                       ~XXXVIII                                          G
        VOLUME                                    OCTOBER  1, 1961 -          R A N D  RAPIDS,  MICHIGAN                            ?%JMBER  1




                                                                                     The Holland translation is not correct: blessed are the

             M E D I TA T'I 0 N                                                  peaceable ones. Not as though they would not'deserve  that
                                                                                 name, but it is not according to the original. The English

                                                                                 translation is correct. They are peacemakers. They make.

                                                                                 peace.
                  BLESSED  PEACEMAKERS
                                                                                     Peacemakers ! And the whole world is inclined to shout:

                 "Blmsed  are the peacemakers: for they shall be                 Amen !

                  called the clzildren  ,of God." Matt. 5 :9                         The great men of this world all profess to be exactly that.

       The key-stone of all blessedness of God's Covenant!                           Many years ago I saw a cartoon in one of the leading

                                                                                 magazines : the great statesmen of the warring~  nations at the
       The culmination of all things : peace, blessed peace.
  0                                                                              peacetable with smiling faces. But behind them, behind their
       Already in the Old Testament : Moses received command-                    back, they firmly clutched their daggers and guns.
ment of God to speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, On this
                                                                                     And .why ?
wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,

The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make His                                Because they sought peace without the Cross of Christ.
                                                                                                                                        ,
Face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord                            They sought peace without God.
lift up His Countenance upon thee, and give tlwe peace!
                                                                                     And that's a mirage.
       And so through the ages God's people heard the. an-
                                                                                     God said: There is no, peace, saith the Lord to the wicked.
nouncement, as though God spoke to them: you are blessed,

My people: you are kept, shined upon by the eternal light                            And: But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it

of His love, you are graced so that God will dwell within                        cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is

you, and the end was peace, blessed peace.                                       no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

       How fitting that our great Highpriest should take that                        But they never learn. They will continue to have their

blessing and utter it to the citizens of the Kingdom of God.                     peace conferences; they will continue to build their peace

                                                                                 castles, even though every age teaches the age-old lesson:
       And also here the end is peace, blessed peace.
                                                                                 there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
       It is the peace of God, dwelling in the hearts of His
                                                                                     And the reason is simple.
children so that they become peacemakers on earth, and

deserve to be called the children of God.                                            All peace finds its source in God. Read Judges 6:24.

                                                                                 We see Gideon building an altar to the Lord, and we hear
       It is the last of the seven beatitudes.
                                                                                 him call it : Jehovah-Shalom, which means : God is peace, or,
       The seven are a description of the children of God in the                 rather, Jehovah is peace. .
world.
                                                                                    "If you shut out the living God from your conferences,
       And the `end, the, conclusion is that they are seen as the                you can never attain to peace. There is no peace outside of
peacemakers in the world.                                                        Him, apart from Him.

       Blessed are the peacemakers!                                                  God is peace eternally, essentially, and in all His works.

                                                                                     Hence, God is the Fountain of all peace.
                              * * *: *
                                                                                     And that peace of God is vitally connected with His

       Blessed are the peacemakers!                                              eternal`covenant of grace. Read Numbers 25 :12.  "Where-

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


fore say, Behold I give u&o him my covenant of peace."             that is the God of our salvation: "For He is our peace, wh9

And Isaiah 54 :lO, a very beautiful verse : "For the mountains     hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall

shall depart, and the hills be removed ; but My kindness shall     of partition between us; having abolished in His flesh the

not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace       enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordi-

be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee."               nances;  for to make in Himself of twain one new man, SO

                                                                   making peace ; and that He might reconcile both unto God
     Oh yes, God is the God of peace, even the peace of His
                                                                   in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
Covenant of grace.
                                                                   and came and preached peace to you which were afar off,

                          * * * +                                  and to them that were nigh. For through Him we both have

                                                 --,:*             access by one Spirit unto the Father."

     And so God is the great, original Peace Maker.                   There you have the whole story of the peacemaking. of

     He is at peace with Himself and  in Himself. In His           God through His dear Son.

glorious Being He lives the life of His eternal Covenant. God         In Jesus Ch.rist,  my dear reader, the Fountain of Peace
is a Cqvenant God in Himself. Father, Son and Holy Ghost           is opened in Jerusalem.  Jehovah took upon Himself all our
live the life of peace, from eternity to eternity. With won-       war and rebellion which we had declared unto and against
drous diversity of their personal lives, there is the unity of     God, and He destroyed, annihilated all that war and rebellion
their Essence. Never is there the least ripple of discord in       in His blessed cross.
God. They love one another, they seek one another, they
                                                                      And then He began to preach that peace through the
enjoy one another from everlasting to everlasting. They live
                                                                   Gospel, working with that Gospel in the hearts of the elect
the life of the Covenant of Peace.
                                                                   so that they might believe in it and be saved.
     That became evident in the creation of the first world.
                                                                      Oh yes, God in Christ is the great Peacemaker!
     Adam and Eve lived the blessed covenant life of God in

the first paradise.                                                                         * * $ *

     But through the temptation of Satan they lost that peace-

ful fife  and became rebels. They declared war with God and           The Law which we hated and would not keep in the midst

hea+enl,  And misery was in all their ways. They became            of the world is now written in our hearts through the Holy

as the troubled sea when it cannot rest, and both Adam and         Ghost of Christ that is given to us. And of that wondrous

Eve cast up mire and dirt. And their generations continued         work we sing: Great peace have they that love Thy law. The

to do the same thing, only worse than their forebears. Wit-        law is love, love of God, and love of the fellow man. Walk in

ness the unspeakable unrest, war, and rebellion of the world       that love, live that love of God and you have greai.peace.

against the God of peace. Henceforth they prate of peace,             As soon as the power of the blood of Christ has found its
but is all vain, the lie, utter deception : there is nb` peace,    mark you become peaceable. You rest in God. You partake
and there are no peacemakers among the children of men.            of the life, of His covenant of peace. And it grows still in

                          * 4: $ *                                 your erstwhile turbulent heart.

                                                                      And so you become a peacemaker.

     But God has harboured thoughts of peace from everlast-           No, you do not become some kind of goody-goody. You
ing. In time He speaks of it : "For I know the thoughts that I     do not become a caricature of peaceableness. You will never
think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not       forsake your convictions for the sake of outward peace. You
of evil, to give you an expected end." Jer. 29 :ll.                do not pacify everyone. You can be a wondrous peacemaker

     Ah, these Divine thoughts of peace!                           and be at war at the same time. Then you fight the war of

                                                                   God. Look at David. His whole life was spent in warring
     They came to manifestation in t&e  fulness of time when
                                                                   with the godless nations around about Israel.
the Prince of Peace appeared, Jesus Christ the Lord. And

make no mistake, He is no third party, He iS the living God,          But you do become a peacemaker.

the God of peace Himself who a$fiei?ed  among us as the               You do so by preaching and living the cross of Jesus
great Peacemaker.                                                  Christ, through His Word and Holy Spirit.

     God is the Peacemaker p&y ~xc&nce!                               And what glorious oppprtunity !

     And even then you are .in danger of misinterpretation.           First in your own heart. You listen to .Jesus when your
He does not only excel in peacemaking, ,but  He is the only        heart is falling back into the unrest that first was your at-
Peacemaker! '                                                      mosphere : Let not your heart be troubled ! We discipline our

     He proved it when He rent the heavens and descended in        own hearts and minds by preaching the Cross of Jesus to

Bethlehem: Listen to Paul ; he is speaking  of Jesus Christ,       ourselves. And when rebellious thoughts arise in our hearts


                                             THE  STANDAKD                       R       E      A       R        E      R                                                                                                                                  3
                                                                                                                                             -         -


and rebellious words are pressing to our lips. for utt,erance,

we kill our members that are on the earth. We sanctify God                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

in our hearts and it grows still again.                                        Semi-monthly, except monthly during  June, Iuly and August
                                                                                Published by the REFORMED FREE PWSHJNG  ASSOCIATIONS
   We do so in our family life `by bringing all under the                      P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7: Mich.

discipline of God in Christ. And we experience that only the                                                 Editor - BEV.  KEHM  HOEKSEMA

Cross of Jesus has the answer for every impatient' question,                   Communications relative to contents should be addressed  to

every anxious and despairing thought. We lead them `all                                           Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E.,
                                                                                                                           Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
captive to the obedience of Christ.
                                                                               All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.

   We do so in the church.                                                                        James Dykstra, 1328 W. Butler Ave., S. E.
                                                                                                                       Gzand  Rapids 7, Michigan

   What an opportunity !                                                       Announcements a& Obituaries must be mailed to the above
                                                                               address and will be p,yblished  at a fee of $2.00 for each notice.

   The church is not yet entirely delivered from the natural                   RENAL:  Unless a definite request for discontinuance is re-

rebellion and war against the Almighty. But against all and               - c+ved.it  is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription
                                                                                  to continue without the formality of a renewal. order.
everything that raises its head in disobedience to God and
                                                                                                              Subscript&.  p&e: $%.Ob per year
His Christ, we preach the Gospel of Peace.
                                                                                      Second Class postage paid at Grand Rapids, Michigan

   And attend to this : we always have success with the elect

of God. For they have the Spirit of peace in their hearts.

They will listen to you.
                                                                                                                                 C O N T E N T S

   And with the church we do so in the midst of a rebellious            _ .                        -
world.                                                                  hk.DITATION  
                                                                                      Blessed Peacemakers                                  .._.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .._......_......................I                                 I
   We preach the Gospel of peace. We will tell them that                                        Rev. G. Vos

all their attempts at peace are doomed before they start. We            EDITORIALS -
will tell them that they are at war  with God Himself, and                            The Hymn Question Before Synod                                                           . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
                                                                                      .   R e v .   H .   H o e k s e m a
that their end is eternal unrest, unless they hear and be
converted.                                                              OUR DOCTRINE-
                                                                                      The         Book           of Revelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._....  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

   But we will make peace.                                                                      Rev. H. Hoeksema

                                                                        As To BOOKS -
   Even though the fools will tell us and ask us with                                 Expounding God's Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _......_..  ._ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
sneers and derision : Art thou,  he that troubleth Israel ? We                        T h e Man God Mastered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                          9
                                                                                      T h e Gospel According to John.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                                                                          9
will say in the Spirit of God: No, but you and your father's                          Josep           T h e       Prime            Minister.. . . . . . . . . . .                                                                                            9

house are those that trouble Israel. Hear and repent!                                            Rev. H. Hoeksema


   And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them              A CLOUD OF WITNESSES -
                                                                                      Intercession and Victory . . . . . . . . . . . . ..__..  10
that make peace !                                                                                Rev. B. Woudenberg

                                                              G.V.      FROM HOLY WRIT -
                                                                                      Exposition of I Timothy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
                                                                                                 Rev. G. Lubbers


                                                                        IN HIS -FEAR -
                                                                                      God's Royal Priesthood ( 10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                         Rev. J. A. Heys

   On Thursday, October 26, 1961, our dear parents,                     CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH -
                                                                                      The Church and the Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..___..........................  18
              MR. AND MRS. JACOB H. VANDER WAL                                                   Rev. H. Veldman

                                                                        THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS -
hope to celebrate, the Lord willing, their 50th wedding anniversary.
                                                                                      The         Belgic              Confession                   _.. . . . . . . . . . . . . ..____......................................  18,

                                                                                                  Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
   We are  thankful to our covenant God for having spared them

for each other and for us, and we pray that God may bless them          DECENCY AND ORDER -
further in the way that lies ahead; and as the days approach when                     The         Lord's              Supper            and          Sundry              Matters . . . . . . . . ..__.__.__.............  20
their earthly pilgrimage shall end, may they enjoy the peace which                                Rev. G. Vanden  Berg
alone can be found in Him.                                              ALLARouNDus-
                                                                                      Ecumenicism                       in Latin                  A m e r i c a .   .__. . . .._.._.______  ___________.  . ..22
                               Their grateful children:                               Trouble in Israel _......_............................................................... 22
                                  -' Mr. and Mrs. Henry Vander Wal                    Church               Offerings                . .._...................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
                                                                                      Dr. Frank                  Buchman Dies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..23.
                                   Mr. and Mrs. Dick Vander Wal                       Growth               of      Mormonism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

                                   Mr. and  Mrs. Wm. Versluys      "                             Rev. H. Hanko

                                   13 Grandchildren                                                              CHUR~FI.E~                                                                                                                               2 4
                                                                        NEWS  FROM  OUR                                                    ____._..,.........._...........................................                                            

                                   3 Great-grandchildren                                         Mr. J. M. Faber

Grand Rapids, Michigan

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



                                                                        to this. Again I ask: why cannot our churches have some
            E D I T O R I A L S                                         hymns that are versifications  of Scripture and that are ap-
                                                                        proved by Synod ?

                                                                            I can find no reason at all why this question must be
          The Hymn  Question  Before  Synod                             answered in the negative.

      On the above subject I still have a few words to say.                 It stands to reason that also in the Form for the Ad-

     In the first place, I mentioned in one of my former                ministration .of the Lord's Supper the Holy Spirit is men-

editorials on this subject that also our liturgical forms speak         tioned and, too, as the Spirit of Christ, who was not yet in the

more than once of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and this             old dispensation but was poured out on the day of Pentecost.

should be reflected in the songs we sing in our public wor-                Let me make a few quotations :
                                                                           "
ship, something which is impossible if the congregation is                      . . . . therefore, notwithstanding we feel many infirmities

limited to the psalms as they occur in our Psalter.                     and miseries in ourselves, as namely, that we have not
     Thus we read in our  Baptism Form:                         -~--
                                                       __ ".            peffect  laith, and that we do not give ourselves to serve God
     "In like manner, when we are baptized in `hk `name of              with that zeal as we are bound, but have daily to strive with

the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost assures us by this holy                  the weakness of our faith and the evil lusts of our flesh ; yet,

sacrament, that he will dwell in us, and sanctify us to be              since we are (by the grace of the Holy Spirit) sorry for

members of Christ, applying unto us that which we have                  these weaknesses, and earnestly desirous to fight against our

in Christ, namely, the washing away of our sins, and the                unbelief," etc.

daily renewing of our lives, till we shall finally be presented            Again, we read in the same form:

without spot or wrinkle among the assembly of the elect in                 "For by his death he hath taken away the cause of our

life eternal."                                                          eternal death and misery, namely, sin, and hath obtained for

     Again I remark, that this could not possibly be said in            us the quickening Spirit, that we by the same (who dwelleth

the old dispensation for the simple reason "the Holy Ghost              in Christ as in the head and in us as his members), might

was not yet.`, Nor could this be expressed in the Psalms as             have true co.mmunion  with him, and be made partakers of all

we have them in our Psalter. And this is true not'only of               his blessings, of life eternal, righteousness and glory."

the Holy Ghost as such, but also of what is said in the                    Again, in the prayer before communion we read:

above quotation of the work of the Holy Ghost. It is He                    "0 merciful God and Father, we beseech thee that thou

that, as the Spirit of Christ, will dwell in us; it is He that          wilt be pleased in this Supper (in which we celebrate the

sanctifies us as members of Christ; it is He that applies unto          glorious remembrance of the bitter death of thy beloved

us all the blessings of Christ; and it is He that washes away           Son Jesus Christ) to work in our hearts through the Holy

our sins and that daily renews our lives. All this the Church           Spirit, that we may daily more and more with true confidence

of the old dispensation possessed only in hope. But all this            give ourselves up unto thy Son Jesus Christ," etc.

is fully realized in the new dispensation.                                 And, finally, in the thanksgiving after the celebration of

     In the prayer before baptism we read:                              the Lord's Supper we read:
     I` . . . . we beseech thee, that thou wilt be pleased gra-            "Grant, we beseech thee, 0 faithful God and Father, that
ciously to look upon these children, and incorporate them by            through the operation of thy Holy Spirit, the commemora-

thy Holy Spirit into thy Son Jesus Christ, that they may                tion of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ may tend to the
be buried with him into his death, and be raised with him               daily increase of our faith, and saving fellowship with  him,
in newness of life; that they may daily follow him, joyfully            through Jesus Christ our Lord," etc.
bearing their cross, and cleave unto him in true faith, firm               All this or, at least, most of it could not be said in the

hope, and ardent love." etc.                                            old dispensation and, therelore,  could not possibly be found
     And in the thanksgiving after baptism we read:                     in our Psalter.
                                                                                                    * *    * *
     "Almighty God and merciful Father, we thank and praise

thee, that thou hast .forgiven  us, and our children, all our              Now let us also turn to Scripture.

sins, through the blood of thy beloved Son Jesus Christ, and               I did not quote from the New Testament because it is

received us through thy Holy Spirit as members of thine                 well-known that the New Testament contains frequent refer-

only begotten Son, and adopted us to be thy children, and               ences to the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless I will now quote a

sealed and confirmed the same unto us by holy baptism ; we              few passages to prove the truth of this statement.

beseech thee, through the same Son of thy love, that thou                  There is, of course, first of all, the so-called apostolic

wilt be pleased always to govern these baptized children by             blessing: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love

thy Holy Spirit." etc.                                                  of God, apd the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you

     The point.1 wish to make is this that, while our Confes-           all, Amen."     This blessing is pronounced upon our churches

sions and Liturgical forms speak frequently of the Holy Spirit,         in all our services.     But it could not be pronounced upon

we can find nothing in our Psalter that at all corresponds              the church of the old dispensation for the simple reason that


                                               THE   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   5



Christ had not yet come and, therefore, the Spirit was not                "Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; It is expedient for you

yet. Hence, it could not`be found in our Psalter. It is true        that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not

that the Psalter speaks of Christ as, for instance, in number       come,; but if I depart, I will  send him unto you. And when

200 :                                                               .he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of right-

    "Christ shall lwve  dowiniort.  over land a-nd Sea,             eousness, and of jud,ment  : of sin, because they believe not

         Earth's remotest rqions  shall his empire be;              on me: Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and

         They that zwiEd$  inhabit shall t'heir  zero~ship  b&g,    ye see me no more: of judgment, because the prince of this

         Kings shall render tribute, nations serve our K&g."        world is judged. I have many things to say unto you, but

    But, in the first place, this is possible only because a        ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit

New Testament element is introduced in the psalm which              of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he

does not occur in the original form of the psalm. It speaks         shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear,

of the king of Israel, and of the king's son. And although          that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

we readily admit that this king of Israel is a type of Christ,      He shall glorify me: for he shall take it out of mine, and

we cannnot know this except in the light of the New Testa-          shall shew it unto you."

ment. And, in the second place, even so the psalter in versi-             This promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. And

fying this psalm is not quite correct and makes the congrega-       the result was that marvellous sermon of Peter in which

tion sing an` Old Testament song. For Christ has already            the light of the Spirit tias cast upon the entire Old Testa-

all power in heaven and on earth. Hence, the church of the          ment.

new dispensation must not sing that Christ shul2  have domin-             Naturally, therefore, the N.T. very frequently speaks of

ion over land and sea, but rather:                                  this Spirit of God as the Spirit of Christ. Just let me quote

          "Christ now has dominion over land and sea."              one passage.     It is from that rich and beautiful chapter of

    But let me continue to quote a few more passages from           the epistle of Paul to the Romans, ch. 8 :9-16 :

the New Testament that speak of the Holy Spirit.                          "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be

    Well-known, too, are the passages that occur in John            that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have

14-16.                                                              not the `Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ

    In John 14:16,  17 we read:                                     be in you, the body is dead because of sin ; but the Spirit

    "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you an-          is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him

other Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even          that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, he that
                                                                     .
the Spirit of truth ;-whom  the world cannot receive, because       raised  up Christ from the dead shall also quicken- your

it seeth him not, neither knoweth him : but ye know him ; for       mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore,

he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."                         brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the

    And in vs. 26:                                                  flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye

    "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the           through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall

Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things,         live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are

and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I              the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of

have said unto you."                                                bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of

    From these verses it is evident that the Comforter or           adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself

the Spirit of truth, which is the Holy Ghost, is the third          beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of

Person of the Holy Trinity but then as the Spirit of Christ,        God." I will quote no more.

who is given to Christ and through or by Him is poured                    In conclusion, I would like to call your attention to Eph.

forth on the day of Pentecost. It is also evident from these        5 :19  where we read: "speaking to yourselves [better : speak-

passages that, in the old dispensation, this Spirit was not         ing to one another, cf. ch. 4:32]  in psalms and hymns and

yet, because Christ had not come and was not yet glorified.         spiritual songs."     It is by no means impossible that by

And again, this is also the reason why this Spirit of Christ        psalms especially the O.T. psalms are meant. A hymn is a

is not and cannot be mentioned in the Psalms and is not             song of praise composed by the congregation and "spiritual

mentioned in the Psalter. And once more, this is one of             song" probably has reference to the former two terms, psalms

the reasons why we should have hymns that are versifications        and hymns, but now with the emphasis on spirituzil  in dis-

of Scripture, particularly of the New Testament, and that           tinction from secular. It is true that the apostle does not

are approved by Synod.                                              directly refer to public worship, but this is not excluded.

    The same is expressed in ch. 15 :26:                            If this is so (and, to my mind, this is true) then we may

    "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto          regard this text as a direct proof that the church in the new

you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which pro-           dispensation in its public worship may sing such hymns as

ceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me."                   are versifications of Scripture and as are approved by Synod.

    And in ch. 16 :7-14 :                                                                                                        H.H.


6                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D .   .BE'ARER


                                                                      are written in the Lamb's book of life, which means, of

                                                                      course, ~that they are chosen in Him before the foundation

                                                                      of the world, and are redeemed and delivered and sanctified

                                                                      in Him, have a place in that glorious city. Its citizens are

            THE BOOK  OF REVELATION                                   perfect forevermore.

                          P A R T   T W O                                                        C H A P T E R  X X I V


                     C H A P T E R  X X I I I                                               Lifs in the New World

                      The New Jerztsalmm
                                                                                                Revelation 22 : l-5
                       Revelation 21 :9-27

                                                                                  1. And he shewed  me a pure river of water of life,

     There is no longer any sin ; yea, there is no longer any                     clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God

possibility of sin. And further, we read: "and the kings of                       and of the Lamb.

the earth do bring their glory and honour into it." This does                     2. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side

not mean that the fruit of the inventions and productions                         of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare

of the great of this present world will be carried over into                      twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every
                                                                                  month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing
the New Jerusalem. This world and all that -is in it will be
                                                                                  of the nations.
destroyed by fire. Nor does it mean that in this world the
kings of the earth serve the church. For the description is                       3.     And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of
                                                                                  God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants
of the heavenly Jerusalem.     Rather does it mean that also in
                                                                                  shall serve him:
the eternal kingdom there will be great and small. There
will be those that sit on thrones, and those that serve them.                     4 .    And they shall see his face; and his name shall be
                                                                                  in their foreheads.
But all their dominion and glory will be in the service of

Christ and of the glorified church. Further, we read: "And                        5. And there shall be no night there; and they need

the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there                        no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God
                                                                                  giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and
shall be no night there."      Again, we must remember that
                                                                                  ever.
reference here is not to the new creation, but to the glorified

church. We dare not draw the conclusion from this text,                  In verses 1 and 2 we have mention of the river and of

therefore, that in the new creation there will be no representa-      the tree of life. In verse 1 and the first part of verse 2 we

tion at all of the night and of the glory and beauty of the           read: "And he shewed  me a pure river of water of life, clear

night. The idea is that for the glorified church there will           as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the

be no night with its fear of he enemy, so that the gates must         Lamb, in the midst of the street of it." The description here

be shut, and with its cessation of all activity, so that the gates    is evidently based on that of the first paradise. In the first

being shut, the glory of kings and nations cannot be brought          paradise there was, as we know, `the tree of life, but also'

into it. On the contrary, there will be constant, uninterrupted       the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Cf. Gen. 2 :9, 10.

activity, day and night. There will be constant fulness of            We may also confer Ezekiel 47:1-12  and Zech.  14%.  The

life and joy.    "And they shall bring the glory and honour           future glory of the New Jerusalem in the new heavens and

of the nations into it." Once more the nations are mentioned.         the new earth is the final and highest possible realization of

The language and presentation are derived from the proph-             the earthly paradise, of the earthly tree of life, and of the

ecies of the Old Testament, The nations are the Gentile               original state of righteousness. The latter is an image of the

nations that come to Jerusalem to worship and to bring their          former. In the New Jerusalem the paradise of God is per-

treasures and offerings to the city of God. Actually, of              fectly realized. Cf. Rev. 2 :7. The text speaks of a river, a

course, the nations are not outside but in Jerusalem; and they        stream, of the water of life which was clear as crystal. The

consecrate the fruit of their labors to the glory of God and          river is symbolic of a constant flow of life, of the continuous

the Lamb. All the activity of all is service of God. And then         operation of the life-giving Spirit of God in Christ which

we read: "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything           the glorified saints constantly and by a constant act on their

that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or             part receive and appropriate. For they drink of the water of

maketh  a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book          the river of life. Cf. John 7:37-39.  There we read the well-

of life." vs. 27. Here we have a general description of the           known words : "In the last day, that great day of the feast,

spiritual character of the citizens of that New Jerusalem.            Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come

Nothing that defiles by sin or that makes an abomination or           unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scrip-

a lie, idolatry, etc., shall ever enter into the city. Only the       ture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living

perfect, those that are eternally redeemed from sin and cor-          water.    But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that

ruption and death, or, according to the text, only they that          believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not

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


yet given ; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." This           point of view. In the first place, there will be no curse.

life is pure and undefiled. For according to the text, the            Cf. vs. 3. The curse of God is the expression and operation

water of the river of life is clear as crystal. The river, this       of God's wrath against sin, manifest in thorn and thistle, in

energizing stream of pure life, proceeds out of the throne of         the vanity of the creature, in all kinds of suffering and pain,

God and of the Lamb. This evidently signifies that it is the          in sorrow and death. In the New Jerusalem and in the new

life of God in and through Christ and through the Holy                creation there will be no curse. There is no reason, there is

Spirit, that is, the Spirit of Christ, that flows into the New        no room for the curse whatsoever: "but the throne of God

Jerusalem and into the new creation. It is the Spirit of God,         and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve

but as the Spirit of Christ, that gives life to the saints and        him." The perfected kingdom of heaven is there. God reigns

to the church of Jesus Christ in the new creation. It is the          through Christ, and His will is done by all. And where the

life of the perfected kingdom of heaven that thus fills the           will of God is done, there can be no curse. There only can

city. For the river flows from t& tlzrone  of God and of the          be the perfected fellowship and the perfect favor of God.

Lamb. The river flows through the midst of the street of              There will be the vision of God, verse 4: "And they shall

it, that is, it flows through the very heart of the glorified         see his face." It will be forever impossible to see God in His

church. One life and one Spirit fills all the saints.                 infinite Essence. But the glorified saints shall see the face

   And then we read, in the latter part of verse 2 : "And on          of God in the New Jerusalem and in the new creation in the

either side [which means, of course, on this side and on that         highest possible revelation of God in the face of Christ. Here

side] of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare            we see only a reflection of that face of God through the Scrip-

twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month:           tures. There, however, we shall see face to face. On the

and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the na-            side of the saints this will be possible because "his name shall

tions." The tree of life in the first paradise was undoubtedly        be in their foreheads." They will be like Him, as, for instance,

a sign and seal to man in the state of rectitude of the favor         I John 3 :2 tells us : "Beloved, now are we the sons of God,

and fellowship of God. Here, in the text of Revelation, it            and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know

symbolizes the perfected life of heavenly fellowship with God,        that when he shall appear [it is better to translate: but we

which means that constantly the saints taste God's friendship.        know that when it shall appear], we shall be like him ; for

In the second place, the tree of life in the first paradise was       we shall see him as he is." This means, of course, that we

a means undoubtedly to perpetuate man's earthly existence.            shall see Christ as He is, and we shall see Him everywhere

This is evident from the text in Genesis 3 :22.  Here the tree        and always ; and through Christ we shall see the face of

of life in the new paradise represents the perpetuation of            God forever. True knowledge of Him (His Name is Himself

the glorious life in the resurrection body. This tree, accord-        in His revelation) will fill their minds and hearts. Hence,

ing to the text, stands on the brink of the river of the water        there will be direct knowledge of God, according to verse 5

of life. And that signifies that the power of this life of fellow-    of this section: "And there shall be no night there; and they

ship and friendship proceeds from the throne of God and of            need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God

the Lamb in and through the Spirit of Christ. We further              giveth them light." Confer once more Rev. 21:23, 25. Here,

read that this tree bears twelve manner -of fruit, which              in this present world, all life and all knowledge is conditioned

signifies that it bears a fulness of fruit for the entire church.     by the light of the sun, or even, according to this section,

Twelve is the number of the church, as we have seen before.           by the light of man, that is, of a candle. Without light there

Compare, for instance, the twelve patriarchs, the twelve              is no possibility of knowledge. But there, in the new creation,

tribes, the twelve apostles, the twenty-four elders, the twelve       we shall know and walk directly, know in the light of God.

times twelve thousand. All refers to the completeness of the          There will be an eternal kingship: "and they shall reign for

perfected church in the new heavens and the new earth.                ever and ever." vs. 5b. As servants of God, and with the

And that this tree yields her fruit every month, that is,             Lamb, they shall reign over all creatures in the new creation.

throughout the year, indicates that it bears fruit continuously.      A royal priesthood they shall be. The kingdom of heaven is

There is never any want of fruit. Finally, the text tells us          perfected now. All things shall serve them, that they may,

that its leaves are for the healing of the nations. We under-         and that too, forever, serve their God in Christ.

stand, of course, that this cannot mean that there will still be

sickness to be cured in the New Jerusalem or that conver-                                     CHAPTER XXV
sions will occur in the new creation. But it is a figurative
way of saying that no sickness of any kind can ever enter into                                 The Epilogue

the city of God, the New Jerusalem.                                                         Revelation 22 :6-21

   In the New Jerusalem, in that paradise of God, with its
                                                                                  6. And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful
river and tree of life, there will be a fulness of perfect life                   and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent
and of perfect joy in the fellowship of God through the                          his angel to shew unto his servants the things which

Spirit. Its blessedness is described here from a four-fold                       must shortly be done.


S                                               T H E   STANDA;R.D   B E A R E R



            7. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth           God, and counted worthy to receive the book with its seven

            the sayings of the prophecy of this book.                       seals and to open it. And then we followed the revelation

            8.     And I, John, saw these things, and heard them. And       contained in seal after seal as it was broken and finally

            when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship               changed into trumpets and vials. We obtained some vision
            before the feet of the angel which shewed  me these             of the mighty struggle that is carried on throughout the ages
            things.
                                                                            of the present dispensation for the completion and consum-

            9. Then.  saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I           mation of the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
            am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets,         Mighty enemies arose against that kingdom. We obtained a
            and of them which keep the sayings of this book: wor-
                                                                            view of the power of Antichrist developing throughout the
            ship Cod.

                                                                            ages and finally realizing itself in a tremendous world-power
            10. And he said unto me, Seal not the sayings of the
                                                                            that is pictured as the beast out of the sea, aided by the
            prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.
                                                                            beast rising from the earth. We learned how the church will
            11. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he          apostatize from God and the Lamb and degenerate into a mere
            which is filthy, let him be iilthy  still: and he that is
                                                                            harlot who will be instrumental in the power of Antichrist.
            righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy,
            let him be holy still.                                          But plagues were also sent, just because of the existence of

                                                                            this power of opposition - plagues of war and all kinds of
            12. And, behold, 1 come quickly; and my reward is
                                                                            social trouble, of revolution and insurrection, of famine and
            with me, to give every man according as his work shall

            be.                                                             pestilence. And these plagues, we found, had for their
!
                                                                            purpose the detention of the powers of opposition, so that
            13. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
                                                                            the world-power could not develop itself prematurely. But
            end, the first and the last.

                                                                            also the final destruction of that inimical power of the world
            14. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that
                                                                            and of all the enemies of Christ was revealed. In the mean-
            they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter
                                                                            time, we found that those plagues did not harm the people of
            in through the gates into the city.

                                                                            God. On the contrary, they served to purify and strengthen
            15. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whore-
                                                                            them. And in the midst of the tumult and tribulation of this
            mongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever
            loveth and maketh  a lie.                                       present time the one hundred forty-four thousand of the

                                                                            Lamb were sealed and kept safely. Finally, we also found
            16. I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you
                                                                            how, in spite of all the counsel of the devil and of his host,                                                    '
            these things in the churches. I am the root and the
            offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.            the New Jerusalem descended out of the new heavens upon

                                                                            the new earth, and how the covenant of God was completely
            17. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let
                                                                            realized in that new world, where all the world shall lie at
            him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst

            come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of             the bosom of God and be His kingdom, under Christ, the

            life freely.                                                    Anointed.

            18.      For I testify unto every man that heareth the words         And now we have come to the close of the book. No

            of the prophecy of this book, Lf any man shall add unto         more revelations and visions are to follow. What follows is
            these things, God shall add unto him' the plagues that          a mere epilogue, a fit close and application of all that has
            are written in this book:
                                                                            been revealed to John and written by him. There is in this

            19. And if any man shall take away from the words               epilogue no doubt abundant material for many separate dis-
            of the book of this prophecy, Cod shall take away his           courses. We shall treat it, however, as one whole. For, in
            part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city,
                                                                            the first place, it actually constitutes one whole and belongs
            and from the things which are written in this book.

                                                                            together. And, in the second place, as we said in the be-
            20. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I
                                                                            ginning, it is not our purpose to develop the different points
            come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
                                                                            of doctrine that are implied in the book, but merely to treat
            21.      The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.    it with a view to the purpose for which it has been given to
            Amen.
                                                                            the church, that is, to obtain a vision of the coming Lord.

     As we have seen, the Book of Revelation consists of, first             Much of the detail that is found in this passage we have

of all, an introduction in chapter 1 :1-S ; secondly, the main              met with before, in the introduction and in the body of the

body of the book ; and finally, the close, or epilogue. The                 book. And we will not repeat. And therefore, we view the

main body of the book we have now finished. In our discus-                  r e s t   o f   t h i s   c h a p t e r ,   f r o m   v e r s e   6  to the end, as an epilogue.

sion we met with, in the first place, a picture of the church                    T h e   m a i n   s u b j e c t   a n d   c o n t e n t s   o f   t h i s   e p i l o g u e   i s   u n -

in its completeness, in its universality, and as she appears                doubtedly the speedy coming of the Lord. A careful reading

in every age, b
                   oradually  degenerating into the church of Lao-          will show that this is actually the all-pervading idea of the

dicea,  or Babylon. Secondly, we found the vision of the                    text. It is mentioned in the text repeatedly. In vs. 6 we read:

Lamb standing as though it were slain before the throne of                  "These sayings are faihful and true: and the Lord God of

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


the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants          diate aim of this volume is to indicate and illustrate some

the things which must shortly be done." The things that must        principles and methods of biblical exposition. Its ultimate

shortly come to pass are all concentrated around the coming         aim is to encourage readers themselves to become diligent

of the Lord. Here John records once more that they must             and effective workers in the same field of ministry."

come to pass. It is the consummation of the counsel of God              I may say, in general, that this book serves this purpose

that the Lord does co&e. And that they must come to pass            very well. I may, therefore, recommend it, not only to students

shortly, or quickly, is emphasized throughout this passage.         and ministers of the Word, but also to the general reader.

It therefore is really an assertion that the Lord will surely                                                                H.H.

come quickly. The same is true of verse 7. Here we have a
direct statement of the Lord Himself: "Behold, I come                   The Mart God Mastered, by Jean Cardier. Published by
                                                                    the Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. Price
quickly."    The same idea is once more expressed in verse
                                                                    $3.00.
12: "And behold, I come quickly." The same notion is ex-

pressed in verse 10: "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy              Many biographies have been written of John Calvin, but

of this book: for the time is at hand." Once more in verse          this book may. be said to be outstanding in this particular

17 we read of the response of the Spirit and of the bride, as       field of literature. It is translated from the French by 0. R.

well as of the individual believer. And that response is            Johnston. The book, according to the translator, is "em-

again that the Lord may come quickly: "And the Spirit and           inently readable."    This is true. In fact it makes very in-

the bride say, Come. And let him that  heareth say, Come.           teresting reading. Especially the chapter on "The Servetus

And let him that is athirst  come. And whosoever will, let          Drama" is very interesting, because, although the author

him take the water of life freely." And finally, in verse 20        does not attempt to justify the burning of Servetus at the

we meet with the response from the heart of John himself            stake, yet he proves that many accusations that are flung at

in the same words : "He which testifieth these things saith,        the head of Calvin, as, for instance, by Voltaire, are without

Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so; come, Lord Jesus."            ground. He also shows that Calvin preferred some other

No less than seven times, therefore, do we meet with an             form of capital punishment instead of his being burned at the

indication of the coming of the Lord in these few verses.           stake.

And therefore, this I regard as ,the main top@  of the epilogue.       I recommend this book to all our readers.

   Neither need we be surprised that it should be so. For                                                                    H.H.

we have here the close of the entire book. And it is the
                                                                        T/U?  Gospel  Accord&g  to John, ,Chapters  11-21, and the
purpose of an epilogue, or application, to force home the
                                                                    First Epistle of John. A new translation of Calvin's Com-
main subject of the book of Revelation. The chief subject
                                                                    mentaries, published by the Eerdmans Publishing Co. Price
of the entire book is, beyond all doubt, that the Lord cometh
                                                                    $4.50.
quickly. It was written that the church might not be for-
getful of that fact, might not grow weary and despondent.              mJithout  going into detail, I may recommend this com-
The book is written that the church might be able to see the        mentary to all our readers whether they are theologians or
coming of the Lord in the history of the world. And, there-         not. The commentary of Calvin, especially as it is offered in
fore, it was indeed meet that the chief subject of the applica-     this new translation, may very well be used by those who
tion, or epilogue, should be: the Lord cometh quickly.              wish to prepare themselves for Bible discussion in their
                                                                    societies. The translation of this particular volume is by T.
   Now what is the meaning of this statement, that the Lord
                                                                    H. L. Parker. As far as I perused this volume, I find that
cometh quickly? After all we have discussed, we can realize
                                                                    what we read inside the cover is true: "Mr. Parker now
the truth of this statement all the more quickly. Also at the
                                                                    provides the reader with a translation that does full justice
beginning the statement was made. But then we could not
                                                                    to the Reformer's qualities as an expositor of the Word of
conceive all that was implied in this coming of the Lord.
                                                                    God."                                                    H.h'.
                                                          H.H.


                                                                       Joseph -The  Prime iltzlzister,  by William M. Taylor. Pub-.

                                                                    lished by Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Mich.
11 AS TO BOOKS 11
                                                                       This book, as well as the book on Moses, written by the
Ir- same Author and published by the same "Book House," is
   Ezpound~ing  God's Weld, by Alan M. Stibbs. Published            also very interesting and I read it from cover to cover. It is

by Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Mich.                     faithfully based on the Word of God, and  it describes the

  This little book of 112 pages is a homiletical-hermeneutical      well-known biblical character, Joseph, as he occurs in Scrip-
treatise, that is, it evidently aims at teaching how to prepare     ture. I, therefore, recommend this book, which probably
sermons by expounding the Scriptures as the Word of God.            originally was a volume of sermons, to all of our readers.

In an introductory chapter, that author writes: "The imme-                                                                   H.H.


1 0                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R


                                                                      strength, Moses was a very rich blessing. Just by looking

 1 A CLOUr> OF WITNESSES /                                            upon him in his God appointed works, they were being edi-
                                                                      fied. They were learning to appreciate the more the wonder-

                                                                      ful grace of Jehovah God. But to Israel in its weakness, and

                  Intercession and Victory                            especially to those who were carnal, Moses was becoming
                                                                      increasingly a cause for offense. While,  if for nothing more

           And it came to $as.s, when Moses held ztp kis knnd,        than appearance's sake, the people hesitated to speak directly
         that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hamd,        against God, the more Moses became identified with the way
        Amalek prevailed.                                             of the Lord, the more they found occasion to rebel. Upon
           Bzt.t Moses' hands were kea.vy; and they took a stone,     him they dared lay all the blame. Against him they would
         and putt it under him and he sat thereon; and Aaron
                                                                      murmur. To him they would ascribe aPI kinds of evil
         an.d  Hur  stayed zcp his hands, the one on the one side,
         and the other  on the other slide; and his hands were        motives.    Him they dared- threaten to kill. All this they

        steady until the going down of the sun.                       could do under the pretense of having nothing against Gdd.

           And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with             This is the very reaction which men always have to the
        the edge of the sword.                  Exodus 17 :ll-13      gospel of Jesus Christ. To the elect in their strength, He

       At Rephidim, Israel was given water from the rock. Ac-         is precious ; but to men in their weakness and to the repro-

 cording to the command of Jehovah, Moses had struck the              bate, He is a cause for offense. Moses aroused these same

 rock over which hung the cloud of God's presence. The                reactions because he was a type of Christ.

people drank ; their thirst was quenched ; and they were                 Soon after Israel drank the water from the rock at

 satisfied. The spiritual among Israel received from that             Rephidim, another event took place which revealed the great-

 event even more. By it they were instructed in the truth of          ness of Moses. Amalek made war upon Israel.

 the gospel. The rod that should have descended upon them                The Amalekites were a wild, roaming tribe of the wilder-
because of their rebellion against God had been turned upon           ness. Apparently they were the descendants of Amalek, Esau's
the rock where the angel of Jehovah stood in the cloud. The           grandson (Gen. 36:12).  For some time now they had been

 rock had borne their burden, and from it had come forth for          following the Israelites in their wilderness journey and
 them a blessing,     water to ,quench  their thirst. It was a        harassing them by attacking those who wandered too far

 picture of the salvation which would be theirs when finally          from the camp or who straggled behind when they traveled.
 the promise would be fulfilled.                                      They hated Israel as an intruder upon their wilderness do-
       Over and over again Israel  was experiencing the amaz-         main, but also as the ancient enemy of Esau their father.
 ing power and love of Jehovah. From the first He had given           They hated even more Israel's God because He had rejected
 them His Word as the ever faithful God who would surely              their father. They were a reprobate nation; there was no
 keep all of His promises.     At every occasion this was prbv-       fear of God in their hearts.
 ing to be so, in the plagues and the deliverance from Egypt,
                                                                        I It was at Rephidim that the Amalekites finally decided
 in the passage through the Red Sea, in the sweetened water
                                                                      that they were capable of doing battle with the nation of
 of Marah,  in the quails and manna in the wilderness of Sin,
                                                                      Israel as a whole. Perhaps they had witnessed the dissension
 and now in the water from the rock at Rephidim. Moreover
                                                                      in the camp of Israel and concluded that the nation could
 each one of these miracles reflected a deeper spiritual reality
                                                                      never put up a united front in battle. They began to prepare
 which would be given them in the realization of the promised
                                                                      their forces for battle in the hills surrounding Rephidim. The
 Messiah. As these miraculous signs progressed, Moses was
                                                                      report of this soon was brought to Moses.
 beginning to stand more and more upon the foreground. At
 first Aaron had been his spokesman. Aaron would speak                  Once again the nation of Israel found itself in a crisis.
 publicly the. Word of God, and Moses often retreated al-             They were the chosen people of God and the objects of His

 most timidly into the background. But as time went on                favor. But they were learning that because of this they

 Moses was becoming more bold. No longer was the agency               should never expect that their way in life would be easy.

 of Aaron needed. It was becoming ever more evident that              In their deliverance from Egypt, they had left one. great

 Moses alone was the prophet appointed by God. Aaron was              enemy behind. Now but a few months on their way, another

 still there to assist him, but Moses was the one to whom Israel      enemy had appeared. This would always be their experience

 had to look  for deliverance. He was their typical redeemer.         wherever they went. God's people are strangers in this world,

 Moses was being set forth by God as a picture of the Mes-            and all of mankind is their enemy. Nor could they expect

 siah that was to come. In his life and official functions, he        that as in Egypt God would destroy these enemies before them

 was an embodiment of the gospel. By his works Israel was             while they stood by and watched. There would come times

 being saved.                                                         when they themselves would be required to go out and fight.

       The truth of this was becoming evident even from the           Indeed, when they walked in faith, God would be on their

reactions of the people. To the spiritual Israel in their             side. He would give them strength. He would discomfit the


                                        T H E   STAN.DARD   B E A R E R                                                        11


enemy.    He alone would provide the victory. But often it           Slowly the forces with Joshua began to move and make

would only be when they went out with weapons in their           their way toward the battle field. It was then that they

hands and entered the very thick of battle. Trusting in God,     began to understand why Moses had gone where he did.

they would have to engage in many actual wars. So it was         Looking up they saw him standing on the nearby hill with

also that day with the Amalekites.                               the rod of Jehovah in his hand held in a gesture with which

    Following the command of God, Moses called to him a          by now they were familiar. It was the gesture with which he

young man of Israel named Joshua. Already he had dis-            had called down the plagues upon Egypt. It was the gesture

tinguished himself as a spiritual man in Israel even amid the    with which the Red Sea had been opened up before them

murmuring rebellions of the many. He stood firm in the           and closed again upon Pharaoh. It was a gesture of prayer

fear of the Lord. Now he was being singled out to lead the       and intercession by which the prophet called forth the power

forces of God into battle. Accordingly Moses instructed him,     of God's grace to reveal itself in behalf of Israel. Just to

"Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to mor-       look upon the prophet with believing eyes brought a new

row I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God      surge of confidence to the warriors' hearts. They knew that

in mine hand."                                                   they had a mediator presenting their cause before the throne

    It was a difficult task that was fallen to Joshua. Israel    of God. They saw in a figure the mediator, Jesus Christ,
had never been a warring nation. Few, if any, had any ac-        who one day would be taken up to heaven to stand eternally
                                                                 lifting up His hand to the throne of God in intercession for
quaintance with weapons. Even the weapons they had on
                                                                 His people.
hand could hardly be considered sufficient to engage in a

real battle. It would take men of great courage who would           The Amalekites too saw Moses. And though they had

go forth to risk their lives against such odds, for the enemy    never seen him before, they understood full well what he was

was a wild tribe of men with much experience in fighting         doing. He was beseeching the help of the God of Israel whom

the battles of the wilderness. There was only one factor         they after the manner 0-E their father Esau did not fear but

which Israel had in its favor. God was on their side. He         hated. Sneers stood out on their faces, and mockery was

was the God of heaven and earth with a power far surpassing      bantered between them. They became even' more determined

that possessed by the greatest-of men. But for this to make      to have for themselves the battle. They became heady in

any difference, the army that went into battle ,had to be        their anger. But still within, they felt strangely discomfited.
composed' of spiritual men. Joshua had to search out men         They were beginning to realize that their battle was not
who were not merely strong in physical development ; he had      against men but against God.

to have men that were strong in the convictions of faith.           Forcefully the two opposing armies met, and already in

The miraculous power of God would not supply them with           the early moments the outcome of the battle seemed apparent.

swords and spears that were sharp. It would not provide          The forces of Israel were confident and sure. The ex-

shields that were sturdy and strong. He would not give           perienced warriors of Amalek were strangely confused and

them in a moment the experience for battle which they            uncertain. Glance after glance was hastily thrown from the

lacked. He would provide only a spiritual bulwark for their      battlefield toward Moses. Somehow all felt that it was there

souls.                                                           that the outcome was being determined. But Moses, though

                                                                 a type of Christ, was only a man. There was a limit to his
    Early on the morning of the day chosen for the battle,
                                                                 endurance. His arms became tired, and the rod of Jehovah
Joshua gathered his forces together. It hardly resembled an
                                                                 drooped. Yet, each time the rod was lowered the battle
army. There were no horses such as the Amalekites rode.
                                                                 would change again to the favor of Amalek. Again and
There were no chariots such as Pharaoh had had when he
                                                                 again he tried to keep the rod held aloft, but it was more
pursued them into the sea. There was only a crowd of men
                                                                 than he could do. Finally it was Aaron and Hur that came
with a minimum number of weapons and a willingness to give
                                                                 to his assistance. While Moses sat on a stone between them,
their lives for the cause of the Church of God. Many were
                                                                 they held his arms up high. Beneath the battle surged forth
the apprehensive glances that went out from the people that
                                                                 finally and conclusively in Israel's favor until Amalek and his
were gathered around to watch. Could this army gain a vic-
                                                                 people were scattered. Through the intercession of Moses,
tory ? For a moment there was a surge of hope when Moses
                                                                 victory was secured.
came from his tent with the rod of Jehovah in his hand.
                                                                    It was in solemn assembly that Israel gathered that night
This was a weapon with which the people were familial.
                                                                 upon the battle field. At the command of Moses an altar of
They had seen its power over Egypt. But Moses did not join
                                                                 thanksgiving was erected. By proclamation it 
himself to the @thering  army. He would not march with                                                                 was named,
                                                                 "Jehovah-nissi,"  meaning, "Jehovah my Banner." Amalek
the rod of Jehovah at its head. Rather with Aaron and Hur,
                                                                 stood as a representative of the reprobate world seeking to
he began to climb a nearby hill overlooking the proposed
                                                                 destroy the Church. But the true intercessor is ever lifting
held  of battle. The -army that was to engage in battle was

left by him far below.                                                               (Corctinued   o n   page  1iT)

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



                                                                  is nonetheless a difference, in this life in the congregation,

11      F R O M   H O L Y   W R I T   11 between the place that women have in the instituted
                                                                  church and the place occupied by men! Each has a station

                                                                  in life; each has his own station in the family, home, church,

                                                                  and community. The natural is first, then the spiritual, also
                 Exposition  of I Timothy                         in this matter.

                                                                     That we be understood to give the proper sense and
                      (I Timothy 2 :8-15)                         perspective of Paul we here quote these verses in full. They

                                                                  read : "I will therefore that men pay every where,  lifting up
                                a.
                                                                  holy hnds,  without ze!Path  a.nd  doz&ing.  In like mamer also,

                                                                  that women adorn themsehues  in modest apparel,  with shame-
      In these verses Paul continues the subject of prayer; he
                                                                  facedness and sobriety; not with  broided hair, op gold or
has yet more exhortations to the church of Ephesus on this
                                                                  pearls, or costly a.uay; b,ut (which becometh  women profess-
score. His interest, as we noticed in former essays, is that
                                                                  ing godliness) with good works. Let the woppzen  lea.rn in
the church may not be placed "under law" by false teachers,
                                                                  silmce with all subjection.          But I suffer not a woman to
but that they may truly be under grace and have the law of
                                                                  teach, ~LW  to usz~rp  azttkority  over the *paan, but to be in
God written in their hearts. Such is the New Testament in
                                                                  silence. FRY  Adam was first foymed  then Eve. And Adam
Christ's blood. This means the putting off of the old man
                                                                  was PLot  deceived, but the woman be&g deceived was ir, the
 (dying unto sin) and putting on the new man in Christ
                                                                  ti-ansgl-e&on..  Notwifhstanding she  shall be saved in child-
 (true joy in God -through Christ and a living according to
                                                                  bea:ring,  if they con&hue  in fait?8 a?zd  charity and  holiness
the commandments of God in faith) ! For the end of the
                                                                  -&h sobriety."
commandment is love out of a pure heart, and good con-
science and faith unfeigned!                                         Briefly stated these verses teach the following:

      Since the Ephesian  Christians are saved by grace they         1. That only "men" must lead in the divine services when

must also walk in grace and "with all the saints" know what       the congregation comes together on the Sabbath Day to hear

is the length `and breadth, the height and depth of the love      the Word proclaimed, to use the holy Sacraments and pub-

of God which passeth all knowledge. Wherefore, walking            licly call zcport  the Nawse of the Lord! Women are not to

out of faith, in a good conscience and in unfeigned love,         stand in pulpit then, nor are they to hold office in the church.

means that prayers be made for "all men," every class of men.        2. That the "women" in the congregation at Ephesus

For in Christ Jesus, in the one new man in Christ, there is       must know their God-ordained and assigned places in the

neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, bond or free! In          church and in relationship to their husbands in particular.

Christ Jesus all these distinctions are gone. And even kings      Theirs is not the place of "ruling."

and all who are in authority are not barred from the king-           3. That the peculiar place and relationship of the women

dom ! For there is one God and Father, one Lord, one faith,       to the men is rooted in the creation of Adam before that of

one baptism. There is one Mediator of God and Man, the            Eve., as revealed to            in Genesis 2.
                                                                                           us 

man Christ Jesus ! Eph. 4 :3-5 ; I Tim. 2 :l-7. In view of the       4. That the need for silence on the part of the women

very nature of faith which is energized by the love of God        is accentuated by the prominent place which Eve played in

through the Holy Spirit, and in view of the body of Christ,       the fall of man, being tempted of the Temptor.

the one new man out of every class of men, it is necessary            5. That although the reason for salvation of women is

that the scope of our prayers be as wide as the love of God to    equally that of the grace in Christ with the men, yet that

all his own elect in all the world!                               their peculiar splzer,e  in which this salvation is seen and mani-

      Such is the truth of the gospel which we have seen thus     fested for women is that of their motherhood in the home

far in our study of I Timothy!                                    and church !

      However, as we remarked above, there is more to be              6. That there was evidently occasion in the life and con-

said about this matter of prayer, particularly as this touches    duct of some of the women, professing godliness in the church

the very heart of the public worship, the keeping of the          at Ephesus, that they be exhorted unto proper sobriety, be-

Sabbath. Paul treats of this matter of the public worship         coming to their station as `Christian women.

here in the verses 8 through 15 of this chapter.                      Such is briefly the instruction here in these verses.

      And, it seems to me after some thought on this subject         Writing to and concerning the "men" in the church

here, that we are brought face to face by the Apostle with a      services, Paul places emphatically on the foreground what he

significant question. It ought to be obvious to the careful       zwilb them to do. The term in the Greek here is not "thelo-

and attentive reader of these verses that Paul is speaking of     mai"  but it is "boulomai."         The former emphasizes the mere

the fact that, although there is no difference in Christ be-      "will," the latter embodies the thought of a "considered will"

tween male and female, as h&s  of the promise of life, there      based upon proper deliberation and grounds. There are some


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER                                                       13


expositors who hold to the opinion that the term "boulomai"          impossible to please God. -And this-faith must prove to be

here is the equivalent of "I ordain, I give commandment." It         unfeigned faith. It must be true faith. Sutih true faith is

seems to me that then Paul would have employed another               always a matter of a good conscience before God. It means

term. Besides, as appears from the rest of this section, as          worshipping God + sincerity, without the leaven of malice

quoted above, it is quite evident that what Paul here "wills"        and discontent. Such prayer can only rise from the hearts

and enjoins is rooted in all the teaching of the Scriptures. It      that are pure, that is, hearts which have been cleansed from

is the rule of faith, the Regatla  Fide, which is basic to this      the evil?houghts  against all the good commandments of God,

exhortation.     Evidently, therefore, the sense of Paul is: I,      such as, murders, adulteries, fornications,  thefts, false wit-

Paul, upon good and solid considerations of the Word of              ness, railings ! These defile the man !

God, the Word of Christ in which the life and conduct also               The emphasis here, therefore, falls upon the fact that men      .

of the services is outlined -1 Paul insist that such be your         must lift up lz,oly hands. The term here employed in the

conduct in the meeting of the congregation, that men lift up         Greek for "holy" is the term ko~iozl-s,  that is, that which is

holy hands in every place. I underscore this conduct as being        undefiled by sin. Positively the term seems to indicate piety

in conformity with the ordinance of Christ in His church             towards God, a religious observance of the moral obligations !

which is the pillar and ground- of the `truth !                      Such hands are the very opposite of those attributed to Israel

                                                                     in Isaiah 1 :lO-17  where Israel is told that her hands are
    By stressing the aforegoing Paul lifts this entire question
                                                                     "full of blood," that is, full of the guilt of hatred and murder
of the place that "men" must have in the services out of the
                                                                     and debate and deceit. This beautiful passage ends with
realm of the arbitrary and the relative. Divine services in
                                                                     the exhortation, "Wash you, make you clean ; put away the
the church are not based in their form of worship upon the
                                                                     evil of your doing from before mine eyes : cease to *do evil ;
invention of men and human ordinances but they are based
                                                                     learn to do well ; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge
upon the will of Christ. A true "Church Order" is more than
                                                                     the fatherless, plead for the widow." Isaiah 1:16,  17. Such
mere human "constitution." It is God-ordained rule and de-
                                                                     hands are clean hands. Such are not the hands which offend
cency in the Church. When "men" in the church no longer
                                                                     and must be cut off; they are holy hands, pious hands that
understand this they are not humble in the true sense of the
                                                                     work righteousness.
word, subjecting themselves to the ordinance of God in crea-
tion, and as this ordinance is sanctified in Christ, through his         Such a prayer will surely be able to convey before the
death and resurrection !                                             face of the Most High the needs, aspirations, and thanks-
                                                                     giving of the congregation ; it will be the fervent prayer of
    We shall have more to say about this subject when we
                                                                     the righteous, the prayers of all the saints in one prayer.
come to our exposition of chapter 3. Suffice it to say here that
                                                                     Leading the congregation in prayer is a tremendous task.
Paul emphatically states that he will have "men" lift up
                                                                     It certainly can be done only by the righteous with clean
hands everywhere. It must not be "women" who lead the
                                                                     hands; it must be the cold sweat of an accusing conscience,
services, act as ministers in the church. When Deborahs are
                                                                     which accompanies this task, when our hands are not clean,
called to the colors it is simply because the "men" do not
                                                                     and when we lift them up to lead the church in prayers ! At
conduct themselves like men ! When the men are not any
                                                                     best mortal man, sinful man, the sinful Christian must ever
longer prophets then we have a Hulda, the prophetess, in
                                                                     and anew confess first his own sins and then those of the
the Old Testament! When a .Nabal (a fool') of a husband              people. That is ever the experience too of the minister in
fails to heed David's request it is time for an Abigail to assert    prayer, be he elder or preacher of the gospel! Then the
herself.                                                             Spirit of Christ, who lives in the hearts of the entire con-
    Thus the exception again establishes the rule!                   gregation and in the heart of the praying minister, will unite
    For Christ is the head of the church and the man is the          the hearts into one mighty outpouring of the heart before
head of the wife!                                                    His throne !
    And this matter must be thus maintained in the church               Mighty solemn hour of prayer !
of Christ. Bad theology certainly leads to bad ethics and               Certainly not a time for sleep as did the disciples of
customs in the church. Small wonder that Paul writes:                Jesus in the agonies of His wrestlings in prayer. Oh, it is
upon solid theological considerations I will that "men" every-       not a time for the "long prayer." Perish the thought! It is
where lift up hands ! !                                              the time for congregational prayer - led by the minister !

   The "lifting up of hands" is the physical expression of              And thus Christ would have it!

prayer.     Possibly here it refers to the entire worship service       It must be thus "in every place." There is no exception

as a "calling upon the Name of the Lord." It refers to the           to this rule. Ever holy hands, sanctified in the blood of Christ

liturgical service of God. It is the expression of worship at        through the Spirit, must be lifted up. When Moses' hands

God's footstool, and raising the hand to God's throne of             are lifted up Israel has the victory, faith has the victory.

grace and mercy, imploringly, intercedingly, thankfully !            Then prayers are to be made for all men, even for kings

And it must be the expression of faith. Without faith it is          and all who are in authority.                              G.L.

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



                                                                           are born of God. In the old nature we not only still can sin,

                                                                           but in that old nature that is all that we do. We sin and sin

                                                                           and sin in wholehearted and continual dedication to the works

                                                                           of darkness as priests of the devil. 0, it was wicked to be

                         God's  Royal  Priesthood                          a priest of Baa1  and to stand before Elijah on Mount Carmel

                                                                           opposed to the living God and His worship. Of course it was. .
                                    (10)                       *           But let us not strain at a gnat and swallow a camel in this

             The New Testament priest is a dedicated man.                  respect. Let us understand that our own flesh, as we are by

             As we have seen, the Old Testament priest was con-            nature, is not simply a Baa1  priest-this we may not be

.      secrated  and dedicated to the service of God in the tabernacle     at all since we have adopted some more modern idol of the

       and temple. And even before the tabernacle was built by             "cultured" twentieth century- but we are that which all

       Moses the priest of God was one whose life was devoted to           the Baa1  priests were in the depth of their hearts: we are

       God.                                                                Satan's dishonorable priesthood. And yet, by the wonder of

             He knew but one God, Jehovah the sovereign God of our         God's grace, we are God's royal priesthood. A priesthood

       salvation, and for Him he lived. This God he loved with all         that God has established for Himself and realized by the

       his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind and with all his    grace of the cross, but also a priesthood that is wholly dedi-

       strength. This God he worshipped. To Him all his praise,            cated to Him because these priests are born of God.

       thanksgiving and adoration ascended. This God was in his                And so we may say that the New Testament priest is

       thoughts the moment he awoke from refreshing sleep. All             wholly dedicated unto God. He lives for God alone. God iS

       the creatures were to him as so many means whereby he               his whole life. And when we say that this is the case with

       could serve that God. He ate His food, drank His water,             the New Testament priest, we do not mean thereby that this

       walked on His earth and in His sunshine and breathed His            was not the case with God's people in the Old Testament

       air in order that he might render unto Him the service and          dispensation. From Adam onward the elect children of God

       worship which is due to His holy name.                              were all born of God; and therefore every one of them has

        He saw all things as God's creation. The cattle on a               in him this absolutely sinless life as well as the hopelessly

       thousand hills, he declared, were God's. The sun, the moon          sinful life of the old man. But we say that the New Testa-

       and the stars he considered to be God's jewels and treasures.       ment priest is wholly dedicated unto God and lives for Him

       The vastness of the sea, in his opinion, was God's and so           alone, because we would again remind you there is in the

       were also the host of creatures to be found in this sea. The        New Testament a priest of God as surely as there was in

       majestic mountain spoke to him of God's glory. And the              the days of Aaron.    Peter speaks of it in that text to which

       little grain of sand manifested His wisdom to this priest.          we have been referring so repeatedly, I Peter 2 :9, "But ye

       With the New Testament apostle this Old Testament priest            are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood . . ." He had

       said, `I. . . of Him and through Him, and to Him are all            also made mention of it in verse 5, "Ye also as lively stones,

       things, to Whom be glory for ever. Amen." Romans 11 :36.            are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up

       And therefore he himself also lived for this God consciously        spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."

       and willingly.                                                          There is here a new element concerning the New Testa-
             This was true of Adam as the first priest over God's          ment priest to which we would call your attention at this
       earthly creation in the full sense of the word before he fell       time. This New Testament priest offers up "spiritual sacri-
       in paradise. But make no mistake about it, this was also            fices."    Since the cross of Christ he does not come with a
     this same Adam after his fall according to that new prin-             burnt oEering.  He does not slay a lamb or sprinkle blood.
       ciple of life which he received by the Spirit of Christ. And        And although he still does gather in God's house and bring
       in principle it is true of every regenerated child of God today.    offerings of gold and silver which are material and not
       He has, besides all this wickedness of the old nature and all       "spiritual sacrifices," yet the truth in the text stands: The

       the deviltry of the old man of sin a new principle of life          New Testament priest offers up spiritual sacrifices. Another
       that is wholly dedicated to God and lives ONLY for His              text that teaches the same truth is Romans 12:1,  2 where

       glory. And as such he is God's royal priesthood.                    we read, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
             The Apostle John speaks of that although in another           of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,

       connection and in other terminology. John says in I John            acceptable unto God, which is your retisonable  service. And

       3 :9, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; fol           be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by

       his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is         the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that

       born of God."     What we receive in regeneration is not the        good, and acceptable and perfect will of God." Note that

       life that Adam had before he fell. It is not a life that can        this royal priesthood presents its body as a Zzping  sacrifice,

       serve God but can also fall away into sin. No, the text says        while in the Old Testament dispensation the priests slaugh-

       very clearly that the regenerateh CANNOT sin because they           tered the lambs and bullocks and came with a bloody sacri-


                                                `l'H*E  ST-A-ND.ARD~BEARER                                                                  15


     fice. The New Testament priest presents his body unto God.          stands ili-cdnnedtion  with it, is it presented to God oi- tb sin ?

     And he presents everything wherewith that body comes in             The thillgs  which ydu seek, are they the things'bf  ,God's  king-

     contact, all that which this body uses, sees and experiences,       dom and characterized by His righteousness, or are they .the

     all these as "spiritual sacrifices" he offers up to God every       things of Baal's  kingdom, of Satan's realm, of the devil's

     day. He does not kill the body but uses it in the service           dominion ?

     of God. He dedicates it and consecrates it to God in His                The prophet knows God in love. The king serves God

     service. In is fear is in His service. And the royal priest-        in love. The priest seeks Him in love. And he seeks that

     hood is consciously and willingly in the service of his God         kingdom of God because he seeks God. Because his heart

     and King.                                                           goes out in love to that God and he covets that righteousness

         0, as far as that flesh is concerned, we fall so far short      of God which is in Christ, he finds delight in all the things

     of these things. That Aesh cannot even begin to desire to           of that spiritual realm and seeks that'kingdom.  And as God

     live for the glory of God. The flesh does not pray, "Hallowed       adds to him the things of this life which are necessary for

     be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on                  his life, he dedicates these things also to his God and purposes

     earth as it is in heaven."    The royal priest of God does ac-      to use them only as means whereby again he may seek the
     cording to that new principle of life that cannot sin. But          kingdom of God and His righteousness.
     the flesh never does. That flesh never prays to God. As a               That priest does not say, "Yes, I would like to bring a
     priest of the devil that flesh prays to Baa1  and his modern        bigger offering with me to God's house on the Sabbath. I
     equivalents. Not being dedicated to God in love, that flesh         would like to meet my budget; but you know there are so
     cares for no fellowship with God. It does not speak of "sweet       many other things today . . . ." Ah, yes, there are so many
     communion, Lord with Thee." And that flesh does not live            othel:  things today.    And the trouble is that we are other
     for God. It does not see all things as God's creation which         priests also today than priests of God. But, other things?
     is of Him, through Him and must be used by us unto Him              Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
     and His glory.                                                      And Jesus tells you about those other things. All these
                                                                         other things shall be added unto you by that God to whom
         And that is why, although, as we wrote before, Matthew
                                                                         you offer your gifts in the seeking of His kingdom. Truly
     6 :33, which is such an important and beautiful text for God's
                                                                         where your treasure is there will your heart be also. The
     royal priesthood, is hated so vehemently by the flesh: "Seek
                                                                         treasure of God's royal priesthood is in heaven. Is yours
     ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all
                                                                         there ?
     these things shall be added unto you." Shame must cover
                                                                             Next time, the Lord willing, we want to say something
     our faces as God's royal priesthood when we see how little
                                                                         more about this living for God as His royal priesthood in
     our bodies are offered up as living sacrifices to God and how
                                                                         His fear.
     few the spiritual sacrifices are that we present to Him be-
                                                                                                                                    J.A.H.
     cause we are instead seeking the things which are below and

     exactly for the lust of our wicked flesh. We are almost ready

     to deny that he that is born of God doth not commit sin. We

     are inclined to go further than Elijah who said, "I even I                            A CLOUD  OF WITNESSES
     only am left" ; and we are apt to say, Is there indeed a royal                                                                    .
                                                                                                (Con&u&  fram page 11)
     priesthood of God in this evil day? At times we cannot find
                                                                         up His hands unto the throne of the Lord in behalf of His
     it in our own souls; and the works of men round about us
                                                                         people. Therefore God will ever do battle against Amalek
     also cause the question to rise in our souls, When the Son
                                                                         from generation to generation until the remembrance of them
     of man returns, shall He find a royal priesthood yet on this
                                                                         is utterly blotted out from- under the heavens. That altar               ,
     earth ?    Men are constantly being dedicated and rededicated
                                                                         was a symbol and a promise of God's unwavering love.
     to everything under the sun but unto the glory of God's name.
                                                                                                                                     B.W.
     The things which we seek, and even which we deceive our-

     selves into thinking we must seek for joy and peace, multiply

     with every age and generatiop. Priesthood in the service of
I                                                                                                 Announcement
     our God is old fashioned. Only `the narrow-minded, the odd
     characters and misguided col!forn$ts who will do no inde-              Classis  East of the Protestant Reformed Churches will

     pendent thinking, bnly these still make a foolish and feeble        meet, the Lord willing, on Wednesday, October 4, 1961

     attempt at priesthood of Jehovah.                                   at the Southwest Protestant Reformed Church, located at

        You may test yourself as to how faithful a priest of God         the corner of Porter and Meyer Streets in Wyoming, Mich.

     you are by setting yourself before these texts. Spiritual sacri-    Delegates from the various churches of Classis  East will

     fices, are they your daily offering up to the Living God?           please take notice.

     Your body, is it a living sacrifice together with all that                                       Rev. M. Schipper,  Stated Clerk

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


                                                                            Secondly. The consent of these fathers, or of the half of
II Contending -For The Faith 11 them, cannot be adduced in favour of any doctrine in con-
                                                                    troversy between Protestants and Romanists.

                                                                            Thirdly. Almost unanimous consent can be quoted in sup-

           The  Church and the Sacraments                           port of doctrines which Romanists and Protestants unite in
                                                                    rejecting. The Jewish doctrine of the millennium passed over

           THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                              in its grossest form to the early Christian Church. But that

                                                                    doctrine the Church of Rome is specially zealous in denounc-
                  V I E W S   O N   T H E   C H U R C H             ing.

       INFLUENCE OF THE MAIN PRINCIPLES                                     Fourthly. The consent of the fathers cannot be proved
                   OF .THE REFORMATION                              in support of doctrines which Protestants and Roman&s
                                                                    agree in accepting.      Not that these doctrines did not then

                             (continued)                            enter into the faith of the Church, but simply that they

                                                                    were not presented.
      We noted in our preceding article that the real question         Fifthly. Such is the diversity of opinion among the fathers
between Rome and Protestantism is whether apart from the            themselves, such the vagueness of their doctrinal statements,
revelation contained in the Bible, there is another supple-         and such the unsettled ZLS~L.~  loquendli  as to important words,
mentary and explanatory revelation, which has been handed           that the authority of the fahers may be quoted on either side
down outside of the Scripture, by tradition. Are there doc-         of any disputed doctrine. There is no view, for example, of
trines, institutions, and ordinances, having no warrant in          the nature of the Lord's Supper, which has ever been held in

the Scriptures, which we as Christians are bound to receive         the Church, for which the authority of some early father can-
and obey on the authority of what is called common consent?         not be adduced. And often the same father presents one view

This Protestantism denies. And we remarked that we deny             at one time, and another at a different time.
this, in the first place, because the Romish doctrine of tradi-             Sixthly. The writings of the fathers have been notoriously
tion and belief in doctrines not taught in the Word of God          corrupted. It was a matter of great complaint in the early
is impossible.                                                      Church that spurious works were circulated ; and that

      Secondly, the Romish doctrine of tradition is also im-        genuine works were recklessly interpolated. Some of the

possible because Rome's evidence which they adduce is al-           most important works of the Greek fathers are extant only

together inadequate. In this connection we would quote              in a Latin translation. This is the case with the greater part

Hodge on what he writes concerning this inadequacy of the           of the works of Irenaeus, translated by Rufinus, whom

evidence of Consent, Vol. I, pages 125-127, and we quote:           Jerome charges with the most shameless adulteration.

"The second objection to the argument of Romanists from                     Another objection to the argument from consent is, that
common consent in support of their traditions, is, that the         it is a Procrustean bed which may be extended or shortened
evidence which they adduce of such consent is altogether            at pleasure. In every Catena Patrum  prepared to prove this
inadequate. They appeal to the ancient creeds. But there            consent in certain doctrines, it will be found that two or more
was no creed generally adopted before the fourth century.           writers in a century are cited as evincing the unanimous
No creed adopted before the eighth century contains any of          opinion of that century, while double or fourfold the number,
the doctrines peculiar to the Church of Rome. Protestants           of equally important writers, belonging to the same period,
all receive the doctrinal statements contained in what is           on the other side, are passed over in silence. There is no
called the Apostles' Creed, and in those of Chalcedon,  and         rule to guide in the application of this test, and no uniformity
of Constantinople, adopted A.D. 681.                                in the manner of its use.

      They also appeal to the decisions of councils. To this the            While, therefore, it is admitted that there has been a
same reply is made. There were no general councils before           stream of doctrine flowing down uninterruptedly from the
the fourth century. The first six ecumenical councils gave          days of the Apostles, it is denied, as a matter of fact, that
no doctrinal decisions from which Protestants dissent. They,        there has been any uninterrupted or general consent in any
therefore, present no evidence of consent in those doctrines        doctrine not clearly revealed in the Sacred Scriptures ; and
which are now peculiar to the Church of Rome.                       not even in reference to such clearly revealed doctrines,

      They appeal again to the writings of the fathers. But to      beyond the narrow limits of essential truths. And it is, more-

this Protestants object -                                           over, denied that in any external, visible, organized Church,

      First. That the writings of the apostolic fathers are         can the rule, quad sewbper,  quad  ab ormibzw,  be applied even

too few to be taken as trustworthy representatives of the state     to essential doctrines. The argument, therefore, of Roman-

of opinion in the Church for the first three hundred years.         ists in favor of their peculiar doctrines, derived from general

Ten or twenty writers scattered over such a period cannot           consent, is utterly untenable and fallacious. This is virtually

reasonably be assumed to speak the mind of the whole                admitted by the most zealous advocates of tradition. "Not

Church.                                                             only,"      says Professor Newman, "is the Church Catholic


                                           T H E   S : T A N D A R . D   B E A R E R                                                17


bound to teach the truth, but she is divinely guided to teach       tures, whereas the Roman Catholic Church acknowledged,

it ; her witness of the Christian faith is a matter of-promise      besides the Scriptures, also tradition as a source of author-

as well as of duty ; her discernment of it is secured by .a         ity, and also claiming that the right and power. to interpret

heavenly, as well as by a human rule. She is indefectible in it;    the Woid  of `God belonged only to the Church, that is, the

and therefore has not only authority to enforce it, but is of       clergy, and this., of course, means in the final analysis the

authority in declaring it. The Church not only transmits the        pope. And the material principle of the Reformation is ex-

f&th by human reason, but has a supernatural gift for that          pressed in the words : justification by faith only. The Roman

purpose ; that doctrine which is true, considere4  as an his-       Catholic Church had become Semi-Pelagian and held that

torical fact, is true also because she teaches it." The author      justification is also by works. The Reformers rejected this

of the Oxford Tract, No. 85, after saying, "We believe mainly       view and maintained that the believer is justified only by

because the Church of the fourth and fifth centuries unani-         faith.

mously believed," adds, "Why should not the Church be                   The influence of these principles on the views of the

divine ? The burden of proof surely is on the other side. I         Church was that a considerable part of the Roman .Catholic

will accept her doctrines, and her rites, and her Bible - not       doctrine concerning the Church, the priesthood, the pope,

one, and not the other, but all-till I have clear proof that        the sacraments, etc., was not based on the Word of God at

she is mistaken. It is I feel God's will that I should do so;       all, but simply on tradition and on the institutions ol: men;

and besides, I love these her possessions-I love her Bible,         all this was rejected by the Reformers. And, by virtue of

her doctrines, and her rites ; and therefore, I believe." The       the principle that man is justified also by works, especially

Romanist then believes because the Church believes. This is         the external observance of rites and ecclesiastical ordinances,

the ultimate reason. The Church believes, not because she           the Roman Catholic Church had gradually assumed the posi-

can historically prove that her doctrines have been received        tion of Mediator between Christ and the believer; the Re-

from the Apostles, but because she is supernaturally guided         formers swept away the institution of the Church from be-

to know the truth.     "Common consent," therefore, is prac-        tween God and the soul. Access to God and to the throne of

tically abandoned,     and tradition resolves itself into the       His grace is possible in the Roman Catholic Church only

present faith of the Church." - end of quote from Hodge.            through the institution of the Church, the clergy ; the Ref-

   Thirdly, another reason Protestantism cannot accept the          ormation restored direct communication between the believer

doctrine that tradition is another supplementary and eli-           and the God of his salvation in Christ Jesus.

planatory revelation, besides the Word of God, is that tradi-           The Roman Catholic view of the Church is most clearly

tion is not available to all the people. All the tradition of       and ably set forth by Robert Bellarmin, or Roberto Francesco

the Romish Church is surely not contained in one volume to          Romolo Bellarmino, the famous Rdman Catholic controver-

which all the people would have access. This tradition is           sialist. He was born in 1542 and died in Rome Sept. 17,

spread and scatttered  through the ecclesiastical records of at     1621. He was a nephew of a pope, and came of a noble but

least 18 centuries. This tradition is therefore not available       impoverished family. His .abilities  showed themselves early ;

to all the people. What does this mean ? This, that not the         as a boy he knew Vergil by heart, and composed a number

people but only the Church, the Pope, will be able to inter-        of poems in Italian and Latin; one of his hymns, on Mary

pret these traditions. That the people will not be able to          Magdalene, is included in the Roman breviary. His father

interpret these traditions is clearly understandable.               destined him for a political career, but his mother wished

   Finally, the Romish doctrine of tradition destroys the           him to enter the Jesuit order, and her influence prevailed.
Word of God. Tradition and the Scriptures., according to            He was made rector of the Roman College in 1592, examiner
the Romish Church, are of equal authority, the latter being         of bishops in 1598, cardinal in 1599, and in 1602 archbishop
interpreted by the former. Only the Church can interpret            of Capua. He received some votes in the conclaves which
Tradition. This we have already noted. So, the Church's             elected Leo XI, Paul V, and Gregory XV, but only in the
faith in the Word of God is completely dependent upon its           second case had he any prospect of election. Since his death
explanation by men.     In fact, the laity may not interpret the    the members of his order have more than once attempted
Word of God as contrary to the official interpretation by the       to procure his canonization, but without success. He is
Church. Fallible men must tell us the meaning of the Word           known as the famous Roman Catholic controversialist.
of God. This means that man and his authority have taken                                                                       H.V.

the place of God. And we know that Tradition has taught

many errors.

   In connection with the views on the Church during the                         Office-Bearers'  Conference

time of the Reformation, to which we are calling attention              Office Bearers' Conference to be held October 3 in South

in these articles, we have noted that there are two main prin-      West Church, at 8:00 P. M. Rev. M. Schipper  will speak

ciples of the Reformation, the formal and the material prin-        on Article 70 of the Church ,Order.  All present and past

ciple. According to the formal principle, the Reformers             office bearers are urged to attend.

acknowledged but one source of authority, the Holy Scrip-                                                  John De Vries, Sec'y.

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



                                                                    are over all his works" (vs. 9)) and in which the Synod of
II The Voice of Our Fathers II .Kalamazoo of 1924, contrary to all sound exegesis, sought
                                                                    proof for the error of common grace, we read: "The Lord

                                                                    is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works." This

                  The  Belgic Confession                            righteousness of Jehovah is revealed in that He is"nigh  unto

                                                                    all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in

                     ARTICLE I (continued)                          truth," in that "He will fulfill the desire of them that fear

8. God is Peqktly  Jut.                                             him, . . . will hear their cry, . . . will save them, . . . pre-
                                                                    serveth all them that love him," but also in that "all the
      In connection with this divine virtue, we may notice again
                                                                    wicked will he destroy."    Common grace, therefore, is con-
that our creed makes but a partial mention of God's at-
                                                                    trary to the righteousness of God and constitutes an assault
tributes. In reciting the so-called ethical attributes of God it
                                                                    upon the divine simplicity. In a context which also speaks
passes by what might well be called God's ethical attribute
                                                                    clearly of God's attitude toward the righteous and toward the
pay en-cellen.ce,  namely, the divine holiness, and it makes
                                                                    wicked, Psalm 11:7  adduces the reason : "For the righteous
specific mention of God's righteousness, or justice. Though
                                                                    Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the
we probably cannot say anything with certainty as to the
                                                                    upright."
reason for the selection made in this article, we may surmise
that there may have been a historical reason why the perfect            The New Testament speaks of the righteousness of God
justice of God stood on the foreground in the faith of our          in the same spirit. In Romans 3 :25,  26 righteousness as an
fathers at the time when the Confession was written. Be-            attribute of God is mentioned as follows: "Whom God hath
sides, as far as salvation is concerned, the righteousness of       set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
God, and, therefore, righteousness before and in relation to        declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
the perfectly righteous God, is, according to all Scripture, a      `past, through the forbearance of God ; to declare, "1 say, at
fundamental concept. Hence, it is understandable, in the light      this time his righteousness : that he might be just, and the
of the fact that "Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and         justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." In connection with
her converts with righteousness," that saving faith will in         God's sovereign election and reprobation, the apostle inter-
its expression focus upon this virtue of God's perfect right-       cepts a charge of divine injustice as follows : "What shall
eousness.                                                           we say then ? Is there `unrighteousness with God ? God for-
      If we turn to Scripture, we find that God's righteousness     bid." Rom. 9:14. Frequently the Scriptures set forth the
is frequently mentioned, both in the Old and in the New             righteousness of God in connection with His judgment of the
Testament. In Deuteronomy 32 :4 are the significant words :         righteous and of the wicked, sometimes explicity  mentioning
"He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are          God's righteousness or justice, and sometimes not. Thus, for
judgment : a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right      example, the apostle testifies in II Timothy 4 :8 : "Henceforth
is he." Abraham, at the impending destruction of Sodom and          there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the
Gomorrah, appeals to the righteousness of God as follows :          Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and
"That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the         not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appear-
righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be         ing."    After the outpouring of the third vial, the Seer of
as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of        Patmos hears the angel of the waters say, "Thou art right-
all the earth do right ?" Gen. 18 :25. Jeremiah also proceeds       eous, 0 Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou
from the same presupposition of God's perfect righteousness         hast judged thus." Rev. 16 :7. And according to Rev. 19 :l,
in his pleadings concerning the prosperity of the wicked,           2, John hears a great voice of much people in heaven saying,
                                                                    "Alleluia ; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, un-
Jeremiah 12 :l : "Righteous art thou, 0 Lord, when I plead
                                                                    to the Lord our God: For true and righteous are his judg-
with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments:
                                                                    ments : for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt
Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore
                                                                    the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood
are all they happy that deal very treacherously?" More than
                                                                    of his servants at her hand." And the song of Moses and of
once in Scripture God's righteousness and His faithfulness,
                                                                    the Lamb celebrates the fact that the ways of the "King of
His being true to His Word, are closely connected. This is
                                                                    saints" are "just and true." Rev. 15 :3.
evidently implied in the words of the Levites in Nehemiah

9 :S concerning God's covenant with Abraham to give to his              In the light of the above, we may say that God's right-

seed the land of Canaan : ". . . and hast performed thy words ;     ousness is that divine virtue according to which all God's

for thou art righteous." The two, divine faithfulness and           willing is in perfect harmony with His own infinitely perfect

righteousness, are mentioned together in I John 1:9 : "If           Being, and according to which, therefore, He rewards the

we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our      good with good and the evil with evil in perfect equity. In

sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." In Psalm         this light we may also understand the significance of the

145 :17,  in the same context in which mention is made of the       truth that Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her

fact that "The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies          converts with righteousness. And then we may remember


                                            THE:  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                       19


that the Scriptures speak ndt only of righteousness in the             children of the Highest : for he is kirid  untb the unthankful and

absolute serise as an attribute of God, but of a righteousness         to the <vii."  Luke 6 :35. "Or despisest  thou the rich& of his

that is imputed to and bestowed upon His people in Christ              goodness and forbearance and longs&feritig; not knowing

Jesus - such a perfect righteousness that is valid before God          that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?' Rom.

the righteous Judge-and of which God Himself is the                    2 :4. God is indeed the overflowing Fountain of all good. He

Author and the Giver. And then we may also see the practical           is filled with lovingkindness and tender `mercies toward His

significance of our confession that God is perfectly just. It          people in Christ Jesus, toward those that fear Him. With

implies that we shall earnestly seek forgiveness and redemp-           Him is fulness of joy. At His right hand there are pleasures

tion in the blood of Jesus, strive to obtain the reward of             forevermore. To know God, the only good, is life eternal.

faithful servants, and in all tribulation with uplifted heads          To live apart from Him is death. For the lovingkindness and

expect our Savior from heaven, Who shall judge the quick               benevolence of God is never to be separated from His ab-

and the dead and publicly vindicate the righteousness of our           solute perfection. That same goodness that reveals itself as

God.                                                                   love and grace .and  mercy, as ldvingkindness and longsuffer-

                                                                       ing toward His people in Christ Jesus is revealed as wrath

9. God is Perfectly Good, the Ove$oz&ng  Fountain Of                   and fierce anger against all the workers of iniquity.

   All Good.                                                              In connection with this benevolent goodness of God we

    Of God's goodness we may say both that it means that               may briefly mention the following divine virtues:

God is absolute goodness in Himself, the God, of all infinite              1 j The love of God, that bond of perfectness according to

perfections, and that He is the only good for all His creatures.       which the Triune God delights in and seeks Himself as the
                                                                       ethically perfect One, and delights in and seeks His creature
    Scripture speaks of God's goodness in both senses. In
                                                                       for His own name's sake.
the former sense it is a' very inclusive term. in Scripture,
                                                                          2) The grace of God, that goodness of God according to
denoting all God's ethical perfections. God is the ethically
                                                                       which He is the perfection of all beauty and loveliness in
perfect One. He is the absolute good. He is the light, in
                                                                       Himself and for His people, and according to which He
Whom is no darkness at all. His very nature is perfection.
                                                                       draws His people to Himself in favor, blesses them and
He is righteousness and holiness and truth ; He is truth and
                                                                       beautifies and glorifies them with Himself, and that too,
wisdom, mercy and grace and love, faithfulness and loving-
                                                                       though they are guilty and corrupt in themselves.
kindness. This is implied, especially when viewed in the
                                                                          3 j God's mercy, that attribute of God according to which
light of the context, in the statement of Nahum 1:7:  "The
                                                                       He is tenderly affected toward Himself as the only good,
Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble ; and he
                                                                       wills Himself as the Most Blessed-eternally, and according
knoweth them that trust in him." Psalm 25 :S speaks of this
                                                                       to which He wills that His people shall be perfectly blessed
goodness of the Lord also: "Good and upright is the Lord:
                                                                       in Him, and leads them through misery and death to the
therefore will he teach sinners in the way.`>  And in Luke
                                                                       blessedness of His covenant. God's mercy, thus it is often
15:19,  in reply to the ruler who addressed Him as "Good
                                                                       put briefly, is His goodness revealed toward the object of
Master," Jesus says : "`Why callest thou me good? none is
                                                                       His love in misery.
good, save one, that is God." Plainly the Lord uses the term
                                                                          4) God's longsuffering (an aspect of His mercy), that
here as applicable to no one else than God. In this absolute
                                                                       attribute of God's goodness according to which He unchange-
sense, therefore, God is good, good in a way that no one
                                                                       ably wills the final salvation and perfection of His people in
else-not even the "good master" as this ruler conceived
                                                                       Christ, and wills their suffering as a necessary means unto
of him-is good.
                                                                       that final perfection.
   However, our Confession not only takes the term good,-                 All these, in fact, all the perfections of God mentioned in
lltesf in this cornpi-ehensive  sense, as the climax of this series    this article, can be truly known only in Christ Jesus our
of God's attributes and as the summary of all His ethical              Lord, and, therefore, only by saving faith. And it is i&
perfections ; but also and especially, as is evident from the          characteristic of saving faith that it has learned to know and
addition,    "the overflowing Fountain of all good," does the          acknowledge and confide in God through our Lord Jesus
article emphasize the aspect `of God's goodness to His crea-           Christ as the overflowing Fountain of all .good, and to sing
tures, His benevolence. And Scripture very often calls our             (Psalm 36) :
attention to God's goodness in this sense. "For  the Lord is
good ; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all                         With the abundance  of Thy house
                                                                                       We shall be satisfied~;~
generations." Ps. 1005. "0 give thanks unto the Lord; for
                                                                                       FI-OWL rielem  of %t.?tfazl,Lng  joy
he is good: for his mercy endure&  forever." Ps. 106 :l :                              Ow  thirst &all be s@plied.
107:l.  "Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of
a clean heart." Ps. 73 :l.    "The Lord is good to all, and his                        The fountain  of eternal Life
                                                                                       Is found alone with Thee,
tender mercies are over all his works." Ps. 145 :9. "But love
                                                                                       And in the brightness  of Thy light
ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing                             We clearly light shall spe.
again ; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the                                                                     H.C.H.


                                                                          ,

2 0                                       T H E   ST.ANDARD   B E A R E R



                                                                   not agree. They write: "On the other hand we believe that
11  D E C E N C Y   a n d   O R D E R   11 it should be granted that the introduction of individual cups
                                                                   &the Lord's Table does not concern the essence of the sacra-

                                                                   ment. We do lose a bit of symbolism but we lose nothing

        The Lord's  Supper and Sundry Matters                      regarding the essence of the Lord's Table. And the symbol-

                                                                   ism which we lose is very likely only incidental. Let it also
       The principle of the sixty-second article of our Church     be remembered that over against the loss of symbolism which
Order is that the consistory of each church is empowered to        we suffer when we discard the common cup, we should note
determine various matters concerning the administration of         that which we gain by using the individual cups. In this
the Lord's Supper. There are certain essential elements that       day of widespread and more thorough knowledge concerning
belong to the sacrament which the consistory itself may not        disease germs, of individual drinking cups in the home, of
change. Christ has instituted this sacrament in the church         individual paper cups and drinking fountains in public places,
and the fundamental elements of that institution must be           it is very natural that the common cup at the Lord's Table,
preserved lest the symbolism and significance of it be de-         going from mouth to mouth, constitutes a detraction and a
stroyed.                                                           hindrance for at least some communicants. By using indi-

       In the celebration of the Lord's Supper, however, there     vidual cups this source of detraction and hindrance is re-
are also those things which may be considered incidental or        moved. And that is a gain."

non-essential. In our last article we mentioned some of them          The part of this quotation we disagree with is that sanita-
and we will now consider them in a little more detail.             tion justifies the loss of some symbolism in the Lord's Sup-

       Undoubtedly the most controversial question concerning      per. If it is true (which we and our Communion Form
these things has centered around the use of the individual         deny) that the common cup involves symbolism, it is of the
or common cup in communion. By the former is meant that            essence of the sacrament and should be preserved under al1
each communicant has, their own separate cup in which they         circumstances. The Lord Himself knew more about disease
receive the wine while the latter means that all drink from        germs than we ever will and if He instituted the common
the same cup. With some this is not an optional matter but         cz@  to designate the unity of the church, we should not
a thing that belongs to the very essence of the sacrament. To      change this to appease those who are hindered by the Lord's
them the only proper way to celebrate the Supper of the Lord       ordinances.

is by the use of the common cup.                                      In his "Church Right" the Rev. G. Ophoff gives us the

       The main argument here centers around the words of          correct view of this matter. He writes: "Some regard the

Christ found in Matthew 26 :27  and Mark 14:23. Concern-           one cup - all drinking from the one cup - as an element in

ing the cup which Christ tobk we read, "He gave to them,           the institution of the Lord's Supper by Christ, thus regard

and they all drank of it."     This seems to leave no reason       it as being a symbol setting forth the truth of the oneness of

to doubt. Edersheim in "The Life And Times Of Jesus,"              God's people in Christ, He being the one spiritual nourish-

Vol. II, pg. 496, writes: "I have often expressed my con-          ment of them all of whom all the believers partake. But

viction that, in the ancient services there was considerable       the words of the institution of the Lord's Supper do not in-

elasticity and liberty left to the individual. At present a cup    dicate that the one cup has this symbolical significance. Ac-

is filled for each individual but Christ seems to have passed      cording to Scripture (I Cor. 10:17) the oneness of the be-

the one cup round among the disciples. Whether such was            livers is symbolized by their all partaking of the one bread

sometimes done, or the alteration was designedly, and as we        and of the one wine. `For we being many are one bread and

readily see, significantly, made by Christ, cannot now be          one body ; for zve are all partakeus  of that: om  bread." Our
determined."                                                       Reformed fathers had understanding of this as appears from

       Monsma and Van Dellen  comment on this point on page        the following passage contained in the form for the admin-
261 of "The Church Order Comnlentary.f'  They write: "We           istration of the Lord's Supper, `For as out of many grains
believe that it ought to be granted that the common cup at         one meal is ground, and one bread baked, and out of many
the Lord's Table is expressive of Christian unity even though      berries being pressed together, one win:  floweth,  and
one should desire to question whether Christ actually used         mixeth  itself together; so shall we all, z&o by a true faith
the common cup with the deliberate purpose of giving expres-       aye engrajted  sin Christ, be altogether one body, through
sion to this Christian unity. Some say that Christ used the        brotherly love, for Christ's sake . . .' Thus believers are
cpmmon  cup merely because it was the custom of the day.           one by reason of their being engrafted in Christ by a fim~?
Perhaps these are right, although it is only an opinion. It        fait%  and hence by their eating his flesh and drinking his
is worthy of note that men like Edersheim and Godet seem           blood by faith. The question of the one cup belongs certainly
to question whether the common cup was in vogue in Jesus'          to the `things indifferent'."

day and at the Passover feasts."                                       The symbolism of unity or oneness then is to be found in

       With the next quotation from the same authors we can-       the one bread and one wine,  that is, the unity of the church

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


is found in the otae  body of Christ and not in the czcp. The       loses some of its sacredness zind  effectiveneSs.  It becomes

cup is simply the means by which the wine is administered           accepted- ?s a common thing. On the other hand there is

and whether one or many are used is of no consequence.              danger in not celebrating the Holy Supper often enough with

Those, however, who insist upon the common cup should also          the result that the church becomes spiritually impoverished.

be ready to admit that it is then principally just as wrong to         Some claim that in the apostolic church the Lord's Supper
use fwo common cups in the communion as it is to use two            was celebrated every sabbath while others say it was observed
hundred. Yet this is often. done. Nothing is said if two or         daily. These claims are based on Acts 2 :46  and 20 :7. Jansen
even three cups are used but objections are raised if it is         says, "Pas na de instelling werd het H. Avondmaal dagelijks,
suggested that each communicant has their individual cup.           althans elke rustdag gevierd." In his commentary Calvin
We must not stubbornly adhere to tradition. If there is es-         holds that the first pasage  cited above does not refer to the
sential symbolism in .one        we must insist on one cup and
                              cup                                   Lord's Supper. He writes: "Luke signifieth unto us, that
if +here is not, as we have shown above, we must not object         they did not only show some token of true godliness pulbicly,
if the consistory deems it proper to introduce the individual       but that the course and tenor of their private life was alone
cup.                                                                in that respect. For whereas some do think that in this

   Another question deals with what is the proper way to            place, by breaking of bread is meant the Holy Supper, it

occupy the time during which  the bread and wine are being          seemeth to me that Luke meant no such thing. He signifieth,

disbursed to the congregation ? In a large church this may          therefore, unto us, that they used to eat together, and that

take considerable time and dead silence is rather awkward.          thriftily." Concerning the second passage he wries : "Though

Our  communion form suggests that a psalm may be sung or            breaking of bread doth sometimes signify among the Hebrews

the minister should read a select passage from God's Word.          a domestical banquet, yet do I expound the same of the Holy

Both of these are good but if a choice is to be made we would       Supper in this place, being moved with two reasons." In

prefer the latter because it may be rather cumbersome for           his Institutes Calvin says :"The invariable c&tom, there-

the communicants to hold the psalm-book while receiving the         fore, was, that no assembly of the church should be held

bread and wine. And certainly one cannot sing while eating          without the Word being preached, prayers being offered, the

bread or drinking wine. Another suggestion is that the or-          Lord's Supper administered, and alms given." Calvin favored

ganist plays some fitting tunes during this time. The main          a weekly celebration of the Supper.

objective is that this time is spend in a way that is most             The synod of the Reformed Churches as early as 1574
conducive to bringing the minds and hearts of the church to         adopted the rule that this should take place every two months.
meditate upon the mysteries of the sacrament.                       This was the adopted practice for a long time. In 1914 the

    Finally we would make a comment about the post-com-             Church Order was revised to read as we have it today, "at

munion offering. Too often the meaning of this offering is          least every two or three months."

forgotten. This is not just another offering for a designated          A provision of the early Church Orders that has been
cause and should not be regarded as such. It is a special           dropped from the current redaction was that "it will also
offering in which the communicants are given opportunity to         tend to edification to have it on Easter, Pentecost, and Christ-
express their gratitude to God for the blessings He has given
them through the means of grace. In most churches, we               mas, where the conditions of the churches permit such." We
                                                                    see nothing objectionable in this arrangement and it may be
believe, this offering is set aside for the poor and where this     that such a celebration would contribute something to the
is done the offering takes on an added significance. There          observance of these special days by the church. The signific-
is no more appropriate time to remember the needy than              ance of these days is too often forgotten and if they were
this and this giving out of gratitude for them is also a form       attended with the celebration of the Lord's Supper, this might
of the communion of the saints. If we have indeed received          more impressively bring this significance to remembrance.
of the spiritual, we will contribute freely and liberally of the    But in our churches the custom is to celebrate communion
material to assist our needy brethren. In such offerings the        four times a year and we are unaware of any pressing senti-
Lord is pleased.                                                    ment to have this changed.

                                                                                                                           G.V.d.B.

    "The Lads Su.pper  shall be adYYtinistered  at least every
two or thee month." - Article 63, D.K.O.

   This article regulates the frequency with which the Lord's

Supper is to be celebrated. It does not say that the Lord's                   The goodness of Thy house, 0 Lord,

Supper may not be celebrated more frequently than at two                      The joys Thy holy courts afford,

or three month intervals but it specifies this as the minimum                   Our s&ls shall satisfy ;

requirement. In formulating a rule of this kind there are                     By deeds of might, in justice wrought,

two dangers that must be confronted. Firstly, there is a                      The Lord will grant us what we sought,

danger in making too many celebrations so that the Supper                       Our Saviour, God Most High.

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


                                                                                       Henley charged that the motivation for the visa denial was
                                                                                    political. He said that the hlinistry of the Interior was "playing
                                                                                    a game" with the church in the hopes of getting more votes

                                                                                    in `an election held this month.

                                                                                       "The religious parties," he declared, "are opposed to all

       There often appear in religious magazines many brief                         activity in the country - Catholic and Protestant. They should

notices concerning various events in the church world, that,                        like very much to sweep the country clean of Christian con-

while of some interest, are nevertheless too brief to comment                       tamination."

on. Many of these have been collecting on my desk for some                        There have often been discussions and questions raised

months, and it would perhaps be of some value to "catch up.`>                 concerning the place of the Jew in the church of Christ in

                                                                              the New Dispensation. These questions are not only raised
ECUMENICKM  IN LATIN AMERKA                                                   by the premillennialists,  who seem to have found a place for

       Evidently the ecumenical movement is not restricted to                 the Jews, but also by so-called amillennialists. In fact,

this country alone ; recently there was an attempt on the part                periodically the question reappears in our own Mission Corn-

of liberals in South America to unite all Protestant churches                 mittee in discussions of foreign missions. Mostly the prob-

into one denomination. A brief report of this was recently                    lem seems to be whether there is any indication in Scripture

given in Christianity Today from which we quote.                              and particularly in Romans 11 that there will be, before the

            Theological liberals tied  unsuccessfully last month to or-       Lord returns, a rather large turning of the Jews to the truth
         ganize an ecumenical federation which would ostensibly have          of the gospel of Christ. No doubt this question is worthy of
         been representative of virtually all Latin American Prot-            further examination and study. At the Synod of 1960, a.
         estantism.                                                           committee was appointed to investigate and study the prin-
            The bid was made at the Second Latin American Evangeli-
                                                                              ciples of fbreign  missionary work. Perhaps this committee
         cal Conference at Lima, Peru, where some 180 delegates (mis-
         sionaries and nationals) representing all but two of the             will come with some conclusions also concerning the purpose
                                                                     Latin

         American republics assembled to compare notes on the effect          of God with respect to the Jews.
         and future of their Protestant witness.
            Delegates from Argentina and Uruguay urged conference
         action toward creation of an inclusive Latin American church         CHURCH OFFERINGS
         confederation.     Other delegates protested that the nature of          There are several of our churches who do not make use.
         the conference precluded such action. A session was adjourned        of the envelope system in the paying of weekly budgets. This
         so that the proposal could be considered off the record. A           has sometimes resulted in problems for those whose income
         debate ensued, but the proposal never came to a vote.
                                                                              tax returns were being investigated. There was no record

                                                                              of the amount they had contributed over the course of the
TROUBLE IN ISRAEL                                                             year with the deacons, and the question often arose whether
       There have appeared many news excerpts about the ef-
                                                                              or not they could legitimately deduct these contributions on
forts of Protestant missionaries working in the comparatively
                                                                              their tax returns when there was no proof they had paid the
new country of Israel. Currently there is a series of articles                amount they claimed.
running in Chistianity  Today written by the editor, Carl F.                      A brief notice recently appeared in U.S. News And World
H. Henry, who recently made a trip to the Holy Land and
                                                                              Report which answers this question.
who now is making public his findings. Not only do mis-

sionaries run into considerable opposition from the people ;                            A new decision by the U. S. Tax Courts upholds an income
                                                                                    tax deduction claimed by a woman member .for cash contribu-
they face also the antagonism of the government. A recent
                                                                                    tions to her church, although the church does not keep records
event is rather characteristic, although in the instance re-                        of individual gifts by members. The Internal Revenue Service

ferred to below the government has given assurances that                            had allowed only $ZSO.qO  of the $750.00 deduction she had

there will be no recurrence of this sort of a thing.                                claimed. The court held that she could deduct the full amount.


            An application for visa renewal by Ralph T. Henley, one               In connection with the matter of church contributions,

         of the two U.S. missionaries for Churches of Christ in Jerusa-       -there recently appeared in The BLXWW~  a brief article which
         lem, was rejected this month.                                        reported on this matter of per-membership contributions in
            The action was the latest event in a series of setbacks that
                                                                              the churches in America. The churches with highest per
         a small Church of Christ in Jerusalem has suffered in recent

         months.       Jewish fanatics pelted the church with stones for      member contributions and the,  amounts they contributed to

         weeks with little restraining action from Jocal  police.             their churches was reported by the National Council of
            Henley's visa had expired and he was. seeking an extension        Churches. The Church of the Nazarene led all others in per
         for two months. The visa of his American colleague in Jeru-
                                                                              member contributions with an average of $135.51 for the
         salem, Ernest 0. Stewart, will not expire until November.
         Henley is sponsored by a Church of Christ in Chattanooga,            year. Following this church were: Church  of God (Ander-
         Tennessee, Stewart by one in Toledo, Ohio.                           son, Indiana), $104.51;         Reformed Church  in America,

             Henley reaf?irmed  that neither he nor Stewart have "en-         $103.23 ; Presbyterian,      U.S., $99.42 ;, Lufheran,  Missouri
         gaged in any activity which other missionaries are not engaged       Syqod, $93.89; United Presbyterian, U.S.A., $8i.j0;  Evan-
         m . . . nor have we ever done anything outside or contrary to
                                a>                                            gelical aqd Reformed, $8@92  ; Augustana  Lutheran, $76.97,;
         the laws of Israel.


                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                               23


 A m e r i c a n   Lutherau,   $ 7 3 . 5 3   ;  C o n g r e g a t i o n a l   Christiail,  GROW&  OF MORMONISM
 $71.12.                                                                             To turn briefly to another sect, Time recently reported on
     There are,  of course, no figures to determine the amounts                   the growth of Mormonism. A few statistics were given among

 that our people give throughout our entire denomination. Nor                     which were found that Mormon membership has increased

 is it clear just what is meant by "per member contributions"                     100 percent last year in Great Britain, France and Germany.

 in the above report. Probably the total amount contributed is                    Mormons now number 40,000 in Great Britain, 16,000 in

 divided by the number of confessing members in the entire                        Germany, while 1,000 conversions were accounted for in
 denomination ; our churches always figure contributions on                       France alone.

 the basis of families. And so perhaps a comparison would be                         Most of the missionary work of this sect is carried on
 difficult without a lot of additional information. Neverthe-                     by young men between the ages of 19 and 22, all volunteers.
 less, one cannot help but wonder where our churches                              About 40% of all youths of that age in this country enlist for
 would appear in the above list.                                                  this work - two years in America, two and one-half years in

                                                                                  a foreign country. Their families bear the expenses involved.

                                                                                     One of the phenomena of our times is the startling growth
 DR. FRANK BUCHMAN DIES                                                           of non-Christian sects. New ones constantly appear on his-
     Many will &?a11  that about forty years ago Dr. Frank                        tory's stage ; old ones rapidly, increase in numerical growth;
 Buchman founded `an orgar+ation which was known in the                           Usually these sects have one central theme which distin-
 beginning of its history as the Oxford  Group, but which                         guishes  them from others; one idea one man has suddenly
 later went under the name of MRA- or .Moral  Re-armament.                        thought of, one "hobby-horse" which they constantly ride.
 A short time agq Dr. Buchman died  in Germany after his                          But without fail these sects are like paganism and modern-
 movement had, during his life time, become an international                      ism in that they deny all the fundamental truths of Scripture
 brganization.                                                                    and concoct a philosophy of their own imagination.
                     . :
     This group, under the influence of their leader, was a                          What part these sects' will play in the final drama of the
 semi-religious movement with the admitted pm-p&e  of trying                      end of the ages as the return  of our Lord nears is an interest-
 to solve the world's ills through a return to Christian                          ing question. Are these sects to be identified with the pagan-
 morality. The group never joined itself to any denomination,                     ism of say, Africa and the Orient? M.any  teachings of these
 claiming rather to appeal to all denominations while remain-                     pagan religions have recently started sects even in our "cu11
 ing itself non-denominational, or rather super-denominational.                   tured"  and "civilized" West. Or are they manifestations of
 In fact it became a sort of religious sect with a code of prin-                  false Christianity arising out of rebelling against the truth of
 ciples that became known as Buchmanism. It laid particular                       the gospel and begun and advanced by men who know the
 stress upon a sharing of religious experiences among the                         gospel but hate it? Especially ifi this country the latter wotild
 initiates, a submissioll  to divine guidance and a pursuit of a                  seem to be the case. However, the fact that these religions so
 high morality in keeping with a universally accepted stand-                      often and so closely resemble paganism makes one wonder
 ard of right and wrong. The movement had influence, so it                        if this is always true.
 was claimed, throughout the world. It claimed tremendous                                                                                 H. Hanko
 successes among leaders in the fields of politics, economics

 and industry, although it longed to make an impact especially

 upon the colleges and universities of the world. It was sup-

 posed to be the answer to practically every problem men face                        Revtire&er,  in the U.N. crisis: "The preparations of the

 today in human relationships - from international war to                         heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the
 divorce. Ads often appeared in daily newspapers throughout                                                                                   ,. -.
                                                                                  Lord." Prov. 16 :l.
 the country ; countless brochures were published and distrib-

 uted near and far; headquarters were erected in Switzer-

 land and Mackinac Island in Michigan where international

 conferences were held.                                                                            He took me from.destruction's  pit,

     The movement was, in fact, a false religion. I$ deliber-'                                       From out the miry clay ;
 ately shunned any emphasis on doctrine, any denomitiational                                                                                 ,
                                                                                                   He set my feet upon a rock, -
 affiliation, and became instead al&ost  purely  subjective. The                                     And steadfast made my way.
 result was only the founding of another s& amdng the co&-

 less thousands througho&  the .glolje  `- 3 ' keii. khicb,  while                                .A new and joyful song of praise            =;;:
 its moral teachings might `appeal to'&mk$&o& -<e+er could
                                                                                                     My thankful heart He taught,           " :
 have  a place  in. the ,orgrinis&  b.f ! the ,~~~~)~~~~~.:t~~~~~~z;story
 of the development of the truth `bf'$cqg~~~.~~~~~~~~~hat  respect,                        . .     A song of `glory to our God

I` .:
 it was l$ttle  different from paganism: ,,r13*i;@t  .:i: j ", ;:*,.              . ._               For all that He has wrought.
                                               ;:i :;!:g)  ,p:i :i'-`y    ,. ,


                                                                 -                 --__~ _---.--___  ~- ~- -- _
              24                                          T H E ' S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R


                                                                                   Reformed--Witness Hour tapes will again include their splen-
               NEWSFROMOURCHURCHE~                                              il did singing week after week.
                                                                                       Two inspirational meetings were scheduled to be held in
                           - `"All the sai& salt&e  thee-. :. ." PHIL. 4:21        Holland. Sept. 19 the whole membership `was invited to hear

                                                                                   a speech by Rev. R. Veldman, of our Southeast Church,

                                                              Sept. 20, 1961       aimed at inspiring the men and women to join and become

                                                                                   faithful members of their respective societies. The second,
                    The Program Committee of the,Reformed  Witness Hour            held Sept. 22, was the semi-annual Sunday School Teachers'
              announces that Rev. H. Veldman, Minister of the Word of              Inspirational Meeting.           This time the inspirational address
              God in the Prot. Ref. Church of Redlands, Calif., will occupy        was given by the local pastor, Rev. G. Lanting.
              the "pulpit" of our distinctively reformed radio broadcasts              From the mission field, Tripp, South Dakota, we learn
              during the five Sundays of October. Rev. Veldman will                that Rev. Lubbers is conducting Sunday School at 9:45, fol-
              devote his first and second messages under the theme,                lowed by public worship services every Sunday morning. The
              "Boldness To Preach The Gospel." The following two Sab-              missionary is planning a series of sermons on "Christ Stand-
              baths he will treat the subject of "Our  Heavenly Advocate,"         ing in the Midst of the Candlesticks" in the mid-week services
              and concluding his series of radio messages Oct. 29 with a            tentatively scheduled to begin Oct. 4. Catechism classes are
              discussion on our being "Justified Freely In Christ Jesus."           being conducted in a private home on Thursday afternoons,,
              Srinted  copies of these and all our radio messages may be            instruction being given from the Heidelberg Catechism. Rev.
              had by writing to The Reformed Witness Hour, P.O. Box 8,              Lubbers writes that he is recuperating from. a siege of "flu"
              Grand Rapids 1, Mich.                                                 and hay-fever which curtailed his physical powers somewhat.

                    The Annual meeting of The Society for Prot. Reformed               Hope's bulletin carried a joyful "thank you" from the
              Action was held in Doon's Church, Sept. 19. Rev. J. Kqr-              Hope School Board to those who labored on its building fund
              tering, of Hull, spoke on "Our Calling To Propagate The               drive, and to those who donated pledges and cash. They
              Truth."      The Society's latest publication was a pamphlet en-      stated, "The results of this drive are very satisfactory."
              titled, "Making Our Calling and Election Sure."                          Hull's Christian Grammar School began their first day

                    Rev. Harbach, of Lynden, has finished a series of sermons       with a brief service in the First IChr. Ref. Church ; the

              which covered a period of about ten months and was a syste-           speaker : Rev. J. Kortering, of our church in Hull.
              matic exposition of the miracles of Christ during His time               In Lynden's Sept. 10 bulletin Rev. Harbach  developed a
              on earth.. The first one of the series was on "The Changing           .good  argument in favor of dropping the:use  of the words
              of Water Into Wine," with the,.last  one on "The Second               "parson" and "parsonage" because of their-hierarchical con-
              Miraculous Draft of Fishes."                                          notation, and to use in their place the terms, "Minister" and

                    Doon's  Sept. 10 bulletin, which announced the beginning        "manse." He wrties, "The word `manse' implies no deroga-

              of a new season of society life, carried this gem from their          tion, and means literally, the man's house, i.e., the man of

              Minister's pen : "Society is a concrete expression of that            God's house.

              unity and fellowship which we confess every Sunday, accord-              Hope's School's three new teachers (of a staff of nine)

              ing to which we together love to discuss the things that are          are, Mrs. `Marilyn Decker, of First Church ; Miss Sylvia

              spiritual. And although it is true that this fellowship can           Brummel, of Edgerton; and Mr. Daryl Vander Kooi,  of our
               (and must) be revealed in many other ways, yet society is            Southeast Church.
              the voluntary and spontaneous gathering outside the church               The other statements tendered by Rev. Van Baren  in
              institute where this is most clearly seen." Rev. Van Baren            considering society membership (see 4th paragraph above)
              gave that statement, with two others which listed the benefits        are as follows: 1. Society should benefit us in a two-fold
              accrued, as a guide to their consideration of the question,           way ; (a) through the personal, individual study of the Word
              "Am I going to attend society or not?' Let us all ponder              of God at home we grow in knowledge and understanding of
              this definition of "society" and see whether we can afford to         the Word ; ,(b) and'through mutual discussion of that which
              miss such a golden opportunity for the exercise of the com-           we have studied at home, we can benefit from the study of
              munion of saints.                                                     others. 2. Society should serve as an incentive which in-

                    Edgerton's Young People's Society had an interesting            creases our diligent study of the Word and encourages'us to

              discussion on the question as to whether the fossils in the           discuss more freely together things spiritual.

              earth were created as fossils or were formed in time. We                 Did YOU  attend the Annual Meeting of the R.%.P.A.
              wonder how many of us cbuld answer that question intel-               (Standard.  Bea,rer) Sept. 28 in Southwest Church to enjoy
              ligently.                                                             a speech on !:;A New Generation" by Rev. C. Hanko, and to

                    The Radio Choir has resumed its meetings with a call            help elect new board, members ?
                                                                                                     .,' . .
                                                                                                   &' )?;. iri (+&urch:
              for additional members. We hope that. this~  means that the               . . . .                                                  `J.M.F.
. ;
                                             !
       :::                                                                                                                                             ,


