         VOLUME XL                            NOVEMBER   1, 1963  -  GRAND  RAPIDS,   MICHIGAN                             NUMBER 3

II                                                                          Reason two: the wicked-must be revealed to be wicked.
              M E D I T A T I O N                                        God must be just when He judges. That is: when the
                                                                         judgment falls, the whole world of men and angels, wicked
                                                                         and good, must see clearly that the punishment is corn-
                             "LQVE"                                      mensurate to the crime..  ,Therefore  the crime in all its
          "charity suffereth long, and is  k&ad; charity envieth         foulness must be manifested. Therefore this terrible his-
          not;  cha&y  vaunteth  not itself, is not  pufed  up."         tory. Let him that is filthy, be filthy still!
                                                    - 1   Car.  13:4.       Oh yes, God  suifereth  long. Because He is Love!
      Love suffereth long.. Love has the capacity to take                   And it is for that reason that His people, His children,
punishment, unjustly inflicted upon one. It will bear un-                practice the same longsuffering. They hate evil, but they
deserved ill-treatment, and reproach; has the capacity, for              tiill not avenge themselves. They wait for God.
instance, to suffer the robbing of one's goods, good name,                                             0  0  0  0
place in society, or one's very life, without striking back,                And meanwhile, they are kind!
without revenging one's self.                                               The root meaning of this word is that' you are fit for
      But not, you understand, because a man who is long-                use, useful, virtuous, good. Therefore, it is used for the
suffering is devoid of a sense of justice and righteousness.             state of manageableness, mildness and pleasantness. It is
Oh no, a longsuffering man has a'keener sense of equity                  opposed to all harshness,-bitterness, hardness and sharpness.
than the unhappy man who does the inflicting of all-the                  A kind man does not hurt or pierce you with many sorrows.
undeserved abuse on his fellow man.                                         A kind, a really kind man, is a pleasure to know.
      No, but this is the other element of longsuffering: you            -- Micha has painted his picture. A kind man is one who
bear it all in patience, and that is the virtue to wait, the             loves mercy.
capacity.to  wait for the Lord, who will surely requite all                 And the Gospel has shown his-famce: it is Jesus Christ.
evil.                                                                    He is the kindest man who ever walked the earth. He
      Attend to the awful Cross of Golgotha!                             could be moved with compassion when He saw the misery
      God can behold His Son in the hand of the evil. They               of those He loved.
hate Him, ,they pour out all the vials of their wrath over                                        .
the Innocent! They take Him in their vile hands and ar-                     The Holland language has a good word for the virtue
range His arms and legs on the accursed tree. They hammer                of kindness. No, it is not vriendelijkheid, but  "goedw
the nails into His holy flesh. His blood                                 tiwenheid." It expresses the full idea of the Scriptural  -'
                                                 flows.
      0  God1 `How  canst Thou behold all this evil! ?                   word l&dness.  It is that virtue where everything in your
      Here is the answer: He suffereth long. He has suffered             whole being is urgent to the well-being of the object of
for centuries.                                                           your kindness. You want to be good to them. No, it does
      And He has two reasons for His virtue of waiting.                  not merely mean that you desire to bestow all manner of
      Reason one: His people must be cultivated in the throes            good things on the object of your kindness, but you really
of suffering. They must be born in adversity, and be built               want to give yourself!
up in blood and tears of their suffering. They must all                     Attend to the origin of that virtue: it is God Himself.
come to conversion. And that takes time, much time: II                      God is kind.
Peter 3:q. And with regard-to the suffering Son, God waits.                 God's kindness is that love of God wherein His whole
Jesus must be so treated by the howling mob of God-haters.               Being constrains Him to be good to the objects of His
He must lay the foundation of the New Jerusalem in His                   kindness, with the expressed desire and determination to
h o l y   b l o o d .                                                    give Himself to them for time and for eternity.


50                                            T H E   STANDARD   B E A R E R

      God's kindness to us is Christ Jesus the Lord.               We have not seen it! And when the poor little girl will
      And the end of that kindness is that glorious state where    exceed in boldness and call attention to the boon which
God will be all and  in  a.ZZ.                                     made her so happy, the others will spurn and turn away.
      So then, if you have the love of God in your hearts,            Instead of kindness there was envy.
you are kind to your neighbours. You have.the  inner urge.            And another little heart is hurt.
to be good to them, to give yourself to them, to beam                Multiply this in the millions, and apply it to all of
upon them and to make them feel that you mean their                us in all circumstances, and you will, have discovered a
welfare. "Be ye kind one to. another, tenderhearted, for-          world of suffering.
giving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath                Our dress, our goods, 0fLr person, our children, our  all-
forgiven you!" Eph. 4:32.                                          it is good, praiseworthy, glorious! But the other? It should
      What unspeakable comfort to know that God is chreesos        not be; it should not happen. I, capital I, must be glorious
over us!                                                           in my little heaven. It is the age-old sin: we are our own
      What consolation in the midst of the bitter, cruel, hard,    little god, and there must not, there dare not, be any god
and cutting world of devils and men who do their utmost            than we!
to tear us and inflict their wounds on the innocent! Their            Oh, the foul plant of envy!
very tongues are spears and swords: the poison of asps                And all this is but negative language. Instead of envy
is under their lips. In the midst of it, we know that the          we should have love. Love is not envious, saith Paul.
Lord is mindful of us. All His mind is that  .we shall be             Tianslate  it into its opposite, and what have you?
blessed forever, that we shall feed on His glorious Image,            This: you will `rejoice with those that do rejoice, and
an'd that is Jesus!. .God is kind over us!                         you  $11 weep with those that weep.         Such is love!
      And He proved it in the gift of Jesus.                          14 someone approaches you, overflowing with happiness
      I have said that the kind man gives himself, rather than     for this and that, and such and so, and when every word
his gifts.                                                         tells you of all this delirious happiness that is their portion
 Well, what did the Lord do?                                       -  thin love tells you what to do from the heart: you will
  He gave Himself- so intimately to you that the church            say: IYour heaven is my heaven! I am sincerely glad with
has fought for ages and struggled to clearly see and under-        you. !The one smile engendered two smiles. The one heart
stand the two natures of Jesus. God and man are united,            that  iburst with glee found its counterpart. Such- is the
for God is kind. "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they             natuje of love!
may be made perfect in one!" John 17.                                 O;h, that we would emulate it!
      0, give Thou me the succour of Thy Spirit! Psalm 119.           When you are in heaven, and time is ended; when you
      Then the love of God will be spread abroad in my             begin your eternal song, you may be certain that God will
heart! Romans  5:5..                                               smile at all this joy. and happiness! Notice: you will enter
      Then, then I shall be kind to my fellows! I Cor.  13:4.      $0  the joy of your Lord!
                                                                   ;I Love, moreover, vaunteth not itself!
                            0  0  0`  0                            ; He that vaunteth himself is the notorious braggart,
                                                                   the vainglorious fool!
      But there is more.                                              ,4nd I would beg of you not to search too far for this
      Love envieth not!                                            boaster of evil things. He is very near to every one of us.
      Envy is the capacity to burn, to be hot in the pursuit'         It is found in the wicked heart of man.
of someone or something. It is used in God's Word for
both good and evil  endeavour.                                        We went to school with the devil.
      Here it is the foul fruit of hatred.                            Of Anti-Christ it is said that he spoke great things'.
      Envy is the hatred of the natural man overagainst his        Worthy son of the devil. He must have spoken great things
neighbour, either in prosperity .or adversity.                     too, on the morning of creation. The devil, when he was
      When the brother prospereth, envy is not to be consoled.     still an angel, also sang for joy when God completed His
It gnaws its heart out in the beholding of success of the          work of the creation of men and the hosts of the earth.
neighbour: it should not happen to him. An envious soul            But later he spoke great things against the Almighty and
cannot see the prosperity of his fellows. All the good things      to the angels that were under him. And they listened to
that he hath ought to be mine! All the success he hath             him. The result? A veritable host of wicked demons that
should be mine! I cannot see that my brother fares well.           speaks great things against God and His Anointed.
      It is already evident among us as children.                     And he taught men.
      When the little girl is oh so glad with her new dress,          So that all men speak wicked things against God.
and hastens to school to show it and to wait, eagerly wait            Jude, the apostle, wrote of them. Listen: `and of all
for the glad and appreciative response, envy rears its ugly        their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken
head even when we are small. The dress does not exist!             against Him!" Here you have the braggarts!


                                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   -BEARER                                                                                                                                                                        51     _

      A man that vaunteth himself is always blowing his own
  trumpet. He has much to say of himself.                                                       -  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
      And over against it, there is only one seemly behaviour;                        Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July  and  Augvst
                                                                                        Published by the  REFORMED   FREE   PUEZJSHING   ASSOCIATION
  we should never vaunt ourselves, but we should grow very                                                             Editor - REV. Hxm~& I`IOFXSEMA
  still.. And even -then we should not trust our mouths: we                           Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
  should lay our hands on our mouths! It will happen in the                            Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand `Rapids 7,
                                                                                       Mich.  Contributions will be limited to 300 words and must be
  day of days. "That every mouth may be stopped!" When                                                                        neatly written or typewritten.
  God shows Himself, no one will dare to vaunt himself                                All church news items should be addressed to Mr. J. M. Faber,
  anymore.                                                                                                  1123 Cooper, S.E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
                                                                                       Announcements and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee included
                                                                                      must be mailed 8 days prior to issue date, to the address below:
                                                                                        All matters relative  to. subscriptions should be addressed to
                                                                                                       Mr., James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave., S..E.                                                                                                   .
      And love is not puffed up!                                                                                                  Grand Rapids 7, Michigan
      To puff one's self up is a necessary corollary to all                                 RENEWAL:   Unless a de&rite  request for discontinuance is
  vaunting. I may be found out in my boasting. So I will                              received it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscrip-
                                                                                           tion to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
  make myself greater than I really am.                                                                                Subscription price:- $5.00 per year
      I will tell you what love does. She has learned from                                     Second  Class postage paid at Grand Rapids, Michigan
  the lowly Jesus to be humble and quiet!
      0 God! be merciful to us the sinners!  And  give  US Thy                                                                              C O N T E N T S
, love!                                                                 G.V:      MEDLTATION  -
                                                                                            "Love" __,  _.  _. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
                                                                                                         Rev. G. Vos
                      RESOLUTICN  OF' SYMPATHY
                                                                                  EDITORIALS-
     The consistory of the `Southeast Prot. Ref. Church wishes to ex-
  press its sincere sympathy to our pastor Rev. M.  Schipper in  the                        Single Or Double Track Theology?.. __  .._  ..___.. __  ._ . .  ..52
  death of his father,                                                                      As to Total Depravity ,.,,.,...,._..........:  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
                             PETER SCHIPPER                                                              Rev. H. Hoeksema
     Our prayer is that he and his family may be comforted by the                 OUR  
  Word of God in  Remans   14:8: "For whether we                                           DOCTRINE -
                                                      live, we live  unto the.
  Lord,. and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live                          The Doctrine of the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~ .._............._.__.....  54
  therefore, or die, we are the Lords."                                                                  Rev. H. Hoeksema
                                               G. Pipe, Vice President
                                               F. Ondersma, Clerk                 A  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES   -
                                                                                            The Call of Gideon . .._....______.._...............................................  :...58
                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                              Rev. B.  Woudenberg
     The Priscilla Society of First Protestant Reformed Church wishes
  to express its heartfelt sympathy to one. of its members, Miss  Tflie  FnoM  HOLY  Wmr-
  Sietstra, in the passing away of her father,                                              Exposition of II Peter 3 ___......,.......................  `. . . . ..____...... . . . . .._._.. 60
                          MR. JOHN  SIETSTRA                                                             Rev. G. Lubbers
     May our heavenly Father comfort the bereaved with the assurance
  that -He doeth all things well.                                                 THE  LORD  GAVE  THE Worm .,..,...____..___..........................:  .____.................  62
                                            Mrs. J. Oomkes, President                                    Rev. C. Hanko
                                           Mrs. R. Kamminga, Secretary
                                                                                  CONTENDING  FOR  THE   FAITH  -
                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                The Church and the Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._...~  ..___,_........__.....  64
     The Sunday School Teachers of the First Protestant Reformed                                         Rev. H.  Veldman
  Church extend their sympathy to their fellow teacher, Miss Reka
  Sietstra,  in the loss of her father,                                           THE   VOICE  OF  OUR   FATHERS   -
                                                                                            The Belgic Confession.. . __.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
                           MR. JOHN SIETSTRA                                                          `Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
     May the God of grace comfort the bereaved.                                   DECENCY   AND  ORDER   -
                             John Vander Woude, Superintendent
                             Marvin Koerner, Assistant Superintendent                       Recognition of Other Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
                                                                                                        ,Rev.  G.  Vanden Berg

                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                      ALL  AROUND Us -
     The Martha Ladies' Aid of Hull Protestant Reformed Church ex-                          Orange City Overture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _. . . . ,. ..`... ._.__.  _._. 70
  press their sincere sympathy to Mrs. John Hoekstra, in the passing                        Prayerless Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
  of her brother,                                                                           An Epidemic of Alcoholism  ____..................................................   71,
                                                                                            ,Union Decline? .__ .                                              ._.         _. . . . . .                                                   _..          ..71
                          REV. ARIE TE PASKE                                                            Rev. H.  Ha&o
     May the God of grace comfort the hearts of the bereaved family.
                                     .Rev. J. Kortering, President                NEWS  FROM  OUR CHURCHES  . ..______.................................................  l..... 72
                                     Mrs. Ed Van Maanen,  Jr!, Secretary                                 Mr. J. M. Faber
Correction of the last, issue (Mrs. John Boer).


 52                                        T H E   `STANDAR,D   B E A R E R

                                                                      Such, then, is the teaching of the Catechism in answer
         :  E  Ds I  T  0 R I A L S                                to the question: what is good? Nothing is good except
 Ir                                                                that which is performed from the root of faith becauseonly
                                                                   by faith can we love God; by nature we hate.Him. Nothing
            Single Or Double Track Theology?                       is good  exc.ept that which is in harmony with the law of
        This editorial is a continuation of the article I wrote    God, because the law, principally, demands that we love
 on Luke 6:33. I wrote the first part under number "1," as         God. Nothing is good, except that which is consciously
, the negative part of my interpretation. Now I explain the        performed to the glory of God.
 positive part under number "2."                                      All the rest is sin and nothing else;
       The question is:                                               But not only the Catechism, but also the Netherland
        First: what is good?                                       Confession confesses the same truth. I will quote a few
                                                                   excerpts from Article 24 of this Confession:
        Secondly: what good do sinners do?
                                                                      "Therefore it is so far from being true, that this justify-
  - As to the first question, the answer, in general, is: Good,    ing -faith makes. men remiss in a pious and holy life, that
 in the true ethical and spiritual sense of the word, is that      on the contrary without it they would never' do anything
 which is in harmony  vvith  the law of God. Nothing eise          out of love to God, but only out of self-love or fear of
 is good. `Besides, to ,answer  the question what is good, we      damnation . .,
 must not simply refer to the ten commandments, which                                . Which works, as they proceed from the
 are almost entirely negative, but we must consult the prin-       good root of faith, are good and acceptable in the sight
                                                                   of God, forasmuch as they are all sanctified by his grace. . .
 ciple `of the law to which our Lord Jesus Christ refers in        For it is by faith in Christ that we are justified, even be-
 answer to a question asked -of Him by a lawyer. We may
 find this in Matt. 22:34 - 40:                                    fore we do `good works; otherwise they could not be good
                                                                   works,. anymore than the fruit of a tree can be good, be-
        `But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the      fore the tree itself is good."
 Sadducees  to silence, they were gathered together. Then
 one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question,               Also in this article of the Confession it is stated clearly
 tempting him, and saying; Master, which is the great              that nothing'is  good that does not spring from the root of
 commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt           faith, unless we would call that good which is motivated
 love the Lord thy God  with all' thy heart, and with all          by "self-love or fear .of damnation."
 thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is -the first and great         Of course, also the -Canons speak, in. chapters III-IV
 commandment. And the second' is like unto it, Thou shalt          of the good that natural man can do, or rather of the fact
 love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments           that  he.can do no good whatsoever.
 hang all the law and the prophets."                                  It is true, as I have said before, that the learned com-
        This is also the teaching of the Heidelberg Catechism.     mittee of the Synod of 1924 -also quoted from the Canons
 Introducing "The Third Part - Of Thankfulness," the Cate-         to prove that the natural .man can do good. They quoted
 chism teaches in Question and Answer 86:                          from Canons III, IV, Art. .4. It is striking that, whether in-
        "Since,then  we are delivered from our misery, merely      nocently or purposely (I think the latter  >, they quoted only
 of grace, through Christ, without any merit of  ,ours, why        the first part of the article. In the first part the Canons
 must we still do good works?                                      speak of the remnants of natural light by which the natural
                                                                   man has some regard for virtue, good order in society, etc.
        "Because Christ, having redeemed and delivered us by       But in the rest of the article it plainly condemns the theory~
 his blood, also renews us by his Holy Spirit, after his own       that, even with this natural light, the natural man-can do
 image; that so we may testify by the whole.of our conduct,        good. For there we read:
 our gratitude to God for his blessings, and that he may
 be praised by us; also, that every one may be assured in             "But so far is this light of nature from being sufficient
 himself of his faith, by the fruits thereof; and that, by our     to bring him to a saving knowledge of God, and to true,
 godly conversation, others may be gained to Christ."              conversion, that he is incapable of' using it aright even in
                                                                   things natural and civil. Nay further, this light such as it
       And in Lord's Day  XxX111,  Question and Answer 91,         is, man in various ways renders wholly polluted, and holds,
 the Catechism defines good works as follows:                      it in unrighteousness, by doing which he becomes inex-
        "But what are good works?                                  cusable before God."
        "Only those which proceed from a true faith, .are per-      Can the natural man do good?
 formed according to the law of God, and to his glory;
 and not such as are founded on our `*imaginations, or the            Not according to the Canons.          .
 institutions of men."                                                                                                      H.H.


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER                                                    `53

               - As To Total Depravity                            strained sin. But God checked the power of sin in Adam's
                                                                  nature and the result is that man, after the fall, can still
    Recently I preached on the subject of "Total Depravity" do much good in the natural sense of the word. That this
in connection with Lord's Day III of the Heidelberg Cate-         is only another way of denying total depravity ought to-be
chism. About the same time; I received, from a friend in          evident to all that can read and understand.
South Holland, a copy of a paper or magazine recently
published in the Netherlands, in which occurred an article            Now, what do the Scriptures and the Confessions say
on the same subject.                                              about this matter?
    The writer of this article makes the observation that          As to Scripture, the author of the article to which I
"If there is one point, on. which the Reformed are being          referred above, quotes but a very few passages ,of Scripture
emphatically attacked it is the truth of the total depravity      such as Genesis 5:6, Job 14:5, and John 3:6.
of man."                                                              But the entire Bible is full of texts that speak of man
  This may very well be true, especially- if we consider          as being by nature totally depraved. Take, for instance,
that the truth of total depravity stands in the closest con-      Rom. 3:9 fE.:
nection with the doctrine of predestination. The latter doc-          `What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise:
trine teaches that God from all eternity chose some men to        for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles  -that
eternal life while He rejected others. On this is, of course,     they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none right-
based the doctrine of sovereign grace, according to which,        eous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there
with regard to his salvation, man does absolutely nothing.        is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the
He can do nothing good. Many so-called preachers of the           way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none
gospel, while they apparently teach that man is totally de-       that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepul-
praved, nevertheless claim that man can pray. By this they        chre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison
overthrow all they may have said before. of the `doctrine         of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing
of total depravity. The natural man can do no good, least         and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: Des-
of all can he pray.                                               truction and misery are in their ways: And the way of
    In the course of time, many theologians have attempted        peace have they not known: There is no  ,fear of God be-
to circumvent this very unpopular truth and corrupted it.         fore their eyes."
   Pelagius, who lived at the same time as Augustine,                 Notice that in these verses three facts are mentioned:
was an out and out denier of this truth. He taught that,              1. The act of sin.
even as righteousness was not a matter of the nature of               2. That the act of sin is rooted in the corrupt nature.
man, but only a matter of the act, so is sin. It, too, is  a.
matter of the act. And if you would ask him how it                    3. That sin is universal.
happens that all men sin, he would explain this by the                There are many more passages in Scripture that teach
theory of imitation.                                              the same truth such as Rom. 8:5 - 8; 1: 18 - 32-etc. One more
   The Semipelagians, chiefly represented by the Roman            passage I will quote, Eph. 2:1- 3:               :
Catholics, make a distinction between the nature, of man              "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in tres-
as such and that nature with the addition of the image            passes and sins; Wherein in times past ye walked according -
of God. Man was not only created good, but in. addition           to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
to this naturally good nature, Gods also gave ,him His own        power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
image. Now, when man fell, he  retain,ed  his naturally good      of disobedience: Among whom also we. all had our con-
nature, but he lost the image of God. The result is, accord-      versation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
ing to them, that lie can do no spiritual good, but he can,       the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature
nevertheless, do much natural good in this world. Also this       children of wrath, even as others."
is, of course, a denial of total depravity.                          The Reformed Confessions everywhere teach the same
   The theory  .of common grace, as developed by Dr.              truth.
Kuyper Sr., and as also adopted by the Christian Reformed            The Heidelberg Catechism has it in Lord's Day III,
Synod of 1924 in the well-known Three Points, is very similar     questions and answers 7 and 8:
to the Semipelagian theory in as far as the actual result is
concerned. Only they arrive at this result in a different way.       "Whence then proceeds this depravity of the human
*They do not teach that after-the fall man remained naturally     nature?
good though he lost the image of God, but that he would 1            "From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, in
have become totally depraved and,, in fact, would have            Paradise; hence, our nature is become so corrupt, that we
died and immediately gone to hell, if God had not  re-            are all conceived and born in sin.


5           4                                   T     H          E              STANDARD-.BEARER                                          .  I

     "Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of
doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness?                                   11  OU'R  DOCTRINf                                              11
     "Indeed we are; except we are regenerated by the Spirit
of God."
     As to the Belgic Confession, in Art. 14 we read:                                     THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH
     "For the commandment of life, which he had received,                                                 &APTER   Iv.
he transgressed; and by sin separated himself from God,
who was, his true life, having corrupted his whole nature;                        THE POWER AND GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH
whereby he became liable to corporal  and- spiritual death,
And being thus become wicked, perverse, and corrupt in                                                     (Continued)
all his ways,' he hath lost all his excellent gifts, which he                        The office of deacon also was soon instituted in the
had received from God, and only retained a few remains                            church, at the occasion of a complaint in regard to the
thereof, which, however, are sufhcient to leave man without                       care of the widows of the church. About this we read
excuse, for all the light which is in us is changed into                          in Acts 6: "And in those days, when the number of the
darkness, as the Scriptures teach us, saying: The light                           disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the
shineth -in darkness,. and the darkness comprehendeth  it                         Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were
not: where St. John calleth men darkness. Therefore we                            neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called
reject all that is taught repugnant thereto concerning the                        the multitude of the `disciples unto them, and said, It is
free will of man, since man is but a slave to sin; and has                        not reason that we should leave the word of God, and
nothing of himself, unless it is given him from heaven." serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you
Cf. also Art. 15.'                                                                seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and
     As we might expect, the Canons of Dordrecht also em-                         wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But
phasiie  this truth over against the Remonstrants. From                           we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the min.-
them we quote the following:  '                                                   istry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole mul-
     "Man was originally formed after the image of God . . .                      titude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of
but revolting from God by the instigation of the devil,                           the IIoly  Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor,
and abusing the freedom of his own will, he forfeited                             and  Timon, and Parmenas, and  Nicolas  a proselyte of
these excellent gifts; and on the contrary entailed on him-                       antioch: Whom they set before the apostles: and when
self blindness of mind, horrible darkness, vanity and. per-                       they had `prayed, they laid their hands-on them." vss. 1 - 6.
verseness of judgment, became wicked, rebellious, and ob-                         This evidently refers to the institution of the `office of
durate in heart and will, and impure in all his affections."                      deacon. The deacons represent more particularly Christ as
                                                                                  the merciful High Priest; and their task is the care and
     And, after the fathers of Dort inserted an' article on `comfort of the poor and indigent. It is a different office
original sin and universal depravity, they continue in Art.                       from  ~that of the ministers and elders in the church, but
3 as follows:                                                                     may not be regarded as a lower office.
     "Therefore all men are conceived in sin, and by nature
children of wrath, incapable of saving good, `prone to evil,                         In order to `function in a certain- office it is necessary
dead in sin, and in bondage thereto, and without the regen-                       that one be called by the King of His church. This is
erating grace of the Holy Spirit, they are neither able                           necessary' because no one may encroach upon that office.
nor willing to return to God, to reform the depravity of                          For to function in a certain office it is essential that he be
their nature, nor to dispose themselves to reformation." -                        appointed officially, in order that he can also function with
                                                                                  the authority of Him that sent him and called him to the
                         (To be continued. )                                      office. In the  .second  place, this calling is necessary both
                                                                      H.H.        subjectively and objectively because' of the  di5culty  and
                                                                                  responsibility of the. task of an officebearer. He who serves
                                                                                  in the church of Christ as an officebearer and who takes
                   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                         his task and calling seriously bears a very heavy burden,
                                                                                  and he performs a very difficult task. In the third place,
     The Martha Ladies' `Aid Society of  -the  Hull Protestant Reformed
Church wishes  .to express their  hear&k  sympathy to Mrs. A. Vogel               this calling and the consciousness of this calling is nec-
and Mrs. J. Boer in the loss of their half sister,                                essary in order to remain steadfast over against all opposi-
                                                                           I
                        MRS. A. PLANTINGA                                         tion from within and from without.. In the midst of all
     May the Lord be with and comfort the hearts of the bereaved.                 such opposition nothing but the certain conviction that he
                                                                                  is called to his  o5ce by Christ Himself can make him
                               - Rev. J. Kortering, President
                                Mrs. Ed Van Maanen, Jr., Secretary                steadfast and immovable.


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 55

     This calling to a certain office in the church, we said,       of the church. This power is embodied especially in `our
 is bdth subjective and objective, that is, internal and ex-        Church Order, that is, the Church Order of Dordrecht.
 ternal. To the internal aspect of the calling belongs the          Secondly, to that power also belongs the actual oversight
 abiding desire to serve the Lord in His vineyard, and that         over the local church, as well as over the individual mem-
 too,-as officebearer  - a desire that must, of course, have its    bers of the church, in Christian discipline. This discipline is,
 root in the fear of God, and in nothing else. In the second        of course, always of a spiritual character. This we must
 place, we may say that the internal aspect of the calling          never forget. Its purpose must always be the glory of God,
 also implies a consciousness of a certain measure of gifts,        the well-being of the church, and the salvation of the in-
 both natural and spiritual. As to the external aspect of the       dividual member, the salvation of  the sinner.
 calling belongs, in the first place, the fact that the Lord           Finally, we may mention the power of mercy  &r the
 Himself opens the way to reach the fulfillment of the desire       name of Jesus Christ. This power of mercy concerns, first
 to  serve in a certain  office. But above all, the foregoing       of all, those that are of the household of faith. The church
 must finally be sealed by the calling of the church. With-         must take care of her own poor, as is also evident from
 out the calling  `by the church, there is no calling to any        Acts 6. They must not leave this care to all kinds of worldly
 o5ce whatsoever. The apostles, of course, were called and          associations. But, although this power concerns first of all
 sent directly by the Lord. But after the period of the             the  membets of the congregation themselves, there is no
 apostles the power to send and to ordain officebearers rests       reason why also in the midst of the world this may not be
 only in the church of Christ. Hence, no matter how strong          revealed as far as this is possible.
 .a desire anyone `may have to function in a certain o5ce,
 he cannot consider himself to be called by the Lord unless
 he is called and ordained by the `church.  -                                                 t%CAPTEFi   v
    Christ has endowed His `church with power. We can                               THE MEANS OF GRACE
 also say that Christ exercises His power through the church,          The means of grace are discussed in connection with the
 and particularly through the  o5cebearers  instituted in the       doctrine of the church, generally, because those means of
 church. The  officebearers,  therefore, do not receive their       grace are given to the, church. Several questions must be
 power and authority from the members of the church, even           asked and answered in this connection. In the first place,
 though  ,it is through their instrumentality that they are         what ar,e means, in general? In the second place, what are
 called and ordained as  o5cebearers.  But they receive their       means of grace? Thirdly, how is the Word a means of grace?
 authority to function in the o5ce from no one else than our        Fourthly, in what sense are the sacraments a means of
 Lord Jesus Christ. This power is usually distinguished as          grace, and what is their relation to the preaching of the
 three-fold.                                                        Word? These, and other questions, are involved in the
    First of all, it is the power to teach. To this power be-       subject of the means of grace.
 longs, first of all, of course, the ministry of the Word, both        First of all, then, we must ask and answer the question:
 in the local congregation to the edification of a certain          what is meant by means, in general?. I would define means
 congregation, as well as in all the world to the ingathering       as elements taken from the world of our experience, that
 of the elect. And to the ministry of the Word in the local         is, ,from the outside world in which we live, and that are
church also belongs th'e `administration of the sacraments.         adapted to our human existence and nature. Food and
 To, the ministry of the Word belongs also, although not ex-        drink are such elements from the world in which we live,
 clusively, of course, the preservation of the truth and its        and are adapted to our nature in such a way that these
 maintenance over against all that oppose it and all that           means can nourish and sustain  our  body. We call them
 distort the truth. The church, therefore, also must formulate      means because God uses them for the purpose to which
 its ,faith in specific confessions, by which the truth may be      they are adapted, that is, to nourish and strengthen our
 preserved in generations and also may be  o5cially  pro-           bodies. Of course, we must always remember that things
 claimed and defended over against all heresies and heretics.       in themselves are nothing. They exist and are sustained by
 Finally, it belongs to the power of `teaching of the church to     the almighty and omnipresent power of God, which we call
 prepare  mimsters of the Word of God and to maintain               providence. But it pleases God to use these means always
 seminaries for the cultivation of theology, that the truth         in the same way and for the same purpose. Because of
 may be maintained and become ever more fully developed             this uniform use of means for the same purpose, we can
 in the consciousness of the church.                                use them. Bread always sustains and nourishes our bodies:
    Secondly, the power of the church also implies what is          God never uses bread to poison us. And because we have
 called the power of government, the power to rule. This            this confidence in God, we also are able to use those means.
 power is sometimes distinguished once. more between the            If God would use bread one day to poison our bodies, and
 power and authority to make certain ordinances, based              another day to nourish them; it would be impossible for
 always, of course, upon the Word of God, for the ruling            us to use those means. Means, therefore, are elements taken


     I       56                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

            from the world in which we live, and the world of our              corruption, regenerated, called, sanctified, glorified  - made
            experience, which are always used by God in the same way           pleasant in the sight of God-whereby He also bestows
            and which, for that very reason, we can use `as means.             upon the objects of God's favor all the spiritual blessings
                   The question,  however,~is  concerning means of grace,      and virtues. that are in Christ their Lord. And they are
            that is, therefore, means which the Holy Spirit employs to' means also used by the church and by the believer, and
            bestow grace upon the elect, the members of the church.            that too, for the same purpose.
            And because that Holy Spirit- uses those means for the              These means are two: the preaching of the Word and
            same purpose, and for no other purpose, the church and the         the administration of the sacraments.
            individual believer can also use them.                                It is possible, of course, to speak of means of grace in
                   However, `what is the meaning of  `grace   in. the term     a wider sense of the word. In a certain sense all things
            means of grace? As we have explained it in the first part          are' means of grace for those whom God has chosen from
            of dogmatics, under the attributes or virtues of God, the          before the foundation of the world. Thus, it is plain that
            word grace in Scripture may have and does `have a variety          the simple reading of the Bible, especially the reading of
            of connotations. We will not repeat them all here.  HOW-           Scripture at home, can be used, and undoubtedly is used,
            ever, we may briefly enumerate these various meanings.             by the Holy Spirit in order to bring one of the elect to a
            First of all, grace is an attribute of God,. and as such has       living faith in Christ, or even to strengthen that faith.
            the fundamental meaning of attractiveness, gracefulness,           Thus also the godly conversation of believers among one
            pleasantness. God is the perfection of all  bezuty and at-         another, or the Biblical discussion .in our societies can -be
            tractiveness and gracefulness. For He is the implication of        used for, the edification and strengthening of the faith. Dr.
            all infinite perfections, of all goodness in the spiritual,        Hodge, in his Systematic Theology, includes prayer in the
            ethical sense of the word. As such God is perfectly lovely         regular means of grace. Writes he: "By means of grace are
            and beautiful.. In the second place, Scripture denotes the         not meant every instrumentality which God may please to
            attitude of graciousness or pleasantness, the gracious dis-        make the means of spiritual edification to his children. The
            position of God to the creature, by the term  grtice. This         phrase is intended to indicate those institutions which God
            is undoubtedly the meaning of the phrase "to` find grace in        has ordained to be the ordinary channels of grace, i.e., of
            the eyes of the Lord." In the third place, and in close con-       the supernatural influences of the Holy Spirit, to the souls
            nection with the preceding, the word grace has the meaning         of men. The means of grace according to the standards of
            of undeserved, or rather, of forfeited favor. In this case the     our church, are the Word, sacraments, and prayer."
            favorable attitude of God is accentuated and enhanced by              In fact, it is possible that we use the term "means of
            the condition of the subjects that receive this grace of God.      grace" in a still wider sense. So the Scriptures teach'us:
            Hence, the Word of God uses the term grace  as standing            "And we know that all things work together for good to
             opposed to obligation, and therefore, opposed to work.            them that love God, to them who are the called according
             Grace and work are, as far as the term grace is concerned,        to his purpose." Rom.  823. All things work together for
             directly opposite of each other. Fourthly, the word grace         good: and that "good" refers, of course, to the salvation
            frequently is used in Scripture to denote that power of            of the people of God. Moreover, this is true especially of
            God  .whereby  the sinner is actually saved and delivered          what we consider evil things, things that are evil in them-.
            from the bondage of sin and corruption, namely, the power          selves : the temptation of the devil and of our flesh, and.
          ' whereby the sinner is regenerated, given a new-life, called,       especially also the suffering of this present time, or, more
             an'd sanctified, and thus is inade  pleasant in the sight of      particularly, the suffering of the people of God for Christ's
             God. `It also includes all the spiritual blessings and virtues    sake. That all these things are employed by the Holy
            that are thus  bestqwed  upon the objects of God's favor.          Spirit unto the salvation of the elect and to cause believers
            Finally, the word grace is used in the sense of "`thanks." to grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is very evident
             To quote just one passage in this connection, we. read in         from the Word of God. Thus we read, for instance, in
            I Corinthians  15:57, according to the original: "Grace be         Romans 5:2 - 4: `<By whom also we have access by faith
            to God, who giveth us the victory." The meaning, in that           into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of
             case, is most probably that grace is ascribed to God by           the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in trib-
             those that are the objects and recipients of the-power oE         ulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
             God's grace, in order that He may receive the praise and          And patience, experience; and experience, hope." In  the-
             adoration of all His own people as the God of grace.              epistle of James, 1:2 and 3, we read: "My brethren, count
                   In the term  mearzS  of grace the word  gra& refers es-     it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing
             pecially to the fourth connotation which we mentioned             this, that the trying. of your faith worketh patience." And
             above. Means of grace,, therefore, are means which the            in  <verse 12 of the same chapter we read: "Blessed is
             Holy Spirit uses to bestow that grace upon the sinner where-      the man'that endureth temptations:' for when he is tried,
             by he is actually* delivered from the bondage of sin and          he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath


I                                                     _,


                                   :

                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               57

promised to them that love him." -The same truth is ex-               "Yes, indeed: for the Holy Ghost teaches us in the gospel,
pressed in I Peter  1:6  - 9: "Wherein ye greatly rejoice,         and ass&es us by the sacraments, that the whole of our
though now for a season, if need be, ye are iti heaviness          salvation depends upon that one sacrifice of Christ which
through manifold temptations: That the t r i  a 1 of your          he offered for us on the cross.
faith, being much more p r e c i o  u  s than of gold that            `How many sacraments has Christ instituted in the new
perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be fqund unto       covenant, or  testa&&t?
praise and honour  and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though                "Two:.  namely,  holy baptism, and the holy supper."
now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy un-            Although the Catechism emphasizes the idea of the
speakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your             sacraments as means of grace, nevertheless the preaching
faith, even the salvation of your souls." These passages           of the Word  is the more important. This is evident,  ftrst
plainly teach that all things in a sense are means of grace,       of all, because the preaching of the Word is indispensable.
and that God especially through tribulation and suffering          Without the sacraments the Christian, if need be, can live,
causes His people in the world to grow in the true knowl-          but never withbut  the preaching of the Word. Without the
edge of Jesus Christ, and faith and hope. and love. -Even          Word of God he cannot come to a conscious faith in the
as a young-oak,  when it is tossed by severe storms, strikes       Lord Jesus Christ. He has no knowledge of Him, and there-
its roots more deeply into the ground, so by the grace of          fore cannot appropriate Him by a true and living faith. It
God tribulation and suffering have the effect that the. be-        is through the preaching of the Word that the Holy Spirit
liever strikes his roots of faith deeper into Jesus Christ, and    works faith in our hearts. Besides, the  ,preaching of the
thus grows' in grace.                                              Word is not only the means by which the Holy Spirit works
   Yet, although this is true, this is not the meaning of the      faith in us; but it is'also the main means for the strength-
term "means of grace" as it is used by the  chucch.  It is,        ening and upbuilding and sustaining of our faith. The sac-
evident that all those other means are impossible as means         raments are also to strengthen our faith, but in `a different
of grace unless the preaching of the Word is heard. It is          way from that of the Word of God. The?-are  really added
by the preaching of the Word that the Christian believes.          to the Word. They obsignate and seal the promise of God
By the preaching of the Word he is called. And through             in the gospel. But it is chiefly through the Word of God
the preaching of the Word he receives the knowledge of             that the believer increases in the knowledge and grace of
Christ. And without the sacraments, which are added to             our Lord Jesus Christ. Upon the preaching of the Word,
the Word as signs and seal,+  of the promise, the other means      therefqre, the sacraments are dependent. Without it they
have no effect and have no meaning. "Means of grace," are meaningless, and have no content. This would not
therefoie, refer especially to those means which the Holy          be true, of course, if the Roman Catholic conception of
Spirit uses as they are  o5cially  instituted in the church        the sacraments were correct. For,' according to the Romish
to be administered by her  And- to be received from her            Church, the sacraments have power to work in themselves,
and through her and used by the individual believers. If           even without the preaching of- the Word. Grace is not
we use the term "means of grace," the reference  .is only          really worked in the hearts of the believers through  the-
to those two means of grace: the Word and the sacraments.          sacraments, but the latter me grace. Just as the theory of
  Thus we are taught  iti the Heidelberg Catechism,                common grace proceeds really from the idea that things in
Lord's Day XXV:                                                    themselves are grace, so the Romish Church teaches that
   "Since then we are made partakers of Christ and all             grace is in the sacraments. And 2&o the Lutheran Church
his benefits by faith only, whence doth this faith proceed?        never entirely abandoned this erroneous notion. According
   "From the Holy Ghost, who works faith in our hearts             to the Romish Church, baptism works regeneration; and in
by the preaching of the gospel, and cbnfirms .it by the use        the Lord's Supper, according to the Roman Catholic Church,
of the sacraments.                                                 we really eat and drink Christ with  our  physical  mputh.
   "What are the sacraments?                                       In that case  ?yti really do not need the  preachigg  of the
                                                                   Word, but what -we need is the church and the priest as
   "The sacraments are holy visible signs and seals, ap-           dispensers of grace. In distinction from them, the Reformers
pointed of God for this end, that by the use thereof, he           and Protestants in general have always emphasized that the
may the more fully declare and seal to us the promise of           preaching of the Word is the main means of, grace, that it
the gospel, viz., that he grants us freely the remission of        alone is really indispensable, and that the sacraments are
sin, and life eternal, for the sake of that one sacrifice of       dependent upon  it: He&e,  not the sacraments, but the
Christ, accomplished on the cross.                                 preaching of the Word should have the chief emphasis
   "Are both word and sacraments, then, ordained and               when we discuss the means of grace.
appointed for this end; that they may `direct our faith to
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, as the only ground                                                             H.H.
of our salvation?

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

                                                                   thrilled his heart. They had so needed saying. He, Gideon,
[ A CLOUD OF  Wl.TNESSE,S~I had.often prayed that God would send someone who could
                                                                   reprove the people for all of their  sifis. The land had be-
                                                                   come so v&y wicked. Altars and groves for the' worship
                  The Call of Gideon                               of heathen gods were to be found just everywhere. He re-
                                                                   membered a day `when it had not been that way, but that
           Astd  there came an  a.ngel  of  the LORD, and  sat     was long' ago, after D e b or ah had judged the people.
      1 under an  oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained
       unto Joash  the Abiezrite:  and his son Gideon  threshed    Through the years `this had gradually changed. More and
        wheat  73y the winepress, to hide it from the Midian-      more the people had turned to idols, until the worship
       ites.                                                       of Jehovah had seemingly become a very rare thing. It
           And the angel  of  the LORD appeared unto him,          vexed his soul so, but what could he. do? His own father
       and said  unto  hZm.  The LORD is with thee, thou
                                                     .
      mighty man of  valotcr  . . .                                maintained a grove for  Baa1 on his land, and he did not
           And  the LORD looked upon him, and  sa;d, Go in         dare to speak out against that. And besides,  who  would
 this thy might, and thou shalt save  Israel from the              listen to him anyway? But he had been glad  to see a
       hand of the  Midia.nites:  have not I  sent, thee?          prophet sent by God who could speak out against this
                                            Judges  6:11,12,14     wickedness.  .The people had been shocked to hear some-
      There was a certain incongruity to the actions of that       one speak like that although no one had so much as
lonely figure that worked silently one day under an oak            answered.
tree in Ophrah of Israel. In this place was a winepress,              Still the words of this prophet left questions in Gideon's
but the man was very evidently threshing wheat, and for            mind. He had said, "Thus saith the LORD God of Israel. . .
thik `a more unsuited place could hardly be found. But             I delivered-you out of the hand ,of the Egyptians, and out
both the incongruity of the place and the loneliness of the        of the hand  of all that oppreSsed  you, and drave them out
labo; were not without purpose. It was not the time of             from before you, and gave you their land; and I said unto
grape harvest and so a winepress would be the last place           you, I' am the LORD your -God; fear not the gods of the
where one would. expect to find a person working. So               Amorites in whose land ye dwell. . .  " This all Gideon
also the man worked alone that no one would  bow of                knew. He had learned it from his youth and still believed
his activity. The Midianites were about in the land, and           that it was true. It was just that especially in recent Iyears
they were ruthlessly wicked. If they as much as heard              those who had forsaken the service of Jehovah had an
that anyone had food to eat, they would descend upon               answer to this. They would just point to the host of Midian-
them with their wild, robbing bands. It was not so much            .ites and their allies which were overrunning the land and
that they needed the food themselves; it was more that they        say, "Look it them and at what, their gods have don? to
enjoyed seeing the expressions of shock and dismay upon            give them power. Jehovah. may well say that we need not
people's faces. That was the reason why this man,. Gideon,         fear their gods; but meanwhile they are devouring our
was threshing what little grain he had managed to grow             land, and Jehovah is doing nothing to drive  theni back."
in guarded secret. But even though it appeared that he             Things like this troubled Gideon because it was hard to
would be successful in his efforts, Gideon found no pleasure       find a clear-cut answer. It was true, of course, that the  -
at all in his accomplishment. It was against his very nature       people had forsaken the worship of Jehovah long before.
to do anything secretly and in hiding. Even more, it hurt          the Midianites had arisen to oppress them. But  af the
him to see the, wicked  Midiatiites running rampant over           same time it was rumored about in recent days that there
the land which Jehovah God had given to Israel as its              were  ,those  who were crying to Jehovah for deliverance,
covenant heritage. To have to do perfectly  Tightful acts' even as he had always co&inued to do himself, and still
secretively scourged his soul even while he did it.                no answer had come.
      And still it was not this so much that fiiled the mind
of Gideon that day as he went silently about his work.                So busily o&u@ied  with these thoughts was the mind
His thoughts were upon something which he had heard                of Gideon while he worked that. he hardly seemed to care
just recently in the village. A man had passed  thrgugh            when the figure of a man approached and stood before
with a message whi+ he `had said was from Jehovah God.             him under the oak tree. The  ma? spoke and his address
He had said, "Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brbught         to Gideon was  exizemely  strange. He said, "The LORD,
you  vp from Egypt, and brought  you forth out of the              is with thee, thou mighty man of valour."
house of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand                 But  that the man singled him out for special recogni-
of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed        tion hardly mattered to Gideon at this time. All he noticed
you,  atid drave them out from before you,  aid gave you           was that the man was evidently familiar with Jehovah, and,
their land; and I said unto you, I am the LORD your God;           besides that, spoke tith confidence and with authority. Here
fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell:         perhaps was- someone who bould  answer all of his questions
but ye have not obeyed my voice." How these words had              and  dotibts. Out from his heart suddenly burst forth all


                                        T H E   STAND.ARD'  BEARER                                                        59

of the pent-up feelings  .and problems that burdened his        for this strange messenger. When at last all had been pre-
life.  -"Oh my lord," answered Gideon, `if the LORD be          pared in a most savory manner, he returned to the oak
with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be         tree to spread this meal before the visitor. It was a meal
all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did      such as one rarely saw any more in Israel; but when
not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD           Gideon presented it unto the stranger, it was met with a
hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the        strange response. The man commanded, "Take the flesh
Midianites."                                                    and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon the rock,
   The answer which came back, to Gideon was far from           and poor out the broth." Completely awed, Gideon pro-
what he had expected. It was not an excuse; it was not an       ceeded to do so. He laid the meat and cakes upon a large,
explanation; it was a promise, and even m o r e than a          nearby rock, and poured the broth over them. The meaning
promise, a command. "Go in this thy might," said the man,       of this action was unknown to him. It was just that, instead
"and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midian-        of spreading a meal to be eaten as he had planned, he was
ites: have not I sent thee?"                                    preparing a sacrifice as though to God, only without the
   Here was more than, Gideon's mind could begin to             customary wood. And then happened the most amazing                   "
grasp. -That the Midianites should be driven out was a          thmg of all. The man took the walking staff which he held
wonderful thought; that Israel should once again be saved       in his hand and touched the meat and cakes upon the rock.
was his oft-repeated prayer; but that he should be the          Immediately there burst from the rock a flame to devour
one through whom this should take place? -that removed          the `sacrifice. Finally, while Gideon watched, the man dis-
it  almost to the realm of the impossible. "Oh my Lord," appeared from  liis sight.
he responded, `wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my           Now suddenly it dawned upon Gideon who this was to           -
family is poor in  Manasseh,. and I am the least in my          whom he had spoken. This had not just been a man speak-
father's house."                                                ing insthe name of God, a prophet; this had been the angel
   But the man who stood there was determined. Gideon           of the LORD Himself, the very One Who had met with
was called of God to deliver Israel from the oppressor, and     Moses upon the holy mountain, and with Joshua when he
so it should be. He said, "Surely I will be with thee, and      entered `the promised land. He had stood before the very
thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man."                    holiness of God and in his shallowness of vision had not
                                                                even understood. From his heart went up a cry almost of
   Still to Gideon the whole idea was just too impossible.      anguish; "Alas, 0 LORD God! for because I have seen an
It was not so much that he was unwilling to serve God and       angel of the LORD face to face."
His people in this way; it was more that he could not
imagine a place like this for himself in the counsel and           And Gideon's surprises for the day were not yet done.
plan of God. The whole approach and presentation of the         He had been called by God to be a prophet and judge in
man who stood before him was such that he could not             His name unto Israel. Now, no sooner had Gideon cried
question his right to speak with authority in the name of       to G.od with this prayer of fear and anguish than the an-
God. But what he did feel the need of was some assurance        swer of God came back to him by immediate revelation to
that this whole thing was not a  halucination,  a mere          his heart. God said, "`Peace- be unto thee; fear not, thou
dream, some kind of imagining of his own troubled mind.         shalt not die."
Plaintively he looked-to this stranger- for some assurance.        An irreversible change had come over Gideon. His life
"If now I have found grace in thy sight," he pleaded, "then     would never' be the same. Gideon felt it himself, and his
show me a sign that thou talkest with me. Depart not            first expression of it was with an act of worship. There at
hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth     the foot of the oak tree in Ophrah he built an altar unto
my present, and set it before thee."                            Jehovah. Through the means of the sacriiice  he expressed
   Calmly the man answered, "I will tarry until thou come       his complete reliance upon .the promise of God even as he
again."                                                         would have many occasions to do in the days. to come.
   Quickly Gideon returned to his house to prepare a meal          Gideon, however, was not yet ready for the great work
for this messenger of God. In the eating of it Gideon would     which God had called him to perform. Although his heart
have not only the proof of his reality but a testimony of       was right with God, all of the old weaknesses of his nature,
his covenant love and fellowship. Without hesitation he         his timidity and hesitancy to speak out for his convictions
drew from the scanty stores which he had so carefully           remained. Gradually he would have to be weaned away
hoarded and hid for his family to live upon as the Midian-      from that. This became evident yet that same day. Once
ites plundered the land. From its hiding place he took a. again God appeared to him and gave him his first command
young kid, which had been kept from the marauding               for action. God said, "Take thy father's young bullock, even
Midianites only by the greatest difficulty, and prepared its    the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the
flesh to eat. From his precious, hidden store of flour he       altar of Baa1 that thy father hath, and cut down the grove
took a most generous portion to make cakes and a broth                             (Conthued  on page 63)

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

                                                                 tion of geological data, so as to~convince  a few evolutionists
1       FR'OM   HOLY  WR.IT  1 `of the errors of .their `theories," but that his p&pose; is to
                                                                 give a solid motivation for the godly to walk in the living
                                                                 hope unto which they have been born again through the
                 Exposition of II Peter 3                        resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Unbelievers will
                                                                 not believe though the dead should rise! Peter is not at-
                               f.                                tempting to convince the mockers, but he is stirring up the
      We should not lose sight of the fact that Peter is here    pure mind  (&an&) of the beloved  .in Christ Jesus, who
addressing the believing church, who are pilgrims and            must be prevented from falling from their own stedfastness.
strangers in the earth; they are those who` have odtained        Peter's apologetics is a strong polemic on &e solid basis of
the like precious faith with Peter in the righteousness of       the "like precious faith" which is ours in Christ Jesus. II
our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Such Peter is addressing!       Peter 3:1, 2; II Peter I:l; I Peter 1:3, 4.
He stirs up their pure minds by'bringing to remembrance             The solid motivation for a godly walk Peter casts into
that which was spoken by the holy Prophets, and by the           th& following language in verses 10 and lla: "But the day
reiteration of the  .commandments  of the Apostles of our        of the Lord  win come  as a  thief; in the which the heavens
Lord and Savior.                                                 shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall
      In so doing Peter singles out the bold and erroneous       he dissolved ,with fervent heat, and the earth. and the works
contention of certain evil men of .these  last days; mockers     that are  th.erein  shall be burned up. Seeing that these
these are, who would laugh to scorn the hope of the right-       things are thzls all' to be dissolved . . . "
eous, the final and visible.return of Christ upon the clouds        When God shall destroy the entire world by fire that will
of heaven, ever to remain with His people. However, Peter        not simply be a terrible  ticcident, an unforeseen contingen-
points out the astounding and awesome reality that this          cy, so that the world  .just destroyed itself by its own native
contention of these mockers lacks all solid ground. Their        potentiality. It will not be some self-destruction. It will be
contention that all things remain the same frbm the be-          most emphatically a iudgmerzt  of Gbd. In this judgment will
ginning, since the fathers fell asleep, is contrary to fact.     be the vindication of the righteous who waited for the
There is the incontrovertible fact of the judgment of God        Lord and the condemnation of the scoffers who mocked
in the Flood! This has made a great difference between           with the promise of God's Parozcsia!
the  ,%eavens and the earth" before the Flood, and the              Under the aspect of either faith or unbelief the coming
"heavens atid the earth" after the Flood. The former was         of the day of the Ldrd is viewed here by Peter, and thus
upheld by the Word of God so that its element was                presented. Peter has stated that the mockers discredit the
water, while in the layer the element is fire. This present      promise of the Lord's coming, and that the believers ac-
world, heaven and earth, are reserved as a treasure unto the     count this seeming tarrying as an integral part of their
day of judgment and the destruction of ungodly men!              salvation. Now he will indicate the time when this Day of
      This is a `fact which these wicked mockers wilfully        the Lord will come. It ought to be observed that Peter
ignore and attempt to forget!                                    does not give a calendar date! He abides by the Word of
      As the children of God, we do well to remember, when       Christ in Matt. 24:36: "But of that day and hour knoweth
listening to this blasphemous mockery of unbelieving scof-       no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but
fers, that we cannot measure the tempo of God's footsteps        the Father only," and by the directive which Christ gave
by our human measuring-rod. For the eternal God is far           His disciples (Peter included) before His ascension into
exalted above our earthly and creaturely standards of meas-      heaven,  ". . . . it is not for you to know the times or the
uring what is fast or slow, early or late. One day with the      seasons which the Father hath set (appointed) within His
Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as one     own authority." Since no calendar date is possible by God's
day. The Lord is not to be viewed under the aspect of our        appointment and decree the only reference point we have
time, but rather under the aspect of his motive of being         is certain signs of His coming, which signs are either seen
Zongsufering.  He wills to bring the entire church to glory!     in faith or ignored in unbelief. The idea of the Day of the
Aqd to do this each one has a place in history where the         Lord coming as a thief in the night is true for unbelievers,
longsuffering of God operates, so as to bring them infal-        and  liot for believers who observe the "signs of the times."
libly to salvation.                                                 It may be well that we underscore jus't a bit and eluci-
      Such is briefly the line of thought which we have          date.
pursued in the former essays in this current series on II           m7hen `Christ was upon earth there were two kinds of
Peter 3.                                                         people under His ministry. It should be borne in mind that
      -The burden of this present essay will be to show that     "signs are not for believers but for unbelievers." The un-
Peter does not simply relate here what God did in the            believing Jews seek signs. I  Car.  1:22;  14:22. Now on a
Flood for the basis of a mere scientific study, the explana-     certain occasion the unbelieving Pharisees and Sadducees


                                              ` T H E   STAN;DARD   .BEARER                                                       61

   came to Jesus to tempt Him "asking him to show them a                   cometh as a thief in the night. When they are saying,
   sign from heaven."`He then proceeded to show them how                   Peace and safety, destruction cometh upon them, as
   they could discern the face of the heaven, fair weather  or             travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no
   foul weather, but that they could not discern the "signs                wise escape."
   of the times." They  ca.nnot   (  ou  &mz.sthe)  discern. The          Let us pause here just a bit, to consider and reflect. Not
   great seasons of God concerning the old and new dispensa-          the righteous shall be saying  "peace and safety" but the
   tion of God, concerning promise and fulfillment of God,            wicked shall be saying this. Life and "business as usual'
   concerning the first and the last coming of Christ, and the        will be the motto. Full speed ahead! No cloud as a man's
   meaning of Jonah's preaching to Nineveh and Christ's death         hand will they see, although the  v&y heavens are red and
   and resurrection and glorious ascension and His final re-          lowering. Says Jesus, "And as it came to pass in the days of
   turn, unbelief ca9~9~ot  discern. They cannot see the Kingdom      Noah, even so also shall it be in the days of the Son of
   of heaven, for they are not born again. Only the reborn            Man. They ate, they drank, they `married, they were given
   church understands and discerns.. And only this reborn             in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the Ark,
   church, when watchful, will hot experience that the day            and the Flood came, and destroyed them all . . .  ." Luke
   of the Lord will come upon them unawares.                          17:26-30. For the wicked the day came as. a thief in the
       When Peter says that the Day of the Lord will "come            night and not for Noah, who found grace in the eyes of the
   ai a thief" (vs. lo), this must refer to this day in reference     Lord, and who, being forewarned, prepared an Ark  for-the
   to the wicked unbelievers and scoffers. Sudden destruction         saving of his house. Heb. 11:7. Those who, like Noah, are
   shall fall upon them. Notwithstanding their  mockery and           "moved with godly fear" shall not see this day having come
   scoffing, yea, by very reason of their mockery and scoffing,       as a thief, but shall be Watchful unto prayer, and have lift
   this Day of the Lord shall come upon them as a thief in the        up their heads in earnest expectation. Luke 21:28. It will
   night. Thus it. was with the wicked in the days of Noah.           be the day of redemption, the day of their final redemption
   Even though Noah was a preacher of righteousness for a             in Christ, who from God has become unto us wisdom,
   hundred and twenty years, while he was building the Ark,           rightedusness, and complete redemption. Then shall be
   the Flood came upon the wicked as a sudden destruction.            manifested that having been saved by  Chrisf's death we
   The fault bf this .was not in the preaching (Noah was free         shall much more be saved through his life. Rom. ,510.
   from their blood!), but was in the spiritual inability of the         In view of the foregoing observation, what Paul further
  `wicked to discern the signs of the times. And thus it is           writ& in I Thess. .5:4-11,  ought to be crystal clear:
   ever. The evidences of the very Flood engraved upon the                    "But ye, brethren, are ndt in darkness, that that day
   stones  may cry out; it may be pointed out in ever such                 should overtake you as a thief: for ye are all sons of
   clear and lucid testimony; it is ever the righteous'that give           the light, and sons of the day: we are not of the night,
   heed, the elect of God, illumined by the Spirit of Christ.             nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as do the rest,
  But the wicked unbelievers never give heed. They cannot!                but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep
   They do not have a sincere mind, which may be stirred up                sleep in the night; and they that are drunken  are drun-
   by the word of the holy Prophets, nor can they give heed               ken in the night. But let us, since we are of the day,
   to the commands of Christ by the Apostles. Both the Old                 be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love;
   and the New Testament Scriptures are a closed Book to                  and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God ap-
   them.. Fact is, that the testimonies of God in the things              pointed us not unto wrath, but unto obtaining of salva-
  made, are only so many words of God to us, who believe the              tion through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us,
   Scriptures. And, therefore, the Day of the Lord will come              that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live to-
  tipon them as a thief. It will be sudden destruction. Those             gether with him. Wherefore exhort one another, and
  who desire signs and evidences apart from the more sure                 build each other up, even as ye also do."
  prophetic Word must- needs walk on in darkness. II Peter               There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ
   1:19.                                                              Jesus. The Day of the Lord is not a day of terror for the
      This observation of us concerning  the distinction of the       righteous, but is looked for in glad hope and  earnest ex-
  righteous and the wicked relative to the coming of the Day          pectation.
   of the Lord is underscored and taught by the holy Apostle             We know perfectly that the Day of the Lord comes as
  Paul in I Thess.  51-11. `This is cast into such beautiful          a thief in the night for the wicked.
\ language, clear and perspicuous, that we shall quote it
  here in full. It reads:.                                               What manner `of men ought we to be in all godliness and
                                                                      holy conversati& in hope?!!
             "But concerning the times and seasons, brethren, ye
            have no need that aught be written unto you. For your-                          (to be continued)
            selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so                                                                   G.L.


62                                         T H E   ST.ANDARD   B E A R E 'R

      iHiiLORDGAVETHE                                              additional information as to his doctrinal and confessional
                                                                   background, as well as of the churches he had established.
                                                                   The response to this request revealed that there were some
                                                                   sixteen churches on the island, including about two hun-
                              (2)                                  dred families, which were seeking affiliation with our de-
      The question has often been raised, How did our              nomination, and that Rev. Morally did not intend to re-
churches come into contact with this field of mission en-          turn to the island unless he were supported financially by
deavor in Jamaica? Therefore I shall `try to acquaint you          some group like ours. Once more he insWed, as did those
briefly with the first contacts that were made and the             who were corresponding with the Board from Jamaica, that
further developments that followed.                                this work on the  island should be taken over at once.
      It was in July of 1961 that a certain Rev. H. N. Morally     Either we  should  send a. missionary of our own, or we
wrote a letter in response to the broadcast of the Reformed        should make it possible for Rev. Morally to return to the
Wikess  Hour over Trans-world Radio in England. This               island and represent us there. The result was that the Mis-
letter was addressed to the First Protestant Ref. Church           sion Board  .virtually decided to drop the entire venture
of Grand Rapids, Michigan, informing us that the Rev. H.           because of the shortage of ministers in our churches and the
N. Morally was a minister of the Gospel who had labofed            expense that would be incurred in this woik. Rev. Morally
in Jamaica, but was now residing in England. He added              was advised that he could only enter into the ministry in
that he was the founder of various churches on the island,         our churches  .according  to the rules and regulations estab-
and, having listened to our broadcasts over Trans-world            lished by our Church Order, that we did not have a man
Radio, he would like to know more about our churches.              available for the work on the island, and that no further
He asked for full particulars about our doctrinal standards        action could be taken until the Synod of -1962 should decide
and worship, and stated that he was interested in this be-         to carry on the work and make funds available for it.
cause he sought to afEliate  the churches of Jamaica with             It was with a certain amount of reluctance that the Mis-
some responsible denomination that was sound in faith and          sion Board came to this decision, because they felt that
walk.                                                              they were  ~closing the door to a possible field of mission
      This letter set off a rapid exchange of correspondence       endeavor. And yet they realized that the circumstances were
between England and America, and soon also between Ja-             such that nothing else could be done at the time. To their
maica and America. A ntiber  of pieces of literature, in-          surprise, there were those in Jamaica who insisted that we
cluding our doctrinal standards and Church Order, were             continue to correspond with them even though any further
sent to Rev, Morally, and a goodly supply of literature was        action must wait until after Synod had met. At this time
sent to ministers and evangelists on the island. Soon Rev.         Rev. J. E. Frame o$ Lucea began to take an interest in our
Morally informed us that he agreed perfectly with all that,        churches, so that he and Rev. .Thompson  kept up the corre-
he had read. In fact, a letter followed shortly  afterward-        spondence. We were especially impressed by the early let-
with these contents : "Greetings in Jesus' Name. I should          ters of Rev. Frame in which he insisted that he could have
appreciate hearing from you re our churches in Jamaica             fellowship only with such chtirches that professed and main-
c&laboring with your denomination. I have heard from               tained a sanctified walk of life. Therefore he sought to
Rev. Thompson in Jamaica that he replied to your. letter.          become better acquainted with us, with our doctrinal
I am eager to see that the work be pushed without delay.           standards and way of life, before becoming too much in-
Please let me know the decision of your Mission Board in           volved. 1" may also add that in the Spring of 1962 a clothing
this matter and how soon could .they send a man out there          drive was held and a large supply of clothing was sent
to visit the fields or to reside there and to .work in coopera-    to the Lucea area, which was also gratefully acknowledged.
tion with our workers there,' etc.,  etc. . . . Accept my             The entire matter of correspondence with the churches
dearest Christian love and do please reply quickly. Please         of Jamaica was presented to the Synod of 1963 by the Mis-
also state what help your Board will decide to give to these       sion Board. More recent letters from the island were also
churches in Jamaica, etc. Awaiting your reply, Yours in            read on the floor of Synod. It was becoming increasingly
Christian service, Henry Morally."                                 evident that the Lord had brought a great need to the at-
      Thereupon the Mission Board requested Rev. Morally           tention of our Prot. Reformed churches. These churches of
to supply us with some more information concerning him-            Jamaica had been hastily organized, elders and deacons
self and the churches of which he spoke. The Board asked           had been supplied them, ministers were given a certificate
him whether he could come to meet with them on his return          of ordination with a very limited amount of training and
to Jamaica; whether he could give us names and addresses           preparation, and when all was said and done, these churches
of other churches on the island, in case we should decide          were left to shift for themselves as sheep without a
to send someone there to investigate the field at some future      shepherd. Especially Rev. Frame was eager for moral sup-
date; and finally, whether he could furnish the Board with         port, spiritual guidance and any other aid that could be


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B.EARER                                                    6              3

given. Therefore the Synod of 1962 instructed the Mission            "2. .mat printed material such as pamphlets, Sunday
Board, "to pursue work in this field if an investigation         School papers, be sent them, ?md whatever else  may help to
warrants it and the means are available." This implied that      instruct them in the truth of the Word of God.
the Board should send a committee of two to Jamaica to               "3. That we further recommend that in the near future
meet these people, to discuss their needs and problems with      some one be sent to instruct these ministers and evkngelists
them, to acquaint them with the  ,doctrines  and practices       in the Protestant Reformed truth and in the form of wor-
of `our churches, and then report back to the Board with         ship as it is practiced in our churches." (Was signed)
some definite advice  on continuing the work on the island.      `Your committee, Harry Zwak, H. Meulenberg."
The Mission Board immediately appointed Mr. Henry Meu-               Thereupon the Sunday School Publishing Committee
lenberg  and Mr. Harry Zwak, members of the Mission              was requested and agreed to send Sunday School lessons to
Board, to carry out this investigation at their eailiest  opt    these  .churches.  -Moreover, the Mission Board asked the'
portunity. In August, they made the trip to Jamaica, spent       cljaconate  of First Church to take charge of a clothing
a week-traveling about &id making varioug contacts, and          drive in all of our churches in the Middle West, and to
then returned to report to the Board.                            request -the diaconates in the outlying areas to contribute
   Since you may be interested in reading this report, I         money  td help defray the cost of sending clothing to Ja-
shall quote it here:                                             maica. To this request our people responded most liberal-
   "To the Mission Committee of the Prot. Ref. Churches.         ly,`so that once more a large supply of clothing was sent
                                                                 to fill the need among these churches. The Mission Board
   "This is a report  on our labors in Jamaica. We left          also decided to send literature to the various ministers,
Grand Rapids August 13, and arrived in Jamaica on August         evangelists and churches that had not -been on our .mail.ing
17.1  &angel&  G.  R?  Dixon  and W. Tennant failed to           list before.
recognize us as we landed at Montego Bay airport, mak-              The -ensuing  months brought a few more interesting
ing it rather difficult for us to locate the other brethren      developments, But concerning these matters I hope to write
who had  writt,en to us. However, after having rented a          at's later date.                                         C.H.
car from Hertz, we. proceeded to Montego Bay, and in-
quiring there, we left for  Lucea, the town nearest to the
churches we had to visit. In Lucea'we met Rev. K. Thomp-                             A `CLOUD OF WITNESSES
son, who took us up to his place. df worship. -One thing                              (Continued from page 59)
soon became apparent to us, and will weigh heavily in            that is by it: and build an altar -unto the LORD thy God
any recommendations we may make, these people are very           upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the
poor, living- in the- hills almost` isolated from any norinal    secon&  bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with th,e wood of
transportation. Some of these churches are built on top of       the grove which thou shalt cut down."
the mountains and can. be reached only by foot.                     In faith Gideon went out that very night and did as the
   "Secondly, the ministers of these churches,  with the ex-     Lord commanded him. to do., B& he did it at night, and not
ception of  Rev. Frame and Rev.  Thompsbn, are not or-           during the day, because he was afraid of the people.
dained men and have had very little education. We've                                                                     B         .    W         .
met with these ministers and their congregations, separately
and in groups. Also we called a conference of ministers to       From: NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES -
meet with us on Tuesday, Aug. 21. Besides the ministers             Contributi& from the Radio "Committee: The `Beati-
about f?fty members of the various churches met with us          tudes" (Blessedness) form the basis of the iadio messages
that day. Your committee explain&d to them the doctrine          to be heard during November on the broadcasts of' our Re-
and stand of our churches, as well as the form of worship.       formed Witness Hour. Rev. B. Woudenberg, pastor of the
As far as the doctrine is concerned, they seemed to agree        Prot. Ref. Church in Edgerton, Minnesota, has chosen as -
with us. However, in the matter of the form of worship we        the general theme for these radio sermons, "The Distinc-
are quite far apart. Much training and guidance is needed        tiveness of the Children of  ,God" as revealed in Matt. 5,
to change them  in their habits of worship, if they shall be-    which passage proclaims the truth that the children of
come conformed to us. Of one thing we are convinced,. and        God are. the only people in this world who show forth His
that is their sincerity. Spiritually they are very active. As    glory by reflecting the Divine Virtues. Rev. Woudenberg
far as we could determine, they live a good moral and            has entitled his four radio messages as follows: "Blessed
spiritual life, and they long to become one with  Us. As         are the Poor in Spirit" (Nov. 3); "Hungering and Thirsting
a matter of fact, they begged us to accept them as +n$mbers      After Righteousness" (Nov. 10); "The Pure of Heart" (Nov.
in the Protestant Reformed churches. With all these facts        17); "The Light of the World" (NOV. 24). Our readers can
before us we recommend:                                          obtain printed copies of  #these radio sermons by writing to:
   "I. That financial, help be giveri  these churches in the     The Reformed Witness  Hour,  Box  1230, Grand Rapids,
firm of clothing, etc.                                           Mich.  49501.           _

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

II-----                                                            Christ, who did first of all consecrate it to his Church. And
           Contending For The- Faith                          II the same blessing and consecration does still remain among
                                                                   all those who celebrate no other but that very Supper,
                                                                   which the Lord did institute, and at that do recite the
                                                                   words of the Supper of the Lord, and in all things 1001~  unto
            The Church and the Sacraments                          the one Christ by a true faith; at whose hands, as it were,
                                                                   they do receive that tihih  they do receive by the ministry
           THE TIME  dF THE REFORMATION                            of the ministers of the Church.
                                                                      "The Lord, by this sacred- rite, would have that great
 VIEWS ON THE SACRAMENTS, (LORD'S SUPPER)                          benefit to be kept in fresh remembrance which he-procured
                                                                   for mankind; to wit, that by giving up his body to death
                 THE ZWINGLIAN VIEW                                and shedding his blogd he had forgiven us all our sins, and
                                                                   redeemed us frdm  eternal death and the power of the devil,
      The. Zwinglian view of the Lord's Supper  is known as        and now feeds US with his flesh, and gives us his blood to
@e symbolical view. Concerning this view of the Lord's             drink: which things, being apprehended spiritually by a
Sipper, Rev. Hoeksema writes in his Dogmatics as follows:          true faith, do nourish us up to life everlasting. And this so
"The traditional  and generally accepted representation of         great a benefit is renewed so oft as the Supper is cele-
the Zwinglian view is that this reformer did not really  see       brated. For the Lord said, `Do this in remembrance of me'
a sacrament at all in the eucha&t. According to him the            ( L u k e   22:19).
Lord's Supper was a mere feast of commemoration. In the
Lord's Supper there was really no  oper&on of God in                  "By this holy Supper also it is sealed unio us, that the
Christ, but rather an act on the part of the church. Now it        very body of Christ was truly given up-for us, and his
is doubtful whether  this representation of the view of that       blogd shed for `the remission of our sins, lest our faith might
Reformer does complete justice to him. It is true that he          somewhat waver. And this is outwardly represented unto
seems to belittle the supernatural element in the sacrament.       us by the minister in the sacrament, after a visible manner,
Sometimes he rather stresses the act of believers rather than      and, as it were, laid before our. eyes to be se&, which is
the work of God and the operation of Christ through His            inwardly in the soul &visibly performed by the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit in the Lord's Supper; and he leaves the impres-        Outwardly, bread is offered by the minister, and the words
sion that to him the supper mainly serves the purpose to           of the Lord are heard: `Take, eat; this is my body'; and,
c6mmemorate the death of Christ. Nevertheless, there are           `Drink ye all of it; this is my blood' (Matt. 26:26-28;  Luke
also expressions in his writings that seem to prove the con-       22:17-2(j).  Therefore the faithful do receive that which is
trary. Besides, in the First Helvetic Confession, which is         given by the ministers of the Lord, and do eat the bread of
supposed to conform to  the Zwinglian view, we read in             the Lord, and do. drink of the Lord's cup. And at the same
Article 21. . .  ."                                   -            time inwardly, by the working of Christ through the Holy
                                                                   Spirit; they receive also the  ffesh  and blood of the Lord,
      We wish to quote from the Second Helvetic Confession.        and do feed on them unto life eternal. -For the flesh. and
This Confession was composed in 1566. It is the most elab-         blood of Christ is true meat and drink  unto  life eternal;
orate and most catholic among the Swiss Confessions. It            yea, Christ himself, in that he was delivered for us, atid is
was adopted, or at least highly approved, by nearly all the        our Saviour, is that special  t@ng and substance of the
Reformed Churches on the Continent and in England'and              Supper; and therefore we suffer nothing to be put in his
Scotland. And although it cannot be declared with certain-         place. [These  words certainly show that the observance of
ty that all that is contained in this confession can be attrib-    the Lord's Supper is more than a mere remembrance  feagt
uted to Zwingli himself, yet one may doubt whether                 - H.V.]
Zwingli's conception of the Lord's Supper `was merely that
of a feast of c6mmemoration and nothing more.                         "But  .that it may the better and more plainly be under-
                                                                   stood how the flesh and blood of Christ are the meat and
      Article XXI of the Second Helvetic Confession                drink of the faithful, and are received by the faithful unto
                                                                   life eternal, we will add, moreover, these few things:
           OF THE HOLY SUPPER OF THE LORD                            "Eating is of divers sorts. (1) There is a cdrpoyeal  eating,
      "The Supper of the Lord (which is called the Lord's          whereby m&at is taken into a man's mouth, chewed with
Table, ,and the Eucharist, that is, a Thanksgiving) is; there-     the teeth, swallowed down, and digested. After this man-
fore, commonly called a supper, because it was instituted          ner did the Capernaites in times past think they should eat
by Christ at his last supper, and does as yet represent the        the flesh of the Lord; but  they_ are confuted by  him  (1oh.n
same, and because in it the faithful are spiritually fed and       6:30-63). For as the flesh of Christ could not be eaten bodi-
nourished. For the a&hor'of  the Supper of the Lord is not         ly, without great-wickedness and cruelty, so is it not food
an angel or man, but the very Son of- God, our Lord Jesus          for the `body, as all men do confess. We therefore  dis-


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  65

  allow that canon in the Pope's decrees. For neither  .did             believer not only is partaker, spiritually and internally, of
  godly antiquity believe, neither yet do we believe, that the          the true body and blood of the Lord, but also, by coming
  body of Christ can be eaten corporeally and essentially,              to the Table of the Lord, does outwardly receive the visible
  with a bodily mouth.                                                  sacraments of the body and blood of the Lord. True it is,
     "( 2) There is also a  spirituall eating of  Christ"s body;        that by faith the believer did before receive the food that
  not such a one whereby it may be thought that the very                gives life, and still receives the same; but yet, when he
  meat is changed into the spirit, but whereby (the Lord's              receives-the sacrament, he receives something more. For'he
  body and blood remaining in their own essence and prop- `goes on in continual communication of the body and blood
  erty) those things are spiritually communicated unto us,              of the Lord, and his faith is daily more and more kindled,
  not after a corporeal, but after a spiritual manner, through          more strengthened and refreshed, by the spiritual nourish-
  the Holy Spirit, who does apply and bestow upon us those              ment. For while we live, faith has continual  increasings;
  things (to wit, remission of sins, deliverance, and life eter-        and he that outwardly does receive the sacrament with a
  nal) which are prepared. for us by the flesh and blood of             true faith, the same does not only receive the sign, but
  our Lord, sacriilced  for us; so that Christ does not live in         also does enjoy (as we said) the thing itself . . . .
  us, as we live in him; and does cause.us  to apprehend him               "`We do not, therefore, so join the body of the Lord and
  by true faith to this end, that he may become unto us                 his blood with the bread and wine, as though we thought,
  such a spiritual meat and drink, that is to say, our life.            that the bread is the body of Christ, more than after a
  For even as corporeal meat and drink do not only refresh              sacramental- manner; or that the body of Christ does lie
  and strengthen our bodies, but also do keep them in life;             hid corporeally under the bread, so that it ought to be
  even so the flesh of Christ deiivered for us, and his blood           worshipped under the form of bread; or yet that whoso-
  shed for us, do not only refresh and strengthen our ,souls,           ever he be who receives` the sign, receives also the thing
  but also do preserve them alive, not so far as they be                itself.  The body of Christ  is  in the heavens,  at the  right
  corporeally eaten and drunken, but so far as they are com-            hand of his Father;. and therefore our hearts are to be lifted
  municated unto us spiritually by the Spirit of God, the               up on high, and not to be fixed on the bread, neither is the
  Lord saying, `The bread that I will give is my flesh, which           Lord to be worshipped in the bread. Yet the Lord is not
  I will give for the life of the world' (John 651): also it is         absent from his Church when she celebrates the Supper,
 the spirit that gives life: `the flesh' (to wit, corporeally eaten)    The sun, being absent from us in the heavens, is yet, not-
  `profiteth  nothing; the words which I speak unto you, they           withstanding, present among us effectually: how much
  are spirit and they are life' (John 6:63). And as we must             more Christ, the Sun of Righteousn'ess,  though in body he
 -by eating receive the meat into our bodies, to the end. that          be absent from us in the heavens, yet is present among us;
it may work in us, and show its efficacy in us (because,                not corporeally, but spiritually, by his lively operation, and
while it is without us, it profiteth us not at all); even so it         so as he himself promised, in his Last Supper, to be
 is necessary that we receive Christ by faith, that he may be           present among us (John  14, 15 and 16). Whereupon it
  made ours, and that he live in us, and we in him. For he              follows that we have not the Supper without Christ, and
  says, `I am the bread of life; he that come& to me shall not          yet that we may have meanwhile an unbloody and mystical
  hunger, and he that believeth in me shall not thirst any              supper, even as. all antiquity called it . . . .
 more (John 6:35); and also, `He that eateth me, shall live                "We therefore disallow those who have taken from the
 through me; and he abideth in me, and I in him' (John 650.)            faithful one part of the sacrament, to wit, the Lords cup.
     "From all this it appears manifestly, that by spiritual            For these do very grievously offend  .against the institution
 meat we mean not any imaginary thing, but the very body                of the Lord, who says, `Drink ye a0 off this' (Matt. 26:27);
  of our Lord Jesus, given to us; which yet is received by              which he did not so plainly say'of the bread."
 the faithful not corporeally, but spiritually by faith: in                This Confession, although we cannot say that all that
 which point we do wholly follow the, doctrine of our Lord              is contained in it can be attributed to Zwingli himself, is
 and Saviour Christ, in the 6th chapter of John. And this               supposed to conform to the Zwinglian view of the Lord's
 eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood of the Lord is           Supper. And it cannot be denied that the presentation of
 so necessary to salvation that without it no man can be                this sacrament in this 21st article, as quoted above, is much
 saved. But this spiritual eating and drinking takes place              in agreement with the reforined view of the same. Accord-
 also without the Supper of the Lord, even so often as, and             ing to this article, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is
 wheresoever, a man does believe in Christ. To, which                   not merely .a remembrance feast, and Christ is not merely
 purpose that sentence of St. Augustine does happily belong,            present symbolically, only in the signs as-such, but He is
 `Why dost thou prepare thy teeth and beliy?  Believe, and              also present Himself, spiritually, by His lively operation,
 thou hast eaten.'                                                      even as He Himself promised, in His Last Supper, to be
     "(3) Besides  that Former spiritual eating, there is a             present among us.
 sacramental  eating of the body of the Lord; whereby the                                                                        H.V.


                                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
        _____ ----_--.~~~~
  i-                          ~~ ~~ ~~                                           eternally active God. All His activity is from eternity. He
            The. Voice of Our Fathers,-                                          did not begin to work, for example, when He created the
                                                                                 world: for this would imply change in God. Hence, we
                                                                                 may speak; first of all, of God's indwelling works, that is,
                        The Belgic Confession                                    those works of God that He eternally accomplishes witbin
                                                                                 Himself. These indwelling works of God may, in turn, be
                                  ARTICLE XII                                    distinguished as His personal' works, that is, the divine
                                                                                 activity whereby the Father generates the Son, the Son
                      We believe that the Father, by the Word, that is, by       is generated by the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds
                 his Son, hath created of nothing, the heaven, the earth,        from the Father and the Son; and His 
                 and all creatures, as -it seemed good unto him, giving                                                      essential works,
                 unto every creature its being, shape, form, and several         that is, those divine activities according to which God
                 offices to serve its Creator. That he doth also  still.  up-    eternally knows and loves Himself, etc.
                 hold and govern them by his eternal providence, and
                 i&rite  power, for the service of mankind, to the end
                 that man may serve his God.  -He also created the-angels            In the second place, there are the works of God desig-
                  good, to be his messengers and to serve his elect; some        nated as outgoing. These are either the works of God that
                 of whom are fallen from that excellency, in which God
                 created them, into everlasting perdition; and the others        have respect to existence outside of God's own Being,  .or
                 have, by the grace of God, remained steadfast and con-          those works whereby beings outside of God's Being, or in
                 tinued in their primitive state. The devils and evil spirits
                 are so depraved, that they are enemies of God and every         distinction from. His Being, are actually called into exis-
                 good thing, to the utmost of their power; as murderers,         tence. Under this classification another two-fold distinction
                 watching to rum the Church and every member thereof,
                 and by their wicked stratagems to destroy all; and are,         is often made, namely, that of God's works in eternity and
                 therefore, by their own wickedness, adjudged to eternal         His works in time. God's works in eternity are then His
                 damnation, daily expectingtheir horrible torments. There-
                 fore we reject and abhor the error of the  Sadducees,           counsel, or decrees, concerning all things, including the
                 who deny the existence of spirits and angels: and also          decree of providence, which is mentioned in Article XII
                 that of the  Manichees,  who assert that the devils have
                 their origin of themselves, and that they are wicked of         as "his eternal providence," and the decree of predestination,
                 their own nature, without having been corrupted.                or His counsel with respect to the eternal destiny of His
                                                                                 moral creatures, men and angels, which is, in turn, dis-
 Introduction                                                                    tinguished as election and reprobation. And God's works
     With this twelfth article a new section of our Con- -i.n time include His works in "nature," namely, creation and
 fession begins. This section extends from Article XII to                        providence, and His works in grace, namely, all the work
 Article XV, and deals with those subjects which are usually                     of salvation in Christ. Sometimes mention is made not
 -treated in Christian doctrine under the general heading of                     only- of God's works in eternity, which really would in-
 `Anthropology," or the doctrine concerning man. This is,                        clude all  ,the indwelling works of God, but of indwelling
 of course, only a general,classification.  For not only is the                  works of God as such (works that remain indwelling)
 doctrine concerning man .as such treated, but also several                      and indwelling works of God destined.to become. outgoing.
 doctrines which stand intimately related  are discussed.                        God's counsel as such is a work of God in Himself, or an
 Thus, in our Confession the entire subject of the creation                      indwelling, immanent work. But this counsel is revealed
  of all things (with special attention to the creation of the                   in all the outgoing works of God, the works in time. Hence,
 angels,  .and the fall of some of them). is treated in the                      it is spoken of as an indwelling work of God destined to
 present article. In Article XIII the truth of divine  prov-                     become outgoing.
 i.dence is confessed. In Article XIV the doctrine concerning                       It will be evident  .that it is very  diEcult  to maintain
 the creation, fall, and depravity of man is treated. And                        these various classifications consistently. While it is prob-
 finally, in Article XV our Confession treats the subject of                     ably necessary and convenient to make some kind of clas-
 original sin.                                                                   sification in the works of (God, the various classifications
     We may also view this change of' subject from a dif-                        that are made all have their limitations - limitations which
 ferent aspect.                                          r                       must be recognized and reckoned with when we speak of
                                                                                 God's works. God is infinitely greater than all our clas-
     Our Confession, beginning with Article XII; speaks of                       sifications of Him. And the same  `is true of His works.
 the works of God. From this point of view, all the rest                         Besides, God is One, and His works are one. And for this
 of our Belgic Confession is devoted. to this subject, al-                       reason, there is always the danger when we make such
 though we may again distinguish these works of God into                         classifications as these that we drive a separation into the
 various sub-divisions.                                                          works of God.  ,And this, of course, would be a mistake.
     Reformed doctrine has frequently distinguished the                          Thus, while we may to an extent distinguish God's works
works of God as  indwelling works of God and outgoing                            in eternity and. His works in time, we may never separate
 .works of God. The indwelling works, then, are those that                       the two, but must always strive to see the close harmony
 are eternally done within the divine Being. God is an                           between them. Thus also,, while we may indeed speak


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                67

of the indwelling, personal works of God, it at the same           creation, "general revelation," or God's book of nature, and
time cannot be denied that these too are in a sense out-           the revelation of Scripture in Genesis 1 and 2.
going: they are revealed to the creature outside of God.               True, our Confession does not go into these matters.
Not only so, but in the realization of His everlasting cove-       In fact, it is very brief on the whole subject of creation,
nant with His. people in Christ we have the revelation of          devoting much.more  attention in this article to the creation
God's own eternal covenant life as the Triune God. Further-        and fall of the angels than to the subject  `of creation in
more, even the classification of the so-called works of God        general. This is due, historically, to the fact. that when
in time into works in  natiue (creation and providence) and        our Confession was composed the doctrine of creation was
works in grace must not be driven to the point ,that there         not being called in question in the church, while there was
are two kinds of works of God in time, separate from one           a good deal of discussion concerning the subject of the
another, And the same is true of God's counsel when it is          angel-world. Nevertheless, our Confession, without going
distinguished as the counsel of His providence and the             into detail, sets forth the essentials concerning the divine
counsel of predestination. There are no two counsels of            work of creation; and these; in the light of Scripture, must
God, but only one; and all the work of God's counsel that          constitute the norm when judging the orthodoxy of various
is classified as the decree of His providence stands  ,inti-       views concerning creation that are taught in the present
mately related to what is called the decree of predestination.     day. Moreover, we must take care that we do more than
   Bearing in mind, therefore, these limitations, we may           lip-service to this doctrine of creation. There are those
make use of the various classifications mentioned.                 educated men of science today who profess to believe in
   Above all, however, we must maintain the unity of               creation, but who because of their enslavement to science
the works of God,  .and therefore remember that. from now          -so compromise and camouflage the truth of creation that
on in our Confession we are still discussing all the time          you can hardly.recognize  in their views the confession, "We
the works of God, whether we speak of man, of the fall,            I believe that the Father . . . hat11 created of nothing . . . all
of, Christ, of salvation, of the church, or of the last things.    creatures." Faith .is, to say the least, covered up, as though
                                                                   they were ashamed. of it. Or, what is worse and more
   We may note from the outset, too, that our Confession           deceiving; there are those who boldly profess to believe in
in this article on creation proceeds from the idea of God's        creation, and who attempt to convince others that they be-
counsel., This is plain from its use of the expression, "as        lieve in creation, but who make so many accommodations
it seemed good unto him," which emphasizes the idea of             to the so-called "findings" of natural science, and who place
God's counsel as His good pleasure.      .                         so many strictures upon the idea of creation, that the Scrip-
   But this brings us already into a discussion of the work        tural presentation of creation is scarcely recognizable in
of creation, to which  wee now address ourselves.                  their teachings. And meanwhile they inculcate in Christian
Creation and Faith                                                 students the idea that they too can believe in creation in
We must notice and emphasize at once that our Con-                 the same way.
fession places the work of creation squarely in the sphere             Hence, it is our purpose to. call attention to some of
of faith: " We b&we that the Father by the Word, that is,          these matters in connection with Article XII, and, to em-
by'his Son, hath created of nothing . . . "                        phasize that one cannot .be Reformed unless he whole-
   Creation, therefore, according to our Confession, is a          heartedly and without compromise or reservation subscribes
matter of faith. It is an article of faith, and always has         to what is here confessed.
been in the church: "I believe in God the Father, Almighty,            In this connection, it is necessary,  &st of all, to dis-
Maker of heaven and earth." Moreover, the method of                cuss the subject of our method and fundamental approach.
our Confession is literally the method of Scripture. For the          That method and approach is that of faith, and that too,
Word of God says: "Through faith we understand that the            as the evidence of things unseen.
worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things             The antithesis of faith is not reason, but unbelief. It
which are seen were not made of things which do appear."           is not thus, that the believer is a kind of fool or ignoramus,
Hebrews 11:3. By faith only, therefore, do we understand           who clings to his views in spite of facts, who is irrational,
that the world is not eternal, but that it had a beginning;        while all the findings of  natural science are a matter of
and by faith only do we understand that the beginning of           reason, whether inductive or deductive. No, the conflict
the world can be "explained" only from the omnipotent will         is between faith and unbelief: And true reason, genuine
of God, Who calls the things that are not as if they were.         science,' always stands in subjection to faith, while the
Romans 4: 17.                                                      wisdom of the world, even with all its reasonings, proceed-
   It is important that we understand this as Christians,          ing from the ethical principle of unbelief, is for that very
especially in our day,  .when there is a good deal. of dis-        reason the greatest folly.
cussion about various questions concerning creation, the                                 ( t o   b e   c o n t i n u e d )
day of creation, the age of the world, natural science and                                                                    H.C.H.


  6 8 .                                     T H E   ` S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                     Three years later the Synod of Middelburg changed, this to
  11  D E C E N C Y   and.ORDE'R   11 read "foreign churches" and it was also this reading that
                                                                     was adopted by the Synod of 1618 - `19 and is retained in
                                                                     the Netherlands to this day. That article read: "In  non-
            -Recognition of Other Churches                           esseritial  things, the foreign churches, which maintain other
                                                                     usages than we do, shall not be rejected." In the Christ@
     "Churches whose usages. difEer from ours merely in non-         Reformed Church here the word "foreign" was dropped in
  essentials shall not be rejected."      - Article 85, D. IL 0.     the revision of 1914 and so we have the present reading:
                                                                     It appears then that the idea of this article is that churches
     The above article of the Church Order expresses a rather        maintaining this Church Order shall seek to establish as
  general principle concerning which much is left to be de-          much as possible  fraternal  relationships with other Re-
  sired in the way of explicitly defining the proper relation        formed Churches that differ only in non-essential things.
  and attitude of one church toward another. The form of                 That this meaning was accepted by the committee .for
  the article is negative. Suppose that we would revise this         Church Order revision in the Christian Reformed Church
  and put the idea into a positive form. Would we then               is evident from their proposed revision. They propose that
  adopt and maintain this rule as part of our ecclesiastical         ,Article 85 be made to read as follows:
  system?. And would we then be  hilling to observe this
  principle, not simply as a r&e of the church, but particularly         "The Christjan Reformed Church shall enter into fel-
  as it affects our in-dividual conduct and attitude toward          lowship with other Reformed denominations which main-
  other churches. The rule would then read something like            tain the Reformed creeds and form of church government,
  this : YChurches  that differ from ours essentially bhall be       to give expression to the unity and ecumenicity of the
  rejected." Or perhaps it could be stated in this form:             church of Christ and to enable the churches to enjoy the
  `Churches whose usages differ from ours merely in non-             mutual help and advice which such fellowship affords."
  essentials shall be accepted."                                         Then to make this meaning even more explicit it is
     The first question that must be answered in this con;           proposed that this article be followed  by_ another which
  nection is whether this rule applies to churches within the        reads :
  denomination or to churches other than those of our                    "The fellowship referred to in the foregoing article shall
  denomination? Both of these are possible,  although  the           be exercised specifically through the sending of delegates
  intent, of the Church Order is definitely the latter. The          to the meetings of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod, with the
  matter we are dealing with here. concerns- the fraternal           understanding that decisions reached at these synods sha.il
  relationship of church denominations, which is  often re-          be binding upon the Christian Reformed Church only when
  ferred to as sister-church relationships. It is conceivable,       ratified by its general synods."
  however; that the principle of this article might apply also          Whether these articles have ever been adopted by the
  within the denomination. A church that agrees. with us             synod we ds not know; but if they have, it could not have
  doctrinally and church politically might seek admission to         been done seriously and in sincerity. That the Christian
  the denomination. But due to different background. and             Reformed Church is very ecumenically minded today is
  history this church might have, several, customs and usages        evident; but the sending of delegates to Ecumenical Synods
  that are foreign to those found in our churches generally.         does not abrogate the duty "`to enter into fellowship with
  If the church is one with us in faith and polity, it must          other Reformed denominations which maintain the Re-
  not be rejected because of these non-essential differences.        formed creeds and form-of church government." To our
  Each local church must be free to adopt usages that are            knowledge the Christian Reformed Church has never sought
  most conducive to the spiritual edification of that particular     such fellowship with the Protestant Reformed Churdhes in
  church. That liberty must not be denied.                           America, which geographically are close to them and con-
     However, Article 85 is really concerned with the matter         cerning whom it has never been denied that they `maintain
  of interdenominational  relatitinships.  Authorities are of the    the Reformed creeds and form of church government."
  opinion that historically this article goes back to the Wezel-     Why is this? The answer we believe is found in Monsma
  ian Convention of 1586 and the Synod of Emden in 1571.             and Van Dellen's  Church Order Commentary in the form 1
  But then it must be noted that the articles of these meetings      of a self-indictment. We quote:
  speak only of non-essential or indifferent usages practiced            Under present  -day circumstances full fledged acknowl-
  by the various particular churches that then met in either         edgment is not even accorded to all Reformed and Pres-
convention or synod. They said nothing about other de-               byterian Churches inasmuch as some of these bodies have
  nominations or Reformed Churches. Article 85, however,             neglected the exercise of discipline and have tolerated
  does. .The original reading of this article, adopted by the        false doctrine. In theory, according to their official stan-
  Synod  of Dort in 1578, spoke simply of "other churches." dards and creeds they are Reformed, but in practice they


                                      .   THE,   STAfiD.ARD   - B E A R E R                                                     69

are not. The only churches with which we maintain full            or at  .t& or eleven; whether the consistdry meets once
and unconditional correspondence are the Reformed                 a week or twice or three times in the month; whether there
Churches of the Netherlands and the Reformed Churches             be two services on tlie Sabbath or three. God's will re-
of South Afrfca."                                                 garding these things is not known, it is true, by the Scrip-
   The Christian Reformed Church has since 1924 tolerated         tures, but by providepce,  definitely by the needs of the con-
the false doctrine of common grace and the well-meant             gregation, and by circumstances and  conditiods  peculiar
offer of. salvation. In 1924 they tranipled under foot the        to each local church. For needs, circumstances, and con-
basic principles of Reformed Church government. That              ditions are creations of God. In' them all He is revealed
discipline is neglected is evident from their tolerance  df       and through them He speaks. But because the needs,
union members, lodge members, divorced persons, etc. In           circumstances and conditions of the local congregations
name Reformed, but not in practice. Are not these the             differ, these so-called indifferent  things must be left for
causes that fellowship with denoqinatioris  that maintain.        each congregation to determine."
the Reformed creeds  and church government is  not and                Churches differing in these things are not to be re-
c&not be sought? The differences here are not concerning          jected. This expression does not have a church-political im-
certain `non-essentiaP' usages.                                   plication but simply means that such churches are not to be
   What then are the "non-essentials" of which Article 85         excluded from the fellowship of the Reformed denomina-
speaks? The Latin term used t? express this is the word           tion. The converse. of this is that churches that differ  as
"adiophora" which means "indifferent things." The Dutch           to essential th+gs, such as the faith, doctrine, and polity
speaks of  "middehnatige  dingen." The fathers used these         of the church shall be excluded. This raises the practical
terms to indicate those practices and customs of the church       question as to whether it is wrong to attend services in a
for which there is no expressed prescription in Holy Writ.        church whose doctrines are opposed to ours? In answer
In other words they are things which the Scriptures do not        to this question Rev. Ophoff writes: "Our Reformed fathers,
definitely require or forbid. As an example of some of these      being men of principle,  took the stand that this is for-
things might be cited the following: The practice of cele-        bidden. Their stand was that attending divine services of
brating the Lord's Supper four times a year, the matter           such churches is equivalent to pronouncing doctrinal dif-
of standing or sitting during the celebration of the Lord's       ferences `adiophora,' and is thus to weaken  &e's own posi-
Supper, the question whether there should be one  `or three       tion. This was the stand of the Reformed fathers, a stand
sprinklings in baptism and the matter of mentioning the           they took in the  yery article with which we are here oc-
first, last, or both names of the baptized. It appears that       cupied.'
historically the reference. in, this article was directed pri-       In  concltision   then we observe three things with re-
marily to these things associated with the sacraments. How-       spect to Article S5 of the church order:
ever, there are also other matters of "adiophora." For ex-           1. Its basis is to be found in the fact that there is a
ample, mention might be made of different arrangements            bond of unity between all churches of Reformed persua-
in the order of worship, the matter of whether the second         sion that have not corrupted the Reformed confessions,
service should  be'in the afternoon or evening, the  que'stion    though there may be differences of non-essential usages
of whether the' consistory should sit in the back or front        in these churches. This bond must be maintained' and
of the church, and the day of the week on which the cate-         strengthened. History shows that the Reformed Churches
chism classes shall  bi: conducted. Concerning  all these         of the 16th century wanted and sought this unity. In this
things Scripture gives no directive; and, therefore,  they are    effort the church must continually press forward.
things that must be determined by the local  chufch; and
whether or not there is uniformity on  .&se matters is               2. The basis for fraternal fellowship between different
not important. No church shall be rejected because of them.       churches must be based  upon agreement of confession and
                                                                  church government. These are essential.  Other  differences
   It is interesting_ to note that many church authorities        may not interfere with this unity; and if there is no agree-
agree that, strictly speaking, things we call "adiophora" do      ment on these essential matters, an official correspondence
not exist. We quote Rev. Ophoff on this matter: "Really           relationship is not only impossible;  but also forbidden.
there are no indifferent things in any sphere or domain.          For the implication of Article 85 is clearly that churches
No word of ours, no thought or deed of ours is without            differing on essential matters are to  .be rejected.
meaning. Customs, usages in whatever domain  are -with-
out exception  rodted  in principles. It is not a matter of          3. The church must carefully guard against the danger
indifference whether  baptism  is administered by two or          of making the "adiophora" essential, and essential things
three sprinklings; whether the Lord's Supper is eaten three       "adiophora." It is -only on the basis of a proper distinction
times in the year or more, whether  commtmicants   .in            between these two that a true determinatiqn of, existing
eating the Lord's Supper stand or sit; whether a local            differences can be made.
church begins its services at nine o'clock in the morning                                                                 G.v.d.B.


  70                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   .BEARER

                                                                              nevertheless maintains that the protest should have  *been
                                                                             treated.                 \
                                                                                    His reasons are primarily two-fold. First, Rev.  Heerema
                                                                              considers the matter of the overture of such great im-
  ORANGE CITY OVERTURE                                                        portance that a few technical deficiencies should not have
        The October issue of the Torch and Trumpet contains a                 kept it from being treated. He writes,
 few remarks about Sy?od's treatment of the overture from                                It must be granted at once that the overture had formal
 Classis.  Orange City that appeared at the Christian Reformed                        deficiencies.- But it is hard to avoid the feeling that there  js
Synod of 1963. This yas' the overture that objected to Prof.                          something highly unsatisfactory in the manner in which the
                                                                                      burden of the overture was left untouched just because the
 Harold Dekker's views of God's love. for all men.                                    overture was formally deficient. The question is properly
        As our readers -undoubtedly know, this overture was                           asked, In what spirit are such matters dealt with in the
                                                                                      Church of Christ? If in elders' meeting an elder raises a  ques-
  sent back to the Classis  by Synod because it was technically                      -tion relative to the doctrinal correctness of the pastor's preach-
 unsatisfactory inasmuch as it  did_ not "supply adequate                             ing at some point, does the pastor respond to the query or
                                                                                      objection of the elder by saying,  "Ybur objection to my
  grounds for its charges" or "submit sufficient grounds for its               .      preaching is based on faulty reasoning. I do not have to an-
 suspicion."                                                                          swer you and I will not answer you until you put your case
                                                                                      against me in good order." It is Safe to say that except in
        It seems, both horn the remarks of the committee of                           very extraordinary  circumstancez  no pastor would proceed  in
 pre-advice and from the statement of Prof. Dekker to the                             this manner.
  Synod that there was supposed to be a contradiction  ifi the                      Secondly, Rev. Heerema argues that the  Classis  did not
 overture.                                                                   intend to  contradicf  its own position, It asked for an
        On the one hand, it was poiiited  out, the Classis  made             examination of Pkof. Dekker and had to give some reason
 a formal charge of here:y  against Prof. Dekker when it said                why such  an examination ought to be demanded.  This
 in the overture: "This we believe is an unscriptural inter-                 reason was found in the fact that Prof. Dekker had raised
 pretation. Since we believe that if God loves- all men re-                  suspicion as to his views by his public writings in which
 demptively all rneq must be saved, Prof. Dekker's position                  he maintained that God  loves,  811 men, a position which
 conflicts with the creedal  statement of articles 8 and 9 of                cor&cts with the creeds. Classis  was not making a formal
 Chapter II in the Canons of Dort."                                          charge, but was grounding its request for examination.
   \ On the other hand,  Classis contradicted itself in its                         Rev. Heerema concludes by saying that the result of it
 overture when it nevertheless asked for an examination of                   all is highly unsatisfactory. The entire doctrinal question -
 Prof. Dekker under the  rule of the Formula of Subscrip-                    is still undecided; and the Professor and the seminary are
 tion. The Formula of Subscription reads on this point:                      meanwhile under a cloud of suspicion.
 "And further, if at any time the Consistory,  Classis,  or                         It is true that  Classis  Orange City should have sub-
 Synod, upon sufficient grounds of suspicion and.to preserve                 stantiated its position more firmly both  with qudtations
 uniformity and purity of doctrine, may deem it proper to                    from Prof. Dekker's writings and from passages from Scrip-
 -require of us a further explanation of our sentiments r&-                  ture and the Confessions. But I am inclined to agree with
 specting any particular article `of the Confession of Faith,                Rev. Heerema that Classis  intended to ground  &eir request
 the Catechism; or the explanation of the National Synod,                    for an  ex$mitiation rather than bring a formal charge.
 we do. hereby promise to be always willing and ready to                     They. could not have merely asked for an  examin&ion
 comply with such requisition . . . `J.                                      without giving some evidence of the need of one. This
        Synod argued (and `so did Prof. Dekker) that one can-                does not necessarily prejudge the case for the Synod.
 not make a formal charge of heresy and also ask to have                            But it is quite possible that we have heard the last of the
 an examination of the individual charged; a charge of                       storm -* except for some distant and faint rumblings here
 heresy makes- an examination unnecessary. Prof. Dekk&,                      and there. It appears that this history is rather much like
 in his statement, said,                                                     the pattern set in recent years iti the Christian Reformed
              This overture is inconsistent. It has two  parts which do      Church: a heretical position is set forth; there. is a brief
         not fit together very well.  The-  fist paragraph consists of a     flurry of criticism and a brief skirmish on Synod; the posi-
         charge of heresy, alleging that my position "conflicts with the
          creedal  statement of articles 8 and 9  .of the Canons of Dort." tion is not condemned;  *the matter dies down and another
         The second paragraph consists of a petition "that Synod re-         step is .taken away from Scripture.
         quire Professor Dekker to give further explanation of his                                                                                     1
         position." There is an anomaly here. If  Classis is already
         convinced that my position  is~in conflict with the Canons, why     PRAYERLESS SCHOOLS
         does it not substantiate its charge rather than call for further
         explanations of my views? If, on the other hand,  Classis is               Although  la,st year the Supreme Court of the United
         sincerely seeking further explanation, why does it prejudge         States banned as unconstitutional any compulsory religious
         the question by introducing a charge of heresy?  Classis can
         scarcely be equally in earnest about both parts of the over-        exercises in the public schools, the fight over the decision
         ture.                                                               goes on.
        Rev.' Edward Heerema, while agreeing with the fact                          There is much opposition to the ruling, and some states
 that &is protest may have been deficient, in some r&$ects,                  and state school boards have deliberately passed new rules

                                                                                            ;


                                          T     H    E      STANDARD   BEARER                                               71

to continue devotions consisting of Bible reading and prayer.       The trouble is with this country that they treat ,alcohol-
This has happened in such states as Idaho; Delaware, Ar-         ism as an organic or mental disease. This will never solve
kansas and, Alabama. Some are even wondering whether             ,any problems It is not a matter of some disease, but it
this decision of the Supreme Court will also be enforced         is a spiritual problem and the fruit of sin. This is, of
with troops and bayonets as was the decision on racial           course, something which men will not (and cannot) rec-
integration in the schools.                                      ognize.
   One state, New Jersey, has decided to substitute for             Surely the statement of Jesus is true: "For as in the days
Bible readings the fourth stanza of- the "Star-Spangled          that were before the flood they were eating and drinking,
Banner" which ends with the words, "In God is our trust."        marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe
Another state has ordered its -school board to search for        entered into the ark, And,kriew  not until the flood came,
fitting  passageq  in prose or poetry that can be used for       and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son
devotions.                                                       of man be." Matthew 24:38,39.
   There have been no less than'fifty-seven bills introduced
in Congress asking for constitutional amendments that            UNION DECLINE?
would once again permit religious devotions. But all these          It is being repeatedly asked whether the labor unions
bills are bottled up in the House Judiciary Committee, and       as they exist in this country are perhaps on the way out.
this committee has no intention of permitting the bills             There are several reasons why this is the conclusion of
to come to the floor for discussion and decision.                some labor leaders and experts.
   There is a movement among the repre.sentatives  in the           In the first place, our country's industry has become in-
House to force this bill on the floor by petition. But such      creasingly automated. An American miner can dig several
a petition needs 218 signatures, and only 88 members of the      times as much coal as a miner in, Europe; the railroad
House have signed it as yet.                                     companies can run a railway with one third the number
   There is one interesting footnote to the whole debate.        of employees they once needed; manufacturing in this
Mrs. Madalyn J. Murray was the chief figure in  '  asking        country employed a -million fewer production workers last
the Supreme Court to rule that religious exercies are un-        year than they did six years ago and yet turned out
constitutional. She is an avowed atheist, and has now or-.       twenty percent more goods; a recent strike in  the tele-
ganized a group called Other Americans Inc. to promote           phone company in Florida  ,did not prevent the company
atheism. This group intends, to build and operate an             from continuing its service uninterrupted until the strikers
atheistic center near Stockton, Kansas. The center will be       resorted to violence and destruction of equipment -proof
built on an eighty-acre plot and will include a university:      that the job can be done without most of the workers.
a radio station, a publishing house, and a home for the          The result is that membership is in danger of declining
aged., She is also starting more litigation to bar Roman         drastically. Several industries are immune to strikes and
Catholic nuns from teaching in public schools in Kansas.         can be,run with tiny crews of non-union men. And strikes
   If  this country wishes to maintain the principle of          have always been a major weapon in the hands of  the
freedom of religion, there is no other solution to the prob-     union.
lem but to turn over again to the parents full control over         Secondly, and closely connected with the above, the
edu'cation. Then each parent (in company with other              blue collar workers have been steadily decreasing in num-
parents of like faith) can instruct his children according       bers, while the white collar workers are becoming more
to what he believes.                                             numerous. But unions have always found it very difhcult
   But how important it is that we maintain, at all costs,       to organize white collar workers, who generally feel a
our own school system, where we may instruct our children        much closer relationship with and greater responsibility
in the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of all            for the company which employs them.
wisdom.                                                             Thirdly, industry has expanded so rapidly in recent
-AN  EPIDEMIC  0~  ALCOHOLISM                                    years that it can readily overproduce. If a strike threatens,
   We are indebted to the Presbyterian Jownal for some           stockpiles can easily be built up to .weather  -the strike so
remarks made recently by a Mr. Scharffenberg, Executive          that it does very little harm to the competitive position of
secretary of the International Commission for the Breven-        any company.
tion of Alcohoiism, about the problem of alcoholism,in  this        The result of this is that in the last years, labor has
country, He pointed out that there are no less  than six         increased its membership only very little. And many look
million known alcoholics in the country: of which 35O;OOO        for an increasingly sharp decline in membership until the'
will die before the year is up. The trouble is that the,         unions lose then- power and cease to exist as an effective
number of new alcoholics each year outnumbers those who          force in economics and politics.
die and those who are cured. There is only one percent of           Will there be such a decline in labor?
all these that are rehabilitated.and helped.                      It would. surely help us who refuse to join these or-


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                                                             I
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 72              -,_                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

Fganizations  to  -fihd  w.ork to support  our  families, our                                      Classis  West was granted its request to receive &pply
 Churches an-d our schools.                                                                     for some of its vacant pulpits, along with  the  requeSt  of
        But it .is, neir&&eless,  very unlikely.                   ,       ;     `-.            Southwest Church. A committee,  .consisting of the  Revs.
        For. on& thing, the unions have achieved such a tremen-                                 H. Veldman, R. Harbach, and Elder B. Windemuller, v?as
 dous amount of` power in this country that tF&,y can .&St                                      appointed to prepare a schedule which was later adopted
 about do as they please.. From this position they -will sure-                                  as follows :
 ly put all ,their  efforts behind increasing` their power a+                                      Southwest - Oct. -13 - C. Hanko,  Oct. 27 - H.- Veldman,
 influence; and will; more than likely, be successful. It                                       Nov. 3  - G. Lanting, Nov. 10 -R. Harbach, Nov. 24-M.
 seems often times as if even the laws of the land can&t                                        Schipper, -Dec. 1 - G: Vos, Dec. 8 - R. Harbach, Dec. 15
 touch them. Pqn organization that is above the law is ~ot                                      1 G: Lanting; Dec. g2  - M. Schipper, Dec. 29-H.  Veld-
.likeiy to wither and die.                                                                   .;r man, Jan. 5 - 6. Vos, Jan. 12 - G. Lanting.
        For another  `thing, Scripture speaks of all the power                                     Redta&s - Nov. lo,17 L C.Hanko; Lynden --Nov. 24,
 of- buying and selling concentrated in the hands of Anti-                                      Dec. 1 - C. Hank;; Jan. 12, 19,26 - H. Veldman; Mar. 8,15, 1
 Christian powers. Whether & not the  uniori  badge is the                                      22 - R. Harbach; Isabel-Fdrbes - Mar. 8,X5,22 - M. Schip-
/ mark of the beast, we may surely expect that it is not go-                                    per,
 ing to get easier for the child of God to earn his living.                                        Classis  filled the expired terms tif two members of the
 Instead it will become increasingly more difficult until at                                    Classical Committee, ,and the unexpired term of Rev. H.
 last it is impossible. The unions work directly towards                                        Hanko  who transferred to  Classis  West. Chosen were the
 that end.                                                               H.' HaAko              Revs. G. Lanting and H. Veldman to serve for three years,
                                                                                                and Rev. R. Harbach  for.two  years.  R&v. M. Schipper is
           NEWS FROM OUR4ZHURCHES                                                               the other member of this committee whose term expires
                        "All the saints salute thee                                             in two years.
                                                        . 1 ." PHIL: 4:21 II                       Classis  authqrized  the Revs. G. Lanting and M. Schipper,
                                                                                                president and clerk  pf the July  Classis  respectively,- to
                                                           Oct. 20, 1963 .                      execute some legal documents relative to the transfer of
        Rev. B. Woudenberg, of Edgerton, has declined the call                                  certain `church property in Grand -Haven.
 from Lynden.                                                                                      Elders F. Ondersma and M. Klop served on the finance
        Rev. J. Kortering, of Hull, declined the call from Red-                                 committee for this session, while Elder R. Newhouse.
 lands.                                                                                         thanked the ladies of Hudsonville for their excellent Ser-
        Redlands' new trio consists of  the Revs. J.  Heys, G.                                  vice.
 Lanting, and G. Vanden  Berg.                                                                          Classis  decided to meet next time on  Jan; 8, 1964 in
                          REPORT OF  CLASSIS  EAST                                              Southeast Church.
                held at Hudsonville,  Mich.  Oct. 2, 1963.                              .           The questions of Art. 41 of the Church Order were
        Rev. G. Lanting, president of the July  Classis,  led in                                asked-and answered satisfactorily.
 opening devotions, and declared the Classis  properly con-                                        After the chairman made a few appropriate  clqsing
 stituted after the credentials of the various delegates had                                    remarks, the Rev., G. Vos was asked to' offer the prayer of
 been accepted.                                                                                 Thanksgiving.
        Rev. M. Schipper, following the order of rotation, pre-                                                                       M. Schip$er,  Stated Clerk.
 sided over this meeting, while Rev. Lanting served as                                                  The young people  of Randolph invited their'parents  and
 c l e r k .                                                                                    friends to a Singspiration Oct. 6th. The proceeds were set
        All the churches were represented by two delegates                                      aside for the expenses the Young People's Society incurred
 each, and a very congenial ,and brotherly spirit prevailed                                     making improvements to the front of the church.
 throughout this brief session.  Classis  was finished with its
 work before the noon hour, when the diligent Marthas of                                                Oak Lawn's bulletin suggests a sure-fire plan to have
 Hudsonville served us with their delicious dainties.                                           all the' men of the congregation come out to the fist meet-
   Most of the work of  Classis  was routine: the adoption                                      ing of the Men's Society. The suggestion: `YOU can see io -
 of the transcribed minutes of the July Class& the accept-                                      it that all men are present by seeing to it that yotc are!"
 ance of the reports of the Stated Clerk, the Classical                                         That's placing the responsibility exactly where it belongs,
 Committee, and a report of a  .committee  previously  ap-                                      don't you agree.2 The Epistle to the Ephesians has been
pointed to study an overture of Southwest Church. Classis                                       chosen to provide the members ample reason for study, and
 continued the latter Committee which was not yet ready                                         to be instructed.
 to give its advice.                                                                                    . . . . See you in church.                       J . M . F .


