       \7OLuMF  xXx1x  _                             OCTOBER  1; 1962  - GMND  RAPIDS,  MICHIGAN                                         NultisE~  1


                                                                                     What do you think of this hymn :
II            M E D I T A T I O N                                          II           I mught  the Lord>  a.nd  afterzvard  I kvtew
                                                                                         He moved  my soul to seek Hfipq, seeking rite;

                                                                                         It was not I that fo,und,  0 Sazlior  trace;

                                                                                        No, I wa.s  found, zwas  found of Thee.

                                                                                         It was not I that fo,und,  0 Sa,z&rv time;
        "W'Jzemi~z God, zelil2in.g move abundantly to show ,u+zto
                                                                                         No, I zuas  fo.md,  zvas found of The.
           the heirs of p~m~~ise  the i~mn~tnbil~~ty of His counsel,
           confirmed it by an, oath : that by two 0Ampta~b2e  things:                There you have a Scriptural hymn.

           in wlviciclt it zms  impossible for God to lie, we might loam
                                                                                                            * * * *
           a. st?rong  consolation, who have fled  for refatge  to luy

           hold @on  the lzofe set befovc us: wlzich hope we have                    How different is the language of Scripture from the
           as an a.nch@l-  of the soul,  b,otlt safe nnd  s feadfa,sti,  amd     word of all kind of corrupters of the Word !
           zvl~ich mtcretla z&la&~ the vail; whithes  the Fore-
           yztnner  is for ZIJ`  el%tered, erren,  Jesus,  1mde ,a%  High            The .Triune  Covenant God stands in the midst of this
           Priest foreveT  after the ouder  of .M elclaisedek,"                  sorry world with two immutable things !

                                                       Hebrews 6:17-20              And it is His will that we preach both every Sunday.

      Two immutable things !                                                        And why?

      What are they?                                                                 That the Church of Jesus Christ may have a strong con-
                                                                                 solation.
      The one : the counsel of God Almighty 6th regard to the
salvation of the elect.                                                             Every  Sunday and in every sermon the Church must hear
                                                                                 these two THINGS :
      The other: the oath of God, saying, Surely, blessing I
will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee!                              One: the Counsel of God.

      So it is rather sure that the elect will go to heaven.                        Two : His oath, saying, Surely, blessing I will bless thee !

      However? there are men who know better.. They say:                            Let us lodk at that first one : the Counsel.

God promises to all of you that, if you *believe,  you will be                      That counsel is the counselling'  God Himself.

saved !                                                                             From everlasting, before the world was created, God said

      That statement also includes: God promises that, if you                    in Himself: I love thee, John Brown ! I love thee with an              .__-_--.  -

don't believe, you will be damned !                                              everlasting love, and I will surely save thee from all sin and -~

                                                                                 filth, from My curse, wrath and condemnation, from hell and
      And so the whole of salvation depends on what man will
                                                                                 everlasting damnation !
do, either believe or not believe.
                                                                                    And I will do that through My dearly beloved Son, Jesus
      One thing is sure: that is not the preaching of the Gospel
                                                                                 Christ who will appear in the fulness  of time robed in the
of God.
                                                                                 human nature of the children.
      Conditional salvation is no salvation at all.                                 That Son of Mine will stand in the place of all the elect,
      No, Jesus is the complete Savior.                                          and He will take His stand in the midst of my eternal wrath.

      Listen to this: "And it shall come to pass, that before                       And that wrath of .Mine  will burn and bum Him until

they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I                     He is wholly burned to eternal death, thus obliterating all
                                                                    .
will hear." Isa. 65 :24.                                                         their sin, guilt, death and eternal damnation.


          2.                                          T H E   S.TANDARD   B E A R E R


                And then He will arise unto their justification.                   One of those elect said at one time : "One thing have I

                                                                               desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell
                And after His glorification He will pour upon all the
                                                                               in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold
          elect the Spirit of the adoption unto children. The elect will
                                                                               the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple." 
          become conscious of this My Counsel of everlasting peace for                                                                     YOU
                                                                               find that text in Psalm 27 :4.
          them.

                                                                                   And if you are wondering what that beauty of the Lord
                And they will sing, and keep singing until they arrive in
                                                                               is, I can tell you. That beauty of the Lord is His unutterable
          a new Kosmos, a new world where righteousness will dwell.
                                                                               love to usward. Imagine: That Lord wenf to everlasting
                That is the Counsel.                                           death and hell for such a worm as I ! No wonder they never

                                        *    + * *                             stop singing hallelujahs in heaven.

                                                                                   Now then, the preaching of that Counsel, or that Promise
                That counsel of God came to us in the form of a PROM-
                                                                               with the Spirit of grace gives consolation to God's people.
          ISE.
                                                                                   If you.  are wondering what consolation means I can give
                In the very beginning of history this promise was revealed.
                                                                               you a nice illustration: Here is a little girl who fell and hurt
                Look at Adam and Eve !                                         itself terribly. As it stands there, bleeding and weeping and

                There they stand, blushing, ashamed, guilty unto hell.'        crying, it sees mother standing afar off. Then the child runs
                                                                               to mother and casts itself in her arms, and mother croons to
                But God reveals the counsel, the promise.
                                                                               her little darling and says: There, there, my little darling;
                First of all, God preaches a sermon, and it is very short.     let me wipe away your tears and clean you from all this

                He says : Where art thou ?                                     blood on your face, and mother will put some salve on the
                                                                               wound, and so on. Then the child is consoled. The crying
                That's a very short sermon, and it has everything in it
                                                                               stops and it rests in the arms of mother.
          which vou  found outlined above. Thev  did not deserve this
          call. God could have thrown them in the place reserved for               That's the way God treats the elect when they weep and
          the devil and his demons.                                            cry because of the horrible storms of sin, guilt, the thunder
                                                                               of the law and the accusing voice of conscience.
                But He did not. He called Adam and Eve.
                                                                                                         * *: * +
                Second, God gave the Mother-Promise to them. And you

          better note that there is no condition attached to it.                  But we are weak.

                It comes down to this: the seed of the woman, and that            But we are little of faith.
          is Jesus, will crush the head of the serpent, and. that is the
          devil.                                                                  But the devil makes us doubt.

                Third, God kills the sacrificial animals and made skins           And we begin to waver. Is it for me ? Or am I fooling

          for clothing.    God covers the elect Adam and Eve with the          myself'

          robes of righteousness.                                                 And then God comes with His oath.

                That is good dogmatics. But we usually forget about that           No, there is no one greater than God, and so God has

          bloody carcass, or carcasses that lie there while God is cloth-      to swear by Himself. And He does. He swears by Himself,

          ing Adam and Eve. I leave it to your imagination. A bloody           saying, Surely, blessing I will bless thee  !

          carcass that has been stripped of its skin is a very ugly,              It means this: the promise is reienforced,  strengthened,
         filthy thing.                                                         confirmed.

                You know what it was ? It was a prefiguration of the              And that alsb must be preached to the elect. Because they
-..      bloody spectacle of your and my Jesus. It will be fulfilled when
  -.-                                                                          must have a strorzg consolation.
          Jesus stands there in the sight of all the people, and when
                                                                                  I assure you that you do not enforce, strengthen, confirm
          Pilate will exclaim : Ecce Homo ! Behold the Man !
                                                                               the counsel relative your everlasting salvation by attaching a
                But, anyhow, the Counsel is revealed.                          condition to the promise.

                And that Mother-Promise was repeated a thousand times             I will tell you what that does. It makes the elect miserable.
          over all through the weary ages.
                                                                                  I will draw you a picture of words.
                The preaching of that Promise God uses to call His
                                                                                  According to these poor deluded souls God stands before
         people to His. bosom.
                                                                               the Church and says: I promise you the everlasting joys of
                And since the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ accompanies          salvation.
          that preaching to the elect, they hear. 0 yes, they hear. They
                                                                                  l&t only on the condition that you believe !
          listen and are enraptured by its preaching. That is the reason

          why the elect love to go to church, again and again.                    And that makes me miserable, because I have no faith.


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   BE.ARER                                                                                                                                                                                              3


   And I cannot obtain faith anywhere.
                                                                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER-
   Imagine, faith is the love of God which clings to the                     Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
promises !                                                                     Published by the REFORMED FREE  PUBLISHING  ASSOCIATION

                                                                                                          Editor  
   I wonder. Don't these miserable people know that Ephe-                                                                   - REV. HERMAN  HOEKSEMA
                                                                             Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
sians 223 is in the Bible? There we read, and you better                     Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand  Rapids 7,
have it burned in your heart: "For by grace are ye saved                     Mich. Contributions will be limited to 300 words and must be
                                                                                                                neatly written or typewritten.
through faith ; and that not of yourselves : IT IS THE GIFT                  All church news items should be addressed to Mr. J. M. Faber,
OF GOD!                                                                                        1123 Cooper, S. E., Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
                                                                               Announcements and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee included
   And so the whole picture is complete, and I assure you it                 must be mailed 8 days prior to issue date, to the address below:
is beautiful and attractive : God everlastingly loves His people.              All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to
                                                                                            Mr. James Dykstra,  1326 W. Butler Ave., S. E.
God gives Christ in the fulness of time. God sends out the                                                          Grand Rapids 7, Michigan
Spirit of grace through Christ in the hearts of the elect. That                  RENEWAL:  Unless a detite request for discontinuance is
grace works faith. And the elect believe. And are saved.                     received it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscrip-
                                                                                tion to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
   These elect hear both the Counsel and the Oath.                                                        Subscription price.: $5.00 per year
                                                                                     Second Class  postage paid at Grand Rapids, Michigan
   And they obtain a STRONG CONSOLATION.

    They went to church.         Twice on the Sunday. And they

sleep, and their sleep is sweet.
                                                                                                                               C O N T E N T S
                            *    * * :::                                 MEDITATION  -
                                                                                  A Strong Consolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
   A woman asked me once: But, Dominee, mustn't we do                                        Rev. G. Vos

anything at all ? I said : No, nothing at all, that is unto our
                                                                         EDITORIALS  -
salvation. It is done, said Jesus on the cross.            .a
                                                                                  Election and Reprobation According to Barth... ..__ ._. ..____  . . . . 4
   But here is something which we do. After we are saved                          Only Two Churches?                                          . . . . . . . .._ __......._._ _.. .._                                                                                            5

and consoled, we are bidden by God not to be slothful (verse                                 Rev. H. Hoeksema

12),  and also that we show diligence to the full assurance              OUR DOCTNNE-
unto the end (verse 11).                                                          O f Justification                       __.......___.......  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..___..................................                                                            6

   Not                                                                                       Rev. H. Hoeksema
           being slothful, spiritually lazy, but being diligent to

listen and to obey is the zt~q of salvation. They are the good           A CLOUD OF WITNESSES  -
works which God also has foreordained that we should walk                         Fiery Serpents                       . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

therein. And, blessed be God, they do!                                                       Rev. B. Woudenberg

                                                                 G.V.    FROM  HOLY WRIT  -

                                                                                  Exposition of I Timothy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

                                                                                             Rev. G. Lubbers

                       Announcement                                      IN HIS  FEAR  -

                                                                                  A Word to Covenant Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
    Classis East of the Protestant Reformed Churches will                                    Rev. J. A. Heys

meet, the Lord willing, on Wednesday, October 3, at 9:00                 CONTENDING FOR THE  FAITH-
A. M. at the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church. Dele-                        The Church and the Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

gates from the various churches of this Classis  will please                                 Rev. H. Veldman

take note.                                                               THE VOICE  OF OUR  FATHERS  -
                                 R                                                The Belgic Confession . . . . . . . . . .._ __.., ..__ ._ .._._........._._ 18
                                      EV. M. SCHIPPER,  Stated `Clerk
                                                                                             Rev. H. C. Hoeksema


                                                                         DECENCY  AND ORDER  -

                                                                                  Holy  Matrimony . . ..___.._.............................................................. 20

                       Announcement                                                          Rev. G. Vanden Berg

                                                                         ALL AROUND Us -
   An Office-Bearers' Conference will be held October, 2 at                       The Ranks Grow Thin ,.........__...I............................................. 22
8 :00 P. M., in the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church.                       The  Coming Vatican Council .___.........._.__..............................  .22

Rev. Lubbers will speak on the subject, "Scripture's Verdict                      Telstar and the Return of Christ . .._.. ..__..  23
                                                                                             Rev. H. Hanko
Concerning Unfaithful Stewards." All office-bearers are
                                                                         NEWS FROM  Oun CHURCHES ___........_._....................................,.............                                                                                                        24
urged to attend.
                                                                                             Mr. J. M. Faber

                                        JOXN  DE VRIES,  Secretwy

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

                                                                     for them by his death ; should purge them from all sin, both
 II           E D I T O R I A L S                                    original and actual, whether committed before or after be-
                                                                     lieving; and having faithfully preserved them even to the end,

                                                                     should at last bring them free from every spot and blemish

  Election and Reprobation According to Barth                        to the enjoyment of glory in his own presence forever."

                                                                         It is true that the term reprobation is not mentioned in
       We must still answer the question: how does Barth ex-
                                                                     this article, but the twice repeated "to them alone" and to
 plain Ram. 9 :lS? The text is well-known : "Therefore hath          "those only" serves the same purpose.         God bestows the
 he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom  he will he           fruits of the death of Christ and the saving gifts of the Holy
 hardeneth."
                                                                     Spirit only upon the elect and not upon the reprobates.
       Barth uses many words to explain this text, even though           As I said, Barth is in need of many words to explain vs.
 the words, especially in the context, are very clear and simple
                                                                     18. But he finally paraphrases the meaning of the text as
 to understand. The trouble is that Barth insistently denies         follows (I translate freely) :
 the truth of reprobation and that, although the Bible teaches
 this very plainly and although it is maintained in all the              "Whom God's merciful decision (Vorsatz j in the election
 Reformed Confessions. As far as the context is concerned,           of the Church destines to be an example and mirror of His
 let vs. 13 suffice: "As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but      mercy (Erbarmens  j, to be the unveiling of the goodness of
 Esau have I hated." Hatred and love in this verse stand in          His sovereign acts, of the grace of His freedom, to him He
 direct opposition to each other. Even as love is the act of         reveals Himself and gives Himself as the One Who has made
 God according to which He is, with His whole being attracted        and accomplishes this decision, so that such a one will, as
 to the object of His love, in this case to His people, the          Moses, as God's Friend, serve the will of God, freely and in
 elect, and therefore seeks their good, eternal salvation and        gratitude of heart, in obedience and under God's blessing.
highest glory ; so hatred is that eternal act of God, according      Whom, however, God destines, in His merciful decision in
to which He casts its object, in this case the reprobate, far        the election of His Church, to be an example and mirror of
away from Him into eternal damnation. And, therefore, be-            His judgment, to the unveiling of all man's powerlessness,
cause of this very contrast, it is quite impossible to explain       unworthiness and of his being lost over against the divine
 this verse, as many, indeed, do or do by implication, as if it      will and fulfillment and to the unveiling of the severity of his
means : "Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I loved less."            sovereign act and the freedom of His grace, to him he hides
                                                                     and withholds Himself so that he must serve His purpose,
       And as far as the Confessions are concerned I will quote      like Pharaoh, as God's enemy, without being willing to do so,
from the Canons I, B, S where we read:                               in ingratitude, and, therefore, by means of his sin and guilt,
       "Who teach: That God, simply by virtue of his righteous       and under the curse of God." p. 244.
will, did not decide, either to leave anyone in the fall of Adam        This, then, is supposed to be an explanation of Rom.
or in the common state of condemnation, or to pass anyone in         9 :lS : "Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy,
*the  communication of grace which is necessary for faith and        and whom he will he hardeneth."
conversion. For this is firmly decreed: `He bath  lnercy  on
                                                                        It is especially the last part of the above quoted paragraph
whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth,' Rom. 9:lS.
                                                                     that is of interest to us : "whom he will he hardeneth." Briefly,
And also this : `Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of
                                                                     the explanation of Barth is that God hides Himself and with-
the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given,' Matt.
                                                                     holds Himself from men like Pharaoh so that, being God's
13 :ll. Likewise : `I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and
                                                                     enemy and in sin ancl guilt, he serves God's purpose without
earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and under-
                                                                     being willing to do so.
standing, and didst reveal them unto babes; yea, Father, for
so it was well-pleasing in thy sight.' Matt. 11 25, 26."                But this, mark you well, is really a negative explanation.
       And I can also quote from the same canons chapter II,         God hides and withholds Himself, the result is that man un-
Art. 8: "For this was the sovereign counsel, and most gra-           willingly serves His purpose. But the text is not negative but
cious will and purpose of God the Father, that the quickening        positive: God hardens man's heart. He hardens whomsoever
and saving efficacy  of the most precious death of his Son           He will. How Gcd can do this and still treat man&s a moral
should extend to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone        and responsible being, is a question which ultimately we may
the gift of justifying faith, thereby to bring them infallibly to    not be able to answer, but the fact remains that this is the
salvation: that is, it was the will of God, that Christ by the       only possible meaning of the word.

blood of the cross, whereby he confirmed the new covenant,              The reference of the text is, no doubt, first of all, to
should effectually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation,        Pharaoh who is mentioned in the immediate context, although

and language, all those and those only, who were from                in vs. 18 the reprobate in general are meant. It is striking

eternity chosen unto salvation, and given to him by the              that in the history of Pharaoh as it is recorded- in the first

Father; that he should confer upon them faith, which to-             part of Exodus, we read repeatedly that Pharaoh hardens his
gether with all the other gifts of the Holy Spirit, he purchased     own heart so that, in spite of all the plagues. and wonders


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A ' R E R                                               5



which God performs in the land of Egypt, he will not let the        over His own elect. God wants to reveal His wrath over the
people of Israel go. But before we read that Pharaoh hardens        vessels of wrath and make His power known, His wrath over
his heart, we read that God hardens his heart. For thus we          the wicked and His power to deliver His people in spite of
read in Ex. 7:3: "And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and            all the attempts of the ungodly to the contrary. But, in the
multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt." God            meantime, He also reveals the riches. of His glory over the

is first and therefore we read in vs. 18: "and whom he will         vessels of glory which He has from all eternity ordained unto

he hardeneth."                                                      glory in Christ Jesus our Lord.

   Barth understands very well that all this is based on God's          Of all this Barth must have nothing because he denies
eternal counsel of predestination, including election and rep-      reprobation. And all this the Christian Reformed Church,
robation. That he knows this is evident from the context            with their theory of "common grace," also denies.
also in that which follows the strange and untrue paraphrasing                                                              H.H.
of vs. 18 which we quoted above. He must have nothing of

what he repeatedly calls the dscrettm absohtum,,  the absolute

decree and especially not of the decree of reprobation.
                                                                                       Only Two Churches?
   But that our explanation of vs. 18 is correct is also evident

from what follows in vs. 19 ff. There we read :                        It is high time that I finish my editorial on the above

    "Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault ?       mentioned subject which I began in the issue of our paper
For who hath resisted his will ? Nay but, 0 man, Who art            of July 1.

thou that repliest against God ? Shall the thing formed say            The reader will remember that I received several pamph-
to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus ? Hath            lets of what is called the "Biblical Contender" in which the
not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make        author, Eddie K. Garrett, gives an answer to the `question :
one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if           "Why I am a Baptist."
God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known,
                                                                       I pointed out that there were several elements in what
endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted
                                                                    pastor Garrett writes which we also believe while there are
unto destruction : And that he might make known the riches
                                                                    other doctrines which we do and must reject. Thus we do
of his glory unto the vessels of mercy, which he had afore
                                                                    not believe that baptism by immersion (to which we have, of
prepared unto glory."
                                                                    course, no objection:)  is the only valid baptism. Nor is it
   Also of these verses Barth offers his own explanation.           true, though this is of minor importance, that the baptism of
Cf. pp. 245 ff. It is, briefly, that man, whether he be Moses       John is the same as the New Testament baptism. Baptism
or Pharaoh, Isaac or Ishmael,  Jacob or Esau, is in any case        cannot be repeated, yet certain disciples in Ephesus, who had
the one for whom and for whose sin Christ died on the cross,        been baptized with the baptism of John, were baptized again,
and because of whom Christ rose again from the dead and in          this time with the baptism of Jesus. Acts. 19:1-7.  On the
whom, therefore, man is righteous, justified before God.            other hand, we also believe in the second coming of the Lord
   Needless to say that this is no explanation at all.              in the never ending of bliss, and in the never ending hell of

    On the contrary, because of what Paul wrote, especially         fire and brimstone.

in vs. 18, namely, that God is merciful to whom he will be             But we do not believe what the author writes at the end
merciful and whom He will He hardens, the objection is raisecl      of his first pamphlet : "There are many other things believed
that, in that case, God has no reason to complain for no one        among us that space will not permit me to set forth at this
can ever resist His will. And in his answer Paul does not at-       time. In closing my friends, you caJl't  be obedient to the
tempt to solve the problem but merely appeals to God's abso-        Word of God without being a Baptist. Love to Christ and
lute sovereignty as was already implied in vs. 18. Whatever         loyalty to His Word will make every saved man a Baptist.
may be the explanation, the thing formed cannot say to Him          That is why you ought to be a Baptist." This is simply an
that formed it : "why hast thou made me thus ?" Man is the          untruth.
clay and God is the potter. Besides, God has endured, with
                                                                       For' the same reason, I do not believe what I wrote above
much long suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted unto destruc-
                                                                    this editorial, namely, that there are only two churches in
tion. This, too, is evident from the history of Pharaoh and the
                                                                    the world: the Baptist and the Roman Catholic. Thus the
children of Israel in E,Tpt  as well as from all history. The
                                                                    author writes :
phrase "much long suffering" refers not to Pharaoh, but to
the children of Israel. They, for a long time suffered and             "Strictly speaking, there are only two distinct churches
God suffered as it were with them. And thus it is in all            in America: the Baptists and the Roman Catholics. The dif-
history. All the people of God suffer from the vessels wf           ference between all others is the difference between twiddle-
wrath. And this continues until the measure of iniquity is          dedee and twiddlededum. Catholics as well as Baptists claim
filled. When the wicked prosper and the people of God suffer        that they are the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ - that
at their hatids, this may not be explained from a certain           they have perpetuity from, the time of Christ down to the

"common grace" but rather from the longsuffering of God             present day. History, however, proves that they do not pos-

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


sess this perpetuity. Protestants neither teach it nor possess
it. Baptists teach church perpetuity and possess it."                      [  O U R   D O C T R I N E   1
     This is certainly not true. Let me answer this as follows :

     1.    The baptist may claim perpetuity but it is not true that
                                                                                                     C
they possess it. The Reformers certainly were not baptists,                                               HAPTER IV
and at the time of the Reformation there were only two                                        OF JUSTIFICATION

churches, the Romish church and the churches of the Ref-                                             (Continued)
ormation.      It was at that time that the Baptists came into                The same is true of Rahab the harlot. Rahab by the God-
existence under the name of Anabaptists.                                   given power of faith clung to the promise, and chose the
     2. We believe,,according  to our Confession of Faith, not             party of the living God against the whole world, and was

only in the perpetuity of the Church in the new dispensation               saved. Her faith, too, was perfected by works. But in her
but in that perpetuity from the beginning of the world. Thus               case too it was the work of faith, whereby she clung to Christ
in Art. 27 of the Netherland Confession it is stated: "This                and to God, Who justifies the ungodly. Hence, the truth
Church hath been from the biginning  of the world, and will                remains that all Scripture emphasizes justification by faith
be to the end thereof."       Hence, let not pastor Garrett say            only.
that the Protestants do not believe in the perpetuity of the                  Nor is the relation between faith and justification to be
Church of Christ.                                                          conceived as that of a benefit on God's part and a condition

     3. Moreover, we believe that all true believers ought to              on our part. This too has often been alleged. Justification is
unite themselves to that true church and may not separate                  conditioned by faith. Yet this cannot possibly be the relation.
themselves from it as, for instance, the Baptists did and still            First of all, it should be remembered that objective justifica-
do. For thus we confess in Art. 28 of the Netherland Con-                  tion is b&we  faith. Objectively, we are justified regardless of
fession of Faith: "We believe, since this holy congregation                our faith and before we even have the faith as a power, let
is an assembly of those who are saved, and that out of it                  alone the faith as an activity. For in eternal election all those
there is no salvation, that no person, of whatever state or con-           given to Christ by the Father are righteous before God for-
dition he may be, ought to withdraw himself, to live in a                  ever. And this righteousness cannot possibly be contingent
separate state from it; but that all men are in duty bound to              upon faith, even though it is true that we cannot appropriate
join and unite themselves with it."                                        this righteousness except by a true and living faith. We can-
                                                                           not become conscious of our righteousness and of our justifi-
     4.    And where is that true Church to which we must unite            cation except by a conscious and living faith. Long before we
ourselves ? Which are the distinguishing marks of the purest               believe, however, the justification of all the elect is already
manifestation of that Church? Also this is expressed in the                accomplished forever in the cross and resurrection of Jesus
Confession above named : "The marks by which the true                      Christ. Secondly, although it is true that we cannot receive
Church is known, are these : if the pure doctrine of the gospel            justification except by the means of faith, we must never
is preached therein ; if she maintains the pure administration             forget that faith is not of ourselves : it is the gift of God. For
of the sacraments as instituted by Christ; if church discipline            `thus we read in the well-known words of Ephesians 2 :S-10 :
is exercised in punishing of sin."                                         "For by grace are ye saved through faith ; and that not of

     How sadly, therefore is pastor Garrett mistaken when he               yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man

maintains that the Baptist Church has the right to maintain                should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ
perpetuity and that it is the only true church in the world !              Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that

                                                                  H.H.     we should walk in them."         Faith, therefore, is not a condi-
                                                                           tion which we must fulfill in order to be justified. Justifica-

                                                                           tion is strictly and absolutely unconditional..

                                                                              For the same reason we must repudiate the illustration of

                                                                           faith as the hand on our part whereby we accept the proffered

                           IN MEMORIAM                                     salvation. That figure is often used. Someone offers one a

                                                                           present-for instance, a watch, or something else. And all
     It pleased the Lord to take to glory                                  that is necessary for the one to whom the watch is offered to
                        MR. ISAAC KORHORN                                  become possessor of it is simply to accept the gift. But, first

and as our departed brother was a member of the first Consistory           of all, salvation is not to be compared in this mechanical way

of Hope Protestant Reformed Church and served many years there-            to such an external gift which we may either accept or reject.
after, and his son-in-law, Mr. R. Bloem, is a fellow office-bearer with    And, secondly, we should never overlook the fact that no
us, the Consistory of the Hope Prot. Ref. Church takes this op-            man has of himself such a hand whereby he can accept the
portunity to express our sincerest prayers  for grace and strength
                                                                           gift of salvation. The very contrary is true. When Christ is
from God to sustain the family and the congregation in their loss.
                                                                           preached to the natural. man, all that is within him rejects
                                      Rev. H. Hanko, President
                                                                           Him, and he can do nothing else but reject Him. This does not
                                      D. Meuienberg, Clerk

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


mean that man is not responsible for that very act : he indeed       much sin and iniquity he commits, he is certainly headed for

is! But it nevertheless means that he cannot possibly accept         everlasting glory.  He is in the position to enjoy freely the

Christ unless he first has the faith, the God-given faith,           pleasures of the world. He can afford to be perfectly careless.

whereby he is united with Him. For man is indeed totally             In fact, it wouId  seem to be better for the Christian not even

depraved. By nature he is dead in sin and misery. And                to make the attempt to walk in all good works. For the old

therefore it is impossible for him to accept Christ and believe      man is corrupt always, and will perish in death. To walk in

in the God of our salvation. If we may speak of "offering" at        sin has at any rate the advantage of showing forth the greater

all, then the truth is that when Christ is offered to him, he        glory of the grace of God. The doctrine of justification, there-

rejects Him and hates Him with all his heart and mind and            fore, leads to licentiousness.

soul and strengti. He loves the darkness rather than the light.          This objection is also shared by the Roman Catholics, as

And hence, we must also reject the illustration which we             is evident from the Canons and Dogmatic' Decrees of the

mentioned above.                                                     Council of Trent, 1563. Especially in the Canons the Romish

   The only proper conception of the relation between justi-         Church severely condemns the doctrine of justification by
fication and faith is that if is a means, or instrument, which       faith. In Canon IX ("On Justification") we read: "If any
God gives us, whereby He unites us with Christ and whereby           one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified, in such
we receive Him and all His benefits. First of all, I must say        wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to cooperate in
again that all the blessings of salvation are literally in Christ    order to the obtaining of the grace of Justification, and that
Jesus our Lord. Without Him there is no salvation possible.          it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and dis-
And therefore, we must be united with Christ in order to be          posed by the movement of his own will : let him be anathema."
saved. And this union with Christ is effected by the God-            Again, in Canon XI we read: "If any one saith, that men
given power of faith. In the first place, we may undoubtedly         are justified, either by the sole imputation of the justice of

say that there is an objective relation in this faith-union with     Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of

Christ. Of Abraham it is said that his faith was imputed to          the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their
him for righteousness. This imputation certainly implies that        hearts by the Holy Ghost, and is inherent in them ; or even

objectively the sinner is declared righteous in Christ before        that the grace, whereby we are justified, is only the favor of
the tribunal of God. God declares that the sinner is free from       dad: let him be anathema." And once more, in Canon XII
all his guilt, and is perfectly righteous. God declares that he      we read: "If any one saith, that justifying faith is nothing
is adopted as His child, and is worthy of eternal life. He is,       else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for
as it were, by faith separated from his natural and legal            Christ's sake ; or, that this confidence alone is that whereby
relation which he sustains to the human race in Adam ; and           we are justified : let him be anathema."
by that same faith he is legally incorporated in the bocly  of          This, therefore, is the Romish doctrine of justification.
Christ. In Adam he is guilty and worthy of death ; in the            Christ merits for us the right to infuse a righteousness into
corporation of Christ he is righteous and worthy of eternal          our heart. By the power of that infused righteousness we

life. kod declares the ungodly righteous, certainly, not be-         can perform good works. And these good works are merito-

cause of any work of faith or upon any condition of faith,           rious, and worthy of eternal life.

but because He imputes this objective legal relation which the          The Heidelberg Catechism opposes this false doctrine
sinner sustains to Christ as righteousness. And this relation        of justification in Lord's Day XXIV.
is the relation of faith only.                                           Question 62 reads : "But why cannot our good works be
   We must add a word here about the objection that has              the whole, or part of our righteousness before God?" Answer :
always been raised to the doctrine of justification on the           "Because, that the righteousness, which can be approve2  of
ground that it violates the, ethical character of man and his        before the tribunal of God, must be absolutely perfect, and in

responsibility. And finally, we must still say a few words           all respects conformable to the divine law ; and also, that our

about the Scriptural doctrine of the reward of grace.                best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled with,sin."

   As to the first, that is, the objection to the doctrine of           Question 63 : "What ! do not our good works merit, which

justification which we mentioned, it is as old as the doctrine       yet God will reward in this and in a future life?" Answer:

itself. It runs as follows. The doctrine of justification teaches    "This reward is not of merit, but of grace."

that a man is legally righteous before God without being                Question 64: "But doth not this doctrine make men care-

actually righteous. His ethical condition and his works have         less and profane ?" Answer : "By no means : for it is impos-

nothing to do with his righteousness before God. His good            sible that those, who are implanted into Christ by a true

works can never add to his righteousness. Nor can his sin            faith, should not bring forth fruits of thankfulness."

possibly in any wise detract from it. And this is, according            In answer to this objection, we may, first of all, note that

to the objectors, a deeply immoral doctrine. If this is true,        it is quite contrary to Christian experience. Subjectively it is

so the objectors say, it matters not what man does. He is free       impossible for the Christian to say that he can freely walk in
to sin as much as he likes: for he is righteous before God by        sin because of his justification. This is specifically mentioned

his faith anyway. Whether he walks in sin or performs works          in Question 64 of the Heidelberg Catechism, which we just

of righteousness, he is certain of eternal life. No matter how       quoted. The doctrine of justification does not make men

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

careless or profane for the simple reason that it is simply         once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise

impossible for the Christian, because he is implanted into          reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but

Christ by a true faith, not to bring forth fruits of thankfull      alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin

new.    The Reformed Christian, on the one hand, utterly            therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it

repudiates that righteousness is by works. They know that           in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as in-

their best works are defiled with sin, and that they cannot         struments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves

be the whole or even part of their righteousness before God.        unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your

On the other hand, if you ask them whether this exclusive           members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin

confidence in the cross as the ground of their righteousness        shall not have dominion over you : for ye are not under the

before God has the effect upon them that now they become            law, but under grace.    What then? shall we sin, because we

careless and profane induces them to draw the conclusion that       are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know

it is profitable to continue in sin, that grace may abound,         ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey,

they will answer that such is certainly not their experience.       his servants ye are to whom ye obey ; whether of sin unto

They will assure you that the power of the cross as they            death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be

experienced it bore the very opposite fruit, that the grace of      thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed

justification caused them to abhor sin, to eschew it, to flee       from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered

`from it, to fight it with all their might. Enemies, of all sin     you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants

they have principally become ; and for nothing they long more       of righteousness."

fervently than to be delivered from the defilement of sin
                                                                       This means, of course, that the Christian is both legally
finally and completely. Whether or not they are able to ex-
                                                                    and organically in Christ. These two are absolutely insepar-
plain the mystery of justification by faith through grace, the
                                                                    able. One cannot be organically in Christ unless he is also
voice of their spiritual experience tells them that it certainly
                                                                    legally in Him ; and, on the other hand, one cannot be
cannot make men careless and profane.
                                                                    legally in Christ unless he is also organically in Him.

                                                                    In a judicial sense the Christian is free from sin be-
     Moreover, one does not have to appeal to experience, the
                                                                    cause he is legally in Christ. And, being organically
experience of the believing Christian, to prove that this ob-
                                                                    connected with Christ, he is also actually-though only in
jection is utterly groundless. For although justification is not    principle - delivered from the power of sin. He lives out of
the same as sanctification, the one is nevertheless the ground
                                                                    Christ. This organic union with his Lord is inseparable from
of the other. They are inseparably connected. For the Chris-
                                                                    the faith whereby he is justified. And that means that in
tian is subjectively justified only by a true and living faith.
                                                                    Christ he does not only have the right to be delivered from
And that means that he is implanted into Christ. Apart from
                                                                    sin, but also that he is principally liberated from the dominion
Christ he has nothing; in Christ he has all. To Christ he
                                                                    and bondage of sin through the Spirit of Christ that dwelleth
belongs with body and soul, for time and eternity. He is one
                                                                    in him. For thus the apostle teaches in Romans 8 :2 : "For the
with his Lord, both legally and organically. Justification,
                                                                    law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
therefore, means that in Christ the believer has the right to
                                                                    from the law of sin and death." And so, the Heidelberg
be delivered from the dominion of sin. In Christ the right of
                                                                    Catechism teaches correctly that it is impossible that those
sin to have dominion over us and to reign in our flesh has
                                                                    who are ingrafted into Christ by a true and living faith should
been destroyed. This is the teaching of Scripture. In Remans        not bring forth fruits of thankfulness.
8 13 we read : "For what the law could not do, in that it vvas

weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the                  In Romans G:2 the apostle teaches that the Christian is

likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the         dead to sin. We should note carefully that this. does not

flesh." This is plainly taught also in Remans  6 :2, ff. : "How     mean the same as saying that sin is dead in him. The differ-

shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know       ence is evident. It would be indeed a grievous error to main-

ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ       tain that as long as the Christian is still in the present body,

were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with          in the flesh, and in this world, sin is dead in him. This

him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up        error would certainly create confusion in the mind and heart

from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also           of the sincere Christian. Fact is that when. we are ingrafted

should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted         into Christ and the power of the cross is realized in us and

together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the      we are justified by faith, sin is not dead, but remains very

likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man        much active. In this life we never have more than a small

is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,     beginning of the new obedience. Even the very holiest of the

that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead        saints, he that is farthest advanced on the way of grace and

is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe        on the way of sanctification, still has only a beginning, a prin-

that we shall also live with him.: Knowing that Christ being        ciple, of the new life in Christ. Our old nature, earthly and

raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more              carnal, remains with us till the very end, till death and the

dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin            grave. Not, until we breathe OUT. last are we delivered from

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


sin. And in that old nature are the motions of sin ; and they         we say that far from being an occasion to sin, the doctrine of

are very active. In fact, it often seems that according as we         justification yields the fruit of righteousness, because the

grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus. Christ,         Christian is ingrafted into Christ.

the motions of sin in our members also increase their activity,          Finally, we must say a few words about what is known as
always attempting to bring us again into bondage. We must,            the reward of grace.
therefore, till the day of our death heed the exhortation of the
                                                                         The Catechism also speaks of this reward of grace in
TNord  of God to put off the old man, and to put on the new.
                                                                      Question and Answer 63 : "What! do not our good works
    Not sin is dead; but the Christian is dead to sin. The            merit, which yet God will reward in this and in a future life?
difference is very plain. The natural man, the sinner, apart          This reward is not of merit, but of grace." In the preceding
from Christ, is alive unto sin. Sin is his lord. The power of         question and answer the Catechism had strongly repudiated
sin is enthroned in his heart. It is his rightful lord. It has        the notion that our good works can be either part, or the
the right to exercise dominion over him; and he is its legal          whole, of our righteousness before God. We are righteous by
slave. God's sentence is that the sinner shall die. To this           faith only, without works. This, of course, implies that our
death belongs also the spiritual darkness of the mind and the         good works do not and cannot merit anything at all. And
spiritual perversion of the will, the pollution of the desires and    this is strongly opposed by the Roman Catholics. They must
inclinations, that make the sinner a slave of sin. From this          have nothing of this repudiation of the real merit of our
slavery he does not even have the right to be delivered unless        works.    They argue that our good works are certainly re-
atonement is made for his sin. Sin, therefore, has legal domin-       warded by God. All Scripture emphasizes this. It follows
ion over him. This domini,on  of sin, however, is not contrary        from this, according to the Roman Catholics, that they must
to the will and desire of the sinner, so that he ever longs to        be meritorious. God rewards us according to our works.
be delivered from his bondage. On the contrary, he agrees             Nevertheiess, the Catechism denies this. It does so not by
with it. He is well-pleased with the reign of sin and with the        contradicting the truth that God rewards the righteous. For
dominion of sin over him. He delights in the service of his           it admits that this evidently is plainly taught by Holy Writ.
evil lord. He is a willing servant. He loves the darkness             But it states that this reward of the righteous is not of works
rather than the light. He yields his members to the service of        whatsoever, but by pure grace, not of merit.
unrighteousness.    He is in bondage. Yet because the service            It certainly is taught in Scripture that God rewards those
of sin is sweet unto his corrupt taste, he does not feel the op-      that perform good works. The Bible teaches in general that
pression of his slavery. For sin he lives. With sin he agrees.        God will reward every man according to his works. And
The paths of sin are his delight. He is alive unto sin.               specifically, it frequently speaks of a great reward for those

   On the other hand, in the state in which we are no longer          that suffer with Christ, as all the people of God must suffer

under the legal dominion of sin we are dead to sin. Sin is no         for righteousness' sake in the midst of a hostile world. Re-

longer our lord. It has no longer the right to reign over us.         peatedly Scripture speaks of the truth that God shall reward

Just as a slave for whom the price is paid, or that has been          every man according to his deeds. Thus you find it in Matt.

declared free by law, he is no longer legally bound to serve          16:27: "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his

his former master, so that he is dead to sin. He is liberated         Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man

from the legal dominion of sin by God's own verdict of libera-        according to his works."    And in Romans 2 :6-11 we read :

tion. Sin shall not have dominion over him. Moreover, this            `Who will render to every man according to his deeds,: To

sentence of liberation is also really in him through Christ.          them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for

He is actually liberated spiritually from the bondage of sin.         glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto

His fetters are broken. Grace instead of sin, the law of the          them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey

Spirit of life rather than the law of sin and death, is enthroned     unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and an-

in his heart and has dominion over him. His mind is en-               guish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first,
lightened. His will is turned about. His heart is renewed.            and also of the Gentile ; But glory, honour, and peace, to

And from that renewed heart all the issues ,of his life move          every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the

in the direction opposite to that of sin. The result is that          Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God." And

he beholds and judges things in a new light, in the light of          in II Cor. 5 :lO we read the well-known words : "For we must

the love of God. Formerly he agreed with the dominion of              all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one

sin. Formerly he always said "Yes"  when sin said "Yes,"              may receive the things done in his body, according to that

and "No" when sin said "No." Now he opposes sin with                  he hath done, whether it be good or bad." In Rev. 20:12  John

all his heart and mind and soul and strength. When he was             beholds a vision of the great judgment, and he "saw the dead,

alive unto sin, he loved the works of darkness. But now he            small and great, stand before God ; and the books were

is dead to sin. He hates sin with all his heart. While in his         opened : and another book was opened, which is the book of

bondage to sin he yielded his members to the service of un-           life : and the dead were judged out of those things which were

righteousness, he now strenuously opposes that service : he is        written in the books, according to their works."

dead unto sin. And therefore, with the Heidelberg Catechism                                                                     H.H.

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


                                                                         Sier of Edom. The sun was hot; the ground was dry ; the

11 A CLOUD OF W~LTNEXXS  11 way was steep and rough ; and all of the time they were going
                                                                         farther and farther away from the land of promise. It could

                                                                         be seen on the faces of the people; they were sullen and sad.

                                                                         At last it began to be heard; the voice of murmuring was
                        Fiery Serpents                                   being raised. At first it was just an undertone of hushed

          And Moses l%zndcr  a serpent of brass, and            ,@ort    whispers; but louder and louder it became. Finally it was
                                                         put  it 
        a pole, and it cmne  to pass, that if a m-pent  had bittelz      brought to R/loses,  a cry of anguish and pain, "Wherefore
        any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.          have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness ?
                                                     Numbers 21 :9       for there is no bread, neither is there any water ; and our soul
          And as Moses  Lifted atfi the serpent in the wilderness,       loatheth this light bread ?'
        even so mmt the son of frmn be lifted up.
                                                         John 3 :14            This was the cry of a different generation from that with

                                                                         which Moses had traveled before. And there was a difference.
      At times the hope of the children of Israel to enter the           The former generation had been raised*  in Egypt, and from
promised land must have appeared almost futile to them. It               the Egyptians they had learned much as to the ways of sin.
had been full forty years since they had come into the wilder-           In that generation there had been many who had come along
ness from Egypt, and according to God's own words it was                 merely out of the hope of material advancement. Many of
time for them to enter Canaan. But the land of Edom stood                them had been spiritually hard, and for that very reason they
between them and the entrance into Canaan ; the king of                  had perished without the land of promise. This generation
Edom forbade them passage through his land, and the Lord                 had been raised under the law of God within the realm of the
forbade them to-fight. It meant that they had to circumvent              covenant. They knew the terrible wrath of God against sin
the whole of the land of Edom, an extensive additional                   from the desolate wilderness in which their parents were
journey. When they wanted so badly to be traveling south,                made to perish. We know for a fact that in the history of
baclc  through the barren wilderness. Each step of the way               the Church there were few generations more spiritual than
brought them farther from the longed-for goal. It was                    this one. And yet as they began their journey, it was in the
discouraging to say the least.                                           same weakness and rebellion as their parents had so often

      Nor was this the full extent of their discouragement. No           shown. They complained about the way in which they were
sooner had Israel come together and begun to travel again                led as though their God were cruel to them and His way
than Arad, king of the Canaanites, came against them un-                 unjust.

expectedly with his armies and took some of them captive.                      This could not be allowed to go unanswered. The reply
They had done nothing to provoke him other than beginning                of the Lord came quickly. The wilderness in which Israel
to travel again. But that was all it took. Israel still had              had now lived for so many years was the natural habitat
to learn how bitterly they were hated by the people of every             of the serpent. Always there were snakes around and many
land. The-nations had all heard about Israel and the works               of them were poisonous. But always there was also the
that Israel's God could perform. None of them had gods as                miracle of Israel's survival in that desert. God by His power
effective and powerful as He. When these nations heard that              preserved them from all of the dangers of that wild land.
Israel was coming to settle and live in the land of Canaan,              So even the serpents were restrained so that Israel passed by
they .were afraid. During the forty years while Israel was               their holes .and  remained untouched by their fangs through-
waiting on Canaan's borders, they became uneasy and on                   out those wilderness years. That was until they had com-
edge. Their hatred for Israel grew and became so intense,                mitted this sin of rebeliion once again. Suddenly God lifted
that once Israel began to move again they attacked Israel                His restraint. Even more He sent a special breed of poi-
wildly and without a cause. This intense hatred Israel would             sonous snakes directly into the camp. They were fiery ser-
experience more and more as they went on.                                pents, in appearance perhaps, but especially in their bite ;

      Still it was not under this attack of Arad that Israel             quickly a burning inflamation  set in soon to be followed by
faltered. Their strength was sufficient to go as they should             a painful death.

to the Lord. Before the Lord they made a vow, "If thou wilt                    There was a very definite symbolism in this judgment
indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly             sent by God. From the fall of Eve in the Garden of Eden the
destroy their cities." It was an expressed willingness to serve          serpent has stood as a symbol of sin. The inflaming, killing
as the instrument of judgment in the hand of God whereby                 result of its poisonous bite closely parallels the working of
the cities of this sinful nation would be destroyed. God heard           sin. Once sin has found its way into man's moral system, it
this vow and gave to them a great victory. By them the                   spreads inflaming man's sinful passions. It brings with it
cities of Arad were utterly destroyed.                                   cleath,  true spiritual death, separation from God and His

      It was not, however, until they began to journey again             f-vor. There is only one thing that can stay the working of
                                                                          a
that the courage of the people finally broke. Back they were             this moral decay, that is the miracle of God's salvation given
led among the rough and barren crags that surrounded Mount               by grace. Only God can save man from this fiery death.


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                         11


             Once this punishment had been given, the true distinctive-    bruise his heel" (Gen. 3 :14, 15). Whenever they saw a
     ness of this generation from that of their fathers' became ap-        serpent they were reminded of Satan himself and the con-
     parent. The sin committed was outwardly no different; but             stant enmity between him and God. When all through the
     the former generation under punishment of .their sin had              wilderness God restrained the serpents on the way from
     hardened themselves again and again while this generation             harming them, it was a sign of God's favor and grace. And
     bowed in repentance for what they had done. Those long                when they saw this restraint removed so that fiery serpents

     years of waiting in the wilderness had had their effect. This         invaded their camp, it was as though Satan and his angels
     generation was not too proud to acknowledge its own weak-             had descended upon their camp. The curse of sin held them

     ness as their fathers had been. The prayer with which they            under its power. But they knew better than to think that it

     came to the now aged Moses was beautiful in its plaintive             was just a physical thing, injected as venom into the blood.

     cry.      "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the             It was spiritual in their hearts. Thus they turned in repent-

     LORD, and against thee ; pray unto the LORD, that he take             ance to God.

     away the serpents from us."                                               But most beautiful of all were the resultant instructions

             This was a prayer that could not go unanswered. Moses         given to Moses by God, the instructions to make a brazen
     brought it in their behalf to God, and He withdrew the                serpent and to raise it up above the camp upon a pole. This
     serpents from their midst. But the answer of God went far             too was a symbolism which they knew. That which was lifted
     beyond that which the people had asked. There were still in           up upon a tree was accounted accursed; it was lifted up as
     the camp many of those who had been bitten and in whom                an unholy thing from off the earth. This was in the nature
     even now the poison of death was at work. God made provi-             of a promise from God. He was not merely healing them
     sion also for them. To Moses He said, "Make thee a fiery              from the poison of the serpents. That could have as well
     serpent, and set it upon a pole : and it shall come to pass, that     been done in some other and more simple way. God was
     every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live."       bringing to them in terms they could well understand that
                                                                           He was lifting from their midst the curse.
        Quickly Moses must have worked. He took a rod of brass,
     and heating it bent it into the shape of a snake. This brazen              There was still one more fact that entered in, however,
     serpent he lifted up on a pole above the camp. The call went          the healing result of this blessing came only to those who
     out through the camp summoning all that had been bitten               looked upon the serpent. Whether any failed to do this in
     by the serpents to come and look upon the serpent which               Israel's camp, we do not know, probably not. But regardless,
     M&es  had made. Here was a marvelous thing to behold.                 the typical fact was there, only those who looked upon that
     People in all stages of this deadly pain coming to the place          accursed tree and saw the curse of sin suspended there were
     where Moses had set up this pole. Many of them no doubt               healed.

     had to be carried by friends and relatives, they were so weak             In type and shadow, according to the understanding of

     from the working of the poison. But regardless of how close           the people, God was revealing the Gospel. It is the same

     to death they were, in the instant that they looked upon the          Gospel that we know now in fulfillment. God has hung our
     serpent hanging from the pole they were healed. No one                curse upon the tree.       As many as look upon it and see it
     could doubt the miracle which was being wrought.                      with the eyes of faith, they are healed from the wound of the

                                                                           devil.                                                           B.W.
        And still it was more than just the healing of some

     seriously sick people that took place that day. There was a

     revelation that was taking place. God was speaking to Israel,

     explaining to them the wonder of His infinite love. These were                                   IN MEMORIAM
     a people used to the language of symbolism, much more so                  The Ladies' Aid Society "Ruth" of the Hope Prot.  Ref. Church
     than we are today. In this that was happening there was               wishes to express its sincere sympathy to four of our members, Mrs.
     a truth which the true, spiritual children of Israel could well       Isaac Korhorn, Mrs. Maynard Veenstra,  Mrs. Jacob Kuiper and Mrs.
                                                                           Richard Bloem, in the recent loss of their husband and father,
     meditate upon as they proceeded on their way.
                                                                                                MR. ISAAC KORHORN

         The first symbolic element in the happenings of that day          Psalm 116:15: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His
                                                                           saints."
     was, of course, in the relation between the serpent and sin.                                               Rev. H. Hanko, President
     Those people did not have nearly as much sacred history to                                                Mrs. I?. Zandstra, Secretary

     rememb,er  as we do, and thus in what they did know the
     account of the fall filled a very important part. They re-                                       IN MEMORIAM

     membered well the word of God to the serpent, "Because                    The Men's Society of the Hope Prot. Ref. Church wishes to ex-
     thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and            press its heartfelt sympathy to one of its members, Mr. Gerald
                                                                           Korhorn, in the passing away of his father,
     above every beast of the field ; upon thy belly shalt thou go,                             MR. ISAAC KORHORN
     and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: and I will          Romans 8:28: "And'we  know that all things work together for good
     put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy                to them that love God."
                                                                                                               Rev. H. Hanko, President
     seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt                                               Mr. P. Zandstra, Secretary





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I    12                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER


                                                                            measure to the opposition from evil  men who do not love the
     11  F R O M   H O L Y   W R I T   11 truth, and therefore contradict the good minister. The great
                                                                            truths as set forth in the twelve Articles of Faith (the Apos-

                                                                            tolic Confession) are often denied. Men have itching ears

                                                                            and heap to themselves teachers who will yield to their re-
                       Exposition of I Timothy
                                                                            quests, and who ask "what do people desire to hear." These

                           (I Timothy 5:17, IS)                             easily make merchandise of the gospel. Paul is not as such.
                                                                            He speaks before God, out of God in Christ. II Cor. 2 :17.
                                      b.                                    And in the face of those who would subvert the teaching of

                                                                            Scripture, the pure preaching must be set forth all the more
           We noticed in our last essay that double honor should be
                                                                            strongly. The true preachers always must suffer much for the
     ascribed to those who rule well, particularly to those who
                                                                            word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ in this world.
     labor in the Word and doctrine. We believe that it is of
     importance to take a bit closer look at the implications of this           Hence, they are said to "labor."

     phrase from the apostle's pen.                                             Paul often underscores this fact of labor for the -gospel's

           The first matter that forces itself to our attention is what     sake. He employs here the active participle, present tense,
     is meant by the terms "word" and "doctrine." There is an in-           indicating linear action. It is always laboring, without let-up.
     terpretation which holds that this refers to "preaching" and           Always there are new and possibly greater foes to encounter
     "teaching."    The term teaching would then underscore that            and to subdue. Ever the ways of the good preacher, laboring
     the chief characteristic of the preaching is that it is instructive    in the word an'd doctrine, are well-nigh impossible. It is al-
     unto godliness. We are of the conviction that the interpreta-          ways bearing about in the body the dying ,of the Lord Jesus ; it
     tion which holds that the "word" here is the revented  gospel,         is the lot of the minister that his life is poured out as a drink-
     and that teaching refers to the hod?  of                               offering in behalf of the Gospel and the salvation of the
                                                troth contained in the
     gospel merits our preference. We prefer this latter construc-          church. Paul endures all things for the elect's sake. There-
     tion of the text, in the first place, because thus we do justice       fore the apostle says, describing his labors, that he is afflicted
     to the terms themselves. Not the u~ctiz~ity  of preaching and          (pressed down) yet he is not so that there is not a way out :
     teaching is indicated, but rather the nature and content of            he is not straightened. He often stands at the cross-roads,
     the work of those who labor is meant. Thus it is `often in             looking at the things seen, and is perplexed, hardly knowing
     Scripture. In the second place, because this agrees with               whither to turn ; yet he does not despair, but presses forward
     Paul's repeated emphasis on correct "doctrine" in this epistle,        in the way of diligence to the preaching of the gospel. Again,
     the true Mystery of godliness which is great. A good example           he is often pursued by men, persecuted, yet in all this he is
     we have of this in I Tim. 1:lO  where we read : "for fornicators,      not forsaken of his God, but receives strength and renewed
     for abusers of themselves with men, for menstealers, for liars,        courage. Yes, he is cast down, but the enemy does not triumph
     for false swearers, and if there be any other thing contrary           over him. It all works an eternal weight of glory. Dying, the
     to sound (healthful) doctrine." Here the term doctrine                 apostle lives. For he dies that the life of Jesus might be made
     (did&al&  in Greek) refers to the content, the body of truth.          manifest in the life and walk of the believers. Thus Paul
     Sound doctrine here refers to all teaching which makes the             grows old in the ministry. His ministry is a veritable contest.

     end of the commandment love out of a pure heart, a good                   Such too wa8 the lot of all the prophets who spoke the
     conscience and faith unfeigned. It is opposed to all denial            word of God. James 5 :lO. Hence, every laborer in the word
     of the Cross which places men under the law and its curse.             can take as an example the prophets who spoke the word of
     Thus in I Tim. 4 :l is spoken of the "doctrines of devils."            God. For the sake of the Lord they were killed all the day
     This is the Gnostic teaching which denies that God was                 long. Jesus recognizes this "laboring" of the prophets when
     manifested in the flesh, and, therefore, imposes upon men a            he says in John 4 :38 : "I sent you to reap for which ye have
     touch not, taste not, handle not religion. We are therefore            not labored (toiled) and ye have entered into their toil."
     of the conviction that Paul means the Word of truth, the
                                                                               Well may they who thus labor in the word and doctrine
     Gospel, and the pure do&nz  contained therein. Paul is
                                                                            receive great respect and honor in love from the church.
     exceedingly concerned that the name of God and the doctrine

     be not blasphemed. Cf. I Tim. 6:1, 2.                                     A soldier who returns from the battle battle-scarred has

           If the labor here spoken of on the part of the elders who        honor. It is an honor which none can really take from him.
     rule well and are busy is in reference to the Gospel, partic-          Those who "finish the work of the ministry" (Cal.  4:17b),
     ularly the doctrine, the "ruling well" must be the positive            and who, therefore, ruled well receive such honor from the
     instruction of the doctrine, and the maintenance of it over-           Lord. He does not forget such labor of love. Of course, such
     against all heresies and errors.                                       honor is not due to those who do not rule well, desert their
                                                                            posts, refuse to pay their vows to the most high God! The
           Such who thus rule well indeed "labor" !                         Demasses who love this present world do not sow and plough

           For such have a truly difficult task. This is due in large       in hope. They have their reward !


                                               TI1.E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                     13


         The Apostle motivates this truth that the faithful laborer      vineyard and not expect to receive the fruit thereof? Or,

     in the word and doctrine is worthy of double honor by a very        again, is there ever a man found who tends and keeps a flock

     seemingly common-place quotation from Deut. 25 :4 : "Thou           of sheep and not drink of its milk ? Thus one could even

     shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn." At          multiply examples.

     first glance one would hardly think that this passage is so             A very relevant and obvious case in point is the one of
     very instructive, nor that it is such a powerful motivation for     the priest and Levites laboring in the temple. They ate from
     the double honor which must be accorded those who labor in          the sacrifices. That was their reward and was also their
     the word. The context speaks of the civil law's dealing with        "honor.`? They might eat of the she&bread in the temple
     righteous judgment. The guilty may not be declared innocent,        representing the people.
     but must be given a punishment commensurate to his offense.
                                                                            Now, then, should not a minister who labors in the word
     Forty stripes and no more. It is followed by the law gov-
                                                                         eat from the ministry of the word. Is that not his double
     erning the raising up of an heir to one's brother who has died
     by taking the brother's wife to be one's own. And between           honor? When he feeds the flock with spiritual nourishment
                                                                         should he not eat from the carnal things of the church.
     these is sandwiched, so to speak, this passage concerning the

     ox which treadeth out the corn.                                         Such is the universal law exhibited in the unbridled ox.

                                                                         I know times when I painted houses so that bills might be
         However, Paul makes a special point of calling attention
                                                                         paid in the parsonage. I did it willingly; it should, however,
     to the ox which treadeth out the corn. There are, as we should
                                                                         not have been necessary, and that, too, at a time when the
     know, two kinds of oxen in Scripture. There is the ox which
                                                                         herds of the parishioners were giving plenty of milk, and
     is fattened for the slaughter, and the ox which was used as
                                                                         farms were being paid for, and money put in the bank! This
     a beast of burden. The ox was employed to plough the fields
                                                                         should not have been !
     and also to tread out the corn in threshing on the threshing-

     floor !                                                                Sometimes the congregation gives so grudgingly because

                                                                         the pulpit gives so sparingly of the word of God. It is true.
         Now what is so significant about this ox on the threshing-
                                                                         That too should not be. That Paul did not receive a salary
     floor. Paul asks the rhetorical question in I Cor. 9 :9 : "Is it
                                                                         but only relief in his wants, was not that he had no right to
     for oxen that God careth"?  Of course, God cares for oxen.
                                                                         expect more. He does so for the gospel's sake, that his boast
     But that is not the thrust of his question. He means is that
                                                                         that he did not come to receive the church-members' goods,
     the limitation, the scope of the meaning of this injunction in
                                                                         but that he was interested in them, might not be taken from
     the law? Or is there here something more universal which
                                                                         him.
     has its particular and its highest application to man as heir

     of the kingdom of God in Christ ? And Paul answers that this           However, the law remains : "Thou shalt not muzzle the

     is written altogether (wholly) for our sakes. Here is a deep        ox that treadeth out the corn." When we think of what elders

     principle at stake, a universal law having the sanction and the     who "rule well" do under God, particularly who labor in the

     maintenance of God. Justice and love touch each other in the        word, we should gladly give from our material things.

     dealings of God. For there is no man who does not plough in            It is then not the gift but the fruit which shall redown
     hope of the harvest, the reward of the faithful. And he that        to the account of the congregation in that day ; for then we
     thresheth doeth it in the hope of partaking of the harvest.         shall have done to the laborer, giving him his hire, as God will
     That is the portion of the husbandman. Now if this law is of        in that day of harvest when he wiil. say to the faithful servant :
     application to the dumb ox who, knoweth  the crib of his            Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy
     master, how much more of us. That portion may not be                of thy Lord.
     denied the ox on the threshing floor. It is all the ox receives
                                                                            In that day the ox shail not be muzzled in the harvest.
     for his toil of pulling the plough and harrow, and for treading

     out the corn. Its portion in the labor shall not be denied it.         The heirs shall receive what they sought in hope.

         What beautiful simplicity ; what grandeur of profouncl                                                                       G.L.

     thought !

         Now this must be applied to the case at hand.

         The full harvest is when the "honor" of the labor is                            Thy protector is the Lord,
     received. The honor of the ox is a few mouthsful  of corn.                          Shade for thee He will afford ;
     The honor of the man laboring in the gospel is being acknowl-                       Neither sun nor moon shall smite,
     edged by God, angels and men. It is laboring in blessed hope
                                                                                         God shall guard by day and night.
     upon God's reward. Shall we do less than God!?
                                                                                         He will ever keep thy soul,
         This rule we see everywhere in life. The kingdom of
                                                                                         What would harm He will control ;
     heaven happens (comes to pass) in parables. Thus we see
     the soldier, the mercenary, who goes to war. Does he do this                        In the home and by the way

     at his own cost, or is he paid ? Does ever a man plant a                            He will keep thee day by day.





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


                                                                       are conceived and born in sin. Both come into this world

             I N   I-IIS  F E A R '                                    with a totally depraved nature. Neither one has anything over
                                                                  I    on the other from an ethical, moral point of view. Young
                                                                       women often are the temptation for the young men. Young

                                                                       women often "ask for it" even though the young men get
               A Word to Covenant Youth                                the blame for it. Young women in the church make them-

                                                                       selves attractive in the same way that the ungodly young
      Let our covenant youth remember that God is interested
                                                                       women and older women of the world do for carnal reasons ;
in them.
                                                                       and they wonder ( ? j why young men of the church and world
      Very frequently God speaks directly and personally to            alike take liberties, or, if you will, expect them live up to
you, Covenant Youth. He does that in His law when, in the              the attractiveness they have displayed. Young men read the
fifth commandment, He declares, "Honor thy father and thy              "advertisement" of what is for sale or free for the asking,
mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the                what the covenant young women have to "offer" ; and young
Lord Thy God giveth thee." Certainly this is addressed                 men of the world who see nothinc  distinct in the covenant
directly and personally to children and to youth. It has, this         young women find them quite to their fleshly fancy. Many a
commandment, its implications and demands also of the                  young woman in the church has been enticed out of the church
parents. But surely in its very form it is spoken to youth.            because she first attracted the world unto herself. Physical
Paul writes in Ephesians 6 :l, "Children, obey your parents            attraction draws youn g men of the world as well as of the
in the Lord : for this is right." John says, in I John 2 :12,
,,- .                 . . _ . .* .    .                     I_         church. Natural beauty is not a thing to despise. But let
"I write unto you, little children, because your sms are ror-          covenant young women be sure that spiritual beauty shines
given you for His name's sake." And Solomon repeatedly                 through that natural beauty and attractiveness God has given
says in the book of Proverbs, "My Son . . ." and addresses             them, lest the world find delight in them. And let the natural
the truth of the Word of God directly to this youth. It is             beauty be used in the service of God and not of the flesh.
also Solomon who writes, "Remember now thy creator in the
                                                                           Consider likewise that the woman first sinned and not
days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years
                                                                       man. Consider that Satan deliberately in his carnal wisdom
draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them,"
                                                                       chose to approach Eve in order to use her to tempt Adam.
Ecclesiastes 12 :l. A few verses before he had written in
                                                                       And we read that Eve "saw  that the fruit was good for food,
chapter 11 :9, "Rejoice, 0 young man in thy youth; and let
                                                                       and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired
thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in
                                                                       to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat,
the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes : but know
                                                                       and gave also unto her husband with her; and he- did eat,"
thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judg-
                                                                       Genesis 3 5. So we must not say that Solomon addresses the
ment." This also very plainly is addressed to you, Covenant
                                                                       young man because man by nature is more prone to sin than
Youth.
                                                                       the woman, young men more prone than young women. There
      God IS, interested in the covenant seed.                         is no difference except that certain sins are more character-

      God is concerned with the salvation and glory of the youth       istic of men than of women, certain sins appeal more to the
of His Church. For that reason He speaks to them words                 flesh of a woman than to a man. But when both are by nature
of comfort, of wisdom, of admonition and exhortation. Jesus            totally depraved, there is no difference in the tendency to sin
would not allow the disciples to send away even the little             or the number of times a day that the one sins compared with
children, the babes that were brought to Him for Him to                the other. If two individuals lose every cent and possession
bless. For of such is the kingdom of heaven. How much more             that they have, the one may have lost more than the other,
pIain it ought to be that when these children come to young            but neither one is after that total loss a cent richer than the
manhood and young womanhood, are mentally reaching fuh                 other.    All come into this world totally depraved. If the
development as well as physically, that God is interested in           women sin less than man or are able to resist temptation more

them and is watching over them as a loving Father, ever                than the man, it is because of regeneration and the gift of
seeking their salvation and everlasting good.                          grace but not some natural power or spiritual strength in the
                                                                       one over against the other.
      And although Scripture approaches our covenant youth

in the masculine form of "KY  Son and yozlng  $vzaFz,  the young          And so, Young People, Covenant Children of the Church

women and little girls are meant as well. It is not so that            of Jesus Christ, take heed to the words of Solomon whether

girls and women - young or old - are more inclined. to be              you are a young man or a young woman, "Rejoice in the

faithful and spiritual. Nothing is farther from the truth.             days of thy youth . . . but remember thou that for all these       _

Young women do not commit the same sins as young men.                  things God will bring thee into judgment." We would like

Women do not rebel against God in the same way that a                  to address a few words for a few weeks to YOU. Because

man shows rebellion. One is more outward and brutal per-               God is interested in you, because it belongs to the things of

haps ; and the other is more "polished" and "refined" in the           His fear for the parent, for the office bearer in the Church to

act of sin. But it makes not one particle of difference: Both          point out to you the walk that is in His fear, we wish to


                                          T:H E     S T A N D,A R.D:mB  E A R E R                                                15


speak plainly and practically to you. Read this installment.        arrive that you are their physical superior. Their aches and

Read the next ones ; and then when the last one has appeared        pains, their distresses and organic disorders have made them-

and been read, read them all in order and keep the truth con-       selves clearly known. They tire long before you do. They

tained in them with you all the way of your life, especially in     are not so ready to frolic and jump as they did when you

these critical days of your youngmanhood and youngwoman-            were little children. Be careful that you do not use this as a

hood when you are the special target of Satan and his evil          pretext to disregard their good advice! THAT does not

forces and while you look - and perhaps are being examined          make them old fashioned. They do not warn you against sin

by the eyes of the world's youth-for a life's companion.            because of that. They do not object to your late hours and

Do it in His fear. Live your whole life as young people in          loose living for that reason. It is not simply because they

His fear.                                                           cannot do it anymore. No, no, Solomon says to you, "Re-

                                                                    member your Creator . . .I' You will have to remember the
     One thing that is so difficult for you to understand in the
                                                                    instruction that your parents gave you, for God gave it to
days of your youth is that days will soon come when you will
                                                                    you through them. But the fundamental thing, the essential
have to say, to be honest, that you have no pleasure in them.
                                                                    matter to remember is that you are God's creature, and He
It is not without reason that Solomon says to you in Ec-
                                                                    is your Creator. You owe all your existence to Him. 
clesiastes 12 :l, "Remember now thy Creator in the days                                                                        You
                                                                    depend entirely and always completely upon Him. You live
of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw
                                                                    on His earth, eat His food, drink His water, use His
nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." Those
                                                                    `creatures and breathe in His air. With it all you are to serve
days - and years in fact-are coming. There will be days
                                                                    HIM. You cannot serve Him and will not be pleasing in
and years filled with aches and pains, discomforts and dis-
                                                                    His sight with all your overflowing power and strength, if
tresses, miseries and afflictions. Now you do have pleasure
                                                                    you do not honor your father and your mother. But you
in your days and years. The days are not !ong  enough. Night
                                                                    MUST remember God! 
falls all too soon to end your fun and pleasure.                                                You must ask yourself every
                                                                    moment, "Why did God give me this life and this strength ?

    Youth is the time of strength, physical strength. A young       What does He want me to do with it today?' Your parents
man or yomig  woman has arrived or is arriving at the age           are not "narrow-minded," "old-fashioned," "killjoys" because

of physical maturity. The body is fuily  or well-nigh fully         they cannot compete with you or are jealous of your ability

developed in every respect. Al1 the power and faculties of the      to keep such late hours and to drink in so much of this

body are there for use or abuse, for service of the Spirit or       world and to seek it and its lusts so fully. They may have

of the flesh. There is a sparkle in the eye. The muscles are        passed the peak of their physical strength. But they have

like cords of steel, and the young man has boundless energy         years of spiritual experiences behind them. You do well to

and stamina. The physical beauty of the young woman is at           listen to them. You do well to heed them when they speak

its peak. And she too has boundless energy and tremendous           with this covenant parent, Solomon, and say to you, "Rejoice

recuperative powers. Late hours! On the go from'morn  to            my children in the days of your youth ; and let your hearts

wee hours of the next morning! And with a little sleep youth        cheer you: . . . but know ye that for all these things God

is ready for more fun.    Not work. No, then they need sleep        will bring you into judgment." Other days are coming for

and sleep and more sleep. But youth rebounds with speed. to         you, days that will indicate by their aches and pains that God

enjoy life with a body that is able to give its utmost. He can      will bring you into judgment, that man is going to his long

sprint and give forth tremendous bursts of speed and come           home and that the dust shall return to the earth as it was

back again very shortly to repeat it.                               and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it.

    This in itself is not sin or sinful. Solomon says in              Remember, ,O young man and young woman in the Church
Proverbs 20 :29, "The glory of young men is their strength :        of God, your Creator.

and the beauty of old men is the gray hair." God has His               Rejoice, but in such a way that, when He brings you into
reason for giving us this boundless energy and full physical        judgment, you know that He will say that it was pleasing to
fitness in the days of young manhood and young womanhood.           Him because it was done In His Few.
It is a good gift. And when Solomon says that we are to                                                                    J.A.H.
remember our Creator in those days, he certainly has in

mind the fact that in the days of youth we are best equipped

exactly to learn the truth concerning Him, to study His Word
and to serve Him in His kingdom. We must remember to                             LADIES' LEAGUE MEETING

serve Him when we have so much strength and boundless                  The Eastern Ladies' League will hold its Fall meeting
ener,gy.                                                            October 18, 1962, at 8 P. M. in the Hudsonville Protestant

    And, Covenant Young People, you know what usually               Reformed Church. Rev. John Heys will speak on the topic,
accompanies this age of the apex of your physical strength is       "The Number of Man." We cordially invite all ladies of the
the fact that at that moment the physical force and strength of     denomination to meet with us.

your parents is rapidly disappearing, The time will soon                                        Ruth H. Bylsma,  Vice-Secretary

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


                                                                  Word. Fact is, there is no other key. Christian discipline is
II Contending For The Faith                                       nothing else than the Church's official enforcement of the
                                                            II    preaching of the gospel or the Word to those who walk in

                                                                  siti, not to mention that other form of Christian discipline

                                                                  which believers are called to exercise toward one another,
           The Church and the Sacraments                          and which discipline also takes place only through the Word

          THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                             of God. And, even as it is Christ Who speaks His own Word
                                                                  through the preaching of the Word and the administration of

               VIEWS ON THE CHURCH                                the sacraments, so also it is Christ Who speaks His own

                                                                  Word as discipline is exercised by the Church, so that it is
                THE PROTESTANT VIEW                               Christ Himself Who either binds or looses in the conscious-

                                                                  ness of everyone to whom this discipline is applied. We be-'
      The marks, by which the true Church is known, are           lieve that when Christian discipline is applied, officially, by the
designated in Article 29 of our Confession of Faith as the        Church, in accordance with the Word of God, then it is Christ
preaching of the pure gospel, the maintaining of the pure         Who also enforces that discipline in the consciousness of the
administration of the sacraments and the exercise of church       ones who err.    This is surely the proper conception of the
or Christian discipline. The Reformers were unanimous in          proper administration of Christian discipline.
their determination that the Holy Scriptures were the only
norm or standard of the Church, and they designated ac-               Of interest is the question: why are these the marks of
cordingly (according to the Holy Scriptures as the only           the true church? Why are not the attributes (its oneness,
norm) the marks whereby the true church could be distin-          holiness, catholicity, apostolicity, multiformity) the marks of
guished from the false church. However, there was a slight        the true church ? I believe that the answer to this question
difference among them. Luther enumerated 7 marks of the           is obvious, although one might expect that the marks of the
true church : the pure administration of the Word, of baptism,    true church could be those characteristics which reveal to us
the .Lord's  Supper, the keys, the lawful election of office-     the identity of the Church in the midst of the world. One
bearers, public prayer and instruction, and the cross. Calvin,    could conceivably expect that the marks of the true church,
among others,  listed two: the pure administration of the         revealing the Church to us and distinguishing the true church
Word and of the sacraments. Others added a third mark to          from the false church, could be the attributes of the church,
the two marks of Calvin: the proper exercise of discipline or     inasmuch as these attributes designate what the church es-
sanctification of life. In our Reformed Symbols three marks       sentially is. That the marks of the true church are connected
are mentioned: the pure administration of the Word, the           with the means of grace, such as the preaching of the Word,
proper administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of      the proper administration of the sacraments, and the exercise
Christian discipline.                                             of Christian discipline, is because the Church of God is the
                                                                  Body of Christ, and the Church of God is therefore where
      We speak of three marks of the true church. There is
                                                                  Christ gathers it. Only Christ gathers His Church. We can-
really only one mark: the pure preaching of the gospel or
                                                                  not gather it. We cannot make the Church. Christ alone
Word. This lies in the very nature of the case. Nothing, of
                                                                  gathers, establishes His Church. And we do well always to
course, can possibly be considered of equal importance with
                                                                  bear this in mind. Hence, where He gathers and establishes
the Word of God. That the preaching of the Word is the            it, there is the Church. It is for this reason that the marks
mark of the true Church is simply because it is through the
                                                                  of the true church are the means of grace. And, as we sha!l
preaching of the Word of God that our Lord Jesus Christ
                                                                  presently see, this is also of fundamental significance when
gathers His Church from all peoples, nations, languages and
                                                                  we attempt to understand our Confessions as far as the dis-
tongues. This is surely the language of our Confessions,
                                                                  tinction is concerned between the true and the false church.
specifically stated in Lord's Day 21, Question and Answer

54 of our Heidelberg Catechism. In the administration of              Relative the distinction between the true and the false

the sacraments it is Christ Who speaks His own Word               church, we wish to state emphatically that, to understand

through the Divinely instituted signs and seals as they are       this, we must proceed from the fact that we cannot make

administered by the Church. The Host at the table is Christ       separation between the institute of the church and its organ-

Himself and He speaks through these signs to the believers.       ism. The undersigned recalls that he in the past has stated

Besides, the Word of God is also the content of the sacra-        that it was his opinion that the Protestant Reformed Churches

ments. The preaching of the gospel can stand alone, can serve     constituted the true Church of Christ in the midst of the

as a means of grace without the sacraments, but we can never      world. We recall the Second Annual Conference which was

divorce the sacraments from the Word of God,. The sacra-          held between the ministers and students of the Protestant

ments present the Word to us in a symbol, and Christ speaks       Reformed Churches and the Reformed Churches in the U. S.

through these symbols as He does through the Word                 in Hull, Iowa, October l-j, 1945 (See Vol. 23 of our Stand-

preached. And as far as the Keys of Christian Discipline are      ayd Beams,  pages 116-120). The undersigned conceived of

concerned, the main Key, .of course, is the preaching of the      our churches as the true church and other churches as false,

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


 only insofar as the other churches had, in principle, become         plain, on the one hand, from Lord's Day 21 of our Heidel-

 false in the sense that they had officially, as institute, de-       berg Catechism, Question and Answer 54. Notice, please,

 parted from the truth. At that conference I asked the ques-          that the Church, the one, holy, catholic church, is gathered

 tion: "What do you consider to be the false Church and its           through the Son of God by His Spirit and Word, and that

 marks ?" And later at that conference (one of the speeches           He gathers a church chosen to everlasting life. That the

 at that conference was on the subject: "The Distinguishing           church here includes the organism is evident from the fact

 Marks of the Church") I made the following remark: "We               that this answer speaks of the elect (those chosen to ever-

 speak of one false Church and all kinds of pure churches ; not       lasting life), and also that they agree in true faith. And
 all equally pure but in a relative sense. Would it not be            that this answer also refers to the institute appears from the

 better to speak of one pure church and all kinds of false            fact that the Son of God gathers this church by His Spirit
 churches; false in the sense that they have officially forsaken      and Word. And this is also plain, on the other hand, from
 the marks of the true church ?" Notice, please, in this latter       Articles 27-29 of our Confession of Faith. We certainly need

 quotation, that I speak of "false in the -sense that they have       not prove that these articles refer to the institute of the

 off<&ally  forsaken the marks of the true church." It is plain,      church. Fact is, the marks of the true church are set forth
 therefore, from this quotation that when I spoke at that time        in these articles, and they are the pure preaching of the Word,
 of our church as being the pure church and other churches as         the proper administration of the sacraments, and the exercise
 being the false church, I meant this in the sense of the             of Christian discipline. These activities, we' understand be-

 church's institute, and then only insofar as a church had, in        long properly to the institute of the church. But, these same

 principle, departed from the truth of the Word of God. And,          articles also refer to the organism of the church. In these

 incidentally, as far as this phase of the truth is concerned, I      articles we read that the Catholic Christian Church is an holy

 am still of the same opinion, that is, as far as a church's prin-    congregation, of true Christian believers, all expecting their
 cipal departure from the church is concerned. But, shall we,         salvation in Jesus Christ, being washed by His blood, sancti-

 then, speak of one church as being pure and all other churches       fied and sealed by the Holy Ghost. Notice, too, that this holy
 as being false ? To this question I now answer with an em-           Church is spread and dispersed over the whole world, and
 phatic No ! Why ? Because we can- never separate the in-             therefore it is not limited to. a Certain  place or community,
 stitute and the organism of the church. To declare that the          which statement, we understand, applies to the Church of
 one is wholly false must imply that the other is also wholly         God as gathered by the Son of God in the New Dispensa-             *
 false ; to maintain that the organism is not wholly false (as,       tion. And in Article 29, which speaks of the marks of the

 for example, that there are also people of God in other              true Church, we read this : "With respect to those, who are
 churches}, must necessarily mean that the institute is not           members of the Church, they may be known by the marks of

 wholly false. The institute and the organism of the church           Christians : namely, by faith ; and when they have received

 are inseparably connected and cannot ever be separated from          Jesus Christ the only Savior, they avoid sin, follow after

 each other.    Notice, please, that this is maintained in the        righteousness, love the true God and their neighbor, neither
 quotations from Dr. Bavinck and of John Calvin which we              turn aside to the right or left, and crucify the flesh with the

 have quoted in this series of articles. In the quotation of Dr.      works thereof." It is evident, therefore, that when our Con-

 Bavinck we read this : "A church is a gathering of true              fessions speak of the true church, they refer to the church

 Christ-believers in a definite locality. If at a certain place       as institute and organism. And this surely lies in the very

 there is not a single believer anymore, either actually or           nature of the case. We can never separate the two: if the

 potentially, then the Word of God is also unknown, and there         one be wholly false, the other must be wholly false. And if

 is no church anymore. And, on the contrary, if the Word of           the one be partly pure, not wholly false, then the other must

 God be somewhat known in a certain place, how impure and             be partly pure, can never be wholly false. Why this is true

 adulterated the church may be, that Word will certainly per-         we shall see, the Lord willing, in our following article. But,

 form its work and there is a church of Christ." Dr. Bavinck          this is a very important principle.

 here sets forth the undeniable principle that the Word of God                                                                 H.V.

. and people of the Lord are always inseparably connected, that

 the one is present wherever the other is present. And in that

 quotation of John Calvin we read this: "To conclude, I
 affirm that they are Churches, inasmuch as God has wonder-                      Fulfil, 0 Lord, Thy covenant,
 fully preserved among them a remnant of His people, though                         Our strong protector be,
 miserably dispersed and rejected, and as there still remain                     For in the earth are dark abodes
 some marks of the Church, especially those, the efficacy of                        Of crime and cruelty.

 which neither the craft of the devil nor the malice of men can
 ever destroy."                                                                   Let not thy saints be put to shame,
                                                                                    No longer in Thy sight

    That the institute and organism of the church can never                      Permit  Thy foes to vaunt themselves;

 be separated is also emphasized in our Confessions. This is                        Lord, vindicate the right.


     1s                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
I

I    h--------l stand: the Word of God is the touchstone of the entire con-
     11 The Voice of Our Fathers 11                                              fession and life of the church. And that Word of God is the
                                                                                 only infallible rule of faith and life.

                                                                                    The doctrine set forth in Article VII is called the doctrine

                                                                                 of the "sufficiency of Holy Scripture." Briefly, this means, as
                        The Eelgic Confession                                    the term implies, that the Holy Scriptures are sufficient for

                                                                                 the church for our faith and our life. The Scriptures contain
                                  ARTICLE VII                                    all that we need. Nothing more can be said, and nothing more

               We believe thkat  those Holy Scriptures fully contain the will    need be said, than what the Scriptures say. Implied in this
             of God, and that whatsoever man ought to believe, unto              truth of the sufficiency of Holy Scripture, and also implied
            salvation, is sufficiently taught therein. For, since the whole      in all that Article VII has to say on the subject, is the doc-
            xanner of worship, which God requires of us, is written in
                                                                                 trine of the perspicztity of Scripture, that is, the truth that
             them at large, it is unlawful for any one, though an apostle, to
            teach otherwise than we are now taught in the Holy Scrip-            these Scriptures, which contain fully all that is necessary for
            tures: nay, though it were an angel from heaven, as the apostle      faith and practice, are clear, lucid, understandable to any

             Paul saith. For, since it is forbidden, to add unto or take         believer, so that any child of God can discern Scripture's in-
             away anything from the word of God, it doth thereby evidently       fallible rule and apply it. It is not necessary whatsoever that
            appear, that the doctrine thereof is most perfect and complete       anyone or any body should come between the believer and
             in all respects. Neither do we consider of equal value any
                                                                                 those Scriptures. All God's children may and must read and
             writing of men, however holy these men may have been, with
             those divine Scriptures, nor ought we to consider custom, or        understand the Scriptures for themselves and put the spirits

             the great multitude, or antiquity, or succession of times and       to the test of the infallible rule of the Word of God, receiving
            persons, or councils, decrees or statutes, as of equal value with    what is in harmony with this rule, and rejecting whatever
             the truth of God, for the truth is above all; for all men are of    does not agree with this rule.
            themselves liars, and more vain than vanity itself. Therefore,
                                                                                    To these two important subjects, then, we must give our
            we reject with all our hearts, whatsoever dot11 not agree with
            this infallible rule, which the apostles have taught us, saying,     attention.

             Try the spirits whether they are of God. Likewise, if there

            come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not
            into your house.                                                     The, Battle For This Tmth

           This article is the last in our Confession concerning the                 It is very evident, of course, that a certain definite, his-

     doctrine of Holy Scripture, and it constitutes at the same                  torical situation and struggle gave rise to the language of this

     time a very fitting climax and conclusion of our faith con-                 article. And that situation was that of the Reformation, when

     cerning the Word of God. It is not difficult to discern that                believers were called to choose position over against Rome

     for the church in the days when our Confession was composed                 and its hierarchical imposition of false doctrines. and corrupt

     this was a life-and-death matter. Every expression breathes                 practices upon the church. This is the reason for the sharp

     this. It is very evident that for our Reformed forebears the                statements of a negative character in Article VII. The Con-

     very existence and confession of the church was bound up in                 fession has Rome in mind when it states : "For, since the

     this doctrine of the Word of God. The church must and does                  whole manner of worship, which God requires of us, is writ-

     live by the Word. For the Word of God is the only infallible                ten in them at large, it is unlawful for any one, though an

     rule of faith and life. Such was the very principle of the                  apostle, to teach otherwise than we are now taught in the

     Reformation. And it was a living principle. It lived in the                 Holy Scriptures."     The specific point here is that if it is

     hearts and in the consciousness of the Reformed believers.                  unlawful for an apostle to teach anything contrary to the

     It throbbed and vibrated in the whole confession and the                    Holy Scriptures (or for an angel from heaven, as the next

     entire life and practice of the church. No mere academic                    statement of the article has it), then it is certainly unlawful

     question was this question of the Scriptures. Not from lofty                for the Romish Church and for the pope, though he claims

     heights of rationalistic wisdom and scientific conceit did our              to be the successor of Peter. The same is true of the follow-

     fathers approach this matter, but in simple faith. And there-               ing statement : "Neither do we consider of equal value any

     fore the language of this article is precise and unequivocal. It            writing of men, however holy these men may have been, with

     is not the language of those who are so ashamed-or so                       those divine Scriptures, nor ought we to consider custom, or

     fearful - of assuming a definite and distinct stance that they              the great multitude, or antiquity, or succession of times and

     must follow. devious paths of compromise, compose long                      persons, or councils, decrees or statutes, as of equal value

     statements designed to bring together irreconcilably con-                   with the truth of God." Here again the Confession strikes

     flicting views, and seek refuge in purposely vague and obscure              at the position of Rome. By writings of holy men are meant

     expressions concerning "peripheral matters." It is the lan-                 the church fathers, to whom Rome appeals for authority: The

     guage of those who were fighting for the very life of the                   Reformed believer maintains that we may study their writings

     church, fighting for the cause of the truth. It is the language             and their views, and may trace the history of doctrine ; and

     of holy intolerance. It leaves no room for doubt. It budges                 the Reformed believer will have a healthy historical sense,

     not a hair-breadth. It insists in language that all can under-              and will not divorce himself from the church and the faith





                                                                                                                                                     1


                                                T H E   STANDARD,BEARER                                                                   19


     of the church in the past. But he maintains that.no  writings        fathers and the traditions of the ancients could not pass the

     of the fathers have any value next to, equal to, and above           acid test of the Word of God, no believer was bound by them,

     Holy Scripture.    Also the fathers (whether they be the an-         and no institute had the right to attempt such binding.

     cient fathers, like Augustine, Jerome, Tertullian, Irenaeus,             Rome, of course, will attempt to deny this and to make its

     etc., or whether they be our Reformed fathers, like Calvin,          own false position obscure, in order to deceive the people.

     Beza,  Ursinus, etc.) must pass the acid test of Scripture be-       Especially since the possession of the Scriptures became pos-

     fore we may accept anything they write. Thus, similarly, Rome        sible for the common layman, and especially in those sectors

     will appeal to custom (what has always been taught and done          where there is sufficient learning to read the Scriptures, the

     in the church), to the great multitude (the majority, or the         impression must be lefti that the authority of the Scriptures

     consensus of the church, or what the vast multitude of the           is acknowledged. But this is a false impression. And the

     world-wide Roman Catholic Church has always maintained               position of Rome on this matter is the same today as it was

     over against the small minority of dissen.ters),  or to antiquity    in the Reformation era. In fa.ct,  this dogma of the infallibility

      (what has from ancient times been taught by the church -            of the pope (when he speaks en- cathcdra) has been elevated

     and Rome boasts of a history of many centuries j, or to suc-         to official doctrine in the Roman Catholic Church.

     cessioli  of times and persons (a reference to the pope who              That this is Rome's position is easily proved. The Canons

     claims to be Peter's successor), or to councils, decrees, or         and Decrees of the Council of Trent (1.546-1563) not only

     statutes (another favorite authority with Rome ; and it is           abound with appeals to the authority of councils, the consent

     not impossible that the reference here is specifically to the        of the holy fathers, custom, and tradition (especially, of

     Council of Trent and its "Canons and Decrees," which spear-          course, when it comes to dogmas that are entirely foreign to

     headed the so-called counter-Reformation).                           Scripture), but in the Decree Concerning the Canonicai

                                                                          Scriptures this Council of Trent expressly elevates unwritten

        Now our Reformation forebears saw clearly the truth               traditions to a position of equal authority with the Scriptures.

     expressed in this seventh article of the Belgic Confession, and      We quote this Decree of the Fourth Session in part : ". . . and

     they saw that the violation of this fundamental principle lay        seeing clearly that this truth and discipline are contained in

     ultimately at the root of all Rome's errors. On the one hand.        the written books, and the mw&m.  tmditions  which, ,r*e-

     they saw that Rome violated the principle of the ChfYistim's         cm&d  by the Apostles from the mouth of Chkst  h&melj,  or

     jresdo?l%  of conscience under the Word  of Gad. Rome would          jyo~t~ the Apostles thmmselves,  the Holy Ghost d&&g, have

     deny the office of believers and treat the church, the body of       come down eve% unfo  us, tvanmmkfed  as it wepe j~om  hand

     believers, as a minor child, that must be under tutors and           to hand : (the Synod) following the examples of the orthodox

     governors. It took the position of the scribes and pharisees         Fathers, receives and venerates with an equal affection of

     of Jesus' time, "This people that knoweth  not the law is ac-        piety and reverence, all the books both of the Old and of the

     cursed."    And on the other hand, they saw that. this self-         New Testament-seeing that one God is the author of both

     enthroned hierarchy of the Romish Church itself refused to           -4s also the said tmdit~ons,  as well those appevtainirig  to

     be bound by any authority whatsoever, but simply assumed             faith acs to momk,  as ha&g  been dicta.ted,  either by Christ's

     to itself the prerogative of declaring what would be author-         own word of mouth,  OT by the Holy Ghost, and preserved in

     itative and what would not. In other words, the hierarchy,           the Catholic Chz~&  by a con&tozcs  >z&ccession."  (italics

     namely, the pope, elevated itself and its authority above the        mine, H.C.H.)

     Word of God. Hence, the pope could say that the teachings               And as to the infallibility of the pope, we quote from

     of the Word of God were authoritative, or he could say that          Chapter IV of the First Dogmatic Constitution On The

     the decrees of councils were authoritative (whether or not           Church of Christ (Vatican Council, 1570)  : "Therefore faith-

     they agreed with the Word of God), or he could maintain              fully adhering to the tradition received from the beginning of

     the authority of traditions (again, even if those traditions         the Christian faith, for the glory of God our Saviour, the

     militated against the Scriptures). The church (the pope j            exaltation of the Catholic religion, and the salvation of Chris-

     with supreme authority declared what was the will of God.            tian people, the sacred Council approving, we teach and

     And the Reformation maintained that only God can declare             define that it is a dogma divinely revealed: thab the Roman

     His own will for His people, and that therefore the Word of          Pontiff, when he speaks er cathedp-a,  that is, when in dis-

     God, the Scriptures, are the supreme authority in the church.        charge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by

     This is sometimes called the "formal principle" of the Refor-        virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, he defines a doc-

     mation - a rather cold designation for so important a matter.        trine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal

     But this was the nub of the whole Reformation ultimately.            Church, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed

     It was not that the Reformers opposed authority in the               Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the divine

     church. It was not that they did not want any binding pro-           Redeemer willed that his Church should be endowed for

     nouncements in the church. But they insisted that the only           defining doctrine regarding faith or morals; and that there-

     authority that could bind the conscience of the Christian is         fore such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable

     the authority of Holy Scripture itself. And if the pronounce-        of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church."

     ments of pope or of councils, the teachings of the church                                                                     H.C.H.





L

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


                                                                     other's joys and sorrows, have common interests, and face

11  D E C E N C Y a n d   O R D E R   11 tpgether the trials and afflictions of life. There must be a
                                                                     basis of.mutual  interests and likeness and the most important

                                                                     of all this is that there must be a unity of spiritual interests

                                                                     in agreement of faith. Without this there is no right to en-
                      Holy Matrimony                                 gagement and marriage for such unequal yoking is contrary

                                                                     to the Word of God. Marriage in the Lord can occur only in
      Marriage is a sacred institution.
                                                                     obedience to His Word so that these things must be resolved
      In the land of our forefathers, Reformed people consum-        before there is even the consideration of an engagement.
mated marriage in three stages. First there was the engage-
                                                                        Even the moralists of the world recognize that unity and
ment. This was followed by the solemnization of the mar-
                                                                     co-operation and common interests are essential to a per-
riage by the civil authorities.    And, finally, the confirmation
                                                                     manent marriage. We quote one of their number: "The best
of the marriage by the church took place. Each stage has its
                                                                     advice that I can give any man or woman who wants to be
own significance. To each we will give separate attention
                                                                     happy though married is to marry in their own class. By
briefly.
                                                                     this I mean to marry someone as nearIy  like themselves as
                         The Engagement                              possible. Some one who has the same taste, habits, who likes

      The engagement consists of a reciprocal promise or pledge      the same kind of cooking they do and who looks at life from
on the part of a man and woman that they will take each              the same point of view. Marry your double, not your op-
other to be their lawful spouse in marriage. This promise is         posite. So shall you save yourself a life time of quarreling
sealed with the giving of an engagement ring by the man              and arguing over trifles, and make of matrimony a har-
and the receiving of the same by the woman as a token that           monious duet. The people whose society we really enjoy
both will remain faithful to the promise made. Today this            most are those who like to do the things we like to do, who
practice has, generally speaking, lost its significance and been     are interested in the same subjects that we are interested in,
reduced to a mere formality. Often engagement promises are           and who ride the same hobbies that we ride. Love is a tough
made secretly and kept secret until just before or even after        proposition. It will stand a lot of punishment, but it will not
the marriage itself. `Frequently engagements are broken by           survive the perpetual clash of different personalities and
one or both of, the parties to the promise. This. is not only        temperaments, and when husbands and wives get so that they
improper but it is a very sad reflection upon our careless age       have to gumshoe around practically every subject for fear
that deals. so flippantly with most seribus  things. The con-        of starting something, it is all over but the divorce."

sequences of such trifling are reflected in the disrepute of the        The counsel of this moralist is worldly and touches only
marriage relation in our day.                                        upon the natural relationship of husband and wife. It ignores

      This has not always been the case. For generations back        the truth of human depravity and the fact that even from a
the matter of the engagement in marriage has been held in            purely natural point of view there are no two people alike.
honor among Reformed people. The Synod in Dordrecht in               It offers a solution to the marriage problem which is only
1574 ruled that the engagement, once made, cannot be un-             relatively true and, therefore, no solution at all. It ignocres
done. The engagement was regarded as the foundation of               the truth that marriage can only succeed where husband and
the marriage. And this, the late Rev. Ophoff wrote, is cor-          wife together are submissive to the will of God and seek in ail
rect because "there is no essential difference between this          of their union to serve and glorify Him. In that relation
engagement promise and the vows that are spoken at the               their prayers will not be hindered and the problems that
altar in the presence of witnesses." A promise made is a             confront them will be resolved in mutual harmony. Before
promise to be kept. Before God such promises made are to be          the engagement promises are exchanged this basis of har-
honored and the mere fact that the State solemnizes and              mony must be established for then the promises made will not
Church confirms the promise made does not make it any                be frustrated.

more or any less binding. To break the engagement promise               Engagements should then also be made with the consent
is to give utterance to the lie and often that is d,one  by one      of the parents involved. Concerning this Monsma and Van
of the parties to the serious hurt of the other. In the world        Dellen  write in the CJLUYC~  Of*dev  Commmtary  as follows :
one is hardly surprised to see these things happen but in the        "Marriage is a very important institution, and many young
church such things ought not to be because of the sin that           people are apt to act rashly and inconsiderately, not realizing
is involved.                                                         their own best interests and the great significance, for good
      Engagements then ought never to be made hastily. The           or evil, involved in marriage. Moreover, marriage is not
parties involved must not only first know each other well            merely the concern of the couple promising marriage: It is
but they should be intimately acquainted with each other's           to a certain limited extent also the affair of the families in-
parents and families.    Any two people who are physically           volved. Marriage brings families together and consequently
attracted to each other cannot enter marriage. There is much         the relatives of both sides have an interest. Parents more-
more involved. They must live together and share one an-             over have responsibilities toward their children and their


                                          T H E        S T-A ti D A R D -`B,E A R E R                                             21


spiritual welfare, also for their future regarding things           riage while the church then simply confirms this. The former
temporal. Because of these parental responsibilities before         position actually expresses that the church performs the mar-
God and parental rights towards their children no engage-           riage. It seems to me that the act of solemnizing (perform-
ments should take place without the knowledge and approval          ing) and confirming the marriage can be and are combined
of the parents or guardians involved. And this is likewise          into one if we keep in mind that the State has and does
to the best interest of our young people, generally speaking.       authorize the clergy to perform bhis  function. The minister
The old custom which prescribed that the young man asked            really serves in a two-fold capacity at the wedding. As an
for the hand of the girl of his choice from the father is           agent of the state he performs or legalizes the marriage while
wholly commendatory. And engagements should take place              at the same time he serves as a servant of the church in
with the consent of the parents of both the young man and           confirming the marriage.       We would see merit in retaining
the young woman. It would be well if more were made in              both terms in our marriage form and speak of it as "The
our circles of engagements or betrothals, especially since          Form For The Solemnization And Confirmation Of Mar-
there is so much looseness and godlessness in regard to mar-        riage."     This would fit the prevailing circumstances in our
riage."                                                             country.

                                                                       What is important here is that we, members of Christ's

                                                                    Church, must not think of having our marriages solemnized
    Our forefathers took the position that the actual solemni-      by the state without the confirmation of the church. Legally
zation of marriage took place by the civil authorities. If by       this can of course be done. But it is true as The Clzz~&
this is meant the mere issuance of the marriage license ihis        Order ~owwwntary  expresses it "that this would be a dis-
might be construed to be the case for this is what the civil        grace, and wduld stigmatize the couple instantly."' We rec-
authorities do. This is undoubtedly also proper because mar-        ognize the right of the civil powers to issue legal permission
riage is not exclusively an ecclesiastical matter even though it    to marry and as citizens who are subject to the powers that
is indeed a type or symbol of the relaticon between Christ and      be we procure that right from the state, but in following
His church. Marriage does not have its origin in the church         through the processes into marriage we seek to speak our
but in creation. God created man and when He saw that it            vows in the presence of Christ's church that these may be
was not good that man was alone, He also made the woman,            confirmed with His indispensable blessing. Of this confirma-
an help meet for man. And so He brought the woman to the            tion by the church we purpose to write, D.V., the next time.
man and they became one flesh. Out of this relationship so-                                                                 G.v.d.B.
ciety devolves and inherent in it is the broader authority of

government. Certainly then the civil state has some concern

with and interest in the matter of marriage. We recognize                      My foes with joy my woes survey,
its right to issue the license to marry and with respect to                      But Thou, 0 Lord, hast seen it all ;
some persons to also withhold that right for cause.                            0 be no longer far away,
   This granting of the right to marry, however, can hardly                      Nor silent when on Thee I call.
be called the "solemnization" of marriage. Webster defines                     0 haste to my deliverance now,
"solemnize" as follows : "1. To commemorate or observe with                      0 Lord, my righteous cause maintain;
solemnity or in due fashion. 2. To perform with pomp or                        My Lord and God alone art Thou;
ceremony ; specifically, to unite a couple with religious cere-                  Awake, and make Thy justice plain.
mony. 3. To make solemn, serious, or exalted." We do not
say that the issuance of the marriage right by the State is not                0 Lord my God, I look to Thee,
serious or that the oath which the civil authorities require is                  Be Thou my righteous Judge, I pray ;
to be taken lightly. We are speaking of marriage within the                    Let not my foes exult o'er me
church and then believers, though recognizing this right ancl                    And laugh with joy at my dismay.
authority of the civil magistrate, do not regard this as the                   With shame and trouble those requite
act of solemnizing the marriage. This may have been dif-                         Who would my righteous cause destroy ;
ferent in former times when the relation between church and                    But those who in the good delight,
state was not as it is now. Then, in our fatherland, our                         Let them be glad and shout for joy.

forebears spoke of "solemnizing" marriage by the state and                     Yea, let the Lord be magnified,
"confirming" it b,y the church.                                                  Because Thy servants Thou dost bless;

   Recognizing this the Christian Reformed Churches in the                     And I, from morn till eventide,

adoption of the new marriage form have changed the heading                       Will daily praise Thy righteousness.

of that form to: "The Form For the Solemnization of Mar-                       My soul is joyful in the Lord,
riage." In our marriage form in the Psalter it is still, `rForm                  In His salvation I rejoice ;
For The Confirmation Of Marriage.`" The latter implies                         To Him my heart will praise accord
recognition of the State as the agent that performs the mar-                     And bless His Name with thankful voice.

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


                                                                     these counter-religions: the first one is Communism which

l\ALL   A R O U N D   US\! has gained half the world; the second'& Scientism, or, as it
                                                                     is sometimes called, humanism. It is the emphatically athe-

                                                                     istic belief that there is no God in heaven and that man's

                                                                     destiny lies in his own hands. This religion has gained

THE RANKS GROW THIN                                                  tremendous force among the educated and progressive ele-

      We have heard in recent years that religion is on the          ments of Western culture-among the scientists and educa-
upswing and that revivals are sweeping the world. There are          tors who probe the mysteries of the universe.,

men who claim that Christianity is marching from conquest                All these things point, the author believes, to the urgent
to conquest with irresistible momentum.           I                  need of genuine revival on a universal scope. A revival which,

      This claim is questioned in, an article written by Gordon      the author believes, can be brought about in part by continued
Gould originally appearing in the Chico.go  Szbnday  Tr-ihnc:        Church mergers.

Magazine and quoted in Chrkthanhy  T0da.y.  The author of                As alarming as all these things are, they ought not to
this article claims that facts exactly deny this ; that the truth    come as a surprise to the student of Scripture and to the
of the matter is that the lights of Christianity are going out,      people of God. The Bible never promises us that more than
that the religious revivals of the 1950's were "will-o-the-          a remnant will ever be saved. In fact, one of the signs of the
wisps," and that our age is really better described as a "post-      Lord's return is not the growing hopes of revival, but the
Christian era."                                                      increase in apostasy. And one final evidence of the deteriora-

      Some of the facts used to substantiate this claim are in       tion of religion both in this country and abroad is the ever-

the first place, the decline of church membership. The An-           growing evidence of apostasy amongst those who have for
glican Church in England claims ZG,OOO,OOO baptized persons,         many decades been faithful to the heritage of the Calvin
yet has only 2,887,671  on its membership rolls. In Latin            Reformation.

America the Roman Catholic Church claims 88% of the pop-

ulation of the entire continent as baptized Catholics ; but even     THE COMING VATICAN COUNCU
officials of the Church admit that the vast majority never see           Much excitement and air of eager expectancy pervades

the inside of a Church. Nearly two-thirds of the people in the       the Roman Catholic Church these days. The reason is that
United States call themselves Christians; but the lowering           Pope John XXIII has called the Church together to a seconcl
of moral standards, the absence of religious interest, the           Vatican Council. There have been about eighteen of these

empty Churches make hollow mockery of the claims.                    councils throughout the history of the Church; the earliest

      In the second place, and, to the author more alarming, is      ones were the great councils of Constantinople, Ephesus and
the spread of pagan religions. The author points to the fact         Nicea  that defined the doctrines of the trinity and the natures
that Christianity has penetrated every nation in the world           and person of Christ in the first five centuries A.D. (Of
except three (Tibet, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia have no            course, while the Roman Catholic Church claims these coun-
organized Christian Churches) and claims 883,SO3,000  ad-            cils as her own, they belong to the whole Church, for they
herents universally. He reminds his readers that the pagan           met when there was only one Church and when the Roman
religions have almost always remained in their own countries         Catholic Church had not yet become corrupt. They are our
confined to their own territories and that the stream of mis-        councils also.) The creeds these councils drew up have
sionaries has always been from West to East. Now all this            defined these important doctrines up until today. Another of
has changed and the tides have been reversed. Pagan reli-            these councils was the famous Council of Trent that met soon
gions are on the move. Buddhism openly speaks ol "saving"            after the Reformation in the hopes of stemming the tide of
the West ; Islamism is beginning a vast missionary offensive ;       the Reformation by a counter-reformation - a reformatioli
Hinduism has mission bases all over the world including the          within the Church itself which a decayed and rotten Romish
United States. And all over the world these pagan religions          institute sorely needed. The last council was held in 1870 in
are gaining converts.                                                the Vatican and produced, as its most memorable decision, the
                                                                     doctrine of papal infallibility.
      In the third place, new sects are appearing everywhere
at an alarming rate. 120 new sects have suddenly sprung up               This council, as the pope expresses it, has its hopes set on
in Japan claiming altogether between 12 and 20 million fol-          internal renewal of the Church in order that the Church may
lowers. In India and South America the same thing is true.           better be able to combat the forces of Communism and mater-
In fact in the southern part of our hemisphere, thousands are        ialism, as well as encourage movements towards unity with
turning to forms of Spiritualism - a religion that practices         other Christian bodies.

animal sacrifices. In this country the Black Muslims preach              Some of the rules governing the council are:

black supremacy and have grown to 200,000 people.                        1) All the clergy are invited to attend from the rank of

      And yet the author finds the gravest dangers to Chris-         bishop upwards. This includes, besides bishops, archbishops,

tianity in what he calls "counter-religions." He finds two of        and cardinals.


                                           THE S.,TAF?ARD  B,EARER                                                                         23


    2) All the meetings will be held in St. Peter's where            may very well happen some time in the future, and we may
bleachers are being constructed in the nave of the cathedral.        be sure, if it does, it will be on Roman Catholic grounds.

    3) The official language of the council is to be Latin al-
though translators will be present to help those who have            TELSTAR AND THE RETURN OF CHRIST
difficulty understanding it.                                             In a recent issue of Chr&ia&gr  ?`oday  the editor wrote
                                                                     an editorial entitled : "Telstar Launching Suggests Fulfillment
   4) No members of the council will be able to leave Rome           of Bible Prophecy." The editorial reads in part:
during the entire length without written permission from
the presidential council.                                                      For centuries the prediction of John in the Revelation-
                                                                           "behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him"

    5) Anyone who wishes to speak on the floor must make a                 ( 1:7)  - has captured and puzzled the imagination of those who
written request to speak. This request is presented to the                 know John's prophecy. In a world in which space and time
                                                                           seem insurmountable factors, how can "every eye" see Him
presiding cardinals (various cardinals will take turns presid-
                                                                           when He comes? Defenders of Scripture have only been able
ing) and then await his turn. All are asked to limit their                 to answer that God has a way. Doubt has varied from "spjrit-
speeches to ten minutes.                                                   ualization" of this assertion to a frank denial of its possibility,

                                                                           even to doubt that Christ will return at all.
   6) There will be no opportunity for amendments to                           Now "Telstar" has been launched, and suddenly the world
proposed action or substitute amendments. All that the                     is alive with the possibilities for mass communication. The
members of the council will be able to do is speak and vote                first experimentations have been amazingly successful. That

either "Yes" or "No."        The votes will be counted by an               this is only the beginning of a world-wide network of television
electronic calculating machine. A two-thirds majority is re-               broadcasts seems a certainty. Thus, seemingly overnight,
                                                                           technology has demonstrated the possibility of a fuElhnent  of
quired to carry a motion.                                                  John's prophecy, not as poetry, but literally and in precise

   It seems to be Romish policy, in harmony with the doc-                  detail.

trine of papal infallibility that all council decisions only take       It is beyond doubt that the astounding inventions taking

effect after they have been formally ratified by the pope.           place today, of which Telstar is one, will surely serve the

Although the pope usually does this if a motion is carried by        coming of Antichrist and the fulfillment of Scripture. John

the council.                                                         informs us in Revelation 13 that, every man shall bow before

                                                                     the image of the beast. With an invention of this kind it is
   7) Many Protestant observers have been invited to attend
                                                                     not difficult to imagine how one man will unite the whole
the meeting. They will be just what their name suggests : ob-
                                                                     world into one kingdom, reach them all through universal
servers, not participants. They will have no voice nor a vote
                                                                     communication, flash his "image" to all parts of the globe
in council proceedings. Many Protestant bodies have already
                                                                     and insist that all men worship him.
accepted the invitations.
                                                                        But it is surely highly doubtful whether the sovereign
   Some of the specific decisions which the council hopes to         Christ Who is Lord of lords and King of kings and Who
make are : a statement which defines more explicitly the posi-       reigns supreme -m the heavens over all the works of God
tion of the bishops"in  the Church; permission for more gen-         needs the puny inventions of man in order for His coming
eral use of vernacular languages in the liturgy of the Church        to be visible to every eye. It does not seem to be in harmony
rather than the Latin which is used exclusively today; a             with Scripture to assert that in Christ's coming upon the
definition of the Church's official stand on religious tolera-       cIouds,  those who at his coming cry "Mountains cover us"
tion of non-Catholics. Historically the Church has taken the         will think to train television cameras upon Christ's coming to
position that no other religion may be tolerated. It is claimed      beam pictures of it over Telstar. We do better to beIieve  in
that the Pope has temporal power as well as spiritual power,         the literal fulfillment of ,Scripture's  prophecies, not because
that he is the head of the state as well as the Church. The          man's inventions make them possible, but because Christ
Church has always maintained its right therefore to enforce          Himself says so, and He is able to do it.                   H. Hanko
its own views and ban all others. Modern views of the separa-

tion of Church and State and the freedom of Religion have

forced the Romish Church to temper these views somewhat

even though in Roman Catholic countries Protestantism is                              Thy wondrous loving-kindness show,
still often officially banned. Now some expect a change of                              Thou Who by Thy right hand
Church policy in this very important field.                                           Defendest those who trust in Thee

   But especially interest centers in what the council will say                         From all who them withstand.

about Church union. There are many, both Protestants and

Catholics who hope that the Council will make possible closer                         Soon I in glorious righteousness

contact between these two groups, and, by bridging at least                             Shall see Thee as Thou art;

in part the chasm of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th                           Thy likeness, Lord, when I awake

century, pave the way for future union between the two. This                            Shall satisfy my heart.


                                                                      Church. The "travelogue" accompanying these slides should

    NEWSFROMOUR,CHURCHES                                              prove instructive and enjoyable.                             :'

               `All the mints salute thee                 4:21
                                              a . ." PHIL.               The same date (Oct..4)  is also underlined for OUT people
                                                                      In- Illinois. The Oak Lawn Men's Society is sponsoring a

                                                                      lecture in their church that evening. The speaker, Rev. H.
                                              Sept. 20, 1962          Hoeksema ; the topic, "Justification." Assuredly, this program

                                                                      will prove to be instructive and conducive to true spiritual
   Rev. G. Vanden  Berg, of Oak Lawn, received ihe call from          enjoyment.
our Loveland congregation;

                                                                         Rev. M. Schipper, pastor of the Southwest Prot: Ref.
   Southeast called the Rev. M. Schipper, of Southwest                Church of Grand Rapids, Mich.,  has prepared four radio ser-
Church, from a trio which included the Revs. C. Hanko and             mons which, D.V., will be aired by the Ref. Witness Hour
H. Hanko.                                                             during the month of October. The subject.material  can be

                                                                      found in the Book of Revelation. Oct. 7 the sermon entitled,
   Kalamazoo's consistory announced the following trio :
                                                                      "The Beast out of the Sea" (Rev. 13 :l-10) will proclaim the
Revs. H. Hanko, G. Vanden  Berg, H. Veldman.
                                                                      truth "that in the battle of the anti-Christian  world empire

   The catechism classes are again started in most of our             against the true Church of Christ the latter shall have the

churches. A notice regarding this was found in Hope's bul-            victory."     The next sermon, "The Beast out of the Earth"

letin and carried this provocative sentence : "In this important      will explain verses .ll-14. Oct. 21 the sermon title will be,

part of the ministry of God's Word to the covenapt  seed it           "The Name of the Beast" discussing the truth of verses 1.5-18.

is essential that parents do all in their power to aid their chil-    This series will  be concluded Oct. 25 under the theme, "Divine

dren and encourage them in their work." May all our parents           Calling to Separation" (chap. 18:4,  5). The Radio Corn&t-

share this admonition with Rev. Hanko's congregation.                 tee urges you to tune  in to "hear what the Spirit saith unto

                                                                      the churches" through these messages.
   In Randolph's Sept. 9 bulletin the pastor indicated what

the catechumens  could expect in the coming season, such as              Note: The Grand Rapids Postoffice has assigned a new

sermon reports, written tests and the like. The following             box number to the Reformed Witness Hour. The mailing

week Rev. Van Baren  listed four specific statements con-             address will now read, Box nunsbeu  1230, Grand Rapids 1,

cerning proper preparation for catechism, the first addressed         Michigan.

to the scholars and the last three addressed to the parents !
                                                                          The first lneeting  of the Adams St. School Mothers' Club
Like Hope's minister, Rev. Van Baren stresses the parents'
                                                                      featured a travelogue by Mr. Seymour Beiboer of First
responsibility to keep the vow sworn at baptism to : ". . . help
                                                                      Church. The ladies toured the West with him and enjoyed
or cause them to be instructed therein."
                                                                      his superb pictures and running monologue. We predict that
   The officers of the re-organized Southeast consistory are:         this trip will be.repeated for other groups'this  winter.
Vice President, Gerrit Pipe ; Secretary, Melvin Wiers'ema,
Gen. Adjunct, Richard Teitsma.                                            The Annual Meeting of the Reformed Free Publishing
                                                                      Association (Standard Bearer) was held in Hope Church,
    A unique announcement appeai-ed  in a recent bulletin of          Sept. 20. Prof. H. C. Hoeksema was the speaker. Under the
First Church. This one noted the approaching wedding of               theme, "We, Protestant Reformed" he answered three ques-
a couple way down there in the Island of Jamaica. This was            tions : "Who are we?`, "What is God's purpose with us ?",
not primarily a wedding annduncement  but one which made              "What is our calling?' The `speaker evoked from the hearts
public the need for suitable raiment for the bride and groom.         of the members the realization that if we do not faithfully
First's deacons are soliciting such suitable attire and will          maintain the distinctiveness of our churches we, too, will be
send it on.                                                           swallowed up in the maelstrom of merger and unionism. The

    The August 30 Lynden T&me  carried an article by our              complete text of the Professor's speech is to be printed in

Rev. Harbach in which he discussed "The Mark' of a Chris-             The Stmdard  Bearer upon the request of the membership.
tian." -                                                              Three new Board members were elected: Fred Huizenga,                   I
                                                                      Marvin Roerner and Donald Knoper.
    October 4 is a date marked on the religious calendar of

our people in Michigan. The Beacon Lights' staff is sponsor-              "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant

ing a "Mission Emphasis Night" to be held in the auditorium           whom .I have chosen ; that ye may know and believe, and

of First Church. Rev. Lubbers will be the speaker and will            understand that I am He: before Me there was no God

show slides of his work. An added attraction will be slides           formed, neither shall there be after Me." ISAIAH 43 :lO.
of the Jamaican trip recently made by Mr. and Mrs. H. Zwak

of Hudsonville and Mr. and Mrs. H. Meulenberg of First                    . . . . see you in church.                               J.M.F.


