                                                                                                                      N
     V                                                                                                                UMBER 9
          OLUME. ,XXXIX                         FEEWJARY 1, 1963 - GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN


                                                                         The doors shall be shut in the streets: either the ears
                  M E D I T A T I O N                                 or the lips, or both.
I                                                                        When the sound of the grinding is low: mastication.

                          OUR LONG HOME                                  And he shall rise up at the voice of the bird: hush, be
           <z                                                         still! poor old grandpa.
                 . . . because man goeth to his bng home, and the
                                                                         And all the daughters of musick  shall be brought low:
                 mourners go about the streets." Eccl. 12:Sb
                                                                      the vocal cords.
     When we begin our ministry there are many "firsts".                 And' when they shall be afraid. of that which is high:
     The first time we meet with and lead the consistory              trepidation of old age.

meeting; our first house visitation; sick visitation; Lord's             Fears shall be in the way: I remember an old man who
Supper; baptism; wedding ceremony; various society meet-              begged me to go twenty miles on a 60 mile highway. And
ings; the first time you visit the happy mother and her               even then he sighed a sigh of relief when we drove in his
child in the hospital, etc.                                           yard.

     And then there is also the first time we lead a funeral!            And the almond tree shall flourish: grey and white

     All the other meetings and visits are nerve wrecking,            locks.

scary affairs, causing much trembling ,and  embarrassment,               And the grasshopper shall be a burden: the backbone:
but the first funeral . . .                                           0, my aching back!

     All the other labours  carry with them - that is, most of           And desire shall fail: utmost sobriety of old age.
them - a certain amount of pleasure, but the funerals . . .              Because man goeth to his long home!
     They are so very sad. It is so very final, especially when

we stand at the open grave, yawning to receive its prey.

Then also, the crying and weeping of the loved ones.                     Yes, man goeth!

     I have led many funerals, but I still feel trembly.                 Gradually we become ripe for the harvest of death.

     I had one last week.                                                And that is true of everyone. (God  is no respecter of

     And my text is written above this. meditation.                   persons.

                                0 0 Q Q;                                 A thousand attempts are made to arrest this process, but

                                                                      all in vain. If you have money enough you can even hire
     Because. . . .                                                   your own personal doctor who is in constant attendance,

     This word connects the text with the preceding.                  but it does not really help. "The rich man also died, and

     They are the evil days, and they are the years of which          was buried." They all travel this weary way.

we say, I have no pleasure in them.                                      A thousand attempts are made to camouflage it, and

     They are the years of the old man, the old woman.                we become the more ridiculous. Think on the cosmetic in-

     The keepers of the house tremble: they are the arms.             dustry, face-lifting, plastic surgery, and what have you?

     The strong men bow themselves: they are the legs.                   Look about you, look at yourself.

     The grinders cease because they are few: the teeth fell             We die by inches, gradually.

out, and they don't have bridge-work or plates.                          Until the day, the hour, the minute, the second ap-

     Those that look out of the windows.be  darkened: the             proaches, and God says: Return, ye children of men!

eyes.                                                                    And we are dead; we are buried.

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


        Yes, our relatives and friends grow solemn; with serious           That home to which they travel is their home. Note the

     mien in voice and step and dress we attend the rites, the          text: `because man goeth to his long home."

     last rites. They weep a tear or two.                                  It is his.

            But we are dead.                                               It is his proper home. It belongs to him.

                                  il: 0 0 *                                What is it? Well, listen to chapter lI:3b: "and if the tree
                                                                        fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place
            Yes, it is true for everyone: man go+.                      where the tree falleth, there it shall be."
            But I would ask a question here: in what direction?            The south? That is heaven. The north? That is hell.
            To find the correct answer to that question we must         Long home? It is eternal.
     go to Holy Scripture.        No where else can you obtain the         There you have the homes of men.
     correct information. Man has given a thousand answers to              Again: his home.     That is, the wicked fit in hell. YOU
     that question and they are all wrong. But Holy Scripture           can see that here when they reveal the spirit of the abyss;
     is right.
                                                                        Jesus saw it and judged: ye are of your father the devil,
            Attend to Prov. 4:18.                                       and the lusts of your father you would do.
            "But the path of the just is as the shining light that         God's people fit in heaven. No, not as they are by na-
     shineth more and more unto the perfect day!"                       ture. Paul would say, We also are children of wrath even
            Go back if you will to that picture of the old man or       as the others.
     woman I started with. And apply the text to them. There               But as they are God's pe,ople,  regenerated of God, con-
     are such, you know. I remember many. The last week I               verted by God, recipients of the faith of God, jusiilled  by
     spent in Sassenheim such an old man stepped up to me.              God, kept by God, and glorified by God. In short: God
     It was right in front of the Roman Catholic Church. He             dwells in them, and causes them to walk on the pathway
     said: "Gerrit, I hear you are going to America. Remember           of light. Jesus Christ, the Captain of their salvation directs
     God there, Gerrit!" That's all he said. But I never forgot.        them to their proper home in heaven. "In My Father's house
     Another old man I remember. You can apply all the state-           are many mansions.      I go to prepare a place for you! If I
     ments of Eccl. X2:3-5  to him too. I saw him every morn-           go and prepare a place for you I will come again and
     ing and afternoon when going to or coming home from                receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you may
     school. And he dropped pearls of wisdom in my heart. I             be also." John 14:2,  3.
     always remember him fondly.
                                                                           Esau found no place of repentance, though he sought
            They are the just.                                          it carefully with tears. His proper place is hell.
            Their way is a shining light. And that light is God. We        Jacob must go to heaven: God willed it!
     have a nice word in Holland to characterize such people.
                                                                           0 God of eternal miracles! why, why?
     We say that they are Godvruchtig. It means that God has
                                                                           Here is the Divine answer: I will have mercy on whom
     a fruit in them.
                                                                        I will have mercy, and whom I will I harden!
            And the light of the love of God shines more and more
     in them unto the perfect day. And that day is the Day                                          ic Q 11 if

     of the Lord Jesus Christ.
                                                                           Yes, funerais  are impressive.
            And their opposite is the wicked.
                                                                           Everybody thinks so.
            And the Holy Scripture has also a word for them.
                                                                           I saw it when I was a little child.
            It is found in Prov. 4:19.
                                                                           I saw a man dressed in black with "funny clothes and
            "The way of the wicked is darkness, they know not at
                                                                        hat" walking like a stiff automaton through our village,
     what they stumble."
                                                                        stopping at every door.      And in somber sounding voice he
            But we know. They stumble at the Rock of Offense,           would tell who died, what off, and at what age, as also the
     .and that is Jesus.                                                date of the funeral.
            You see, Jesus does not leave them alone. It would be          He was the mourner.
     .more correct to say: God does not leave them alone, for
                                                                           Yes, the mourners go about the streets.
     He puts Jesus in their pathway. And they stumble over
     Him.                                                                  Sometimes the whole village of five thousand would
                                                                        turn out to mourn with them, that is, if the dead was impor-
            Their way is darkness, and that is imagery for all evil.
                                                                        tant or rich enough.
     `That is their pathway, their life. It is conceived in darkness
     .and  it is brought forth in darkness, and it gets darker as          And eight or ten men carried the bier and the dead.

     they walk this weary way.                                             Yes, you better mourn, especially when your dead is

                                                                        a wicked man or woman. Then your mourning is the be-
I                                    tt Q * 0


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                                                                                                                             195



ginning of an eternal work. That mourning will go ,over in
shrieks of despair and wailing of the second death. I know                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                                Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
so little about that. Jesus speaks of weeping and gnashing                        Published by the F~EFORXED  FREE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
of teeth. At another place we read that the smoke of their                                                        E&v - REV. HERMXN  HOEKSEMA
torment arises forever and ever. 0, it must be horrible to                      Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
                                                                                Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids `7,
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   But when the just die, they will feel the hand of Jesus.                                           1123 Cooper, S. E., Grand Rapids 7, Mich.

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                 Notice for Classis  West                                                                                                  C O N T E N T S
                                                                          M E D I T A T I O N -
                                                                                         Our Long Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  198
   Classis  West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will
                                                                                                    Rev. G. Vos
meet, the Lord willing, in Doon,  Iowa, on Wednesday,
March 20, 1963, at 9 A. M.                                                EDITORIALS-
                                                                                         Arminius                 and Arminianism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..___........._...  IQ6

   The consistories are reminded of the rule that matters                                Rank Arminianism in Calvin Seminary . . . . . . . ..__........_..............  IQ7

for the classical agenda must be in the hands of the Stated                                         Rev. H. Hoeksema

Clerk not later than 30 days before the date of Classis.  And             CONTRIBUTIONS-
all matters that are to be brought to Synod must also be                                 Correspondence                                __ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._..__.. ..__  ___.....  . .._.. ,199
                                                                                                          Rev. G. Vos
presented at this classis.
                                                                          O U R  DOCTRINE-
                              REV. H. VELDMAN,  Stated Clerk                             Of Sanctification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  208

                                                                                         Preservation and Perseverance                                                                    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         .._.. .._  201

                                                                                                    Rev. H. Hoeksema

                           IN MEMORIAM                                    A CLOUD OF WITNESSES-
   On January 14, 1963, it pleased the Lord to take unto'  himself                       Crossing the Jordan _ _ _   .__ _____....____.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .202
our dear wife, mother and grandmother,                                                              Rev. B. Woudenberg
                       MRS. JOHN HUIZINGA
at the age of 62 years.                                                   FROM HOLY WRIT-
                                                                                         Exposition of I Timothy ___.,.....................................................                                                                                                          204
   `And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed
are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the                                  Rev. G. Lubbers
spirit that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow    I
them:" Rev. 14:13                                                          N HIS FEAR -
                                   Mr. John Huizinga                                     Tax-Free                   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  206

                                   Mr. and Mrs. Fred Huizinga                                       Rev. J. A. Heys
                                   Mr. and Mrs. Willis Kooienga
                                   Mr. and Mrs. John Van Houten           CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH-
                                   Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Huizinga                          The Church and the Sacraments                                                                            ___ . . .._....... ___....... . ..iOS
                                  Mr. and Mrs. John M. Huizinga                                      Rev. H. Veldman
                                   Mr. and Mrs. David Huizinga
                                   Mr. Alvin Huizinga                     THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS-
                                   Mr. Robert Huizinga                                   The Belgic Confession                                                 __. .__...  . . . ._..___  _........ . 21(B
                                   Mr. James Huizinga                                                Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
                                   Miss Judith Huizinga
                                   16 grandchildren                       DECENCY AND ORDER-
                                                                                         Education and Censure                                                       ( Cont.)                      . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  212

                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                             Rev. G. Vanden Berg

   The Hope Men's Society herewith expresses its sincere sympathy         ALL AROUNII  Us -
to its fellow member, Mr. Fred Huizinga, in the death of his mother                      Nuclear War and Our Children .__......___...._...........................  214
                                                                                         The Power of Unions ,...____......................................................                                                                                                          214
                     MRS. JOHN HUIZINGA, SR.                                             The End of Church Growth? ____............................................                                                                                                                 215
January 14, 1963 at the age of 61 years.                                                 A New Release from Cares . . . . . 215

   May our Covenant God comfort and sustain the bereaved family.                                    Rev. H. Hanko
Job 19:25: "For I know that my Redeemer liveth and that He shall
stand at the latter day upon the earth."                                  N E W S F R O M O U R C H U R C H E S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ..21~
                                                                                                     Mr. 
                                            Rev. H. Hanko, President                                              J, M. Faber
                                            Peter Koole, Secretary


           196                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                               -.-_  _                      ---_


                                                                                  that it is not possible for them, by any cunning craftiness
                      E D I T O R I A L S                                         or power of Satan, to be either seduced or dragged out of
                                                                                  the hands of Christ."
I                                                                           I
                                                                                     But now it comes:
     `.                 Arminius and Arminianism
                                                                                     "But I think it is useful and will be quite necessary in
              We have very little disagreement with Arrninius  when              our first convention (or Synod) to institute a diligent en-
           he writes about the free will of man. According to him                quiry from the Scriptures, whether it is not possible for
           man in the state of righteousness could perform the true              some individuals through negligence to desert the com-
           good; in the state of sin "man is not capable, of and by              mencement of their existence in Christ, to cleave again to
           himself, either to think, to will, or to do that which is really      the present evil world, to decline from the sound doctrine
           good; but it is necessary for him to be regenerated and re-           which was once delivered to them, to lose a good con-
           newed in his intellect, affections or will, and in all his            science, and to cause divine grace to be ineffectual."
           powers, by God in Christ through the Holy Spnit,  that he
                                                                                     And then he writes that he never taught that a true be-
           may be qualified rightly to understand, esteem, consider,
                                                                                 liever can ever finally fall away from faith and perish; "yet
           will, and perform that which is tiuly  good. When he is
                                                                                 I will not conceal, that there are passages of Scripture
           made partaker of this regeneration or renovation, I consider
                                                                                 which seem to me to wear -this aspect; and those answers
           that, since he 1s delivered from sin, he is capable of think-
                                                                                 to them which I have been permitted to see, are not of such
           ing, willing that which is good, yet not without the contin-
                                                                                 a kind as to approve themselves on all points to my under-
           ued aids of Divine  grace."
                                                                                 standing."
              The only remark I would make is that Arminius always,
                                                                                     And he concluded as follows:
           and also here, speaks of the assistance and aids of &tine
           grace. To me that sounds like synergism: God and man                      "On the other hand, certain passages are produced for
           co-operating. Scripture never speaks that way. God is                 the contrary doctrine (of unconditional perseverance)
           always fir&. It does not speak of the assistance and aids             which are worthy of much consideration."

           of the grace of God, but always of man's being saved and                  From this it is very clear what Arminius means when

           walking in newness of life through or by grace.                       he speaks of "assisting, aiding, and co-operating grace."

                                                                                 It certainly implies that grace is never all powerful, that
              The same is true of the paragraph in which Arminius
                                                                                 it is always resistible, that it is never efficacious, that, in
           speaks of grace.    Grace according to him, is .&St of all, a
                                                                                 other words, man  is stronger than God! For although he
           kindly affection toward the miserable sinner; secondly, it is
                                                                                 does not flatly deny "unconditional perseverance," the gen-
           also an infusion of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit; and,
                                                                                 eral trend of what he writes certainly lies, to say the least,
           finally, it is the "perpetual assistance of the Holy Spirit"
                                                                                 in that direction.
           etc. And again he writes that the regenerated man can

           do no good "without this preventing and exciting, this fol-               The same trend  is expressed in the paragraph in which

           lowing and co-operating grace." On this I have the same               he writes on the assurance of salvation. First he writes

           objection which I mentioned above: God and man never                  that it is possible for the believer to become assured that

           co-operate, but God is always first. This becomes worse               he is a son of God and that he stands in the grace of Christ.

           when Arminius further writes that the grace of God is not             But then he writes really the very opposite or, to quote him

           irresistible. `With respect to which I believe, according to          literally: "I dare not (on this account) place this assurance

           the Scriptures, that many persons resist the Holy Spirit and           (or certainty) on an equality with that by which we know

           reject the grace that is offered."                                    there is a God, and that Christ is the Savior of the world.

                                                                                 Yet it will be proper to make the extent of the boundaries
              What Arminius means by this assisting, aiding, and co-
                                                                                 of this assurance, a subject of enquiry at our convention."
           operating grace, becomes very plain when he writes about

           the perseverance of the saints. Then he writes as follows:                In the next or seventh section Arminius discusses his

           "that those persons who  have been grafted into Christ by             sentiments about the perfection of believers in this life..

           faith, and have thus been made partakers of his life-giving           He writes that "`it is reported, that I entertain sentiments

           Spirit, possess sufficient powers or strength to fight against        of this subject, which are very improper, and nearly allied

           Satan, sin, the world, and their own flesh, and to gain the           to those of the Pelagians, viz.: `that is possible for the re-

           victory over these enemies - yet not without the assistance           generate in this life perfectly to keep God's precepts.' To

           of the grace of the same Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ also by            this I reply, though these might have been my sentiments,

           his Spirit assists them in all their temptations, and affords         yet I ought not on this account to be considered a Pelagian,

           them the ready aid of his hand; and, provided they stand              either partly or entirely, provided I had only added that

           prepared for the battle, implore his help, and be not want-           `they could do this by the grace of Christ and by no means

           ing to themselves, Christ preserves them from falling. So             without it.' "


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             I97


   But even if Arminius would have added this, it would            quite different. God calls His own from all the nations of

still be incorrect, for as the Heidelberg Catechism expresses      the earth and not only from the nation of Israel.

it at the close of its discussion of the Ten Commandments,            As to the text in Matt. 11~28,  I would remark the follow-
the very holiest of the children of God has only a small           ing:
beginning of the new obedience. The reason is, of course,
                                                                      1. ?he context plainly shows  that, in vs. 28 Christ does
that the old man of sin remains with him until the end
                                                                   not refer to all men when He speaks of those that "labor
of his life in the world.
                                                                   and are heavy laden."     He definitely speaks of the elect,
   In section VIII, Arminius discusses the divinity of the         for there we read: "At that time Jesus answered and said,,
Son of God. He introduced this discussion by writing (in           I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
the preceding section) :     "Indeed, I have lately learned,       thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and
that there has been much public conversation, and many             hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it
rumors have been circulated, respecting both these points          seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me
of doctrine (the divinity of the Son of God and justifica-         of my Father: and no man knoweth  the Son, but the Father:.
tion, H.H.), particularly since the last conference between        neither knoweth any man the Father, but the Son, and he
Gomarus and myself before the Counsellors of the Suprem:           to whomsoever the Son will reveal him."
Court. This is one reason why I think, that I shall not be
                                                                      Such is the context in which Matt. 11:28  occurs. Here
acting unadvisedly if I disclose to your mightinesses the
                                                                   the Lord tells us that God hides as well as reveals. He tells
real state of the whole matter."
                                                                   us that such was God's good pleasure. And He tells us
   But what are the sentiments of Arminius on these sub-           that no one can possibly know the Father except he top
jects, I must explain in the next issue, D.V.                      whom the Son will reveal Him. Does that sound as if God-
                                                          H.H.     loves all men? And the same is true of vs. 28 in the same

                                                                   context.

                                                                      2. Again, the text in vs. 28 speaks of the calling. I do

                                                                   not like that word `invitation" for the simple reason that
     Rank Arminianism in Calvin Seminary                           an invitation may either be accepted or rejected. God does.

   Prof. Dekker also refers to `the  universal love of God         not invite but calls. The call is: "Come unto me." And
revealed in His invitation of the gospel, sincerely extended       that call may not be rejected. However, it cannot be ac-
to all without reservation or limitation." For this he refers,     cepted except when the Spirit applies that calling to the
again without any explanation, to Isa. 45:22  and Matt. 11:        heart of the sinner. And this He does not to "all men" or
28. In the former passage we read: "Look unto me, and              even to all that hear the gospel, but only to the elect. When
be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and          Prof. Dekker writes emphatically "God Loves . . . All Men"
there is none else."                                               he denies election. He denies the efficacious calling. He
                                                                   denies all Reformed truth. He is Arminian.
   Now, in the first place, it is, indeed, very easy to find
some so-called universal texts in Scripture, isolate them             Prof. Dekker also -refers to the texts in Ezekiel 18:23
without any regard to their context and to all the rest of         and 33:ll. This smells like the common grace theory adop-
Scripture, deny the doctrine of election, and draw the             ted by the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church &
                                                           con-
clusion that God loves all men and that, as far as ;He is          1924. And  true it is, no doubt, that for his doctrine that
concerned, He will save all men. That is the usual policy          God loves all men he may appeal to the "First Point." But
of Arminianism. And this is exactly what Prof. Dekker              before I go into the true interpretation of these texts, I
does. But no truly Reformed man will ever do this.                 must call attention to the fact that he quotes from Calvin's
                                                                   Commentary on these verses. He quotes him as follows:.
   In the second place, in texts like Isa. 45:22 we have
                                                                   "God desires nothing more earnestly than that those who,
what is known as the external calling. And this external
                                                                   were perishing and rushing to destruction should return
calling certainly comes, not indeed, to all men, but, never-
                                                                   to the way of safety."    This sounds, indeed, as if Calvin
theless, to all that hear the gospel. But, unless that external
                                                                   also supported the error that God loves all men.
calling is accompanied by the internal calling the calling
is not saving but, on the contrary, it is a savor of death            However, it is never honest to quote any author par-
unto death. Hence, the external calling by itself is no proof      tially, and this is exactly what Prof. Dekker does in this
that God loves those to whom that calling comes; but it is         case. Hence, I will also quote from the commentary on
such only when the Spirit of God in Christ accompanies it          ihe same text. Calvin writes:

by the internal calling.                                              "God is said not to wish the death of a sinner. How so?

   Finally, the text from Isa. 45:22 does not speak of all         since he wishes all to be converted. Now we must see

men, but of "all the ends of the earth" and that is something      how God wishes all to be converted; for repentance is sure-

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


ly his peculiar gift: as ,it is his office to create men, so it     forgiving grace. They pined away in their sin, and they

is his providence to renew them, and restore his image              must surely die. To these people the Lord answers, that

within them. For this reason we are said to be his work-            there is abundant hope. For He hath no pleasure in the

manshi&  that is, his fashioning (Eph. 2:lO).  Since, tbere-        death of His people, even when they have departed from

fore, repentanre  is a kind of second creation, it follows          His ways. He will have mercy on them and forgive. There-

that it is not in man's power; and if it is equally in God's        fore, let them turn and He will pardon and they shall live.

power to convert men as well as to create them, it follows
                                                                     "d. And, finally, notice that the Lo'rd has no pleasure
that the reprobates are not converted, because he does not
                                                                    in the death of the wicked that turns and lives. Scripture
wish their conversion; for if he wished it he could do it:
                                                                    elsewhere frequently testifies that the Lord has a holy
and hence it appears that he does not wish it." etc.
                                                                    pleasure in the destruction of the wicked. For He hates

       Now we ask: does God, according to Calvin, love all          all the workers of iniquity, and He shall laugh in their

men? The answer is: in no wise. For he does not love the            destruction and hold them in derision. But the Lord does

reprobate which, according to Calvin, is evident from the           have -pleasure that the wicked turn from their evil way.

fact that he does not give them repentance.                         And when they turn from their wicked way and are wicked

                                                                    no more, He delights in their life and give& it unto them
       As for the correct interpretation of the text in Ezekiel,    abundantly by His grace."
I may again quote from my book "The Protestant Reformed

Churches in America." I still agree with the explanation               Prof. Dekker quotes two more passages from Scripture
I there offer. It is as follows:                                    to prove his contention that God loves all men.

       "But do not Ezek. 18:23  and 33:ll  teach that God is
                                                                       The ilrst is II Peter 3:9: `not wishing that any should
gracious in the preaching of the gospel to the reprobate
                                                                    perish but that all should come to repentance." But this
wicked?
                                                                    is only part of the text. The whole text reads as follows:

       "This is surely the interpretation of the Synod of 1924,     "The Lord is not slack concerning his $omise, as some

as well as of Prof. L. Berkhof in his booklet written in de-        men count slackness; but is longsuffering  to us-ward, not

fense of the Three Points. But notice, with regard to these         willing that any should perish, but that all should come to

two texts, which are essentially the same in meaning:               repentance."


       "a. That in neither of these two passages is there any
                                                                       On this we briefly remark the following:
offer of grace or salvation as far as the form of these texts

is concerned. In both passages we have a direct statement              1. In the context the apostle writes about the promise

by the Lord, the God of Israel, that He hath no pleasure            of the coming of Christ. There were some scoffers or there

in the death of the wicked, but therein that he turn and            would be scoffers in the Church in the last days that

live. In the text from chapter 33 this statement stands             mocked at the idea that Christ would come again. "Where

in the form of an oath. It is, therefore, no offer, but a           is the promise of his coming," they mockingly asked. It is

most emphatic divine assertion.                                     to these mockers that the apostle refers in the 6.rst part of

                                                                    vs. 9: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as
       `b. That in both teZxts it is the house of Israel that is    some men count slackness."
addressed. The Lord, therefore, through His prophet, does

not address the wicked in general, but the Church, they                2. This, namely, that the Lord is not slack concerning

that are called His people, whom He has chosen, but that            His promise, the apostle explains in the rest of the text.

have departed from the way of the covenant of the Lord.             Writes he: "But is longsuffering to us-ward." Longsuffering

This certainly does. not plead in favor of the interpretation,      means that God's people must suffer  in the world and that,

that would apply this text to the reprobate wicked, or to           therefore, they all the more long for the coming of the

the elect and reprobate alike. It is His people, whom the           Lord and the realization of the promise. And that God is

Lord assures of His forgiving mercy.                                longsuffering over them means that He suffers with them

                                                                    and will realize His promise to them as quickly as possible.
       "c. This is corroborated by the context, especially of       Nevertheless, it must wait until all is fulfilled. But do not
the text in ch. 33:ll. There the assertion of forgiving             overlook the fact, that the text states that God is longsuf-
grace by the Lord is an answer to the complaint of the              fering "to  us-ward," which refers to the people of God.
people of God: `If our tiansgressions  and our sins be upon

us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?                 3. Then the text states what end must be reached be-

They were conscious of their sin. They felt that they were          fore the promise can be realized. It is, namely, that he is

worthy of condemnation and death because of their trans-            "not willing that any should perish, but that all should

gressions.     And they did not see a way out. They did not         come to repentance." Prof. Dekker would explain that the

understand that the Lord is abundant in tender mercy and            word "all"  in the text refers to all men. But this is, in the

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


first place, absurd, for then the promise would never be

realized for the simple reason that all men will never come

to repentance. But this is also contrary to the text. The

text does not state that God is longsuffering  to all men but

to us-ward which means the people of God, the Church.

But if this is so, and it is so, then the word "all"  in the last                           Correspondence
part of the text also means. the people of God, the Church,
                                                                                                                      January 4, 1963
the elect. Hence, the text means: God is longsuffering over

His people, not willing that any of us, that is, the elect,                                                          Chandler, Minn.
should perish, but that all the people of God, the elect,
                                                                       Rev. Herman Hoeksema
should come to repentance. This explanation is in harmony,

not only with the words of the text, but also with  all Scrip-         Grand Rapids, Michigan

ture.
                                                                       Dear Rev. Hoeksema:
       The last text which is quoted by Prof. Dekker is from
                                                                          May I first of all extend to you a happy and blessed
I Tim. 2:1-4. The text reads as follows: "I exhort therefore,
                                                                       New Year.
that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and

giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings and for                  As I was reading in the January, 1963, issue of the Stan,

all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and                dard Bearer, I came across this statement in the Meditation

peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good          written by Rev. Vos, I think entitled THE DAYS OF THE

and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;  Who will              YEARS OF OUR LIFE.

have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of                    The statement is found on page 146, as follows: "If you
the truth."                                                            raise a doubt about that, think on the long days when you

       The explanation of this text is not difficult. It is evident    shall be dead and buried, always lying down and looking

that the Church at the time of the apostle Paul was of the             up at the cover of your coffin."

opinion that `kings and ali that are in authority" were ex-               May I have an explanation of this from you. Certainly
cluded from those that are saved. Did they not often cause             you do not believe anything so ridiculous.
them to be persecuted and to suffer? Hence, the apostle                   Thank you. May I hear from you please.
admonishes them to pray also for them. Hence, the mean-                                                       Cornelius Verbrugge
ing of the word "all"  in vs. 4 is "all classes of men." That

this is the meaning lies on the very surface of the text.
                                                                       ANSWER:
I do not have to say more about it.

                                                                          The Rev. Herman Hoeksema gave the undersigned the
       In the next paragraph, Prof. Dekker makes two com-
                                                                       letter quoted above, with the request that I answer the
plaints :
                                                                       brother, which. I hereby do.
       1. The first is that theologians, "for the sake of a limited
                                                                          1. Let me hasten to assure the brother that I join him
election," give an arbitrary interpretation of such terms as
                                                                       and the Rev. Herman Hoeksema in "not believing anything
"world" or "all men." In answer to this, I claim that I did
                                                                       so ridiculous". Yes, if you take what I wrote literally, then
nothing of the kind. All I did say was, in the first place,
                                                                       it is nonsense. Neither do I believe that the brother thought
Prof. Dekker did not even attempt to offer an explanation:
                                                                       that I teach such nonsense.
he simply made some statements; and, secondly, I did

make an explanation, and I challenge Prof. Dekker to refute               2. I used what is called "poetic license". Look it up in

it.                                                                    your dictionary. And I quote: "Allowable deviation from

                                                                       established rule; variation from standard for a purpose; as,
       2. The second is that other theologians speak of differ-
                                                                       poetic license."
ent kinds of love, love to all men (common grace) and love

to the elect (special grace. ) . . This is "double track theolo-          3. And I think that my purpose was reached, also in.

gy." With this I agree, although I cannot possibly agree               brother Verbrugge. I wanted my readers to think of their

with Prof. Dekker's "single track theology" that God loves             body after it is buried, lying down, and staring with empty

all men without distinction, head for head and soul for                eyes to the cover of their coffin. Finally your eyes wilI

soul. I do not believe that the Bible supports the notion of           disappear, and all that will be left is two  holes in the head

"common grace".                                                        of your skeleton. You know, it is good to think on that,

                                                                       That is the reality of your life . . . and death.
       Next time, the Lord willing, I hope to examine the

quotations which Prof. Dekker makes from the Confessions.                                               Y~LUS  sincerely,

                                                             H.H.                                        Rev. Gerrit Vos

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


                                                                    unrighteousness into righteousness, from the corruption of
       O U R   D O C T R I N E   j his nature into holiness. And also this change is presented
                                                                    in Scripture as a radical change of the heart. The proper

                                                                    life-center of this change is found in the resurrection and

                          CHAPTER V                                 glorification of Christ. Through His Spirit Christ Himself

                                                                    dwells in the heart of the elect sinner, and connects that

                 OF SANCTIFICATION                                  heart forever with Himself. He is in Christ, and Christ
                                                                    dominates that heart by His grace. He imparts to that heart
                          (Continued)                               new life - His own, resurrection life, the life of God - so

                                                                    that the Christian may boast with the apostle, "I live, but
    Through sin man did not change essentially. He still is         not I; Christ lives in me." And from that heart the lines run,
the same personal, rational, moral, psychological, material,        from an ethical, spiritual viewpoint, throughout his whole
earthly being. And from a natural point of view he still            nature. If anyone is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature.
stands in the same relation to the world about him. Of              Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become
course, even from a natural point of view he lost much, in          new. The Christian wills and thinks, desires and longs,
fact, most, of his original power and of his natural gifts.         hears and sees, tastes and touches, speaks and acts different-
He only retained, according to our confessions, a few and           ly from the natural man. He has become partaker of the
small remnants of them. This is especially evident in regard        divine nature. And the motive-power of his whole life is
to his knowledge of earthly things. But that does not re-           the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
move the fact that he still remains man. The influence of

sin is of a spiritual and ethical nature. Spiritually and              However, that new life of the Christian meets with all

ethically his nature was now put into reverse. His knowl-           kinds of opposition, an opposition which frequently brings
edge became darkness and the lie. His righteousness was             him into captivity to the law of sin which is in his mem-

changed into unrighteousness and iniquity. His holiness             bers. In the first place -to start with the periphery of things

became hatred of the living God. Instead of the love of             -there is the old world, to which he belongs from a natural

God in his heart, there was now enmity against the Most             point of view, in which he must live, and on which from a

High. For the minding of the flesh is enmity against God.           natural viewpoint he is dependent for his whole existence.

And out of that heart are the issues of life also in the natural    And in that old world are the old sinful forms of life, the

man, as we have seen above. Because his heart became evil,          lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

his thinking and willing, his inclinations and deepest re-          These sinful forms of life he meets everywhere. In the

cesses of his nature also became evil, and became evil en-          world is the language which he learns, is the garment which

tirely. He became an enemy of God in all his life, in all           he wears, is the book he reads. With the sinful forms of

his thinking and willing and desiring. Also in the natural          that world he is in contact in commerce and industry, in

man there is no conflict from a spiritual, ethical viewpoint.       state and society, in factory <and  office, on the street and in

He loves sin with all his heart, and follows it in all his life.    the home. These forms are apt to lead him astray and take

He is an enemy of God. He minds and wills and desires sin.          him into captivity under the law of sin, so that he does not

He is totally depraved, and stands in enmity against God            do that which he wills.

with his whole being, with heart and soul and strength.
                                                                       In the second place, we must remember that according

   However, the Christian is fundamentally and principally          to his nature, his old nature, he also is of that world. By

renewed through the work of the Spirit in regeneration.             nature he is born of a sinful race, and therefore receives a

And also this change is not an essential change, but a spirit-      nature in which for centuries the principle of sin, the prin-

ual and ethical conversion. Also the regenerated man                ciple of enmity against God, has been operating. The Cbris-

remains man. His nature remains a spiritual, ethical, moral,        tian does not stand individualistically by himself. He is

psychological, material, earthly nature. And he remains in          organically one with our race. The human nature which he

the same relation to the earthly creation as before his regen-      receives through  his parents is centuries old. And in that

,eration.  Nor is he entirely delivered from death and from         human nature, in body and soul, in mind and will, deep ruts

-the operations of death in his-members. The suffering of           have been dug through the operation of sin. Even as the

this present time is also his suffering as long as he stands,       world in which the Christian lives and moves is not yet the

through the body, in organic relationship with our human            new creation, in which righteousness dwells, so also his

race and with the world about him. Nor does he regain               body is not yet the body of the resurrection, the spiritual

the original, natural gifts in all their power and glory. He        body. And his nature is not yet the glorified human nature.

retains the likeness of sinful flesh. But from a spiritual,         And these operations of sin, the ruts of sin, the Scripture

.ethical  viewpoint he underwent a radical change. He has           calls "`the motions of sin in our members," and `the flesh,"

gone from death into life, from darkness into light, from           and `the body of this death." And although this must not be

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


understood in such a way that sin is really material and             dience. But sanctication  does consist in a continual putting

physical, it nevertheless is clear from all these expressions        off of the old nature, and the continual putting on of the

that especially the body, the psychical body, has been long          new man, and in a continual battle, therefore, to let the

an instrument of sin, and that it adapts itself very easily          power of grace even from the heart dominate the motions

to the sinful forms of. life in the world,, and thus takes           of sin which are in his members to the end of his life upon
                                                               US

into captivity under the law of sin which is in our mem-             earth The Christian must fight -the good fight of faith

bers. With the Christian that is regenerated, evil thoughts          against Satan, the flesh, and the world, and that too, to the

and desires do no longer issue from the regenerated heart.           very end of his life upon earth.

That, of course, is impossible. Certainly, he has received a

new heart through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But

in his nature there still are the operations of sin. And this                                   CHAPTERVI

causes conflict and opposition, so that he is frequently led
                                                                         PRESERVATION AND PERSEVERANCE
astray in the direction of unrighteousness.

                                                                        It is in the nature of the case that Reformed theologians
   Thus we can somewhat understand that the same per-
                                                                     always maintained that the believers in Christ will certainly
son can appear in this world as two egos. The one and the
                                                                     persevere unto the end, and that final and complete apostasy
same person, the one subject in him of all his actions, of all
                                                                     and falling away from grace is impossible. I say that this
his thinking and willing, seems to become two egos from
                                                                     is in the nature of the case. For, in the i&t place, they
a spiritual, ethical point of view. As far as his person is the
                                                                     are elect. They are chosen from eternity to glory. And
subject and knows himself responsible for all the acts and
                                                                     God's election certainly can never be changed. And, in the
operations of sin in his nature, he is brought into captivity
                                                                     second place, Reformed theologians always emphasized
under the law of sin which is in his members. He performs
                                                                     that the grace of God is absolutely sovereign: and therefore
that which is evil, and he is a servant of sin. But in as far
                                                                     that grace of God can never be lost. Reformed theologians
as the same person is subject of the new operations of the
                                                                     all attribute the work of salvation to God alone, as the sov-
new life that arises from his regenerated heart, he never-
                                                                     ereign and almighty Author, Who works all things accord-
theless hates evil. He hates even the evil which he does,
                                                                     ing to the counsel of His will, and Who also works in the
and while he does it; and he loves the good and strives
                                                                     elect to will and to do of His good pleasure. To be sure,
after sanctification of life. And yet these two are not iden-
                                                                     this work of God does not make the believers stocks and
tical, not even before his own consciousness. For even his
                                                                     blocks, does not deny their responsibility, does not deny
own consciousness is such that old things have passed away,
                                                                     their rational, moral nature, but maintains it, and that too,
and that all things have become new, so that he can say:
                                                                     emphatically. Nevertheless, man, according to Reformed
"It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." The
                                                                     theology, is not the author of his own salvation, either com-
old man of sin and the new man in Christ do not stand on
                                                                     pletely or in part, as Arminianism has it, which therefore
the same level. The old man is his person as it is the sub-
                                                                     denies the &al perseverance of the saints and maintains
ject of the old operations of sin in his nature. And the new
                                                                     that the regenerated Christian can finally fall away. Salva-
man is the same person, but now as it is the subject of the
                                                                     tion is from beginning to end the work of God, and His
operations of grace and righteousness in the same nature.
                                                                     alone. And since God never forsakes the work of His hands,.
But they do not stand in the same position or on `the same
                                                                     it is evident that the question whether the saints shalI
level, even before his own consciousness. He certainly is
                                                                     persevere unto the end is really equivalent to the other
conscious of the fact that the operations of sin do not arise
                                                                     question, whether God will perfect His own work in the
any more out of his heart. That heart is regenerated; and
                                                                     believers. Hence, we say that it lies in the nature of the
he certainly does not have two hearts. Even when he sins,
                                                                     case that Reformed theologians always maintained the
he sins differently from the purely natural man. Even when
                                                                     perseverance of the saints.
he sins, he is sorry for his sin. Even though sin is not dead
                                                                                                                                    H.H.
in him, yet he certainly is dead to sin. He does that which

he hates; but nevertheless, he hates it. Formerly he loved

sin; now he has become an enemy against all sin.

                                                                                       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
   Thus it will become clear that the life of sanctification
                                                                        The Board of the Reformed Free Publishing Association expresses
is and must be a continual battle, even unto the day of our          its sympathy to Fred Huizinga,  a fellow board member, in the death
death. Sanctification, therefore, certainly does not consist         of his mother,

in this, that the Christian gradually becomes more perfect,                             MRS. JOHN HUIZINGA, SR.

more regenerated, and that -he is gradually delivered from              May the God of all grace sustain the  bereaved in the hope of
                                                                     eternal life that take& away all sorrow.
his old nature. For according to the Heidelberg Catechism,
                                                                                                          John Kalsbeek, Sr., President
the very holiest has but a small beginning of the new obe-                                                Richard Bos, Secretary


202                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEAR.ER


                                                                   deep to ford; its current was so swift as to require the heroic
11 A CLOUD OF -WITNESSES 11                                        effort of a strong man to swim it; the waters were cold as
                                                                   ice. For Israel with its women, children, weak and elderly

                                                                   people, as well as cattle, it would have been almost impos-

                                                                   sible to cross in the drought of summer to say nothing of
                   Crossing the Jordan                             early spring. For three days the swift, swirling waters of

                                                                   the river formed a forbidding barrier. But Israel knew of

          And Joshua spa.lce  unto the priests, saying, Take up    the power of its God, and for three days the people patient-

       the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the           ly waited. Then God came and spoke.

       people. And they took u,p  the ark of the covenant,            For Joshua personally there was a word of particular
       and went before the people. . . .                           assurance. To him Jehovah said, "This day will I begin to

          And as they that ba.re  the ark  were come unto          magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know

       Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark       that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee." The

       were dipped in the brim of the water (for Jordan over-      work that was soon to take place would more than anything
       floweth al.8  his banks all of the time of harvest),        else establish him as the rightful successor of Moses and the

          That the waters which came down from above               prophetic leader of God's people.

       stood and rose up upon an heap . . .                           Also for the priests there was a command. Through

          And the priests that bare the ark of the covena.nt       Joshua they received the instructions, "Take up the ark of

       of the LORD stood firm  on dry ground in the mk?st  of      the covenant, and pass over before the people . . . When

       Jordan, and a.11 the Israelites passed over on dry          ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall

       ground, until all the people were passed over Jordan.       stand still in Jordan." These, the priests carrying the ark,

                                               Joshua 3:8,15-S?    were to serve in a place of crucial importance through the

                                                                   work which was about to be performed. The ark was the

   The Church of God stood at a very important juncture            symbol of God's presence and of God's covenant in Israel.
in its history. The promise of                                     It was to be made perfectly evident that it was that presence
                                   God's covenant was about to
be fulfilled. It was about to receive its inheritance. Many,       alone that was bringing Israel into its inheritance.

many years before God had stood with Abram in that same               Most elaborate were the instructions for the people. The
country and had said unto him, "Lift up now thine eyes,            first of these were passed on to them by their officers. "When
and look from the place where thou art northward, and              ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and
southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land            the priests the Levites bearing it, Then ye shall remove
which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for      from your place, and go after it. Yet there shall be a space
ever." But years and centuries had passed by. Abraham,             between you and it, about IX-Q  thousand cubits by measure;
Isaac, and Jacob all wandered in that land but never came          come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which
to possess it. Finally the children of Israel were banished        ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore." At
to Egypt to dwell there as little more than slaves. All that       this crucial juncture it must become perfectly evident to all
had remained was God's promise.                                    that it is Jehovah who is bringing Israel into Canaan. As

   But now through the agency of Moses, they had been              Israel passes into the land of promise, it must be by keeping

brought again to the gate of this promised land. Their pas-        their eyes upon Him symbolized in the ark. Still through

sage from Egypt to Canaan was a miracle wrought by the             it all respect must be maintained and everyone was to keep

power of their God. They were more than conquerors                 a reverent distance from the holy presence lest in their bold-

through Jehovah their God that loved them. Nothing could           ness they commit the sin of Ussah in later years. It was

stand in His way.     All that stood between them and the          Joshua that expressed the conclusion of the matter when he

land of promise was the river Jordan. Once that was crossed        said to the people, `Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the

the hope of their fathers would be fulfilled. And now the          LORD will do wonders among you." As yet no one knew

spies had returned from Jericho with their report. The             exactly what was to take place; but anticipation was run-

,greatness  of Israel's God was coni?.rmed  by the fear which      ning high for there were forebodings of a great and mar-

He struck in the hearts of their enemies. Under Joshua             velous work.

Israel was about to be brought into its inheritance.                  The next morning Joshua stood before the people once

   The morning after the spies returned Joshua arose early.        again and spoke. "Come hither, and hear the words of the
#Calling  the people together, he led them to the bank of the      LORD your God. Hereby ye shall know that the living

river Jordan. But that was as far as they could go. It was         God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out

.spring  and the melting snow of the mountains had filled the      from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites,  and the

river until its banks were overilowing.  The river was too         Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              203


Amorites, and the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant       of their God, a feeling of dazed anguish passed across the

of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into          hearts of those who watched -from  the other side of the

Jordan.    Now therefore take you twelve men out of the            river. Undoubtedly there were official watchmen whose

tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. And it shall come      duty it was to observe every movement of Israel from the

to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that      western side of the river. And then there were the people

bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall         who came just out of their own personal concern to watch

rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall      the children of Israel across the river.. As much as they may

be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and          have disliked the spring floods in other years, this year they

they shall stand upon an heap."                                    were only too grateful to find the raging torrent blocking

                                                                   the path of Israel. It seemed to guarantee their security at
   Here were the plans and promise for a work that would
                                                                   least until well into the summer. And then it happened,
be truly extraordinary. For three days the children of IS-
                                                                   From the safety of their river bank they watched the strange
rael had been looking at the swollen mass of swirling water
                                                                   actions of the four men who bore that cloth-draped box,
which barred them from the land of Canaan. Now suddenly
                                                                   It almost seemed like suicide the way they came walking
it was to be stopped and the bed of the river laid bare. It
                                                                   directly into the river current, until suddenly, they could
must have reminded them of that great work by which
                                                                   hardly believe their eyes, the swollen current stopped short-
Jehovah had brought them out of Egypt by leading them
                                                                   In a moment the waters were stopped far above. And then,
through the depths of the Red Sea. Actually there were few
                                                                   just as the tide of water was stopped far to the north, there
living any more that had taken part in that passage through
                                                                   came that tide of -humanity, the whole host of the children
the sea, and of them only a few had been old enough to
                                                                   of Israel, men, women, children, cattle and all crossing that
remember it very clearly. But now the work was to be
                                                                   same river bank from the east. Before they had heard and
repeated, and in a sense, in an even greater way. That
                                                                   feared; but now they had seen and knew just how helpless
passage had been through the comparatively quiet waters
                                                                   they were before Israel's God. In confused and anguished
of a stable sea; this passage would be through the raging
                                                                   dismay they turned to flee into their city, to lock the gates
torrent of a swollen river. Just a few hours would produce
                                                                   tight and wait not knowing what to expect.
a tremendous backflow of water in the river above. Hu-
manly it was impossible.                                              As for the children of Israel, they were too occupied to
                                                                   pay much attention to the reaction of the onlookers across
   But the children of Israel were not in a doubting mood.
                                                                   the river. Calling to him the twelve men who had been
In fact, this generation had learned much from the mistakes
                                                                   appointed, Joshua commanded them to take twelve large
of their fathers. They believed in the strength of their God
                                                                   stones from the river bed and to carry them out to the shore
and were ready, even eager, to follow in the way that He
                                                                   of the river, erecting of them .a memorial to the wonder-
led. Quickly they appointed men who were to take the
                                                                   that they witnessed. Even while they were doing this Joshua
stones from the river bed and erect a memorial to the won-
                                                                   himself gathered twelve other stones and erected a pillar
der of this day. Twelve men were chosen to the privileged
                                                                   in the river bed where the feet of the priests stood with-
position, one from each tribe. After that the people ar-
                                                                   holding the tide of waters.    Only after all of this was fin-
ranged themselves quietly but eagerly behind the ark of the
                                                                   ished, and all of the people had passed through the river,
covenant in preparation for the grand and triumphal en-
                                                                   did Joshua speak to the priests and command them to come
trance into Canaan.
                                                                   forth from the river. This they did, and no sooner had

   Finally, when all was ready, there was a loud and clear         their feet been lifted from the river bed than the tide of

blast of trumpets and the priests bearing the ark of the cov-      water came crashing back into its place. The river flowed

enant began to move. Quickly and without hesitation they           on as though it had never been interrupted.

walked directly into the raging torrent of the swollen river.         Filled with awe and grateful, the people stood in solem
No sooner had their feet touched the waters' edge than             assembly as Joshua pointed them to the pillar of twelve
the river ceased to flow. In a matter of moments that whole        stones and spoke what God had commanded, "When your
swollen torrent had drained away and the rocky bed of the          children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying,.
river was laid bare. Behind the priests came the people.           What mean these stones? then ye shall let your children
While the priests with the ark stood above, a strange, mys-        know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land..
tical dam to the waters of the river, the masses of people         For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan
passed below as though there had never been a river there.         from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORI>Ia
In all the camp of Israel, no one could fail to feel the thrill    your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from be-
of seeing the land of Israel opened up so suddenly and so          fore us, until we were gone over: that all the people of the
miraculously before them.     Here was the powerful faith-         earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty:.
fulness of their covenant God.                                     that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever."

   And even as the hearts of Israel thrilled at the working                                                                B.W,

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


                                                                       any gospel other than that which ye have received, let
 [      F R O M   H O L Y   W R I T   1 him be anathema." Here we have the holy thunder of the
                                                                       apostle who has a gospel not of men nor by men, but by

                                                                       the revelation of Jesus Christ. And this same holy thunder

                  Exposition of I Timothy                              and righteous indignation we hear in this passage under

                                                                       consideration.
                       (I Timothy 6:3-s)
                                                                           Let us put the shoes from off our feet.

                                  a.                                      It may be that we detect some of these errors in our-

      What the apostle has instructed Timothy concerning the           selves, at least in our flesh in which there dwells no good,
duty of slaves toward their lawful masters, whether these              and which is sold under sin!

latter be believers or unbelievers, we have noticed in two                Let us first notice the basic description of a man who

former essays. This matter of the true relationship of a               teaches a "different doctrine." Such a one teaches this

slave toward his master, as he lives under the grace of                "different" doctrine under the pretense of teaching the real

God in Christ Jesus, is very important to be remembered                and only doctrine. He is, in other words, a deceptive man.

and to be taught. It is the only possibility of the slave to           These teachers are they who will not lend their ears to

work out his own salvation with fear and with trembling.               `sound words," which afford a healthy life and world view

Hence, Paul ends this exhortation with a word of exhorta-              in Christ Jesus. What Christ teaches concerning the rela-

tion to Timothy: "These things teach and exhort"!                      tionship of His Kingdom to the kingdoms of this world they

      Now the apostle turns his attention to evil men in Ephe-         reject. They do not desire the Kingdom of heaven, but the
sus who are really grievous wolves, and who do not spare               kingdom of this earth; theirs is a wisdom from below which
the flock; they are perverse men, bereft of the truth, speak-          is earthly, natural (psychical), devilish. It can be ex-
ing perverse things to draw the disciples after them. Of               pressed in one word: it is the Lie!

these Paul has nothing good to say. From this kind of                     Let us take a look at this liar as X-rayed here by Paul.

men the church must turn away, cast them out and not                      .Frmdamentally,  he does not desire to give heed to the

listen to them. They have a different and erroneous teach-             words of the Lord Jesus; he does not desire the words that

ing! It is truly amazing with what great pretense such                 he who humbles himself shall be exalted; that we are to

teaching comes.                                                        work out our salvation in this world, yet not being of this

      But let us listen to what Paul writes concerning them:           world! That the final victory is ours over sin and death
"`If a.ny  man teaches a digerent  doctrine, and consenteth            through the death and resurrection of Christ is not desired;

not to soun,d  zo~ords,  even the wdrds of our Lord Jesus              waiting in patience for the appearing of Christ from

Christ, a,nd to the doctrcne  which is according to godliness;         heaven is not desired. Hence, they could never teach the

he b pufled up, knowi'ng  nothing, but doting about ques-              slave to be obedient to his master that the name of God

&ionings a.nd disputes                                                 be not blasphemed, nor could they have the motivation of
                           of swords,  whereof cometh envy, strife,
railings, evil surmisings,  wranglings  of men corrupted in            service and all honor to the believing master since he is a

mind and bereft of the truth, szbppos?ng  that godliness is            partaker of the benefit: They do not understand that Christ

(a way of) gain" (verses 3-5).                                         came to make all things new, eternal, heavenly!

      The apostle here takes in the entire scope of those who             How men shall live godly in this world these men have

fall in this class of teaching a "different doctrine." He makes        never desired to know, neither do they understand it. The

no exception to this judgment upon such- false and evil                great mystery of godliness in Christ coming into the flesh,

teachers. Hence he writes: "if: any man"; it makes no differ-          His death and resurrection, is not. understood by them.

ence who he is, whether great or small, Jew or Greek, bond             These are not able to teach men and women how to live a

or free, male or female, yea, though he be an angel from               life of thankfulness.

heaven. What he says here is applicable to all who fall in                For them a life of thankfulness, godliness as they under-

this class of those teaching a "different doctrine." We are            stand it, is a means to a selfish end, and is not for the

here transported into the "climate" of Galatians 1: 6-9 where          praise and the glory of God on high. They would have

we read: "I marvel that ye are so quickly removed from                 "godliness" as a way of gain. It is not entirely clear just

him that called you in the grace of Christ Jesus  unto  a              what this means. The term "gain" can refer to purely fi-

,different  gospel; which is not another gospel; only there            nancial gain, but it may even refer to the gain of honor,

are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of             esteem, prestige amongst men. It is the gain of self-ad-

Christ. But though we or an angel from heaven should                   vancement in this world of which man becomes the measure

preach unto you any gospel other than which we have                    of all things, such as all humanistic modernism is. The

preached unto you, let him be anathema. As we have said                world must be made a fit place to live in - no more wars,

before, so say I now again, if any man preacheth unto you              depressions, hard times, sickness and even death. And
.r


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   - B E A R E R                                             205


then what they call "godliness," which is really a paganistic       vious. How could God cherish ill-will towards another

religion, must serve as a means to that end: gain!                  because of his superior success or endowments? For God

    Such is the entire modern church world.                         alone is great. However, envy is the portion of sinful man;

    Paul does not have a kind word for such teachers.               it is the green-eyed monster and is rottenness of the bones.

    Their fundamental sin is that of pr-ide.  Paul calls it with    Because the doting about questions and word-strife does

a descriptive word: "puffed up." They are inflated with             not teach the true relationship to God in Christ, it does
their self-importance and would put God from His throne,            not teach the true relationship of each other submitting to
and Christ out of the church, and rob God's saints of their         the other as greater than one's self. What we have and
true worship of God in Christ Jesus. Theirs is the same             are is then not a God-given and God-appointed apportion-

motivation as that of Satan himself which incited him               ment and task, but it is every man for himself, every man
against God when he fell from his own estate. And these             deeming himself to be a little god! Hence, such doting

too would exalt themselves to heaven in their wicked pride.         about questions is the breeding ground of envy!
However, it is really self-deception in these apostates. He             Closely allied with envy is the term "strife." Where
really `knows nothing"!     Paul gives him zero in his test-        envy is, there the mutual peace, trust, and consent are
paper. He has everything wrong and nothing right because            broken, and men are actually at variance. This is true in
he is not even one who has a learning knowledge. He                 personal relations, family  relations, in town, city, state,
does not have the knowledge of prolonged practice in God's          and nations.    It always follows the same pattern. Only
Kingdom, nor does he have the knowledge of one who is               where sound words -the words of our Lord Jesus -are
in the process of learning; he is not even a dilettante, a          adhered to, do you find the blessedness of peace-makers.
mere superficial amateur; he is an absolute ignoramus pmt-          There is a lot of "doting" in every level of society that is

ing as a man of knowledge. They are in the class of those           sick to the core; it is daily blared from the radio, and fills
who know nothing of that which they confidently affirm!             tons and tons of newspapers. Only in the church of Christ
They do not know as much wisdom, nor do they speak as               is all strife principally removed and peace established by
much intelligence as Balaam's ass! These cannot and do              the Prince of peace.

not put spiritual things with spiritual; they are merely               Where strife is, there is the medium of retaliation. It.

natural men to whom the things of the Spirit are foolish-           is the power of the evil tongue, which is untameable and

ness. They do not have the mind of Christ!                          is set on fire of hell. Here is blasphemy, the corrupting of.

    They are those "who dote concerning questions and               the good name of others; the truth is here not spoken in

word-strifes."    They will feel greatly insulted when and-         love. In the strife rooted in envy there is much evil speak-

lyzed, but they really are "sick" concerning questions and          ing as a weapon to kill the neighbor. Only those who

word strifes. They are not seeking the whole counsel of             cling to sound doctrine will have the necessary motivation

God, and do not rightly divide the Word of truth. In their          to avoid this all.

morbid state of mind, their sickness both mental and spir-             In this atmosphere there is the added evil of evil surmis-

itual, they rave on and on about certain questions, certain         ings. Without solid evidence the most evil motives are

aspects of the work of God in Christ, and merely have               ascribed to the other. Suspicion and doubt is cast upon

many words without solid truth in Christ. The sound                 the other. Life loses all stability and mutual trust. Such

words of Christ as He taught us to seek a heavenly King-            is the power of envy, which is truly a rottenness of the

dom they do not understand. They end in a "chaos of                 bones!

cults."                                                                Such is the evil fruit of men who know nothing, who

    Lacking a solid basis of the teaching of the sound doc-         themselves are spiritually and morally sick, and who refuse

trine, teaching a different doctrine, they have simply a            to `give heed- to the sound doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ.

fountain of confusion and quarrels. Wherefore Paul writes,          For they are men of corrupted minds, corrupted by the

"from which becomes" envy, strife, evil-speaking, evil sur-         darkness of sin and unrighteousness; separated from the

misings and wranglings of men of corrupt minds! Sound               life of God they are! They are bereft of the truth in Christ

doctrine leads to good ethics. Corrupt doctrine and prin-           Jesus and really say with Pilate: What is truth?

ciples lead to sinful conduct. The slogan "not doctrine but            Truly from such men we must depart. We must not by
practice" is as fallacious as it is prevalent in our day. We        to find out just what each stands for. One does not taste

must maintain purity in doctrine and in life, and in that           all the sour milk which is putrid, does he? Such we leave

order, too!                                                         severely alone, allow them no place on the pulpit, and if
   Why would "doting" about questions and word-strifes              need be cast them forth from the church.

lead to envy? What is envy? Envy is not the same as                    And this latter Timothy must do!

jealousy. Jealousy may be good and righteous. God is a                 Truly the teaching of the church of Christ is a lofty

jealous God, that is, He does not allow another to intrude          task, requiring lofty and spiritual motivation, rooted, in the

upon that which is His glory and honor, but He is not en-           contentment of godliness!                                G.L.

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


                                                                  thirst likewise comes without one penny being paid down

              I - N   H I S   F E A R                             upon it or without a bill of any kind being sent us after
                                                                  we received it. The sun rises every morning without a coin

                                                                  being dropped in a slot. The rain falls and cheers the

                           Tax-Free                               earth without a post card with so much as a four cent stamp
                                                                  upon it being sent to request it. The air is there for us to
       King Rehoboam lost the greater share of his kingdom
                                                                  breathe the moment we come into this world before we
because of a dispute over the matter of taxes.
                                                                  could sign on a dotted line. The delivery room may have a
       Indeed, there was, much more to the argument that split
                                                                  fee which the parent is charged for its use. The bed in the
the twelve tribes of Israel into two separate kingdoms and
                                                                  ward, the care in the nursery all costs money. But that
cost Rehoboam ten of these tribes. Solomon had taxed
                                                                  air is there; and no man has contrived of a way to sell it
the people to the hilt. To build the temple, his palace and
                                                                  or charge tax for its use.
temples for the gods of his many heathen wives, Solomon
had to exact heavy taxes from the people. But he had also            Time is also a creature. As we pass through time no
to conscript the men to labor in the forests of Lebanon to        one charges us for that time. No man has control of time.
hew him trees and to labor in the erection of these buildings     And God allots it to you and me tax-free. Talents, gifts,
which he had purposed to bring into being. It was also this       abilities and skills, friends and parents, love and being
conscription against which ten of the twelve tribes ob-           loved are also free and tax-free.

jected and because of which they left foolish Rehoboam,              So is the Word of God. 0, you may have to pay the

who did not need these high taxes and conscription. But it        printer and the binder for your Bible. You may have to

certainly is true that a large element of their complaint         pay men for their labors and pains in setting up the type

was the taxes they had to pay.                                    and furnishing you with a neat, readable copy of the Word

       The wicked Jews tried to trap Jesus by asking Him a        of God. But that Word is free and tax-free. No one pays

question about taxes.                                             God for all the revelation which He gave. No prophets paid

       They were desirous of leading Him into a self indict-      a fee for the vision and dream and trance which God gave

ment by having Him say publicly that the Jews should not          them. And when God preached the hrst  gospel promise in

pay taxes to Caesar.     It was a cleverly laid plot. But they    paradise to Adam and Eve, when God preached the first

underestimated Him with Whom they were dealing. He                sermon to fallen man, He did not somewhere in the "serv-

came not to destroy the law or the prophets. He came to           ice" pass the collection plate and exact from Adam and Eve

uphold the fifth commandment as well as the first. And            any contribution to help along His cause. It was free and

He told them to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's         entirely tax-free as well. He charged Noah not a cent for

after having them tell Him whose superscription was to be         that water of the flood, wherewith all the Church's enemies

found on the coins that jingled in their pockets.                 were destroyed. Noah received no water bill. All the mighty

   And today men jokingly say that there is nothing more          plagues in Egypt and the wonder of the Red Sea were not

certain than death and taxes.                                     charged to Israel's account. At the River Jordan, as Israel

       We could add that there is even at death more taxes.       was about to walk between those high walls of water to

The inheritance tax at death takes from the bereaved a            enter the land of promise, there was no sign that read, "Pay

large piece of what might be left upon the death of the           as you enter." Jesus charged Lazarus no fee, nor Mary and

head of the house.                                                Martha, for bringing him back to this life. You and I paid

   Politicians, to gain enough votes to assure or reassure        not one cent for the cross. Even Pilate and Caesar did not

their position and office, will make big and bold promises        pay for that cross, though God used them to furnish it. God

to lower the taxes. And the expression, "Tax-free", is a          caused that tree to grow and gave men the strength to,

welcome sound to the ears of man today. Tax-free means            chop it down and prepare it for a cross. God furnished

money in the pocket. It means more things that we can             those nails and created their iron in the beginning. God

buy with our money. And what money we do have will                furnished those Roman soldiers, Pilate, the wicked Jews

go farther whenever we can be told that the item we are           and Judas. We were not charged even a cent of tax for

about to pay for is tax-free.                                     that whole wonderful cross. Salvation is tax-free! It is

       0, but there are so many wonderful things, so many         FREE. But it is also tax-free.

essential things that are absolutely tax-free. There is so           To induce man to buy, tiading  stamps are given by

much God's creation that is more than tax-free, so much           many stores and places that sell articles of one sort or an-

that is absolutely free. The air which we breathe is free.        other. When a book of a certain number of pages is com-

The sunshine that streams down upon us and warms our              pletely filled with such trading stamps, you can exchange

air, causes our plants to grow and lights our day does not        it for certain designated products. This apparently painless

cost us one cent, not even a penny of tax. The rain that          way of paying more for our goods seems to reward us with

nourishes our crops and gives us food and water for our           something-for-nothing. But it is not so. Not only because

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


the man down the street who does not give you stamps               the New Jerusalem there will` be no taxes either. There

sells the same products for a lower price and saves himself        may be nothing more certain than death and taxes; but it

and you a lot of fuss with licking and keeping stamps and          is also true that there is nothing more certain after death

books, but also because when you pick up that item for             than that the saints in the new Jerusalem will pay no taxes.

your full stamp book(s), you are told that there is so much        We may, of necessity, have to pay taxes in the government

tax yet that you must pay upon the item, even though you           of men. The kingdoms of this earth cannot exist without

do not have to pay for the item (since you paid for it over        a taxation program. They are not self-sufficient and self-

and over again in the price your merchant had to charge            sustaining. But the Kingdom of Heaven is not supported

you to be able to "give" you these stamps).                        by its citizens. Its King  supplies everlastingly all its needs.

    Salvation is NOT that Way!                                        And that means that also TODAY, while you and I are
                                                                   still on this earth, we pay NO taxes to that kingdom. There
    "By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of
                                                                   is NO entrance fee, no cover charge, no contributions of
yourselves: it is the gift of God." Ephesians 2:s. It is the
                                                                   any kind. 0, indeed, we do contribute to the cause of God's
gift of God. That salvation is, because that faith through
                                                                   kingdom here below. But that is after we are in it and not
which God realizes it in you is free. You cannot buy it.
                                                                   in order to enter it or receive its benefits. These are not
There is no store that sells it. And you cannot induce God
                                                                   to be viewed as tax upon a free gift. Paul tells us in Ephe-
to sell it. God is not in business. He is no merchant. He
                                                                   sians 2:lO  that our good works are before ordained by God
has nothing to sell. Remember that! God has NOTHING
                                                                   that we should walk in them. He tells us in I Corinthians
to sell. He has salvation to GIVE! And He will give it tax-
                                                                   4:7 that we have nothing that we have not received. John
free!
                                                                   the Baptist says in John 3~27  that "`A man can receive noth-
    You cannot pay the spring that has given you refresh-          ing, except it be given him from heaven." Even if we had
ing water to drink. You cannot reimburse the sun for the           to pay tax upon our salvation and an inheritance tax to enter
light and warmth it has given you. That spring is there            the new Jerusalem, that tax would have to be given to us
to give and not to receive.     That sun has been made to          by God. And that would nullify all idea of tax. Then we
give off light and warmth and not to receive anything              do not support that Kingdom of Heaven but receive sup-
from us. The light rays and the rain come down upon this           port out of that kingdom. Then we do not repay or reim-
earth. But we put nothing back on the sun and do nothing           burse or contribute to God's cause, but He gives all that
to fill the rain clouds. That is all God's work. And much          which we have free of charge.
more is all this true of our salvation. God is the overflow-          It does not depend upon your and my will. That is not
ing FOUNTAIN of all good. He is not a well that we must            something that you and I still contribute; but the very desire
replenish. He is not an open pit that must collect the fallen      for salvation is likewise a benefit of the kingdom which God
rain or be filled with it. He is the fountain, the GIVER of        gives to us. Arminianism of every sort makes our will the
every good and perfect gift. Salvation flows from Him and          entrance fee, the tax we must pay before we can take home
is not drawn out of Him. Faith is His gift to us, as is that       the "free" gift of salvation. But nothing is farther from the
cross, as is His SON, as is His SPIRIT. On the day of Pen-         truth. God Himself says that salvation is tax-free also in
tecost He POURED OUT His Spirit; and again we read of              regard to this will or desire or "acceptance of the offer."
no fee that He charged, no dotted line that He first re-           Through His servant, the Apostle Paul, God says in Philip-
quested the Church to sign, no slot was there for coins to         pians 2~12  and I3 that we can work out our salvation only
be inserted into in order to let loose this flood of spiritual-    because God works in us both TO WILL and to do. And
ity and revelation.    Salvation is free. And it is also tax-      all this comes to us in God's grace. We are saved by grace,
free.                                                              not by our works. That means also not by the work of our
    0, it all cost something. It cost the precious Son of          will whereby we desire and seek salvation. This is also

God's blood. The price was exceedingly high, so high that          plain from Jesus' words to Nicodemus to the effect that a

all men together could not begin to make the smallest              man must be born again before he can even see the king-
down payment upon it.       It cost the eternal excruciating       dom. No one desires that which he cannot see and does not

pains of hell. It cost the curse of the cross, death and the       believe to exist. And no one signs a dotted line, drops a

grave.    But that salvation is free to you and me. Christ         coin in the slot, fills out a request or formulates a desire in

paid the ransom price to the Father; but you and I have            order to be born either the fist time or again with the life

not one cent to pay for it, not even use tax, sales tax, in-       which is from above.

heritance tax or what have you?                                       God asks nothing of you and me. God gives everything

   It IS an inheritance. We are heirs of God and joint             to you and me. As far as our salvation is concerned, it is as

heirs with Christ. Romans `8:17.  We are begotten again            true as with our natural life: OF Him and THROUGH Him

unto a lively hope, to an inheritance incorruptible and un-        and TO Him are all things. In His fear let us render ALL

defiled. I Peter 1~3,  4. But we pay no inheritance tax. In        the glory to HIM!                                        J.A.H.

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



                                                                       You correctly interpreted the mind of Christ. The sig-
            Contending For The Faith                               nificance of the Christian religion is much more profound

                                                                   than many non-Catholics think. For most Protestants bap-

                                                                   tism is merely an external act associating the subject with

            The Church -and the Sacraments                         their Church, and implying a profession of the Christian
                                                                   faith (one may well wonder, in this connection, whether the
            THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                            Roman Catholic laity understand fully the profound sig-

                                                                   nificance of the sacrament of baptism as set forth in the
                 VIEWS ON THE CHURCH
                                                                   Roman Catholic' presentation of this sacrament. - H.V.)

                                                                   They do not think of it as a'ctually  giving a new principle
                 BAPTISM (ROMISH VIEW)
                                                                   of life interiorly and within the soul of the recipient. Yet

    We now continue with our quotations from the Radio             that is the Catholic idea, and the real doctrine of Christ,

Replies of the Fathers Rumble and Carty, Volume II, 716-           and it is ,essential.  Christ was God who descended to our
721, 732-735.                                                      level, shared our human nature, and did so in order to lift
                                                                   us to His level, give us a share in the Divine Nature, and
    720; Is not the application of water `merely symbolic,         render a heavenly destiny possible to us. As He too, our
testifying an inward regeneration?                                 life, He gives His life.     He gives His by our baptismal

   No. The sacramental external rite does not merely testify       regeneration. It means a new and spiritual vital principle
to an inward regeneration. It causes that regeneration. The        within us which our natural birth could not give us. And
Sacraments, as instituted by Christ and deriving all their         children who have had no more than their merely natural
power from Christ, are the very actions of Christ. He uses         birth are without it. They could never, therefore, experience
the Sacraments as instruments in the effecting of His work         the happiness of heaven should they die in their unbaptized
of grace, just as He used His humanity on earth as a me-           state. Astronomers say that human beings as at present con-
dium of His power. We know that a woman touched but                stituted could not possibly live on the planet Mars. They
the hem of Christ's garments, and was healed. And Jesus            would have to be given altogether new capabilities adapted
felt virtue go out from Him. That was but an image of the          to Martian conditions before they could do so. Much more
conferring of grace by visible and tangible Sacraments in-         will man's soul have to be reconstituted in order to live the

stituted by Christ, of which baptism is one.    (In this answer    life of God in conditions which are infinitely above natural
these Fathers deny that the water in Baptism is merely             capabilities. The additional and new principle of life given

symbolic. Here they tell us that the sacramental external          by baptismal rebirth means just such a regeneration or re-
rite causes this regeneration - H.V.)                              constitution of the soul. (In this answer these Fathers say that
                                                                   the Roman Catholic conception of the sacrament of baptism
    721. Is not the inward regeneration the result of be-          is much more profound than the Protestant conception of
lieving and receiving the Gospel?                                  the same. It is true that they say that most Protestants think
   Yes, in the inclusive sense as implying the fulfillment of      that this sacrament is merely an external act associating the

all the conditions laid down in the Gospel; including, there-      subject with their Church. And in this they are undoubted-

fore, the reception of baptism. (Here we are told that inner       ly correct. But they are not correct when they imply that

regeneration is the result of believing and receiving the          this is the true Protestant conception of Baptism. We surely

gospel. This is pure arminianism and pelagianism. This must        believe that to live the life of God we must be reconstituted.

mean that believing precedes regeneration and that the             We surely believe that one must be born again to enter the

sinner can and must believe in order to be regenerated. The        Kingdom of Heaven and of God. We surely believe that all

question may arise: "But how can an infant fulfill these           men are born dead in sins and in trespasses and that we,

necessary conditions unto his salvation?" To this question         without regenerating grace, cannot  see the Kingdom of God,

we have an answer in subsequent answers which we will              which, incidentally, is quite contrary to this "profound"

quote. )                                                           conception of Rome. But we do not believe that this regen-

   732. Can infants fulfill the conditions of baptism?             eration must be associated with the water of Baptism. So,
                                                                   we are not nearly as superficial in our conception of these
   Yes, at least passively, insofar as they are quite capable      vital truths as Rome would have us believe in this answer.
of receiving baptism.    Actively, they can fulfill the prom-      - H.V. )
ises made in their name at baptism, when they come to the

age of personal responsibility.                                       734. But infants are quite unaware of this.

   733. I argued with a friend that infants should be bap-            They are just as unaware of their acquisition of a merely

tized because original sin must be destroyed in order to           natural life principle.     But .that does not. prevent them

enter the life of grace. Was I right?                              getting it.


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   - B E A R E R                                             209


   735. How, then, can they accept the Christian Faith?            the word upon an action of its will or choice. To say, there-

That requires belief, and they are incapable of believing.         fore, that a parent can act in behalf of the salvation of its

                                                                   child is surely wholly untenable.

   The belief of the parents is sufficient here just as it is
sufhcient  for so much in the natural life. The parents be-           What, then, is the Roman Catholic conception of the
lieve on their child's behalf that food is necessary, and give     sacrament of baptism.?    In the first place, Rome rejects the
                                                                   idea that the baptism of John the Baptist is essentially the
it food. They believe that instruction is necessary, and give
                                                                   same as Christian baptism. Rome declares accursed every-
it. They believe that sound morals are necessary, and teach
                                                                   one who declares that the baptism of John had the same
the good principles they know. They don't wait for the
                                                                   force as the baptism of Christ.
child to make up its own mind on all these things. Later

the child will know and accept for itself the wisdom of these         Secondly, Rome maintains the absolute necessity of the
things. In the same way, parents who know that Christ is           sacrament of baptism unto salvation. Without baptism no-
the way, the truth and the life, choose Christ on their            body can be saved. As we are born of our earthly parents,
child's behalf. They set their child, who is a continuation        we cannot possibly enter into the life of God. This can
of their own life, and in whom they live over again, upon          occur only through regeneration. And this regeneration
the right way; they teach their child the truth of Christ;         occurs at baptism. It is true that Rome, in this connection,
and at the earliest possible moment secure the implantation        speaks of the baptism of desire, so that the desire on the
of the life of Christ in the child's soul by baptism. Later on,    part of a repentant sinner would imply his desire to do the
the child gladly accepts and ratifies this gift of itself to       will of God, and this desire would imply the desire of Bap-
Christ as it grows into an understanding of its faith and          tism inasmuch as such baptism is the will of God. God,
begins to live consciously according to its precepts. And it       then, would accept such desire as equivalent to baptism.
is a real tragedy that, owing to mistaken notions, the Bap-        And Rome also makes an exception in the case of martyrs. A
tists and others allow so many little children to die with-        martyr is credited with the baptism of blood. But, except
out baptismal regeneration, lacking the life Christ alone can      for these cases, the sacrament of baptism is absolutely nec-
give, and which no earthly birth can confer, with the result       essary unto salvation.    Infants, according to Rome, who
that such children are forever incapable of attaining the          have not .been  baptized, cannot possibly be saved. They
supernatural destiny reserved for those to whom a share in         cannot enter into everlasting and heavenly bliss. It is true
the divine nature has been communicated by water and the           that they do not enter into everlasting punishment, because,
Holy Ghost. Professing Christian parents who neglect to            according to Rome,. it would be unjust if a child innocent
have their children baptized do an injury both to Christ and       of any personal sin had to suffer the miseries of hell. Such
to the children they deprive of the life He desires to give        a child enters into a Limbo of unbaptized children. This
them.                                                              Limbo is an intermediate state of purely natural happiness.

                                                                   And in that state unbaptized children receive all the hap-

   In connection with this answer the undersigned would            piness proportionate to their natural capacity. Rome con-

make the following observation. Rome's reference here to           siders the sacrament of baptism as absolutely necessary. In

food and instruction certainly does not hold. Rome declares        fact, the sacrament of baptism is so wholly necessary that

that just as parents supply their infants with food and also       the baptism of an infant need not be administered by any-

furnish their children with instruction, without waiting for       one in office. If need be, anyone may administer the sacra-

them to make up their own minds on these things, so the            ment to an infant. The important question is not who ad-

Church accepts the faith of the parents in behalf of their         ministers it, but simply that it be administered.

children. Whether food will benefit a child or not does not
depend upon that child. This is also true, in a certain sense,        Thirdly, Rome maintains the baptism of children, of
as far as the instructing of children is concerned, although       infants. With this, of course, we do not disagree. Rome's
it is true, of course, that a child will later react toward        reference to those Scriptures that speak of entire houses,
this instruction, and that his reaction toward this instruction    being baptized, and also that it is extremely unlikely that
depends upon the inner condition or status of his heart and        all those who were baptized upon the day of Pentecost
soul, which, we know, is sovereignly determined by the             should have been baptized by immersion, we find to be
living God. But the theory that regeneration is preceded           completely in harmony with the Word of God.

by faith and is a result of it, certainly does not hold in
                                                                      Fourthly, Rome considers baptism as the instrument of
Rome's presentation that the parent may act in behalf of the
                                                                   regeneration and also that this sacrament washes away our
child. For, such a child is actually regenerated at baptism,
                                                                   original guilt and all sins committed prior to baptism. But,
without any choice of its own, and, once regenerated, such
                                                                   to this we hope to call attention in our following article.
a child cannot possibly be lost. And this must mean that

such a child's salvation does not depend in any sense of                                                                    H.V.

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


                                                                    work of creation, while the Father and the Holy Ghost are

11 The Voice of Our Fathers                                   11    excluded from the work of redemption, and the Father and
                                                                    the Son are excluded from the work of sanctification. He

                                                                    maintains: 1) That the respective works are not ascribed to

                  The Belgic Confession                             the Persons exclusively, that is, in such a way that these
                                                                    works do not properly belong to all Persons. 2) That by
                   ARTICLE VIII (continued)                         this distinction is indicated the order of operation proper to

The Oneness of God (continued)                                      the Persons of the Godhead. The Father created all things

                                                                    out of Himself through the Son and the Holy Ghost. Re-
       In answer to this question, we may state from the out-
                                                                    demption is ascribed to the Son because it is the Son Who
set that it certainly was not the intention of our Reformed
                                                                    immediately performs the work of redemption: He only,
fathers to teach anything at all like the error of tritheism,
                                                                    not the Holy Ghost or the Father, became a ransom for our
and to make a division in the work of the Three Persons.
                                                                    sins. And thus, it is the Holy Ghost through Whom our
This could not have been the case, for the simple reason
                                                                    sanctification is immediately effected. 3) That while the
that such would have been in conflict with the very teach-
                                                                    divine works are indivisible, and all the divine Persons
ings of the articles in which this distinction is made. How-
                                                                    perform the outgoing works of God, the order and manner
ever this three-fold distinction made by the Confession (and
                                                                    of operation proper to each of the Three Persons must be
also by the Catechism and by the Baptism Form) is to be
                                                                    maintained.
explained, we may assume from the outset that the Con-
                                                                       Dr. A. Kuyper Sr., in E Voto Dordraceno, also deals with
fession would not be flagrantly self-contradictory. In the
                                                                    this problem. And it would seem that by his explanation he
second place, we may call attention to the fact that this
                                                                    can hardly escape the error of introducing a relation of sub-
distinction has been borrowed from the Apostles' Creed,
                                                                    ordination among the Three Persons. For though he too
in which the f&St  article is devoted to God the Father, Al-
                                                                    maintains that it is the Triune God Who creates, redeems,
mighty, Creator of heaven and earth; articles two to seven,
                                                                    and sanctifies, he nevertheless explains `that in all the op-
not simply to the Second Person as He is within the divine          erations that concern Creation  the Father is the chief
Being, but to Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, and
                                                                    worker with whom the Son and the Holy Ghost cooperate;
His ?vork; and articles eight to twelve do not speak ab-
                                                                    in all that concerns Redemption the Son is the chief worker
stractly of the Holy Ghost, but of the Holy Ghost as the
                                                                    with whom the Father and the Holy Ghost cooperate; and
Spirit of Christ and of His work in the applicatioll  of the
                                                                    in all that concerns your personal sanctZfication  the Holy
benefits of salvation to us. This same distinction is made
                                                                    Ghost is the chief worker and the Father and the Son co-
briefly in our Confession: "The Father is called our Creator,
                                                                    operate." Th'1s error must certainly be avoided in our think-
by his power; the Son is our Savior and Redeemer, by his
                                                                    ing concerning the Holy Trinity. The Three Persons are
blood; the Holy Ghost is our Sanctifier, by his dwelling in
                                                                    co-essential and co-equal. And therefore, it must certainly
our hearts." And again, whatever else may be said by way
                                                                    be maintained that all the works of God are the works of
of explanation of this distinction, two things are perfectly
                                                                    the one God. The Triune God creates, redeems, and sanc-
clear. First of all, this distinction certainly gives expression
                                                                    tifies. In the second place, the Three Persons in all of the
to a reality in the life and experience of the child of God,
                                                                    outgoing works of God appear as essentially co-equal. In
and as such is legitimate and accurate. And secondly, it is
                                                                    the third place, in these outgoing works of God the Three
exactly from the point of view of our concrete, actual,
                                                                    Persons are revealed in their personal relation to one an-
Christian experience of the communion of the Triune God,
                                                                    other, that is, in their distinct personal properties. Hence,
and that too, according to His own revelation, that this
                                                                    in creation, redemption, and sanctification the Father oper-
distinction is of meaning, and that too, in such a way that
                                                                    ates as Father; the Second Person operates as Son; and the
we do not make separation and division between the Per-
                                                                    Third Person as Holy Ghost. The Christian's faith, there-
sons when we make this distinction. Certainly, we very
                                                                    fore, is faith in the Triune God, Who revealed Himself as.
naturally connect our redemption, for example, with the
                                                                    Father in the work of creation, Who revealed Himself as.
blood of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, God's only begotten
                                                                    Redeemer in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son, and Who
Son. And this is Scriptural too. But we surely do not make
                                                                    revealed Himself as Sanctifier in the Holy Ghost as the
this connection to the exclusion of the Father and the Holy
                                                                    Spirit of Christ.
Spirit. Not at all.

       In the third place, we may note that various attempts        The Threeness of God
have been made to clear up this problem, all these attempts            The previous discussion, though related intimately to

agreeing in their denial of any cleavage among the Three            the oneness of God, has already brought us also into the

Persons. Ursinus, in his "Commentary on the Heidelberg              discussion of His threeness and of the relationship between

Catechism," faces the objection that by the formulation in          the Three Persons. Also of this the eighth article of our Con-

question the Son and the Holy Ghost are excluded from the           fession speaks.


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                211


   In the ilrst place, the article states the truth concerning    Persdns'have their personal distinctions. And these distinc-

the Three Persons as follows: ". . . in which (one single         tions are indicated by their names. The Father is the cause,

essence) are three persons, really, truly, and eternally dis-     origin, beginning, of all things visible and invisible. His

tinct, according to their incommunicable properties." And         distinct personal property is that He is Father. As such,

in this connection the article mentions the names of the          He eternally generates the Son. Such is His distinct prop-

Three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. As        erty within-the divine Essence. And this is revealed in the

we mentioned before, the article speaks in this connection        outgoing works of God in the revelation of the Triune God

of the "incommunicable properties" of the Three Persons.          as the cause, origin, beginning, of all things. The Son is the

By this expression is meant the distinct personal property        word, wisdom, image of the Father. He is generated eter-

of each Person, that is, a property that cannot be com-           nally by the Father. Such is His distinct property within the

municated from Person to Person. In the second place, the         divine Being. And as such He is revealed both in creation

article states the distinct personal property of each of the      and redemption.         And the Holy Ghost is personally the

Three Persons, as follows: "The Father is the cause, origin       eternal power and might of God. He is subject of all the

and beginning of all things visible and invisible; the Son is     divine virtues and works as Spirit. He proceeds as the Spirit

the word, wisdom and image of the Father; the Holy Ghost          of the Father to the Son, and as the Spirit of the Son to

is the eternal power and might, proceeding from the Father        the Father. And as such He is revealed in the application

and the Son." And in this connection the article stresses         of the blessings of salvation to us as the Spirit of Christ.

again: ". . . that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy             There are two questions that remain. The first-is: What
Ghost, have each his personality, distinguished by their          is the relation of these Three Persons to the divine Essence?

properties." And therefore, the Confession adds the nega-         On this question our Confession is very explicit. We read:
tive delineation: "Hence then, it is evident, that the Father     `L. . . . but in such wise that these three persons are but
is not the Son, nor the Son the Father, and likewise the          one only God . . . Nevertheless these persons thus distin-
Holy Ghost is neither the Father nor the Son."                    guished are not divided, nor intermixed: for the Father hath
   Now from all the above, -as also from what the article         not assumed the flesh, nor hath the Holy Ghost, but the Son
says concerning the interrelationship of the Three Persons,       only. The Father hath never been without his Son, or
it is very evident that it is not easy to formulate the doc-      without his Holy Ghost. For they are all three co-eternal

trine of the Trinity in any detail. We deal here indeed with      and co-essential. There is neither &st nor last: for they are
the mystery of the incomprehensible God. For that reason,         all three one . . ."     Hence, negatively, there is no division
while it is very well possible to know Him as the Triune          and no separation and no subordination between the Three
God, it is very difficult to form even a limited conception       Persons. And, positively, they are co-equal: they are all
of the Trinity. This article engages in a negative-positive       three co-eternal and co-essential. In one Essence they are
delimitation of the truth concerning the Three Persons            equally God. There is among the Persons no difference in

throughout. Nevertheless, on the basis of this article we         this respect. And this is not to be understood mechanically,

may say the following.                                            or mathematically, as though each Person, so to speak, had

   There are three distinct Persons in the Godhead. The           a one-third share of the divine attributes. Each of the

article does not go into the question as to what is meant by      Three Persons lives, thinks, wills, acts in the whole divine

a person. And this is indeed not an easy question, that is,       Being. They all possess all the divine attributes in their in-

if we try to define a person. In a man, his person is the         finite totality. There is no rank, no order of time, no sub-

subject of all his actions and all his erristence.  It is that    ordination in any sense of the word. Being co-eternal and

which remains the same through all the changes through            co-essential, they are co-equal.

which he passes.    It is his ego, his I. I was born; I was a        This already brings us into the sphere of the second

lad; I became a young man; I grew to maturity; presently          question, namely: What is the relation of the Persons to each

I shall die; I shall be raised from the dead; and I shall ap-     other? On the one hand, that relationship, as we have seen,

pear in glory. In all these various stages of my existence,       is that of personal distinction. There is no intermixing of

I perform various actions. And that I is always the same I.       the Persons. Our Confession uses an illustration from the

My personality implies, therefore, my indiuiduaZity.  But im-     outgoing works of God in this connection: the Father hath

plies more. A tree or an animal may also be an individual.        not assumed the flesh, nor hath the Holy Ghost, but the Son

But a person is an individual in a rational, moral nature.        only. This personal distinction is expressed in the names of

And when we confess that there are three Persons in the           the Three Persons. On the other hand, that relation is one

Godhead, we mean that there are in God three such sub-            of perfect harmony. There is no division and separation in

jects, three that say I. Among men, however, three persons        God. In the oneness of the divine Being the Three Persons

would also imply three beings. But God is Triune. There           find their perfect harmony.

is but one divine being and nature; and subsisting in that           As such, God, in Whom there is the infmitely perfect

one divine essence there are three distinct Persons. These
                                                                                          (Continued on page 213)


     212                                          T H E   STANDAR.D   B E A R E R


                                                                           i.e., the..truth.as  we believe and confess it. From this calling

                                                                           we can never be excused or set free.

                                                                               (2) The above calling applies not to part but to the

                                                                           entire training of our children, i.e., in the home, the school,
                    ._ Education and Censure                               the church and everywhere. As Moses expresses it, "when

                                                                           thou sittest  in thine house, and-when thou walkest in the
                                 (Continued)                               way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up'"

                                                                           (Deut. 6:7). This we can never modify to fit our own liking.
            One more reason that is often advanced to support the

     contention that ecclesiastical censure cannot be applied to              (3) When the Lord in His providence and grace gives

     those who neglect their calling to use the facilities of Prot-        to us schools, making it possible to have such schools,

     estant Reformed education where these are made available              wherein we are able through the employment of Protestant

     is the claim that the task of the training of the children is a       Reformed educators to impart to our children that world

     parental responsibility and, therefore, parents are at liberty        and life view that is in harmony with the Scriptures, we
     to choose the school that they desire for their children.             are duty bound to use these means and failure to do so is
     Where they send them,is  of no concern to anyone else and             gross sm. It is not a matter of individual choice as to where

     the responsibility for that decision rests alone on the parents.      we will send our children but then it is a matter of our
     The church has no right to interfere with this liberty.               calling before God which we cannot neglect with impunity.

            The point of truth in the above argument is that parents          This position is further sustained by the fact that parents
     are indeed responsible for the training and education of              make a sincere and solemn promise before God when they

     their children. This is the sole point of truth. The rest             present their children in baptism. They are asked to stand
     simply does not follow. We may apply the same argument                in the presence of the church as witness and "sincerely an-
     to every circumstance of sin and show that if this argument           swer this question": "Do you promise and intend to see
     is true there can never be any ecclesiastical censure applied         this child, when come to years of discretion, instructed and
     to any member of the church. A man, for example, joins an             brought up in the aforesaid doctrine, or help or cause them
     ungodly and worldly union. That is his personal responsibil-          to be instructed therein, to the utmost of your power?" And
     ity. So the argument must run. No one may interfere with              the answer is given, `Yes."

     his liberty to be or not to be a member of such an organiza-             Prior to their being asked this question, parents are

     tion. Another man may indulge in vice and live in drunken-            reminded that baptism is "not a custom or superstition" but

     ness and immorality. This, too, is his personal responsibil-          it is "an ordinance of God, to seal unto us and to our seed

     ity. Another may desecrate the sabbath, practice theft, etc.          His covenant; therefore it must be used for that end." We

     In each instance the individual must simply point the                 may not mock with the holy ordinances or institutions of

     church to the fact that what he does is his own responsibil-          God and certainly the school does not stand divorced from

     ity and is of no business or concern to the church. To follow         the training of our children but is a very vital `help" by

     this line of reasoning leads to anarchism, the deplorable             which we "cause our children to be brought up." And

I    situation that existed in Israel at the time of the judges            whether that "help" shall be conducive to bringing them up

     when "there was no king in Israel, but every man did that             in harmony with the doctrine we confess is contingent upon

     which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6). This                  the kind of school to which we send our children. We can-

     philosophy, followed by much that is called church today,             not expect and have no reason to expect that the public

     destroys all law and order. The basic folly of it all is that         school can or will train our children to live in the midst of

     it denies the fundamental truth that there is a law of God            the world from the principles of our doctrine. Neither can

     imposed upon us through the means of the instituted offices           we expect this of schools in which the philosophy of educa-

     of His church and from that law we can never extricate                tion is saturated with the heretical world and life view of

     ourselves. Personal responsibility and individual freedom             common grace. Rev. R. Veldman, in the lecture to which

     never mean that we are at liberty to do as we please but              we referred in our last article, correctly stated: "You know

     we are bound by the law of God. And the church is duty                you can say but the home and the church counter act what-.

     bound to enforce that law of God and has every reason to              ever evil there is in the school but by the same token what-

     expect that her members will submit thereto or subject                ever evil there is in the school counteracts the home and.

     themselves to the spiritual forces of ecclesiastical censure.         the church. After all non-Protestant Reformed people and.

            From this then it should not be difficult to see the reason    anti-Protestant Reformed people cannot instruct Prot-.

     that we hold to the position that parents who neglect the             estant Reformed people and for all these reasons the prin-

     facilities of Protestant Reformed education for their chil-           ciple is not difficult to see. In this way we shall educate.

     dren must be disciplined. Our position is simply this:                our children. You know what it means to educate . . . it

            (1) In His Word God has clearly revealed.our  calling as       means to lead out . . . to bring out. And what has to be
     parents to bring up our children in harmony with His Word,            led out? The man of God! The new life! The child of

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

God. The regenerated child of God. The Protestant Re-              convinced that the church should not hesitate to follow her

formed man of God has to be brought out. And then we               admonitions with discipline and, if need be, with excom-

instruct. You know what it means to instruct? It means `to         munication. Is not such conduct an offense in the church

build into' and in that way to `construct.' What do you con-       of Jesus Christ and does not the Form for the Administra-

struct in the school? What must you construct? The man             tion of the Lord's Supper itself bar from the table of the

of God! Among us the Protestant Reformed man of God                Lord "all who lead offensive lives"? If such parents have

must be constructed. If you are going to construct a brick         such little regard for the vows connected with the sacrament

building, you use brick don't you? You don't use wood to           of Holy Baptism, what concern can they have for the sacra-

construct a brick building. And you don't use Christian            ment of the Lord's Supper ? Is it possible to derive a spirit-

Reformed material to construct a Protestant Reformed man.          ual blessing thrdugh  the means of the latter sacrament while

If you are going to build a Protestant Reformed man out of         living in contempt and disregard of the sacred oath of the

your child, you'll have to use Protestant Reformed material."      former? We believe not, for the sacraments are inseparable.

   With this we fully agree. It makes sense, doesn't it? As            We do not contend that Christian censure may be ap-
Protestant Reformed people we have a calling with respect          plied only to certain selected sins. This conclusion might be
to the education of the children whom it pleases the Lord          drawn from our having written on certain specific sins in
to give unto us. This calling is beautiful as it is also dif-      connection with Christian discipline in. our last articles.
ficult. It is a glorious-privilege that can be enjoyed only in     However this is not the case. Neither do we aver that all
the way of assuming great responsibilities. To attain that         sin necessitates censure. On the contrary, we agree with
calling necessitates that we use Protestant Reformed means         what Rev. Hoeksema once wrote when he stated that the
or material and where these are not available that we labor        sin for which censure is and must be applied is that of
"to the utmost of our power" to obtain them. When they             inapektence. God's people, as members of His Church, are
are made available to us and we neglect to use them, we sin        called to live as a distinct people, walking with their cbil-
grievously. We violate the `sincere" promise which we have         dren in the way of His covenant. To refuse to do so by
made to God and we know, do we not, what the Word of               refusing to give those children years of training in conform-
God says about the breaking of vows. We refuse to walk             ity with the demands of the covenant, where the means to
in the way of submission and obedience to our calling and          do so is pro@ded,  is to persist impenitently in a walk of
then what becomes of our religion when God Himself makes           sin. Such a walk may not be condoned in the church,
so plain to us that "obedience is better than sacrifice and to                                                                  G.v.d.B.

hearken than the fat of rams" (I Samuel X:22)?  The same

passage reminds us that "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,

and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry" (vs. 23). We                          THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS
become responsible for a generation that might have been
                                                                                         (Continued from page 211)
taught in the ways of the Lord but because of our neglect          likeness of perfect unity of Being, yet by personal distinc-
has imbibed a way of life that is contrary to His precepts.        tion, is both the living God and the covenant God. He lives
We fail to be good examples, for our very actions betray           a life of infinitely perfect fellowship in Himself; and He
our confession. With our mouths we tell our children that          reveals Himself to His people in the perfection of His cov-
this is the way but in our deeds we direct them in the op-         enant fellowship. In truth, in power, in goodness, and in
posite direction.    We alienate our children from the chil-       mercy, the Three Persons are perfectly one God.               H.C.H.
dren of like faith and coerce them to seek their companions

among those who walk as we professedly would not have
our children walk. From the pulpit and in the home the                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                                      The Mr. and Mrs. Society of Hope Prot. Ref. Church express our
children must confront warnings and admonitions against            sincere sympathy to two of our members, Mr. and Mrs. John Hui-
the very things into which we lead them. We sow the seeds          zinga,  Jr., in the death of their mother,

of confusion and fail to build constructively on a sure foun-                          MRS. JOHN HUIZINGA, SR.

dation by our dubiousness.     We obstruct our own prayers            "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my
                                                                   God; in Him will I trust." Ps. 91:2.
for it is impossible to ask His blessing when we refuse to                                                 Rev. H. Hanko, President
walk in His way and are thankful for the institutions and                                                  Mrs. J. Dykstra, Secretary

other gifts which He has given us.                                                    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY

   May the church then leave such wrong-doing go un-                  The Ladies' Aid Society Ruth of the Hope Protestant Reformed
                                                                   Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan, mourns the loss of one of its
punished? Can she feel that her obligation is fully resolved       members,
                                                                                       MRS. JOHN HUIZII\TGA,  SR.
when she has remonstrated these wrongs by admonition?
                                                                   and expresses its sincere sympathy to her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Fred
Can she justify the position that full parental responsibility     Huizinga.  "So teach us to number our days that we may apply our
is met when the children of the church are catechized? My          hearts unto wisdom." Psalm  90:12.
                                                                                                           Rev. Herman Hanko, President
answer to these questions is an uhequivocal  "No." We are                                                  Sybil Engelsma, Secretary

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


                                                                  them that no matter what happens all is well. This is con-

Ij.ALL   A R O U N D   U S   11 ducive-to bringing up a generation of the covenant seed
                                                                  that live in the serenity of their assurance of final salvation

                                                                  and of the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

NUCLEAR WAR AND OUR CHILDREN                                      THE POWER OF UNIONS
       There is a growing concern in these times of threat of        There is a growing feeling among men that the power

nuclear war about the effects on children. Children hear          which labor unions possess is too great. They are in a posi-

their parents and teachers speak of the horrors of nuclear        tion to bring to a halt all major industry, transportation and

destruction; they watch air raid shelters being built; they       communication in this country. Their power continues to

see missiles blast off from their launching pads on the TV        increase and their influence in the country continues to rise.

screens; they are drilled in air raid procedures in the              In a recent article in U.S. News und  World Report, an

schools; they speak of A-bombs and H-bombs. Parents,              authority on labor law discussed at some length the ,roots

teachers and psychologists report that all this is having a       of union power. This was an interesting discussion because

very bad effect on children. All kinds of psychological and       it showed just how strong unions really are. He found

emotional problems are troubling the younger generation,          twelve such roots.

and some are even in need of psychiatric care. As children           1) The strength of unions lies above all in public sym-

grow older the problems increase. Teen-agers are more             pathy. "One of the ultimate sources of union power is the

than ever inclined to take an "I don't care" attitude. They       public sympathy which arose in the early sweatshop days

worry about the kind of world they are growing up in. Their       and which has persisted in a large group of the population

fears are degenerating into a sense of defeat - their parents     even though the conditions which originally created unions

have already lost the battle of life for them. The result is      no longer exist." This public sympathy is wide spread and

a dangerous decline in morals. They reason that they might        is the real basis of all union power, especially in a dem-

as well get away with what they can, that there is no pur-        ocratic country.

pose or goal to their life. They are indifferent to studies,         2) Labor's strength also comes from its political power.

careless in driving cars.    They seize upon the state of the     It controls rigidly a large section of the electorate; it has

world to condone their moral laxity.                              vast sums of money to spend to promote labor causes and

       According to those who study these problems, this is       campaign-for pro-labor legislators on a local, state and na-

due to a considerable extent, to the fact that parents are at     tional level. In fact, anyone running for public office today

a loss how to explain these things to children, how to put        in most states must bow to the unions if he expects to make

these things in their proper perspective, and how to give         a successful run for office. To oppose the union is political

proper answers to their anxious inquiries. Even the dis-          suicide.

agreement and doubt that parents often show aggravate the            3) Governments in the past have brought a vast amount

anxiety of the children. The end of it all could quite well       of legislation into being favorable to unions. The laws of the

be that a generation is growing up that is thoroughly ir-         land are stacked in favor of unions and against employers.

responsible. The whole problem is of no little concern.           There are laws that make it possible for unions to insist on

       Of course, parents have no real answer to give to their    a "closed shop" even when almost half the employees op-

children. One can console them with a cookie (as one              pose it; laws that exempt unions from antitrust actions;

psychologist suggests doing to young children); one can ex-       laws that put unions above corrupt practice charges; laws

plain to them the scientific accomplishments involved in          that enable unions to spend millions of dollars to promote

creating these monsters of destruction; one can dwell on          their own interests; laws that give unions the benefit of the

the probabilities of there being no war, of the efforts of men    doubt in any strike and violence resulting from strikes.

to secure peace. But in the light of events, all this sounds      These laws make it extremely difficult and even all but im-

pretty hollow. And the fact of the matter is that it is all a     possible to bring unions before any court of law and make

thoroughly hopeless business conducive only to despair.           charges of wrong doing stick.

       How little sometimes we appreciate the heritage of the        4) The courts of the land, partly because of the laws,

truth of the Word of God that we have as our possession.          have always given unions special treatment. Even law en-

Surely it is true that only the believer has the true answer      forcement officers such as the state police, have often ig-

to these problems -the answer of the Word of God. Christ          nored outrageous acts of union violence and fraternized

rules sovereignly over all nations and all men. Nothing can       with those who are destroying law and order. Especially

happen without His will. And He works all things for the          national labor boards have strongly favored unions. This

coming of His kingdom and for the salvation of His people         has become increasingly true since Kennedy took office and

for whom He died.                                                 gave the National Labor Relations Board a pro-union ma-

       What  a precious heritage this is! How much it means       jority. Courts are reluctant and juries hesitant to penalize

that we can point our children to these truths and assure         any union officials for any sort of crime.


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               215
                                                                        -_ -.


   5) The press, radio and TV have always been largely.on            strikes and violence of unions by resisting their demands.

the side of unions. The result is that mass public opinion           They were unable financially to do this; they were often un-

is usually swayed in favor of unions by those who control            concerned with union demands; they had no understanding

commtmications  and who are themselves members of                    of the fine points of collective bargaining - a skill which

unions.                                                              union negotiators are experts in; they were afraid to fight

   6) The right to strike and boycott is always a source of          it out having no stomach for a prolonged struggle.

fantastic power.    A small minority of workers, with unlim-            For all these reasons, the author says, unions have be-

ited strike powers, can close down an entire industry. The           come so strong that it is necessary to curb their power. The

results of their strike are felt in industries all over the coun-    public interest can best be served if this is done.

try. There is no way to stop the terrible abuses of unions,             One wonders however, whether unions are not so strong

no way to curb their power. They usually get what they               that it is no longer possible to curb their power. Perhaps

want.                                                                they are too mighty politically, financially and legally to do

   7) The picket system of unions is another source of               anything about it. They may be completely out of hand.

power. The picket line has always been and still is a potent         They may be in a position to run the country.

means of bludgeoning employers into submission and pre-

venting those who wish to work from going to their jobs.             THE END OF CHURCH GROWTH?
Most people do not want to risk bodily harm, property                   The latest statistics put out in the Yearbook of Am&can
damage and ostracism by crossing picket lines. The unions            Churches shows that the percentage of church members

will not hesitate to do all this and more. The law stands            among the general population in the United States has de-

behind them.                                                         creased for the first time in one hundred years. This does

   8) The unions have a long tradition of threats and                not mean that over-all membership in the churches has not

violence. A hard core of dedicated union members can use             climbed a little. But the growth of the population has out-

these as a means of bringing other union members in line.            stripped the growth of church membership.

"In many instances, the union threat extends far beyond                 There are, according to the Yea&ook,  116,109,929

mere ostracism. Each year there are many strikes character-          members of churches today in this country. This is 63.4%

ized by shooting, dynamiting, physical beatings, mass                of the total population. These belong to 258 different church

picketing, car rocking, window smashing, paint throwing,             bodies. Roman Catholics now number 42,876,665  members,

and other-forms of injury to person and property." Because           and are the largest denomination in the country by far. All

of threats of violence, union members are often terrified so         Protestants total 64,876,966  members.

that they do not bring their objections up at union meetings.           Over the whole world, Roman Catholics increased by

   9) Loyalty of union members is another important                  8,000,OOO.  They now number 558,221,OOO  members. They

source of power.     `Almost every local has a hard core of          claim 18.2% of the entire population of the world. They are

members who attend meetings regularly and who sincerely              numerically stronger than any one country.

believe in the union movement. With many of these in-                   Out of all these vast numbers of Church members, how

dividuals, unionism is almost  a form of religion. They deep-        few belong really to the Church of Christ.

ly believe that unions have advanced the workingman and

the employers would exploit workers ruthlessly if it were            A NEW `RELEASE FROM CARES
not for the existence and continued vigilance of labor                  New Year's first service saw a strange sight one evening
unions."                                                             in the Grace Methodist Church of Atlanta. After the min-
   10) Compulsory membership is in effect in two-thirds              ister was finished preaching his sermon on `You Can Start
of the States. This makes mockery of the principle of vol-           Right Over Now," the lights were dimmed, the choir began
untary union membership and forces an employee to join               to sing softly and the members crowded the aisles to come
a union at the threat of losing his job. His dues are, in fact,      to the front and drop pieces of paper into one of twelve
taken from his pay even before he receives his check, and            burning urns before the altar. On these pieces of paper
that by the employer.                                                were written all the darkest thoughts, the greatest worries,
  11) Unlimited size of unions makes unions doubly strong.           the deepest hatreds and evilest desires that came to the
They are not composed of small groups of employees bar-              members' minds during the sermon. This was a symbolic

gaining in their own factory. They are instead members of            act of destroying them all and beginning the New Year

international organizations and can muster the support               aright. It is such a popular annual ceremony that members

financially and morally of hundreds of thousands of union            of other churches attend this service to take part. People

members across the country.                                          were lined up all the way to the door and an hour was con-

   12) Finally, the weakness of employers has been a source          sumed before all the bad thoughts were turned into ashes.

of union power. Any number of employers, especially those               When the calling of believers becomes distasteful to

in smaller businesses, have not dared to risk the threats of         people, they will go to any length to find a substitute. Can

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

     burning a piece of paper do what prayer cannot do? Can              C. Hanko, Mar. 3 - G. Lanting, Mar. 17-  M. Schipper, Mar.

     committing evil thoughts to a pot of hre  purge a wicked            24 - G. Vos, April 7 - 6. `Laming.

     heart? Can even an impressive and attractive ceremony ac-               Subsidy requests for the year 1964 were presented by

     complish more than the blood of Christ?               H. Hanko      the churches of Kalamazoo, Holland and Southeast. Classis

                                                                         decided to advise Synod to grant these requests.

                                                                            Classis  appointed the Rev. M. Schipper to be moderator

            NEW~FROMOURC~~UR~HE~                                         of Southwest Church, and the Rev. C. Hanko to be moder-
                                                                         ator of Hope Church.

                                                                            Classis  also decided to place the matter of proper creden-

                                                                         tials of the Rev. H. Hanko in the hands of the Classical
                                                   Jan. 20, 1963         Committee for its execution.

                                                                            The following were chosen delegates to the 1963 Synod:
            Rev. R. C. Harbach, of Lynden, is considering two calls
                                                                         n/Iinitiers  - Pdmi:  C. Hanko, H. Hoeksema, G. La&in&
     at present, one from Kalamazoo and the other from Love-
                                                                         M. Schipper. Secund~:  G. Vos (Secundus Generalis). Elders
     land.
                                                                         - Primi: J. Kalsbeek, G. Pipe, D. Rietema, H. Zwak. Sec-
            Southwest's new trio consists of the Revs. R. C. Harbach,
                                                                         undi: P. Knossen, P. Decker, J. Kortering, F. Ondersma.
     J. Kortering and H. Veldman. The congregational meeting
                                                                            Rev. C. Hanko was chosen primus  delegate ad examina,
     intended to call from this trio was postponed from Jan. 14
                                                                         and the Revs. H. Hoeksema and G. Vos secundi delegates
     to the 21st  because of snow-drifted roads.
                                                                         ad examina.
            Hope's Consistory has named the following trio: Revs.           Rev. H. Hanko was appointed to thank the ladies of
     C. Hanko, R. C. Harbach and G. Vanden  Berg.                        Southeast Church for their excellent catering services.

                REPORT OF CLASSIS  EAST, JAN. 9, 1963                        Questions of Article 41 of the Church Order were asked
                                                                         and answered satisfactorily.
            Classis  East met in Southeast Church. Rev. G. Vos, pres-
                                                                            The Finance Committee, consisting of W. Clason and J.
     ident  of the October Classis,  led in opening devotions. All
                                                                         H. Kortering, tendered their report of the expenses of this
     the churches were represented by two delegates each.
                                                                         classical meeting, and the treasurer was instructed to pay
        Rev. C. Hanko, following order of rotation, presided over
                                                                         the bills.
     this session of Classis,  while the Rev. Vos recorded the min-
                                                                            The Rev. H. Hanko, who was present at the Classis  for
     utes.  Much of the material before Classis  was of a routine
                                                                         the last time, having accepted the call to our Doon Church,
     nature, including reports from the Stated Clerk and Clas-
                                                                         bade farewell to. Classis  East, expressing his appreciation
     sical  Committee.
                                                                         for the blessings enjoyed while he served in this Classis,  as
            The committee appointed on the July Classis  to give ad-
                                                                         well as the prayer that God would continue to bless our
     vice regarding a decision of the last Synod respecting First
                                                                         churches. Rev. C. Hanko, president of this Classis,  re-
     Church and Classis  East, reported. Classis  adopted the ad-
                                                                         sponded with a few well chosen words.
     vice of the committee, namely, to send a letter to the Synod
                                                                            After the minutes were adopted and Classis  sang Psalter
     a s   o u r   r e p l y .
                                                                         NO. 383, the Rev. H. Hanko was asked to close the meeting
            Letters for a committee of Classis  West and Rev. J. A.      with thanks to God
                                                                                                            M. SCHIPPER, Stated Ch7c
     Heys relative to the request of Classis  East to help the West

     with classical appointments were read and put in the hands              Rev. H.-Hoeksema  will continue his series of sermons on

     of a committee appointed to prepare a schedule of                   First Peter on the Reformed Witness Hour February broad-

     appointments to the churches of Kalamazoo, Hope, and                casts. The schedule is as follows: Feb. 3 - "The Nearness

     Southwest upon their requests. Classis  decided to inform           of the End"; Feb. IO - "The Righteous Hardly Saved"; Feb.

     Classis  West that we cannot help them with classical ap-           17 - `Clothed With Humility"; Feb. 24 - "The Admonition

     pointments at this time, but appointed a committee to meet          to Watch." Remember that these broadcasts can also be

     with the committee of the West to re-work the schedule if a         heard over W. J.B.L. Holland, Mich., Sundays at 3 p. m., on

     minister from the West should come to Classis  East. Com-           both AM and FM.

     mittee: Revs. G. Laming  and M. Schipper.                               Hull's congregation shared in the gift of clothing to the

            Classis  adopted the following schedule of classical ap-     poor in Jamaica by designating their Jan. 6th Communion

     pointments: Kalumazoo:  Jan. 20 -M. Schipper, Jan. 27-              Thank-Offering to help defray the shipping expenses in-

     C. Hanko, Feb. 10 -G. Lanting, Mar. 10 -C. Hanko, Mar.              curred by First Church.

     24 -G. Lanting, Apr. 7 - G. Vos. Southwest: Jan. 13 - G.               Rev. G. Lanting, of Holland, was the speaker at the Of-

     Laming,  Jan. 20 -G. Vos, Feb. 10 - C. Hanko, Feb. 24-              fice Bearers' Conference held Jan. 8. The topic assigned to

     G. Vos, Mar. 3 -M. Schipper, Mar. 24-C. Hanko, Mar.                 him was, "The Deacon's Place in the Consistory."

     31-  M. Schipper. Hope: Feb. 17 - M. Schipper, Feb. 24 -                . . . see you in church.                           J.M.F.


