 V O L U M E   zcxxv111                                           FEBRUARY 1, 1962 - ~&+ID RAPIDS,  MICHIGAN                   _                           NUMEER  9


                                                                                        `.
                                                                                                   " -Indeed,  beloved, this was a very sad procession.
r ME:DITATION                                                                                 i                                     4: * P *


                                                                                                       But, behold, there comes another procession!

                                THE HIGH  PRIEST                                                       It is Jesus of Nazareth with many of His disciples and

                                                                                                   much people. It was the day after He restored the noble

          And it c,ame to pass the day after; that He went into n                                  man's son who was ready to die. And when the first proces-
          city called Nab;  amd TKany  of His disciples went wit?L                                 sion of death came out of the city's gate, Jesus approached
          Hihz,  and itch people. Now when. He came nighs to                                       the same gate.
          the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead ammo  car-
                                                                                                       They meet. The procession of death and the procession
          ried out,  the ordy  son of his mother, and she zwas  a
          w i d o z w :   a n d   n~~rch peopFe  of the city was z&h  hey. Arid                    that has the Prince of Life at its head.
          zwhen  the Lord sazu ~WY,  He had  compa.mion  6n her,  and                                  He saw - He had compassion - He said : Weep not !
          said u&o  hev, Weep not. And He ca.me an.6 t'o&Led                                           Deacons, take note! Do you remember the words your
          the bier: and they tlmt  ba.ye l&m  stood still. And He                                  minister spake at the time of your installation? Here they
          said, Yo~ung  mm, I say nnztot  thee,,  Arise. And he that                               are :    "comfortable words from Scripture !" He that said :
          zwas dead sa.t up, and began to speak. And He deEv@red
          him   t o                                                                                Weep not ! is the High Priest of God !
                         his mothe!,.  A n d   t h e r e   came f e a r   o n   a l l :   a*nd
          they glorifi.ed  God., sqring,  That a great Prophet is risen                                Oh! to be seen by Jesus This look on the widow is n

          up among us; and, That God kath visited His people.                                      look of eternal compassion.              One glance is enough. Jesus
          A n d   t h i s   WWLOW   o f   Him zven,t   f o r t h   t h r o u g h o u t   #a,11     saw the widow. There is no question, no answer, no in-
          Judea,  aud  througl~out  a.11 -the  region rmtnd  about.                                troduction to the Stranger of Galilee. At once He steps
                                                                          Luke 7 :ll-17            toward the procession of death ; selects the main figure : the

    Nain was a little hamlet in Galilee: two miles south of                                        woman ; takes her by the arm, and with deep pity murmurx

Mount Tabor,  southeast from Capernaum.                                                            into her ears : Weep not! They are the bowels of mercy of

    Something happened there which shocked the entire ham-                                         Jehovah over His poor people who are in the throes of deep

let: a widow lost her only son!                                                                    sorrow. It is. expressive of the desire to deliver. Her sorrow

                                                                                                   became His sorrow. And how apt! His name is the Man
   The widow! Object of sympathy and deep pity in any
case. Her mainstay is gone : the husband. Those twain were                                         of Sorrows.
                                                                                                       Weep not! The comforting word. How pregnant with
one flesh. For the rest of her life she is going to be very
                                                                                                   promise.     How rich and how deep when Jesus is speaking-
incomplete, and will become the natural object of commiser-
                                                                                                   And how often empty and powerless when we are speaking
ation.
                                                                                                   the same words.
   But this widow's lot was the hardest.
                                                                                                                                    2: $     * +
    She had a son, an only son: life of her life, hope of her

hope, love of her love. This son was her all.
                                                                                                       A few steps away from the widow is the bier, and in fulf
   But he died.
                                                                                                   view of the multitude lies the young man. A few steps, and
   What is left to the poor widow ? Tears.                                                         Jesus is near the bier. I-Ie touched the bier, and full of wonder

   So also here. Sobbing, she preceded the procession on                                           the bearers stood still.

the way to the graveyard.                                                                              Did anything like this ever happen before ? Stopping the

   And she was worthy: much people of the city was with                                            march of death ? No ! It is unheard of. 0 Stranger of Gali-

her. I think that many wept with her. They saw the examp!e                                         lee! this man is dead! Do not detain us! We are on the

of a broken heart.                                                                                 way to the grave: this body is already in the process of dis-

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



solution. Let us continue and bury him out of our sight and              Beloved, the object of Jesus was to teach His church a

out of the sight of this weeping widow!                               lesson. The three risings, the daughter of Jairus, the young

       But this Stranger is Jehovah. That makes all the differ-       man of Nain, and Lazarus are this lesson.

ence in the world.                                                       And here is the lesson:

       Yes, the greatest enemy is Death. Here we have a dead             God's beloved church, His eternally elect people, are dead,

man ; we are confronted with physical death. But Death                and rightly so. We all die, in fact, we are dead when we

is greater than mere physical death. This death reminds the           are born.

multitude of the horrible spiritual death and eternal death.             Therefore, we all die the physical death.

And death is hard, cruel, irreconcilable.                                This young man also. It was sad ; everybody spoke of

       It attacked this young son of the widow. And nothing           the shocking death of this young man. But it was well. He

could stop its march. No medicines, prayers, tears. Oh, the           had been a sinner. The wages of sin is death. You can

widow must have suffered when he was laid on his sickbed,             really say nothing against it.

and when nothing helped. Pain, weakness, perhaps crying a                And I will say more: there is really nothing against it

little, and some tears when he looked at his beloved mother.          not only, but it is majestic, glorious and wonderful!

But nothing could stay death.                                            Beloved! God glorifies Himself in the death of the sin-

   `And the hour struck when his young face blanched with             ner. The death of every man, be it physical, spiritual, or

the terrible color of death. And the widow had a corpse in            eternal, manifests, reveals that God is gloriously good, just

her house. I cannot fathom the sorrow that must have torn             and holy. Did you ever think of that?

her heart. He is dead, dead, dead!                                       You will see it when you realize that man slapped God

       And now on the way to the cruel grave.                         in the Face! They slapped Him who is goodness, and sweet-

       Weep, sorrow not ? 0 Stranger ! what mean you ?                ness Personified! And so death is the just recompense for

       But Jesus is the King of the whole Universe. He came;          such horror.

He touched the bier. And the bearers stood still. Hush !                 Yes, we weep at the death of our loved ones, we groan

       And then, turning to the dead form, He laid hands on           when we walk to the grave, while our hearts are slowly

him, and said: Young man, I say unto thet, Arise !                    breaking.

   ,And: miracle of miracles! he that was dead sat up, and               But have you ever wept when you saw how God is

began to speak!                                                       despised, del'ided,  cursed, and utterly forgotten ? Then you

       Let all the world take note; let all the scientists listen:    also saw that death is beautifully just.

only God can raise the dead!
                                                                                                     * * * *
                            8 * * *                                      But here is Jesus!

       And now note a heavenly tender touch in this beautiful            And that tells a story which will make heaven musical

story: He delivered him to his mother. Do you not see it?             forever.

Jesus must have drawn His arms around the young man,                      Jesus came on earth in order to break through the shroud

helped him lift himself from the bier, and thus Jesus led             of death, and come to stand before the worshipping eyes of

him to the open arms of mother ! I said : heavenly tender!            His people unto all eternity.

That is correct.                                                          Jesus is Jehovah against whom the whole Church of God

       He began to speak. What? We do not know. But I can             sinned, and so became children of wrath even as the others.

guess. This widow was one of God's own children, and so                   Jesus is God who came on earth in the form of a man,

was her son. They knew the Scriptures. And I think the                in order to take on Himself all the sin, guilt, curse, and

first impulse of this son, realizing that he rose from the dead,      wrath of God under which we would have died unto all

must have been : 0 God ! And then : Oh mother !                       eternity in hell.

       We must imagine the rest. How these two multitudes                 To put it plainly so that even children can understand it:

merged, spoke, wondered and marvelled. Two expressions                Jesus means that God suffered our hell so that we might go

the Lord gave us.       Some said: A great Prophet is risen up        to heaven.

among us ! And others: God hath visited His people !                      Jesus swallowed all our death unto victoyy.
       Both are right. Although none of them that saw this                Isaiah spoke of this mystery, and it is a mystery which

miracle realized the depth of this miracle.                           grows sweeter all the while.        You find it in his prophecy of

                                                                      chapter G4, verse 5, the second part: "Behold, Thou art
                             x * + *
                                                                      wroth ; for we have sinned : in those is continuance, and we

       You know, Jesus did not raise all the dead. In the three       shall be saved."

years of His sojourn many thousands must have died in                     It is to be lamented that our English fathers did not give

Galilee and Judea.  But we know of only three risings from            us a better translation, but I will try to tell you the meaning.

the dead.                                                                 There are two things mentioned in the text first of all:

       Why only three? Why did He not raise all the dead ?            1) God is wroth           and 2) for we have sinned. Now then: in
                                                                                           ;


                                             THE'STANDA,Rlj  B-RARER                                                                                                                                                            195



those two things enters THE ETERNITY in order that we

might be saved.                                                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

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                                                                                                          E d i t o r - SEV.  &HMAN  H~EITSEMA
   And that is Jesus.
                                                                                 Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
   Yes, death manifests the glory of God in His justice,                                       Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E.,
holiness and truth. But Jesus manifests the glory of God as                                                             Grand Rapids 7, Mich.

never before. God dies in human flesh so that millions may                       Announcements and Obituaries must be mailed to the address
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   That is the lesson of the raising of this. beloved son of
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                   Notice for Classis  West

   Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will                                                                     C O N T E N T S
                                                                            MEDITATION -
meet, the Lord willing, in Randolph, Wisconsin, on Wednes-                           The High Priest _......................................................................  193
day, March 21, 1962, at 9 A. M.                                                                Rev. G. Vos

   The consistories are reminded of thg rule that matters for               EDITORIALS -

the classical agenda  must be in the hands of the Stated Clerk                       About Infallibility . .._ _. . .._  ___ .._.. ._........ . . . . . . ,196

not later than 30 days before the date of Classis.  And all                          The Hymn Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~....................................                                       198
                                                                                     How Can the SchiSmatics                                      Return? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
matters that are to be brought to Synod must also be pre-
                                                                                               Rev. H. Hoeksema
sented at this classis.
                                                                            OUR DOCTNNE-
                               REV. H. VELDMAN, Stated Clerk                         The Calling (Continued). . . . . . . . . . . . . ._._..  . . . . . . . . . . ..I99

                                                                                               Rev. H. Hoeksema

                                                                            A CLOUD OF WITNESSES -
                            IN MEMORIAM                                              Glory Reflected In Moses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  200

   We, the Hope Protestant Reformed Christian School Society,                           R e v .   B .   W o u d e n b e r g
Board, teachers and students herewith express our sincere sympathy          FROM HOLY WRIT -
to Mrs. D. Jonker and family in the death of their son and brother,
                                                                                     Exposition of I Timothy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
                      JAMES DAVID JONKER                                                       Rev. G. Lubbers
who was our teacher and Christian friend. May the Word of God,              INISISFEAR-
through the Spirit of Christ, comfort the bereaved family. "But I
would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are                     Laying Our Hands To Our Mouths __..........._.._....,...............  I..204
asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if                          Rev. J. A. Heys
we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which          C
sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." I Thess. 4:13-14.                   ONTENDING FOR TFIEI  FAITH-
                                                                                     The Church and the Sacraments __.___.........._.__...,..,.................  208
                                      D. Engelsma, President
                                      R. L. Bloem, Secretary                                   Rev. H. Veldman
Grand Rapids, Michigan                                                      THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS  -

                                                                                     The Belgic                   Confession. ._. __.. ..__ ._ ._. ._. __ ___.._.......___........  .____  208

                            IN MEMORIAM                                                        Rev. H. C. Hoeksema

   The Radio Committee of the Reformed Witness Hour expresses its           DECENCY AND ORDER -
deepest sympathy to the family of                                                    The Hymn Matter (Continued) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.0
                           JAMES D. JONKER                                                     Rev. G. Vanden Berg
whom the Lord suddenly called to His Heavenly Home on December              ALL AROUND us-
26, 1961. Psalm 33:lla.
                                      RADIO COMMITTEE                                That Right Wing ___.._.,__...._.__.__  __,_.......____.__.,..,..,..............,.,.. 212
                                      Charles E. Kregel, Pres.                       Prayer In Public Schools .._.______________,................,..,................,,                                                           213
                                      Christine Faber, Sec'y.                                  Rev. H. Hanko

                                                                            CONTRIBUTIONS -
                            IN MEMORIAM                                              The Hymn Question ._____.........____........................................  214
                                                                                                Mr. Thvs Feenstra
   The Federation' of Protestant Reformed Young People's Societies                   The Hymn `Question __.___.__...__.___._.......................................... 214
experience the great loss of our co-worker and friend
                                                                                                Hib Kuiper
                           JAMES D. JONKER                                           Proposed Change of Article 69 _.._..____.__.__,___..,....................  215
whom the Lord took out of our midst so suddenly.                                                Mr. Peter A. Poortenga
   To his family we extend our heartfelt sympathy, and may our
lovine  Father comfort and sustain us all in this time of grief.            NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES . . .._...___...,.,.__.........,,..,.....,....................                                                                 218
                                            Harry Langerak, Pres.                               Mr. J. M. Faber
                                            Nancy Heemstra, Sec'y.

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



                                                                     limitation of the extent or the degree of the infallibility of

             E D I T O R I A L S                                     Scripture."
                                                                        The second and last sentence. of this first ground was (as

                                                                     quoted above) : "His use of the word `periphery' rather re-

                     About Infallibility                             flected on possible interpretations or applications of the data

                                                                     of Scripture in isolation from their necessary Scriptural con-
   I now have the report of the Study Committee as it oc-            text."
curs in the "Acts of Synod 1961 of the Christian Reformed               On this elimination by the Synod of this second sentence
Church." I received it from a friend who is in the Christian         I remark :
Reformed Church. Thanks very much!                                       1. Why was this eliminated? Was it because of its
   AS yet I did not have the time to peruse, much less to            ambiguity 7 This it certainly was. I wonder how much the
study this report which is very lengthy. I will, therefore,          members of Synod, especially the elders, could understand
continue my discussion of the decisions of Synod i+vz  re this       such language. Why such profound language, unless it was
matter.                                                              to camouflage the real meanin,0 that lies behind it and is not
   We now come to Point C of the report of the Advisory              clearly expressed 3 I wonder whether the Advisory Com-
Committee which reads as follows :                                   mittee itself understood what they were talking about.
       "That Synod declare that Dr. M. Wyngaarden's charge              2. But what is the meanin g ? Let us try to analyze the
(`that President Kromininga makes an unwarranted distinc-            statement. a. Periphery refers to statements of Scripture that
tion between the so-called periphery and that which does ngt         lie on the outside rather than in the center. b. The data of
belong to this periphery' and thai-  this view is inconsonant        Scripture are its contents as given in a certain passage or
with the creeds) is unsubstantiated.                                 certain passages. c. These passages must be interpreted and
       "Grounds :                                                    applied. d. But they must be interpreted and applied, not in
       "1. Dr. Kromminga has removed an ambiguity in the             isolation, but rather in connection with their context. In
presentation of his view by stating that his view was in no          other words by the use of the term periphery Dr. Kromminga

way intended as a limitation in the extent of the infallibility      means that every passage of Scripture must be interpreted

of Scripture. His use of the word periphery rather reflected         in the light of its context. But this is simply a fundamental
on possible interpretations or applications of the data of           rule of exegesis and nothing else. Almost every member of
Scripture iti isolation from their necessary Scriptural con-         any society in the church understands this. But why, then,
text.                                                                the use of the term "periphery"? And why all this profound

       "2. The Study Committee in its report indicates that it       or rather ambiguous language. I cannot believe that Dr.

is possible to make such a distinction which is not inconso-         Kromminga means this by the term "periphery." But what

nant with the creeds . . . `there are in Scripture incidental        then ? Will Dr. Kromminga or the Advisory Committee,

and circumstantial data which have no independent revela-            please, explain ?

tional significance but are dependent for their revelational             3. But how could Synod on its own accord simply elim-

significance upon the relationship they sustain to the central       inate that last sentence of the first ground of C of the Ad-

integt  and purpose of a given passage.' When viewed in this         visory Committee? Did it not reflect the opinion of Dr.

light the term `periphery' must be judged not inconsonant            Kromminga ? It certainly expresses his opinion and use of

with creedal  teachings on infallibility."                           the term "periphery" according to the Advisory Committee.

       On this particular point there was a rather lengthy           VVould it, then, not have been proper first to ask Dr. Krom-

debate on the floor of the Synod. According to Dr. Wyn-              minga  whether or not he agreed with this elimination ? This,

gaarden, who protested against Dr. Kromminga at the Synod            evidently, they did not do. In other words, how could Synod

of 1959, the latter had used the term "periphery" in defense         have the right to change, all by itself, thg  view of Dr.

of the article written by student Hoogland in Sfit*o?pla:ta.  Ac-    Iiromminga in regard to the "periphery" T

cording to Prof. R. B. Kuiper, the Advisory Committee, in-               On the second ground of the proposal (C) of the advisory

stead of treating the protest of Dr. Wyngaarden consulted            Committee there was not a long debate. Perhaps the mem-

Dr. Kromminga who had altered his original statements                bers of the Synod were somewhat tired of all the ambiguity

somewhat. Dr. Wyngaarden, according to him, was right and            and dark statements. The second ground was just a quota-

Dr. Kromminga was in error . Others had similar objections.          tion from the Study Committee's report. Seeing that J now

Still others agreed with the Advisory Committee but would            have the Study Committee's report I will quote the entire

like a different formulation of the grounds.                         paragraph from which the quotation of the second ground is

       The first result was that the first ground was altered in     taken. It reads as follows :

such a way that the second sentence was eliminated and it                "Although Synod (of 1959, H.H.) averred that this dis-

now reads as follows:       "Dr. Kromminga has removed an            tinction is a relatively new one in our Church, nevertheless

ambiguity in the presentation of his view by stating that his        it does have recognised  standing in our Reformed theological

use of the word `periphery' was in no way intended as a              iradition.  As is well known, Reformed Biblical Scholarship


                                           T H E   STANDAPD   B E A R E R                                                               197



has always sought to discover what is the heart of any given          paraphrase this particular section. I will also quote from

passage (the tertium  comparationis)  and then to group the           the same context. I do not have the 4th edition to which the

attendant data around this central truth. More specifically           Study Committee refers, but I have the second edition in

Bavinck (Ger-efol-uMecrde  Dogmat~ek,  4th ed., Vol. I, pp.           which, evidently, the same words are used to which the

409, 410),  in repudiating the mechanical and stressing the           Study Committee refers. In my edition the words are found

organic concept of inspiration, and using the analogy of the          on pp. 464, 46.5. I quote from a little broader context than

human body, where e.g. the heart and head are more central            that of the Study Committee as follows (the translation

than the hair and nails, although all belong to the single            from the Dutch is mine) :

organism, applies this analogy to Scripture. In Scripture too            "But inspiration must be considered in the organic sense

there is this cen&ztlqL.  Moving about this cmztmw is a pe-           so that even the smallest part has its place and significance

riphery of truth, which though more or less removed from              and at the same time stands' much farther away from the

this cer&zt?>z,,  nevertheless belongs organically to this revela-    centrum than other parts. In the human organism nothing

tory circle of God's thoughts. This distinction in no way             is accental, neither the length nor the breadth, neither the

carries in it implications which predetermine one's approach          color nor the tint; but this does not mean that everything

to the Scriptures, or which categorically imposes a fixed             stands in the same intimate connection with the lifecentrum.

interpretation upon the Scriptures. (Here follows the quota-          Head and heart have a much more important place in the

tion made by the Advisory Committee in the second ground              body than hand and foot, and these again occupy a much

under C.) It is used simply to d.escribe  what the Bible in-          more valuable place than the nails and the hairs. Also in

terpreter discovers when opening the Scriptures, namely, that         Scripture not everything stands equally closely arrayed about

there is (must be ~:Yc,, the subject dadto*  is plural, H.H. j in     the centrum  ; there is a periphery that moves itself far from

the Scriptures incidental and circumstantial data which has           the central point, but also this belongs to the circle of God's

(must be lza,ve  for the same reason as above, H.H.) no &L-           thoughts. There are therefore no different kinds or degrees

dependent revelational significance, but is dependent for its         in graphical inspiration. The hairs of the head share in the

revelational significance upon the relationship it sustains to        same life as the heart and the hand. It is one anima, which

the central intent and purpose of a given passage. When               tota est in toto corpom  et in owmibzts  pa&bus  (which life-
viewed in this light, the term `periphery' must be judged             anima -is wholly in the entire body and in all its parts.

not inconsonant with the creedal  teachings on infallibility."        H.H.). There is one Spirit, out of whom the entire Scrip-

    On this, namely on the quotation made by the Advisory             ture, through the consciousness of the writers, originated.

.Committee  as the second ground under C from the report of           Nevertheless, there is difference in the manner in which the
the Study Committee, I offer the following remarks:                   same life is immanent and operative in the different parts of

    1. It is nothing short of amazing that the views of Dr.           the body. There is variety of gifts, also in Scripture, but it

Kromminga are here all of a sudden interpreted as implying            is the same Spirit."

nothing less or more than the doctrine of organic inspiration            This is indeed a beautiful description of what is known
with which all Reformed theologians agree! No wonder that             as organic inspiration.
Dr. Kromminga at the end of Synod's discussions and deci-
                                                                         3. Notice, however, that Bavinck emphasizes that all
sions concerning the matter of infallibility could openly de-
                                                                      the parts of Scripture are equally inspired. Moreover, all
clare : "1'11 not take Synod's time now to say how happy I
                                                                      the parts of a certain passage of Scripture, according to
am and appreciative of the decisions in my case." No wonder
                                                                      Bavinck, belong together and are essential to the whole..
either that student Hoogland feels that he was justified in
                                                                      Even though the hand and the foot, the nails and the hair,
writing his article in St?-oma.ta!  It is understandable, too,
                                                                      occupy a less important place in the body than the head or
that the Rev. H. J. &riper, who was rather vehemently op-
                                                                      the heart, they certainly belong essentially to the body. With-
posed to Hoogland as weil as to Dr. Kromminga, now does
                                                                      out the former the body is maimed or cannot exist. Why,
not even have a word of criticism about the decisions of
                                                                      then, does the Advisory Committee, quoting the report of
Synod 29~ re this matter or about the report of the Study
                                                                      the Study Committee, speak of "incidental and circumstan-
Committee's report! Not one word of condemnation of Dr.
                                                                      tial data"     in Scripture ?       "Incidental"    means accidentalp
Iiromminga's  views was expressed by Synod. How could it
                                                                      something that can just as well be left out. And the same
be, in view of the fact that the Study Committee interpretecl
                                                                      `is true of    "circumstantial."       According    to Webster, the
the statements made by Dr. Kromminga as only referring to
                                                                      .word  means "incidental: relating to, but not essential." And
the truth of organic inspiration to which we all agree. Also
                                                                      who determines what is           "incidental and circumstantial" ?
the Synod of 1959 blundered when, by implication, it con-
                                                                      And who can say what is essential and what is non-essential
demned some of the statements made by Dr. Kromminga in
                                                                      in the Word of God ? It appears to me that every interpre-
defense of the articles by Hoogland in Stt~omata,.                    ter can have his own choice in the matter.
    2. The Study Committee as is evident from the above
                                                                         But I must continue this discussion next time, D.V.
quotation quotes from Dr. Bavinck's  Gcs*efomwwde Dognta-
tick.    Or rather, they do not quote literally but rather                                                                            H.H.


198                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B;EARER


                    The Hymn Question                                cancelled the very Standard Bearer  of the truth you loved

                                                                     so much, and you have taken away your support from the
       I have a few more things to say on the above mentioned
                                                                     Reformed Witness Hour.
subject and, in connection with this, also on Art. 69 of the

Church Order. But seeing that I have some contributions                  6. Sixth, you have repudiated the Declaration of Prin-

on this subject and I do not care to fill the space allotted to      ciples which contains everything we have held dear for dec-

me with this particular subject, I hope to continue this in          ades.

the next number, D.V.                                      H.H.          These are the sins they who desire to return to us must

                                                                     confess.

                                                                         We understand very well that there is difference of de-

                                                                     gree in their guilt according to various circumstances. But,
           How Can the Schismatics  Return?                          surely, if anyone should condemn what was done by our

       This is an important question. This question was also         Churches in 1953 he or she should not be accepted as mem-

discussed, in connection with two protests at the last meet-         ber of our Churches.                                             H.H.

ing of Classis  East. A committee was appointed to deliber-

ate upon this matter and to bring a report to the next meet-

ing of Classis  East, which will be held in a few weeks from                                   IN MEMORIAM
now.
                                                                        The Men's Society of the First Protestant Reformed  Church of
       It stands to reason that I refrain from entering upon the     Grand Rapids herewith expresses its sincere sympathy to our President,
work of the committee. This must wait until the committee            Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, in the death of his brother-in-law

has reported to Classis.                                                                     MR. JAMES JONKER

                                                                     May the brother be comforted by the Word of God in Romans 148,
       Nevertheless, since the matter has now become public,         "For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we
I can, without my comment, publish the different protests            die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the

as far as space permits.                                             Lord's,"
                                                                                                            Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, Pres.
       And, besides, I can also give an answer to the question                                              John Bylsma, Sec'y.
that is asked in the title of this editorial: how can the schis-

matics return ?                                                                                IN MEMORIAM

       The answer to this question is briefly: they must make           The Eastern Ladies' League Delegate Board wishes to express its
confession of whatsoever sins they committed.                        heartfelt sympathy to the president of our League, Mrs. D. Jonker, in
                                                                     the loss of her son
       What are these sins ? They are enumerated in a letter                                  JAMES D. JONKER

sent to them by our Synod as follows:                                   Our prayer is that she and her family may be comforted by the
                                                                     words of Jesus: "7. am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth
       1. You have for the last five years or more, defended anrl    in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."    John 1125.
supported those who preached and defended the heretical                                              Mrs. J. Kalsbeek, Vice-President
statements, namely, "God promises to everyone of you that                                            Miss E. Kuiper, Secretary
if you believe you will be saved"; and, "Our act of conversion

is a prerequisite to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." These                                        IN MEMORIAM

statements are really worse than the Three Points of Kala-              The Consistory of the Southeast Protestant Reformed Church
mazoo. Every one feels at once that a promise of God is              wishes to express its sincere sympathy to its fellow deacon Mr.

greater and warmer than any offer. An offer needs ac-                Richard Teitsma in the death of his

ceptance; but a promise depends on nothing but the faithful                                         FATHER

Godhead for its realization.                                            "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not

                                                                     worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in US."
       2. Some of your ministers have gone over to the Chris-                                                                 Romans 8: 18.
tian Reformed Church or are in the process of returning.                                                    Rev. R. Veldman,  President

       3. The conferences with the Christian Reformed Church                                                John Veltman, Clerk

show clearly that your leaders are willing to compromise the

truth not only but accept & toto the Three Points of Kala-                                      IN MEMORIAM

mazoo.                                                                   The Men's Society of the First Protestant Reformed Church wish

                                                                     CO express their sincere sympathy to one of its members, Mr. Rein
       4. Fourth, because of your initiative we are deprived of      Harkema, in the loss of his brother-in-law

churches and parsonages which were erected and dedicated                                    MR. HERMAN JOHNSON
to the promulgation of Prot. Ref. truth.                                 May our Covenant God graciously comfort by His Spirit and
                                                                     Word.
       5. Fifth, you have withdrawn your children from the                                                  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, Pres.
wonderful system of Prot. Ref. Chr. Education; you have                                                     Mr. John Bylsma, Sec'y.


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                     199


                                                                          However, this external side of the calling without any-

11~  O U R   D O C T R I N E                                    /I    thing else is not capable to cause the light of life to shine in
                                                                      the hearts of sinners. For, according to the gospel according

                                                                      to John, 1:4,  5:    "In him was life ; and the life was the

                                                                      light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the
                           CHAPTER II                                 darkness comprehended it not." And again, in the same
                 THE CALLING (Continued)                              chapter, 9-11 :    "That was the true Light, which lighteth

    But we may never forget that also the cloth on which              every man that cometh  into the world. He was in the world,

this divine work of the revelation of God in Christ Jesus our         and the world was made by him, and the world knew him

Lord was embroidered by the Holy Spirit is not from men,              not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not."

but from God. He did not find organs of revelation, but               Who then did receive Him? Also that is expressed in the

prepared them for the purpose of causing His light of revela-         chapter from which we just quoted, vss. 12 and 13 : "But as

tion to shine unto men. He did not find a human                       many as received him, to them gave he power to become the

history, but He causes history to be realized according to            sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which

His everlasting counsel. He does not find times, countries,           were born, not of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God."

places, circumstances; but He causes them to be. He does              It is of no saving avail that the electric wire is led right into

not find persons and all their experiences which He deems             my home. That wire may scintillate with light and life. But

fit to be used as instruments of His revelation; but He               in itself it is incapable of illuminating my home. If that wire

creates them and prepares them for the purpose which He               is not ultimately connected with an electric bulb, and if,

has conceived to be instruments of His revelation. Thus, for          further, the switch is not turned on, my dwelling remains in

instance, there is difference between John, the intuitive             darkness. The same is true of the living wire of the Word

apostle, and Paul, whom He prepared that he might be the              of God. The gospel as it comes to us in human language and

apostle that emphasizes faith and justification, and Peter,           in human form certainly brings the living wire of the Holy

who is often called the apostle of hope. But He Himself               Spirit to our natural ear and to our natural understanding,

prepared the instruments of revelation. And therefore, the            which, however, is in darkness. But if the mind of the

Holy Scriptures are not a mixture of divine and human                 sinner is to be spiritually illuminated, the Holy Spirit of

factors, but they are from beginning to end the infallible            Christ Himself must call efficaciously and creatively, through

record of the Word of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.              the hearing of the gospel, to the very heart of the sinner-

    Hence, the Holy Scripture is not dead, but is a living            That Spirit must give him an eye to see and an ear to hear-

testimony of the Holy Spirit, a testimony that has its center         That Spirit must spiritually illuminate his mind, and thus

in the incarnated Word of God, Who came in the fulness of             translate him out of darkness into the marvellous light of

time in our flesh and in our nature. The calling, therefore,          God. And this is the internal aspect of the calling of God

which proceeds from the proclamation of the gospel is also            through the preaching of the gospel. And thus only the

a work of God. It certainly is a divine calling. Moreover,            calling of God becomes efficacious and irresistible.

we must not forget that God causes His calling to proceed                Although, therefore, the external calling comes to all to

not at random, but wherever He wills, unto the salvation              whom God sends the preaching of the gospel, not all are

of the elect. Even when that Word of God is proclaimed                saved. In fact, some are hardened by that same external

through the apostles and also through the church, its course          calling of the gospel. For thus we read in I Corinthians

is directed by God. Thus we read in the Canons of Dord-               1:21, ff.: "For after that in the wisdom of God the world

recht,  I, 3 : "And that men may be brought to believe, God           by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness

mercifully sends the messengers of these most joyful tidings,         of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require

to whom he will and at what time he pleaseth  ; by whose              a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach

ministry men are called to repentance and faith in Christ             Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto

crucified."    And this is also according to Scripture. For we        the Greeks foolishness ; But unto them which are called, both

read in Acts 16 :6, 7 : "Now when they had gone throughout            Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom

Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of              of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men;

the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, After they were            and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see

come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the              your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the

Spirit suffered them not." It is evident, therefore, that even        flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called : But God

the external preaching of the gospel as to, the places, where it      hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the

is preached, as well as to the time of its being preached, is         wise; and God hat11  chosen the weak things of the world to

entirely directed by God through the Holy Spirit. And it              confound the things which are mighty ; And base things of the

is also evident that the calling through the preachinig  of the       world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea,

gospel, or what is called. the external aspect of the calling, is     and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are :

not a human, but a divine calling.                                    That no flesh should glory in his presence."               H.H-


                                                                       with Israel when God had first spoken those words of the

11 A CLOUD OF WITN-ESSES 11                                            law from the peaks of the mount. Again he had received
                                                                       those commandments engraved by the hand of God upon
                                                                  1
P                                                                      those first two tables of stone. At the time he had fully ex-

                Glory Reflected In Moses                               pected that by the law of God Israel would be led to right-
                                                                       eousness and glory. By the grace of God, he thought, Israel
          And it came to pass when Moses  came dorm  ~YOW              would be enabled to keep the law and become a distinct na-
       mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses'          tion, holy and different from all others. Could anyone, having
       ha+zd,  z&en  he ca"me  down from the .moztnt,  that ildosts
       wist not that the skin of Izh face shone while- he talked       been so richly blessed, fail to walk in obedience before God?

       with him.                                                       And then he had descended the mountain with Joshua until

          And when Aal-on  and all the children of Israel saw          they stood overlooking the camp where Israel, so soon after

       Moses, behold, he skim of his face shone; and they wwc          listening to the voice of God, was engaged in its heathenish
      ,afraid  to come nigh I&m                 Exodus 34 :29,  30     rites. Boldly, at the very foot of God's holy mountain, they

     For a second period of forty days and forty nights, Moses         were breaking all of the commandments of the law. Moses

abode on Mount Sinai without food and drink communing                  had held in his hand the two tables of stone, a permanent

with God. There upon the mountain God revealed to Moses                record of the commandments which God had spoken, but

His glory in a vision that cannot be described and in words            what good were they to a people who had broken them all

that are recorded for us to read yet today. God brought                before they were even brought? In holy indignation Moses

Moses to understand His greatness whereby He is gracious               had dashed them to pieces on the rocks below. Then he had

unto whom He will be gracious, and showeth mercy unto                  known, Israel would never keep God's law. And to his mind

whom He will show mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth.                it had seemed that the law had lost all its use.

God proclaimed His name unto Moses and said, "The                         But many things had happened since then even though the
LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffer-                 time was not long. He had gone down into the camp and
ing and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for              had found that even in their sin he continued to love them

thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and           as the people of God. He could not reject them even as he
that will by no means clear the guilty ; visiting the iniquity         had professed to God while still upon the mountain. It

of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's              was for their sake that he had broken apart the idol and cast
children, unto the third and the fourth generation." Great             its dust into the water so that they could taste the bitterness

were the implications of this revelation. God would perform            of their sin. It was for their sake that he had slain the three

marvels before His people, and terrible would be the work              thousand men in holy indignation because they had con-

that He would do. Before this He had revealed Himself as               tinued in their sin before his righteous admonition. For their

the God of faithfulness.. He had kept Israel with His bless-           sake he had returned to God again seeking to discover the

ings while with much longsuffering He bore with the wicked             way of atonement for them. It was an inner compulsion of

and their sin. This He would do no longer. Henceforth as               heart with Moses. He had to know how Israel could be saved

He went forth in the midst of Israel, He would reveal Him-             from its sin and the promises of God` fulfilled. God heard

self also as the God of Ho,liness.  In this ho,liness,  indeed,        his prayer and answered him. Slowly He.led  Moses into an

He would continue to be merciful unto those of Israel whom             understanding of His truth, and through it to a greater

He had chosen in His eternal, elective purpose. But He                 understanding of the place and purpose of His law. Already

would also strike out with visitations of His holy judgment            when he began to make his prayer, Moses realized of himself

upon the wicked of the nation who had no part in Him. The              that the sin of Israel was too great merely to, be overlooked,

path of Israel henceforth would be marked by the blood of              and God soon told Moses that the sin was too great for Moses

judgment. In holiness, He would establish the glory of His             to make atonement for it. Rather, if God were to go on in

name. This was the glory which Moses contemplated upon                 the midst of Israel, it could only be as a consuming fire in

the mountain for forty days and nights.                                holiness and judgment. But Moses realized that Israel

     With him, when Moses came up unto the mountain,                   needed the presence of God, and he prayed for it. It was

Moses had taken two tables of stone newly carved. They                 then, upon Moses' request, that God revealed His glomry.

were the same shape and size as the others which he had                He would go on in the midst of Israel and in doing so

broken on the rocks below. God had commanded that he                   would reveal mercy to the elect children of Israel by forgiv-

carve them and take them along. There, as Moses stood anI              ing their iniquity and sin. That He would do, not by merely

watched, the ten words of God's law were engraved again                overlooking their guilt. In the day of visitation, their sin too

by the finger of God upon the face of these tables of stone.           would be visited. But at the same time He would be a con-

The act of Moses in breaking the first tables had been rash,           suming fire of holiness and justice upon all that did not

and now they had to be replaced. At the moment when he                 belong to them. He would visit their iniquity upon them

had broken them, it had seemed the only thing to do. To                and upon their children unto the third and fourth generation

his mind they had lost their only use. He had been there               after them.


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                       201


   A                                                              given to experience a more intimaeee-  communion with God
        S for the second time Moses received the law writ-

ten upon tables of stone, he realized much more what              than any other saint or prophet of Old Testament times, and

purpose it was given to fulfill. The law would never serve        this could not leave him unchanged. Even when the forty

to make the children of Israel perfect. Their sin was much        days and nights were over and he went down from the holy

too deeply entrenched for the law to do that. Always they         mountain, the glory of God's presence continued to radiate

would be subject to temptation, and often they would go           from his face. But it was God's glopy  and not his, and he was

astray. As they had sinned once, they would do it in the          unaware of it.

future over and over  again. But they needed the law just the        Coming again to Aaron and the people, Moses thought to
same, for as long as the law was there the children of Israel     tell them immediately of all that he had learned, but the
would never be able to say that they did not know that their      people backed away from him in fear. They saw that glory
sinful deeds were wrong. Whenever they sinned, the law            of God on Moses' face which he unconsciously bore. They
would be there to remind them of their guilt. This would          saw that radiance of divine holiness and were filled with
be even more true when God would come to visit Israel in          terror.    Then Moses began to realize how greatly his ap-
judgment. According to the law His justice would be dis-          pearance had been changed by standing in the presence of
pensed both in the chastisement of His chosen and in the          God. Only after he had taken up a veil and covered his face
pimishment  of the wicked. Each time the visitation of God        would the people allow him to come close enough to them
appeared the Israelite that knew the law would be convicted       to speak. This was a warning to Moses. He had learned
by his own conscience of his own guilt. That was the purpose      many wonderful things about God and His glory ; but, in the
of the law. It could not take away sin. It could not make         form that he knew them, they were more than the people
the children of Israel righteous. It was a schoolmaster that      were able to endure. The people of Israel were as children
would serve to teach them over and over again that they had       in matters relating to God. As children they had to be talked
uo righteousness in themselves. In this way those who truly       to and instructed. If he would tell them directly all that he
desired salvation would be brought more and more to look          knew, it would only fill their hearts with terror. He would
upon and trust in the promise that had been revealed to the       have to speak to them in accord with their limitations as
fathers. They would place their hope in the promised seed         though through a veil. The tabernacle would have to be
that through the marvelous w'orking  of Jehovah would be a        built in the form that had been revealed to him before. Civil
blessing unto them. It was the blessing they could not find       and ceremonial laws would be given. These would serve as
in themselves. Smitten by sorrow and repentance under the         types and figures through which the truth would be brought
chastisement of the law, true Israel would turn to the glory      gradually to find a place in believing hearts. But always the
revealed unto Moses, even the assurance that God would have       veil would be there. Only when Moses went into the presence
mercy according to His good-pleasure to forgive the iniquity      of the Lord could it be taken away. There he would know
of His people and prepare for them the way of salvation.          perfect and free communion. He could speak openly from

   For forty days and forty nights Moses abode in com-            the feeling and understanding of his heart.

muniou with God on the mountain. During that time he did
                                                                      Many years and ages would pass before that veil would
not eat, he did not drink, and he had no sleep; and yet
                                                                  be taken away from the revelation of the glory of God. AlE
his eyes were not dim, and his body was not exhausted with
                                                                  through the old dispensation the people of God were limited
fatigue. He abode in the presence of God and partook of
                                                                  to type and shadow; for, even though they advanced in the
the meat of which Jesus was later to speak at the well of
                                                                  truth, it was all that they co,uld endure. Only with the
Sychar. The g-lory  of God's presence sustained his body even
                                                                  coming of Jesus and the gift of His Ho,ly  Ghost was the
as it gave strength to his soul. We know on,ly  very little
                                                                  veil finally removed from God's glory, and we stand before
of that which was revealed to Moses while there. He must
                                                                  it as Moses did, only far more so, to be transformed from
have seen a heavenly vision of glory such as,  our eyes cannot
                                                                  glory to glory into the very image of God.
imagine. He must have been told many wonderful truths
                                                                                                                                  B . W .
about God and His counsel which were never fully revealed

again until Jesus Christ came to dwell in the flesh. Moses

both literally and figuratively beheld the beauty of God. He

experienced that which Paul described many years later

when he wrote, "But we all, with open face beholding as                                    IN MEMORIAM
in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
                                                                     The Men's Society of the First Protestant Reformed Church ex-
image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
                                                                  presses its heartfelt sympathy to one of our members, Mr. H.
II Cor. 3 :lS. As Moses stood there before the beauty of          Wybenga, in the loss of his brother-in-law
God the skin of Moses' face began to shine with a reflection                          MR. HERMAN KREUZER
of the glory of. God that was being revealed to him. The             May our gracious Father comfort and sustain the bereaved.
truth of God entered in to fill his heart, and the beauty of
                                                                                                      Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, Pres.
God impressed itself upon his countenance. He was being                                                Mr. John Bylsma, Sec'y.

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


                                                                       office of Bisho'p, or greater degree of holiness, overlook this

11  F R O M   H O L Y   W R I T '   11 fact.
                                                                          Secondly, because a greater office is not indicated by that

                                                                       of a bishop over a deacon. Such is contrary to the plain

                  Exposition of I Timothy                              teaching of Paul in this chapter; both required the same
                                                                       high moral requisites.    The office of the priesthood of Christ

                        (I Timothy 3 :8-13)                            is not inferior to that of His kingship. This is an erroneous

                                                                       conception which I have met with more than once in my

                                 b.                                    ministry. In fact, I once received an official protest that a

                                                                       man who had been elder was put on nominatio,n  for deacon;
       There are still two matters in this section under con-
                                                                       that was degrading for the man, it was opined! Now Scrip-
sideration to which we must call attention.
                                                                       ture knows nothing of this superiority of the office of a

       The first of these is the question of the meaning of Paul       bishop omver  that of a deacon. The bishop is an overseer not

in verse 13, where he speaks of the "good degree" (King                over other office-bearers, but over the congregation.

James Version) which is acquired by those who serve well
                                                                          Thirdly, although it may be conceded that the Scriptures
in the office of a deacon, and also what is, to be understood
                                                                       do teach a "good degree" in the life to come, a greater glory,
when Paul speaks of the "great boldness, in the faith which is         this does not prove that such is the teaching of Paul here.
in Christ Jesus" in connection with such a good service as             For the Scriptural teaching of the "good (better) degree" in
deacon.                                                                the life to come we refer to the teaching of Christ in Luke

       The text in verse 13 reads as follows : "for they that have     16:9  where we read: "Make to yourselves friends of the

used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a              unrighteous Mammon; that, when ye fail, they may receive

good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in               you into everlasting habitations."

Christ Jesus."                                                            On the basis of these considerations we reject the inter-

       It may serve our purpose best in the interpretation of          pretation which holds to a "higher degree," either in official

this verse to call attention to the two different interpretations      standing or in personal holiness.

which have been given and are held by interpreters of                     Rather we accept the interpretation which refers this
reputation.                                                            "good degree" (k&s  baSthmos)  to a good sta:ndhg in the

       In the one class of expositors it is held that Paul has         office of deacon as does Joh. Huther  in the Commentary of

reference in the term "good degree" (kalos bathmos  in the             the Meyer Series.

Greek), to a "higher ecclesiastical office," that is, "the office         We do so in consideration of the fact that Paul adds to
of a Bishop."      It is then held that the ofice of a bishop is       the notion of good "degree" by way of aposition (epexegesis) ,
higher and more honorable in character than that of a deacolt.         "and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus."
Thus some. Others hold that the "good degree" refers to a              It seems to the undersigned that unless the former be inter-
"higher stage of life of faith, an increase in perfection." Thus       preted in the light of the latter we do not interpret Scripture
possibly those who have a rather strange view of the increase          here in the light of Scripture.
.of holiness in the saints in this life. Still others hold that

this refers to the en-pectancy  of a greater glory in the life to          Now Paul speaks in this added phrase of "boldness."

come; somewhat in the order of what Jesus says concerning              The term in the Greek is paru&an,  which means: candor,

those who are here faithful over little and who shall be               freedom in speech. More generally it means: bold courage

placed, in the future heavenly glory, over much.                       in action, and then, lastly, it refers to firm confidence in

                                                                       something.
       The o,ther  class of interpreters holds that Paul has refer-

ence here simply to a good "standing" in the office of the                There are those who would interpret this phrase in the

deacon in the church ; the Greek term "bathmos" then refers            technical sense: of boldness in the forgiveness of sins and

not to a "degree" but to positive standing in the office.              in the hope of standing in that day. Thus we read in Hebrews

                                                                       4 :16  that we "approach with boldness to the throne of grace."
       We, after having given considerable thought to this
                                                                       Here there is no doubt as to the reference of this boldness.
exegetical point, are of the considered opinion that the latter
                                                                       Again in I John 3 21 the writer refers to boldness toward
view correctly interprets the meaning of the Apostle.
                                                                       God in that Day when God shall judge the world in right-
       In the first place, because the term "good" (ka2os  in          eousness. However, here there is no such reference.
Greek) should not be interpreted as a comparative adjective,

an adjective in comparative degree. The sense then is that                 We hold that Paul does not exclude "boldness toward

it means : better ! Such is not the sense of the term ; it simply      God," nor does he in this phrase lose sight of "boldness to

means: good. The interpretations which refer this to a                 come near to the throne of grace"; however, it seems to us

"better" degree either in the office in the church, a higher           that the immediate reference here is this @&~ztentaZ  bold-

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


ness in the office of the deacon. It is the boldness in Christ              We are of the opinion that the latter interpretation is the

which one acquires as gift of grace in faithful service of              correct one. We believe that it is the more natural sense of

being a deacon. -And,  therefore, the "good degree" is not              the text; it is less forced in its sense. Besides, how easily

a higher office, but it is a good standing in the office by             could Paul not have written "deaconess" had he thus meant.

virtue of boldness in the Lord. He is the trust and confidence              In the light of the above interpretation we still stand
of all who labomr well in the office, more and more.                    before the question : why Paul gives a special admonition co,n-

    That Paul thus teaches in connection with the deacon                cerning  the wives of the deacons which he does,  not explicitly

should not surprise us. For particularly in the office of the           state concerning the wives of the bishops !

deacon we see the "good works" of faith of the church as                    It would certainly be erroneous tot infer from Paul's
they proceed from faith and are performed according to the              silence on that score that the wives of the elders and, min-
law of God.     (See Question 91 of the Heidelberg Catechism.)          isters should: not also be grave, temperate and not slanderers.
Further, it should not be overlooked that the pedagogical,              That is true even of every Christian, for all are to, live from
spiritual-ethical reason for "good works" is exactly that               faitih according to the second table of the law. However, that
we may be assured of our faith out of the fruits. (Ques. 86,            it is mentioned here by Paul must find its reason in the cir-
H. C.)                                                                  cumstance that particularly the wife of the deacon had oc-

    Now if this be true of the good works in general of all             casion to, have contacts in the congregation which others did

the saints, why would this not be true in a marked degree               not. Thus it would seem to me.

of those who are not simply occupied with mere humanistic                   That particularly these elements are mentioned indicates
philanthropy, but who are the official messengers and ad-               the relation of these women to their brethren and sisters in
ministrators of the gifts of the mercy of Christ, as they pro-          human relations. Now the deacon's wife must be no she-
ceed from the hearts of those in whom the Spirit dwells ?               devil, a slanderer. Women, seemingly, are more given to

    The second matter, to which we alluded above, and now               slander than men, while men are mo,re  subject to being

must call more particular attention to is the question whether          double-tongued.

Paul in verse 11 refers to the "wiv& of the deacons" or                     Since these wives of the deacons too are in the house of
whether this refers to a special group of women known as                God, the temple of the living God, they must put the shoes
"deaconesses."                                                          from off their feet. All things must be done in decency and

    Here too we really have two different interpretations by            good order !

interpreters of name and fame.                                              Whether Paul came to see the church of Ephesus yet is

    The first interpretation holds that Paul here speaks of             a question ; he met the elders on the shores of Mdita.

the rEqztisifes  for women to be elected to, the office of dea-             Meanwhile Timothy has his instruction to, which he must
coness. The reasons assigned by these is that the term "like-           give heed.
wise" in verse 11, must, just as in verse 8, refer to a transi-
                                                                            The fundamental thought which must fill his soul and
tion to. a new class of office, of ecclesiastical persons. Since
                                                                        direct him is that -the directions pertain to the church of the
Paul make a transition from the office of "bishops" to that
                                                                        living God.
of deacons in verse 8, when he says "likewise," thus also here

he makes a transition from the office of "deacon" to that of                We too should keep this in mind, in all things whether

"deaconess."    And to this it is added that it must, therefore,        they be lawful or spiritually profitable. For the offices: are

be held that Paul here speaks of the qualifications which are           put in the church for the edification of all.

necessary for those women who should be elected into this                                                                                G.L.

office.

    The second interpretation holds that Paul here speaks of

the "wives" of the deacons. Attention is called to the fact

that Paul does not really begin to speak of a new and dif-                                        ANNIVERSARY

ferent class of office-bearers (deaconesses) but that he must              The Consistory of the Southwest Protestant: Reformed Church of
refer to the wives of deacons since he inserts this instruction         Grand Rapids wishes to express its congratulations to its Pastor,

in the midst of his instruction concerning the necessary                                       REV. M. SCHIF'PER

qualifications. of the deaco,ns,  who will be called to the  office.    on the 25th  anniversary of his ministry of the Word of God.

Besides, it is noticed that Paul does not here speak 0%  "dea-             "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that
conesses" but that he simply speaks of "women," while                   bringeth good tidings, that publisheth Peace; that bringeth good
                                                                        tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; 
there are passages where Paul, referring to women set aside                                                           that saith unto Zion, Thy
                                                                        God reigneth." Isa@ 52:7.
to the special ministry  in the church, denominates +hese with
                                                                                                             Consistory of Southwest Church
the name "deaconess" or "servant." Compare Rom. 16 :l as
                                                                                                             A. Talsma, Vice President
well as I Tim. 5 :9-13.                                                                                      T. Engelsma, Clerk


204                                         T    H    E         STANDAR'D  .BEkRER



                                                                         Our theme for these lines, "Laying our hands to our
              I N   H I S   F E A R                                   mouths" is borrowed from the words of Job. Quite a.bit  of
                                                                      philosophy had been issuing from his mouth. He had given

                                                                      expression to many of his inmost thoughts,. He had been buf-

           Laying Our Hands To Our Mouths                             feted by so-called friends, who accused him of all kinds of

                                                                      evils. He was physically miserable to begin with, had lost all
       The hand is a wonderful member of the body.
                                                                      his possessions and so recently attended the funeral of his ten
       Swiftly it glides over the ivory keys, its fingers striking    children. His wife, who was to be a help meet for him, turned
the right ones at a prescribed rhythm, and produces a cap-            her back upon him and counseled him in the way of wicked-
tivating melody and rich harmonies. Moving up and down,
                                                                      ness. He stood all alone. Nowhere could he go to man for
left and right it selects the letters on the linotype machine         comfort.    In all his physical discomforts he sat with his
setting the type for the printing of these words. Firmly it           thoughts and with the evil thoughts that issued from the
grasps various tools, moves objects, builds structures and            mouths of those who, had called  him their friend. He was
machines, controls trains, planes, automobiles, ships and             not to be envied. To be sure, Elihu came to Job's defence
other vehicles with motors. Deftly it applies paint and re-           and reproved his "friends" for their vile and unfounded
alizes a beautiful landscape or seascape. It presses buttons,         accusations. But the section of the book where the expression
throws switches, weaves and sews, pounds and lifts, throws            is found from which we borrowed the above theme is the
and gathers, plants and reaps, builds up and tears down.              one in which God appears to Job and challenges Job to an-
Adapted it is to, every kind of work that needs to, be done here      swer. He appears to Job in the whjrlwind and says, "Who
belo,w.                                                               is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?"
       And the mouth serves a twofold purpose.                        What an indictment! That mouth of Job had been used

       Through that mouth we receive into our bodies the food         to express foolishness. Better had it been that these vile

that we need for our earthly existence. Into it daily  we take        things had never issued forth from that mouth. But they

food and drink. And when we were but babes, before we                 had arisen in his soul, and he did speak them with his lips.

could use these hands -and indeed they seemed to be all               For some seventy verses in two chapters God hurls at Job

thumbs to us then - we were continually crying for some-              barbed questions that pierce to the very heart of the matter.

thing to be put into that mouth. If food was not forthcoming,         One after the other these pointed arrows strike into the soul
our thumbs had to be stuffed in to satisfy us. One does               of Job. He is on trial. He must give answer to the Most High.

wonder whether'it  is a carryover of this childlike activity that     He has spoken. Words have come forth out of his mouth.

as soon as parental supervision is relaxed or escaped the crav-       And because of them he must open that mouth again and give

ing is to thrust into that mouth a cigarette, a cigar or pipe and     answer to God's questions. And the Almighty God ends the

"chew" on it many an hour of the day. But surely our mouths           onslaught with these significant words, "Shall he that con-

are used for putting things into them. God made them for              tendeth with the Almighty instruct Him ? he that reproveth

putting food in for the nourishment of our earthly frames.            God, let him answer." Ah, Job, now open your mouth and

And the hand serves that mouth by bringing our food into it.          speak. Use that mouth to give utterance to words of wisdom !

       But that mouth serves another purpose. It serves also             That Job does.
to bring o,tbt into the open that which resides in the soul. We
                                                                         With that mouth Job makes confession and declares with
use the mouth for speech. We express to' others what goes
                                                                      his head hung low in shame. Quietly yet with  definiteness
on in our inner being.     And it is in regard to this that Jesus
                                                                      and sincerity he says, "Behold, I am vile ; what shall I an-
said that not that which goeth into, the mouth defileth a man,
                                                                      swer thee?" Job 40:4. Such words out of his mouth do not
but that which cometh  out. Granted that the things which
                                                                      defile him. Such words show a penitent heart full of Godly
enter our bodies through our mouths may kill us, that which
                                                                      so,rrow.
enters the mouth does not send us to hell or add to the

punishment we deserve in hell. But it is that which proceeds             And then Job remembers that he has a hand as well as

out of the mouth that reveals to us what we deserve and               a mouth and that there is in this instance a very good use

whether we are defiled .in God's sight.                               for that hand. He says,     "I will lay mine hand upon my

       .And,  even as we already pointed out, that hand that          mouth. Once have I spoken ; but I will not answer : yea
                                                                      twice ; but I will proceed no further." He will use his hand
serves the mouth by bringin,
                                m our food and drink into it also
                                                                      to cover his mouth. He will stifle all that foul and: foolish
serves that mouth in regard to the things that issue fo,rth
from it. At least it ought to do so. They belong to the same          babbling which reveals a heart boiling with wickedness. Quite
body and for the good of the person ought to work together            a valuable and necessary use of the hand! It ought to, be
for the wellbeing of the man. It is to a very special use of          practiced more today by us as well as by Job.

that hand in the service of the mouth, as the instrument                  To be sure, keeping silent does not cure that evil heart.

through which we express our inmost thoughts, that I would            Even though speaking reveals the cesspool of corruption

call your attention at this time.                                     that is within, laying our hands to our mouths will not clean


up that source of all our evil thinking in regard to the Most        icize the ways of the sovereign and almighty God.

High.. No, but it does preventi  further sin. It does stifle             In His providence He governs and controls all things. He
the practice of sin. And it surely is an act of fighting sin.        upholds the creatures that hurt us as well as those which we
With God there are no big sins and little sins. That which           use with joy and pleasure. He sends the cheering rain and
we would call the smallest sin is so great in His sight that         the warmth of the sunshine. But He also sends, the destruc-
even it demands eternal punishment in hell. Uzzah only               tive tornado, the cloudburst, the flood and the scorching heat
touched the ark, but God smote him as well as Pharaoh and            out of the copper sky. He sends the cooling summer breeze
his host. And even though we should not speak of little              but also the sub-zero blast that numbs, destroys and kills. He
sins and big sins, even though to lay our hands upon our             sends the biting wind, the pestilence and famine. He is t&e
mouths so that we did not speak.the  filth that is within does       source and fount of all life: but He also sends death.
not make the sin smaller, we can s,peak of single and double
                                                                         How quickly we can rebel against all this and criticize
sins and therefore of greater condemnation. It is bad enough
                                                                     His ways. In disgust we cry out, "That miserable wind !"
and a great sin - if we want to talk about big sins and little
                                                                     "Another day of sub-zero weather! Isn'ti  there going to be
sins, then that cesspool of filth that churns and: boils in the
                                                                     any let up?" " Must it rain again  today?' "Why must it al-
soul is far worse than simply the pronouncing of it with the
                                                                     ways rain when I have my days off ?" "The children are sick
lips, even as the murder is far worse than the written account
                                                                     again just the day when we had planned on going away.
in the newspaper or spoken report of it over the radio. But
                                                                     Why must it always be that way ?" "Life was sweet, our
we commit the double sin and feed the fire in our souls, when
                                                                     family was all together, and now that old . . . (here perhaps          =
we use our mouths to speak it instead of laying our hands to
                                                                     we lay our hand partly over our mouth) has to bring war
our mouths to check and stifle it.
                                                                     scares and our boys, our husbands and friends are called to
    "Out of the same mouth," James says in James 3 :lO,
                                                                     training camps and war."
"proceedeth blessing &id cursing. My brethren, these things

ought not so to be." That surely is not in His fear. And at              Quickly lay that hand over the entire mouth. For you are

the moment we are not going to speak about the evil of               criticizing the living God in all these things. He sends them

cursing, which truly is also a manifestation of a wicked heart       all. Be careful that you do not by inference say, "That miser-

and a doubling of the sin, and in regard to which we ought           able God Who sends this miserable wind !" You are finding

daily to lay our hands to our mouths :yea even at times to           fault with His ways. The heart of the king is in His hand

thrust our whole fist down the throat with force to hurl back        to turn it whithersoever He wills. Your soul is rebelling

the tide of evil that comes rushing up to that open mouth. We        against His work when He raises up men to bring the wars

say again, such action will not take away the defilement that        and rumors of wars that prepare the way for Christ to come.

is already in that heart, and Jesus did not say that the             And so it is all down the line. Be careful, lest you be con-

speaking of these things defiles a man. Instead He said that         fronted by Him out of the whirlwind as Job was. Be sure

the thing which comes out'of  man's mouth defiles him. It de-        that you can answer Him. It might be well to read Job 35

files him whether it comes out or not, but it defiles him further    through 41.

when it comes out. But to lay our hands to our mouths to                 Use your hand to bring food to your mouth. But by all
stifle these things is, as, we said, a fighting against that sin
                                                                     means use it also to lay it upon that mouth in the good
and is a work for which in God's grace we will be rewarded           fight of faith, opposing the wickedness that by nature is in
in the day of days as a good work of His grace. What is              your soul. That is living in His fear with your old nature.
more it will reveal a contrite and penitent heart. It will re-       Fight it, do not feed it. In His fear we do not agree with
veal a regenerated life and give us assurance that even
                                                                     all that evil rebellion and criticism of our soul against the
though that cesspool of wickedness is there in the depth
                                                                     living God. In His fear we fight that evil. Do you?
of our being, we are children of God in principle and have
                                                                                                                                  J.A.H.
the promise of full deliverance in the day of Christ. It will

reveal to us for our own comfort that we are living in His-

fear.

    As we began to say, we are not at the moment in this

article planning on speaking of that evil of cursing our                                       IN MEMORIAM
fellowmen and the creatures round about us. Not that there
                                                                        The Men's Society of the First Protestant, Reformed Church ex-
is not room to treat such a matter, nor even that there is
                                                                     presses its sincere sympathy to one of our fellow members, Mr.
not such a need for writing about such things. At the moment
                                                                     George Spruyt,  in the loss of his brother
we have ano,ther  matter in mind which also touches each
                                                                                            MR. PETER SPRUYT
and every one of us. And let us lay our hands to our mouths
                                                                        May the Lord grant to the sorrowing relatives an abundant
lest we utter the lie that such does  not issue forth from our
                                                                     measure of His grace and comfort.
mouths.
                                                                                                        Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, President
    We are bold, and we dare so> freely and quickly to crit-                                            John Bylsma, Secretary


2 0 6                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R


                                                                     aniong  a vast multitude, and a few grains of wheat are
II Contending For The Faith II covered with a heap of chaff, we must leave to God alone
                                                                     the knowledge of his Church whose foundation is his secret

                                                                     election, Nor is it sufficient to include in our thoughts and

              The Church and the Sacraments                          minds the whole multitude of the elect, unless we conceive

                                                                     of such a unity of the Church, into which we know ourselves
             THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION
                                                                     to be truly ingrafted. For unless we are united with all the

                   V I E W S   O N   T H E   C H U R C H             other members under Christ our Head, we can have no hope

                                                                     of the future inheritance. Therefore the Church is called
                   T H E   P R O T E S T A N T   V I E W
                                                                     CATHOLIC, or universal ; because there could not be two or

         The Protestant view of the Church is certainly expressed    three churches, without Christ being divided, which is im-

in that article of the Apostles' Creed which reads: "I believe       possible. But all the elect of God are so connected with

an holy catholic church." Calvin, in his Institutes of the           each other in Christ, that as they depend upon one head, so

Christian' Religion, writing on the "Church," and specifically       they g&w up together as into one body, compacted together

setting forth the meaning of the article: "I believe an holy         like members of the same body ; being made truly one, as

catholic church," writes as follows (Book IV, Chapter I,             living by one faith, hope, and charity, through the same

paragraph II, and we quote: "That article of the Creed, in           Divine Spirit, being called not only to the same inheritance

which we profess to, believe THE CHURCH, refers not oaly             of eternal life, but also to a participation of one God and

to the visible Church of which we are now speaking, but              Christ. Therefore, though the melancholy desolation which

likewise to all the elect of God, including the dead as well         surrounds us, seems to proclaim that there is nothing left of

as the living. The word BELIEVE is used, because it is               the Church, let us remember that the death of Christ is fruit-

often impossible to discover any difference between the chil-        ful, and that God wonderfully preserves his Church as it

dren of God and the ungodly, between his peculiar flock and          were in hiding-places, ; according to what he said to Elijah :

wild beasts. The particle IN, interpolated by many, is not           `I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have

supported by any probable reason. I confess that it is gen-          not bowed the knee to Baal'." -end of quote.

erally adopted at present, ancl is.not destitute of the suffrage        The Church of God is therefore an object of faith: "I

of antiquity, being found in the Nicene  Creed, as it is trans-      believe an holy catholic church." How d,rastically  this view

mitted to us in ecclesiastical history. Yet it is evide,nt  from     differs from the Romish conception of the Church, namely

the writings of the fathers, that it was anciently admitted          that the Church is a company of men externally bound to-

without controversy to say, `I believe the Church,' not `in          gether by the profession of the same Christian faith, the same

the Church.' For not only is this word not used by Augustine         sacraments (seven), and under the government of legitimate

and the ancient writer of the work `On the Exposition of the         pastors, especially the pope. That the church is, the object

Creed,' which passes under the name of Cyprian, but they             of faith and can be embraced only by faith is readily under-

particularly remark that there would be an impropriety in            standable. First, it is the object of faith because of its

the expression, if this prepo,sition  were inserted ; and they       catholicity. The church is catholic, universal. The Church

confirm their opinion by no trivial reason. For we declare           is constituted of an innumerable host, greater than the stars

that we believe in God because our mind depends upon him             in the sky, the sand along the seashore, the dust upon the

as true, and our confidence rests in him. But this. would            ground. The Church consists of an innumerable number of

not be applicable to the Church, any more than to `the remis-        elect, of the past and the present and the future. This Church

sion of sins,' oi the `resurrection of the body.' Therefore,         we cannot possibly see. All we can see is an insignificantly,

though I am averse to cont&tions about words, yet I would            infinitesimally small segment of it. To, confess an holy,

rather adopt a proper phraseolo,gy  adapted to express the           catholic, universal church surely means that we confess some-

subject than-  affect forms of expression by which the subject       thing that appears utterly contrary to what the eye can see.

would be unnecessarily involved in obscurity. The design                Secondly, this article of the Apostles' Creed is an objet:

of this clause is to teach us, that though the devil moves           of faith because it expresses that we believe an koty catholic

every engine to, destroy the grace of Christ, and all the ene-       church. This surely defies all human understanding. That

mies of God exert the most furious violence in the same              the Church of God is holy means that it is completely separ-

attempt, yet his grace cannot possibly be extinguished, nor          ated from all sin and pollution and is wholly consecrated unto

can his blood be rendered barren, so as.  not to produce some        the Lord.. However, all that we see is sinful and corrupt and

fruit. Here we must regard both the secret election of God,          defiled. One could never conclude from the appearance of

and his internal vocation ; because he alone `knoweth them           the people of God in the midst of the world that the Church

that are his'; and keeps them enclosed under his `seal,' to          of God is an holy catholic church; pure and perfect and un-

use the expression of Paul; except that they bear his impres-        defiled. That the Church of God is holy is therefore some-

sion, by which they may be distinguishec!  from the reprobate.       thing that can only be believed. It is strictly an object of

But because a small and contemptible number is concealed             f a i t h .


                                                                                                                   I- -
                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                      207


    Thirdly, we believe an holy, catholic cl~%~rck.  We do nbt       sion which characterizes it. And yet we believe in the o,ne-

believe in holy churches, but in an holy church. Hence, the          ness  of the Church, believe that there is onSy  one God, one

Church of God is one. This is surely the testimony of Holy           Christ, one Spirit, one baptism, and that therefore the elect

Writ. We read in Eph. 4:3-7: "Endeavouring  to. keep the             Body of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be, is not characterized

unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body,         by division, but by unity. In the Church of God is no, dis-

and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your            cord, no division, only unity and harmony. This is surely in

calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and               conflict with that which greets the eye. All we see is divi-

Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you         sion. Indeed, we can only believe that the Church is one.

all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to                And this is not all. Fourthly, when we believe an holy

the measure of the gift of Christ." And in I Cor. 12 :l-14 we        catholic church, we also believe that this catholic, universal

read :    "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would         Church of God in Christ is destined for eternal and  heavenly

not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, car-           immortality. We believe that the people of God live, cannot

ried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Where-         die, and shall live forever. To quote the Scripture in support

fore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the           of this is surely unnecessary. But, also this is contrary to

Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can            all human life and experience. What we see and experience

say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now               is exactly the opposite! We are mortal, natural, subject to

there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there       all the ravages of sin, of disease and death. We are not in-

are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And           corruptible but corruptible, not heavenly but earthy, not im-

there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God          mortal but mortal. Dying we die, and our journey through

which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit        this vale of tears carries us irresistibly from the cradle to the

is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given          grave. This is the indisputable testimony of our earthly

by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of             existence. And yet we believe that the Church of God is an

knowledge by the same Spirit; To' another faith by the same          holy catholic church, called out of sin and darkness and

Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;          death and into the life of God's everlasting covenant, to, live

to another the working of miracles ; to another prophecy : to        with God in Christ and to reign with Him even forever. It

another discerning of spirits : to another divers kinds of           is therefore not difficult to understand the apostle Paul when

tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues : But all          he writes: Behold, I show you a mystery. A mystery is not

these worketh that one and the selfsame  Spirit, dividing to         necessarily something incomprehensible (although there are

every man severally as he will. For as the body is one, and          mysteries that are incomprehensible) ; it is surely not a

hath many members, and all the members of that one body,             contradiction, because a mystery cannot lieved ; but a mystery

being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one              is something which lies completely beyond the scope of all our

Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews         earthly existence. And this is surely applicable to the faith

or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all           of the Church when it believes "one holy catholic church."

made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one                  This is, first of all, the Protestant view of the Church.

member, but many."       How contrary this is to all human           The Church of God is surely an object of faith. It is not

understanding experience! To be sure, for several centuries          simply an external company of men, professing the same

of the New Dispensation there was only one Church of                 faith, using the same sacraments, under legitimate pastors,

Christ. The first great schism in the New Dispensation               especially the pope. It is the elect Body of our Lord Jesus

occurred in the middle of the eleventh century when the              Christ, chosen from before the foundation of the world,

church in the East (the Greek church) broke away from the            destined for everlasting life and immortality, one in love and

Cliurch in the West (the Latin church). And the next great           agreeing in true faith,  the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the

division took place in the sixteenth century at the time of          Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Building of God, the

the Reformation. Hence, prior to 1517 there was, at least            one fold of Christ, called to proclaim the praises and virtues

in the West and in name, only one Church of God in Christ            of the alone glorious God.                                    H.V.

in the midst of the world. But with the movement of the

Reformation came division. The Protestant Church broke up
                                                                                              IN MEMORIAM
subsequently into hundreds of fragments. Today we witness

a tremendous number of churches : Baptist, Methodist, Pres-             The Radio Choir of the Reformed Witness Hour expresses its
                                                                     deep sympathy to its fello,w  members, Mr. and Mrs. C. Jonker and
byterian, Reformed, and these churches are again cut up and          Mr. C. We&a, in the loss of their brother,

subdivided into many segments and branches. How many dif-                                   JAMES D. JONKER

ferent churches are there not- which subscribe to the same              We, of the Choir, also keenly feel this loss since Mr. Jonker was
Three Forms of Unity to which we also, as Protestant Re-             our faithful accompanist for many years. We pray that the God of
                                                                     ail comfort may sustain the family in the knowledge that their loved
formed churches, subscribe ? The Roman Catholic Church               one has preceded them to Glory. "Cast thy burden upon Jehovah, and
prides itself in the fact that it is one, and declares that Prot-    He will sustain thee: He will never suffer the righteous to be
                                                                     moved." Ps. 55:22.
estantism must stand condemned because of the hopeless divi-                                                       D. Monsma, President


             i
208                                        T&-E  STANDAR.D   B E A R E R                                                                    -_-


                                                                      origin of the prophetic word ? Who is the author of the

          The Voice of Our Fathers-                                   Ymore sure word of prophecy"? Why can he be so dogmat-
                                                                      ically certain that this word of prophecy is "more sure"?

                                                                         To these questions the apostle gives the only possible

                    The Belgic Confession                             answer: no prophecy of Scripture is of any private inter-

                                                                      pretation.

                           ARTICLE III                                   Ta understand this we must bear in mind that in Scrip-

                           (continued)                                ture we are confronted. with facts, realities, but also with the

                                                                      meaning and significance of those .facts, that is, their inter-

   In answer to this question concerning the meaning of the           pretation. Both of these axe  conveyed to us by prophecy, that

quotation from II Peter 1 (raised in the last issue), we may          is, by Scripture. And it is with "interpretation" in this sense

notice that o,ur  Confession does not answer this question            that the text is concerned here, that is, not with the inter-

directly, seeing that it quotes only from verse 21. But in            pretation of the prophetic words after they have been

order to understand this quotation we should view it in its           spoken and after they have been written down in the

context, and then must ask as to the meaning of the state-            Holy Scriptures, but with the prophet+  words them-

ment that "No prophecy of the scripture is of any private             selves, with the interpretation of facts, events, realities that

interpretation."                                                      is given in prophecy. Thus, for example, the Scriptures

       As suggested, there are those who interpret this expres-       record for LIS  the reality, the event of the cross of Christ. The

sion as merely laying down a rule for the interpretation of           cross is a historical event. But that cro,ss was God's Self-

Scripture. In that case the text means that after a prophecy          revelation. It is a Word of God. And therefore God's people

of the Scripture has been given, it is still impossible toi under-    must know not only that the event of the cross of Christ

stand that prophecy and to interpret the Scripture without            took place some nineteen hundred years ago. And they must

the guidance of the Spirit of God. Even after the prophecy            not only know that the cross, or Christ crucified, is the Word

has once been given, it cannot be left to man to interpret it.        of God. They must know too the contents of that speech aE

Thus, when God revealed His will prophetically `through the           God. They must know the meaning and significance of the

revelatory dreams of Pharaoh's butler and baker, and through          cross. They must know z&at  actually took place at the cross.
the two dreams of Pharaoh himself, it was still necessary that        And the text under consideration tells us that this meaning

someone by the guidance of the Spirit interpret those dreams.         and significance of the historical event of the cross -or any

There was a Word of God in those dreams. But that Word                other event-is not of any private interpretation. It is not

of God requires, interpretation. And that interpretation is not       of mere men. That is a matter of prophecy.

private; it is not of Joseph himself. But it is from God and              And how is all this possible ? Whence is the infallible
by the Holy Ghost operating in Joseph. Thus it is today too,          record both elf  the event and the si,tificance of the event?
according to these interpreters of the text in II Peter 1. We
                                                                         Is it perhaps the case that God spoke in and by various
have the Scriptures. And in those Scriptures we have
                                                                      events of history, and that He left the interpretation of that
prophecy, the Word of God. But that prophecy is not a
                                                                      speech to men, fallible men ? Or is it true that God both
matter of private interpretation. No, those Scriptures can
                                                                      revealed Himself in a given historical event, a divine action,
be understood and interpreted only under the guidance of the
                                                                      that is, realized His own Word, and at the same time caused
Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth, Who leads the church into
                                                                      that Word to be spoken in human language, and thus inter-
all the truth.
                                                                      preted and explained His acts ?
       Now, while the foregoing is true, and constitutes a
                                                                          The text quot.ed by our Confession gives. the answer, first
fundamental principle  for the interpretation of Scripture ; and
                                                                      of all, negatively: "this Word of God (the prophecy) came
while we may even say that this principle follows from and
                                                                      not in old time by the will of man."
is rooted in the truth that Scripture is the Word of God ;

nevertheless this cannot possibly be the meaning of the                   Notice the import of this simple and  perfectly clear state-

apostle Peter's words in this passage. Then he would not              ment of Scripture. Prophecy, that is, the written or spoken

have stated in verse 21 that "prophecy came not in old time           record of both the event and the interpretation of that event,

by the will of man : but holy  men of God spake as they were          came not by the will of man. Neither in the old dispensation,

moved by the Holy Ghost."       For, notice, this statement is a      when the prophets (and the historians, and the lawgiver, and

reason for what he states in vs. 20, namely, that no Scripture        the poets) spoke and wrote, nor in the new dispensation,

prophecy is of any private interpretation. Besides, in the            when the apostles were eye-witnesses of the Word made flesh,

whole passage the apostle is concerned with the proposition           did the prophetic word come into existence by the will of

that the apostolic word is not a cunningly devised fable, but         man. This means, therefore, that Scripture and our Confes-

the truth declared and interpreted by eye-witnesses of the            sion deny completely and without any reservation the so-

power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He wants to                called human factor in Scripture as far as the origin and the

answer the question : whence is prophecy.?  W h a t   i s   t h e     nature of Holy Writ are concerned. If it had been a matter


                                            T H E   S'T'AND&Rti   B E A R E R `                                                      209


of the will of man, there would never have been, there could          member: a human factor and a human, though secondary,

never have been, any prophecy whatsoever. There is no ele-            author are a falM& factor and author. And it is exactly

ment, no. part, no form, no word of that prophecy that is             along this line that you can begin to speak, as many do, of
partially or wholly to be attributed to the will of man. The          a human and a divine element in Scripture itself, i.e., in

test states flatly : "the prophecy came -not in old time by the       the corzt&s  of the Bible. If you stress emphatically enough

will of man."                                                         that Paul's  individuality was not suppressed by the Holy

    Nor must it be argued that the apostle is. writing here of        Spirit, but used as the Holy Spirit found it, you will come to

the spoken prophecy in distinction from written prophecy.             the conclusion that Paul and the Holy Spirit were co-laborers

The text includes both. For it states, <`no  prophecy of the          and co-authors in the production of his.  letters to the churches.
Sciipture  is of any private interpretation."                         And thus you will soo,n begin to differentiate between that
 -i.- 7 .
    1 his is important because all the various attempts to            which is of Paul's authorship and that which is of the Holy

deny the truth of infallible inspiration must somehow in-             Spirit's authorship in his epistles. But then you have lost

troduce a human factor into the Scriptures. A fallible Scrip-         Scripture as the Word of God. Then you have denied that

ture, of course, could not be the work of God, Who callnot            "prophecy came not in old time by the will of man." For re-

lie and who cannot make a mistake and who cannot do any-              member this: if Scripture is not in the most absolute and

thing imperfect. Any fallible element in the Scriptures must          complete sense the Word of God, which did not come by the

necessarily be the product of the will of man. And there              will of man, you no. longer have any guarantee that any part

have been various attempts to introduce such a human factor           whatsoever is the Word of God.

into the Scriptures. We may mention some of them:                         Hence, our Confession, maintaining the simple truth of

    1.       There is the dualistic view, which distinguishes be-     Scripture itself, denies this human factor completely. To be

tween the religio-ethical elements of Scripture and the his-          sure, there are human instruments who are employed in the

torical parts, the latter of which are not inspired.                  production of Scripture. Isaiah wrote his. prophecy, Paul

    2. There is the so-called dynamic view, which attempts            his epistles, John his Apocalypse. Indeed, the Scriptures are

to teach that @y.xons are inspired, and that too, fallibly, but       the record of the Word of God in our own, earthly, human

the Scriptures are not inspired.                                      language. But the Word that is recorded in the Scriptures

 3. There is the view of so-called thought-inspiration,               in earthly, human language by human instruments came in

which attempts to maintain that God conveyed His thoughts             no sense of the word by the will of man. Men spake. Men

to men, but left'  it to those men to cloak those thoughts in         wrote. But what they spake and what they wrote is not of

words-an impossible view, in the light of the fact that               their own authorship, not of their own origination, not of

words are the vehicles of thoughts.                                   their own production, not of their own interpretation, not of

   4. There is the dialectical, or Barthian, view, according          their own formulation.

to which the Bible is really nothing more than a human and                This is even evident historically. For, first of all, in all

fallible witness of God's Word.                                       the sacred writings none of these human instruments is on

    And so there                                                      the folregrouncl  whatsoever. Critics of Scripture have at-
                     have been various attempts to deny the ab-
solutely divine character of Scripture.                               tempted, for example, to single out the so-called human

    I must mention in this co,nnection a distinction that is          factors in the books of Moses. But this can never succeed.

sometimes used rather  innocently, perhaps out of an attempt          You can never distinguish in these books any factor that is

to escape the accusation that one believes in mechanical in-          of Moses rather than of God. And all the attempts to do so,

spiration. I refer to those who want to concede that there is         and at the same time to multiply the human authors of these

somehow a human factor in Scripture, or who even want to              books, are so wantonly arbitrary that the critics cannot even

speak of God as the primary author of Holy Writ and men as            agree among themselves. And, in the second place, so com-

the secondary authors. This is a very dangerous distinction           pletely do the human instruments employed in the production

that is sometimes used mistakenly by those who nevertheless           of Scripture recede into the background, and thus fail com-

want to maintain the idea CI~ &fallible inspiration. According        pletely to form a factor, however small, that many of them are

to this view, men, together with their place, their circum-           either little known or altogether anonymous. Of several Old

stances, their personalities, their characters, and talents, their    Testament books we can only speculate as to the identity of

history, constitute the so-called human factor in the produc-         the human instrument. And of the books of which we know

tion of Scripture. They are secondary authors. But God is             the human instrument we discern very little of their identity

the primary author of Ho1y  Writ, and the inspiration by the          in the contents of their writings.

Holy Ghost constitutes the divine factor in the production               Hence, by faith we confess, negatively: "This Word of

of Scripture.                                                         G.od was not sent, nor delivered by the will of man." And,

   The danger of this view is evident. No matter how the              whatever else may be known or understood concerning the

so-called human factor is minimized, it is nevertheless a             Scriptures, we maintain that they are in no sense the wo,rd

factor. And no matter how minor these so-called secondary             of fallible man.
authors are made out to be, they remain authors. And re-                                                                       H.C.H.

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


                                                                     along side of the Psalms there should be introduced a ~dkc-
11  D E C E N C Y   a n d   O R D E R   11 tion of hymns in the churches as the overture requests. We
                                                                     feel that the proposed revision would not limit the use of

                                                                     hymns (except perhaps at first) but would gradually extend

                    THE HYMN MATTER                                  their use until in time the Psalter is virtually replaced. This

                                                                     fear has basis in historical precedent and let none of us say
                            (Continued)                              that we are above this and that our churches would not s,ub-

       The Consistory of the First Protestant Reformed Church,       ject  themselves to this error.

we wrote last time, overtured the Synod in 1959 to revise               That the last mentioned matter is of real concern follows

Article 69 of the Church Order so as to make room in onr             from the argument advanced in the third ground of the over-

churches for the singing of a select number of hymns                 ture. This argument is that "Other churches such as the
                                                               as
approved by the synod. Five grounds, which we also quoted,           Reformed Church of the Netherlands and the Christian

were given for this overture.                                        Reformed Churches of America have already made revisions

       Briefly we would comment concelrning  these grounds-as        of the article."    If this ground means anything at all, it seems

follows :                                                            to me that the argument is that we should do, as they have

       As to the first ground, viz. "that Article 69 has lost all    done. We may then also infer that if we do so with respect

significance for us in its present form," it may be said that        to the revision we will also follow in the path of introducing

this could be remedied by simply eliding those parts. of the         more and more hymns and the singing of Psalms will be

article that have become obsolete. This would entail no gen-         gradually replaced. We hope this does not happen and we

eral revision and would preserve the main thrust of the              certainly hope that  we never introduce this thing on the

article which is that the hundred fifty Psalms shall constitute      ground that other churches have done so, except where it can

the songs of the church. We wonder why this. is used as an           be shown that these other churches have enriched themselves

argument only with reference to Article 69. Certainly the            through such changes. .With  respect to the hymn question

First Church knows that there are other parts of our Church          this is obviously not the case as many within these churches

Order that have also become obsolete and if this is their real       themselves will testify.

concern they ought to propose a general revision of the en-              In view of all this we feel that we can wholly concur

tire Church Order so that all the articles are brought up to         with the sentiment expressed by the Southwest Church as

date. That this seemed to trouble the authors of this overture       appears on page 77, Acts of Synod 1959. We quote the

appears evident from the fourth and fifth grounds adduced.           following :

Here they say that the Church Order should be meaningful,                "But we say again, that unless we are ready to revise our

workable and recognize actual circumstances and conditions.          entire Church Order, we see no immediate need to change

They add that it is impossible to apply and obey Article 69          one article with which we have lived all these years without

in its present fo,rm in our English worship services. Granted        any amendment or change. And at this time, we are not at

that this is so, it is equally true that these same things can       all ready to approve the proposed change First Church offers,

be said of other articles. By adducing these things. as grounds      nor the reasons for which this church proposes such change."

for the overture it seems to me that the concern of the First            Synod, however, in 1959 did not go along with this but

Church is not so much that of the Church Order  but the              evidently  felt that this overture and its gro,unds  was worthy

desire to get the hymns into the churches. The reasoning in          of further consideration. Although all the material submitted

these grounds is       camouflaged and therefolre  misleading.       by Classis  East was not treated, the Synod followed the sug-

Under the pretense of seeking to make the Church Order               gestion of Southeast Church and referred this overture to a

workable and meaningful, a single article is picked out where        study committee which reported the following year. Before

several should have been, a revision proposed that would in          we now consider the report of this committee and the sub-

no way affect the main body of the Church Order and all              sequent action of the synod, we will pause to reflect upon

this to introduce an innovation that has always been looked          the material that was before `the synod in 1959 in order to

upon in the churches with askance.                                   show from it that there is added reason why the synod even

       The second ground given in the overture argues that           at that time should not have pursued the matter further.

since the present form of Article 69 provides for the use of             Before the synod were a number of reports from the

some hymns, it follows that the proposed revision is in order        various consistories of the churches in Classis  East as well

when it makes room for more hymns as approved by the                 as the decision of said Classis  to send the overture of First

synod. This argument is defeating to the very intent of the          Church to synod without its approval. Gleaning the reports

present form of Article 69. It is true that Article 69 provides      of the nine consistories of Classis East we find that the only

for certain hymtis  but it is our opinion that the intention         one that expressed itself ~os&vs~y  in favor of the overture

of this article is that these should be on a very &&~ed  basis.      is the consistory that originated the overture in the first

So limited is this that the allowable hymns are specifically         place. Three consistories espressed agreement with the idea

mentioned. It is not the intention of the Church Order that          of the overture and offered various suggestions as to how


                                           T H E   STAN.DARD  BEARE-R  ,_  _ _   _                                                    211


synod should proceed in this matter. One felt that the hymns            "6. There is no need for fiymns  next to the psalms of

to be used should be approved before the Church Order is            David, which are of&red  to us in Holy Scripture. There is

revised. Another felt this matter should be studied thor-           in the Psalms a spiritual wealth wherein also the heart of the

,oughly.  And another expressed agreement with the spirit of        New Testament Church is able to express itself perfectly,

the overture but felt that better grounds could and should          provided one learn to understand those Psalms well (Rev.

be advanced for this step. Five coasistories expressed them-        H. Hoeksema, S.B. Vol. 4, p. 319).

selves negatively on the proposal and gave various reasons              "7.  The grounds adduced by the First Protestant Re-

as to why it should not be adopted.                                 formed Church do not have sufficient weight to warrant this

    All of these reports make interesting reading. The reader       action at this time.

may find them in the 1959 Acts of Synod. From them we                   "8. The introduction of hymns into our churches would

will select and then abbreviate the various arguments raised        have a detrimental effect upon the generations to come.

against the introduction of hymns in our churches since we              "9. The singing of the psalms by our churches is one of

cannot take space to reproduce all of the material here. With       the marks of our distinctiveness and this should be preserved.

the following     arguments we agree and believe that even              "10. Future synods may be weak and undiscerning in.

though the pl"&@  of the issue may not be involved in               the very difficult task of determining which hymns are

these arguments, they are nevertheless matters that must be         worthy of use in our services."

taken into consideration in resolving this question as they             We may admit that none of these arguments are con-

affect the practicality and expediency of this proposed in-         cl&z~s  in themselves. Yet they are things that merit con-

novation. The only exception where these things would not           sideration if for no other reason than that they express the

have weight is where it can be proven that our churches are         sentiments that prevail in the churches. The churches have

acting contrary to sound principle by maintaining the status-       expressed themselves. They have said in effect concerning

quo in regard to, the singing of the church. And this should        the proposed innovation that although we will not argue that

also be done by those who advocate the change and are in-           the course suggested is wrong in principle, we nevertheless

sistent that the opposition prove the proposed change is            see various reasons we should not go in that direction. To

wrong in principle. The burden of proof lies equally with           introduce the hymns is not going to make our churches more

them to show that our present practice is wyong  in priinciple      distinctive; is not going to set us upon a more solid founda-

and, therefore, a change to> sound principle is necessary. But      tion of truth; is not going to enrich us or our posterity

now the arguments as gleaned from the reports.                      spiritually but this course may very well cause us strife and

    "1. The proposed overture militates against a decision          division ; impose upon us unnecessary burdens ; threaten our

take in Classis  East in 1954.                                      distinctive position and deprive us of the heritage we now

    "2. Our churches are physically, mentally and spiritually       possess.

in no mood to enter what may be a hot controversy on the                Is it worth it? We say it is not ! It is like the little boy

hymn question.                                                      who had the habit of playing with matches. It would not

    "3. Under the present financial burden of our churches          hurt anything if the boy had the matches as. long as he did

the publication of a song book containing songs to be used          not ignite them and it might be that he could even do solne

in our churches is prohibitive. It is financially unfeasible and    good with them. LMother  would have been wiser to have taken

to this we might add that any available funds could, in our         them fro,m him before he burned the house down. As the

opinion, be much mo,re wisely spent in many other ways. I           saying goes, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of

might cite, fo.r example, the fact that the lowering of our         cure."                                                       G.V.d.B.

synodical  assessments would make available more funds to

establish and maintain our Christian schootls  and also com-

plete our educational system.     Our people can rightly be en-

couraged to sacrifice for such causes but I for one could not                                    IN MEMORIAM

induce one to sacrifice to raise funds fo'r the publication of a       On January 13, 1962, it pleased the  Lord to take unto  Himself
                                                                    our beloved Husband, Father, Grandfather and Great-grandfather,
church hymn book.
                                                                                                HERMAN MULDER
   "4. Our churches are not ready to adopt hymns. The
                                                                    at the  age of 78 years.
reports of the consistories of Classis  East bear this out and,
                                                                       We are truly  grateful that he was spared to us for so many
should the Western Churches be given o'pportunity to ex-            years. May the God of all grace comfort our hearts in these  days of
press themselves, I feel certain that this contention-would be      sorrow and direct our eyes to the  glorious resurrection.

substantiated.                                                                                            Mrs. Herman Mnlder
                                                                                                          Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Mulder
   "5. The word `only' in Article 69 speaks volumes. There                                                Mr. and Mrs. Harold Mxddcr
must have been weighty reasons. for the exclusion of all then                                             Mr. and Mrs. John Mulder
                                                                                                          Mr. and Mrs. William Mulder
existing hymns by our fathers when they drew up the present                                                 19 grandchildren
Church Order. The word `only' assumes the proportion of a                                                   13 great-grandchildren
                                                                                                              3 brothers
bulwark against the threatened invasion of the hymn.                                                         2 sisters

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


                                                                     t&denky  to conciliate Communists, to adopt their methods,

11  A L L   ARQUNQ   U S   11 to retreat before their advances. The movement has attract-
                                                                     ed wide-spread attention partly because it has been de-

                                                                     nounced by such men as President Kennedy, former Presi-

                                                                     dent Eisenhower, 1960's presidential candidate Nixon.

THAT RIGHT WING                                                      Even T&W recently devoted a lengthy article to ridicule
                                                                     right wingers. These men have condemned the extremists
   Much in the news these days is the revival in America

                                                                     on the right as well as on the left arguing that both are a
of the so-called "right wing movement". The phrase refers

                                                                     grave danger to our government and country.
to political and economic ideology. The extreme left wing

is communism in the form practiced in Russia and Red                    The remarkable part of it is that this right wing move-

China. The extreme right wing is capitalism in its purest            ment has seized the churches and moved many church lead-

form - capitalism without state intervention.          The terms     ers to action. Evident from the names of the organizations

are sometimes misleading since a dictatorship such                   listed above is the fact that the "Christians" are carrying a
                                                         2s in 3
country like Portugal is also sometimes labeled                      big part of the load of right-wing opposition. Even in Re-
                                                        as "right
wing."    There are variations of the extremes                       formed circles many ministers and laymen have suddenly
                                                   2s well. There
are tendencies towards the left called socialism. This social-       taken up the banner of Anti-Co~mmunism  and Anti-Liberal-

ism is found in various degrees in different countries such          ism, spreading the gospel of conservatism and  urging the

as the Netherlands, Britain, Austria, America. In fact it            people to take battle with Red infiltration and threat. The

appears as if even Russia and Red China are locked in an             chief hero of right wingers is Senator Barry Goldwater from

ideological dispute about how far left Communism should              Arizona, although some extreme right wing groups denounce

really go. There are tendencies towards the right depending          even him as "toa much .a liberal."

upon how much a certain individual or group resists govern-             The fact that the church is caught up in this movement

ment interference in the economic affairs of                         makes it worth some consideration on our part.
                                             2 nation.
   The revival of "rightists" in this country has occupied              It is not my intention in this article to argue the various

the attention not only of politicians and news media, but            virtues of "conservatism" vs. "liberalism" or vice versa. Nor

also of church leaders. There is a growing fear among the            is it my purpose to rise in the defense of any political or eco-

citizenry that our country with its liberal administrations,         nomic theory. This can better be done by those who have

favoring more and bigger government, is running down the             studied political and economic philosophy. It is evident

road to socialism. This socialism is, so it is claimed, but a        to all that this country is rapidly drifting the way of social-

hop, skip and jump from communism as practiced behind                ism, that the capitalism of the last century and the early part

the iron and bamboo curtains. Closely connected with this            of this century is a thing of the past. It is equally evident

tendency tomwards  socialism to be found in our country is           that socialism is but a road mark on the highway to Com-
                                                             21~0
a growing tendency to placate the Communists at all costs, to        munism. It is furthermore beyond dispute that the com-

compromise, to meet their demands, to retreat in the face ol         munism of the iron curtain countries is materialistic and

threats, to surrender one's rights rather than offend, to be         atheistic in the crudest possible form. Communism is therc-

"red rather than dead."     It is this strong tendency that is       fore an enemy of the Church of Christ.

being so strenuously resisted by the "right wing."                      But the question remains whether or not that commits

   There are, of course, degrees of "right wingism" also.            the Christian to the position of right-wing movements. This

There is the radical John Birch Society which called Eisen-          is highly debatable. I do not mean to say that the child of

hower a Communist and demanded the impeachment of                    God need not evaluate the various political and economic

Chief Justice Earl Warren. But there are many other or-              theories of the day and come to some conclusions about

ganizations as well-the Christian Crusade under the lead-            them. If he is to understand his times as well as participate

ership of Dr. Billy James Jargis, the Christian Anti-Com-            in the fulfillment of the obligations and responsibilities of

munism Crusade of Dr. Fred C. Schwarz,  the Christian                citizenship, he must do so intelligently. But this does not

Freedom Foundation which publishes Ch&tiavt  Economics               alter the fact that there are evident dangers in "right-

and has as its motto "We believe iri less government, the free       wingism."

market and the faithful application of Christian principles to          In the first place, the right wing movement is usually

all economic activities," and others. The issues revolve for the     based upon the premise that democracy and capitalism as

most part around the liberal programs of Democratic leaders          incorporated into our Constitution and developed in our

and Republican liberals who urge an increase of government           land stand in the Christian tradition. The Constitution, so

interference in business, medical care of the aged, increasing       it is claimed, is based on Christian principles; the theory of

welfare and reiief payments, aid to schools~ aid to all kinds        Capitalism is supposed to come from Calvinistic theology.

of projects and organizations throughout the country. Bat            This is not true. The first leaders and political philosophers

beyond this is the fear that the Communists are gaining in           of our country who composed the Constitution and pushed

the cold war, and that the reason for these gains is the             the Republic down its rocky road were not Christians -


                                            T-H E S-T A N D A R D               E-E  A R E R                                        213



surely nbt  Reformed believers.      Rather the political ideology    PRAYER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
which prompted the Constitution was based on French ratiomn-              The United States Supreme Court plans to issue 2 ruling
.alism and Deism and influenced by the French revolution.             shortly on whether it is constitutional to say daily prayers in
With regard to capitalism-whether or not the principles               public schools. The issue came to the highest court from
Lof  Christian stewardship imply capitalistic economic thought        New York State. The New York Board of Regents for all
- it is, at least historically untrue that this economic theory       public schools within the state recommended in 1951 that the
is an outgrowth. of Calvinism as is often maintained.                 following prayer be used in the schools:

    In the second place, although the people of God must                           Almighty God, WC a,cknowledge  ow  dependence
come to their own conclusions about questions of political                      upon  thee, and we beg thy blessing upon zm, ow
and economic theory, the Bible does not ever approve of one                     parents, our tcachws,  and our cozmtry.
system over against another. And in doing so, the Bible does              The use of this prayer was challenged by five families
not command the believer to obey one government while                 from -Long Island sending children to four different schools.
.giving  the same believer permission to rebel against another.       One family with three children are Unitarians; two families
Al-ways the calling of the faithful pilgrim is to respect, honor      with four children are Jewish; one family with one child are
and obey all in authority over him for Christ's sake. It is to        members of the Society for Ethical Culture ; one family with
be feared that Christians often forget this fundamental prin-         two children are unbelievers. The Regents argued that the
ciple of the believer's life.                                         prayer was in the public interest because it taught children

    In the third place, and by no means least important, it is        "as set forth in the Declaration of Independence, that Al-

becoming increasingly evident that the church is so pre-              mighty God is their creator and that by him they have been

occupied with the enemy across the sea and behind the iron            endowed with their inalienable rights." The parents argued

curtain that the enemy at home is allowed to destroy the              that the prayer is contrary to their beliefs ; that it favors one

church without opposition.       Anxious concern for communism        belief over nonbelief; and that it necessarily results in co<r-

all but closes the  eyes of the church to the more insidious          cion  on the children.

and frightening dangers of false doctrine and worldliness that            The New York Courts rejected the pleas of the parents

eat as a cancer from within destroying the vitals of the              saying that although the Constitution reads: "Congress shall

church and robbing it of its right to be called "Christian."          make no law respecting an establishment of religion or pro-
    So it has been throughout the ages. The enemies that              hibiting the free exercise thereof," this was not an uncon-
constituted the gravest threat to the well-being of the church        stitutional "establishment of religion." Now the Supreme

were not the enemies of atheism and false religion, but the           Court must decide.

enemies of heresy and worldliness. In the Old Testament                   I suppose the authors of the prayer made it as unoffencl-

times already this was the case. The enemies of the true              ing 2s it is possible to make a prayer. And in doing so they
Israelites were not the heathen nations of Amman and Moai,            really never succeeded in composing a prayer at all-for ;I

and Philistia and Assyria-rather these enemies were the               prayer this can hardly be called. Nevertheless, the question

apostate seed born within the church. They were the real              involves the courts once again in the dilemma of our state-

threats to the nation. But little has this changed in the New         controlled public school system. Is any mention of the name

Testament. Christ was crucified by His brethren according             of God 2 religion? It would seem that it is, according to the
to the flesh. The church that Christ left on earth has never          Constitution. Then the prayer will have to be banned. But

been overly troubled by atheistic religion, by materialistic          this results in unbelief's being promoted by the schools. And

philosophies of one sort or another. They were not en-                then the question is, Is not unbelief equally a religion ? If

dangered by heathen nations who lived far away. Their                 "religion" is broadly defined as being "a man's opinion of

enemies were the enemies within the church who sought to              God according to which opinion he regulates his life," then

destroy her from within. They came not with weapons of                certainly to deny God is also a religion, for it is an opinion

physic21 warfare but with the far more dangerous weapons              that governs his life. But then the court is favoring the re-

of heresy and worldliness. They came not from without;                ligion of unbelief over the religion of the mention of Almighty

they were born within the ranks. This has not changed to-             God. Then other people have an equal right to object. From

day. Supposing that through the efforts of many millions of           this dilemma there is no escape - except to give the schools

right-wingers, Communism is halted ; are we then to sup-              back to the parents where the schools belong in the first

pose that the church is safe ? Much more likely it is that by         place.                                                H. Hanko

that time the church will have been overcome with heresy

and worldliness and will have lost its distinctiveness just as

surely as if Communism had swept the land. The evidences                           0 enter then His gates with joy,

of this state of affairs are sadly enough on every hand. What                         Within His courts His praise proclaim ;

doth it profit 2 man if he gain the whole world and lose his                       Let thankful songs your tongues employ,

soul ?                                                                                0 bless and magnify His Name.

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


                                                                  Scripture. They too could be sung in the church, in the

                                                                  Sunday School and Christian Schools. Let me produce just

                                                                  one of these hymns for children, written in the year 1842 by

                                                                  Jane E. Leeson,  tune by I. Stainer, 1840. Based on the text

                     The Hymn Question                            of John 14 :15,  "If ye love me, keep my commandments-"

Dear Rev. H. Hoeksema :                                                        Saviour,  teach nae  day by day,

                                                                               Love's sweet lesson to obey;
       Permit me, in accordance with your request, to write
a few lines in regard to the hymn question. I think there is                   Sweeter lesson canrtot  be,
                                                                               Loving Him  who first loved me.
room and ample reason to introduce some New Testament

hymns-not the hymns that are sung in most of the Amer-                         W&k  a ct%ld's glad heart of Cove,

ican churches, they are too superficial and often sickening.                   At thy bidding ma,y  I move;

                                                                               Pyomzpt  to serue a,nd follow thee,
 No, but I mean hymns that are true versifications of
                                                                               Loving him  who first loved me.
Scripture, and that shall not be sung in the churches until

the synod has set its stamp of approval upon them. In our                       Teach n4e  thus thy steps to trace,

Psalter nothing can be found on the resurrection of Christ                      Strong to follow in thy grace;

that can be sung on Easter Sunday, nor can anything be                         Lea,rnkg how to Cove from thee;
found on the Holy Spirit that can properly be sung on the                      Loving Him wh.o  first loved me.

day of Pentecost. And what about the virgin birth of Christ,
                                                                                Love irn loving finds euucploy,
and what about ascension ? I know that we have in our
                                                                                In obedience 
Psalter words on the ascension of Christ in Psalm 24 :7, "Lift                                   all her joy;
                                                                                Ever new that joy w-21  be,
up your heads, 0 ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting
                                                                                Loving Histz who first loved me.
doors ; and the King of glory shall come in." But in the New

Testament He is in. We now must also sing what we read                          Thus way I rejoice to show

in Acts 1 :9, "He was taken up ; and a cloud received Him                       That I feel the love I owe;

out of their sight." Or what we read in Ephesians 4 :lO, "He                    Singing, till thy fa.ce I see,

that descended is the same also that ascended up far above                      Of His love who first loved me.

all heavens."
                                                                     If songs like these were approved by the church. And
       And what too, about holy communion, based on John          why not? Here is sovereign love revealed, is it not? Based
6:55, I Cor. 11 :26,  Luke 22 :19; or holy baptism, Matt.         on the versification of the New Testament Scriptures. For
28:1,9,  Titus 3 :5, Mark 10:14.  For all those occasions we      children. Would you want to sing it with your children, 0
could have New Testament hymns that are true versifications       church of God? 0 yes you do. We must sing psalters of the
of the Scripture.                                                 old and songs of the new. Songs for children also. And that

       I. love to sing the Psalters. We need them. They are       to His glory and to the edification of His church.

beautiful. But fact is that they were written in the old dis-                                            Thys Feenstra
pensation. Theirs were the shadows; ours the fulfillment of                                              Redlands, California
those shadows.       The early church understood this very

clearly, and therefore in the years 1700 and 1800 many

psalms or hymns were composed that are based on versifica-

tion of the New Testament Scriptures. Hymns or psalms                              The Hymn Question

on advent, on lent, Easter, Pentecost, Ascension, on com-
                                                                  Dear Rev. H. Hoeksema:
munion, baptism, etc. And let me say, there are hymns of

this kind. And some of these hymns are a true versificatiou          The reason I am writing this letter concerning the Hymn

of Scripture. Let me enumerate some of them. I have them.         Question is two-fold. First, because Rev. Vanden  Berg

Hymns on advent : based on Heb. 12 :26,  by P. Heber, 1327 ;      stated in the article, "The Hymn Question," that by not es-

Luke 1:68,  by P. Doddridge, 1785 ; Rev. 22 :20,  by H. Bonar,    pressing themselves on this question, he or she is in agree-

1845; Hymns on Lent: based on Luke 4:1, 2; II Cor. 9:15 ;         ment. He referred to Article 69 of the Church Order and

Col. 4:14;  Matt. 26 :40; I Peter 1 :19.  Hymns on the virgin     its being changed. To this I heartily agree. As yet I am

birth, Christmas: based on Luke 2 :13;  Luke 2 :lO: Luke          not in favor of the change, so therefore I am compelled to

2 :15 ; I Tim. 2 :16; John 1 :14.  Hymns on Pentecost: based      write.

on Acts 2 :41;  John 15 26, 27; Rom. 8:14;  John 14:26;               First of all, the Old Testament is known as a historical
John 14:17;  I Cor. 6~11.  And many more.                         book. It tells us how the children of God lived from the

       Also in the year 1800 there were hymns composed for        time of Adam to the birth of Christ- how they sinned,

 children, based on the versification of the New Testameni        repented, and again were restored into God's favor. All this


                                                                                 I,




                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                        215


(the Old Testament) is there for our edification. ,We tiay         about s&h a iituation,  I fail to see. A careful perusal and

not do away with it. It is part of the plan of God, a plan         sttidy  of all the material of the Acts from 1959 to 1961  surely

whereby we learn. Therefore, knowing that departure from           shows that our Synods and Consistories of Classis East and

the truth and introducing hymns into our church services go        Study Committees of Synod were very careful in their for-

hand in hand, shall we say then that the Lord will not permit      mulation of the proposed change exactly to avoid such a

that to happen to us. I mean also the other half, the departing    situation.          To my mind the proposed revision is the better

from the truth. He is the God of Gods, and not a respecter         of the two, because of the two strong limitations contained

of persons, not even of the Prot. Ref. Church. If we intro-        iti the article, namely, "faithful versifications" and "approved

duce hymns into our church services, He will also cause us         by the churches through Synod."

to depart from the truth we have and LOVE. The proof I                 Even as we have always maintained that the truth devel-
have is the past history. Even though one of your contrib-         ops through the ages in the Church of Jesus Christ, SO also
utors in The Stamdm-d  Bearer of l-l-`62  does not agree           we must not stifle any development in our book of praise,
with this, I maintain it, because our God is an unchangeable       which would set forth more clearly and reflect the truth of
God. This hymn question reminds me of a story my father            the Word of God in song. Besides, as has been pointed out,
told us (all who knew him) many times. And I think it fits         we have never lived up to the present article, because we use
the picture before us.                                             the Doxologies "which are hymns" not included in its pres-

   There was a queen that needed a driver for the carriage         ent form. The former Psalter Revision Committee which had

she was to ride in for a parade. Three drivers had applied         done much labor also testified in its report that our present

for the job. That was quite an honor, to drive for the queen.      Psalter versifications are not faithful to Scripture. AS ev-

And they were good drivers, so they all wanted the job very        idence of this, one has only to turn to the last Stmmdaf,d

much. Now how was she going to choose the one best suited ?        Bea$rer,  the one of January 1, 1962,,and  there will be found

She decided to ask them all the same question, hoping that         quoted these words from our present Psalter :

from their answers she could decide which driver she wanted.                           "While He pro.#ers  peace and pardon
The question was this  : if I were in the carriage how &se to                           Let tis heay  His voice today,
the edge of the canal would you dare to drive? The first said,                          Lest, if we O'UY 1~eal-t.s  should harden,
"Within a yard of it." The second, "Within a foot of it."                               We should per&h  in the way;"
The third one said, "I will drive as far from any danger to                            Psalter No. 255 :4 (Page 163 of Standard Bearer)
the queen as possible." He got the job.

                                                                   This is pure Arminianism and a corruption rather than
   Let us be as the third driver, sod stay away from en-
                                                                   a faithful versification  of Psalm 95.
dangering our truth as far as possible.

                                                                       If `the proposed revision would be finally adopted, I
   One thing more I would like to bring to mind at this time.
                                                                   could easily visualize a song book in the future in our
To my mind, the playing of the organ or piano before the
                                                                   churches, if God permits, that would contain a revised
consistory takes its place in the church is also part of the
                                                                   Psalter with the present Choral Section along with a few
services. Therefore I think hymns should be kept from being
                                                                   songs for special days, and possibly even some new songs 
played then too. ~Some  of our ministers and consistories speak                                                                            to
                                                                   be composed by our membership. I cannot possibly see the
against singing hymns in the church, and allow them to be
                                                                   introduction of many hymns, for the simple reason that they
played at this time. Let's go all the way. If it's wrong to
                                                                   are mostly corruptions of the truth, and are not Theo-
sing them during our service, it's wrong to play them.
                                                                   centered, and surely are not faitlz&l  versificatiions  of Scrip-
    I hope and believe this letter will be taken in the spirit     ture

of love as it was written.

                                                                       This type df Book of Praise could certainly be used to
                          Yours for the truth's sake,
                                                                   the glory of God's Name, to the edification of our spiritual
                                           Hib Kuiper
                                                                   well-being until presently we can sing the songs of Zion in
                                           Hudsonville, Mich.
                                                                   heavenly perfection and harmony in the new heaven and new

                                                                   earth.

          Proposed Change of Article 69                                                   Thanking you for the space,
                                                                                                 Yours in the interest of the truth,
                          Lansing, Illinois, January 15, 1962                                                        Peter A. Poortenga

Esteemed Editor :

   Permit me also a few lines on the proposed change of

Article 69. Let me say at the outset that I would deplore                              Because the Lord our God is good,

any decision that we as Protestant Reformed Churches might                               His mercy is forever sure ;

make which would open the floodgates of Arminianism. But                               His truth at all times firmly stood,

that the proposed revision of Article 69, D.K.O., would bring                            And shall from age to age endure.


216



                                                                         Classis  then voted for delegates to Synod -1962 as fol-

       NEWS FROM.OUR,CHURCHES                                        lows :

                "All the saints salute thee . . ." PHIL. 4:21        M I N I S T E R S - P & i :   M. Schippm,   G .   LawtirLg,   G .   Vos,

                                                                               C. Hanko.

                                                                        ScczJ+bdi:  I-1. Hanko, H: Hoeksema, .A. Mulder;  R..Veld-

                                              Jan. 20, 1962                    man.

       Report of Classis  East, meeting in Creston  Church, Jan.     ELDERS -P~rimi:  H. Zwak, T. Engelsma, H!. G. Kuiper,.
10, 1962. Rev. C. Ha&o,  who presided at the October meet-                     R. Newhouse.-  "'

ing, led in the opening devotions. He also declared the                 SeczLrtdi:  J. Docier,  P. Schipper, A. Langerak, G. Bylsma.

Classis  properly constituted after the credentials of the var-          Classis  also voted for Delegates and examina. Chosen

ious delegates had been accepted. All the churches of Classis        were: Primus  G. Lanting and secundus H. Hanko.

East were represented by two delegates each.
                                                                         After the ladies of Creston  were thanked for their ex-

       Rev. Hanko, following the order of rotation, then. took       cellent catering, and the report of the finance committee was

the chair, and ably presided over this meeting of Classis.           accepted, and the minutes of this session were adopted,

       The Classis  then conducted the routine business of adopt-    brother D. Engelsma closed the meeting with thanks to God.

ing the minutes of the previous meeting, and receiving the                                                  M. SCHIPPER, Stated Clerk
reports of the Stated Clerk and the Classical Committee for
                                                                         Cont&ution  of the Program Committee of the Reformed
information.
                                                                     Witness Hour: During the month of February, D.V., Rev.
       The Consistory of Kalamazoo overtured the Classis  to         H. Hoeksema hopes to continue his series of radio broad-
arrange a schedule of appointments to Loveland. Classis              casts with messages based on the first Epistle of ,Peter. The
declared this matter out of order on the grounds that appoint-       messages of Feb. 4 and 11 are entitled, "Born Again" (chap-
ments to Loveland belong to the jurisdiction of Classis              ter 1 vss. 22 and 23),  in which the truth is proclaimed "that
West.                                                                regeneration is in no sense of the word the work of man,

       Grand Haven, Cl'eston,  and Randolph were granted Clas-       but only and absolutely the work of our Sovereign God."

sical appointments tipon request as follows: CRESTON:                Sunday, Feb. 18,  an explanation of I Peter 2 :l, 2 will

Jan. 28, R. Velchnan;  Feb. 4, C. Hanko; Feb. 11, M. Schip-          reveal the "Desire for Spiritual Nourishment" of the new-

per; Feb. 25, A. Mulcler  ; March 4, G. Vos; April S, H.             born saints. Then on Feb. 25 the Pastor's subject will be,

Hanko. GRAND HAVEN : Feb. 4, G. Vos ; Feb. 18, H.                    "The Excellency of God's People." We are indeed happy to

Hanko ; March 4, M. Schipper ; March 11, C. Hanko, March             report that the Reformed Witness Hour can now also be

18, A. Mulder ; April 1, 6. Vos ; April 8, G. Lanting.               heard on radio station K.F.M.K.,  Houston, Texas.

RANDOLPH : Feb. 4, A. Mulder ; Feb.. 25, R. Veldinan;
                                                                         Rev. G. Vanden  Berg's sermon on the last Sunday morn-
March 11, H. Hanko; March 18, G. Lanting; March 25, R.
                                                                     ing of the old year was based on the injunction, "Take heed
Veldman  ; April 1, M. Schipper ; April 8, C. Hanko.
                                                                     therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the
       Creston and Grand Haven informed Classis  that they           Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of
will not be in need of subsidy. Holland and Kalamazoo made           God, which he hath purchased with his o,wn blood." This
requests for $3200 and $4200 respectively, which Classis             text, found in Acts 20 :2S,  was treated under  the theme,
granted, subject to the approval of Synod.                           "The Office Bearer's Charge." May the office bearers in all

       Rev. G. Lubbers who was present at this meeting of            our churches embrace this injunction with dedicated zeal,

Classis  was granted opportunity to address Classis  respect-        bccaltse  the church has been "purchased with his own blood."

ing his mission work in Tripp, So. Dakota and in Houston,
                                                                         Jan. 7 found 
Texas. The chair responded to this address and extended to                               Hull's pastor, Rev. Kortering,  upon Forbes'
                                                                     pulpit in the morning, and the evening service upon Isabel's.
Rev. Lubbers the desire of Classis  that the Lord continue to
                                                                     Jan. 14 he was scheduled to take both services in Isabel, and
bless him in his difficult work.
                                                                     a Monday evening lecture on, "The End of the World, How

       Three protests were presented to Classis  against one of      and When."        Jan. 22 would see him in Forbes for both

our Consistories, two of which came from two Consistories            services. Meanwhile Hull's pulpit was supplied with reading

and one from a member of the Consistory protested against.           in the mornings and Rev. G. Van Baren,  Rev. B. Wouden-

Classis  decided to place these protests in the hands of a com-      berg and Rev. G. Lubbers each taking an evening service.

mittee and to adjourn until February 14 when the committee
                                                                         Hudsonville's  1962 Y.P. Convention committees - all
is expected to serve Classis  with advice. Committee: Revs.
                                                                     nine of them =- are already making progress reports.
M. Schipper?  G. Lanting, and Elders H. G. Iiuiper and A.

Talsma.                                                                  :. i . see  y o u   i n   c h u r c h .                     J.M. 1;.


