    VOLUME x.xxvIII                                     APRIL 15, 1962 - GRAND  I1ApIDs,  MICHIGAN                                      NUMBER 14


                                                                                         And finally they do bring some sort of accusation against

                                                                                     Jesus.

                                                                                         Oh, Pontius Pilate, here are the accusations: this fellow

                                                                                     is trying to pervert the nation! He forbids the people to
                    JESUS BEkXiE PILATE                                              give tribute unto Caesar! And He makes Himself equal

             Then said Pila~te to the chief priests and to                   the     with God, calling Himself a King of some sort.
      peoptk,  I find no fmlt &a this man.                                               If you analyze these accusations, you will note how
             . I . . said ,at.nnfo  thpn,.  17e have,  brought this &Ian             shrewdly they were chosen. They present a picture of fawn-
      .urtto  WLC,   a s   o n e   that pmzterteth  t h e   peopk:  an'd,   b e -    ing would-be docility to the powers that be. It is their
      hold, I, having exa?>t&ed  Him  before you, have found
                                                                                     avowed purpose to play upon the basest instincts of the dic-
      no fault (iti this wan touch&g  those things whereof ye
      accuse Him.                                                                    tator :. this Man may be a dangerous rebel. He perverts the
             And he said .mnto them  the third time,  E%y, what                      nation ; He may institute. a riot which might grow into an
      evil hath He done?' I have foun.d  no cawe of death in                         insurrection ; it might even swell into a real revolution.
      Him: I ZW&?  ULerefor-e  chastise Him.  and 2et Hiwz  go.                          It is plain that their purpose is to prejudice the judge.
             And Pilate gcrve sentence that if should be as t&y                      Besides, how false are their accu$ations  ! And how dangerous
      .required.                                   Luke 23 :4, 14, 22, 24
                                                                                     in that they constitute a mixture of' truth and error.
             Beca.use  He ha,th  ,a$pointed  a day, in the which He
                                                                                         Oh, yes, Christ is the King of God, but not an earthly
      z&L!  judge the world,:  in righteousness by that Ma.uL
      whom He hatlt  orda&ed.                                   Acts 17 :31a         King as they seemed to indicate to Pilate. And that He for-
                                                                                     bade people to give tribute to Caesar cannot mean that Jesus
   Jesus before Pilate!             :I                                               incited the people to withhold the taxes laid upon them, for
   And here a strange thing' awaits us : Pontius Pilate would
                                                                                     we read that on one occasion the Lord instructed Peter to go
let Jesus go. If we read all the accounts of this mock-trial,                        and pay the tax for himself and for the Lord. Christ must
it becomes clear that Pilate at four different occasions would                       have meant that we may not give a certain tribute io Caesar
let Jesus go ; and if we include his wily action of sending                          which we owe to the great Potentate of potentates, that is,
Jesus to Herod,  who also found Him innocent, it is on five                          our tribute to God.
different occasions that Pilate would let Jesus go free.
                                                                                        And certainly the Lord was no "malefactor." I would
Imagine: the world is more merciful(  ?) than the church.
                                                                                     say that the earth, and ,the  heavens and even hell gave its
Or put it this way: the Church Institute in its corrupted
                                                                                     testimony to His goodness. As to the earth, we read that
state is more bloodthirsty than the world. There is no hatred
                                                                                     Christ went through the land, doing good. As to heaven,
like unto the hatred of corrupted religion.
                                                                                     there was that testimony of Israel's Jehovah: This is My be-
   Pilate, hearing the tumult, or being called by his servants
                                                                                     loved Son in Whom I am well pleased! As to hell, there
to this sorry spectacle, come: with the sober question: what
                                                                                     was the admission of the devil in'.this  motley crowd of his
accusation do ye bring against this Man?
                                                                                     foul children: `We must seek for false witnesses! When you
   And the answer given by the rulers of the Jews reveals
                                                                                     seek for false witnesses, you have already admitted that the
their self-righteousness: If this Man were not a malefactor,
                                                                                     accused is righteous.
we would not have delivered Him up to you!
   But Pilate is not duped bjr this "pious" answer. He knew                             And we might even solicit the testimony of the land of
with whom he had to do. We read elsewhere that Pilate                                dreams : the wife of this would-be judge tells us of this
                                                                                     Righteous One !
knew that they had delivered Him up out of envy.
   But on the part of the Jews it reveals their burning hatred                          Oh yes, Jesus is very Righteousness itself !

of Jesus.                                                                               But still, He must stand before Pilate!

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


        The most dreadful anomaly of history: Jesus accused            he sends Him to that wily fox. Still later, he will make a

 before the judge.                                                     duo, a terrible duo : choose ye whom you want: Jesus or
        Why, it is the horror of all horrors: this same Man is         Barabbas ! And you all know that Pilate thought: they cer-

 <chosen  of God to show forth the most wonderful Justice in           tainly will not dare to choose a man who is both a murderer

 the Day of days : He is the Judge of the world !                      and a rebel.

     And yet : Jesus stands before Pilate !                                What a mockery is this so-called trial of Jesus ! Pilate

                              * 8 * *                                  does not know what to do with Jesus, but nevertheless
     Jesus before Pilate !                                             scourges Him. He would like to release Him for he is
        At first it seems as though the trial ( ?) of Jesus will be    afraid of Him, but fears the Jews : they might send a delega-
 of short duration. Pilate examines Jesus and comes before             tion to Caesar, and then his popularity in Rome is in jeop-
 the people : I find no fault in this Man ! And this conclusion        ardy.
 is voiced by him time and time again. There is no question                And the end is that Pilate chooses security for self, even
 about it: Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent.                        at the expense of justice, and he becomes ripe for jud,gment.
     And here we have the great sin of this man Pilate: he                 Jesus before Pilate 7
 should have released Jesus at once. And he should have                    Jesus has no chance(  ?) at all before that corrupt man.
 arrested the leaders of the Jews because of defamation of                 He is given over to their will. The soldiers come and
 character. And he should have told his soldiers to take their         take Jesus. They will have some sport with Him. Horrible,
 swords and clear the streets of this howling mob who were             a thousand horrors multiplied! Sport, wicked sport with
 after the blood of their victim.                                      Jesus ? ! But He is the God of heaven and earth !
        Note that this man is not at all moved by the question: is         0 God, have mercy upon us ! They are men, even as we
 this Man guilty or innocent, but by the selfish question: how         are. How is it possible that Thou didst not crush the whole
 can I get rid of this case without getting hurt myself. In            Universe at this wicked, horrible hour?!
 this last word you have the key to his despicable perform-                Jesus cast away from before the tribunal of wicked
 ante: care for self. Note that when he persists in telling the        Caesar !
 Jews how innocent Jesus is, and when they finally answer                  Look strongly upon Him,!
 him: If you let this Man go you are not Caesar's friend, he               The Via Dolorosa is becoming very rocky indeed. He
is ready at once : Christ is Sacrificed on the altar of Pilate's       will be bruised very sore.

 security.                                                                                          * * * *
     Oh no, Pilate, it matters not that you wash your hands.

 You wash your hands indeed, but not in innocency.  Look                   And then there is the world of religion.
 unto your hands: they are red with the blood of the great                 You bear me witness that there was no other nation on
1Tnnocedw!                                                             earth like the nation of the Jews! They had the oracles of
     Jesus before Pilate !                                             God. They knew the law of God. They knew that the very
     The world of so-called justice must give its answer to            Name of God means that He is righteousness itself. And
 God's question : What think you of Innocence's beauty?                that He requires justice and equity. Every one of the howling
     And the answer is given by Pilate.                                priests, elders, pharisees, and lawyers knew a certain text
     The sin of Pilate is that he obstructed the sway, the             by heart: And what doth the Lord require of thee but to do
 Divine sway, of Justice.      Unrighteousness prevailed in this       justly ?
so-called trial of Jesus.                                                  And would anyone then hold that this was the trial of
     Jesus before Pilate !                                             Jesus ? In any sense of the word ?
                              * * + 8                                      Oh no, but everyone said within his own heart: this Man

    Jesus before Pilate !                                              is just, but I thirst for His blood!
     Pilate is plainly afraid of Jesus.                                    Listen to us, 0 Pilate: His blood be upon us and upon
     There must have been a very majestic mien in Jesus'               our children. But let us have His blood!
appearance before this judge. Besides, we literally read that              And therefore, it was not Jesus who was on trial, but it
 Pilate became the more afraid. Especially, sirice  he received        was the world of Rome, of Greece, and of Israel.
the message from his wife.                                                 The world of Israel. Later the Holy Ghost would call
     Then; too, the superstitious Roman had heard the Jews             that worldly Israel Sodom and Egypt spiritually.
 tell of this Man that He claimed to be a Son of the God of                The whole world was on trial in the year of our Lord 33.
the heaven and the earth.                                                  It is this: Pilate stands before Jesus!

     And so we can somewhat understand that Pilate likes to                                         * * * *
.get  rid of Jesus. Take Him yourselves, and judge Him

according to your own laws, he cries to the Jews. Later, he                Pilate, and then as the representative of the corrupt world

hears that Jesus is of the territory of Herod,  and forthwith          of the heathen, of the refined culture of Greece, and of the

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


self-righteous Pharisee in Israel, Pilate stands before the bar

of the shining INNOCENCE of Jesus!                                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
   And that world is utterly condemned by Him.                                 Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
   Let us try to explain.                                                       Published by the BJXFOR~~  FREF:  PUBLISHING  AS&XA-IXON
                                                                               P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7: Mich.
    As I have said many times : Jesus was Innocent! Do not                                                Editor - REV. HXRMYAN  HOEKSESU
grow weary of t1zis  repetition. You are going to hear it
                                                                               Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
countless times unto all eternity.                                                            Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 &nrklin St., S. E.,
   And Innocence personified said to the whole world : What                                                             Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
will ye do with Me? What do you think of Me?                                   AMouncements  and Obituaries must be mailed to the address
                                                                               below and will be published at a fee of $2.00 for each notice.
   And they answered Him: We hate Thee so much that                            All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
we will drag Thee through the streets of Jerusalem, and                                        James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave., S. E.
                                                                                                                   Grand Rapids 7, Michigan
there, at the place of the skull we will crucify Thee !
                                                                               RENEWAL:  Unless a definite request for discontinuance is k-
    And that is our condemnation. When we so treat shining                     ceived it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription
innocence, we condemn ourselves.                                                  to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
    But why is this come about, 0 God of eternal, everlasting                                             Subscription price: $5.00 per year
miracles ? _                                                                       Second Class postage paid-at Grand Rapids, Michigan
    Listen to our fathers : they have given us the answer in                                                                                                                                                                                    .-

a dusty form : He was innocently condemned to death that
                                                                                                                             C O N T E N T S
we ?&ghf  be acq&ed  at th.e  jztdgme&-seat  of God!                      MEDITATION -
    0 wonder of wonders! The Innocent was made guilty -'                          Jesus Before Pilate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  313
by God so that the guilty might be made Innocent!                                           Rev. G. Vos

    Sing aloud, thou inhabitant by Zion!
                                                                          EDITOPJAL~  -
                                                                  G.V.            How Should the Schismatics                                                     Return? . . . ..__.....____.................. 316

                                                                                             Rev. H. Hoeksema


                                                                          OUR  DOCTRINE-
                  Men's League Meeting                                            Saving Faith (Continued). .__ __ .__.  ___ .__ _.. .__ __ _. ___ ,318

    Men's League Meeting, April 16, 1962, at First Church.                                  Rev. H. Hoeksema

Rev. J. A. Heys will speak, D.V., on "The Healing of                      A CLOUD OF WITNESSES -

Babel's Mortal Wound." The Adams St. School Band will                             Despair               ______,......_............................:  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,  _..... 319

be on the program.                                                                          Rev. B. Woudenberg

                                      Ken. Ezinga, Secretary              FROM HOLY WRIT -

                                                                                  John          19:31-37                 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  321

                                                                                            Rev. G. Lubbers


                                                                          I
                          IN MEMORIAM                                     N HIS FEAR -
                                                                                  Seed Time and Harvest . . . . ..____.__...._.....................................  323
   The Board of the Adams Street Christian School herewith wishes                           Rev. J. A. Heys
to express its sympathy with one of our teachers, Mrs. D: Slomp,
in the loss of her brother,                                               CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH -
                                                                                  The Church and the Sacraments ___........._.___...........................  325
                      MATHEW ALBERDA
                                                                                            Rev. H. Veldman
aged 84 years.
   May our God comfort the sister in her sorrow and give her              THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS -
grace to commit these things unto God.                                            The Belgic Confession ..__._............__..........................................                                                                                  327
                                          C. Jonker, President                              Rev. H. C. Hoeksema

                                          R. H. Teitsma, Secretary        DECENCY AND ORDER -

                                                                                  The Hymn Matter (Continued)... . ._.... . . . . . . . . . . ..328

                         IN MEMORIAM                                                        Rev. G. Vanden  Berg

   The Ladies' Society of the Edgerton Protestant Reformed Church         CONTRIBUTIONS -

hereby expresses its heartfelt sympathy to two members. of our                    Open Letter to Rev. H. Hoeksema . . . . . . . . . . .._...........................                                                                                     33I

society, Mrs. William Buys and Mrs. Allen Hendricks, and also to                             Rev. R. Veldman

Mr. Paul Buys and children in the loss of their sister-in-law, wife               "The Hymn Question" _. _. _. .332

and mother,                                                                                  Rev. G. Lubbers
                        MRS. MARY BUYS
                                                                          ALL AROUND us-
whom the Lord called home on March 2, 1962. May our Lord                          That Right Wing (Continued) .__........_..__.__.............................  334
graciously comfort and sustain them in their sorrow. "But he                                Rev. H. Hanko
knoweth the way that I take; when he bath tried me. I shall come
                                                                          NEWS FROM OUR CHUFXBES  _.._.  .__. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
forth as gold." Job 23:lO.
                                 Rev. B. Woudenberg, President                              Mr. J. M. Faber

                                 Mrs. D. Bleyenberg, Secretary

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


                                                                      of that name and claim that we had better simply call

                                                                      them Christians. Lastly, we act upon this view and conten-

                                                                      tion, especially also as pastors and consistories and gladly

                                                                      receive these "Christians" in our midst without demanding
         How Should the Schismatics  Return?                          that they make confession of their sin of schism before the

       The Advice of the committee irt +e the Creston  protest is     consistory and congregation. And thus we become ourselves
as follows :                                                          guilty of the sin of schism. For no one can deny that those
       "In the light of the above facts and discussion, your Com-     who receive schismatics as members in good standing in
mittee gives the Classis the following advice :                       their midst, either as consistories or congregations, without
                                                                      proper apology or confession of their sin, take the side of
       "1. That Classis adopt the statement of facts in this case,
                                                                      the schismatics and, therefore, have become schismatics them-
as expressed under II, A of this report.
                                                                      selves. This is the evil that follows from avoiding and con-
       "2. That Classis adopt the expression re the main issue        demning the term "schismatics."
of this case, as described under II, B of this report.
                                                                         The second of these so-called grounds, namely, that there
       "3. That Classis express that Southeast Consistory had
                                                                      is no ground in Scripture for the use of the name "schis-
no right to receive and accept members into their fellowship
                                                                      matic? is entirely without justification. For, first of all, the
who are in an mireconciled  state with Creston  Church, or any
                                                                      word schism occurs in Scripture. The term is derived from
other church.
                                                                      the Greek word scki~mn  and: means &vzsio~.  It is used for
       "Ground: Matthew 5 :23, 24.
                                                                      any departure from the body of Christ. Thus we read in I
       "4. That Classis express that Southeast Consistory has
                                                                      Cor. 1 :lO: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of
erred when, regardless of the objections registered by Cres-
                                                                      our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and
ton Consistory, they nevertheless accepted as members the
                                                                      that there be no divisions (Greek : Schismata)  among 
J. Doezema family.                                                                                                               you ;
                                                                      but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and
       "Grounds: Articles 71, 75, and 84 of the Church Order.         in the same judgment." And in I Cor. 12 :25 : "That there
       "5. That Classis express that Southeast Consistory rectify     should be no schism in the body ; but that the members should
this matter by rescinding their decision to receive the J.            have the same care one for another." It is true, of course,
Doezema family, and by instructing this family to reconcile           that the apostle does not call the members of the congrega-
with Creston  Church before Southeast can receive them with           tion of Corinth schismatics. But there can be no doubt that
clean papers.                                                         he would call them such if they did not heed his admonitions.
       "Grounds : a. The bond of church unity demands it.
                                                                         But even if the term schism and schismatics would not
       "b. All the articles of the Church Order mentioned above       occur in Scripture, the idea certainly occurs  very frequently.
point in this direction."                                             May we not call those that willfully departed from the Prot-
                             * * a+    *
                                                                      estant Reformed Churches in 1953 schismatics? May we not
       Now we must still give the report of the committee in 1-e      call those, in 1953 left Classis  East in order they might
the protest of Mr. F. Pipe.                                           form another church by their proper name: schismatics?
       Before we do this, however, I must call the attention of       Must we call them "Christians" ? ,God  forbid ! This certainly
our readers to a closely related matter that, to me, is very          is not according to the Bible. Just listen to what our Lord
important. It appears, namely, that some have objections to           Jesus Christ calls them in Matthew 23 : "But woe unto you,
the term "schismatics" that appears in the heading of these           scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the king-
articles. They seem to adduce the following arguments for             dom of heaven against men . . . Woe unto you, scribes and
their position :                                                      Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make
       1. Nothing good but much evil can come out of the use          one proselyte . . . Woe unto           ye blind guides . . .
                                                                                                         you, 
of the name "schismatics."                                            Ye fools and blind . . . Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
       2. The right of the use of the name "schismatics" must         hypocrites ! for ye pay tithe and mint . . . Ye blind guides,
be but cannot be substantiated from the Bible.                        which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Woe unto you,

       3. Even though the fact of schism certainly exists, this       scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye make clean the

does not imply that we should use the name "schismatics."             outside of the cup and of the platter . . . Thou blind Pharisee

       Now, as to the first of these grounds, I wish to emphasize     . . . Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for

that much evil may and does actually come out of avoiding             ye are like unto whited sepulchres . . Even so ye also ap-

the term schimza~tics.  This is really always the case when one       pear outwardly righteous unto men, but within ye are full of

commits the error of not calling anything by its right name.          hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,

But this is embhatically  the case when the church of our             hypocrites ! because ye build the tombs of the prophets . . .

Lord Jesus Christ is concerned. First we say that the name            Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the

"schismatics" should not be used. Then we criticize the use           damnation of hell ?"

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


    If our Lord thus characterized the scribes and pharisees,       1961, it appears that he is protesting the action taken by his

called them hypocrites, fools and blind, serpents and a gen-        Consistory in accepting as members certain families men-

eration of vipers, may we not call those that attempted to          tioned by him before these families had removed the offence

destroy our churches by their right name: schismatics ?             they had created in the churches of which  they were former

    Do we need more proof from Scripture? Take this then            members.

from John 8 :44: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the              "3. As appears from the answer of the Consistory, the

lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from             latter did not answer in detail the protest of brother Pipe

the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is         for the following reasons:

no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his             `<a. We felt there was no need of burdening the Classis

own, for he is a liar, and the father of it."                       with needless repetition because much of the material in this

    Thus Scripture always speaks. It never camouflages the          protest is incorporated in the other protests.

sin which any man may have committed. Barabbas is called                "b. That Mr. Pipe clearly indicated to the Consistory that

a murderer. The two men that were crucified with Jesus are          he was protesting against the spirit of all the other churches

called thieves, etc. etc.                                           involved.

    I will quote no more. It is sufficient for me to justify the        `%. That we would like to remind the Classis  that Mr-

title of these articles that calls the schismatics by name.         Pipe did not protest against the Doezema family acceptance

    The third ground, namely, the distinction between the fact      until four (4) months after we had taken action.

of schism and the name "schismatics" is certainly very                  "4. Your committee learned that brother Pipe was a

strange to say the least. Is not the name the same as the           member of the Consistory of Southeast until January of this

fact? Is not the name simply the expression and the mani-           year, and therefore was in the Consistory when these families

festation of the fact? This means, if anything at all, that one     were accepted.

may say of one that in 1953 separated himself from our                  "Main issue in this case.
churches : he has committed schism ; but one may not call               "After studying the protest of brother Pipe and the
him a schismatic. One readily understands that this is sheer        answer of Southeast's Consistory, your committee concluded
nonsense. One  also ought to understand that this argument          that the brother does not agree with the stand his Consistory
or ground so-called is merely adduced to camouflage the en-         maintained when it received the families in question as mem-
tire matter of the schism of 1953 : he really dpes not believe      bers of Southeast Church. He feels that those families should
that those that left us did commit the sin of schism and,           first be reconciled with the churches of which they were
therefore, ought to be received back into our churches with         former members.
open arms and without any form of apology. And why ?
                                                                        "Moreover, your committee also concluded that brother
What is the fundamental reason why one can possibly as-
                                                                    Pipe is desirous that the Classis  adopt a uniform policy that
sume that attitude over against the schismatics 7 My answer
                                                                    may be applied to all those that left us in the split of 1953
is that he is himself a schismatic.
                                                                    but who now desire to return to our churches.
   That, however, the schismatics never were Protestant
                                                                        "It appears therefore to your committee that brother Pipe
Reformed has now become very plain. For they all joined
                                                                    is asking for the same things that the Consistory of First
the Christian Reformed Church and expressed agreements
                                                                    Church and that of Creston  Church asked in their respective
with the "Three Points."
                                                                    protests, and that if the Classis  adopts the advice your com-
   The foregoing is entirely in parentheses. And now we             mittee has given in respect to the protests treated above,
return -to  the main subject of these articles: the protests        brother Pipe will have exactly what he wants.
that were before Classis  East.
                                                                        "C. Our advice in this matter.
                             * *     :k *                               "1. That Classis  express that it agrees with brother Pipe

                                                                    that the Consistory of Southeast Church erred when it ac-
   The protest of brother Pipe was very brief and, therefore,
                                                                    cepted members into their fellowship who are in an unrecon-
the committee treated it briefly.
                                                                    ciled state with other of our churches.
   I can hardly present it here in an abbreviated form, and
will, therefore, quote it in full. Here it is :                         "2. That Classis  express that it agrees with brother Pipe
                                                                    that the families in question should first be reconciled to those
   "A. Facts in the case.
                                                                    of our churches of which they there  former members before
   "1. From the first paragraph of brother Pipe's protest, it       they can be reinstated in any csf our churches."
appears that he is appealing to the Classis to `establish a
                                                                       Here follow the signatures'of  the committee.
united policy in reinstating former members who have left our
denomination.'                                                         This report was virtually  adopted with a few minor

   "2. From the letter brother Pipe addressed to the Con-           alterations.

sistory of Southeast Church under date of December 12,                                                                         H.H.

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


                                                                     is, the elect from before the foundation of the world. They

        O U R   D O C T R I N E                                      receive this salvation because Christ imparts to them the
                                                                     benefits of salvation which He merited for them by His

                                                                     perfect obedience. Christ imparts Himself to His brethren.

                                                                      For He not only died on the accursed tree, but He is also
                          C H A P T E R  I I I
                                                                     raised from the dead and received into heaven and sitteth at
                       SAVING FAITH                                  the right hand of God, far above all principalities and power

                           (Continued)                               and dominion and every name that is named. And in that
                                                                     state of His exaltation He received from the Father the
   Losing sight of this truth resulted not infrequently in a         quickening Spirit. For the first man, Adam, is of the earth,
purely naturalistic, or psychological conception and analyzing       earthy ; the second man is the Lord from heaven. The first
of saving faith. This again resulted either in dead intellectual-    man is become a living soul ; the second man, Christ, is be-
ism, superficial practicism, or false mysticism, according as        come a quickening Spirit. I Cor. 15 :45, 47. In fact, the
emphasis was laid on the factor of the intellect, of the will,       apostle Paul makes this so strong that he identifies the Lord
or of the emotions. The first class emphasized faith as a            and His Spirit. The Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit
natural knowledge of the intellect, a mere acceptance of the         of the Lord is, there is liberty. II Cor. 3 :17. Hence, He is
truth as it is revealed in Scripture. One came by faith indeed       become the living and quickening head of His body, the
to the truth, but through the truth not to the living Christ.        church, of all whom the Father hath given unto Him. And
The natural intellect had indeed contact with the truth, which        He imparts Himself and all the benefits of salvation to all
was accepted ; but the heart had no fellowship with the Savior       that are given Him by the Father.
of sinners. When doubt arose in the soul with respect to                 Now Christ imparts Himself and all the benefits of salva-
one's  personal part in the salvation that was wrought by God        tion to His brethren only through faith, whereby God in-
in Christ, one was simply pointed to the truth of Scripture.          grafts us into Christ and makes us one plant with Him.
That truth must simply be accepted ; and the acceptance of            Faith, therefore, cannot be called a condition and prere-
that truth caused the conscious salvation of man. The second          quisite which man must fulfill in order to receive salvation
class, however, must have nothing of such dead intellectual-          and all the benefits of grace. Thus it has often been pre-
ism, and emphasized that the will by faith was gifted with           sented, also indeed by those that are supposed to be Reformed,
true  freedom, and therefore emphasized that faith must pro-          those that signed the Three Forms of Unity. Especially
duce fruit. As James has it, without works, without fruit,            when grace is presented as an offer, a well-meaning offer of
faith is dead. The result was a natural practicism, which             salvation, well-meaning on the part of God to all that hear
<emphasized a practical Christianity, but which had no knowl-         the gospel, faith and conversion are frequently conceived as
sedge  of sin and of the righteousness of God, which He has           a prerequisite for the reception of that offer of grace. But
revealed to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. The main question,           this presentation of faith is erroneous, through and through.
according to these, was not what one believed, but what one           Faith certainly is not and cannot be a condition which
did in the world. For the tree is known by its fi-uit. And            man must fulfil in order to receive the gift of grace. On the
finally, as to the third class, these must have nothing of dead       contrary, faith itself is one of the chief gifts of the grace of
intellectualism, must have nothing either of cold practicism,         God to the sinner. One does not receive grace on condition
but emphasized feeling, emotions, mystical experience, and            that he first believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. On the con-
sought in these the real and genuine character of faith.              trary, he receives the gift of faith, in order that he may now
       In the light of all these different views of faith, it is      live out of Christ. There are no conditions for salvation,
necessary that we emphasize, first of all, that faith is rooted       simply because salvation is never dependent on anything in
.in the heart of man, and that from the heart it governs and          man. By grace are ye saved, through faith ; and that, that is,
controls both intellect and will, and, if you will, all the           faith, is not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Eph. 2 :8.
desires and emotions. As we have emphasized. before, faith                                                                           H.H.
is really the spiritual bond whereby we are united with

Christ. Faith is the means whereby God ingrafts  us into Him
                                                                                         WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
and makes us one plant with Him, so that we stand in living
                                                                         On April 26, 1962, the Lord willing, our dear parents
fellowship with Him. All the benefits of salvation, as we                           MR. AND MRS. PETER OFFRINGA
have emphasized before, have not only been merited by Christ          hope to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary. We are thankful
through His perfect obedience, which was finally accom-               that the Lord has spared them for each other and for us these many
                                                                      years. We pray that He who was our help in the past, may be our
plished on the cross ; but these benefits are also literally in       only hope in the future.
Him. He b our wisdom, righteousness, and complete re-                                                   Their grateful children:
                                                                                                            Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Offringa
demption. From Him and out of Him we receive grace for                                                      Mr. and Mrs. James Offringa
grace. Out of Christ we receive the complete salvation which                                                Mr. and Mrs. Albert Offringa
                                                                                                             Mr. and Mrs. Elwin Landstra
,God  has prepared for them that are given to Christ, that                                                   and 12 grandchildren


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  319


                                                                     the way `until the fire of God burned in the outskirts of the
11 A CLOUD OF W,I.TNESSES 11 camp where their tents were placed. Often these murmur-
                                                                     ings spread into Israel proper and instigated major crises in

                                                                     the camp.

                           Despair                                       Thus as soon as the fire of judgment was quenched in the

                                                                     wilderness of Paran, these people were ready with still an-
          And Moses  said wnto  the LORD  . , .                      other complaint. For over a year they had eaten little besides
          I am not able to bear all this profiLe  alone_ became      the manna furnished each morning by God. It was truly arr
       it is too heavy for `wte.            Numbers 11 :ll, 14       extraordinary food, wholesome, tasty, and nourishing. Its

                                                                     flavor was mild so that even when eaten continuously it did
   With Israel in the wilderness, there was a mixed multi-
                                                                     not nauseate the stomach, and it could be prepared in various
tude of people that had come along from the land of Egypt.
                                                                     different ways. But these people remembered the more exotic
They were not of the seed of Abraham. There is not great
                                                                     foods of Egypt, fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and
certainty as to what their nationalities actually were. Some
                                                                     garlic, and their hearts longed for them with their lusty
may well have been Egyptians, perhaps mostly of the lower
                                                                     tangs. Soon the spirit of discontent had spread from the
classes. But most of them were of diverse national back-
                                                                     mixed multitude throughout the camp. The people began tcu
grounds, slaves that had been boughten  or captured by the
                                                                     imagine all kinds of evil effects that were coming upon them
Egyptians in years gone by. And even as their nationalities
                                                                     because of the manna. It was not sufficient for their needs,.
were diverse, so were their reasons for going along with
                                                                     they claimed, and was robbing them of their strength. With
Israel. A few went along, no doubt, because they had heard
                                                                     tears streaming from their eyes, they turned to Moses and
and believed in the spiritual heritage of Israel as God's chosen
                                                                     cried, "Who shall give            flesh to eat? We remember the
people. Believing in God, they were attracted to God's people                                   us 
                                                                     fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely ; the cucumbers, and
even though outwardly it seemed they could never belong to
                                                                     the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and `the garlick  r
them. But these were the exception. Most of them saw the
                                                                     but now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all,
exodus of Israel as an opportunity for themselves also to
                                                                     besides this manna, before our eyes."
escape the bondage of the Egyptian taskmasters. In addition,

they saw the hope of also entering into the promised land of             Moses was a man of great spiritual stature and extra-

which the Israelites spoke. For merely earthly, material             ordinary patience. Time and again he had borne with Israel

considerations, they followed after Israel ; but because of their    in its weakness and pleaded their cause before Jehovah. Even

lack of feeling for Israel's true status as Jehovah's covenant,      at Sinai when Israel had sinned its great sin, he had become

people, they could never in any real sense feel themselves           angered but had remained faithful in his dedication and ha&

one with the nation. They merely straggled along, more and           interceded in Israel's behalf. From that time he had known

more withdrawing together into a group separate from the             that Israel would never be free from the wickedness of its

rest. Especially after a definite order of marching and camp-        sin, and he could only look forward to repeated evidences of

ing was instituted at Sinai, they were left to straggle fu           it. But still, though expecting it, he could never be fully

beyond and to pitch their tents far out on the outskirts of          prepared. He was only a man, and the time was sure ts

the camp. Sadly they discovered that even under the bless-           come when even his patience would reach its end. Now it

ings of God the way of God's people through this world is            had happened. This was too much. It was not another in-

always hard. Having no inner spiritual strength, they were           stance of gross immorality that did it. It was but another

more miserable than all of the rest.                                 case of the perpetual complaining that came so relentlessly

   This mixed multitude of people became a great cause of            upon him. At last his courage broke, and he fell into the

trouble for Israel as time went on. Their portion of the camp        black depths of despair. Turning to God, he cried out in

became a breeding place for rebellion. Actually the lot of           plaintive anguish, "Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant?

these people was greatly improved through their attachment           and wherefore have I not found favor in thy sight, that than

to Israel. No longer were they held in slavery and bondage ;         layest the burden of all this people upon me ? Have I con-

they ate also of the manna and all of their needs were sup-          ceived all this people ? have I begotten them, that thou

plied ; their human rights and freedom were respected. But           shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a

it is deeply set in the nature of man not to be satisfied with       nursing father beareth the suckling child, unto the land

life as it is no matter how good it may be. Only the Spirit          which thou swarest unto their fathers? Whence should I

of God can resist this, and those people did not have that.          have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto

No matter in which way the Lord led Israel, there was some-          me saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. I am not able to

thing about it that was hard, and that for them was ample            bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.

reason to complain. When camped at Sinai, they had no                And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of

doubt objected to remaining so long in one place. When               hand, if I have found favor in thy sight; and let me not see

Israel moved on again, they complained for the hardness of           my wretchedness."

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


       There was wickedness in this cry of Moses. He had fallen    like the answer of Jesus to John who forbade a man who

into the same pit of unfaithfulness which he found so              did not follow with them from casting out devils in Jesus'

repulsive in the people. And he knew better. How often             name. Jesus' answer was, "Forbid him not: for he that is

had he not told the people that the way of the Lord was            not against us is for us" (Luke 9:50). It is a mark of true,

good and His grace sufficient for all their needs. It was just     Godly love when a person with a great spiritual blessing

that he felt so all alone in teaching the people and withstand-    similar to one's own is looked upon not as a competitor but

ing their sin.     His courage had finally broken for he was       as an occasion for great joy because he serves to the advance-

only a man. It was not a time for accusation and-admoni-           ment of God's kingdom. Would that all of God's people

tion. Even as he spoke, Moses knew in his heart that what          could feel that love.

he did was wrong. He did not have to be reminded. God's               But that was not all that God said to Moses. He spoke

answer to him was gentle and kind, filled with divine love.        also concerning the sin of the people, "And say thou unto the

"Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom          people, Sanctify yourselves against the morrow, and ye shall

thou knowest to be elders of the people, and officers over         eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying,

them ; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congrega-         Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in

tion, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come         Egypt : therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall

down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit       eat. Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days,

which is upon thee, and will put it upon them ; and they shall     neither ten days, nor twenty days ; but even a whole month,

bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not     until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto

thyself alone."                                                    you: because that ye have despised the LORD which is

       It was a remarkable thing that was to happen in Israel.     among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came
It had  always been a rare thing for a man to be blessed           we forth out of Egypt?"

with the spirit of prophecy in Israel so as to be able to in-         To Moses it seemed impossible so that he answered, "The

&r&t the people concerning the things of God with author-          people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand foot-

ity. In recent years, Moses had been the only one that had         men ; and thou hast said I will give them flesh, that they may

appeared. He only was able to teach the people. But now            eat a whole month. Shall the flocks and the herds be slain

God promised to give this same spirit to seventy more. With        for them, to suffice them ? or shall all the fish of the sea be

new hope and courage in his heart, Moses went forth to             gathered together for them, to suffice them ?"

gather the seventy together. He knew his men well and with            But why should Moses doubt? As God answered him, "Is

little trouble was able to select those who could best help him    the LORD'S hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether

in his work. As he selected them, he told them to come to          my word shall come to pass unto thee or not."

the tabernacle, and soon the men were gathered there. There           Soon there sprang up a strong wind until a dark cloud
the cloud of God's presence descended, and even as God spoke       appeared on the horizon. It was a cloud of quails that
to Moses, the spirit of prophecy that before had rested on         settled on the ground for miles around the camp. For one
Moses alone came upon all the rest. It was evident, for as         and a half days the people went out to gather great piles of
one by one they spoke, the beauty of God graced their              birds to be dried in the sun for the meat that they desired.
words. It was true of all seventy, save two.                       And then the manna stopped for thirty days. The people

       For some unexplained reason, two of the appointed men       had nothing but meat to eat just as they had wanted.* But

had not appeared at the tabernacle. Perhaps they were              this food was not suited for a steady diet. Before long it

timid or duty detained them in the camp. They were Eldad           began to nauseate their stomachs, and the meat stuck in their

and Medad.  Suddenly there appeared before the tabernacle          teeth because they could not swallow. And they suffered

a young man. It was Joshua. He had been with Eldad and             more than just natural results of their own folly. God in His

Medad  and they too had begun to prophesy even where they          anger struck out at the camp with a great plague. Soon many

were. Joshua was deeply concerned lest these men should be         became violently sick and countless died, especially of those

usurping a privilege that had, always belonged to Moses            who had been the leaders in the murmuring rebellion. With

:alone even when Moses was not present with them. In               one swift stroke the Lord had revealed to them the wicked-

agitation he cried out, "My lord Moses, forbid them !"             ness and folly of their sin. He made them to suffer by giving

       The answer of Moses ranks with one of the great mani-       to them that which they in their own carnal wisdom had
festations of spiritual life found in Scripture, "Enviest thou     desired ; and He revealed to them once again that through
for my sake ? would God that all the LORD'S people were            judgment He would divide them by having mercy upon
prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon              whom He would have mercy and by visiting the iniquity of
them !" It is like the wonderful confession of Paul to the         countless others.

Philippians, "Notwithstanding, every  way, whether in pre-            "And he called the name of that place Kibroth-hattaavah

tence, or in truth, Christ is preached ; and I therein do re-      (the graves of lust) : because there they buried the people

joice, yea, and will rejoice" (Phil. 1 :18).  Even more it is      that lusted."                                            B.W.

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


                                                                     sin and living unto God. Our rest and peace has been made
I[  F R O M   HOLY  W R I T  11 secure in Christ's blood. But they cling to the shadows, the
                                                                     sabbatic calendar, pointing toward the rest. The rest is in

                                                                     their midst; he "came to his own (things) and his own
                       John 1931-37                                  (people) received him not !"

                                                                         Tenaciously they cling to the order of the day ; they do
    In view of the busy schedule of lecturing, preaching,
                                                                     not see that the kingdom of God has come upon them ; that
teaching, and traveling, we will for this time not continue
                                                                     old things are, indeed, passed away, and that all things have
our series on I Timothy 4. It will be easier for us to write
                                                                     become new. The Sabbath must be kept according to the law;
this time on this passage from the Gospel of John. It may
                                                                     they had not heard the Word of reconciliation from the Cross
even prove to, be a bit more interesting to the reader in as
                                                                     "it is finished !" This word of the Cross is foolishness in
much as this text deals with a very important aspect of OUT
                                                                     those perishing, perishing while keeping the Sabbath !
Lord's suffering and dying; the death of `the Lord of glory.
                                                                         There is a difference of interpretation as to what is meant
    This passage reads, in full, as follows :
                                                                     that this "sabbath was an high day." The one interpretation
    "The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that
the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath           holds that this refers to the fact that it was the Sabbath of
day (for that sabbath day was an high day), besought Pilate          the `Yirst-fruits,"    when the sheaf would be waved before
that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken        the Lord, as a promise and pledge that all the earth would be
away. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first        the Lord's and dedicated to him. On the 14th of Nisan the
and of the other which was crucified with him. But when              Passover Supper has been eaten, the lamb having been slain
they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they
brake not his legs ; but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced    between the two evenings of that day. On the 15th Christ
his side, and forthwith there came out blood and water. And          had died, and that the next day would be the 16th, the Sab-
he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he           bath of the first-fruits.
knoweth  that he saith truth, that ye might believe. For these           Others hold that John holds that this was the preparation
things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A
                                                                     for the Passover proper, the eating of the passover  meal-
bone of him shall not be broken. And again another Scrip-
ture, They shall look on him whom they pierced." Vss. 31-37.         Christ then had died on Nisan, between the two evenings-
                                                                     Thousands of lambs were being slain that night on that day.
   Jesus had died. He had laid down his life to take it again.       And God was bringing His Lamb to take away the sins of the
Such was his power. No man took his life from him. He is
                                                                     world.
the mighty conqueror, who taketh captivity captive and gives
                                                                         We will not go further into this matter of chronology.
gifts unto men.
                                                                         We will simply leave it stand as the motive of these blind
    It had been a long conquest. But Jesus knew that his
                                                                     Jews, who must fulfill all the counsel of God.
mission was accomplished. All that led up to the final moment
                                                                         They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge ;
of dying was fulfilled. Now he could cry out with a mighty
shout, a triumphant out-cry: "It is finished !" The three            they are ignorant of God's righteousness, and, therefore, seek
                                                                     to establish their own righteousness. They do not see that
hours of darkness are over; the multitudes have returned to
                                                                     this very Christ, hanging on the Cross, 
the city ; the veil in the temple has rent in twain from top to                                              is the end (the Divine
                                                                     purpose) of the law for righteousness to every one that be-
bottom ; the rocks have rent and the earth has quaked. The
                                                                     lieves.
Centurion has beat upon his breast, saying: "Truly this was
God's Son."                                                              So they wend their way to Pilate, the Roman governor-
   It is the hour of the Son of Man!                                 The law says that after sun-down no dead bodies may hang
   It would seem that now all had been done by the hands             on the tree ; that would defile the land. Christ must be put
of wicked men, according to the determinate counsel and              away as one who would defile, together with the two
foreknowledge of God, to God's holy child Jesus. But not             murderers. Their legs must be broken wit-h  heavy blows by
all. The Scriptures must be fully realized ; all the features        clubs, thus hastening death. That was also to be the loti  of
of the prophets, `who prophesied of the time and the manner          Christ.

of the suffering to come upon Christ, and the glory to follow,       But God rules at Calvary-Golgotha, the place of a

must come to stand in bold relief. God has a little work yet         skull. All was finished. It is the Lamb of God who has

for the Jews, the soldiers ; God is not yet quite finished speak-    carried away on that Cross the sins of the world. He is the

ing at that ,Cross.  He has a bit more, of what is transpiring       Lamb without spot or blemish ; he is holy, harmless, unde-

at that Cross, for John to behoid and to record.                     filed and separate from sinners. And "not a bone of him

   Let us take notice of the sacred record here in John.             shall be broken." Such had been the instructions of the Lord

   The Jews, from their legalistic, Jewish point of view, are        to Israel at the institution of the Passover in the land of

to keep the Sabbath day. It is really very, very ironical.           Egypt, the house of bondage. In Exodus 12 :46 we read : "In

The Sabbath speaks of the rest that remained for the children        one house shall it be eaten ; thou shalt not carry ought of the

of God; it speaks of the forgiveness of sins, of dying unto          flesh abroad out of the house ; &thcr .&a?~ ye brea,k a bone

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


fhereo  f."    It must be eaten as a body and not simply as a                  said: this will not happen unto thee. But Christ is speaking

piece of meat. And now these keepers of the law, who can-                      of that wondrous thing: the Stone rejected of the builders

not see that Christ is the subject, meaning, purpose of the                    is set for the head of the corner. The entire salvation rests

law, will, in name of the law of the Sabbath, break the legs                   upon Him. It is Jehovah-God, in Jesus, who was mocked,

of the Lord of the Sabbath!                                                    spit upon, crowned with thorns, who becomes our righteous-

    `God rules in lofty majesty.                                               ness : JEHOVAH-YIDSKANU  !
       Not a bone shall be broken of this Lamb of God, who is                     When they have done all, finished all the piercing, then
the Mighty God in the flesh. The perfect sacrifice is brought                  a Roman soldier shall be the instrument to fulfill the word:
and it shall not be mutilated post-mortem. It seems so nat-                    they shall look upon *PLY  (not I&&L)  whom they have pierced !
ural, such a mere human logic at work, here in these rude,                        It was Jehovah-God himself in our human nature on that
calloused Roman soldiers. (Was one wearing the raiment                         Cross !
of Christ for which the lot had been cast?) They brake the                        Behold: "forthwith there came out blood and water." It
legs of the one murderer and of the other; but, when they                      was real water and real blood, methinks. It was a sign. Hail
come to Christ, they see that he has already died!                             it been merely the two parts of the blood present in all dying
       And they do not break his legs.                                         people, or the parts of blood taken in a blood-transfusion, the
                                                                               solemn assurance of John would not be necessary, nor would
       Not a bone is broken ; the Scripture is fulfilled !
                                                                               it have been a sign on the Cross of such moment that it
       He was delivered for our offenses ; he was bruised for
                                                                               proclaimed: I the Lord of life, God in the flesh has been
our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him ;
                                                                               pierced.
hy his stripes we are healed.
                                                                                  Now the land will not be defiled.
       He is the                  sin-offering, the wlzole  peace offering,
                     wi~olre                                                      The body will be taken down; it saw not corruption.
and the whole thankoff  ering !
                                                                                  Christ was with the rich in his death ! !
       But look ! That one soldier has a spear. He thrusts it                      Not a bone is broken, for He is the pierced One from
forcefully into Jesus' side. And, oh wonder, "forthwith there                  Whose side flows the blood of atonement and the water of
came out blood and water." Thus we read in the text. This                      regeneration and cleansing. Go to, then, ye would-be devotees
is a very remarkable occurrence. What does this mean? Is                       of ceremonial cleanness of the land. The riddle is here solved ;
this to be explained to be a miracle, a wonder, a "sign" of                    a greater than Samson's. For it is the Wisdom of God. God is
God ? If water can flow from the rock in the desert for                        revealed in the flesh, seen of angels, preached in the nations,
thirsty Israel, and, if that rock is Christ (I Cor. lo), and,                  believed on in the world, taken up in glory,
when water can flow from Samson's jaw-bone of an ass at                           For John assures us of two things.
Ramath-Lehi, do we need to hesitate to see water and blood                         The first  is that the thing itself, the sign of water and
flow from Christ's "riven sid.e"  ? It is the wonder of grace.                 blood, is true ; it is no counterfeit, no product of an over-
       For let us not fail to see that we have here to do, with                wrought imagination. Real water and blood flowed ; real
the fulfilment of the Scriptures; it is the fulfilment of Zecha-               salvation and real cleansing from the guilt and corruption
riah 12 :lO : "And I will pour upon the house of David, and                    of sin!
upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of                      The second is that he speaks the truth in relating it. He
supplications : and they Shall look upon ~IPLB  whovtz they have               faithfully relates it. He has done so for many years. It is a
pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for                     long time since this occurred. John is now an old man. But
his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that                  he continues to testify of it.
is in bitterness for his firstborn . . ."                                          The reason ?
       This is a very significant passage from the prophecy of                     That we might believe the glad story that God was in
Zechariah. It belongs to the Messianic section, portraying                     Christ bringing the sacrifice for our sins. Truly the world
graphically the scene at the Cross, centuries later. It portrays               itself could not contain all the books, should all be written.
here the real essence of what took place on the Cross. Jeho-                       Small wonder that we listen with rapt attention to the
vah'God,  Himself, was pierced by Israel. Thus Peter preaches                  little that is recorded. And all the weeping of Zechariah's
in Jerusalem two months later : "But ye denied the Holy One                    prophecy is turned into laughter. The Lord hath done great
and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you ;                  things. Wherefore we are glad.                                G.L.
and killed the Prince of life . . ." (Acts 3 :14, 15).

       Notice: God was in Christ! He was in Christ reconciling

the world to himself. He is Immanuel, God-with-us. Here                                                 I N   MEMORIAM
he hangs in the land of Immanuel. The land that may not
be polluted. He will be taken from the Cross without His                          The Men's Society of the Protestant Reformed Church of Edger-
legs broken. He has laid down His life for His own. Yet,                       ton, Minn., expresses its sincere sympathy to one of our fellow mem-

he is pierced, pierced, pierced! All the way Jehovah was                       bers, Mr. Paul Buys, and family, in the loss of wife and mother.

hated. Peter savoring the things of man and not. of God                                                                         Art Verhey, Sec'y.

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


                                                                   consider when we are so far removed from that soil and the
           I N   H I S   F E A R                                   actual production of food stuffs. The farmer is no different
                                                                   himself. He usually forgets God until God sends that which

                                                                   threatens his crops.    And the unregenerated farmer ascribes

                   Seed Time and Harvest                           it all to fate and circumstance.

                                                                       Yet the Word of God comes to us and tells us that God
   After a long winter in these northern climes the evidences      has promised in the days of Noah that "While the earth
of Spring are once again to be seen.                               remaineth, seedtime  and harvest, and cold and heat, and sum-
   The farmer is out upon his field getting the soil ready for     mer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." Genesis
the seed he purposes to plant. He has a goal in mind, and          8 :22. The promise is not to the individual that he will always
that goal is not the planting of his seed but the gathering in     have a harvest. The promise is not that God will do this for
of his harvest.                                                    the world's sake. No, He gives this promise to the Church;
   We have the continual "bread question." For although            and for the Church's sake these things shall continue until
we do not live by bread alone and sin when we try to do so,        God's counsel is realized and His Church is brought up into
we do live by bread. We need it anew each day. And we are
                                                                   t5h-Y.
taught to pray for it in the Lord's Prayer. That prayer im-
                                                                       How impatient we become!
plies that we will be industrious and does not express the'
desire that we be given something without toil.                      If that seedtime  does not come soon enough for us and it
   In Paradise we had a wonderful life of plenty and peace.        looks as though we shall have only a small harvest, we are
Even then we had the "bread question" but not as a problem.        ready to question God's goodness and faithfulness. But He
We needed bread in that state of righteousness. And the            did not promise us the day and the hour that this seedtime
supply was there every day in abundance. It required no            would come. He did not promise the exact region of the
sweat of the brow. Hours of backbreaking toil to ready the         land in which these things would take place ; nor did He
soil were not necessary. It was there for our taking. We           promise that there would be a harvest for all who planted
                                                                   their seed. Who decides when the frost shall leave the
had the garden to keep, but we ate our food without sweat
and even reached out and ate of the tree of life. Now that is      ground ? And Who has the right to decide when the warm.
so ,different.  And it is really no wonder that the unbelieving    winds from the south shall bring the Spring rains that
Jews wanted to make Jesus their king, when He satisfied their      prepare the soil to receive the seed ? Seedtime  and harvest
bread question by multiplying the loaves. Such a king every        shall come. But they will come when and where it pleases.
                                                                   God to bring them.
man would welcome. What a lot of time we would have for
pleasure! How easy we could take it, if we had a king who              It has never failed, and it will not fail till the day of
multiplied a little bread, a little meat and always supplied us    Christ. The Church must live and bring forth the elect cov-
with what we needed of these material things for our natural       enant seed. The world must be sustained and develop in sin
life! Truly the man who seems to be able to do this will be        until the measure of iniquity is full. Christ must come ; but
welcomed as the antichrist. No wonder Jesus rebuked these          the antichrist must also arise and bring man on the road of
Jews and refused to be their king. He is the Christ and            sin until it becomes abundantly evident that Adam and Eve
would not serve in the role of anti-Christ. We live by every       committed a root sin that produces a tree full of evil. God
word that proceeds from God's mouth; and He would not be           must be glorified. His holiness must shine forth. And man
king in any other way than that way of obedience to God and        apart from God must be seen in all the horror of his wicked-
the words that proceed from His mouth.                             ness, that the Church also may everlastingly know that she
   And although very few of us are actually busy with the          was saved by grace. Let the Church commit her way unto
production of our food, we all depend upon it. The farmer          God. Let her live by the words which proceed from His.
is far more concerned with rain and heat than the office           mouth. Let her seek first the kingdom of God and its right-
worker. The farmer lives closer to the work of God's prov-         eousness; and then God will add to her all that which she
idence whereby He supplies us with food. But we all need           stands in need of to enter with body and soul into that king-
it. And therefore we all depend upon that hand of God to           dom in the day of Christ.
supply it. Read Psalm 145 :15, 16, "The eyes of all wait upon         And the things of God's kingdom happen in parables.

Thee ; and Thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou            Seedtime  and harvest. We know what that means. This.

openest Thy hand, and satisfieth the desire of every living        terminology is understood by our children as well as the

thing." The meaning is plain: It all comes out of the hand         adult. And though we may be far removed from that soil,

of God. Only as He is pleased to open it do we receive our         though we get all our food out of cans, off the shelf, from

food. Out of that hand comes the sun and the rain. Out of          the deep-freeze, across the counter and delivered to our

His hand the power whereby that seed germinates must come.         door, every man, woman and child with normal intelligence

Out of that hand comes even the strength of the farmer to          knows what seedtime  and harvest are. No child in the thickest

plant that seed and to harvest the crop. This we so seldom         populated area of a modern city-though he may not know

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


where his milk comes from-knows what seedtime  is and                 with story after story. A sermon must not be an exposition

what a harvest is. Truly the things God uses to teach us              of a text, a full and well-rounded explanation of what GOD

about His kingdom are every-day occurrences and known to              says there in His Word. Instead it must be man's exper-
every age and generation.                                             iences and opinions in the light of a text upon which the

       But do we realize that there is a spiritual seedtime  and      sermon can hang as a coat on a hook. Children must not be

harvest ?                                                             required to work on their catechism lessons. They must not

       We are so prone to live by bread alone. And we are             be required to do any written work that takes more than five

so prone to think only of seedtime  and harvest of our daily          or ten minutes to finish. That piano lesson, that basketball

bread that nourishes this earthly tent wherein we dwell for           practice, that television program are all so much more im-
a few brief years. We so seldom have or are interested in a           portant ! ! ??

spiritual bread question. The bread of life, the spiritual food           Woe unto us ! Seedtime  and harvest God gives. But He

for our children as well as for ourselves is a forgotten matter.      gives the harvest according to what is sown and according

The words that proceed from the mouth of God, and Christ              to how much seed is sown. Youth is seedtime. When we

Who is that Word of God become flesh, we conveniently                 get `older we still learn. We learn yet on our death bed. But

ignore.                                                               the seed must be sown in youth. And this seedtime  and harvest

       Yet there is that spiritual bread question ever with the       also shall continue as long as the earth remaineth. But the
Church. She has every day the problem of feeding the little           harvest enters into eternity.
lambs with the Word of God and of sowing the seed into the                Covenant parents ! are your children going to have vaca-
well-prepared soil of the regenerated soul.                           tion from spiritual things when they have vacation from
       How important that we take heed to what is sown. A             their secular education during the summer months ? Is seed-
farmer may decide whether he wishes to raise wheat or corn,           time only in the winter? How often do you supply them with
tomatoes or carrots, soybeans or sugar beets. He has a                earthly bread ? How often should                provide for' their
                                                                                                                  you 

variety of foodstuffs from which to choose. However he may            reception of spiritual bread ?
not have the kind of soil for all these crops or live in a climate        We know so much about playtime, picnictime, vacation-
where they can be raised successfully. `But there is only one         time, sporttime and the rest. What about seedtime  in the
seed we may plant when we are speaking of the spiritual               spiritual sense of the word ? Must every moment and hour
seedtime  of our children's souls. We must present to them            and day be spent in sport, fun, recreation ? We live in a
the unadulterated Word of God. Woe unto us if we sow                  pleasure mad world. But we are pilgrims and strangers in
anything else. Remember Galatians 6 :7, "Be not deceived ;            that pleasure mad world. Or are we not ? Are you ? Are your
God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall            children? What a man soweth, that will he reap. You can-
he also reap."    Plant corn and you will reap corn. Sow the          not change that.
lie and you will reap the fruits of the lie. At seedtime  plant                                                                      J.A.H.

in the minds of your children the philosophies of men, and

you will reap the evil works of men. Mix the truth with

humanism, and your children will bring forth an abundant
,crop  of wickedness with a spiritual appearance. God is not                                    I N   MEMORlAM
mocked. And you cannot make Him supply you `with  a                      On Tuesday evening, March 20, 1962 our dear wife, mother and
                                                                      grandmother,
harvest of wheat when you plant tares. Much less can you                                DURKIE VAN  SOELEN, Nee ROLFFS
,expect  that when you send your child to the world for in-           was called, by the Lord, to her eternal home.
struction,    God will through that instruction feed and                 Our sorrowing hearts are comforted in the certain knowledge
strengthen their faith.                                               that she fell asleep in the Lord, and that we have sown the mortal
    And likewise, "He which soweth sparingly shall also               body in the hope of the harvest of the resurrection of the blessed of
                                                                      the Lord.
reap sparingly ; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap                                     The sorrowing family,
also bountifully,," II Corinthians 9 :6. Expose your children                                          Mr. C. C. (Neal) Van Soelen, Husband
to the truth occasionally and for a few brief moments; but                                             Mr. and Mrs. Peter R. Van Soelen
then expect also that they will bring forth very sparingly the                                         Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Arkema
fruits of righteousness. Feed them with watermelon and                                                 Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Van Soelen
stuff them with food that has little spiritual nourishment;                                            Mr. and Mrs. John Hoebeke
                                                                                                       Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Arkema
but be prepared to see them waste away in their spiritual life.                                        Mr. and Mrs. Wm. D. Brandhof
,God  is not mocked. Water down their milk, make it tasty                                              Henry L. Van Soelen
by adding foreign elements that give a nice color and taste                                            Mr. and Mrs. Clarence H. Van Soelen
but add no food value, but expect that they suffer spiritually.                                        Joanne E. Van Soelen
                                                                                                       Mr. and Mrs. Donald L. Van Soelen
    We live in such a lukewarm, indifferent, superficial age !                                         and 20 grandchildren
Sermons must get shorter and shorter. They must be filled             Sully, Iowa


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                325


                                                                    XII, resigned. The successors of the anti-Popes were de-
       Contending For The Faith                                     clared to be unduly elected, and the difficulty was overcome
                                                                    by the election of Pope Martin V in 1417. The true succes-

                                                                    sion was never lost; nor was essential unity. All the time

         The Church  and the Sacraments                             there was but one true Pope, and the mistake on the part
                                                                    of the faithful as to which was the true Pope was not an

        THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                                 error in faith. The Church, under God's guidance, weathered

                                                                    this difficulty of internal dissension, once more showing the
              VIEWS ON THE CHURCH                                   divine protection which the Catholic Church has ever en-

               THE PROTESTANT VIEW                                  joyed in virtue of Christ's promise to be with her all days
                                                                    till the end of the world." - end of quote. However, notice,
   Another attribute of the church of God is its holiness. As       please, that, according to this answer Urban VI had been
one might expect, also Rome maintains the holiness of the           lawfully elected Pope at Rome in 1378. When Martin V
church. This lies in the nature of the case. Scripture speaks       was elected Pope in 1417, the other three Popes renounced
only too plainly of the holiness of the church of God, and          their claim to the Papacy and recognized this Martin V. How
Rome must maintain this attribute of the church. However,           must it be explained that Urban VI, who had been elected
Rome does not speak of the holiness of the church in the            lawfully in 1378, now renounces his right to the Papacy ?
same sense as it is set forth by the Protestant view. When          To this question we have no answer in this 441st answer.
Rome speaks of the holiness of the church it refers, in the            The holiness of the Roman Catholic Church is set forth
first place, to a liturgical, ceremonial holiness, consisting in    in these Radio Replies by the Fathers Rumble and Carty, and
this that the church, as institute, possesses the proper form       inasmuch as they set forth the Roman Catholic position on
of worship and the proper use of the sacraments, through            this attribute of the Church we wish to quote from these radio
which the ,Lord  works holiness in the believers as through         replies, Vol. II, 388-398.
these powerful means and instruments of Divine grace. And,             Question 388 : "I agree that the Roman Catholic Church
in the second place, Rome refers to personal holiness, which        is remarkable for its unity. But should not the true Church
does not necessarily have to be the possession of all or of         of Christ also be holy?'
most within the church, but is always found in some and then           Answer : "It should be, and is. Catholics, therefore, are
in varying degrees.                                                 justified in their great act of faith, `I believe in the Holy
   Before we proceed with our discussion of the holiness of         Catholic Church'."
the Church, we wish to make a remark about the unity or
                                                                       Question 389: "Your church makes a claim that no other
oneness of the church. Rome, we have already observed,              Church dare make,"
points with pride to its unity, and we also understand that
                                                                       The answer : "That is true ; and I am grateful for the ad-
Rome's unity is inseparably connected with the pope of
                                                                    mission. No other Church is really conscious of possessing
Rome. In the Radio Replies of the Fathers Rumble and
                                                                    any of the four great marks of the true Church of Christ, or
Carty, Vol. I, Question 441 reads as follows: "But where
                                                                    of being one, holy, catholic, and apostolic."
was unity even within the Catholic Church during the four-
teenth century, when there were three Popes at once, each              Question 390 : "In what particular way is your Church
with his own section of adherents ?" And this interesting           remarkable for holiness ?"

answer is given: "There has never been more than one true              The answer : "She is holy in her Founder, Jesus Christ;

Pope. At times there have been rival claimants to the Papacy,       in her teachings ; in her sacramental system of grace ; and in

but if several pretenders put forward today their claims to be      her members. There is no need to dwell on the first point.

King of England, their claims would not invalidate the right        The Catholic Church alone was founded by Jesus Christ;

of the present king. Anti-Popes are not really Popes. But           and there can be no doubt about His holiness, On the other

take the 14th century. In 1378 Urban VI was lawfully                points I must ask you to, be patient with a rather lengthy

elected Pope at Rome. Some French Cardinals, wrongly                explanation. Take first the question of teaching. The Cath-

thinking or maintaining that he had not been rightly elected,       olic Church has fought everywhere and at all times to spread

elected another who called himself Clement VII. Good men            and defend the &ll truth revealed by Christ. Where other

on both sides believed in each Pope's right, but no one ad-         professing Christian bodies have made outrageous conces-

mitted that both could be Popes at once. All held that one          sions to rationalistic unbelief, she has remained adamant.

only of the two could really be Pope. To settle the difficulty,     And there is not a single dogmatic teaching of the Catholic

another group of Cardinals later on went beyond their rights,       Church which does not tend to confirm in us the will to

declared the rival Popes deposed, and elected a second anti-        sanctify our souls ; whether it be the dogma of our origin

Pope, Alexander V. This gave rise to three lines of claimants       from God by creation ; or of our redemption by Christ, His

and thus complicated the position. A general council was            Son and our Lord ; or of `our going back to God and to our

called. The legitimate successor in the Urban line, Gregory         judgment with one of three possibilities awaiting us - heav-

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


en, hell, or purgatory. Certainly, the dogma of hell has never       kind of `ordinary' holiness whidh  allows for lapses through

yet induced a man to sin. The dogma of purgatory has in-             frailty ? Do not the Scriptures teach us that we must always
culcated the necessity of purifying our lives by Christian mor-      and everywhere be holy even as God is holy ? - H.V.]             They
tification and self-denial. The dogma of grace and of the            not only consistently avoid mortal sin, but they labor earnest-

supernatural rules out mere standards of outward respectabil-        ly to emancipate themselves from even venial sins. And yet
ity, and demands that onefs  daily life, personal, domestic, and     others push on to the practice of heroic Christian virtue.

civic, must be inspired by a deep love of God.                       Take the almost interminable list of canonized Saints pro-

   "If we turn from the dogmatic teachings of the Catholic           duced by the Catholic Church. They are her living miracles

Church to her moral laws, we can challenge any man to keep           through the ages, and her true pride and joy as well as. the

them, and not be the better for it. So, too, we can challenge        delight and inspiration of Catholics the world over. [One

him to violate them, yet not degenerate. There is no Church          might ask these Roman Catholic writers whether the apostle

on earth which so fights to lift man above the natural and the       Paul would permit himself to be canonized, who wrote of

sensual, fighting for purity of morals, the holiness of mar-         himself that the good he would he does not and that the evil

riage, and the rights of ,God in every department of life. So        he would not he does. - H.V.]

much so that no one joins the Catholic Church sincerely with-            "That there are bad Catholics does not affect all that I

out desiring a loftier standard of living than was previously        have said. Christ predicted that there would be bad Catholics.

proposed to him ; and no one leaves the Catholic Church save         The cockle will grow side by side with the wheat. But we

for a lower standard of conduct. If Catholics go, it is not          can account for the bad Catholics. It is for the critics of the

because they have discovered their Church to be untrue, but          Church to account for the good ones, and above all, for the

because they themselves have not been true to their own con-         Saints who have flourished in every age of the Church."

scientious obligations.                                                  Question 391.       "Did not the Roman Church, by its cor-

   "But the Catholic Church is not only holy in her teach-           ruption, forfeit its right to be the true Church, so that Christ
ings ; she is also holy in her members. The Church certainly         had to establish the Protestant Churches in its place?'
has the power to sanctify men in practice. But, naturally,               Answer: "That cannot be said. Christ declared that His
this power will attain its object insofar as men allow them-         Church would be like a net holding good and bad fish.             But
selves to be influenced by it [in the last statement Roman           any corruption amongst the members of the Catholic Church
Catholic arminianism and free-will asserts itself - H.V.].           is not because of her teachings, but against them and in spite
In general, ordinary holiness prevails amongst the vast major-       of them. Despite the bad fish within the net, however, the
ity of Catholics insofar as they usually keep in a state of grace    net is quite good. You cannot argue from bad fish to a bad
and out of a state of mortal sin. They do try to keep God's          net. And certainly Christ did not establish the Protestant
laws. conscientiously, often making great sacrifices to do so.       Churches in place of the Catholic Church. It is absurd his-
They are remarkable fcr their fidelity to their religious duties     torically to say that He established them when we know that
to God ; to their Sunday Mass ; to the Sacraments ; to prayer ;      they were established sixteen centuries after He left this
to fasting and other forms of self-denial; to the obligations        world by men whose names are also well known. It is ab-
of alms-giving and charity. [And the Fathers Rumble and              surd logically to say that Christ, who is Truth itself, and
Carty might also have added that, having faithfully done their       who said that His Church would be one as He and His
Sunday duties, such as having attended their Sunday Mass,            Father are one, founded a whole lot of conflicting Churches,
the great majority of Roman Catholics spend the rest of the          each contradicting what the others assert. And it is absurd
Lord's Day in doing whatever they please and in the satisfy-         to say that the forces of evil did prevail against the Catholic
ing of all their carnal and earthly desires. - H.V.] Often           Church when Christ said that they would not do so. He said
they are ridiculed as fools and as scrupulous for this fidelity      that He would preserve His Church from error and corrup-
to their religion by those who regard themselves as advocates        tion- as a Church-all days from His time till the end
of liberty. If they sin from time to time, they are never            of the world. How any one can continue to believe in the
happy in that state, but are most uneasy until they recover          Divinity of Christ, yet insist that He could not do as He said
God's grace. And always they will admit that sin is sin,             He would do, passes comprehension.                               H.V.

acknowledging themselves to be sinners, rather  than hypo-

critically trying to save their faces by pretending that sin is

virtue, and that what is unlawful is really lawful.                                             IN MEMORIAM

   "Turning from `ordinary' holiness, which does allow for              The Ladies' Society of the South Holland Protestant Reformed
lapses through frailty, though the greater part of life is spent     Church wishes to express its sympathy to Mrs. Ray Bruinsma  in the
                                                                     death of her father,
in God's grace, there are hosts of Catholics who go further.
                                                                                             MR. JERRY LENTING
[We must ask the question: where does the Word make this
                                                                     "Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted." Matt. 5:4.
distinction between `ordinary' holiness and another kind of
                                                                                                        Rev. J. A. Heys, President
holiness ? Where do the Scriptures teach us that there is a                                             Mrs. H. Woudenberg,  Secretary

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


                                                                      at the faith and confession that these books are canonical?
        The Voice of Our Fathers                                      And this is indeed an important, and also an interesting,
                                                                      question.

                                                                           This question we now consider briefly, and that from a
                  The Belgic  Confession                              two-fold point of view. In the first place, we shall consider

                                                                      it historically. And secondly, we shall consider it principally.
                    ARTICLE  IV (continued)
     Our Confession states concerning these canonical books               As far as the Old Testament is concerned, we have the
 that against them "nothing can be alleged." This is, of course,      testimony of Scripture itself in the New Testament record
 already implied in the very idea of the canon. The canon is          of the words of Christ and His apostles. Their references
 normative. It is the only infallible rule for the faith and life     show very plainly that there was at that time a recognized
 ,of believers. A canon against which things can be alleged           canon of the Old Testament, very generally known and
 would be a very untrustworthy norm ; in fact, it would not be        acknowledged as such by them and by contemporary Jewry.
 worthy at all of being acknowledged as a norm. This is true          But above all, the testimony of Christ Himself and of the
 in everyday life. If a carpenter has a measuring rule against        apostles after Him seals beyond any question the authority
 which it can be alleged that it measures only eleven and a           of that Old Testament canon. Let us take note of a few
 half inches to the foot, or concerning which it can be claimed       such references in the New Testament Scriptures, and see at
 that its markings are not regular or are not clear, such a           the same time how significant they are. There are, of course,
 measuring rule would be absolutely untrustworthy and not fit         many references in the New Testament to individual books
 to be used. And thus it is with the Scriptures. If ought could       of the Old Testament. Already in the first two chapters of
 be alleged, that is, rightfully claimed, against the canonical       the Gospel according to Matthew no less than four of the
 books, they would not be trustworthy and would not be fit            prophets are quoted, and only one of them by name. This in
 to serve as a norm for our faith and life.                           itself is proof not only of the authority of the individual
    The question- may well be asked : in what sense is it true       prophetic books quoted, but also of the fact that these author-
that nought can be alleged against the canon ? Does the article      itative books were so well-known and generally recognized
mean to refer by this statement to the contents of these             and acknowledged as authoritative that it was not even neces-
books ? In that case, of course, the statement, "against them        sary to mention a prophet by name, but simply to refer to
nothing can be alleged," would emphasize that the various            him as "the prophet."       Examples of such references to the
books are inerrant, infallibly inspired. Or does this state-         Old Testament may be multiplied. In fact, if we take into
ment of Article IV refer to the authenticity of these books ?        account the fact that the Minor Prophets were commonly
In that case this statement means to emphasize that nothing          considered one book, we may say that only five of the Old
can rightfully be claimed against the fact that these books          Testament books are not quoted from and used directly in
are canonical, that they together form the Holy Scriptures.          the Neti Testament. But, in the second place, there is an
    The Confession itself furnishes no further elucidation of        abundance of general references to an Old Testament canon
the matter. In the light of the fact that this statement appears     - references which amply prove that such a canon of the Old
in an article concerning the canon, however, one would be            Testament was simply taken for granted among the people
somewhat inclined to think that the viewpoint of the state-          of God at that time. Such a reference you iind in Matthew
ment is that of the authenticity or canonicity of the books of       5 :17, 18: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or
Scripture. They are canonical, and against the fact that they        the prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For
are canonical nothing can be alleged. At the same time, how-         verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or
ever, we may observe that the two possible interpretations of        one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be ful-
this statement are not far removed from one another. For,            filled."    Notice here that in verse 17 Jesus refers to, the h.v
as we have remarked before, the canonicity and the infallible        and the prophets; but notice, in the second place, that in verse
inspiration of the Scriptures are intimately related. And they       18 this simply becomes t1ze ZUW.  In Matthew 7:12  we find
are related in such a way that the canonical character of any        the well-known words of the so-called Golden Rule, followed
book would fall away completely if it were not infallibly in-        by: "for this is the law and the prophets." In His discourse
spired. In such a case it could not possibly be acknowledged         concerning the significance of John the Baptist the Lord Jesus
as canonical. Hence, in our interpretation of this statement         says : "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until
of Article IV we must maintain both that nothing can be              John." Matt. 11 :13. And in Luke 24 we find several refer-

alleged against these books as to their contents, and that           ences which are significant. First of all, Jesus rebukes the two
nothing can be alleged against these books as to their place         disciples on the way to Emmaus  as follows: "0 fools, and
in the canon. They are both authentic and inerrant.                  slow of heart to believe aM  tlmt the prophets have spoke%."
                                                                     vs. 25. This is followed by the statement of verse 27: "And
The Forma&on of `the Canon                                           beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto
   The question is often raised: how did the church arrive           them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself."


32s                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B.EARER


Notice here that Moses and all the prophets are equated with         Old Testament, but also very explicitly. Paul writes to

all the scriptures.    And thus it was in the minds of the two       Timothy that the holy scriptures are able to make him wise

disciples also; for they "said one to another, Did not our           unto salvation. II Tim. 3 :15. Jesus insists, in His argument

heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and        with the Jews, that "the scripture cannot be broken." John

while he opened to us the scriptures ?" The same chapter of          10:35.  And in John 5:39, ff., the Lord speaks in unmis-

Luke records the appearance and words of the risen Lord to           takable language concerning the authority of those Old

His disciples ,at Jerusalem, as follows: "And he said unto           Testament Scriptures, as follows : "Search the scriptures ; for

them, These-are the words which I spake unto you, while I            in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they

was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which           which testify of me . . . Do not think that I will accuse you

were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and           to the Father : there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in

in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their under-            whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have

standing, that they might understand the scriptures, And             believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his

said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved the          writings, how shall ye believe my words ?" And to mention

Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day."          no more, the Lord implies in the parable of the rich man

And thus it was with the apostles as well. They cite in-             and Lazarus that one who rose from the dead would have no

dividual prophets. They recognize and acknowledge the                more authority and no more convincing power than Moses

Scriptures. Paul persuades the Jews concerning Jesus, "both          and the prophets: "Abraham saith unto .him, They have

out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morn-         Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said,

ing till evening." Acts 2s :23. And to Timothy, a Grecian            Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the

Jew, he writes: "And that from a child thou hast known the           dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear

holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salva-        not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded,

tion through faith which is Christ Jesus. All scripture is           though one rose from the dead." Luke 16:29-31.  Plain it

given by inspiration of God . . ." II Tim. 3 :15, 16.                is, therefore, that there was in Jesus' time a fixed canon of

                                                                     the Old Testament, to which Jesus Himself attributes such
       Nor must we misunderstand the use of the terms the law        unique authority that one who does not believe Moses (and
and the py0pket.s.  These terms do not merely designate              the entire Old Testament) does not believe Jesus, and one
various divisions of the Old Testament, but are also used            who does not believe in Jesus does not and cannot believe
very generally to designate the entire Old Testament canon.          Moses and the Old Testament.
It is rather well-known that among the Jews, probably dating             But can we in any way learn which books were included
from about the 4th century A.D., the Old Testament Scrip-            in the canon of the Old Testament as it was thus acknowl-
tures are classified as the law, the prophets, and the writings.     edged by Jesus ? Indeed we can. And this might be expected
But in the usage of Jesus and the apostles there was no rigid        too, due to the fact that these Scriptures were so widely and
classification of this kind. Sometimes the general term .SCI$-
                                                                     commonly acknowledged at that time. Do not forget that the
fi1re.s  is used, denoting the entire Old Testament. Sometimes       Old Testament Scriptures were not only known and acknowl-
those scriptures are called the law a?Ld the p+ophets.  Some-        edged in Palestine, where our Lord lived and walked. There
times those same scriptures are simply tlte  law. Elsewhere          were Jews all over the civilized world at that time. And wher-
they are simply designated as the word of the firophets. In          ever the Jews went, there they took with them the Old Testa-
one instance cited above the psa.hs  were added to the law           ment. In fact, they were very careful to preserve the sacred
and the prophets. But the proof that there was no rigid divi-
                                                                     writings. We encounter this fact in the New Testament.also.
sion of the Old Testament canon is clear in Scripture. David
                                                                     James says at the so-called council at Jerusalem, according to
is recognized as a prophet in the New Testament although
                                                                     Acts 15: "Moses of old time hath in every city them that
his psalms belon,
                   u to the classification called "the writings."
                                                                     preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day."
Cf. Acts 2 :25-30. Besides, Jesus refers to a psalm of David
                                                                     And when we go along with the apostle Paul on his journeys,
as ,belonging  to the law: "Jesus  answered them, Is it not
                                                                     even as far as Rome, we find that everywhere he meets the
written in your law, I said, Ye are gods ?" John 10 :34.
                                                                     Jews, Jews who possess and are so well-versed in the Scrip-
Hence, it cannot be claimed that the New Testament rec-
                                                                     tures that the apostle can reason with them out of those
ognizes only part of the Old Testament canon. But very
                                                                     Scriptures. Hence, one might expect to find reference in
definitely, though it does not mention all the books of the
                                                                     secular history to those Scriptures also. One very clear
Old Testament, and though it does not even directly use all
                                                                     reference is made by Flavius Josephus. Writes he: "For we
the books of the Old Testament, it assumes throughout that
                                                                     have not tens of thousands of books, discordant and conflict-
there was a very definite set of scriptures, known and ac-
                                                                     ing, but only twenty-two, containing the record of all time,
knowledged by the church of that time. Not only so, but the
                                                                     which have been justly believed to be Divine. And of these
New Testament attaches supreme authority to that Old
                                                                     five are the books of Moses, which embrace the laws and the
Testament canon. It does SO not only implicitly by all its
references to the historical and prophetical record of the                               (Continued on page 33CJ)


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 329
:&.w




                                                                         "Thus the International Synod of Dordrecht ruled as fol-
/I      D E C E N C Y   a n d   O R D E R   11 lows: `In the churches only the 150 Psalms of David, the
                                                                     Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Twelve,Articlep
1'                                                             J1
                                                                     of Faith, the Songs of Mary, Zacharias and Simeon shall be
                    THEHYMNMATTER                                    sung. The Hymn, 0 God Who art our Father, (The Prayer

                            (Continued)                              before the Sermon) shall be left to the choice of the con-
                                                                     gregation, to use or not to use the same. All other hymns
        With our readers we also will share the views of our own     shall be barred and those that already have been introduced
emeritus Professor G. M. Ophoff who in his Chzb~h  Right             shall be set aside by appropriate means.
writes on the 69th Article of the Church Order as follows :
        "1. The Psalms. In the Roman Catholic church the choir          "The Synod of XJtrecht,  1905 added the Morning and Eve-
sings and the congregation was silent. Calvin also introduced        ,ning.  Hymns. There are many hymns, to be sure, that are
singing by the congregation, and collected for it a bundle of        doctrinally sound. Yet certain it is that they cannot compare
Psalms of Clement Marot  and Beza. He had the tunes com-             with the Psalms of David. The latter came by infallible in-
posed by Louis Bourgois and Maitre Piere, and began teach-           spiration of the Spirit of God. That is the deciding factor.
ing these tunes to some persons and school children. The             There is a divine authority for the use of the Psalms, as
example he set was followed by the Reformed churches gen-            shown by I Chronicles 16:14  ; II Chronicles 29 :30 ; Psalm
erally. The most important versification of Old Testament            105 :2, 95 :l, 2 ; and Nehemiah 12 :24. Christ and the apostles
Bible Psalms is the work of Petrus Datheen, which appearid           used them to praise God. The Hymn of Matthew 26:30  and
in 1566 and soon became popular. The convention of Wezel             Mark 14 :26 refers to Psalms 113 to 118, the great He'llel
made their use binding on all the Reformed churches of the           of the Passover celebration. The hymns, songs, and Psalms
Netherlands. However, in 1560 there appeared a new versi-            of Ephesians 5 :19 and Colossians 3 :16 evidently do not refer
fication  by Marnix  of St. Aldegonde, but this versification        to New Testament compositions but to Old Testament
was not able to force out of use that of Datheen. The latter         Psalms which in the Greek Versions bear the title above
continued popular and remained in use for two centuries              given.    Finally, the Psalms meet the great requirements of
thereafter; but in 1775 it was superseded by another versifi-        praise, exalting God in His being and work and containing
cation, that imposed upon the Netherland Reformed Churches           confessions of unworthiness, our faith, our gratitude, our
by the States General of the United Netherlands. In 1773 a           needs.    In depth of spirituality the Psalnis  far excel the
committee of nine ministers, appointed by the Netherland             hymns. In the Psalms-we hear the abiding, eternal, funda-
government, collected a new bundle from three versifications         mental note of the pious heart resounding. The objection
-from that of Hendrick Ghijzen, silversmith in Amsterdam ;           that the Psalms are of the Old Testament dispensation has
from that of the society of Laus Deo, the majority of whose          no force. The Psalms, as well as the New Testament Scrip-
members, strange to say, were Anabaptists and Remon-                 tures deal with the realities of the Kingdom of Christ. That
strants ; and from that of Johannes Voet, physician in `s-Gra-       they set forth these realities in the language of typical dis-
venhage. This was the bundle introduced by the Netherland            pensation does not diminish their virtue as songs for litur-
government. It is still in use in the `Gereformeerde' churches       gical use in the church& of the New Dispensation. As appears
of the Netherlands and is also in use in the Christian Re-           from their epistles the apostles, too, made even abundant use
formed and Protestant Reformed Churches of North Amer-               of the typical language of the Old Dispensation in setting
ica in their Holland services, of course. The English versi-         forth the realities of the Kingdom of Heaven. The lesson
fied Psalms in use in the Protestant Reformed Churches are           of history is that when a group of Reformed churches begin
from a number of versifiers.                                         to apostatize from the truth of God's Word, they also begin
        "2. Hymns. From the beginning of the Reformation in          introducing the hymns for liturgical purposes. Let us never,
the Netherlands a few hymns were sung besides the Psalms,            as a communion of churches substitute hymns for the 150
namely those that Datheen had added to his versification,            Psalms of David. The versifications of these Psalms are not
namely, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the                 perfect. But how can this be expected, being, as they are,
Twelve Articles of Faith, the Songs of Mary, Zacharias and           the work of imperfect man. The sermons of the best preach-
Simeon, and the Hymn of Prayer before the sermon. But                ers among us are not perfect either."

the Reformed fathers recoiled from adding to this number                Rev. Ophoff counsels our churches to `rn~~er substitute

of hymns. They had serious objections to the hymns: (1)              hymns for the 150 Psalms of David." If this advice is heeded

because the Psalms came by infallible inspiration for litur-         by our Synod the hymn question can be settled once and for

gical use in the churches among all nations and through all the      all so .that  it is a settled matter unto the end of the ages.

ages ; (2) the Psalms never wax old while the hymns do,              The term "never" implies just that. Under no circumstances,

being, as they are, expression of faith of a definite time and       at no time should hymns be introduced. We feel that Synod

therefore after fifty or one hundred years their number must         in resolving this question should so word its decision that

be increased by way of supplement.                                   it is either "now or never."    By this we mean that Synod

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


should not hold the adoption of this matter in abeyant&  until     ship, but of the singing of the individual believers. The

a more convenient time. She should not temporarily close           apostle concludes that this singing is to be done `with grace."

the door to hymns while leaving an opening through which           The meaning of this phrase is not that the singing must be

the question will again come up in a few years. We have al-        done with joy, but by the power of the grace of God, by

ways been a Psalm-singing church and we would like to see          which alone they can sing praise unto God."

our churches remain that way and believe they should but              The Rev. Frank D. Frazer in an article entitled, "Psalms
if the Synod is otherwise minded and desires to make our           And Hymns And Spiritual Songs" makes rather extensive
churches hymn-singing churches, they should adopt the              comments on the Scriptural passages cited above. Space will
hymns nozv.  We agree with Rev. Hoeksema when he writes            not permit our quoting his writing here but, D.V., we shall.
that our churches should be unanimous in this matter but           do so the next time. Introductory to his article he makes the
then two things should be kept in mind. These are:                 following comment with which we can all undoubtedly agree..

       (1) The obvious `fact that today this unanimity is not         "A strict exegesis of these passages requires, of course,
present. This is evident from the expressions from the con-        that the words in them be taken in the sense obviously in-
sistories of Classis East to which we referred before.             tended by the writer, and reasonably to be understood by

       (2) To determine that unanimity the Synod will have to      those to whom the epistles were addressed, not in some other

give all the churches the opportunity to express themselves        sense they might acquire at a future time."

on the question. Unanimous choice cannot be coerced. Nei-             In other words it is not a question of what we mean to-
ther may a unanimous vote at the Synod (if that should             day by the terms "Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs" but
prove possible) be interpreted to mean that all the churches       what did the apostle mean when he wrote these words to the
are of one accord.                                                 church? If we are able to answer that question, we will be

       If then the Synod should decide not to settle the ques-     able to determine what bearing, if any, these passages have

tion until all the churches are agreed on the matter, we feel      upon the hymn question as before our Synod today.

a great mistake will have been made. To suspend the mat-                                                                 G.v.d.B.

ter would only leave it an open question for a long time to

come while the thing is agitated both pro and con. This is

not a desirable circumstance in the church.
                            :.
                                                                                  THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS

                                                                                      (Continued from page 328)
   ,We  are going to devote some space yet to consideration        tradition of the creation of man reaching up to his (Moses')
of the exegetical question involved in the hymn matter. Ap-        death. `Nest the prophets who succeeded compiled the history

peal is sometimes made to the fact that in Ephesians 5 :19         of the period from Moses to the reign of Artaxerxes, the suc-

and Colossians 3 :16 mention is made of the singing of             cessor of Xerxes, king of Persia, in thirteen books, relating

"hymns" in the New Testament Church. Do these passages             severally what was done in their times. The remaining four

not only allow but even instruct the Ne,w Testament Church         books embrace hymns to God and practical directions for

to sing hymns ? If so there is no question remaining for our       men. From the time of Artaxerxes to our own time each

Synod to decide. Then Scripture itself provides the answer         event has been recorded ; but the records have not been

and we must introduce a collection of hymns and spiritual          deemed worthy of the same credit of those of earlier date,

songs along side of our Psalter. If not, however, the question     because the exact succession of the prophets was not con-

remains as to what these passages mean ?                           tinued. But what faith we have placed in our own writings

       We quote, first of all, the following comment of Rev. H.    we have shown by our conduct; for though so long a time is
Hoeksema on this passage, Colossians 3 :16. He says, "As           now passed, no one has dared either to add anything to them,
to the distinction between `psalms, hymns and spiritual            or to take anything from them, or to alter anything. But the
songs,' it seems to me that not three dif?erent  and distinct      Jews are instinctively led from the moment of their birth to
categories of songs are denoted by these terms. It is evident      regard them as decrees of God, and to abide by them, and, if
that a psalm, whether taken in the general sense of a song         need be, gladly to die for them." In explanation of the above,
accompanied by music or in the more specific sense of Old          we may note: 1) That if proper allowance is made for the
Testament psalms, is, or may be also a hymn, or a song of          peculiar arrangement of the books of the Old Testament
praise, and that both psalms and hymns are necessarily spirit-     which Josephus  follows, it is not difficult to show that his
ual songs. Each of these terms, therefore, denotes the songs       twenty-two books are exactly the same as the thirty-nine now
believers sing from a specific and different point of view. We     contained in our Old Testament. 2) He does not classify the
hardly need to add that neither this passage nor the parallel      Apocryphal books with the Scriptures.

passage in Ephesians 5 :19 can be used as an argument in                                 (to be continued)

.favor  of hymn-singing or against hymn-singing in public wor-                                                            H.C.H.

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


                                                                  tion, even as the "discrepancies" discovered in the position

;fCONTRIBUTIONS                                                   of the First Church did much harm to your cause.
                                                                     Neither have I entirely lost my reason. Would a sane

                                                                  man have told one family one thing and another family the
      Open Letter to the Rev. H. Hoeksema                         very opposite within the space of a few weeks ? How could

                                                                  the Knott family have any faith in a minister, whose conduct
Dear Rev. Hoeksema:                                               was so unfair and contradictory? How could the Gritter
  Will The Standard Bemer  kindly make room in its next           families want to join a church with a minister so void of
issue for the following lines ? When one's person and in-         conviction and character? How could my consistory or con-
tegrity are drawn into question, publicly, opportunity should     gregation have one gram of respect for a leader who is guilty
be given for defense, and that without delay.                     of such duplicity ? And let no one err on this score : our

   First, may I assume that space will be available to me         consistory is deeply convinced of the justice of its cause.

to answer the articles of both yourself and Prof. H. C. Hoek-        The naked truth is this. I never advised Mr. Knott to do
sema, if I should feel the need and desire to do so ? Your        as he did. I never advised him anything from which he could
articles on the protests and their answers filled some fifteen    even deduce such a thing. I did advise him, out of considera-
columns in The Standa.rd  Bearw~  wherein you gave the            tion for you, to repudiate the personal attack against you in
readers everything but adequate information about the issues      the cross-bill. And I advised him to do so by letter, because
at stake. This could have been done only by publishing the        I knew well enough what he would be told if he spoke to
protests and their answers verbatim. The articles of Prof.        you personally. I never told you, Rev. Hoeksema, that I
H. C. Hoeksema consumed some thirteen columns. Is equal           advised Mr. Knott to go to your consistory for confession
space available to me, if I should choose to reply ?              and reinstatement. I never told you anything from which

   `My chief reason for writing at this time is the paragraph     you could even deduce such a thing in good conscience. I

appearing above your name in the last StandQyd  Bearer,  April    told Mr. Knott the opposite more than once ; that I was

1, page 293, wherein you choose to discredit my sincerity         "dead against" such a policy. I told you the same in the

and integrity. Concerning the appearance of Mr. P. Knott          presence of your entire consistory. I cannot explain your

before the consistory of the First Church for the purpose of      writing ; I shall not attempt it. However, as it stands, it is

making the "`required confession," you write among other          an inexcusable and vicious untruth.

things : "But the strange thing is that the brother acted upon       You add the insinuation: "Why create all the present
the advice of the Rev. R. Veldman as the latter told me           trouble in our churches ?"    I resent that accusation with all
himself somewhat later. And my question is : why did the          my soul. I do not hesitate one moment to reverse the charge.
Rev. Veldman give brother Knott that advice, and why did          We did what we were convinced was our perfect right to do.
he not give the same advice to the Gritter family ? Why           We did what the entire Reformed world will agree was our
create all the present trouble in our churches ?"                 duty and privilege. Of this we have no doubt. We violated

   I deeply regret that you have chosen to follow this course.    no ecclesiastical decision. You lodged the protest, not we.

Has it come down to this ? Is it a matter now of defaming         Out of a hundred Reformed leaders, here or abroad, ac-

my name and character by telling our people, and many out-        quainted with the facts, no two will support your position.

side of our own churches, that as far as the Rev. Veldman is      Who is causing the trouble in our churches ?

concerned his case rests on little more than insincerity,            Our readers will understand that this is one insinuation
duplicity, and hypocrisy ?                                        I could not leave unchallenged. It brutally discredits my

   From the beginning I have felt deeply about the issues         person, when I could not be more convinced that our position

at stake, the right of our consistory to deal with those who      is right. It was a low blow. I feel certain our readers must

return. I told you this in no uncertain terms at the time our     understand.

committee met with your consistory. My speech and conduct                                          Fraternally,

have been marked by complete consistency. I have not spoken                                                        R. Veldman

out of both sides of my mouth. I have not "measured with
two measures."                                                    P. S. 1 - Mr. Knott told the Rev. Hoeksema when at his
                                                                            home, that he had an appointment that evening
   Why, if I had advised Mr. Knott to go to your consistory
                                                                            with our Southeast consistory for the purpose of
for confession and reinstatement and you had this informa-
                                                                            reinstatement. Does that sound as if I advised
tion from my own mouth, did you not raise this point at the
                                                                             him to go to First Church ?
last classis  ? It would have been so effective. You had so

many opportunities, especially when I stressed so strongly        P. S. 2 - Mr. Knott gave me the following statement : "Our

that I had advised the Gritters not to go to First Church con-              going to the First Church to be reinstated was

sistory for reinstatement. It would have gone so far toward                  completely contrary to all the advice received from

weakening our case and discrediting our motives and posi-                    the Rev. Veldman." - W.S. Peter F. Knott.

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


REPLY                                                                     wish to quote or try to quote that speech literally. But you

       1. First of all, I regret that I referred to a personal con-       either said or implied that you would not change even if
versation with the Rev. R. Veldman concerning his advice                  Classis  or Synod would condemn your position.
to brother P. Knott and his confession before the consistory                 6. The chief trouble with you, Rev. Veldman, is that
and congregation of First Church. It was in my mind exactly               you never agreed with the stand our churches took in 1953,
as I wrote it in                                                          with regard to the statements of De Wolf. This is, I am
                        The Stautdayd  Beayer.  The difficulty is that
personal conversations without witnesses cannot be proved                 convinced, also the root of the present trouble you are creat-
or disproved. Neither does Rev. Veldman disprove what I                   ing in our churches. Is not this the truth?
wrote by the testimony of brother Knott. The simple fact is                  7. Finally, as to your assumption that space will be
that Mr. Knott was not a witness to that personal conversa-               available to you in %e Standard Bearer, the following:
tion. Hence, while brother Knott may testify as to what                      a. Space will be available to you not to make a new
Rev. Veldman advised him, he cannot very well testify as to               reply to the articles of Prof. Hoeksema, but to place the
what Rev. Veldman may or may not have said to me. Never-                  same reply which you gave on the floor of classis.  His
theless, I am willing to admit that I may have been mistaken,             articles were merely the report of his speech at classis  ; you
and in that regard to say geccavi,  I am sorry.                           will in fairness be limited to a report of your reply at classis.
                                                                             b. For the rest, space will be available to you in accord
       2. Secondly, I deny emphatically that I am guilty of
                                                                          with our usual policy on contributions. And, of course, you
any defamation of character or of vicious untruth or that I
                                                                          may reply to what I have written concerning this case,
accuse you of "insincerity, duplicity, and hypocrisy." That
                                                                          provided :
is yotiy  interpretation, not mine. You can much better and
                                                                              1) You do not inject personalities into the case, as you
more truthfully interpret my statement as meaning that you
                                                                          attempt to do in your open letter. Why do you not address
changed your mind since the Gritter family came to your
                                                                          yourself to the issues of the case ?
consistory.
                                                                             2) You write decently and write the whole truth, and do
       3. Thirdly, I maintain my statement that I put in ques-            not rush into print with personal charges as above.
tion form :      "Why create all the present trouble in our                  And, of course, you may expect an answer.
churches ?'      For it is my conviction that this is exactly what
                                                                                                                                      H.H.
you do. Would it not be asimple  matter, even granted that

you are convinced thatyou are right, to tell the Gritter

family and whoever else of the schismatics  came or will come
                                                                                           "The Hymn Question"
to your consistory, that they must first clean their slate be-
fore the consistory of First Church and before their congre-              Rev. H. Hoeksema
gation before they could become members of your congrega-                 Editor of The Standard Bearet-

tion ? What is so difficult about that ? You ask the question             Esteemed brother in the Lord,
in your open letter why I did not mention this at the meeting                Permit me to assure you that I have followed your editor-
of Classis.  My answer is that I intended to do so ; but I felt           ials captioned "The Hymn Question" with interest; I made
that it would be declared out of order. You will, no doubt,               a rather critical survey of all your writings on this subject,
remember that at this classical meeting I asked you a few                 the nature of your arguments, the grounds and reasons you
questions, one of which was what they, the Gritter family,                offer for your position that the C~ZUI-C~~.  Order, Art. 69, be
confessed. And you yourself both denied that the questions                changed. I do not intend to criticize your argumentation;
were in order and also refused to answer. Personally, I feel              that would require too much space, and I do not have editorial
sure that they did not make any proper confession at all.                 prerogative.
But fact is that also this conversation was deemed out of                     Nevertheless, I do wish to state, here and now, that I
order. But now I ask you to answer this question in our                   begin to see more and more why the Synod of 1961, after it
magazine. Please, answer. Show us from the record what                    had adopted (formally) the "grounds" offered by the Study
confession was actually made.                                             Committee, would not vote in the affirmative for the motion
       4. I deny that, in my articles on the protests, I gave no          which these grounds allegedly supported. I most heartily
adequate information on the different protests and answers,               agree with my esteemed colleague from Redlands  when he
even though for lack of space I abbreviated. But tell me                  cautions Synod not to adopt this motion on the table, and I
what was inadequate about it and I will correct it.                       believe that Rev. G. Vanden  Berg is performing a distinct

       5. About that consistory meeting at First Church, where            service to our churches by giving us, among other salient

you and other members of your consistory were present, I                  points, a critical r&urn& of the maneuverings of the Synod in

remember very well what you said. But do you also remem-                  this matter.

ber what               said when you arose, came to the table, and
               you                                                           Whereas, dear editor, you have publicly encouraged others

pointed your finger at me and told the consistory that, no                to write their views on this matter, and have succeeded in

matter what happened, you. would never change 7 I do not                  initiating a rather broad reaction to this question, I feel con-


                                            T H - E   STAN..DARD-   B E A R E R                                                       333


strained, after prayerful consideration, to reflect upon one         praises of the mighty God who thrones upon lyric songs of

of the "hymns" you present in the Feb. 15 issue of The               His people. At best, such versification proves to be rather

Stan.dscrd  Bea?-er.  I realize full well that the mere fact that    prosaic verse, be it then ever so Scripturally, dogmatically

this will be placed in the rubric "Contribution" does not            and Confessionally correct.

mean that it is an actual cont&&o~ (really contributes                   Really, dear brother Hoeksema, what do we gain by

something) ; there is always the danger of some "parroting,"         singing a song based on Romans 3 :lO-18?  All these Psalms

I have observed.                                                     from which Paul quotes we already have versified in our

    I have some criticism of the hymn which you say is               Psalter. I refer you and our readers to Psalter Nos. 9, 10,

"based upon Ram.  3 :lO ff." Here, I feel, we have an                11, 18, 23, 93, 94, 146, 385. No less than nine Psalter num-

example, a "case study," which allows me to demonstrate              bers !

the difficulty of versification of New Testament Scripture               I submit that these numbers, granted that they are versi-

passages. Rather than quoting this entire section from Paul's        fications,  at least are versifications  of the original Psalms,

pen in Remans  3 :10-X3,  I invite our readers to take their own     and are not based upon fragments welded into a dogmatic
Bibles and read this passage to which you refer.                     argument. Take it as one man's opinion : I would rather

   My basic criticism is that Ram.  3 :10-l&  from the very          sing the strains given in the Psalter than to sing a versifica-

nature of the passage, does not lend itself to a lyyl*ic  poem ;t    tion -of  Ram. 3 :10-l&  which, from its very nature, must

at best, it is a composite of free quotations from various           become rather dry verse ; and, since it is a pointed argument

Psalms of the Old Testament Scriptures, plus one citation            for the total depravity of man, a rather one-sided hymn at

from the Prophecy of Isaiah, which, in the process of being          that! I believe that the hymn in The Standard Bewef,
quoted. have lost their original set&g  in the poem ; they           "based on Rom. 3 :lO-18"  is dry verse!

have become, as far as the poem was concerned from which                 When I read the "Song of Moses" I hear more than a

they were quoted, mere aphorisms.                                    versified, rhymed expression of how Israel crossed the Red

   To demonstrate this point very briefly within the allotted        Sea. It is poetry! And when Deborah sings her mighty

space I call attention to the following:                             song, it is more than poor verse, a mere versification of the

    1. Romans 3 :lO-18 is a passage in which Paul, `led by           dogmatical implication of this victory over Sisera ; it sings

the Spirit, quotes in a rather free way from the 0. T. Scrip-        of Jehovah. It is mighty poetry, "They fought from heaven,
tures, to wit, from Psalm 14 :l-3 ; 53 :2-4; 5 :9; 140:3;  lo:?;     the stars in their courses fought against Sisera."

36 :l and from Isaiah 59 :7, 8.                                          It is one thing to write a verse ; it is quite another to

   2.    Paul does not here intend to write a N. T. Hymn,            write a spiritual lyric, which will, in the spiritual taste of

using parts from the Old Testament Psalms mentioned above,           the Church, be the fit vehicle for bringing the fruit of the

but he is clinching a very dogmatical argument in his' grand         lips to God as a continual thank-offering.

treatise to the Remans  ; he is clinching the argument con-              There is also. in this sense a difference between "Con-

cerning the total depravity of man (anthropos),  whether Jew         tribution" and what actually contributes to the treasures on

or Greek; all are under sin, and all come short of the glory         the altar of praise!                                   G. Lubbers

of God. He proves that the law (Scriptures j puts all under

sin and wrath. This is only part of the great story, the love                                Announcement
story of God, the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
   3. The result is that we get a very cogent argument from                                  TEACHER NEEDED
                                                                        The Protestant Reformed Christian School in South Hol-
Scripture here, a good question in the Heidelberg Catechism,
but no lyric hymn. We do not at all thus arrive in Rom.              land is in need of a teacher for grades 1 and 2 (or+  possible
                                                                     grades 3 and 4) for the coming school year.
3 :lO-18 at a composite poem or hymn in capsule form, but
we have here a very didactic, clinching argument; it is                 Any Protestant Reformed teacher who may be available
inspired apology and polemic of the highest order. However,          and interested is asked to write to Mr. Adrian Lenting,
it ceases, in my humble opinion, to be a lyric as it was in          16348 Prairie Avenue, South Holland, Illinois.
                                                                         Please do so immediately.
the original inspired setting of the Hebrew poet.
   Hence, it is my opinion, that, when- these elements quoted                            The Board of the South Holland-Oak Lawn
by Paui in positive, dogmatic argument, are made the basis                                Protestant Reformed Christian School

for a hymn, a versification of Scripture, it becomes impossible
to recapture the grand and sublime poetry of the inspired                                     I N   MEMORIAM
                                                                        We, the undersigned Consistory  of Pella,  herewith express our
Hebrew poet; the grand, bold figures of speech in which the          heartfelt sympathy to our fellow office-bearer, Mr. C. C. (Neal) Van
joys and sorrows, the hopes and fears, the victory and defeat,       Soelen,  and with the family in the death of their wife, mother and
                                                                     grandmother,
the righteous God and the guilty sinner, the hopeless state                          DURKIE  VAN SOELEN - nee ROLFFS
and the saving Jehovah are expressed, is gone! The result               May the Lord Himself continue to comfort their hearts by His
is that such attempts at versification, as offered in your           Spirit of grace.
                                                                                                                .A. A. Van Weelden
editorial, are a far cry from the mighty poet as he sings the                                                   C. Vander Molen

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


                                                                      approved by the people; the latter a government which comes
11 A L L A R 0 U N D U- s. jl                                         to power through treachery, subversion, murder, intrigue and
                                                                      revolution. The former one is obligated to obey before God ;

                                                                      the latter one is not obligated to obey or to acknowledge. The

THAT RIGHT WING (Can't)                                               former one must submit to ; the latter one may overthrow by
                                                                      revolution.
       In the February 15 issue of Tlze  Sta.ndard  Bearer under-                                     * * :k
signed wrote an article about the right wing movements that
                                                                         It is because of this view, so commonly held today, that
have recently attracted the attention of many people and
                                                                      we must be reminded of the fact that the believer may never
have had considerable influence on political developments
                                                                      take recourse to arms or to force in order to overthrow any
within this country. The points that were made at the time            government which God is pleased to put over him. No mat-
were briefly: 1) These right wing movements have as their             ter how tyrannical that government may be ; no matter in
chief goals the restoration of the free enterprise system in this     what wicked way that government came to power; it remains.
country which has gradually been eroded through creeping              the calling of the believer to submit. He cannot and may not
Socialism; and the elimination of the threat of Communism             obey if something is demanded of him contrary to his calling
not only the Communism across the sea, but also the sym-              before God ; but he errs when he makes use of force to over-
pathetic Communism in our own country. 2) This right                  throw such a government, or to resist it if overthrow is be-
wing movement has fired the imagination of many Church                yond his capabilities. To refuse to obey is one thing -and in-
groups and Church people who have jumped into the battle              deed the Christian's right; to rise in rebellion is quite an-
with vigor. 3) It is incorrect to, say that historically either       other -and contrary to his faith.
Capitalism or democracy has developed from Christian and                                              * * :,:
Calvinistic principles, although this is often alleged to be the
                                                                         Another brother from South Dakota wrote a rather
case. 4) There is a danger that Christians, faced with the
                                                                      lengthy but also interesting letter the point of which was that
growing threats of Communism, abandon their spiritual call-
                                                                      our people are not nearly as aware of Communism and its
ing to submit themselves to those whom God has placed over
                                                                      dangers as they should be. This lack of awareness aids the
them in the sphere of the state. 5) The danger of becoming
                                                                      Communists and threatens our own freedom. Evidently the
deeply involved in the fight with Communism is above all
                                                                      brother is a member of the John Birch Society and considers
that one retreats from the battle in which the Church must
                                                                      an attack on this society to be a strike in favor of world-wide
engage against the enemies of false doctrine and worldliness.
                                                                      Communism. Several points which he raises are of interest:
       This article prompted several of the readers of Ths
                                                                          1) America was formed not as a democracy, but as a
Sta.ndm=d  Beamy  to write of other views which they had on
                                                                      republic. The former is rule by the people ; the latter is
this matter. Since this correspondence was both instructive
                                                                      rule by law and constitution. The attempt to change the
and enjoyable, I wish to share some of it with our readers.
                                                                      description of our form of government from republic to de-
       A brother in Arizona wrote that the article on "That
                                                                      mocracy is a' dangerous subterfuge.
Right Wing" had omitted the important element of "obeying
                                                                         2) The free enterprise system of Capitalism is the only
God rather than men" in speaking of our duty to submit
                                                                      economic system that adheres to the principles of God's law
to those in authority. This correspondent agreed that it was
                                                                      such as "Thou shalt not steal."
true that we had to obey those in authority over us, but that
                                                                         3) The Communists themselves have aimed their sights at
this principle was qualified in Scripture by the calling to
                                                                      the destruction of the "right wing," and this is surely proof of
refuse to obey those in authority when the magistrates de-
                                                                      the effectiveness of marshalling the forces of Anti-Commu-
mand of the child of God something contrary to his Christian
                                                                      nism under the banner of the "right wing." To attack these
principles.
                                                                      movements is to play into the hands of Communists, be it
       This is true. Scripture very clearly defines the calling of
                                                                      unwittingly. To be indifferent to the threat of Communism,
the Church. It is to submit to those in authority. But it is
                                                                      to be lethargic in the tremendous struggle with Communism,
also very explicit in qualifying this submission. If the state
                                                                      to attack those who oppose Communism, to be unconcerned
should demand of the believer that he do something which
                                                                      about the dangers of Communism and Socialism is to give
would involve a violation of the command of God, the be-
liever must courageously and stedfastly refuse. When the              comfort to those who seek to take over our country and
Sanhedrin insisted that Peter and John and the rest of the            deprive us of our liberties.
apostles refrain from preaching Jesus, the apostles laid down            4) To join with others in this country who are deeply
the rule for all ages,                                                committed to the fight against Communism is to fulfill the
                          "We  must obey God rather than men."
       This point became a point of discussion also in another        responsibilities of citizenship and to be faithful to the man-
letter which I received. This correspondent argues that the           dates of the Christian's calling.
believer must make a distinction between a legitimate and an                                          ***

illegitimate government - the former being a government                  With some of these points there is no argument. There is


I                                                                                        I



I                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   I3EARER                                                      335


          no question of the calling of the Christian to oppose Com-          world power. He reasoned on the one hand that the Scrip-

          munism. It is atheistic materialism at its worst. As such, it       tures clearly teach that the Jews were rejected as a nation

          is opposed to God and to Christ. Surely the people of God           by God for crucifying their Messiah and rejecting the gospel.

          -are called to oppose every form of evil as it appears in the       With this they sealed their doom for all time. They have not

          world. Nevertheless, the following points can well be em-           only ceased to exist as the special people of God and as a na-
          phasized :                                                          tion specially blessed; they have also ceased to exist as a dis-

     I        1) Communism is not the only evil in the world. The             tinct people. Their blood has been so thoroughly mixed with

          Christian fights the battle of faith on many fronts. The devil      other blood that there is no longer such a thing as "a Jew."
          does not attack only from one direction, but from many. The             On the other hand, history proves that the Jews exert a
          walls of the city of God are being scaled on many sides. There      most remarkable influence on world-wide events.          (Note :
          is the enemy of worldliness that deadens the spiritual sensibil-    there is an inconsistency here which I do not yet understand.
          ities of the saints and robs them of their vision of the goal       How can it be possible that there really is no such thing as
          of Life's journey. There is the false doctrine that arises          a Jew while at the same time the Jews are really authors of
          from the Church world itself and seeks to snatch from the           a world-wide conspiracy ? Perhaps the solution is that there
          grasp of the Church her weapons of the truth, her confession        are Jewish pretenders.) They are the real force behind all
          of God's Word. If these enemies should ever be successful           that is evil in the world. They are the moving force behind
          because we have failed to fight them in our concern for Com-        Communism ; they are the originators of Liberalism, Human-
          munism, we would have nothing left to fight any battle at all,      ism, Lodgism, Modernism, etc. ; they are in control of most
          much less the battle against Russia. We cannot become so            of international finance. Their goal is the destruction of the
          absorbed in defending ourselves against any enemy on one            present world order so that they can pave the way to estab-
          front that the enemies on other fronts overwhelm us un-             lish their own world order on the ashes of the destroyed na-
          noticed. It is to be feared that this often happens.                tions. This new world order which they hope to establish is
             2) As grave a threat as Communism may be because of              the Antichristian kingdom of which Scripture speaks so often.
          its atheism and materialism, it can hardly be said that Amer-

          ica has higher moral standards today. True, the Church may
          still gather and the saints may worship in peace. But is                From the letters which. were sent me and the literature
          atheism in Russia any worse than the Modernism in America           which was enclosed, it seems as if the brother makes a rather
          where the blood of atonement is despised ? Is materalism  in        fundamental mistake with regard to the place of the Jews
          Russia a graver threat than the materialism that has a death        in the New Dispensation.
          grip on our own society ? Is the tyranny of Russia, while               1) It is true that as a nation Israel is rejected. They no
          perhaps more complete, any different principally from the           longer exist as' a nation and will never exist in such a form
          tyranny of labor here ?                                             again as the chosen people of ,God.  This must be maintained
             3) In the struggle against Communism, as well as in the          over against all pre-millennialism. On this point there is no
          entire battle of the Church, the saints must stand alone. They      debate.
          cannot join forces with unbelievers in all kinds of organiza-           2) It is not true however that the Jew ceases to exist as
          tions in this     spiritual battle against Communism any            a Jew. Scripture surely indicates, especially in Romans 11,
          more than they can join forces with unbelievers in any              that there shall always be the Jew until the end.
          phase of the battle of faith. The antithetical calling of the           3) While it is true that the nation of Israel and all the
          Church is to stand apart and witness to the truth with its          Jews will never be saved, God does preserve to Himself a
          own clear testimony ; it is not their calling to witness through    remnant according to the election of grace. This remnant is
          the muted and uncertain trumpet sounds of organizations             not saved apart from the Gentiles, but is saved in connection
          with which they cannot agree.                                       with the Gentiles and becomes one with the New Dispensa-
             4) The gravest danger of the Church has always been and          tional Church. It is this spiritual bond which unites Jews
          remains today the danger (not of atheism) but of false reli-        and Gentiles into one body of the redeemed in Jesus Christ.
          gion and apostasy. The most dangerous enemy is not across               4) The fact that there is always a remnant according to
          the sea but "next door."                                            election throughout the New Dispensation is the special
                                                                              prerogative of the Jews. Among the Gentiles when believers

                                                                              in tkeir  generations depart from the truth, they become

             Thirdly, I received a letter from a brother in Texas who         apostate for all time. God does not retrace His footsteps and

          wrote, not so much about the article on "right wing move-           return to these generations again. But with the Jews this is

          ments," but rather about his ideas concerning the develop-          different.      They are unique in this respect. Even though the

          ment of the Antichrist. Although it is somewhat difficult,          nation as a whole was rejected, God always saves to Himself

          and not entirely fair, to condense his views in a short para-       a remnant throughout all the New Dispensation and until

          graph, the main idea of his argument is- that the Jew,s shall       the end of time. This is not only clearly taught in Romans

          play a dominant role in the development of the Antichristian        11, but is also implied already in the prophecy concerning


                                                 ----~~~~
                                                             .`,.,
                                                                               "

336.                                         TH-E  S-T-ANDA-RI3  B.EARER                                       I_


japheth  - that he shall dwell in the tents of Shem.                            Synodical  delegates were chosen as follows : P~ik--
        5) It is quite evident from Scripture that Antichrist shall          Ministers: J. A. Heys, G. Van Baren,  G. Vanden  Berg, H.
not arise out of the Jewish people, and most certainly not out               Veldman; Eld&s: W. Griess, H. Huisken,  L. Lanting, C.
of a new Jewish world order.                                                 Vander Molen.      Seczi&?:  -. Ministers : R. C. Harbach, J.
        We must be careful that we do not stand on the side of               Kortering, B. Woudenberg; Elders : D. Alsum,  W. Buys, T.
Adolph Eichmann and the leaders of the late Third Reich                      Feenstra, W. Huizepga;  -Should a primus delegate not be
-.m Germany.. Anti-:ew is not proper "anti" for the believer.                able to attend Synod, he:ghall  contact his own alternate. And
                                                          H. Hanko           if his alternate cannot attend, he will contact the next alter-

                                                                             nate in alphabetical order.

                                                                                Classis  also decided to request each minister to furnish two

                                                                             reading sermons before the next classis.  The same request

                 "All  the                                                   was forwarded to Classis  East.
                           saints salzcte  thee . . J' PHIL. 4:21                Thk Church Visitors reported on their work completed

                                                                             last year. We are happy to report that a spirit of love and

        Rev. Lubbers has declined the call extended him by our               unity  characterizes our churches, although we do have the

Loveland Congregation.                                                       difficulty of a minister shortage.

   Report of Classis  West, March 21, 1962.                                     `Rev. Heys and Rev. Van Baren were chosen as Church

        Classis West of our Prot. Ref. Churches met in Randolph,             Visitors, with Revs. Harbach and Kortering as alternates.

Wisconsin, Wednesday, March 21, 1962. Rev. R. C. Harbach                         Classis,  of course, missed the presence of 1 Rev. H. H.
presided at this meeting, and the Rev. Woudenberg  recorded                  Kuiper who, last November, pas called out of our midst to
the minutes. We met until 11:30  p. m. of that Wednesday.                    exchange the struggle for the crown. Lynden was represented

It was a busy Classis meeting characterized by a spirit of                   by two delegates. After singing the Doxology, Rev. H. Veld-
unity throughout.                                                            man closed our classical session .with prayer. Classis  West

        Several protests were treated, and all were directed                 will meet in Edgerton  in September.

against the consistory of our Redlands  Church. This church                                                 R E V .   H .   V E L D M A N ,   S t a t e d   Clevk

has been plagued by this trouble for several years. The                          Rev. and Mrs. G. M. Ophoff attended church services
treatment of those protests occupied a major part of Classis'                Sunday evening, April 1, after a few weeks absence due to
time. The Classis  was unanimous throughout in its support                   illness. Your cards and letters, should be addressed: c/o
.of the Redlands  Consistory.                                                Beacon Lights Rest Home, Marne,. Michigan.
        The Consistory of Loveland presented several matters.                    In order to have pulpit supply for as many services as
 One concerned the emeritation of Mrs. H. H. Kuiper. Clas-                   possible while their pastor, Rev. Lanting, was in Loveland,
sis approved the request of Loveland, and the matter will be                 Holland's consistory scheduled afternoon and evening serv-
forwarded to our Emeritation Committee. Loveland also                        ices March 1s and 25.
 requested that the matter that is treated at our ecclesiastical                 Advance Notice, appearing in many of the bulletins:
 meetings in executive session be made available to                  con-
                                                            OUT:             Reserve the evening of April 26 for the lecture to be given
 sistories. Loveland was reminded of the fact that all our con-              in First Church. Rev. H. Hoeksema  will lecture on the
sistories can receive that material upon request. Loveland                   topic, "The Calling of the Christian in Regard to Culture."
 also requested that Church Visitation be conducted by corres-               Let us see if a lecture can bring out a crowd as in former
pondence. Classis decided, pending Loveland's approval, to                   times before the advent of home entertainment via the air
 place this matter into the hands of a committee which will                  waves.
 report at our September Classis.                                                . . . . see you in church.                                           J.M.F.
        Various subsidies were approved by Classis,  and in some

 instances a decrease in subsidy was requested.                                                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
        Classis granted classical appointments as follows (Ran-                  On April a&, 1962, our dear parents
 dolph's request was forwarded to Classis East) : PeZla-                                    MR. AND MRS. LOUIS LOOYENGA

 April, J. Kortering; May, G. Vanden  Berg; July, G. Van                     hope to commemorate their 35th wedding anniversary, D.V.

 Baren;  August, J. Heys; September, B. Woudenberg. Isabel                       We, as children and grandchildren, extend our hearty congratula-
                                                                             tions and are grateful to God for what He has given us through
 and Forbes- April 8, 15, J. Kortering; May 13, 20, 27, B.                   them. May we ever follow their example and walk in the fear of
 Woudenberg; June 10, 17, 24, G. Vanden  Berg; July 8, 15,                    the Lord. Trusting that His blessings will continue to rest upon
                                                                              them anid supply them in all their daily need.
 J-. Heys ; Aug. 5, 12, G. Van Baren : Sept. 9, 16, H. Veldman ;
                                                                                                         Their grateful children:
 Sept. 23, 30, R. Harbach. Loveland-  April 8, 15, J. Heys;
                                                                                                               Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Looyenga
 May 6, 13, G. Van Baren  ; June 3, 17, H. Veldman ; July 8,                                                   Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Looyenga
 15, B. Woudenberg; Aug. 5, 12, G. Vanden  Berg; Sept. 2,                                                      Mr. and Mrs. Williard Krommendyk
                                                                                                               Louise Looyenga
 9, J. Kortering.                                                                                              and 15 grandchildren


