.._.: `-..                     -.
                                                                                                                                                          I





      VOT.Uh~E  XXXVIII                              SEPTE~~EER  1. 1962 - GRAND RAPIIDS,  MICHIGAN         :                        NUMBER 20


                                                                                      There is form, shape, color, and beauteous harmony in a

              M E D I T A T I O N                                            million things. I remember how I felt when I first saw the
                                                                             moon in the darkness of evening. I remember how I felt

                                                                             when first I saw the ocean. I was about 3 or 4 years old, and

                                                                             I was so amazed that I fell flat in the dunes above Noordwyk.
               THE SAVING OF ONE'S'LIFE                                               Then there is music, singing and melody. Oh, that

         For whosoever will save his lift shall lose it: and who-            world of music and singing.
         soever will lose his life for My mke shall find it. ljov                     But why go on? You all know it. When you get sick all
         wlznt  is a. man i)Tofited,  if he shall ga#in the whole world,     of a sudden, there is the blanched cheek, the frozen feeling
         and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give ilz ex-             around the heart, the shocking question: What does this
         change for his ~0~~1.7                         Matt. 1625,  26
                                                                             mean ? Am I dying? Call the doctor ! Quickly !

     My text is a reason for discipleship.                 :                          How passionately we cling to this life that is`from below.

     Jesus had said in the verse which precedes my text:                              Oh, yes, it is the life that is from below.

"If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and                             Do not be fooled, this earthly life is sweet to us, but it is

`take up his cross, and follow Me."                                          really very sour.                                ,

     This is a bitter pill to swallow.                                                Our whole life is corrupted by sin from the cradle to

     Yet, with a view to God and His judgment, and with a                    our deathbed.

view to the Kingdom of Heaven it is wisdom and pays eternal                           Our life with all its smiles and sweetness is constantly

dividends.                                                                   under the curse of God. God stands by our cradle, and while

     My text is the reason for following Jesus, we said, and                 father, mother and all our lovers stand around about the

that is correct.                                                             cradle, God stands there too.

     Suppose you save your earthly life, and enjoy it to the                          And God stands there cursing ! He curses every child

full : what have you to look forward to ? This : hell and eter-              that is born.

n a l   d a m n a t i o n .                                                           Later we walk to school, and God accompanies us to

     Suppose you follow Jesus' advice, and lose your earthly                 school, and all along the way He curses me.

life, meaning that ,your  life is nothing but misery, then what?                      Still later I clasp my wife to my bosom, but God curses

This : heaven and -everlasting joy.                                          both me and my bride.               `,

     Let's look at this reason closely.                                               And God continues to curse me and my world- and earth-

                                     Q *    * *                              life.

                                                                                      And he will do that until 1, die,"and  you bury me. And
     Let us look first of all at the life that is lost for Christ's
                                                                             then I will experience His curse like never before.
sake.
                                                                                      People forget: the Word that never lies states: For our
     Life is sweet, there is no mistake about that.
                                                                             God is a consuming fire!
     It is the life we received at birth, our life that is here
                                                                                      Oh yes! God curses our lives that are from below.
below with all its earthly ties and relationships. And it is
                                                                                      Shall I give you your real name ? A name that fits yoti
very sweet to man.
                                                                             toaT?
     It begins `with the sweetness of looking up into the loving
                                                                                      It is CHILD OF WRATH!
eyes of mother, and father.                 Later, there are the ties of
                                                                                      Your whole life, from its conception to the last sob, is'
brother and sister, uncles and aunts, grandfather and grand-
                                                                             cursed !
mother, and so on. Loveiy ties.
                                                                                      Why do you think God created hellfire ?
     There is the eating and drinking, and the enjoyments of
                                                                                      Here is the answer: because of our sin. God is just.
the untold earthy things around us from our youth.

     Oh, how we cling to this life that is earthly.                                                         * *        c 4


                                                                                                                                                  ~ --

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



       Now then, do you want to save that earthly life by hook            Sometimes we hate our life very concretely.

or by crook?                                                              Our fathers stood often before the choice: what do you

       Of course, we must save our earthly life in a certain          want, this life or Jesus ? And they chose Jesus and gave

sense. Our text does not mean suicide. We are commanded               their life. That -happened in the days of persecution when

to take good care of it.                                              untold thousands gave their earthly life, because they loved

       But here is the point of the text: God directs our atten-      their heavenly life and its Author better than anything else.

tion to our spiritual attitude overagainst our earthly life.              And those days will come back.

       Are you going to defend that life overagainst God's con-           Today it takes nothing to be a Christian. People will

demnation ?                     _                                     even tip the hat at you.

       When God says to yo-u  : You are a corrupt sinner ! And            But wait for the day of Anti-Christ !

you are guilty unto eternal hellfire! What is then your an-               Then the church will stand again before the choice: what

swer ?                                                                will it be: your life or Jesus !

       Are you going to defend your earthly life even at the ex-          We pray that we will be ready for that day. It may not

pense of God's honor and glory ?                                      be far off.

:      Are you going to love that life which is cursed by God?            The life that is gained is the life of Christ.

       Look at that earthly baby, boy, lad, young man, old man !          That life is earned by Him, merited by Him on the ter-

       God says to him : Love Me in all you are, think, speak         rible cross. There He paid the price for the millions of

and act! Love Me from the cradle to the grave.                        lives of the saints of all the ages. There He purchased our

       And what is the answer ? You know it. It is filthy !           pardon and the inclusion in the heavenly hosts.

       Are you going to maintain that life by hook or by crook?           That life which we love with all our heart is called in the

       Are you going to love that life which make the Angels          Bible : eternal life.

weep 7                                                                    And that eternal life is the knowledge of God.

       Then you are going to lose it. That's all.                         That life is really citizenship in heaven. There in heaven

       If you identify yourselves with your earth-life, you are       is our real life. And it is the reason why Paul tells you right

going to perish with it.                                              now in 1962: "Set your affections on things above, not on

       You simply did not harmonize with the only purpose for         things on the earth. For ye are dead (that is, to this earthly

time and eternity, and that only purpose is this : the praises        life and sin), and your life is hid with Christ in God. When

of the adorable J'ehovah!                                             Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear
                        .
                                                                      with Him in glory." Cal.  3 :2-4.

                             * * * *
                                                                                                  * * * *
       Now let us look at the life that is saved.

       Like a lightning flash the Holy Spirit of our Lord Jesus           Now, let me assure you that this life that is saved is

Christ descends from heaven, and it strikes you in your in-           glorious.

most heart. And the effect of that FLASH is that you re-                  Very often the Christians are pitied. And the world says :

ceive a new life, a life that never was from this sorry earth.        what a pity ! Those people have nothing to their lives.

It was not even like the life that Adam and Eve enjoyed.                  How utterly mistaken they are. We have heaven and

For it is a life that comes straight from heaven. It makes you        heaven's music and melody in our hearts and homes.

a heavenly being.                                                         Let us look at their treasures. Let us compare values.
       And the moment that heavenly life of your heart enters             Suppose you gain the whole world. And that is a lot.

your consciousness in repentance, you hate your life. You             What then ;i

hate this earthly life with a cruel hatred. Christ spoke of               Well, I have all peoples. I am Dictator to all men living

that while -walking on this earth. He even said that we               on the earth. They all do my bidding. I have all the riches of

should hate our father and our mother if they would inter-            the earth. I have all the pleasures of sin.

fere with our service of God.                                             O.K.

       No, it does not mean that we should no longer do our               But what about your soul ? Can you feed your soul with
earthly duties and callings. Oh no, a Christian is supposecl          harlotry, deceit, violence, corruption of every sort?

to be the best farmer, the best carpenter, the best clerk, etc.           Don't you realize that with all the world at your bidding,

       But it means that this life on earth with its sweetest ties    you. What can you offer God in exchange for your soul?

is not our highest yearning.                                              Judgment is coming !

       We become strangers, sojourners and pilgrims on this               God shall sit on the throne and demand your soul from

sorry earth. And we long for God and for Christ and for               you. What can you offer God in exchange for your soul?
heaven with its utmost perfection.                                    Can you buy back your soul which you lost in the pleasure of

       It means that he condemns his life, his whole life, for it     sin and the Mammon ?

is sinful from its inception to its completion. We hate ous               Look at Moses.

life for God's sake.                                                      He stood at the crossroads. On the one side his earthly


                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                                                                                          459



life in Egypt with all the pleasures and the riches of Egypt.

On the other side discipleship with God, but with it the                                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                                              Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
reproach of Christ and the suffering with God's people.                                        Published by the REFORMBD  FREE PUBLISHING ASSOCIA~ON
   -He made the choice. Yes, but never forget that FLASH                                      P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7, Mich.

from heaven. Moses was made anew. He was born again.                                                                          Editor - REV. HERMAN HOFXSEMA
                                                                                              Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
It was God's work.                                                                            Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,
   What's your choice ? Have you a new heart ? Then you                                       Mich. Contributions will be limited to 300 words and must be
love the life of Christ.                                                                                                            neatly written or typewritten.
                                                                                              All church news items should be addressed to Mr. J. M. Faber,
                                                                              G.V.                                 1123 Cooper, S. E., Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
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                                                                                                                                        Grand Rapids 7, Michigan
   The Theological School of the Protestant Reformed                                                 RENEWAL: Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
Churches will begin its new academic year, D.V., on Tues-                                     received it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscrip-
                                                                                                     tion to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
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pulpit supply must be addressed to the Rector.

   We commend the labors of our Seminary to the prayers

of the churches.
                                                                                                                                                 C O N T E N T S
                            PROF. H. C. HOEKSEMA, Rectos                              M~ITA~~~  -

                                                                                                      The Saving of One's Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._._.................  457

                                                                                                                 Rev. G. Vos
                ACTS OF SYNOD - 1962
                                                                                       EIXTO~UALS-
   The Acts of the 1962 Synod of the Protestant Reformed                                              Election and Reprobation According to Barth . . ..__..._____________  460

Churches is now available. Copies are being sent to each                                              As To Prayer In Public S c h o o l s .   .   .__ ..__.___  _...........______  4 6 1
                                                                                                                 Rev. H. Hoeksema
consistory so that you may purchase a copy for $1.00 from

the clerk or pastor of your church or send your order to                               As To Boogs  -

undersigned.                                                                                          The New Bible Dictionary. Edited by J. D. Douglas 462
    Over 200 pages of important material is found in this                                                        Rev. H. Hoeksema

book. Also the current Yearbook of the Protestant Reformed                             OUR DOCTRINE-

Churches. Indeed, a book that belongs in every Protestant                                             O f Justification                      .__ . . . . . . . __. ._________..  . . 462

Reformed home. Get yours now!                                                                                    Rev. H. Hoeksema

                                 S t a t e d   C l e r k   o f   S y n o d             A CLOUD OF WITNESSES-
                                 REV. G. VANDEN  BERG                                                 The Fall of Moses . . . . . . . . ..__......  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
                                                                                                                 Rev. B. Woudenberg
                                 9402 South 53rd Court

                                 Oak Lawn, Illinois                                    FROM HOLY WRIT -

                                                                                                      Exposition of I Timothy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
P.S. Copies of the Acts of Synod, 1954-1961 are also
                                                                                                                 Rev. G. Lubbers
       available for $1.00 each.

                                                                                       IN HIS FE&R -

                                                                                                      The Way of Cain __.. ..____.  __. .._ ___ . . . . . ..__ 468

                Notice of Annual Meeting                                                                         Rev. J. A. Heys
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     I,
                             of the                                                                                                              F
                                                                                       CONTEhmWG                                                    AITH-
                                                                                                                        FOR TFTE  
                                                                                                      The Church and the Sacraments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
 R E F O R M E D   F R E E   P U B L I S H I N G   .ASSOCIATION
                                                                                                                 Rev. H. Veldman
        To be held September 20, 1962 at S :00 P. M.

                                                                                       THE VOICE OF OUR FATHEFS-
          In the Hope Protestant Reformed Church
                                                                                                      The Belgic Confession.. . .___  _._ ._._______.._.......... 472
    1545 Wilson Ave., S. W., Grand Rapids, Michigan                                                              Rev. H. C. Hoeksema


The Board of the R.F.P.A. invites all Protestant Reformed                                                                ORDER-
                                                                                       DECENCY AND 
men to join them in this work of witnessing for the truth and                                         Holy           Matrimony                     . . . _.. . . . .__..  ._ .__.____..  . . ..475
                                                                                                                 Rev. G. Vanden Berg
urges all members to attend this important meeting. The

speaker will be the Prof. H. C. Hoeksema who plans to speak                            ALL AROUND us-

on the theme: "We Protestant Reformed."                                                               The Infallibility Question. _____.__ ___ ._ .__ ___ ____ ___ ___ .__.  .__.___  . ..477
                                                                                                                 Rev. H. Hanko
    Selection of three new board members is to be made from
the following nomination: John Bos, J. W. Faber, F.                                                   F
                                                                                       N                   ROM OUR CHuRcriEs..  _. _. . ,479
                                                                                            E W S
                                                                                                                 Mr. J. M. Faber
Huizinga, M. Koerner,  D. Iinoper,  G. Schimmel.


 460                                        T    H    E     ST-ANDARD   B E A R E R
                                                                        _-                          -    -          -    - - ~ - - -


                                                                        which properly belonged to man. If we would want to know

               E D I T O R I A L S                                      what God chose for Himself, seeing that He chose the fel-
                                                                        lowship with man, then we can only answer that He chose

                                                                        our reprobation.

 Election and Reprobation According to Barth                                  All this is plain, though very erroneous, language. Barth
                                                                        simply identifies Christ's suffering and His bearing of the

        In our last article on the above mentioned subject, we          wrath of God with reprobation. All fallen men are reprobate

 briefly summed up the first part' of Barth's idea of double            in virtue of their fall and rebellion against God. And this

 predestination by saying that by it he means, first of all, that       fall and reprobation was borne by God Himself in the suffer-

 God chose Himself, that He chose the Man Jesus Christ, that            ing and death of His Son, Jesus Christ.

 He chose fallen man.                                                         In as far as predestination also implies a No, writes Barth

        It is difficult to see what this has to do with "double         on p. 181  of his Kirchiche  Dogmatik,  II?  2, this is, to be sure,

 predestination," and therefore we must now ask the further             not a No that concerns man. Predestination is, as far as it

 question : does Barth believe in reprobation ? Predestination,         also implies exclusion and reprobation, not the e&lusion  and

we remarked in our last article, means that God chose some              reprobation of man. It is, in as far as it also implies con-

 to eternal life and glory and that He rejected others unto             demnation and death, not the condemnation and death of

 eternal damnation. This is Scripture. This is the contents of          man. And a little farther, p. 182, that the justification of the

 all Reformed Confessions. This is taught by all Reformed               sinner in Christ Jesus is the contents of predestination in as

theologians whether they are infralapsarian or supralapsarian.          far as it also implies a No, or in as far as it refers to reproba-

 Does Barth also teach this in his Dogmatics? He writes on              tion. Reprobation can not again become the part and the case

 page 180 ff. : "If we, on the other hand, would like to know           of man. Faith in predestination is faith in non-reprobation

 what is meant by reprobation, which is also determined in              and no-faith in his (man's) reprobation. For man is not

 God's eternal counsel - reprobation, which belongs to the              reprobated or rejected.    Reprobated is in His eternal counsel

 contents of the doctrine of predestination and to it alone -           God Himself in His Son.

 then we must consider what God has chosen for Himself in                     A little farther Barth writes that it is impossible that we

 His Son, seeing that in Him He chose for Himself the fel-              believe in our own reprobation. This, he writes, he has in

 lowship with man," and then he elaborates on this idea. JVe            common with all the representatives of the doctrine of predes-

 must turn our attention to the fact that God determined that           tination. Augustine and Calvin and all Calvinists have always

 that which must fall on man, now falls on Him in His only              maintained this. But, according to Barth, this is impossible

 begotten Son. From eternity He determined that He Him-                 if we also believe in an absoiute decree including election and

 self would suffer. In this we have the negative side (repro-           reprobation, If it is true, however, that God has taken reproba-

 bation) of the eternal pre-determination (vorherbe~timll~ullg).        tion on Himself, then we may and must also believe that

        We ask: is this the same as the Reformed doctrine of            reprobation is no more, "dass eben die Verwerfung  uns nichts

 reprobation ?                                                          angeht," that reprobation does not concern                      at all.
                                                                                                                                  us 
        That God in Christ took the guilt of our sin            Him-          But here Barth is mistaken. Is it true that the belief that
                                                            upon 
 self, that He suffered  and died in our stead in order that vve        there is not only election but also reprobation, makes it im-

 might have righteousness and eternal life --all  this is cer-          possible for the believer to be confident of his own election ?

 tainly true. But this has nothing to do with the doctrine of           Of course not. For faith is a gift of God and this is also

 reprobation. Rather it is implied in the truth of election.            true of the assurance of faith. This is according to Scripture,

 For God in Christ, according to Scripture, and according to            Ram.  8 :14-16 :    "For as many as are led by the Spirit of

 all the Reformed Confessions, did not take upon Himself the            God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received

 guilt of all men, did, therefore, not suffer and die for all men.      the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the

 but for and instead of the elect alone.                                Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The

        Does not Barth know this ? ,Of course he does. But to           Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the

 my mind, he so deliberately twists the doctrine of election            children of God."     Moreover, this assurance of faith and this

 and reprobation that it appears to fit his own notions, into           testimony of the Spirit of God comes to us in the way of

 his own idea of reprobation.                                           walking in sanctification of life, not in the way of sin. For

        This is not honest.                                             thus the apostle writes in the same context as the verses we

        Let me refer to what Barth says once more, in order that        quoted above : "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to

 it may become perfectly plain that I do not misinterpret him.          the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh,

        On page 179, just before the quotation I made above,            ye shall die : but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds

 he writes (I do not literally quote but paraphrase) that God           of the body, ye shall live."          The same note is struck in all

 makes Himself the object of His own wrathful judgment                  Scripture. Thus, for instance, in Eph. 2 :S-10 : "For by grace

 (Zorngerichtes) under which man had placed himself, that               are ye saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is

 He subjects Himself to the reprobation which was merited               the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.

 by man, that He Himself tastes the condemnation of hell,               For ye are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                    461


good works, which God hath before ordained that we                 gious beliefs. For this reason, petitioners argue, the State's
                                                       s110ul~l
walk in them."                                                     use of Regents' prayer in its public school system breaches

    The same language may be heard in our Baptism Form.            the constitutional law of separation between Church and State.
For after that Form has described God's part of the covenant,      We agree with that contention since we think. that the con-

it continues as follows : "Whereas in all covenants there con-     stitutional prohibition against laws respecting an establish-

tained two parts: therefore are we by God through baptism          ment of religion must at least mean that in this country it is

admonished of, and obliged unto new obedience, namely, that        no part of the business of government to compose official

we cleave to this one God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost;            prayers for any group of the American people to recite as a

that we trust in him, and love him with all our hearts, with       part of a religious program carried on by government.

all our souls, with all our mind, and with all our strength;           "It is a matter of history that the very practice of estab-

                                                                   lishing governmentally composed prayers for religious services
that we forsake the world, crucify our old nature, and walk in
a new and holy life."                                              was one of the reasons which caused many of our early colon-

    Not the denial of reprobation, not by maintaining that         ists to leave England to seek religious freedom in America.

God by the suffering and death of His Son on the cross took        The Book of Common Prayer . . . set out in minute detail the

reprobation upon Himself, which notion is not only unscrip-        accepted form and content of prayer and other religious cere-

tural, but also absurd ; but by the testimony of the Spirit of     monies to be used in the established tax-supported Church of

God in Christ, in the way of sanctification and a walk in all      England. The controversies over the Book and what should

good works does the believer obtain the assurance of faith.        be its content repeatedly threatened to disrupt the peace of

    More about this next time, D.V.                     H.H.       that country as the accepted forms of prayer changed with

                                                                   the views of the particular ruler that happened. to be in

                                                                   control at the time. Powerful groups representing some of
             As To Prayer In Public Schools*                       the varying religious views of the people struggled among

    Our readers are probably acquainted with the fact that         themselves to impress their particular views upon the gov-

the United States Supreme Court has rejected a decision of         ernment and obtain amendments to the Book more suitable

the New York Court concerning a certain prayer to be offered       to their respective notions of how religious services should

in the Public Schools of New York.                                 be conducted in order that the official religious establishment

    The prayer that was proposed by the Regents reads as           would advance their particular religious beliefs.

follows :                                                              "It is an unfortunate fact of history that when some of

    "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon              the very groups which had most strenuously opposed the

Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our           established Church of England found themselves sufficiently

teachers and our country."                                         in control of colonial governments in this country to write

   We may remark that this prayer is certainly very general        their own prayers into law, they passed laws making their

and could be uttered by anyone that is at all "religious."         own religion the official religion of their colonies . . . But the

However, it could, of course, not be prayed by atheists, nor       successful Revolution against English political domination

by several "religious" sects. Nor could it be prayed by any        was shortly followed by intensive opposition to the practice

true Christian for the simple reason that it omits, and no         of establishing religion by law . . . .

doubt intentionally so, the name of Jesus.                             "It has been argued that to apply the Constitution in such

    Five parents protested against the introduction of this        a way as to prohibit state laws respecting an establishment

prayer in the public schools of New York. We do not know           of religious services in public schools is to indicate a hostility

whether they were orthodox Christians, but the ground of           toward religion or toward prayer. Nothing, of course, could

their protest was that the prayer proposed was contrary to         be more wrong.     The history of man is inseparable from the

their religious convictions. The matter came to court and the      history of religion. And perhaps it is not too much to say

New York State Supreme Court voted against the protest of          that since the beginning of that history many people have

the five parents and in favor of introducing the above men-        devoutly believed that `more things are wrought by prayer

tioned prayer into the public schools of New York.                 than this world dreams of.' It was doubtless largely due to

   However, this was not the end for the case was appealed         men who believed this that there grew up a sentiment that

to the United States Supreme Court. And this Court re-             caused men to leave the cross-currents of officially established
versed the decision of the Supreme Court of New York. It           state religions and religious persecution in Europe and come

did so by a vote of six to one.                                    to this country filled with the hope that they could find a

   The majority opinion presented by Justice Black reads as        place in which they could pray when they pleased to the God

follows (I quote from Chr&tin&y  To&y)  :                          of their faith in the language they chose. And there were men

   "The petitioners contend among other things that the            of this same faith in the power of prayer who led the fight for

state laws requiring or permitting the use of Regents' prayer      the adoption of our Constitution and also for our Bill of

must be struck down as a violation of the Establishment            Rights with the very guarantee of religious freedom that

Clause because that prayer was composed by government of-          forbade the sort of governmental activity which New York

ficials as a part of a governmental program to further reli-       has attempted here. These men knew that the First Amend-

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


ment, which tried to put an  end to governmental control of
religion and of prayer, was not written to destroy either.                          O U R   D O C T R I N E
They knew rather that ii was written to quiet well justified

fears which nearly all of them felt arising out of an aware-

ness that governments of the past  had shackled men's tongues                                          CHAPTER IV
to make them speak only the religious thoughts that govern-

ment wanted them to speak and to pray only to the God that                                       OF JUSTIFICATION
government wanted them to pray to.
                                                                                                        (Continued)
         "To those who may subscribe to the view that because

the Regents' prayer is so brief and general there can be no                       Christ, so we wrote in our last article on the subject of
danger to religious freedom in its government establishment,                   justification, is worthy of life eternal. He is the Son of God
however, it may be appropriate to say in the words of James                    in human nature. And He humbled Himself deeply into
Madison, the author of the First Amendment:                                    death and hell in perfect obedience of love. Hence, it was
         " `It is prdper to take alarm at the first experiment on              entirely according to the justice of God that in the same
our liberties . . . . w'no  does not see the same authority which              measure that He humbled Himself He should also be highly
can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions,               exalted and attain to the state of immortality in eternal
may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Chris-                 glory. .This  is the teaching of Scripture. Thus we read in
tians, in exclusion of all other sects? That the same author-                  Philippians 2 :6-11: "Who, being in the form of God, thought
ity which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only                   it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no
of his property for the support of any one establishment, may                  reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and
force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases                   was made in the likeness df men : And being found in fashion
tihatsoever  7'                                                                as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto
         "The judgment of the Court of Appeals of New York is                  death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath also
reversed and the cause is remanded for further proceedings                     highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above
not inconsistent with this opinion."                                           every name : That at the name pf Jesus every knee should
        -More about this next time, D.V.                             H.H.
                                                                               bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things
-----_
                                                                               under the earth ; And that every tongue should confess that
.*The  above editorial was written before I read what the Rev. H.
      Hanko `wrote about this matter. It was too late for me to write          Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." The
      something else. Besides there is enough difference between what
                                                                               righteousness of Christ is an everlasting righteousness. And
      he yrrote  and what I wrote and what I am still expecting to write to
      justify the publication of the above.                           H.H.     because He is our representative head, we ark alsq worthy of

                                                                               eternal life in Him.

II             A S   T O   B O O K S                                              The next question which we must discuss is : what is' the
                                                                               relation between justification and faith ?
I '                                                                       I
                                                                                  This indeed is an important question. All Scripture em-
         The New B9Ele  Dictionary. Edited by J. D. Douglas.                   phasizes that we are justified by faith only. Even in the Old
Published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Price                         Testament it is already said of Abraham : "And he believed in
$12.95.                                                                        the Lord ; and he counted it to him for righteousness." Gen.

         On the flap we may read: "Here at last is an entirely                 15 :6. The faith of Abraham was faith in the promise of God,

new and up-to-date one-volume Bible dictionary, produced                       the one and the same promise essentially that was already

in a spirit of loyalty to Holy Scripture and in accordance                     given by God in paradise in what is called the protevangel.

with the highest standards of Biblical scholarship, and de-                    It was the promise of the seed of the woman. And the seed

signed to contribute to a better understanding of God's                        was Christ. It was this promise that was the object of Abra-

Word."                                                                         ham's faith. His faith, therefore, was saving faith. Abraham

      With this I whole heartedly agree.                                       believed God through Christ. And we read that God ac-

         Of course, in a review of this nature one cannot be ex-               counted that faith of Abraham for righteousness. We may

pected to read every single article in the book. This I, at                    remark here that this passage presents that relationship of

least, did not do. But I selected certain main and represent-                  faith and justification not as a mere subjective reality on the

ative articles, sufficient to obtain an idea of the contents of                part of Abraham, so that we are justified before our own con-

the book. And my impression is that this is a very good book,                  sciousness. On the contrary, the text speaks of an objective

scholarly and orthodox, and quite faithfully representing the                  act of God. God counted Abraham's faith for righteousness.

thought and text of Holy Writ.                                                 And this undoubtedly means that all our righteousness is in

         As such I recommend the book, not only to those of our                Christ only, and that faith is the bond that unites us with

readers that may be considered biblical scholars, but also to                  Christ, so that through faith we are righteous in Christ be-

those that are students of Scripture in a more general sense                   fore God. Thus the apostle Paul explains the relation be-

of the word.                                                         H.H.      tween faith and justification, especially in his epistle to the


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                    463


Romans.    And in chapter 4, verses 3 and following, the             conceived of rather from the subjective point of view. There
apostle refers to the text in Genesis 15 :6: "For what saith         we read the well-known words : "Therefore being justified by

the scripture ? Abraham believed God, and it was counted             faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
unto him for righteousness." The- apostle shows emphatically         Christ."    In the original we read literally "justified out of
that justification by faith is opposed to justification by works,    faith." The emphasis therefore seems to fall on faith as being
so that even faith itself can not be counted as a work and           the source of our justification in the subjective sense of the
cannot be considered a basis for righteousness. Already in           word, that is, before our own consciousness.

verse 2 the apostle had written : "For if Abraham were justi-           This same truth is taught in Galatians 2 :15-17  : "We who

fied by works, he hath whereof to glory ; but not before God."       are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, -Knowing

And in verses 4 and 5 he continues to emphasize that justifica-      that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the

tion by faith is of mere grace. For he writes: "Now to him           faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ,

that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.       that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justi-        by the works of the law : for by the works of the law shall no

fieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." And      flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by

this faith was imputed to Abraham for righteousness not              Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore

because of the worthiness of his faith, but because it was           Christ the minister of' sin? God forbid." The same thought

strong enough to believe the promise of God, and through             is expressed in Galatians 3 :5-11 : "He therefore that min-

the promise to cling to Christ. Con,fer  also Rom. 4:17-22.          istereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracies  among you,
In this section the faith.of  Abraham in regard to justification     doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the  hearing of
is explained more fully  : "(As it is written, I have made           faith ? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted
thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed.,        to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which
even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things          are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the
which be not as though they were. Who against hope be-               scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
lieved in hope, that he might become the father of many              through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham,
nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy            saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they
seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not              which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as
his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years            many as are of the works of the law are under the curse : for
old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: He staggered           it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all
not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong           things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
in faith, giving glory to God ; And being fully persuaded that,      But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of qod,
what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And               it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith." And the same
therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." The same         thought is expressed in Galatians 3 :22-24 : "But the scrip-
truth is evident from Romans 3 :20-31.  There the apostle            ture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith
writes : "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no           of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But
flesh be justified in his sight : for by the law is the knowledge    before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto
of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is          the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the
manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets ;            law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus             might be justified by faith."
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is
no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the                From all these passages it is abundantly evident that we
glory of God ; Being justified freely by his grace through the       are justified by faith only;  and secondly, that this faith where-
redemption that is in Christ Jesus : Whom God hath set forth         by we are justified is not another work. It stands opposed
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare          not only to the works of the law, but to all merit, to all works
his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,           that are accomplished by man as such. Faith is not merito-
through the forbearance of God ; To declare, I say, at this          rious in any sense. Besides, that nevertheless it is accounted
time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justi-        by God for righteousness is very evident in the passages we
fier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then~?       quoted. ,And, further, that the basis of this imputation on the
It is excluded. By what law? of works ? Nay : but by the             part of God is the promise to which faith clings is also
law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified          evident. And the promise is Christ, so that His righteous-
by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the          ness and holiness is the only and ultimate ground of our
Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles ? Yes, of the Gen-         righteousriess before .God.

tiles also: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the cir-           From all this it should be rather plain how we must con-

cumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do             ceive of the proper relation between faith and justification.

we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea,
we establish the law."                                                                                                           H.H.

    In Romans 5 :l the relation of justification and faith is

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


       _---_-----.                                                               Hardly had the burial of Miriam taken place before an
lrA CLOUD OF W.1TNESS.ES  11 even greater burden entered Moses' life. In a way it wa.3
                                                                             nothing new. The people were suffering for lack of water.

                                                                             All through the forty years of waiting to go into Canaan they

                                                                             had managed to find enough water for themselves and. their
                       The Fall of Moses
                                                                             flocks. `Now, just as they were ready to move on to the land

            And the LORD spahe unfo  Moses, saying.,                         of plenty, a drought settled down around them. It brought to
            Take the rod, and gather  thou the assembly together,            the people an almost. frantic sense of frustration. Morning
         thou, a:nd  Aaron thy brother, and speak ye ,unto the rock          after morning the people arose to find the manna upon the
         before their eyes.: and 6t shalt give forth his zwate.?, and
                                                                             ground to give them their needed food ; but when the sun
         thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the dock: so
         thou shalt give the congregation .a.nd  their beasts drink.         arose it was always in a cloudless sky that showed no sign
            And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as                  of giving the water that they needed also to live. Death
         he conwmnded  l&n.                                                  seemed to be closing in upon them with its cruel grip of
            And Moses and Aaron gathered ihe congregation                    thirst. Would the promise of God in the end prove to be too
         together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear               late and in vain ?
         now, ye rebels; Ifliust we fetch yo'u water out of tl&
        rock?                                                                   Frightened and dismayed, the people turned again to
            And Moses lifted up his hand>  asd witlz his rod he              Moses to vent upon him their frustration. "Would God that
         msote the rock twice; and the water  came out abm-                  we had died when our brethren died before the LORD !" they .
         da.ntly, and the congregation  drank, and their b,easts             cried in their rage.    "And why have ye brought up the con-
         also.                                   Numbers 20 :7-l 1
                                                                             gregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our

       Slowly the years passed while Israel waited to enter the              cattle should die there ? And wherefore have ye made us to

promised land. This was the burden of punishment which                       come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place?

they had to bear for rejecting the way of the Lord. One by                   it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pome-

one the members of that generation fell in the barren waste                  granates ; neither is there any water to drink."

of the wilderness to be replaced by the new generation which                    With a cruel shock these words fell upon the ears of

had not taken part in their fathers' sin. Finally only a hand-               Moses and sunk into his consciousness. It was the very fam-

ful of the older generation was left. Forty years had passed                 iliarity that hurt. It stung like the lash of a whip. Almost

and the time drew near for them to take up the last lap of                   forty years before he had heard this same language from the

the journey once again. Through the years the people had                     lips of their fathers. He had tried everything in his power

scattered out through the surrounding territory of the desert.               to show them the evil of talking like that. He had pleaded;

Now once again they were called together into the wilderness                 he had scolded ; he had punished ; he had prayed for them.

of Zin at Kadesh. This was a new generation of Israelites.                   It all had been in vain. They had continued in their rebel-

Some of them had been small children during the early part                   lion until God had refused to them the right to enter the

of the wilderness journey; most of them had been born here                   promised land. Now they had waited all of this time for

on the borders of Canaan while Israel waited to enter in;                    the old, rebellious generation to perish and a younger, guilt-

none of them had lived and shared in the wickedness of                       less generation to take its place, and the same old thing was

Egypt like their fathers who had fallen in their sin. These                  starting all over again. New fears began to lay hold upon

had been raised under God's law with the promise ever                        Moses' heart. Could it be that this new generation was no

present before their minds. There was a new zeal and dedica-                 better than the old ? Had he waited patiently through all these

tion such as had never pervaded the nation before. They                      years only to see a new generation repeat the sins of their

looked forward with enthusiasm to the promises that set them                 fathers and like them be barred from the promised posses-
                                                                        ,
apart from all other nations of the world.                                   sion ? He was already approaching one hundred and twenty

   It was here, however, in Kadesh that a great sorrow was                   years of age, and he could never live long enough to see yet

brought into Moses' life. Miriam, Moses' sister died. It was                 another generation replaced by the hand of God. Might it

a great loss for Moses and also for the nation. Miriam had                   be that after all he would never come to see the promised

been active in the affairs of the nation from her youth. It                  land ? His soul was left cold by the very thought.
was she who had watched the infant Moses in his ark on the                      Still Moses was a man of much spiritual experience. He

shore of the Nile and had negotiated with Pharaoh's daugh-                   knew better than to respond to the demands of the people im-

ter for the child's care. Through the wilderness journey she                 petuously. With Aaron his brother he left the assembly of

had served as a prophetess before the Lord. She had con-                     the people and retired to the tabernacle of the congregation

tributed to the women of Israel a certain leadership which                   to consult with the Lord in prayer. In humility they pros-

no man could ever supply. She had guided the women in                        trated themselves in God's presence expressing their depend-

song and dance and worship of the Lord. Her death left a                     ence upon Him. In grace God answered and revealed His

certain vacuum in the camp, and all Israel stopped to ob-                    glory unto them.

serve it. But it was Moses and Aaron who felt the absence                       The instructions that the Lord gave to them were simple :

of their sister more than anyone else.                                       "Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou,


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                        445


and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before            vainly beating the rock without effect. Now he felt as though

their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt       God had been shamed because he had perverted the divine

bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give       command. He stood there now as the greatest rebel of them

the congregation and their beasts drink."                           all.

    To Moses and Aaron these instructions of God were dis-                  Could either Moses or Aaron have been surprised when
     . .
appomtmg. They did not seem to recognize the seriousness            God came to them again and spoke. "Because ye believed me

of the situation as they saw it. T'he two brothers were con-        not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, there-

vinced that the nation of Israel was standing at a very critical    fore ye shall not bring this congregation into, the land which

juncture. If this new generation would repeat the sin of their      I have given them."

fathers and continue on this way of rebellion which they had                These were harsh words ; but they were just, and they

begun it would surely lead to catastrophe. They too would           were  frw, MPK*$  and Aaron had sinned a great sh En-
eventually be turned back from the borders of Canaan. It            trusted with the Word of God, they had changed and per-

did not seem to them that when God said merely to go and            verted it according to their own discretion. In doing this they

to speak to the rock that that would supply sufficient warning      had actually substituted- their word, the word of man, for the

for the people. They would have liked something stronger.           Gospel of God. The rock was in type and, in figure a picture

Even the sign of Rephidim where the rock was struck as a            of the promised redemption, a picture of the Christ to come.

sign of judgment seemed more emphatic in its warning than           There had been a day when God desired to reveal to Israel

this. How could just speaking to the rock ever affect the           that the Christ would bear the stripes of their sin. Thus

rebellious hearts of these people. Moses and Aaron were             Moses had been commanded to strike the rock at Rephidim.

dissatisfied.                                                       But now it was the will of God to reveal that just a word

    Nevertheless, it was an almost natural response on the          spoken sincerely in prayer would bring forth God's blessing

part of Moses and Aaron to obey the commands that came to           upon His people. Vl'hen  Moses refused to speak to the rock

them from the Lord. They returned to the people and in-             but struck it once again, he was thereby denying that the

structed them to assemble themselves before a high rock cliff       prayer of a righteous man could be effective enough. He was

that stood nearby in the wilderness. Even as they assembled         denying the validity of the Gospel. This had to be punished.

the people, however, the two men continued to be. troubled          All most know that no one, not even Moses, could be allowed

about the command of God. Finally they decided, after delib-        to change the Word of God. Because he had tried, Moses

erating together, that Moses would have to add the warning          was denied the right to enter the land of promise. God would

for which the Lord had not provided. The people could not           be justified also in him.

be left off so easy. Moses would have to let them know that                 "This is the water of Meribah ; because the children of

they were walking in a way of rebellion and sin.                    Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them"

    Finally the people were gathered together before the rock.      (Num. 20:13).

Agitated but determined, Moses stepped forth before them.                                                                            B.W.

Rarely before had he stood before the people under circum:

stances such as this. Through conscious deliberation he had

decided to go beyond the command of God to say and do what

he thought was best. It-made a difference. He possessed calm-
                                                                                                 IN MEMORIAM
ness and certainty before. Usually he spoke deliberately with

conviction. Agitation was to be seen on his face, and when he               The Men's Society of the Edgerton Protestant Reformed Church

spoke the words were curt and harsh. "Hear now, ye rebels i         would express its sympathy to our fellow  members, the father and
                                                                    brother of
must we fetch you water out of this rock ?" And then it was
                                                                                             ARIE ALVIN VER HEY
done. Once having said that in that spirit, Moses could not
                                                                    who passed away on July 17, 1962.
turn back. It just was not possible for him to speak quietly
                                                                            "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
to the rock as God had commanded. Rather in his anger he
                                                                    upon them that fear Him." Psalm 103:17.
lifted the rod which was in his hand and brought it down
                                                                                                            Rev. B. Woudenberg, President
with all of his might upon the rock as though he were striking

the rebels themselves. Once and once again he did it until
                                                                                                 IN MEMORIAM
water did gush forth and the people had plenty to drink.

    Quickly the people stooped to wet their dry lips and                    The Ladies' Society of the Edgerton Protestant Reformed Church
                                                                    would express its sympathy to our fellow members, the mother and
throats ; but somehow it did not satisfy as might have been
                                                                    sisters of
thought. There was a tension in the air that was hard to ex-                                 ARLE  ALVIN VER HEY
plain. Especially was this felt by Moses: He had passed
                                                                    who was taken by the Lord on July 17, 1962.
through many troubled times with Israel, but never before
                                                                            "But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion accord-
had he felt like this. Indeed, God had not denied him the           ing to the multitude of His mercies." Lamentations 3:32.
miracle. Before the people he had not been put to shame.                                                 Rev. B. Woudenberg, President-
But maybe it would have been better if God had left him                                                  Mrs. D. Bleyenberg, Secretary

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


                                                                           Concerning the "younger widows" Paul has some very

11       FR0.M   H O L Y   W R I T   11 pointed and wise directives.
                                                                           In the first place they are "to marry." There are circum-

                                                                       stances when it is better for widows not to marry. However,

                   Exposition of I Timothy                             Paul is here speaking of those widows who do not have the
                                                                       power of continence. He is speaking here of the general rule
                        (I .Timothy 5 :9-16)
                                                                       and not of the exceptions.    It is, of course, understood that
                                                         e:
                                  b.                                   they who marry shall marry "in the Lord." It is not enough

       In our former essay we called attention to Paul's descrip-      that a young widow meet a "nice" young man. Here we can-

tion of and criteria for a fit candidate for the work and posi-        not follow the very, very carnal and worldly advice which is

tion of a deaconess in the church of Jesus Christ.                     sought for and received by men and women of unbelief in

       There were two factors which are particularly singled out       the world. They are blind and seek guidance from the blind,

and set in bold relief.                                                and both fall into the pit of error and superstition.         The

      The first is the matter of personal qualifications. She must     standard is and remains "in the Lord," that is, that both

have been the wife of one man, have nourished children, have           parties, the young widow and the young man are believers in

lodged strangers, and have washed the saints' feet; partic-            Christ, so that the one says to the other your God is my

ularly, she must have relieved the needy ! In one word : she           God and your people is my people. Young widows shali

must have diligently followed every good work!                         marry; they are here in their element like a fish in the water.

      Besides, and probably too for the foregoing reasons, she             In this holy ordinance the young widows are to. "bear

must have attained, at least, to the age of 60 years. Younger          children."    For a woman is saved through childbearing, if

widows will surely wax wanton and enter into the marriage              they continue in faith, love and holiness with sobriety. They

state, and will bring reproach upon the name of Christ.                are not saved because they bear children, but they are saved

      Hence, Paul comes with his very, very sober advice.              because of the love and suf?ering  of Christ  on the Cross. Yet,

Writes he : "I till, therefore, that the younger Tefol%en  v~arry:,    without childbearing the woman is not saved and Eve is not

bear children, guide the Izoztse,  g&e  none occasion to the ad-       the mother of the living. Only thus is the church born, and

versavv to speak reproachfully. For some have a&eady  tamed            does the Son of God gather, defend and preserve to Himself

aside after                                                            a church elect unto everlasting life. Young widows have
                Satan." Verses 14, 15.
      It should be borne in mind that Paul here expresses what         still a place in that plan and purpose of God. That is their

he "wills" for the church. This is the same verb employed by           calling of faith. -4nd  with the intention of "beai-ing  children"

Paul in I Tim.        2 :8, where he gives commandment that            they enter into the marriage state. The' world which is

`rmen"  in distinction from women lead the church in the con-          "without God" and "estranged from the life of God" busies

gregational prayers and in the liturgies in general. The term          itself with contraceptives, wonder drugs to relieve the "sor-

refers to the deliberative will as based upon sound judgment           row" of .conception,  and argues before the face of the Al-

and the eternal ordinances of God for man either in the church         mighty the right and wrong of "birth-control." It is better

or in the home. Such is the import of the term "bo,ulowzai."           to study unto godliness and have as a guiding rule: All what

Compare I Tim. 2 :8 and Jude 5.                                        is not out of faith is sin ! Let each be fully persuaded in her

      What we have stated in our former article concerning             own mind that she is walking in her calling of bearing chil-

the nature and place of women. in relationship to their hus-           drkn, of walking in godliness, so that with her whole life she

bands; as was the relationship of Eve to Adam, should be               glorifies and praises God ; there will be less neurosis. in the

here kept in mind. Paul studiously follows the principle here          matter of child-bearing. Also here there is room for the

that Christ has not come to give excuse to sin, but that He            putting <off of the old man and for the putting on of the new

came to take away sin and to call us unto holiness. For the            man in Christ Jesus.

ordinance of marriage is not rooted in Christ, is not an                Only those who  enter into the marriage  state with the

ordinance which has validity before God, simply in the church.         resolved and dedicated purpose of "bearing children" will

Men and women in thq world are also married before God                 also truly enter into it with the purpose of managing a house-

and subject to the rule: what God.hath  then joined together           hold. The term in Greek "oikodespotei"  does not mean that

let not man put asunder ! See Matt. 19 :6. And this rule no            Paul advocates that the woman (wife) be a veritable despot

decisions of learned ( 1)  Synods can disannul ! God is not            in the house ; Paul is not speaking of her "authority" in the

mocked ! Christ came not to destroy the law but to fulfil  it :        home, but rather of her calling in managing the household

not one jot or tittle of the law shall pass away from the law          affairs as the help-meet of her husband. Here we can do no'

till all be fulfilled. He came to sanctify marriage and to set         better than quote from Proverbs 31 :lO: "Who can find a

the marriage state in honor and in the service of the gathering        virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart

of H'is church and coming of His kingdom.                              of her husband doth safely trust her, so that he shall have no

      That we should bear in mind here.                                need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days

       Upon this solid basis is the "I will" of the apostle here       of her life. She seeks wool and flax and worketh willingly

in our test.                                                           with her hands. She is like the merchants' ships and bringeth


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                467


her food from afar. She riseth up while it is yet night, and             than infidels and deny the faith. Here the apostle is concerned

giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens . . .         re a proper apportionment of the amount of relief that must be

She perceiveth that her merchandise is good : her candle goeth           given by the church. The rule seems to be that the church.

not out by night. . . . She is not afraid of the snow for her            is not to pay in such cases where relatives or anyone in a

household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet . . .          position to do so, has the first calling. There must not be

Her husband is known in the gates, when he: sitteth among                a shirking of the duty on the part of children or of anyone in

the elders of the land. . . . Strength and honor are her cloth-          a position to aid the needy widows.

ing and she shall rejoice in time to come. . . . She looketh well              Here we are dealing once more with a basic principle in

to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of                caring for the needy. The church must care for those who

idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed: h&-  hus-           are "widows indeed," that is, for those who have no other

band also and he praiseth her. . . . Favor is deceitful, and             means of income, or financial support. The deep principle

beauty is vain ; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall            here is : thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself! A parent is

be praised. . . ."                                                       "nearer" than anyone else, and so is a close relative.

    Such a woman, a young widow, will develop into a fit                       Thus the affairs must be handled in the household of

candidate for a deaconess in later life. However, unless she             faith, the church of the living God. All must be controlled by

has passed through these experiences and shown herself ap-               godliness ; we are to work out our salvation with fear and

proved she must be begged off. Let it not be forgotten that              trembling, for it is God who worketh in us to will and td do

the calling of "motherhood" is a first-rate calling and cannot           according to his good-pleasure.                           G.L.

be relegated to a secondary position.

    Only thus will the enemy have none "occasion" for revil-

ing the church of God. Paul is studiously interested that no                               "PAYING OUR VOWS"

"occasion" be "given" to the enemy. We don't hand the Devil
                                                                               Our salvation is not really "completed" when we do not
an occasion on a platter to revile the people of God. This
                                                                         pay our vows to God. We are a bit adverse to the idea of
calls for a very circumspect walk on the part of us Christians !
                                                                         "payment" to God for fear that it would detract from grace.
And, in particular, on the part of the younger widows. A
                                                                         so that grace would not be grace. In our thinking we easily
young widow is a shiny mark for gossip ! And the adversary
                                                                         confuse or identify "payment" and "merit" ! However, paying
has his agents out. They are often "dame rumor." They
                                                                         our "vows" is in the highest sense eating and drinking Christ.
thrive on idleness and gossip. Idleness is the Devil's pillow.
                                                                         It means keeping our word, which we freely and spontan-
If our lives are not filled             with constructive work, the
                                LIP                                      eously promised before the face of God and His people. We
Devil  will see to it that we have destructive reviling! There
                                                                         then say with Abraham: I have lifted up my hand unto the
is nothing so good to keep from joining the Devil's crowd
                                                                         Most High!
of gossippers as to be so positively busy in one's "office and
                                                                               Scripture abounds in passages which speak of "paying"
calling" as are the angels in heaven. And the only way to
                                                                         our vows. In Psalm 22 :25 we read: "My praise shall be of
keep young widows from being reviled and or giving occa-
                                                                         thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before
sions for evil-speaking is that they marry and walk in a
                                                                         them that fear him." In Psalm 50:14 we read: "Offer unto
God-given calling and purpose in life.
                                                                         God thanksgiving ; and pay thy vows unto the Most High."
    Paul must have had definite cases in mind in the church
                                                                         Or read Psalm 66 :13 : "I will go into thy house with burnt-
of Ephesus when he writes : "For some already turned aside
                                                                         offerings: I will pay thee my vows." In Psalm 76:ll  we
after Satan."    There must  have been "some" such among the
                                                                         read: "Vow and pay (fulfill) unto the LORD your God: let
young widows whose conduct was not above reproach and
                                                                         all that be round about him bring presents unto him that
who by their conduct caused the church, the community of
                                                                         ought to be feared." And, lastly, read Psalm 116:lS:  "I will
saints, to be reviled. The unbelievers could point to the
                                                                         pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his
conduct of these younger widows and thus the enemy of the                saints."
church  had material to make sport of the church.
                                                                              Has your vow become a cheap article ; or is it a sacred
 ' These things ought not so to be !                                     tl-ust  ? !                                               G.L.
   Hence, the strong and definite : I will, therefore, that they

marry . . .

   The apostle still  has a directive also for the care of

widows. Writes he in verse 16: "If a,ny mm or zvowmn  tAa.t                              Notice for Classis West
belieweth  bath w&fozus,  let tlqefm  ,velieve  them, and let not the
                                                                              Classis  West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will
ch&h  be charged;  that they may relieve them fht are
                                                                         meet, the Lord willing, in Edgerton, Minnesota, on Wednes-
-widows ipbdeed."
                                                                         day, September 19, 19G2.       All matters for the classical
   At first glance it seems that we have here a repetition of
                                                                         agendum must be in the hands of the Stated Clerk not later
what the Apostle wrote in verse 8. There the Apostie gave
instructions for the care of the widows. Children should                 than thirty days before the meeting of Classis.

show godliness toward their aged parents lest they be worse                                        RELY. H. VELDMAN, Stated Clefk

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



                                                                     That is the way of Cain and his disciples ! Cain could find

              I N   H I S   F E A R                                  no fault with Abel's doctrine. And it was not simply his in-
                                                                     tention to overthrow that doctrine when Abel spoke to him

                                                                     of the faith once delivered to the saints. He hated that doc-
                       The Way of Cain                               trine ; and therefore he hated Abel. And when you hate a

       Jude speaks of it in his general epistle.                     man's doctrines and are a disciple of Cain, you will not only

       He felt the necessity of exhorting the Church to contend      ridicule his doctrine but pick up his faults and throw them

earnestly for the faith (doctrine, truth) once delivered to the      at him. The faults that his doctrine condemn you will rejoice

saints, because certain men had crept in unawares who taught         in because they make handy stones to hurl at him. What an

that which they had dreamed up in the place of that which            indictment upon us that we love certa,in  sins in a man because

God had delivered to the saints.                                     we can use them to satisfy the sinfulness of our hearts over

       The way of Cain !                                             against him! If we have the true doctrine, if we are indeed

       How many followers he has ! How many there are who            defenders of the faith once delivered to the saints, will we not

have him for their spiritual father rather than his brother          hate these sins we see in others and hate even to touch them

Abel! How many there are who do not keep themselves in               or let them defile our lips ? Cain did not have the truth. His

the love of God because they follow men who walk in the way          doctrine was one of hatred against the living God. And of

of Cain!                                                             necessity he must hate the neighbour that God has brought

       The way of Cain i                                             across his path. The way of Cain is to persecute, murder,

       It is not the wBy of His fear! It is the way of unbelief.     ridicule, slander, injure in body and soul. Of that there can

It is the way that Cain's disciples walked. And they were            be no question.

not pious, God-fearing men. Jude lists them for you and me.             That is not what Jude has in mind when he exhorts us

Listen to him! He speaks in his brief epistle of the people          to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. The

of Sodom and Gomorrah. More particularly he names some               way of Cain is the way of rejecting the faith God has de-

of them such as Balsam  who ran greedily after reward. He            livered and of living according to a doctrine that has, origi-

was, if you please a prophet. He had an office and position.         nated in and been concocted in the mind of ,uvtan!  Cain and his

He was a man of influence. His calling was to teach to the           disciples do not listen to God. They do not derive their doc-

people that which God had once delivered unto the saints. I-Tij      trine and spiritual knowledge from His Word. Instead, al-

work was to bless God's people. For filthy lucre's sake he was       though they have a form of godliness that denies the power

ready to curse Israel, to teach them gross immorality so that        thereof, they approach His Word with their own precon-

God would destroy them from off the face of the earth. A             ceived  notions. They dream        certain doctrines that will
                                                                                                    up 
little of Balak's gold and silver would turn him to do such          accommodate men in the way of pride, of sin and of earthly

deviltry ! For earthly position, for social standing, for worldly    reward. They will not listen to God but have the audacity

goods, for the honor of men - "having men's persons in ad-           to tell God that He ought to listen to them.

miration because of advantage," Jude says in verse 16-for               Cain's offering was rejected by God exactly because it

all these Balaam (and his present day companions in the way          was the fruit of such an evil heart and mind. God had slain

of Cain) was willing to forsake the faith once delivered to          a lamb and clothed Adam and Eve with the skin. God had

the saints and to oppose it rather than contend for it! He           implanted into the mind of man -- His regenerated child -

mentions Core (Korah),  that rebel who perished in the judg-         the truth that only through the blood of Christ can we ap-

ment of God as He opened up the earth to swallow up this             proach Him in prayer.    No, Adam did not understand it as

rebel and his family and cast them whole into hell! Sons of          we do today. The cross was not yet an historical fact. But

Cain. Disciples of that first murderer.                              Adam did understand that only in the way of the shedding of

       0, but Jude is not thinking of that murder when he speaks     blood is there salvation and approach to the living God

woes upon them that go in "the `ieray Of Cm%." This wiil             against Whom he had sinned. He taught his children this.

follow. Those who do not contend for the faith but rather            Into their minds by the instruction of their father and mother

fight against it will persecute. And if it is not physical murder    came the faith (doctrine) God delivered to Adam, the saint.

that they commit, it surely is character-murder that they will       Abel embraced that truth and sought God through the shed

practice. If they dare not kill or are naturally squeemish           blood of a lamb. Cain concocted his own recipe for worship.

about blood, they will slander, backbite, invent and resurrect       Motivated by an idea that originated in his own mind he came

all kinds of stories to destroy the good name and rcpntation         with the fruits of his field. It was good food. It was that in

of those who do contend for the faith. 570  man is perfect.          which you and I could rejoice. It was a gift that we would

You can always find a stone to throw at any man. But things          not easily turn down. But it certainly was not in His fear.

that have nothing to do with doctrine, matters which, if true,       God you cannot give a thing. You cannot enrich Him. What

would not change the doctrinal and theological position of a         you would try to give Him is His already. Abel did not try

man at all are mentioned, magnified and blasted with all the         to give something to God. Abel listened to what God had

force possible against those with whom no fault can be found         said and worshipped Him after the form that God had pre-

as far as the truth, the doctrine they teach is concerned.           scribed. The way of Abel is the way of faith. The way of


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                          469


Abel is in His fear. The way of Cain is the way of unbelief.         of man. It cannot be produced by the sinful mind of fallen

The way of Cain is the way of rebellion. In brazen unbelief,         man. It must be delivered unto him by God through Fiis

with no fear of God before his eyes, he went his own head-           Holy Spirit. Out of the filthy cistern comes filthy water.

strong way! HE would decide how he would worship God.                Out of the cess  pool of the heart and mind of God's enemy

And God better like it! No wonder he was furious enough              come only dreams that are foul, devilish and God-hating.

to kill his brother when he gave him a little brotherly and              Go not in the way of Cain. Be not a filthy dreamer your-

friendly advice. It was not an honest mistake on Cain's part.        self. But by all means likewise do not follow those who

It was not a matter of ignorance. And he was not an irreli-          walk in the way of Cain. Test every doctrine by the Woid

gious man.    He was a man with a false religion. He was a           of God. Listen very carefully to what He has to say. Never

man who would worship God as he pleased ; and he was                 try to impose your thought upon His Word: Listen. Humble

a man who could be furious when God did not accommodate              yourselves in the dust before Him in His fear. For you will

Himself to his form of worship. He was a man who wanted              find that men who walk in Cain's way with philosophies they

to be accepted by God. He wanted by his sacrifice to please          have invented are like waterless clouds. They will not re-

God: but it must all be in the way of God changing to con-           fresh. They are like fruitless trees. They will not feed you
form to the opinion that man had concocted in his own mind.          with the bread of life. They will dash you on +he  rocks to

   That is why those who follow in the way of Cain are               destruction as foaming waves and mislead you as wandering
called by Jude, "filthy dreamers." There are those dreams            stars upon which you cannot depend. You cannot chart your
that we call revelatory dreams. Through them that which              course by them and their doctrines. For today they are here,
God has in His mind He transferred into the minds of His             tomorrow they are elsewhere. There is peace, comfort, food
                                                                     and spiritual joy only in the faith once delivered by God unto
people. By these dreams God often handed down or de-
                                                                     the saints. The lie will deceive. And on your death bed
livered the faith td the saints. But, you understand, ALL
                                                                     when you need it the most, there will be no comfort of the
other dreams are unreal. They are not fact but fiction. They
                                                                     almighty, unchangeable grace of a sovereign God to cheer
do not exist except in the minds of man. They are thing;
man never experienced except in his mind. That is the case           you.

with all false doctrines. They originate in the minds of men             Walk in His fear and not in the way of Cain.

and do not come from the mind of God. Like Cain the orig-                                                                          J.A.H.

inators of these philosophies have a form of godliness. Cain

sacrificed, did he not? He did not refuse to do so. He did

not discard all semblance of the fear of God's name. Many

today, had they been living then, would have considered him                                     IN MEMORIAM

to be quite a nice man. And how'thoughtful  of the man to               The Consistory of the South Holland Protestant Reformed Church
bring God all those nice fruits! ! My what an example he             herewith expresses its sympathy to one of its elders, Mr. Adrian

could set for us and for our children!!! How are we to               Lenting, in the death of his mother,

explain that such a charming man, such a faithful servant of                              MRS. HENRY LENTING

God who faithfully and diligently brought regularly his sacri-
                                                                     May our Covenant God comfort the bereaved in the knowledge that
fice to God, in fact did so much for Him ( ! ?) , that he could      although all flesh is as grass "the mercy of the Lord is from ever-
fall into murder! Ah, but let us be very careful lest we take        lasting to everlasting upon those that fear Him." Psalm 103117a.
his side rather than that of the living God. Many today, who                                     The Consistory of the South Holland
will not listen to God's Word as disciples of Cain, want to                                      Pro testant  Reformed Church

change the God of the Scriptures and cannot believe in a God                                                 Rev. John A. Heys, President

that did not love Cain. 0, they say, He hated that murder                                                    Mr. Peter A. Poortenga, Clerk

of Cain but not Cain. The sin against Abel is awful in their

sight. But the sin of unbelief, the sin of rebellion, the sin of                                IN MEMORIAM

a proud heart that will not listen to God does not seem so
                                                                        On August IO, 1962, it pleased our Heavenly Father to take
serious to them. Sin against man is awful. Sin against the           to Himself
living God is, well probably too bad and unfortunate, but . . . .                         MRS. HENRY LENTING

Well, God is love, is He not?                                        the mother of Mr. A. Lenting, one of our fellow Board members.

   Be sure that the faith (doctrine) you embrace has come               The Board of our Protestant Reformed Christian School expresses
                                                                     its sympathy to our fellow member, his family and the bereaved
from  out of the mind of God and is not the result of some
                                                                     relatives. May their comfort rest in the assurance that "He made
man's dream. Contend for the faith (doctrine) once de-               His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the
livered to the saints. And delivered means that it was not           wilderness like a flock, and led them on safely, so that they feared

manufactured by the saints. The refrigerator, the radio, the         not: `but the sea overwhelmed their enemies." Psalm 78:52, 53.

furniture that is delivered to your house was made elsewhere.                      The Board of the Protestant Reformed Christian School

That is exactly why it must be de%~~ed  to your home. The                                           6. A. Van Baren,  President
                                                                                                    G. Vanden Berg, Secretary
faith once delivered to the saints is not by nature in the mind      South Holland, Illinois

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


                                                                         same. For as without the ark of Noah there was no escaping

                                                                         when the world perished in the flood ; even so do we believe

                                                                         that without Christ, who in the Church offers himself to be

                                                                         enjoyed of the elect, there can be no certain salvation: and

            The Church and the- Sacraments                               therefore we teach that such as would be saved must in no
                                                                         wise separate themselves from the true Church of Christ.

           THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                                       "But as yet we do not so strictly shut up the Church

                                                                         within those marks before mentioned, as thereby to exclude
                 V I E W S   O N   T H E   C H U R C H
                                                                         all those out of the Church who either do not participate of

                 T H E   P R O T E S T A N T   V I E W                   the sacraments (not willingly, nor upon contempt J but who,
                                                                         being constrained by necessity, do against their will abstain

       In our presentation of the Protestant view of the Church,         from them, or else do want them), or in whom faith does

we must also call attention to the marks of the Church. What             sometimes fail, though not quite d.ecay,  nor altogether die:

are these marks of the true church of Christ? Why are these              or in whom some slips and errors of infirmity may be found.

the marks of the church ? What is meant by the true church,              For we know that God had some friends in the world that

and what is the distinction between the true church and the              were not of the commonwealth of Israel. We know what

false church? Must we maintain that there is only one true               befell the people of God in the captivity of Babylon, where

church (the Protestant Reformed Church) and that all other               they were without their sacrifices seventy years. We know

churches are false ? There are those, also in our churches,              what happened to St. Peter, who denied his Master, and what

who would maintain this, although the undersigned must con-              is wont daily to happen among the faithful and chosen of God

fess that he has heard very little proof in support of this              who go astray and are full of infirmities. We know, more-

conception. In fact, all the confessional proof I have ever              over, what manner of churches the churches in Galatia and

heard centers exclusively in .Article  29 of our Confession of           Corinth were in the apostles' time: in which St. Paul con-

Faith and, as far as this article is concerned, only upon the            demns many and heinous crimes; yet he calls them holy

fact that we read of the true church and not of ,churches  that          churches of Christ (I Cor. 1 :2 ; Gal. 1 :2) ."

are truer or purer, less pure and least pure. Article 29 of                 And it will surely not be amiss in this connection to quote

our Confession of Faith, however, is not the only place in               once more from our Reformed Confessions or Symbols. Ques-

our Confessions that should be quoted when we discuss the                tion 54 of our Heidelberg Catechism asks: "What believest

distinction between the pure and false church. Our Heidel-               thou concerning the `holy catholic church' of Christ?" And

berg Catechism has also something to tell us concerning this             the answer reads: "That the Son of God from the beginning

truth.                                                                   to the end of the world, gathers, defends, and preserves to

       In our discussion of this aspect of the Church it might be        himself by his Spirit and word, out of the whole human

advisable to quote from the Reformed Confessions as they                 race, a church chosen to everlasting life, agreeing in true

express themselves on this subject. The Roman Catholic                   faith: and that I am and forever shall remain, a living mem-

Church, we all know, regards itself as the true church and               ber thereof."

does not hesitate to declare that all other churches are false.             Article 27 of our Confession of Faith reads: "We believe

We need not quote their writings in support of this. The                 and profess, one catholic or universal Church, which is an

Westminster Confession of Faith, 1647, in Chapter XXV,                   holy congregation, of true Christian believers, all expecting

which speaks of the church, writes in paragraphs I and V                 their salvation in Jesus Christ, being washed by his blood,

as follows : "This catholic Church hath been sometimes more,             sanctified and sealed by the Holy Ghost. This Church bath

sometimes less visible. And particular churches, which are-              been from the beginning of the world, and will be to the end

members thereof, are more or less pure, according as the                 thereof; which is evident from this, that Christ is an eternal

doctrine of the gospel is taught and embraced, ordinances                King, which, without subjects, cannot be. And this holy

administered, and public worship performed more or less                  Church is preserved or supported by God, against the rage of

purely in them . . . The purest churches under heaven are                the whole world ; though she sometimes (for a while) appears

subject to mixture and error; and some have so degenerated               very small, and in the eyes of men, to be reduced to nothing:

as to become no churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan.             as during the perilous reign of Ahab, the Lord preserved

Nevertheless, there shall be always a church on earth to wor-            unto him seven thousand men, who had not bowed their

ship God according to his will."                                         knees to Baal. Furthermore, this holy Church is not con-

       The Second Helvetic  Confession speaks Of The Ca.tlz-             fined, bound, or limited to a certain place or to certain per-
olic  And Holy Chwch  Of God, And Of The One Only Hem!                   sons, but is spread and dispersed over the whole world ; and

Of The Clzz~rc?a  in Chapter XVII. Of this chapter we quote              yet is joined and united with heart and will, by the power of

the following :    "But as for communicating with the true               faith, in one and the same spirit."

Church of Christ, we so highly esteem it that we                            Article 28 of this Confession of Faith reads as follows,
                                                          say plainly
that none can live before God who do not communicate with                concerning the truth that every one is bound to join himself

the true Church of God, but separate themselves from the                 to the true Church : "We believe, since this holy congregation


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                          471


is an assembly of those who are saved, and that out of it there     God, and rebuke her  for her errors, covetousness, and'idol-

is no salvation, that no person of whatsoever state or condi-       atry.  These two Churches are easily,known  and:di;stiqguishe:l

tion he may be, ought to withdraw himself, to live in a             from each other."                                       -, __

separate state from it; but that all men are in duty bound to           We wish to conclude this article with a quotation from

join and unite themselves with it ; maintaining the unity of        John Calvin.      We realize that, to establish the confessional

the Church ; submitting themselves to the doctrine and dis-         truth of the distinction between the true and false church, it

cipline thereof; bowing their'necks  under the yoke                 is quite sufficient to quote from the Confessions. Neverthe-
                                                        of Jesus
                               .
Christ; and as mutual members-of the same body, serving to          less, it is surely of interest to note what the noted Reformer

the edification of the brethren,`according  to the talents          has to say on this subject. In our following article we also
                                                            God
has given them. And that this$ay  be the more effectually           wish to quote from the dogmatics of Dr. H. Bavinck. Calvin,

observed, it is the duty of all believers, according to the word    who surely hated the errors and hierarchy of the Roman

of God, to separate themselves from all those who do not            Catholic Church, writes as follows in his Institutes, Book IV,

belong to the Church, and to join themselves to this congre-        chapter II :     "While we refuse, therefore, to allow to the

gation, wheresoever God hath established it, even though  the       Papists the title of the Church, without any qualification or

magistrates and edicts of princes were against it, yea, though      restriction, we do not deny that there are Churches among

they should suffer death or any other corporal punishment.          them . . . Daniel and Paul had predicted that Antichrist would

Therefore all those, who separate themselves from the same,         sit in the temple of God. The head of that cursed and abomin-

or do not join themselves to it, act contrary to the ordinance      ableekingdom,  in the Western Church, we affirm to be the

of God."                                                            Pope. When his seat is placed in the temple of God, it sug-

   And Art. 29 of this same Confession, treating of the marks       gests, that his kingdom will be such, that he will not abolish

of the true Church, and wherein she differs from the false          the name of Christ, or the Church. Hence it appears, that we

Church reads as follows : "We believe, that we ought diligently     by no means deny that Churches may exist, even under his

and circumspectly to discern from the Word of God which is          tyranny; but he has profaned them by sacrilegious impiety,

the true Church, since all sects which are in the world assume      afflicted them by cruel despotism, corrupted and almost

to themselves, the name of the Church. But we speak not here        terminated their existence by false and pernicious doc-

of hypocrites, who are mixed in the Church with the good, yet       trines, like poisonous potions; in such Churches, Christ

are not of the Church, though esternally in it; but we say          lies half buried, the gospel is suppressed., piety ex-

that the body and communion of the true Church must be              terminated, and the worship of God almost abolished ; in a

distinguished from all sects, who tail themselves the Church.       word, they are altogether in such a state of confusion, that

The marks, by which the true Church is known, are these:            they exhibit a picture of Babylon, rather than of the holy city

if the pure doctrine of the gospel is preached therein; if she      of God. To conclude, I affirm that they are Churches, inas-

maintains the pure administration of the sacraments as in-          much as God has wonderfully preserved among them a rem-

stituted by Christ; if church discipline is exercised in pun-       nant of his people, though miserably dispersed and dejected,

ishing of sin : in short, if all things are managed according to    and as there still remain some marks of the Church, especially

the pure Word of God, all things contrary thereto rejected,         those, the efficacy of which neither the craft of the, devil nor

and Jesus Christ acknowledged as the only Head of the               the malice of men can ever destroy." We call attention to the

Church. Hereby the true Church may certainly be known,              fact that Calvin, in this quotation, not only writes that he does

from which no man has a right to separate himself. With             not deny that churches may exist under the tyranny of the

respect to those, who are members of the Church, they may           Pope, but he also declares that in the Roman Catholic Church

be known by the marks of Christians : namely, by faith ; and        there still remain some marks of the Church, and he refers, of

when they have received Jesus Christ the only Saviour, they         course, to the marks of the true church.                        H.V.

avoid sin, follow after righteousness, love the true God and

their neighbor, neither turn aside to the' right or left, and

crucify the flesh with the works thereof. But this is not to

be understood, as if there did not remain in them great in-
                                                                                        WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
firmities ; but they fight against them through the Spirit, all
the days of their life, continually taking their refuge in the         On September 9, 1962, our dear parents,
blood, death, passion and obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ,                       REV. AND MRS. HERMAN VELDMAN
                                                                    will celebrate fieir  30th wedding anniversary, the Lord willing.
"in whom they have remission of sins, through faith in him."           We are thankful to our Heavenly Father, who has been their
As for the false Church, she ascribes more power and author-        Guide in their years together, for sparing them for each other and
ity to herself and her ordinances than to the Word of God,          for us, their c!lildren  and grandchildren.
                                                                       May the Lord continue to bless them in the future as He has
and will not submit herself to the yoke of Christ. Neither          in the past.
does she administer the sacraments as appointed by Christ in                                    Their grateful children,
                                                                                                        Mr. and Mrs. Cornie Den Ondeu
his Word, but adds to and takes from them, as she thinks                                                     Rodney, Donna and Lynette
proper; she relieth more upon men than upon Christ; and                                                 Mr. and Mrs. Jack Van D&e
                                                                                                             Sheryl and Nancy Jo
persecutes those, who live holily  according to the Word of                                             Joanne

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


                                                                     liever's faith concerning the authority of Scripture rests not
II The Voice of Our Fathers II cn three separate grounds, nor on any of these grounds in-
                                                                     dividually, but on a three-fold ground. And that three-fold

                                                                     ground is presented in this fifth article of our Confession.

                   The Belgic Confession                             Three aspects of one ground are mentioned here. And this
                                                                     will become further evident when we consider the meaning

                     ARTICLE V (continued)                           and the significance of these grounds.

                                                                        There is, therefore, in the first place, the objective aspect
Why Do We Acknozvbedge  ScGpture's AdJzohty?  (cont. j               of our faith concerning the authority of Scripture. The Scrip-

       Rather than lose ourselves in scholastic wranglings over      tures, as our Confession has it, "carry the evidence in them-

the question which of these three grounds is primary and             selves" that they are from God. This is the objective ground.

which is secondary, which-is of greater significance and which       According to this statement of our Confession the Bible is in

is of less importance, we ought to see that these grounds, all       itself the authoritative Word of God. It is God's Word even

three of them, belong together and can in no wise be separ-          though the whole world should say that this is not true. It

ated. One is of no value without the other two and could not         is God's Word even though men do not believe it. The denial

possibly serve as a ground. We may, in fact, say that these          of that authority does not detract from it in the least. In

three are but three aspects of the one ground of the believer's      fact, it should not surprise us that the natural man does not

faith concerning the authority of the Scriptures. If the  be-        believe the Scriptures and will not accept them as author-

liever is called to give account of his faith concerning Scrip-      itative. We may know this from the Word of God itself. We

ture's authority, he could not possibly give such account by         need not be amazed, therefore, when men do not believe the

citing only one of these three items. If he were to answer,          Scriptures. In fact, we may even take this as evidence that

when asked concerning that faith, "I accept these books as           unbelief, in spite of itself, must testify to the very authority

authoritative because the church receives and approves them?"        of the Word of God and to its truth. Moreover, that the

that would be only partially true. In such a case he wodd            Scriptures carry the evidence in themselves that they are the

certainly face the problem whether the church is co~~~ect in         Word of God need not be proved by a few isolated texts,

receiving and approving these books. Besides, he would then          although such texts may be cited and although we have
be confronted with the question: does the authority of Holy          referred to them repeatedly in our discussion of the whole

Scripture rest upon the church and upon the authority of the         subject of the Scriptures.      This self-authentication of the

church ? Is the Bible for its authority dependent upon the           Scriptures runs throughout the Bible. It is the current claim

church, or is the church dependent on the Word of God ? If,          of Scripture. It is the constant approach of Scripture. Al-

however, when he must give account of his faith, the believer        ways the Bible comes simply - almost with ndivet6,  we

says, "I receive all these books as holy and canonical, and be-      would say - on the basis that it is the Word of God, that

lieve without any doubt all things contained in them because         it is authoritative, and that it is to be believed for that reason.

the Holy Ghost witnesses to that effect in my heart," he may         It permits men no choice in the matter. It simply says, "Thus

well be confronted with the question: how does the Holy              saith the Lord."

Ghost thus testify ? How do you know that the Holy Ghost                `But this article says more in this connection. When it

so testifies? And how do you know that that testimony of             states that the Scriptures carry the evidence in themselves

the Holy Ghost is true? But if, further, the believer restricts      that they are from God, it is evident that it has in mind not

his ground of faith in the authority of Scripture solely to the      only the fact that the Scriptures come simply with the author-

testimony of the Scriptures themselves-to the  so-called             itative claim that they are the Word of God ; but they carry

objective ground -then there are also problems. In the first         evidence of this in themselves. That is, the Scriptures "ring

place, how is it, if that objective evidence for the authority       true," so to speak. You may read any other book, by any

of Scripture is so clear, that not all are compelled to receive      other author, and it will never compare with the Scriptures.

and acknowledge the authority of the Bible? Why, `if that            You do not have to analyze those Scriptures in order to note

evidence is so compelling, does the vast majority of men re-         that this is true. When you sit down and read the Bible, you

fuse it? In the second place, supposing that other writers           feel at once, you know spontaneously, without any particular

come with the same claim of authority, and, apparently at            effort at analysis, that here is an altogether other book, that

least, with the same supporting evidence for that claim : why        here is a book that spontaneously rings true in your con-

are the Scriptures accepted, and these other writings re-            sciousness. The facts and the parts of this book fit together.

jected? In the third place, is not the objection logically cogent    They are perfectly one. They bear the same testimony. They

that this self-authenticating testimony of Scripture is self-        do not contradict each other. There is no error, no flaw, in

serving? Cannot the objection that was raised by the unbe-           the entire book. And the article of our creed under discus-

lieving Jews against our Savior also then be raised against          sion points to a particular aspect of this evidence in the last

the Scriptures : "Thou bearest witness of thyself: thy witness       sentence : "For the very blind are able to perceive that the

is not true" ?                                                       things foretold in -them are fulfilling." Here, of course, the

       In the light of all this it should be evident that the be-    article refers to the predictive element of the prophecy of


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  473


Scripture, and calls special attention to the fact that its          simply of the natural understanding. They are not a <;uestion

predictions are evidently fulfilled. They are so evidently ful-      of one's intelligence or lack of intelligence. They are spiritual.

filled that the very blind are able to see this. And by the          And for this very reason, both for believer and unbeliever ir

blind here the article refers to those who are spiritually blind,    must be plain beyond a shadow of a cloubt,  it must be in-

those who do not believe, those who have no insight into the         escapable from an objective point of view, that the Word o!

things spiritual. It refers, in other words, to the natural man.     God is true and that it is indeed the  Word of God, breathing

He is corrupt. He is unregenerate. He is so blind that he            divine authority. In the judgment of God the unbeliever must

cannot see the kingdom of heaven. He will never acknowledge          not be able to say, "I did not have sufficient light. I could

the truth of Scripture. He will not bow to those Scriptures,         not see that the authority of Scripture was the authority of

Nevertheless, he can see naturally, and he can see very clearly.     God. There was not sufficient evidence. It was not proved

He can see with the natural eye, and he can perceive with the        to me. I could not believe the Scriptures because there was

natural understanding. And with his natural eye and his              not sufficient evidence that they were from God." This divine

natural understanding he can very clearly see that the things        authority of Scripture must, from an objective point of view,

predicted in the Scriptures are true. They take place. The           be so abundantly evident that the very blind are convicted of

predictions of Scripture are fulfilled. Thus it was already          it and that it is very clear that the question is a spiritual one,

with the prophecies of the Old Testament. Long years, and            a question of the heart and not of the mind. It must be and

even centuries, before things came to pass, the word                 is so clear objectively, that the unbeliever shall have to ad-
                                                               of
prophecy foretold these things. This is true of many historical      mit in the judgment of God, "I knew that the Scriptures

events of the old dispensation. They were foretold in the            were the Word of God, but I denied those Scriptures because

Scriptures. The apostasy of Israel and Judah, the historical         I was wicked and because I hated the living God."

development of the kingdom and of the kingship, the fall and             Of this fact, that the very blind are able to perceive that

captivity of Israel and Judah, the scattering of Israel, the         the things foretold in the Scriptures. are being fulfilled, and

return of Judah, the rise and fall of the various kingdoms of        of the general truth that this is not only true of the predic-,

this world-all these were foretold in Scripture, sometimes           tions of Scripture, but ,of all the Scriptures, so that t&wicked:

in minutest detail. Think -to mention only one example -             and unbelieving natural man knows very well, and must

how, centuries before he appeared on the scene of history,           testify and reveal, in spite of himself, that he knows that the

the mighty emperor Cyrus was mentioned by name in the                Scriptures are the Word of God, there are clear examples in

prophecy of Isaiah. All these prophecies of the Old Testa-           Holy Writ. A striking example of this you have in connec-

ment concerning old dispensational history were fulfilled            tion with the parable of the wicked husbandmen, recorded in

without fail. Secondly, we may refer to the predictions of           Matthew 21. It was, of course, in general true of all the

the Old Testament concerning events of the new dispensation.         parables that in them our Lord spake concerning the things

In this connection we think immediately, of course, of the           of the kingdom of heaven in order that the wicked seeing

Messianic predictions - predictions of the coming and birth          might see, and not perceive, and hearing might hear, but not

of Christ, of His suffering and death and resurrection and           understand. And this becomes very plain in connection with

exaltation, of His outpouring of the Spirit. These also were         the parable mentioned. When the Lord had spoken this

predictions which entered into minute details concerning the         parable and had finally drawn the picture of the householder

Messiah. And they were all fulfilled. But, in the third place,       at last sending his son for the fruits of the vineyard, and of

there are also the predictions of the New Testament. And it          the wicked husbandmen saying, "This is the heir. Come, let

would seem that this article of our Confession has these in          us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance," and had

mind particularly. For it speaks in the present tense: "The          drawn from the chief priests and the pharisees the admission

very blind are able to perceive that the things foretold in them     that the lord of the vineyard, when he returned, would miser-

are fadfilling."    In other words, the article has in mind  the     ably destroy those wicked husbandmen and would let out,his
prophecies, especially of the New Testament, concerning the          vineyard unto others, who would render him the fruits in

last things, concerning the signs of the times. It has in            their season, He applied the parable in verses 42 and 43, with

mind the things, the predictions, that are being fulfilled before    a reference to Old Testament prophecy, as follows: "Jesus

our very eyes with increasing clarity and with increasing            saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The

rapidity and frequency. Before the very eyes of us, upon             stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the

whom the ends of the ages are come, these things are being           head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is mar-

fulfilled. And they are being fulfilled so clearly that even ihe     velous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom

blind themselves, those who cannot see spiritually, c;1n  nevcr-     of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bring-

theless  perceive this and must admit it to themselves and are       ing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this

convicted of it in their souls, so that they cannot escape the       stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will

truth.                                                               grind him to powder."

    Thus it always has been, and thus it always will be. Thus           And what was the effect of this parable ? Was the dif-

it must necessarily be with. the wicked and unbelieving. The         ficulty herein, that the chief priests and the pharisees did not

things of God and of the kingdom of God are nor a matter             understand? Was it that they were not able to perceive that

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


the things foretold in the scripture cited by Jesus were being        said very boldly : "The church, that is, Rome, that is, the pope,

fulfilled ? The very opposite was true. The Savior quoted             is not the ultimate authority. It cannot in last instance te:l

from the&~ Scriptures, from the Scriptures of which these             us what the will of God is. It has no business putting tradi-
chief priests and pharisees  prided themselves that they were         tions alongside the Word of God and above it. It has no

the custodians and interpreters of them, that they knew them          right to contradict the Scriptures and to declare a supposed

and understood them. They acknowledged that those Scrip-              will and revelation of God contrary to the Scriptures. We do

tures were divine. The difficulty lay not with their under-           not believe part or all of the Scriptures simply because the

standing and with their intelligence, but with their heart.           church receives and approves part or all of those Scriptures.

They refused to bow before that divine authcrity  of the Word         We bow before the Word of God. The Holy Ghost witnesseth

of the Savior in wickedness and unbelief. And their very              in our hearts that these Scriptures are the only and supreme

hatred of the Lord and their anger was proof positive of this         authority, that these Scriptures are from God, and that they

fact and a testimony against them. For we read in verses              are indeed the very Word of God."

45 and 46 of Matthew 21': "And when the chief priests and                You understand, of course, that this internal witness oE

Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he              the Holy Ghost is not something apart from the Scriptures.

spake of them. But when they sought to lay hands on him,              It is never thus, that the Holy Ghost whispers by some voice

they feared the multitude, because they took him for a                in our hearts that the Bible is the Word of God, that He gives

prophet."     Presently Christ's own prediction in the parable        us a mystical, separate revelation that the Scriptures are the

would be fulfilled by them, and they would say of Him, the            Word of God. And the relation is not even thus, that He

Son, "This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and let                separately `testifies in our hearts, apart from the actual con-
                                                               US

seize on his inheritance."                                            tents of the Scriptures, that this Bible, or this'  portion of the

       Moreover, we must remember that this was indeed a ques-        Bible or that portion of the Bible which we happen to be

tion of authority according to the context of this parable and        reading, is authoritative and that we must bow before it. Nor

of that of the two sons. They themselves had made it a ques-          is our faith concerning the authority of Holy Writ separate

tion of authority, although when the Lord pinpointed the ques-        from the activity of saving faith in general. But the Holy

tion and placed them before the concrete question of the au-          Ghost always witnesses in connection with His own Scrip-

thority of the baptism of John, they had attempted to evade           tures. Always He binds those Scriptures upon the hearts of

it and had answered Jesus' question concerning the authority          the elect in such a way that they experience internally and

of John's baptism by saying, `iWe  cannot tell." But Jesus was        must acknowledge the intrinsic, divine authority of the Scrip-

determined to make them tell and to force them to admit that          tures and of whatever portion of the Scriptures is read by

they were not really and spiritually interested in the question       them or to them, or proclaimed to them. He illumines their

of authority whatsoever. And this He did in these two well-           minds, that they may rightly understand and discern the

known parables.                                                       things of the Spirit of God. By the efficacy of His grace, in

       What, then, makes the difference? What causes the dis-         connection with the objective testimony of the Scriptures, He

tinction between those who in faith receive all these books as        pervades the inmost recesses of the man. He opens the closed

the very Word of God and those who will not receive them              and softens the hardened heart. And He infuses new spiritual

and who deny that they are the Word of God ?                          qualities into the will which is by nature dead and, evil and

       This brings       to the second element mentioned in this      disobedient and refractory.    And the result is that by faith
                  us 
article, namely, that "the  Holy Ghost witnesseth in our hearts,      the elect, regenerated sinner bows before the Word of God

that they are from God."        Upon this the article lays stress.    and embraces that Word as the Word of God, Who is really

It is especially  because the Holy Ghost witnesseth in our            God. We may, therefore, take note of the fact that in this

hearts that we receive these books. And it was also upon this         article we confess a divine work, a work of sovereign grace.

internal testimony of the Spirit concerning the authority of          That we receive all these books, that we believe, without any

Scripture that the Reformers of the sixteenth century laid            doubt, all things contained in them, that we confess that they

stress.    They, the Reformers, did so in opposition to the           are from God, that we confess that they carry the evidence of

hierarchy of Rome, which elevated itself above the authority          this in themselves-all this is not due to us in distinction

of the Scriptures. When the corrupt institute of the Romish           from those who do not believe and confess this. Faith, also

hierarchy interposed itself between the Word of God and               the faith that bows before the authority of Holy Scripture, is

the people of God and was itself no more subject to the Scrip-        not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.

tures, but said in effect, "We only can and do tell you what             Thus, finally, we may understand the first reason that is

the Word and the will of God is," and when it elevated to a           mentioned in a negative way in this article, namely, that we

position of equal and even superior authority the traditions          receive all these books "not so much because the Church re-

and words of men, it became necessary for the believers to            ceives and approves them as such." We must remember, iu

appeal to a higher authority, to an authority that transcended        the first place, that this is not the primary, but the approx-

and superseded all other. And they appealed not merely to             imate and secondary reason why we believe and receive all

conscience, but to their sanctified conscience, to their con-         these books as divine. In the second place, when the article

science as the Holy Ghost witnessed with it and in it. They                               (Continued on page 480)


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  475


                                                                   church weddings of the past. We have lost something ofjthe

    D E C E N C Y '   a n d   O R D E R                            sacredness of this,`holy  institution by our layftig,`aside  the
                                                                   proper solemnization of matrimony. Here too we must not

                                                                   "conform to the present world but be transformed in the re-

                                                                   newing of our minds that we may prove what is that good.
                    Holy Matrimony                                 and acceptable, and perfect will of God" (Romans 12 :2).

    In our last article we raised several questions regarding         Too often young people express the desire to be married

marriage. It is not our purpose to attempt to answer these         in the church building and thereby mistakenly think that they

questions now but we shall do that later as we discuss the         have a church wedding. Not so ! The place where the mar-

idea and implications of the marriage state. We will first         riage ceremony takes place is relatively unimportant. This

write a. few things about "church weddings" which is the           may be in the home, a church, a school or a community hall

subject of Article 70 of our Church Order.                         but the wedding in all these places is only a private affair.

    Our present reading of the Church Order makes church           Just as much as it is possible to have a private wedding in a

weddings mandatory for the members of the church. Although         church building, so it is also possible to have a church wed-

the article we are now considering does not say this in            ding in the true sense of the word in a home, a school
                                                            SO
many words, it is nevertheless clearly implied. It states that     or other building. The place does not make the wedding. It

"it is props that the matrimonial state be confirmed in the        is really unimportant. Monsma  and Van Dellen  advise in

presence of Christ's church" and from this we draw the             their Cl~wch  Order Cowmenta~ry  that "our ministers and
                                                         con-
clusion that what is proper is always mandatory for the            consistories should discourage the use of our church audi-

Christian even as those things that are improper are for-          toriums for private weddings" because they feel that "private

bidden. The word "proper," Webster tells us, has many dif-         marriages performed  in the church building will only retard

ferent meanings. It can, for example, mean "becoming in            the general introduction of church weddings." Undoubtedly

appearance, handsome, fine, excellent." If this is the way the     there is truth in this but if church weddings are ever to regain

word is to be taken in this connection, our conclusions above      the proper place among Reformed people, much more than

are not at all `valid. Then the article of the Church Order        this will have to be done. Parents, as well as young people,

simply means that a church wedding is a beautiful wedding,         will have to realize that marriage is as much or more a matter

a wedding becoming in appearance, a fine and excellent thing.      of concern and `interest to the church than it is to the state

Other kinds of weddings may be more or less becoming in            or to the relatives and friends of those being married. If we

appearance but then it is just a difference of degree. The         are conscious of the inseparable relation between the church

choice of wedding is then determined by individual taste and       and marriage in the Lord, we will want to enter that holy

is judged by the standard of "good, better or best."               state in an ecclesiastical way and not do so privately while

    The word "proper" also has the meaning or connotation          setting the church aside.

of "that which is right, correct" and then the word stands in         Concerning this we quote from the C~SS~K~  Order' Cow-

contrast to what is wrong or improper. A proper prayer is          wentwy on page 287 :

acceptable to God but an improper prayer is to Him an abom-           "Why is it proper that the matrimonial state be con-

ination. The Dutch in`this  connection uses the word "be2          firmed in the' presence of Christ's Church ? Because the

hoorlijk" and if this idea of the word applies here, our Church    church has a very vital interest in marriage. Confirmation

Order does advocate the church wedding as the right way of         of the matrimonial state by the church implies, first of all

marriage. And we are of the opinion that this is the meaning       that the church and the domain of the covenant of `grace

of the article.                                                    which it occupies officially sanction the marriage in question;

    The fact that the provisions of this article of the Church     and secondly, that the church in its special prayers speci-

Order are scarcely observed today does not alter the basic         fically pleads for God's blessing upon the marriage. The

truth expressed here. It is proper that the matrimonial state      interest of the church in the marriages its members contract

be confirmed in the presence of Christ's Church and this           is just as real and vital as the interest of the relatives and of

truth is not changed by either our acknowledgment or denial        the state in these marriages. The church should therefore be

of it; our practicing it or disregarding it. Frequently it is      recognized. The marriages of its members means much to

advocated that this article be changed because we don't            the church because God builds His church covenantally

observe it any more anyway. But there is danger in this            through the seed of the church. From children to be born

clamour  for change. We often want to make rules to fit OLW        God continues and expands His church, and without thor-

customs and desires when it would be far better that we            ough Christian homes the church is bound to wane and fail."

change our desires and customs to conform to tried and                Though church weddings have become an "outdated"

established rules. Instead of doing this, however, we find it      thing and do not meet with general "popularity" in our clay,

easier to ignore the rules and follow generally accepted           we contend that this is nevertheless the proper way for Chris-

fashions. The case of marriage is a good example of this. It       tian young people to enter the marriage state.

cannot be said, on the basis of Christian principle, that our         What then is meant by a "church wedding"?

present day customs are superior to the beautiful and simple          A church wedding is one in which the marriage is solemn-

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


ized under jurisdiction and supervision of the church. The                  The church-wedding, a relic of antiquity, may have lost

parties desiring marriage request that their marriage be                 its attractiveness in this spiritually superficial and carnally-

solemnized in the presence of the congregation. The consis-              minded twentieth century but none can hide from the face of

tory, if it accedes to this request, arranges for an official service    God the beauty of the young man and woman who stand to

in which it calls the congregation together for worship and              speak their vows in the midst of the congregation while the

to witness the marriage. If the marriage is to take place on             Word is preached and the body of Christ breaks forth in song:

the Lord's Day, this can be done during one of the regular                          "Blest the `yMan that fea;rs  Jehovah

worship services. If it is to be during the week, a special                            Walk&g  ever in His ways

service is called. The marriage is announced in the congrega-                          By thy toil thozt shalt be prospered

tion so that if there are lawful objections they may be pre-                           And be happy all thy days.

sented to the consistory. If not the marriage takes place with                      "fn thy wije  thou shalt have gladness
the sanction or approval of the congregation. At the marriage                          She shall fill  thy home with good,
the minister is called upon to preach the Word. Could it-be                            Happy in heu loving service
that this is the element of the church wedding that is no                              4nd the joys of moth.erhood.
longer desired in our day ? Is it so that marriage has de-
generated into carnival attractions saturated with frats and                        "Joyful children, SOWS  and daughters,
frills so that the sobriety of the Word does not mix? Have                             Shall about thy table meet,
we lost the solemnity of the wedding in our foolish pursuit                            Olive plants, in strength and beat&y,
after fun and pleasure on the occasion ? Is the real signif-                           F&l  of hope axd promise sweet.

icance of marriage buried under a haze of superficial foolish-                      `(Lo, on him. that fears Jehovah

ness ? Are we so pressed for time because we must "eat, drink                          Shall  this blessedness a.ttend,
and make merry" that the ceremony must not extend beyond                               For Jehomh  out of Z&m

fifteen minutes and therefore are adverse to spending an hour                          Shall to thee His blessing send.
on this solemn occasion to consider the beauty of marriage                          YI'hou  shalt see God's kingdom prosper
as revealed in the Word of God? In a church wedding the                                All thy days, till life shall  cease,
center of attraction must be the Word of God. The bride and                            Thou shalt see thy children's children;
bride-groom, the attendants, the ceremony, the home that is                            On,  thy people, Lord, be peace."
begun and the children that we will be born through this
marriage are all subservient to that Word. Marriage is in a              And again:

sense a beginning and that beginning must always be in the                          "0 roya`  bride, give heed,

Word of God. And no better start can we have in our mar-                               And to my words attend;

riage than that we begin by heeding the Word of God as                                 For Cl&St,  the King, forsa.ke  the world

brought to us through the office of the church.                                        And every forvxer  friend."

       The preaching of the Word is followed by the reading of                                                                      G.v.d.l.5

the official form for the solemnization of marriage. The

parties to the marriage speak their vows in the presence of

the body of Christ and the service is concluded with the                 From  : News From Our Churches -
benediction of God upon His church.
                                                                            Edgerton's nonagenarian received the congregation's con-
       Such a wedding is, as was said, under the supervision of
                                                                         gratulations via the bulletin.     Mr. A. Bleyenberg Sr. cele-
the consistory. The consistory, whether in this special service
                                                                         brated his 90th birthday July 31. What a progress in worldly
or in a regular worship service, must maintain the order of
                                                                         science one has witnessed in that span of years - what a
the church in all its services for this order is based upon
                                                                         retrogression in the spiritual attitudes of a nation founded
God's Word. This means that many of the present day
                                                                         upon religious principles - but, what is still worse, what a
practices that are condoned in private weddings cannot be
                                                                         spiritual lethargy revealed in the nominal church and the
permitted in the church wedding. Perhaps this is an added
                                                                         resulting shrinkage of the true church i
reason why the church wedding has fallen more and more into

disuse. But it is a sad reflection upon our generation. Yet,                The Radio Committee of the Reformed Witness Hour has

the fault camiot  be entirely with the present generation. Over          reported that practically all of Rev. H. Hoeksema's books

the years we have let the good traditions of the fathers slip            are again available. Many of these books are "out of print"

and although the order of the church requires that `iconsis-             and the committee had been unable to fill the requests for

tories shall see to it," we have failed to maintain this order.          them, but a limited amount of copies have been located and

Instead we find in the church today, where the serious and               obtained and can be purchased by our readers who wish to

beautiful church-wedding is all but gone, a deplorable situa-            begin or complete their own libraries with these works. For

tion of divorce, elopement, carnal-mindedness, and the like.             a complete list of the books written by the Rev. H. Hoeksema

The irrevocable Word of God always proves to be true: "As                write to the Reformed Witness Hour, P.O. Box 8, Grand

a man soweth, so doth he reap."                                          Rapids 1, Mich.


                                                                      express  our abiding and unchanging objection to the dis-

                                                                      semination of theological views in any of oilr seminaries

                                                                      which would undermine such faith in the historical accuracy

                                                                      and doctrinal integrity of the Bible, and that we courteously

                                                                      request the trustees and administrative officers of our in-

                                                                      stitutions and other agencies to take such steps as shall be
    The controversies concerning the question of infallibility
                                                                      necessary to remedy at once those situations where such views
rage on in the American Church world. Our readers will
                                                                      ndw -threaten our historic position.".
recall that this question arose some time ago in the Reformed
                                                                            This motion does not seem to imply that Dr. Elliot be
Church in America in connection with the examination of a
                                                                      censured for his vote. A motion to instruct the Sunday School
student who refused to subscribe to the position that the
                                                                      Board to cease printing Dr. Elliot's book was defeated.
narrative of the creation and fail of Adam was historically
                                                                            All this is of utmost significance. There is first of all the
true. This issue, inasmuch as it touched upon the infallibility
                                                                      fact that these Churches which have grappled with this ques-
of Scripture, was never finally settled in that Church to this
                                                                      tion number all of the more conservative bodies left in the
writer's knowledge. There was no strong condemnation of
                                                                      Znited  States. Secondly, it cannot be denied that to a greater
this position an3 of those who taught it.
                                                                      or lesser degree the battle for the truth of infallibility3has
    More recently, the Christian Reformed Church faced the            been lost in all these denominations. Even a reaffirmation L3f
same question. This question arose from certain articles              this truth is not sufficient unless the decisions to reaffirm the
written by `a seminary student and approved by the pres-              truth are accompanied by discipline against those who deny it.
ident of the seminary in which the author spoke of certain            An affirmation is not enough. Those who militate against it
errors in Scripture - errors of a scientific, historical, literary    should be censured or their views will continue in the Church.
and chronological nature. Although an extensive report of a           Thirdly, it is very significant that this question of infallibility
study committee was adopted by the Synod, the position on             should be the question at issue. This is, after all, the most
infallibility was left somewhat in doubt, both sides claiming         fundamental point of the faith of the Church.  The Church
support from the committee report.                                    rests her very existence on the Bible as the Word of God. In

    At about this same time this same question came up for            the measure that the Bible is in error, it ceases to be the Word
discussion in the Southern Presbyterian Church. There the             of God. In that measure the Church has no foundation on

errors had developed somewhat further so that there were              which to stand any longer.       That the question should even
those in the Church who were putting a question mark behind           come up for debate is incredible. This is a point which lies

such important questio&  as the virgin birth of Christ and            beyond debate. One may discuss the meaning and implica-
the resurrection of Christ from the dead.                             tions of inspiration and infallibility; this is of benefit to the

   This past summer the Southern Baptist Church met in                Church. But when the question is open to debate within the

convention in San Francisco.        The question of infallibility     Church, it bodes ill for such a denomination that the questioil

came up. The occasion was a book entitled "The Message                needs debating at all. To deny that Genesis, in whole or in

of Genesis" written by Dr. Elliot, professor of Old Testament         part, is not literally true is to open the door to further denials

and Hebrew at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in              of other parts of Scripture. This must eventually lead to a

Kansas City. The book was published in 1961 by Broadman               denial of the truth of the incarnation, the divinity of Christ,

Press - the general book identification of the Convention's           the atonement of the cross, the resurrection from the dead -

Sunday School Board. This book also denied the historical             as indeed historically it also has. Then all is lost. Throw part

truth of the first eleven chapters of Genesis. The Sunday             of the Bible out the window, and the rest also flies away.

School Board had defended the publication of the book on              Grant error in one place in Scripture and errors will be

the grounds that it was        "representative of a segment of        found all over the pages of Holy Writ.

Southern Baptist life and thought." The trustees of Mid-                   The conclusion of the matter is inevitable. Since the truth

western Seminary had, reportedly, by a vote of 14 to 7,               of infallibility lies at the very foundation of the faith of the

sustained Dr. Elliot and declared him to be a "loyal servant          Church, its denial can only hasten the apostasy of the Church.

of Southern Baptists."                                                Perhaps in these times in which we live, as we near the end

   Although there was considerable maneuvering on the floor           of the ages, this apostasy will now develop with increased

of the Convention, the final decision was to create a specia1         speed. There are two alternatives. Either these Churches wi!l

committee to study the possibility of rewriting or adding to          have to follow their affirmations of this truth with discipline
                                                                      -
a statement of faith and purpose adopted by the convention                 and this with utmost haste before it is too late; or the

of 1925. The committee would be composed of presidents of             faithful remnant in these Churches will have to come out

state conventions who would present a statement a year hence          and seek fellowship with those who maintain the truth. God's

to serve as "guidelines" to the various convention agencies.          people cannot remain in Churches where this truth is lost:

Also the convention adopted a resolution which reaffirmefl                 It remains for our Churches to be faithful at all cost to

"their faith in the entire Bible as the authoritative, `authentic,    this precious and fundamental truth, and to witness strongly

irifallible  Word of God."    Further it was decided: "Thzit  !ve     to it that those who wish to maintain it may have some "ral-

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

lying point," some beacon of light to follow in the darkness                   were discussed in later issues such as the miracle of Jonah's
of error.                                                                      preservation in the belly of the whale. In a very light-handed
                               * x * *                                         way, and with obvious chuckles, the editor dismissed the

                                                                               literal truth of these miracles with a wave of the hand as

       Of some significance is the fact that this question of in-              being beyond credibility.

fallibility has also been discussed off and on in some form or                    The question sometimes arises how the Roman Catholic

another in Roman Catholic periodicals. Recently a discus-                      Church can be called the false Church as our fathers con-

sion in. Ou+ Stt.nday  Visitor  brought this to the fore once                  tended, as long as it maintains the truth of the divinity of

again. A certain editor had written concerning the flood that                  Christ and the need for the blood of atonement. It seems

it could hardly be interpreted as fact, but was intended to                    more and more evident that, although the truth of Christ's

point out some moral lessons. A reader wrote in about this                     divinity is still officially maintained, this has become dead

and was answered. The question and answer follow:                              dogma with no reality in the life of the Church. To deny

                                                                               and so lightly play with Scripture will only aid and abet
             When I was in grade school I was taught, like any other
         child, the story about Noah's ark. I am now very disillusioned        those who have no more faith in God's Word. Our fathers
         to learn that there was no Ncah, no Ark, and not even a               may have been more correct in their evaluation of the Roman
         flood!
             I gather that we are supposed to learn a lesson from the          Catholic Church and their insistence that the pope is Anti-
         storv, but I wouldn't know what the lesson is. Would you              christ than we are ready to admit.
         please explain the meaning of the story?

             Possibly we make a mistake in our manner of teaching                                           *    8 * *
         these Bible stories to our school children. We tend -to make
         them too simple, without pointing out the lessons they  teach;            The underlying reason why this question of infallibility is
         and we tend to make them too factual, without making it clear
         that they are good folk-tales to be enjoyed for their story value.    pushing itself into the fore in the Church world is no doubt
             Probably we are frightened by the Holy Spirit. He in-             clue to the importance given to science today. Scientists have
         spired these writings, and we have a sort of scrupulous notion
         that we have to taker every word at, its technical face value,        performed many astounding feats and made huge strides in
         lest we question His divine veracity.                                 technology and the advance of knowledge. The results of their
             We would do well to apply to the Third Person of the
         Trinity some of the human insights we learned from the Second         efforts are felt by all of us in the inventions that make life
         Person while He lived with us here upon earth. Jesus never            more comfortable, in the medicines that prolong life and al-
         hesitated to tell a good tale for its story value and for the les-
         son in it.                                                            leviate suffering, in the astounding feats of space exploration.
             If Jesus told stories for the moral in them why do we have           But always science comes back to the question, "Where
         to tie the Old Testament writers down to hard, cold facts?
         The authors of Genesis were not writing a history but a book          did this world come from? Why is it here? How did it
         of religion.                                                          originate ?" Then the trouble begins.
             Among various people of the Near East there was a tradi-
         tion of a treat flood. orobablv  based on some catastronhe  of            In a recent article in Time  these questions were discussed
         antiquity. It was pa&&d  down as folklore from one generation         by the leading scientists and theologians of the day. 7%~
         to the next, and of course took variant forms in different            correspondents asked questions and sampled scientific and
         localities. The writer of Noah's story in Genesis made use of
         this familiar tradition to teach his religious lessons -in fact       theological opinon all over the U. S.
         he used two different versions of the story and put them to-              Many of these answers were given, but they can be
         gether without being very critical of details. As a result it
         is a bit hard to tell how long the flood lasted - 40 days or 150      summarized by two quotes :
         days-and just what varieties of animals were taken aboard
         the Ark.                                                                       I see no conflict between science and religion. The answer
             If we were to interpret as literal historical fact all the              to the question of creation still remains in the realm of faith.
         features of Noah's storv we would involve ourselves in some                 In early Biblical times . . . it was believed as a matter of
         ridiculous and contradictory situations. For instance, water                faith that man was created as man. Since then, science has led
         enough to cover the entire earth to the depth of the highest                us back through a sequence of evolutionary events in such a
         mountain - man, that is an enormous quantity of H 2 O!                      way that there is no logical place to stop . . . until we come
             A job almost equally big would be that of getting all those             to a primeval universe made of hydrogen. But then we ask,
         animals into the Ark, keeping them at peace with each other,                "Whence came the hydrogen?' and science has no answer. Is
         and feeding them for four or five months. The Ark was a real                it any less awe-inspiring to conceive of a universe created .of
         man-sized boat -probably 450 feet long. A batter standing                   hydrogen with the capacity to evolve into man than it is to
         on the prow would hardly be able to knock a home run over                   accept the creation of man as man? I believe not.
         the poop railing. It was fully half the length of our modern
         ocean liners. But still things would be crowded; there must               T.&e  itself then comments :
         t;rtiylf  a million species of animals, birds, and reptiles on                 In the aftermath of Darwin, scientists grew increasingly
                                                                                     confident that their questioning disciplines could eventually
       The author then goes on to point out these moral lessons                      supply all answers, and were increasingly contemptuous of
to which he has referred : God's punishment of sinful men ;                          Genesis and all other parts of the Bible that conflict with
                                                                                     science's discoveries. After World War II, when science
God's justice in rewarding good and punishing evil; God's                            capped humanity's plight with the hydrogen bomb, some
love and mercy towards the good ; man's responsibility for                           scientists joined the nation's postwar religious revival. But
                                                                                     eventually, though the churches had by then conceded much
his moral conduct. The Ark is supposed to be a symbol of                             to science, many of the converts found them still too laden
God's personal protection of each of us and the rainbow a                            with ceremony and dogmatism for scientific taste.
                                                                                         (The above) statement implies that God set the universe
pledge of His patience with us in giving us another chance                           in motion and then "retired," and this  is an idea now much
when we deserve to be destroyed.                                                     favored by scientific believers. Many, accepting his hydrogen-
                                                                                     God, go on perforce to reject the person-God of Christianity.
       Following this discussion, other Old Testament miracles                       (The above) credo thus seems to be central in the new


                                                 T    H    E         STATU'QARD  BEARER                                                   473


        terrain, though scientists' beliefs spread both ways in a wide
        spectrum from atheism to total faith.                                   Iii%6 FROM OUR,CHURCHES
      Once more quote from a theologian preceded by T&e"s
                                                                                         "All the saints sakcte thee . . ." PHIL. 4:21
summary :


           In the long run, most theologians believe that there will
        prove to be no irreconcilable conllict  between the discoveries                                              August 20, 1962
        of the laboratory or telescope and the revelation of God. But
        scientists are convinced that religion will have to undergo a           From a trio which included the Revs. G. Lanting 2nd H.
        vast intellectual change, to rid itself of dogmatic expressions
        that are no longer tenable in light of scientific progress . . .    Veldman, Doon  called Rev. G. Vanden  Berg of our Oak
        Anv time religious beliefs come in conflict with the things         Lawn Church.
        we-learn  about the world, we must modify the beliefs.

                                                                                Rev. C. Hanko, of First Church, declined the call ex-
     In other words, there is a growing tendency among scien-
                                                                            tended to him by our Loveland congregation. Loveland's con-
tists to admit to the existence of some principle or power,
                                                                            sistory has made a new trio consisting of the Revs. J. A.
which may perhaps be called God, and which is the final
                                                                            Heys, B. Woudenberg and G. Vanden  Berg.
explanation of the existence and orderliness of the universe.

But this is not the faith of the Church-the faith which is                     Another defection has been reported from our Kalamazoo

salvation in Christ. The error is that science becomes the                  Church whereas her pastor resigned his pastorate in July.

ultimate standard of truth ; that that yhich  does not conform                 Report  of special mesting  oj Classis  En&  - August 17,
to the discoveries of science is branded as untruth ; that Scrip-           1962, at Hope Church.
ture's teachings also must be subjected to the scrutiny of
                                                                               The Rev. M. Schipper,  following the order of rotation,
science and be discarded where science fails to turn up ev-
                                                                            led in the opening devotions and presided over this session
idence which supports their truth. What God says in His
                                                                            of Classis. The Rev. G. Lanting was asked to record the
Word is not truth unless science  says the same thing-and
                                                                            minutes.
then only because science has said it.
                                                                               -411  the churches of Classis  East were represented by twa
     One can very well imagine that the religion of Antichrist
                                                                            delegates with the following exceptions: Grand Haven was
will be some such religion;         not atheism, but the religion
                                                                            not represented, Creston  had only one delegate, Hudsonville,
described above. The science is the idol before which all men
                                                                            through an error, had no officially appointed delegates though
must bow.
                                                                            the pastor and an elder were present.
     This is, in the final analysis, a subtle way of putting -man
                                                                               Rev. G. Lubbers, Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, Rev. G. Vos
on God's throne; fbr if science is enthroned as the standard
                                                                            and elder G. Kamps  were given an advisory vote.
of truth, man's reason is enthroned. The lie of Satan is fast                  This special meeting of Classis  was called by the Classicai
reaching its ultimate expression: "Ye shall be as God know-
                                                                            Committee which had been empowered to do so by the July
ing good and evil."
                                                                            Classis.  The occasion for this meeting was the fact that the
     How urgent it then becomes that the Church cling to an                 elders of Southeast Church had signified to the congregation
infallible Bible - a Bible which is the inerrant  and authorita-            and the Classis  that they would not abide by the decisions of
tive Word of God.                                               H. Hanko    Classis  and Synod taken at previous meetings of these bodies

                                                                            relative to the protests which had been registered against the

                                                                            consistory of Southeast.

                            Iti MEMORIAM                                       Appearing on the table of Classis  were letters from the

     The Mary Mar&a  Society of the South East Protestant Reformed          Classical Committee, the consistory of Southeast, a letter

Church expresses sincere sympathy to one of our  members, Mrs.              from three deacons of Southeast to the Classical Committee,
Clarence Vriesenga and children in the sudden death of husband              a letter of two deacons to the congregation of Southeast, and
and father                                                                  a letter from the consistory of Southeast to the congregation.
                   MR. CLARENCE VRIESENGA
                                                                               The Classical Committee came with advice relative to the
May the God of all grace comfort them in this sad hour.
                                                                            Southeast situation, but Classis  deemed it necessary to ap-
     `"Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive
me to glory." Ps. 73:24.                                                    point a study cotimittee  to reformulate this advice. In sub-

                              Mrs. Gerrit Pipe, Vice Pres.                  stance the Ciassis adopted the advice of the study committee,

                             Mrs. Sid Vander Wal,  Vice Sec.-Treas.         which was briefly as follows :
Grand Rapids, Michigan
                                                                               1. That Classis  express that:

c                                                                              The elders of Southeast by their refusal to abide by the
                            IN MEMORIAM
                                                                            decisions of Classis  East and the Synod have in fact severe<1
     The Radio Choir e,xpresses  its sympathy to Mrs. Ann Bylsma  and
                                                                            the church bond and lost the right to function as a Protestant
her famiIy  in the sudden loss of her father,
                                                                            Reformed consistory. Articles 31 and 36 of the Church
                      MR. ROY JLJRGENS, SR.
                                                                            Order. The elders of Southeast, by these acts, are guilty of
We confess that, though the hand of the Lord often seems heavy,             public schism, and this is a sin worthy of deposition. Article
yet He deals with His people in love.
                                                                            SO of the Church Order.
                                            D. J. Monsma, President


   2. That Classis  express :.                                    their fellow saint in the manse in Lynden,.  sharing with one

   That three deacons together with all others, of Southeast      another the news of the Brotherhood.

Church .1&o ai-e'  +4ling  to abide `by the de&ions of the           The 22nd annual convention of our young people was

major assemblies constitute the lawful and faithful congiega-     held in Hudsonville church this month, introclucecl  with a

tion of Southeast. That at the call of the thi-ee  appealing      pre-con.vention  hymn-sing led by Gerald Iiuiper  of Hope

deacons and with the aid anal'  supervision of the Classical      Church. The Keynote speech was given by Rev. H. Hoek-

Committee, the faithful remnat& of the congregation should        sema Tuesday evening, speaking on `"The Friendship of Gocl."

meet and declare the erring elders out of office and elect new    &. G. VanBaren  addr&sed  .the young people Wednesday

elders as needed. That this call for a congregational meeting     evening on "The Friendship of Christ." The speaker at the

be done by letter sent to all the members of Southeast Church.    Thursday evenin,(+ banquet was Rev. M. Schipper  who spoke

That Southeast Church inform our sister congregations af          on "The Friendship of the Church." The convention theme,

the faithless desertion of the Rev. R. Veldman when all the       "Friendship," was based on the text from James 2 :23 : "And

above mentioned steps have been taken. That Classis  express      the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed

that it is its prayer and hope that the congregation remain       God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he

standing faithfully in the truth of the Word of God and in        was called the friend of God."

unity with our churches, and that the elders and erring mem-
                                                                     . . . . see you in church.                              J.M.F.
bers of the congregation come to repentance.

   The elders of the Southeast Consistory were given op-
portunity  to express themselves re the above. decisions of
Classis, and their remarks were answered by the chairman.                         THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS

   When this work for the special meeting of Classis  was                            (Continued from page 474)

finished, Classis  arose to sing the Doxology, and the Rev. C.    speaks here of the church, it certainly does not refer to the

Hanko  closed this session with thanksgiving.                     corrupt institute of Rome, nor, in fact, in general to the.church

                           REV. M. SCHIPPER,,  Stated Cbd~        as institute at all. But'it  refers to the organism of the church
                                                                  as it is always present in the world and comes to manifesta-
   From identical announcements in Hudsonville's aid
                                                                  tion and expression in the body of believers. It may be and
First's bulletins comes this item of denominational interest:
                                                                  is often true that what lives in the bosom of the church is also
"Our last synod decided that there was an urgent  need to
                                                                  officially expressed in the pronouncements of the church in-
send a co&nittee  to investigate, the Island of Jamaica as a
                                                                  stitute, that is, as long as that institute is pure and lives and
possible field for our missionary effort. The Mission Com-
                                                                  acts in obedience to the Word of God. But the article has  in
mittee acting upon this mandate appointed the brethren H.
                                                                  mind the testimony of the church of all ages. And this
%wak  (Hudsonville) and H. Meulenberg (First) as a com-
                                                                  testimony is indeed of significance for faith. In the first place,
mittee to visit this field. The brethren accompanied by their
                                                                  not to the individual believer all by himself, but to the church,
wives, expect to leave August 13, the Lord willing, and they
                                                                  and to the individual believer only in the fellowship of the
earnestly covet your prayers on their behalf."
                                                                  church,-are the Scriptures delivered. And it is only in that
    Contri&ctiorz~  : The Program Committee of the Reformed       fellowship of the- church that the individual believer is in-
Witness Hour reports that, the Lord willing, Rev. J. A.           ducted into the knowledge and faith of the Scriptures. Apart
Heys, pastor of our South Holland Church, will be the             from that church there  are no [Scriptures and there would
speaker on our radio broadcasts during September. Rev.            have been tie Scripture's.  And apart from that church the
Heys has selected the Book of Ruth as the basis for the five      individual believer does not possess and cannot believe and
sermons to be aired this month. The first (Sept. 2) is en-        bow before the authority `of the Scrihtures.  And, in the
titled "Not By Bread Alone" and proclaims the truth that          second place, we must remember that the guidance of the
we ought always to be reminded that we must first seek the        Holy Spirit was promised to the `church. knd it is under that
Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness. On Sunday, Sept.         guidance of the Spirit, Who leads the church into all the
9, he discusses "The Choice of a Living Faith." The theme         truth, that the body of believers has always, received and ap-
for Sept. 16 is "Mercy For the Penitent." Under the title,        proved these books. It is, therefore, in fellowship with the
"A Virtuous Woman's Quest For Rest," Rev. Heys ex-                church of all ages that~ the believer has the. testimony of the
plains in his Sept. 23rd sermon that in His grace God pre-        Holy Spirit in his heart that these books are from God. And
pares rest for the weary. Rev. Heys concludes his current         it is in the fellowship of the church of all ages that he knows
visit to our radio pulpit with the message, "A Redeemer Gra-      and confesses that these books carry the evidence of this in
ciously Provided" on Sept. 30.                                    themselves. And thus also, it is certainly of importance for the

    A singular indication of the communion  of saints was         assurance of faith that the believer knows that his faith con-

revealed in a recent Lynden bulletin wherein was found a          cerning the Scriptures and their authority is in harmony with,

re-print of a quotation originally cited in First's bulletin.     yes, ,is the faith, has always been the faith, of the church of all

Some saint in Grand Rapids evidently sends the bulletins to       ages..                                                .: `H.C.H.
                                                                                     z


