mentioned
adultery after marriage, the innocent party may sue for a
                                                                    above raised objections and it proposed to be deleted from
divorce, although this is not necessary. But if that innocent
                                                                    the Confession.
party obtains a legal divorce, he or she may not remarry.
This, to my mind, the Lord teaches rather clearly in Matt.             We may notice that these articles definitely mention the
19:9. No one may marry the innocent party.                          truth of reprobation. The other articles mention election
     But let this be. I am rather interested in the question of     but not reprobation, even-  though article 6 presupposes and
predestination. About this doctrine the                             negatively mentions it. Article 5 reads:
                                           Presbyterian Laymen
writes :                                                               "Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God,

     "At the present time a committee of our General As-            before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his

sembly is studying Chapter III of the Confession with a             eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret and good

likelihood of suggesting a change in that chapter's doctrine of     pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting

predestination and, in particular, with the aspect of that          glory, out of his mere free grace and love, without any

Biblical doctrine of the ,election  of some to salvation and        foresight of faith or good works, or perseverance in either

thereby determined to pass others by . . ."                         of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions,

     And further :                                                  or causes, moving him thereunto: and all to the praise of

     "We confess that we do not necessarily like the doctrine       his glorious grace."

of predestination [why not? I certainly do. H.H.] and that             In this articie  reprobation is not mentioned as it was in

we certainly do not fully understand it, but the ,doctrine  of      the articles to which the overture raised objections.

the election of some and the passing over of others is surely          Nor is it definitely mentioned in Art. 6, although, as I

taught in the Word of God. The proof-texts are sufficiently,        said, it rather strongly suggests and presupposes it. I quote

clear and substantial. As we ;ead  the paragraphs of the            it here:

Confession dealing with these subjects, we are impressed               "As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath he,

with the care and clarity with which the authors of the Con-        by the eternal and most free purpose of his will, foreordained

fession framed these doctrines. They teach what the Bible           all the means thereunto. Wherefore they who are elected,

teaches in Biblical proportions, and that is absolutely what        being  fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually

a Confession of Faith should do! We frankly question                called unto faith in Christ by his Spirit working in due

whether this matter can be stated. better than it is already        season ; are justified, adopted, sanctified, and. kept by his

done in the Westminster Confession as it now stands. We             power through faith unto salvation. Neither are any other


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   317



redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted,              But let me quote once more from the Prcxbyteristn

sanctified, and saved, but the elect only."                          Lnymen  : "The Assembly said `no' to the overture [i.e., to the

   The last part of this article certainly presupposes reproba-      overture mentioned before in this editorial, H.H.], but the

tion but does not speak of it positively and directly, while         answer was no indication that the Church still stood by

the articles to which objections are raised speak of being           the doctrine that her Confession teaches. In 1958 there

"foreordained to everlasting death"; and "to ordain them             were hardly any voices raised to advocate the Confession's

to dishonor and wrath" art. 3, `7. And alt. 4 `states that           full teaching on predestination. Many speakers at the As-

their number,, i.e., of the elect and reprobate, is so definitely    sembly admitted that they .no longer believkd or taught the

fixed by the decree of predestination that it can neither be         doctrine, but they said they were opposed to deletion or

increased nor diminished.                                            revision on the grounds that the doctrine is so deeply em-

    It would appear, therefore, that the objections of the           bedded within and throughout the Confession as to make

overture are especially directed against those parts of the          removal impossible by eliminating only parts of one chapter.

Confession that speak of reprobation.                                The idea largely expressed was to retain the Confession as

   And this I fail to understand.                                    it is, until a thoroughgoing revision can take place or a new
                                                                     creed substituted for the present Confession."
   How is it possible to believe in election without, at the

same time; believing in reprobation ?                                    On this I wish to make two remarks.

   Of course, if one holds the Arminian view, this might be             In the first place, as I wrote before, there is, as is.

possible. The Arminian view is that election has its ground          evident from the above quotation, a sad lack of discipline in

in foreseen faith and, therefore, reprobation is based on            the Southern Presbyterian Church. If ministers of the

foreseen unbelief. The Arminians do not believe in sovereign         Word can openly, on the floor of the General Assembly,

election and reprobation. And, therefore, the objectors to           state that they no longer believe and teach the doctrine of

chapter III of the Westminster Confession, according to the          election, there is abundant reason to apply the keys of the

overture mentioned above, might probably object to the               kingdom of heaven to them. This is also clearly expressed

language in articles 3, 4, and 7 which speak of being "fore-         in the Westminster Confession. In chapter XXX, the third

ordained to everlasting death" and of being ordained to              paragraph of that Confession we read :

"dishonor and wrath."         They might prefer the Arminian            "Church censures are necessary for the reclaiming or

conception of reprobation.                                           gaining of offending brethren ; for the deterring of others

   But if this were the case, they must necessarily also             from the like ofYen.ses  ; for purging  out of that leaven which

adopt the Arminian view of election. Then they must object,          might infect the whole lump ; for vindicating the honor of

not only to III, 3, 4, and 7, but also to the rest of the            Christ, and the holy profession of the gospel; and for

chapter. For, articles 5 and 4 of chapter III speak in rather        preventing the wrath of God, which might justly fall upon

strong and definite language of the doctrine of election as          the Church, if they should suffer his covenant, and the seals

absolutely sovpreigfz..  Thus in art. 5 it confesses that God        thereof, to be profaned by notorious and obstinate offenders."

has chosen the eiect  "according to- his eternal and immutable          The Presbytwian Laymen  cannot expect purity of doc-

purpose," that He has chosen them to everlasting glory "out          trine and the maintenance of the Westminster Confession in

of his mere free grace, without any foresight of faith or            their Church as long as this part of that Confession is

good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other          ignored. No writing of pamphlets, no matter how good and

thing in the creature, as conditions or causes, moving him           sound they may be, can take  the place of Christian discipline.

thereunto."    And in art. 6 of the same chapter the West-           The marks of the Church are: the pure preaching of the

minster confesses that the elect are redeemed, effectually           Word, the proper celebration of the sacraments, and the

called, etc. and then closes the article by saying: "Neither are     exercise of Christian discipline. Without the last the former

any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified,         two will soon prove to be impossible. I must, therefore,

adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only."                 advise the brethren of the Presbyterian Laymen  to insist

   Now, then, what about "the rest"? Let us say that God             that those who openly announced on the floor of the General

"passed them by," as also our Canons of Dordrecht express            Assembly that they no longer believe and teach the doctrine

it, and as in one place (art. 7) the Westminster has it too.         of predestination be properly disciplined.

Does this make any difference ? Is it not true that God                 In the second place, I agree with the opponents that

sovereignly passed them by? Does it not remain true that             stated that they no longer believed and taught the doctrine

God, in His sovereign good pleasure, wants to save the               of predestination, when they state that "they were opposed

elect only and that, in the same sovereign good pleasure, does       to deletion or revision on the grounds that the doctrine is so

not want to save the reprobate ?                                     deeply embedded within and throughout the Confession as

   Hence, I maintain that you cannot possibly believe in             to make removal impossible by eliminating only parts of one

sovereign election without, at the same time, believing in           chapter."    This is correct, because the doctrine of predestina-

equally sovereign reprobation. And the objectors to articles         tion, election and reprobation is the -very heart of the Con-

3, 4, and 7, must raise objections to the whole of chapter III.      fession and also of the Gospel.                            H.H.

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



                                                                    history. It is at this moment that all the powers of iniquity

                                                                    are vanquished. At this moment it is that Antichrist and all

                                                                    his host perish, that the heavens and the earth are set afire

                                                                    in order to make room for the new heavens and the new

            THE BOOK OF' REVELATION                                 earth that are to come. It is the end of this dispensation,
                                                                    to be followed by nothing else than the eternal glory in the

                         P A R T   T W O                            new creation. Nothing shall take place in history after this.
                                                                    This must be kept in mind, now and in the future. In the

                        C H A P T E R  X I X                        second place, let us also not forget that here we have the

                                                                    climax and a clear picture of the climax of the coming of
                     Revelation 19 :ll-21                           our Lord in glory. Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and

                                                                    every eye shall see Him! Here we see no continuing city.
       The Final Victor-y of the Lamb Ovel- AntichGst
                                                                    Let us be ready for His coming, when the continuing city

   ,The  victory of the One that is mounted on the white            shall be created in the new heavens and the new earth.

horse is first of all announced by the angel that stands in the
sun. That he stands in the sun is symbolic of his task. He            The Binding of Satan With a 17iera to Gog and Mayog

is to call the fowls of the heaven together to partake of the                                Revelation 20 :l-10
supper of the great God. The meaning of this passage is

plain. It symbolizes the complete victory of Him that sits                     1.      And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having
on the white horse and the shameful defeat of the enemy.                       the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his

As we know from the Old Testament, to give one's flesh to                     hand.

the birds of heaven for meat is expressive of the most com-
                                                                               2.      And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent,
plete defeat and shameful subjection of the enemy conceiv-                     which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a
able. So here, the Lord is to have the victory, complete and                   thousand years.

final victory. And the birds of heaven are called together to
                                                                               3.     And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him
partake of the flesh of the vanquished hosts of the enemy.
                                                                               up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the
   But also in actual fact the victory is assured. And the                    nations no more, till the thousand years should be ful-
victory is pictured as belonging only to Him that sits on the                  filled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

white horse. We read, first of all, of the beast and the false
                                                                              4. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and
prophet that they are cast alive into the lake of fire. There is
                                                                              judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of
no question of the fact that they are here represented as very                them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and
concrete and individual persons. But this does not necessarily                for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the

indicate that there shall be but one person that is the Anti-                 beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark

christ and another individual that is the false prophet. It                   upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived
                                                                              and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
denotes rather, in the first place, that here we have the end

of all the deviltry and rebellion and antichristian power.                     5. But the  rest of the dead lived not again until the

Without any form of trial they are destroyed forever. From                     thousand y,:ars  were finished. This is the fist resurrec-
                                                                              tion.
the lake of fire there is no return. But besides, among this

host of the Antichrist there are leaders and followers. The                    6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the fixst

great and the powerful and the wise of this world lead, and                   resurrection: on such the second death hath no power,
                                                                               but they shall be priests of. God and of Christ, and shall
the great masses follow them and their power and counsel.
                                                                              reign with him a thousand years.
So also in this case: no doubt there is a difference indicated

in our text between those that led and deceived the whole                      7. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan
                                                                               shall be loosed out of his prison,
world-the preachers and the great and the wise and the

giants of thought and science -and those that followed, the                    8. And shall go out to deceive the nations which are

masses of the earth that wondered after the tremendous                        in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to
                                                                              gather them together to battle: the number of whom is
system of the antichristian power. This difference also be-
                                                                              as the sand of the sea.
,comes  plain in their punishment. Even as there shall be

degrees of glory, so there shall be various shades of punish-                  9.     And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and
                                                                               compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved
ment. Not all have sinned in like degree, and not all shall
                                                                              city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and
be punished with like measure. The leaders are cast alive                      devoured them.
into hell; but the rest are killed there and then, to await the
final day of judgment, with the sword that proceeds out of                     10.     And the devil that deceived them was cast into the
                                                                               lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the
the mouth of Him that cometh.                                                 false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night
   And thus we have arrived once more at the very end of                      for ever and ever.


                                             T H E   STAN.DARD   B E A R E R                                                    319


    Before we enter into the interpretation of these versks        the millennium. Further, it is claimed that the word used in

from the book of Revelation, we wish to make a few prelim-         vs. 17, "to meet," means, according to the original, "a  going

inary remarks. First of all, it should be observed that Scrip-     forth in order to return with." The meaning accordingly is

ture knows of only one coming of the Lord, and that this           that we shall be caught up with Christ in the air in order to

coming marks the end of this world, and that too, by way           return with Him later. But all this is quite arbitrary, and

of a universal catastrophe, as well as by the inauguration of      certainly is not the correct interpretation of the text in I

the world to come, the new heavens and the new earth.              Thessalonians 4. As to this "first resurrection," anyone

    This observation precludes the view of the premillen-          who reads the text without prejudice, without millennially

arians, who speak of two comings of Christ. The one is             colored glasses, can readily see that it makes no distinction

called the rapture, the other the revelation. The former will      between the dead in Christ that shall be raised first and the

take place some time before the great tribulation, the latter      dead outside of Christ that shall be raised later. But the

after that tribulation. At the former will take place the          distihction  is between the dead in Christ, that is, those that

resurrection of the just and the change of those believers         have died before His coming, and the l%z~  in Christ, that

that are faithful and look for His comi,ng  ; the latter will      is, those believers that shall be alive at the parousia. The

witness the resurrection of the tribulation-saints and the         resurrection of the former shall occur before the change of

inauguration of the millennium. In the rapture the Lord will       the latter. That is the meaning of the text. And so they

come f~l-  His saints, to take them with Him in the air; in        shall meet the Lord together in the air. And the interpreta-

the revelation He will come wit/z His saints, destroy Anti-        tion given of the word "to meet" as if it should imply  the

christ, and with His people reign over the nations. But            idea of a returning with Christ is a pure invention. The

even in both these comings the end of the world is not             Greek term does not even remotely suggest this notion. Nor

realized. They will mark the end of this "age," but they in-       does the rest of the passage harmonize with the premillennial

augurate another age, that of the millennium. Only after the       conception of the rapture. The text quite clearly refers to

millennium is the last enemy, death, destroyed and eternity,       a public and universally announced coming of the Lord. The

or "the ages of ages," ushered in. When therefore the premil-      Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice

lenarians speak of the coming of the Lord, they have in mind       of the archangel, and with the trump of God. If this means

especially the "rapture" and the "first resurrection." This        anything at all, it certainly means that there will be nothing

may be expected momentarily, may come at any time. The             private or secret about this coming, but it will be loudly

blessedness of that rapture is t&at  those who are deemed          proclaimed to all the world. But according to the millennial

worthy of it shall escape the great tribulation under Anti-        view, this will be a coming only for the church, only for

christ and have part in the marriage supper of the Lamb.           the faithful believers. The world will not even notice this

   We cannot possibly agree with this view or with the             private coming of the Lord, except that certain persons will

interpretation of Scripture generally and with the interpreta-     suddenly be strangely missed. And while the millennial view

tion of Revelation 20 :l-10 specifically.                          emphasizes that there will be a return from this rapture and

   First of all, it is an essential element in this view that      that it will last only during the years of the great tribulation
it is based upon an erroneous interpretation of the Old Testa-     in the world, the text, on the contrary, emphasizes that it
ment, which leads to a separation of Israel and the church         will be ~%VYBZUY:  "And  so shall we ever be with the Lord."

as if they were two separate peoples. The former, Israel, is          Then, too, the idea that believers must look forward to

the kingdom people; the latter, the church, is the body of         their final redemption through the coming of the Lord before

Christ. A correct interpretation of the Old Testament in           the yeat  tv~bdat~on  is contrary to all the current teaching

the light of the New will lead to the conclusion that Israel       of Holy Writ, which not only warns us to expect tribulation,

and the church are not two peoples, but one.                       but also, rather than exhorting us to rejoice in the idea of

   Then too, the view of the two comings, the rapture and          escaping it, emphasizes that we shall consider it a great

the revelation, is based on a wrong interpretation of several      honor and privilege to suffer with Christ. To suffer in behalf

passages of Holy Writ. An outstanding example of this              of Christ is given us of grace. Phil. 2 :29.  The millennium

wrong interpretation is that of the passage in I Thessalonians     hope of escaping the tribulation is not spiritual, but carnal.

4:16  and 17:    "For the Lord himself shall descend from          And it is as dangerous as it is false, because it fills its fol-

heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel,          lowers with a false hope that will leave them unprepared

and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall            in the evil day.

rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be               In the fourth place, the Bible throughout clearly connects

caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the            with the one and only coming of the Lord the end of this

Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."           world, the final salvation of the whole church, the last judg-

It is claimed that this passage of Scripture plainly teaches       ment, and the creation of the new heavens and the new

what the premillem~ialist  terms "the first resurrection," that    earth. Consider; for instance, Matthew 24 :29-31: "Imme-

is, the resurrection of the just in distinction from the resur-    diately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be

rection of the wicked, which is supposed to take place after       darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the


320                                        T H E   STANDA:RD   B E A R E R



stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens         horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads

shall be shaken : And then shall appear the sign of the Son of      the name of blasphemy." It is understood without difficulty

man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth           that all this was seen by John in a vision. And the same is

mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the              true of the entire passage of the book of Revelation which we

clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall           are now discussing. It is not contradicting, but a correct

send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they           interpretation of Scripture when we say that John did not

shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one       actually see an angel come down with a great chain in his

end of heaven to the other." And thus, in Matthew 25 :31,  ff .,    hand and the key of the bottomless pit, and that he did not

we read: "When the Son of man shall come in his glory,              actually see that the devil was bound and shut up in the

and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the        bottomless pit, but that he saw all this as it was represented

throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all           to him in a vision. Neither must a vision be interpreted as

nations : and he shall separate them one from another, as a         if it were a mere and direct foretelling of events as they shall

shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." And once more,         actually happen. It would not be interpreting but doing

consider the Lord's own interpretation of the parable of the        violence to Scripture and also to this particular passage of

tares : "The harvest is the end of the world ; and the reapers      Scripture if we should  paraphrase these verses in the follow-

are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and             ing fashion : "Then shall an angel come down from heaven

burned in the fire ; so shall it be in the end of this world.       with the key of -the bottomless pit and a great chain in his

The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall          hand.-  And he shall lay hold on the dragon, that old serpent,

gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them          which is the Devil, and Satan, and shall bind him a thousand

which do iniquity ; And shall cast them into a furnace of           years."    Such a paraphrasing of the text completely disregards

fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then            the fact that the passage speaks of a vision. The question

shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of        is rather : what is the central idea of the vision ? What fact

their Father." Matt. 13 :39-43.                                     does John here behold as being realized before his eyes?

   Finally, this view is based on an interpretation of the          And the answer to this question is readily given: that the

book of Revelation that is neither in accord with~the  highly       devil is bound by a divine decree, so that he is prevented

apocalyptic contents of the whole book nor with the evidently       from accomplishing his purpose. The angel coming down

symbolic presentation of Chapter 20 itself. It is quite im-         from God to carry out this decree, the key of the bottomless

possible to read this 20th chapter of the book of Revelation        pit, the great chain, the shutting and the sealing -all these

as if it recorded a simple historical event that will take          may be regarded as belonging to the form of the vision only.

place some time in the future, an event that will follow in         But they all serve to emphasize the fact that Satan is bound

time upon what was revealed in Chapter 19 of the same book.         by the divine decree securely and effectively, so that during

Such an interpretation is quite impossible.                         the period of his confinement he cannot carry out his evil

   These are the preliminary remarks which I wanted to              purposes.

make before entering into the interpretation of the text itself.
                                                                       We must also understand, for a correct interpretation of
And this is certainly evident, that Scripture teaches not all
                                                                    this widely discussed part of the book of Revelation, that it
kinds of different comings of the Lord, but only one coming.        is extremely important that we conceive of it in its true light,

                            * * * +                                 that is, merely as another apocalyptic picture of some phase

                                                                    of the "day of the Lord."      Any attempt to carry into this

       And now we will interpret the text itself.                   prophecy the time element and interpret it as if the events

   John writes that he "saw an angel come down from                 here foretold follow in time upon those referred to in

heaven, having the key of the bottomiess pit and a great            Chapter 19, 11-21,  must fail. In 19:17,  ff., we have the

chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon; that old         picture of the destruction of all nations. Yet here we still

serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a             meet with those very nations that live on the four corners

thousand years. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and           of the earth. This can be understood only if we take the

shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive        stand that in Revelation 20:1-10  a new aspect of the same

the nations no more, till the thousand years should be ful-         "day of the Lord," other phases of which have been pi&red

filled; and after that he must be loosed a little season." It is    before, is presented here. This particular vision presents to

very evident that in these words the Seer of Patmos  describes      us the aspect of the judgment upon Gag and Magog, together

not what he saw happening historically, but what he beheld          with an explanation of the fact that these nations appear

in a vision. A strictly literal interpretation of the text,         upon the scene last, and of the final judgment of the dragon,

therefore, is not in harmony with the nature of the passage.        the devil. Hence, we may not read as if John had written,

Nor is it possible. No one thinks of the possibility of a           "And after this shall the devil be bound a thousand years,

literal interpretation when in Revelation 13 :1 the prophet         etc.," as all the premiilennialists  must needs do. But we must

tells us that "he stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a          leave the text as it stands: "And I saw an angel come down

beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten            from heaven, etc."     The angel has "the key of the bottomless


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                             321



pit and a great chain in his hand." Evidently John beholds          the elect are gathered into the church, as nations they re-

the angel in some human, physical form. For "the key of             main distinctly heathen. Gog and Magog, therefore, are

the bottomless pit" confer Chapter 9, verse 1. The bottom-          heathen nations in distinction from nominal Christendom.

less pit is the proper temporary abode of the devil and his             We may note here that the dragon, the devil, upon which

angels. Cf. II Peter 2:4. The key and the chain are not to          the angel lays hold is described in all his evil powers. He

be allegorized. In the picture they are just that, and nothing      represents the prince of this world as the spiritual power

else. They represent the power of the angel to open and             behind all the antichristian forces of opposition to Christ

shut the pit and to bind Satan.                                     and His church. Cf. Chapter 12:3,  4. Moreover, he is de-

   Before we go farther, we must ask the question not only,         scribed here in all his evil purposes and power of deceit. He
but also very definitely answer it, whether this imprisonment       is the old serpent, referring, of course, to the temptation in
of Satan, this secure confinement of the devil, must be re-         paradise. He is called the devil, that is, the liar and deceiver,
garded as absolute and complete, so that he is restrained in        mud-slinger, accuser of the brethren. And he is described, or
all his activity, or as relative and in part, so that the           `named, as Satan, the opponent, the adversary of Christ and
restraint placed upon him limits him in part, only in a             of the cause of God in the world. In the vision the angeI
certain direction, and dooms him to partial inactivity only.        overpowers the devil and securely binds him with the chain,
This question is answered in the text. And the text replies         casts him into the bottomless pit, locks the pit, and sets a
to this question without a doubt that the restraint is partial      seal upon him, that is, seals the pit against all violation.
and with a view to a certain sphere of action. For the purpose                                                                        H.H.

of the binding of Satan is designated in verse 3 as being

"that he should deceive the nations no more." And in verse

S we are informed still more definitely that when he shall be
                                                                                              IN MEMORIAM
loosed for a little season, he "shall go out to deceive the

nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and            The Ladies' Aid Society of the Doon  Protestant Reformed Church

Magog, to gather them to battle: the number of whom is as           hereby wishes to extend its sincere sympathy to two of its members,
                                                                     Mrs. Henry Kuiper and Mrs. Clarence Klein in the death of their
the sand of the sea." If we take these two passages in con-
                                                                    husband and father.
nection with each other, it may be regarded as established,
                                                                        May our Triune God comfort and sustain them in their sorrow.
in the first place, that the binding of Satan is limited to

certain nations which are called Gog and Magog ; and, sec-                                                 Rev. G. Van Baren,  President

ondly, that this confinement prevents him from deceiving                                                   Mrs. P. Van Den Top, Secretary

those nations ;    and, in the third place, that the deception

which by his imprisonment, or the restraint that is put upon                                  IN MEMORIAM
him, he is prevented from realizing is what would otherwise
                                                                        Our Society would like to express its sympathy with our brethren
cause these nations to gather for battle against the camp of
                                                                    Jolm and Hilbert Kuiper in the loss of their Father,
the saints and the beloved city. Of Gog and Magog we read

in Ezekiel 38 :2, ff., and Ezekiel 39:1-l&  There Gog is the                                HENRY KUIPER Sr.

prince of Rosh, Meshech  and Tubal, of the land of Magog.            who was taken home recently. May the God of all grace comfort

They constitute a vast horde that descend upon Israel from           the hearts of the bereaved family.

the north, even from the limit of the horizon, to make a                                              The Men's Society of the Hudsonville

final onslaught on the people of God. But hailstones, fire,                                           Protestant Reformed Church:

and brimstone from heaven cause their utter destruction. In                                                      Rev. Gerrit Vos, President
the passage of Revelation which we are now discussing these                                                      Harry Zwak,  Secretary
same hordes are simply called Gog and Magog, and now

they are described as living on the four corners of the earth                                 IN MEMORIAM
and as coming on the camp of saints from every direction.
Israel here is to be taken, in harmony with all Scripture, in           The Ladies' Society extends herewith its condolences to our
                                                                    fellow member, Mrs. William Lems,  who lost her Father,
the New Testament sense of the word. The vision of the

restored Israel of which Ezekiel 38 and 39 speak has been                                   HENRY KUIPER Sr.

realized in the church of the new dispensation. It is "the          aged 79 years, at Doon,  Iowa.
camp of the saints" and it is "the beloved city." That is
                                                                        May the Lord God comfort the hearts of the bereaved, and give
Christianity in its widest sense, as it exists and develops in
                                                                    them the patience of faith to wait for the blessed day of the resur-
the new dispensation and corresponds to the nation of Israel        rection.
in the Old Testament. It is represented in the text as being                                               The Ladies' Society:

situated in the center of the earth. Around it, on the four                                                      Rev. G. Vos, President
quarters of the `earth, that is, outside of the pale of history,                                                 Mrs. Bert Maring,  Secretary
are nations that remain pagan. Although also from them              Hudsonville, Mich.

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


                                                                    43 :1 j, and has given others for its service (Isa. 43 :3, 4).

11 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 11                                          Even the king's heart is in His hand, and He turns it whither-
                                                                    soever  He will (Prov. 21 :l).

                                                                       3. Thirdly, there is the calling of God's Word in His

                The Calling of the Gospel                           justice. All men have sinned and have come short of the
                                                                    glory of God ; they have rebelled against their Maker (Rom.

   A small group of people stood one day before an open             3 :lO-23). But God is a God of justice and concerning this

tomb just outside Bethany  of Judea.  Their eyes were on the        sin He will not remain silent (Ps. 50 ~3 j . He testifies against

man who had commanded that the grave should be opened               it. He has done so through the curse which He laid upon

even though it was all of four days since the body of his           the earth, the thorns and thistles, the storms and pestilence

friend had been laid to rest. It was a strange command, for         and famines (Gen. 3 :17-19).  Now He does this even more

in that hot climate putrefaction would be well progressed.          clearly through the Word of His Gospel commanding all

Then the man spoke. He said, "Lazarus, come forth." Be-             men everywhere to repent of their sin (Acts 17 :30).

fore their very eyes, they saw the corpse that was in the grave        4. Finally, there is the Word of God which goes forth
arise and come forth. Even today, we look back upon this            as a calling of grace. Grace is an attribute of God. God is
event and marvel.                                                   a gracious God (Ex. 34 :6), which means, He is a God of

   This event, together with many others, served to demon-          ethical pleasantness and beauty. This grace God has deter-

strate the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was more than just a         mined to make known through His Word among men.

man ; He is also the Son of God. To His voice belongs the           Gracious is this Word of God as it goes forth in power unto

very authority and power of God. It is able to produce its          man. It calls him forth out of darkness into God's marvelous

own effect. Man with his words must depend for influence            light (I Peter 2:9).  It renews man after the very image

upon his uncertain powers of persuasion, and always the             of God (Co]. 3 :lO).  It is the power of God unto salvation

results are very temporary. God speaks and it is done (Ps.          to everyone that believeth (Rom. 1:16  j . In the Word of

33 :9). As He said to Isaiah, "So shall my word be that             the Gospel is the grace of God revealed through Jesus Christ

goeth forth out of my mouth : it shall not return unto me           His Son (Rom. 5 :15).

void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
                                                                       It is especially with these latter two elements of the Word
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isa. 55 :ll). Nor is       of God that we are concerned. They constitute what we
there any limit to the working of God's Word of power. It
                                                                    know as the Gospel. This Gospel, Jesus Christ has given
has gone out through all the earth and even unto the ends
                                                                    unto His Church to be proclaimed unto the ends of the world
of the world (Ps. 19:4).                                            (Mark 16:15).  The same power is still contained in that

       As ,we  consider the working of this Word of God, we         Gospel as when it was spoken by Jesus Himself. Shortly

can distinguish it into four different aspects.                     after the raising of Lazarus, He said to His disciples, "Verily,

       1. First, there is the Word of God as it called the crea-    verily, I say unto you, He that believeth. on me, the works
tion into being. In the beginning all things were created           that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these
by the Word of God (John 1 :l-3). Into the emptiness                shall he do" (John 14 :12) _ Not so much as though the work
before time when no material being existed, God spoke and           of the Church is to call forth the physically dead, although
called forth the things which be not as though they were            also this was done by the apostles, but the greater work of
(Rom. 4 :17  j. He said, "Let there be light," and there was        the Church is to call forth the spiritually dead unto eternal
light (Gen. 3 :3). He stretched forth the heavens above and         life. This can be done because the Gospel, when faithfully
spread the earth beneath and gave breath unto man (Isa.             proclaimed, does not become the word of man; it remains the
42 :5 j. "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the           word of God.

sea, and all that in them is" (Ex. 20 :ll ) . The mind of man          The first element of the Gospel, as we have seen, is the
can not understand it. Only faith can believe it (Heb. 11 :3).      call to `repentance.    Jesus expressly commanded that this

       2. Secondly, there is the Word of God in His providence.     should be proclaimed unto all nations (Luke 24:47).  This

Having created the universe, He would not leave it to go on         is a very important part of the Gospel. It is to be found

by itself. Rather He remains very close to it so that there         throughout the pages of Scripture. Again and again it

is nowhere that one can go and escape from His presence             echoed from the lips of the prophets throughout the old

(Ps. 139.:7-12), and the apostle Paul could say, "For in            dispensation; it went forth as a cry in the wilderness from

him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17 :2S).           the mouth of John the Baptist standing on the bank of the

By the Word of God all things are preserved and held in             Jordan ; the apostles carried it throughout the borders of the

existence (Neh. 9 :6), and they are guided according to His         Roman Empire ; and even Jesus gave as the purpose of His

counsel (Isa. .46 :lO). He rules over the brute creation            coming, to call sinners to repentance. It is the revelation of

(Ps. 104),  but also over the ways of man (Jer. 10 23.)  He         God's justice, and God's justice will not remain silent. No

has called forth a nation and a people unto Himself (Isa.           man has a right to sin against God. This the Gospel tells


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  323



all men everywhere. It commands them to repent (Acts 17 :           ante,  the call of grace is very particularly addressed. It

30). This command must be preached to all men, but never            speaks only to those who have heard the call to repentance

may it be changed. It may not be presented as a mere plea           with their hearts and have obeyed it. They are variously

or invitation. It may not be brought down to the level of           distinguished in Scripture. They are called the laboring and

the word of man which must depend upon uncertain powers             heavy-laden (Matt. 11 :2S), the thirsty (John 7 :37  ; Isa.

of persuasion. God does not plead or beg ; He commands.             55 :l), the meek (Matt. 5 :5 ; Zeph. 2 :3), the mourning

He tells all men everywhere that He has no pleasure in sin.         (Matt. 5 :4),  they that hunger and thirst after righteousness

Only this is acceptable to Him that the wicked turn from            (Matt. 5 :6),  the willing    (Rev. 22 :19), and the believing

his sin and repent (Ezek.  33 :ll).                                 (John 3 :16).  These are spiritual characteristics and can be

                                                                    found only in those who have been touched by an awareness
   When this call to repentance is faithfully proclaimed, it
                                                                    of their sins. This sin weighs upon their hearts as a burden
is always powerful to produce an effect, although that effect
                                                                    of which they long to be relieved; it causes them to be meek
may not always be what we might expect.
                                                                    and mourning under the sorrow of their guilt; it makes them

   In some this call of the Gospel brings forth fruits of           to hunger and thirst for the righteousness of the kingdom of

repentance. It illuminates their minds so that they recognize       God. They are the blind to whom Christ comes to give sight

themselves for what they really are, sinners incapable of           (John 9 :39).  They are the sick to whom Christ appears as

doing any good and inclined to all evil. It pricks them in the      a physician (Matt. 9 :12). They are the sinners who are

heart so that in misery for their sins they cry out like the        called by the Savior (Mark 2 :17).  They are the sheep .that

multitude on Pentecost, "Men and brethren, what shall we            hear the voice of the Shepherd and follow Him (John 10 :26,

do ?" (Acts 2 :37)  The reason why they so respond is that          27).

God has prepared their hearts for the Gospel. He has taken             The reason why this call of grace is so particularly ad-
out their old heart of stone and given them a new heart that        dressed is that God is always serious in the speaking of His
is soft and receptive to His Word (Ezekiel 11 :19,  20). He         Word. God does not lie. He is serious when He tells all
has given them ears to hear His Word, eyes to see, and hearts       men that it is their duty to repent from their sins, and that
to understand that it is true (Isa. 35 :5). They are born           only such repentance is pleasing in His'eyes. So also He is
again by the Spirit that they may see the kingdom of God            serious when He calls only those who have the marks of
and through repentance enter in (John 3 :3, 5). They are the        spiritual life unto salvation.    It is only for them that He has
sheep given of the Father who hear the voice of the                 provided salvation, and only to them can it be given. The
shepherd and repent (John 10 27).                                   Scriptures clearly teach that God has made a distinction be-

   The rest who hear the call to repentance respond too, but        tween men in His eternal counsel (Rom. 9 ; Eph. 1; Jude 4 ;

in quite a different way. They reject the Word of God and           I Peter 2 :S, 9). There are those who shall not come to salva-

turn from it in derision.      In their pride they are become       tion and this, the Gospel serves to reveal (Mark 4:11, 12).

fools and refuse to acknowledge that they are sinners. They         The Gospel offends them and drives them away (John 6 :66).

are that rebellious people who have eyes to see and see not,        The reason is that grace is not given them of the Father (John

ears to hear and hear not (Ezek.  12 :2). Nor need we be            6:65).  It is those who are ordained to eternal life that are

surprised at this. It does not mean that the Word has               called by grace, not according to works, but according to God's

proved ineffective. God has told us that it must be so (Isa.        purpose of grace (Rom. 2 :28-30  ; II Tim. 3 :9). The hearts of

6:9, 10). The Gospel is a two-edged sword cutting both              such God opens that they may attend to the Words of eternal

ways (Heb. 4:12, 13). It is a savour of life unto life, but         life (Acts 16:14).  They are the sheep given unto Jesus who

also of death unto death (II Cor. 2 :15,  16). It is "a stone of    hear the voice of the shepherd (John 10 :27-29). Being

stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble        ordained to eternal life, they believe and are saved (Acts

at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were            13 :48).

appointed" (II Peter 2 :S) . Thus when Moses called Pharaoh            Thus the Word of God's grace is a powerful means unto
to repentance, he hardened his heart because it was the wiI1        salvation. It draws the elect unto salvation, without which
of the Lord (Ex. 4 :21).     J esus purposely spoke in parables
                                                                    no one can be saved (John 6 :44). It brings the thirsty to
SO that the wicked might clearly be shown the will of the
                                                                    drink of the waters of life. It brings the hungry to eat of
Lord and turn from that which they hated (Mark 4 :ll, 12).
                                                                    the bread of life. It brings the weary to rest, and speaks

    It is exactly as Jesus said, "Many are called, but few          peace to those who mourn. The Gospel is the power of God

are chosen" (Matt. 22 :14).                                         unto salvation to every one that believeth (Rom. 1 :16).

   `The  second element of the Gospel iS the calling of grace.      Having heard it, every child of God is sure to echo the con-

It is from this element especially that the Gospel derives its      fession of the apostle, "For by grace are ye saved through

name, meaning, the good news. Like the call to repentance,          faith ; and that not of yourselves ; it is the gift of God" (Eph.

it is to be preached throughout all the world. The two must         2:s).

always be preached together. But unlike the call to repent-                                                                     B.W.


324                                         TH:`E..ST.AN,D.&:R'D .BEARER


                                                                      gospel, and, in fact, to write a great share of the New Testa-

11      F R O M   HO.LY  W R I T   11 ment Scriptures. God chooses the worst possible specimen to
                                                                      show the real nature of salvation, namely, that the Son of

                                                                      Man came to seek and to save that which is lost.

                   Exposition of I Timothy                                   3. Small wonder that Paul ends in a grand doxolo,T,
                                                                      which reads : "Now unto the king eternal, the immortal, in-

                        (I Timothy 1:12-17)                           visible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and

                                                                      ever." Verse 16.

                                 a.                                         4. And Timothy must take this all to. heart as a young

      It is with a great deal of spiritual joy that I pen these       preacher. Only thus shall he be able to fight the good war-
lines in attempting to give some explanation of this beautiful        fare, having faith and a good conscience, so that the end of
section from this first Chapter of first Timothy.                     the law is realized in him. Verse 1s.

                                                                            Permit us to say just a few things about the verses 12214
      The reason ?
                                                                      in this essay, which read as follows: "A,utd  I thank Ch&st
      It is simply this: here Paul shows us how in his own life
                                                                      Jesus OZL~ Lord, zvho bath enabled me, for that he comted
the great truth of the gospel of free and sovereign grace is
                                                                      me faithful, putting me into the WL~T&"J?I;  who was before a
exemplified! Salvation is not of works. It is not of him
                                                                      bla@hemer,  a.nd  a persecutor, and i@wiozt.~;  bzt I obtained
that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God who
                                                                      mercy,  because I d,id ,it ,igrtog-a&y  ,in unbelief. Artd .ths  grace
showeth p@ercy.  Rom. 9 :16.  Paul is a vessel of mercy,, and,        of mu-  Lovd  was exccedirtg  abmdarzt  with faith nnd love
as such, a chosen vessel of God, formed by God's grace alone,
                                                                      roltick   i s   i n   C h r i s t   J e s u s . "
to be a ground-type of all who would afterwards believe.
                                                                            We would call attention to the following salient points :
God chose the chief of sinners to show, to demonstrate
clearly, once and for all, the greatness of his matchless grace             In the first place, Paul says that he thanks Christ Jesus
and longsuff ering.                                                   our Lord. The construction in the Greek text is peculiar.
                                                                      Literally he says: "I have thanks, or grace" to Christ Jesus
      That is a powerful argument against those who would be
                                                                      our Lord. This is for him a conscious and an ever-present
"teachers of law," and who confidently affirm that of which
                                                                      reality. See for this also II Tim. 1:3. Never was there a
they know really nothing.
                                                                      time when Paul was not filled with the beauty of gracious
      I am glad with this truth of the gospel ; it gives hope also    thanks to Christ. Him he worships and before him he
to me, poor sinner that I am. This is not a terrifying theme          labor as a servant of loving gratitude. For gratitude in
concerning which to write. It is full of that so often repeated       Scripture is more than a "feeling," a sentiment. It is com-
assurance of Jesus, "fear not ye, for I know that ye seek             posed of both justice and truth. It is "justice" in that it
Jesus who was crucified." Matthew 28:5.                               gives honor where honor is due. It recognizes Christ, the

      Paul speaks here of the grace of God as it was expe-            Lord, as being worthy of this honor for what he has per-

rienced ,by him.       And what Paul has experienced is the           formed in Paul and through him. On the other hand it is also

death-blow to all attempts to be justified by works of law.           truthfulness; it also expresses what Christ in justice has

The great apostle evidently never grows weary of speaking             coming to him. That such is the nature of "thanks" here

of this great mercy of God to him; the mercies of Christ are          is evident from the doxology in verse 17: "Now unto the

his all in all. It is because of the mercy of God that Paul is        King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor

accounted faithful. Nothing  else makes man faithful ; old            and glory forever, Amen." Well may one have a continuous

things then pass away and all things become new, and all              and ever-present thanks to such a God in Christ- Jesus.

things come to stand in their proper God-ordained place and                 In the second place, it should be noticed that Paul's
relationship.                                                         thanks is to Christ from the viewpoint of his being the one
      Let us then attend to what Paul here tells Timothy and          "who has empowered me." He is the "me-having-empowerecl-
through him to the church of the ages.                                one."       Thus the Greek. Did not Jesus  say to his disciples

      Concerning this entire section, verses 12-17, we may state      on the mount of Olives that "the powrer  of the Holy Ghost

the following :                                                       shall come upon you"? Acts 1 :S. A11cl  this power is really

      1. That it is a description of the great grace of -God, by      "ability," that which makes one able. It is not simply the

which Paul is en&&;  and for this alone Christ, the  Lord,            power of "right," authority, but it is the inner ability in the

must receive all the recognition. Paul evidently refers to all        inward man which is fram Christ, making the helpless' strong

that he has received from Christ, both in his personal sub-           and able. And for thi?  once-and-for-all enabling gift of

jective life as a believer and as an office-bearer in the church,     Christ Paul has thanks in justice and in truth.

apostle to the Gentiles.                                                    In the third place, we should notice that Christ has a

      2. Special attention is called by Paul to the divine            good reason for empowering Paul?  and placing him into the

purpose of God in empowering a man like Paul to preach the            ministry in the church. He "accounted me faithful, placing


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   .BEARER                                                  325



me into the ministry." Christ had confidence in Paul. Now             stoned. It was the mere pleasure of seeing the believers

Christ certainly could not have had confidence in Christ in           wince under his dominiqn.  And to this one mercy is ac-

his church based upon his past record. That was very bad              corded. He is delivered from all his helpless, self-righteous-

prior to Paul's conversion from being a Pharisee to a humble          ness, and placed in the service of Christ as a thankful, re-

penitent at Christ's feet. Yet, the text says that Christ             deemed believer.

counted him faithful and this trust is evidenced by placing him          In the fifth place, we should notice the reason why Paul
into the ministry. Now how are we to understand this ? We             received mercy. The reason is : ignmmzt  u&e&f!  Says Paul :
believe that this either refers to the divine ' reckoning of          "I did it ignorantly in unbelief." Paul had a zeal for God
Paul's qualities, a preordained vessel, destined to the min-          when he persecuted the Christians. It was "sincere" mis-
istry from his mother's womb, Gal. 1 :15,  or that in God's           placed zeal. It was an attempt to maintain the necessity of
divine reckoning he saw that Paul would be faithful by God's          keeping the law perfectly to be justified. It conceived of
grace. I Cor. 15 :lO. Possibly Paul does not exclude either           God's covenant as a contract; a pay as you go proposition.
one of these alternatives. Looking back Paul sees that it was         It was the Pelagianistic conception of salvation: the free-
all divine reckoning of grace.    And this was not based upon         will of man. And attempting to maintain that status ~LIO  of
works of law which he had performed.                                  Jewish religion in the synagogue he was ignorant of the

   In the fourth place, it is emphatically a matter of pure           true faith. He did not willfully sin against God. He did it

mercy when Paul is empowered both to faith and to the                 ignorantly. In his ignorance he subjectively was sincere.

ministry. These two, faith and the ministry, cannot- be               Truly this was unbelief, that is, it was not-believing. It was

separated. For it is a historical fact that when Paul is              unbelief evidentiy in the negative sense: not knowing Christ

called to the ministry he is also called to faith ; he is bap-        and the power of his resurrection, being conformed unto his

tized in Damascus. It was here that God revealed His Son              death. All he knew was law; he did not know that the end

in Paul. Acts 9:lS; Gal. 1 :15, 16. And what a man in                 of the law is love from a pure heart, good conscience and

whom to reveal His Son! Did not Ananias say: "Lord, I                 faith unfeigned! And so Paul fell in the category of those

have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done            who receive mercy, the thousands of generations of those

to the saints at Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from           who love God and keep his commandments. He is not in the

the chief priests to bind, all that call on thy name" ? Of this       class of those of whom Heb. 6 :4 speaks : "For it is impossible

conduct during that time Paul says of himself in Acts 22 :4 :         for those who were once enlightened, and having tasted the

"And I persecuted this way unto death, binding and deliver-           heavenly gift . . . if they shall fall away, to renew them again

ing unto prisons both men and women, as also the high-                unto repentance."

priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders:           In the sixth place, we should notice that, therefore, the
from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and              grace of God is magnified exceedingly in the case of Paul.
went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound                What a faith and iove this grace wrought in Paul. It was a
unto Jerusalem, for to be punished." And in Gal. 1 :13  Paul          faith working by love. And so the end of the law truly is
writes concerning his former conduct toward the church:               attained in Paul, the law of God written in his heart. Gone
"For ye.have  heard of my conduct in times past in the Jew's          is all his self-righteousness. He died. Sin revived. And
religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church             what he now lives he lives by the faith of the Son of God,
of God, and wasted it," and in Gal. 1 23 he writes : "But             who loved and gave His life for him.
they had heard only that he which persecuted us in times                 Such is the grace of God. Where sin abounds grace does
past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. And             much more abound.
they glorified God in me."
                                                                         Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift !
   In this passage here in I Tim. 1:12-14  Paul speaks of                                                                        G.L.
himself as having been placed in this ministry and accounted

faithful notwitlzsfandhzg  that he was a blasphemw, a perse-

cutor and an insolent ,ma.n..  Paul did not simply speak evil

of the Christians, but he spoke evil of the way of faith, at-         Christian School Tefachers  and Teachers-To-Be:
tempting to uphold salvation by works. Compare Phil. 3 :4-7.
                                                                         Whereas the Loveland Prot. Ref. Christian School Sol
He had been more confident concerning salvation by the law
                                                                      ciety plans, D.V., to open its own school in Sept. of 1961,
than any teacher of law could ever be. He rang the bell one
                                                                      the Board encourages ALL interested teachers and teachers-
hundred percent  in that respect. He was second to none ; he
                                                                      to-be. to inquire for further details. It is requested! that ap-
needed not to be outdone by anyone in blasphemous and
                                                                      plicants include name, credits or degree, experience, if any,
calumniating speech. See Gal. 1 :14.  Paul had pressed for-
                                                                      and espected  salary. Contact :
ward beyond many in his day in the Jewjs religion. Then he
                                                                                                         Gilbert Griess, Secretary
is arrested by Jesus Christ. In the midst of his persecution
he is stopped in his very tracks.    He an                                                               Route 1, Box 282
                                               ,&soled man is con-

verted by Christ. It gave him pleasure to see a Stephen                                                  Loveland, Colorado

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


                                                                    consider also that confession of Him before men with word

              I N   H I S   F E A R                                 that is not song, and that speech unto God Himself in prayer
                                                                    which also is praise.    But at the moment we wish to point

                                                                    out that behind all this singing, praying and confessing is our

                                                                    calling ever to be learning.
                  God's Royal Priesthood                                                            0, indeed, the prophet in this
                                                                    life must ever be learning, learning to know this God Whom

                                (4)                                 he is to praise. How could Moses ever speak to Israel and

                                                                    teach God's people His ways in the wilderness if he had not
   "Praise God from Whom all blessings flow."
                                                                    been called to the burning bush and on top of Mt. Sinai to
   Thus we sing.
                                                                    learn from the mouth of God the truth which he was to
   But just what do we mean by that?
                                                                    teach unto God's people ? Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel
   Do we mean by this to exhort others to praise God ? Or
                                                                    and all the minor prophets had to learn the truth themselves
is there implied in these words the thought, "I will praise
                                                                    before they could impart it to the Church. God comes to
God from Whom all blessings flow"? It does make a great
                                                                    His people through the minds, the tongues and the hands of
deal of difference.
                                                                    these men even today. They first learned the truth from the
       It is, in fact, a rather stirring and vigorous hymn which
                                                                    mouth of God in direct revelation. Only that which they
we sing as a doxology to God. It has power, and it ought
                                                                    learned could they speak at that time to the Church and
to be sung as a song of praise and not as a wail of complaint.
                                                                    write by infallible guidance for the Church of God through-
How pathetic it sounds when a congregation drags this song
                                                                    out the ages. They could not be prophets to teach and praise
of praise along, sings listlessly and with little enthusiasm.
                                                                    God except in the way of listening to God speak. And no
There is something wrong, radically wrong, when that is the
                                                                    different it is with you and me. Because our fathers and
case. Listen to the singing in your church this coming Sun-
                                                                    mothers from our early infancy, because our former pastors
day. Is it sung as a song of praise ? Is there a vibrant sound
                                                                    and Christian school teachers taught us from the Word of
of joy and enthusiastic faith in it? It makes no difference
                                                                    God, we know this God from Whom all blessings flow, and
whether the congregation sings it at the beginning of the
                                                                    we know Him as the One from Whom ALL blessings flow.
service in anticipation of the message of the glorious gospe!
                                                                    We are able in principle to praise Him now in this life in
of Christ or afterward. It makes no difference whether we
                                                                    the measure that we listened to this truth concerning God
begin our worship of God with these words or bring our
                                                                    when we were taught in ages past. The prophet in the Old
worship service to a close with this song of adoration to
                                                                    Testament was not a know-it-all. He knew much. But he
God: lift it up and sing it from the regenerated heart.
                                                                    knew nothing of himself. He had to listen carefully and
       "Praise Him all creatures here below."
                                                                    faithfully to the Word of God. And you and I in our
   Indeed, but then do it yourself likewise. For as God's
                                                                    prophetic phase of our threefold office of being God's royal
royal priesthood your calling is to show forth His praises.
                                                                    priesthood likewise had better listen carefully.
Let no church choir rob you of this wonderful experience
                                                                       That means first of all that we are faithful in our
and joyous calling of praising that God from Whom all the
                                                                    church attendance and attention. Attention without attend-
blessings you enjoy also flow. You sing it! Sing it in antic-
                                                                    ance is impossible ; but attendance without attention is worse
ipation of the day when in the Hallelujah Chorus of heaven
                                                                    than foolish. Woe unto Moses if at God's command he does
you will lift it up in the new creation with perfect pitch and
                                                                    not climb Mt. Sinai to receive revelation from the living
rich harmony with those whose sanctified tongues and pure
                                                                    God ! But woe unto today's prophet also, if he turns a deaf
hearts shall vibrate and throb with love and adoration to
                                                                    ear to the God of heaven and earth when He begins to speak,
this thrice Holy God. Never mind the fact that now your
                                                                    or else if he sets himself in a comfortable position to sleep
voiced is cracked and unmusical as far as the judgments of
                                                                    before the face of God ! We want to begin here because these
men are concerned. You sing to God and not to men. And
                                                                    are some of the most glaring and serious defections to be
He hears the song of the heart. Because He forms a people
                                                                    found in the flesh of God's royal priesthood.
unto Himself to show forth His praises, He will one day

give you a beautiful voice and a perfect sense of pitch in             We find all kinds of excuses for not attending the divine

order that the new creation may echo and re-echo His                worship services and deliberately fail to prepare for it already

praises from east to west and north to south and reach into         on Saturday evening.     We wear ourselves out, stay up un-

the highest heavens. But today, you do that with the voice          usually late-after all we do not have to go to work tomor-

and talents He has given you !                                      row- and either oversleep, feel too tired to get up, have a

 Praise to God is your calling as His prophet.           "          self-inflicted throbbing head, are "under the weather" or a

   But do we praise Him ? We ought to look a little closer          host of other Sunday ailments which cure very rapidly as soon

at the matter. After all, singing His praises -wonderful and        as the Sabbath sun sets in the west, or divine worship services

pleasant though it may also be for the regenerated believer -       are over. Shame on us! Let us hear the words of Jesus,

is only a part of that whole prophetic phase of our threefold       "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

office. We will have more to say of that presently when we          Matthew 621.  Do not argue with Him. What is your chief


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                            327


interest will also receive your chief attention. Acknowledge       in the fact that God makes it impossible atid  not that m&n

then the fact that the world means much more to you than           finds it inconvenient.                         I ._     I      !>

the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Do not add to                 Nor is this all. Besides attending andrpa$ng  attention to

your siq  by hypocritical denial of what is so obvious to man      this official preaching of the Word of God, the prophet of

and crystal clear to the allwise  and all seeing God !             God will have his own private devotions, reading of the

   That means also our youth!                                      Scriptures, study of the truth, reading'& religious material.

                                                                   He will shut off his TV `set and cancel his bowling alley
   With all the freedoms and facilities of roaming around
                                                                   reservations and open his Bible to see what God has re-
and speeding here and there on Saturday night, they are ill
                                                                   vealed therein. In order as prophet to be able to say to his
fit for giving attention to the Word of God on the Sabbath,
                                                                   children and to the gainsayers, "Thus saith the Lord," he
even if they are robust enough and physically competent to
                                                                   will first study to find out, What saith the Lord ? How little
attend divine worship services. What a tragedy ! What a
                                                                   of that there is today. The world crowds in upon our lives,
shameful picture to see    strong, vigorous young men and
                                                                   and there is so little interest to learn the truth and to delve
women, the youth of God's Church, children of the King,
                                                                   more deeply into it. Societies for the study of God's Word
His royal priesthood with clear minds and many talents,
                                                                   have only a skeleton membership of the congregation.
sleeping befpl-e  His jace!! Moses was told at the burning
                                                                         Something is wrong! My brethren, these things ought
bush to take off his shoes for he was on holy ground. We
                                                                   not so to be! Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves
call our places of divine worship God's House, and we con-
                                                                   together for the study of God's Word. The day will soon
fess that we are before His presence. For us it is holy
                                                                   be here when we will be denied this privilege. And then
ground. And dare we sleep ? Are we not rather afraid that
                                                                   God's prophets who will have to speak, will feel greatly dis-
the very holy ground will open up and swallow us up in a
                                                                   qualified to oppose the wicked world.
moment ?
                                                                         And remember that there is profit in being God's prophet.
   Nay, Wake Up! Listen to that which the Spirit hath to
                                                                   By His grace He will reward in the life to come those who
say unto the churches. And by all means go to bed excep-
                                                                   praise Him and testify of Him. And in this life there is also
tionally early then on Saturday night to be able to stay awake.
                                                                   profit. The comfort, the joy and peace of salvation, tasting
You are His prophet. Listen to the revelation He has given
                                                                   and seeing that God is good is the reward in this life for
of Himself, that consciously and willingly with a heart of joy
                                                                   those who listen to Him and receive into their minds the
you may praise this God from Whom all blessings flow.
                                                                   truth which He speaks. There is indeed profit to the prophet
   And then, too, there are those other things of the flesh
                                                                   who walks in His fear.                                               J.A.H.
that we deliberately seek before the kingdom of God. To

such a great extent we also go out from the principle of our
flesh, which is part of the world, that says, "Eat, drink and                                 IN MEMORIAM
be merry, for tomorrow we die." One of the family has to
                                                                         The consistory of the First Protestant Reformed Church of
stay home Sunday morning so that we may have a delicious
                                                                   Grand Rapids, Michigan, here y
                                                                                                     b     expresses our hearty sympathy
meal prepared when we get home. Surely with- a "pious"             with Elder G. Bylsma and his family in the loss of his brother,
face we dare to say, Yes, but the services are so close to-                                  MR. DAVE BYLSMA
gether, and we have to travel yuite a distance to and from               May our God comfort them in the assurance that death is de-
church. We do not have much time between services, and I           prived of its sting and the grave of its victory through the resurrection

like a warm meal. This I cannot get during the week and            of Jesus Christ, Who shares with us His victory over sin and death.

this is the only time I can have it. Indeed, and so there                                   The Consistory of the First Prot. Ref. Church

must be the denying of God His demand that on the Sabbath                                   of Grand Rapids, Michigan
                                                                                                            Rev. C. Ha&o,  President
we worship Him. He had better not be so exacting with us!
                                                                                                            Mr. P. Decker, Jr., Secretary
At least we are bold enough to tell him- by our actions, of

course, not with our lips-His worship and His service                                         I N   ME&jORIAM
better suffer a little bit too. However, we wish to add, do
                                                                         The Men's Society of the First Protestant Reformed Church of
not be surprised if He does not agree with you. Because He
                                                                   Grand Rapids, Michigan, hereby wishes to express its heartfelt sym-
IS God, He has a way of being very unyielding and of in- .         pathy  to two of its members, Mr. D. Van Alten  in the loss of his
sisting  that He is sovereign in all His ways. Get you up to       wife,

Mt. Sinai to hear what He has to say ! Get you wifh your                                   MRS. ANNA VAN ALTEN

whole family to the holy ground where He will reveal Him-          and to Mr. G. Bylsma in the loss of his brother,

self in the Son of His love! And be sure that HE does not                                   MR. DAVID BYLSMA

want you there because He has been pleas-d to make it &-                 May our God comfort the bereaved families.

poss&c,  before you come to the conclusion that your place as            "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
                                                                   worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in
His prophet is not the sanctuary where He will speak through
                                                                         " Romans 8:lS.
His servant. There are, of course, legitimate reasons for          y'                                     Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, President
remaining home. But they are ,then reasons that are rooted                                                Mr. S. Beiboer, Secretary

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



                                                                      pelagian conception of the free will of man. This freewill was
II Contending For The Faith II bent down in its poweys but by no means extinguished.
                                                                                                    CHAPTER III

            The Church and the Sacraments
                                                                         "But, though He died fog- all, yet do not all receive the
           THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                                benefit of. his death, but those only unto whom the merit of

                                                                      his passion is communicated. For as in truth men, if they
                  VIEWS ON THE CHURCH
                                                                      were not born prdpagated of the seed of Adam, would not be

                    MATERIAL FRINCIPLE                                born unjust-seeing that, by that propagation, they con-

                                                                      tract through him, when they are conceived, injustice as their

                              (continued)                             own - so, if they were not born again in Christ, they never

                                                                      would be justified ; seeing that, in that new birth, there is
       We concluded our preceding article with the remark that        bestowed upon them, through the merit of his passion, the
the fundamental principle, as within the German Reformer,             grace whereby they are made just. For this benefit the
was this : Justification by faith and completely without works.       apostle exhorts us, evermore to give thanks to the Father,
This is also the fundamental principle of justification which         who hath made us wo&hy to be $arta.kem  of the lot of the
prompted the movement of the Reformation. Now it is a                 saints in light, and hath delivered us fr0.w~  the powm of
striking phenomenon that Roman Catholic scholars today                darkness, and  hath tmn.s!ated  us i&o the Kiqdom  of the
boldly declare that this fmldamental  principle : justification by    Son of his tove., ,ipL  whom  we ha.ve redemption, and .+-emission
faith and completely without works, no longer characterizes           of sins."
the Protestantism of today, that the Protestantism of today              In-  comiection  with this quotation of Rome we wish to
has repudiated the teachings of Luther and Calvin. -And we            make two observations. Notice, in the first place, that al-
are of the conviction that this charge of Roman Catholicism           ready in this article Rome advocated universal atonement,
is true. However, we must immediately add that the Prot-              declaring that Jesus died for all. And, in the second place,
estantism which has repudiated this fundamental principle is          also already in this article Rome gives expression to its con-
not true Protestantism but a false caricature of the same.            ception of justification. Rome practically identified justifica-
True Protestantism, also today, continues to maintain the             tion with sanctification. Here we read that a person would
fundamental principle that justification is by faith and com-         never be justified if he were not born again in Christ; and
pletely without works.       However, before we present this          we also read that, in that new birth there is bestowed upon
fundamental principle, as voiced and expressed by Calvin              us, through the merit of Christ's passion, the grace whereby
and also by our Confessions, we must present the presenta-            they are made just.
tion of Rome, namely: justification by works. And then we

will quote, first of all, from the Canons and Decrees of the                                         CHAPTER V
Council of Trent, as set forth in- its sixth session, January                 On Tke Necessity, In Adults, Of Preparation For
13, 1547.                                                                          Justificatioq   A n d   M/hence   I t   P r o c e e d s

                             C                                            The Synod furthermore declares, that, in adults, the be-
                                  HAPTER I
                                                                      ginning of the said Justification is to be derived from the
         Opt  The  Ixabiliiy  Of Na,tzt:re  And Of The Law To
                                                                      prevenient g&e of God, through Jesus Christ, that is to say,
                            Just~ijy  A!la:n
                                                                      from his vocation, whereby, without any merits existing on

       "The holy Synod declares first, that, for the correct and      their parts, they are called ; that so they, who by sins were

sound understanding of the doctrine of Justification, it is           alienated from God, may be disposed through his quickening

necessary that each one recognize and confess, that, whereas          and assisting grace, to convert themselves to their own

all men had lost their innocence in the prevarication of              justification, by freely assenting to and co-operating with

Adam- having become unclean, and, as the apostle says,                that said grace : in such sort that, while God touches the heart

by rm.tztre child~eu  of ze~atlz,  as (this Synod) has set forth      of' man by the illumination of the Holy Ghost, neither is

in the decree on original sin-they were so far the servartts          man himself utterly inactive while he received that inspira-

of s&l,  and under the power of the devil and of death, that          tion, fqrasmuch as he is also able to reject it; yet is he not

not the Gentiles .only by the force of nature, but not even           able, by his own free will, without the grace of God, to move

the Jews by the very letter itself of the law of Moses, were          h.imself  unto justice in his sight. Whence, when it is said

able to be liberated, or to arise, therefrom ; although freewill,     in the sacred writings: Tat?-n  ye to me, and I will t,u.rn to

attenuated as it was in its powers, and bent down, was by no          you.,  we are admonished of our liberty ; and when we an-

means extinguished in them."                                          swer: Convert us, 0 Lord, to thee, and we shatl be con-

       We merely wish to call attention to the fact that, already     verted, we confess that we are prevented (anticipated) by the

in this first chapter on Justification, Rome sets forth its           grace of God."


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 329



    In the article the Romanists speak of the prevenie&t                 mind," and it simply means : Repent. It may also be in order

grace of God, the grace of the Lord that goes before, pre-               at this time to say a few words about Rome's conception of

cedes. They also speak of this grace as assisting grace                  baptism. According to Rome the sacrament of baptism effects

whereby we are able to convert ourselves unto our own                    justification, the remission of sin; this forgiveness of sin

justification, by freely assenting to and cooperating with the           does not merely refer to the pardon af sin but also to the

same. Besides, while this grace is described as a work of                removal of sin.    However, baptism does not only avail for

God's Spirit whereby the Lord touches the heart of man,                  the remission of sin and its removal, but also for the inward

this work of the Lord is irresistible and, can be rejected.              sanctification of the soul. Baptism, according to Rome, is

This is Rome's pelagian conception of. th&  free will of man.            the sacrament of regeneration. And, water is absolutely

And so man is prepared for his justification, by cooperating             necessary for the administration of this sacrament. In the

with this grace of God whereby the sinner prepares himself               case of infants the word of regeneration is always effective.

.for his justification.                                                  However, in the case of adults, it is not always effective.

                                                                         The adult can gratefully accept and use the grace of regenera-

                               CHAPTER VI                                tion, but he can also resist it and make it ineffective. And,
                      The Manner Of Prepamtion                           it is always possible that they who have appropriated it will

                                                                         lose it again. The Roman Catholic Church anathematizes
    "Now they (adults) are disposed unto the said justice,
                                                                         those &ho  teach that Christian baptism has no superior
when, excited and assisted by divine gr'ace,  conceiving faith
                                                                         efficacy to that of John the Baptist; that true, natural water
by hea,ring,  they are freely moved towards God, believing
                                                                         is not essential in the administration of this sacrament, or
those things to be true which God has revealed and promised
                                                                         that the language of our Lord in John 3 :5, "Except a man
-and this especially, that God justifies the impious by I$
                                                                         be born of water," etc., is to be understood metaphorically.
grace, through  the redemptio?L  that is in Christ Jests;  and
                                                                         And it is also the conception of Rome that baptism delivers
when, understanding themselves to be sinners, they, by turn-
                                                                         from the guilt of original sin and of all actual sins committed
ing themselves, from the fear of divine justice whereby they
                                                                         up to the time of baptism.
are profitably agitated, to consider the mercy of God, are

raised unto hope, confiding that God will be propitious to
                                                                                                 CHAPTER VII
thelti  for Christ's sake; and they begin to love him as the
                                                                         W1za.t The Jmtijimtion  Of The Iw+hus  Is, And What Arc
fountain of all justice ; and are therefore moved against sins
                                                                                              The Causes Thereof
by a certain hatred and detestation, to wit, by that penitence

which must 1)~ performed before baptism: lastly, when they                  "This disposition, or preparation, is followed by Justifica-

purpose to receive baptism, to begin a new life, and to keep             tion itself, which is not remission of sins merely, but also the

the cowumnd~wzents  of God. Concerning this disposition it is            sanctification and renewal of the inward man, through the

written : He that cometh to God, must believe that he is, artd           voluntary reception of the grace, and of the gifts, whereby

is a. rewa:irder                                                         man of unjust becomes just, and of an enemy a friend, that
                      to tlze??b that seek &t; and, Be of good faith,
son,  thy siw a:m forgiven thee; and, The few of the Lord                so he may be an heir according to hope of life everlasting."

drivetla  out &w;  and, Do pena.nce, and be baptized every one              The Lord willing, we will continue with the quotation of
of you .in the pzamze  of Jesus Clwist,  for the rezwission  of your     the seventh article on the Romish Council of Trent of

s&s, and yozt. .&all  1,eceive the gift of t1l.e Holy  Ghost; and,       Justification. But one may note from what we have quoted

Going, therefore, tea,ch  ye all nations, baptizing them  in the         that Rome,     when speaking of Justification,       does not
name  of the Fa.thel;  a.nd of the Son, artd  of the Holy Ghost;         refer to the remission of sins merely, but also to sanctifica-

finally, Prepam yaw  hearts I&O the Lo,rd."                              tion and renewal of the inward man. And we may again

    In this article Rome continues to speak of God's assisting           point to the fact that also in the article, Rome, true to its

grace.    They also speak here of "faith by hearing," -and               pelagian conception of sin and grace, speaks of the voluntary

Rome's conception of faith is that it is assent to the truth,            reception of the grace of God, and w'e  should bear in mind

simply believing those things to be true which the Lord has              that, according to Rome, this grace of God can also be re-

revealed and promised. So, assisted by the grace, and                    jected. In our following article we will continue with this

accepting as true what God has revealed and promised, the                seventh article and also continue with othei  articles as

sinner now considers the mercy of God, believes that God                 adopted by the `Roman Catholic Council of Trent.          H.V.

will be propitious to him for Christ's sake, and begins to love
                                                                                        Ladies' League Meeting
him as the fountain of all justice.

    However, he must be moved against sins by a certain                     The Eastern Ladies' League will hold their Spring meet-

hatred and detestation and reveal this by .that  penitence               ing April 20, at Southeast Church at 8 o'clock. Rev. Herman

which must be performed before baptism. Notice, too, that this           Hanko will speak on "The Women of the Bible." All ladies

article, when quoting Acts 2 :3S, translates: "Do penance."              of the denomination are invited to come and spend an eve-

This word, however, does not mean, "Do penance," as Rome                 ning of Christian fellowship with us.

translates, but it is the word which means "a change of the                                         Ruth H. Bylsma,  Vice-Secretary


330                                           T H E   ST~ANDARD   B E A R E R


                                                                      issues of life. If, therefore, there is faith in the heart, there

I/The
ji               Voice of Our Fathers                                 must needs be confession with the mouth. Faith in the heart
                                                                      without this confession with the mouth is dead faith. And

                                                                      confession with the mouth without faith in the heart is

                   The Bellgic Confession                             hypocrisy. Whoever believes with the heart will surely con-
                                                                      fess with the mouth.

                             A                                           Nor must we overlook the fact that while faith and con-
                                  RTICLE I
                                                                      fession are personal, they are not individualistic. The be-
                            (continued)                               liever does not believe all by himself; nor does he make con-

                                                                      fession all alone. YV'c  all believe with the heart and confess
       What then is this subjective principle of faith?               with the mouth . . . ."    As we have already indicated, this

       It is the principle of regeneration implanted in the heart     means that the act of believing and confessing takes place in

by the indwelling and quickening Spirit of our Lord Jesus             the community of believers, the church. This united believing

Christ. The natural man is a fool, and as such he says in             and confessing must not be understood, however, as the prod-

his hea,yt,  "There is no God." The divine wisdom, spoken             uct of human association and mutual agreement. But we

in a mystery by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, and            must remember that the Spirit of Christ always operates in

consisting of things which "Eye hath not seen, nor ear                the clw.~ch,  never in separation from it. In and through the
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man," which             church that Spirit makes known the wisdom of God in a

"God bath  prepared for them that love him," and which                mystery. And in that same body of Christ the Spirit dwells,

"God hath revealed" unto them "by his Spirit" -that wis-              operating in all the members of that body, performing His

dom the natural man receiveth not, Those things of the Spirit         degenerating  and faith-kindling work in their hearts, filling

of God are foolishness unto him. He cannot know them,                 them with the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus, causing the

because they are spiritually discerned. But Christ Jesus our          faith of their hearts to find expression in the confession of

Lord has received the Spirit. And He is Himself become the            their motiths.  The result of this operation of the Spirit of

quickening Spirit. Through that Spirit He takes up His                Christ as the Spirit of the church is this "We all believe . . .

abode in the church, in the hearts of His own. And dwelling           and confess . . ."    And even when the believer confesses his

in His church, He imparts Himself and all His benefits of             faith personally, he can and does do so only by virtue of

light and life, of wisdom and knowledge, to all His people.           his position as a member of the body of Christ in which the

Thus He produces "spiritual men," who are able to dis-                Spirit of Christ dwells. And when this faith and confession

tinguish and discern and judge of spiritual things, the things        of the congregation of Jesus Christ is set forth by the church

of the Spirit of God, the things of the hidden mystery of             officially, as it is gathered, organized, and instituted in the

God, of His revelation. This, therefore, is a spiritual, ethical      midst of the world, and that too, both in common with all

change. As such, it is a change of the heart, the spiritual           those of like faith and in contradistinction from those who

center of a man's being, from which are all the issues of his         do not believe or who depart from the faith, the result is a

life from a mbral,  spiritual point of view. When that heart          creed or symbol or confession such as we are now considering.

is thus changed, the issues of a man's life are changed: As              But someone will take exception to that "all," objecting
long as that heart is under the power and dominion of sin,            that it simply is not true that all the members of a certain
man is a fool. From that corrupt heart the issues of his              church which adheres to this confession believe with the
mind and will, his speech and his actions proceed ; and with          heart and confess with the mouth, and that therefore this
all his being the fool says, "There is no God." But the heart         business of a `church making confessions is dangerous and
of the spiritual man principally affects all the issues of his        productive of hypocrites and show-Christians. And apparently
mind and will, his speech and actions ; and, coming into con-         this objection is a weighty one, but only apparently. For, in
tact with things which God hath revealed by His Spirit,               the first place, we must understand that in its confessions the
namely, His revelation, that spiritual man understands and            church speaks organicaUy,  as the gathering of believers and
discerns and evaluates those things in a radically different          their seed. Surely, to that gathering as it is manifest in the
manner, and says., "I believe in God !"                               midst of the world there adhere unbelievers and reprobate,

       In the light of the above, it is also evident why believing    both among adults and among the children of believers. But

with the heart is necessarily accompanied by confession with          the gathering is not known by its carnal and reprobate ele-

the mouth. To confess means "to say the same thing with               ment ; on the contrary, it is the gathering of the elect, of the

someone else."      In this case it is evident that confession        believers and the confessors and their spiritual seed. It is by

means saying the same thing with God, or with the Spirit of           the name of the latter that the church is designated : the con-

Christ. That is, the objective testimony of the Spirit of             gregation of Jesus Christ. It is they who belong to the

Christ through the Word finds reception in the believing              church ; the rest outwardly adhere. It is they who speak

heart; and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth                throughout in the confession of the church: "We all believe

speaks. It can be no different: for from the heart are the            with the heart and confess with the mouth . . ." Hence, in


                                             T H E   ` S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                331


the second place, that rrall,J'    taken, as it must be, with the      And mark you well, our confessions -and especially now

terms "believe with the heart" and "confess with the mouth,"           our Belgic  Co+s~~on+-  do not proceed from the idea that

is both inclusive and exclusive. It is inclusive of all who            a sketchy, thumbnail confession is quite sufficient for any

believe and confess, and it is exclusive of all who disbelieve         ordinary believer. In our day it more and more seems to be

and deny. And the more vigorously and zealously the church             the idea that a thorough knowledge of the confessions might

in actual practice maintains its confession, the more sharply          be all right for theologians and for officebearers perhaps;

this inclusive and exclusive character of the confession will          but an ordinary layman who knows his confessions is

come to manifestation. The more the church insists, "Here,             regarded as somewhat of an oddity, who might better leave

in this communion, we all believe and confess," the more               those deeper things to his superiors. No, we all must know

those who do not believe and confess will find themselves in           our creeds. We all must avail ourselves of every opportunity

conflict with the confession of the church. The effect, there-         to become better acquainted with and thoroughly versed in

fore, can only be two-fold. On the one hand, the elect are             our Reformed beliefs. ,4nd let me add: it is especially the

gathered, brought to a conscious faith, and confess the faith          calling of covenant youth to do this. How sad it is when

of their heart with the mouth. On the other hand, the rep-             young men and young women of the church are ready to

robate are hardened and, as they come to manifestation in              "profess their faith" and are not really ready to give ac-

their denial of the faith of the church, they either leave or          count sometimes of the meagerest fundamentals of that faith.

are excluded.                                                          Pray tell, how, if we do not know our confessions, can we

                                                                       acknowledge that we agree with the doctrine that is taught
   The practical significance of,all  the foregoing is obvious.
                                                                       in this Christian church ? And how then can we, without
   In the first place, it is incumbent upon the church to              lying before the face of God, say in fellowship with the
take care that its confession is tnzc. That confession must            church :     "We all believe with the heart and confess with
be a confession of fa.ith,  and that too, without any admixture        the mouth . . . ."
of the products of unbelief. This means, of course, that a

confession must be according to the truth of God's own rev-                In the fourth place, let me hasten to add that also the in-

elation in Christ Jesus our Lord, that is, according to the            dividual believer must. be true to his confession. And he

Scriptures. No other confession is worthy of the name. And             will be if his confession is the expression of the faith of his

to no other authority may a confession ever appeal than that           heart. True to his confession he must be in the church itself,

of the Scriptures. A confession has no authority of its own ;          first of all. Never may he depart from -that confession for

its authority rests only upon Holy Writ. Always, therefore,            any reason whatsoever. This also bears emphasis in our day.

it is the duty of the church to compare its confessions with           It must be a superficial, if not dishonest, soul that can make

the Scriptures, and in its witness in the midst of the world           a confession before God and the church of the faith that

clearly to establish and point out the connection between its          lives in his heart, and then, for any personal and carnal

creeds and the Word of God.                                            reason whatsoever, can renege on his own confession, follow

                                                                       after heresy, sacrifice the truth on the altar of his personal
   In the second place, it is the God-given calling of the
                                                                       interests and "happiness," and find himself a church home
church to be tote  to its co.pzfession.  This is in the very nature    where that same confession is either flatly contradicted or
of confession: to confess is to speak, to give testimony, of the
                                                                       is a matter of indifference. But true to his confession the
faith of the heart. Surely, that confession must be officially
                                                                       believer must be in all his life. This is true of his speech and
adopted by the church, and have its place in the official liter-
                                                                       of his personal testimony among others. If that faith is the
ature of the church. But strictly must the church adhere to
                                                                       faith of his heart, why should he be ashamed of it and keep
it in actual ecclesiastical life. Preaching and catechetical in-
                                                                       silence concerning it before men ? it is his most precious
struction must be in full accord therewith. Discipline must
                                                                       possession is it not? But not only does this include "confes-
maintain the confession. And never in the slightest degree
                                                                       sion with the mouth" in the literal sense of the word. After
may the confessions of the church be allowed to become mere
                                                                       all, the mouth, the speech, is but the highest of the gifts with
dead letters.
                                                                       which God has endowed the rational, moral creature. And if

   In the third place, it follows that it is incumbent upon the        one's faith makes its demands upon the highest of our powers,

members of the church to Knorv  the co?ztfession  of their             are not all our other powers included7 Hence, confession

church. If there is any one thing in the life of believers             with the mouth implies that in all our walk and conversation,

upon which our confessions and our Reformed churches have              in every relationship and sphere of life we give expression

always placed a premium, it is linozdedge.  All our confes-            in word and in very deed to what we believe in our hearts.

sions are premised upon this. Ko, mere intellectual knowi-
                                                                           Thus, even as that faith is a wonder of sovereign grace
edge is of no value as such. You may have all the head-
                                                                       alone, it shall, through our confession, redound unto the
knowledge possible ; but if you have no faith, you are dead.
                                                                       glory of our God,, Who saved us and called        with an holy
                                                                                                                      us 
But believejps  must have knowledge, and must grow in
                                                                       calling !
knowledge and understanding of the truth. This stands to

reason: you cannot very well confess what you do not know.                                                                     H.C.H.

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


                                                                                 the ceremonies of the church by giving to them content and

11     D E C E N C V   a n d -   OR'DE-R 11 meaning. They militate against a dead formalism and are
                                                                                 useful to uproot erroneous conceptions and usages that might

                                                                                 otherwise easily creep into the church. As means of instruc-

               Sundry Matt,ers  On Baptism                                       tion they stimulate the faith of the church and arouse in the
                                                                                 believers a deeper appreciation for those holy signs and seals

       "In the cermzony  of baptism, both of children and of                     which God has given His Church.

adults, the w&akter  shal1 use the resfective forks  drawn up                       This is not the place to discuss the content of the liturgical
foq* the a.d~n,inisf~ati~n  of this sncTnlfienZt.-"                              forms used in the churches. That would belong to the rubrics
                                                - A r t i c l e   5 82 D.R ("
                                                                          .b.    of "Our Doctrine" or "Our Confession." The Church Order

                                                                                 purposes merely to set forth the rule that these forms,
                 T H E   L I T U R G I C A L   F O R M S                         adopted by all of the churches, are to be used by them and

       The use of liturgical forms in connection with the celebra-               refusal to do so or the substituting of them with self-made
tion of the sacraments is for more than one reason a good                        forms is a violation of the Act of Agreement and a step in
tl+g.  The main benefit derived from their use is that they                      the direction of individualism which cannot be tolerated in
put life and meaning into what is otherwise a dead symbol.                       the church.

The spiritual significance of the external sign must be es-                         A few things, ho.wever,  may be said in this connection
plained  because the sign in itself does not speak. It is silent.                about these forms in general. We limit ourselves to the
It is dependent upon the Word and the preaching of the                           Forms for Baptism since this is the subject of the Article of
Word for its meaning. This meaning is conveyed to the                            the Church Order we are presently discussing. In our
consciousness of the believers through the reading of the                        churches we have two such forms: one for the baptism of
form that is adapted to the particular sacrament that is to                      infants and one for the baptism of adults. Our form for
be administered.                                                                 Infant Baptism was originally drawn up by Petrus Datheen,

       The use of the'form for the administration of baptism is,                 a Flemish Reformer who had been driven by persecution to

according to the above quoted article of the Church Order,                       England and later to Germany. He was a very able man

mandatory in all the churches. It would not do to allow                          who translated the Heidelberg Catechism from German into

each minister to individually explain the meaning of bap-                        Dutch. He also prepared a metrical version of the Psalms

tism each time that the sacrament was to be administered.                        and wrote various liturgical documents for the churches. The

 This could very well lead to the danger of having certain                       baptism form which he composed (perhaps together with

facets of the doctrine of baptism over-emphasized at the ex-                     Van der Heydenj was prepared after the Forms of Calvin, a

pense of other essential elements of the truth. Moreover the                     Lasco,  Micron and Olevianus. Originally it was much longer

 second benefit that is reaped by the use of a commonly                          than its present form but the Synod of 1574 abbreviated it

adopted form would be lost. This is the fact that a desired                      and  recommended that all the ministers in the churches use

unifor&ty  is secured in the administration of the sacraments.                   it. Later synods also concerned themselves with this matter

 The same would be lost if each consistory drew up and                           but did not adopt any particular Form as an official text.

 adopted its own form. This would not be desirable. It is                        The great Synod of 1618-19 recommended certain changes in

much better that those churches that agree in faith and doc-                     the 1611 edition of the Baptism Form but it was not until as

trine jointly adopt a form in which- they express what each                      late as 1897, during the time of Dr. Bavinck and Kuyper,

 and every church believes to be the truth of the Word of                        that this addition with the incorporated changes advised by

God regarding the sacraments and that this form be used in                       the great Synod of Dort was published and in 1902 the

all the churches.                                                                Synod of Arnhem approved this Form.


       Churches that use such forms are not "fom&st$'  in                           Our Form for Adult Baptism dates back to the Synod of

the bad sense of the word. Formalism is the evil that creeps                     Dort, 1618-19. The doctrinal part of this form is the same

into the church as a result of the spiritual deterioration of its                as that for Infant Baptism. This, of course, is proper for

members. The latter proceed through the rituals of worship                       baptism has the same meaning or significance for adults as

without spirit or meaning. Religion becomes a matter of                          it does for infants. The ma?n  difference lies in the questions

superstition. Customs handed down from of old are blindly                        that are asked. When infants are baptized the parents are

followed and any emphasis that can still be aroused is placed                    asked to answer three questions. In adult baptism no less

upon externals. Such religion thrives upon ignorance and is                      than five questions are put to the candidate for baptism and

in actuality nothing but an open sham. The use of forms                          each question is answered separately. Consistency, it would

which in a concise and lucid manner set forth the truth of                       seem, would require that this same practice of answering the

God's Word with regard to the sacraments and other practices                     questions individually be also followed in connection with in-

of the church are not conducive to such a sad state of affairs.                  fant baptism. This would greatly enhance the solemnity `of

These forms, like the preaching of the Word itself, enliven                      the occasion.


                                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                   333


                       A    D    U    L    T         B    A    P    T    I         S    M    later. This reasoning is just in reverse. Why not reason

                                                                                             from the meaning of the term "incorporated" to the mean-
    "ildztlts  are thvmglt  baftisnt  incorporated into the Cl&s-
                                                                                             ing of the term "Christian church"?
ti.un chtzt:sch,  and are accep fed as mewbms of the chuvcl~, a:nd
                                                                                                 This is the view taken by Rev. G. M. Ophoff in his
a7.e  therefol-e obliged also to partake of the Lord's .Y?wpper,
                                                                                             Clztc~k  
which they shall prow&e  to do at t,`z&  E7apfi.m."                                                       Right. He writes :
                                                     - A r t i c l e   59>  D.K.O.               "Adults are through baptism incorporated into the Chris-

                                                                                             tian church and are accepted as members of the church. `In-

    We know only a few instances where adults have received                                  corporated' is a term that implies a body in which the adult

the sacrament of baptism in our churches. This is generally                                  is incorporated in the organic sense ; and this body is the

speaking more the exception than the rule in. the Reformed                                   spiritual body of Christ as manifested in the Church In-

Churches for the vast majority of its members are baptized                                   stitute with its ruling and teaching and alms giving ministry.

in their infancy. This does not mean that the propriety of                                   This incorporation takes place not magically through bap-

adult baptism is in any way subject to question. Scripture                                   tism apart from faith but through a living faith having for

itself gives direct support to this practice and this article                                its content the truth symbolized by baptism-and confessed by

of the Church Order makes provision for it in the churches.                                  the adult."

    Of significance in this connection is the meaning of the                                     In support of this view several things may be advanced.

statement,    "`Ad&s  we thro~uglgh baptisn~  ~incoq?o~~ated  ,im  t o                       First of all we must point to the organic conception of bap-
t h e   Clw&ian  chwch."     Concerning this there are marked                                tism embodied in our Baptism Form and supported through-
differences of opinion. In the Chzh~clz  O,ude?-  Cowmenta.ry,                               out Scripture. Baptism is not a mechanical rite but it is a
for example, Monsma and Van Dellen  exp&ss  the view that                                    sign instituted by God which signifies and seals the right-

this refers only to being received as members of a local con-                                eousness of Christ unto believers. Not all who receive the

gregation. We quote these authors as follows :                                               outward sign receive actual baptism. To be baptized is to

                                                                                             be buried with Christ into His death and to be raised again
   "The significance of this statement is that those who have
                                                                                             in newness of life (Ram. 6:4-6).  This is indeed incorpora-
come to years of discretion and comparative independence
                                                                                             tion into the real body' of Christ and it is the only baptism
can only be admitted to Church membership by profession of
                                                                                             that Scripture and the Confessions know.
faith and baptism administered upon this profession. The
                                                                                                 In the second place it should be noticed that this term as
term `Christian Church' as used in Article 59 does not stand
                                                                                             well as the idea of the term is found in our Baptism Form
on par with the expression `Church of Christ' as used in
Article 1. The expression `Church of Christ' is used to in-                                  as well as in this article of the Church Order. In both places
dicate the body of believers living in a certain region or                                   it must be interpreted alike. In the prayer of baptism, God
country. It does not as a rule refer to these believers as they                              is implored to "graciously look upon these children and in-
are organized into a Church or Churches. The term `Chris-                                    corporate them by the Holy Spirit into His Son Jesus
                                                                                             Christ."
tian Church' in the present article, however, refers to a                                                 In the first question asked of parents the phrase
                                                                                             "Sanctified in Christ and, therefore, as members of His
specific congregation or organized Church. The opening
                                                                                             church,"
provisions of Article 59 therefore simply specify that adults                                             indicates the same idea. Finally the thanksgiving
                                                                                             prayer at the conclusion of baptism proceeds from the fact
who stand outside of the organized Churches can only be
                                                                                             that the baptized are "in Christ" and not simply members of
incorporated into a local or particular Church upon confes-
                                                                                             a visible, earthly institute and endowed with certain rights
sion and Baptism, and that thus they are admitted to full
                                                                                             and privileges.
membership rights in the Church which so receives them. A
literal translation of Article 59 on this score would make this                                                                                          G.V.dB.

interpretation very evident. Literally we read, `Adults are to

be incorporated into the Christian congregation by Baptism,

and are thus to be accepted as members of the congregations.'                                                          IN MEMORIAM

He who has been granted adult Baptism thereby receives all
                                                                                                On March 31, 1961, it pleased our Heavenly Father to take
the privileges of Church membership. He stands on par with
                                                                                             from our fellowship one of our members,
those who were baptized in infancy and who in later years

made profession of their faith."                                                                                     MR. HENRY KUIPER

   The argument in the above is that "Christian church"                                         We hereby express our sympathy to his wife and farnil?.

means the "church institute" or "local congregation" and                                        May the God of all grace comfort her and all the bereaved with
                                                                                             the thought that the death of God's saints is a door through which
therefore the term "incorporated" must denote no more than
                                                                                             they enter the New Paradise of God.
the bestowal of the rights and privileges of membership in
                                                                                                                                    The Men's Society of the Doon
that congregation. On the same basis it must be ev,ident  that
                                                                                                                                    Protestant Reformed Ghurch
the baptism of .infants  merely denotes the bestowal of the
                                                                                                                                    Rev. G. Van Baren,  President
same rights. With this position we differ as we sl% show                                                                            Mr. Wm. Den Besten,  Secretary
                                                                              8

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


                                                                             work since there will be nothing anymore for them to do

ii  A L L   A R O U N D   U S   11 without joining. This is also the implication of the veiled
                                                                             threat in the letter, "We believe that, with this in mind,
                                                                      -II
u-                                                                           you should give careful consideration as to the effect the

MATTERS CONCERNING THE UNION                                                 limitations for the above agreement will have on such Con-

      Recently there was given to me some material describing                tractors' ability to complete your project." The aim of the

an attempt on the part of the AFL-CIO to gain control of                     union is to gain control of all building projects and all

the building trades in Michigan, particularly in the Grand                   building trades in this area.

Rapids area. This attempt is spelled out in a letter sent to                    This attempt of the union however has not gone un-

those contemplating a building project under a letter head                   challenged. On September 19, 1960 a letter was sent to

which reads,      "Grand Rapids Building Trades Council of                   "Contractors and Building Material Suppliers in the con-

Building and Construction Trades Department Grand Rapids,                    struction field in Grand Rapids and Holland, Michigan."

Michigan," and over the signature of "Dave Almergi, Pres-                    This letter is interesting enough to quote.

ident.`" This letter reads,                                                           Before stating the purpose of this letter we would like to
                                                                                  make clear that although this letter is being sent to you by
           We understand that you are contemplating awarding a                    the CLA [the letter is written on CLA stationery over the
       contract for the construction of a building in the near future.            signature of J. Gritter, Secretary - HHJ it is being done upon
        There are some pertinent facts which we believe should be                 the urging of many contractors who operate in Grand Rapids
        called to your attention.                                                 and Holland. The facilities of the CLA are used because of
           Effective as of August 15, 1960, an Agreement was con-                 our direct interest and the contacts we have.
        sunmrated  between the 18 AFL-CIO Craft Unions afFiliated                     These contractors and we are inviting you to attend a meet-
       with the Grand Rapids Building and Construction Trades                     ing that will be held on Friday, September 30, 1960, at 1:30
        Council and the Grand Rapids Contractors' Association, consist-           o'clock in the afternoon, in the CLA building located at 1600
        ing of aII Contractors who are signators  to a labor contract             Buchanan Avenue. S. W.: Grand Raoids. Michizan.
       with the above mentioned 18 AFL-CIO Craft Unions, agree-                       Why is this meeting'being  callid? '         -
        ing that they would not enter into any contractual relationships              You are undoubtedly aware of the action taken by another
        or perform any work at the site of construction unless all work           labor orzanization  in the buildinn  trades. not to allow sub-
        done and to be performed in connection therewith was per-                 contract&s with which its affiliated unions have contracts to
       formed by employers (the Contractor and all Sub-Contractors)               do any work on industrial, commercial and institutional build-
        who had a collective labor contract with one or more of the 18            ing projects on which the labor and services performed are
        Unions who also  signed the August 15th Agreement, covering               not being done entireIy  by members of that organization. The
        the type of work they would do. The 18 signatory Building                 purpose of that action is to deprive CLA and non-union con-
        Trades Labor Organizations agreed on behalf of themselves and             tractors of certain specialized services that are essential to the
        all of their members that they and their members would refrain            completion of their building projects, so that eventually they
        from entering into contractual relations with any employer con-           will have to employ members of that organization only. It is
        cerning such work unless all work done on the site is per-                the old squeeze play which in practically al1 the major cities
        formed under contract or subcontract with employers who have               of our nation has resulted in complete monopoly of the con-
        a coIIective  Iabor  agreement with one or more of the 18 sig-            struction field by that labor organization.
        natorv Labor Organizations for the class of work involved.                    What can be done about it? Many contractors who are
           We believe that, with this in mind, you should give careful            concerned, and we, are confident that much can be done about
        consideration as to the effect the limitations for the above              it, that this threat can be effectively met if the contractors
        Agreement will have on such Contractors' ability to complete               and building material suppliers will stand together to meet it.
        your project.                                                             Contractors in the home construction field should be interested
           Enclosed is a copy of the  Agreement. If you have any                  too, because if this attempted squeeze play should succeed in
        questions or desire additional information in regard to this              the heavier construction field, they will be next in line. . . .
        Agreement, please feel free to contact this office.                     As a result of this meeting an organization was formed
      The purpose of this letter is rather clear. The agree-                 of men who are engaged in any work relating to construction
ment of which the letter speaks is an agreement which was                    as well as building suppliers who are not members of the
made between all the craft unions in this area which in-                     AFL-CIO. It was called the "Contractors and Suppliers
cludes general buildin,c contractors, plumbers, heating men,                 Association of Western Michigan," and numbers at this
bricklayers, masons, etc. These various craft unions have                    point about 100 members. As I understand it, it is an or-
signed an agreement not to work on any job in which there                    ganization independent from any other existing organization,
are non-union men employed. If, e.g., the general contractor                 formed for purposes of its own. I do not know whether this
is a member of the union, he may not hire any non-union                      organization has a constitution, but I have a copy of the
help. If, on the other hand, a general contractor is not a                   Articles of Incorporation in which they state their purpose:
member of a union, no union plumber or mason or brick-
layer may work on a job for which he is responsible. The                              The purposes for which the corporation is formed are as
                                                                                  follows:
purpose of this is two-fold. On the one hand, anyone letting                          a. The promotion of the public and individual welfare in
out bids to have a job done in the field of building will be                      the building construction industry through the rendering of first
                                                                                  class workmanship, the use of high grade materials, and by
reluctant to give the job to a non-union general contractor                       providing efficient and timely service.
for fear the general contractor will not be able to complete                          b. Cooperation in maintaining an eificient and sufficient
                                                                                  working force, and in the promotion of fair competitive
the job since no union man will sign a sub-contract with                          practices through equalization of wage scales and standardiza-
him. He may not, e.g., be able to get a plumber to do his                          tion of other working conditions affecting the employees of
                                                                                  the members.
plumbing, with the result that the whole job stands idle. On                          c. The lending of assistance to one another in meeting
the other hand, the union is attempting to force both general                     emergencies that may arise within the scope of the interests of
                                                                                  the Association and directly affecting one or more of its mem-
contractors and sub-contractors to join the union or lose their                   bers, or indirectly affecting the organization as a whole.


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                    335


         d. The taking of joint action as an Association, if neces-      tensive campaign for federal aid to be given to parents of
      sary, in defense of the members and/or their employees' rights,    children to be used for tuition in either public or non-public
      guaranteed to them by the laws of the United States of
     America and the State of Michigan.                                  schools patterned after the GI bill. The argument in favor
            The continuation and further development of Christian,       of this is that direct grants will not be given for sectarian
      soci% and ethical principles of freedom guaranteed to all
      men in the Constitution of the United States and the State of      purposes. This will preserve the separation between church
      Michigan.                                                          and state. The National Union of Christian Schools is said
         f. The taking of any action germane to the purposes of
      Subparagraphs a, b, c, d, and e above.                             to support this proposition.

   The obvious purpose of this organization is primarily to                 There are several aspects to this question which ought

bring into its federation men of all the various trades related          not to be forgotten in our own consideration of the problem.

to construction in order to be able to guarantee a general                  On the one hand, our schools should never be tempted to

contractor who is not a union member that he will be able                accept help from the government, not on the rather weak basis

to complete his job without having to fall back on union                 of the separation between church and state, but rather on the

help; and to guarantee to the general contractor and sub-                b asis that federal aid will inevitably lead to federal control.
contractors the availability of all the necessary material to               On the other hand, however, there is something deeply
complete a job. The organization has succeeded to the extent             unjust in our whole educational set-up in this country which
that the AFL-CIO has, for the time being, reconsidered the               the recent controversy has sharply outlined. The government
agreement which originally it made with all the craft unions.            takes the position that aid can be given to public schools on
   Although one could wish that the purposes outlined                    the basis of the fact that they are neutral and non-sectarian,
above were more specific, especially point e, there seems to be          and that consequently the government is not supporting any
no objection to joining such an organization. Any attempts               religion with aid to them.      The same argument is used to
that are made within and based upon the principles of right-             justify the use of tax-payers' money for public education.
eousness and which will aid our. people in maintaining their             But this argument has a very hollow ring to it. The public
right to work in the job of their choosing is commendable                schools are not neutral with respect to religion, for neutrality
and ought to be encouraged. We only hope that this organi-               is an impossibility even for a government. In actual fact,
zation will make a real effort in "the further development of            the public schools are atheistic and promote Atheism as long
Christian, social and ethical principles of freedom" as these            as no religion whatsoever may be taught. The result is that
are related to their particular problems.                                the money of the taxpayers is used to support atheism. And

MORE ABOUT AID TO SCNQOLi                                                this is true of our money as well. And so the government
                                                                         involves itself in the foolish contradiction of not giving aid
   The debate that has been stirred up over federal aid to
                                                                         to private schools on the basis that it cannot promote any
private schools continues to swirl. The Roman Catholics
have taken a strong stand in favor of the giving of aid to               one religion ; while in giving aid to public schools, it promotes
                                                                         the religion of atheism.
private schools, particularly their own, and have begun ex-
                                                                            And this dilemma is in turn based upon another mistake
tensive lobbying on Capitol Hill to try to persuade Congress
                                                                         in our society- that it is the business of the government to
to vote aid for them as well as for public schools. President
                                                                         educate children. If the government had never entered the
Kennedy has gone on record as being opposed to outright
                                                                         field of education, but had recognized instead the principle
grants to private schools on the basis that this would be un-
                                                                         that only parents have the calling to educate the next genera-
constitutional and opposed to the separation of church and
                                                                         tion, the problem would not now exist.
state. He is not however opposed to the giving of loans to

private schools, only he wants to make provision for this in                The solution then to the probiem is to return the respon-

separate legislation fearing that should loans to private                sibility of education back to the parents and free it as much as

schools be added to the present bill before Congress,            the     possible from government control. There is no question about

whole bill would go down in defeat. Archbishop William                   it that this also has its difficulties. For one thing, certain

Brady of the Roman Catholic Church wondered out loud if                  requirements have to be set up as an objective standard of
it was not time for another Boston Tea Party with the cry                attainment to receive a diploma and transfer to an institution

"No taxation without representation."                                    of higher learning. For another thing, some parents may

   Other church organizations have placed the matter on                  not want to educate their children at all. Or again, some

their agendas for the coming meetings, and some of their                 parents, while wanting their children to be educated, may not

spokesmen have already made their position clear.                        want to pay the price so that the money is forced out of their

   A spokesman for the National Council of Churches testi-               pockets by taxation. But, considering all these problems, this

fied before a Congressional Committee in favor of federal aid            is evidently the only proper solution.

to public schools, but expressed himself as opposed to any                  This is all no doubt a vain dream. And so it is well that we

kind of aid to private schools.                                          remember, that no matter what happens, our schools do not

   Protestants and other Americans United registered strong              accept outright grants and handouts from the government

opposition to ,grants and loans to private schools.                      even if we should have to suffer injustice to insure the proper

   The Citizens of Educational Freedom is waging an ex-                  education of our children.                          . H. Hanko


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            3    3    6                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R



                                                                                                                 Ref. Witness Hour  can be heard in the British Isles by means
I                                  FROAAOURCHURCHES                                                              of Trans World Radio. The following letter was received
                                                                                                                 from Sussex, England : `Dear Sir : Please send me the printed
                               `All t!ae saints salute thee . . :' PHIL. 421                                     sermon entitled, Armed For Suffering, by the Rev. Hanko.

                                                                                                                 We enjoyed a blessed time in the Lord with your ministry

                                                                               April 5, 1961                     through the radio services, and are fairly zealous listeners to

                                                                                                                 your programmes.       The reception is loud and clear which
                 Rev. H. Hanko, of Hope Church, declined the call from
                                                                                                                 gives us great delight. We pray that God may double His
            our Randolph congregation.
                                                                                                                 blessings upon your faithful ministry. In the Lord Jesus'

                 The Junior Mr. and Mrs. Society of First Church spon-                                           Name . . . .'    Yes, it is indeed gratifying to the Committee,

            sored a program featuring our Missionary, Rev. G. Lubbers.                                           and to the ministers and -musicians who are heard on our

            The meeting was held in the gym of Adams St. School. Mr.                                             programs to hear from the listeners. Address _VOUY  com-

            Fred Hanko, president of the Society, opened the &eeting                                             ments to The Reformed Witness Hour, P.O. Box 8, Grand

            with the read@g  of Zechariah 4 and then asked his father,                                           Rapids, Mich."

            Rev. C. Hanko, to lead in prayer. Mr. and Mrs. C. Jonker
                                                                                                                    From Grand Haven's bulletin we learn that Seminarian
            rendered a vocal duet, which was followed by a short talk by
                                                                                                                 D. Engelsma conducted the Easter morning service, and was
            Donald Hauck, a former member of our Forbes Church, who
                                                                                                                 scheduled for both services the next Sunday. Though this
            gsve  a   t h u m b n a i l   s k e t c h   o f   t h e   b a c k g r o u n d   o f   t h e          congregation is without a minister the bulletin shows that
            German people amongst whom the Missionary works.                                                     the catechism classes are faithfully conducted, and the Sun-
            After him Miss Coraine Streyle, of our Isabel Church, told                                           day School meets every Sunday after the morning service.
           us about the location and of the situation of Forbes  and

            Isabel, and also a little of the work done by our Missionary                                            Holland's consistory has reached a decision to stipulate*

            in those two newest  members of our denomination. Rev.                                               a definite cause for which the Communion thank-offering will

            Lubbers chose to speak on the text found in Zech.  4 which                                           be taken. The March 5th offering was for Pine Rest.

            speaks of "not despising the day of little things." He de-
                                                                                                                    On March 13 the Menls  Society of Hull was host to the
            scribed his newest field of labor in Tripp, S. Dak., and the                                         societies of Doon and Edgerton. Ray Brunsting, of the host
            neighboring towns of Menno  and Scotland. The speech was
                                                                                                                 society, gave a paper based on Matt. 15 :8, 9. All of the men
            characterized by the humility befitting a- Servant of God                                            were invited to enjoy the evening of Christian fellowship with
            who is called to work in an area of "The day of little things."                                      the members of the combined societies.
            It inspired the audience to rely on the grace of God in His

            good hand upon us in our missionary endeavors. After the                                                Classis West, in the last meeting reported in our last

            speech Arnold Dykstra  sang two numbers, and the meeting                                             issue: nominated the following delegates to Synod : Privlzi  -

            was closed with prayer by Rev. H. Hoeksema. An offering                                              Revs. J. A. Keys, H. H. Kuiper,  G. Vanden  Berg, H., Veld-

            was taken for Missions which amounted to $83.00 after ex-                                            liTan;  Elders G. Gunnink, E. Hauck, P. Hoekstra, P. A.

            penses. After the program the Mr. and Mrs. Society served                                            Poortenga. Seczcndi-  Revs. R. C. Harbach, J. Kortering,

            refreshments giving opportunity for visiting with Rev. Lub-                                     -G. Van Baren,  B. Woudenberg; Elders T. Feenstra, M.

            bers and with one another. Everyone there was convinced                                              Gaastra,  W. Griess, R. Regnerus.

            that it was a worthwhile evening, bringing the needs of our
                                                                                                                    The Office Bearers'            Conference was held in Hope
            Missionary closer to our hearts, encouraging us to make them
     ^.                                                                                                     .Chuich  April 4, the evening before Classis  convened. Prof.
            the objects of our prayers.                                                                          H. C. Hoeksema  was the speaker, his topic being, "Should

                 Easter Sunday evening was enriched for the people of                                            the Form for the Lord's Supper be Revised?" The speaker

            the Hope, Hudsonville, and South Holland-Oak Lawn                                                    recalled the history of the Form, discussed the manner in

            churches.       At Hope an Easter program was rendered by                                            which it was written, and weighed the question of the need

            their Choral Society ;            Hudsonville enjoyed a singspiration                           for its i-etiision.  The speaker also related the recent history,

            sponsored by their Male Quartet; and in South Holland                                                from 1.913 to date, in which requests for revision were aired,

            Church the Resurrection Day was concluded with the sing-                                             and  in 1959  a triai  revision was adopted by the Synod of

            ing of God's prai-ses in a singspiration.                                                       the  -Cl&istian  Reformed Churches. The Professor criticized
                                                                                                                 -: "
                                                                                                                 sdme`  points of that revision,, and concluded that it is in his
                 Cqnt&u.tio~~  : "Most everyone enjoys receiving letters  by                               .opinion  that, revision of our present Form is not necessary,
            mail. This is certainly true of the Corresponding Secretary`                                    but that  `it would be dangerous to do so. Thirty-five office
            of the Radio Committee of the Ref. Witness Hour. EspeCially                                    bearers were present at this conference to enjoy the timely
            true when the writer states Ihat he is `helped and comforted'..                                 $eech  and to-ask questions of the speaker after recess.
            by the messages heard in these distinctively Reformed broad-
                                                                                                           ._
            casts. Many of The Stwdard  Beam? readers know'thit  the                                                A-..  . see you  in church.                           J.M.F.


