                                                                       ,'     _.                                          : --                  ,.           ."

       VOLUME
       VOLUME  
                        XL
                        XL 
                                   -- --
                                    --               -.-. 
                                                         ....    DE&IMBJ&~~`,
                                                                 DE&IMB&~~`, 1963
                                                                                     1963 
                                                                                           --G
                                                                                              --G                                                            ,_...
                                                                                                                                                             ,_...
                                                                                                     RAND
                                                                                                RAND 
                                                                                                          RAPID+,
                                                                                                             RAPID+,  
                                                                                                                       MICHIG.&
                                                                                                                          MICHIG.&  
                                                                                                                                    ii                 " 
                                                                                                                                                       _.-  -..:.
                                                                                                                                                                      :.  
                                                                                                                                                                               '1`1     N&IIBER
                                                                                                                                                                                        N&IIBER  5
                                                                                                                                                                                                    5

                                                                                                     1) The  j&&al world.  Rsalml,90:21 "Before the moun-
             M E  l-3 I  I-  A  T.  11  0  t'-                                           1 tains -were ,brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the
                                                                                                earth and the world . . . n                                  *"
                                                                                                             That- world is the heavens and the `earth which God
                       LOVE  NOTm?BE  WORiD!                                                         created in  six days of twenty-four hours each, even though
             "LOW not the  wor$  neithcv the things that are                                         fools prattle of long periods.  _.                                .-`.
       in.  tfle world. If any man  Jove the  work&  the  love                                          `2). Second, there-is the world  -which  is the object of
       of the  Fath&  is not in  him.                                                                God's everlasting love, and for which He gave. Himself in
           For at1 that is in the toor&th.e  -lust of the flesh,                                     Jesus. Christ our Lord. John 3: I6:. *THAT world God loves,
       and the lust  of  the  eyes,  ccnd   $72~~  pri&  of  li@, is                                 and He  prove.d  it. Incidentally, of that. world you also
       not  of the Fa,tha; but is of t&j ~orlcJ.                                                     hear in I John  2:2. "`And He (that is Christ) is the pro-
                                                                                                     pitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for
          And the  workl  pass&h   away,'  &ad the lust  th&e-                                       t h e   s i n s   o f   t h e   .whole  .world."  .,  -                                 _.
       of; but he that  do&h  the will. of God` abideth   fgr-
                                                      ~.                                               I. That world God determined and that world God loved
       f?V W."                                                       I John  2:X5-17            from everlasting to everlasting. That world consists of all
    There is a fundamental call of God,. and it comes to .us                                         the. elect and all the chosen angels and all the chosen
in many forms and variations, in positive and in negative                                            creation which. shall finally be manifested and revealed in
terms, but it comes down to this simple statement: LOVE                                              t h e   d a y   o f   .Christ.
ME!                                                                                                          3) Third, there-is another use of worlcl, and it is used
    SO it is with our present text. The language is largely                                     in o'ur text, and also in other parts of Scripture. And then
negative; but its message is' plain: LOVE ME!                                                        it denotes the EVIL world. In John 14 and 15 you hear of
   I say this. at the start because I will treat of this text                                        that world And it is stated that this world cannot receive
in its negative language.                                                                                           :
                                   *  0  0  0                                                        the Holy Spirit. And also that this world will hate you,
                                                                                                     the believers in God.
   Love not the world!                                                                                       I am sure that someone will say: But why did the Holy
   Well, what is this world?                                                                         Spirit make use of this same word to indicate such different
    There are three meanings to this concept. I know, I                                              entities? The answer is easy. The literal meaning of the
know, many are the Scripture expositors who create con-                                         word world is HARMONIOUS. ARRANGEMENT OR
fusion in your mind by using the term as though there is                                             ORDER. Sometimes you read of  people  speaking  of:-ta
only one meaning. But I can clearly show that they are WORLD ORDER. That's really nonsense, for both- werds
mistaken,                                                                                       mean the same thing.                                                                      .  2.. ., `_
   Take,  f.i., two texts: First, John  3:16.  There we read                                                 I suppose that you can see now that the word world
that God so loved the world . . . And, second, John 17:9.                                       applies to all three concepts: the physical world, the ideal
There we read: "I pray for them:. I pray not for the                                            world,  ,and the evil world. All three are harmonious ar-
world  ; . .  "                    :J:`.  `,  I..                                               rangements and orders. Yes, also the evil world. Jesus
    Now I ask you, if God loves the world, why would                                            said that if the house of the deviL were-.divided  against it-
Christ refuse to pray for it?                                                                        self, it could not stand! No, the evil world moves, thinks,
    There is only one answer: in these two  texts.we  hear                                      speaks and operates very harmoniously.  .Devils and evil
of  ~.two different  woril.ds.                                                                  `men *have  just .one niind-`and  orie. will: Dethrone God. and
    Here are three `different meanings  OF  wbrld:                                              kill Jesus with His church!                                                                               `8



                                                                                                                                        .- . . `_ :     ..,.L'  `.I?,`,-,-L.:   -3 ,


98                                          THE  .STANDiiRD   B E A R E R

      The same  .is true of the physical world. When God               Iis things are prophecy, priesthood and royalty under
looked at it the fir&-  Friday `evening, He said: Behold, it         God.
is very good!                                                           YOU must as prophet mind the things that are above,
And the same is true of the harmonious arrangement but not the things that are below.
of the ideal world of God's everlasting goodpleasure. All               YOU must as priest love God above all and your neigh-
the angels and all the saints love God and His Anointed.             bor as yourself.  YOU  read of that  iu Romans  12:l. You
      (Between parentheses I might add that there is a fourth        must present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,  accept-
use of the term and that is in I Peter  3:3. The word                able unto God, which is your reasonable service.
wor2d: is in Greek KOSMOS. Well, Peter uses the term                    You must as king use all your power, capacity and in-
there to denote the means by which a woman makes her-                genuity to the glory of God.
self beautiful. Speaking in modern language I would say:                Its love is Psalm  42:l and 2. Read it.
the powder base applied, the eyebrows pencilled, the rouge              You yearn for God and long for His communion.
applied, the powder sprinkled, the hairdo in place, the                 For you are a sojourner, a pilgrim and a stranger here
beautiful gown is donned, and there you have the whole               below.
harmonious arrangement of a beautiful woman. Note that                                              15  t  *  0
these tools for beautifying are called cosmetics.)                      Look a minute at the evil character of the wicked world.
Now, John uses the term  in the third sense, the evil                   The lust of the flesh: the yearning and longing of man,
world.                                                               inspired by Satan, to dethrone God and His  an&ted.in  en-
      Love not this world, this harmonious arrangement  and          mity against God.
order which surrounds you.                                              The lust of the eyes: to fully see and enjoy the entire
      It is the reprobate world composed of fallen men under         creation, but without God. The eye of wicked man is dark
the inspiration of the devil.                                        and evil. Read Matt.  6:23. HOW great is that darkness!
      Its things are first, its prophecy, its mind, its wisdom          The pride of life: there you have the devilish bathos!
and knowledge. It includes all the idle and vain philosophy          Pride  is  the  devirs  s..
which ends in the Beast rising out of the earth. Rev. 13:llff.          And the poison of that pride he instilled in man from
      Its priesthood is this world's lope and devotion. Well,        the beginning, The creature manifesting himself as God.
all this love is directed to self, the creature and sin.             The masters of creation.
      Its kingship is its power, capacity, ingenuity, subjecting         The end of this pride is when wicked man shall sit in
all things to itself. You see quite a bit of this in these           the temple of God and announce himself as Jehovah!
times. Remember that they 3y around the earth in orbit at                Now all this filthy composite is "not of the Father."
the speed of over seventeen thousand miles per hour?                     He thought of something better. He placed man in
I     Its love is the yearning, longing for riches, power, honor,    creation. And He placed Himself in creation to such an
wisdom unto everlasting peace. This world does not want              extent that every creature, however small, is a word of
war, but it dreams of unity, covenant, bond, friendship,             God calling.aitention to H&elf.  So that man might thank
satisfaction, sweet pleasures, peace on earth and a certain          and  serve Him. God wants us to be satisfied with Wis
kind of heaven in the heart. They dream of that and they             image, and that is Christ.
sing of it.                                                              That  means His word in creation, in the creature, in
      But it is not of the Father but of the world!                  the church, on the Cross, and in the heart and mind of man.
      All this harmonious activity is of man, body, soul and             When that happens there is just one word which comes
spirit, but broken away from the living God. It is the deep          to my mind at this juncture, and that one word is HALLE-
urge of man to be or to become prophets, priests and                 L U J A H !
kings of the devil. They want to possess all this present
world in the midst of freedom and plenty without disease                                            0 a  Q  *
and war and selfishness, but  without  God.
      In short, this thoroughly wicked and evil world is seek-           And so: don't be a fool.
ing and yearning for an earthly heaven: a Haven of Rest!                 This wicked world with all its riches passeth away, With
                            4%  0  0  0                              all its lusts.
      What then?                                                         There comes a time when, wicked, proud man will ni,
      You must love another world. You must be  other-               longer plan to inhabit space and the planets. Nor will
worldly-minded!                                                      they anymore plan to kill God and His Anointed Son, `nor
      That world of God's goodpleasure is beautiful, heavenly,       the Church.
glorious and spiritual.                                                  The whole  bu&ess will burn up.
      Its law is the law of liberty, another name for living             Yes, you must be a carpenter, a mason, a farmer, a busi-
Christ.                                                              ness man, a blerk, 2 mechanic, 2nd what have you.


                                               T H E   STAND+RD   BEARER                                                                                                                                                                                                             99

    You  must be a husband or wife, or a child. A  magis-
strate or an obedient citizen.                                                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B-EARER
    But all these things and relationships are but a pilgrim's                   Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
                                                                                  Published by the  REFORMED FREE  PWBLISHING   ASSOCLUTON
staff and his cruse.                                                                                             Editor - REX. HERMAN aOEKSEMA
    .You are travelling to a new world, a new heaven and                         Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
earth where dwelleth righteousness. You are trained unto                         Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,
                                                                                 Mich.  Contributions will be limited to 300 words and must be
that in the church.                                                                                                      neatly written or typewritten.
    Do the will of God: believe in His only begotten Son.                        All church news items should be addressed to Mr. J. M. Faber,
                                                                                                    1123 Cooper, S. E:, Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
Love Him, yearn for Him, and you have the new world                                Announcements and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee included
already in your heart!  Amen.                                                    must be mailed 8 days prior to issue date, to the address below:
                                                                     G.V.          All matters relative to subs&iptions  should be addressed to
                                                                                                 Mr. James Dykstra,  1326 W. Butler Ave., S. E.
                                                                                                                               Grand Rapids 7, Michigan
From: NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES -                                                       RENEWAL:  Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
                                                                                 received it is assumed that the  subs&xx  wishes the subscrip-
    Randolph's Adult Bible Class, in an after recess discus-                        tion to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
                                                                                                                 Subscription price: $5.00 per year
sion, busied itself with the Scriptural injunction to pray,                              Second Class postage paid at Grand Rapf& Michigan
as found in  Psalm  122:6.  Their aim was to understand
the meaning of "Jerusalem," and what "peace" is to be
the object of our prayer.                                                                                                                  C O N T E N T S
    In the schedule of joint society meetings First Church's                 MEDITA-LT~N-
                                                                                      Love Not the World!.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._. ., ..97
men visited the men of Southeast Church Monday evening,                                           Rev. G. Vos
Nov. 19. Rev. M. Schipper led the Bible discussion which                     EDITORIALS-
was from the 4th chapter of the Epistle of James. Mr. M.                              As to Total Depravity ._.._.......................................................                                                                                                             100
Swart, of the visiting society, rendered an essay entitled,                           Once More: The Dekker Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
"On The Way To The False Church." He warned the men                                               Rev.  H: Hoeksema
of the dangers lurking in the churches in which an erroneous                 CONTP.IBUTI~IC~  -
statement like, "A favorable attitude of God toward the                               Report of the Western Ladies" League . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
reprobate" can balloon into one like, "God loves all men"                                         Mrs. Bernard Hop
in less than 40 years. The burden of his paper was the                       OURDOCTRINE-
assertion that every church that begins to embrace an error,                          The- Doctrine of the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . 103
                                                                                                  Rev. H. Hoeksema
though still the true church, will in the generations become
the false church. Hence the warning: Do not give place to                    A  CLOUD  OF WITNESSES-
a deviation however slight, for if  it  be not eradicated it                          Like A Cake of Barley.: . . . . . ..1.................................................. 106
                                                                                                  Rev. B. Woudenberg
will eventually lead to a total denial of the truth.
    Bulletin quote (Oak Lawn's): Men do not reject the                       FROM  HOLY  WRIT-
                                                                                      Exposition of II Peter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              108
Bible because it contradicts itself, but because it contradicts                                   Rev. G. Lubbers
them!-                                                                       THE LORD  GAVE  THE  WORD  . . .
    .  ; . . See you in church.                                J.M.F.                 Mission Work in Jamaica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ` . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
                                                                                                  C. Hanko

                   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                    CONTENDING FOR  THE FAITH-
                                                                                      The Church an,iz Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
    The Men's Society, who mourns the loss of one of its members,                                 Rev. H. Vt                                      au
together with the Ladies' Society of the Prot. Ref. Church of Holland;
expresses their sincere sympathy to Mrs. Peter Schipper, and Mr. -and        TIIE  VOICE OF OUR  FATHERS -
Mrs. Harold Schipper, in the passing of their dear Husband and                        The Bel$c Confession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Fader,                                                                                            Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
                      MR. PETER SCHIPPER                                     &E CHURCH AT WOHSHIP-
                                                                                      Why A Liturgy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
who went to be with his Lord on Oct. 25, 1963 at the age of 78                                    Rev. G.. Vanden  Berg
years.                                                                       ALLAROUNDUS-
   May our Heavenly Father grant to them and all the sorrowing                        Glossololia..  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..__ 118
relatives His abundant comfort and sustaining grace.                                  Women Officebearers . . . . . . . . . . . . .  _.  _.  _.  _.  _. ,119
                                                                                      Items
   Psalm  146:5:  "Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his                                       . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      I...119
                                                                                                  Rev. H. Hanko
help, whose hope is in the Lord his God."
Men's Society -                    Ladies' Society  -                        N E W S FRO M OUR CH~RCHES..................................................                                                                                                  . . . . . . . . . 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               ..liO
  Rev. G.  Lanting,  President       Mrs. G.  Lanting,  President                                 Mr. J. M. Faber
  Mr. B. WindemuUer,  Sec'y.         Miss L. Kortering,  Secietary           -


            100                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   .B'EA.RER

                                                                                 tain that.God  is righteous and, at ihe same time, that the
                          E D I T O R I A L S                                    sin of Adam is imputed to the whole human race!"
                                                                                     That the whole human race became corrupt in Adam
                                                                                 is, of course, denied by all Pelagians. According to them,
                               As To Total Depravity                             sin is only in  the' act, or deed, of sin, not in the human
                                                                                 nature. And if you ask of them, how they then explain
                   One of the chief objections raised against the doctrine       the universality of sin, they answer: by imitation and fol-
            of total depravity is the truth of original sin.                     lowing bad examples.
                   What is meant by this?       "                                  But this is  not. according to Scripture which plainly
               We must call attention to the following elements:                 teaches that all men are by nature totally depraved.
                   1. God is not the cause or author of sin, but man is.            However, it is certainly true the doctrine of total de-
            He created man good and after His own image. Man,                    pravity is and always has been a stumblingblock for the
            therefore, was able to serve the purpose of his creation.            natural man.
            That purpose was that'he was to serve and glorify God in                                                                        H.H.
            the covenant relation, the relation of friendship with his
            Creator. For -that purpose God had created him after His                          Once More: The Dekker Case
            own image in true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.
                   2. Man, as he stood in paradise, was created with a               Once more-  I wish to call attention to the Dekker case
            peculiar free will, that is, with a will according to which          that was before Synod last summer.
            he was able to love and to serve God, but he could also                  This time I want to refer, first of all, to the report of the
            choose sin. This does not mean that he was neutral. On the           minority of the committee that was appointed by Synod
            contrary, he was created positively good but, nevertheless,          in, this, matter.
            with the power to turn away from God and to choose sin                  Although Synod probably cannot be held responsible
            and the devil. Such a free will the natural  ,man has no             for the, whole report, because, as I understand the action of
            more: he can only will evil. Nor, on the other hand, does            .Synod, it was -not adopted and was, not even discussed on
            the believer in Christ have such a free will: principally, he        the floor of Synod; yet, in the first place, it was read on the
            can only will the good, according to the principal of re-            floor of Synod and in so far it was responsible for its con-
            generation through the Spirit of Christ in his heart.                tents; and, in the second place, the committee that had
               3. Man was created in Adam. In this respect he was                prepared the report surely was responsible for it.
            different from the angels who were, evidently created as                 Moreover, I have no doubt at all that the committee
            individual spirits, as is evident from the fact that part of         wants to be responsible for every word they wrote in that
       the angels could rebel against and fall away from God,                    report; and as Such.. I, will criticize it.
            `while the rest remained faithful. But man was created                   Strange to  siy,, the committee, of which the Rev.  L.
            in the first man Adam. He was the head and the father                Doezema was the reporter, defends the position of Prof.
            of the whole human race.                                             Dekker even though they claim repeatedly that "they do
                   4. The result is (and this is the truth of original sin)      not enter into the theological position of Professor  Dekkkr,"
            that all men sinned in Adam. ~The sin of Adam is imputed             and "Without passing judgment on Professor Dekker's posi-
            .to every individual of the. human race; all became guilty in        tion" etc. They certainly do this very thing in the here
            him; and all died in him, became corrupt and totally de-             following paragraph:
       ,praved. All therefore, are born in sin.                                     "We should- turn to .the Bible first of all, and read such
       I           5. This is the element-in the doctrine of total depravity     passages as Romans  5~3.8, `So then as through. one trespass
            to which the natural man most strenuously objects. Always            judgment came  ,unto all men. to condemnation; even  SO
            he asks, in rebellion against God: how can God demand `through  one act  of righteousness the -free gift came unto
            of me that which  I cannot perform? Or as the apostle Paul           all men to justification of life.' 1 Corinthians  -i5:22,  "For
~    has it in Romans 3: "But if our unrighteousness commend                     as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made
            the righteousness of God, what shall we say then? ,Is God            alive;' I Timothy  2:1-6, `I  e`xhort therefore, first of all
            unrighteous who taketh vengeance? . . . For  if. the truth           that  supplicationsi  intercessions; thanksgivings be made for
            of God bath  more abounded through my lie unto his glory;            all men; for kings and all that are in high places; that we
            why am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather, . . . Let          may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and
       >us do evil, that good may come?" `And again, in a different              gravity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God
            connection,  Remans"%  "Why doth he yet find fault? For              our Savior; who- would have, all men to be saved and come
            who bath resisted his will?" But unto all these objections           to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, one
            the apostle and Scripture in general respond "God forbid!            mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ
            We may not be able to solve the problem, but we do main-
                                                                       -.-  r    Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all; the testimony to


                                                                         8



                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEAR.ER                                                  101

~ be borne in its own times.' John 1:29: `Behold the Lamb of       of every individual; I in return ask him why, if such be the
   God, that taketh away the sin of the world;' I John  2:2        case, God did not command the Gospel to be preached to
. . . and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours    all men indiscriminately from the beginning of the world?
   only, but also for the whole world.' m                          why He suffered so many generations of men to wander
      On this paragraph of the committee's report we make          for so many ages in all the darkness of death? NOW it fol-
the following remarks:                                             lows, in the apostle's context, that God `would have all
      1. To quote texts from Scripture, at random, without         men come to the knowledge of the truth.' But the sense
any exegesis, and without taking into consideration the            of the passage is perfectly plain, and contains no ambiguity
   context, either the immediate or broader context, is indeed     to any reader of  candour and of a sound judgment. We
  very easy, but it is also very superficial. In this way one      have fully explained the whole passage in former pages.
  can make Scripture say anything you wish.                        The apostle had just before exhorted that solemn and
      2. I will not, at this time, offer what, to my mind, is      general prayers should be offered up in the Church `for
  the true interpretation of the texts quoted by the committee.    kings and princes,' etc., that no one might have cause to
  I will only give an explanation of one of the texts, I #Tim-     deplore those kings and magistrates, whom God might be
   othy  2:1-6. And even then I will not give my own  inter-       pleased to set over them; because, at that time, rulers
  pretation but rather quote from C&in's Caluinimn  p. 105.        were the most violent enemies of -the faith, Paul, there-
                                                                   fore, makes divine provision for this state of things by
  There we read:                                                   the prayers of the Church, and by affirming that the grace
      "The knot immediately before us, however, is not yet,        of Christ could reach to this order of men also, even to
  I confess, untied. I have nevertheless extorted from Pighius     k'
                                                                    mgs, princes and rulers of every description."
  this much: that no man but a man deprived of his common                With this interpretation of Calvin I fully agree.
  sense and common judgment (sic, committee! H. H.) can
  believe that salvation was ordained by the secret counsel               The same is the case with every one of the other texts
                                                                   which the committee quotes. There is no need of giving to
  of God equally and indiscriminately for all men. The true        these passages an  Arminian  interpretation as is, evidently,
  meaning of Paul, however, in the passage now under               the idea of the committee.
  consideration is perfectly clear and intelligible to every                                   II  #  0  0
  one that is not determined on contention. The apostle is
  exhorting that all solemn `supplications, prayers, interces-           Prof. Dekker also presented a letter to Synod. I will
  sions,  and giving of thanks be made for all men: for kings      not quote the entire letter which is rather lengthy. How-
  and all that are in authority.' And because there were,          ever, I will call attention to one paragraph, in which Prof.
  in that age, so many and such wrathful and bitter enemies        Dekker alleges that he is in agreement with articles 8 and
  of the Church, Paul, to prevent despair from  ,hindering  the .9 of the Canons of Dort, Chapter II.
  prayers of the faithful, hastens to meet their distresses by           The paragraph referred to reads as follows:
  earnestly entreating them to be instant in prayer `for all             `<`It seems strange that Classis  has not indicated on what
  men,' and especially `for all those that are in authority.' items in Articles 8 and 9 of Chapter II of the Canons of
  `For (saith the apostle) God will have all men to be saved.' Dart it desires `further explanation.' How can Synod, even
  Who does not  .see that the apostle is here speaking of          if it should be inclined to do SO, obtain further explanation
  orders  of men rather than of individuals? Indeed, that dis-     on points which are not even stated in the overture? As
  tinction  which commentators here make  .is not  witho'ut        far as my sentiments on Articles  8 and 9 as a whole are
  great reason and point: that nations of individuals, not  in-    concerned, inquiry is unnecessary. I subscribe to them."
  dividu& of nations are here intended by Paul." etc.                    It is, probably, not necessary to quote the articles in
      This was intended against Pighius whom, together with        question; Yet I will do  SO, especially since Prof. Dekker
  George and their fellows, Calvin calls "unclean beasts" and      blames Classis  Orange City for having not indicated exact-
  "barking dogs." pp. 27,33ff.                                     ly to what items Classis  Orange City was referring; and also
      Calvin refers to this passage from Timothy once more         in view of the fact that Prof. Dekker states rather vaguely
  on pp. 66,67, now particularly against George, or Georgius.      that he subscribes to these two articles "as a whole."
  Writes he:                                                             Here they follow:
      "But Paul teaches us (continues Georgius) that God                 "Art. 8. For this was the sovereign counsel, and most
  `would have all men to be saved.' It follows therefore, ac-      gracious will of God the Father, that the quickening and
  cording to his understanding of that `passage, either that       saving efficacy of the most precious death of his Son should
~ God is disappointed in his wishes, or that all men without       extend to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the
~ exception must be saved. If he should reply that God wills       gift of justifying faith, thereby to bring them infallibly to
  all men to be saved on His part or as far as He is concerned,    salvation: that is, it was the will of God, that Christ by the
  seeing that salvation. is, nevertheless, left to the free will blood of the  cross,. whereby he confirmed the new  cove-

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

                 nant, should effectually redeem out of every people, tribe, what is meant by the word "character." In the dictionary
                 nation, and language, all those and those only, who were           the word "character" is defined as the distinctive qualities
                 from eternity chosen to salvation, and given to him by the         of a person. The Bible uses the word once in the Greek:
                 Father; that he should confer upon them faith, which to-           it is concerning Christ as He stands in the image of God.
                 gether with all the other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit,         Here it literally means an impression made by an engraver's
                 he, purchased for them by his death, should purge them             tool, thus, that which is impressed upon Christ by God.
                 from all sin, both original and actual, whether committed          We may conclude; therefore, that our question asks: what
                 before or after believing; and having faithfully preserved         impressions does the home have upon the child? And we
                 them to the end, should at last bring them free from every         as members of God's church-what impression is made
                 spot and blemish to the enjoyment of glory in his own              upon the child by the Christian, covenant home? A child
                 presence forever."                                                 is a very impressionable individual. There are many things
                        And article 9:                                              that leave their impressions upon a child. There are play-
                        "This purpose proceeding from everlasting love towards      mates, friends, teachers, magazines, books, T.V. and radio
                 the elect, has from the beginning of the world to this day         - all these, along with the parents, make their impressions.
                 been powerfully accomplished, and will henceforward' still Which impression is strongest? In the home the child re-
                 continue to be accomplished, notwithstanding all the in-           ceives its first impressions of life; even when people be-
                 effectual opposition of the gates of hell; so that the elect       come old and forgetful, the memories of childhood remain
                 in due time may be gathered into one, and that there never         closest of all. A home belongs to the child. He  finds- his
                 may `be wanting a church composed of believers, the foun-          direct love at home. There is the fact Scripture points
                 dation of which is laid in the blood of Christ, which may          out, that the child stands in the image of the parents. There
                 steadfastly love, and faithfully serve him as their Savior,        is between them the bond of heredity. They share together
                 .who as  .the bridegroom for his bride, laid down his life         a common nature. The child receives his basic spiritual
                 for them upon the cross, and which may celebrate his               impressions from home. The child in early years patterns
                 praises here and through all eternity."                            his life after his parents. All that the. parents do, say,
                        And now I have two questions which I would that Prof.       think, and believe, he considers important, right, and good.
                 Dekker would answer:  ::  ::  r;  .:                               The attitude the parents take toward religion and church,
                        I. Is it not plain from the overture of  Classis  Orange    if the parents' church attendance means much, if they sleep
                 City  `bn what items in Articles 8 and 9 of Chapter II of          in church, or listen attentively, and discuss what they have
          <`-    the Canons of Dort it desires `further explanation"`? Is it        heard when they get home, if society life is important, and
     ~           not the contention of Prof. Dekker that God loves all men?         if the parents study for society - these things make an im-
                 and does not this contention stand in plain contradiction to       pression on the child. This continues in school: the teacher
                 articles 8 and 9 of the Canons. Do these articles plainly          can teach facts, and the child will learn them. But `still
                 state that God does not love `all men but the elect alone;         it is in the ho-me where the child knows whether they are
                 and that salvation is for the elect and them only? Unless          important and worthy to be followed. Parents can go a
                 I misunderstand and have misunderstood  Prof.`Dekker all           long way in impressing their own character on the child.
I                through this.controversy  the contradiction between his stand      The imprint of the home is always there. A person can't
                 and the Canons is very plain.                                      change it. But the basic reality is beyond our power. Does
                        2. Will Prof. Dekker, please, explain 1. How he can         the child see God, honor, love, and respect Him? God can
                 subscribe to these articles of the Canons? and 2. What he          only supply this. Only God can determine whether they
                 means by the phrase: "as a whole"?                     H . H .     will work towards true sanctification of life. All that we
                                                                                    do must be `in humility and prayer. For only God can
                                                                                    give it fruit.
                 11 C  0 N T R I B  U  v;I 0 N S  11                                   After the lecture,  Doon favored us with a piano solo.
                                                                                    After business, we sang a few Psalter numbers, and a
                                                                                    collection for  Lynden's Prot. Ref. building fund, amount-
                          Report of the Western Ladies' League                      ing to $39.80.  Edgerton then gave us a reading.
                        The Western Ladies' League met on October 3, 1963,             Rev. Kortering answered three questions sent in by the
                 :at 1 o'clock, at  Doon,  Iowa. We opened our meeting by           societies. `When does necessity begin, and luxury end?"
                 singing our theme song, Psalter number 298; and Psalter            "`Is it right to participate in drawings for a Christian?"
                 number 90 was sung. Rev. Kortering led us in prayer. Our           And  fhally, "Explain Jer. 8:22; who is asking these ques-
                 president, Mrs. Kortering, read from  Psalm  119:33-48.  Mrs.      tions, Jehovah or Jeremiah?"
                 Kortering then introduced our speaker, Rev. B. Wouden-                Our meeting was closed by singing a  .Psalter number,
                 berg, who spoke on the topic, `What Effect Does the Home           and prayer by Rev. Woudenberg.
                 Have on the Character of the, Child?" First we must know                                           Mrs. Bernard Hop, Reporter


                                         T H E   STAND.ARD   B E A R E R                                                103

                                                                not present. You do not hear his own voice, but the voice
[:OUd  D O C T R I N E                                          of someone else, who tells you something abut him. But
                                                                when  you  hear someone, you hear his own voice. He is
                                                                present with you. He is addressing you personally. And
       THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH                               this is the sense of the passage from Romans 10 which we
                       CHAPTER VI                               just quoted. .The text teaches us that you cannot believe in
                                                                Christ unless you have heard Him speak to you; unless
       THE PREACHING OF THE WORD AS A                           you have heard His Word addressed to you. This is exact-
                   MEANS OF GRACE                               ly the meaning of the words, "`How shall they believe in
                                                                him whom they have not heard?"
                       (Continued).
                                                                   This, moreover, is corroborated by other passages of
   And again, for centuries afterward the church waited         Holy Writ. In John  5~24 we read: "Verily, verily, I say
for the completion and closing of the New Testament             unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him
canon. And even then, many more centuries elapsed be-           that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
fore the Bible was accessible to every believer. This had       condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." And
to wait for the invention of the printing press in the llf-     in the twenty-fifth verse of this same chapter we read:
teenth century, for the general distribution of the `Bible,     "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming and
and for the general education of the masses to be able to       now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
read and write.                                                 God: and they that hear shall live." Of His sheep, whom
   But always the church had the commission to preach           the Father hath given Him, the Lord says in John  10:3:
the gospel.  AS  the Lord Himself, after His resurrection       "To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice:
and before His ascension into glory, taught us: "Go ye,         and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them
therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the         out." In verse 4 of this same chapter: "`And when he put-
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:      teth forth his own sheep, he  goeth before them and the
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have com-      sheep follow him: for they know his voice." And again,
manded you." Matthew 28:19,20. And always the preach-           in verse 27: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
ing of the Word was a means of grace. The question is:          and they follow me."
what is preaching? And in answer we may give the  fol;
lowing definition. Preaching is the authoritative proclama-        The word of man is not sufficient to serve as a means
tion of the gospel by the church in the service of the Word     of grace, or as a basis for that certain knowledge whereby
of God through Christ. In this  defhritidn  we would call       I know that all my sins are forgiven me, and for that per-
attention especially to four elements: 1) Preaching is          fect confidence whereby I rely in life and death on my
authoritative proclamation. 2) It is the proclamation of        faithful Savior Jesus Christ. What we must hear is not
the gospel, that is, the `whole Word of God as revealed in      the word of man, but the Word of God, which "is quick,
the Scriptures. 3) Preaching is the proclamation of the         and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged  sword, pierc-
gospel by the church: for only the church is able to send ing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of
the preacher. 4) Preaching- stands in the service of the        the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
Word of God through `Christ. For only Christ through            and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that
the Spirit can make the preaching of the Word powerful          is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and
and eflicacious  as a means of grace.                           opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do."
   We will elaborate a little on this definition and on the     Hebrews  4:12,13. We must hear Cbrist Himself addressing
four elements which I just mentioned. The last mentioned        us personally. But how shall they hear this Word unless
element, namely, that preaching stands in the service of the    they hear it from Himself, unless they hear the voice of
Word of God.through  Christ, is undoubtedly the most im-        Christ? And how shall they hear this voice without a
portant. Through the preaching it pleases God through, preacher? This is the point of the text in Romans 10:14,15.
Christ, the exalted Lord, the Chief Prophet of God, Who         Anyone can tell you about Jesus, about His Word, and
alone gathers His church, to speak to His people unto their     about His work, about the cross and the atonement,
salvation. This is very evident from several passages in        about the resurrection and  justillcation.  And to do this,
Holy Writ. We call your attention especially to Romans          to be witnesses of Christ, is certainly the calling of every
lo:14 and 15. In this passage we read, especially according     believer. The Christian must be a witness for Christ in
to the original: "How shall they believe in him whom they       the world, must confess His name, extol.His name, and tell
have not  .heard?" Through the preaching, therefore, you        all about Him. But this does-not  make anyone a preacher.
do not hear about Christ, ,but you hear Him. Thei difference And this does not make his word a means of grace in the
is easily understood. When you hear about someone: he is        accepted sense of the word. A preacher is not a person who


I04                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   .BEARER

merely speaks concerning Christ, but one through whom            that is in him. One may  lconfess his faith. One can tell
it pleases Christ Himself to speak and to cause His own          others about Christ. But one cannot preach unless he be
voice to be heard by His people. The thing that matters          sent. Such is the plain implication of the question which
in any sermon is whether we hear the voice of Jesus say,         the apostle asks in the above passage. And this indispen-
`Come unto me and rest;" whether we hear Him say, "Re-           sable requisite of the sending we can easily understand if
pent and believe;" whether His voice resounds in our             we only bear in mind that preaching is the authoritative
deepest soul, `Your sins are forgiven you, and I give unto       deliverance of the Word of Christ, the gospel of peace,.
you eternal life." From this it follows, of course, with re-     the glad tidings of good things, the vehicle upon which it
spect to the contents of the message which a preacher            pleases Christ to carry His Word to His people. Therefore,
brings to the church or which he brings to any audience          it is certainly indispensable that the preacher be sent.
in the heathen world, that it may never be anything else            The question is: how is the preacher sent? With
than the Word of Christ. For the Lord will not speak             respect to the apostles this question is easily answered.
through anything but His own Word. This Word He has              Their very name expresses that they were sent. And they
committed unto us, the W70rd of reconciliation, according to
II Corinthians 5:19. It was in this way that Christ made         received their calling and commission from Christ Himself,
preachers out of the apostles. He put His own Word in            directly and in person. The chief distinguishing mark of
                                                                 an apostle was that he was directly and immediately
them. Just as when an ambassador from one government to          called by the Lord. This is strongly emphasized especially
another delivers a message, he takes the word of his govern-     by the apostle Paul, as, for instance, in Galatians  1:l:
ment along, so Christ gave His Word to His apostles. And         "Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by
this same Word of Christ is committed unto the church            Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from
in the Holy Scriptures. And preaching, as to its contents,       the dead." The apostles, therefore, were directly sent.
is strictly limited to the Word of Christ in the Bible. The      They received their commission to preach from Christ's
preacher has nothing of his own to deliver, strictly speak-      own lips. They had the promise of the Spirit. Christ put
ing. And when he delivers a message of his own, apart
from the Word of Christ, he ceases to be a preacher. A           His own Word in them. And, He sent them whithersoever
                                                                 He would, His Spirit leading them and sometimes prevent-
preacher, therefore, must proclaim the whole counsel of          ing them from going to one place and directing them to go
God unto salvation as contained in Holy Writ.                    to another. And therefore, with respect to the sending of
   Hence, it is evident that the word of the preacher is         the apostles, there is-no difficulty. They have their com-
authoritative. Preaching is authoritative proclamation of        mission directly from the Lord.
the gospel. The word for "preaching" in the New Testa-
ment really means "to speak as a herald." The preacher              But the question is whether also a minister of the Word
must bring his message, nothing more. And he must de-            today is sent by Christ to preach. The answer to this ques-
liver it in the name of Christ and with His authority. He        tion must surely be-in the affirmative. It is true, of course,
must clearly leave the impression that the audience is under     that the sending of the preacher is no longer direct and
obligation to hear and to do the Word that is preached,          immediate, as was the case with the apostles. Nevertheless,
that they and he together must bow before that Word be-          the sending of a preacher is just as real and peremptory
cause it is the authoritative Word of Christ. He must say,       as it was with the apostles, though the way of sending is
"Thus saith the Lord." For a preacher is an ambassador,          different. We must remember, in the first place, that Christ
and as such he must speak. Man's word has no power;              gave to His church in the world the commission to preach.
neither has it any authority.                                    He did so when He was about to be taken up into heaven
   Finally, we must call the attention to the fact that the      in the well-known words, "Go ye into all the world, and
preacher must be sent, and that therefore, strictly speak-       preach the gospel to every creature." To be sure, directly
ing, it is only the church that is authorized to preach. And     He was addressing the apostles when He spoke these words.
it is very essential that a preacher be sent, or called. This    But as often has been pointed out, and rightly so, this
is true of all preachers, whether they proclaim the Word         commission to preach the gospel cannot possibly be limited
of God in the established church or preach the gospel of         to the persons of the apostles, but was given to them as
peace in the heathen world. In the -strict sense of the          representatives of the New Testament church in the world,
word, all preachers are missionaries: they must be sent.         and must needs be extended to the church even unto the
Also this is emphasized in the words of Romans 10:14,15.         `end of the world. This is evident from the fact that the
For the apostle writes: "And how shall they preach except        apostles personally could not fulfill the task of preaching
they be sent?" This sending is indispensable to the preach-      the gospel in all' the world. Nor can the promise which
ing. Without the  formef,  the latter is impossible. One         the Lord adds to this injunction be limited to the lifetime
may witness for Christ, as we said before. One may have          of the apostles. The promise was: "And lo, I am with you
an answer to anyone that asks him a reason for the hope          even unto the end bf the. world;" Therefore, not the apos-


                                          T H E ' S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              105

tles only are commissioned to preach the gospel. Neither           the perspicuity of Holy Scripture, so that we may all be
can it be said that this commission is given to believers in-      able to understand it. We believe that ali believers have
dividually: for, the apostles surely are the representatives       the unction of the Holy One. Yet all these means cannot
of the church. But the church of the New Testament in              and may not be separated from the work of Christ through
the world the Lord addresses in the command, "Preach the           the church as an institute, and particularly through the
gospel." The church is the pillar and ground of the truth.         ministry of the Word of God. If there had been no  min-
To the church the Lord entrusted His Word. That church             istry, no official preaching of the Word of God, through all
must keep the Word, receive it, interpret it, confess it. And      the ages of the new dispensation, there certainly would be
that church in the world must preach the gospel. She has           no Bible, and there certainly would be no translations of
the commission authoritatively to speak the Word of Christ.        the Bible in every language. There would be no confes-
And the promise of the Spirit that will lead her into all the      sions in which the truth is preserved from generation to
truth was fulfilled in her, in the church of the new dispensa-     generation. There would be no  .commentaries  and other
tion. It is well that also this be properly emphasized. Not        .books that interpret Holy Writ. There would be no  instruc-
the individual believer apart from the church of Christ. in        .tion in home and school and church. And therefore, the offi-
the world, not all kinds of groups of believers, societies,        cial preaching by the church is of central importance. And it
boards, sects, movements, are the pillars and ground of the        is the preaching of the Word that is the chief means of
truth and have the commission to preach the Word. What-            grace.
ever the influence for good such groups extraneous from the           Here, however, we may ask the question whether all
church may appear to have, we should never forget that             grace as it is applied to the elect and wrought in their
their -existence and labor in separation from the church is        hearts by -the Holy Spirit is  mediate,  eat  is, whether all
disobedience. And the ultimate effect of their work can            grace is through the preaching of the gospel. `Does the
only be detrimental to the cause of the truth and to the           Holy Spirit always work through the means of the preach-
preaching of the gospel.                                           ing of the Word and through the means of the sacraments,
   And this task of preaching must be  fulillled by the            or is the very  first beginning of this marvellous work an
church considered as an institute, and therefore, through          immediate work by the Holy Spirit?
its ministry. Christ gave to His church "some, apostles; and          About this question there has been, and still is, much
some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors           difference of opinion in the Reformed churches. On the
and teachers." And He gave these "for the perfecting of            one hand, there are those that insist that all grace, as it is
the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of      applied- to the sinner  by the Holy Spirit, including regen-
the body of Christ." Ephesians  4:11,12. It is therefore           eration, is mediate: the Holy Spirit always works through
through the ministry that the church carries out the com-          the means of the preaching of the gospel. These present
mission.she  has received to  .preach  the gospel. Not the         the soteriological order of the various steps in the agplica-
person of the minister has the commission to preach,               tion of salvation to the heart of the elect as beginning
but the church has it, And she fulfills her task through the       with the calling. The preaching of the Word, according to
ministry. Hence, only they whom the church separates               them, is necessary first. On the other hand, there are those
unto the ministry can properly feel that they are sent             who strongly oppose this view, and who insist that re-
by Christ. And therefore, it is this calling by the church         generation is  fi.rd  and,  fs immediate,  not effected by the
that is all-important in the determination of one's being          preaching of the Word.
sent by Christ to preach the gospel. Only when a man is               The question is indeed  an important one. It concerns
so called by the church to stand in the position of the in-        the problem concerning the regeneration `of the children of
stituted ministry, and when in that position he strictly ad-       believers. It is true that this difference of opinion can be
heres in all that he delivers,`in  all that he preaches, to the    reduced to a minimum. All Reformed theologians certainly
Word of God as revealed  ,in Scripture, can he rightfully          emphasize that the sinner by nature is completely dead in
claim that he is a preacher. For how shall they preach             sin and misery, that he is so blind that he cannot see the
except they be sent?                                               things of the kingdom of God: By nature he is so deaf that
   This preaching, therefore, in that,very specific sense of       he cannot spiritually hear and understand the truth of the
the word, is meant. When Reformed theologians say that             gospel And his heart is so filled with enmity against God
the Word is a means of grace, they mean exact&that. For            and His Christ that he will never come and embrace the
the  tireaching  of the  .Word is indispensable to faith in        Christ of the Scriptures on his own accord and in virtue
Christ. This does not mean that we must minimize the               of his own free will. And therefore, they one and all  op-
value of all the means of instruction in the truth which we        pose the doctrine of the  Arminians,  which presents the
possess today. Least of all must we underrate the great            work of regeneration as if it were a matter of moral per-
significance of. Bible reading and Bible study in. the home        suasion, effected by the external preaching of the gospel.
by individual believers, or by societies. We certainly believe                                                              H.H.


106                                        T H E   S.TANDAB:D   .-BEARER

                                                                   if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all
                                                                   the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save
l~i%%.i D OF. W~ITN ESS~ES 11 Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said."
                                                                      The next morning Gideon was awake very early. He
                   Like,A Cake Of Barley                           hurried out to the threshing floor where he had placed
                                                                   the fleece, exposed to the weather. As he hurried along
            And when Gideon was come, behdld,  there' was a        he could hardly fail to notice that the ground that morning
        man that told a dream unto his fellow, a.nd said, Be-
        hold, I dreamed a dream, and lo,  `a cake of  barlq        was particularly dry and free from all traces of dew. But
        bread tumbled into the host of Mid&, and came unto. when he came to the fleece and caught it up in his hand,
        a tent, and smote  ,it that it fell, and overturned it,    it was heavy with water. He took a bowl and wrung it out
        that the tent lay along.                                   until the bowl was full. Gideon's heart was lifted with joy,
            And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing for this was indeed a remarkable answer to his prayer.
        else save the sword of Gideon the son of  Joash,  a mun    Through the day he thought of it; but the more he thought,
        of Israel: for into his hand bath God delivered Midian,    the more he began to realize that it was the nature of
       - and all the host.                     Judges 7~13, I4     fleece to attract water much more quickly than other sub-
                                                                   stances. Again -doubts began to plague him until at last
       Gideon was now established as the judge and leader in       he turned to God again in prayer and said, "Let not thine
Israel. He had sounded a trumpet in Abiezer and all                -anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once;
Israel had gathered behind him. They were not many,                1et:me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece;
but 32,000 compared to the hundreds of thousands of                let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon  alI. the
Midianites with their allies. They were not experienced,           ground. let there be dew."
trained or equipped for battle as their enemies were. But
they represented the strength of Israel. If the yoke of op-           Again the next morning Gideon arose early and hastened
pression was to be thrown off, it was with these men that          from his house. But now the morning was different; every-
the-battle would have' to be formed. They represented the          thing was heavy with dew as Gideon had seldom seen
cause of Jehovah over against the wicked. In them the hope         it before: But when he came to the fleece, it was absolutely
of Israel's' deliverance was to be realized. Should they now       dry. There could be little question but that it was a miracle.
turn back, the revival of faith which was beginning to show        God was answering Gideon's prayers.
in Israel would be dealt a mortal blow.                               God had consented to' strengthen Gideon in His fear
       But after all, Gideon was only a man. It had not been       by giving him the signs which he requested. But at the
so long ago that he had himself been hiding from the               same time God had determined to put Gideon to a test
Midianites and performing his worship of Jehovah in secret.        which would be much more severe. The time had come
:Now suddenly he was thrust to the front, and he found             for the newly formed army of Israel, to take up its position
himself with the responsibility of preparing this shabby           over against the Midianites. Under the command of Gideon
force of men for battle against the hordes of Midian.  Gideon      the 32,000 men did just that. They pitched camp by. the
trembled at the very thought of it. All things considered,         well of Harod.  The Midianites were immediately north of
the whole situation looked quite impossible, except that           them, so that for the first time the comparative insignifi-
Gideon believed in God. And even then at times his faith           cance of Israel'sforces became fully apparent. It was then
,wavered  and he began to wonder. At last he turned in             that God put Gideon to the test. He said, "The people that
his trouble to God for a sign that might strengthen him            are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites
and give to him renewed assurance that God was able to             into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me,
give or withhold His blessing according to His own good-           saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. Now therefore go
pleasure. -With sincere but troubled heart Gideon looked           to, proc1aim.m  the ears of the .people,  saying, Whosoever.is
unto God and prayed.                                               fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from
       Gideon was a man of the field who had grown up work-        mount Gilead."
ing with the soil. He knew the joy of going out in the                This was surely the strangest and most inappropriate
early morning hour to find a well-watered field wet with           command that Gideon could imagine. Everyone was preoc-
the dew of heaven. It was to him a sign that God's bless-          cupied with the smallness of Israel's force, and that God at
ing rested there. Now, as he searched for a sign of bless-         that  Zime should declare it too large was almost incon-
' ing he could ask of God, his mind turned to this. Through        ceivable. And then, on top of that there was the basis of
the dew of heaven God could demonstrate His ability to             dividing the forces which God commanded. Here they
place His blessing wherever He willed. Thus he prayed to .`were under the very shadow of  Midian's  great army; so
God, "If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast          that morale among the men was understandably lower' than
said, behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and        ever before. Already, before they had come here, there


                                          T H E   S T A N - D A R D   B E A R E R                                           107

had been so many who needed constant encouragement to              the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people
stay with their forces. To offer these all free choice to leave    go every- man unto his place."
now would seem just about disastrous. But this was the                At last the forces of Israel were ready, 300 men who had
command of Jehovah, and it was not within Gideon's right           but one asset, they had always remained faithful in the
to question or reject it. He could only issue the proclama-        worship of Jehovah. God was satisfied, and so He said
tion, hoping that the men were stronger than he figured.           that same night to Gideon, "Arise, get thee down unto the
But they were not. Having seen the size of Midian's  forces,       host; for I have delivered it into thine hand."
most of them welcomed the opportunity to turn back. Over              Still, however, that same night before they proceeded
two thirds of them did, leaving Gideon with a mere force           to battle, God would give to Gideon yet one more sign of
of about 10,000 men. They were those who stood strongest           the coming victory. Gideon had not asked for it, but it
in their reliance upon God to give them the victory.               was important that from him should be removed every last
   This, however, was only the beginning. Gideon may               vestige of doubt or fear that might remain. This was to be
have found it disconcerting to have such a large portion of        a venture of faith. It was necessary that Gideon should be
his forces return home; but in the eyes of Jehovah it was          able to inspire his men unto battle with an example of com-
not:yet enough. He had eliminated those who were weakest           plete confidence in their God. So God said to him, "But
in faith, and now there was still another division He would        if thou fear to go down, go thou with Phurah thy servant
make. Thus He came to Gideon again and said, "The                  down to the host: and thou shalt hear what they say: and
people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water,           afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down
and, I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of      unto the host."
whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same
shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee,                It was an impressive. thing to do in itself, to sneak with
this shall not go with thee, the same shall not go."               his servant into the very camp of  Midian  itself.  Every:
   No longer did Gideon even hesitate. The way of the              thing seemed to emphasize the immense size of the host.
Lord, he had learned, was far beyond his understanding;            First there were the camels and cattle grazing on the out-
and he should not question it. Trusting in faith, he obeyed        skirts of the camp. Off in the distance one could see the
the Lord's command and brought his small band of 10,000. occasional llicker of a camp fire that still burned unto the
men down to the water and instructed them to drink. As             far reaches of the valley. The tents of  Midian squatted
they did so, a remarkable division became apparent among           there like a vast horde of dark grasshoppers. To try to
them. There were a few that stooped down on their                  imagine their number was all but impossible. As they
haunches, and lifting the water to their mouths lapped it          crawled through the camp, it was quite evident that the
from their cupped hands as a dog laps. The rest, however,          Midianites were not concerned about anything the Israel-
found it more natural to put their mouths directly to the          ites might do. If they had even bothered to keep a watch
water by bowing upon their knees., This was' the posture           over Gideon's camp, it had surely been reported that the
learned by all those who were practiced in the worship of          forces of Israel had all but completely scattered to their
Baal. In the way they drank it was made evident who                respective homes. The quiet of untroubled -sleep was e.vi-
followed the service of idols and who had not. Thus God            dent on every side. It was the hand of God that guided the
gave to Gideon the command, "Every one that lappeth of             two men on until at last they came to a tent where voices
the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou        were to be heard. The men had been asleep already too,
set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon           but now they were awake again in a highly agitated state.
their knees to drink water."                                       The one had a dream and was telling it to his companion.
   The result which  finally came to the fore after every-         Gideon heard him say, "Behold, I dreamed a dream, and,
thing was done was typical of the spiritual state of Israel.       lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian,
Of the 32,000 who had first answered the call of Gideon,           and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and over-
there were only 300 with courage enough to stand for the           turned it, that the tent lay down." His tone of voice be-
cause of Jehovah over against the enemy, and who had               trayed that he felt an ominous warning to be implied in
never bowed the knee to Baal. This did not necessarily             what he had dreamed.
mean that the rest were reprobate or lost. There were un-             Then the other man spoke. God1 had given him an in-
doubtedly many of them who now understood the evil of              sight that filled his heart with the resignation of terror.
their way and were repentant. Nonetheless, in their un-            With a flat voice he replied, "This is nothing else save the
faithfulness they had been the cause of Israel's low estate,       sword of Gideon the son of  Joash,  a man of Israel: for
and God would not use them to deliver His people. Only             into his hand hath God delivered Midian,  and all the host.".
300 true and faithful men remained, but they were sufficient          Quickly and with thankful confidence Gideon returned
for the. cause of God: 1 This he expressed to Gideon, "By the      to. summon his men.
three hundred men thatlapped will I save you, and deliver                                                                 B.W.


108                                         T H E . .   S T A N D A R D   -:.BEA.R.ER

                                                                       Bearing the foregoing in mind, we -will now attempt
                                                                    to show from the text and from the .Scriptures in general
                                                                    what is meant by `hew heavens and a new earth." Ac-
                                                                    cording to the rule of interpretation which requires that
                   Exposition  of  II Peter 3                       the most natural interpretation is the correct one, as well
                                h.                                  as the rule that when a term is employed by a writer in
       We now have come to our consideration of verse 13 of         a certain sense in the context, then there is no need to de-
this wondrous Chapter in II Peter. There is something               part from the given sense of such a word or term, it seems
wonderfully arresting about this verse as it is connected           to us that the interpretation here of such terms as `heavens"
with  the preceding context. We do well to take note of             and "earth" should not prove too difficult.
it presently.                                                          In the context where Peter wages his devastating polemic
       The verse here in question is the 13th. It. reads as fol-    with the mockers, who contended that all. things remain
&WS: "Nevertheless we, according to  his:prpmise,  look for         as they were since the fathers fell asleep, the terms
ney heavens a.nd a. new earth; wherein dwell&  righteous-           "heavens" and' "earth'" refer definitely  to the present earth
ness." Thus is the translation from the Greek text in the           on which we now live and the heavens, which are' called
King James Version; According to this translation Peter             the  `%rmament" in Genesis  I:6,7,8,14,15,17. About this
would emphasize.  the  subjective expectation of the believers there can be no doubt!                                      ,'
rather than placing the emphasis on the thing looked for.             .If that- point is established,. then the next step is also
This comes out especially in the way in which. the King             not too  difEcult.  There can be really no serious question
James Version translates de particle de by "nevertheless." about the identity of the, heavens and the earth which shall
No matter how the enemies may scoff at our hope and                 melt with a fervent heat. Both the heavens ( firmament)  and
mockingly call in question the promise of the Lord's final          the earth shall be dissolved. God shall not only shake the
return, we nevertheless believe in and hope for this return.        earth, but "now he hath promised saying, Yet once more
       Although there is truth in such a translation and of         I: shake not the earth only, but also the heaven" (Hebrews
`thus construing the -text and context, it seems,, to me that,      12:26, Haggai  2:6). Both heaven and earth will  beg des-
according to the original Greek sentence, as written by Peter,      troyed! It shall all -wax old as doth a garment. Thus we
the emphasis rather falls on what is expected, rather than read in Hebrews  l:lO,  11,12, quoting Psalm  102:25-27,
upon the subjective and joyful expectation of the same.             "Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst lay the foundation of
For literally the text reads as follows: "But new heavens, and      the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands:
earth new, according `to his promise we expect, in which            They shall perish, but Thou  continuest;  and they shall wax
.dwelleth  righteousness." Two things here strike our atten-        old as doth a garment, and as, a mantle Thou shalt roll
`tion. Firstly, that in the Greek the definite article is absent    them up, and as a garment; and they shall be changed.
with both the term "heavens" and the term "earth." The              But Thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail." All
identity of the heavens and the earth .is not pointed out,          of Scripture teaches abundantly that the `heavens" too shall
but rather the nature of these is indicated. See, for. example,     wax old, and shall too be put away. This did not take
Rom. 1:2, where Paul does not say "in the holy Scriptures"
but simply "in holy Scriptures," emphasizing the nature             place yet in the flood. It will take place in the Day of the
of them, rather than singling them out as a class of                Lord's Parousifx!
Scriptures from. other scriptures. True, even so, the                  Now it seems to me, that there is only one exegetical
Scriptures are placed in a class by themselves by  i&               possibility here when we speak,of  new heavens and a new
plication,  but they are not thus' set forth explicitly. Thus       earth, that is, that what will be,made "new" is the same
,also here. Peter certainly has a definite heaven and earth         earth and the  same  heavens which became  `bid." Apart
in mind in distinction from another heaven and earth, but           from the fact that this is the plain and simple teaching of
that is not the emphasis. He sets forth here emphatically           Scripture,  .it ought to be obvious that only, thus can we
the kind of heavens and the kind of earth which God will            speak truly of the "old" and the "new." Cod does not make
realize according to His promise, and for which we look in          an other world, other heavens and another earth. He
hopeful expectancy. Secondly, what strikes our attention            makes the old new. He gives it so to speak a new vesture
is, that in the Greek text the adjective  `iaew"  (Icainos) is      and new  .garments. And these vestures and garments of
emphatic in both cases, and that it is repeated with both           the heavens and the earth will be emphatically new!
heavens and with earth.                                                It ought to be observed at this point that Peter really
       Hence, not our expectation is emphasized, but the cer-       quotes here in part from the-words before spoken by holy
tainty of God's work and its unique character are set in prophets. It is particularly from Isaiah 65:17  that he quotes.
bold relief as the object of our living Christian hope. It          There we read, `<For, behold, I create new heavens and a
is well, it seems to me, that this be not overlooked!               new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered,


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            109

nor come into mind." When one reads the Greek  Sep-                 and `He `shook the earth violently at Sinai. But that the
tuagint version we notice that instead  .of. `behold, I create" Lord will also make "`new heavens" is harder to admit.
we read simply "`there shall be" (e&i). That impoverishes           Somehow we think of heaven as the place of perfection;
the sense of the Hebrew text. In the  fist place, because           Paul went into the third heaven. And we think of heaven as
the very meaningful "behold" is left out. Secondly, because         the place where the good angels dwell about the great
the lame "`there shall be" is never equal to "I create." It         white throne of God. Will. God make that heaven "new"
leaves out the subject "I," that is, Jehovah, and it flattens       too?
the term `create" to a mere `shall be." Besides, it should             NOW we must remind ourselves that we may not spec-
be observed that the term in the Hebrew "I create" is               ulate here, but we must let the Word of God speak.
really "I am creating." The verb buru (he creates ) is in the          When we speak of the term "heaven" it should be
active participial form, expressing "an action or condition         borne in mind that Scripture sometimes speaks in the plural
in its unbroken continuity." What the Lord says in Isaiah           and sometimes in the singular. The English word heauen
65:17  is that he is constantly busy bringing about the new         seems to be associated with the verb: to heave. The plural
heavens `arid the new earth, and that he is constantly en-          then for heaven is the things heaved up. The Hebrew
gaged in `realizing his promise in every phase and point of         sham&m:  heavens is from shamah: to be high, exalted. .The
history. The Lord is not, slack concerning the promise, but         blue firmament is like a mighty vault raised up above the
He is longsuffer&ing.  Or `as Jesus says: "My Father worketh        earth and set on pillars. Hence, it is called heaven. And
hitherto, and I work." John  5.17.  We must  not. have the          when we look toward heaven, we look toward that blue
translation here of the Septuagint Greek, but the Hebrew.           iirmament  and think of `heaven of heavens" as being above
Peter quotes this passage in part, it is true; but his entire       the firmament. Solomon confessed concerning this heaven
                                                                                             .
reasoning is in line with the Hebrew as de  sense  of' the          that they were not able to contain God. II Chron.  2:6.
Spirit, Who drove Isaiah and Peter thu.s to write. We do            Somehow the symbolism'of the blue sky as a mighty circle
well to take note. Furthermore, it should not .escap,e our at-      above the earth is possibly the nearest that we come to a
tention that the Lord's work, in bringing about new heavens         poetic description of heaven. We have it in Psalm 104:1-4.
and a new earth, is emphatically a work of "creation." It is        Here the poet bows down in deep adoration and worship
not simply growth or development, but it is the work where-         and confesses the greatness of God. `God is  &ry- great.
by God creates, gives shape, form and being to them. It is no       Hear the poet sing: "Bless the LORD, 0 my soul. 0, LORD,
less marvelous and divine than the creation of the- first. my God, Thou art very great. Thou art clothed with honor
heavens and the first earth as recorded in Genesis 1. It            and majesty; who  coverest Thyself with light as with a
will be the unfolding of the Mystery of His will in which           garment; Who  stretchest  out the heavens like  a~-curtain;
He will have united all things in heaven and on earth               Who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters; Who
under one Head, Christ, the eternal Son of God in our flesh.        maketh the clouds His chariot, Who walketh upon the wings
   God will make both the heavens .and the earth `hew"!             of the wind, Who maketh the winds His messengers, flames
   To form a somewhat understandable conception of this             of  fire His ministers , . . "
newness of both the heavens and the earth is  difhcult.                Now Isaiah says that heavens are God's throne and the
It doth not yet appear what we shall be. I John 3:2. We             earth is His footstool. This makes, in a symbolic and rev-
do not yet see all things subjected unto Christ. Heb. 2:s.          elatory sense, heaven and earth the place where we dwell
Isaiah  65:17  tells us that the "former things will be re-         with God and God dwells with us; He on the throne and we
membered no more, nor come into mind." This points to               before the throne. Of this there was a little picture in the
a very real and drastic change. Jesus signals this drastic          temple. It was the place, the tab.er-nacle  of God with man;
change, speaking to the  Sadducees  of His day, when he             God dweiling between the Cherubim of the mercy-seat with
says to them: `Ye err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the          His people, who were in the outer court, and were repre-
power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry            sented by the High-Priest and by the daily. ministration'of
nor are -given in -marriage, but are as the angels of God in        the priests. It was a picture of the new heaven and the
heaven." Surely the former things of marriage and the de-           new earth. But it was only a picture, patterned after the
velopment of a human race out, of Adam will there no                heavenly and future realities which Moses was shown by
longer be; it will be remembered. no more, neither come             the Lord on the holy mount (Hebrews  8:5, Ex.  35:40).
to mind. In these,new  heavens and in this new earth there          The reality will not be realized until the return of Christ,
will be a new form of things in which it will be supremely          when God will indeed make all things new. It will be
evident that God is all in all!.                                    heaven and earth united, throne and `footstool, Him who is
   That the Lord would make -a new earth does not- seem             on the throne and all who bow before the throne .perfectly
too difficult to- admit. After all this present earth is subject    united in righteousness through Jesus Christ  our  Lord.
to death, sin, corruption; all things are subject to bondage:                             (to be continued)
Once the Lord has already destroyed the earth in the Flood,                                                                G.L.


ilO                                      T H E   $.-f.ANDAI+   B E A R E R

                                                                  sion Committee decided that an indigenous church should
  THE LORD GAVE THE `WORD.... 11 be organized in Jamaica, institutionally separate from bur
                                                                  denomination, but still maintaining fraternal `relationships
                                             (Psalm 68:ll)        with our churches. This -fraternal relationship can include
                                                                  the exchange of delegates at ecclesiastical assemblies, the
                Mission Work in Jamaica                           instruction of likely candidates for the ministry in our
                              (3)                                 seminary, the sending of material for the instruction of
 It was in the early part of 1963 that the entire matter          their children, and extending aid to them, both financial
of future mission endeavor in Jamaica was discussed by            and otherwise. Furthermore it was decided that anyone
the Mission Committee.                                            sent to the island should:
       On the one hand, the committee felt that work should              "1. Inquire re governmerlt  regulations re setting up of
be continued in this field since the Lord had obviously                      denominational relation with the people of Jamaica.
opened the door for us to propagate among these "churches"               "2. Observe who of the ministers on the island is the
the truth of His Word as it is precious to us. All the cor-                  most likely candidate to come to the States for in-
respondence we received from them gave evidence of a                         struction in our School.
persistent desire to receive our literature and our instruc-             `3. Observe the reaction of the people in Jamaica re
tion and also to have closer contact with us. Such funda-                    our proposal (to organize independent churches as
mental truths  .of Scripture as the infallibility of the Word,              the Protestant Reformed Churches of Jamaica) to
the sovereignty of God, the atoning death of God's Son,                      Synod.". See Acts of Synod, 1963, page 84.
the work of grace wrought by the Holy Spirit in our hearts,              When the people of Jamaica were informed that the
the calling to live sanctified, godly lives, and the hope of      Mission Committee was contemplating the proposal to our
eternal glory are-truths that are precious also to them. In       Synod to continue working with the "churches" of. Jamaica
the knowledge  .of these truths they desire to grow and
therefore sought closer contact with `us.                         as independent churches, this idea was gratefully welcomed
       On the other hand, the Mission Committee also realized     hy all. From past experience they had learned to fear any
                                                                  association with other churches which would be of but a
that there were problems involved  in further labor in this
field. For these  "c.hurches" had broken all relationships        temporary nature. Moreover, they had learned from bitter
                                                                  experience that they did not care to be dominated by some
with any other denominations and "missionaries." They
did so the more readily because of their desire to affiliate      dictatorial power outside of their churches. The Presby-
                                                                  terian form of Church Government appealed to them, both
with us. And by breaking with these churches they were
compelled to adopt a new name and their ministers were            as being Scriptural and as being proper for their needs.
forced to seek new recognition as ministers before the mag-              But in the meantime other interesting developments
istrate of Jamaica. They were no longerVallowed  to perform       arose that may also be mentioned here. Personally, I feel
marriages or to issue baptism c.e&ficates  until their minister- that our churches should be well acquainted with all that has
ial status was once more established with the authorities of      been done in Jamaica thus far, and also that they should
the island. Legally, as far as the authorities were concerned,    be kept informed of all further work to be accomplished
these churches no longer existed as churches and these            there. This is a matter that pertains to all of us, and there-
ministers were no longer recognized. Only by adopting a           fore when the repokt is brought to the next synod and the
new name and by obtaining government recognition as               question of future, labor iti this field is considered, all our
ministers could they continue to function as churches of          people should know what is decided and what is to be done.
-Jamaica.                                                         Therefore this little piece of history, which has no direct
       And there was also the problem  01 the geographic,         bearing on the developments in this field, but nevertheless
eth&, and religious differences between  .&ese churches           belongs to the related events, should be mentioned here.
and us. Jamaica is, after all, five hundred miles south of               I am referring to a letter received from Rev. H. N. Moral-
-Miami,  Florida, and  sepaiated  from us by the sea. More-       ly in April of this year. This is the man who had introduced
over, the people of Jamaica are of a different race with          us to the churches in Jamaica, as you till recall from Our
different customs and practices. And finally, their back-         previous writings. Although living in England, he still
ground' is not the Calvinistic background that is so funda-       claimed these  chuiches  as his  reah of  lcbbr. Therefore
mental to our entire world and life view. These differences       when he was informed of our  sugges.ti&  ,-of  "brg&&$ng
dannot  be ignored. Through closer contact with ,each other,      indigenous churches on the island he wrotk us as follows:
some of these differences can be removed, but some can dis-              "Let nie advise  you that ,Ft present I have m&ion. Work
                                                                    "
appear only  iI;  Gears to come, and "others will never be .on the isiand. $r tinnual'conferende  Was held there`during
eliminated.                                                       the past month and .I `was `elected General Superintendent,
       Considering all these aspects of the problem, the Mis-     bnd Rev.` Elliott ai `Assistant `Supt. `He carries & tiy dtiti&


                                          .THE.. S.TAND.ARQ  . ..BEA.RE8                                                       111

 under my instructions during  my absence.  ,We have  5            Morally in England wanted to maintain his claim to these
 co.n$itution  which w&,obey,.  This work is the fruit of .R?y.    churches as his., own. Moreover, this minister in England
 Elliott and myself over the years. We name. it "The ,Bible        intended to `use Rev. Elliott in Jamaica as his representative
 Holiness Church of Jamaica" and  gur work,is flourishing          on the island. Immediately we  infdrme'd Rev. Morally
 although self-supporting.                                         that his proposals were entirely contrary to all the rules of
    "I must be frank and careful in allowing a body from           our Church Order and that we would have no part of it.
 abroad to intervene in our work again on the island. I            But we also sent this letter of Rev. Morally to Rev. Frame
 allowed The Evangelical Methodist Church of  Penna.,              and to Rev. Elliott in Jamaica, including our objections
 U.S.A., to aid my work in Jamaica: and all I received from        to his proposals. Rev. Elliott immediately informed us
 their hands was ingratitude. However I have all confidence        that he had received word from Rev. Morally demanding
 that your Board will not allow me to have cause for regret.       that he break all relationships with any churches in the
 M&k you, on my recommendation the churches on the                 States, but that he had no intention of doing this. He in-
 island rely and once confidence is imposed on me I shall          formed us later that he had broken with Rev. Morally
 live up to their expectation and never let them down even         and sought contact only with us.
 if we are to remain self-supporting. The Evangelical Meth-            Rev. Frame's answer to this letter of  Rev. Morally is
 odist Church put us on watchfulness'.                             worth quoting. He wrote:         :
    "At present we .have 15 churches in Jamaica with over              `Your letter of May 16 came `into my "hands and all
300 members, seven ministers and several elders  : and             the contents of the same were carefully noticed.
 deacons and deaconesses, Brother Thompson is still with
 me. We have about 400 children at our Sunday Schools                  "I am  v&y much surprised at hearing of  -such   z  &n-
 there. I am  .prepared  to let your Board have the entire         stitution which you enclosed in the letter you sent & "me.
work on the island without .delay  provided however that           Will you reject such a const@ion and have pothing to `do
your Board will agree to the following:            -               with Rev. Morally.
    `L1. That all. ministers, deacons and other workers                "I will speak the truth in the name of Jesus, I will not
        elected and serving our churches on the island             lie against anyone. Frdrri the day that I was born until
        will retain their. present status in the Protestant        now I havk not known Mr. Morally. I never saw him, and
        Reformed Churches of -Jamaica when formed.                 he also never saw me. I orily heard about him. I saw
    "2. That the panel to represent the churches should on         Rev. Elliott f?fteen~  years ago. From that time on I never
        the  Classis  have one representative of the mother        saw  hiti again. I will not affiliate with men professing that
        church in the U.S.A., and two representatives of           they afe Christians and resort to lies. ~ I have never been to
        the Jamaica Churches elected by their  Classis  to         any meeting where Morally was selected as organizer of
        act as liaison members of the Classis  of the Jamaica      any church. I wbuld that you and..your  Board should not
        churches. In other words, your representative              affiliate with Mr. Morally. He.is only seeking money, and
        from the U.S.A. would speak for you, and our two           to have the rule over others.  .He is a hireling and not a
        representatives would seek the interest of  : the          shepherd. Some of the churches he mentions in his letter
        churches in  Jamaicg with other members of the             are in the Evangelical Methodist Church, the others are
        Jamaica Classis; the three representatives to work         in. the  Bibl& Holiness  Chtich.  Will you, please, let them
        in close unity and harmony.                                remain tihere they are. I wish that you arid- your Board
    "In closing let me say that unless items -1 and 2 as set       would  not  recognize  Mr. Morally in the Protestant Re-
forth in this letter are fully agreed upon by your Board           formed Churches. I have six churches on the island and
and the decision,received  by.me -after your .Boar$ meeting        we are interested in `havirig  someone from the Protestant
in June, I would not  .advise Mr. Elliott or any of my             Reformed Churches visit us. I am in full agreement with
churches- on the island to organize any Protestant Reformed        the`idea thgt tie `should become an- independent, self-gov-
Church on. the island, -neither would Rev. Elliott or any          etiing church in -Jamaica. I till not agree with the idea
.of our ministers take part in same. .We are united and not        rjf having  two representatives  of the' church of Jamaica
divided. If we cannot have -good. grounds to affiliate on          and' one  from  the States. Will you and  yoti Board rely
we shall not affiliate but carry on our work as we have done       on me  to  make  `the  hecesstiry  preparations for  organiiing
as'. the Bible Holiness Church of Jamaica. On the other            the  Pkotestant  Reformed Church in Jamaica? I wish that
hand, if your Board  decides-`to  work on the conditions           you' and your  Board  woLld  ndf recognize the constitutioh
herein set forth, please advise- me in time so that I can          they sent you. WB will not have fellowship with Morally.
-get- Rev. Elliott to.-make -arrangements -and to inform all       Please notice the conclusion of Rev. Morally's letter, that
workers on the island accordingly."                                if your Board would not agree with his conditions he
   Two things became very obvious from this  detter.  First,       would not advise any of his  .churches to organize into a
that whatever happened fo the: churches of J,arnaica,.  Rev.                       .- (Continued on page  DO)


I12                                      THE  S T A N D A R D   BEA-R.ER

1                                                                 stantial presence -of -the body and blood of Christ -in this
          Contending For The Faith                                sacrament. Secondly, it  affirms that the words of institu-
                                                                  tion are to be understood literally, so that the bread does
                                                                  not signify the absent body, nor the wine the absent blood
            T$e Church and  the Sacraments                        of Christ, but on account of the sacramental union panis
                                                                  et vinum  VW&  sint  co$us et  sang&   Christi. So, when
            THE  TIME  OF THE REFORMATION                         Jesus declares that "this is My body," the meaning must be
 VIEWS ON THE SACRAMENTS (LORD'S SUPPER)                          that this bread is My body; the bread and wine, therefore,
                                                                  do not signify the body and blood of Christ that may be
                   THE LUTHERAN VIEW                              far away,. iti heaven; but these &ords  must be understood
                                                                  literally, in the sense that this bread' IS My body and this
       We now continue with our quotation of Art. VII of          wine IS My blood. Thirdly, it  affirms that the cause of
the Lutheran Confession of the Formula of Concord which           this presence is not the consecration by man (as advocated
treats the Lutheran conception .of the Lord's Supper:             by Rome; Rome declares that this presence of the actual
       "IX. We believe, teach, and confess that no true be-       bpdy  and blood of c+r Lord takes place through a priest),
liever, so long as he retains a living faith, receives the        but is due solely to the omnipotent power of our Lord Jesus
holy Supper of the Lord unto condemnation, however much           Christ. Fourthly, the prescribed words of institution are
weakness of faith he may labor under. For the Lord's              on no account to be omitted. Fifthly, the fundamental prin-
Supper has been chiefly instituted for the sake of the weak       ciples on which this doctrine rests are, (1) That Jesus
in faith, who nevertheless are penitent, that from it they        Christ is inseparably true, essential, natural, perfect God
may derive true consolation and a strengthening of their          and man in one person. (2) That the right hand of God is
weak faith (Matt. 9: 12; 11:5,28)  ."                             everywhere, and, therefore, Christ, being truly and ac-
                                                                  tually at the right hand of God is, as to His humanity,
       When this ninth chapter declares that no true believer     everywhere present. (3) That God knows, and has in His
ever receives the holy Supper of the Lord unto condemna-          power various modes of presence, and is not bound to that
tion, the meaning undoubtedly is that no true believer ever       particular mode which philosophers are accustomed to call
receives this sacrament unto his eternal condemnation. The        local or circumscriptive. To this argument of the Lutherans
apostle Paul, in I Cor.  11:27-34,  speaks of those in the        we will call attention later, the Lord willing. Sixthly, that
congregation of Corinth who eat and drink damnation unto          the body and blood of Christ are received not only spirit-
themselves. It is evident that he addresses this word to the      ually by faith, but also by the mouth, yet not capetx&ice,
church at Corinth, that he is speaking of believers; this is      but-in a supernatural and celestial way, as sacramentally
evident from the fact that he addresses them as "brethren" united with the bread and wine. And, in the seventh place,
in verse 33. ,4nd because they eat and drink unworthily,          that not only the worthy and believing, but also the un-
eating and drinking damnation unto themselves, not dis-           worthy and unbelieving communicants received the body
cerning the Lord's body, they are weak and sickly, and            and blood of Christ iti this sacrament. To this conception
many of them sleep, according to verse 29 and 30. It is           the Lutherans must come if and when they say that the
evident from this passage of the Word of God that be-             body and blood of Christ are received through the mouth
lievers are able to receive the holy Supper pf the Lord unto      and not merely in the sacramental sense of the word.
their condemnation, provided that we understand that this         Such are the most important &rmations  of the Lutheran
condemnation does not refer to eternal condemnation but           view concerning the Lord's Supper.
to a temporary condemnation in this life. Our form for               .H'owever,   t&e Formula of Concord also sets forth the
the administration of the  L&d's Supper also refers to this.      Lutheran view of the Lord's Supper in a negative statement.
       "X. We believe, teach, and confess that the whole          We will quote only thdse  paragraphs  of that negative state-
worthiness of the guests at this heavenly Supper consists         ment that are pertinent to the differences between the
alone in the most holy obedience and most perfect  m&it           Lutherans and the Reformed. We need not quote, for ex-
of Christ. And this we apply to ourselves by true faith,          ample, when the Formula of Concord rejects the doctrine
and are rendered certain -of the application of this merit,       of papistical transubstantiation and the papistical sacrifice
and are confirmed in our minds by the sacrament. But              of the mass, or when it designates the withholding of the
in no way does that worthiness depend upon OUT virtues,           cup from the laity as a sacrilege and a direct contradiction
or upon our inward  oil outward preparations."                    of the words of our Lord, Who surely commanded His
     In these ten chapters of Art. VII of the Formula of          Church not only to eat of the bread but also to drink of
Concord, the Lutherans present their view of the Lord's           the wine. And as we quote these various negative state-
"supper,  their affirmative statement of this doctrine.. In       ments of the Formula of Concord we will add our personal
this positive statement, they affirm, first, the true and sub-    comments and criticism of them.  We b&eve that  this  will


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               113

be of interest to our readers. We will number each re-              the Lord's Supper. Only, of course, Christ is present with
jection and then add our comments and critical analysis.            His Holy Spirit. When the Lutherans declare that they re-
   I. "The dogma whereby it is taught that the words                ject the proposition that the bread and wine in the Lord's
of the Testament of Jesus Christ are not to be understood           Supper are only symbols or tokens whereby Christians mutu-
and embraced by faith in simplicity as they sound, on               ally recognize each other, they refer particularly to the
the ground that they are obscure, and that therefore their          Zwinglians. But we surely believe in a very real presence
true sense is to be sought from other places of Scripture." of our Lord Jesus Christ at our partaking of the bread and
   In this statement the Lutherans refer to the words of            wine. Our observances of this supper of our Lord are
Christ, "This is My body." Here the Lutherans declare               not merely remembrance feasts.
that they who object to the Lutheran interpretation of                 V. "That unbelieving and impenitent Christians in the
these words declare that they are not to be understood              Lord's Supper do not  .receive  the true body and blood of
and embraced by faith in simplicity as they sound. Jesus            Christ, but only bread -and wine."
declares that "this is My body." The words, therefore, are             It makes no  difference  whether one interprets these
plain enough. Understood by faith in simplicity as they             unbelieving and impenitent Christians as one group or two
sound, this saying of our Lord must surely mean that                grou+, the  tibelieving referring to those who are not
Jesus' body and blood are actually present there. But the           Christians and the others referring to the people of God
sacramentarians (the Calvinists and Zwinghans were called           who temporarily walk in the' way of sin and inifienitence.
sacramentarians by the Lutherans  ) said that these words are       Unbelieving and imcenitent  Christians, then," are"&&-
obscure, and that therefore their true sense is to be sought        tians who are walking in the way of  ir+eniten&4.   "`Here
from other places of Scripture. Is this so strange? Is it           the Lutherans assert that, whether we approach the table
not true that there are places in the Word of God that are          of the Lord in faith or in unbelief, all partake, very really,
more obscure and difficult to understand than other places?         of the body and blood of the Lord. -This is surely very
And is it not true that an obscure' passage of Holy Writ            strange, is it not? We read in I Cor.  11:28-29:   "But let a
must be explained in the light of other Scriptures that re-         man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and
late to this particular passage? When the Bible declares            drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh  rm-
that "God so loved the world that He gave His only be-              worthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not
gotten Son," and then, "I pray not for the world," is it not        discerning the Lord's body." Here we read of  peocle  of
sound procedure that these passages be explained in the             God who eat and drink unworthily, therefore eat and drink
light of other Scriptural passages? Besides, who is pre-            damnation to themselves. That he writes this to the
senting an obscure interpretation of these words of Christ:         people of the Lord is evident from verse 33 where he
"This is My body"? What is more difficult and obscure, to           addresses them as "brethren." Now the- apostle writes in
explain these words in the sense that "this bread" repre-           verse 29 that they do not discern the Lords body. To
sents Christ's body; or to explain them in the literal and          receive the body and blood of the Lord, in the actual sense
natural sense, that "this bread IS My body"?. Is it more            of the word, without discerning the Lord's body, must
obscure to teach that "this. bread" represents Christ's body,       mean that faith has nothing to do with the actual re-
than to teach that Christ's body is actually present there,         ceiving of the body and blood of the Lord. Fact is, we can
and this in' spite"`of  the fact that Christ Himself had not        receive this body and blood of the Lord, according to Lu-
yet been glorified?                                                 theranism, without discerning the Lord's body. And this
   II, III, IV. "That the body of Christ in the holy Supper         must mean that the body and blood of the Lord are actu-
is not received by the mouth together with the bread, but           ally inseparably connected with the bread and wine of the
that only bread and wine are received by the mouth, while           sacrament. To partake of the bread and wine means that
the body of Christ is taken only spiritually, to wit, by            we automatically partake of the actual body and blood of
faith . . . That the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper are        Christ. However, in verse 20 we read: `When ye come
only symbols or tokens whereby Christians mutually rec-             together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the
ognize each other . .  : That the bread and wine are only           Lord's Supper." Notice, the apostle is speaking in this
figures, similitudes, and types of the body and blood of            context of God's people as coming together to partake of
Christ, who himself is very far distant from us."                   the Lord's Supper but as characterized by divisions. Now,
   We wish to remark the following. To begin with that              when God's people eat and drink of the bread and wine in
very last statement, Christ here is presented as very far           that spirit of division, the apostle declares that their eating
distant from us. In a certain sense, this is true. Christ is in     and drinking (and he -surely refers here to the sacrament
heaven, and He is not upon the earth, as far as His human           of the Lord's Supper) is not the eating of the Lord's Sup-
nature is concerned. Our Heidelberg Catechism also                  per. Hence, not discerning the Lord's body, one does not.  -.-._
teaches us this. Yet, it is also true that, in a very real sense    partake of the Lord's Supper, and the statement of the
of the word, Christ is present with us in our celebration of        Formula of Concord to this effect is surely in error.     H.V.


I14                                          T H E   !&TAND.AR.D   B E A R E R

                                                                   pearance at a very early date in the Christian church, and
          The V&e of Our. Fathkrs                                  undoubtedly did so under the influence of heathen pan-
                                                                   theism.
                                                                      We are more interested in our present discussion in the
                  The Belgic Confession                            modern, views of the origin of things.
                                                                     .,First of all, we call attention to the theory of evolution.
                         kiRTI'XE XII                              We must remember, of course, that there is much more
                          (continued)                              involved in  ,the whole theory of evolution than the mere
                                                                   question of the origin of the world and of all things. The
Deviating Views                                                    theory of evolution has an altogether different view of the
       There is a large number of deviating views concerning       worth of man, denying sin, denying total depravity, than
the origin of the world. The denial of creation, just as is        does the Christian confession. The theory of evolution
the case with so many other heresies,. is nothing new. As is       must necessarily deny the Scriptural "end of all things," even
also the case with every other heresy that has arisen in the       as it denies the Scriptural "beginning." It must needs deny
history of the church, this false doctrine of the denial of        the necessity and the reality of the Christ of the Scriptures.
creation continually assumes new forms. Every time the             And so, this entire theory has vast ramifications. Usually,
church succeeds in putting down heresy and maintaining             however, we think of evolution more in connection` with
the truth, false teachers arise who present the same old           the question of the origin of the world. And indeed, it is
lies in more refined and more deceptive forms. Moreover,           a theory that has not only gained wide acceptance, but
it is usually not difficult to trace the historical origins of     which has also made a terrible impact upon the church in
the various refinements of  ,these heresies, and to demonstrate    modern times.
that. they -are indeed merely refinements of old lies.                Associated with evolutionism are the names of men like
       We are not-going to concern ourselves in detail with        Lamarck, a French naturalist, and Charles Darwin, grand-
some of the earlier denials of the doctrine of creation, but       son of the so-called "prince of humanists," Erasmus.  La-
will merely mention them, in order to busy ourselves with          marck, according to _ Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology,
some of the views that are more important because they             II, p. 11, "adopted the theory that all vegetables and animals
are.  .still maintained today and are of concern  .to the          living on the earth, including man, are developed from cer-
.serious-minded   .student  of Scripture.                          tain original, simple germs . . .  Lamark  admitted the exist-
       First of all, we may make mention of the fact that in       ence of God, to whom he referred the existence of
almost every heathen, polytheistic system there. is some           the matter of which the universe is composed. But God
kind of theory  as. to the origin of things. And while the         having created matter with its properties, does nothing
study of some .of these theories is rather interesting, it is      more. Life, organisms, and mind are all the product of
nevertheless of little importance, for the simple reason           unintelligent matter and its forces . . . Life, therefore, ac-
that all of them reveal at once the fundamental cleavage           cording to this theory, originates in spontaneous generation
between heathen philosophy and myth and the revelation             . . . Life, living cells, or tissues, having thus originated, all
of the Word of God. The claim sometimes made that the              the diversified forms of the vegetable and animal kingdoms
Old Testament creation-account has been borrowed from              have been produced by the operation of natural causes; the
various heathen cosmogonies is on the very surface of it           higher, even the highest, being formed from the lowest by
false. If anything, the contrary is true, namely that in the       a long-continued process of development."
myths and legends of the heathen one can sometimes                    ~Darwin's  theory is slightly different. In the first place,
clearly trace perversions of the truth of creation as it was       Darwin not only assumes the existence of matter, but the
known in the generations of the people of God from Adam            existence of life. He claims that all animals and plants are
to Noah to Abraham to Moses. Some of the later Greek               descended from some one prototype. He also developed the
philosophies are historically more important because their         "`refinement" of the theory of the "survival of the fittest," or
theories undoubtedly influenced some of the early Chris-           "natural selection." But like Lamarck, Darwin maintains
.tian scholars. Among the church fathers one finds clear           that all the development is by natural law, without purpose
evidence that Greek philosophy influenced their thinking,          and without design. Darwin denies any divine intervention
-and sometimes the fathers' writings show an attempt               in the course of nature, and especially in the production of
(whether -conscious or unconscious  ) at synthesis between         species.
revelation and pagan philosophy. Moreover, the dualism                It is not our purpose to present arguments against this
of the  Gnostics  and Manichaeans, of course, cannot be            view of evolution in our present discussion. Faith and un-
traced to Scripture or to any development of the truth of          belief come to a parting of the ways at this point. The
Scripture, but is. borrowed from heathen dualistic concep-         Word of Scripture and the theory.of  evolution stand diamet-
tions. The so-called "emanation theory" also made its ap-          rically opposed to each other;,and there is no value in argu-


                                                THE .  S'TAN'DARD   .,B.`EARER                                                       115

     ing intellectually against that which is ethically of the he.       period-theory, but that then Aalders  grants the possibility
     We have called attention to this theory because it is the           that the days may have been longer or also shorter than
     origin of another theory that has made vast inroads into            24 hours. Feenstra himself writes: "We cannot go along
     the church under a religious guise. We refer to what is             with this. We hold to days like our days. On exegetical
     called  theistic evolutionism.  This theory, which has several      grounds we cannot conclude otherwise . . . " p. 127.
     variations, maintains the various tenets of evolutionism, but          And now we continue to quote Ridderbos:
     attempts to insert God into the process as the intelligent
and controlling power. It maintains, in effect, that God never              "`2. Next to be mentioned are the concordistic  theories.
     works except by second causes or by natural laws. Even              The most important is the one that interprets the word
     creation is by law. God uses everywhere and constantly              `day' as a period of possibly millions of years.
     physical laws to produce not only the ordinary operations              "Related to this theory is the inter-period theory, which
     of nature, but to give rise to things specifically new,  even to    inserts periods of millions of years between the days of
new species in the vegetable and- animal world. These                    Genesis' 1, and the restitution theory. According to this latter
     natural laws are God's tools. And hence, all worldly things         theory the first creation, described in verse- 1, called into
     have developed out of original matter, or from an original          being a world which was complete and similar in shape to
     life-cell, but according to divine design and purpose and as        ours. This first world was destroyed by a'series of might$
     a result of divine operation through second causes and              catastrophes (v. 2)) and the present world was then brought
     natural laws.                                 _.     .I             into being out of these ruins- by a second creation.  "
        It has been especially this idea of a `theistic Yevolution"         "`3. There are interpreters who believe that the'arrange-
     that has given rise to the various attempts to pour a new           ment of seven days is intended as a literary form..  `T$s
     content into the Genesis account of creation. Whether these         view was already current in the early Church  -(i%iio'~of
     attempts have been to harmonize the Genesis account with            Alexandria, Origen, -Augustine). Nowadays it is `popular
     an actual evolutionary process, or whether they have had an         with Roman Catholic authors, but it is also defended by
     eye only to the time element of Genesis i as compared to            Protestant writers." This is frequently referred to as simply
natural science's theory as to the age of things (computed               the "framework theory."
in terms of hundreds of millions of years ); the fact is that               Finally, Ridderbos makes mention of a fourth class,
     these various attempts have been made. There is a re-               namely, a large number of exegetes who hold the opinion
newed emphasis on such attempts in Reformed circles to-                  that the days of Genesis 1 are six ordinary days, but who
     day, although the attempts themselves are not altogether            do not regard themselves as bound by this view.
     new even in Reformed circles.                                          We may add to these, that class of interpreters who hold
        N. H. Ridderbos, Prof. of Old Testament at the Free              that Genesis 1 is merely a myth. And remember, there was
     University, gives a summary of various views of Genesis 1           a time when a Reformed man would be deposed for hold-
in his little book, Is There a Conflict Between Genesis 1                ing to such a theory. Think, for example, of the Dr. Geel-
and NaturaZ Science?" (Eerdmans, 1957) on pp. 9ff.: `It is               kerken case in the Netherlands, 1926.
really not possible to classify the various interpretations in              We will allow Dr. Ridderbos himself to state what he
sharply defined categories. The reader will observe that means by the "framework" theory. He does so on p. 45 of
the lines of demarcation among the following schools of                  his book:
thought are fluid.                                                          "`By the framework-hypothesis I mean the following.
        "1. According to some thinkers, the word `day' in Gen-           In Genesis I the inspired author offers us a story of creation.
     esis 1 is to be interpreted as meaning a real day. On this          It is not his intent, however, to present an exact report of
view we must accept the fact that creation took place in                 what happened at creation. By speaking of the eightfold
     six real days.                                                      work of God he impresses the reader with the fact that all
        "Among those who share this view there is some di-               that exists has been created by God. This eightfold work
versity of opinion. Some think of ordinary, `earthly' days.              he places in a framework: he distributes it over six days,
     Others think not of ordinary days, but nevertheless of real         to which he.adds a seventh day as the day of rest. .In this
     days. The view of G. Ch. Aalders  is that they are real days,       manner he gives expression to the fact that the work of
     that.is  continuities of light, but they are days of God. `They     creation is complete; also that at the conclusion of -His
need not have lasted longer than our days, they may have                 work God can-rest, take delight in the result; and also that
been much shorter; they may by our chronometric standards                in celebrating- the Sabbath man must be God's imitator.
have lasted only a few seconds.' *                                       The manner in which the works of creation have been dis-            .
:       We may note here that Ds. J. G. Feenstra in his com-             tributed over six days is not arbitrary.`"
     mentary on the Belgic Confession makes reference to. Dr.               We will comment briefly on these various' views next
Aalders' view. He points out that Dr.  Aalders  rejects the              tinie,' D. V                                          - H.C.H...


116                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
piiGz&q through the medium of the instituted offices. Where this
                                                                        essential element is lacking worship has been abrogated.
                                                                        This worship must principally always be `in spirit and in
   "0 Wors7l;ip  the Lord in. thq beauty of hpliness." psalm   96:9a    truth" (John  4:24). This implies., as Rev. Hoeksema writes
                                                                        in his  Liturgies, "`that it is not limited by a prescribed
                       Why A Liturgy?                                   code of laws or rules that"determine  .its external form, but
                                                                        is characterized by freedom, so- that the form of public
       The branch of study which we purpose to treat in this            worship is controlled and determined by and is the proper
rubric is formally known as Liturgies.  With reference to the           expression of its idea, viz., the meeting of God with His
term  Liturgy  to the sphere of divine service, the Christian           people. God comes to His people to have fellowship with
use of the word is based upon the Septuagint, which trans-              them and to bless them. The church approaches God to serve
lates the Hebrew `aboda, in relation to the temple service,             and to worship Him and to extol His glory. This also means
by  leitourgia.   In the New Testament, however, the word               that it is the worship of God as the God of our salvation
does not occur in connection with ceremonial affairs, but               in Jesus Christ and through the Spirit. In the Spirit of
indicates the service which the Christian renders to God in             Christ we have the true liberty, which is not the same as
faith and obedience, as in Hebrews 8:2, 6; Philippians 2:li'; wantonness, but which means in regard to public worship
Romans  15:16;  or with reference to brotherly support, as in           that the form and the principles of public worship are de-
Romans  15:27;  Philippians  2:25,30; II Corinthians  9:12.             rived freely from the Word of God."
The relation to ceremonial practices recurs most closely in                In a restricted sense, then, our study denotes the com-
Acts  13:2, though here too, the idea of ceremonially reg-              posite aggregate of the permanent elements of worship
ulated usage is to be rejected. The ecclesiastical use of the           outside- of the sermon; that is, the parts which, in harmony
term refers principally to the Old Testament, significantly             with the principles of religious logic, are comprised in the
implying a transfer of pre-Christian legalism to the Chris-             official church manual, or liturgy proper. Under this clas-
tian dispensation. Hence the current expressions for  Levit-            sification we will have to consider such elements as the
ical and priestly acts were applied to divine worship,                  Votum, Salutation, Reading of Scripture, the Law and Con-
especially in order to designate the -central and sacrificial           fession, the Songs, Prayers, Offerings, Sacraments, Ordina-
act. Moreover,  Zeitourgia  and  leitourgein   were once more           tion of Office Bearers, Public Confession, Excommunication
employed in the ceremonial sense. The Western Church                    and the Benediction.
,early borrowed the term to designate the Eucharist. The                   In a broader sense, we must concern ourselves not only
Evangelical confessions gave preference to the term caeri-              with these things as a part-of the worship itself, but also
mon:ia; and it was only under the influence of Humanism                 with the appointed forms that are used by the church in
beginning with the sixteenth century, that the word liturgia            this worship. By so extending the liturgical idea we may
came into current use, first among the Roman Catholics,                 refer to the back of our Psalters for a depository of con-
and later among the Protestants. The term is now used in fessional wealth that has all too often been neglected by
a widened sense, and the phrases baptismal, marriage,                   the church as material for study. To be sure we read the
confhmation,  and burial liturgies are loosely employed.                Baptism Form at baptism, the Lord's Supper Form at com-
Scripture translates the term by  service,  worsh2p   and               munion, the Installation Forms annually, etc., but scarcely
minist y.                                                               are they given any careful scrutiny or study. The major
       The term itself, as we use it here, applies to the               creeds of our faith are still perused in our societies and
forms and practices that are associated with the manner                 catechetical classes but there is reason to believe that there
of our public worship of God. As to the derivation of the               are many who have no closer acquaintance with the litur-
term, it is a composite from leitos, meaning public or people,          gical forms than that which is acquired through their oc-
and  ergonj  meaning work. Given an ecclesiastical connota-             casional use in the church It is hoped that this study
tion it means the service, ministry, worship of the people              will stimulate many to delve more deeply into our rich
of God according to an appointed form or order of worship.              spiritual heritage which comes to expression here. And so
With the various elements  that constitute this order of                we plan, in addition to  the elements that comprise our
worship we concern ourselves in this study.                             worship proper, to discuss in detail each of our liturgical
       It is to be noted at once, however, that public worship          forms, in order to enhance our appreciation of that form of
is never to be construed as a mere fopm! When in actual                 worship we have been taught.
practice it degrades to this, it cannot rightly be called                  -4lthough  it is not to be regretted, we cannot avoid fac-
worship any more, even though it externally retains a sem-              ing the fact that our liturgy has been handed down to us
blance of religious service. Public worship is that service             from foreign ancestry, with the result that we and our
of God which takes place whenever God meets with His                    children are not so well informed about the history of
people as the instituted church on earth, and that too,                 these formularies. We and our children who for decades


                                          T H E : S.T.A 8 D  A R D ,,B:E AR E  R                                              117L
                                                                                                   .2                _-.       .-
have been using- the English language as. the medium: in          mularies and practices but this must be carried..one&p  fur-
public worship and religious training are cut off from            ther: Each member .of ,the church may press fo.r pk%$l
many sources of valuable information concerning our litur-        likes and dislikes in the order of worship; and if i&se thing?
gy which are available in the Dutch language. Of course           were left to be decided by the consistory, the fact that the
this does not mean that we are entirely unacquainted with         constituency of that body changes from time to time
our Psalter and the forms contained therein. This we have,        would only lead to repeated changes and frequent incon-
but the background to these forms remains rather obscure          sistencies in the matters of the worship of the church. This
to the present generation and this may well be a con-             would result in general confusion. It is far better that there
tributing factor to the lack of interest to diligently study      be an established, uniform order in all the churches of
the content of our formularies. A great service would be          like faith.
rendered if some of these works of the fathers were trans-           Of greater consequence to this argument, however, is
lated and made available to the church of today.                  the fact that we may adduce from Scripture itself support
    The question still arises: Why a liturgy? The question        for our liturgical practices. We know that in matters of
is urgent in the face of the indictment that Reformed             worship there were various irregularities and difficulties
Churches generally have been classified as being non-litur-       in the church at Corinth. Paul's letter to, the church there
gical. As such they are grouped with the Baptists and             bears this out. God had given to this church a rich dis-
Methodists in distinction from the Roman Catholics, Epis-         pensation of the Spirit and a wide diversity of spiritual gifts.
copalians and Lutherans who use a rather elaborate ritual         But when the church assembled for worship, everyone
at the time of public worship. This classification is hardly      wanted to be heard and assmne leadership. To avert this
correct, although it may be admitted that the Reformed            unedifying situation the apostle laid before them the fun-
Churches have usually maintained a simple and rather sober        damental principle for all worship that  "all things must
order of worship, in contrast to the elaborate ritual of Rome.    be done decently and in order" since "God is not the author
Reformed Churches have,, however, insisted upon a definite        of confusion but of peace" (I Cor.  14:33,40).  And these
pattern and adopted certain formularies, the use of which         things which he wrote, the apostle informed them, "are the
has been made obligatory upon pastors and congregations.          commandments of the Lord" (I Cor. 14:37). Proper liturgy
It is hardly fair to classify them as rwditurgical.  Perhaps      is conducive to attaining that order in worship that is pleas-
it is resentment to this indictment that has led many Re-         ing to God and in accord with His commandments.
formed Churches in our day to depart from the liturgical . .         This follows from the fact that God Himself, in His very
traditions of the past and to embark upon a course that           nature, is a God of order. This order in God is reflected
tends to sacrifice content for form.                              in various ways in His self-revelation. He has created us as
    But is even the minimum liturgiology necessary? Would         creatures of time and space, giving us a body that possesses
it not be better to permit each church to use formularies         the senses of hearing and sight by which we may enjoy
and follow practices in their worship which are best suited       His rich provision in the means of grace. To do this these
to the particular need instead of maintaining a uniform,          means must be set before us in an orderly manner. The
established pattern? We believe that it would not, and that       preaching of the Word, which addresses itself to the soul
for. various reasons.                                             by means of the ear-gate, and the administration of the sac-
    The question of the necessity of ecclesiastical liturgy       raments, which appeals to the heart and mind through
may be answered in various ways then. First we might              the eye-gate, must be arranged and presented in an orderly
point to the fact that the Church Order, by ,which we are         manner to be truly effective.
bound, prescribes certain liturgical formularies and makes         God's order  is- appropriately reflected in all the works
them obligatory. Conceivably this argument can be met             of His hand. It is observed in the sun and the moon and
with the objection that the Church Order does not stand           the stars, in the cycle of the seasons with summer and
on a par with Holy Writ, that it is also the work of man          winter,  seedtime  and harvest, cold and heat. In the animal
and therefore subject to revision if such revision is for the     world as well as among the human race this order is evident.
profit of the churches. The mere insistence of the Church         And the special revelation of God, as it reveals His purpose
Order, therefore, cannot be a conclusive argument; but            of peace with a people of His own possession, demonstrates
before we are permitted to dispense with its rulings we are       God's love of order even more eloquently.
bound to give consideration to the reasons which lie be-             As image bearers of God, who have been redeemed
hind those rulings. In that light we can discover why the         by the precious blood of Jesus' Christ and restored after
Church Order makes obligatory the use of various liturgical       His image, we must reflect in our lives, and not the least
f o r m s .                                                       in our public worship, something of this order. Only -then
    We find, then, that the absence of all liturgical forms       can we worship intelligently. Only then can we worship ac-
would lead to chaos in public worship. Not only must we           tively, following all that is being  .clone  and joining with
permit that each-church is- at liberty to adopt its own for-                          (Continued on  page  120)


                                          THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                   ture; although no one seems able to say just what this ad-
                                                                   ditional revelation is supposed to be. The gift is used both
                                                                   in public worship and in private devotions.
                                                                       Because the movement is growing, it is well that we
                                                                   weigh these claims and be able to give an intelligent
    When the Spirit of Christ was poured out upon the              answer to those who speak so loudly of having the Spirit
Church on Pentecost, one of the signs that accompanied             in this fashion.
this miracle was that the disciples "began to speak with               Many serious objections can be raised against such
other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Acts 2:4.       claims.
This sign was continued in the Church throughout the time              1) In the first place, there were extraordinary signs of
of the apostles. Wherever God called His Church into               the Holy Spirit in the early Church; this cannot be denied.
existence, one sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit             And one of these signs was indeed speaking with other
was this gift of speaking in tongues. In fact, Paul had to         tongues. But this was a special sign given by Christ to the
warn the Corinthians that they do not make misuse of this          Church in its infancy. The outpouring of the Spirit was
gift: "For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh          a great miracle which had not been witnessed in the
not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth               Church in the whole Old Dispensation. Because the Church
him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries . . . . .         was very young,  and because the wonder of the in-dwelling
For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall              of the Spirit was something radically new, God granted to
prepare- himself to the battle? So likewise ye, except             that Church signs which were visible and audible so that
`ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how           it could be undeniably proved to the heathen that this
shall it be known what is spoken? for ye' speak into the air." salvation of the gospel was indeed a wonder of grace. The
I Corinthians 14:2,8,9.                                            same thing was true of miracles. It was granted to the apos-
    It was (and is) generally believed that this special sign      tles to perform miracles in the name of Christ as visible
of the presence of the Holy Spirit ceased with the end of          proofs of the power of the gospel and the might of the
the apostolic era.                                                 Holy Spirit. But when the Church reached maturity, these
   But in recent years a considerable amount of discussion         signs were no longer needed. The very existence of the
has arisen again about speaking in tongues. This discussion        Church itself throughout the ages (and in the midst of
has risen because it is being claimed once again that the          fierce persecution and constant efforts to destroy it) were
Spirit is manifesting Himself in the church through this sign.     sufficient proof that the Church was established, protected
The movement of tongues is rapidly spreading.                      and preserved by God. Special signs were no longer needed.
   This is especially true of the fast-growing denomination            That this is true is also evident from the fact that all
known as the  Pentecostals.  They have, for some time,             the greatest leaders of the Church never made any claim
claimed that they are' the original Pentecostal Church of          to having this gift. The list is impressive: St. Augustine,
the first century; that in their fellowship the Spirit operates    Huss, Ursinus, Calvin, Luther, Zwingli, Wycliff,  Guide de
through this special sign. But the movement is also spread-        Bres, the fathers of Dordt, the great theologians of the 19th
ing beyond them to other churches and denominations.               Century  - to mention a few of the most well-known. While
Even among churches who have a Reformed background                 these men fought valiantly for the Church and advanced
(such as, for example, certain Presbyterians) there are            the cause of `the truth, they never claimed in any way to
claims made by .some  men that- they possess this gift of          possess this gift of tongues. One would think that if God
"tongues." Even (and this is `somewhat surprising) on col-         continued this sign in the Church, surely these gifted and
lege campuses there are many students who are sure they            important leaders of the `New Dispensational Church would
possess this extraordinary gift of the Holy Spirit. They are       possess- it.
forming "clubs" and "fellowships" in which they wait until             2) Secondly, on Pentecost the disciples spoke in exist-
they are moved by the Spirit to speak in other tongues.            ing languages. There were gathered in Jerusalem Jews from
 There are some who will even go so far as to insist               all over the world; each speaking also the language of
that a person has no right to claim that he possesses the          his home land. It was in all these difIerent languages that
Holy Spirit at all unless he can give proof that he has the        the disciples spoke. "And they were- all amazed and mar-
gift of speaking. in other tongues. This speaking with             velled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these
tongues is supposed to be a deep religious experience  - al-       which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our
though it stands to reason that it can be such an experience       own tongue, wherein we were born?" Acts  2~7, 8. This is
only for the one speaking in this fashion; nobody else can         not true of the modern "gift of tongues." Of all the many
understand what he is talking about. There is even some            cases that have been examined, there is absolutely no record
talk about it that God is giving additional revelation through     of any one speaking in an, existing language. Rather they
this speaking with `tongues.- revelation apart from Scrip-         speak a gibberish of sounds that no one else in all the


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                     119

world speaks. Linguists have studied recordings of these           to the rules of the denomination, the question was up at
speakings in other tongues, and they all report that there         the last General Assembly; there it was referred to the
is no language like it; that, in fact, the gibberish that is       churches so that each congregation is given opportunity
spoken does not even have the structure of a possible lan-         to vote on it; if a majority of the 80 congregations vote in
guage. The whole "gift" is therefore utterly nonsense.             favor of it, it will be enacted into law at the Assembly
    3) Thirdly, when this gift of tongues was given to the         meeting next year. (Although Assemblies usually go along
early Church, it was given as a sign of the gospel, and it         with these votes, they `are not bound to do so. They could
always accompanied the gospel. More specifically, it was           conceivably. still reject the amendment even if a majority
a sign of the fact that the New Dispensational Church is           of congregations favored it.)
-catholic   - i.e., gathered from every nation and tribe and          So far twenty-seven congregations have voted on the
tongue. It spoke forcibly of the fact that the gospel was          matter. Sixteen of these have approved the change to per-
a power to save both Jew and Gentile.                              mit ordination of women; eleven have voted against it.
    But what do we have today? The gift of tongues is              The largest congregation in Atlanta, Georgia voted against
completely divorced from the gospel and from the truth of          the amendment by a vote of 84-83. This close vote was an
Scripture. The sects that have strayed far from God's Word         indication of how close the vote was in many other  con-
are claiming this gift. It is no longer (as it was in the early    gregations; and, perhaps it is also an indication-of how close
Church) a sign of the spread of the gospel and its power.          the  final  vote  till be.
It is completely divorced from the truth and becomes in-              But even if the matter should be defeated, that will
stead a sign of heresy in the church.                              hardly be the end of it. The Churches killed a similar
    Furthermore, there is no longer any need of proof              plan seven years ago; and if it is killed again, those who
that the Spirit gathers the Church from every nation on            advocate it will keep on trying until they are successful.
the earth. This has been abundantly proved throughout                 The Presbyterian  Jou~na2: (an independent and unof-
this dispensation. And therefore there is no more need of          ficial conservative voice in the Church) has been fighting
the sign.                                                          hard against the plan; and has been recording the vote from
    4) Finally, that this gift of tongues could be a means         week to week. The final outcome however will not be known
of additional revelation is a denial of Scripture. The result      until sometime next Spring, since some Churches are post-
of &is will be utter chaos and anarchy in the church. For          poning their vote until February and March.
every man can then believe and do whatever he wants. He            ITEMS
need only appeal to a  revelation.which  he received, and no          Some smaller items of interest quoted from  Christianity
one can ever prove him wrong.                                      Today.
   Rather, this "gift of tongues" is a sign of the terrible                  The Tunisian government ordered. the North Africa Mission,
confusion that plagues a church cut loose from Scripture                 an evangelical group with headquarters in Upper Darby, Penn-
                                                                         sylvania, to stop seeking converts among Muslims. The Mis-
and drifting with the tides of false doctrine.                           sion's bookstore in Tunis was ordered closed and its Bible
                                                                        correspondence courses discontinued.
&MEN OFFICEBEARERS                                                    This is a further indication of the growing impossibility
   In the last half century there has been a growing trend         of doing missionary work among the heathen. .Gradually
towards women clergy in the Church. It all began with the          the doors in these countries are closing. However, it is
question of whether women had a right to participate in the        also interesting to note that this missionary work was carried
legal affairs of the Church, vote at Church meetings, etc.         on among the Muslims or Mohammedans. Through the
Gradually the churches adopted the position that this was          ages, it has been next to impossible to do any missionary
not in conilict with Scripture. The next step (and this al-        work among Mohammedans. There have been almost no
ways follows ) was that women were permitted to hold office        converts at all throughout the entire New Dispensation.
in the Church -first the office of deacon, and then later          One wonders if this is perhaps because the Mohammedans
the office of elder. Now the question has come up whether          are primarily Arabs - descendants of Esau and Ishmael.
women also have the right to preach. Many churches have                                          0 a  0  0
granted this right; and, no doubt, many of our readers have                  The closing of 200 churches and prayer houses in one
heard women preachers over the air or in various churches.              section of the western Ukraine in the past three years was  re-
                                                                        g;;;ie  last month by the Soviet Communist Party newspaper
   But it naturally follows that if women may hold the
office of elder or deacon, they surely may also be ministers          The persecution of Christians evidently continues 55
of :the gospel.                                                    hind the iron curtain. Q  0  0  0
   This same question is up for discussion in the Presby-
terian Church U.  S. (Southern). It is up for discussion                     Mrs. Madalyn Murray, successful litigant in the U.S. Su-
                                                                        preme Court's Bible reading-prayer case, filed suit in Baltimore
in the form of an amendment to the Book of  Church Order                against tax exemptions for church-owned property.
which would permit the ordination of women. According                 As this news item says, this woman is the one who


                                                           ...-I_ -~---
120                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

fought to have Bible reading and prayers excluded from                     of Jamaica, writes, "We' in Jamaica have suffered great
the public scho&system. We also repoited,  earlier in our                  wind and flood damage;  .banana houses have been des-
column, that she (and others of like views) have decided                   troyed, roads have been washed out; men, women and chil-
to establish an atheistic organization somewhere in the Mid-               dren were drowned.`: He does not state that any of the
west for the propagation of their atheism. Thissame  woman                 members of his  congregatioas  were killed by the storm.
has also filed suits in courts to keep nuns from teaching in                  Southeast's Young People's Society began the season's
the public schools. She has certainly become a passionate                  study of the Scriptures Sunday Nov. 10. The treasures they
crusader for atheism in this country.                                      will strive to unlock are to be found in Paul's Epistle to
                                                              H. Hanko
I---_______-___--_---. ~~                                                  ,the Galatians.                                                  i.
                                                                             The Young People's Societies of Hull, Doon and Edger-
                                                                           ton enjoyed a' Mass Meeting in Hull Sunday evening, Nov.
       NEWS F.ROM OUR.CHURCHES                                             10. Rev. H. Hanko was the speaker; special musical num-
               "All the                                                    bers were rendered, and the offering was devoted to the
                            sailtts salzcte  thee  . . ." PHIL. 4:21.      Young People's Scholarship Fund.
                                                    Nov. 20, 1963             The first Christmas Program announcement to appear in
                                                                           the bulletins was that Hope's Choral Society plans to render
 Rev. J. A. Heys, of South Holland, has received a call                    its annual Christmas music Sunday evening, Dec. 22.
from Southwest Church in Grand Rapids,                                        Sunday, Nov. 19 Hudsonville's Young People's Society
       The Lord willing, Rev. H. Hoeksema will begin his an-               was host to the Senior Y.P. Society of First Church, Grand
nual series of radio sermons for the Reformed Witness                      Rapids. Mr. Harry Zwak, president of the host society, led
Hour, Sunday, Dec. 1st and will conclude on Resurrection                   the Bible discussion which concerned the journeyings of
Day, March 29, 1964. Rev. Hoeksema has planned a series                    Abraham in strange lands, looking for the hope of the
of sermons which expound the truth of the natures and                      inheritance typified by the land of Canaan. The after
offices of our Lord Jesus Christ. During December. the                     recess program was introduced by Dave Bol, of the visiting
topics will be, `Christ, Human and Divine" (Dec. l), "The                  society, a discussion centering around, "Dating," including
ManJesus Christ" (Dec.  8), "The Virgin Birth" (.Dec.  lS),                the inevitable problem of dating those who are not members
"The Offices of Christ" (Dec.  22), Christ, Our Prophet" of our denomination.
(Dec. 29). For further study of these very important doc-                      . . . see you in church.                                J.M.F.
trinal truths we refer you-to Articles'17 through 21 of our
Netherlands Confession of Faith. Printed copies of the                                        THE LORD GAVE ?HE WORD . . .
radio messages may be obtained by writing to. The Re-                                            (Continued from page 111)
formed Witness Hour, Box 1230, Grand Rapids, 1, Mich.                      Protestant Reformed Church of Jamaica. It seems as if
       Did you know that our Missionary is again working in                Morally wants to overrule  your  Board: I wish that you,
Houston, Texas? He conducts two worship services. and a                    would see his motives, and have nothing further to do with
Sunday Scho-ol every Sunday; he conducts an Adult Bible                    them, for he is not a shepherd but a hireling. I am yours
Class every Thursday evening, and has also begun a system-                 in Jesus' Name, Rev. J. E. Frame."
atic method of teaching the children by way of catechism                       This letter speaks for itself. In the meantime, the next
instruction, using the books we use in all our churches. The               synod was about to convene. But more about that  ne,ut
mid-week Bible Class is currently studying the Canons of                   month.                                 .'           `.        C.H:
Dordt which, when completed, will be followed by study of
The Church Order. The sermon topics, as well as the Sun-                                        THE  CHURCH  AT WORSHIP
day School lessons, in December will center around the                                           (Continued from p&e 117)
promise of, and the birth  .of Christ. Rev. Lubbers hopes                  heart and mouth in His praise. Only then can we worship
that this instruction willbe  reflected in the planned Christ-             appropriately, wedding truth, goodness, and beauty in a
mas Program to be given by the children that it may give                   round of praise. Only then do we worship properly. Thus
a distinctive sound. Are  .tue  remem.bwing  our  Missionartt              form and content in worship should be happily joined to-
in our claity  pniyers?                                                    gether. TG attain this our liturgical formularies  have pur-
       Tuesday evening Nov. 19, was the scheduled date for                 pose and place. When we so understand the purpose of
the lecture given by Rev. H. Hoeksema in South Holland,                    these forms as  a.ids  to worship, we will begin to appreciate
Ill. The subject to be treated was, "The Place of Reproba-                 them more. And as we make them the object of diligent
tion in the Preaching `of the Gospel;"                                     study, our liturgical forms will become what they should
  This bit of news was lifted from First Church's bulletin:                be-a means to the end of praising the God of our sal-
Rev. Elliott, who is located in the eastern end of the Island              vation!                                                   G.v.d.B;


