    VOLUME x-=vIII                           JANUARY 15, 1962 - GRAND Rams,  MICHIGAN                                   bkTMBER8


                                                                   and begs Him: Return, 0 Lord, how long? and let it repent

                                                                   Thee concerning Thy servants. .Instead of the consuming of

                                                                   our days in labor and sorrow, let us taste mercy, rejoicing

                                                                   and gladness.

                    THE LORD'S                                         But how?

      `.`Let  Thy  wovk a.#war  unto Thy servants, and Thy             By letting the Lord's work appear unto God's servants
       glory unto their child~ven.     And let the huty  of the    and His beauty and glory unto their children.
       Lord our God be upon `US:  and establish Thou  the
                                                                       Yes, if we see the work of the Lord we certainly will
       work of ozw lmnds  z~~gon us; yea., the wwk of ow
       hnds  establ&?t  Ttht it." Psalm 90:16,  17                 be glad.          . : .

                                                                       If we see the glory and beauty of the Lord we will sing
   We have five books of the Bible that are written by
                                                                   in prisons and at death's door.
Moses, but only one Psalm, Psalm 90.

   Moses is unique among God's prophets. "And there

arose  not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom             What is that work?
the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders,
which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to                  We read of that work of God throughout the Bible. I
Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, and in      will quote just two places, one in the Old Testament and
all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses      one in the New. First attend to Judges 2 :7 : "And the people
shewed  in the sight of all Israel." Deut. 34:10-U                 served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of
                                                                   the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great
   That Moses was unique is also shown in this 90th Psalm.         works of the Lord, that He did for Israel." And also I Gor.
   It seems to me that M.oses  stood on the mountain of faith      15 :58: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, un-
when he began this psalm, and standing there he first looked       movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, foras-
back and saw God as the dwellingplace of all the generations       muc1-1  as ye know that your labor is not vain in the Lord."
of God's people.
                                                                       What is that work of the Lord ?
   What a thought ! God is the home of the church: they
                                                                       And why is it so difficult to see that work ?
dwell in God !
                                                                       God works hitherto and I work, said Jesus.
   Yes, he stood on that mountain and looked toward the

creation of the world, and began his worship: even from                Is it, perhaps, the work of God's providence throughout

everlasting to everlasting Thou art God !                          all the days of the years of our lives on earth ? Oh no.

   And then he again saw the generations of-God's  people,             It is a special work.

but Moses weeps. He beholds destruction, the wrath and                 It is the work of election and reprobation. And these two
anger of God, the weariness of the ages because of our sin         works are not coordinate, but subordinate : reprobation serves
and iniquity.                                                      election.

   Our age is but a span, like unto a mist that is seen for a          Let us go to the text and the context. Let us go also,
moment and disappears. Even the best of our days are labor         to Judges 2. We read of the work which the Lord had done
and sorrow.                                                        for Israel.

   All because of sin and iniquity.                                   It was, indeed, a wonderful work: God remembered His

   Moses weeps and with tear-stained face he turns to God          eternal covenant of grace. It seemed for 400 years as though

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


the Lord had forgotten. They had cried to Him and prayed,            So, beloved, be not surprised when they hate you and

but He did not seem to listen. It was as though God forgot.      persecute you and say all manner of evil things against you

Did He not speak to-Abraham, Isaac and Israel? Did He not        falsely for God's sake. It is part of the great work that

give them great and dear promises for them and their seed?       God does for Israel. The pathway of the elect leads through

       Oh yes, God did speak to them and promised wonderful      blood, tears, persecution and death.

things. And He certainly had not forgotten about them.               And the very central work of this work is the suffering

                                                                 and death, the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. With
       But Jehovah wanted to try His people in the fiery oven
                                                                 that in mind Moses speaks of the glory and the beauty of
of persecution in Egypt. And at the right time He came to
                                                                 God.
them by the call of Moses.

    And then the wonderful work of God, begun after the              Can you conceive of anything more beautiful than that
fall in Paradise, once again became clear.                       your God Jehova,h  goes to everlasting hell for you, so that
                                                                 you may go to heaven for ever and ever?
    With a great and strong hand He led Israel out of Egypt.
                                                                     Is it then a wonder that Paul sings in prison with his
    That is election, beloved ! Election is a living work of     bloody back? Is it then a wonder that Stephen prays that
God from everlasting to everlasting. From eternity God saw       God lay not this sin to the charge of his murderers ?
and willed and knew a people in indescribable love and
lovingkindness. And He willed to lead that people through            If you see the work of the Lord which He has done for
great misery and death unto life eternal. And He willed          Israel, you can stand anything and everything. Your fathers
that this people would never forget this awful state and con-    and my fathers proved it. They were stoned, tortured, mal-
dition of misery and death, so that unto everlasting they        treated, and killed. But inherited kingdoms.

might stand before His throne in the second world and sing                                      * *    * *'
to Him : "Thou hast redeemed us unto Thee out `of so great

a death !"
                                                                     But many who dwelled in the church of the wilderness
    And Goci  would do all this through and in Jesus Christ      did not see it.
the great Mediator.
                                                                     They came to Jesus (I mean Moses, of course) and
    And Moses was His shadow. And therefore Moses said:          said: Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of
Take me out of Thy book ! But that was impossible. Moses         a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the
could not really be the Mediator. That was reserved for          wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince
the very Son of God, the better Moses.                           over us?

    Noti attend to this: so that there might be the terrible         These most miserable people saw nothing of the great
way of misery and death, Egypt and Pharaoh have to serve,        work which God did for Israel. And their number through-
and now I have to speak of reprobation. It is stated very        out all the ages is legion.
plainly in a single verse: "And in very deed for this cause
                                                                     I called these people most miserable, and that is true.
have I raised thee up, for to show in thee My power; and
                                                                 They are much more miserable than anyone outside of the
that My name may be, declared throughout all the earth."
                                                                 church. They were in this life very close to Jesus, to the
This same text was heard by Paul, and he quotes it in
                                                                 true church, to the oracles of God, but they were blind.
Romans 9, the chapter that is so beautiful, and yet so hated

by all those who love man rather than God.                           And their reward is waiting in horrible death.

   Yes, it is a hard and terrible way through which God              It must make our good God very angry when peoplq who

draws His beloved people to His bosom. There must be             have the Bible say: Man is co-worker with God in all the

Pharaohs, Nebuchadnezzars,  and people like Antiochus Epi-       great work which He does for Israel. And it seems that they

phanes. And also men like Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas, Judas and     are right. Even my text speaks of the establishing of the

the pharisees. They are the instruments through which God's      work of our hands upon us. And other texts, very many,

Israel is tortured.                                              speak `of the work that sinners do. Work for the night is

   You see that centrally in Jesus, the Child of the Most        c o m i n g !

High.                                                                But here is the cardinal point: they see not that even our

    No one suffered as He did. And no one can fathom that        work that is good, is the work of the Lord.
suffering.                    0                                      There is a c!assical  text which we all should learn by

   And it was this same Jesus who told us, His children:         heart. It should be written with fiery letters in our heart

They have hated Me, and they will hate you. And that is          and in the hearts of our children. It is this : "Wherefore, my

God's purpose also with us. For Jesus said again: Lo, I          beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence

send you in the midst of the wolves !                            only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own


                                              T H E   S T A N D ' A R D B E A R E R                                                                                                                                                                            171


salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which
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of work in the great work of God !                                              Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
                                                                                                 Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 &mklin  St., S. E.,
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    We have our churches, buildings, classes, exercises, en-                                                                                                                                                                                           .-

deavors, sabbaths and feasts. But nothing helps, except the
Lord Jehovah bless it, establish it, crown it with the Spirit            ,rr                                                      C O N T E N T S
                                                                         IwRDITATION  -
of grace of Jesus Christ, our New Testament Moses.
                                                                                    The Lord's Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

    If He does and when He does, you see the work of God                                       Rev. G. Vos

which He does for Israel. Then you see the Cross of Jesus,               EDITORIALS -
the central work of all God's works. Then you see salvation,                        About Infallibility . . . ._. ._ _..... . ..__ _. . ._____ . 1.72
eternal life, the new earth atid  heaven.                                           The Hymn Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._..__............................................                                                                                I72
                                                                                    Perfect Peace                           . ._ ._ ____ _.. .__ ___ ._.._.  ..174
    Then you sing with Paul: For who hath known the mind                                        Rev. H. Hoeksema

of the Lord ? or who hath been His counsellor  ? Or who hath             OUR  DOCTNNE-
first given Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again ?                       The           Calling                . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._____........................................................                                                I.75

For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things:                                        Rev. H. Hoeksema

to whom be glory for ever. Amen."                                        A CLOUD OF WITNESSES -

                                                                 G.V.               God's Glory _......_....________...........  __.,.,.._____._____...,.....,........,........                                                                                 177
                                                                                                Rev. B. Woudenberg

                                                                         FROM HOLY WRIT -
                             IN MEMORIAM
                                                                                    Exposition of I Timothy ..___.____._._.__,....................,................,..  179

    In the early morning of December 26, 1961 our Lord took to                                  Rev. G. Lubbers
Himself suddenly in a traffic  accident our dear son and brother,        INHISFFEAR-
                             JAMES DAVID                                            Christian Greetings                                     . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

at the age of twenty-two years.                                                                 Rev. J. A. Heys

    Our sorrow is deep; but in it the Lord has given us to taste         C
abundantly His all-sufficient grace and the assurance that also now        ONTENDING FOR THE FAITH -
He doeth all things well.                                                           The Church and the Sacraments . . . . .._...._..___.__......................  183
                                                                                                Rev. H. Veldman
    "Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence;  I shall not      THE VOICE OF OIJR  FATHERS-
be greatly moved." Ps. 62:1, 2.                                                     The           Belgic              Confession .._____.  :_______.............................,.........  185
                                     Mrs. D. Jonker
                                     Prof. and Mrs. H. C. Hoeksema                               Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
                                     Mr. and Mrs. C. Jonker              D
                                     Mr. and Mrs. C. Westra                   ECENCY AND ORDER -
                               - - - - - -                                          The Hymn Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._..............................................  187
                                                                                                 Rev. G. Vanden Berg
    Note of thanks. The family takes this means to express heartfelt
thanks to the many members of our churches in the Grand Rapids           ALL AROUND us -
area who remembered and helped us in various ways in this time                      The Greatest Bible of Them All .,............... .._._._____.............  189
of bereavement.
                                                                                     The World Council of Churches - New Delhi .______________.___.  190

                             IN MEMORIAM                                                         Rev. H. Hanko

    The P. T. A. of the Hope Prot. Ref. Christian School wishes to       CONTRIBUTIONS -
express its heartfelt sympatby to the family of                                      Hymns and Psalms .._..._ ..______._..____._....................................... 191

                          JAMES D. JONKER                                                        Rev. R. C. Harbach

    May they experience the comfort that only our Heavenly Father        NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES. ._....._.  _._ . . . ..___.  . . . . . . . . . . ..__.............  . .._ __ 192
can give in this time of grief.
                                        Mr. K. Lantig,  President                                Mr. J. M. Faber
                                        Mrs. R. Clawson,  Secretary

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


                                                                     tioned statement. And I am somewhat surprised that the Ad-
              E D I T O R I A L S                                    visory Committee of Synod did not ask an explanation of the
                                                                     statement in question of the Study Committee.

                                                                         But let us proceed.

                     About Infallibility                                 The first recommendation of the Advisory Committee of
                                                                     Synod reads as follows:
       In our last editorial on the subject "Hoogland on In-             "A. That Synod declare, as the study committee indicates
fallibility" we quoted the introductory remarks of the report        in the fulfillment of its mandate, that both Scripture and the
of the Advisory Committee. In those remarks it evaluates             creeds establish an essential relationship between inspiration
the report ol the "Study Committee" to which Hoogland re-            and infallibility, in which the infallibility of Scripture is in-
acts favorably in his article in the Re~omwd  Jozl.ffnal.  We        ferred from inspiration, and inspiration secures the infalli-
called attention especially to the remark quoted from the            bility of all Scripture.
report of the Study Committee in which it deals with the                 "Note: Although a due appreciation of this fact requires
"periphery question" i.e. the question concerning matters            a complete study of the entire report (i.e., of the Study Com-
that are on the outside of Scripture in distinction from mat-        mittee, H.H.), the following quotations may illustrate the
ters that concern the more central matters. About these so-          above :
called periphery matters, the Study Committee expressed                  "1. Initially we may say that infallibility as an inference
themselves as follows: the word "periphery" may be used to           drawn from inspiration is to be ascribed to Scripture only
describe "incidental and circumstantial data which have no           in accord with the extent, nature and purpose of inspiration.
independent revelational significance, but are dependent for             "2. Divine inspiration establishes Scripture as an in-
their revelational significance upon the relationship they sus-      fallible rule and sufficient canon for all of Christian faith and
tain to the central intent and purpose of a given passage."          life by securing it'against all falsification, error and deceit.

   And here I asked a question, which was also asked by                 "3. An examination of the Church's interpretation of the

several of the synodical  delegates, though not in connection        Belgic  Confession as well as of the principles which it has

with the report of the Study Committee but in a different            enunciated forces us to the conclusion that the approach of
connection. My question is twofold: 1. What is the meaning           the Church to the trustworthiness of Scripture is . . . to give

of this statement? And, 2. Are those "incidental and cir-            testimony to the faith of the Church, on the basis of the

cumstantial data" also verbally and infallibly inspired or may       demands of Scripture, to its own authority and trustworthi-

there, perhaps, be errors in those data?                             ness."

   As to the first question, does the Study Committee simply             This point was adopted by Synod, apparently without

mean that those "incidental and circumstantial data" must be         any debate. Personally, I would liked to have asked to have

taken and understood in their context? But this is nothing           a little clarification of "1" of the "Note" of the Study Com-

special. Every statement of Scripture must be explained in           mittee report. I refer to the statement that "infallibility as

the context in which it occurs. This is simply a rule of             an inference drawn from inspiration is to be ascribed to

.exegesis  and concerns not only matters that are on the             Scripture only in accord with the extent, nature and purpose

"`periphery" but also matters that concern the very heart of         of inspiration."

the revelation of Scripture.    This cannot be the meaning of           Another point of the Advisory Committee was adopted

the statement quoted from the report of the Study Commit-            unanimously, without debate. It is this :

tee. The only other possible alternative, it seems to me, is that        "That Synod commend this study committee report to

those incidental and circumstantial data, such as, for instance,     the church. Grounds : 1) This report will serve to remove

historical staiements  in Scripture, contain errors when taken       misunderstandings that have arisen ; 2) This report is a

by themselves but have nevertheless revelational significance        framework for further study of the relationship between in-
when understood in their proper context and in connection            spiration and infallibility."

with the passage in which they occur. And if this is meant,              As I said before, I do not have the complete report of

the verbal inspiration of Scripture as well as its infallibility     the Study Committee in my possession. As soon as I have

is denied.                                                           it, I promise that I will make "further study" of it.
       But this, too, cannot be the meaning of the Study Com-         This is to be continued, D.V.
-mittee  for in "a" of the "Analysis of the Study Committee                                                                       H.H.

Report" the latter states that it is "the sustained faith of

-the historic Christian Church that Scripture in its whole ex-
                                                                                         The Hymn Question
tent and in all its parts is the infallible and inerrant  Word

-of God."                                                                From the last Sfmzdard Bearer I notice that the Rev. G.

   The Study Committee .ought,  therefore, to give its own           VandenBerg  intends to write on the hymn question in con-

canswet- to the question what they nleant  by the above-men-         nection with Article 69 of the Church Order.


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                      173


    Of this I am glad, because, in the first place, I know that               This is, indeed, a beautiful verse! It is a versification of

the brother strongly opposes the introduction of hymns                     Psalm 89 :15, 16: "Blessed is the people that know the

into our churches ; and, in the second place, I have high                  joyful sound: they shall walk, 0 Lord, in the light of thy

respect for the opinion of brother VandenBerg,  and, there-                countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and

fore, I expect that he will produce some sound arguments                   in thy righteousness shall they be exalted." But notice that

against the introduction of hymns that are versifications of               the versification is rather liberal. The lines "Uw  goedheid

Scripture and that are approved by our Synod.                              straalt hun toe, Uw macht  schraagt hen in `t lijden ; Uw

                                                                           onbezweken trouw zal nooit hun val gedoogen," do not occur
   The brother writes: "Undersigned does not aim at debate
                                                                           in the original. The lines mentioned above are: "Thy good-
but we shall have to express our disagreement with those
                                                                           ness beams unto them, thy power sustains them in suffering.
who are favxing ,this change fsr our churches." To my                      Thy neverfailing faithfulness shall never suffer their fall."
mind, this is exactly what a debate is, unless the brother
                                                                           You must admit that, although these lines are beautiful atid
expects to express his disagreement without receiving a reply
                                                                           although I never had any objections to sing them, neverthe-
on my part. Let us, therefore, have a friendly debate.
                                                                           less, in them we do not sing "the Psalms of David" but a
    First of all, then, seeing that the Rev. VandenBerg                    hymn.
wants to base his remarks upon Article 69 of the Church
                                                                              Vs. 8 of the same psalm in Dutch is beautiful too. I
Order, I also will call attention to this article. It reads as
                                                                           quote it here:
follows :

                                                                           Gij tech, Gij zijt him roevx,  de kracht vat%  hunne  km&t.
    "In our churches only the 150 Psalms of David, the Ten
                                                                           Uw  vyije gunst  alleen  zuordt d' eere toegebmcht;
Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Twelve Articles of
                                                                           W4j  steken  `t hoofd omhoog,  an zullen  d' eerkroon  dragen
Faith, the Songs of Mary, Zacharias and Simeon, the
                                                                           Door U, door U a&ma,  ova `t eeuwig  wslbehagen;
Morning and Evening Hymns, and the Hymn of Prayer be-
                                                                           Want  God is ons ten schi2'd  in `t strijdperk  va.n dit levm
fore the sermon shall he sung."
                                                                           En onae Koning is van Isyels  God gcgeven.
    On this article we like to make the following remarks:
                                                                              This is a versification of vss. 17 and 1s: "For thou art
    1. There are no 150 Psalms of David. We do not know                    the glory of their strength ; and in thy favor our horn shall
how many of the psalms were composed by David, but there                   be exalted. For the Lord is our defense; and the Holy One
are quite a few that were composed by others. We do not                    of Israel is our king."    Again I make the remark that the
know all the authors but some of them are mentioned in                     Dutch versification of this verse is quite a liberal rendering.
Scripture as for instance, Asaph : Ps. 73, 74, 15, etc. ; Heman,           The third and fourth lines of this verse do not occur at
the Ezrahite, Ps. SS, S9; of Moses, Ps. 90. And many of                    all in the original text. We may translate this as follows:
the authors are not even mentioned. But this is of minor                   "We lift up our head on high and will wear the crown of
importance. It is very well possible that, seeing many of the              honor; through Thee, through Thee alone, because of the
psalms were composed by David, those that composed Article                 eternal good pleasure."    When we sing this' (and I always
69 of the Church Order spoke in general terms.                             liked to sing it>, we certainly do not sing one of the psalms
    2. Of more importance, however, is that we cannot sing                 of David but a hymn that is based on this psalm.
the Psalms of David, and we never do. Do not misunder-                        Thus I could go on.
stand me. I like the psalms and I like to sing them. Fact
                                                                              But if this is the case, what is wrong with singing
is, however, that we do not sing the psalms of David but a
                                                                           versifications of other parts of Scripture, especially of the
versification of them. This is true of the Dutch as well as
                                                                           New Testament, that are approved by Synod ?
of the English versification of them, although I believe that
the English versification is often closer to the original than                3. Moreover, in our English Psalter we certainly do not
the Dutch. Not only this, but especially the Dutch versifica-              sing the 1.50 psa.lms  of David, but many more. Thus, for
tion departs quite liberally from the original. Let me give                instance, we have different numbers on Psalm 23. The first
an illustration. I always liked and I still like to sing Psalm             is number 52, the first verse of which reads as follows:

89 :7 and 8. And what Hollander does not like to sing these                         Thoib  Jehovah airt my shepherd,

verses ? Here they are :                                                            Therefo-ve  I no wartt shnll know;

                                                                                    In green pa~ststrcrss  Thou dost rest me,
Hoe mlig  is het volk  dat naar Uw k&ken  hoort!                                    Leadrst where still wateu  flow,
Zij zwand'Ceq  Hem,  in `t licht  van, `t Godlijk amschijn  z1oort.                 And z&en f&&g,
Zij sullen in Uzw name  Ach a)1 den dag verblijden:                                 Swtiet refreshment dost bestozu.
Uw goedheid stp-aalt  lzrm toe, lJw macht schmagt  hen in
                                                          `t l:ijdgql.;       Number 53 starts this way:

Uzv  onbegwelzen.  tro,uzw  sal  nooit lmn z/al  gedoogert.                         The Lourd's  my Shepherd, I'll not want;

Xaar-  lizv gmxhtigheid  hen PLaas  Uw' zvoovd  ve&oogen.                           He makes me dorm to ljie.

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


   A different version of this psalm is found in number 54,                                Perfect Peace*

the first two lines of which are:
                                                                                    When I am bowed with grief,
            My faithful. Shepherd is the Lmd,
                                                                                    When tro,ubles  `mamd  vxe throng,
            Supplying all way needs.
                                                                                    When                         relief,
                                                                                             there seems  SO 
       Number 55 starts as follows:                                                 When I can find no song,

             The Lord my Shepherd holds me                                          He sends His perfect peace,
            Within h2.s tender care.                                                From sorrow gives release,

   And finally, in number 56 psalm 23 begins as follows :                           Througla  all my journey here,

            My Shepherd is the Lord  who knows my needs,                            Peace, pkrfect  peace.

            And 1 am blest.
                                                                                    When  I have do,ubts  within,
       To this I can add still another version, which is probably
                                                                                    Wlaen  faith is far f~ostz  strong,
a more literal rendering than all the foregoing. The first
stanza of this reads as follows :                                                   When I behold my sin
                                                                                    An!d fo+*  His grace I long,
  The Lord is nzy Shepherd, no want I shcdl  know;
  I feed in green pasfiures, safe-folded I rest;                                   His cross He shows to me;
  He leadeth my sow1 where the still waters flow,                                   In love He giz1e.s  to me,

  Restores me when wand'ring, redeevns when oppressed.                              Now and eternally,

       Now my question : may we consider all these different                       Peace, perfect  peace.

versions and versifications  as belonging to the "Psalms of
David" according to the Church Order, Art. 69 ; or must we                          When  all my life is done,
select one of them in order to stay within the limits of the                       I near death's swelling tide,

150 psalms mentioned in Art. 69 ?                                                   Faith's battle fo,uglat and won,

   And what is wrong with this hymn, which is based on                              God's amaor  laid  aside,
Isaiah 53:                                                                         Peace, perfect peace He'll give;

                                 1.                                                 Through death with Him I'll Z&e

          Who hath believed aftss he&zg the message,                                Through all eternity;
          To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?                                  Peace, perfect peace.
          He shall grow up as a pla?Lt  new and tender,

          And as a root out of a barren field.                       * Editorial note : These are the words of the hymn composed

                                                                     by the late James Jonker and which was sung on the Re-
                                 2.
          He was despised and by all rejected,                       formed Witness Hour Sunday, December 31, a few days after
          Weighted with  sorrows, acquainted  with grief;            he passed away. By request we publish the hymn here.

          Smitten, aflictsd,,  by God wus  forsaken,

          He mfeved  alone; no one co&d  bving  relief.



          Like as a lamb he was brought fo the slaughter,                                     IN MEMORIAM

          Speechless as sheep to the shearers was led;                  On the morning of December 26, 1961, our Lord very suddenly
          He was cut off from the land of the Living,                took unto Himself our fellow-member and pianist,
          For oztr transgressions 0% Calvary bled.
                                                                                           MR. JAMES JONKER

       The following hymn is based on Romans 8 :l :                     We, the Protestant Reformed Men's Chorus, wish to extend our
          No condewwaation,  now and never,                          heartfelt sympathy to the bereaved family and to his brother, Mr.
          I'm in Christ who loves me evm;                            C. Jonker, and his brother-in-law, Mr. C. Westra, also members of
          Whose name is Jesus, Savior- time,                         our Chorus. May they find comfort in the assurance that he is now
          From sin and death, zvhdch He subdiied,                    singing in that Church triumphant.

          Who is my comfort, hope, and life,                            "For whether we live, we live onto the Lord; and whether we
          My faith&l  helper in. the st,$e.                          die, we die onto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we
          Now after fresh  I walk no more,                           are the Lord's." Romans 14%
          But+  in the SpiTit  of my Lord.                                                                 Mr. J. Sjoerdsma, President
                                                             H.H.                                          Mr. S. Beiboer, Secretary


                                         T H E   S,TANDARD   B E A R E R                                                          175


                                                                   beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of

     O U R   D O C T R I N E   11 the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you
                                                                   by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord

                                                                   Jesus Christ." Also here it is God, and God only, Who calls

                         CHAPTER II                                through the gospel unto the obtaining of the glory of our
                     THE CALLING                                   Lord Jesus Christ. And also here the calling is presented

                         (Continued)                               as proceeding only from the sovereign election of God. Thus
                                                                   the apostle also writes to Timothy in II Timothy 1:9: "Who
   The crucified Christ is surely a stumblingblock and             hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not ac-
foolishness to us as we are by nature. But when God calls,         cording to our works, but according to his own purpose and
this becomes different. For then the same crucified Christ         grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
becomes unto us a power of God unto salvation. And also            began."     Also in this verse the calling is presented as an
in this same chapter the apostle points to the eternal elec-       efficacious calling of God, and also as being rooted in and
tion of God as the root of this calling. For he writes : "For      based on God's own election.
ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men

after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are                  Also in the epistles of Peter we find mention of this

called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world        efficacious calling, and therefore of the calling in the saving

to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things         sense of the word. In contrast with those who stumble at

of the world to confound the things which are mighty ; And         the Word, whereunto also they were appointed, he writes in

base things of the world to confound the things which are          the First Epistle, 2 :9: "But ye are a chosen generation, a

despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not,          royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people ; that ye

to bring to nought the things that are: That no flesh should       should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you

glory in his presence." I Cor. 1:26-29.  The meaning of the        out of darkness into his marvellous light." It is evident
apostle is very plain. By their calling believers may know         from this verse also that it is God, and God only, Who:

that God has chosen them unto salvation, simply because            calls. Besides, this calling consists, as far as the fruit is

the calling is out of election. Election is the eternal basis      concerned, that the called are translated out of darkness into

and root of the calling. And therefore, the calling concerns       the marvellous light of God. It is efficacious, therefore, only

only the elect. The calling is, like the atonement in the          for the elect. That this is true, that, namely, also according to

blood of Christ, always and only particular.                       this text election is the root and the basis of the calling is evi-

   The Word of God very often speaks of the calling as             dent not only from the text itself, but also from the context-

that work of grace through which He translates the sinner          The text itself plainly establishes the relation between election

from darkness into the light of life. Thus the apostle writes      and calling. For the apostle writes that they are a chosen

in Remans  9:23-26: "And that he might make known the              generation, and that as such they are called out of darkness

riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had          into the marvellous light of God. And as far as the context

afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called,           is concerned, we may note that the precious and elect corner-

not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles ? As he saith       stone which is laid in Zion is to some a stone of stumbling

also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not           and a rock of offence.  They, therefore, stumble at the Word,.

my people ; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And            which is a proclamation of that stone. And to this stumbling

it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto    they are appointed, according to the apostle in verse 8 of the

them, Ye are not my people ; there shall they be called the        same chapter. They therefore hear the Word, but are never-

children of the living God."    We must call attention espe-       theless not called in the saving sense. And in distinction from

cially to two things that are very clear from this passage:        the reprobate, who stumble at the Word, the saints are

in the first place, that the calling of God concerns only the      a chosen generation, who are for that very reason called

vessels of mercy, that is, the elect both from the Jews and        out of darkness into God's marvellous light. In verse 21 of

from the Gentiles. Those, and those only, He calls by His          the same chapter the apostle refers to the purpose of their

efficacious calling. And, in the second place, this calling is     calling.    They are called in order that they might follow the

efficacious, is strictly a creative calling. For they were         example of Christ and walk in His steps, also and especially

not the people of God, but God cal!ed  them to be His people :     when they have to suffer for righteousness' sake. The same

and through this calling they become the people of God.            idea is repeated once more in I Peter 3 :9 : "Not rendering

Where it was said to them first, "Ye are not my people,"           evil for evil, or railing for railing : but contrariwise blessing ;
they are now called the children of the living God. The            knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit

efficacious calling of God is the cause of their becoming chil-    a blessing."    And once more, in chapter 5, verse 10, em-

dren of God. The same is clear from II Thessalonians 2:13,         phasis is laid, in the first place, on the fact that it is the

14: "But we are bound to give thanks alway  to God for you,        God of all grace Who called us, and, in the second place,.

brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the            upon the end and purpose of the calling, namely, eternal

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


glory. The same is true of II Peter 1:3 : "According as his          we understand correctly what is meant by this distinction

divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto         In the first place, it must be emphasized that this external

life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hat11          and internal calling may not be conceived as two callings,

called us to glory and virtue." And in the same epistle, 1 :lO,      the first of which is general and comes to all men, and the

the calling is once more inseparably connected with election         second particular and only to the elect. Thus the distinction

in the well-known words: "Wherefore the rather, brethren,            is frequently made, and with pernicious results. In that case

give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if        the external calling is simply the general proclamation of

ye do these things, ye shall never fall."                            the gospel to men. This external calling remains without

                                                                     effect in many that hear, although also to them it is supposed
        Thus the calling in the saving sense of the word is a
                                                                     to be a well-meaning offer of salvation and grace on the part
work of the God of our salvation, of the God of all grace, in
                                                                     of God. But in others that same external calling has the de-
Christ Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ,
                                                                     sired effect and bears the proper fruit through the operation
whereby He irresistibly and efficaciously translates the elect
                                                                     of the Holy Spirit. This, however, is not the intention of this
sinner from darkness into His marvellous light. It is not
                                                                     distinction. When we speak of the calling as a link in the
a work which takes place below our consciousness, or with-
                                                                     chain of salvation, and therefore of the calling in a saving
out our consciousness, in the very depth of our existence
                                                                     sense of the word, we never mean anything else than that
and in our deepest heart, as is the case with regeneration in
                                                                     work of grace, of the grace of the God of our salvation, where-
the narrowest sense of the word. On the contrary, although
                                                                     by the elect sinner is translated out of darkness into 
the very beginning of this work of grace is wrought by the                                                                      God's
                                                                     marvellous light and out of death into life everlasting. And
Holy Spirit in the depth of our heart, and therefore is hid
                                                                     this calling has two aspects, an external and an internal aspect.
from us, yet the calling as a whole certainly concerns and
                                                                     They are, as it were, related as form and contents, or as the
takes place in our consciousness. It is through this efficacious
                                                                     work and the means whereby this work is being wrought. But
calling that we receive ears to hear, eyes to see, and illu-
                                                                     nevertheless, together they form one whole. They are one
minated minds to perceive and understand the things which
                                                                     calling. Preferable, therefore, it is, instead of speaking of an
are of the Spirit of God. By this calling we receive the
                                                                     external and' internal calling, to say that the calling is both
proper view of the things of the kingdom of God. By this
                                                                     external and internal.    For also the external calling is the
calling we see and acknowledge our sin in a way in which
                                                                     work of God through the Spirit of Christ, as well as is the
we can never acknowledge and see our sin by nature. It
                                                                     internal calling. And only where both go together and co-
causes us to look upon the Christ in all His fulness, His
                                                                     operate, there is the calling of God whereby the sinner is
cross and resurrection and exaltation at the right hand of
                                                                     translated into God's marvellous light.
God, to perceive the power and glory of His grace, the

precious benefits of salvation, the fulness of His grace, of            The so-called external calling, or the calling in the es-
the forgiveness of sin, justification, enlightening of the mind,     ternal  sense of the word, is the Word of God as it comes to
wisdom, sanctification, and complete redemption, so that we
                                                                     us in human form and in human language. It is especially
long for Him and for the possession of all His benefits with         the calling as it comes to men in the preaching of the gospel.
all that is in us, so that we hunger and thirst after righteous-     It is the preaching of the Word of God as it is contained in
ness. By nature we may know many things about Him, with-             the Scriptures. The Scriptures, of course, are the infallible
out knowing, Him. But by virtue of this efficacious calling          record of the revelation of the God of our salvation. And
we learn to know Christ Himself, in all the riches of His            also this infallible record is from beginning- to end the Word
grace.      Besides, it is a calling through which we learn to       of God. We dare not speak of the Word of God in the
know with a spiritual knowledge the will of God concerning           Bible: for this would mean that not the whole of Scripture,
us and concerning the contents of our calling as the people          from beginning to end, is the divine Word of God, the only
of God's covenant in the midst of the world. It is a calling         and full revelation of the God of our salvation in Jesus
through which the light of eternal life shines upon our              Christ our Lord. If we turn in that direction, the result
pathway through this vale of tears, so that we look for the          will be that before long we have no Word of God at all
city that hath foundations. Hence, it is a calling out of            left, but only a human word, which, of course, has no
darkness into the marvellous light of God. It is a calling           significance whatsoever. And therefore we must emphasize
out of death, in which we lie by nature, into life and light         that the Scriptures, from beginning to end, are the infallible
eternal. It is a calling out of sin and misery into righteous-       record of the Word of God. That record of the Word of
ness and holiness and sanctification. It is a calling out -of the    God is not the work of men, but is the work of the Holy
lie into the truth, out of our alienation from God into the          Spirit. Sometimes it is said that there is a human and a
.communion  and fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our              divine factor in Scripture. And it is certainly true that the
Lord, and eternal glory.                                             revelation of God as we have it in the Bible came to us

        This calling is usually distinguished as external and in-    through men and also in the course of human history.

ternal calling.    This distinction may be maintained, provided                                                                 H.H.




   /
   /


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                    177


                                                                          The faithfulness of Jehovah to His covenant and to the
~/~A,CLOUD                    OF WITNESSES 11 promises given to the fathers had been established beyond
                                                                          dispute. Moreover, these blessings had come upon the nation

                                                                          as a whole. Every member of the nation had been delivered

                                                                          from the bondage of Pharaoh, had passed through the bosom
                         God's Glory                                      of the sea, had eaten the food and drank of the water which

                                                                          had been provided by God. The whole nation had from a
       And he (the Lord) said, I will vmzke  all my goodness              typical point of view been treated as the chosen people of
    pass before thee, md I will proclaim the name of the
    LORD before thee; and will  be gracious to whovx  I w-ill             God.
     be gracious, and zerill  slzcze~  IVUYC~  on wlzovvt  I will shew       Even while all of this was taking place, however, it was
    mercy . . . '                                                         becoming evident that actually there was a deep rift that

       And the LORD passed by before I&N, and proclaiuuted,               divided the camp into two different groups. On the one hand
     "The LORD, The L0R.D God, merciful  and gracious,                    there were  the true children of Israel who showed signs of
     bn.gs@ering and abundant in goodness  and truth.                     true spiritual life. Indeed, these too were. guilty of Israel's

       Keeping Yvtercy  for thousands, forgiting  iniquity and            sins. Many of them in fact had joined in the murmuring
     tfpansgre&on  and sin, and that will by no mearts clear              and complaining that arose every time the way became hard.
     the guilty; z&&g  the inziqztity  of the fathers upon the            Others merely stood silently by while these sins were taking
     children, nnd l@on  the childrevt's  children, unto the              place and had become thereby silent partners in the rebellion.
     third  and to the forth generation . . .           -
                                                                          All made themselves guilty before the sight of God. But
       An.d he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all                still, each time that God revealed Himself in mercy and in
     thy people I mill  do marvels, such as hve not been done             power, these children of Israel turned in repentance from
    in all the earth, nor in any nation: and a# the people
     among  a4&%  thou  art shall see the zwrk of the LORD:               what they had done and cried to Jehovah for forgiveness. It
    for if is a tewibte thhg that I will  do with thee.                   was the indisputable sign that in them there dwelt the

                                      Exodus 33 :19 ; 34:6, 7, 10         Spirit of God. But, on the other hand, there was another

                                                                          element in Israel of which this was not true. These were

   Israel had come to a terrible impasse in its history. At               hardened, .reprobate  men. They were the ones that were

Sinai the people had sinned a great sin which could not be                always looking for an `occasion to arouse the camp of Israel

forgotten and which even for the moment could not be passed               to murmur and chide. In turn when the power of God's

over. They had ascribed the glory of the eternal God to a                 grace was clearly revealed, these men were displeased and

graven image of gold, and had worshipped that image with                  fell into a sullen silence even while they were eating or

heathenish orgies of sin. They had provoked their God to                  drinking, `partaking typically of Jehovah's deliverance. Final-

anger. And, at the request of Moses, He had revealed His                  ly, it was these who in the very shadow of God's holy moun-

glory. The history of Israel would never again be the same.               tain went all out. They took occasion at the extended absence

   During the months gone by since Jehovah had visited                    of Moses to spread through the camp of Israel their miserable
                                                                          lies. They aroused the people to build the golden calf and to
them in the bondage of Egypt, they as a nation had tasted
                                                                          duplicate the wickedness of the heathen, causing one of the
abundantly of His goodness and grace.               It was not as
                                                                          most wretched chapters in the history of the church to be
though they deserved it, for the people had murmured and
rebelled from the start. Already after Moses had first ap-                written. While they were of Israel, they were not the true
                                                                          Israel. They could trace their generations back to the fathers,.
peared before Pharaoh with God's command to let Israel go,
                                                                          but they had none of the fathers' faith in the promises of
they had brought their objection, "The Lord look upon you,
                                                                          God. They were children of the flesh but not of the promise.
and judge ; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred

in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to                  But now, at Sinai, the cup of iniquity of. many of them

put a sword in their hands to slay us." Again after they                  was just about filled. In fact, three thousand of them, by

had been delivered from. Egypt by the working of the power                continuing their naked dancing in the face of Moses' repri-

of God in the plagues and by the visitation of the angel of               mand, had filled their cup of iniquity and were cut down by

judgment, .and were brought to the impasse of the Red Sea                 the Levites' swords. Previously God had endured these men

they complained because they had not been left alone to serve             with much longsuffering so that His love and faithfulness.

the Egyptians. Again at Marah, and in the wilderness of                   to the promise of the fathers might become clearly evident;

Sin, and at Rephidim,  they had murmured and rebelled. Still              but henceforth, after the sin at Sinai, He would be able to.

throughout Jehovah had been merciful to them in spite of                  endure them no more. The path of Israel hereafter would

their murmuring. He brought them out of Egypt with a                      be marked by judgment. This God made clear to Moses

high hand ; He gave them passage through the depths of the                when He revealed to him His glory.

sea ; He made the bitter water sweet, fed them with quails and               Before Jehovah revealed His glory to Moses, however,.

manna, and brought forth for them water out of the rock.                  He guided him carefully in his work as mediator and inter-

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


cessor  for Israel until several facts stood out clearly before      dren, unto the third and to the fourth generation." Before

his mind. The first fact was that if Moses would stand aside         this truth Moses bowed and worshipped.

and forsake Israel as their intercessor with the promiSe  upon           This was the work of God's sovereign counsel in the work

his lips, a type of Jesus Christ, the wrath of God's justice         of predestination. There were in Israel those to whom God

would destroy the nation in a moment (Ex. 32 :7-14). The             would be merciful and gracious for no other reason than that

second fact was that Moses being a mere man could not make           He in His sovereign good-pleasure had determined to be

atonement for the sin of Israel but that the sin of Israel would     merciful and gracious to them.. They were a sinful people

surely be visited in the day of visitation (Ex. 32 :iO-34). The      too; but God would reveal His grace and mercy to them by

third was that, if God would come again into the camp of             forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. And, God

Israel, He would come with a visitation of His justice and           said, He would do this without by any means clearing, or

peppI?:  would be consumed by His wrath (Ex. 33 :l-3). The           passing over as though they did not exist', the sins of those

fourth was that, if God did not dwell in the midst of the            who were guilty, anticipating thereby the day when He would

camp of Israel, they might go on to the land of Canaan and           reveal His mercy to His chosen by visiting the guilt of their

He would even lead them with His angel, but they would               sins upon His own Son. But, on the other hand, there were

not experience the richness of the covenant blessing for             others :in Israel whom God had not chosen in His sovereign

whidh the presence of God in their midst was needed (Ex.             good-pleasure unto mercy. The guilt of their sins God would

33 :12-17).  Slowly God led Moses through threatenings and           visit upon themselves, and their children, and their children's

promises until these facts all stood out very clearly before         children unto  the third and fourth generation after them.

Moses' mind. Finally, when all of this was clearly seen by           Through the early part of the wilderness, God had been long-

Moses, there was still only one conclusion to which Moses            suffeiing  with these for His elect's sake ; but He would be

could come, Israel needed the presence of God in the midst of        so no more. Henceforth the way of Israel would be marked

them. This was true regardless of what the consequences              with judgments of God upon the reprobate of Israel who

might be. This fact he laid before the Lord, and the Lord            would fill their cup of iniquity. The sovereignty of God

consented to comply.                                                 would cause a constant division in the camp as He would

       It was at this point that there burst forth from the lips     separate the children of the flesh from the elect children of
of Moses the astounding prayer, "I beseech thee, shew me             grace. This was the first implication of God's revelation of

thy glory."     This meant more than that Moses wished to            glory.

see a glorious vision of heavenly light. Moses was troubled             Moses must have seen the sorrow and hardship which the

by all that he had learned. He wished to understand the              sovereign judgments of God would bring into Israel's camp.

greatness of God whereby all that he had learned could be            Nonetheless in faithfulness, he had the grace to exclaim as he

maintained and the covenant of God with Israel stiil be kept.        worshipped, "If now I have found grace in thy sight, 0 Lord,
That was what he wanted to see.                                      let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked

       God in answer said, "I will make all my goodness pass         people ; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for
before thee, and I will proclaim the~name  of the LORD be-           thine inheritance." Nothing was more important to him than
fore thee ; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,         that Jehovah should go in their midst even if it must be unto
and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy." Indeed               the judgment and destruction of many. For that he would
there would be a limit beyond which Moses could  not go as           repeatedly make his prayer.

God said, "Thou canst  not see my face: for there shall no               There is a special beauty to God's answer, "Behold I
man see me, and live." Mere man can never come to under-             make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels,
stand the infinite God and His ways completely: but God              such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any "a-
would lead Moses into qew truths that were wonderful in              tion: and all the people among which thou art shall see the
themselves.                                                          work of the LORD : for it is a terrible thing that I will do

       The next day upon the mountain, God passed by in His          with thee." The visitations of God's justice would be terrible

glory while- Moses was kept hid in the clift of the rock. Af-        in the months and years to come, not only upon the nations

terward Moses was allowed to gaze upon the back part, the            of Canaan, but upon the reprobate of Israel itself. And yet

reflection of God's glory. There must have been some visible         this very work would be marvelous such as the world had

demonstration of the heavenly glory of God ; but that was            never seen. It anticipated the teaching of Isaiah, "Zion shall

only secondary, emphasizing and illustrating the Word which          be r&deemed with judgment, and her converts with righteous-

God spoke. For as the Lord passed by He spoke, "The                  ness. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the

LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering             sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD

and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for                shall be consumed" (Is. 1:27,  2s). By the judgments of

thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and         God Israel would henceforth be purged, and the true children

that will by no means clear the guilty ; visiting the iniquity of    of promise would be preserved. Thus alone could the cov-

the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's chil-         enant be eternally established.                          B.W.


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  179


                                                                      to the office of deacon in the church in distinction from the

11  F R O - M   H.OLY  W R I T   11 office of the elders and the ministers.
v            -            -            L            -            -       Since the term diakonus  means to wait or attend upon, to
                                                                      minister, to serve, the term can refer simply to that of a

                  Exposition of I Timothy                             servant of a master. Thus in Matthew 8 :15 we read :! `and

                                                                      when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's
                      (I Timothy 3 :8-13)                             mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand,

     We now come to our consideration of the qualifications           and the fever left her: and she arose and mihistered  unto

of those who are to be chosen in the church of the living             them" (she was a deaconess to them). Compare Mark 1:31.
God to serve as deacons.                                              It also refers to all of Christ's ministry on earth in the work

                                                                      of salvation. Thus we read in John 12:26: "If any man
     It sho.uld  be kept in mind that this office too belongs to
                                                                      store  me, let him follow me: and where I am there shall
the matters of the house of God ; how one ought to conduct
                                                                      also my servant be ; if any man se+rv~  me, him will my Father
the affairs of the church of the living God ; that which must
                                                                      honor." Here too we have the term diakonew to serve, and
be in accordance with the pillar and ground of the truth, the
                                                                      diakonos for servant. Compare further Philemon 13. Where-
mystery of godliness that is great.
                                                                      fore we read in Matthew 20 :28: "Even as the Son of Man
     Writes Paul in the verses 8-13 as follows: `Likewise             came not to be ~l&i.steved, diakoneetheenai,  unto, but to min-
must the deacons be grave, not dou,bletongzred,  not ghen to          ister, d&zkoneesai,  and to give his life a ransom for many."
wauch  wine, not greedy of filtlay  hue;  holding  the mystery  of    It should, therefore, not surprise us to find the term also
the faith  in a @ye  conscience. And let these .also  fimt be         applied t6 the ministry of angels and men. Thus in Matthew
proved; then let them use the oflice of a deacort  being found        4 :ll we read of the service which the angels gave Christ at
blastieless.  Even so must the wives be grave, not shnde;rers,        the end of the forty days of temptation and hunger, as fol-
sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons be the husbands        lows: "Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came
of one wiie,  ruling their children and their om houses well.         and ministered unto him" (kai dieekonoun autoi).  And
For they that have used the off&e of a deacon welt pztrc!zase         again we read in Matthew 25 :44 : "Then shall they also
to &.e$tiseZves  a good degree, an.d grea.t boldness  in the faith    answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered,
which is irt Christ Jesus I'                                          or athirst,  or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not min-

     Permit us now to call attention, first of all, to the nature     ister, dieekoneesa:men,  unto thee ?'

of the office of deacon itself.                                           Since the term diakonos is of such general and wide ap-

     When we look at the text we observe that Paul does not           plication in Scripture, referring to all the ministrations of
preface what he writes concerning the qualifications of those         Christ, men and angels (see I Corinthians 12 :5 - "differ-
who are to serve in this office with a statement concerning           ences of administration") the question most naturally arises :
the exalted nature of this office. One might be tempted to            why was this name chosen for the peculiar of&e of those
remark that this absence of such a reminder concerning the            who dispense the gifts of mercy, the deacons, in distinction
exalted nature of this office exists since all men are                from the office of elders and the minister? Is the term.
aware that the office of the ministry of mercy is by itself           "Minister" not fully as applicable to the deacon as it is to,
recognized to be such. However, we believe that the reason            the preacher  of the Gospel ? From an etymological point of
for not doing so is given us in the "likewise," Hoosazrtoos,  in      view it is. However, it should be borne in mind that the:
verse 8. This immediately puts both the office of deacon and          term LLdeacon'f  is a transliteration of the Greek diakonos
the qualifications of deacons on a par with the office of bishop      through the Latin d&mm.

(elder and minister) and its exacting qualifications. Thus               It seems to be a warranted inference that the name deacon,

Paul does, without falling into needless repetition, very             as referring to a special office in the church, is derived from

clearly indicate the exalted nature of the ofice  of a deacon.        the "daily ~&nistry"  of the tables in the time of the primitive

This is corroborated by what we read in verse 10: "And let            conditions in the post-Pentecostal period of the church, whe=

these also first be proved . . ."                                     men (believers) had all things in common. Hence, there was.

                                                                      a dhkonis  tee katheemerineei,  a daily ministry. And this.
     The name of this office is the diaconate.
                                                                      usage of the term, that of distributing the needs of life, the
     In the Greek the term is dia-kon,&  and refers to one            natural needs in the name of Christ and from His table, is.
"dusty from running," from diakoo  to run, to hasten ; prop-          that which indicates the special office in the church. It
erly, therefore, the term diakonos means : a runner, a mes-           is to this office that Paul refers in the text when he says : the
senger !                                                              deacons likewise- I Tim. 3 :S. It refers therefore to those

     When one turns to his Greek Lexicon to see the usage             who stand in the particular office of the ministry of mercy

of the term deacon, diakoRos,  in the New Testament he finds          in Christ's name. Perhaps we may say without fear of con-

that the term is not one with a strictly technical application        tradiction that the ofice of deacon is in many ways the office


180                                        T H E   S T A N D A R ' D   BEARER


of the merciful high-priesthood of Christ, in helping the             trine"`;  only it underscores and indicates that this doctrine is

poor in this world, who have too little of this world's goods;        only known by virtue of having been 1-evecrled.  Hence, it un-

who have need of bread, water and clothing. Thus, at least,           derscores that we believe without qualification the doctrines

the Church Order of Dort (Prot. Reformed) says in Article             as revealed by God, both as to the great redemptive acts of

25 : "The office peculiar to the Deacons is diligently to collect     God in Christ, as well as His will for our life of sanctification

alms and other contributions of charity . . . to visit and            in Christ, the working out of our salvation with fear and

comfort the distressed and to exercise care that the alms are         trembling !

not misused . . ."                                                       Now these doctrines we must not let go.

       This office of the Deacon is not inferior to that of the          We must cling to them, keep them as doctrines over-
elder and minister; it is a different ofice and not a lesser          against all error, and overagainst all who deny them. Be-
one. In some sense the office of the Deacon is dependent              sides, the deacons must also cling to the ethics of faith,
upon the proper teaching and instruction given in the office          Christian etliics in the full scope. However, ihere  are
of the Bishop, ministers and elders, just as the office of the        several particulars mentioned to which we will refer below.
priest must be exercised according to the prophetic word.             Only when all the commandments of God are kept, as the

       This too is suggested here in the text.                        application of the Mystery of faith, a walking in thankfulness,

       That the two offices,  elders and deacons, are on a par is     will there be a pure conscience!

indicated both, on the one hand, by the fact that we read:               Our conscience is not a faculty added to the intellect and

"Likewise must the deacons . . ." and "and let these a&o              the will ; it is rather a function ol the mind, of the nous. It

first be proved" as well as by the fact that many of .the  quali-     is that act of the mind and will whereby we make a moral

fications which are necessary in a bishop (elder) are equally         judgment concerning our own deeds, in the light of the

imperative in a deacon, such as : to be grave, not given to           Word of God, with God. When our conscience is "pure" it

much wine, the husband of one wife, able to rule one's                means that it is sanctified from the sense of guilt and pollu-

own house and children well. Both stand in the same human             tion by the blood and Spirit of Christ, and that, too, by

relations and both represent the same Christ, each in his             faith in Christ. Such a "holding" is an act of true faith.

own way, in the church of the living God.                                A deacon must, therefore, walk a very godly life in

       However, there are also different qualifications which are     general.

underscored in the case of those who are to be elected to                 He is to be grave, that is, he must command respect
the offices. In the case of the elders, as we have seen in            because of his godliness and reverence and awe before God
former articles, the emphasis fell upon the ability to && and         in all his walk.
tt?aclz;  here, in the case of the deacons, the emphasis falls            He will then not be doubletongued, that is, he will not
upon the matter of a pure conscience in the content, the              think one thing and say another. His inward being and life
mystery of faith. Since we do not desire to repeat unneces-           and what he speaks with others will be in perfect accord. He
sarily we refer the reader for the explanation of what was            has truth in the inward parts. When he speaks in Christ's
necessary in the deacon, which is also necessary in an elder,         name of the mercy of Christ and comforts the poor they will
to former articles in this series.                                    not be embarrassed.
       In this essay we shall limit ourselves to the matters which        He will love the poor, love God's kingdom ancl  the
are the peculiar qualifications of the Deacons.                       treasures in heaven.    The "unrighteous Mammon" coming
       We must, therefore, explain the implication what it means      through his hands will not be a means for filthy gain and
to "hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience."              self-advancement, but will be a manifestation of the love and

       It is our understanding that the term "faith" here refers      mercy of Christ. Thus he will make great spiritual advance-

to the object of our believing, what is believed. When we             ment himself and receive boldness in Christ Jesus. Truly

confess our faith we confess first of all the do&ne  of god-          the office of being a deacon has great rewards in this and

liness, the teaching of the Christian religion. Briefly the           in the future life for him who serves well in the office of a

apostle gives this in "Great is the mystery of godliness. God         Deacon !                                                      G.L.

is revealed in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels,

preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, taken              D,id _vot~  know, that the word "resolved" appears only once
up into glory."      That faith is here the objective content of      in the Holy Scriptures, and that upon the lips of the un-
the doctrine of godliness is evident from the fact that it must       just steward as he connived to live upon the fruits of bribes?
be "held." Such "holding" is the act of faith, the subjective         Therefore let us put away all our New Year resolutions,
faith, the believing.    Confer for the same construction Heb.        and remember every-new-day that we are obliged unto new
1023, holding fast the profession (content of doctrine) of            obedience, that we forsake the world, crucify our old nature,
,our  faith !                                                         and walk in a new and holy life. Because we have an eternal

       The "Mystery" of the faith is nothing less than the "doc-      covenant of grace with God.

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


                                                                    ever have a strike in a situation such as that presented above,

               I N   H I S   F E A R                                when the "boss" wishes his laborers ,the blessing of God,
                                                                    and the laborers wish their master the blessing of God?

                                                                    What a delightful condition and refreshing picture !

                     Christian Greetings                                0, to be sure, here again, at the season that has just gone
                                                                    by there is that formality that the employer does "feel good"

  The time for sending and receiving Christmas and New              around Christmas time and around New Year's Day and as
Year's greetings is now behind us. And again there was              he parts from his help, he says to them "Merry Christmas
much evidence of the fact that although this is called a            and a Happy New Year." And they in politeness, or caught
Christian nation there was very little Christian greeting in        up by some superficial "cheer" of the moment, respond with
all this Christmas card business. The Christ in Christmas           another "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." But
was not there. To be sure there were cards with pictures            on Jalluary  2 it is all worn off already and the cursing and
of shepherds and wise men, of stars and of mangers. There           ranting and conniiing  to get the better of each other begins
were even texts on the left side of the card or underneath          again.    Labor will strive to do as little as possible for as big
the greeting.                                                       wages as the moment will promise. And capital will bleed
                 But the greeting in quite an unchristian way
wished you a merry Christmas. There was little expression           out of labor every last ounce of "toil and tears" to get his
of a wish for a blessed Christmas.                                  "almighty dollar."     There is not so much Christianity in
                                                                    this nation as is claimed by some. And that is also why there
   And it is to be understood that the only thing that in-
                                                                    is so little Christian greeting. Yea, there is not as much
terests the world is merriment, laughter, gaiety and fun. But       Christianity even in the Church of Christ as is often claimed
in the Church of God we expect interest in the covenant             and as ought to be the case. There is not so much Christianity
blessings which God has promised His Church. And then               in Christians, in true, confessed, regenerated children of God
we have confidence that even though God is pleased to bring
                                                                    as there ought to be and we would like to see. There is not
pain and sickness, misery and bereavement to us and to
                                                                    so much Christianity in you and in me any more than in
those whom we wish a blessed New Year, our wish is still            countless thousands of others in the Church of God. And
granted.      For all things work together to bless those that
                                                                    consequently there is so little of this Christian greeting, as
fear God. We ought therefore to put aside all this speech
                                                                    depicted in the lives of Boaz and his reapers, in our lives.
of the world and no longer make use of it. We are different,
                                                                    We have but a small beginning of that new obedience. We
and we  ought to speak differently. It should be a blessed
                                                                    are, even as the Apostle Paul writes, in that wretched con-
Christmas and a blessed New Year that we wish the saints
                                                                    dition that the evil that we would not, that we do. And the
in Christ.
                                                                    good that we would, that we allow not.
   But that is not the full idea we have in mind with the              That is why when we part - 0, yes, you hear that so
caption above. We speak of these things because they are so         frequently in "Christian" circles-we wish each other good
recent and are still fresh in our minds. But there are these        luck! What an antichristian greeting that is ! For it denies
every day greetings between believer and believer that are          the Christ Whom God has placed over all things to rule them
far from Christian greetings. There is nothing Christian            and cause them to take place. Not luck decided our way
and nothing of Christ in them. Our "good-bye" is a con-             and future but God ; and He executes it all through Christ to
traction and we may say corruption of the old Quaker "God           Whom He has given the Book with the Seven Seals. When
be with ye"; but in it also there is nothing Christian at all.      we wish each other good luck, we are behaving as citizens of
And what is not Christian is antichristian. Jesus declared          the kingdom 6f the Antichrist and not of Christ's kingdom.
that he who is not with Him is against Him. Therefore what          In those moments we have no right to call ourselves Christian.
is not Christian is antichristian. In that light there is far       When a man in his parting greeting to you as you begin a
more antichristian spirit and activity in the world than we         journey cries out, "Good luck to you !" you have every
want to concede.                                                    right to answer him, `<Sir, you speak from out of the king-

   There is such a beautiful example of Christian greetings         dom of Antichrist. I care not for your wishes. Say unto me,

in the book of Ruth, when Boaz comes to meet his servants           `The Lord bless thee' or keep thy evil thoughts unto thyself."

as they work upon his fields. We read..  in Ruth 2 :4, "And,        0, but in this "Christian" nation would you not be branded

behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto them  reap-         as the most uncivil and narrow-minded creature on earth ?

ers, The Lord be with you. And they answered him, -The              Would not that man and al1 who heard you speak declare

Lord bless thee." What a beautiful relationship and what a          that you by all means were not a Christian ; and would not all

sanctified greeting! How different all this is from the mod-        these be highly insulted to learn that you did not consider

ern cursing of the employer by his employee ! How different         them to be Christians? Nevertheless it is absolutely true.

from the hate that union leaders seek to instill into the hearts    The Christian - and the child of God under the power of the

of labor over agjinst  capital. How in the world could you          Spirit of Christ-will never wish the ungodly world good

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


luck. He cannot wish that ungodly world God's blessing.             is only a wish, or at best a prayer. But that is not the point.
He cannot bless that &godly  world in God's name. But he            And it surely is, as Boaz` and his reapers express it, the-

surely will not wish that world "Good Luck" either. Nor             Lord Who must bless. But there are two things about such

will he from the principle of regeneration wish the child of        Christian greetings which we may keep in mind. First of all,

God luck of any kind. He will wish him God's blessing.              the love of God is in the heart of the saint; and when he

       0, if we could only get back to these things again!          meets a fellow saint, he surely loves that saint for Christ's-
    How clearly we have drifted away, how the spiritual con-        sake. He will not then have to force himself to express his
dition in the world has deteriorated!                               desire that God bless that saint with every spiritual blessing.
                                                                    The love of God never causes us to be selfish. It never causes.
       Spiritually the world is not ietting  better; and many of
                                                                    us to close up the bowels of mercy toward those who are
those fine points of Christian activity and life in the world
                                                                    fellow members in the one body of Christ. And therefore:
are gone to a very, very great extent. The spirit of the Anti-
                                                                    when we meet a saint or part from a saint, and we find no.
christ prevails and grows with leaps and bounds.
                                                                    desire to wish him God's blessing and grace, we may well
       But there are so many other ways of greeting that are
                                                                    ask ourselves whether it is because zere are not a saint. That
likewise to be labelled  as Antichristian greetings because they
                                                                    could be the case. It could be that we have liot  tasted that
are not Christian greetings. We repeat Jesus' words, "He
                                                                    blessing and do not know the wonder of it. If our attraction
that is not with me is against me." Luke 11 :23. Yea, Jesus
                                                                    and desire for the fellowship and wellbeing of tha unregen-
adds, and that makes it stronger, "He that gathereth not
                                                                    erated friends and companions that we have is richer and
with me scattereth."     Inactivity is also activity. Failure to
                                                                    stronger than it is for the saints, it may well be that this is.
serve His cause is to seek to destroy it. The Word of God
                                                                    due to the fact that we are one with the world and not
knows no neutrality. The Word of God knows only a Chris-
                                                                    one with Christ and His saints.
tian greeting and an Antichristian greeting.
                                                                        But in the second place, although our expression of a..
    As to the Christian greeting, consider from that Word
                                                                    desire that God bless the fellow saint will not cause that
of God the words of Paul in Philippians 4:21,  "Salute every
                                                                    blessing to come upon him, we do by that greeting express.
saint in Christ Jesus." And again in Romans 16:16,  "Salute
                                                                    our faith in this God of our salvation.           It is a spiritual.
one another with an holy kiss. The Churches of Christ salute
                                                                    exercise that faith produces. It is a part of our faith-life,.
you.`>    Likewise in I Thessalonians 5 :26, "Greet all the
                                                                    a work of the sanctified life. That is why Paul commands it
brethren with an holy kiss." That is what Boaz and his
                                                                    and does not simply suggest it. He does not say to the
reapers did. That is what you and I must do.
                                                                    Philippian "Consistory,"  "You salute the saints for vnz~."  Xo,
       But listen once as saints leave and saints meet!             he commands each and every saint to salute the other saint
    "Be seeing you." "So long." "Be good." "Bye now."               with an holy kiss, to greet him with God's blessing. It be-
"What do you know ?" "HOW'S things ?" "Well, well, well,            longs to our spiritual exercises and shows we are walking
who have we got here ?" "Where y' been keepen  yourself ?"          in His fear.
Does it not all evidence the fact that when we meet we meet                                                                        J.A.H-
as men and women and not as saints 7 Is it possible to meet

a fellow saint upon the street and see him as such a re-

deemed and sanctified child of God, and heir of the glory of                                  IN MEMORIAM

God in Christ, and then simply ask, "How's things ?' Salute            The Sr. Mr. and Mrs. Society of the First Protestant Reformed:
                                                                    Church expresses heartfelt sympathy to two of its members, Mr.
every saint as one who ti in Christ Jesus is what Paul means,       and Mrs. Cornelius Jonker, in the sudden death of Mr. Jonker's
as well as salute every saint who t in Christ Jesus.                brother,
                                                                                         MR. JAMES D. JONKER
    How much more spiritual then, when the seed of our
                                                                       "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were-
covenant leave our sphere and church life, to serve in one          dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands,
of the training camps of the land, to wish them God's blessing      eternal in the heavens." II Corinthians 5:~
and as we close our letters to sign them as saint to saint with                                       Rev. C. Hanko, President
                                                                                                      Mrs. Kenneth Bylsma, Secretary
Christian greetings of one sort or another. The world simply        Grand Rapids, Michigan

signs with a "sincerely yours" or a "Very truly yours." That
is to be expected. But is it not also to be expected that the                                 IN MEMORIAM

saint will sign with a "Fraternally yours in Christ," "Your            The Priscilla Society of the First Protestant Reformed Churclz
                                                                    hereby expresses our sincere sympathy with one of our members,.
brother (or sister) in Christ," "The grace of our Lord Jesus        Mrs. H. C. Hoeksema, in the sudden loss of her brother,

Christ be with you, " "Yours in the Lord," or some such                                       JAMES JONKER
Christian greeting ? Salute the saints as a saint!                     May she and also the other members of the family experience
                                                                    the comfort of the psalmist,    "Yea, though I walk through the
    Of course our greeting and our wish of God's blessing           valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with
upon the saints whom we meet, or from whom we part, is not          me; thy rod .and thy staff they comfort me." Ps. 23:4.
going to cause that blessing of God to rest upon them. It                                                The Priscilla Society,
                                                                                                             Mrs. Mary Koole, Secretary


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                183


                                                                     when they have received Jesus Christ the only Saviour, they

        Contending For The Faith                                     avoid sin, follow after righteousness, love the true God and
                                                                I    their neighbour, neither turn aside to the right or left, and
                                                                     crucify the flesh with the works thereof. But this is not to

                                                                     be understood, as if there did not remain in them great in-
          The Church and the Sacraments                              firmities; but they fight against them through the Spirit,

                                                                     all the days of their life, continually taking their refuge in
         THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                                 the blood, death, passion and obedience of our Lord Jesus

               VIEWS ON THE CHURCH                                   .Christ,  `in whom they have remission of sins, through faith
                                                                     in him.' As for the false church, she ascribes more power

                THE PROTESTANT VIEW                                  and authority to herself and her ordinances than to the Word

                                                                     of God, and will not submit herself to the yoke of Christ.

    Art. 28 of our Confession of Faith reads: "We believe,           Neither does she administer the sacraments as appointed by

since this holy congregation is an assembly of those who are         Christ in his Word, but adds to and takes from them, as she

 saved, and that out of it there is no salvation, that no person     thinks proper ; she relieth more upon men than upon Christ ;

of whatsoever state or condition he may be, ought to with-           and persecutes those, who live holily  according to the Word

 draw himself, to live in a separate state from it; but that all     of God, and rebuke her for her errors, covetousness, and

men are in duty bound to join and unite themselves with it;          idolatry. These two Churches are easily known and distin-

maintaining the unity of the Church ; submitting themselves          guished from each other."

to the doctrine and discipline thereof; bowing their necks              What, then, is the Catholic view of the Church ? Ac-
under the yoke of jesus  Christ; and as mutual members of            cording to Rome, the Church is simply a company of men
the same body, serving to the edification of the brethren,           externally bound together by the profession of the same
according to the talents God has given them. And that this           Christian faith, communion of the same sacraments, and
may be the more effectually observed, it is the duty of all          under the government of legitimate pastors, especially
believers, according to the Word of God, to separate them-           the pope. And, according to Rome, excluded from the
selves to this congregation, wheresoever God hath established        Church are all professed unbelievers, all who do not partake
it, even though the magistrates and edicts of princes were           of the sacraments, and all who do not recognize the pope.
against it, yea, though they should suffer death or any other        This is clearly set forth in what Rome published in the
corporal punishment. Therefore all those, who separate them-         Fourth Session of the holy Ecumenical Council of the Vati-
selves from the same, or do not join themselves to it, act           can, which we now quote : "The eternal Pastor and Bishop of
contrary to the ordinances of God." This is Art. 28, which           our souls, in order to continue for all time the life-giving
has for its title: THAT EVERY ONE IS BOUND TO                        work of his Redemption, determined to build up the holy
JOIN HIMSELF TO THE TRUE CHURCH.                                     Church, wherein, as in the house of the living God, all who

    Art. 29, speaking of the "Marks Of The True Church,              believe might be united in the bond of one faith and one

And Wherein She Differs From The False Church," reads                charity. Wherefore, before he entered into his glory, he

as follows : "We believe, that we ought diligently and circum-       prayed unto the Father, not for the Apostles only, but for

spectly to discern from the Word of God which is the true            those also who through their preaching should come to be-

Church, since all sects which are in the world assume to             lieve in him, that all might be one even as he the Son and

themselves the name of the Church. But we speak not here             the Father are one. As then he sent the Apostles whom VI

of hypocrites, who are mixed in the Church with the good,            had chosen to himself from the world, as he himself has

yet are not of the Church, though externally in it; but we           been sent by the Father: so he willed that there should ever

say that the body and communion of the true Church must be           be pastors and teachers in his Church to the end of the world.

distinguished from all sects, who call themselves the Church.        And in order that the Episcopate also might be one and

The marks, by which the true Church is known, are these:             undivided, and that by means of a closely united priesthood

if the pure doctrine of the gospel is preached therein; if she       the multitude of the faithful might be kept secure in the one-

maintains the pure administration of the sacraments as in-           ness of faith and communion, he set blessed Peter over the

stituted by Christ ; if church discipline is exercised in punish-    rest of the Apostles, and fixed in him the abiding principle

ing of sin: in short, if all things are managed according to         of this twofold unity, and its visible foundation, in the

the pure Word of God, all things contrary thereto rejected,          strength of which the everlasting temple should arise, and

and Jesus Christ acknowledged as the only Head of the                the Church in the firmness of that faith should lift her

Church. Hereby the true Church may certainly be known,               majestic front to Heaven. And seeing that the gates of hell,

from which no man has a right to separate himself. With              with daily increase of hatred, are gathering their strength

respect to those, who are members of the Church, they may            on every side to upheave  the foundation laid by God's own

 be known by the marks of Christians : namely, by faith ; and        hand, and so, if that might be, to overthrow the Church: WC;

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


therefore, for the preservation, safe-keeping, and increase of        the Spirit, all the days of their life, continually taking their

the Catholic flock, with the approval of the sacred Council,          `refuge in the blood, death, passion and obedience of our Lord

do judge it to be necessary to propose to the belief and ac-          Jesus Christ, in whom they have remission of sins, through

ceptance of all the faithful, in accordance with the ancient          faith in him." From these articles of our Reformed Confes-

and constant faith of the universal Church, the doctrine              sions it is plain that the Protestant view of the Church, in

touching the institution, perpetuity, and nature of the sacred        the first place, is that the Church is the elect Body of our

Apostolic Primacy, in which is found the strength and                 Lord Jesus Christ, consisting of all those chosen by God

solidity of the entire Church, and at the same time to pro-           from before the foundation of the world, and gathered by

scribe' and condemn the contrary errors, so hurtful .to thee'         the eternal Son of God, by His Spirit and Word, out of all

flock of Christ."                                                     nations and peoples and lands and tongues.

   The Protestant view of the Church is quite different.                  This view of the Church is also supported by other
According to this view the Church consists essentially of the         Protestant Confessions. The Second Helvetic  Confession, in
fellowship of all who are united by the bands  of true faith.         Chapter 17, which we quoted in its entirety, declares the
To the Church belong all the elect, of the past, of the present,      following : "Forasmuch as God from the beginning would
and of the future. The true Church on earth is invisible in           have men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the
as far as it is a spiritual fellowship. But it becomes manifest       truth (I Tim. 2 :4), therefore it is necessary that there al-
as the Church visible where the Word of God is purely                 ways should have been, and should be at this day, and to the
preached, the sacraments are rightly and properly admin-              end of the world, a church -that is, a company of the faith-
istered, and Christian discipline is maintained. All the be-          ful called and gathered out of the world ; a communion, I
lievers are priests and not only the separate class of the clergy.    say, of all saints, that is, of them who truly know and iightly
Nevertheless, the Church functions through its duly ordained          worship and serve the true God, and Jesus Christ the Savior,
officebearers in the ministry of the Word, the administration         by the Word of the Holy Spirit, and who by faith are par-
of the sacraments, and the exercise of Christian discipline.          takers of all those good graces which are freely offered
                                                                      through Christ. These all are citizens of one and the same

    First of all, then, we would set forth the truth that the         city, living under one Lord, under the same laws, and in the

Church, according to the Protestant view, is the elect Body           same fellowship of all good things; and the apostle calls

of our Lord Jesus Christ, the gathering of all the elect out          them `fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of

of every nation, land, people and tongue. This is surely set          God' (Eph. 2 :19)  ; terming the faithful upon the earth saints

forth in our Confessions, in the Heidelberg Catechism and             (I Cor. 4 :l), who are sanctified by the blood of the Son of

also in the Thirty-Seven Articles of our Confession of Faith.         God. Of these is that article of our creed wholly to be under-

In Answer 54 of the Heidelberg Catechism we read that the             stood, `I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion

"holy catholic church" is "a church chosen to everlasting life,       of saints.' And, seeing that there is always but one God, and

agreeing in true faith."    It is also for this reason that the       one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ

Church, according to our Confessions, is an object of faith.          (I Tim. 2 5) ; also, one shepherd of the whole flock, one

We believe in a holy catholic church. Only faith can take hold        head of this body, and, to conclude, one Spirit, one salvation,

of this confession. The Church cannot possibly be seen ; as           one faith, one testament, one covenant, it follows necessarily

far as its essential reality is concerned, can be an object of        that there is but one church, which we therefore call catholic

faith alone. To this we will return in due time. And this             because it is universal, spread abroad through all the parts

same truth is also held before us in our Confession of Faith.         and quarters of the world, and reaches unto all times, and is

This is surely set forth in Article 27 where we-are told that         not limited within the compass either of time or place."

the Church is a holy congregation of true Christian be-                  And the Westminster Confession has the following to say
lievers ; that it hath been from the beginning of the world           about the church, in Chapter XXV, 1 and 2 : "The catholic
and will be to the end thereof; and also that it is not con-          or universal church, which is invisible, consists of the whole
fined, bound, or limited to a certain place or to certain per-        number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered
sons, but is spread and dispersed over the whole world. And           into one, under Christ the head thereof, and is the spouse,
in Art. 29 the members of the Church are identified as fol-           the body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. The visible
lows: "With respect to those, who are members of the                  church, which is also catholic or universal under the gospel
Church, they may be known by the marks of Christians:                 (not confined to one nation as before under the law) con-
namely, by faith ; and when they have received Jesus Christ           sists of all those, throughout the world, that profess the true
the only Savior, they avoid sin, follow after righteousness,          religion, and of their children; and is the kingdom of the
love the true God and their neighbor, neither turn aside to           Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of
the right or left, and crucify the flesh with the works thereof.      which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation."
But this is not to be understood, as if there did not remain

in them great infirmities ; but they fight against them through                                                                   H.V.


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               185


                                                                         Hence, on the one hand, God revealed Himself at many
11 The Voice of Our Fathers II occasions and to many persons and in many different ways,
                                                                     and thus made known Himself, His thoughts, His will, His

                                                                     counsel, His promise to His people. He spoke directly, as to
                 The Belgic  Confession                              Adam, Cain, Noah, Abraham, Rebekah, Moses, Balaam. Or

                                                                     God revealed Himself by the Angel of Jehovah, as to Israel.
                   ARTICLE III (continued)                           Or the Lord made known His Word by the mediation of

                                                                     angels, as to Mary and to the shepherds. He made Himself

    We may notice that in the present article our Confession         known by means of visions, and dreams and trances, as to
simply speaks of "this Word of God," without further defin-          Pharaoh, Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar, Peter, John. He revealed
ing and describing what Word of God is meant. The Confes-            Himself by signs and wonders to prophets and apostles. And
sion refers, of course, to the Bible, with its thirty-nine books     God made Himself known, above all, directly in and through
of the Old Testament and its twenty-seven books of the New.          Christ, the Word made flesh, Who is the center of all revela-
For the time being, this article simply assumes this, in order       tion. But always, whatever the mode of revelation, it was
in the next article to specify which are the canonical books.        distinctively God revealing Himself; and the recipients of
And, of course, it is also evident that the Confession is            that revelation were clearly conscious of this. On the other
referring to the w&ten  Word of God. The latter part of              hand, God also inspired certain men to speak His Word and
the article refers to this fact more in detail. And a bit later      to transmit His revelation orally to other men. And, further,
we shall give our attention to this truth of graphic inspiration.    He also caused certain men to write down His revelations.
But for the present we merely call attention to the fact that        And out of the mass of God's revelatory speech and deeds
the article is speaking of the written Word of God, the Bible,       certain of them, by an operation of the Spirit, have been
the Holy Scriptures. For here we meet with the first implied         written down by holy men and preserved. And these writings
distinction, and that too, a rather important distinction.           are referred to in the present article of our Confession as
    The first element of truth involved here is that Scripture       "this Word of God."

and revelation are not co-extensive in the sense that all of            In the second place, however, we must not separate rev-
God's revelation, or rather, all God's revelatory speech and         elation and inspiration any more than we must confuse them.
actions, are recorded in Holy Scripture and in the sense that        In that case the Bible is nothing more than a fallible, human
revelation always implies inspiration. We must not identify          documentation of God's Word. We must not merely say
revelation and inspiration. Inspiration always implies revela-       that the Word of God is & the Bible. Then God and man
tion ; but revelation does not always imply inspiration. Rev-        speak to us from its pages. Then it becomes necessary for
elation means that God makes Himself known to the creature.          him who reads the Scriptures to determine what is the Word
Inspiration includes not only God's making Himself known             of God and what is the word of man. Then it is dependent
to a man, but it means that God also causes that man, by an          upon our choice to determine how much of Scripture is actu-
operation of the Holy Spirit, to speak or to write that which        ally the Word of God. And then there is no Word of God
He has made known concerning Himself. Thus, for example,             left to us. On the contrary, the Bible is, the written Word
God made Himseif  known to Adam and Eve ; but He did                 of God, purely and entirely. There is no other word in the
not cause Adam and Eve to write His Word. That which                 Bible than the Word of God. There is no human admixture
He made known to Adam and Eve concerning Himself and                 in it. Our Confession speaks of "this Word of God."
His work He caused Moses to write. He spoke to Cain, but

He did not inspire Cain to speak or to write His Word.                  In the third place, the Word of God is one, an organic

Thus, too, we may bear in mind that all that God revealed            whole. This is not the place to elaborate on the completeness

is not recorded in the Scriptures. The apostles were un-             and the sufficiency of Scripture: our creed speaks elsewhere

doubtedly inspired to speak much more than what is recorded          of this. But we may nevertheless call attention at this point

of their inspired speech in the book of Acts. And our Lord           to the organic unity of Scripture. There are not many Words

Jesus Christ spoke and did much more than what is actually           of God, but one Word of God. And that one Word of God

written down in the four gospel narratives. Thus we read in          grew organically. It is the one Word of the God of our

John `0 :30, 31 : "And many other signs truly did Jesus in           salvation which He makes known to His people in all ages.

the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this         Its sole content is Christ. And always, long before the canon'

book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus        was complete, that Word has been the same. But that one

is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing ye might have     Word had a history. It was progressively revealed and

life through his name." And again, John 21 25 : "And there           recorded as the ages of revelation moved toward the fulness

are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they       of time. And in the fulness of time that Word was most

should be written every one, I suppose that even the world           fully and clearly revealed, and the record of that Word was

itself would not contain the books that should be written."          completed. God's Word is not like a puzzle which you cannot

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

figure out until you have all the pieces properly fitted to-          `&a special care, which he has for us and our salvation." But
gether. It is like a tree, which develops and grows to matur-         that truth is essentially very simple. And it is absolute. It
ity until finally you behold it in all its beauty and grandeur.       is negatively expressed in the very simple proposition, "This
The same Word revealed in paradise is finally fully and most          Word of God was not sent, nor delivered by the will of
clearly revealed in the fulness  of time. It is "this Word of         man." When you consider this statement, you would almost
God," revealed, caused to be written down, and preserved              exclaim, "Of course not: how could God's Word be sent or
for His people of all ages.                                           delivered by man's will ?" Is the statement not the essence
   The above is quite in harmony with the testimony of                of simplicity? And is it not clearly reasonable ? God's Word
Scripture itself. The apostle Paul, writing to Timothy, says,         is God's Word, not mans.  And if it is to be God's Word,
II Timothy 3 :16, "`All scripture is given by inspiration of          it cannot possibly be sent or delivered by the will of man:
God," speaking in the singular.        There is- and was in           it must be by the will of God. If it originates with man and
Timothy's time -not merely a certain accepted set of writ-            is sent and delivered by man's will, then it is no more the
ings without any unity and relationship. We do not merely             Word of God.

have a collection of historical, prophetical, and epistolary             And thus our Confession, following the Scripture, denies

books. But we have one Scripture, an organic whole. All               completely the so-called human factor in Scripture as far as

the books of that one Bible together produce and record one           the origin and nature of the Scriptures are concerned.

message from one source about one subject to one addressee.              Notice that our creed here makes a partial quotation from
And in the passage from which our Confession quotes, I                II Peter 1. It is interesting to note the connection of this
Peter 1 :19-Z, the apostle Peter is writing concerning this           quotation. The apostle, aware that he must shortly put off
same collection of sacred writings, not merely about the              his earthly tabernacle, is concerned in this epistle with put-
spoken word. For he states: "No prophecy of the scvipture             ting the saints in remembrance of the exceeding great and
is of any private interpretation." But again, it is not his           precious promises of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,
purpose to single out certain prophetical books or prophetical        so that after he is gone, they may "have these things always.
statements. On the contrary, he views the whole of Scripture          in remembrance."    It is in this connection that he makes the
from the viewpoint of its being prophecy. For he writes in            point that what he and the rest of the apostles preach and
verse 19: "We have also a more sure word of prophecy." It             write is true. And the truth of their words extends even to,
is therefore exactly his point that God makes known to His            the gospel of the power and coming of our exalted Lord
people one Word of prophecy throughout the ages. That                 Jesus. "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables,
Word is always the same, whether published through Moses,             when we made known unto you the power and coming of
through Isaiah, through the evangelists, or in the preaching          our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty."'
and writing of the apostles. The seed of that prophecy you            In proof of this last statement he refers to the transfigura-
have in the protevangel of Genesis 3 :15. That word of                tion of Jesus, which Peter and James and John witnessed:
prophecy is progressively revealed and grows throughout the           "For he received from God the Father honour and glory,
old dispensation.    It is centrally fulfilled in the first advent    when there came such a voice to him from the excellent
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is continued and expounded in            glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
the speech and writings of the apostles. That word of proph-          And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we
ecy has one central theme: the power and coming of our                were with him in the holy mount." II Peter 1 :16-l%  It is in
Lord Jesus Christ-His power to overcome sin and death,                this connection that he speaks of the'more  sure Word of
and His coming for our deliverance and for the realization of         prophecy and makes his point concerning the divine origin
His everlasting kingdom of glory. That one Word always                of that Word, as follows, vss. 19-21: "We have also a
was and i.s still today the light that shineth in a dark place.       more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye
Hence, while you may distinguish many and various proph-              take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until
ecies of the Scripture, yet there is but one Word of God, one         the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Know-
Scripture, one more sure Word of prophecy.                            ing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any

                                                                      private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old
Not By the ?Till  of Man                                              time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they

   Our Confession concerns itself, first of all, in this artic1.e     were moved by the Holy Ghost." It is to the latter part of
with the origin  of this Word of God. How did it come into            this quotation that our Confession refers in the present article.

existence 7 Who is its author ? Whose Word is it indeed ?                The question is: what does the apostle mean when he-

   And we may notice that the truth here is, as always, very          states that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private

simple. 0, it is deep and mysterious; and it is rich, so that         interpretation ? Does he simply mean to set down a rule of

you may delve into it and always with new amazement dis-              exegesis, a rule for the interpretation of Scripture ? Or does.

cover new and beautiful facets of that truth, and so that you         he mean to state something about prophecy itself and about

may always say with renewed emphasis that God acted from              the origin of Scripture-prophecy?                        H.C.H-


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   137


                                                                    well. As the writers see it, positive and official sanction of a

11 DECEN.CY  a n d   O R D E R   11 segregated group of hymns voicing all the teachings of the
                                                                    Bible is the only solution which will afford lasting satisfac-

                                                                    tion. I think that we will all agree hymns are here to stay.

                                                                    I think we'll also agree that the use of hymns based on and
                 THEHYMNMATTER
                                                                    in agreement with the Word of God is not condemnable.

                                                                    Therefore, let us exert our energies to assemble a group of

                                                                    hymns which can pass the test of Scripture and also avert

   The matter of hymns and the various questions relating           the threatening danger of singing hymns which teach things

to the feasibility of introducing them in the worship services      contrary to the Scripture" (S.B. Vol. 8, p. 358).

of our churches, as is currently being considered, is nothing          Thus the writers expressed themselves in 1932, giving
new, Although the question of revising Article 69 of the            strong evidence of a desire for hymns in our churches already
Church Order has not been proposed before in our ecclesias-         at that early date. Will this clamor be satisfied thirty years
tical assemblies, the subject of hymns has been freely dis-         later when our Synod is called to resolve the hymn question?
cussed and the desire to have them openly expressed. As             We hope not! If, however, this happens it will be because
soon as seven and eight years after the origin of our               of a shift in leadership in our churches. Thirty years ago,
churches (this was during the time that the Christian Re-           our esteemed Rev. Ophoff countered the reasonings quoted
formed Church adopted the hymnal for use in said church)            above and wrote in the same volume of The StapLdard  Bea:rer,
voices were heard through our Standard Bearw expressing             "In two articles appearing in this magazine, I (Rev. Ophoff)
sentiments such as these:                                           have also voiced my view respecting the matter of the in-

   "The fundamental cause for the natural change (i.e.,             troduction of hymns in our public worship. In these articles
hymns taking the place of the psalms historically) seems to         I took the stand that such a step would be sure to prove
be that we are living in a new dispensation. As we all .know        fatal" (Vol. S, S.B., p. 307).

the Old Testament times constituted a period of shadows.               Even at this time Rev. Ophoff did not argue that the

So in the New Testament time we have the reality, namely,           singing of hymns is principally wrong, that all hymns are

Jesus Christ. The psalms, it might be said, centered in praise      heretical and that the sole consideration involved in the ques-

to God, while in the new dispensation the church centers its        tion of introducing or not introducing hymns into the public

praise to Christ, who is the Saviour and Redeemer of it"            worship is whether or not hymns can be found that are

(S.B. Vol. 8, p. 282).                                              Scripturally sound. It is unfair to place him, as well as

   "It has fallen to our lot to consider the main objections        those today who oppose this thing, in a ludicrous position by
that are raised against the singing of hymns. We will at-           ascribing such conclusions to their argumentation. Yet this
                                                                    is done for if you are against the introduction of hymns you
tempt to show that some of these objections partake of a
                                                                    are challenged to prove that hymn singing is principally
more or less imaginary light" (S.B. Vol. 8, p. 302).
                                                                    wrong ; you are accused of being inconsistent because it is
   "We  are convinced that any attempt to solve this ques-          falsely alleged that you must think all hymns are wrong and
tion negatively, that is, by suppressing and discouraging the       yet you permit them in the home and school and so your
use of hymns, is for reasons aforementioned, doomed to              whole argument is made to appear fallacious. This method
failure with the passing of time, with the added danger             of attempting to silence opposition is wrong on several
that, when the change does come, the reaction may be so             counts. First it rests on the unproven assumption that if it
great that the pendulum of thought swings to the opposite           is principally correct to sing hymns in worship and if the
side of the clock, and our Psalter, as we have it today, be dis-    hymns as to their content are Scripturally sound, it follows
carded altogether, a situation which would be equally as            that the church must accept them. Secondly, it incorrectly
undesirable as the one now existing" (S.B. Vol. 8, p. 330).         concludes that the only legitimate objection that may be

   "It is the purpose of this essay to present a few positive       raised against this innovation is that which is directed against

reasons why we believe the sanctioned use of hymns is both          the principle involved. And finally, it seemingly ignores the

desirable and an urgent necessity. Regarding this matter we         Scriptural truth set forth in I Corinthians 6:12  and 10:23,

would call your attention in particular to two things, dis-         "All things are lawful for me but all things are not ex-

cussing first the proposition that our Psalter does not ade-        pedient : all things are lawful for me but all things edify not."

quately meet the needs of our church and following with a           If it be granted that there is no violation of principle in

discussion of the attitude of Scripture toward the use of           introducing hymns in worship, does this mean that to do so

hymns . . . . In conclusion we would like to say that to the        is expedient and edifying for the church? We think not and

writers of this series of essays this question concerning the       would at this time point this out only from the hktovical

singing of hymns is a question which is not only worthy of          point of view. We do not mean by this that there is validity

serious consideration, but of immediate consideration as            in the old argument that to introduce hymns in the church is


                                                          7.
188 i                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

to usher in heresy and that all churches that began to use            Grounds : (1) In its present form, Article 69 has lost all

hymns have because of this become apostate! This has                  significance for us since : (a) The article limits use of singing

nothing to do with the point in question. Our position here           to the Dutch Psalm book which is not used in our English

is that the church historically has not enriched itself by            worship services. (b) Many of the hymns referred to are

adding hymns in its worship but rather has lost a glorious            not available to us in the English language, as : The Twelve

heritage of the Psalms in making such a substitution. Will            Articles of Faith, the Morriing  and Evening hymns and

it be disputed that there is general ignorance of the Psalms          Hymn before the sermon.

in the churches that have introduced hymns ? Apart from the              "(2) The present form of Article 69 provides for use of

question of whether it is right or wrong in principle, is it          hymns and the revised form proposed likewise provides for

expedient that we follow this course ? We rue the day this            their use upon approval by synod.

would happen.                                                            " (3) Other churches as : The Reformed Church of the

    But the argument of Rev. Ophoff in the writing we                 Netherlands and the Christian Reformed Churches of Amer-

referred to before is cogent: Writes he: "What was my                 ica, have already made revisions of the Article.

.argtiment?  This: . . . the. versified scripture is a far less         " (4) To hold respect and abeyance,  a Church Order should

formidable instrument for the easy conveyance of false,               be meaningful, workable and recognize actual circumstances

pernicious doctrine into the church than the free song. The           and conditions.

free hymn, in distinction from the versified scripture, is fixed         " (5) It is impossible, in our English worship services, to

to no particular text or series of texts. For this reason the         apply and obey Article 69 in its present form.

free song, more than the versified scripture, can be used as            "We trust that the above request will receive your prayer-

an instrument for the conveyance of pernicious doctrine into          ful consideration and we thereby hope it may receive your

the church" (S.B., Vol. 8, p. 307).                                   favorable adoption."

    Some might say that this argument does not apply to the               This overture was treated by the Classis.  In effect the
present problem because synod is not considering at present           decision of the classis  came down to this that they sent the
the introduction of hymns but only "versiiications of Scrip-          overture to synod without approval and also decided to
ture."    This we may grant for the present although we               furnish synod with a copy of all the material involved in the
purpose to say more about this later. At present we want              treatment of this matter. This material may be found in the
to point out that even though the synod, in dealing with this         Acts of 1959 and provides interesting reading for those who
question for the past three years, has shifted from hymns             are desirous to learn the feeling of the consistories in Classis
t o   "versifications,"    the original overture was for jzytitns.    East on the hymn matter. We do not say that this reflects
Treating this whole matter in the proper historical sequence          the feeling of each church. That may or may not be the case
we cannot escape the fact that we are confronted with the             but certainly since these decisions of the consistories have
"hymn matter."                                                        been made public, it would appear to be the calling of the
    This is another reason we are opposed to                          members to voice objection and protest if they dissent in the
                                                 the present
maneuver to change Article 69 of the Chusch Order. We do              decision of their consistory.
not approve of the manner in which this matter is being                   Next time, D.V., we purpose to reflect upon this overture
decided. We will offer our criticism as we consider the               of the First Church and the treatment given to it in the
various decisions that have been made to date and at the              various ecclesiastical assemblies.                           G.V.d.B.

same time bring before our readers the material that is per-
tinent. Most of the latter, however, we will have to find                                       IN MEMORIAM
                                                                         The Board of the Association for Christian Education wishes to
in the Acts of Synod since it is too lengthy to reproduce             hereby express its sincere and heartfelt sympathy to Mr. C. Jonker,
here. The original overture of the First Church that came             President of our Board, and to Mrs. H. C. Hoeksema, one of our
                                                                      teachers, in the recent loss of their brother,
to the 1959 Synod is to be noted. The consistory of First
                                                                                              MR. JAMES JONKER
Church addressed Classis East in January, 1959, as follows:
                                                                         May the Lord of heaven and earth give them grace that they
    "The consistory of the First Protestant Reformed Church           may know that in these difficult ways His grace is sufficient  unto all
of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in recognition of the common               their needs and they may be able to cast their burdens upon Him.
                                                                                                            H. Schipper,  Vice President
use of hymns by our people and the often expressed desire                                                   R. H. Teitsma, Secretary
for their ,use in our church services, appeal to your body to
consider the matter and adopt measures enabling their use in                                    IN MEMORIAM

our churches.       Furthermore, in recognition of the present           The Martha Ladies' Aid Society of the Hull Protestant Reformed
                                                                      Church wishes to express its sincere sympathy to one
character of Art. 69 of the Protestant Reformed Church                                                                           of our mem-
                                                                      bers, Mrs. Peter Hoekstra, in the death of her brother,
Order we herewith overture Synod the Article be revised to                                  MR. HENRY DE BOER
read :                                                                   "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
    "In our church services only the 150 Psalms and any                                                                            Ps. 116:15
hymns as approved and adopted by the synod shall be sung.'                                                  Rev. J. Kortering, President
                                                                                                            Mrs. R. Brummel, Secretary


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   189


                                                                     was not himself a. Christian King. There were, seventy years

                                                                     after the Reformation in England, strong conflicts and ten-

                                                                    sions between the "high church" people or the Anglicans and

                                                                     the Puritans who were pressing strongly for drastic reform in

                                                                     the church.        James had invited representatives from both

     Since the King James Version of the Bible appeared in           branches of the church to a conference in the thousand room
 lGl1  there have been all kinds of new translations that were       Hampton Court Palace. When the meeting turned to angry
 intended to be an improvement of the ancient and beloved            wranglings and mutual incriminations, James ordered the

 King James Version. RiIost  recently there appeared the New         two branches of the Reformation Church to cooperate in a
 English Bible, a fresh translation of the New Testament by          Bible translation.
 British scholars who have already worked on the project                Various motives have been ascribed to James. Some think

 thirteen years, and who will need at least another year to          that he merely wanted the fighting factions of the church to
complete the Old Testament.      A first-year sale of over one       cooperate in one venture ; others think that he was moved by
million copies is anticipated in the United States alone.            some scholarly interest since he was himself a very brilliant

 But this translation is only the latest of a long list of other     student and had translated the Psalms into meter earlier in

translations that have appeared throughout the years.               life ; still others speculate that he was angry with the Genevan

    In 1729 a Presbyterian minister published a New Testa-          Bible then in use because it contained marginal notes ques-
ment translation which changed Paul's "tempestuous wind"            tioning the divine right of kings.

to `ra hard gale at northeast." In 1786 an English scholar              The king showed very little interest in the work of the

 translated the Bible changing the petition in the Lord's           translators, never spending a farthing  of his own money and

Prayer "lead us not into temptation" to "suffer no tempta-          in fact living to the full the soul-destroying life of the court.

tion to assault us too powerful for thk frailty of our natures      While the translators struggled with their work, he enjoyed

and the imperfections of our virtues." In the nineteenth cen-       the horse racing, cockfights, plays performed by Shake-
tury five different translations appeared, one of which was         spearean actors and obscene masques that were so common
by Noah Webster of dictionary fame. These Bibles were               to the nobility.

used a short time but soon passed into oblivion. In 1870                A strange group of men cooperated in this venture. There

there also appeared a Revised Version of the. Bible, backed by      were fifty-four chosen including college professors, preachers,

many denominations, the fruit of an interdenominational com-        deans, bishops. Most were in their forties or fifties although

mittee of 65 translators appointed by the Church of England.        the oldest was 73 and the youngest 27. Most were unmarried,

This Bible `took 26 years to prepare and the translators made       but one had 11 children and very little to feed them. Several

use of manuscripts and archeological findings unknown to            were independently wealthy ; others could barely survive on

the translators of the King James Version. It was a sensa-          the stipend they received. One was provost of Eton and had

tion at its appearance. It sold up to two million copies in         tutored Queen Elizabeth in Greek. Another had been chap-

the first four days of sale. Two Chicago newspapers had the         lain to the Queen. He -was a learned man of skill and dignity

full text of 181,258 words cabled from London for publication       who had mastered 15 languages. One of the Cambridge

in special supplements. This translation, while still in use        scholars wrote notes in Latin, another in Greek. One was ill

here and there, has failed also to win people away from the         of tuberculosis, but worked from his bed to the very end.

King James Version throughout the years. Since this pub-            Another was a poet. Another a drunkard.

lication there have also appeared the American Standard                These men were divided into six panels two of which

Version published in 1901, the Revised Standard Version             worked in Oxford, two in Cambridge and two in West-

which appeared in 1952 and the latest New English Bible.            minster. Each panel was assigned a portion of the Bible,

Especially the Revised Standard Version has enjoyed wide            and each member of each panel a smaller section to translate.

sales. Through expensive promotional campaigns and heavy            The men used translations in Chaldean, Latin, Spanish,

advertising, the public was persuaded to buy' over nine mil-        French, Italian, and Dutch besides the earlier English trans-

lion copies. But at its peak the King  James Version has still      lations of which there were perhaps six - one of them being

outsold this version by four to one. The King James Version         the famous first English translation of William Tyndale.

remains the best-loved of them all.                                 They translated however directly from the Hebrew and

   In a recent Reader's U@est  article, from which .these           Greek, making use of the best manuscripts then available.

iigures are taken, a brief history of the King James Version           The final product of the individual translators was read

is given. "How it came into being, supplanted other English         to their panel while the rest of the members would criticize

Bibles, outlasted every other translation, and continues to         and suggest changes as they followed the original manuscripts

this day to outsell the newer and more scholarly versions is        and the other translations. If there was sharp disagreement

a story researchers have unearthed in bits and pieces."             on any word or phrase, the matter was settled by vote.

   It seems that Ring James who ordered the translation                When the panels were finished with their work-after

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


four years-the copy was reviewed by a board of six men             literally from all over the world, the council came to some

selected from each of the panels. These men met daily for          important decisions that will affect the Protestant Churdhes

nine months while they hammered out one translation of             for years to come.

equal accuracy, similar style and one flowing beauty. Before           1) The WCC decided to accept the application for mem-

the translation went to press, a final editing was made by a       bership made by the Russian Orthodox Church. This deci-

certain Miles Smith. People have often wondered how                sion was reached by a vote of 142 for, 3 against, 4 abstaining.
                                                             SO
many panels and boards and individuals could produce a             Although this was an impressive majority, there was con-

uniform, smooth, scholarly and stately literary masterpiece        siderable opposition to and doubt about both the vote and

such as the King James Bible is. It seems as if Miles Smith        the decision, In the first place, no discussion was allowed

was the one man who was, to a great extent, responsible for        which would in any way dispute the application. Also there

this. Smith was the son of a Hereford butcher, a distin-           was the strange phenomenon, apparent to most delegates, that

guished classical scholar who had graduated from Oxford            privately few favored the question. This peculiar twist to the

when he was nineteen years old and was also a member and           decision could partially be explained by the surprise of some

the supervisor of the Oxford's Old Testament panel. He             delegates to learn that each church was entitled to only one

favored the use of short and concise English words which           vote. One top representative was totally unfamiliar with the

have made the King James Version so outstanding. He was            man voting his church bloc in favor of the action and could

the one who left an indelible stamp of his own genius upon         not even find out whether or not the delegates from his

the whole.                                                         denomination had caucused to determine how this delegate

    The first printing came off the presses in 1611 with other     should vote as a representative of all of them. It seemed

editions rapidly following. These contained many typograph-        to be a bit of power politics. Although the higher officials

ical errors as e.g., when the name "Judas" was used in one         were obviously pushing hard for a favorable vote on the

place instead of "Jesus" ,. the word "not" was left out of the     resolution, many feared that the Russian Orthodox Church

seventh commandment. For this latter error the printer was         was a tool of the Communist state and that the result would

fined 300 pounds, the money used to buy Greek type.                be that the World Council of Churches would become a

    And so down the centuries, the King James Version has          propaganda forum for Communist ideology. Two reasons

marched on. No translation has ever begun to compare with          however were advanced in support of the entrance of the

it as the beloved Bible of the Church. Even those who hate         Russian Church : `,`l ) it would buttress the claim of the World

its truths have admitted its literary beauty. Even H. L.           Council that it encompasses all Christendom except Rome,

Mencken, the atheist of our country, once wrote that it was        and 2) it would bolster the morale and mettle of the church

"probably the most beautiful piece of writing in all the liter-    in Russia." But many veterans had serious qualms.

ature of the world."                                                  2) The Council also decided to merge with the Interna-

    And yet its beauty lies especially in the fact that it is a    tional Missionary Council. This organization was created

translation which sets the Bible apart from all other books.       some time ago for the purpose of bringing various denomina-

Many have tried to give the Bible a "modern suit of clothes,"      tions and smaller Church organizations into concerted and

but in doing so they have only succeeded in robbing the Bible      unified action in the field of missions. This decision resulted

of its distinctiveness and its mark as standing in a class by      in bringing about 31 per cent of all missionaries under the

itself. It is no doubt for this reason that the people of God      control of the WCC. This was greeted with considerable

who cherish the Bible as God's inspired Word have clung to         dismay by evangelicals.

the King James Version, memorizing its lofty passages, read-          3) A new creed was adopted. This creed was formulated

ing its inspired lines over and over, living by its power, dy-     by Visser `t Hooft  in Russia last year on the menu of a

ing with its nromises and comfort in their hearts and on their     restaurant where he was meeting with several officials of

lips.                                                              the Russian Church. It reads: "The World Council of

                                                                   Churches is a fellowship of churches which confess the Lord

THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES - NEW DELHI                          Jesus Christ as. God and Saviour according to the Holy
    It was called by some the most important meeting of Prot-      Scriptures and therefore seek to fulfill together their common
estant Christendom. Others, still more enthusiastic, spoke         calling to the glory of one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit."

of it as the second great Protestant Reformation.                     4) There were reports from important and powerful com-

    It all referred to the recently completed meeting of the       mittees which defined the stand of the WCC on social prob-

World Council of Churches in New Delhi, India.                     lems. Attempting to translate the reports from the jargon

    There, in a hall built in 1956 for a meeting of UNESCO,        used by the committees, the following seems to be the posi-

1200 delegates, observers, staff members and special guests        tions in brief which the council reached:

besides 275 newsmen met in the Third Assembly to discuss              a) On the question of unity the WCC conceded that
the problems of the Council. With the Dutchman William             church union would mean the death of many forms and prac-
Adolph Visser `t Hooft  as president and with delegates            tices in use today in the Church. This seems to refer not


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 191


 only to questions of liturgy and liturgical forms, but also to        To complete this list, there should also be hymns on :

 confessional bases,                                                Man's Ruin, the Law, Gospel, Faith, Missions, New Year,

    b> On the question of missions the council stressed the         Marriage, De&h, the Resurrection, Judgment and Heaven.

 fact that "straight preaching" was no doubt obsolete and           All these have already come forth from the heart of the

 would soon have to become a thing of the past. To take its         church, so that we have Reformed hymns supplying appro-

 place the council emphasized that "dialogues" or conversa-        priate spiritual thought in metrical and musical form cover-

 tions and discussions would be a more effective way of             ing the whole diversified range of material found in the

 spreading the gospel. This would also imply that laymen           Heidelberg Catechism. We even have hymns declaring the

 would have a bigger share in this work.                           glory of God's Decrees, His Creation and Providence. More

    c) The council emphasized the need for racial equality         consideration ought to be given -these enumerated above.

 and urged the churches to identify themselves with "op-               Since our Church Order (Article 69) not only permits,

 pressed races."                                                   but requires the public use of the following in metrical form :

    d) The adopted reports spoke also of the need for gov-         The Ten Commandments, Lord's Prayer, Apostles' Creed,

 ermnent  with limited powers, but made way for nonviolent         the Songs of Mary, Zacharias and Simeon, the Morning and

 changes in government while pressing for freedom of choice        Evening Hymns, and the Hymn of Prayer Before Sermon,

 and conscience.                                                   why not at least make private use of the wealth of material

    5) The Fourth Assembly will meet in six years probably         available under these titles ? There are, at least, seven hymns

 in some African country.                                          on the Ten Commandments as a whole, and thirty-two on

    How far a cry this all is from the Protestant Reformation.     the separate commandments. There is a good versification of

The Reformers led the Church back to Scripture, emphasized         the Lord's Prayer by Goodwin (also an arrangement by

 the need for the pr-each&g  of .the gospel and ushered in a       Toplady), and separate hymns on each of the petitions. Of

very glorious period, unequaled in all history, in which the       the Apostles' Creed, there is a good metricism on seven of

 beautiful confessions and creeds of the true Church of Christ     the twelve articles. We already have the songs of Mary,

 were written. All this is being destroyed by the WCC. It is       Zacharias and Simeon. (At this point we may call attention

an enemy of the Church of Christ.                   H. Hanko       to good versifications extant on the Prayer of Hezekiah and
                                                                   the Song of Hannah.) The Morning and Evening Hymns

                                                                   orginally were Netherlands compositions provided for in the

                                                                   Church Order of 1905. But we do have in English : Morning

                                                                   Thanksgiving, Sabbath Evening, Evening Song, Evening

                     Hymns and Psalms                              Sacrifice and Evening Worship. The Hymn of Prayer Be-
Dear Editor :                                                      fore Sermon originally was one of a Netherlands psalter by
                                                                   P. Datheen (1566))  but we do have in English Toplady's
    May I submit the following on the subject of hymns and
                                                                   "Before Hearing" Sermon (XIX).
Psalms !
                                                                      I agree with what has already been said relative to the
    As has already been noted, we do use hymns in our
                                                                   use in song of faithful versifications of Scripture. Many
homes, our Christian schools, at hymn-sings, special meet-
                                                                   passages, other than the Psalms proper, pure poetry, are
ings., and on the radio broadcasts. The place for hymns
                                                                   suitable for versification (as mentioned, TSB, XXXVII,
(and, of late, certain Christmas carols) is not in the worship
                                                                   412))  such as : The Song of Moses, Habakkuk, I Corinthians
services of our churches, but in these consecrated circles.
The songs so utilized, we believe, are carefully selected ac-      15, part of Romans 8 and parts of the Revelation. To this
                                                                   add the psalm of Isaiah 12. We might also consider Top-
cording to Christian judgment and evaluation, in the light of
                                                                   lady's metrical paraphrases of Amos 4 and Hosea  8, judging
our doctrine. That is as it should be. Still, how compre-
                                                                   whether they are faithful versifications of these Scriptures.
hensive is the volume of the hymns we use ? A useful
repertory of hymns would include such themes as : The                 One other thought : Why no renewed efforts in Psalter
                                                                   improvement? In this direction, certain tunes could be
Scriptures, The Attributes of God and the Trinity. There
should be hymns under the heading, Christ, celebrating:            omitted, as, e.g., the second tune of No. 212; and more
Praise to,                                                         singable tunes replace more difficult ones.
              Advent of, Nativity, Circumcision, Sonship,                                                         "Converse" is
Names and Offices, Ministry, Transfiguration, Death, Resur-        more singable than the (No. 400) tune now used for Psalm
rection, Ascension, Exaltation and Second Advent. Under            146. Cf. the difficult Nos. 375, 389 (second tune), and the
the heading, The Christian, hymns on Zeal, Self-Denial,            tune Ein' Feste Burg, which takes a large audience to be
Perseverance,       Heavenly-Mindedness, Love, Pilgrimage.         sung well. (Concerning this last tune, there is a more
Then hymns appropriate to :                                        pleasing and attractive arrangement available.) There could
                               The Holy Spirit, the Church,
                                                                   be more tunes provided for certain Psalms which have only
Prayer and the Sacraments. Hymns of Scriptural quality
                                                                   one, and not too well known, tune. For instance, besides
on these subjects there are, but should be made more ac-           our No. 206, there is a long meter arrangement of Psalm
cessible to general use.                                           75 by Barlow.


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1     9    2                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R


     Finally, more faithful versification  of certain Psalms ought           Lynden's Pastor in the last bulletin of 1961 expressed

to be mad,e. It's often been mentioned that stanza four, first           this prayer in behalf of his congregation: "May God's Spiri.t

clause, of No. 255 (Ps. 95) ought to be corrected. In                    strengthen our faith, increase our love, fill us with godly fear,

Psalm 68, ". . . Rich gifts to Thee are of-fered By men who              and prove His grace throughout the New Year."
did ye-be1 . . ." should be changed to something like: "Rich                            :
                                                                             One of' Doon's recent bulletins carried an utlusual  argu-
`gifts by Thee are ta-ken For men who did re-bel." (On this,
                                                                         ment for a coniparative study by the congregation. The first
Isaac Watts has, "With gifts and grace for rebel men, That
                                                                         paragraph was an e.xcerpt  from the Dec. issue of a leading
.God might dwell on earth again.") That these remarks prove
                                                                         magazine, under headliiles  : "The dramatic, mysterious story
suggestive and practically helpful is my desire.
                                                                         of the creation of .living  matter - a miracle that science can-
                              Very respectfully yours,
                                                                         not yet duplicate." One sentence read like this, "Scientists,
                                           Robert C. Harbach
                                                                         probing to the very dawn of life, have traced mankind's be-

                                                                         ginning to an astonishing and peculiar scum of the pri-

     NEWS FROM OUR CI-KJRCHES                                            mordial sea." The second paragraph had identical headlines,
                                                                         but was esplained according to Scripture. Rev. Van Baren
                "All the saints salute thee . . J' PHIL. 4:21      II    then quoted Genesis 1 :l and Hebr. 11:3.  Beneath this com-
                                                                         parative study was the following prayer of Jesus, "I thank
                                                Jan. 5, 1962             thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid
                                                                         these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
     All of the Grand Rapids area bulletins have been carry-
                                                                         them unto babes ; even so, Father; for so it seemed good in
ing notices of the coming Men's Chorus New Year's Eve
                                                                         thy sight."
program. Many of them include the proviso, "D.V." - Deo

Volenfo, or, God willing. But God was not willing. It was                    The latest "Refoimed  Witness" pamphlet is entitled,

His will to take unto Himself the accompanist of the Chorus.             "The Glory of Christmas," and was mailed to all the box-

Jim Jonker was  suddenly translated to a higher service --               holders in Scotland, Kaylor,  Menno  and Tripp, So. Dakota.

the peculiar service which was ordained to be his from be-
                                                                             Oak Lawn's congregation decided to put a new roof on
fore the foundations of the world- could it be to join <he
                                                                         their church, meeting the expenses involved by conducting
sons of Asaph, Heman  and Jeduthun (I Chron.  25 :l) to
                                                                         a financial drive.
accompany the antiphonal singing ol the Heavenly choirs in

their, `fBlessing  and honor and power be unto him that sitteth              We wro~tder,  now that Christmas is past with its carols,
upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Rev.               Sunday School programs, and the special "Birth of our
C. Hanko in his Dec. 31 bulletin expressed it this way: Early            Savior"    sermon, if the Heidelberg Catechism Lord's Day
on Tuesday morning of the past week, the Lord reached out                14 sermon will be the only time the historical fact of The
to take unto Himself Mr. James Jonker, at the early age of               Incarnation will be stressed for another whole year. Is it
22 years. Because of the important place he has taken in the             probably because of the long drawn out worldly "Holiday
congregation, among our young people, and in Hope School,                Season" which accompanies our Christmas Day celebration
and as organist for various groups from our churches. his                and causes us to be glad that it is past, that we can wait a
departure will be keenly felt among us. No less because of               whole year for its return?
the fact that he was a prospective student for our seminary.

Yet we are confident that the Lord makes no mistake, but                     Lynden's  consistory accepted the confession of faith of six

that even now we can say in faith, "The Lord gave, and the               of their young people, and because they are so well known in

Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord."                   the congregation they were delineated in the bulletin an-

     Corhihtios  : Something "extra  special" is in store for            nouncement by their first names only: Betty, Sweitze, Ted,
you who will attend the 1,OOOth broadcast of the Reformed                Hans, Jim and Henry. This indicates to us the advantage of
Witness Hour. As advertised, this program will be givep,                 smaller congregations to more fully share in the communal
D.V., Thursday, Jan. 25, 8 p.m., in the aud'itorium  of First            joy of seeing the sons and daughters of the church confess
Church, corner of Franklin and Fuller, in Grand Rapids,                  that their only comfort in life and death is to belong to their
Mich.  Many hours of the Radio Committee's time have gone                .faithful  Savior, Jesus Christ.

into the planning and developing of this special program.                    Roger Harbin, of Hope Church, who suffered serious in-
We promise that an interesting evening is awaiting you.                  juries in the highway accident which claimed the life of Jim
Souvenir booklets have been printed to commemorate this                  Jonker, is at this writing reported to be much improved.
historical event. Refreshments for young and old will be                 Plans are being made to fly him home in four or five days.
served after the program. The ushers are saving a seat for

JIJOU. - The Committee.                                                      . . . . see you in church.                           J.M.F.


